28: Watermelon

Off to the side I hear muttering and chuckling. I glance up, noticing Kiara staring downward, her cheeks flushed and tears in her eyes. As I covertly look through the sides of my sunglasses, I notice a small group of teens, one male and two females. They glance over here before laughing and pointing, not even trying to be inconspicuous. My chest is tight. Are they making fun of her because she is with me?

I glance back at Kiara as she keeps her head turned away, trying not to let them see her face. No, this has nothing to do with me. There is something deeper going on here.

“Kiara?” I mutter.

She looks up at me before looking back down. Before she can say anything though I hear laughter from the group.

“What? Not gonna talk?”

“Of course not! If she starts, she doesn’t stop!”

“I know, right? Remember when she would even talk to the plants? What a weirdo.”

Kiara takes a breath. “Just ignore them. They’ll go away in a minute,” she whispers, though I am not sure if she is talking to me or herself.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to take classes with her anymore. God, how annoying.”

“Haha, pretty sure her dad is happy he doesn’t have to listen to her anymore too!”

They laugh and the look on Kiara’s heartbroken face is all it takes. Before I realize I am standing, setting my cup down on the bench and marching over to the group.

“Shyba don’t!” Kiara calls, but like before I can’t register what she is saying.

The girls backstep as the guy comes forward, meeting me in the middle of the sidewalk with a smug grin. The rage burning inside me as I clench my fists almost overpowers me, but I remember Reba’s words and the way Kiara was frightened of me before. I have to be careful. I cannot afford another mistake like before.

I take a breath and stuff my hands in my jacket pockets, staring down the boy before me. “You have no business speaking of the dead or of someone you do not know.”

“Ooooh, did you get that off a fortune cookie?” he asks.

“It is common sense, but I do not think you have that,” I mutter.

I notice his brow twitch. “You better watch what you say. I’m the boxing state champion. You know what that means? It means I can kick your ass right here and not break a sweat!”

“Ah,” I mutter, feeling slightly amused. He has no idea how outmatched he is. “You would have to touch me first.”

“Eric, wait!” one of the girls says, glancing at me with wide eyes. “I just realized… I think this is the guy that broke my cousin’s arm! And he said the same guy took down Dustin’s entire gang bare-handed too.”

He scoffs. “Those guys are idiots anyway! I’m a trained fighter! I can take this kid!”

With that he throws the first punch, which I simply side-step away from. I glance over at Kiara as she watches, her eyes wide. He punches again and I easily dodge it again. By this point there is a small crowd watching as he throws punch after punch, unable to land a hit on me. I continue toying with him a bit, letting him get frustrated and tire out.

“Coward! Quit running! Fight me!” he shouts.

“Give up. You already sweat,” I say.

Before long, he is no longer paying attention to his surroundings. I step in front of the light post and as he swings once more, I move my head. His fist connects with the pole with a loud crack, and he howls in pain. I step away as he drops to his knees, the girls rushing to his side. He will not be able to box for a while.

“What did you do?” one cries.

“Nothing. He attacked me so I evaded,” I state. “My hands stay in my pockets.”

“You bastard!” he shouts. “You did this!”

I loom over him. “You will no longer speak of Kiara or the rest of her family,” I state and look to the other two. “Any of you.”

As they take him away, I go back over to Kiara. She is standing next to the bench, tears still in her eyes. “Are you okay?” I ask.

She is silent for a moment. “W-well, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry really,” she says, her voice shaky. “I was really scared you were gonna get into trouble again… over me.”

“Do not worry. I learned from that mistake. But they hurt you,” I mutter. “I don’t like that.”

She sighs. “I’m sorry you got involved with my problems.”

“I do not mind helping my friend,” I tell her.

Her eyes widen and she pauses. As she looks back up, she smiles as if I’d given her a gift. “It makes me really happy to hear you say that. I had a really hard time keeping friends… partly from the bullying,” she says sitting back down. I follow suit, taking a bite of my snow cone.

“I guess I’m still just the same coward they picked on in school,” she mutters. “They bullied me ever since second grade. I don’t know why they singled me out. I guess because I was an easy target since I cry so easily. It got a lot worse after a friend betrayed me… And then Dad died…”

She looks up at me. “Before you showed up, I didn’t have any real close friends. It’s kind of difficult when you live so far out of town and stay at home all the time. S-so I’m just so happy I get to be your friend,” she says with a smile.

