well,” Tiphany corrected her with a playful smile. She wanted to slap a high-five on her friend’s hand and commend her on such a great observation. “And he looks okay.”
Gladys laughed. “Miss Columnist…you just don’t notice cause you’re still stuck on Manny.”
“For the umpteenth time, I am not still stuck on that boy!” Tiphany replied while, as a result of how her friend labeled her, simultaneously reflecting on her recent honorary appointment by her school to write for a community newspaper with representation of the adolescent voice. She laughed as she continued to explain, “He never called me after I told him it was over. And I’m still not looking for him to call me either.”
For a year, she had half-heartedly dated the school’s heaviest line backer on the junior varsity football team.
“Hey, Tip.”
Tiphany knew the deep voice.
With sheer delight, Gladys realized her conversation with her best friend was abruptly over by the cool greeting. She bowed out of the brief threesome with a light pinch on Tiphany’s arm before disappearing into the crowd.
Slowly, Tiphany stared up into his dark brown eyes. Taking her hand as always, he blurted his usual words to her, “Let’s go kick it.”
“Wait.” Tiphany couldn’t believe she had said that. He had never stuck around long enough to give her a chance to speak to him. She had always been too nervous to even say “Hi.” Her only response to him had always been “okay” each time he would say, “Let’s go kick it.”
Jimmy stepped closely into her space, never letting go of her hand, and searched her eyes seemingly for the first time after nearly three school years. Looking up at him in an entirely new way, seeing what appeared to be an unfamiliar but pleasant expression on his face, Tiphany felt her strength leave her body.
“Are you okay?” He asked her with a concerned tone that made her want to lay her head on his chest for comfort from absolutely nothing.
“I- uh…uh…”
“Don’t tell me you don’t want to kick it. They got some jams lined up tonight.”
“I know,” she blurted nervously. She dropped her head searching for the nerve to tell him what she had hoped would matter to him. “But…I…”
“We have over another hour before the turn of the new year. Let’s go on into eighty jammin’.”
“Jimmy.” She startled herself again. Until that moment, she had never realized that his name had never slipped through her lips in his presence.
He let go of her hand. A momentary emptiness swept over Tiphany until she felt the gentle warm grip of his hands on each shoulder. “Are you going to miss this place?”
“What?” She dared to refocus on his eyes, where she rarely allowed herself to look for worries that she’d fall too deeply into a trance. Did he know? She wondered. Her chest tightened for no reason that she could understand.
“I heard you were leaving us. Is that what you want to say?”
“Yeah,” she almost whispered as she lowered her gaze. She didn’t think he heard her response over the loud music. So, she nodded.
“Well, why don’t we go kick it first and then we can go talk. Okay? Look. Everybody’s waiting for us.”
To her amazement, Tiphany noticed almost the entire dance floor crowd rhythmically motioning them to join them. They called their names repeatedly to the beat of the music. For that exciting moment, she decided to forget about her problems and follow Jimmy to the dance floor. To show out like always could certainly help her forget what was ahead – just for that evening.
Tiphany wiped the sweat from her brow with a tissue handed to her by Gladys. After dancing through about five upbeat numbers with Jimmy, she had somehow lost him in the crowd once a slow song began. She had even expected to see him with his arms around his current girlfriend, Sheila. But he was nowhere in sight.
The gigantic gymnasium clock read eleven forty, just minutes before every couple in the place would embrace into lip-locks. Tiphany dreaded the moment. Even if she had stuck with Manuel, she knew her heart would sink at the glance of Jimmy kissing Sheila – or any other girl. She had seen him at previous outings over the years kissing Connie, Joanne, Althea, Evelyn, and others unknown to her. Now, she had to endure seeing him with Sheila, whom he had reportedly been dating since the beginning of the summer. At least, she felt, it would be the last time seeing him kiss all those girlfriends.
“Y’all shined like stars over there, Tip!”
She focused in on her group of running buddies approaching her with Gladys and her cousin Natalie Taylor, who didn’t attend the same school even though she had long ago well-acquainted herself with the girls through Tiphany. Vivian Brown, Rosie Lopez, and Mia Trevino joined the two as they all surrounded Tiphany.
“Girl, you were the stuff out there!”
“I told you ain’t nobody better than her,” Mia responded in order to get a rise out of Gladys, who was comically competitive.
“And could Jimmy keep up with her tonight?” Rosie added jokingly as she put her arm around Tiphany’s shoulders.
“It’s a good thing Sheila’s nowhere to be found,” Vivian pointed out. “She still would have been jealous even though they broke up already.”
“Broke up?” Gladys echoed. “Are you serious? When?”
“Right after Thanksgiving – from what I heard.”
“Then why does she still hang around him with her arm all looped through his?”
“Just being the possessive cow she is!” Natalie complained. Laughter rang out among them.
“Cow!” Vivian echoed amused.
Natalie explained, “That’s what my cousin, EmmaJean, likes to call girls who she doesn’t like.”
“I hear about EmmaJean,” Gladys revealed. “Tip told me she doesn’t hardly like anybody!”
“No, she’s pretty cool,” Natalie clarified. “Just don’t get on her bad side.”
“Anyway,” Rosie continued their initial conversation, “It must be top secret that Sheila’s not with Jimmy anymore. Somebody sure did fool me ‘cause I never knew either.”
“Me neither!” Natalie interjected with a wide-eyed innocence.
Mia laughed. “That’s because you don’t go here, Nat!”
Natalie returned the laughter before focusing on her cousin. “Girlfriend, I guess you didn’t know either. Your mouth is wide open.”
Tiphany’s friends and cousin awakened her thoughts. Eventually, she managed to blurt out her own giggle, which sounded exactly like the nervous laughter that rang in her heart that moment.
“So, are we still having the slumber
