Page 6 of Trusting Trey
I drained the macaroni and added the cheese, butter and milk, stirring until the white macaroni turned a nice cheesy yellow. Mybabawould throw his hands around and mutter bad Greek words if he knew I was eatingKraft Macaroni and Cheese, so I don’t tell him. As a senior in college, I don’t have time to make meat with every meal. When I wanted meat, I just went down the street to Drakos Agape,Baba’srestaurant. When it was time to go I always scammed somebougastsafrom mymafor dessert, too.
With the macaroni now residing in the pottery bowls I handed one to Daphne and carried mine, and the pepper shaker, to the table. I slid my butt over the wooden seat and shook the pepper on until the cheese turned a luscious black. Daphne had her nose turned up and I shook my head. “What? You’ve seen me do this before.”
She took the gum out of her mouth for the first time all day and stuck it to the edge of the bowl. “Ya, and its gross every time. I don’t know about you Greeks. Aye.”
I’m relatively certain putting pepper on mac and cheese isn’t a Greek thing, but I didn’t want to destroy the illusions she had about ‘my people’, as she referred to them. When I met her the first day of college she joked about my name being Allison. I asked her why that was funny and she motioned around my body as if the answer was obvious. “Because your people don’t have normal names, your people have names like Elena and Aleksander. Allison is about as Greek as the nose on my face,” she said.
To be honest, I’ve never met anyone ruder in my life, but she was still a beautiful person. I had no choice but to love her for everything she is. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body; she just wasn’t exactly a Midwestern girl. When I told her that my name was supposed to be Alcina, but the nurses at the hospital thought my parents spelled it wrong. They corrected it to Allison on my birth certificate and it sealed my fate. Mybabacalls me Alcina and mymacalls me Cina. I make everyone else call me Allison. I feel like I should thank that nurse for helping me dodge the bullet of being stuck with a name like Alcina.
I dropped my fork into my empty bowl and stood, kicking the chair out behind me and leaving the bowl in the sink. Someone else was going to have to clean up dishes, or I would be late for class. “I gotta roll, thanks for all the great support back there.” I grinned, and motioned to the bathroom.
“I’m always available to harass and harangue.” She stood too and left her bowl on the table. “What class are you going to?”
“It’s one of my TED classes for library,” I answered, grabbing my backpack and swinging it over my shoulder.
“That’s not fair! How come you get classes about guys named Ted and I have to go to English?” She pouted and I stopped dead to stare at her.
“Are you being serious?” I asked a little stunned and her giggle gave her away.
“No, Miss Smarty Pants, I’m not being serious. I’m aware you’re going to college to be an educator, as stuffy as that is. I’m not here on a full scholarship just because I can bounce a basketball around a floor.” She huffed once and slung her own backpack over her shoulder.
I started to snicker and it wasn’t long until she started laughing, too. “Yes, it is, but that’s okay. I love you anyway. And I’m not here for an education degree. I’m here to be a librarian, but I’m taking some classes in case I decide to teach library science some day.” With that information, I pulled the door to the front of the chapter house closed behind us.
We walked up the street toward the library, where we would part ways. It was late September and the weather was absolutelytheïkós, which in the language of ‘my people’ means divine. A nice crisp fall day was easy to come by in Duluth, but they disappeared way too fast. With any luck, I would be done early enough with class to get a bike ride in before dark. A bunch of fraternity guys were on the porch of their house, yelling at us as we walked by. Daphne went into full hip swing mode and gave them a show they didn’t ask for.
I hurried along with my head down and tried to pretend they didn’t exist. I didn’t have much time for those guys. The majority of the fraternities boasted guys I would trust to have my back and never worry about them taking advantage of me, but not that bunch. Lambda Sigma Omega fraternity house was a bunch of rowdy, loud, uneducated oafs who excelled in the art of lewd comments about women’s backsides. Apparently, it was new recruit initiation time and I wanted nothing to do with it.
I picked up the pace and soon Daphne was jogging to keep up with me. “Ignore them, Alicini, they’re just a pack of harmless dogs trying to act big.”
Even though it’s rude in my culture, I rolled my eyes to the top of my head, where she couldn’t see me, and grimaced. “Alicini?”
She gave it the so-so hand, “I was just trying it out. It didn’t work.”
I shook my head at her. She was always trying to find a nickname that worked for me. She’d been at it for three years, and still hadn’t found one.
“I’ll meet you at the library after class,” I called as we parted ways and she waved.
“Okay, see ya then Alpacino!”
I groaned and shook my head again, but laughed all the way to class.
I checked my watch again, tired of waiting for Daphne to finish flirting with her newest infatuation. The guy was a sophomore, at best, and hung on every word Daphne said. Clearly, everyone was out on the Friday night prowl, everyone but me, anyway. After my last episode of waking up with someone I didn’t remember going to bed with, I vowed to stay on the straight and narrow until I graduated. I definitely was too young to have a baby, or a disease that would haunt me for life. I don’t even know what came over me that night, because I’ve never been one to sleep around. I was looking for a relationship, not a one-night stand, and I was sure all I would find on this campus were the one-night stands.
In high school, I had no tolerance for the immature, horny, brainless guys who tried to get in my pants. It wasn’t a secret that my father was an influential restaurateur with more money than he could spend. As an only child, I know most of those guys figured they had boarded a gravy train, until I shut them all down. I wasn’t interested in dancing, cheerleading, or making out behind the bleachers. I spent almost every Friday night at the library or reading the newest release. I dreamed of working as a librarian since I was old enough to hold a book. No one was going to keep me from that dream, including myself.
I shook my head as Daphne threw hers back and laughed her sexy come-hither laugh. Everyone told me I’d love college because the guys are more mature than in high school, but I’d yet to find that to be true. Well, that’s not fair. They were more mature, at least their bodies were, but their brains had yet to catch up. I would bide my time the rest of this year, graduate, and never look back. I stood, letting out a long sigh, knowing Daphne wasn’t coming home with me tonight. I walked by and gave her our secret two fingered pat on the back. That meant I knew she would be busy for the night, but I also got a good look at the guy she was with, just in case.
I walked through the doors to the library and out into the waning light of a Friday night in autumn. My phone rang and I pulled my Blackberry out of my pocket and answered.
“This is Allison.” I grinned, already knowing who was on the line.
“Hi, baby girl, how are you?” the voice asked.
“Hi,Baba, I’m good. How are you?” I stopped walking and leaned against a hedge wall to talk to him.
“We miss you. When are you coming home?” he asked, his voice holding a tinge of sadness.
“Tomorrow or Sunday, if that’s okay. I need to do some washing.” I smiled, trying to keep the laughter from my voice.
