I woke up an extra twenty minutes early and coiffed my hair, making it look like I had just got out of bed, the whole concept was whacked but that’s what you had to do to remain popular. So, with my messy bed head and my Abercrombie outfit, I walked to school. The school was only a fifteen-minute walk. I’d walked almost every day since I graduated into high school, the only difference was I didn’t walk with Mickey anymore. I could see her slim figure ahead of me. Wow, does time change some things. I remembered when we were in grade ten, back in the beginning when we were still friends, and we would walk together. We were both chubby and our skin was all pubescent and full of acne and our clothes were all Walmart brand. Well, I guess the way Mickey dressed hadn’t changed much but we had. If someone would have told me that today we wouldn’t be friends, we’d be more like enemies, I would have told them they were off their rocker. We were close in every way then, we brought the words friends to a new level, a whole new definition, which made it so hard for me to hate her, even though she had no trouble hating me.
Mickey was already sitting in her chair when I entered the class, her pencil in hand and her fuchsia notebook at the corner side of the table. Some things never changed, she was always ready early and always had a notebook in her favorite color, fuchsia. I sat down silently beside her and looked at the teacher. Mrs. Becker was old, she wore small glasses and had blue eyes, her blond hair was greying with age, she looked very European and was short and stout. She kind of reminded me of the Blue Fairy from that Disney movie about the princess who fell asleep. Sleeping Beauty, that’s the one, it was Mickey’s favorite movie when we were eight. She even made me dance with her in the woods near our house like that Prince Phillip. I smiled at the memory of me in my baseball cap and her in her play dress and how we giggled and danced without any music for hours, until June came and found us. We were so silly but we did have fun, I hadn’t had fun in a long time like I did when I was with her. I looked at Mickey who was looking at me weird, I guess it would seem kind of weird to be smiling for no apparent reason, especially when sitting with your sworn enemy. Mrs. Becker continued speaking but Mickey’s eyes and mine remained locked in a stare, it was the longest we had looked at each other, knowing the other one could see since that day.
“Voltaire,” Mickey answered raising her hand. What was the question? That was another thing, she was good at multitasking.
“Correct Mike,” Mrs. Becker responded. I noticed a silver hoop with a fuchsia bead on her ear, a helix piercing. When did she get that? She had wanted to get a piercing there since we were thirteen but she was always too scared because that meant they’d have to pierce through the cartilage and Mickey was not good with needles. I had told her I’d hold her hand when she got it done. I felt angry I hadn’t been there when she needed me.
“James, is something the matter?” Mrs. Becker asked, getting my attention.
“Uh, oh no,” I said trying to look like I was paying attention. What the hell are we talking about? Mrs. Becker shook her head of all the nonsense and continued where she left off, seventeenth century greatest writers. I tried to pay attention for the rest of class, but Mickey’s new earring kept stealing my attention every so often.
“Baby, let’s go to the bleachers,” Ali purred at lunch, pulling me away from the table. I followed her as she strutted, shaking her butt too much and trying too hard. I wished she could just be herself for five minutes, whoever that was. Once we were under the bleachers, she practically tackled me, throwing her arms around my neck and clamping her legs around my waist, her five-inch heels digging into my back. I held her with one arm as I tried to move her heels into a not quite so painful place. She licked my chin and held my face. Ali was different than most of girls that was for sure, none of the other girls were as daring as to lick my face and I liked it better that way. I wiped the slobber off with the back of my hand and turned my head to see if anyone was around.
“Don’t worry, no one comes here at the beginning of lunch.” she whispered into my ear and then stuck her tongue in it. What was with this girl and her tongue? I pulled away disgusted. I bet you would know. Ali had a reputation and let’s say it wasn’t for being prudish. No, it was for being willing, very willing. She begged me a handful of times to do the deed with her but it was always a turn-off. I don’t know what was wrong with me, any guy would accept without a second thought but for me it just didn’t seem right. When I had sex for the first time, I wanted it to be special and with the right person, someone real and not afraid to be whoever they really were, who knew what she wanted and was willing to work to get it, who I trusted
