Now I’m just waiting for her body to show some sign of life again. It’s bright out. I can tell because our blinds let in cracks of light that make patterns across the floor. The light spreads to Alé’s sleeping body so she is a weaving of light and dark.
It starts with her jaw. It opens a little at first and then shakes side to side, goes in a full circle, and ends in a yawn. When she blinks, I want to touch her face. It’s almost like my entire body wants to climb over her and touch the slope of her cheek.
“Morning.” Her voice changes pitch a couple times and comes out a groan.
I laugh. “Morning.”
“Trevor still sleeping?” she asks.
I glance over at Trevor’s body still curled up and turned to the other wall.
“Yeah,” I say.
Alé’s hair has completely escaped from her usual bun and I grab on to it, smooth it into my hands, and swirl it back into its neatness, leaving a single black strand. I watch the way it feathers her face and I’d like to think sometimes it tickles and sometimes she laughs out of nowhere and her butterflies start singing.
She sits up and looks at me for a moment before crawling across the floor, big bulk of her looking like a child, all the way to Trevor. She shakes him.
“Buenos días,” she sings, and her voice is a flat groan again, but I’m so happy to hear some sound in this apartment after all the hours of silent that I want her to just keep talking and singing all day.
Trevor rolls over with his arms covering his eyes. Alé moves them and leans down to him and yells buenos días into his face again, and he jumps up to his feet like he’s a ninja and runs over to tackle me. I’m down on the floor laughing and his newly awake eyes are bright and wide.
Eventually, I shove him from me. “Get on off me, boy.”
He climbs off and stands. “I’m hungry,” he says.
“You always hungry.” I laugh.
Alé is already putting her shoes on. “Go on and get ready, Trev. We’re going to La Casa.”
Trevor runs to the pile of clothes in the corner and changes faster than I’ve ever imagined anyone could change clothes. He pulls on his sneakers and stands by the door while I’m still on the floor by the lamp. Alé comes over to me and crouches down so she can talk to me without Trevor hearing.
“You good?” she whispers.
I nod. “Just make sure he’s safe, yeah?” I tilt my head toward Trevor.
Alé smiles, touches my knee. The warmth spreads.
I watch them leave and I really hope the eyes are waiting for me and not him, that they follow me and not him. When they shut the door, images of Marcus and his fists and the last time I saw him imprint into my memory and the last thing I want to do is leave this apartment to go fix something this fragmented. Don’t got a choice, though. Alé’s right: if they find me alone, I’m fucked.
I grab my phone and dial. Shauna picks up on the first ring.
“What you want, Kiara?” Her voice is just as pissed as I expected it would be.
“You still got that car?” Cole’s mama gave Shauna her old car when the baby was born. She’s the only one I know who might just pick me up.
Shauna pauses. “Yeah. Why?”
“I’m in trouble and I need to see Marcus, but I can’t be out on the streets alone right now. I need a ride.” I insert a couple pleases and offer to take care of her baby for her sometime. She doesn’t speak for a while.
“I can be there in ten, but don’t go asking me for no favors after this. Lord knows you didn’t do shit last time I asked for one.” She hangs up, and even though it stings, Shauna’s never been more right.
She arrives in less than ten minutes and calls me, says she’s outside. My shoes are on but I haven’t opened the blinds yet. When I step out the door, the light hits like the first sip of vodka on an empty stomach and I can’t tell if it hurts or if the sun has never felt better. Feels like my skin absorbs it. There’s no tingle while I walk down the stairs and past the shit pool, but the moment I step out the gate, it begins. Spreads top of the head down. I run to Shauna’s car, an old Saturn station wagon, get in, and slam the passenger door shut.
A cry erupts from the backseat and I twist around to see the baby in her car seat.
“Shit. You done woke her up.” Shauna reaches back and pats the baby’s belly until she stops shrieking and returns to her sleep.
I cough a couple times. “We really can’t be just sitting here like this.” I try not to say it too loud, like the volume might lessen Shauna’s eye roll, the heat flaring up in her cavities. I know she doesn’t like being told what to do, but she returns her attention to revving the car anyway and we’re off to Cole’s house.