Barbie Girl (Baby Doll Series) (9 page)

“Eating a gummy bear,” she replies nonchalantly before taking another one from Third.

“Want one?” Third offers.

“No. I mean you guys were so disrespectful during Katie’s speech.” I am pissed and I am taking it out on them. All I think about is Tyler’s hands on the small of Katie’s back. Are they together?

“Dude relax, it was over. Besides we were not the only ones not paying attention to her lame hour-long speech about being responsible seniors. What’s up with that bullshit,” he says.

“It’s not bull shit!” I yell, my anger boiling over.

Barbie sits up and looks at me, sizing me up, trying to read me. I wait for her sarcastic remark, but she surprises me, “I am sorry.” She places her hand on my arm, and I am transfixed once again with her huge eyes. They seem to hold me in place reading something that is not there. She means it, she really is sorry.

“No more red ones,” Third announces shaking the bag of gummy bears.

* * *

Third finishes his sixth hot dog. “Pleassse!” Barbie begs as she pulls on Third’s arm

“Nah, man, there is no way I am getting all this jelly in that freezing ass water.” He grabs his huge belly shaking it.

“Dylan, will you please go in?” she turns to me. Oh, hi, now you remember me. She has been too busy for the last hour being hand-fed by Third to notice my existence. Today royally sucks I just want to go home and go to sleep, pretend it never happened. Things just keep on sucking more and more as the day goes on. First Tyler picked up Katie and ran into the water with her squealing, which turned into a water fight between the two of them. And Barbie, my fake girlfriend, obviously forgot her role, she has been laughing and joking with Third as he sorts gummy bears because she cannot eat the green ones, shouldn’t that be my job as fake boyfriend. “The only way you are getting me in that water is if you jump off the top of the falls,” I say. She can go back to ignoring me for all I care. So far no drunken football player has attempted it yet. It is still early. Barbie pouts and looks up at the fall.

“Fine,” she stands up and starts walking.

“What? No I was kidding.” I lie back on the blanket and cover my eyes with my arm, a headache beginning to form in my temples.

“Dude if she dies it is all on you,” Third says. I drop my arm. Barbie is standing on a rock that juts out over the falls.

“What the hell I was kidding,” I stand up. Chants of her name start. Fuck. Her hands are on her hips as she sizes up the situation. I start to jog up to her. If she dies…
shit
. I don’t think a girl has ever jumped off. It is a tradition for new football players to jump. I have seen the broken arms and the staples in heads. They are built for injures like that, but Barbie is a so small compared to them. What will happen to her if she jumps? I can hear my mom now “how could you let that happen to that poor sweet girl? Dylan. I race up to the top where she stands. Third is right if she dies jumping off it is entirely my fault.

“What are you doing,” I lean over and gasp for air as when I reach her.

“
Seeing where to aim when I jump,
I think that’s the spot.” She points to the dark center of the pool below us.
Holy crap we are high
.

“Don’t be stupid,” I say.

She glares at me, and starts to undress. “What are you doing?”

She shimmies out of her dress letting it fall to the ground, and she is not wearing a bathing suit.
Holy shit
. I run my hand over my face. She is about to jump off the falls in a blue bra and purple panties. The pink strip of hair blows across her face. She reminds me of a fruit salad with all her rainbow colors. “Don’t do this, do you know what they are going to think?” I gesture to the crowd below us chanting her name.

Her eyes narrow, “You care so much what they think of you.” I do. “I already told you I don’t care what they think,” she stands up straighter with her hands perched on her hips.

“Fine but don’t do this I don’t want everyone thinking I am going out with the crazy girl who jumps off water falls in her underwear.” I don’t want to be part of the rumors that fly around about her.

“Jump with me,” she holds out her hand. Her delicate hand grasps for me. We stare at each other. I don’t take her hand, she sighs letting it drop to her side, and she takes off running.

