Little Baby Pines

There was a stack of books on Kim’s bed. None of the books were ones that she was supposed to read for college. The girl was excellent at drowning herself in excess. She was supposed to be reading three books for school: Frankenstein, Tess of the D’Ubervilles, and The Merchant of Venice. Instead she had Get in the Van, every Jane Austen book, The Watchmen, both volumes of The Umbrella Academy, a few Chuck Palahniuk novels, and a John Keats complete poem collection. There was a reason behind her sudden interest in literature. She was looking for a quote that Sully wanted to use in one of his raps, but neither of them could remember the exact quote. They couldn’t even remember what book the quote was from. It also helped distract her from school. She was only a junior and was getting wildly turned off by the thought of writing essays and sitting through lectures of modern Russia history.

Mindy poked her head in through the door. “Hey dude,” her eyes scanned the books, “wait, those aren’t your books for any of your lit classes.”

“Neither sci-fi, European lit, nor Shakespearean. I am being a bad student.” Kim made her eyebrows dance in a sinister way. “You sounded like you were going to say something else. What is up, my lesbian lover?”

Books bounced when Mindy plopped down at the end of Kim’s bed. “Oh, my love, I just came in to tell you that you have a gentleman caller.”

A line was circled in Kim’s copy of The Watchmen with her finger. “I found it. Pass me my phone, please.” Mindy tossed the iPhone from underneath her thigh to Kim’s lap. The girl hurriedly texted Sully and then slammed the graphic novel shut. “Sorry, you were saying… Gentleman caller? Oh my God, did you get me a male prostitute? I have wanted one of those.”

“Are you ever serious? Ever?”

Kim bounced off the bed. “Fuck no. Why would I do that?” She grabbed a pair of jeans off the ground and shimmied into them. She yanked a pressed button up striped shirt off a hanger in the closet and slipped her gangly arms in it. Mindy watched as Kim transformed from being half naked to a dapper tomboy. Red suspenders were slipped over her shoulder then she decided to let them hang off, undone. A red bowtie was thrown at her. She winked at Mindy and clipped it under her collar. “How do I look? Like a sexy sexy dandy girl in the 21st century?”

“Kim, you are the sexiest man girl I have ever met. You are my Doctor.”

“Merci beacoup, Amelia Pond.”

In their secret language of references they were referring to the BBC show Doctor Who and how Kim’s outfit looked like the Eleventh’s costume. A tweed sports coat was rescued from a pile of clothes lying on the floor of the treasure trove closet. “Goddamn, Kimberly. You look like those girls we make fun of that troll Starbucks.”

“Sweetie, haven’t you heard? I am those girl we make fun of trolling.” A kiss was blown at Mindy before Kim hopped out the room and down the main staircase.

The president of the sorority, Heather, walked into the foyer. A frown was hidden behind Kim’s fake smile. Kim never liked Heather. From the moment the two met they secretly swore to hate each other for the rest of their existence. They were far too different to ever get along. As Mindy once stated it, “It’s like if you guys were set into houses in Hogwarts, you would be in Gryffindor and she’d be in Slytherin. She is the Malfoy to your Harry-Hermione hybrid.” And that summed the two women up beautifully in Kim’s mind.

A malicious glint was in Heather’s eyes. Her shapely figure sauntered as she hooked Kim by the arm and dragged her along. Heather wasn’t fat. She curved in the right places, as in big breasts and an ass. She used it her advantage. She was an ambitious girl. Anything she set her mind to, she excelled at. Had she wanted to be a janitor, she would have been the best goddamn janitor there was. She would have read everything she could about it and surpassed anyone’s perceivable expectations of the job. But instead she set out to be the head of the Theta Phi Pi sorority, graduate Suma Cum Laude, and then go to the best medical school in the states. She was already on the path and headed well in that direction.

Her icy blue eyes side glanced at Kim and then stared ahead, burning everything they looked at. “Hey, you have a boy I haven’t met looking for you. I don’t like that. They must get the approval from me first before they can just show up at the house like this.” Heather squeezed Kim’s arm so tight that little crescent moons were left in her flesh. She was dragged into the cove underneath the staircase. “Whatever. I don’t want to talk about that. My boyfriend informs me that you have been absent from British Lit, the class you share together. The fuck is with that, Camera? You are our resident Asian. Racial statistic aside, here are the facts. Your grades start slipping and our house average starts slipping and then I look like shit.”

The two girls always had really fast conversations with a decisive amount of words exchanged. They never said more than they meant. They never went off topic or forgot to say something to each other. The main reason was that they wanted to keep their interactions short and to a minimum.

“And God forbid that. Look, chill the fuck out.” Kim shoved Heather off of her. Her small body backed away from the cove. “I had some personal things preventing me from going to class but I am turning my papers in, Mom. So don’t worry. Attendance isn’t a part of the grade requirement. Just essays.”

Heather fluffed up her blonde hair. “Don’t fucking get snappy with me, Parker. You are seriously on my last nerve.”

