by Kim Pritekel
I grinned.
Mtn85 says:
A good friend of Helen, are you?
CometBaby says:
I’m friends with people who think they’re Helen. Does that count?"
Mtn85 says:
Lol I can think of a few.
CometBaby says:
How is the psych project coming along? Have you found out what makes men envious of women?
Mtn85 says:
It’s going well, just about done. Who wouldn’t be envious of women? (grin)
CometBaby says:
That’s true. We get to have the pain of childbirth, have our periods, have mood swings, PMS. Who wouldn’t want to be a woman?
Mtn85 says:
True, true. But at least we’re good-looking.
CometBaby says:
And able to think without going below the belt.
I grinned. "Very true, Haley."
Mtn85 says:
If you could be a man for a day, would you?
CometBaby says:
Just for a day?
Mtn85 says:
Yup.
CometBaby says:
Hell yeah! I’ve always wanted to see what goes on in those locker rooms, and if it’s just like everybody says.
I drew my brow.
Mtn85 says:
What does everybody say?
CometBaby says:
That all they discuss is girls, and they compare dick sizes, and stuff. I’ve always wanted to know what it was like to have one of those.
Mtn85 says:
Me, too. This knowledge goes no further than this computer screen, you got me?
CometBaby says:
Threats, threats. And why is that?
Mtn85 says:
Because it’s embarrassing, and I’ll have to hunt you down and your little Koosh, too.
CometBaby says:
No, no! Not my Koosh! You can have anything; my dignity, my self-respect, but not my Koosh!
Mtn85 says:
Nut.
CometBaby says:
Yeah, and?
Mtn85 says:
Do I have your word or not?
CometBaby says:
Thinking… okay.
Mtn85 says:
I wanted to know what it was like to have a peepee like Chris. So, I grabbed a whole wad of toilet paper, and stuffed it into my underwear, and went to school that way. It’s quite odd.
CometBaby says:
(chuckling)
Mtn85 says:
Yeah, yeah. So I’m weird, so sue me.
CometBaby says:
Ah, such bribe material.
Mtn85 says:
May your Koosh rest in pieces.
I covered my eyes, not believing I had told her that. Nobody knew that story but me.
CometBaby says:
Oh, so was that what the bulge was last week?
Mtn85 says:
No, I was just happy to see you. And why were you looking there anyway?
Oh god, I am being corrupted.
CometBaby says:
Well you hide the other bulges with large clothes, what was I supposed to be looking at?
I gulped.
Mtn85 says:
Bite me.
CometBaby says:
And again, I ask where? Is there some biting fetish you have along with hiking boots?
Mtn85 says:
You’re a nut, Haley. But, I need to get this stuff done. See you at school?
CometBaby says:
Yeah, that works. I’ve been a very bad girl, not doing my homework.
Mtn85 says:
Spank you, child.
CometBaby says:
Oh, hurt me, daddy. Hurt me.
Mtn85 says:
LMAO! Goodbye, freak.
CometBaby says:
Lol Bye.
I logged off, still staring at the computer screen, shaking my head.
* * *
I grabbed a knife from the drawer, and began to cut into the fresh pan of brownies mom had made last night at my request. It was Tuesday, and I figured I’d give Haley a birthday brownie.
Sliding it into a baggie, I grabbed my backpack, and hurried out the door when I heard the familiar honking.
"Hey, you." Haley said with a smile as I climbed into her car.
"Hi." I looked at her, held up a finger, and turned away from her. I dug the brownie out, took it from the bag, then dug the single candle out of my coat pocket, along with a lighter.
"What are you doing, Andi?
"Hang on, oh impatient one." I lit the tiny wick, then turned around, the brownie in my palm with the one birthday candle. Haley looked at it, her eyes opening wide in surprise. "Happy birthday."
"Oh, Andi." She breathed. She looked at me. "How did you know?" I shrugged, not daring to tell her I was looking her up on the internet. What kind of a dork would that make me look like? Not to mention a stalker.
