Tokio Derby

I woke up the next day feeling like a dinosaur took a giant crap on my face. I had been feeling that that for the last few mornings, annoying nightmare-like dreams messing with my awesome sleep.

I followed the simple motions I had gotten used to: taking a shower while singing off-key to a song blaring from the radio outside, brushing my teeth, and eating breakfast alone. Some things had changed though, like waving to Dominic and Claude as they got in their car and drove to school. Sometimes Dominic would come over and we would make out, but nothing more than that. One, because I was kind of creeped out by all the touchy-feely things Dominic did and could do, but also because it felt wrong to be playing tonsil hockey while Claude was sitting in the car behind us. Sometimes I imagined him watching, but stopped doing that because I knew Claude wasn’t a pervert.

“So,” Davon asked, skating alongside me with her roller-skates. We had recently started to skate to school together. “It’s been three days since The Incident. How do you feel?”

I shrugged. Davon was the only person I had told about the thing with Dominic and the only person I felt like telling. She gave off a vibe that she could keep a secret until the grave.
“You know that’s what people do in a relationship,” Davon replied. “They get to a point where they want to discover each others bodies.”

“But I was never raised like that,” I lied. Okay, my parents were a little on the way-too-horny side and would always be doing stuff like that whether I was around or not. “I was raised thinking that when you become a teenager, you will want to touch others. And when you do, you will die.”

“And what will you die of?” Davon asked between snickers, a smile appearing on her face.

“In the words of the movie ‘Mean Girls’,” I recited, “’you will get Chlamydia and die.’”

“Do you even know how to spell Chlamydia?” she scoffed.

“Yes,” I said, sounding like a spoiled child. “At least I think. It has a k in it right?”

Davon looked at me with wide eyes of astonishment. I stared back at while bugging my eyes out like I saw she had a third eye. We then continued to laugh our skates off until we got to school.

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“All right class,” the familiar ring of Ms. Markoff’s voice was almost a whisper by the sudden April rain. “We’ll work in three’s on a project.” She did a quick head count. “It turns out there’s an even number, so no group of two or four.

“I’ll give you the groups. Hayley, Gretel, and Lola…”

A group of three blond girls giggled loudly and smiled.

“…..Ash, Marissa, and Klyde….”

I stretched out my hand to Marissa like she was miles away, and she giggled while doing the same.

The Creative Drama teacher named off some of the other kids, which left only three people left.

“……and finally Dominic, Clarissa and…..
“Hansel.”

It was like my brain exploded. Since when did she get in our class and why was she even in my group!

We got out of our seats and settled into our groups. “I’m happy to be in a group with you Dominic,” Hansel cooed, sliding up to him and leaning as close as our bean bags would let us.

“I’m here too,” I snapped. She looked at me like a dinosaur looking at another predator.

“Now I want you all to do a subject on cheating and how it can ruin lives,” Ms. Markoff said, not looking up at all from her book.

Just friggin’ great, I thought to myself, crossing my arms over my chest.

After what seemed like a boatload of silence, I decided to speak. “It should be something like ruining a marriage,” I sneered, “Dominic and I could be married and you could be the mistress.” I glared right at her. “I bet you’re good at doing that,” I murmured under my breath.

“I actually think you should be the mistress,” Hansel said, a smug look on her face.
“Well,” I said, “I am dating-“I moved my hand over to Dominic’s. Instead of holding my hand like he would usually do, he snapped his hand away from mine abruptly, like I had the plague.

“I don’t really mind who I’m married to,” Dominic replied, “just as long as there are two girls fighting over me. But it would be really nice is Hansel was my wife.

I opened my mouth to argue the crap out of that idea, but I didn’t have anything to say. Sure Dominic was my boyfriend, and Hansel was practically drooling over him, but he must’ve had a good reason for doing this. Maybe he was just doing this to make her feel better; then he would tell her that there was no way they could be together.

We were the last group up, some of the other groups having to be gay couples. It started off amazingly simple for us, me appearing when Dominic was with his wife and going cuckoo bananas over it. But his answer wasn’t a part of our script:

“I’m sorry but this relationship isn’t going to work out.”

“What?” I said, obviously stunned. He was supposed to pick me and tell his wife off.
“It was fun while it lasted,” he said, the Cheshire grin appearing on his face, “I mean, it was really fun, but I love my wife.”

Hansel’s grin told it all. “You were just a simple game to my husband,” she sidled over to him, pressing her chest against his. “He wants something more….. complex.”

While the class hooed and hollered while I was standing there, my mouth probably hanging open, the bell rang and lunch was here. Hansel and Dominic walked out together, Hansel mouthing “you’re just to simple to me” and Dominic looking over with a concerned face and mouthing “sorry”.

And then putting his perfect hand around Hansel’s waist.

Oh hell no.

“That was seriously screwed up,” Ash said, putting her hand around my shoulder. “O mean, seriously, who does that?”

“I have no idea,” I replied, that stupid, dark feeling ready to envelop me.