"Why didn't you tell me you knew Angel?"
Sugarplum expected that'd be the very first question she'd receive once she came over to her sister's house. "I don't know, Daisy."
It had been maybe three days since she'd cooked for him last, the biggest pot of jambalaya she'd ever made so he could leave her alone for good. Though he'd still text her randomly throughout the day, asking the dumbest questions.
So Daisy didn't get the cooking gene?
Putting your foot in food is a good thing, right?
Why they keep saying I'm Mexican?
Daisy isn't a virgin, is she?
He was getting far too comfortable. If she answered at all, it was one-word responses. Very short. She didn't have the time. But then she made a habit of leaving his messages on read and he scared the shit out of her that one day when she went to the faculty restroom at work.
"Boo!"
She couldn't help it, she yelped.
He laughed.
"Whattt??? What do you want, Angel?"
He ignored her obvious frustration and spoke as if they were close friends. "I didn't even know you worked here. Then I saw you walking down the hallway in your student teacher gear and was like look at Suga, Suga."
"Why are you here?"
"Running errands for Father Jones. He hates me." He smiled. "You in your little pencil skirt and glasses. Okayyyy."
"Don't."
"What? Give you a compliment? It's cute. You stopped texting back, what's up with that?"
"Asking if Daisy-Mae is a virgin is definitely crossing the line."
"She's all sweet and pretty. I don't want to scare her. Because whatever the opposite of a virgin is, I'm that."
"She's twenty-nine, Angel."
"Alright, alright. I don't know how you country folk move. Everything's so much slower down here."
She rolled her eyes. "Is there anything important you had to say?"
"I just had a question now that I think about it. That Luke guy." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Was he grooming you?"
She hadn't talked to him since, not even that day, just relieved herself and left with her heart thumping erratically. But no matter how far she walked away, his words were still echoing in her mind. Was Luke grooming her?
"Do you like him?" Daisy-Mae asked. "Because if you do, I won't get in the way."
"What? Who?"
"Angel."
"I hate him, actually."
Daisy-Mae faltered, "Oh..."
"I mean. Hate is a strong word, he just annoys me sometimes. I like him for you, though."
"Really?" A smile grew on her face.
"Go for it."
She looked at Daisy-Mae's attire, her brown skin in a white dress that brought her already small waist in dramatically, which emphasized the spread of her hips. Pretty lashes, red glossy lipstick. Faux beauty mark on her cheek. Her hair was perfectly coiffed in finger waves.
Both her sisters loved that fifties look. They were all kitten heels and tight dresses. Housewife wear.
"He's coming over today, isn't he?"
She cheesed hard, holding her hands and jumping up and down, "Yes!"
"Yay..."
"I need you to make the beignets,"
"Daisy, this is not The Princess and the Frog."
"As if that isn't one of your favorites."
"Maybe when I was ten. I'm twenty-five now."
"Please don't be a buzzkill." She gave her puppy-dog eyes.
"Yes'm, Missus Mae, I'll make the beignets."
"Thank you!"
Sugarplum grabbed her utensils, her handy dandy apron and began prepping the dough for the fryer when a knock on the door sounded.
"It's him!" Daisy whispered and did a little happy dance.
When she heard the front door open, there was a suspicious silence. Sugarplum peaked over the counter to see Angel claiming Daisy-Mae's mouth with his tongue, his palms and fingertips made a home on her backside. She scrunched up her nose in disgust.
Yuck.
"Qué rica, mami, you're so yummy." He said. "This dress... I just wanna split it down the middle, bend you over and just," he started groaning while clapping his hands and Daisy laughed hysterically.
"Shhh, my sister's in the kitchen." She said, in between laughter.
"Ohhhh Sugarrrr," he called out.
"Oh God."
"Close, it's Angel." He traipsed into the kitchen with his arm around Daisy, wearing cargo pants and a white shirt that read i <3 crazy girls across the chest. Glossy red lipstick smeared on his lips.
"What do you think, is this my shade?" He asked. Sugar only looked at him in dismay.
"Guess not."
He wiped his mouth with a paper towel.
