LITMIR.BIZ

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no,’ Kristina said hastily, pouring water all over her face.

      ‘Come on, let’s play.’

      ‘Give us a break!’ exclaimed Conni. ‘Five minutes.’

      ‘No, I’m pumped,’ Kristina said. ‘The teams?’

      Conni looked at Kristina levelly. ‘Gee, Krissy, I don’t know. What do we usually do after Albert and I lose to you?’

      ‘We play the boys?’

      ‘Now that’s an idea.’

      Kristina wasn’t going to let Conni’s peeved sarcasm get her down. ‘Great. You boys need a handicap?’ Conni was her handicap, but Kristina would never say that out loud.

      Jim pushed Kristina against the basketball pole with his shoulder. ‘I have a good feeling about this game,’ he said, kissing her lightly on the cheek. She turned his face toward his and tried to kiss him on the lips, but he moved away from her. There was coolness in his eyes.

      He’s upset about last night, Kristina thought. Later. Later.

      Kristina and Conni beat Albert and Jim 18-16. ‘Wow, you boys came very close,’ Kristina said when the game was over. Jim’s game was off. He ran a little slower, threw the ball a little lower, and didn’t intercept the ball from Kristina or block her. She could almost swear Jim was gritting his teeth as she played, but then she wrote it off as her guilty imagination. Then what is that crunch underneath his jaw with every dribble of the ball? Kristina thought.

      ‘Don’t you patronize us, Miss All-Ivy,’ said Jim. ‘After we’re done here, let’s run a mile and see who’s gonna come close to who.’

      Kristina thought she could run a mile in four flat right about now. What’s the time? What’s the time?

      ‘What’s the time, Frankie?’

      From his sitting position, he glanced up and handed her the watch. Twelve forty-three. Kristina was wet from sweat. Seventeen more minutes.

      In fifteen minutes, Kristina and Albert beat Conni and Jim 40-8. Kristina ran after every ball, marking and blocking even Conni, whom Kristina usually left alone. As if running faster would make the time go faster.

      ‘Good game,’ Kristina said afterward, breathing hard.

      Conni said, ‘I really prefer basketball as a spectator sport. Like when I go to see Krissy kick Crimson’s butt.’

      ‘Yes, but you’re a good sport, and that’s the only thing that matters,’ said Kristina.

      ‘Is it? The only thing that matters?’ Conni asked pointedly, looking at Kristina. ‘Me being a good sport?’

      ‘Sure,’ said Kristina noncommittally.

      Albert stepped in. ‘No,’ he said, putting his arm around Conni and smiling suggestively. ‘There are plenty of other things that matter.’ That made Conni smile and allowed Kristina to grab her backpack off the brown grass.

      ‘I’ll catch you guys later.’

      ‘Wait!’ Conni called after her.

      Coming up to Kristina and lowering her voice, Conni said, ‘I thought you were going to help me, you know - with the - uh - you know - the…’ glancing meaningfully in Albert’s direction.

      ‘Oh, yeah, cake,’ Kristina whispered.

      ‘Shhh…!’

      ‘Shhh… sorry.’ Kristina was quieter, but inside her engine was revving so high she could barely hear herself speak. ‘I gotta go now.’ Now, now, now, her inner voice was shouting. ‘I’ll come by later, okay?’

      ‘Kristina! The nuts, the hazelnuts, they all gotta be choppéd, finely. It’ll take me forever. And then the icing - come on.’

      Leaning down to Conni’s ear, Kristina said, ‘I have to tell you something about that…’

      Just then Jim and Albert walked over to them, and Kristina didn’t get a chance to tell Conni that Albert hated nuts, especially hazelnuts.

      ‘What are you guys cooking up here?’

      ‘Nothing, nothing,’ said Kristina quickly.

      Conni threw her hands up. Jim laughed, and Kristina tried to move away. ‘I’ll see you later,’ she called out to them, catching Albert’s eye. He was staring at her. She looked away and wiped her wet forehead.

      ‘Wait up!’ Jim caught up to Kristina. ‘Hey.’ They walked in silence down Webster Avenue, to North Main Street, amid the bare trees. Some students on the front lawn of Alpha Beta Gamma House were setting up a huge turkey piñata.

      Kristina was hoping Jim wouldn’t notice how fast she was walking and wouldn’t ask her about last night. He didn’t, but what he did ask was worse. ‘Wanna have lunch?’ Jim said.

      ‘Lunch?’ Kristina was flummoxed. She hadn’t really expected to disappear after their weekly basketball session without Jim’s noticing, but in the almost three years they’d been going out, Kristina had never told Jim about Howard, and she wasn’t going to start now when a new period in her life was about to begin. They turned right at the corner of North Main Street.

      ‘Jim, I’ve just got to write that death-penalty piece for the Review. I’m late with it as it is.’

      He squeezed her neck as they were walking. ‘You got a little time.’

      ‘Yeah? That’s not what you said yesterday.’

      ‘Yesterday?’ He took his hand away. ‘I didn’t see you yesterday, Kristina,’ Jim said pointedly, and Kristina flushed.

      ‘Yes, you did. Yesterday morning.’

      Jim shook his head. ‘No. Not in the morning. Not last night.’

      Kristina tried to suppress a sigh, but it escaped anyway between her dry and tense lips. ‘Oh, yeah, last night. I went to Red Leaves House last night.’

      ‘Red Leaves, huh?’ said Jim. ‘How often do they make you work Saturday nights?’

      Red Leaves was a home for pregnant teenagers where Kristina had done work-study since her freshman year.

      ‘They usually don’t. But Evelyn - you know -’

      ‘Yeah, I know of Evelyn. What about her?’

      ‘She’s real pregnant -’

      ‘Oh?’ said Jim. ‘That’s not unusual for Red Leaves House, is it?’

      ‘And depressed,’ continued Kristina nearly without stopping. ‘She needed me, so I-I stayed over.’

      ‘Stayed overnight?’

      ‘Sure. I’ve stayed overnight there before.’

      ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’

      His tone was still skeptical, but relief showed on his face. Kristina laughed and said, ‘God, you look like I just told you you won the lottery.’ She ruffled his hair without breaking her stride.

      ‘No,’ he said, his face becoming impassive. ‘This is much better.’

      Kristina was almost shaking with anxiety. Thank God they were walking and Jim couldn’t see her legs trembling. She took his hand. They were just past Baker Library and near Tuck Mall, down which they all lived. She wanted Jim to leave her there and not follow her to Main Street.

      ‘You’re cold,’ Jim said.

      ‘No, why do you say that?’ Kristina said, taking her hand away and wiping sweat off her face again. ‘I’m like hot lava.’

      ‘Your legs, they’re twitching.’

      Kristina was wearing black spandex shorts and a Dartmouth-green T-shirt. ‘You’re

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