The store was dimly lit, and lined with cases of CDs, tapes, and records all over the place. In one of the back corners, there was a Juke Box filled with CDs, where a girl in a frilly skirt was standing. In the other back corner, there were a few guitars, which were being examined by the three guys from earlier.
"C'mon," Clare said, pulling me in the direction of the guitar corner. "Here are all the good CDs."
She was right; this was where the good CDs were. We were in the rock section.
We started flipping through the CDs at random, until the frilly-skirted girl finally picked out a song. Clare and I both stopped dead, and looked at each other fearfully.
Why Not, by Hilary Duff (well not really by her, just sung by her), had just started playing.
Seeing the look on Clare's face, I decided that she wouldn't be offended if I... poked a little fun at the song.
I acted quickly, so my window of opportunity didn't fade.
"Ahh!" I said loudly, covering my ears. "It's the music of the devil!" Then, I acted possessed, and said, "And it's telling me to kill!"
I lunged at Clare, who, by this time, was laughing hysterically, and started fake-choking her. She played along, making gurgling noises that I would have thought real, if she wasn't laughing so much and giving it away.
The frilly-skirt girl scoffed loudly, and stomped out of the store; I immediately stopped pretending to choke Clare, but neither of us ceased to laugh.
"Would someone... please... turn that crap off?!" Clare managed to get out between laughs.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy with thick glasses obey, and switch the song to My Chemical Romance - I Never Told You What I Do For A Living.
"Thank you!" Clare and I shouted together, finally getting over our twitch giggle fit twitch.
"So, what's your name?" I asked the guy with glasses, since he'd practically saved our lives from the dreaded music of the devil.
"Kenny," he said. He seemed sort of shy, what a cutie.
Actually, they were all good-looking, but before I could ask, Clare beat me to the punch line, saying, "And who're your friends, Kenny?"
"Rei," said the jet black-haired one, before Kenny could answer. "And this is Tyson."
The one Eating gave us a small wave.
"I'm Zoe," I said.
"I'm Clare," said Clare.
"Cool," they all murmured at different times (it would've been freaky if they'd said it together, huh?).
After a short pause, Clare said, indicating Tyson and Rei, "Hey, don't you two go to Roosevelt?"
Roosevelt was going to be my new school... and I guess it was where Clare went, too.
"Yep," answered Rei, while nodding a little.
"What about you, then?" I asked Kenny.
"Oh," he said nonchalantly. "I already graduated... A couple years ago."
"So you're what? Twenty?" I wanted to know.
"That would be correct," Kenny replied. (I know Kenny is he youngest, but he iusnt in this fic D)
"Cool."
"Yeah."
After another short silence, I began playing with near-by CD cases, until one in particular caught my eye. Coldplay, X&Y. Usually, bands like them were too mellow for my taste, but... what could I say, I liked them.
I sensed Rei lean in a bit to see what I had picked up, and before I could block it, Kenny was shoving Rei at me, and laughing mindlessly.
"Hey!" I shouted at Kenny.
Rei muttered an apology, and started to back away, but he stopped abruptly, and said, "Ow! My lip!"
At the same time, I yelled, "Ow! My hair!"
My hair had gotten caught in Rei's lip ring!
Kenny laughed even harder at this, and was soon joined by Tyson and Clare
"Kenny!" I whined. "You ass!"
He had probably just wanted attention, and, I guess I was giving it to him.
Darn him. Darn him to heck. I wasn't really too mad.
I said to Rei, "Here." I moved in a little closer, to give my hair some slack, since he had gotten caught in the upper-portion of my hair. Then, I told him to stay still, as I lifted his chin. It was really nice to be close to him.
Damn, he smells good.
Since he was really hot, I took my time, and made sure to be very gentle, unwinding each strand with special attention. I noticed Rei's eyes wandering the room, trying desperately not to look into my eyes, and failing every once-in-a-while. It was mighty cute, and I had to admit, I was enjoying all the butterflies I was getting from these guys; not only the butterflies from Rei, but the butterflies from Kenny, and- to a lesser degree, since I suspected Clare liked him- butterflies from Tyson.
