Little Baby Pines

A cold splash of water woke Kimberly from her dream of being stuck in a hospital. Her body was rocking and shaking. “Oh my God, Mindles. I had like the worst dream ever. I was in a hospital and restrained to the bed by straps. Sully was there as my doctor. And he kept telling me to take these psycho pills and I was freaking out.” Kim was on the verge of telling Mindy that she was also in the dream as the nurse forcing the pills down Kim’s throat, helping Sully hurt her, but the words were stuck in her throat.

Mindy scooted closer to Kim, her butt on the coffee table. “Weird.” She sipped from her ice cold water. “So dude, spill. What the fuck happened to you? I saw you spinning records with that hockey captain behind you and then I lost you. I came home to find you sprawled out on the couch instead of upstairs in your bed.”

Kim strained to look past Mindy. The other couch was empty. It didn’t look like someone slept on it last night. The blanket and pillow she gave to Jon were now on her recumbent body. She hadn’t even noticed it until Mindy brought it up. “Jon. Oh man, I totally forgot. I guess he left early. What time is it?”

“It is 12:34. Heather was going to throw you off the couch to wake you up but I got her off your back.” The girl looked around, sipping on her water. “So did you bang that dude or something? You brought him back here with you, didn’t you?” As Kim opened her mouth to explain herself her friend shook out her hair. “God, Kim. I can’t believe you are still taking strays home. I thought you were with Sully. I thought you changed.”

The judgment passed on Kim hurt her feelings. She was used to people judging her and talking down to her. She and Mindy would jokingly call each other ‘bitch’ and ‘slut’ but never with much conviction. The somber tone with which Mindy carried in her voice meant that she wasn’t joking.

Kim fought off the disappointment and gave her best friend a smile. “I didn’t bang him, my dear. And Sullivan and I are not together, so no worries. I have to go and get clean. I need to head into work early. Kiss me, dear.” The girls kissed each others' cheeks and then Kim popped off the couch, running up the stairs.

The shower made Kim feel better from the judgmental remark and the effects of last night. She changed into a purple dress and gray cardigan. Mindy passed Kim as Kim headed down the stairs. There had been a wardrobe change for Mindy involving Kim’s clothes. It didn’t bother Kim. She was used to Mindy borrowing her things without asking.

Kim did volunteer work at a library in downtown Chicago. The library was across the street from a sandwich shop and a candy store. It pained Kim to go to work. Whenever she got money from selling pills, a fair chunk of it was spent on candy and on her bi-weekly sandwich lunch. The candy store employees all were accustomed to calling her “Sweets” on account of her walking out of there every other Thursday with 2 bags of candy.

That day Kim stopped in to get a bag of assorted Chupa Chup lollipops to tide her over while she worked a long shift. A typical day at the library was slow. She replaced books, checked them in, and sat on her ass for most of the time there. The place was never crowded unless a kindergarten class was visiting or the elderly lady book club.

When Sullivan came into the library there were less than a dozen people browsing. Kim was standing behind the counter with her nose in a book. Her senses picked up that someone was standing in front of her but she ignored it for a few seconds more. She was almost done with the page in front of her face. “Seriously, Kim, you are reading a book about hockey? You are such a damn nerd.”

“Oh yeah. I am the nerd. You are the one that throws in Degrassi and Ghost World references in your raps.” The book was slapped shut, and she snapped her head upwards to look at him. A sweet smile was exchanged between the two friends.

He looked at the book. “That book you were reading… Did it have the face of that guy you were hanging with last night? Parker, were you chilling with some famous hockey dude last night?” The girl didn’t answer. To distract herself she plunged her hand into her bag of disappearing Chupa Chups and pulled one out. “Holy fucking shit. You were! Park, since when did you become hot shit?”

“Since I was the girl that hung out with the famous rapper Cunning Linguist.” Her lips pressed against his in a brief kiss. Her lips were half on his and half on his cheek, a messy sloppy kiss. Sully cocked an eyebrow but gave her a smile when she pulled away. The two have been messing their friendship up with sex for a little over a month. It started when they both were incredibly drunk and running off a high of performing to a crowd of over two hundred people. It took them no time at all to get used to the concept of being friends and occasionally sleeping together. The reason was because the two avoided talking about it. Sullivan didn’t know how to approach the situation with the right words and Kim didn’t like confrontation. She would rather sweep issues under the rug and ignore them.

