Stacy gets almost everything else about Claudia, but she doesn't get the metal.
Everyone goes through a goth phase. Well, almost everyone--Dawn likes a little colour in her wardrobe, thank you very much, and for Mallory it just doesn't work with the hair--but everyone else she's really close with has bought eyeliner in bulk at least once in their life. Abby did her time near the beginning of high school, the same year that Anna decided to go away to the conservatory in New York, but she was the funniest Cradle of Filth fan that any of them had ever met. Kristy, predictably, bought a couple of pairs of black jeans and matching T-shirts and doodled a pentagram on her baseball mitt. Jessi looked smashing at school in her fishnets, but the flowy pink stage outfits she changed into twice a week really spoiled the effect. Even Mary Anne sent shockwaves through the circle by showing up one day with her hair dyed black, but as it turned out, it had just been a Sharon highlighting job gone wrong.
But Claudia...well, they've all been waiting for her to grow out of it.
Of course she looks good. There's no denying that her spiked collar offsets the light in her silky hair, and her long brown legs are flattered to the nth degree by that ragged black miniskirt, and yeah, the trenchcoat that hugs her curves would make your mouth go dry. She's Claudia bloody Kishi. She's always been the one who walks into the room and everyone has to clear their throat.
Right?
And Stacy gets her. She always has. She's her best friend. They still spend hours shopping for clothes (although they usually have to meet back at the food court later as Stacy heads for Wet Seal while Claudia beelines for Hot Topic), and they still stay up late giggling over boys, whom Claudia seems to go through like underpants (whoops, bad analogy) and Stacy finds increasingly tiresome. (Stacy's just about certain that Claudia's not a virgin anymore but that's the one thing they don't talk about. Then she finds herself wondering who it was and how it happened, and has to shut that train of thought off because, well, it's weird imagining her best friend and some guy, and why was she even thinking about that in the first place?)
But she still doesn't get the metal.
I mean, why? The black pants are fine, but the chains? And don't those corset piercings get really uncomfortable?
When Claudia first pulled her shirt up and showed her, the first word Stacy said was "Ouch!"
Claudia just laughed. "You're such a wimps, Stace." She dropped the shirt back into place and climbed onto the bed next to her. "They didn't hurt that bad."
Stacy winced. "Yeah, but damn, Claudia..."
Claudia shrugged. "Anyway, they're supposed to tingle during sex." She smirked.
Stacy swallowed. "I'm sure you'd know."
The old Claudia, the one in leopard-print shirts and neon green leggings, would have stuck out her tongue and smacked her with a pillow. But the Claudia in bondage pants and a camo tank just smiled esoterically. "No comment."
"Claud!"
"What?" She ducked her head, the light glancing off her silky hair, and grinned cheekily.
Stacy sighed. "Okay, come on, out with it."
"I never kiss and tell."
"We're not talking about kissing." This time Claudia did stick her tongue out, and Stacy stuck hers out back. "It's me, Claud. Come on."
The artist sighed heavily. "It was only once. And it was a while ago."
Stacy couldn't suppress a triumphant grin. "I knew it! Who?"
Claudia shook her head. "Nobody you know."
"Claudia..."
"Stacy..."
Stacy raised an eyebrow. "Don't make me hide your Milky Way stash."
"You wouldn't!" Claudia's expression of sheer horror was almost comical.
She smirked. "Wouldn't I?"
"Fine!" Claudia rolled her eyes and fell backwards onto the bed. "But you have to promise you'll still be my best friend after I tell you, okay?"
Stacy started to laugh, and then their eyes met and she realised the brunette was dead serious. She furrowed her brow, and stretched out on her side next to her, supporting her head with one arm. "Of course, Claud. You know I will."
Claudia glanced over at her. "Okay." She stared up at the ceiling, fiddling with the strap on her left combat boot. "Her name was Daisy."
Dead silence fell.
Stacy stared at her.
What?
Claudia?
No, not Claudia. Not this beautiful, boy-crazy, completely normal best friend of hers. Not the most reasonable person she'd ever met. She wasn't one of them. They were all kinda freaky, weren't they? I mean, sure, they were people, but didn't they all wear men's clothes and cut their hair short and, well, look gay?
Claudia didn't look gay. At all. I mean, the black was a little butch, but guys still noticed her. (How could they not?) And it had never been weird back in eighth grade when they were all sleeping over and changing in front of each other and sharing bra tips. She could get any boy she wanted. She had always been the most gorgeous, sensible, funny, sweet, sexy...
...anyway, how did Stacy not know?
Claudia sighed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I should have told you, right, and I should have told everybody the day I figured it out, but I was afraid you would freak, and never talk to me again, or worse, like you'd say it was okay but it would be weird and you'd think I was gonna molest you in your sleep or something..." She rolled her eyes. "I'm still me, okay? I still like art and babysitting and chocolate. I just...like girls too."
The blonde cleared her throat. "Wh...How did...When did you...?" How could you do that? How could you not know something like that? Did you just wake up one morning and decide you were gay?
"Oh, way back in ninth. Remember that day Anna came home from the conservatory and Abby threw a big party for her, and we stayed up until like four?" She took a deep breath. "Kristy and Jessi were talking about it, and then Dawn got up and walked over to get some punch, and she was wearing this silky thing and her legs were showing and--Dammit, I don't know. I just knew." She rolled over and mashed her face into the pillow. "Do you hate me?"
"No!" Stacy blinked. "Of course not, Claud. I just...I didn't know."
Claudia rolled back over, and stared up at her with almond-shaped eyes, and smiled gratefully. "And it's not, like, weird or anything, right? I mean, we're still good?"
Stacy felt dizzy. She didn't realise she was doing it until she did it, and then it suddenly felt like the most right thing she'd ever done.
Claudia's lips tasted like orange spice, which was the flavour of chocolate she'd just been eating, and her skin was softer than anything Stacy had ever imagined. Stacy was shaking like a leaf and goosebumps dotted her arms, but when she pulled back, she found herself grinning shyly but wider than she'd ever grinned before.
"Yeah," she muttered.
Claudia looked so surprised that Stacy laughed. "What?" She suddenly didn't know what to do with her hands, so she bit her lip and sat up. "So being gay doesn't make you like all girls, I know. Sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I...oh Lord."
Because Claudia was two inches from her face.
"Not all girls," she murmured. "Just you."
And then Stacy discovered all of a sudden how you could be not gay until you were, or not know you were gay until you knew, and really just how very gay you could be in the first place.
And she still didn't get the metal, but she got Claudia. They were best friends, metal or no metal.
And the corset piercings were still weird, but it was okay. When she slid her hand up Claudia's shirt, she forgot all about them.