Page 7 of Frisco

I was a mess.

The door pinged. Shane King walked out.

I hoped to never see him again.

My vagina was calling me a liar.

I hit call on my phone.

“Daughter!”

I smiled. “Hey, Dad.”

“Daughter, daughter, daughter. What are you doing? You getting off work? Heading home? How are the soup cans? Viola and Mrs. Johnson still doing good? They didn’t break a hip craning their necks for more bikers, did they?”

“All’s good. I’m just leaving the grocery store.”

“Can you tell me again the reason you ain’t moved in with your pops? I got a real nice brownstone, you know.”

“I know.” But I didn’t go into detail because this was a normal conversation between James Michaels and me.

“Okay, okay. I know. You’re with your friends. I get it, but you got family here too. Just reminding you.”

“I know, Dad.”

“How was your day before the soup cans and after our last call? Tell your pops all about it.”

So, I did.

3

KALI

There was a disco ball in our living room. I glimpsed it as soon as I came in through the garage door.

What.

The.

Awesomest?

I stared at it in confusion, sparkly and rotating, sending pink, purple, blue, and all sorts of colors around the room. Once the door shut behind me, the music started.

Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” filled the room, and on the beat, my roommate, Harper, slid across the floor from the hallway and past the kitchen doorway. His arms were up, his head back, sunglasses on. He wore a white dress shirt, underwear, and socks. That’s it.

He turned to face me and struck a pose. He brought a bottle of bourbon to his lips, as if it were a microphone. Then, with his entire body bobbing to the music, he lip-synced the entire first section of the greetings.

Black hair. Dark eyes. Gangly form. Seriously pale skin. This was roommate number one. Like my mom, he enjoyed hiding from the sun.

When the second verse started, our other roommate moved past the doorway and reappeared holding a wine bottle for her microphone. Aly was doing the robot, and also wearing sunglasses, but she hadn’t gone with the full Tom Cruise look from Risky Business. She’d gone ’80s glam, with hair and bangs high up in the air. She had multicolored slap-on bracelets, pink leggings, and a black top that was off one shoulder with a neon-green bra underneath.

They did a full rendition.

Their moves were choreographed.

Harper went left, Aly went right.

Harper bent low, Aly jumped high.

---