Changing Your Stars

It was an hour before closing time and the store was deafly quiet, not a good sign since I was closing with Jimmy. “Jimmy?!” I hollered from behind the counter. Where the hell is he?! Sighing I locked the front doors and headed towards the back.

Sure enough the sound of two male voices drifted from the back room. The tall freak Jimmy stood smoking a cigarette and talking to his best friend Brian. Brian is a looker, too bad he totally knows it. “Sup boys? Letting me have all the fun of closing again?”

Brian pushed off the wall he had been leaning against and gave me what I call his ‘lady killer’ smile. Too bad it didn’t work on me anymore. “Hey beautiful.”

I rolled my eyes at Brian which only made him smile bigger. I swear he got off on a challenge and since I had refused his attempts to ‘woo’ me over the past month I guess I was a pretty big one.

Jimmy on the other hand at least pretended to look sorry. “Guess I lost track of time.”

I sighed. No way could I stay mad at Jimmy. The pathetic look he was giving me had me holding back a laugh already. “Yeah okay well I’m gonna go finish closing up while you two make out.”

“If that’s the case Jimmy can go close up and we can make out. My cars got a pretty big back seat.” Brain hollered as I walked back inside. I shook my head laughing. I had only known the two guys for about a month but I loved them both already.

They were the first two friends…well the only friends I had made since moving here from LA. It was honestly fine with me; I had never needed a lot of friends. Besides they were the funniest people I had ever met. Well okay Jimmy was the funniest person to walk the earth hands down. It was impossible to be around him and be in a bad mood. I had tried once. Jimmy broke me by singing the theme song of the Love Boat to me. He said he only knew it because his mom liked that show. Yeah right. And Brian, well Brian was the worlds biggest flirt.

Twenty minutes later I was heading out the back door to where Jimmy and Brian were now waiting for me. It was cute that Jimmy always walked me to my car. He had said my look screamed ‘victim’ and he didn’t want to have to go downtown to give a statement. Something about it cutting into his drinking time.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going Pixie?” That was from Jimmy as headed over to my car. The pixie was his nickname for me since I’m so tiny. Like it’s my fault that I’m 5 foot even and weigh between 100 to 105 pounds. It’s not like I don’t try, my metabolism just seems to be stuck in hyper drive. Add to it that I was normally kinda always full of energy, much like Jimmy, and wa la all that’s needed to be considered pixie-ish.

I stopped and turned back towards them. “Uhhh…my car?”

“Wrong.” Brian answered as he crushed his cigarette butt with his boot.

They both had an evil look on their faces; this was very bad news for me. These two were definitely up to something. “Nope. I’m pretty sure that’s where I’m heading.”

Jimmy stepped closer to me. “You have a date to keep, remember?”

I looked at them blankly. I didn’t have a date, I would remember if I did. “With who?”

Jimmy put his arm around my shoulders. I’m sure we looked pretty funny since he’s a giant and I’m vertically challenged. “With the hot chic that does Brian’s hair.”

Oh, OH. Shit I had forgotten about that. You see I had made a bet that I could out eat Jimmy, a simple task I was sure. Well that was until Brian helped him cheat by making gagging noises right in my ear. You ever try to eat while hearing that? Yeah..doesn’t work so well. Anyhow if I lost I had to get a haircut.

Why is that a big deal you ask? Because my long blonde hair was my safety net of sorts. I liked being able to hide in it when needed, although now that I was living with Uncle Will I barely needed to hide what I was thinking or feeling. He was incredibly laid back and stayed out of my business for the most part. It was weird to have such an open relationship with an adult. I knew I could tell him anything and he wouldn’t judge me. That was an idea I still had trouble with.

“I’ve decided against that.”

Brian sighed, “Told you she’d punk out.”

Jimmy looked down at me. “Yeah. Guess she just loves looking like Malibu Barbie.”

I gritted my teeth. Jimmy knew damn well I hated being compared to that stupid perfect doll. I wasn’t perfect, far from it. My entire life I seemed to not be good enough for my mother. She had tried to live through me and succeeded for most of my life. “Mom will kill me.”

Jimmy grinned like the Cheshire cat. “Good thing you’re not living with your mom anymore.”

“I…” Wasn’t sure if I was ready for this step. Just last week Jimmy had gotten me to toss almost all of my new clothes so I would blend in more. As it was I was in frayed jean shorts, Vans, and an off the shoulder well used Metallica tee. The clothes had been easy since you could always just buy more if you changed your mind. But my hair? It was semi permanent. What if I hated it? “What if I hate it?”

Brian snorted. “You doubt my hook ups?”

“Well no…”

Jimmy tightened his arm around me so I would look up at him. “It’s only hair Pix. Now stop being a little bitch so we can get to my house.”

“Video games and alcohol here we come!” I shouted enthusiastically into the night. I was going to do this, I had to do this. I was tired of doing what my mother would want even though she wasn’t here. I was tired of being the ‘perfect’ daughter always doing what was expected of her. This was my chance to change all that, to finally figure out who the hell I was.

Both guys laughed at me as we piled into Brian’s car and headed towards what would become the birthplace of the new Kinzington Peace Rubinaka The Pixie.