Chapter 26
Like me the day before, after speaking to Henrietta she couldn't seem to keep her eyes off me. Whenever I so much as twitched from my seat next to Michael, her eyes flashed toward me and her lips curled up at the corners. It made me feel unnecessarily awkward and I focused more on stroking Firkle's hair as he laid his head on one of my legs, pressing his eyebrow bone a little uncomfortably into my knee.
I was still a bit sad from yesterday, not getting the image of my mom laying on the floor or the drugs on her drawers out of my head. There was a looming sense of dread in my stomach that left me feeling cold and hallow; it had taken me years to save up that money, it was only a little less four-thousand dollars, and I knew in terms of "adult moneytm" it wouldn't last me a lot, but it was mine and I had earned it. It could have definitely pulled me out of an emergency or have gotten the ball rolling if I wanted to leave, but now I was stuck here. I suppose that's partly why I was so subdued at the Biggles' house. I truly had nowhere else to go.
"Well, since our weekend is free, I know what we're doing." Henrietta suddenly announced and I looked up at her. I was going to mention the vampire kids, but before I got a chance to ask what she meant, Firkle sat up suddenly, almost smacking into my chin with the side of his head.
"How are you going to celebrate being a year closer to death?"
I suddenly felt like a bad friend.
With everything going on lately, I had completely forgotten Henrietta's birthday. We had mentioned it days, maybe weeks ago, but it had completely slipped my mind. Maybe if I agreed to dance naked in the moonlight like how she mentioned, that would make it up to her. Mrs. Biggle was undoubtedly going to want to do something for her "poopsie".
"I want to get my nipples pierced, and while we're there each of you should get something too." My eyes slightly widened and Firkle closed his, almost as if he was in pain. "There's a girl in Fairplay that'll do it; I checked her stuff out online, she's pretty good." Henrietta shrugged. Well, there went my question about us being minors.
"Let's go tonight, we'll stay over and come back tomorrow." She grinned, leaning back on her hands, her boobs pushing up with the action.
"I'm in." Firkle smirked. "Think she'll give me a Prince Albert?"
"You'll probably get it infected with your middle schooler smegma." Henrietta rolled her eyes as she lit a cigarette.
"Whatever, let's all go." Pete quickly responded before Firkle could retort.
"I've got nothing better to do." Michael shrugged, his shoulder lightly bumping mine.
"I guess we're all going." I spoke up, Henrietta giving me a sly look.
"You should get your nipples pierced too Sophia; it'll be a bonding experience for us." She blew her smoke at me, making me slightly blush. "Speaking of, we should invite Raven as well."
"What do Sophia's nipples have to do with Raven?" Pete muttered to Firkle who rolled his eyes.
"He probably won't even want to go." Michael rolled his eyes. "He's too busy with his conformist little friends."
"Too busy to go where?" I looked up over my shoulder and saw Raven standing behind us, he shot me a light smile before looking over at the rest.
"Piercing party, you in?" Pete flipped his bangs out of his eyes.
"Where are you guys having a piercing party?"
"We're driving down to Fairplay tonight and getting pierced by a girl there." Pete summarized, he seemed to be the most friendly with Raven.
"Will she even pierce us if we're minors?" A good question.
"She pierces out of her basement; she won't care as long as we have cash." Henrietta shrugged. Raven looked thoughtful, it seemed like he was seriously considering this.
"Are we driving there and coming back tonight?"
"No, we'll come back tomorrow. Are you in or not?" Henrietta was slowly losing patience. He seemed to think about it for a bit more.
"I don't know, my parents-"
"What did I tell you? Of course he's not going to come." Michael scoffed, rolling his eyes and Raven glared at him. They glared at each other for a bit.
"You should come Raven." I spoke up, making them both look at me. "You don't have to get pierced if you don't want to, but we're all going as a group." Though it wasn't my intention, the jab at him being one of us coated my words. He swallowed thickly and sighed.
"What time are we meeting up?"
Bebe Stevens frowned as she watched her best friend pack up her things at the end of their last class. Wendy was smiling as she chatted with Red, Bebe followed them as they walked down the hall and out of the school. There was no volleyball practice today, so they were going to hang out at Bebe's house since Wendy brushed off Token earlier when he asked if she wanted to go out after school. As Wendy said goodbye to Red, Bebe crossed her arms and stared at her.
"What?" Wendy finally looked over, tilting her head.
"What's up with you lately?"
"What do you mean, Bebe?"
"You're up to something." They started walking again. "You've been sneaking around a lot lately, and have been flaking on Token, like, every day." Wendy was silent and for a few minutes, the only sound being the snow crunching below their cute shoes. "Don't get me wrong, I totally understand if you're bored of him already. Token's a nice guy, though he's not exactly the most interesting, but you're looking kind of suspicious lately."
