Middle school circa two thousand oneish
He doesn’t take lunch to
school. He doesn’t have money for the lunch line.
He takes a bathroom break at
the same time as Jenessy. She leans by the waterfountain, tugs at his shirt
reaching up to his chest. “What’s the point of being friends with benefits?”
Togna asks what she means. “We never do anything.” He pulls her wrists and
takes backwards steps towards the girls’ bathroom. She resists. “What if
someone sees us?” In the bathroom stall she squeezes five messy spearmint drops
over his lips and tongue. He looks at her forehead, closes his eyes. His front
teeth push against her bottom lip. Her clumsy tongue widens his mouth open. A
sloppy four minutes into it Togna reaches into the back of her pants. “Don’t be
gross.” They walk back to the gym red. Jenessy’s conquering smile, “You better
not fucking brag about this.”
Togna hears from Lore that
Jenessy was at Isabelle’s house with Eliot and Mark after school, and that
she’s a total chonga. He doesn’t speak to anyone about it. Two months pass.
Mikey tells Togna on AIM about Caro. He messages Caro on a Tuesday and on
Friday they meet before class by a tree at the side entrance of school. Togna
buries his head on her large breasts. She IM’s him that he’s immature. In
French Literature Valeria tells Togna to leave Caro alone. He sits in the
classroom with his forearms spread on the formica desk thinking about Jose
fingering Valeria at Rachel’s party. He thinks about fingering Valeria. He asks
Mark if he knows who Valeria is. He tries to sit next to Valeria at lunch but
she calls him a creep and Sean tells him to “get the fuck out of here.” He
hears from Frankie that he “shouldn’t have let Sean talk to him like that.”
What do you mean? “He told me you pussy’d out.” Frankie eggs him on in the bathroom
as Eli, James and Sergio watch Sean take swings towards his head. Togna lifts
his arms up and leans in. He feels dizziness knocking at his ears, pulls at
Sean’s arm and trips him onto the boy’s bathroom tile. Sean’s head bangs a loud
thud. Frankie pushes Togna back as Tyrese the security guard walks in. Frankie,
in the principal’s office, says he “didn’t do nothing.” He gets suspended for
one day. Sean and Togna one week each.
Frankie starts dating
Valeria. Togna hears feels he saw it coming.
