Mob didn't really like going over to Minori's house all that much.
Her house was bigger and quieter, which was nice, but none of her friends wanted to come with. That wasn't nice. Minegishi and Tsuchiya didn't like Minori…well most people didn't but those were the friends that she would have invited over. Shibata was busy making everyone's Christmas presents, Serizawa took up a lot of her attention when they were together, Minori always made fun of Hatori, and Minori wanted to kiss and do other stuff with Shimazaki. Also Minori was always trying to kiss Sho when they were together so Mob wasn't even going to think of brining Sho over here.
He wouldn't have liked it much anyway even if Minori hadn't been in love with him.
They didn't really do things together that Sho liked. He was a boy and boys liked doing boy things, like breaking things and making messes and cursing. He wouldn't have wanted to play the Shoko game. That was pretty much all she and Minori did sometimes. They put on makeup and clothes and painted their nails and did each other's hair. They also talked about boys and Sho…well Sho liked boys but Mob knew better than to start talking to him about his very complicated love life. Minori would have had something to say about that.
Minori had something to say about…well…just about everything.
"That…that's nice." Said Mob. She had zoned out there for a little bit. Minori had been talking nonstop since they got to her house. She had to keep quiet in the car because the driver would tell her dad all the stuff she talked about. That seemed kind of unfair of her dad to be spying on her like that. Even Dad never spied on Mob and Sho like that, no, he trusted them…he even left them alone…but he always came back…
Though he hadn't been gone for this long since…well their great big fight…but that was over now and things were getting back to normal for the whole family so there was no point in even remembering any of that.
"Seriously, Shige, that's all you have to say?" asked Minori as she stopped brushing Shige's hair. What the hell?! Here she was pouring her heart out to her best friend, and brushing her hair too since she never did it right, and all Shige had to say was 'that's nice'?! What even was that!? It wasn't nice. Nothing about any of this was nice.
This was the worst thing to ever happen to her!
"Um…yes?" said Mob. She knew that she had said the wrong thing. She didn't have to be good at talking to people to know that Minori was mad at her. That was what all the hair pulling and rough brushing was about. Mob could see her in the mirror. She was frowning and brushing Mob's hair like she wanted to pull it out.
Mob had really f-worded up.
Selfish. Again she was being selfish. Mob had been so selfish lately that she didn't even recognize herself. The makeup she was wearing didn't help….there she went again! Minori had gone through the trouble of putting makeup on her and brushing her hair and this was what she thought? Mob wished that she could do a selfishness-ectomy, like how Minegishi had a scar on their side from when they had an appendectomy. She didn't care if she ended up with a big scar on her side or anywhere else. She just wanted to stop being selfish…to be a better friend…to be the kind of friend that her friends deserved to have.
Even Minori.
"What, exactly, is so good, Shige, about my dad picking an ALL GIRLS middle school for me to go to next year?" asked Minori as she brushed Shige's hair. She was proud of herself. She was being a good friend right now. Anyone else would have kicked Shige to the curb for something like that but here she was brushing her hair like she hadn't gone and said the worst possible thing that she could have possible said!
"Um….you can make lots of new friends?" asked Mob. Minori stopped brushing for a second and, for that second, Mob thought that she was free. She thought that maybe she could have switched places with Minori or even suggested something else that they could have done together. That second came and passed, though, and Minori got right back to what she had been doing.
"I don't need new friends. I have you." Muttered Minor
"Oh! That's really-" said Mob
"I mean come on! I have a best friend already, I need a boyfriend! I need a boyfriend and dad's being such an asshole. He's worried about me. He thinks that I'm going to end up pregnant or something like…obviously I'm not going to do it with just any guy! I'm not a slut!" said Minori
"What's a slut?" asked Mob. Minori stopped brushing her hair again. She reached up and tried to take the brush from Minori. Minori just pulled her hand away and sighed.
"Honestly, Shige, do I have to teach you everything?" asked Minori. She had no idea what rock Shige had been living under and she hoped to never end up there. She didn't even know what a slut was….if anyone was going to end up pregnant it was Shige. Her dad was the dad that should have been worried. Minori had been responsible. She had tried to go to the family doctor on her own to get some birth control since she'd be starting middle school next year and middle school had middle school boys. Middle school boys wanted to do way more than kiss.
