Sometimes I have this feeling that my insides don't match my outsides. On the outside I'm supposed to belong somewhere else, but on the inside, my place is here. Maria hates it when I hang out with my 'other group', she says I turn into a douche. Speaking of which, I see that Chase and Tyler are walking up to me. They both nodded in my direction, and I nodded back. Out the corner of my eye I saw Brett shoot me a displeased look, before he started to walk away.
"Gotta go!" It's like oil and water, they just don't mix.
"Dude. Where did you go? You left as it was getting good," Tyler said.
"Emmy got totally pissed and took her top off. No bra!" Chase said and proceeded to high-five Tyler in macho grando appreciation.
"Great tits," Tyler and Chase both nodded in macho appreciation.
"Massive," Chase added.
I smiled with them, trying to get excited about Emmy's aparently massive tits, but all I could think about is when the hell Maria will be here so we can launch our investigation.
"You coming?" Tyler asked, indicating for us to go inside.
I shook my head. "Gonna wait for Maria."
"Wait for McKenzie more like it." Tyler said with a fat smile across his face. "Yeah, I can't believe you haven't hooked up with her yet."
They threw a few 'dude punches' my way before they both walked off laughing
I'm not entirely sure why I'm friends with them actually. I guess, it's just expected of me.
I decided to wait outside the gate for Maria. She's probably been traumatized this morning by her sister's driving. I used to get lifts to school with them, but since McKenzie started driving, I don't feel like putting my life in danger every single morning. My suspicions are immediately confirmed when the car pulled up, well, it kind of skidded up as if someone was being too bit heavy footed on the pedal.
Maria climbed out of the back with a look on her face that screamed she hadn't enjoyed the ride over. She's so easy to read. Not like the other girls at school. She doesn't play games either, I like that about her. She doesn't say nothing's wrong when secretly she's mad with you. She doesn't say she's fine when actually she wants to kill you for some wrongdoing you've committed that you weren't even aware of committing. She doesn't play those chick mind games and speak in that weird chick code that every guy is somehow expected to understand, but doesn't. She's like one of the guys, that's what I like most about her.
Mckenzie waved at me from the car. "Hey, Mike." She's always greeted me in a flirty manner. She waved another cute wave that made her look twelve, as if that's somehow meant to make her more appealing. I've never understood how she and Maria are related. They're total opposites in every way possible, they're meant to be identical too but look nothing alike. Especially since Maria cut all her hair off. Her mom freaked, it was one of the funniest things I'd ever seen. She even suggested collecting the cut hair and trying to have it made into a wig that Maria could wear. But it suits her better this way. Short, kind of floppy, shaggy and it goes spikey when it's wet and she runs her hands through it- it's pretty adorkable. One summer, the one we literally spent swimming in the dam all day, I started calling her Spike.
Maria walked up to me and rolled her eyes, no need to talk. We're communicating telepathically, the usual. I rolled mine back in acknowledgement of her pain and suffering and gave her a little nod. I linked arms and pulled her to the side.
"So you ready?"
"For what?"
"To figure out who's chewing that gum?"
She stopped and looked at me oddly for a moment or two. I've been noticing a lot of odd looks lately and to be honest, I'm not really sure what to make of them, I was just about to ask her what was up when-
"You're serious. Like, you actually want me to go snooping around until I figure out who chews that brand of gum. Seriously. Not a joke. For real?" She sounded irritated.
"Yeah."
She sighed, and it seemed a little more than her usual cynical sigh that she delivered to the world from time to time when the world is making her disgruntled.
"Please, you've got to help. I need to know who she is." I pulled her closer so that our arms bumped into each other. "Dude. Please, I need you. I would look like a perv if I started staring at all the chicks, waiting for one to pull out some gum. You would blend in though. You could move through them unnoticed."
"Like a spy."
"Totally. A fucking spy."
"Looking for gum?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know how lame that sounds?"
I shrugged. I didn't care how lame it sounded. It was the only clue I had to go on. All my hopes were pinned on the gum.
"Why don't you just send a memo out. A bulk Facebook message to everyone, stick an announcement on the board asking the girl who kissed you to come forward."
I shook my head. I'd already thought about that. "No. If she wanted me to know who she was right away, she wouldn't have left. I think she wants me to find her. It's a test."
And now Maria let out one almighty sigh and rolled her eyes so dramatically I thought
