Page 25 of Side Hustle
“Ouch!”
“You totally deserved that. And no. Being a pair of hairy balls was enough for me for one year. I’m running the kissing booth.”
I blinked repeatedly to clear my head, which was hard because all the blood in my body had headed south. “I’m sorry?”
“Oh, don’t be sorry. It’s a ton of fun. In fact, you should totally be one of the kissers! I need more volunteers.” Then she looked down at the toe of her tennis shoe rubbing a line across my dirty linoleum floor. “I know for a fact you’re good at it.”
A rush of heat slammed into my chest, the complete opposite of the icy water from last time I kissed her. The entire procedure in the shower earlier had truly been for nothing. In fact, maybe I’d just been priming the pump. My arms unfolded, my feet took two steps, and I was kissing her, my hands lost in the tumble of dark hair down her neck. She opened for me immediately, no hesitation and all the enthusiasm I loved about her.
I still didn’t know how she felt about me, or why we kept kissing instead of fighting recently, but for once in my damn life, I didn’t care to figure it out. I just wanted to stay lost here in Hazel’s warm vanilla sunshine.
10
Hazel
My singing voice left much to be desired, but I didn't let that bother me. The lyrics were something about stealing sunshine. The volume of my voice intensified on the chorus because, let’s be real, that was the only part of the song I actually knew. But I was feeling it today. Like really feeling it. My feet weren’t even attached to the floor I was so high on life. My brain went back to rehashing the make-out session with Rip six days before. We’d been texting all day every day since then. Little things we noticed and wanted to share with the other person. Funny memes. Plans for the Gold Rush Festival. Neither of us brought up the kissing, but I could practically feel his lips on mine just thinking about it.
While scooping out the endless sea of cat litter boxes at Granny’s National Cat Protection Society, I formulated a plan for having an excuse to see him again. Alone. I could call another strategy session. Or swing by his house with more homemade cookies. He seemed to like them last week.
Cats wound their way through my legs, completely unapologetic that I had to scoop out their poop. Usually Granny did the dirty deed, but she’d been preoccupied lately and I figured a granddaughter helping out the grandmother who’d raised her was the right thing to do. Never mind that this particular chore had me gagging, which was why I had the radio cranked on the ’90s station and was currently trying to sing my way through.
“Slave labor, huh?”
A voice cut through my happy song, my uplifting thoughts, and the incredible stench. A voice that instantly brought my feet back down to earth.
“Wow, talk about stealing my sunshine,” I said under my breath before turning around.
Six feet away stood my mother, her blonde hair looking a little more stringy than the first day I saw her. The woman I’d successfully dodged by sleeping over at different friends’ houses all week. She turned the knob on the ancient stereo Granny had had for as long as I’d known her.
“We’re not open yet.”
Sure, the comment was a bit too bitchy teenager for my maturity level, but I couldn’t seem to help myself when she was around. I reverted back to the angstiest time of my life, when she wasn’t around for me to spew my anger at her. I was due for some spew.
She put her hands up like I was a feral cat, about to attack. She probably wasn’t far off the mark. “I just want to talk. Will you at least hear me out?”
I stripped off the thick yellow rubber gloves, stepped out of the litter boxes, and tried unsuccessfully to get the smell of urine out of my nose. How the hell did Granny do this every day? My stomach wobbled with nerves, but the rest of me went the way of a four-alarm fire. I could feel the crackling of the flames light up my spine.
“Listen. I don’t want to hear anything you have to say. You left a long time ago. You should just stay gone.”
She flinched, which gave me a moment of satisfaction. Her recovery was quick, though. Her nose went in the air even with her cheap clothes and dirty hair.
“Fine. Whatever. I left because you deserved a better life and I loved you enough to walk away. But you’ll never see it that way. You’re just a selfish child. Even now.”
Oh, hell no. No, she didn’t just insult me and the job Granny did of raising me right. The flames hit the powder keg in my heart and all I saw was a film of red. Suffocation by kitty litter was too good for her.
“That’s rich. You, callingmeselfish. Who’s been off living her life without a care about the ones she left behind? No birthday cards, no extra money to help raise me. Nothing. Get the fuck out!” I pointed to the door, a mere second away from physically pushing her out.
“Hazel? Kendra?” Granny swung the front door open so hard the hinges let out a squeal. The knitted cat doll hanging from the doorknob flew off and hit the opposite wall. “What’s going on here?”
“Kendra is just leaving,” I said between gritted teeth.
My mother rolled her eyes, but thankfully walked to the door, stopping long enough to smile innocently at Granny before exiting.
“Hazel. Are you okay?” Granny rushed over, her little arm around my waist and her head on my shoulder.
I sighed, the anger still there, but ebbing the second that woman left my sight. “I don’t want to talk with her. She hasn’t changed. Her being here is just causing trouble. Can you tell her that?”
Granny shook her head, her gray curls brushing across my shoulder. “I’ve already told her that. She gets an idea in her head and there’s no convincing her otherwise. Best to hear her out, and when she sees you won’t be swayed, she’ll eventually lose interest. That’s the way she’s always been, Little Moon.”
