Today I am publishing my short story “A Teacher’s Nightmare” in an anthology with 24 other brilliant authors. My story is about a teacher that is brainwashed into conforming to the wants and needs of the school system. Sounds familiar, right? There are some crazy mind-bending stories in this anthology and definitely worth a second or third read.
As a special today, I am attaching the first chapter of my beach story here “Diving for Love” so you can get excited about its publication this fall.
Thanks for visiting!
Jenny
Diving For Love
Chapter 1
I shut my bedroom door and dropped my cap and gown to the floor. Finally. I collapsed onto my unkempt bed I hadn’t seen since that morning.
My throat tightened as I heard his words in my head.
“Mariana, I think we should go our separate ways.”
I pulled each picture down, remembering what happened next. After his confession, everything happened in slow motion. Who cared that I was the only grandchild in my family who had graduated high school. Who cared that my best friend, Dennis, brought me a bouquet of roses. At first, I thought I hadn’t heard him right. But after the ceremony, when I saw my sweatshirt and the teddy bear I’d given him sitting next to my car, I knew our relationship was really over.
I scrunched up my eyes, allowed the tears to fall, and gasped when I couldn’t breathe. Mami was in the shower and wouldn’t hear me crying. I hated crying over boys. Especially stupid ones.
I took down the rest of the pictures, dividing them in two piles: ones with Chad and photos of everyone else.
The last one was my favorite. Chad and I had our backs to the ocean, and a group of friends stood behind us making funny faces. I couldn’t help but think Chad and I looked mismatched together— him with his blond hair, blue eyes, and chalky white skin, and me with my dark complexion. Most white boys didn’t date Dominicans, but he’d always said my caramel chocolate skin looked too delicious not to taste. What an idiot I’d been to fall for him.
My friends were mostly behind me in the photo, so maybe if I just…
Ripping the picture down the middle, I crunched up Chad’s face with one hand. I stopped breathing for a few seconds, noticing Dennis in the un-maimed part of the photo. I’d looked at this picture a hundred times, but never had I focused on anyone but Chad.
Dennis was staring at me, while everyone else’s eyes were on the camera.
I held the picture up to the lamp and squinted. No one else stood anywhere near me. I even unrumpled Chad’s face to make sure, but nope. Dennis was looking at me with an adoring smile.
The alarm on my phone sounded, and I turned it off. I straightened my back and wiped away my tears. Time to move on.
My eyes welled up with fresh tears as I stared at the two photo piles on the bed. Ha! Of course it wasn’t going to be that easy. Chad’s smile still gave me goosebumps.
Best not to have a reminder. I ripped each picture down the center of his face, enjoying the smell of paper and ink. With each rip, I remembered the words he’d said to me before graduation started.
I’m not good enough for you. You deserve someone so much better than me.
Rip.
I mean, I don’t want to hold you back in college, and we’re not even going to the same university.
Rip.
It’s not like we can date over the summer. I’m sure you don’t want to be tied down, right?
Rip.
The pent up anger I had held in all day came exploding out of my trembling fingers until there was a mess of photo paper all over me and the bed. I kept ripping until there was nothing salvageable of his face. The skin on my fingers burned with the constant motion. Not wanting any part of him on me, I gathered each piece and dumped them in the kitchen trash can. I made sure to push the tiny, insignificant bits of paper under the moldy tomatoes Mami had chucked earlier.
“What are you doing?” my mother said from behind me. I jumped and moved out of the way.
“Taking out the trash.” I balled up the trashbag and knotted it before she could see inside. “Those tomatoes were starting to stink up the place.
Mami shrugged. I didn’t blame her for not being a better housekeeper. If I cleaned all night for my job, I wouldn’t want to clean at home, too. Still, we did all right the two of us. I made my way outside, glancing down the deserted street, hoping for a glance of Chad’s car. I swung the bag in the trash and took my time coming back in.
“Is Chad picking you up tonight for the party?” Mami asked when I opened the door. “I wanted to get pictures of you two, but didn’t even see him at graduation.”
I sighed heavily. I knew I would have to confess to her eventually, so best to get everything out in the air.
“He dumped me before the graduation ceremony.” Mami stared at me, but I hid my face in the fridge, looking for nothing. The last thing I wanted to do was eat.
Mami waited until I made eye contact again. She folded her arms against her chest, like the room had dropped twenty degrees, which was ridiculous because this was Florida, and our air conditioner didn’t work that good. “What did he say?” she finally said.
“Said he didn’t want to hold me back once we were at different schools.”
“It’s the curse, Mariana!” she whispered to me, glancing behind me and all around the cramped kitchen, like there would be room for hiding strangers.
How many times had I heard her say this? I studied Mami’s eyes. They shone like the night sky, dark and twinkly. The two of us were so alike in looks— long brown shiny hair, brown eyes, medium build— but so different in personality. I was supposed to be the one freaking out, not her.