"You two stay and chat, I'm gonna finish dressing the table. Shuge, be nice, please?"
"Bye-bye," She waved her sister out of the room.
Angel bit his lip. "Hate to see you go, love to watch you leave, baby, mmm, mm, mm." Daisy giggled as she made her way to the dining room. He turned to Sugarplum, voice finally at a tone suitable for the indoors. "Did you see that? If you told me that ass wasn't sitting, I'd say you're a liar."
"Everyday it's clearer to me why that really pretty girl that you have a crush on hates you."
"Don't you have some food to focus on, though? What are these, doughnuts?"
"They're beignets."
"Oh, excuse me, beignets." He picked one up for examination. "These are baby doughnuts."
"Go ahead and put one in your mouth so you can shut up."
"That's what your sister did to me last night. Put one in my mouth. She tell you about that?"
"I have hot oil beside me, please don't start."
"Whoop, whoop. That's the sound of the police." He finally tried one, chewing slowly at first. Quickly, he grabbed two more. "Holy fuck, these are so good." Angel braced himself on the counter, "I don't think I can control myself," he closed his eyes tight, "those soft doughy things are taking over my body..." He did three hip thrusts. "Aïeeeee,"
Sugarplum wanted to break glass when she actually laughed at his antics.
He popped an eye open, "you just laugh?"
"No, I grimaced. You're a pervert. I did not laugh."
"Aww, you think I'm funny?"
"Shush."
"I hope y'all aren't digging in without me," Daisy-Mae returned, straightening out her dress and pulling up her shoulder strap that seemed intent on falling down.
She grabbed a raised dish and placed the beignets inside, setting them down in the center of the dining room table. "Let's chat in the parlor."
Sugarplum didn't stay too long after that, her and Daisy never really had too much to talk about to begin with, she'd complain about the coffee shop and who was ordering what, Sugarplum would bite her lip, careful to keep quiet, cautious enough to try and act normal.
If it was just the two of them, it'd be fine for her twitchy gestures to go unnoticed but Angel was there, watching her every move. Even the smallest hints he'd pick up on. His scrutiny was unbearable and he was already feeling like the brother-in-law she never signed up for right now. Him knowing about her...lesser transgressions...only made the situation more complicated.
She was thankful when the conversation grew flirty between Daisy-Mae and Angel. It started as a tennis match of innuendos. Then they were playing footsy under the table, and like the perfect third-wheel, Sugarplum sat in between but it clearly didn't matter to either one of them. She was damn near out the door when Daisy found her way in his lap.
The entire drive back home, her mind was occupied, escaping her. Felt like she was back at Luke's again, before his business trip, before she snapped, that unshakeable feeling inside of her that she was done.
Because the charades were over, the curtains were closing, and Sugarplum couldn't deny that she was cracking. Unhappy. Washed off and made pretty, made useful, by Luke. He taught her tricks like some exotic pet he found one day in the woods. The more she thought about it, the sicker she felt.
Was he grooming you?
Outside of his house, she felt exposed. There were no neighbors to the left or right of her but still, there were crickets and that was enough.
Suddenly she wasn't alone with the incessant chirp, chirp, chirp. How could she be alone with them there? Quickly, she drove off back to her apartment, hoping her ears could forget the sound... Did they know? They had to. These were the same insects that saw her fumble down the steps with a suitcase heavier than her times two, slipping and falling more than once because her hands had an awful grip in the heavy rain.
How difficult it was but she managed to not only bring the suitcase down, but put him in her sedan as well. In pieces. Those crickets down at the bayou were even worse, their chirping surrounding her on every side like one big witness, singing. The flies that landed on her shoulder blade and collarbone. It was so hot that night. Sweat intermingling with raindrops, the humidity stifling.
When she walked through her door, she saw torn body parts and plastic over the television, floors and sofa. Red everywhere. Ligaments laid out like legos. She was so very sick.
Sugarplum squatted over the toilet, retched, nothing came up. Defeated, she fell back on her haunches before falling back even further.
