Sluts in Love

It all really makes sense now. I actually feel like an idiot for not understanding it sooner. The bitch is smarter than I thought. I think she's subconsciously looking for someone who is more fucked up than she is. That's why she gets those dumb kids to tell her some dark secrets and shit. She collects them like "fireflies in a jar." Her prissy words, not mine.

Yeah, Martin Weir? Grade twelve. Agreed to a date with Juliet almost right away. She found out that he was still a virgin, didn't quite know how he'd pay for college, and once masterbated while he thought about his sister. (I've seen his sister though and I probably would have done the same. She's hot.)

Lindsay Kelley was a sophomore who had an abortion, kissed her friend's boyfriend, and once walked in on her parents having sex. (I've never really had parents but I think I would have poured gasoline into my eyes and set myself on fire if I witnessed that.)

And little Pardee. Pardee, at age fifteen, had stolen her best friend's phone, sent the girl's nude pictures to the parents, and told them to "fuck off and get a life." Bitches be crazy. And something about a boyfriend too but I lose interest after that.

Juliet didn't like telling me this. She kept their secret as long as they told everyone she slept with them. I'd say it's all pretty fucked up, but you must have realized that by now. She likes to keep it all to herself but I totally guilt tripped her as we sat on her cold concrete front steps passing her last cigarette between us. I didn't feel like telling her I had a fresh pack on me.

"You know Dylan's brother is gay?" This shouldn't surprise me but it does. After all the shit she's kept locked up in her bony chest this is what she tells me.

"That's great."

"He's having problems with his boyfriend. One wants to settle down, the other doesn't. It's quite sad."

I made a guttural noise in the back of my throat. That's the only reply I can think of.

"Romeo, the sweetheart, cheated on his SAT's, you know."

Now that surprises me. Prissy pretty boy is so dumb he had to cheat? "Oh yeah? How'd the jackass manage that?"

"The school he went to take it in didn't check photo ID. He just round up his cousin, who got a perfect score, and paid him to take it."

We didn't say anything for a while. From the open window behind us I hear her mom moving around and a glass breaking. "Shit," her mom exclaims. Juliet leans her head against my shoulder and I stiffen up.

"There's something else I've kept from you for a while," she murmurs.

"Is someone a serial killer who prays on skinny redheads?"

She sits up to look into my eyes. "I love you, Paris. I've loved you since that day you said you were going to adopt a cat and name him Snoop Dog, just to confuse him. Do you remember that? It was two years, four months, and eight days ago."

Leave it to Juliet to ruin a moment with her creepy memory.