Alex lay back against the soft
pillowed comfort of the four poster bed. Her phone was still in the palm of her
hand, as she let her mind climb backwards over the entries in the manuscript.
“Two.” She mumbled into the room’s warm
embrace. “Two different men and one of them is Dad.”
She sat up on the soft mattress, reaching
to reclaim the pages strewn beside her. Dropping the phone in her bag, she
glared at the ragged pages, scanning each of them for a moment.
Her fine blond hair blocked her
sight as she shook her head still trying to find distinction in the entries to
help with the confusion. Tricia was intimately involved with one of them,. Her
mom made it clear, but… she shook her head again and dropped the pages into her
lap.
Digging her fingertips into her thrumming
temples, she tried to clear her mind. The
pulsing tide of thought and emotion drummed an irregular cadence. She squelched a
sudden urge to scream. What am I going to do with this mess?
As a nerve grinding buzz
echoed in her ears, she dropped her quivering fingers into her lap. “What in
the…”
She walked with hesitant steps from
Jay’s room, slinking like a prowler to the foot of the stairs. When the sound ripped through the house again, she
scrunched up her face and covered her ears. “Doorbell, she shouted. rushing for
the front door. “Grandma Maria must be going deaf.”
"Before the buzzer could make that hateful sound again, Alex began to flip open the locks on the door. Flinging it open, she screeched, “Stop!”
Before the teenage boy on the front stoop could jab his stubby
finger at the buzzer again, she opened her eyes to glare at him.
The gum smacking kid stood wide eyed
before her, backing a step away as if protecting himself from her . His dark,
unruly hair hung lazily over one eye with a wedge shaped cardboard hat on his
head at a rakish angle. Alex closed her eyes and breathed in deep breaths while
the guy adjusted the mock pizza slice before it slipped from his slick
hair. Pressing her fingers back into her
temples, she forced a broken smile.
His checkerboard white and red
shirt, half tucked into black pants and a worn black apron, reminded her of her
brother Kale. She knew this kid was older and much darker complected than her
brother, but the look of complete blankness on his face softened her voice.
.“I’m sorry about that. It’s just really loud.”The boy’s expression did not falter or even flinch. Alex attempted another, more cordial greeting.
“If you were bringing that pizza here,”
she motioned toward her chest. “I think you have the wrong address. I didn’t
order pizza.”
"With the shift of one nervous eye the boy glanced at the paper attached to the box in his hands.
“Galvez. 335”
Alex frowned in response., “This is
Sanchez. I don’t know the house number.”
"The order form just says that a “J. Galvez placed a delivery order
thirty minutes ago for this address.” He
said chewing on his gum again. . “I just do what they tell me.”
Alex gulped back a lump in her throat.
Jay bought her dinner. Three thousand miles away and he was still
watching over her.
She shifted her bare feet, wringing her hands and coming up blank on
what she should do. There was protocol here. The kid needed to be paid or
tipped or something.
“I ..I’m so sorry, How much do I
owe you?”
“The pizza is fifteen bucks and the delivery
fee and tip ...”
Alex gave a gurgled start, her empty
pockets begging her to find her wallet.
The choking sound of her panic disassembled the boy’s monotone recital of the bill.
As she stood motionless in front of him, she could feel the flames of
humiliation burn at her cheeks.
How am I going to pay this guy?
She thought.
Her panic must have been
emblazoned across her forehead because the teenager began tapping one of his
black tennis shoes
She began to pat down her
clothing looking for cash.
Still wearing her pajamas, the useless motion sent her brain into a mental frenzy. Her body involuntarily
pivoted toward the interior of the house, her eyes darting in panic toward her
suitcase and the stairs.
Where is my wallet? Did I already use that cash?
The clearly impatient delivery boy
began smacking his gum in cadence with his still tapping foot. Alex started to
ask him to come inside
This is New York City. She
thought before she spoke. Jay would kill me if I invited this kid to come
in.
Alex began her mental scramble again, her mind’s
eye searching pockets, purses, and the upstairs bath for her shoes.
The incessant sounds of the impatient delivery
boy became capped off by the ringing of her phone.she knew she couldn’t leave this guy hovering in the open doorway
while she went and answered the call.
Stepping between the threshold and the
entry way, Alex tried to find an explanation to curtail the growing tide of
frustration she felt rolling off the teenager.
“I have…I don’t…could you?”