The cool tile on her back soothed her enough. She closed her eyes to forget it all, the years of Luke's hands on her legs and lower back, the hours it took for his bones to snap, that wet slosh of the marsh under her galoshes... It was spinning before her, just behind her eyes.
She drifted off into another world where ivy had found its way in the chambers of her heart. Climbers in her blood vessels.
Sugarplum woke out of her sleep abruptly, a banging on her apartment door causing her heart to thunder. She heard a familiar voice, marred with worry which was a first.
"It's Angel, S, you gotta open up,"
Sugar rushed to the door to reveal Angel with his pants only being held up by his weak grasp, his shirt MIA.
"What happened to you?"
"Your sister! She tried to trap me!"
"What?"
"I kid you not, she wrapped her legs around my waist and would not let me pull out. No raincoat, no nothing." He gulped. "Oh my god, I was this close to giving her little Morenos babies."
"Are you serious right now? You scared the shit out of me."
"Is that not terrifying?" He flopped down on her couch with his forearm over his head. "I need some tequila. Right now."
"You are so dramatic."
"You don't understand, you were almost Auntie Princess. I hopped out the window before I allowed that to happen." He caught his breath. "She knew what she was doing with that whole innocent act. Sun went down and she started chasing me around the goddamned house like a werewolf saying I was gonna give her babies. I'm thinking it's pillow-talk until she damn near strapped me to the bedpost. I have never been thrown around like that in my life."
Maybe it was the delirium of sleep or the high of her heart beating out of rhythm so dramatically but right then and there, she couldn't help the laugh that came out of her.
"Yeah, yeah. Laugh at my pain."
"Did you really jump out the window?" She wheezed.
"Landed on both feets."
"And Daisy-Mae, my sister, scared you this much?"
"It was supernatural strength the way she just tossed me around.. what the fuck..."
Sugar was laughing so hard that she went silent for a few moments, her mouth was just open and she cried out.
"Didn't even zip up your-" and she started with another round of laughter. "Like look how you look right now,"
"I'm glad you think it's funny. I'm never seeing that girl again, by the way." He started rummaging through her cabinets until he found some liquor. He took it straight to the head. "I hate women."
"No, cuz the way you wore the 'I love crazy girls' shirt," she was doing that spray bottle laugh, "thinkin' you did something...... oh my god," she laughed even harder. "Is your sister a virgin? Now look at you,"
"Best and worst poon I've ever had in my life. I have never came that close. Ever. My life flashed before my eyes. Saw myself with a dad bod, she pushed me in deeper... I heard 'Dada' and with the power of heaven and hell, I tried to pull out. I had to pin her thighs down with all my might to keep her from doing that vice grip with her legs around my hips. Man, fuck." He took another swig. "I am never fucking again."
"Hey, at least there's no beignets in the oven," she hit his shoulder while she cracked up.
"Ha, ha, hell. City girls never do shit like that. They don't want babies, they want fun, they have Plan B on standby."
"Well, you're in the country, now,"
"Trust me, I won't forget it." He kicked his shoes off.
"Um... what are you doing?"
"Princess. If you think I drove all the way over here on those fucked up roads in the middle of the night, scared out of my mind to not sleep here, you're crazy. Now go get me a blanket so I can make myself comfortable on this little ass couch." He propped her decorative pillow up under his head. "Funny how the laughing stopped."
"Did it, Dada?" She snickered more.
"When you say it like that, it's kinda..."
"Okay. Joke's over. Goodnight." She frowned.
He laughed to himself. "Night, Sugar-Berry Plum-Cherry. I love to wake up to blueberry waffles, if you were wondering."
"I wasn't."
"Dada always gets what he wants."
"Ew, it's not funny anymore."
"To you," he called after her, "and make sure you throw on something sexy while you're dreaming of me!"
"You're insane."
"You like it. Keeps you on your toes."
She shut her bedroom door closed with an audible thud.
What were the odds that she'd be frenemies with the guy who almost dropped her from a window? It was ironic and fucked up, but god, if he didn't make her life have some sort of normalcy now.
He gave her something else to think about.
He made her laugh.
In this economy, in this world, he made her laugh.
What the hell was she getting herself into?