What's With This Girl?, chapter 12
I woke up around 9:00. I was still lying next to Tre, his arms wrapped around me. My eyes were completely dried out, and dried tears covered my bruised face. I turned over to look at the calendar next to my bed. When I read the date, I found myself crying again. The date was July 18, 2002. Tomorrow was going to be Darby's birthday, which means today is the anniversary of the day that changed my entire family. Today is the 8th anniversary of my father's death. He died in the hospital the day before Darby's birthday. I found myself crying harder, not for me but for my brother. I have no idea how he gets through his birthday every year knowing that his father died the day before. I was crying so hard, I was beginning to get a headache, and I woke up Tre.
"Kira?" He said. "Kira are you okay?"
"No." I said through tears.
"What's wrong?"
"I miss him so much."
"Kira, I know how much you care about Dannie... "
"I'm not talking about Dannie."
"Then who?"
"I'm talking about my dad...he died today 8 years ago."
"Oh my God Kira, I'm so sorry.
Tre sat up on the bed and I sat on his lap. He put his arms around me and started rocking me back and forth like I was a little baby. I started to cry into his chest.
"I do this for Ramona every time she feels sad." Tre said. "Is it working?"
"A little." I said.
"Sometimes I sing for her too."
"Please don't sing. I'm begging you."
"Hey! Don't insult my singing."
"Okay then, sing for me."
"Alright... .
Today's the Macy's Day Parade
the night of the living dead is on its way
with the credit report for duty call.
It's a lifetime guarantee
stuffed in the coffin 10% more free.
red light special at the mausoleum.
Give me something that I need.
Satisfaction guaranteed to you.
What's the consolation prize
Economy sized dreams of hope."
"That's Ramona's favorite song." Tre said.
"Really? Mine too." I replied.
"You two have a lot in common."
"Wow." I said. "That was actually pretty good."
"I know." Tre said. "I told you, Mr. Cool has many hidden talents."
"Well Mr. Cool can keep his talents to himself."
"Ohhhh someone's jealous of my many traits."
"Tre do me a huge favor and shut up." I said laughing.
"HA! Mission Accomplished! I got you to laugh. Tre Cool is the man!"
"Whatever." I said laughing.
"Ha! You laughed again! That's my goal for the whole day. To keep you laughing. The best way to get something bad off your mind is to laugh. Also you burn about three calories every time you laugh. It's a scientific fact."
"You know a scientific fact! Scandalous!" I said sarcastically.
"Ouch. You hurt my feelings. I'm leaving."
Tre got off the bed and gave me a girly punch in the arm. I threw a pillow at him while he was walking out of the room. He gave me a dirty look and left.
After I took a shower and jumped into some clean clothes I peaked into Ramona's room to see if she was there. I saw that her bed was made and the bathroom door in the hallway was closed so I knew she wasn't in her room. I started walking around her room, looking at all the pictures on the wall. Her room kind of reminded me of my room when I was her age. I looked over at her dresser and saw a picture of Tre, Ramona, and Lisea on the beach. I never met Lisea, but she's really pretty.
"What are you doing?" I heard Ramona say behind me.
"I was looking at your room." I said. "It's pretty cool."
"Yeah I like my room. It's pretty. But I want more pictures to put in it."
"Pictures like what?"
"Um...I don't know. Just pictures I guess. Come with me downstairs Kira. Daddy's making breakfast again."
Ramona took my hand and we ran downstairs together. Ramona jumped on the couch and turned on the TV. We both sat on the couch watching SpongeBob Squarepants until Tre came in and stood in front of the television.
"Come on Tre!" I yelled. "Get out of the way!"
"Aww what's wrong?" Tre said. "The baby wants to watch SpongeBob?"
"Tre you're asking for it!"
"Oh am I?"
"Come on Tre, MOVE!"
"Make me." Tre stuck his tongue out like a little kid and started making faces at me.
"Okay Tre you asked for it."
I jumped on Tre's back and started pouncing on him like a monkey.
"Ouch!" Tre yelled. "Get off me!"
"Get him Kira!" Ramona yelled.
"Ramona! How could you betray your own father?" Tre said.
"She likes me better!" I yelled.
