by Mia Archer
Well, almost everyone was at home. I looked across the street and shielded my eyes to see if there was someone standing near the alley next to the convenience store. I was a little disappointed to not see anyone standing over there.
Damn. I guess I couldn’t have everything this morning. I’d have to settle for no Alan bothering me by being a creeper.
“He got a little forward while you were gone last week,” I said.
“Really? How bad was he?”
“Pretty bad. Especially after we ran into Robin and John. He wouldn’t leave my side until we got back to the church,” I replied.
We stepped up onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road and Richard reached out to stop me.
“Hold on a second. Robin?”
“Yeah?”
“Robin Flynn? Cute little spitfire always hanging out with that walking hunk of muscle John?”
“Yeah, you know who Robin is,” I said.
Richard shook his head and grinned. “I bet Alan was scandalized. Probably thought she was going to tempt you away from the church or something! Did you talk to her? I always wanted to talk to her, solidarity and all that, but she’s so scary sometimes.”
I smacked his shoulder. “Come on Richard. Those were just rumors and you know it. A girl like her…”
A girl like her was way out of my league. She was everything I wasn’t. I was a goody-two-shoes and she was the bad girl. The kind of person who didn’t give a fuck. The kind of girl who didn’t go to church.
The kind of girl who might be into girls if the rumors were to be believed. I shivered. Plenty of rumors about her but none about Richard who was confirmed and none about me even though I was still confused as fuck about what I wanted.
Or maybe I wasn’t confused, knew exactly what I wanted, but didn’t want to admit it. Thinking of Robin wasn’t helping matters either.
“Yeah, a girl like that wouldn’t be good for you at all,” Richard said. “Trust me. I know these things.”
I looked at him and arched an eyebrow. That sounded suspiciously close to him trying to insinuate something about me. Something I’d kept hidden from everyone for so long that I freaked out every time I thought someone was hinting at the truth.
Time to change the subject.
“Weren’t you going to tell me about this weekend or something? How many guys have you kissed now? Does this weekend bring the total up to two?”
“To answer your unspoken questions yes I might have had a little fun this weekend and no that’s none of your business,” Richard said as we started walking again. “Besides, I don’t want that getting out and have someone coming to beat the crap out of me or something.”
I laughed. “Come on. You know if anyone did that to you my dad would sue them into oblivion for you.”
“Yeah, well the big powerful small town lawyer might be able to get me money but I’d still have the shit kicked out of me,” Richard replied.
Obviously he was avoiding the subject of how many gentlemen he’d kissed. He’d never given me a concrete number.
I shook my head and grinned. Richard could be a dick sometimes, but that was part of being friends. If he was nice to me all the time then I’d start to think there was something seriously wrong.
I stopped when we reached the door to the convenience store. I’d been glancing over to the alley about every other step, and I was finally rewarded. I saw movement and a moment later Robin was out there with John following close behind. A third guy left and walked off in the opposite direction as fast as possible.
Weird. I wondered what they were doing with that guy? Not that I cared all that much. I was more focused on Robin. On how gorgeous she looked. She was in a plain grey T-shirt that showed off her figure quite nicely thank you very much. I wondered what it would feel like to have those arms wrapped around me. Maybe press my head against her chest and just exist like that for a few short moments of bliss.
I shivered. Not likely. That wasn’t something I should want anyways.
Richard elbowed me and I nearly went careening into a box made up to look like a pile of soda boxes. Not that anyone would put actual soda boxes out there. I remembered a time when I was little when some of the stores still did that, but there was too much risk of someone walking off with them these days. Even small town life didn’t feel like small town life anymore.
“Go on,” Richard said, again with that knowing smile I didn’t care for.
“Go on and what?” I said.
“Go over there and talk to her already! She’s looking over here,” he said.
“Come on Richard,” I said. “She’s not looking over here. Stop being a doofus.”
Only when I looked over to the alley again sure enough Robin was staring at me pretty hard. Talk about your all time intense looks. That was the sort of look that made me almost believe the rumors about her. Not to mention I could get used to a girl as hot as Robin looking at me like that. She quickly looked away when she realized she’d been caught, but the important thing was that I caught her.
I shivered. Dang.
“What are you waiting for?” Richard asked.
“I’m not waiting for anything because I don’t want to talk to her,” I lied. The lie didn’t sound very convincing even to my ears.
“Bullshit,” he said. “You’re acting the way I did at first.”
I turned and gave him a sharp look even as I felt terror seizing me. That sounded dangerously close to someone knowing my secret.
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“What do you think I’m talking about?” was his equally infuriating answer.
“What am I going to say to her?” I asked, feeling the need for another change of subject.
“I don’t know! Talk about the weather or something! All that really matters is she obviously likes that sun dress. Stick’em out and give the audience what she wants!”
“You’re terrible Richard,” I grumbled.
“You can thank me at your wedding,” he said. “Now get over there!”