"There," I said, when we were unstuck from each other. By that time, Kenny, Tyson and Clare were all sighing off their laughs.
Rei took advantage of Kenny's temporary lack of attention, and punched him in the stomach.
"Ah," Kenny grunted. "Christ! I'm sorry, okay?!"
Rei just massaged his lip for a while before saying, "Damn, Kenny, I just got this done a couple of weeks ago. Now it hurts like hell."
"Aw," I said sympathetically, draping an arm over Rei's shoulders. "It's okay." I gave him a quick side-hug.
He played along and hugged me, putting his head on my shoulder, and saying in a baby voice, "Kenny's being a meanie."
"Shh," I said, rocking him side-to-side, giving Kenny a fake glare, followed by a smile.
Kenny rolled his eyes at my behavior with Rei "Get a room," he said.
I let go of Rei with reluctance, and allowed him to back away.
Just then, the door swung open, revealing Mariah, Jessy, and Kai a little farther back.
"Clare! Zobo!" Jessy did not just call me 'Zobo'. "We've been looking for you everywhere!"
She quickly ran over to us, and gave us both hugs.
"Yeah, because we were in so much danger," I muttered sarcastically, receiving smirks from Tyson, Kenny And Rei.
"Silly," she said, pushing my arm; I just about gagged. "C'mon, we're all going to your house- I mean, your Aunt's house- sorry."
I gritted my teeth. What a bitch. I cannot believe she would say something like that.
I pushed past her and ran out of the store.
Before I got out, though, I could hear Clare smack Jessy. HARD.
I spent the rest of the day locked in my room, staring up at the ceiling.
She did that on purpose. She just had to bring up my pain. "...Your house-I mean-your aunt's house..." Bitch!
She wants me to suffer, there's no other explanation!
Jessy must be punished!
Wait... what?! "Punished?" What am I saying?
...I could put dye in her shampoo...
NO!
...yeah, dye...
Oh my God, why am I thinking about sabotaging her hair? Now who's the bitch?
Me. Dye will do fine.
No, it won't. I am not dying Jessy's hair.
What if she does it again?
...Well, if that's the case...
You know you wanna.
Okay. If she does, or says, something terrible again...
She'll have green hair-
-temporarily!
Temporarily, fine.
"Zoe," called Clare for the fifteenth time, finally grabbing my attention. "Zoe, please come out."
I got up and went over to the door.
"Zo-oh," Clare said, surprised that I had actually opened the door.
She stepped inside, and I closed the door behind her, forgetting to lock it.
"Jessy can be a real bitch, sometimes," Clare said, once we were settled. "You shouldn't pay attention to her. She's probably just jealous of-"
"Jealous?" I asked; the word had struck me like a fork in the eye. "What's she got to be jealous of?"
"You," Clare answered simply.
Excuse me?"What? Why?"
"She probably thinks your a match to her blinding beauty," Clare told me, sarcasm dripping from 'blinding' and 'beauty'.
I blinked a few times. What is she talking about? I'm not pretty... am I? I mean... I... No one has EVER told me that I'm pretty before... Except my mom, but that doesn't count...
"You're kidding, right?" I said, after a bit more thought.
"Sadly, no," Clare said sardonically. "And, now, she probably will push your buttons to stress you out, and make herself feel better; she wants NO competition."
"B-but.." I stammered angrily. "That's not fair! She's going to remind me of my mom dying all the time just because she thinks I could be competition?" I would guess that my face displayed an expression of utter disgust, at the moment. "Does she do it to you, too?"I thought that Clare was pretty, so I wanted to know if Jessy put her through this, too.
"Yeah," she muttered. "For me, she calls me freak at school, and stuff. One time, I told my mom, who told her mom. She denied it, started crying like a baby, and called me a liar."