"I feel so hurt." Tre pulled me off of his back and ran into the kitchen, pretending to cry.
"I think we hurt his feelings." Ramona said.
"Well I think we should go cheer him up."
Me and Ramona ran into the kitchen and tackled Tre to the ground.
"We're sorry!" Me and Ramona yelled while smothering Tre with a bunch of hugs and kisses.
"You're forgiven now please get off of me." Tre said.
"Okay you guys. I'm having a little too much fun right now." I said. "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a minute."
I got up from the kitchen floor and ran upstairs.
Back in the kitchen... .
"How am I doing dad?" Ramona asked her father.
"You're doing great. Now remember, we have to keep Kira happy all day. No talking about sad stuff okay?"
"Okay daddy."
After breakfast me, Tre and Ramona were cleaning up the kitchen and all of a sudden someone (*cough cough* me *cough cough*) thought of the idea to throw leftover pancake batter at Tre. So we ended up having a pancake batter fight. Tre threw an egg at my head, so we ended up throwing eggs at each other too. We played rock, paper, scissors to see who would have to clean up the mess in the kitchen. Fortunately for me and Ramona, it was Tre. While Tre was cleaning the kitchen, me and Ramona changed into some clean clothes. I ran into Ramona's room, but she wasn't there. I walk further into the room and all of a sudden Ramona comes behind the door and tackles me.
"Surprise!" Ramona screamed.
"Hey!" I said. "Save the surprises for your dad!"
"Let's go back downstairs and play some more games." Ramona said. "My dad has some life sabers we can play with."
"Really?" I said in a really high pitched voice.
Me and Ramona raced each other back downstairs and snuck into Tre's office.
"Is this where he keeps them?" I asked Ramona.
"Yup. I want the red one. You can have the green one."
"Why can't I have the red one?" I said.
"Aww come on I want the red one."
"Okay fine. I'll take the green one." I said.
I took the green life saber out of the closet, and ran out of Tre's office.
"Ramona! Charge!" I yelled.
Me and Ramona came after Tre, and attacked him.
"Quick Ramona Wankanobe, Vader's escaping!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.
"I'll get him Kira Solo!" Ramona said.
"Hey how can you two gang up on me like this?"
"Because I am the best Jedi on the planet." Ramona said.
After a couple of hours of playing Star Wars the door bell rang.
"I'll get it." I said.
"No, I'll get it." Tre said. "It's the rest of my army."
Tre rolled all the way to the door and opened it. There was about two minutes of awkward silence between Tre and whoever was at the door.
"Um... hey Tre."
"Hey Dannie." Tre said.
"Is Kira here?" Dannie said.
"Um...she's sleeping. She's not feeling very good."
"Could I just see her?"
"She really doesn't want to be bothered by anyone right now."
"Okay...could you just tell her that...I'm sorry."
"I'll be sure to tell her."
Tre closed the door and came back into the living room.
"Who was it daddy?" Ramona asked.
"It was no one sweetie."
"It was Dannie wasn't it?" I asked Tre.
I already knew it was Dannie. I should have been happy to see him, but I wasn't. Not after what he said to me the other day. All that stuff he said about me and Tre, and me making it look like Brian raped me. I couldn't forgive him now; I'll be surprised if I ever forgive him. I could feel myself starting to cry.
"Kira, it's okay. Please don't cry." Ramona said. "You have to stay happy today."
I wanted to cry, but I didn't want to bring down everyone's mood. We were all having so much fun. Instead I swung my life saber at Tre.
"Die Vader!" I yelled.
"Yeah! Die Vader!" Ramona yelled, throwing her life saber at Tre, hitting him in the head.
"Ramona you weren't supposed to throw the whole thing at him." I said laughing
"Oh I'm sorry Kira."
"It's okay." I said. "I'm getting kind of tire of playing Star Wars anyway. Let's do something else."
"Like what?" Ramona said.
"Well it's about 3 o'clock, let's get something to eat." Tre said.
"Yeah! I want Pizza Hut!" Ramona said.
"Me too!" I screamed.
"You two are like sisters or something." Tre said.
We all got into Tre's car and went to Pizza Hut. Tre put on a pair of sunglasses and a hat so no one could notice him.
