Wright at Night

I looked up at the sky full of rhinestones my mom uses to bedazzle her sweaters. Putting rhinestones on your sweaters is all the rage among the moms of suburbia, but I still refuse to wear the sweater she not only picked out but bedazzled for our annual family photo session at the mall. The rhinestones in the sky, although not as flashy as my mom’s, were brighter. They dazzled. “I love her,” I said before I realized it was out loud. 

“You love your mom? That’s good, Joe,” Berry said. Berry had been my best friend since the second grade. We sat in the bed of his dad’s cherry red truck and listened to Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on cassette. Ziggy was singing about being a space invader and daydreaming. Sometimes I felt like an invader of my own life. There was a disconnection between what I physically felt and what I mentally felt, like a rhythm that never quite syncopated.

“Was I talking about my mom just now?” I looked up at the Big Dipper because that’s the only constellation I knew and could point out to someone.

“You said you hated her rhinestones.” Berry looked at me and laughed. “Just don’t say that to her face.” Berry lifted the 73 cent can of beer to his lips and took a large chug. He made that ahhh noise that I found both obnoxious and nauseating to listen to. With most best friends as opposed to regular friends, Berry could annoy the crap out of me, but he understood my quirks, like talking out loud without realizing it sometimes. 

“I didn’t mean I love my mom. I do love my mom. But I meant I love Hailey.” 

Berry squinted up at the sky, his eyes darting side to side and up and down like a person’s flailing arms would if they were drowning. “You love the comet you saw a few months ago?”

“That’s Halley. I don’t love the comet. I love Hailey Wright.” Hailey Wright was my soulmate. Or at least, whatever the high school equivalent of a soulmate is. She moved here at the end of junior year, and I vowed every day to talk to her, but never did. I watched her though. Not in the stalker kind of way, but the sweet admiration kind. At least if she caught me looking, I hope that’s what she would think. She moved here in the middle of the school year. We had English together. I was thankful we didn’t have gym together. There was no way I would be able to stand near her in those awful gym shorts. I wasn’t self-conscious about myself unless I was in those. Those short, light-gray, swishy things. I learned to always buy the ones with the drawstring. Otherwise, if you had gym with Randy Kline, you were done for. 

“Joe, everyone likes Hailey Wright. I heard Randy Kline was going to ask her out at the end of summer.” What was it about Randy Kline? He wasn’t just a bully, but he was smooth with girls. He got to feel satisfied by pantsing someone in gym, and he got to have sex with multiple girls during the school year. And I wasn’t having sex with anyone. And I was the one being pantsed. 

Berry looked down at his beeper attached to his jeans and smirked. “Oooh, Jenny’s trying to reach me. Let’s go Joe. Booty calls.” He saluted me like a drunk soldier while biting his lips. Sometimes I wondered how Berry and I became friends. Berry jumped out of the bed of the truck in a way that a loud ninja might. It looked cool until his hand slipped and he fell on his ass. He was already acting stupid for Jenny even though she wasn’t here. I hopped out and into the passenger’s seat. 

“You mean duty calls,” I turned the volume dial up. Ziggy was still going strong, singing about his life story. 

“No, Joe. This is Jenny. Booty calls.” Berry finished the end of his warm beer, wiping the drip that rolled down his chin, and chucked the can out the window. 

I knew he would want to go somewhere lame to meet Jenny like the bowling alley, where the photo booth in the arcade was the popular make-out spot. I’d be left alone and forced to eat a stale bunned burger while I waited. I told him the best place to meet her would be the mall because he could find the same photo booth near the food court. “I’ll catch a movie, and when I’m done, I’m going home with or without you.” 

Berry rolled his eyes at me and talked like Gomer Pyle. “Okay, dad.” 

I loved the movie theater at the mall. I loved the smell of popcorn, and the sticky floor from what I assumed was more than just spilled coke. Most of all, I loved the moment after the previews and before the start of the main feature when the lights of the theater house dimmed. It was an ombre light show. I’d blur my vision and look forward as the surrounding light faded into black. 

The movie that was playing was Labyrinth. Today was just Bowie day, I guess. Some girls walked in with Bowie concert t-shirts on that they ripped the neck hole to expose their shoulders. One girl was wearing a pair of jeans that had a rip just under her butt cheek. It was pretty hot. 

When the last preview ended and the lights were about to dim, the girl in the ripped jeans turned to her friend and got out of her seat. Before I could blur my eyes, I recognized the face of the exposed butt cheek girl. Hailey. Hailey Wright. Holy hell. 

