When All the Stars
Have Fallen
‘The worst part,’
Lola typed, ‘is seeing them together on TV.’
She hit ENTER.
A few
seconds later: ‘why do you even watch stuff w/him on it?’
popped up in the little chat window.
Half-distracted
by what she was watching, Lola shrugged. ‘I don’t
know.’
"Wish
I did," she said aloud. She sighed, knowing that she was lying
to her friend and herself.
‘c’mon,
Lo, you know why,’ popped up.
Lola
snorted. "Okay, the only person I’m fooling is myself, then."
Mentally
rolling up her sleeves, she dared to look away from the newscast that
had caught her attention – they would replay it again later, anyway
– and foocused on the laptop cradled between her knees.
‘Yes,
ok, I do know. Stop badgering me. :p’
‘Looooooola,
don’t do this to yourself mija.
you’re fine w/o him’
Sighing,
Lola typed back, ‘I know, I know. You’ve been telling
me that since 3rd grade, Brie.’
‘so! drop him like a hot bag of
horse manure. finally!’
Choosing
to ignore the remark – and the accompanying visual it inspired –
Lola typed, ‘It’s just we’re almost the same person,
me & her.’
‘except your his actual kid &
she’s the gf’s kid’
‘Yeah, small detail.’
Lola sighed again. ‘I wish you were here, Brielle. With
mom gone & my family being my family, I’m starting to go a
little cookoo.’
Her
fingers hovered the keyboard, unsure how vulnerable she wanted to be,
even to her best friend. Brielle saved her but responding before
Lola could come to a decision: ‘you still gonna be part
of that Sandy rebuilding thing now that you know its your dad backing
it?’
‘He’s not the only backer.’
‘don’t you try & make
excuses w/me! you know & i know your deadbeat dad is the only
backer that matters. he pulls out & ain’t nothing gonna move
until the gov’t FINALLY decides to hand some of that Sandy relief
money, sometime around next never.’
Lola
snorted, lips curling in spite of herself. ‘I hate when
you’re right, on all points.’
‘you
loooooove me.’
Chuckling,
Lola typed, ‘Only because I’ve known you since 3rd
grade, lol.’
‘:D’
Lola
glanced at the television. The anchors had moved on, probably a long
time ago. Anything involving her business tycoon father and his
nearly-adopted daughter was usually a fluffy entertainment piece of
no real value, news-wise. Still and all, it was an easy way to pull
in viewers. The station would run the clip several more times before
the news cycle shifted, Lola knew.
‘Do
you think I should back out?’
she typed.
There
was no answer from Brielle. Whether that was because she was busy
elsewhere online or had gotten up from her computer, Lola couldn’t
tell. She almost didn’t want to know. Getting up herself, Lola
picked up the remnants of her dinner and made her way to the kitchen.
By some miracle her two cats, Night and Shade hadn’t gone after
the empty bowls, but they eagerly tangled themselves around her legs
now. It was more practice than natural grace hat kept her from
falling flat on her face – and giving her two little monsters what
they wanted most.
"Boys,
boys! Chill, guys! You had dinner, greedy beggers." Still,
she pulled out their bag of treats as soon as she was done with the
dishes. She wasn’t ready to call herself a pet parent yet, if
ever, but she loved her feline friends dearly. After her mother
died, they’d been the only things...
Well...
Lola
crouched down to cuddle her boys. They didn’t even mind her
ridiculous names for them. "You’re such good guys."
Shade
gave her a look, as if to say, Of course we are. Night paid her no
mind.
Laughing,
Lola stood and made her way back to her laptop. Fixing it on her lap
again, she saw that Brielle had responded. ‘you planning
on intro’ing yourself?’
Not
quite sure what her friend was talking about, Lola scrolled back
through their conversation. She scoffed.
‘No! Heck no!’
‘Why "heck no"? Why
not...he’s your bio-dad.’
‘Bri, if he ever wanted to be
part of my life he could have found me. He met my grandparents and
they never moved. Plus, hello, he’s loaded. If he’d wanted to
track me down, he could have.’
‘so now’s your chance, mija!
stick it to him where it hurts...in the public eye.’
Lola
shook her head, though she knew her friend couldn’t see it. She
could never do that to her mother and her memory. She wasn’t even
sure she could put herself through it. ‘Not a chance,
ma’am. Besides, who would believe White-him and Black-Dominican
me?’
‘DNA tests are your friend."
‘No, Brielle. I don’t care.’
‘Then could you please stop
watching this news programs or whatever with him on TV?’
Lola
frowned. Brielle rarely, if ever, used proper spelling and
punctuation online, favoring speed over strict grammatical
correctness.
‘I
think you’re more upset than I am, Bri.’
‘i
hate how crazy this makes you. i wish youd stop. even you said he
pro’ly doesn’t even know/remember he has a kid.’
Night,
her first cat, jumped into Lola’s lap. He’d spent many nights as
her tear-stained pillow, and apparently knew the signs even before
she did; he was head-butting her face as the first tears fell. Well,
now Lola knew how vulnerable she wanted to be with her best friend –
not very.
‘it
just sucks that you ended up in the same field as your drunk old man.
esp since he waited until you were fully grown to sober up’
Lola
had to reach around Night to type – reach around and nearly hug
him. Nuzzling his side, she typed her reply one-handed. ‘Yeah.’
-Fin-
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