This unexplained visit was perplexing. She and Taylor weren't friends on that level. Yeah, sometimes Enzo wooed her and Steve over with food and Taylor would be there along with Julie and other friends of Taylor and Enzo's who Serene didn't know that well. But Taylor at her house?
“Anyway, I'll see you later,” Taylor said and moved toward the door. She seemed a bit breathless.
“I thought you said you stopped by to say hi,” Kanani spoke up.
Was anyone home? Serene wondered. The door had been open when Kanani tried to unlock it.
“Oh, hey, Taylor?” Darpan said from the kitchen.
His sudden presence made Serene do a double take. She hadn't realized he was home, too.
“I think you dropped some money on the floor.” He held up some folded bills and grinned, his face flushed. When he strode over to them, Serene could see he was sweaty, strands of his hair sticking to the sides of his face, and there was a pungent odor emanating from under his arms. Taylor took the money silently and tucked it into the back pocket of her shorts.
“She was waiting for you, man,” Darpan said to Serene. “I was just gonna fix us a smoothie.”
“I have to go now,” Taylor snapped and she slipped out the door before Serene could ask anymore questions.
“Want a smoothie?” Darpan offered.
His smile was… something. Not real? What was he doing making smoothies downstairs anyway? Darpan had his own private kitchen.
“Lots of bananas and blueberries.” He coaxed. He still had that strange look on his face.
Kanani eyed him and then kicked off her slippers before heading wordlessly to Serene's room.
“How about you?” His eyes shone a little too bright. He looked desperate.
“No,” Serene finally said. “Are you going to be using our kitchen now?” With Aarav gone, it seemed likely, Serene thought with a sinking heart.
“I was just trying to keep your friend company. She was waiting a while for you to show up.”
Serene didn't know how she hadn’t noticed before. Maybe it was the way he shifted his stance. The fabric seemed bunched up oddly around the front of his pants. She thought it was the fabric ballooning out, but no, he had an erection. His eyes followed the direction of hers. Turning away clumsily, he tried to appear casual and headed back for the kitchen. Serene scurried to her room. After she shut the door, Kanani grabbed her wrist, eyes wide.
“Oh my god, you see that?” Kanani whispered.
Serene nodded, feeling numb.
Kanani gave her wrist a firm squeeze. “You think––” but she never finished her question because Serene snatched her arm out of her friend's grasp.
“I don't want to talk about it,” she hissed.
Kanani leaned back against the wall, turning her hands so that her palms pressed against it. Serene sank down to her bed, drawing her knees up to her chest.
“Fucking pervert,” she said quietly.
“I know,” Kanani muttered. “You see those hundreds he give her?”
Serene hadn't looked carefully at the bills. The implications were sickening.
“You think she dropped it?” She asked Kanani, not really wanting to know the answer.
Kanani shrugged.
39
Steve - June 1996
Steve let his leg dangle out of the hammock, using his other foot to push off the ground, creating a rocking motion. Serene had gone into the house to find snacks and grab the pitcher of fresh lemonade Ramani had made earlier in the morning. Being out in the yard and talking of fresh lemonade made him think of Serene's grandmother, Barbara, and he felt a small pang of nostalgia and a little guilt. He hadn't thought of her too much since she'd passed away, but when he did, his mental images of Barbara were strong and overpowering. Their friendship had been comfortable, effortless and intellectually stimulating. He'd developed a deep affection for his older neighbor. She was like an adopted grandmother, yet it was never hard to imagine Barbara as the younger woman she once was, or as a kid. Barbara had carried a vitality about her, a thirst for learning and understanding things, an open mind. She hadn't been afraid of change, or the fact that young people and society were doing things differently from how she'd been raised. He'd never heard her lament over such things. Instead, innovation made her eyes grow bright. She loved to speculate about what directions new technological advances in computers, phones and space shuttles might take.
Now here he was, doing things that Barbara might not approve of to her granddaughter. Steve blushed, hoping that Barbara wasn't in some kind of spirit form, able to see all the sex he and Serene had in her house. He batted the thought away, telling himself not to be an idiot. These days it was rare for him and Serene to get any privacy. With Kanani always around, their one truly private space had to be set on ice. But today they'd lucked out. Kanani and Dylan went to Venice and Ramani and Darpan had gone out somewhere. And Aarav moved out days ago. He and Serene hadn't wasted any time. The first round of lovemaking ended in under a minute––his bad. But there'd been a second, third and even fourth round until they'd utterly exhausted themselves, building up an appetite and a thirst for something ice cold.
A familiar laugh drew Steve out of his thoughts.
"You're paranoid," a girl said. It was Taylor. Steve stilled the hammock.
"Shut up," Enzo shot back. He sounded surly and irritated. They were just beyond the fence that separated the two yards. "Don't tell me I'm being paranoid. You walk around