I looked at her with disbelief. Jessy is EVIL.
"She messes with you- and now she's going to mess with me- because she thinks that we're better looking than her?" I yelled. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard."
"I know," said Clare, sympathizing with me. "But that's just the way Jessy's mind works."
I'm going to be punished for something that I don't even think is true. This is just great. Isn't my life bad enough as it is? Why? I was feeling very frustrated with Jessy for the second time that day.
"You know," I said, a strange thought occurring to me. "Why does she even think of us as-uh- 'competition' when we're, if we must be stereotyped, punk? I mean, she's obviously a prep, why would she even care about our existance?"
"I think it's because she finds herself safe-commercial pretty, and thinks that you-"
"-we-"
"-are edgy-model pretty," she explained.
"This whole thing just makes me so pissed off," I fumed.
Clare scoffed, "I know-" but she stopped as Mariah peeped her head into my room.
"Hi," Mariah greeted meekly.
"Hey," I replied, to be polite, even though my voice was dull.
"Clare, it's time for you to go home," she informed Clare. "But, you can come back over tomorrow with Jessy, if you want to come shopping with us."
"We're going shopping, tomorrow?" I asked. My voice was a little fierce, to my surprise, and shame.
"Yeah," Mariah said, in a voice that made me think she was under the impression I'd murder her if she was too loud. "Mom's having a cocktail party in a few days, and she want's us to dress up for it. She also says that she thinks it would be a good time for you to get new school clothes."
"Fun," I said sarcastically.
"Well," said Clare. "See you tomorrow, then."
"Bye," I said with a smile. I had nothing against Clare, so I didn't want to make her feel bad just because of my crappy mood.
"Goodnight, Mariah," I said pointedly, when Clare had gone, and Mariah had stayed.
"I'm really sorry," she said. It caught me off guard, but it sounded like she meant it. "About everything that happened today."
Without even thinking, since that's the kind of person I was-apologize to me, you're forgiven, don't apologize (when you've done something bad, which I guess Mariah really hadn't in the first place), you are fucking LOATHED- I said, in a softer voice, "Oh. Well. It wasn't a total waste. I met Clare. And that arboretum sounds nice."
She smiled weakly, and said, "See you in the morning, Zoe."
That night, I dreamt about the pale guy, Tyson,and the Chinese guy, Rei.
It wasn't like my normal dreams, though. In my normal dreams, I'm usually taller than Kai, or something, and rubbing it in his face. Of course, when I get up from those, I'm still a shortie, but that's just how my dreams go. My dreams are usually really stupid, but the one I had that night was so different.
I was sitting in a boat with Tyson, and I was laughing. He started leaning into me, and soon, he was kissing me. He was a really good kisser, but it was kind of sudden. When we pulled away from each other, I blushed and turned away.
When I turned back, I was no longer sitting in a boat, but on a bench, surrounded by flowers, and other plants, and instead of Tyson, Rei was there. He was looking at me with a really sad, almost pleading, look. For some reason, tears were coming out of my eyes. Soon, I couldn't take it anymore, so I got up and ran.
The plants changed to a blur of grey and then stormy beach as I fled, Rei close behind me.
I felt a hand grasp my shoulder and spin me around. Rei was there. He put his other hand on my other shoulder and he kissed me, all the while, bringing one of his hands to the nape of my neck. I just melted into him.
Then, the dream ended.
Weird, huh?
I got out of bed, and went through my closet, and into the bathroom. I took a shower, and, when I was done, I applied eye-makeup, and walked back into my room.
I put on my normal atire but in dark blue and white.
Just on cue, I heard a knock at the front door. I hurried out of my room, and into the entry way to open the door to a person who I assumed was Clare.
I opened the door, but, to my surprise, it wasn't Clare at all; there in front of me were three boys I recognized as Kenny, Tyson and Rei.