Win Some, Lose Some

Moaning, I grabbed at my hair and pulled. The minor pain helped me focus a little. There was no way I could get along for the night without the things in my book bag. My homework was there, if nothing else, and my lunchbox. How would I pack lunch for tomorrow if I didn’t have my lunchbox? I forced a deep breath inside of me, stood up on shaky legs, and opened the door.

She smiled at me triumphantly, and I scowled back at her.

“Are you going to invite me in?” she asked.

“What if you’re a vampire?” I replied and instantly wanted to smack myself on the back of the head for saying something so stupid.

“A vampire?”

“They, um…” I stammered. “They can’t come inside your house unless you invite them.”

“I promise I’m not a vampire.”

“If you were, that’s just what you would say.”

We stared at each other for a moment, and I could see she wasn’t going to back down. Besides, she hadn’t relinquished my backpack, and it was still raining outside. I stepped off to the right, and she walked in past me.

She put the book bag on the floor as she walked in and looked around. I quickly grabbed it and put it on the bench where it was supposed to be before following Mayra into the family room.

“You’re all wet, too,” I said as I realized she was dripping on the carpet.

“Oh!” Mayra took a quick step back to the tile foyer. “Sorry about that. I can clean it up.”

“It’s okay,” I said. It wasn’t, but a wet floor wasn’t a trigger point, so I wasn’t going to get too upset about it. The carpet was old and easily cleaned. “I’ll get you a towel.”

I ran upstairs to the bathroom, taking out a large beach towel and examining it for a minute. It was blue and green with purple seashells on it and a little bit threadbare. I vaguely remembered my parents buying it when we were vacationing at Myrtle Beach.

I put it back, then tiptoed into the master bath to pull out one of the large, fluffy, cream-colored towels from under the sink there. It was soft and definitely classier than a beach towel.

Classy? A towel?

I shook my head and walked back downstairs.

“You live here alone, don’t you?”

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second before handing her the towel. I tried to decide if I could handle her here, asking me a lot of questions. I wasn’t sure why, but having her here really wasn’t upsetting me too much. It was a little uncomfortable but nothing I couldn’t handle.

“Yes,” I said quietly. My mouth turned up in a half smile.

“You could have cool parties here,” she exclaimed. “No parents!”

I froze, and the whole atmosphere of the room changed drastically.

“Oh shit, Matthew—I’m sorry!” she cried. “I wasn’t…I just meant…shit, I wasn’t thinking.”

My body felt chilled, and I couldn’t look up from the floor. I did manage to speak.

“It’s okay,” I said slowly. “I know they’re dead.”

She fiddled with the towel in her hands and shuffled her feet.

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

I shrugged and just stood there, still looking at the floor. Some of the rainwater in my hair dribbled down the side of my face. I closed my eyes again.

“You’re still soaked,” Mayra said quietly.

She took a step toward me, and the next th