the best time of day

she's terse. 'can you get it?'

'i've already, yeah... i've got, should i just come over there or, my housekeeper is here today is the thing and my step dad will be home soon.'

silence. then, 'the front door is unlocked. come into joe's room.'

joe is bunny's dad. he sort of looks like alex trebek, but mexican and with a cowboy hat. joe's room is the size of my parent's living room. all the walls are floor-to-ceiling mirrors and he has wall-to-wall white carpet which is mostly pristine except for one spot where bunny's dog "guero" once took a shit and the stain never came out. joe doesn't let guero in his room anymore.

i've known bunny since freshman year. she was the only girl to approach me on my first day at st. augustine and even though i personally would probably have never sought her out for a friend, she's somebody and somebody is better than nobody.

when i walk into bunny's house, i hear music coming from joe's room.

Is she fine? So well bred/The perfect girl, a social deb.

when i walk into joe's room, bunny is sitting indian style on the carpet in front of joe's glass coffee table, fiddling with her gold playboy bunny pendant necklace, chewing on the chain. she offers me a sip of soda from a faded jumbo Fiesta Texas cup.

'so, let's see it. how'd you get it this time? you found more jewelry?'

'no, i gave him my mom's video camera for collateral.'

i pull the plastic bag out of my bra. 'oh how cute! it's hearts this time,' bunny remarks.

bunny tells me about a party that night, but it's saturday and i have catechism classes tomorrow morning. anyway, last time i went to a party with bunny, she left me in the backseat of a car with this guy who kept feeding me curly fries and trying to touch my breasts while she disappeared for three hours.

when it's all gone, bunny gets up and says she's going to take a shower. i sit in joe's room alone for twenty or thirty minutes, maybe longer, i don't know. the clouds pass over and joe's room darkens for a brief moment. i start thinking about this poem i read once in english class. "but i do love these summer nights/even more, i think/than those other times/the work finished for the day/and no one who can reach us now/or ever."

i decide not to wait for bunny and walk home in the last five minutes of daylight before the whole neighborhood turns dark.