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23
Is He Hot?
PARKER
It’s Sunday and we’re having a family barbecue. Almost everyone is here; my mom and dad are relaxing under the trees, my aunt Paula is busy setting up the fruit punch, and my nineteen-year-old twin cousins Gina and Delilah are on either side of me as we dip our legs into the cold, glistening pool water.
You can’t really tell the difference between the twins unless you spot the birthmark. Gina has a large red blot on her shoulder and Delilah doesn’t.
I try to imagine what it would be like to have two of me. How would she be? Better, skinny, prettier, the daughter everyone wants? And if she hypothetically had to exist, live in Manhattan, and meet Hudson, how would that work out? Would he like her better than me? Because I feel like I’m doing something wrong.
Right now it seems like he’d like anyone other than me. Even that bitch he was taking a picture with.Jules_69_.
“What’s your dating life like back in Manhattan?”Gina asks as she bumps shoulders with me.
“It’s okay. I’m not really dating anyway though,” I tell her. “I don’t have time for love-life complications.”
“Damn right,” Delilah says, as she stands up and heads towards the punch bowl that sits on the plastic folding table.
“How’s your dating life?” I ask, knowing that she’ll go on and on about some guy she met during the break.
“There’s this guy I met during Spring Break. Parker, you should have seen him. Henry. He was sogorg. Anyway, I told him long-distance just isn’t for me.”
“Omg, and then?” I ask, trying to sound more interested than I actually am.
I’m so tired of listening about love and sex and other people’s “almost flings”, especially when I am not doing so fantastic in that particular department.
I thought being here would make me feel better, but as usual, I’m stuck with other people while my parents are glued to their phones.
My mom barely said more than a few sentences:
“I can’t believe you came—I need to show you what Sandra’s daughter wore last night because I took pictures of her-I need to tell you about that dinner last week.”
I really don’t give a fuck about what Sandra’s daughter wore, to be honest, and I don’t care to know who Sandra is.
So that conversation lasts for about two minutes before I take my peach cocktail and head in the opposite direction.
My dad asks about school and work, but that’s just about it. He just kept on telling me about how every decision I make is vital, before shutting off again. Some kind of parentals I have.
Gina is telling me about how she almost lost herV-cardto “Henry” when I see Delilah running towards us.
“Parker, someone is calling. I think his name is Eric?” Delilah says, handing me my phone.
“Who’s Eric?” Gina asks, suspiciously narrowing her eyes at me.
Eric.The guy I had a secret kiss with and then ignored me for about a month. Why is he calling now?
I take the phone from Delilah and swing my legs out of the pool, before disappearing down the grassy hill.
Holding the phone to my ear, I take a deep breath. “Hi?”
“Oh, hello,” Eric’s familiar voice fills the other end of the line. “Parker, how are you?”
“I’m good. A month later, I’m good.” I bite my tongue as I go underneath the shade of a tree. “How are you, Eric?”
The freshly cut grass sticks underneath my wet feet. I go over to the swing and take a seat on the wooden plank. It’s too hot from the sun and it burns my butt a little.
“I’m good,” he says. It sounds like he’s in the city because I can hear the rush of cabs and horns blaring on his end of the line. The usual New York chaos.