"You look like freaking Jack Nicholson with those glasses on." I said laughing.
"I'm taking that as another way of saying you think I'm dead sexy."
"Oh shut up." I said, punching him in the stomach.
We all walked into Pizza Hut. Tre was pretty hungry so he ordered buffalo wings and two large pizzas.
"Tre we aren't going to be able to eat all of this." I said.
"Which is exactly why I'm taking the leftovers home. That's dinner for about three days."
"Lazy bum." I said under my breath.
"I heard that!" Tre said.
After we got done eating a bunch of pizza, it was about 4:30, so we went back to Tre's. After watching about two hours of TV, we got bored again.
"What should we do now?" I said.
"Let's go visit Uncle Mike." Ramona said.
"I don't know if that's a good idea." Tre said.
"No it's fine." I said. "If you want to go to Mike's we can."
We all got in the car and drove over to Mike's.
"Mike!" Tre yelled. "Open the door or I will be forced to beat you down!"
"Oh Tre go to hell...ooo Ramona." Mike said opening the door.
"Hi Uncle Mike. We came over because we were bored."
"Well...okay you guys can hang out here for a while." Mike said.
So Ramona and Estelle played in Estelle's room for hours. Me Tre and Mike just stayed in the living room, drinking a few beers.
"So Kira." Mike said. "Have you talked to Billie lately?"
"No." I said.
"What about Monty or Dannie?"
"I haven't talked to anyone except Tre and Ramona all day."
"We've been cheering her up all day." Tre said.
"Yeah I heard about the fight you had with Dannie and Monty." Mike said.
"Could we not talk about this please?" Tre said. "Mike can I talk to you in the kitchen?"
"Yeah. Sure Tre." Mike and Tre walked into the kitchen leaving me by myself.
In the kitchen... .
"Mike could we please not talk about Dannie or Monty today?"
"Why not Tre?"
"Kira's going through a pretty rough time. She's been crying for a full straight day. I'm worried about her. And to top it all off, today is the day her father died eight years ago. Can you imagine how she feels? Can you imagine what she's going through right now? I hate seeing her like this. That's why I don't want her to worry about anything today. I just want her to be happy, you know?"
"Tre?" Mike said.
"Yeah Mike?"
"You still love her don't you?"
Tre took a really long deep breath.
"On the risk of sounding cheesy...I am desperately in love with that girl. I don't know what it is Mike. I love Claudia to death, but Kira is just...I don't know how to describe how I feel for her. When I'm with her, I feel like me and her are the only human beings on the planet. Like she's the only person that matters. I don't know what to do Mike. I want to be with Claudia, but it feels like...I can't live without Kira. Last night me and her slept together."
"What!" Mike yelled. "You had sex with Kira again?"
"No I didn't sleep with her! I slept in bed with her. She didn't want to be alone last night. So I slept in her bed. And I was holding her, and I just wanted to...I wanted her so bad. I know this is wrong but I can't help the way that I feel."
"Wow Tre." Mike said. "That sounds like something straight out of the movies."
"Oh shut up Mike I'm being serious." Tre yelled.
"I know I was just kidding. So what are you going to do?" Mike asked.
"I don't know Mike. I really don't know."
After a while it was getting pretty late. I was tired and Ramona was asleep on Mike's couch next to Estelle.
"We should get out of here." Tre said.
"Yeah it's getting pretty late." Mike said.
I picked Ramona up and carried her to Tre's car. I put her in the back seat and gave Mike a hug and a kiss. Finally when we got home, all of us were completely tired. Tre and me put Ramona to sleep. It's funny because it was kind of like a Kodak moment, a father and a mother putting their little daughter to sleep. When me and Tre left the room, I stopped Tre and took him by the hand.
"Tre I have to talk to you." I said
"Yeah, sure Kira, what's wrong."
"I heard what you said to Mike in the kitchen today."
"You did!"
"Yeah I did."
I pulled Tre closer to me and kissed him.
"I feel the same way Tre." I said breathing heavily. "I feel the same way."
"So what do we do?" Tre said.
"Well...I'm too much of an emotional wreck to have sex with you."
"Yeah I can see that." Tre said laughing
"But...I liked waking up to you holding me this morning."
