I woke up deciding to take Gia out.
I don't know why. I just felt like it. Rue had been in whatever orbit she was in lately and Gia always ended up orbiting around her, waiting for her to be okay. I figured she needed a break from that. Honestly, I did too.
My phone buzzed before I even got out of bed.
9:14 AM
Kat
📷 [image] Delivered
❤️ Read 9:16 AM
I sat there for a second looking at the screen. Kat was like that. She'd send you something and never say a word about it, like she already knew what you were gonna think. Maybe that's why she kept sending them to me. I didn't overthink it. I just reacted.
She told me things I knew she didn't tell anybody else. I don't know if it was because she trusted me or because she just needed somewhere to put it. Maybe both. I never asked. I figured she'd stop if she wanted to.
I sent a heart eyes and put the phone face down.
* * *
Gia was ready before I was, which wasn't surprising. She was sitting on the couch in her jacket when I came downstairs, looking at her phone.
"Where are we going?"
"Movies. You eat already?"
"No."
"Cool, we'll get food there."
She hopped up and followed me out to the Z. I let her pick the aux.
She put on SZA. I didn't argue.
We were about ten minutes into the drive when she looked over at me.
"Are you making more music?"
I glanced at her. "Why?"
"I showed my friends. They liked it."
I checked my phone at the next light. The video I'd uploaded two weeks ago was sitting at 10,200 views. I put the phone back down.
"Thank you," I said.
She shrugged like it was nothing. "Of course."
Then she went back to her phone. I kept driving.
* * *
We were forty-five minutes early, so we just walked around for a while. The mall was half-dead; it gets like that on a weekday. The stores were open but not really busy.
"I wish Rue would come out sometimes," I said.
Gia didn't look up from her phone right away. Then she said, "Yeah. She's a little shy."
I laughed. Just once. Short.
"Shy. Yeah."
Gia looked up at me for a second and then looked back down. She knew what I meant. She didn't push it.
We ended up at Panda Express. I got a plate, she got a bowl, and we found a table near the window where you could see the parking structure and the gray December sky sitting on top of it.
She talked about school. Teachers she liked, teachers she didn't. Some project she had to do with a partner who kept canceling on her. Normal stuff. I ate and listened.
Then she looked up at me with this expression like she'd been holding something back.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Shoot."
"Who do you like at school?"
I leaned back. "I think Maddy Perez is fire."
Gia laughed out loud, like she actually wasn't expecting that one. "Yeah. So do most boys."
Then she asked
"What about Lexi Howard?"
"Lexi?"
"She's funny. Pretty funny. Low-key pretty."
Gia tilted her head. "You like Lexi?"
"I don't know. Maybe I'm a whore."
She cracked up. The full thing, head down, shoulders shaking.
"Don't say that. You'll figure it out."
I looked at her. She was still half-smiling.
"Yeah. Maybe."
We finished eating and threw our trash away and I stood there watching the parking lot for a second while Gia fixed her jacket.
* * *
We saw Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
I didn't know what to expect. The animation was doing something I hadn't seen before, like someone took a comic book and figured out how to make it move the right way instead of just copying what live action already did. Miles Morales was a kid from Brooklyn who made beats in his room and had a dad who embarrassed him and still became something. inspiring. I didn't say any of that out loud, though. I just watched.
Gia cried a little at the end. She'd deny it if you asked her.
* * *
On the way home, she had the aux again. She sang quietly to herself, just underneath the music, not performing, just existing in it. I kept the windows up and let it ride.
The song ended, and there was a gap before the next one loaded.
In that gap she asked me, "Do you think Rue is going to kill herself? Or get herself killed?"
I turned the volume down.
I thought about it. Not for long, but for real.
"I hope not," I said. "Not if I can help it."
Gia nodded and looked back out the window.
The next song came on. She didn't sing to this one.
END OF CHAPTER FIVE