"A little birdy told me."
"Thank you." She took the brownie, and pulled me into a hug. I closed my eyes, enjoying her reaction, as well as the hug. Yup, I done good. She pulled away from me, and blew out the candle.
"Did you make a wish?" I asked, grabbing my backpack off the floor of the car.
"Sure did." She took the candle out, and began to munch on the brownie. "God, I love these things."
"I know you do. Here." I handed her the two wrapped gifts. She looked at them, then up at me, more shock on her face.
"Oh, Andi. You shouldn’t have."
"Of course not, but I did." She took them from me, smiling at the blue and green wrapping paper with little fish swimming, happy birthday written in their bubbles. She tore into the paper, and laughed when she saw the Koosh.
"This is so great! This thing is huge."
"I know. I wanted to get you a bigger one than your current bedmate." She grinned, running the soft spines across her cheek.
"I always loved the way these felt." Setting it aside, she turned to the other gift, and opened it with as much vigor and excitement as the first. "Oh, Andi. He’s adorable. What’s his name?" She looked at me, the Beanie Bear held to her chest.
"Kicks."
"Kicks. I know where he’s going." She hugged the bear to her again, then looked at me. "I can’t thank you enough for all this."
"Not a problem. Why didn’t you tell me?"
"Well," Haley set Kicks and the Koosh aside, and started up the car. We were already late for school. "Birthdays have never been real big in my family, and my friends have just learned over the years to not really do much. Generally we just end up going out, or something. Kelly and Heather are taking me out Friday night." She pulled onto the street, and drove, a bit fast, toward Winston High. "So I don’t want you to think that I was intentionally keeping this from you, or anything, Andi. I guess I just really didn’t think about it."
"Okay. Fair enough. How old are you?"
"Eighteen."
"Wow. You’re old."
"Bite me."
"Where?"
"See? You’re learning."
* * *
"Crap." I had lost my second game in a row of Literati. I knew I could beat this chick, I had before. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY AGAIN? "Damn straight, I do." I hit yes, and off we went. It was Friday night, and I was totally energized from the week, cheesed about getting an A on my psych project, and another week down before school was out. It was nearly midnight, and I had been at this for three hours already.
Tap, tap.
I looked up from the screen, listening. Nothing.
I looked at the letters I had been given, and tucked my lower lip in the chew on it as I thought.
Tap, tap, tap.
"What the hell is that?" I looked in the direction of where I’d heard the noise, and it was my window. I stood, walked over to it.
Tap.
I pushed the window open, BAM!
"Ah!" I brought my hands to my forehead, a fierce stinging there. Shaking my head, I looked
out to see Haley standing in the front yard, her hands covering her mouth.
"I’m sorry," she yelled up, as quietly as she could.
"Do you try to get me hurt on purpose?" She shook her head, I rubbed mine.
"Come out," she hissed, trying to not wake the entire neighborhood, beckoning me with her hand.
"What?"
"Come on." She pointed to her car parked at the curb. Feeling like a derelict, as I had never snuck out before, I quickly closed the window, and scurried around for some clothes, throwing off the sweats and tank I was in, and pulling on a pair of jeans and sweatshirt, tugging on my new boots without even lacing them. I heard the distant rumble of Haley’s car starting up, and made my way downstairs, grabbing my wallet and house keys along the way.
I felt like a guilty rat as I quietly closed the front door behind me, feeling like I should have woken my mom to tell her what I was doing. I know she would have let me go. But, such is life.
"Hey, sorry about the head." She looked at it, bringing her hand up to touch. "Oh, Andi, there’s a little bit of blood." She grimaced. "I’m sorry."
"It’s okay. What are you dong here? I feel like my boyfriend is coming to my window in the middle of the night." She grinned.
"Well, maybe I’m here to take you on a date." She laughed.
"What are you doing here?"
"Why? Do you mind my being here?"
