That Girl's A Trick (Stephen Gomez)
"Oh my good lord, Stephen, just ask her out", I rolled my eyes after listening to Stephen's description of some beautiful gird. How great she was, how good she looked, how nice she was, how her voice was like music, how her eyes were so gorgeous… We were supposed to write little story about our mornings with romanticism style, and then ask our partner next to us to give feedback. That was creative writing class pretty much was. Well, not usually, but now. It was only couple days until summer holidays will start. Next year would be our senior year. All exams and everything had already gone, so teachers gave much easier stuff to do.
"I can't", he answered as his dreaming smile fade away. I sighed and turned towards him.
"And why is that?"
"I don't know her that well. I just realized her today actually. After lunch, I saw her lying on the grass with my brother and—"
"Oh, when we were gossiping with guys next to the cafeteria's terrace?"
"Yeah, I think it was then. She was hanging there with John and some other guy. She just caught my eyes. She had this beautiful smile and messy bun and—"
"You already told me", I snapped by accident. I was already getting annoyed. He was such a dreamer. I was about to ask him to finally give feedback about my writing, when the bells rang. This was almost our last class. Just one left, and that would be math. Eww, I hated math. I got up and was ready to leave until I noticed how Stephen just stared the space. I slapped his head with my notebook.
"Ouch! No need!" he squealed as he woke up from his dreams. I shook my head and said I needed to get my math books from my locker. I packed my pens and iPod into my little purse and then took my books and notebook on my hands. Stephen didn't use his backpack anymore; he just carried little stuff in his pocket and books on his hands. I used only my little purse. I took my cell phone from the pocket of my shorts and checked if I had any new messages. One from Daniel asking what I had tonight. I didn't bother to answer, just stepped out of the class after Stephen.
We talked about how Death Cab for Cutie was hitting the town tonight. Stephen wasn't a big fan of them, but his little brother, John, sure was. As we finally got on my locker, Laura was there waiting for us. I asked what she had next. Laura was almost my best friend. I had one, even better friend, but we'll come to her soon. I and Laura were the same age; we both were juniors, just like Stephen. But we didn't have any courses together; we weren't even on the same class. I was on the same class with Stephen. He was pretty much the only person I could stand from my class. We got to know each others during our first year. We pretty much fought all the time, said nasty things and shit. Then it just happened. We became friends. I know, weird stuff…
Suddenly Stephen hit his head on my locker's door. I asked what the fuck he was doing. Then he quickly leaned next to my ear rubbing still his forehead.
"Oh my God. That is her", Stephen whispered into my ear. I turned around to see… Well, my best friend. I looked at Stephen, slyly, and then turned to look my best friend again. She was walking down the hallway with John Gomez. They were freshmen and that made us two years older than them. Gotta say, she was one of the most popular freshmen of our high school. Though she didn't have many friends, only John, me and couple girls and guys from her neighbourhood. I knew most of the girls envied her. I didn't know if it was because she hangs out with John Gomez, or because she is so unique. She was herself always, never pretended to be something else than she was. And that made her gorgeous. She had brown hair, deep blue eyes, beautiful smile and nice voice. Just like Stephen had describes.
"Hey, Allie, what you're gonna do tonight?" I asked as she got closer. I saw how Stephen's mouth dropped. Allie stopped and smiled at me. She said hello to Laura and Stephen also, though she personally didn't know either one of them. I notice John staring at Stephen. Someone yelled Allie's name and she turned around. I turned to watch Stephen, then pushed his chin up to close his mouth. He just swallowed and moved his eyes on his brother whose mouth formed 'dude' with suspicious look. Then Allie turned back and everybody went back normal – John was randomly telling me his opinion about some Death Cab for Cutie's song, Stephen smiled his crooked smile and Laura said she needed to find Daniel so they could hit their history class. She also said they had school until 4:30pm. And it was Friday.
"It's already 12:10pm", I said to Stephen when he asked what the time was. Our class started a quarter over 12pm and it was our last class today. I asked when Allie's school ends. She said they're having still two classes, psychology and Spanish. I sighed and asked if she could come to the mall with me after the class. John asked if I wasn't going to get on the line of Death Cab for Cutie. I rolled my eyes and said I didn't need to get in the front row. He uttered a laugh saying that they should already start walking to the fourth floor. At the end, we were on the first floor's lounge and when the bell rings, there is horrible rush. It takes over ten minutes to get to a class in a rush.
"Yeah, I'm coming with you. I'll call you when I'm home?" Allie asked when they were already walking away. She walked backwards holding her phone. I yelled something like 'sure' and then turned around to find my math books. Stephen had turned around to look after her, and when she was gone, he turned around again – slamming his head on my locker door again. He started rubbing his forehead as I closed the door rolling my eyes. We started walking towards our maths class, which was on the other side of our high school.