Alex
knew she sounded to him as if her tongue quit working. The harder she tried to
focus on his blank disregard for her situation, the more she ebbed toward a
complete meltdown. Images swirled through her mind. Charles, Jay, her mom, two
faceless men. The barrage was overwhelming. When the kid blew out an
exasperated breath and his long, greasy lock of hair plastered itself across
his nose, Alex burst into inexplicable laughter.
Random sounds and fluids spilled from Alex as everything finally caught
up with her. It started as a mirthless chuckle, but quickly took on a Dr.
Frankenstein, maniacal quality. She giggled, guffawed, chortled, squealed and,
in the end, even snorted through her nose. As the final raucous sound broke
from her lips, so did a wayward spray of spittle.
Pizza boy glared down at the wet spray
that dampened his stained uniform scowling at her hysteria.
Tears flooded from her eyes, with no claim
to the laughter. Streams of frustration, fear, confusion and exhaustion poured down
her face. The weight of her pain filled
her heaving chest as she gripped the doorknob with white knuckles and lurched a
little toward the doorway.
The clumsy movement and torrent of emotion seemed to be a slap in the
face for the delivery boy. With a brief flash of unseen emotion, his jaw
dropped open. He took a stumbling step toward escape, and Alex lost it.
.Wracking, burning, thundering sobs tore through her chest and across her throat. She sank, crossed legged on the hardwood floor and blubbered uncontrollably.
“My boyfriend asked me to marry…” Tears
and shuddered breaths stole the words. “And then left me. I am alone and lost
and I can’t find my money…”
Her face was buried in her
hands but her eyes caught sight of the black tennis shoes shifting beyond the
door.
“Look, lady, I just…”
Another burst of crying muffled the kid’s
voice and Alex burrowed her head deeper into her palms.
It all washed over her again and she
lifted her tear stained face to the pizza boy’s bleary outline.
“He keeps calling...” She blubbered
onward. “But I’m not talking to him.”
Alex heard the final statement come out in
a vicious growl, as if her voice was morphing into the snarl of a pit-bull. The
black shoes backed away further, and Alex grabbed her stomach to regain
composure. Instead the horrified look on the teenager’s face sent another gush
of cries past her crumbling damn. Like a cornered animal, he glanced onto the
empty street.
Before the boy fled to call the authorities,
Alex scrambled onto her knees in front of him
“Its just that I thought my mom and dad
were cheating but it turns out my mom was just kind of sleazy in college and I
don’t know what to do next.”
The pizza kid looked up and down the
street behind him again. Alex imagined him wishing for a magical portal, or
flying broomstick, to come whisk him away.
Trying to master the tears in her eyes she wiped at her cheeks. Through
her hazy sight she caught a glimpse of the shoes again, before he crouched in
front of her. The pizza box sat, like an offering in front of her.
She looked up at him.
“Your life’s a wreck.” He muttered. “I
don’t get paid enough for this kind of crap so just take the pizza; it’s on
me.”
Before she could get beyond her tears to
thank him, he was gone from the stoop. she listened to the pounding of his
footsteps down the street.
Alex slumped brokenly against the door.
She was spent, embarrassed and…hungry. The smell of the pizza wafting through
the open door called her back to her senses.
Wiping at her cheeks and carrying the box
into the kitchen Alex’s bottom lip trembled. The smell of chicken, onions,
peppers and bacon teased her mouth toward a smile. Only jay knew the combination to her favorite
pizza. The ringing of her cell phone once again briefly sent a charge of
irritation through her. Melting mozzarella and marinara awaited, she’d face the
rest later.
Alex opened the box from ‘Mama Lucia’s Bistro” and proceeded to pull the
outer crust off the gooey concoction. After wrapping the impromptu breadsticks
in a napkin, she closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of Parmesan and
garlic.Like a jeweler plucking diamonds from a lump of coal, she picked first the
chicken, and then the bacon off half of the pizza. Piling the meat onto one
half, Alex proceeded to place the other half of the pizza, face down on top of
the overloaded side. Picking up the sandwich style slice, she tore one,
enormous, overflowing hunk from the warm crust and sighed. She would have to
tell Jay the story of her meltdown in front of pizza boy, but not tonight.
Tonight she would bask in her humiliation and the knowledge that she was desperately
in need of the comfort food.
She took her time devouring the small pizza, and then
trudged lazily back upstairs. Her bread stick crusts tucked away in the refrigerator
and her tired body prodding her back toward the tidy familiar bedroom.
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