"Nope. Just wondering."
"Well, I just dropped Kelly and Heather off, and wanted to spend some time with you." A sudden feeling of warmth spread through me as a smile spread across my face. Aw, gee.
"Okay, well let’s go."
"I have absolutely no idea what’s open still."
"Well, where did you guys go?"
"To someone’s house for a party."
"Oh." I looked around to see the dark streets and businesses. Up ahead came tons of lights from a huge parking lot. We both looked at each other.
"Wal-Mart?" she asked. I nodded.
"Wal-Mart."
Haley pulled into the nearly empty parking lot of the super center, and parked under one of the lights. We got out of the car into the cold night, and hurried inside the massive store.
We walked in, and of course this late there wasn’t a door greeter.
"Hungry?" Haley asked, looking at a table full of containers of cookies, the gooey frosted kind that I love.
"A little." I looked at the cookies, reaching out to touch the smooth plastic of the container.
"You like these?" They were the holiday ones, frosted red and green with little candy sprinkles. I looked at her and nodded. She grabbed one, and continued on. I followed, wondering where she was going. "I think this is the most empty I have ever seen this place."
"No kidding." I turned down the main aisle, headed for electronics. Haley followed, looking around as we walked, passing the jewelry department, then the photo development place, turned left and there it was. I loved electronics, and always said that if I have a good enough job when I got older, I would have every type of technology I could get my greedy little hands on. "Oh, look at that." I looked at the huge flat screen TV that was on display.
"Yeah, and look at that price tag. Ouch."
"Some day, you will be mine. Oh, look at that DVD player! It can play up to three DVDs at a time, plus has a burner." I hurried down the aisle, passing the bored Wal-Mart employee, and began to play with all the buttons and gizmos the piece of equipment had. I glanced over at Haley to see her watching me, a bemused look on her face. "Sorry. I tend to get a bit carried away."
"So I see. Come on, let’s go look at all the holiday stuff. I love those massive snowmen and Santa Clauses they have for your front yard."
I turned away from the DVD players, and followed Haley with every intention of leaving, but then I was stopped yet again.
"Oh, look at all those Play Station games." I walked up to the locked, glass case, my hands on the doors as I looked at them all, just waiting for me to buy them. I saw the control out of the corner of my eye where you could test games, and began to reach for it when my hand was taken by Haley. I looked at her.
"Uh huh. I will lose you for the night, then I’ll have to explain to your mother why you are still at Wal-Mart. Let’s go." She tugged on my hand, and with one last, wistful glance at the game cabinet, I followed. Haley held on to my hand as we went, I guess afraid that I’d break free and run back to my homeland of the battery and electric-powered machines.
The part of the store where the garden stuff is kept during the summer time, was lit up and decorated like a winter wonderland. Aisle upon aisle of Christmas ornaments, decorations, yard ornaments, and Christmas cards. I wasn’t real huge on Christmas, but this place could turn the biggest Scrooge into a believer.
"Do you like Christmas, Andi?" Haley asked as she picked up one of those battery-powered Santas that played "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer", and danced along. She pushed the red button to make it go, and we both giggled, watching as the jolly old man’s belly jiggled in time to the music.
"Eh, not traditionally. You?"
"Oh, I love Christmas. My family usually goes all out every year. You know, we have the grandparents, aunts and uncles, and the entire clan. It used to be great when I was a kid, then I had an entire playground of kids at my disposal." She grinned. "But, as you get a little older, everyone changes so much, and you just lose that. So, we’ll just have to see how it goes this year." I looked at her, imagining a little Haley running around, playing with all her cousins, fighting over toys and places at the "grown-up" table.
"Andi?"
"Huh?" Haley was looking at me, brows drawn.
"Where did you go?"
"Little Haley’s house." She looked at me for a moment, then a slow, adorable smile began to spread from ear to ear.