"I liked that too." Tre said. "So are you asking me to sleep in your room again?"
"Yeah I am."
Tre took my hand and guided me into my room. We both got into bed and he put his arms around my waist and his head on my shoulder.
"Tre?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you so much...for everything."
"I know you would do the same for me."
"In a heart beat."
"Kira?" He said. "Kira are you okay?"
"No." I said through tears.
"What's wrong?"
"I miss him so much."
"Kira, I know how much you care about Dannie... "
"I'm not talking about Dannie."
"Then who?"
"I'm talking about my dad...he died today 8 years ago."
"Oh my God Kira, I'm so sorry.
Tre sat up on the bed and I sat on his lap. He put his arms around me and started rocking me back and forth like I was a little baby. I started to cry into his chest.
"I do this for Ramona every time she feels sad." Tre said. "Is it working?"
"A little." I said.
"Sometimes I sing for her too."
"Please don't sing. I'm begging you."
"Hey! Don't insult my singing."
"Okay then, sing for me."
"Alright... .
Today's the Macy's Day Parade
the night of the living dead is on its way
with the credit report for duty call.
It's a lifetime guarantee
stuffed in the coffin 10% more free.
red light special at the mausoleum.
Give me something that I need.
Satisfaction guaranteed to you.
What's the consolation prize
Economy sized dreams of hope."
"That's Ramona's favorite song." Tre said.
"Really? Mine too." I replied.
"You two have a lot in common."
"Wow." I said. "That was actually pretty good."
"I know." Tre said. "I told you, Mr. Cool has many hidden talents."
"Well Mr. Cool can keep his talents to himself."
"Ohhhh someone's jealous of my many traits."
"Tre do me a huge favor and shut up." I said laughing.
"HA! Mission Accomplished! I got you to laugh. Tre Cool is the man!"
"Whatever." I said laughing.
"Ha! You laughed again! That's my goal for the whole day. To keep you laughing. The best way to get something bad off your mind is to laugh. Also you burn about three calories every time you laugh. It's a scientific fact."
"You know a scientific fact! Scandalous!" I said sarcastically.
"Ouch. You hurt my feelings. I'm leaving."
Tre got off the bed and gave me a girly punch in the arm. I threw a pillow at him while he was walking out of the room. He gave me a dirty look and left.
After I took a shower and jumped into some clean clothes I peaked into Ramona's room to see if she was there. I saw that her bed was made and the bathroom door in the hallway was closed so I knew she wasn't in her room. I started walking around her room, looking at all the pictures on the wall. Her room kind of reminded me of my room when I was her age. I looked over at her dresser and saw a picture of Tre, Ramona, and Lisea on the beach. I never met Lisea, but she's really pretty.
"What are you doing?" I heard Ramona say behind me.
"I was looking at your room." I said. "It's pretty cool."
"Yeah I like my room. It's pretty. But I want more pictures to put in it."
"Pictures like what?"
"Um...I don't know. Just pictures I guess. Come with me downstairs Kira. Daddy's making breakfast again."
Ramona took my hand and we ran downstairs together. Ramona jumped on the couch and turned on the TV. We both sat on the couch watching SpongeBob Squarepants until Tre came in and stood in front of the television.
"Come on Tre!" I yelled. "Get out of the way!"
"Aww what's wrong?" Tre said. "The baby wants to watch SpongeBob?"
"Tre you're asking for it!"
"Oh am I?"
"Come on Tre, MOVE!"
"Make me." Tre stuck his tongue out like a little kid and started making faces at me.
"Okay Tre you asked for it."
I jumped on Tre's back and started pouncing on him like a monkey.
"Ouch!" Tre yelled. "Get off me!"
"Get him Kira!" Ramona yelled.
"Ramona! How could you betray your own father?" Tre said.
"She likes me better!" I yelled.
"I feel so hurt." Tre pulled me off of his back and ran into the kitchen, pretending to cry.
"I think we hurt his feelings." Ramona said.
"Well I think we should go cheer him up."
Me and Ramona ran into the kitchen and tackled Tre to the ground.
"We're sorry!" Me and Ramona yelled while smothering Tre with a bunch of hugs and kisses.
