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“Paloma?”
“Paloma? Wake up dude.”
“PALOMA!”
She shot up from her bed and cracked her forehead against her twin brother’s.
“¡HIJO DE PUTA!”
She sweared as he pulled back and sucked the pain in through his teeth. “Emcie I’m gonna fucking kill you! It’s nine am on a Sunday!” She shouted as she tossed her alarm clock at his chest. “A Sunday you agreed to spend with the club! Roy’s picking us up in twenty minutes now GET UP!”
Loathing swelled under her skin as she rolled out of bed onto the floor, she hated when he was right. She did agree to that. “Quit being dramatic, pendejo.” He kicked her shoulder before retreating over to his bed on the other side of their tiny room to wait, digging around in his bedside drawer for the manga he’d been reading obnoxiously loud the night before, she slowly rose from the floor and began gathering her clothes, lightly kicking the door open to ho change in the bathroom.
She hated still sharing a room with him. She thought when their step brother moved out one of them would get his room but of course their Mom turned it into a sewing room. She threw on her school button up and some sweats out of pure laziness, noticing you could see too much through it but not wanting to wear a bra she sulked back to the room and grabbed her vest off the floor, sliding it over.
“Ready.” She flicked Emcie’s forehead, “Really? You’re wearing that?” He eyed her and she scoffed, “You’re wearing a fucking black sonic tshirt.” “Shadow.” “I don’t care.”
A honk from the driveway, Roy was there.
And as they went outside to meet their step brother in his shitty Subaru, they discovered he wasn’t alone. Dawn and Chizuru, Monika and Sayori’s older sisters were in the front seat together, squished into the passenger, loudly singing to some annoying benson boon song. They funneled into the back seat and he immediately punched it toward the cafe downtown.
“How’s the folks?”
The large man called back to them over his friends and Emcie gave a long drawn out play by play of everything that’s happened in the last month while Paloma laid her head against the glass, her morning grumpiness fading steadily, she liked the club. She did want to see everyone, she was just never cool with being woken up.
As they rolled up to the cafe and started getting out, Chizuru called out to them.
“Yo! Kids, hold on.”
Paloma waved Emcie off to go ahead and walked back the few steps to the car window, “What’s up?”
“Give these to Sayo, would you? She said she’d take them at the cafe but left them by the door.” Chizuru held out a small orange pill bottle with the label ripped off, “Yeah, I got you Chi.” She replied with a sigh, not for any inconvenience the task would cause her, but because this made her realize she had also forgotten to take hers.
She snatched the bottle and started away, hearing Dawn and Roy call behind her.
“Tell Ika not to come home without some fries for me if she knows what’s good for her!”
“Call me when you’re ready to go home! It’s getting cold out!”
As she entered the cafe she scanned the booths, looking for ridiculous hair dye and the stench of her brother’s presence. After spotting the club she slid into the last open spot on the end of the booth bench, unfortunately right next to Emcie. He was sandwiched between her and Monika in the same position Natsuki was across the table between Yuri and Sayo.
“Forgot your lady pills dummy.” She smiled as she flipped the rattling bottle in Sayori’s general direction across from her, landing it on its side behind her folded arms.
“Oh, crap! Thanks lulu.”
She beamed at Paloma as she pressed down on the lid to turn it open, shaking out two small blue oval tablets and a white circular one into her palm before dry swallowing them with a gross gulp and chasing it with some of the fries from the basket in the center of the table.
She gave Sayori a thumbs up before reaching around her brother to tap Monika’s shoulder, “Hey, big boss, your sister wants fries.” Monika sighed deeply in reply.
“I know. I already got them, she’ll be lucky if I don’t pay a homeless guy to cough in the bag.”
The table laughed, aside from Yuri who wore a face of shock and disgust. She always had problems telling when things were jokes. “Anyway, Sayori, how was your Saturday?” Paloma asked and Sayori laughed uncomfortably, “You know how it is.. can’t complain if you don’t actually do anything.” “I feel tha-“
“Can I get you a drink to start?”
A waitress appeared seemingly out of nowhere and interrupted the conversation, she spoke in a friendly tone but her stare just held venom.
It always did.
God forbid somebody in Hogoshine be anything but Wasian at the very least, god not even just Hogoshine it was anywhere on all of Emptinege that being a little brown would earn you the stink eye.
