The Art of Us

Chapter Sixteen

Kal

Kal drove home with a grin perma-plastered to his stupid face. That girl though ... she completely owned him.

The next day at school and several days after, he spent every moment he could with Ireland: in between classes, during lunch, and for a brief moment before and after school. Ireland couldn’t do anything with him after school because she’d decided to take on a waitressing job at the Washington family’s most local café in addition to the time she spent on Saturday mornings helping to make the bread.

She said she wanted spending money and a savings account, which he could understand, but it seemed like an emotional nail puncturing a tire on the way out of town for a road trip to have her get a job just as they were getting to know each other—getting to like each other.

Ireland had promised she would meet him at Geppetto’s on Friday and that she could go out with him Saturday night, but by Wednesday, he wasn’t sure he could wait that long to spend actual time with her. The few minutes here and there weren’t enough.

“Still keeping up with your pen pal, I see,” he said Wednesday afternoon. Ireland was supposed to be cleaning up for the day, but she was instead creating another piece of the wildflower field under the tree. Kal had started doing the cleanup so she could work. He had to admit, from an artistic point of view, the work that the lipstick writer and Ireland created together was interesting.

The carefully written pink-lipstick message that Ireland now contemplated was tucked into the petals of a flower that had been made to look like reflective shattered glass shards. “Someone broke my mirror,” the message read.

Kal toted the art supplies to the back room. He was starting to worry about the conversation between Ireland and the mystery writer. This cry for help made it seem like the person needed an intervention, more than what Ireland could do with a paintbrush. He wondered why the principal wasn’t doing anything about it. But maybe the principal wasn’t paying close enough attention to the mural to know that one of her students was literally screaming on the wall. There was also the fact that there wasn’t much the principal or any other adult could do. The artwork was anonymous, and even though the art club kept a close eye on the mural to make sure no one did anything that broke the rules, the mystery artist remained in total stealth mode. Kal worried about what it would do to Ireland if the person on the other end of these messages ended up hurt in a real way and Ireland found out about it. Would she blame herself like he blamed himself for Brell, even though there was logically nothing more she could do than what she was doing?

He worried that Ireland would spiral like he had. He wanted better for her than the guilt he carried for himself.

When Kal came out of the back supply room, Ireland was still working. He watched her painstakingly paint the words that made up another flower stem and leaves. He waited until she was done before he peeked at the finished product. “Not broken irreparably. Your mirror is like a pond. A pebble might ripple the surface, but no one can truly shatter a pond.”

“You have the heart of a poet,” he said softly.

“I wish there was more I could do.” Ireland stared at her response to the shattered mirror-flower message.

“You’re doing as much as you can. Especially since you don’t know who it is,” Kal said.

Ireland made a noncommittal noise low in her throat as she scrambled to her feet. “I know. I better go. Mara doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“I’ll walk you out.” He’d parked not too far from Mara’s car.

Mara wasn’t alone at her car. She had her friends with her. Kal held Ireland’s hand in his and felt her grip tighten around his fingers as they approached. When Tinsley started talking, he understood why Ireland had tensed.

“So what’s the latest with the hobo in your house?” Tinsley asked Mara. She said it in a whisper, as if she hadn’t wanted to be overheard, but she had to know they were close enough to hear, right? Tinsley turned, made eye contact with Ireland, and smiled with a dismissive curve of her lips as she turned her attention to Kal.

“I heard you play last week, Kal. You were lit.” Tinsley’s eyes slid briefly to where Kal’s hand connected with Ireland’s, and then she let out a light laugh as her brow furrowed in evident disbelief. “I’ll be there this weekend too.”

Kal hadn’t ever liked Tinsley. The girl was an oil spill in the ocean. He always left every interaction with her feeling saturated in her toxic waste. But that was probably because Tinsley had a thing for him, and her obvious attempts to get him to pay attention to her irritated him.

Why did she think he’d be okay with her hating on the girl he was obviously with? His mom always told him that ugly behavior got ugly results. Tinsley had a collection of ugly results coming if she kept it up.

Kal decided to ignore her. “Hey, Mara,” he said, turning his attention to her instead.

Mara nodded at him. She looked tired, as if even she felt exhausted by her friends.

“Do you have to work at the café tonight too?” he asked.

“No.” Tinsley interrupted. “Our girl’s coming with us. Party at Cooper’s.”

“I told you guys,” Mara said. “I can’t tonight.”

“You have to come. Rowan’s gonna be there!” Tinsley insisted.

“Yeah,” Emily agreed. “You don’t want him to get tired of waiting for you and find someone else. Besides, this party is going to be brill.”

Mara popped a hip and gave Emily a flat stare. “How brill do you think a Wednesday night party is really going to be? Cooper’s parents might not be home tonight, but everyone has school tomorrow. It’s going to be basic.”

