Sweet Children Come Out And Play

Billie Joe really was back to normal now; just a little bit shaken. He had been avoiding going to the grocery store in the last week even though the grocery store really had nothing to do with Alex. As a result, Delphine, Brites and Richelle were the ones who ended up doing the shopping. Today was a big day though. Today was the day that the three girls would brave the infamous Costco. The place of hell in Delphine’s childhood after being dragged through the chaos so many times by her mother with only the small reward of free food at the little tables on the end of each isle. They were supposed to be samples to make you buy the food, but Delphine liked to think of them more as lunch.

However, the prices were cheaper there, and she was living with just as many people as had been in her family growing up, six. Her mother, father, brother and two sisters had all changed into her friends. Actually, it was quite a nice trade. But wouldn’t you know it. They all had to be fed too! So as Delphine walked though the large doorway into Costco’s warehouse of food, she knew she was turning into her mother. Oh well, money is money. Fuck it.

Actually, as she, Richelle and Brites ran though the place, it was not so bad. They didn’t have to buy anything she didn’t like and she could get anything she wanted such as the big double pack of Nestlé chocolate chips. Ok, maybe Costco was not so bad.

When the girls finally got out and loaded up the car with stuff that would last them the next few months…or years, they decided to treat themselves to something for surviving the mass hysteria. Hot chocolate in a little café called Chocolate by the beach. For three bucks too. It was literally like drinking a liquid candy bar and Delphine took every opportunity she could to go eat there. The food was great too. It was a little place. On the front door was a movie poster for Chocolat. The movie with Johnny Depp. You walk in the door and the counter is in front of you and stretches to the other wall. So really it was only a ten by twenty feet area and one of the walls, to your right as you walk in, is devoted to all the anti-Bush magazine pictures, political cartoons and stickers they could find. It was really hilarious actually. That’s what you get for living here. The first time she walked in three years ago, Delphine knew she liked this place. The lady she always saw and never really knew was there waiting tables. Delphine liked her. She had brown dreads and was pretty.

Delphine ordered the Lena as usual (that was the milk chocolate hot chocolate), Brites got the Sofia (darker chocolate) and Richelle could not decide between the Lena, Sofia and the Italian chocolate one so she went with the white chocolate. They all sat down outside in the little plant enclosed area where they usually were because inside was always full. Plus, it was nice outside. There hot chocolate came in the little glass mugs a minute later. Delphine took hers, curling her fingers around the handle and continuing to tap the table with her other hand.

“So, Richelle, what’s going on with Tre? - now that we’re finally alone you can tell us,” Brites started up casually.

“What do you mean what’s going on with Tre?”

“You guys have been together for awhile. You’re staying with us. You planning on marrying him?” she said in a sickly sweet yet innocent tone.

“Well, I don’t-” she began but was cut off as a girl backing into her chair. Just a bump and no harm done.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” the girl turned around. She was really gorgeous Delphine thought to herself immediately. She had to take a second look. The girl was dressed in a white spaghetti strap top, long black pants, studded belt low on her waist, lots of silver chain necklaces, and had beautiful brown and red dreadlocks. It was the red Delphine used to have her hair when she first dyed it a color. It was the kind of hair Delphine had always wanted, if she ever had the courage to dread her hair. Perhaps not though. Tattoos were enough and blue hair.

“Oh, no it’s fine,” Richelle reassured her.

“I’m sorry, I was just going to sit,” she pulled up a chair at a table nearby. Really, this was the kind of girl Billie Joe would glance at and think pretty but not say anything until Delphine looked and said “wow she is hot!” Then Billie would get all turned on because she was looking at another woman. And then pretend to be jealous. But really, this was the kind of girl Delphine would have sex with if she didn’t have Billie. If she ever wanted to experiment… The girl had stopped talking, and was sitting on her own, but Delphine did not immediately take her eyes off the girl, and as the girl with red hair turned her head back around, her light brown eyes met her own gray-blue ones.

“Hey, you live around here?” Delphine asked. It was a spur of the moment question, as if something needed to be said.

