"Shaking Hands"
Kelly didn't know where the hell anyone was again. She couldn't find Dylan, and when she looked for Brandon she found him sitting with Andrea at lunch but when she made eye contact and waved at them he got up and left. She wanted to go over and tell him she loved the article but he didn't look like he wanted company at the moment.
Kelly found herself alone again. Donna hadn't even waited for her after art class to eat lunch together. It was like all their friendships were falling apart. The things that used to keep them together had been unraveling little by little. Kelly blamed herself of course. She never thought single handedly she'd be the destruction of "the gang" but here they all were avoiding eachother. It was sad.
"Hey Kelly you're looking good baby." Kelly whipped around and saw Tag Darren looking her up and down in a pervy way.
Kelly was taken back by how he had just spoke to her. She and Tag had always been friends and he seemed to accept that's all they would be. He never talked to her like that.
"Oh hi Tag." Kelly crossed her arms over her chest self-consiously.
"How you doin'? Where's Dylan?"
"Umm I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine."
"Well how bout you and me go have a little "lunch" if you know what I mean." Tag practically had drool running down his chin.
"What?" Kelly was shocked and not sure she was hearing right.
"Come on Kel. Let's go make a little beach action of our own happen."
Kelly didn't know what to say for a moment. This was totally getting out of hand. Not only did everyone know she and Dylan had cheated on Brenda they also knew it happened at the beach. What next?
"Go to hell Tag." She stomped away from him and back into the hallway. As she walked inside she practically slammed into Brenda coming out of a bathroom stall. Kelly stopped cold in her tracks.
Brenda looked terrible. Her eyes were bloodshot and red and she had huge circles under her eyes. She looked like she'd been crying.
Kelly wanted to say something, but what was their possibly to say? Brenda glared at her and stormed off.
Kelly turned around and watched her go. How had everything fallen apart like this?
#
It was all Brenda could do to not sock that two faced bitch right in her plastic nose. She was ready to get the hell out of there again but her hands were shaking too hard. Her heart was racing. She felt dizzy. She walked out into the lunch quad and didn't know which way to turn. Finally she kind of walked toward the back behind the gym building. She needed to get a grip on herself.
"Nice flannel." She heard a voice say. She looked up from where she had slumped down next to a water fountain. She saw Jefferson Stanley hovering over her.
Jefferson was this stoner kid who never really went to class or did much of anything. He'd managed to not be expelled yet though somehow.
"Oh hi, sorry I can leave," Brenda said trying to sit up a little.
"No, no worries just hang. It's all good," Jefferson answered.
Brenda shrugged and slumped back down against the wall. The truth was she really had no energy to go anywhere. This was it for the moment.
"Oh okay, and umm thanks." Brenda smoothed out the dirty flannel she'd been wearing almost everyday lately. She had sort of stopped giving a shit about her appearance. It seemed so pointless doing things like brushing her hair or changing clothes. There was no one to impress anymore.
"Brandy right?" Jefferson kind of slurred out smiling.
"Brenda actually." Brenda corrected him.
"Right Brenda. You're the one with that bitch of a best friend Kelly Taylor. You know that blond whore who used to tell everyone I had leprrocy.
Brenda didn't really recall that but it must be true. Kelly gossiped about everyone. She'd never given it a second thought but she relized now how much goosip could hurt. Even loser stoners like Jefferson had feelings apparently.
"She's not my best friend." Brenda corrected him.
"Well good, then you don't have to leave." Jefferson smiled. He kind of had a nice smile she thought. His teeth were kind of yellow but he looked happy enough.
They were quiet for a moment. Then Brenda smelled a kind of stinky skunk like smell. She looked up and Jefferson was smoking a big fat blunt. He inhaled deeply while bobbing his head to himself he started humming too.
Brenda coughed a bit. The smell was gross. None of her friends smoked weed. Even Dylan Mr. Surfer seemed to stay clear of it. Brenda frowned thinking of him.
"Damn what's wrong?" Jefferson asked her all concerned like.
"Huh?" Brenda answered back briiliantly.
"You look so sad. Like you just lost your best friend or something. Oh wait I guess you did huh? Sorry."
He didn't say it in a mean way. Even Jefferson the school stoner knew about Dylan dumping her for Kelly. God she hated this place. Didn't anyone actually give a shit about schoolwork here besides who is fucking who.
"Come on girly. McKay's an asshole. You know he once stole my friend's flask she brought into school. He told us no drinking in school and then later we caught him out in the parking lot guzzling it himself. Dude's a bitch."
Just hearing his name made her wince. She didn't answer back.
"You want a hit?"
Now she looked up. Jefferson looked down at her all concerned like. He pulled the joint from his lips and held it out to her. It smelled terrible but he seeemed to be content with it. With a shaking hand she put the joint to her lips and inhaled, boy did she inhale.
What felt like hours later or maybe it had just been minutes she and Jefferson were lying in the grass next to eachother laughing and smoking joint after joint together. Jefferson seemed to have an unlimited supply of weed on him.
They were laughing their heads off. Jefferson, Brenda decided was hysterical. He had all these ridiculous nicknames he made up for everyone in school. He called David Silver "the rapping dwarf" and Steve was "the curly haired douche bag." Andrea he insisted, was really a teacher working undercover as a student. His names for Dylan and Kelly were the best of all. The forehead and the blond hooker. Brenda laughed so hard her sides were hurting. Inbetween laughing she took hit after hit of the joints Jefferson kept rolling. This stuff was great. It was really calming her down. Her hands had stopped shaking and her heart didn't feel like it was beating to explosion right now.
They stayed there for awhile until a loud bell rang out. Brenda knew that it was the end of the day. They had smoked weed the whole afternoon together.
Finally she sat up a bit and tried to wipe some of the grass slime off her ass. Jefferson sat up to, and they kind of looked at eachother.
Jefferson had long stringy brown hair. He wore a wholy black tee with an onk symbol around his neck. His jeans wore completely ripped up, and he had on dusty super worn in Doc Martens. Around his waist was his own red checked flannel.
Brenda stood up now. She could feel wet grass slime all over her favorite dirty flannel. She started to take it off absentmidedly. Luckily she had on a black tee underneath.
"Here take mine." Jefferson ripped his flannel off his waist quickly and handed it to her. He gave her a caring sort of look she thought. He seemed like he sincerely wanted her to take it.
Brenda looked him in the eye. This was the best day she'd had in awhile. Laying here smoking with him had been great. She couldn't remember when she'd laughed so hard or had so much fun. He defintely didn't have leprocy.
"Thanks." She took it from him carefully in her hands. It reeked of pot and smelled stale and musty but she put it on anyway, half of it kind of falling off her shoulder a bit.
"So see ya," she said.
"Yeah see ya, and remember my office is always open." Jefferson gave a bow and a big smile. Then he turned around and started walking away to wherever Jefferson Stanley goes.
Brenda began to walk off. She turned back around though for a minute and could see Jefferson dissapearing somewhere into the staff parking lot. It had been a fun afternoon.