Another pang of terrified worry shot through me. Our wedding? Okay, now that was taking the insinuating to a whole new level. Richard obviously suspected something.
“You’re crazy Richard!” I said.
“Mari, want me to give you some advice I’ve learned in my short time dealing with some feelings I didn’t understand?”
“What?” I whispered, not quite believing we were actually having this conversation in front of the convenience store and across from the church.
“Life’s too short,” he said. “Don’t worry about judgment or religion or whatever. Just go with what feels right, okay? Whatever that is.”
I looked over to Robin. Then back to my friend who’d dealt with everything I was dealing with now and had obviously come to terms with it. Maybe there was some wisdom to what he said, but I was having trouble going through with it.
Walking over to Robin would be the same as admitting something at this point, and that was something I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit to myself, let alone Richard.
“Come on Richard. I have Sunday school and then I’m supposed to hang around for youth group later.”
“You’re going to be back before youth group, I promise,” he said. “Now get over there and talk to that girl! I wish I could get a guy to stare at me like she’s staring at you! Forget about rumors, that’s a girl who’s…”
I held up a hand to stop him and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, that’ll really help with that whole government clearance thing you’re going for.”
“Nonsense,” Richard said with a sniff. “The FBI doesn’t care about your sexual orientation. Haven’t you ever heard of J. Edgar Hoover’s shopping habits?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” I said.
“What I’m talking about is you need to get over there and talk to her,” he said.
Richard gave me a shove and I stumbled a couple of steps towards the alley. This was
wrong. This was crazy. My parents would kill me if they thought for a moment that I was interested in a girl, let alone a girl like Robin. We were from two different worlds. It would never work out.
That’s probably part of why I was so drawn to her. That and she was so fucking hot. Tight T-shirt, tight body. I couldn’t see why a girl like her would want a plain boring girl like me, but whatever.
If Richard wanted me to go talk to Robin then I’d go talk to her. I’d say hi and be back in time for Sunday school. Nobody would miss me, except for maybe Alan, and I’d get Richard off my back at the same time without committing to or admitting to anything.
Yeah, that sounded like a safe plan. I was not going to let Robin get my insides any more twisted up in knots than they already were.
4
Robin
“Dude, she’s coming over here right now.”
“I can see that John,” I growled.
“Do you think she’s into me or something?” he asked.
I shook my head. Poor naive John. I’d seen the way she looked at us. The way she looked at me. If she was into one of us it certainly wasn’t my big lug of a friend.
“I don’t think so John,” I said finally.
“Oh, damn,” he said, sounding genuinely disappointed. “Think she’s over here to offer her dad’s services? Might be useful to have a lawyer around.”
“She’s not here to offer her dad’s services and she’s not here for you John,” I growled, though it would be interesting to have a lawyer on call. Especially in my line of work.
Not that I could blame John for getting excited seeing Mari walking over here. If I thought Mari was interested in me then someone told me there wasn’t a chance I’d be disappointed too. As it was, though, it looked like I might be hitting the jackpot. My pulse was picking up and I felt a tightness in my chest as she walked towards us.
Was this really happening?
I glanced down the street. No sign of our next client right now, but I had a text that said the lady would be here soon. A real hippie type who’d been into the stuff since back in the ‘60s, but now she looked like someone’s grandma looking to score a bag which was always good for a laugh.
Not to her face. Flower Child, that’s what she insisted we call her because it reminded her of the “old days” or something, was legit. She also wasn’t someone I wanted coming up and talking to me while I was trying to talk to Mari.
“What are we going to do? The crazy old lady’s gonna be here any time now,” John said. “Do you think Mari wants some of our product?”
“Yeah, I know John,” I said. “Maybe you could handle this one? Something tells me Mari isn’t interested in what we’re selling.”
“No way,” John said. “You’re saying she’s…”
“It’s just a hunch,” I said. “But my hunches are usually pretty good.”
“Damn it. You mean I have to take one for the team again?”
“That’s what you get for being the muscles of the operation,” I said.
“I hate being the muscles of the operation. Why can’t I try being the brains again?”
“Because the last time you did that we got shortchanged by some college kid and then you had to use your muscles anyways to go threaten the little prick, remember?”
“Oh yeah. Well if I’m going to use my muscles anyways… I don’t like the way Flower Child looks at me though,” he said.
I laughed. “She likes you man. Give the old lady a thrill. Let her feel like it’s the old days again. Free love and all that.”
“No thanks. I’ll just take her money,” he said.
“Suit yourself,” I said, moving out of the alley. “I’ll be back shortly.”
“Oh take your time,” John called after me. “You get to spend time with the hottest girl in school and I’ll just be over here trying to keep Flower Child’s wrinkly ass off of me. You lucky bitch!”