The girl turned around fully to face her, “Yeah, ha. Can’t you tell?” The girl then hesitated, like she should not have said something.

“Yep.”

“I’m guessing you too?”

“Yep!” Brites said happily. “How’d you know?” Brites was in an oddly cheery mood today and was taking no notice of anything out of the ordinary about talking to this stranger.

“Same reason. You have blue hair and you have green,” she pointed to Delphine and Brites.

Delphine laughed. “And it’s fucking awesome.”

“You guys alone?” she was resting her chin on her folded hands over the back of her seat. She glanced around with some doubt on her face.

“Yes. Just us,” Richelle said, “Finally away from the guys for a few minutes.”

“I see,” she smiled.

“You know, we love ‘em but there needs to be quality girl time too.”

“So why didn’t you bring Tre then? He’s good with girl time,” Delphine said.

Richelle hit her in the arm. “Hey! I’m the pregnant lady. Remember.” Maybe she should not have said it so casually in front of this girl.

“Ha! You’re really pregnant?”

“Yep,” she shrugged slowly. You couldn’t see; table in the way.

“Wow. You look young.” The words had slipped out of Cody’s mouth unchecked. She was too distracted. Focus.

“Yeah, I am I guess.” Delphine felt a little embarrassed now. Then she blurted out, “I’m eighteen.”

The girl shook her head, but her expression didn’t change. Like she understood. And she didn’t ask anything else.

Richelle cut in, “and just for the record, Tre is a man!”

“Oh, but we know what’s really underneath,” Brites cooed.

“Hey, you waiting for someone?” Delphine asked.

“No, actually, just me.”

“Want to sit with us?”

“Sure!” the girl got up and pulled her chair up to their table. The waitress came out and gave her hot chocolate just then.

“Oh good, so you’re crazy like us!” Richelle laughed, “Hot chocolate when it’s 80 degrees out.” Delphine picked up her cup again and took a slow sip. Cool now. It was always so good, and it did not seem like a lot of hot chocolate in the small cup, but it filled you up so fast that you hardly noticed by the time the bottom of the cup was showing.

“Nothing’s better! Ok, so what are your names?”

“I’m Delphine.”

“Richelle and Brites,” she pointed.

“You?”

“I’m Cody.”

“Oh, I like that name,” Delphine said.

“Delphine! No getting ideas!” Richelle cried.

“What?” Cody was confused.

“She will not pick a baby name!” Brites whined.

“Well, there are about a million to choose from! Besides, I have four and a half months left!”

“We were getting started early,” Richelle said. “We have about twenty kid’s full names now and she keeps seeing more.”

“Well, now I’m actually looking out for them. Anyway,” Delphine turned back to Cody. “I hope you don’t get the wrong idea…” she started.

“Was it an accident?” Cody didn’t looked shocked or anything. Just curious.

“Nope. We wanted too. Billie, Tre and Mike – Brites’ boyfriend – are in a band together. It’s called…well, they were Sweet Children but now they’re Green Day.”

“Oh really! Yeah, I’ve heard of Sweet Children! Now they’re Green Day. That’s funny. And you all are dating the band?”

“I guess so,” they shrugged.

“That’s pretty awesome. I was at one of their shows a while ago. I remember them best out of the bands that night because the lead singer kissed the guy on base!” she laughed.

“Yep, that would be Billie and Mike!” Brites snickered. “At it again.”

“And I got a demo CD. It was really great for a little band. Ok, who’s who?”

“Billie’s on guitar and sings. Tre’s on drums and dates Richelle, and Mike is on base,” Delphine waved her hand around counting them out as she listed the boys. It was an Italian thing; hand gestures (something she even did on the phone when no one was there to see).
“I wish I could meet ‘em.”

“Maybe, if you want to drop by sometime. We live together in a apartment. Well, Delphine lives a few places down. She and Billie got their own space since they got married.”
“Oh, so you’re married to him?”

“Yep.”

“Maybe I will stop by.”

