but McMann? He actually suggested letting the kids go Battle Royale on one another. How is that a solution?”
Mindy was laughing, but I didn’t find it funny. “He wasn’t serious.”
“Sounded serious to me,” Tamal said. He was only half paying attention as he traded messages with Astrid. I admit I was jealous that he could talk to her openly while I had to hide my conversations with Dre.
“He wasn’t.”
“Was he serious when he said the answer to climate change was to colonize the moon? Or when he said that maintaining our nuclear arsenal was a waste of money if we weren’t going to use it to eliminate the competition? How about when he said the answer to our failing infrastructure was to invest in prison labor and have them rebuild our bridges and roadways?”
In the time allotted, McMann had made so many ludicrous statements that it had been difficult to remember them all. But Mindy didn’t seem bothered.
“He’s pointing out how ridiculous and broken the current system is. He wouldn’t actually do any of those things.” Mindy seemed so certain, but I wasn’t.
“Then why say them?”
Mindy rolled her eyes. “Because they’re ridiculous. Because they make people underestimate him.” She paused a moment. “Your mom and Rosario spent the entire debate ignoring McMann and tearing into each other over the same tired solutions everyone’s heard before. Then McMann comes in and maybe his solution is totally bananas, but it’s different, and maybe different is what people are hungry for.”
I threw up my hands. “Sure, why not just burn everything down. That’s different too.”
Mindy nodded, smiling. “Now you get it.”
Except I didn’t get anything. McMann hadn’t offered a single solution that a rational person should have thought was reasonable, but I also couldn’t deny that he had beaten Rosario and my mother, though only because their own messages had been lost in the chaos.
“The two-party system is trash,” Mindy said. “And America is a failed experiment. McMann was the only person on that stage tonight who didn’t pretend otherwise. I think he’s basically one rung above three rabid raccoons standing on each other’s shoulders wearing a trench coat, but if he’s willing to tear everything down, then he’s got my hypothetical but useless vote.”
Tamal stretched his arms over his head and yawned. “You’re kinda scary,” he said to Mindy.
“Thank you.”
Then to me, he said, “I’m ready to crash.”
I was so grateful to Tamal right then. Mindy wanted to stick around for a while, and I figured my mom wouldn’t mind as long as she stayed out of the way. Tamal and I had a room down the hall.
“That Mindy’s a freak,” Tamal said when we were alone.
“She’s definitely different.”
“The way she flips from Cheery Chelsea Church girl to Princess Anarchy is creepy. Is it weird that I kind of like her? Not like I like Astrid, but like I bet she’d be cool to bowl with.”
“I doubt Mindy bowls.”
“Or scare children or whatever.”
“I think she’s only like that because of her parents,” I said. “She has to act a specific way for them, and she can only be herself when she feels safe. I kind of get it.”
Tamal brushed his teeth and changed into his pajamas before getting into bed. “Seems like a rough way to live. Always having to pretend. Never knowing who you can be yourself around.”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s not great.” I grabbed clean clothes and my phone and headed for the bathroom. “I’m going to shower before bed. See you tomorrow.”
“Night, dude.”
I shut the bathroom door behind me, finally alone. I turned on the shower, sat on the edge of the tub, and opened my phone. Nineteen notifications. I held my thumb over the Promethean app, scared to tap it. But it wasn’t a bomb. No matter what Dre said, all I had to do was tell him the truth. Explain that my mother had invited Mindy, that she’d sprung it on me, that I’d been about to tell him when he’d had to leave. Once I explained, he would understand.
Yet, I still couldn’t bring myself to open the app. I knew I was being silly. This thing with Mindy was just a misunderstanding, but I was still scared. I’d known Tamal longer, but Dre was the only person I could fully be myself around, and I was scared of losing him. I was scared of losing more than the boy I cared about; I was scared of losing my friend.
Procrastinating wouldn’t change the messages, though. It would