Chapter 6: YARON

I had been talking to Natalie for an hour, convincing her to come to my room. We have been dating for two weeks but I hadn’t kissed her yet. It was one of those rare occasions when I had the house all to myself. We had gone to the movies, and neither of us wanted our date to end.

I had been hanging out with her and her friends lately. Natalie was okay, but her friends were not. Vee was right, they were shallow and boring. Talking about her, I hadn’t spent time with Vee in some days.

Natalie was sitting on my bed. Her blue eyes were looking at me brightly, and her blonde hair was falling around her round face. Her lips looked so tempting. She was so pretty. It was finally going to happen. I was going to kiss Natalie.

I moved closer to her and slid an arm around her shoulders. She didn’t resist. I lost myself in the smell of the perfume that came off her neck. As we got closer and closer, she parted her lips, and I...

“Yaron, look what old Barnaby gave me!” Vee stormed into my room and looked at us with one eyebrow raised, but no hint of shame. She had never known what shame was.

The door swung open so hard that Natalie screamed and jumped to her feet.

“Vee! What do you think you’re doing? Didn’t I tell you that you must knock before entering my room?”

She was holding what looked like pieces of tire. Her face was covered in dirt, as were the legs of her shorts.

Vee ignored me, walked over to the desk, and moved everything out of the way to place her new treasure. Whatever she wanted to do with it, I sensed it was just trash. I still didn’t understand what she saw in the supposed treasures Barnaby gave her.

“I’m leaving, Yaron.”

I looked at Natalie. She was blushing. She stood up and modestly adjusted her clothes. I also adjusted my jeans.

“I’ll walk you downstairs.”

“No need.”

Natalie left without looking back, and I knew that if we continued like this, our relationship was doomed even before starting. I was never going to kiss her because of Vee.

Seconds later, I heard Natalie slam the door downstairs. I turned around, intending to tell Vee off, but seeing her sitting there, looking at her discovery with that smile she always got when she got excited about something, I forgot about everything and moved to her side.

“What are you going to do with this?” I inhaled the smell of the rubber and closed my eyes. “Vee, it smells like piss.”

“Pee washes off, don’t be squeamish. Plus, you smell like...” I blushed and shook my head, my body still feeling too sensitive.

“Don’t say it.”

Vee tilted her face, focusing again on this strange acquisition, and her enthusiasm filled the entire room.

“I’m going to make a collection of recycled jewelry! Isn’t this a great idea?”

I smiled. It was. It always was. Vee’s ideas always seemed great to me. Creativity was not her problem. However, her skills were far from perfect.

“And how are you going to do that?”

“We need to cut the rubber into strips. I thought about lacing thin ribbons with the glass beads from the lamp that Barnaby gave me.”

“The one that hangs in your living room?”

She gave me a quick glance and smiled.

“Not anymore. I brought it down the other day. I took it all apart. Did you know that an electric shock can knock you unconscious for a couple of minutes?”

“Vee...” I whispered worriedly.

But she laughed. “I’m kidding, silly. It was only ten seconds.”

I smiled. That was Vee. The only person in the world I would let ruin my date with Natalie. Also, the only one who would leave the smell of cat piss in my room when she left and not care.

“Come to my home. I’ll show you.”

I sighed and followed her.

Luke Hart rocked in the porch rocker, his face turned up to the sun. His eyes were closed, and a can of beer was between his legs. I had searched online about depression, and they said alcohol only worsened it and made it harder to treat.

He was wearing the same old clothes as the last time I had seen him wandering around town three days before. Even though I had come to respect Luke for being a fundamental part of Vee’s life, at times I hated him. I couldn’t help it. When I looked at the worn and old clothes Vee wore, I was consumed with rage. Every time she was made fun of for her lack of resources, her badly cut hair, or her eccentricities, I silently blamed Luke. If Vee’s stomach rumbled loudly because her fridge was empty that day, I imagined ways to beat her father up for not being able to take care of the most valuable thing he had.

“Mr. Hart.”

“Mr. Beilinson.”

I laughed at his greeting, and he smiled without opening his eyes.

“Hi, Vee.”

“Hi, Dad. I’m going to make recycled jewelry and make a lot of money with it.”

“Good for you, Vee.”

She pushed open the wire mesh, and we went to the living room. Everything was as it always was, covered in dust and junk that Vee refused to throw away. Some of his useless inventions were mixed on the shelves with empty bottles and old photographs proving that Vee’s father had once been a normal guy with a beautiful woman, not the shadow of the man he was then. Vee was barely keeping him alive.