"Um….yes? You know more about this stuff than I do." Said Mob. She was telling the truth. Minori knew more about a lot of things than Mob did. That was because she had friends her own age and went to school. Mob didn't know about kid stuff. Mob knew about adult stuff like work and cooking and cleaning and drinking and smoking and coke. Especially coke, she had been learning a lot about that lately.
When Shimazaki wasn't trying to kiss her he could actually be pretty fun.
Minori, on the other hand, wasn't that fun…but….but not in a selfish way! Mob didn't want to be selfish and…and Minori could be fun…when she was being nice. She just wasn't nice a lot of the time. That wasn't her fault. She was just stressed from school because all of the girls in her class were b-words. Mob did think that she might have been happy at her new school. She could have joined a club like in anime and had club adventures…though boys were important for school too…but at least she got to go to school. Mob wished that she could have gone to school…but she knew that wishes didn't come true.
If they did then Minori would have put the brush down forever.
"Oh my God…ok. A slut is a girl who lets just any guy mess around with her and feel her up and sleep with her." said Minori
"But…." Said Mob
"What's so confusing? You can't just let any guy do stuff to you. You have to make sure he's your boyfriend or your friend with benefits…and even then you have to make sure that he's not a loser or anything…and you can only do stuff with him if you've been going out with him for a while." Said Minori
"So…it's bad to like boys?" asked Mob. She thought about doing things with boys all the time, mostly Teru, but sometimes boys she knew like Hatori or boys she saw out in the world or boys from manga or from her own imagination. She couldn't think of a time when she hadn't liked boys. When she had been really little she used to lay in bed and imagine what it would have been like to hold hands with a boy and kiss him and stuff…and it hadn't seemed like a bad thing at the time…
But Mob didn't know a lot about this kind of stuff.
"Oh my God! No, it's fine to like guys. We're supposed to be into guys. That's how people get married and shit!" said Minori. God! Shige was so annoying sometimes! She was lucky that Minori was her friend or she would have taken this brush and shoved it down her-
She threw the brush at the wall.
Fucking Shige! She was so annoying sometimes even when she wasn't trying to be. It was like dealing with a little kid sometimes. How in the hell had Shige gone this long without knowing anything at all!? She was friends with adults, and some of them were really cool too. She knew about getting drunk and getting high but she didn't know about anything else, even how to brush her hair, but somehow she was still cool! Not that Minori would have associated with someone uncool…but Shige didn't need to be this cool! Didn't they call her Mob because she was like a Mob character? Why couldn't she be more like that? Why did she have to be so annoying!?
Life was so unfair!
I'm sorry, I don't-" said Mob
"You're such a kid sometimes. It's like I have to explain everything to you!" said Minori. She couldn't be around Shige right now. If she stayed next to Shige then she'd end up getting pissed off and, instead of letting it pass, Shige would just get all bitchy like everyone always did and then she'd be all 'let's pause this friendship' and then what? Minori would have to go out looking for a new best friend?
She didn't have time for that shit.
So she did what she had to do. She put some space between her and Shige. That was what that stupid shrink had told her to do. When someone was upsetting her she was supposed to pause, take a deep breath, and then calmly leave the situation. So that was what she did…even though she didn't need a shrink. Minori could have thought to jump on her bed and bury her face in her pillow all on her own. She wasn't stupid, she wasn't crazy, and she wasn't a bitch!
She was, however, really aggravated and she didn't even have to be!
"I-I'm sorry….Minori…Minori?" asked Mob. Minori had thrown the brush away, which was good, but now she was laying down on her bed like she wanted to smother herself with her pillow. That wasn't good. Mob didn't know what she had done, she had just asked a question, but it must have been a really dumb one….
She was so selfish sometimes.
She should have thought more about how her actions affected Minori. Now Minori was probably going to be done being her friend. She was being a terrible one after all. There her best friend was, crying, or maybe screaming, and Mob was just sitting here at the makeup table like nothing at all was happening. Not every friend was like Minegishi, they were the nicest and most forgiving person in the world after all, and she had to work even harder with her other friends…
She got up.
