"Hey." Claudine hissed between her teeth, "See me in a sec in the toidy."
"What?"
"SHH!" Claudine hissed at Dollface. She jerked her head to her usual table, causing her large gold hoops to swing wildly. Dollface could see Anit loudly talking to Frankie and Laura.
"Just do it!" Claudine hissed a little louder. Dollface nodded, orders given...
...Dollface perched herself on the bathroom sink's counter. She stared at her scuffed black boots.
Hmmm…
She looked at the rows of sinks next to her, counted them in German, then their stalled counterparts across the way in English, but backwards,
Eventually, Claudine showed up, with Laura in tow.
"Hey gurl," Claudine said, flipping dark hair over her shoulder and cocking her purple plaid newsboy cap, "We were gonna go to a bar lat'uh and we wanted t'know if ya wanted to come."
"It would be so much fun!" Laura said, smiled widely, eyes practically squeezed completely shut.
Dollface looked at them, swinging her legs. "A bar?"
"Yeah, little place downtown, less than a fifteen minute drive from here!" Laura said, patting her matching pink plaid newsboy cap. "I heard it's like my bat mitzvah there every night!"
Laura paused, "But with less twelve year olds and drunk aunts. Oh, and Bubbe wouldn't be there either and…"
"That's enough kiddo," Claudine said, brown hand being placed on Laura's thin shoulder, "I think we have the point."
Claudine looked up at Dollface, thinking more, then said, "It's called the Bronze. It's a nightclub of some sort. Anit goes every Wednesday, she bribed the bounc'uh or something."
"But I'm sixteen."
"Live a little," Claudine said, "We ain't as mature as we look."
"Yeah, but how would we get in?" Dollface asked, "You haven't been there."
"Actually, I have." Claudine said, "Wanted to know what the fuss was about."
Dollface watched Claudine casually shrug her shoulders.
"Yeah, same," Laura said, "Every Monday, which is today, this one band plays, they're really cool."
"You like their music, that's great, but get to the point." Dollface said, not sure what to do. She probed another spot in her mouth with her tongue ponderously, thinking about those ancient vinyl masks she saw yesterday evening.
She'd run home crying, ate Sunday dinner with Regina, went to bed, and the next morning woke up with back cramps and a sore mouth.
That's embarrassing.
"Well, you see-"
Laura was interrupted by Claudine, already getting to the point, "The band will let any teenager in, as long as they promise to hype them up. Be groupies. Free of charge."
"Really?" Dollface raised an eyebrow.
William said that once.
Free of charge?
There's a price for everyone's free.
She learned that the hard way.
And so had most of the men drafted in her town.
"Just think about it." Laura said, swinging her comically small pink plaid backpack. She pulled out a blue plaid newsboy cap and walked over in her pink heels and set it on Dollface's head of pink straw curls, right over the pink velvet bow snatched from Regina's makeup desk.
Laura smiled a smile meant only for Dollface and said, "I think it looks fab on you."
Dollface became very interested in her shoes, but stopped when she realized Laura was basically leaning over her. Flustered, Dollface looked up and over, chin high and side eyeing the ceiling tiles.
"I never thanked you for the teddy. I love him so much!" Laura said, "I sleep with him every night and put him on my pillow every morning!"
"It's true." Claudine said. Dollface prayed her foundation could hide her increasingly red face better than Great Gramma's winter quilts.
"I'll do it."
"Do what?" asked Laura. Was this a test or was she genuinely this forgetful?
"I'll go to the Bronze tonight."
Laura threw her arms around Dollface's neck, making her slip down from the marble counter and across Laura's body.
"Hell yeah!" Claudine shouted, then quieted down, remembering they were in a bathroom trying to keep a secret, "Let's do this!"