I panic
,
and run after her
,
I mean to grab her hand and pull her back, our hands connect and I am falling. Time slows down, and I look over at Barbie. Her teal blue eyes match the sky around us, drinking in our surroundings as we free fall; she looks like she is flying, the sun behind her make her glow. She reminds me of the angel charm my grandmother used to wear. She is an angel. She is beautiful. We cut through the cold water and the air is pressed out of my lungs. I am disoriented not sure which way is up or down. I am lost in a watery world of green. I will be the one to die today. She is my angel of death, and I am going to die, she brought me to meet my death. As if she heard me she swims next to me her hair swimming wildly around her, she smiles at me. Swimming over to me; she cups my face in her hands and kisses me on the mouth. I am stunned as I watch her kiss me. My body floats limply in the green world around me. She is pulling me down. She releases me breaking the kiss and kicks up toward the surface, not once looking back. I follow her. Cheers and hoots are heard as we break the surface. She is floating on her back looking up at our near-death experience we just shared.

“That was amazing!
It
was like we were flying.” I think she says, but I cannot be sure.

* * *

Monday morning and the rumors of her stunt have begun to spread like wild fire. I try to dodge the looks I am getting as I walk in to school. A group of girls point and go back to whispering in a huddle. “Dude that was an epic move on her part, everyone is talking about it,” Third walks with a limp next to me.

“I don’t know why you are tripping over it.” I wonder if his new swagger walk is him trying to portray that he jumped as well.

“No, it was not epic, that little stunt she pulled, taking off her clothes.” I shove my bag in to my locker. “Was freaking hot! The girl’s got a banging body,” he says.

The memories of the way she looked come back to me, her tanned skin glowing against the sun, the way her long hair brushed the small of her back, the curve to her hips, the way the purple strap…

“She made us look like freaks.” I shake my head clearing it of the images.

“We went from losers to freaks, great.”

“Bro trust me, that move she pulled made every guy wish they were you. Think about it if you saw Katie jumping off the falls with some guy in her under wear, you would think that they were going to do it after, right?” I sigh. Third has a demented view on life, it always seems to come back to sex with him. Funny because he is more of a virgin than me; the only girl he has kissed is his mother.

“Can you leave Katie out of your demented philosophy?”

“You need to just ride this thing out, relax. Barbie is manipulating you into some sex god or something. You went from being a virgin loser to the guy with the hot girl who can’t help but strip down into her skivvies in front of him.” I slam my locker shut. “I think you need to up your antics. You have her tip-toeing around you at school. If you want people to buy this, son, then you need to let that sex stallion loose.” He holds his fist out for me to bump it. I leave him hanging. Maybe in some messed up way, Third is right.

Barbie is waiting for me when I leave English, Katie brushes past us and the smell of jasmine lingers behind her. “Could she possibly wear anymore perfume?” Barbie coughs and waves her hand in front of her face.

“I think she smells nice.”

She rolls her eyes. “Whatever,” a wicked grin spreads across her lips. “So people are talking,” she says proud of herself.

“I heard.” Up my antics how? She slips her hand in mine. This is comfortable her holding my hand at a safe distance. If Third was here right now he would tell me to push her up against the locker and start making out like animals, that would really have people talking.

I wonder what she would feel like pressed under me. Would she let me kiss her? I stop walking I need to do something drastic not safe. Barbie stops and looks confused, “What’s wrong? You are going to be late to Bio.” Why does she sound concerned? She doesn’t care.

