Made of Plastic, It's Not Fantastic!

BOBBI:

Something about the way Tristan shut out his life to focus on me made me regret everything.

"Well?" He stood in the middle of his floor, waiting for me to speak again.

I scrunched my nose. "Well what?" I just finished explaining to him how I lived in Molly's room with all the others and I hated it. I told him that I thought he might be able to help me.

"How the hell do you expect me to help you? You're a freaking doll, and I'm probably imagining this. What do you want me to do?"

It offended me. "I don't want you to do a magic trick, I just want you to help me. Try, at least."

Tristan leaned forward to get a closer look at me. "Do you want me to go in Molly's room and rip all their heads off?"

The idea was tempting, but I considered Teresa and Midge to be friends. To think he would upset his sister for me made me smile. "No,"

"Okay, can you be more specific then?" His tone of voice told me that he didn't really care.  

"I don't want to be a doll anymore. It doesn't suit me." I drew my eyes away to enhance my point.

He chuckled. "It doesn't suit you? You look a whole lot like a Barbie to me."

"I'm not Barbie!" I shouted, throwing my whole body into it.

It didn't scare him the way he scared me. "Either way, I don't see how I'm supposed to help you without any magic tricks. So are we done here?"

I watched silently as he popped some sort of white stick between his lips and set the end on fire.

He crouched down on his knees, inhaled, and blew a large puff of smoke in my face. I would have went into a coughing fit if I had lungs.

"Is that all?" He asked again.

I held my lips in a straight line and pictured myself swimming in the thick honey in his eyes.

Tristan took my silence as an
answer. He reached for his jacket on the back of his chair.

~oOo~

TRISTAN :

I only had one foot out the door when I heard the pathetic little whimpering. I'd probably go to hell for leaving her here.

I knocked my head on my doorframe and turned around. "Are you seriously crying?"

She turned away so I couldn't see. "I can't cry, moron. I'm a doll."

"Then what do you call that?"

Her little face was twisted into an ugly cry, but there weren't any tears. She mumbled something I couldn't hear.

I knew I would regret it, but I kicked my door closed and held my cigarette between my fingers. "What did you say your name was?"

She looked at me in disbelief. "Bobbi."

I nodded. "Cool name. Molly calls you that?"

"Molly calls me lots of names," Bobbi started to pick at the ends of her shirt. "But I like Bobbi."

"Why not Barbie?"

She shot me this glare that prickled the back of my neck. "Do I look like Barbie to you?"

I considered her question. Besides the plump pink lips and the sparkle in her eye, Bobbi looked like she'd rather wear sweatpants than a pink dress. "I guess."

Bobbi still pouted. She was looking toward my window again, but focused on the cigarette in my mouth. "What is that?" She asked quietly.

I raised my eyebrows. "I guess dolls don't smoke?"

Bobbi waved her hand at me. "Forget it. Can you just take me back to Molly's room?"

I didn't understand why I was suddenly disappointed. "Now?"

"Yeah, go play with your friends -- uh, whatever you do with them."

I actually smiled. "They aren't that great."

She tucked her hair behind her back and smiled a bit, too. I wasn't sure how to grab her, so I waited until she held onto my thumb and sat in my palm.

"I was starting to think you were a jerk." Bobbi said.

"I-I'm sorry." I stuttered. I was trying to think of something else to say but Bobbi stopped me at Molly's door.

"This is fine." She said, looking up at me with those sparkly eyes...why was I attracted to a doll? "Thank you, Tristan."

"You're welcome." I set her down on the floor carefully, something I would have never done a day ago. "I guess you can stop by anytime you'd like."

I swear her cheeks turned pink to match her lips. "Really?"

I shrugged. "Sure."

Bobbi started to squeeze through the crack in the door. "'Kay, thanks, bye!"

She was gone that fast. I closed my eyes and tried to erase the last ten minutes from my memory.

~oOo~

BOBBI :

Oh. My. God.