Someone Else's Fairytale

Twenty-Eight: New York

“This is going to be so cool,” Kyra was bouncing in her seat next to me on the plane. “You are the best.” We were on our way to New York and had just taken off from Albuquerque. The passenger on the other side of me, a middle aged man with a laptop case not all the way under the seat in front of him, shot Kyra an annoyed look.

And I wanted to throw up. This was all wrong. Kyra and her issues aside, Jason was paying more for this apartment than I'd paid in three years of rent on my house.

“You okay?” Kyra asked.

I tried to nod, but she wasn't stupid. I shook my head. “I'm nervous.” I forced a smile. “I hear you're a real handful.”

It was meant to be a joke, but she didn't take it that way. The bouncing stopped. Her shoulders slouched. She turned to look out the window. Her hair was done up in two pigtails silhouetted against the powder blue sky outside.

“No,” I said. “Okay, bad joke. I'm sorry.”

She dismissed me with a flick of her chin.

“People pick on you a lot?” I asked.

“What did Jen tell you about me?”

“Not much.”

“Liar.”

“Hey, come on. I don't lie to you. She's worried about you, and she's got you a catering job-”

“And she hates Nate.”

“Nate your boyfriend?”

“Yes.”

“I know nothing about him.”

Kyra turned her head enough that I could see one made up eye, looking me over. “He's your age.”

“What?”

“You really didn't know that?”

“Are you serious? How long have you been together?”

“Two years, almost.”

“That's not legal.”

She smiled, amused. “Ten years from now, it won't matter.”

“You sure you'll make it ten years?”

“Why not? You think I'm too young to know?”

“Well, yeah. The odds are against you.”

“Everyone thinks-”

“Okay, look, I'm not everyone. I was raised by a woman who started out like you, seventeen and in love. When she was your age, her relationship seemed like a fairytale to her and it was all going to work out. Suffice it to say, it didn't. I wouldn't wish my childhood on anyone.”

“I'm not pregnant.”

“Fine, but even if she'd had me three years later, or four, it wouldn't have mattered. She never grew up. Same problems.”

“And my guy isn't married.”

“No, but he's too old to be looking at you.”

“Jason is way older than you and my dad is way older than Jen.”

“Yes, but Jen and I aren't jailbait. We're grown women with degrees who know how to do stuff like pay bills and support ourselves. We're adults. You're not there yet.”

Kyra scowled at me and I realized that I'd said the wrong thing. I wasn't an expert on teenagers, but I was pretty sure they didn't like being called little children. Still, I was being truthful. That had to count for something.