Sure, it was true all the guys I dated dumped me first, and my relationships with guys in high school never lasted more than three months, but it had to be a coincidence.
Sometimes she could be so overdramatic. “Mami, we’re not cursed.” She moved around the kitchen, packing her lunch for tonight. I wanted to go back to my room, but the one time I tried, she stood in front of my room like a statue.
“Mariana, how else do you explain our bad luck in men, huh? Every guy I dated, including your father—”
“Sperm donor,” I corrected. I hadn’t met my father, not even once, and he had no right to be called a father any way you diced it.
“Fine, whatever. He and all the other guys just up and left us without so much of an explanation. I’m cursed with love and now you are, too.”
She crossed herself, and I almost laughed because the last time we walked in a Catholic church together was when I was christened as a baby, and of course I couldn’t remember that.
I shook my head, wanting to change the subject. It was bad enough I’d be starting the summer off alone. Why did she have to fill my thoughts with craziness, too? “Don’t you have to go to work soon?”
She sighed and checked her watch. “An hour maybe. Want me to braid your hair first?”
I nodded and moved robotically to the barstool she had made me sit in for years. I pulled my knees up to my chest and relaxed against the back of the chair. She pulled my hair extra hard and I felt the edges of my scalp tingle. “Ai! Be careful.”
“Lo siento, bebĂ©. So what if you’re not going to the same college? Who even cares when you’re in love? I want to run him over with my car.”
I laughed. “Your Dominican is showing.”
She twisted the strand of hair in her hand a little hard, but didn’t say anything.
“We’d only been together three months, anyway. He’s not the only fish in the sea.” I said it, but I didn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth.
Mami pulled a rubber band tight around the end of my braid, yanking and twisting. “Ouch, Mami.” I leaned forward, but she pulled me back. It’s a miracle I’d made it past my senior year with a full head of hair.
“If that boy was a fish, I’d take a frying pan and—”
I shook her hands away and got off the barstool. “I’m going to my room, Mami. Thanks for braiding my hair.”
She pulled my arm back and trapped me in a hug. After a moment, I sank into her arms. Life wasn’t as dramatic as she made it, but it still sucked. “Wear something pretty for the party,” she whispered in my ear.
I took a deep breath and counted to seven. I counted in my head all the time to calm myself down. In the last few hours, I had done a lot of counting. Geometry and Algebra were all useless. I learned all of the math I needed for real life in Kindergarten.
“I’ve decided not to go.”
She held my shoulders so I had to face her. “Not go? What? No, no, no.” She shook her head a few times before her eyes turned on me. “You graduated high school. If your papi was here, he’d be so proud. I’m so proud. You are getting an opportunity I never had, and that is something to celebrate. Don’t let some stupid boy control another second of your life.”
I hugged her and smiled into her shoulder. “You sound like Dennis.”
“He’s good for you. Why not date him?”
“Well,” I said, not sure why I didn’t have a clear answer, “I don’t want the curse to ruin our friendship.” I smiled, knowing I was using her words against her now. Dennis and I had been best friends since we’d moved to Pensacola in my ninth grade year.
She grabbed the electrical bill from the table and swatted my butt. “Please, go to this party for me. I am working tonight, and you’ll be alone. Go.”
I said what she wanted to hear. “Fine.” She’d leave an hour before the party started so she’d never know.
She kissed my forehead twice. “Te amo, mi corazon.”
“I love you, too. Now you better get ready so the hotel doesn’t fire you.” She laughed, probably at the thought of being fired, and I knew she was right. She was the backbone of the housekeeping department and she was a staple at the one of the busiest hotels in Pensacola. It was right along the coast and was a favorite among tourists.
She swatted me again and snuck another kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow and then we can pack for your trip to Grams’s.”
I was still in the kitchen when my phone lit up with a text. I scurried to my room and closed the door, hoping for a millisecond it was Chad. Maybe I shouldn’t have torn up all of the pictures. But when I saw it was Dennis who was texting, I took the wish back.
“Can I pick you up tonight?”
Staring at his text made my eyes blurry. It seemed like every time someone broke up with me, Dennis was there to pick up all of my pieces. I had the best friend in the world. I pressed two on my phone and it dialed his number. I didn’t even wait for him to say hello.
“It’s your party, silly. You can’t leave to come get me.”
“I don’t care. You’re leaving tomorrow, and I’m starting my new job. It’ll be a while before I can come visit.”
I stared at myself in the mirror, tan legs, beautiful hair, bright white smile. I had a lot to offer. Who’s to say I couldn’t convince Chad to come back with me with one outfit? There was a little hope for us still?
“Ok, you’re right. If you come and get me, I’ll go.”