"Aww, you’re so adorable." Funny, that’ s what I was just thinking about you. She walked toward me, her arms open wide. I looked at them, then at her as she got closer. Did she want a hug? "Come here, you." I guess so. I found myself swallowed up in a massive embrace, my face pinned to her neck, the warmth of her body almost overwhelming. I felt strange, suddenly, like I was guilty of a crime that I didn’t commit. I wanted to get away from her physically. Needed to get away. I almost felt like she would be able to read my thoughts.
Finally, thankfully, she pulled away, and headed down a nearby aisle. I stood where I was, struck by the feeling running through me. I felt alive, energized, and, I wasn’t sure, but I think turned on. I had noticed beautiful women my entire life, the way they talk, the way they move, wanting to be like them, admiring them. And, I had noticed Haley long before she’d ever noticed me. She had had my admiration for almost three years now.
I shook my thoughts back into the cobwebbed corners where they belonged, and hurried to follow Haley.
* * *
"Andrea, honey, wake up." My eyes fluttered open to see my mom standing over my bed, a huge smile on her face.
"What? What’s wrong?"
"Everything’s fine. I just wanted to give you this now." I looked to see what she had in her hand, and it was the small wrapped gift that had been under the tree since Thanksgiving.
"But mom, Christmas is still a week away."
"I know. But this is a special gift." Liking the sound of that, I pushed myself up, grinning the entire time.
"What time is it?" I asked as I took the gift from my mom.
"It’s nearly six."
I carefully took the beautiful green bow off, setting it aside, as I dug in. My eyes bulged when I saw the check for seven thousand dollars wrapped around a gold keyring with my name engraved in it. I looked up at her, my eyes stinging as tears immediately came to them.
"I promised you I’d match you dollar for dollar, honey. You have done so well with saving your money for this car, that I think it’s time we go look now."
"Really? Today?" She nodded. Grasping the check in my fingers, I launched myself at her, holding her tight. "Th
ank you so much, mom. I love you."
"I love you, too, honey. But, well, you’re choking me."
"Oh, I’m sorry." I pulled away, quickly swiping at a pesky tear that had managed to slip from my eye.
"Get dressed. Your bank opens at seven. I thought I’d take you to breakfast, then we’d deposit this, and go car hunting." She leaned in and kissed my on the forehead, her face the picture of pride. I smiled back at her, loving her more and more each day. She was my best friend.
Once she had left, I contemplated calling Haley to tell her the great news, but decided I’d surprise her with the car, instead. Oh, I couldn’t wait.
My mom had been saving for some time for this, I knew. It had been a plan we’d made many years ago. As soon as I got a job, I would start saving. And I had. Luckily I had found a job that paid more than the average kid my age made. So now I had fourteen thousand dollars to buy my first car.
* * *
"So, what is the deal with Clive? Is he going to leave Diane or not?" I scraped the rest of my eggs together with the little bit of toast I had, and shoved the whole thing into my mouth.
"Well, he has moved out of the house."
"Really? When did that happen?" My mom took a sip from her coffee, grimacing.
"Wow, that’s strong." She poured in a little bit more cream, then stirred. "Last Monday."
"Right before the holidays. That’s got to be rough for all involved."
"Well, the boys miss their dad, from what Clive says. But, he plans to fight for them once he files."
"Which will be when?" My mom flagged the waiter down for some more coffee, and I asked for another orange juice. She sighed.
"I’m not sure. I’ve told him that I love him, and would love to spend more time with him, but I just don’t feel right about this entire situation." She poured a packet of diet sugar into her cup of fresh brew, the waiter had finally just brought her own carafe. About time, after filling her mug three times.
"You mean with Diane?" I took a large sip from my juice, wiped my mouth of its orange juice mustache.
"Well, Diane treats Clive like shit, there’s just no other way to put it. But, I feel bad for Johnny and Alan."
"How old are they now?"
"Oh, gosh, let me think. Johnny is just a bit younger than you, I think, and Alan just turned nine."