“But Rowan’s gonna be there!” Tinsley insisted.

“Tinsley, stop,” Mara said.

Tinsley closed her mouth, as if Mara had clamped it shut by force with that one word. Wild that Mara could hold so much power.

Kal walked Ireland to the passenger side of the car and opened the door. “You okay?” he whispered low enough that Tinsley couldn’t hear him.

She slid onto the seat. “Fine.”

Maybe she hadn’t overheard Tinsley talk smack about her.

“I’ll see you later then.”

She nodded and shut the door.

Mara, who had also got in, turned the car on. The stereo blasted Taylor Swift’s music as they drove away. Ireland had told him she was starting to worry she might go deaf with the music that loud.

“So, you coming tonight?” Tinsley asked Kal as he watched the car leave. He had to step back since she’d entered his personal bubble.

“Can’t see why I would.” He turned to his own car.

“I’ll be there!” she called after him.

Exactly why he wouldn’t be. But he didn’t say that out loud. He did not want to get pulled into her drama. And there was no reason to hurt her feelings, Though he wasn’t sure she had any.

Except as he was driving home, Cooper called him. He hit the hands-free button. “’Sup Coop?” he said.

“Party at my house tonight.”

“Yeah. I heard.”

“Oh good. So you’re coming.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“C’mon. You have to. Alison’s coming. And you know I’d die for this girl to like me.”

“That involves me how?”

“She likes our band. I figured we could play a few songs and woo her with the music.”

Kal laughed. “Dude. You know I’m not taking you seriously now. Did you just say ‘woo’?”

“Woo is a word.” Cooper’s tone sounded belligerent, which made Kal laugh.

“A hundred years ago maybe.”

“Whatever. Will you come?”

“Fine, but I’m not staying long.”

“You are the GOAT. Thanks, Superman.”

“Uh-huh.”

He stopped home to let his parents know that he was going to Cooper’s and to grab his guitar, but when he walked in the door, his mom called from the kitchen, “Oh good. You’re home. Any chance you’d be willing to help your grandpa with an early dinner?”

“Why’d you bring him into this?” His grandpa’s voice came from the kitchen before Kal could respond.

“I need his help,” his mom answered.

“I can make my own dinner.”

“Donuts don’t count.”

Kal laughed. He’d actually had that same argument with his mom just that morning. He joined them in the kitchen.

His mom was looking in the fridge. “We don’t have any donuts anyway because someone ate them all.” She glanced back in Kal’s direction.

“I was in a hurry this morning. I needed something that would be quick.”

“Should’ve blamed the dog,” his grandpa muttered.

His mom, who had never had an issue with hearing, said, “We don’t have a dog.”

Kal’s grandpa slumped down in the chair he was sitting on at the table. “Well, this is just embarrassing. I wonder whose dog I’ve been walking every morning.”

He tossed Kal a wink.

“Hey, Grandpop. How you doin’?” Kal pulled out some eggs. If he was cooking, they were having cheesy scrambled eggs.

His grandpa noted the eggs and gave him a thumbs-up. Kal enjoyed having his grandpa around. They had a lot in common. “Is it okay if I go to Cooper’s?” he asked his mom as he cracked an egg into the pan.

“As long as you’re home at a decent hour. School tomorrow,” his mom said.

“I will.”

Something crashed to the floor, and Kal jumped as he was splattered with liquid. His grandfather had dropped his glass on the floor.

His mom rushed to clean up the spill, but Kal beat her to it. “I’ve got it, Mom.”

His grandpa apologized over and over again. “I’m so embarrassed. I hate that my grippers just don’t grip as much anymore.” He flexed his fingers and frowned. They all knew why his hands weren’t working like they used to. He’d lost muscle mass due to forgetting to eat, or not eating the right kinds of food. He’d just stopped taking care of himself. It was why they’d moved to Arcata. They’d bought a bigger home to accommodate all of them living together comfortably under one roof.

“It’s just bodies doing what they do,” his mom said. “Nothing embarrassing about it.”

But his grandfather kept apologizing anyway. Kal agreed with his mom. Bodies were weird. No use making it weirder by getting awkward.

“Sorry, boy,” his grandpa said as Kal mopped up the liquid.

Kal had to shuffle the conversation playlist, or his grandfather would be apologizing to him all night. So he told him all about taking Ireland to the observatory. It was enough of a change in topic that his grandpa seemed to forget what had been causing him distress.

“You like her?” his grandpa said when his mom left the kitchen to run errands.

“Yep.”

His grandpa nodded. “You kiss her yet?”

When Kal’s face heated, his grandpa grinned knowingly and pointed a bony arthritic finger in his direction. “Never take a girl’s kiss for granted. They’re special from the first to the last.”