"Bebe, you're my best friend." Wendy stopped but didn't look at her, turning away to look off into the distance.
"Yeah, of course I am."
"And you'd help me with whatever I needed, right?"
"You know I would, what's this about?" Bebe was starting to get seriously worried.
"Alright, I'll tell you." She looked over her shoulder, almost as if she was worried someone was watching her. "Let's go to your house, I'll explain everything there."
. . . . .
"So, you want Stan back, and instead of waiting for him to come back like he always does, you teamed up with the goths?"
"Not all of them, just one." Wendy bit her thumb, lounging on Bebe's rug as the blonde laid on her bed.
"Why would you do that? That's surprisingly dumb coming from you."
"Ugh, you don't get it Bebe!"
"What don't I get? I thought you left Stan because you were bored, and now it's like you're desperate to get him back."
"Because now, there's another girl involved." Bebe's eyebrows rose.
"Who?"
"One of the goth girls." Wendy glared at the rug she laid on, pulling on a loose thread and not caring when it unraveled a few more.
"The one with the huge boobs?" Bebe tossed her curly hair over her shoulder. Sure, she was the first girl in their grade to grow boobs, but now that they were in high school, there were definitely other girls with bigger chest sizes than her. It might have been a little petty, but she had a short list catalogued in her brain of who had bigger boobs than her, and that goth girl was at the top of the list.
"What, no, not her. The other one, the one that's really skinny, she looks like fucking Slenderman."
"You mean the one that got fired the other day when you made us go to Benny's?"
"Yeah her, Michael says her and Stan have been getting closer lately and he wants him away from her too."
"Who the fuck is Michael?"
"The goth kid I've been getting my intel from." Wendy was starting to get impatient, Bebe wasn't focusing on the point of their conversation.
"Which one is he?"
"He has a huge nose and wears an earring."
"Oh, ew." Bebe rolled her eyes and moved so her head was laying over the edge of the bed. "What's the point of all this Wendy?"
"The point is that I need to get that goth bitch away from Stan and make him remember who he really wants."
"Is she really that much of a threat to you?"
"She's not a threat!" She sat up, bristling with irritation.
"Then what's the problem?" Bebe was getting pretty impatient herself.
"Ugh, I don't know, okay! I thought Stan would have at least tried to talk to me by now, but he's still running around with those goth kids!"
"So why don't you just say something to him? He'd literally fall at your feet if you asked him to."
"I can't just walk up to him and ask him to get back with me after I was the one to break up with him!"
"Why not?"
"Because I'd look stupid, that's just not how things are done Bebe."
"Ugh, whatever Wendy, you're suffering because you want to. What do you need me for?" Bebe sat up and tossed her blonde curls over her shoulder.
"I'm going to need your help. I can't trust that goth kid, he wants to get rid of Stan, but he isn't going to want to touch that goth bitch. He was furious after she got fired."
"And what am I supposed to do? I don't know any of the goth kids." Bebe raised an eyebrow. Wendy smirked, sitting up and folding her hands neatly in her lap.
"You're going to help me pull some strings so things go in my favor."
"What kind of strings are you pulling to get Stan back?"
"This isn't just about getting Stan back, Bebe. I have to make sure he completely forgets about that goth girl and doesn't even look twice at her. He has to look at me and only me. I'll forgive him for thinking of her, for now."
"Are you sure he even likes her? How do you know that goth kid didn't just say that to manipulate you into helping him?" An excellent question from Bebe.
"Woman's intuition." A surprisingly dumb answer from Wendy.
That night, I packed an over night bag with some pajamas and what I would need in case I wanted to shower or something. Putting on a change of clean clothes and a warmer sweater than I would usually deal with, I tied on my shoes and walk downstairs to where Henrietta was already arguing with her parents.
"But poopsie, I was going to organize you a little birthday party for tomorrow! Your aunt Stella is even coming over, you love seeing her!" Mrs. Biggle had her hands folded under her chin as she tried making puppy eyes at Henrietta.
"That heroin-addict bitch can die in a car crash and bleed out on the windshield for all I care." Henrietta waved her off, rolling her eyes and grabbing some snacks from the pantry before slamming the cabinets and walking toward the front door.
"Now princess, your mother just wants to celebrate your birthday; she already ordered the food and bought the decorations." Mr. Biggle's gruff voice spoke out and Henrietta turned her glare onto him.