"You're forgiven now please get off of me." Tre said.
"Okay you guys. I'm having a little too much fun right now." I said. "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a minute."
I got up from the kitchen floor and ran upstairs.
Back in the kitchen... .
"How am I doing dad?" Ramona asked her father.
"You're doing great. Now remember, we have to keep Kira happy all day. No talking about sad stuff okay?"
"Okay daddy."
After breakfast me, Tre and Ramona were cleaning up the kitchen and all of a sudden someone (*cough cough* me *cough cough*) thought of the idea to throw leftover pancake batter at Tre. So we ended up having a pancake batter fight. Tre threw an egg at my head, so we ended up throwing eggs at each other too. We played rock, paper, scissors to see who would have to clean up the mess in the kitchen. Fortunately for me and Ramona, it was Tre. While Tre was cleaning the kitchen, me and Ramona changed into some clean clothes. I ran into Ramona's room, but she wasn't there. I walk further into the room and all of a sudden Ramona comes behind the door and tackles me.
"Surprise!" Ramona screamed.
"Hey!" I said. "Save the surprises for your dad!"
"Let's go back downstairs and play some more games." Ramona said. "My dad has some life sabers we can play with."
"Really?" I said in a really high pitched voice.
Me and Ramona raced each other back downstairs and snuck into Tre's office.
"Is this where he keeps them?" I asked Ramona.
"Yup. I want the red one. You can have the green one."
"Why can't I have the red one?" I said.
"Aww come on I want the red one."
"Okay fine. I'll take the green one." I said.
I took the green life saber out of the closet, and ran out of Tre's office.
"Ramona! Charge!" I yelled.
Me and Ramona came after Tre, and attacked him.
"Quick Ramona Wankanobe, Vader's escaping!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.
"I'll get him Kira Solo!" Ramona said.
"Hey how can you two gang up on me like this?"
"Because I am the best Jedi on the planet." Ramona said.
After a couple of hours of playing Star Wars the door bell rang.
"I'll get it." I said.
"No, I'll get it." Tre said. "It's the rest of my army."
Tre rolled all the way to the door and opened it. There was about two minutes of awkward silence between Tre and whoever was at the door.
"Um... hey Tre."
"Hey Dannie." Tre said.
"Is Kira here?" Dannie said.
"Um...she's sleeping. She's not feeling very good."
"Could I just see her?"
"She really doesn't want to be bothered by anyone right now."
"Okay...could you just tell her that...I'm sorry."
"I'll be sure to tell her."
Tre closed the door and came back into the living room.
"Who was it daddy?" Ramona asked.
"It was no one sweetie."
"It was Dannie wasn't it?" I asked Tre.
I already knew it was Dannie. I should have been happy to see him, but I wasn't. Not after what he said to me the other day. All that stuff he said about me and Tre, and me making it look like Brian raped me. I couldn't forgive him now; I'll be surprised if I ever forgive him. I could feel myself starting to cry.
"Kira, it's okay. Please don't cry." Ramona said. "You have to stay happy today."
I wanted to cry, but I didn't want to bring down everyone's mood. We were all having so much fun. Instead I swung my life saber at Tre.
"Die Vader!" I yelled.
"Yeah! Die Vader!" Ramona yelled, throwing her life saber at Tre, hitting him in the head.
"Ramona you weren't supposed to throw the whole thing at him." I said laughing
"Oh I'm sorry Kira."
"It's okay." I said. "I'm getting kind of tire of playing Star Wars anyway. Let's do something else."
"Like what?" Ramona said.
"Well it's about 3 o'clock, let's get something to eat." Tre said.
"Yeah! I want Pizza Hut!" Ramona said.
"Me too!" I screamed.
"You two are like sisters or something." Tre said.
We all got into Tre's car and went to Pizza Hut. Tre put on a pair of sunglasses and a hat so no one could notice him.
"You look like freaking Jack Nicholson with those glasses on." I said laughing.
"I'm taking that as another way of saying you think I'm dead sexy."
"Oh shut up." I said, punching him in the stomach.
We all walked into Pizza Hut. Tre was pretty hungry so he ordered buffalo wings and two large pizzas.
