Tequila
by Ana Marie Cox
We’re graduating from eighth grade and rumors of a party get back to me without me saying I’d have one but of course I can’t say no. Smiles from the popular kids and during Language Arts Greg slips a piece of paper in front of me and asks for my address.
Robyn has told everyone my mom lets kids drink in the house, which is not quite true. What I had told Robyn was that Shirley let me drink at home. I don’t quite know why I told her that. Robyn is blonde and tall and cheats off me in math class.
I have the sense of a stone rolling down a hill but I keep the smile frozen on my face. Robyn whispers to me in the hall that she’ll be there; I think of the time she and her older brother had a party. Their house sprawled like the place where we’d lived before the divorce, a lofted living room with a landing that overlooked it all. A huge backyard filled with laughing seniors and a thin camaraderie standing with Robyn and the handful of other eighth graders there.
Keep us breathing fire!
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