"You didn't say she was your friend!" Stephen cried when he stopped rubbing his forehead.
"She's my best friend", I corrected and continued, "You never said it's Allie!"
"Because I didn't know!" Stephen said with high voice tone spreading his hands.
"No need to escalate!" I rolled my eyes. Then I told him I couldn't believe he didn't know. I mean, I pretty much talked about Allie daily, I said hi to her whenever I saw her, I texted her during school, I had met her quite often in Stephen's place also since she was friends with John. I guess Stephen just never noticed her. He had dated this girl, Samantha, for a year, but they broke up month ago. Sammy was a nice girl, she was pretty much one of guys with her skateboarding obsession and everything… Plus she was a senior, she was leaving school this year.
"What if you come to the mall with us? And talk to brother sometimes, I mean, he is Allie's best friend right after me!" I told him as we stepped into our classroom. It was so goddamn hot in there. Both windows were open, but still. I glanced at our places in the back of the class, only to notice that sun was shining right there. I sat on my window place and took my sunglasses from my purse. Stephen sat next to me, and I saw how the line in between of light and shadow went right next to his shoulder. Fuck my life.
"Miss Allen, could you take your sunglasses off?" our teacher, mister Thomason asked. I shook my head yawning and then said no. He asked why exactly was that and did he really had to ask me to remove my sunglasses again. I took them off, just to let sun make my eyes blind.
"This is fucking why. And this class is under construction so we don't have fucking curtains here. I have to use these or I'll be blind and your wise advices of mathematics' wonderful world will be out of my sight", I finished sounding very apologizing and put my sunglasses back on. Stephen uttered a laugh like most of the class. Mister Thomason muttered something as he opened his book. Looked like we were studying math like any other day… I sighed and opened the last spread of my notebook. It, and the last page of it, was full of tic-tac-toe. I glanced at Stephen and he formed a crooked smile. It was his trademark. We were going to waste the whole class playing tic-tac-toe – just like we always did. That was probably why we both failed math in the first place. We talked about Allie for a while, then about John's as failed math grades, until I got the best idea ever.
"So tonight, I will go to Death Cab for Cutie's gig with John… What you're going to do tonight?" I asked as I marked my third X in a row. Stephen blocked it from the other end and shrugged mumbling something. I asked him to repeat what he said, and then he pretty much yelled 'I don't know' at my face. I stared at Stephen with big eyes for a while, then started laughing. After I had calmed down, I mumbled something about waiting in a line and Allie.
"What you said?" his attention was caught immediately.
"See, that is so annoying to mumble stuff!"
"I know, just tell me!" Stephen squealed. Our conversation was turning into yelling – again. But nobody really noticed, as usually, our math class was so noisy that you couldn't tell if someone was yelling or not. Ah, I loved high school.
"Calm down! I said Allie is coming to chill in the line with us. We're gonna go there straight from the mall—Hey you didn't answer when I asked if you wanted to come to the mall with us!" I interrupted myself as I realized that. Stephen blushed and said it was my turn. I closed my notebook.
"Oh fuck, I don't know. Wouldn't it be awkward? You guys shopping and I just follow you—"
"Shut up."
"—and you just try on some clothes and I sat in the corner and—"
"Shut up."
"—and then we go to the line and John talks with you guys and I'm all awkward—"
"Shut the fuck up for fuck's sake, Stephen!" I suddenly squealed when he didn't listen to me. Stephen leaned back little bit, looking shocked, but then his face broke into a smile. I explained how not awkward it will be, and how fun we would have. Then I said he barely talked to his brother anymore.
"Yeah, I should fix it. He's just never home. By the way, do you have any pot—?"
"Mister Gomez and Miss Allen, I see you haven't done anything and Mister Gomez here just mentioned pot. Does Miss Allen have drugs during school time? You both know drugs aren't allowed", Mister Thomason suddenly said loudly standing in front of us. We both turned to look at him in a shock. Fuck.
"You both, to the principal's office. Now."
I let you little moan, packed my stuff in my purse and grabbed my books. Before we left, I took two joints and a lighter out of my purse. I gave another one to Stephen, who had problems hiding his amusement, and placed the other one in between my lips. I lit it right in front of teacher's table, waved to Mister Thomason and lit also Stephen's joint. We both gave such a lovable smile to our teacher and left the class.