The two didn’t kiss in public. When they did it was on account of alcohol or drugs. This was the rare moment they did kiss in public and he didn’t quite know how to react, more rather how he was supposed to act. Was he supposed to kiss her more like he wanted to? Or just ignore it like usual? Sully always did the latter because Kim was hard to read. Did she want him to make a move and make her his girlfriend, or were they just using each other as they pleased? The girl never made her motives clear. That was why he didn’t know how to confront her about what they are doing because he didn’t know what she wanted out all of this.

Sully’s hands slipped off her waist when he took a step away from her. “Are you going to give me up for your hockey stud with a gold medal?”

“How did you know he had an Olympic gold medal? Have you finally started listening to me when I talked about hockey?”

He bops her in the nose with his index finger. “There is a gold medal around his neck on the picture.” Sully gave her an incredulous look and then turned his face away. “Kim, I can’t remember every fact you tell me about hockey. You gush over the sport like a crazed teenaged girl.”

“I love it! I used to play it, so fuck off. Don’t be a douche.” Her little foot snapped back and kicked him in the shin. “You should leave before I hit you again.” He snatched her swinging wrists into his hands. The pain of the kick radiated up his leg.

“Fine, beautiful. I will call and pick you up at 6 so that we can go out for dinner. Now give me a kiss so I have something to remember you by.” The hold on her wrists pulled her close to him. She gave him another kiss, this time on his cheek. “Don’t replace me with this hockey stud, Kimmy.”

Kim had no intentions to do so. Last night was just a fond memory for her. Jonathan wasn’t going to see her again for he had no reason. She was just an accessible girl for his raging hormones when he was under the influence of drugs. What did she have to make him want to come back? Kim never saw anything that special in her. She was pretty, but not drop dead gorgeous. She was background pretty, you don’t notice her unless you are looking for her. Most people found her strange for her ability to rattle off writers and hockey player names. Kim was an English major, as in she is going to school to read books for a career. Therefore, she better be able to rattle off writer’s names and the titles of their works. She was a grown child in most people’s eyes. Her mind slipped off tangents and she wasn’t still for very long. Admittedly, she was easy to talk to, which made socializing with her easy. Being a budding DJ helped her break from her awkwardness when she was fourteen. From fourteen on she became a fluttering social butterfly with a wide array knowledge of things and a mouth that wouldn’t stop spouting out her wit.

An older woman approached Kim, taking her mind away from the hockey player. By the end of her volunteer shift she nearly forgot about kissing Jon. It was a moment in her timeline that seemed to disappear. Kim was fine with that. Weird shit happened to her a lot that she erased from her hard drive, like her best friend acting like a catty girl earlier that morning. Erased.

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An infectious poppy song was humming through Jon’s headphones. He was reclining on his hotel bed with his eyes closed. The team was resting for a short while before leaving their hotel to go out to dinner as a team. The guys were taking the day easy since they had to play a game the following day. Jon had his laptop open and was listening to music from JurAssKick Park, i.e. Kim Parker.

The headphones were picked off his head. “Hey, what the hell?” Jon looked up at the perpetrator. Patrick just looked down at him with a small frown on his face. “Are we leaving now?”

“What? No. I don’t know.” Patrick pushed the laptop to the foot of the bed and sat down in its place. “Dude, listen to me now. Don’t take an interest in Parker. She is good for a hook up and that is it. Don’t get attached to her.”

“What are you going on about, Patrick?” Jon climbed off the bed. He grabbed his suit coat off the hanger, slipping his arms through the sleeves. “I am going downstairs.”

Patrick rubbed at his eyes. “Tazer. I never say anything serious, so listen to me for a second because I am being serious. I like the chick, but you know the pills you were freaking out over—”

“The ones that still have my joints feeling achy? Yeah, I know those pills, asshole.”

The biting snap should have made Patrick frown even more, but it only made him smirk. “You dumbass. They were from her. You should know since you’ll never see her again. The chick sells them to make money for school.”

Jon’s back was to Patrick. “Bullshit,” he mumbled. He stuffed his shirt into his pants and straightened out his tie. “Bullshit,” he repeated before leaving the hotel room.