She didn't like it when Minori got upset like this. She didn't like it when Minori yelled at her and called her names, which she probably would, and she didn't like how long it took to make her feel better…but this was friendship. Friendship was hard work. That was just because it was worth it. When something was worth it then it was hard work. She didn't mind…she didn't really. She sat down next to Minori…and got a teddy bear thrown at her.
She caught it in her hands.
She dropped it, of course, since she didn't usually play catch like that but she couldn't just use her powers in front of Minori. She was a normal person and it wasn't nice to make people jealous like that. So Mob caught the teddy bear as best as she could and put it back on the bed. Minori loved teddy bears. Her mom used to collect them and then after she died she left Minori the whole collection. That was nice…well kind of. It was sad that Minori's mom was dead but it was nice that she had left Minori with someone besides her dad. Mom hadn't left Mob anything when she left…not something as simple as a goodbye….
Mob wasn't going to be any more selfish than she had just been.
"I'm really sorry. I just didn't know what the word meant. You're right. I am dumb and I do act like a first grader but…but I have you to teach me things and stuff." Said Mob. She rubbed Minori's back when she said that. People loved having their backs rubbed when you comforted them. It didn't even matter how you comforted them. Some people needed to cry, like Mukai, and some people needed to shout, like Sho, and some people needed to hug her and tell her how much they loved her…like Shimazaki….
Being friends with Minori was a lot easier, in some ways, than being friends with Shimazaki,
"You're such a baby." Muttered Minori into her pillow. She still wanted Shige to shut the fuck up and go away…but she also wanted Shige to stay. She wasn't a total b-word. She could at least admit when she was wrong, that was more than a lot of people were capable of….bitches….
"I know. I'm sorry." said Mob
"You'd be lost without me, you know that?" asked Minori
"I know. Without you I wouldn't know any of the important stuff." Said Mob
"Good. At least you can admit when you mess up." Said Minori as she sat up. She brushed the hair out of her eyes…she needed to cut it. Maybe they could do haircuts next…or go and get their haircut…or did friends cut each other's hair? Minori had tried to cut this one girl's hair in kindergarten, she'd had really ugly hair, and then everyone hated her and the school made her nanny come to a meeting. That girl had been her friend but then she turned into a bitch…at least Shige, with all of her faults, wasn't a complete and total bitch all the time.
"I can and I'm sorry." said Mob. Good. Minori was sitting up. That meant that she was better…Mob had this. If she could deal with it when Sho and Mukai got upset then she could deal with anything.
"Good. You're sorry…but it's not your fault. Your dad's even worse than mine when I think about it. I mean sure you get to hang out with adults and drink and smoke and stuff but you're like a total alien sometimes so it all balances out. Your dad's a total asshole not letting you go to school and shit…and I guess not getting to go to any school at all is even worse than having to go to an all-girls school." Said Minori
"I guess…I mean I would have liked it if I could go to school. Like to join clubs and have adventures and stuff. You're really lucky Minori." Said Mob
"Yeah, I am. I'm luckier than you and cooler than you." Said Minori
"You are." Said Mob
"I mean, you don't even know what a slut is. Thank God you have someone like me. You could have wound up messing around with a bunch of guys without even knowing that you were doing anything wrong." Said Minori
"That probably would have happened. I didn't even know that it was wrong to like boys and want to kiss them…and stuff." Said Mob. Did that mean that she'd done something wrong when she kissed Teru? She hadn't thought so when it happened. She had just been happy to kiss someone and he'd been so…so Teru…but it might have been wrong. She knew that she had done something wrong, though, when she'd kissed Shimazaki even though Minegishi had told her that it was ok. Mob wasn't completely clueless, just mostly clueless.
"It's not wrong to like guys, I told you already, it's just wrong to mess around with guys when you don't know them. You have to know a guy for a really long time before you kiss him. Like at least a few weeks and if you want to kiss him then you have to become his girlfriend or at least make him take you out a few times. If you want to do something else then you have to be his girlfriend…and just because you do stuff doesn't mean you're stupid!" said Minori
"I never said that you were stupid." Said Mob
"No, not you, my dad. God, not everything's about you, Shige." Said Minori
"I didn't mean to be selfish!" said Mob
"No, of course you didn't. You never do but it's ok. At least you admit it. It's good when people admit when something's wrong with them. It saves me the trouble of pointing it out. I have to point everything out…like with my stupid dad! He says that I have to go to an all-girls school just because…because I wanted to be responsible. It's not like I'm even doing anything and what I am doing is none of his fucking business! Right?" asked Minori
"Um…right." Said Mob. She didn't know what she was agreeing to but she did know that sometimes it was just better to agree with the person that was the most upset. It worked with dad and Sho and Mukai so, of course, it worked with people outside of her family.
