sit here, watch it all, and pretend that’s not my girl.
And it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. If I could stop looking at her, it might be easier. But I can’t. I’m so greedy for the sight of her.
She’s wearing this scrap of blue fabric masquerading as a blouse. A delicate gold chain belt wraps around her tiny waist. Her little white shorts are probably illegal in some autocratic countries.
I can’t take my eyes off the supple, taut skin of her thighs as she walks right past me to sit next to her brother.
“Did I say you could smoke weed in my yard?” She shoots Tyson the middle finger before she sinks down next him.
“She gets passive aggressive when her feelings are hurt. It’s her tell.” Tyson says, laughing through a haze of smoke from the joint he’s just fired up.
“I am not being passive aggressive. Why are you such a traitor?” Regan asks and splashes him with water.
He just laughs and continues to poke at her. “She’ll never actually say that she’s upset.”
“Tyson, that is a lie,” Regan says, her indignation real, this time.
Tyson’s grin only grows more mischievous. “No, it’s not. I’m not judging you, Reggie. We’re all friends here, right, Stone?”
I narrow my eyes at Tyson’s cajoling tone. “Right.” But without any of the humor he’s exhibiting.
“How about everyone tell me how you know each other,” Celine says in a singsong voice, taking the joint from Tyson and taking an impressive draw.
“Why don’t you start since you’re so new?” Regan answers with a singsong that’s just a touch shy of being mocking.
Celine’s smile widens. “Okay! Well, I moved here to work with Teach for America after I graduated from BU. I’m so glad I joined that gym. I’ve had the hardest time making friends with anyone but work people.”
“What’s wrong with work people?” Regan asks, grabbing the joint which had worked its way to Dina.
“Nothing. But they’re all so young and sheltered and so obsessed with work. I mean, I am, too. Obviously. This is like, my passion. But it’s also just a stepping stone, ya know?” She smiles sweetly. “What about you?” She cocks her head, an eager smile directed at Regan.
I glance at Tyson and glare at him. None of what she just said matches the story he gave me when he introduced us. I look over at Celine and she shoots me one of those sweet smiles, but I don’t miss the way she can’t seem to hold my gaze.
Who the hell is this girl?
“Oh, I met Stone when he was ten. He stabbed my boyfriend while I was giving him a blow job and then I didn’t see him again for twenty years,” Regan announces with a smile so pleasant that it’s not until after she’s done that what she said sinks in. I turn toward Tyson, my explanation already halfway out of my mouth, “It was so long ago. I didn’t think it—"
He slaps my shoulder, hard, “You stabbed somebody? Man, Stone. I guess that was before you took your whole do no harm oath, huh?”
I wince, and rub my shoulder, eyeing warily, waiting for him to ask why I hadn’t mentioned any of this.
“So, did he die?” he asks with a conspiratorial grin, and I quirk my brow at him, confused.
“Who?”
“The dude you stabbed.”
I snort in surprise. “I was ten and scrawny. It was a flesh wound, right?” I try to catch Regan’s eyes. But she’s staring at Celine with barely disguised malice.
“What was Regan like back then?” Dina nudges me and leans forward with an eager smile on her face.
“Exactly as she is now,” I answer. Regan’s eyes flash to mine before she looks down at her lap, but she watches me under her crescent sweep of her sooty lashes.
“She loved The Temptations and the Love Jones soundtrack. She loved to bake, loved history and politics. She was obsessed with the idea of rewriting history and living like every day might be her last.”
“You remember all that?” Her eyes have lost the intensity they held just a moment ago and now are limpid with nostalgia.
“I remember every second, every lesson.” I admit.
“What was so profound that you remember?” Tyson asks, breaking the spell and saving me from myself.
I look up at the sky, as if I have to search my memory for an answer. I don’t have to do more than blink to be back in the bakery, standing next to Regan at the marble