It wasn’t a surprise that an island owned by the Japanese government but culturally dominated by its roots in American colonization would be predominantly racist. What was a surprise was her Mother knowing that and still picking up her family and moving there when Paloma and Emcie were toddlers anyway.
“Just water please.” She replied and the waitress wrote something down, “Have it right out sir.” Okay.. whatever.
Sayori scoffed in her stead while the waitress walked away and Paloma waved a hand dismissively, “It’s whatever.”
“It’s not whatever! She was being a..” Sayori got red in the face for a moment, pausing on a syllable, “Massive jerk.” She course corrected and Paloma giggled, “You can swear outside of school Yknow.”
“Dad says swearing isn’t ladylike.” Sayori replied with a fake posh tone, “Damn.” Paloma replied without thinking about it and watched the coral haired girl try not to laugh. They were, like was becoming more common recently, being completely ignored as the conversation split into three separate groups; the two of them, Natsuki and Yuri & Monika and Emcie. Paloma only noticed because she’d watched Sayori’s gaze drift over to them, people watching.
“I feel like I’m third wheeling a bad double date.” She stage whispered in Sayori’s direction, “Yeah! That’s been the vibe recently hasn’t it?” She whispered back, “You wanna bail and see how long it takes them to notice?” “Mmmm..” Sayori cast a glance at the group before nodding and the two of them left the cafe.
“So, where are we going?” Sayori asked and Paloma huffed, trying to blow her hair out of her eyes. She didn’t get a chance to braid it this morning. “Wanna just go back to mine? You haven’t actually been inside in a while.” “Sure!!”
As they walked in the steadily dropping cold Paloma couldn’t help but feel at least a little warm.
She hadn’t hung out with Sayori one on one in forever. Surprising considering their status in childhood as best friends, but even then she always had to share her with Emcie, but so much important stuff in her life was directly tied back to Sayori, even when she wasn’t Sayori.
Getting out more and not spending all her time after school hold up in her room.
Joining the literature club
Even realizing she was a girl.
It all tied back to Sayori, and on top of it when they were kids she had a massive crush on the girl, one that still hadn’t fully subsided.
“Is your Mom home? I haven’t seen Ms. Frendaran in so long!”
“Unfortunately no, she’s gonna be out all night, some dumb work party for late new years I think? I just hope she doesn’t stumble home hammered.” Paloma yawned as she answered, rounding the final corner so she could see her house in the distance standing out like a sore thumb from every other pristine white house on the block, painted a faded yellow her Mother insisted on with the roof not quite sitting right after Roy decided he’d fix the dropping gutters and leaks accumulated over the years himself instead of calling a professional.
Sayori hadn’t been over in quite a while, it became a lot more inconvenient after her family moved across the city to live closer to her therapist.
“Brrr!” Sayori shivered exaggeratedly, “I’m freezing my butt off out here!”
“I doubt it’ll be much warmer inside. Nahmi’s had a stick up his ass about the heating bill, but if we hang out in my room we can plug the electric blanket in.”
As they entered the house Sayori took a big breath through her nose, “It smells like you and Emmie in here.” She giggled, “I find the implication that we smell anything alike insulting.”
“Well it’s not the exact same! He’s got that boy stink to him.”
“Like B.O. and unwashed ass..”
Sayori suppressed a laugh so hard she snorted and sent them both into a giggle fit as they walked the short hall to the crowded den Paloma unfortunately slept in.
Sayori immediately scuttled over to the bed closest to the door and curled herself up in the maroon blanket atop the mess. “Plug it in!!”
Rolling her eyes, Paloma dug the cord out from under the mess and plugged it into the wall, watching Sayori wait patiently for it to heat up.
“This is taking too long! C’mere, lemme suck out your body heat like a vampire lizard or something!”
Not sure how to say no, she obeyed, climbing into her bed and letting Sayori wrap around her like she was a stuffed animal.
After some hesitation she returned the embrace, enjoying the moment and feeling Sayori breathe. “This is making me sleepy.. might just take a nap on you.”
. . .
“Desearía poder decirte que me gustas.”
“I don’t speak Taco Bell lulu!” Sayori giggled.
Unsure how to respond, she just repeated herself “Desearía poder decirte que me gustas…”