"Exactly. It's not like I'm a slut. I just want to have enough time to drop the weight and shit before middle school." Said Minori
"But…you're a medium." Said Mob
"Shut up! I'm a small and you know it." Said Minori
"Um…ok. You're a small…but if you're a small then why do you want to lose weight?" said Mob. Did this mean that she had to go on a diet too? She didn't like diet food…but Minori had said before that they had to be the same size so they could borrow each other's clothes.
"Because birth control makes you fat and it makes you break out and it messes with your moods and shit…but I don't care. My stupid doctor…get this. He doesn't even wait for me to leave the office. He just called my dad! And directly! Like, I would have left his office if he just would have gotten me the pills but he didn't and not only that he was an asshole about it! Can you believe that shit!?" asked Minori
"Um….no….but aren't those for not having babies? Minegishi told me about how there were pills to keep people from not having babies…but….um….you have to do things with boys to get babies…" said Mob
"Yeah, no shit. I'm not sleeping with anyone, I'm not even thirteen yet-by the way, you're coming to my sweet thirteen party and you're not going to try and tell me some shit about moving around a lot. You pretty much live in Tokyo now and if your dad does try to leave then, like, sneak out or something. " said Minori
"I can talk to him but…but what does being thirteen have to do with…with that kind of stuff? Is that when you're allowed to…to do things with boys?" asked Mob. She hadn't given much thought to when she would have been allowed to do the stuff she read about in manga. She had always just imagined that it all would have happened in the future, when she was an adult, that sort of far off future. Not now…well she was only twelve….and it would be a while until she was thirteen. Half a year. That was a long time away….but also….also not really.
"You can't do it until you're in your second year, unless you're in love, and I might fall in love and when I do I want to be thin and have good skin." Said Minori
"But…but….you're going to do…it?" asked Mob. That was…she had never met anyone her age who did things like that…but then again the only person who was her age was her brother and she didn't even want her little brother to even know about these things. This was…this was big. Minori was so much older than she was, about half a year, but it might as well have been half a decade. She was so old and grown up…and Mob….she was a first grader…
But she was kind of happy to be a first grader.
She was happy that she was a little kid on the inside or…or wherever it was that made her a first grader. She didn't want to do that. She never even thought about…all of it. When she did think about this kind of stuff it was kissing and hand holding…and maybe him touching hand while her hand….but never IT. That was…..that was way too much….
That was way too much for Mob.
"Yeah, when I get a boyfriend but not now. I'm not a slut…and neither are you! And if one of us was going to be a slut then it would have been you. You get to hang out with hot guys all day…and he likes you! Yakuza guy likes you and you totally would have done it with him by now if your type wasn't weird nerds-" said Minori
"No! No, I wouldn't have….I don't even…I don't think about him like that and I don't think that I ever could!" said Mob
"Well, yeah, you have weird taste. If you had been normal then you would have been sleeping with him." said Minori
"I….um…." said Mob. She didn't want Minori to get mad again…but Mob didn't want to lie either. She thought about it, sometimes, when her brain was being weird and stuff. It wasn't like she actively thought about it. She didn't want that with Shimazaki, and wouldn't have even if she had been a normal person, but she also didn't want to upset Minori again….
Good thing she liked to talk.