“Joe, right?” She asked. 

I probably looked like a fish out of water, my oxygen levels dropping, hair standing up all puffer fish-like. Hailey Wright knows my name. 

“Are you not Joe?” She was looking right at me, but then she started to walk away. What was I doing?

“I’m Joe!” I screamed. Mother bedazzler. People shushed me. I got out of my seat, the lights had dimmed, the movie was starting. Hailey turned around, a smirk on her face, then she mouthed, popcorn, and gestured for me to come with her. We got in line, and Hailey ordered popcorn and two cokes. I ordered red vines. I hated red vines. Why did I order red vines?

“Red vines are my favorite,” Hailey said and grabbed the candy from me, and took a bite.

“Yeah, me too,” I said and grabbed one too. I tried to hide my disgusted-by-the-taste face. “So good,” I said, “and sticky. Do you want another?” Our fingers touched when she reached in the bag, and I think I made a fish face again because she started to laugh. I laughed too. 

“Do you want to sit with us?” She asked. I forgot what movie we were watching. We took our seats, and she placed her hand on my knee. I didn’t know what to do with that. My fingers were sticky from the red vines, and I didn’t want to scare her hand away if I touched it. I wanted her to know that I wasn’t put off, but the exact opposite, so I scooted my foot towards hers and tapped it three times. She probably thought I had a tic, but she squeezed my knee three times in response. When the movie ended, she asked if I could drive her home. 

“I came with Berry. He should be here somewhere.” It was like Berry had heard me because suddenly he was walking right up to us. He sulked, saying Jenny didn’t mean to beep Berry, she meant to beep Randy Kline. Dumb pantsing probably having sex right now Randy Kline. 

“Man, I’m sorry, Jenny doesn’t realize how groovy you are,” I said. I felt the heat rush to  my face and looked at Hailey after I realized I used the outdated word. 

“Woah,” Berry said, “you sound like my mom. I thought you were supposed to be my bad tonight. I mean, my dad. I mean, wait, that was right.”

I was about to tell Berry how stupid he was for getting drunk at the mall and over a girl but then he sat on the floor and closed his eyes. “Berry, you can’t drive home like this.” I was lifting him from under his armpits, then supporting him up with one shoulder. “And you know I can’t drive a stick, so what are we supposed to do now? Walk home?”

Hailey crossed her arms, biting her lip. Wow, she should bite her lip more. “I can drive a stick,” she said. 

We slow-walked to the parking lot. Berry was half asleep. When we got to the truck, Berry walked to the driver’s side. 

“Oh no,” I said, “Hailey is our DD for tonight.” 

“Hailey has double d’s? Jenny only has b’s. Jenny sucks, Joe. Jenny, Joe. Hey, both of your names start with J. J. J. J. J. J.”

“Okay, before you insult anyone else and make the letter J not sound like anything anymore, what do you say you get in the back? You can have it all to yourself, big guy.” That seemed to appease Berry because he climbed in and passed out. 

“He’s pretty drunk, do you think he’ll be okay?” Hailey asked as she put the car in reverse. 

“I’m sorry,” I said, “I’m sure you didn't mean to spend the rest of your night like this.” I turned the volume dial up, the last song on the cassette played. We sat in silence for a while, even after the song ended, and it wasn’t awkward. 

When we drove up to Berry’s house, I nudged him awake. The beer told me he loved me. I shrugged my shoulders at Hailey, and we both got out of the truck. “I live really close if you want to walk,” she said. 

“Yes,” I said. 

We made our way to the next neighborhood, and she told me about what it was like to go to six different schools in ten years and how she never had a chance to make real friends before it was time to move again for her dad’s work. 

We walked into a cul-de-sac that I assumed her house was in. I stopped and looked at her. 

“This is me,” she said, and then it got awkward. We stood and looked at each other and then at her house and then at each other again. 

“Hailey, I wanted--” I started. 

“No.” She answered. 

And before I could ask how she knew what I was going to say, she put her hands around my neck and kissed me. It ended after a while when she said, “I have a curfew, but I’m free tomorrow.” 

“Curfews suck,” I said. 

And she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

And I said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

I watched her in the sweet admiration kind of way as she walked through her front door. I waited until she waved to me and shut the door to start my journey home. I took the Ziggy Stardust cassette from Berry’s truck and put it in my Walkmen. I put my headphones on and pressed play. As the drums of the first song started to play, I looked up at the night sky and found the Big Dipper, the only constellation I knew.