“I…I…” I stutter, but the words are stuck in my throat with the nerves that hold them down. I grab her face in my hands and kiss her. At first she is stiff, but then she relaxes and her mouth parts. I have kissed girls before, not a lot but I know how to do this. This is awkward, why did I let Third get in to my head. Barbie senses my hesitation and brings her hand to cup my cheeks in her soft hand. Her tongue slips into my mouth. I am not expecting it but it feels like fireworks are going off inside my chest. People push past us; somewhere a bell rings, the world fades away in muted colors. I deepen the kiss, she tastes sweet like vanilla and electricity travels through me, she lets out a soft moan that vibrates against my lips and I back her up into the lockers pressing into her. She feels amazing under me. She wraps her arms around me pulling me into her, wanting more and damn if I don’t want to give her more. I want to keep feeling these fireworks that are exploding in my chest. She stops me one hand on my chest, she leans her forehead against mine.

“If you kiss Katie like that…” she says breathless.

Katie that’s right. I want this with Katie. Not her.

I am late to Bio but I don’t give a shit. I do not pay attention in Bio, a first for me. I sit at the very back of the room and lay my head on my desk. What’s wrong with me, why did I feel like that when I kissed her? My head is still foggy from kissing her. I bounce my knee nervously up and down. I am fighting the urge to run out here and find her and kiss her again, I want to know if I’ll feel fireworks again, and see if she really tasted like vanilla or that was all in my head. I can’t feel this way for her. I do not want her. Then why is my skin craving to touch her.

* * *

“So today when I picked Barbie up, she slipped coming off the steps, I almost peed I was laughing so hard. I guess you had to be there.” Third wipes at a tear in the corner of his eyes reliving a moment he shared with Barbie.

“You picked her up?” I ask undoing a screw on the lawn mower that his momma asked me to fix.

“Yeah, and you know how she loves those ridiculous heels.” Third continues.

“Heels?” I wipe the grease off my hands onto my pants.

“Yeah, you know her favorite ones, the black ones with the hot pink toe,” he shrugs as if knowing her favorite pair of shoes was common knowledge.

No I didn’t know she had favorite shoes that she slipped in when walking down the stairs. “How long have you been picking her up?” Jealousy drips off me as I pull the blade off the mower.

“I dono, a couple of weeks. Want a Coke?” He walks over to the fridge in the garage. “It doesn’t bother you man, does it?” He hands me a red and white can.

“No, why should I care. She is
not
my girl.” I open the can and drink.

“Are you sure, because if it bothers you I will stop,” he says unsure.

“No man. Why would I care? She is not my girl.” I say again confirming it more for myself, she is not my girl. So why should it bother me if she spends all her time with Third. Hell they can do ‘it’ for all I care! Why should I care? Why should I care if he knows what her favorite colored shoes are! Or that she is funny and makes him laugh. I swallow back my resentment. But it pisses me off that Third now thinks he is the shit because he’s hanging out with her. He will not shut up about her, he keeps yapping about how funny she is and what funny thing she did or said. “Cool, she is a real chill girl.”

I get back to fixing the mower so we can go see
Zombie Slayer
in 3D. I need to clear my head and stop thinking about Barbie. What better way to not think about a girl than to be surrounded by zombies reaching out of a big screen trying to eat your brains.

* * *

“Popcorn?” Third asks. We are at the arcade in the movie and Third just handed Barbie a handful of quarters.

“Extra butter, and will you grab some junior mints,” she smiles at him.

“Sure thing,” Third gives her two thumbs up before jogging up to the candy counter. I exhale an annoyed breath out of my nose. Tonight was supposed to be a guys’ night; we have been talking about seeing this movie since last summer. I wanted to forget the feeling I had when I kissed Barbie. I wanted to not feel the possessiveness over what is not mine. I wanted to stop wanting to punch Third in the face every time he mentioned Barbie’s name.

Barbie leans her hip against the game she is playing. She looks freaking ridiculous, like a bag lady. She has on a pair of distressed jeans under a loose fitting, flowered print dress. She wears a large mood ring on her index finger that has been swirling between green and black. Her hair is in two messy braids like when we were kids. Black ballerina-looking shoes peak out of the bottom of her jeans that she taps in time to the music coming out of the game.

“Nice hair,” I pull on one of her braids, daring her to punch me or chase me.