“You said that last time and yet here I am. Secretary. Still. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to excuse myself and go talk to my male prostitute. See, he and I are going to fuck in public, snort cocaine, maybe do crystal meth, drink an insane amount of alcohol, and then fuck in the backyard where we will pass out naked.” Kim gave Heather the best bitch face she could pull and then left before Heather could pull her by the hair and slap her. The short hair was a new change for Kim. She used to have long black hair until one night Heather yanked Kim by the hair after Kim left with biting words. Heather was never as articulate as Kim and that bothered her. Heather used her other resources to level the playing field. Hair pulling was one of her tactics. After that night Kim cut her hair as short as she could without shaving it all off. Since then it has grown into a jagged bob, barely touching her shoulders. “Don’t fucking touch my hair, Heater. Get your hands away from my person, okay.”

Heather sulked in the cove, waiting for Kim to leave before making her shameful exit. Kim’s finger clasped and unclasped the suspenders at her waist. The talk with Heather put her in a sour mood. She tried to brighten her thoughts with the prospect of a surprise guest. She hoped it was one of her brothers, but that was unlikely. Her younger brother was in California with her parents since he was still in high school. The older one was in France learning from a pastry chef. The most likely candidate to be waiting for her arrival was Peter from chemistry, the one class she never missed. He was beginning to talk to her about personal stuff in chemistry lab. That bothered her.

One of the pledges was watering the plants. She shyly pointed to the door, indicating that Kim should go outside. “Thanks, babe. Good job watering the plants.” Kim kicked open the door. Sitting on the porch banister was an anomaly. “Oh my.” She bit down on her lower lip and let her snarkiness flow. “Whatever are you doing here, Patrick? Going to try and drug me again?”

Patrick tried to make a sarcastic face but couldn’t quite master the art like his friend Jon. Instead his eyebrow twitched and his mouth was broken into a half smile. “I came to apologize.”

“To apologize for trying to drug me and my best friend?” She rested her hands on her hips. “It has been well over a week. Like 8 days have gone by. There is an expiration date on the appropriate time to apologize. You have surpassed that allotted time. Off the porch.” She bit down on her lower lip. “Go to the tire swing before the president of this sorority decides to bludgeon you to death. I won’t stop her.” Kim gave him a tooth achingly sweet smile. The boy obeyed, hopping off the steps one at a time. His slow pace bothered Kim. She ran up behind him and pressed her weight onto his back. “You are such a slow walker! How is that you are fast on the ice, mister?”

“I am deceptive. Shhhh.” Patrick slipped his hands behind Kim and scooped her off the ground. She let out a high pitched squeal as he ran with her to the tire swing. The piggy back ride, however short lived, made Kim grin from ear to ear. “So let me make up the drug thing to you.”

“How do you plan on doing that, Patrick? Maybe you should start by apologizing to your friend. He was having a shit time because of you.” She took the rope of the tire swing into her hands. Patrick put a hand on her shoulder as he slipped a leg one at a time into the hole of the tire. Once he was in Kim let go of the rope. His body gently rocked.

His hands picked up something lying inside the hollow tire. A pair of oversized sunglasses were pulled out and perched on his nose. “Oh, he got over it. It took him time and an extended period of the silent treatment. It is behind us. Now!” He kicked wildly at the ground to send him higher into the air. “Now we need to fix our tiff because I don’t want to be on bad terms with my drug dealer.”

Kim covered her face with her hands. Hearing those words in reference to her made her stomach choke. “No. I am done with that. I have been thinking about it for a while. I have enough saved now. I am good. It should be okay, yeah. It is cool. The guy I buy from will be cool with it. I have enough money to be good for a little while, yeah.” Kim nervously shook out her hand and rubbed them on the edge of her tweed coat. If there was a way for her to be more redundant, she would have. “I am rambling. Why didn’t you stop me?”

“My mother taught me better than to interrupt a woman when she is speaking. So can I make it up to you? I will take you and BroNo out to dinner tonight after the game. Late night dinner is sexy.” He was trying to be apologetic instead of trying to hook up with her. If Kim was out with Patrick then there was no chance for Jon to try and find her. Since Jon was still reeling from the news that Kim sells pills, hearing that she went out with Patrick would fill the bill for Jon. The girl would become kryptonite, and Patrick wouldn’t have to worry about Jon dating someone who could potentially ruin his image. “Hold still. I wanna take a pic of you.” Kim posed for him. His phone made a clicking noise when it captured her image. Maybe Patrick would leave his phone somewhere for Jon to find it with Kim’s picture on it. “You should go get BroNo so I can take a cute lezzy picture of you two and keep as my wallpaper.”

“BroNo? Wait. Does that mean Broken Nose?!” Before he could even send her a smirk, she aggressively kicked the tire swing. The kick was strong enough to throw Patrick off balance. He wildly clawed the air to pull himself closer to the tire so he didn’t fall backward. “Her name is Mindy. Patty, I can’t tonight. The sorority is going out to a bar tonight to celebrate something. I don’t know. Call me on your next day off and you can buy me a shit ton of candy. That will make up for trying to drug me and my best friend with my own pills.”

A broken smile was on his face. “Okay. Deal, Kimaroo.”

She couldn’t help but smile back at him. The half smile and sunglasses made him look childish. “How am I ever going to get rid of you? You should go before Heather comes out here with her broom. She loves a good ol’ fashion beating.”

He hopped out of the tire swing. He danced on one leg before regaining his composure. “If she has a whip and paddle you will never get rid of me. I like it rough.” The glasses were shoved back into the hollowed tire swing.

“God! Get out of here,” she said while stifling laughter. Her body sashayed away from his, back up the steps, and then disappearing into the pink house.