"Almost last day and… We are in trouble", Stephen uttered a laugh blowing some smoke in the air. I giggled and headed to the principal's office. Our principal, Mistress Watson, was quite old, but very nice lady. She was a widow and she knew how to relax. I had been in her office earlier, because of pot also, and I knew she had no problem with it since she smoked herself. It only cost me some pot. Which pissed me off. It took about ten minutes from us to drag our asses there. Stephen knocked the door as he lit his second joint. We heard the buzzer and let ourselves in.
"Oh, Miss Allen… And Mister Gomez!" Mistress Watson said slightly amused. I guess it wasn't a surprise. I slumped to the chair and Stephen to the other one. I stretched my hand to give my joint to her smiling. She took it and asked if I had any flower with me. I nodded and took little minigrip-bag from my purse. It had about 7 grams in it. As our dear principal blew some smoke in the air, she handed my joint back and took the bag. Stephen giggled little bit – yes, giggled.
"Always pleasure to see you here", Mistress smiled and told us to leave. It was only half 1pm. So technically we got the whole class free. I said that to Stephen as we had stepped out from the principal's office. He smirked and closed the door. We started walking towards my locker to dump our books there. I managed to persuade Stephen to come with us.
We went to Stephen's place. I said hi to his mom as Stephen left outside to finish his joint. Mistress Gomez was really nice mother – as I made my way to the kitchen, she offered some brownies to me. I took one and then we chatted how I had been and shit. Stephen came to the kitchen, kissed his mom's cheek and took one brownie. We talked for a while, then went upstairs into Stephen's room. I opened his laptop as Stephen jumped on his bed. He leaned his feet on my wall and stared at the sealing as he was smoking his third joint. I put some music on, and that music happened to be Midtown. Stephen let out a moan and asked for his water pipe. I asked why he needed it when he had still one joint left.
"Hey, how the fuck you think I can handle some frigging Midtown?" Stephen rolled his eyes as he got into a sitting position. I just told him how good Midtown was and handed my water pipe. Stephen took little bag from his pocket and there we went again…
After exactly two hours and forty-seven minutes later, John stepped into Stephen's room – only to find us lying on the floor heads next to each others and giggling. We had had such a fun time – still had, so we didn't notice John first at all. Stephen was just telling how he never had realized how awesome that one stain on his sealing was. I giggled and then heard John clearing his throat. We both turned our heads lazily to look at John.
"Guys. We need to hit the line", John said. I asked the time. When I heard it, I got up quickly – hitting my head to Stephen's chair and falling pretty much on him. We both started laughing like nuts as John just rolled his eyes and yelled for Allie. I heard steps from the hallway, and suddenly Allie was standing there next to John.
"Oh my God. You've been smoking. Remember, your brains are soft enough already", Allie said as he stepped over us, then turned around and crouched on our level. Stephen was staring at her dead serious, but I felt from his stomach that he was holding back laughing. It felt so funny that I started laughing again. Allie cursed, then pretty much ripped me on my feet. She made me sat on Stephen's bed, then turned to look at Stephen.
"Have I ever said I think you are gorgeous?" Stephen suddenly asked with dead serious face. Then his face broke into that irresistible crooked smile. Allie smiled shaking her head. She offered her hand to Stephen, who took it and got up with Allie's help. Allie just looked at him with a smile on her mouth. And of course Stephen had his trademark smile on. Then he slowly leaned forward, reached the corner of Allie's mouth and pressed his lips there. After couple seconds, he leaned backwards. No, he did not. I just wished he would've done it. It would've been perfect. Suddenly John moaned that we should go already. I got up, put Midtown off and took my purse.
"You should kiss her", I said silently as we walked towards the place gig was going to be. Me and Stephen walked couple metres after John and Allie. Stephen rolled his eyes. We weren't so stoned anymore, and that was a good things.
"And you should date John", Stephen said back taking a brownie from the paper bag I was holding. Mother Gomez had packed some brownies with us though we hadn't asked. Or I had, because I loved their mom's brownies. I uttered a laugh as I heard what he said.
"Dude, John is ugly. Plus, he's your bro. I couldn't date my best friend's little brother."
"John is hot, at least that's what every single girl on our school says except for seniors. And you're gonna let your bestest friend and your best friend to make out—?"
"You're gonna make out?!" I squealed by accident. Thank God some car just honked right next to us so Allie and John didn't hear me. Stephen slammed my head slightly with his hand and then took the paper bag from me. I pouted and he sighed offering me a brownie.
"I'd like to—I mean, I wouldn't mind if we did", Stephen shrugged.
"Why you just don't do it?"
"I don't know."
"If I kiss John, would you kiss her?" I asked with a sly smirk.
"Oh my God. You would never kiss John."
