Her mother's eye roll didn't hide the fact that she was genuinely glad Mina was getting out.
“Now, who is this Vic guy?” her father asked. “Brian's no longer?”
Mina sucked her teeth. “Daddy,Vic is just a guy I work with. Me and Brian are fine.”
He chuckled. “Awfully defensive for someone who's âfine.' ”
“Jack, stop teasing her,” her mother said, grinning. “You know Brian's the great love of her life.”
“That's right.When's the wedding again?”
He squeezed Mina with one arm as he laughed. She let their jokes, an ongoing thing with them about her and Brian's long distance romance, bounce off her. When the conversation eventually turned to Michael and JZ's fight, she tried to hear their advice, about time healing wounds, without getting depressed. They spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon together, a rare slice of spontaneous family time only broken when Mina realized she'd left her phone upstairs. When she went to retrieve it, breaking the vibe of the slow-moving day, her parents chose that moment to get dressed and up for the day. Mina politely declined their invitation to hang out while they ran errands and grabbed a bite to eat and was dressed and waiting for Vic by the time they returned seven o'clock that evening.
His knock on the door prompted a set of jitters that Mina hadn't felt in a long time. She'd be attending a party with a group of people she mostly disliked without the armor of her clique. It was unnerving.
Her mother beat her to the door.
“Hi, Mrs. Mooney,” Vic said politely, extending his hand for a shake.
He looked handsome in a pair of dark-washed jeans, a striped button-down shirt, and a pair of fresh white-on-white Nikes. His hair was freshly braided in twenty neat simple rows.
“Hi, Vic,” Mina's mother said, gripping his hand in a ladylike handshake.
Mina's father stepped up behind Mariah and extended his hand, shaking harder and firmer. “Hi Vic, I'm Mr. Mooney, Mina's father. I don't think we've ever met.”
Mina chuckled inside, laughing at her father's alpha male vibe.
“Mina and I work together, sir,” Vic said politely, not intimidated. “Mina's doing me a favor, hanging out with me while I DJ a party.”
“Well, she has a curfew,” her father said.
Mina rolled her eyes, stepping in. “Daddy, okay,Vic knows what time I need to be home. See you guys later.”
She hustled Vic out the door after giving both her parents a kiss on the cheek.
When they got in the car,Vic wiped his brow. “Whew, your dad is like ...” He deepened his voice, imitating Mina's father, “She has a curfew, you know.”
Mina laughed. “He's all bark and no bite. It's my mother you gotta really watch.”
“I'm not even surprised,” Vic said, smiling. “The way you stand up to Jessica at work, I can tell you got some fire up in you.”
Mina's eyes rolled. “That's just from years of dealing with her.”
Vic backed the car out of the driveway, then steered it out of Mina's cul-de-sac.
“You know I don't feel like going to this thing,” Mina said.
“Me either, that's why I needed a sucker, I mean volunteer, to go with me.”
Mina smacked at his arm. “Misery likes company, huh?” she said.
He winked at her. “For real, for real.”
There was a comfortable silence. Mina watched the bare trees whip by, then the stores of Main Street and the high school. Kelly's neighborhood was only a seven-minute drive from the Woods and they were at the guard's booth of the gated neighborhood in no time.
Vic put his window down. “Victor Adams visiting the Ling residence.”
The guard eyeballed a list on his clipboard, saluted Vic, and hit a button that opened the gates.
“Victor Adams visiting the Ling residence,” Mina teased, mocking him.
Vic's smile was sheepish. “Come on now, that's my professional voice. I can't be acting a fool rolling in a neighborhood that has its own rent-a-cop.”
“True,” Mina said. “Just not used to hearing you all polite.”
“So here's the deal for tonight,”Vic said. He rolled the car slowly through the neighborhood of mini-mansions as his eyes ping-ponged between an address on a piece of paper on the console of his car and the mailboxes on the street. “You can hang out by me, but if you want dance or kick with it anybody, that's cool too. I just wanted somebody there to break up the monotony every now and then.”
“No worries. I don't plan on kicking it with anybody,” Mina said.
But an hour into the party, she was having more fun than she expected. She stationed herself at the extra table Vic used for his additional equipment. She had the perfect view of the entire party. It was wall-to-wall people, many of them friends or associates. She'd already talked to Sara, Cassidy, and Meggan from the cheer squad; Jake, Tommy, and Conner from the football team; and Julius and Kelvin, two hottie skaters. There were a lot of people there that Mina would have invited to any party she had.
She'd forgotten that despite most people despising the Glam's reign of terror, a party was a party. People were enjoying the night out and Vic kept them moving with his deafening musicâmixes flashing from house music to hip-hop in a fluid streak that made her tired, and she wasn't even dancing.
Mina sat, legs crossed, laughing at the antics of her classmates, mentally taking note of some of the total illegal hookupsâa few people who were normally coupled up were there without their partnerâand leaning over to holler-whisper at Vic as they tripped off some of the more rhythmically challenged dancers.
Once people realized she was there with the DJ, she was practically the center of attention. People kept coming up to her to talk and give Vic a pound, complimenting him on the music.
Sara, Jessica's twin, came back to Mina for the third time. Her brown curly hair was stuck in wisps to her face. “Oh my God, Connor is totally trying to kill me,” Sara said, taking a seat next to Mina on the table.
Mina laughed. “And you're totally loving it. Connor is hot to death.”
“I know, right.” Sara's laugh was lost in a sonic boom from Vic's mix, which immediately revved into a dance mix of Rihanna's “Shut Up and Drive.” The dance floor was a mass of gyrating pandemonium.
Sara leaned over, yell-whispering, “But he's a junior. I'm not trying to start anything new.”