When the girls all finished eating, there was not much let too do so they decided to walk around the stores in town for a bit. They had always used the bathroom in the book store next door to Chocolate. The restaurant was so small it didn’t have one. Delphine passed by the large books set up on display. There was one for chocolate and on the front was a huge photograph of Devil’s Food Cake smothered in chocolate sauce. Tre would have been proud. It was not just that she was in the mood for chocolate; Delphine had been a chocoholic as far as she could remember.

It was funny because her mother was the opposite. Her father had given her mom many boxes of chocolate for all occasions; Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, National Cabbage Day, etc. However, she never ended up eating more than a piece or too and her four kids would finish it off. Delphine had always thought to herself, ‘If that was my chocolate, I would hide it and guard it with my life. Or at least use it for bribery.’ Billie Joe knew this of course so he too got chocolate for all “occasions”; Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, National Cabbage Day…wait that’s his birthday. She got him chocolates on that day. But then anytime there is chocolate, they both get some. Just another reason this life was so much better than living at home. There is always more chocolate to go around. Strange, the things that come to mind when you see a picture. All it was is a piece of cake and suddenly Delphine was standing motionless thinking about Billie Joe again.

By that time, she would have bought the book just to look at the pictures instead of the recipes. Then she reminded herself that that was silly and turned around. Richelle was not yet done in the bathroom so Delphine, Brites and Cody all walked over the magazine racks. Cody had decided to come with them. She had nothing better to do and didn’t work that day. Cody said she worked at a bar down the street and around the corner.

Delphine passed a glance over the music magazines. Same old shit. Then she turned to the few tattoo magazines and started flipping through one. Cody looked over her shoulder. “Do you have any tattoos?” she asked.

“Actually, yeah. I just got a second one…well, I guess it was about a month ago now.”

“Cool. Can I see?”

“Sure,” Delphine pulled up her pant leg to show a fully healed diamond shaped design curling around the side of her calf. It was made of vines and wrapped artfully around leaving off in curls around her leg and spilling onto the top of her foot. Then she lifted up the back of her shirt a little more to reveal the black heart grenade tattoo. “That one was my first.”

Cody smiled, “That’s awesome! It’s a grenade shaped like a heart.” She touched Delphine’s side tenderly and traced her finger tip lightly around the edge of the heart.

“Yep, I thought it really represented – well, high school.” She pretended not to feel Cody touch her, and not that it was unwelcome or all too odd, but it made heat rise in her throat for a reason she could not put her finger on.

“That’s such a great idea.”

“I love yours too though.” Cody had a cascade of classic tattoo blue waves down the top half of her left shoulder. “Do you have any others?”

“Yeah, well, a very little one.” Cody lifted up her ankle. On the outside part of her heel was a little design. “It’s my initials in old Irish. I’m Irish.” The letters were laid over each other so it looked like a scrolly design.

“That’s so pretty.”

“Oh yeah, I had mine planed out for two years before I actually went and did it. Ha! Illegal I guess. I was sixteen, but I got this,” she said pointing to her arm, “on my eighteenth birthday.”

“How about you, Brites?” Brites and Richelle had just caught up to them in the magazine section.

“No, I don’t have any. But if guys keep talking about it I’m going to be temped to get one.”

Richelle meandered over to hearing distance, “What you guys talking about?”

“Tattoos.”

“Oh, so Delphine has found yet another person to talk with about it. She already does it with the guys. Seems like Billie is always getting a new one!”

“Do you have any?”

“NO! And I really can’t see it happening anytime soon. I’ll regret it eventually – whatever I pick.”

“But it’s so beautiful when it’s done.”

“There’s no convincing her. But don’t worry. One of these nights, when she’s had a little too much wine, we’ll take her out and then there will be no stopping her.” Brites laughed.

“You can’t live with the boys and get out of it.”

“Just watch me!”

“Again, you are dating TRE!”

“Shut-up.”

Delphine stood laughing as she turned again to Cody, feeling her chocolate eyes already upon her, and her silver ones met them again. Cody, still smiling at the other girls, flinched away, but Delphine could not let go. She was so beautiful.