"That is why I'm making this one and only special deal for you. To help my best friends fall in love", I said sounding very cheesy. I was amused. I didn't like John, but I liked kissing people, no matter how they looked or how much I cared about them. Stephen repeated what he just said. I told him John wasn't that bad. Then I mentioned how good Allie's ass looked in that black and white dress. I didn't even look at her ass, I was literally staring at Stephen who was now staring at her ass. I slapped his cheek.
"What?!"
"I see you want to kiss her", I said as Allie and John ran across the street through red stoplight. I rolled my eyes as me and Stephen left there to wait them to change green. It gave us more time to talk and think about this thing.
"Dude, I can't do it."
"Do you really imagine that I wanna kiss John?" I rolled my eyes.
"Ye—No. Okay, it's a deal", he suddenly changed his mind.
"Ok—What? I do not wanna kiss John! I thought you would never agree that!" I squealed.
"You said it's a deal! I agreed it!" he yelled back. Some old lady next to us gave us very murderous look. I bet she thought we were just playing with someone's feelings. We were not. Or I was. Or I wasn't. John could never like me like that. We were just friends. We had been pecking drunk and shit. It would be just a friend kiss, right? My thoughts were interrupted by Stephen singing casually in my ear.
"You must kiss Joo-oohn, you must kiss Joo-oohn…" he was smirking.
"You must make out with Allie", I snapped back with raised eyebrows. He just frowned at me showing his tongue, but didn't sing casually anymore. Those stoplights turned green and we changed our topic into Midtown. We reached Allie and John, then kept walking towards that place. Sun didn't shine anymore, but we didn't notice it.
I bet we had sat there, in the line, for about four hours already. We had quite good places, I guess we were somewhere around tenth in line. There were about hundred or more people after us. I was wearing Converses, shorts and Death Cab for Cutie's t-shirt, so did John but with jeans. Allie was wearing just black and white summer dress with socking and Vans. Stephen had a hoodie and jeans with Vans. That was probably the smartest outfit tonight, because it was getting quite chilly. We were sitting in a ring of people, me in between John and Allie.
"Gosh, it's cold here", Allie said interrupting our conversation about summer plans. I glanced at Stephen nodding little bit towards Allie as John and I agreed her totally. Stephen bit his lower lip for a while, looked at the ground but then took his black hoodie off and offered it to Allie smiling. Allie stared at it for a while, then blushed taking it from Stephen. I rolled my eyes. Either Allie was awkward around guys, which she never had been, or then she had fallen for Stephen head over heels.
"Stephen. When we're gonna make our thing happen? I mean, we are getting in pretty soon", I said glancing at my phone to check the time. Yup, the doors should open within five minutes. I said that out loud also. Stephen just shrugged saying 'you first'. John and Allie were looking quite confused. We argued about which one would start for a while, ignoring Allie and John.
"Fuck you, Stephen, fuck you", I said as I grabbed John's face pretty much forcing him to kiss me. Though it turned into a very passionate kiss, and when we pulled out, we both were quite blushed and gasping. I returned back to my place and looked at Stephen inclining my head. He did nothing.
"Oh my fucking God. You do not betray me", I said sounding quite angry. Stephen just bit his lower lip to hold back laugh. I got up and punched him, in the face. Not with a lot of power, just little friendly punch from a friend reminding how uncool lying was. Allie and John were still out of the game. I was just about to grab Stephen's collar, when I heard screaming – the doors were open. Instead of Stephen's collar, I grabbed John's hand to make our way to the doors.
"So that was just some fucking game?" he asked as we waited. Allie and Stephen were standing further, talking about something. I looked at them. Goddamn I was mad at Stephen. I thought we had a deal. I kept my part of it, and damn it was one part. It was actually quite… Never mind. I woke up from my thoughts as younger Gomez waved his ticket in front of my face repeating his question. I sighed.
"We made a deal that Stephen kisses Allie, who he likes way too much, if I kiss you. It was just a deal… But like I didn't enjoy it", I just snapped setting my eyes upon his.
"Oh, right, you're just fucking with m—What?" John obviously thought I would answer something different. I gave him a look which told I wasn't kidding at all. That kid was just staring at me. We were pretty much the same height, or I was just a little bit shorter than him.
"Err… Would you… Like, you know… Like to… Do it again?" he asked after a long and awkward silence. Girls in front of us were just on security check. I just glanced at John, or most likely his lips. Then we automatically kissed. I heard the security dude saying we should get a room. I wrapped my arms behind his neck smiling in between our kiss(es). Then I saw Stephen and Allie.
Fucking making out.
Then they left holding hangs.
Mission accomplished.
And oh, Death Cab for Cutie's gig was fucking awesome.