"Tre we aren't going to be able to eat all of this." I said.
"Which is exactly why I'm taking the leftovers home. That's dinner for about three days."
"Lazy bum." I said under my breath.
"I heard that!" Tre said.
After we got done eating a bunch of pizza, it was about 4:30, so we went back to Tre's. After watching about two hours of TV, we got bored again.
"What should we do now?" I said.
"Let's go visit Uncle Mike." Ramona said.
"I don't know if that's a good idea." Tre said.
"No it's fine." I said. "If you want to go to Mike's we can."
We all got in the car and drove over to Mike's.
"Mike!" Tre yelled. "Open the door or I will be forced to beat you down!"
"Oh Tre go to hell...ooo Ramona." Mike said opening the door.
"Hi Uncle Mike. We came over because we were bored."
"Well...okay you guys can hang out here for a while." Mike said.
So Ramona and Estelle played in Estelle's room for hours. Me Tre and Mike just stayed in the living room, drinking a few beers.
"So Kira." Mike said. "Have you talked to Billie lately?"
"No." I said.
"What about Monty or Dannie?"
"I haven't talked to anyone except Tre and Ramona all day."
"We've been cheering her up all day." Tre said.
"Yeah I heard about the fight you had with Dannie and Monty." Mike said.
"Could we not talk about this please?" Tre said. "Mike can I talk to you in the kitchen?"
"Yeah. Sure Tre." Mike and Tre walked into the kitchen leaving me by myself.
In the kitchen... .
"Mike could we please not talk about Dannie or Monty today?"
"Why not Tre?"
"Kira's going through a pretty rough time. She's been crying for a full straight day. I'm worried about her. And to top it all off, today is the day her father died eight years ago. Can you imagine how she feels? Can you imagine what she's going through right now? I hate seeing her like this. That's why I don't want her to worry about anything today. I just want her to be happy, you know?"
"Tre?" Mike said.
"Yeah Mike?"
"You still love her don't you?"
Tre took a really long deep breath.
"On the risk of sounding cheesy...I am desperately in love with that girl. I don't know what it is Mike. I love Claudia to death, but Kira is just...I don't know how to describe how I feel for her. When I'm with her, I feel like me and her are the only human beings on the planet. Like she's the only person that matters. I don't know what to do Mike. I want to be with Claudia, but it feels like...I can't live without Kira. Last night me and her slept together."
"What!" Mike yelled. "You had sex with Kira again?"
"No I didn't sleep with her! I slept in bed with her. She didn't want to be alone last night. So I slept in her bed. And I was holding her, and I just wanted to...I wanted her so bad. I know this is wrong but I can't help the way that I feel."
"Wow Tre." Mike said. "That sounds like something straight out of the movies."
"Oh shut up Mike I'm being serious." Tre yelled.
"I know I was just kidding. So what are you going to do?" Mike asked.
"I don't know Mike. I really don't know."
After a while it was getting pretty late. I was tired and Ramona was asleep on Mike's couch next to Estelle.
"We should get out of here." Tre said.
"Yeah it's getting pretty late." Mike said.
I picked Ramona up and carried her to Tre's car. I put her in the back seat and gave Mike a hug and a kiss. Finally when we got home, all of us were completely tired. Tre and me put Ramona to sleep. It's funny because it was kind of like a Kodak moment, a father and a mother putting their little daughter to sleep. When me and Tre left the room, I stopped Tre and took him by the hand.
"Tre I have to talk to you." I said
"Yeah, sure Kira, what's wrong."
"I heard what you said to Mike in the kitchen today."
"You did!"
"Yeah I did."
I pulled Tre closer to me and kissed him.
"I feel the same way Tre." I said breathing heavily. "I feel the same way."
"So what do we do?" Tre said.
"Well...I'm too much of an emotional wreck to have sex with you."
"Yeah I can see that." Tre said laughing
"But...I liked waking up to you holding me this morning."
"I liked that too." Tre said. "So are you asking me to sleep in your room again?"
"Yeah I am."
Tre took my hand and guided me into my room. We both got into bed and he put his arms around my waist and his head on my shoulder.
"Tre?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you so much...for everything."
"I know you would do the same for me."
"In a heart beat."
