Night Sky by Jolene Perry

you don’t like her enough to ask, you don’t like her
enough to go out with her.” I choke on my words at the end. My gaze
shifts to Sarah. How could it not after saying something like that?
For three years…was she not important enough? Eric gives her a
squeeze, and her big blue eyes look up at him. Will this become
normal—her underneath his arm? Will it ever stop hurting? I know
I’ll need to apologize to Sky for saying something about her
wearing her panties in my pool. I also know I’m about to go crazy
with two girls floating around in my head.
    “Dude, Jameson. Who pissed in your Cocoa
Puffs this morning?” He stands up, chuckling.
    “Sorry.” I scrape the bottom of the small
cup of peanut butter with my finger. It’s the only protein I’ll
have today and I’m gonna need the energy for the amount of laps
I’ll need to do to get my head on straight.
    ***
    Dad’s hunched over, resting an arm on the
kitchen counter, when I come in the front door. He’s standing over
the stove and a pot of boiling water. He’s in his
recovering-from-work clothes—sweatpants that need to be thrown away
and an old t-shirt from a trip to Mexico. His short curly hair is
stuck up on one side and my guess is that he just rolled out of
bed.
    “You swim today?” he asks.
    “I swim every day.” I slide my pack down and
set it next to the kitchen table.
    “Almost.” He drops the contents of a mac and
cheese box into the water.
    “Okay, almost .” I’m still
staring.
    He seems more tired than
normal. This does not bode well. As of this morning Mom was still slamming
cupboards and Dad looks so…distracted.
    “Your mom said there was something you
wanted to ask me?” Dad’s half-Mexican, and he grew up in a Mexican
household. His accent is still there, even though it’s subtle. I
only know a few phrases in Spanish. Enough to find a bathroom, a
bus, order a few meals, as well as some phrases that would put me
on the receiving end of a smack from my mother—if she knew
Spanish.
    “Oh.” The car. “Nah, I’m taking a girl out
on Friday and I was going to ask for the Porsche, but I think that
would set the bar a bit too high.” I chuckle.
    “Sarah?” His eyebrow goes up.
    It’s kind of a shock that
he doesn’t know about Sarah and I. Has it been that long since I’ve
seen him? Instead of going into the whole
story, I say, “No, someone else.”
    “Oh.” Dad stirs his pot of mac and cheese.
“Is that a good thing?”
    What a loaded
question. But then I think of Sky, our
brutal honesty, and her long legs. “It’s a good thing.”
    Dad shakes his head. “Watch it. I recognize
that look.” He points at me and his face relaxes into the smile I’m
used to seeing from him.
    “What look is that?” And as soon as I say
it, I realize I should have kept my mouth shut.
    “The look that tells me I
need to remind you to use a condom, every time, no matter what.”
He’s pointing at me with a wooden spoon as he stands over his pot
on the stove. All he’s missing is an
apron. I hope I don’t laugh.
    “Thanks, Dad.” I’m trying
hard not to let my embarrassment show. He’s guessing that I’ve
never done it before. Mom knows I haven’t, but for some reason I’m
afraid to admit that to Dad. And Friday doesn’t feel like our first
date. Our first date was when she was wearing her black panties in
my pool . I really, really need to stop
thinking about that because it’s bound to come out of my mouth
again at another inopportune time.
    He laughs. “Can never be too careful.”
    And even though I shouldn’t, I ask, “Where’s
Mom?”
    He turns toward the sink. “At work.”
    “Really?”
    “It’s not that unusual for your mom to work
on Thursday night.” He sighs, his shoulders slump, and he turns
back to the stove. His smile is gone.
    There’s something I’m not
being told, but I don’t want to know what it is because I don’t
need anything else to think about right now. There’s too much in