Her words take me aback. It really makes her happy? “When you said you want to be my friend, I was surprised. I am… happy I am your friend too,” I tell her.

As we finish eating, I listen to her talk about whatever comes to mind, the smile on her face like a light.

Kiara—

Once we head home and unload the groceries, Shyba goes up to his room to read for a bit. While the coast is clear, we all get stuff ready, laying out the tarps and watermelons. My heart pounds with excitement. This will be fun and maybe Shyba will enjoy it too. Once done, Mama goes up to get Shyba and as he comes out, he seems a little confused.

“Hey buddy!” Jeremiah calls, running over to him.

“Reba said you need help,” he says.

“Yeah! Smashing these suckers open!” he says. “There’s one for each of us.”

He stares at the scene before him. “You do this here too?”

“Nope!” I say, smiling and bouncing on my toes. “Surprise!”

Mama goes over to him. “I hope this is okay. We wanted to do something fun that maybe you would enjoy too since it’s something people do in Japan.”

He seems at a loss for words. Jade and Harmony run up, holding their small watermelons.

“Look Shyba! We got little baby ones!” Harmony says.

Jade laughs and then shouts. “We’re gonna smash them!”

“We got a bat here we can take turns with. Already cleaned it up so we’re good to go,” Jeremiah says. “We wanted you to be the first to start though. If that’s okay with you.”

“Ah… I never did this before,” he mutters.

“Wait!” Nicky shouts and runs over to him. “I was wondering since you do karate and stuff if you can chop a melon open with your bare hand? That would be so cool to see.”

“Duuuuude yes!” Jeremiah says.

“No! I don’t want anyone breaking anything today but melons!” Mama says.

“I can do it,” Shyba says. “I do not mind.”

“Really?” Nicky asks, his eyes lit up.

My heart pounds. “Are you sure?” I ask.

He nods. “Which is for me?”

“Which ever one you want,” Jeremiah says.

Pushing up the right sleeve of his hoodie, he goes to the nearest one and kneels before it. We crowd around, everyone else looking excited while Mama and I look worried. He holds his hand over it, taking a deep breath and raising it over his head.

“Ha!” With a swift move, his hand cracks the melon’s surface, splitting it open.

“Ohhhhhh!” Nicky and Jeremiah start screaming with excitement, running around and Jeremiah ending up rolling on the ground.

Shyba shows Mama his hand. “It is okay.”

She breathes a sigh of relief. “Okay, well no one else is trying that. You hear?”

We respond with a collective, “Yes Mama!”

I go over, handing him a towel and he wipes his hand off. “That was really cool!” I tell him. I never thought I would see something like that in real life. He really is an interesting person.

“Watch this!” Jade says and as we all turn, she holds her melon up before launching it as hard as she can toward the ground. It splatters open and she laughs maniacally.

“Me too!” Harmony shouts, following suit and more watermelon splatters onto them.

We all laugh, Shyba staring with a raised brow.

“Who’s next?” Mama asks.

“I’ll go!” Nicky says, grabbing the bat. He holds it with both hands, bringing it up over his head before baring down as hard as he can on the unsuspecting melon. It smashes open with a loud splatting sound, and he laughs. “Take that!”

“Me next!” Jeremiah shouts, grabbing the bat from Nicky and playfully pushing him out of the way. He takes a baseball stance, pretending to swing. “Hey, batter, batter!” Then he brings it down on the melon, smashing it to bits.

Next is my turn. With a deep breath I throw the bat downward onto the melon. It bounces off, the momentum sending me backward and nearly stumbling. “Hey!”

The heat spreads across my face and I ready myself again, hoisting the bat over my head. I feel someone grab the bat and move my arms back, looking back to see Shyba.

“It is better for you to use your whole body than only your arms. Like you are bowing,” he says. “Widen your feet so you do not lose balance.”

I widen my stance. “Like this?”

He nods, stepping back. “Mm.”

I take another breath. “Agh!” I grunt, striking the melon and splitting it open.

Bouncing up and down, I look at Shyba with a smile. “I did it!” I squeal and laugh. “That was fun! And kinda therapeutic.”

He nods again and I am taken aback for a second. Was that a hint of a smile on his face? Mama takes her turn, splitting her melon with ease. As we all go to pick up the remnants of our melons, I watch Shyba from the corner of my eye. Maybe we’re getting somewhere and finally starting to break through that tough shell of his. I wonder if there is anything I can do specifically to help. What would that even be though? There’s still a lot I don’t know about him and what he likes, apart from books and sweets.