“Date him, Sara, don't marry him.”
She and Sara exchanged a girly pound.
“I can't believe you and Jess graduate this year,” Mina said. “I'm gonna miss you so much next year.”
Sara threw her arm around Mina. “Same here. But truth up, aren't you going to miss Jess too?”
Mina leaned away and gave Sara a look. “Hell to the no ... no harm.”
Sara laughed. She was well aware of the love/hate frenemyship between Mina and her sister.As if conjured up by their conversation, Jessica sashayed over to the table. She stood in front of Mina and Sara, legs spread wide, hands on her hips.
“Mina, I swear to God.” She tossed her weave of jet black curls. “I heard you were here and nearly tore Jill a new asshole until she said she hadn't invited you.” Her eyes skated to Vic, who blew her a kiss, making Mina laugh, before settling back on Mina. “Work's been so awesome with you only working two days a week.”
Used to Jessica's venom, Mina only stared at her passively, trying not to laugh as Sara kept nudging her slyly.
“So what, are you and Vic dating?” Jessica asked, her lip upturned. “Did Brian finally break free?”
“Vic and I are just friends,” Mina said as if speaking to a two-year-old. “I only came with him because he thought you and the rest of your clique might tie him up and perform voodoo if he came without a witness.”
Sara's loud laugh pierced a momentary lull in Vic's mix.
Jessica rolled her eyes. “Same old Mina, always dogging my footsteps, wanting to be where I am,” she said with a snide smile.
“Kiss, kiss,” Mina said, and made a kissy face at Jessica.
Devin, an attractive senior with a stutter, came up behind Jessica and he put his arm around her shoulder. “C-c-come on, Jess,” he said, and steered her toward the packed dance floor.
Jess tossed her hair. “Gotta go. Some of us didn't come here to work as the DJ's pack mule.” Her Glam Stepford laugh floated in the air as she walked away.
“Oh my God, are she and Devin dating?” Mina asked.
“I think so,” Sara said. “She denies it. But he's been by the house a lot the last few months. And they're always texting.”
Mina frowned. “Why deny it? Devin's hot.”
“Because he st-st-stutters,” Sara said, laughing at her lame joke.
“Whatever.” Mina rolled her eyes. “He's still hot. Jess is lucky somebody would even tolerate her snotty butt.”
“She's actually pretty sweet around Devin. You wouldn't know her if you saw it.”
“I would pay to see that. Call me next time he comes over,” Mina said, cracking up at the thought. She watched Devin, who was a pretty smooth dancer, and Jess dance, noticing that Jess gave him a slight nudge, pushing him away, when he got too close. Mina shook her head. Jess was so superficial it wasn't even funny. She might be turned off by Devin's stutter, but Mina was certain that Devin's cuteness and the fact that his father owned ten Chick-fil-A's throughout the state kept Jess from totally dissing him. Devin lived just next door to Jill Ling, in one of Folger's Way's largest houses.
Now what Devin saw in Jess, Mina didn't even want to know.
She started to say so politely to Sara when Vic's voice boomed over the mic, “I got my girl Mina in the house, my little DJ girl in training.”
He smiled Mina's way, laughing at her wide-eyed horror. “Y'all want hear my girl Mina mix?”
There was a raucous cheer of “yeah” from the crowd.
“Mina, girl, come bless 'em with a mix.”
Sara giggled. “Hidden talent?”
“It better choose now to come out,” Mina said, easing her way off the table and over to Vic.
“What are you doing?” she said to him. “I have no idea what to do.”
Vic motioned her over. She stood in front of him and he placed his hands over hers on a record, helping her to mix it.
“Go, Mina. Go, Mina,”Vic shouted into the mic until the entire house went along.
Mina laughed, letting her fingers do whatever Vic's directed her to. The mix was hot, she had to admit. He nodded toward the mic and Mina frowned, shaking her head no. But he insisted.
She put her mouth closer to the mic, shy at first, “What's up, y'all?”
Mina laughed at the mangled, unintelligent answer emitted from the crowd.
“Is Folger's in the house?” she said, tickled when those who lived in Folger's answered with a lusty, “hellllll yeah.”
“Is Falcon's Nest in the house?” she said. Getting into it, she shouted out all of the burb Del Rio Bay communities, then led a rowdy, “Rep your nabe. Rep your nabe. Rep your nabe,” until everyone was jumping to her beat, yelling out their neighborhoods.
Vic was cracking up behind her.
“Look at you, girl. Don't be trying steal my job.” He bumped her from behind and nudged her gently out of the way. “Now that my girl got it crunk up in here... .”
He let a mix explode, changing the tempo to a crazy fast beat. The crowd roared with approval. Mina stood by Vic, nodding along to the insane beat. She gave Sara the thumbs-up when she waved to her from the dance floor with Connor.
Vic bumped her lightly with his hip and she swayed along with him. He leaned in close to her ear. “Go dance if you want.”
She shook her head, talking up to his ear, “I'm cool.”
“You scared somebody gon' go tell your boy you were out having a good time?” He smiled at her rolled eyes.
“Whatever, DJ, just play the music,” she teased.
Vic did just that, bending back over the turntables, choosing his next selection while Mina returned to her perch on the table. At the mention of Brian's name, she thought about him, wondering what he'd ended up doing with his night. She felt bad for him and a little ashamed that she'd been so insecure lately. Whenever she gave him grief he reminded her how tough it was to juggle classes and basketball. Something he shouldn't have to do. She totally understood. Some days she was so tired from her day, it was all she could do to keep her eyes open at work or during class.
She vowed to end her clingy neediness, right here, right now.