Kal knew his grandpa was thinking about his grandma. They’d been a good couple, the kind of couple-goal people should aspire to if they wanted to succeed in relationships. Kal was glad his mom had stopped him to help so he could have the chance to hang out with his grandpa. He and his grandpa ate their cheesy eggs and talked about dating.

When they were done with dinner, Kal hated leaving for Cooper’s house. It wasn’t that he didn’t like being with Cooper; Cooper’s friends were just not his scene.

Most of the people in their area would be considered middle-income kind of people. Kal was. Cooper was. But Cooper hung out with the few who towered over middle-class standards by a stratosphere. Some of them were okay enough, like Mara, but more often than not, Kal would rather eat a scabby Band-Aid than hang out with any of them. Usually, he didn’t have to because he wasn’t in their sphere or whatever, but sometimes, like today, Cooper called in a favor.

Kal wasn’t late or anything, but Cooper still acted relieved to see him—as if Kal had ever bailed on him before. “Why you so tense?” Kal asked.

“She’s here.” Cooper pointed to a pretty, dark-haired girl who was talking with the basketball team’s hero, Nathaniel Fredericks. “Her name’s Alison. Alison Lopez. And she’s ... dude. She’s all the things.”

“Well, I’m here for you, man. Literally. I’m here. So let’s get started.”

The good news was that Asha and Bailey were there too, though Bailey voiced displeasure at the number of jocks, cheerleaders, and trust-fund kids. Asha, in typical Asha fashion, didn’t seem to mind who anyone was. She was just glad to be there.

They played two songs. The standard “Cry Free!” and “Sink or Swim,” which was a cute little song about love and getting the girl. Cooper had handpicked the music selection with the very obvious intent to woo Cooper’s girl. Just thinking the word woo made Kal laugh. When they finished, the small crowd cheered and clapped, and Alison had eyes for only Cooper.

Achievement unlocked.

Kal meandered to the snack table to see what looked interesting.

“You must get a lot of love with an act like that.”

Kal looked up to see Rowan standing there. He made some noise that was neither agreement nor disagreement. Speaking to Rowan wasn’t exactly something he’d been dying to do all night. Luckily, or unluckily, Rowan didn’t really need Kal to say anything. It was like the guy couldn’t get enough of hearing himself talking.

“You know that girl Cooper’s talking to? Yeah, she hit on me earlier, but I know my boy Coop likes her, so I told her no way.”

Lie , Kal thought. Asha had already told Kal that Alison was dying to talk to Cooper as much as he wanted to talk to her. She would not have been hitting on Rowan. Kal looked around for a way out of the conversation. He didn’t want to start anything at Cooper’s party, especially when Rowan was the school’s golden boy, but it seemed Rowan was determined to talk only to Kal, because as Kal walked away, Rowan followed.

Rowan pointed at one girl with straight red hair and said, “Sadie’s a total swipe left. Just not very good, you know?”

“Dude. Seriously?” Kal said, shaking his head. “Not cool.”

“What? I let her down easy. She can’t help that she’s not my type,” Rowan said and then pointed to a blond. “Not like Meg. She wanted to be serious, though, so I had to cut her off, if you know what I mean.”

The word lie was on repeat in Kal’s head. Because there was no way Rowan’s brags could be true. Kal doubted Rowan had ever gone out with most of the girls he was pointing to. The guy vibed skeeze.

“So you dating that Raine chick?”

Kal tensed. “Yep.”

“Well, that’s too bad.” He smacked his lips. “Too, too bad.” He grinned at Kal as if they were sharing an inside joke. Kal didn’t get the joke. Didn’t want to get the joke. And he did not want king skeeze thinking about Ireland.

Rowan went back to talking about the girls at the party. But he’d gone from insisting they all wanted him to disparaging their looks and getting crude about it.

Kal thought about his grandpa and the way he respected women and realized that listening to Rowan was not respecting anyone. “Look, Rowan. Let me just stop you right there. I think maybe you believe that this is guy-bonding talk or whatever, but really, it’s not.”

Rowan barked a laugh. “Lighten up. I’m just having some fun.”

“It’s not fun for me to know your social disease status, okay?”

Rowan’s features darkened. He shoved Kal’s shoulder. “You kidding me right now?”

Kal backed up in case Rowan threw a real punch. “Not kidding. Trash-talking women is not very cool of you, bro. You need to stop. Now.”

Rowan probably would have hit Kal, except Mara’s friend Emily showed up at that exact moment and asked Rowan about something. The distraction was enough for Kal to slip away.

He turned back when he was at the door. Rowan was sitting on the couch with Tinsley and Emily. It was like a gathering for a vapid competition. Kal shook his head. Why or how those girls could want to be with this guy baffled him. Regardless, Kal was determined to make sure Rowan stayed away from Ireland.