Patrice sat with his head bowed almost touching the space between his knees. His hands lightly cupped the sides of his dark brown hair. He was sitting in the hallway outside his fourteen year-old sister’s bathroom. He had stopped asking if she was ready yet fifteen minutes ago. He remembered how futile it was to ask a female how long it would take to finish getting ready for a day out — his older sister trained him pretty well in that department.
Patrice continued to sit in the hallway and his mind drifted to scenes of last night’s game. He suited up and even with a doctor’s all clear, the coach only put him on the field for three plays in the third quarter. He knew he wasn’t the best cornerback on the team but given last week’s interceptions that led to his team winning, he thought that he’d at least have a couple plays per quarter.
The bathroom door swung open. Patrice’s sister towered over him with her hands on her hips.
“Are you done?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
Patrice stood up and motioned for his sister to step out of the bathroom.
“Drop me off at the movie theatre at 1.”
“I thought the movie didn’t start til 2.”
“It doesn’t but I want to go to the coffee shop next door first.”
“Cause you’re suddenly a big coffee drinker?”
“No, cause Monica’s shift ends at 1 and she’s going to the movies with us.”
“With you and Holly, Maggie, and Danica?”
“Yeah, so.”
“Good luck with that.”
Patrice loved that her sister made friends easily with different kinds of people but she had no idea that not everyone wanted to be friends with everyone else.
“If we get there before her shift ends, she’ll make you an iced latte on the house.”
Patrice wasn’t a big coffee drinker either but an iced latte sounded great. They made it to the coffee shop with ten minutes before Monica’s shift ended. She made him a drink on the house and assured him that she didn’t want to be friends with his sister’s other friends. She just wanted to be a bad influence on them. Whatever “bad” meant to a borne again humanist.
