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Jude
Through rainbow beads,I saw her. But I’d heard her well before that. The moment I pushed through the door separating her end of the hall from the bank of elevators, the sounds of Dashboard Confessional drifted forward to greet me. Tali was feeling emo today.
I followed the music to her room, intending to knock, but gave in to the temptation to watch her before I made my presence known.
She was at her desk, maybe five feet from the doorway. Her knees were tucked under her chin. She chewed on the end of a pen while her other hand drummed along to the slow beat.
I slid my fingers along the beads, giving off a clacking sound. Tali jumped, then turned her music down and stood from her chair.
“Jude?”
Parting the bead curtain, I poked my head in. “I realized you sort of distracted me the other day, and something important was glossed over.”
She grabbed the hem of my T-shirt and pulled me into the room. “Did you eat my lasagna?” She nodded at the empty pan under my arm.
I handed it to her. “I did. Jin and Jeremy also partook. They’re now very interested to know if you have the same cooking skills. I caught Jin licking the pan.” When her nose crinkled, I added, “It’s been thoroughly washed.”
She put the pan down on top of her neat-as-a-pin dresser and set her hands on her hips. “Oh,theywanted to know, not you?”
“I’m interested in the answer.”
She pulled a pencil from her hair, letting it spill down her shoulders. As she fluffed it, she said, “I’m not Teresa DiPietro, but I’m decent.”
Thick waves fell like cascading waterfalls down her arms and back. She looked like a shampoo commercial and a porno all at once.
“I’m sorry, did you say something?”
Her hands dropped from her hips and she chuckled. “What is it you think we glossed over?”
Leaning a shoulder against her bumpy wall, I let myself drink her in. It’d been four days since I saw her outside my house, like a vision. Four long days where I tried to talk myself out of coming here. Four days with her email address in my inbox, and an overwhelming temptation to use it, to form some kind of connection with her, even if it was through cables and wires.
Four days was long enough for me to decide I didn’t want to wait any longer. That it happened to coincide with my stash running low and needing to pay a visit to the other end of the hall was merely a coincidence.
“You, making out with Tino,” I said.
Her mouth twitched and she glanced away. “Oh, that.”
My fingers gripped her chin, turning her to face me, revealing a shit-eating grin in the process. “Care to share?”
Her fingers wrapped around my wrist, and she lowered my hand. “Tino said he didn’t like kissing, I told him he was missing out, and then I convinced him.”
“With your tongue?”
She shrugged, like it was no big deal. “He’s a good kisser, and it’s been alongtime since I’ve kissed anyone.”
“ButTino?”
I wasn’t getting it.
“What’s wrong with Tino?” she asked.
“What’s wrong with Tino is that he put his mouth on yours. Is he bi or something?”
A bubble of a laugh slipped from her. “No, he’s definitely not bi. We were just kissing, not having sex.”
I dug my fingers through my hair, green with envy over a gay man kissing this girl who wasn’t even mine. “Tino should keep his mouth to himself.”
“I think I probably get to decide whose mouth I want on me, Jude.”