I shook my head and laughed again. At least if Flower Child was going after him that meant she wasn’t going after me. Everyone in town had heard the rumors about me, and I guess in the old days Flower Child had been serious about the whole free love thing regardless of gender. She did seem to prefer John, though. She liked her guys a little bigger. John fit the bill perfectly even if he was young enough to be her grandchild.
I shouldn’t be thinking about all of that, though. I was more concerned with Mari and why she’d be coming over here in the first place. I still couldn’t believe she was actually into me even if she’d been giving me the eye fucking of a lifetime last weekend. It was seriously enough to keep me hot and bothered all week long even as I wondered if I’d been imagining things.
Good girls like Mari weren’t into bad girls like me. Hell, good girls like Mari weren’t into girls at all. I wasn’t that lucky.
I looked around to see if Alan was hanging around as usual, but he was nowhere to be found today. Just that Richard guy who wasn’t fooling anyone about his orientation even if no one really gave him trouble because he was so damn nice to everyone. He was also joined at the hip to Mari, the gay BFF if there ever was one, and right now he was grinning at the two of us with that stupid infectious grin of his.
A grin that made me wonder what he knew that I didn’t.
“Fancy meeting you here,” I said when we met near the edge of the convenience store. I hoped this would be far enough from the alley that she wouldn’t be able to tell when Flower Child showed up. The last thing I wanted was for her to see John dealing behind us.
“You too,” she said. She blushed just a little. God it was fucking sexy when she blushed. Everything she did was fucking hot. The way she stood there in a sun dress that showed off a body built for sin was enough to cause a stirring between my legs that would no doubt scandalize perfect goody-two-shoes Mari. Girls like her didn’t go for that sort of thing.
Then again girls like her weren’t supposed to go for girls like me and yet here we were.
“So what can I help you with Mari?” I asked.
I might be more than a little surprised that she was over here talking to me, but now that she was here I wasn’t going to push her away. My grandpa always told me words I tried to live by. Plenty of people will tell you no in life without you saying no for them.
So if Mari wanted to say yes to having a little chat I was more than happy to stand here and chat with her. She looked a hell of a lot better in a dress than Flower Child could ever hope to anyways.
“Well, um, the thing is…”
She looked over her shoulder. Richard smiled and waved and I waved right back. Best to be friendly with the BFF. They could tank a budding relationship faster than anything in my experience. I’d run up against a few best friends who managed to convince the girl I was into that it was wrong.
Something told me there would be plenty of people telling Mari that talking with me was wrong considering she was the churchy type. Sure it wasn’t one of those fire and brimstone churches that wanted me to burn in hell for all eternity, but around here there wasn’t much difference between the various flavors of Jesus.
“You’re cute when you blush like that, you know it?” I said, taking a chance that she might be over here for something more than a quick chat. Impossible as that might seem.
And I meant it. Sure anything she did would be cute, but still. It was the plain truth. The girl was gorgeous. I’d worshiped her from afar for years at school and there was a part of me that had trouble believing she was over here talking to me now.
“What? I mean… Um… It’s not really anything. I mean I’m not blushing because…”
Damn.
Was this girl actually standing here because she was into me? I figured a girl like her would steer clear of me by miles even if she was into girls. I was probably the kind of guy her parents warned her about, only I was a girl because I’m sure her parents had trouble conceiving of a world where their perfect little girl was into girls herself.
I was certainly the kind of gir
l that the tight asses at that church across the street wouldn’t approve of no matter how much they spouted their bullshit about being welcoming to anyone.
On an impulse I seized the moment. She seemed a little off balance. A little unsure of herself. I needed to put her at ease.
“Why don’t we go for a walk or something?”
Mari blushed even deeper than before. I didn’t think that was possible, but here we were. She looked over her shoulder to the church and then back. God how I wanted her to go off alone with me. Still, there was that hesitation. We were going to have to do something about that.
I didn’t think all my cheesy old moves would work on her the same that they worked on other girls, but a girl could try.
“Come on,” I said. “It’s just a walk. I know a place we could go. Hang out for a little while.”
She looked up at me sharply at that. Damn. I had a feeling my reputation was preceding me there. I’m sure she knew exactly what it meant when I wanted to go off alone to hang out with a girl. Can’t blame a girl for doing what she does best.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I really should get back there. They’ll be waiting for me.”
“Who’s going to be waiting for you? Your buddy Richard there? From the way he’s dancing by that door he wants you to go off with me. Your pal Alan?”
“He’s not my pal,” she said with a surprising amount of heat coming to her voice.
Well then. Trouble in paradise. Maybe they weren’t the item I thought they were. Or that Alan so obviously hoped they were. I was still having trouble believing this was happening, but I wasn’t going to say no to one hell of an opportunity either.
I sensed an opening there with that anger towards Alan, though.
“So why not give a pass on hanging out with your not-a-buddy for the afternoon? What would you rather do? Sit inside that stuffy old church all day long listening to some old lady going on about the Bible while Alan stares at you, or stay out in this perfect day for a little while and enjoy yourself?”