"Of course you would have, who wouldn't? But you're weird. You're weird and you don't get it. I'm not planning on sleeping around but I want to get used to the pills before I do. That's what you're supposed to do, I read it online. When I fall in love then I want to be ready…but my dad's an asshole. Not like your dad. Your dad is really cool." Said Minori
"I don't think so. I mean he can be nice sometimes but he can be kind of mean….and he keeps on leaving us all alone." Said Mob
"So? I wish my dad would leave me alone." Said Minori
"I like my dad…most of the time…some of the time. I don't want to be all alone-" said Mob
"Well then it's good that you're not! Honestly. What in the hell is wrong with you? Do you not hear what you're going to say in your head before you say it?" asked Minori
"Sometimes…sorry. I know that I can be clueless and selfish and a bad friend. I don't want to be but I just am….and I really am sorry. I just don't get it. I mean stuff like that….I always felt like it was for adults and…and I didn't think that I had to start and…and I don't know if I want to….and I don't know how you can be so sure that you want to." Said Mob
"What's there not to be sure about? It's the best thing ever…I mean I heard that it is. The first time hurts a lot, I hear, and you bleed so much that the whole bed gets soaked through-" said Minori
"S-Soaked through!?" gasped Mob as she crossed her legs. That was worse than a period! That was worse than when she rolled over onto her stomach in the middle of the night and woke up all red and gross. Why did that happen when you…when you did that stuff?! The blood was her body getting rid of the stuff that a baby would have lived on if she had been pregnant….which she had no intention of being! To get pregnant you had to do things like that…and she didn't want to. Not even if Teru asked…well…maybe if Teru asked….
But not now. When she was older like thirteen or thirty three or…or dad's age.
"Yeah, Shige. Soaked through. How do you not know? Don't you read weird Frozen fanfiction or whatever?" asked Minori
"…it's not that weird…and it's never about stuff like that! It's mostly about Anna and Kristoff being in love…or Elsa and Jack Frost being in love…but only love! Not that other stuff…" said Mob. She was red…so very red..
"Well when you do it for the first time it's like that. After that it starts to get good. It's supposed to be the best thing ever and there's no reason why I can't have the best. Don't I deserve the best?" asked Minori
"Of course you do…and I want you to have the best…but isn't that a lot. That's like kissing but…but not kissing." Said Mob
"Of course I am. Not right away. We have to fall in love and then work up to that. You know, make out and stuff…well you don't know since you don't do anything." Said Minori
"I…I kissed…I've done kissing before….I didn't like it the last time I did it but…but I know some things." Said Mob. She wasn't a first grader…but she had just been happy to be a first grader a second ago. She didn't know what she was supposed to feel right now…but she knew how she wanted to feel. Not like this. Not like she was little. She wanted to feel her age…whatever it was supposed to feel like when you were twelve?
"Yeah, you know how to get drunk and get high but you don't know what really matters. What's the point of weed and beer if you don't have someone to share it with?" asked Minori
"But I have someone to share it with. I have you. I share with you all the time." Said Mob. She left out the part where it was polite to share back. That would have been mean and she didn't want to be mean to her friend…even if that friend was kind of like…this….sometimes.
"Well, yeah, we're friends. Friends share everything with each other. Like the song, I get high with a little help from my friends." Said Minori
"I get by with a little help from my friends…um…what kind of high do you want to get? I have the kind that makes you sleepy and the kind that makes you jumpy….oh! And I have coke, too, if you want some. Not a lot, Shimazaki won't let me have a lot at once because he's worried about my heart exploding, but there's enough for the both of us." Said Mob. She pulled her Elsa bag up with her foot and opened it. She didn't want to think about that song. If she thought about that song then she would think about the person who sang that song…..well not the British guy but Shimazaki when he felt like singing and…and….
She dug around in her bag until she found what she was looking for…and also where Mukai had left the other half of her lollipop…
"Shige…uh….give me the weed! Yeah, it's not a party. Why in the hell would I do coke outside of a party. That's some drug addict shit." Said Minori as Shige just held out coke like…like it was nothing! Not that Minori was scared. No, cool people did coke. She'd seen movies before. Movie stars and other famous people did coke like it was nothing…and she could do coke. She could do coke or…or she could have but…but she was just hanging out with Shige! What did she need coke for? That was like what drug addicts did!
"What's a drug addict?" asked Mob. She didn't know what she had said that time but Minori laughed…which was better than having Minori curse at her or yell at her. There wasn't anything that she could about how Minori was…and she didn't really mind…though she did want to maybe go home….but she didn't.
She may not have liked visiting Minori at her house but she wasn't going to leave, not even if they spent the whole rest of the day talking about weird stuff, because that would have been selfish…and she had been selfish enough already.