Page 17 of Rules for Rule Breaking
“No. I can’t find my remote.” He sighed deeply. “Do you think I’d look good with red hair?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay, well, Dakarai is here to see you.” Diana opened the door the rest of the way, and Dakarai, or Kai as his close friends called him, stepped inside. Kai was Bobby’s best and sometimes only friend. “I’ll be downstairs if you need anything,” Diana said before she disappeared.
Typically Bobby got over his moods quickly, and Kai knew to give him his space. But this time it was different. He was grateful Kai came to his rescue. He’d meant to call him, but he’d kicked his phone under his bed a few days prior and couldn’t summon enough energy to find it.
“Hey,” Kai said in a cautious tone. “How are you holding up, man?”
Bobby didn’t answer with words. He scooted over on his bed, and Kai lay down next to him. The two of them stared at the ceiling for a while, completely quiet. It was nice to have someone to share his solitude with, and Kai was capable of such marvelous silence. Some people knew when to talk and when not to. Kai was one of those people.
He was tall and lanky, and he slouched so people could hear him because he always talked in a low drawl. He dressed like one of the kids fromStranger Things, and he rode around on a Huffy bike like one too. Kai was also extremely spiritual, which he mostly attributed to his Nigerian and Creole heritage. The energies of his ancestors provided him comfort and protection, and he transferred this same feeling of solace to everyone he loved.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Kai asked after a while. Bobby shook his head, so Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out a vape. “Do you want to get high about it? It’s Tropicana Cookies.”
Kai believed that animals’ stress chemicals transferred to him, so he followed a strict anti-inflammatory vegan diet. He also employed other plant-based methods to manage his anxiety—one of them being vaping. But Bobby had his own ways of coping.
Bobby turned his head away. “Kai, you know I don’t smoke.”
“All right. I thought it would be rude if I didn’t offer. You’re always going on about your manners and etiquettes or whatever.” Kai pressed the button a couple of times until the vape lit up, and he took a long pull. “Look, dude,” he said, with the hit still in his lungs. “You know that song ‘No Woman, No Cry’?” He blew out and smiled as he watched the smoke dance in a sliver of light that the blackout curtains failed to keep out.
“Uh... yeah. Bob Marley?”
“Most people think that song is about a man getting over a woman. That just because you don’t have a woman, you shouldn’t cry. But he was actually telling a woman thatsheshouldn’t cry because everything was going to be all right.”
Bobby contorted his face in confusion. “Yeah? So what?”
“Well, it’s uniquely relevant right now because I want to tell your goofy ass both things. Nuh cry, woman. And especially not over Jaqueline Charlotte Turner,” he replied. Bobby smacked him with his pillow, and Kai giggled deep in his throat. “But seriously, dude. You good?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Maybe I just need to get up. Should we go do something?”
Kai took another hit. “There were some planes outside leaving those lines in the sky, dropping hella chemicals. You know how I feel about that. Let’s chill.”
“We’ve only got one iota of courage between the two of us. It’s supposed to be your turn to have it,” Bobby said.
“I don’t want it anymore. I’ve been thinking about asking out this guy who always comes into the bookstore during my shift. Depending on how that goes, it may be my turn to watchRiverdalesoon.”
Bobby looked at his friend, and an immense feeling of gratitude took him over. Kai was like a hermit crab. He could crawl into any shell and make it his home. Everything about him, from his height to his personality to his twists, made it impossible for him to fit in where they lived, but somehow he always found the tiniest crack and nestled right in.
Bobby held out his hand. “I changed my mind,” he said, realizing his own anxiety-management tactics, for the most part, had never worked. Perhaps trying something new wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. “I do want to smoke about it.”
Kai laughed. “Good-Boy Bobby wants to smoke? You for real?”
“Yeah. Why not? I don’t think I’m Good-Boy Bobby anymore. Plus I was recently told I’m boring.”
Kai had a boisterous laugh when he thought things were genuinely funny. It sounded fake, and you could almost spell it:Ha. Ha. Ha.But Bobby knew it was real.
“Who dared to call you boring?” Kai asked sarcastically.
“Winter Park’s seventy-year-old grandmother.”
Kai clutched his chest and rolled side to side as he laughed. “That’s amazing.”
“That and Jacqueline breaking up with me are the only reasons I agreed to go on this trip with Winter in the first place. I’m not going to lie; I’m regretting it a little bit. She has it in her head that we need to use this trip to become Bonnie and Clyde or something.”
“I like Winter. I don’t see why you been sleepin’ on her. I like her way better than Jacqueline. I’m sorry, bro, but Jacqueline sucks. She always wanna argue with somebody. It’s exhausting.”