"Stop calling me princess! I'm not some conformist birdbrain, I don't do birthday parties, and I'm definitely not a stupid princess from some out of touch Disney movie." She hissed at him, rolling her eyes harder at their concerned look. "Finally, come on Sophia, we're leaving." She slammed the door open and stomped out.
"We'll be back tomorrow." I said softly, uncomfortable at how disappointed Mrs. Biggle looked.
"Be safe." She forced a smile and I nodded, shutting the front door softly behind me. I climbed into the front seat and put my backpack between my feet, reaching over to turn on the radio as she drove down the street toward the cemetery, the rest of the guys should be waiting for us there.
"Ugh, I fucking hate my parents. They probably want to annoy me to death so they can watch the maggots eat my rotting corpse." She rolled her eyes hard, driving a bit faster.
"Where'd you find the piercer?" I changed the subject.
"She added me on Tweeter, said she liked my aesthetic." Henrietta flashed her phone over to me after looking at it for a few seconds. The profile only had a profile picture and a few followers, besides that it was pretty blank. 'xXJustGenXx' only followed four people and had two followers.
"It looks like a new profile."
"She probably doesn't use it much, she joined forever ago." She was right, on her profile it said, 'Joined November 2010'. I didn't say much else. It was kind of weird how such a random account from another town found Henrietta's profile.
"About time." Pete flipped his bangs out of his eyes, scowling at us as we pulled up to the front of the cemetery. They were all here and it seemed like they'd been waiting for a few minutes based on how Firkle and Pete had been sitting on the curb. Michael and Raven were standing on either side of them, facing away from each other.
"Fuck off." As they stood up, I got out of the car and tossed my backpack in the back. Because of how many of us there were, Firkle and I always sit in the back together, while Michael and Pete take turns sitting in the front.
"Sit in the front Firkle, I'll pull up the center consol for you." I stand corrected. Henrietta, slammed up the center consol that doubled as an arm rest, ignoring the change that fell out of the cup holder as she did. Firkle raised an eyebrow at her.
"How generous of you." He said sarcastically, to which she flipped him off.
"Just do it, asshole." He rolled his eyes and scooted to sit in the middle. Pete followed and slid in the co-pilot seat. I looked up at Michael and Raven.
"Any chance I could get a window-"
"You sit in the middle Sophia, if those two sit next to each other there won't be much left of either of them by the time we get there."
"You're doing this on purpose." Firkle hissed at her to which Pete and Henrietta quickly shushed him. I sighed and slid into the middle seat, shifting a bit as they both slid in, effectively sandwiching me between them. Henrietta smirked at me from the rearview mirror and I lightly glared at her, slightly blushing.
"Let's fucking go already." Pete complained, making Henrietta roll her eyes.
"Whatever, it's a drive so get comfortable." She sped down the street and toward the edge of town where she could get on the highway. The car was warm, but it wasn't uncomfortable since Michael and Raven were still cold from waiting outside. I slouched a bit lower in my seat, the gentle movement of the car and how dark it was, lulling me into comfortability.
I probably would have fallen asleep if I wasn't so hyperaware of the boys sitting on either side of me.
Every time one of them moved, I tensed up, wondering if I should move or if they were also aware of how they brushed up against me. Every time I almost nodded off, I straightened up, worried about accidentally leaning against one of them.
I was used to leaning against Michael, it was easy and comfortable. I liked leaning against him, whether it be against his shoulder, his back, or any other part of him. But after my conversation with Henrietta, I felt like my skin would burn just by touching him. In a good way.
I didn't really have any sort of physical interaction with Raven. Well, except for that time he carried me out of my house, and the time he hugged me after he found out I had spoken to his friends for him. I knew his body was… big. He was muscular in ways none of us were, but still somehow soft and really warm. I knew that if I leaned against him there'd be a lot to lean on, but just thinking about it made my skin tingle with electricity.
I tightly crossed my arms and leaned my head back uncomfortably, staring at the roof of the car. Mentally, I chastised myself for overthinking this so much. What the fuck is wrong with me? What kind of conformist, Twilight-wannabe, love triangle was I fantasizing about? Michael is my friend, and didn't I tell Raven's friends that I wouldn't worm myself into his psyche that way?
So not goth.
Mike Makowski stood anxiously in front of his house, a garment bag over his arm and another duffle bag at his feet. He kept anxiously checking the time and looking both ways down to see if those goth children would be here soon. They were supposed to carpool! At this rate, they'd be late to the Vampire's Ball!
"Mike, you need to come inside soon, okay? It's getting cold out."
"Just a few more minutes mom! They'll be here any second now!" He called back. He looked up and down the street a few more times before sighing miserably. The sun had gone down more than an hour ago, even if they left now they probably wouldn't make it in time to be let into the event.
They weren't coming.