Monstrato

  ~~~

  Like I said, Hope had her head down on the desk all through Spanish and disappeared right after school. I went home and took a nap until dinnertime like I always do. After dinner, I called Calvin and made plans to go to his house later, and then I called Hope. When she answered the phone, I said, "Hey, girl. How you doing?"

  She said, "I'm fine," but she didn't sound fine.

  "So what happened with Corena? Why was she so pissed?"

  She said, "I don't wanna talk about it…" with her voice trailing off.

  "Come on, Hope, you know I'm gonna find out somehow. You don't want me to have to ask Corena, do you?"

  She said, "Oh, it's so stupid…and it's all Garrett's fault." Then she said, "You know how Corena's been fucking Keenan again?"

  "Yeah."

  "Well…god, it's so stupid…Well, you see…he gave her an itch." Keenan was Corena's ex-boyfriend. He'd quit school back in the fall, but Corena was still fooling around with him even though she claimed they were broken up.

  "What do you mean, 'he gave her an itch'" I asked.

  "You know…the crabs."

  I yelled into the phone, "Oh my god, Corena's got the crabs!"

  Hope said, "But you can't tell anybody…I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone."

  "But you did."

  "I know…the stupid bastard."

  "Corena's got crabs! This is awesome," I yelled. I thought it was funny. Corena was always acting like it was all the other girls who were sluts. I could picture her in my mind, sneaking into Walgreen's, having to ask someone what kind of medicine she needed to get rid of them.

  Hope said, "You can't tell anyone."

  I said, "I won't…I'll wait for Latisha to do it," and I could hear her laughing on the other end. I said, "So what happened? Who'd Garrett tell?"

  "Well, Garrett told me that he and Andy were hanging out in Tammy's office with Corena, and they were scratching their crotches and Corena flipped out. Then he was trying to tell me that they weren't even joking around, that his crotch really did itch."

  "Right," I said sarcastically. Hope's boyfriend, Garrett, was kind of a prick, and I could see him doing something like that.

  Hope said, "I should kill him."

  I said, "You should, girl. But at least Corena got what she deserves for hanging around that nasty fucker Keenan."

  Hope said, "Yeah…" Then she got quiet.

  I knew what she was thinking about—Corena's revenge. I said, "Well, I wouldn't worry about it. She'll probably forget all about it by next week." Hope didn't seem to think so, and the truth was, neither did I. She was worried Corena was going to hold a grudge, make her life miserable at school, and try to get all the other girls to turn against her. I was worried about it, too, but I was trying to cheer her up, so I said, "I'm telling you Hope, don't even trip. She's not worth it."

  "I know," she said, "I guess I'll apologize to her and see what happens." I didn't know what else to say. We both knew there was no changing Corena's mind about something once it was made up. And Corena didn't take much to apologies.

  Hope and I talked for a few more minutes. I told her about me going to Calvin's house for lunch and about Cassidy and the boys. I tried to talk her into going to the basketball game the next day and told her there was gonna be a party afterwards. She said she wasn't gonna go.

  I said, "Well, I'm going over to Calvin's house tonight. I gotta start gettin' ready. I love ya, girl."

  She said, "Thanks, Macy," then we hung up.

  Hope was my class buddy. We sat by each other in every class, and we were the only sophomores taking Algebra 2. We hardly spent any time together outside of school, though we did talk on the phone a lot. Hope was quiet and not social, and I probably knew her better than anyone in the school. I knew about her dyslexia and her depressions, and she'd told me things about her mom. What was weird was that the more I found out about Hope, the more mysterious she seemed to be.

  She had a complexion that was perfect and smooth and slightly tan and changed color throughout the day. Most the time, she wore no expression at all, which only added to the mystery. Looking at her, you'd have no idea what was going on inside her head—whether she was sad, or angry, or laughing at you—but you'd get a funny feeling she was listening closely to whatever was being discussed. And it had an effect on people. When Hope was in the room, seemed like people were more careful about what they said. They treated her with respect and felt protective of her.

  As I was changing my clothes, I kept thinking about Hope. I'd been through it with her before about Corena, how being friends with Corena didn't mean anything, but Hope seemed to feel it was necessary that she be friends with her. I guess it made her feel important. The truth was, Corena never really liked Hope. She just put up with her because Hope was pretty and all the boys liked her. It seemed to me like Corena resented Hope, like she was jealous of her because Hope was quiet and well-behaved and never had any enemies. And whenever Hope got in one of her depressed moods, Corena had no sympathy for any of that. Even when Hope missed her period and thought she was pregnant—you know, something that would make anyone upset—Corena didn't care.

  Then, right before Christmas, Hope found out that Corena was trying to talk Garrett into breaking up with her. You see, Corena used to date Garrett, and I figured she just wanted her old boyfriend back. Even after that, Hope still wanted to be friends with Corena. It was no wonder she was always getting depressed. She didn't seem to know what to do when she was being treated badly by someone. Or maybe she was just very forgiving.