I stand to take the chunk of watermelon to the picnic table and as I take a step my shoe slides on the wet tarp. “AA—”

Next thing I know I’m on the ground and my face smashes into the melon I was carrying with a splat. As I look up Nicky is the first person I see, him having been the closest to me.

“You okay?” he asks.

I squint through my eyes, the feeling of sticky watermelon juice already drying on my face. Then I look back down and what I see causes me to burst into laughter.

“There’s a face print!” I laugh, holding it up.

Then everyone bursts into laughter, Nicky rolling, and Jeremiah bent over holding his chest. I laugh so hard tears are in my eyes. Then I hear something that makes me come to a halt, even my heart seeming to skip a beat. I look over, seeing Shyba laughing, his brows arched and a genuine smile across his face. Suddenly, the tears in my eyes are warm.

Everyone else notices and he stops, his cheeks turning red. “Ah…”

There is a strange feeling in my nose, and I sit up, blowing a seed out of my nostril and into my hand. We all stare for a moment and then it’s absolute chaos, even Shyba joining in again, covering his mouth as he laughs.

After we are all finally laughed out, I go clean up before returning to the party. Jeremiah is getting the grill ready for hot dogs and burgers while Nicky helps Mama get the condiments and sides ready. I look over to see Shyba with the girls as they have roped him into playing catch with them and Hunter.

As I go over to the table, I hear a shriek. We all turn to look over at Shyba and the girls. Jade jumps up, laughing and holding something in her hand. Next thing I know Shyba is booking it back toward the table, the look on his face like he had seen a ghost.

“Look what we found!” Jade shouts, holding up a pudgy green frog the size of her fist.

Shyba stays behind me, and it clicks. “Are… you scared of frogs?”

“Ie! Ie! I-it is eto… strange to look at!”

That wasn’t convincing at all. I hear Nicky laugh and look over. “I can’t believe you would be terrified of a little frog!” he says as Jeremiah chuckles and Mama covers her mouth, trying to hold it in.

Jade comes running over. “It’s okay Shyba! It won’t hurt you!” she says, waving it around in the air.

“Kuso!” he mutters behind me and takes off, jumping clear over the picnic table and scaling the apricot tree like an Olympic gold medalist.

I stare for a moment before looking over to Jade. “How about you go take that little frog back to its home?”

“Okay! C’mon Harmony!” she says, and they run off over by the tree line.

I look over to the table at all the watermelon we had salvaged. I grab a couple pieces and the saltshaker before going over to the tree.

“You can come down now, it’s gone,” I say, looking up at him.

He carefully watches the girls, before dropping down to the ground, hardly making a sound. He stares down, I imagine kind of embarrassed.

“Wanna know a secret?” I whisper. He looks up at me, a brow arched. “I’m scared of the dark, so I always have a nightlight or something on. But don’t tell anyone!” I say, holding my finger up to my mouth in a “hush” sign.

“Ah, mm,” he mutters and nods once.

I hand him a piece of watermelon, giving him a smile. He silently takes it, and we sit down beneath the tree, the gentle breeze tickling my face. As I sprinkle salt over my watermelon, I notice him watching.

“Want to try?” I ask.

“It is sugar?” he asks.

“Salt.”

His brow lifts quizzically.

“It’s good! Here, you can try a bite of mine,” I say, handing it over to him.

He hesitates before taking a bite. I watch as he becomes more and more disgusted by the taste, chewing but not swallowing.

“You can spit it out,” I say.

As he hands it back to me, he swallows, his face still somewhat green. “Ugh… You like that?”

I giggle. “I like the salty sweet flavor.”

He quickly bites into his own watermelon. I assume to get the taste out. I take a bite of mine and look out to watch everyone else eating their melons. I sigh. “I hope we can do this again sometime. It was a lot of fun,” I mutter.

Shyba pauses. “Yes, it was fun.”

I look over smiling. “I finally got my wish.”

He looks back at me. “Your wish?”

“Yup! Remember that shooting star a while back?” I ask and he nods. “My wish was to see you smile.”

He blushes, becoming embarrassed again and looking away. “Ah… mm…”

I watch him for a moment. “I’m glad. It looks good on you.”

As he takes a bite he pauses at my words, then chews silently. I giggle. I really hope I can continue to see him smile, even if I have to smash my face into another watermelon to do so.

Translations:

Ie! Ie! = No! No!

Eto = Filler word like “uh”

Kuso! = Shit!