Chapter 5-3
765 Words
“Pizza as promised!” Tammy followed Ms. Williams as she led them like a girl scout troop into the back room carrying the just-delivered boxes.
Jasp had offered Ms. Williams an “okay I guess” on the new wedding clothes she’d showed them. Then he’d rolled his eyes at Tammy in long-suffering pain. Dad had taught them good manners, but he and Tammy both knew Jasp’s pretending to have any interest at all was complete baloney.
“She’s pretty,” Jasp offered up just in case Ms. Williams had caught his eye roll.
Tammy couldn’t look away from the female mannequin, all dressed up for her wedding. It was like the dress in the photo on Dad’s bedside table. Well, not really, but it was enough to remind her of what it had felt like to have a mother and how much she missed her every day.
Her dad was acting all weird when he finally joined them in the back room. And Ms. Williams was looking awfully pleased with herself. Then she set the pizza boxes on the big table. They hadn’t even spoken together, never mind anything else. Tammy had made sure to stay close to Ms. Williams, just to be sure. But she must have missed something that was going on.
“I ordered two pizzas. Half a pepperoni for Jaspar, because all boys like pepperoni. Half a combo with extra meat for your dad because he probably eats too much of what the kids want and not enough of what he wants.” The boys dug right in.
She turned to Tamara, “I got us half veggie and half Hawaiian. How’d I do, Tamara?”
“Everyone calls me Tammy.”
Ms. Williams took a slice of the veggie and looked at her over it. “I don’t know. I think I’ll stick with your full name, it sort of fits you better. You’re no longer a little girl.”
“Only Mom ever called me Tamara, Ms. Williams.”
Ms. Williams didn’t look embarrassed, or apologize like other adults Tammy pushed back against.
“Your call. But it sounds like your mom was a smart lady. I’m Perrin by the way. I have no idea who that Ms. Williams person is.” She actually shuddered which made it kind of funny.
“Tamara is okay, I guess.” Then she looked away. She needed to think about Perrin being all human and normal. She didn’t talk down to her at all, which was weird for an adult. It could be a setup, but it didn’t feel like one.
Jasp and Dad had each taken huge bites. They were grinning at each other like idiots as they both hooted out cooling breaths over too-hot pizza.
“Well, you certainly nailed those two lame-os.”
Tammy took a small bite of her pizza, Hawaiian was her absolute favorite, then figured out how to tell if the woman was being fake-nice to a child. She kept her voice low, so that the lame-os wouldn’t hear.
“Have you kissed him yet?”
Perrin looked at her carefully, but didn’t stop chewing on her pizza. If she was really shocked, she didn’t show it.
She sat on one of the stools and waited for Tammy to climb up on one as well. They were closer to the same height that way.
“Once. And I wonder just how pissed your dad will be that I told you that.”
Tammy had only had conversations like this once or twice with her girlfriends, and half the time she lied and she bet her friends did too.
She’d also bet that Perrin had just told her the truth.
“You kissed any boys yet?”
Tammy shot a quick look over at her dad, but he wasn’t paying attention. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks and did her best to hide it with another bite of pizza, but her stomach was suddenly all twisty.
“A few,” she tried to shrug it off, and wondered why she’d just told this woman who’d kissed her dad the truth. “Still don’t know what the big deal is.”
“When it’s the right boy, trust me it will be.”
Tammy looked up into those blue eyes. Perrin was talking about kissing as if it was the most normal thing on the planet. As if it wasn’t a matter of social standing, or social media hell if you kissed the wrong boy. She tried to find a response, but she couldn’t. Perrin was just watching her.
“And until it is a big deal… ” Perrin leaned in and whispered. “So not worth the rest of it.”
Tammy hadn’t thought of it that way. She thought about the boys who wanted to grab, some of them were already asking if she was still a virgin, she knew three girls in her class who for sure weren’t. But they were kinda slutty.
But what if she simply said she was waiting until it was a big deal? It just might work. It would sure avoid a lot of hassles.
Maybe Perrin knew what she was talking about.
- Writer
