Lennon's Jinx (10 page)

More
minutes click by on the clock. Rena will be here any second, then I’ll be stuck
with the dolls and Step-monster.

Footsteps
travel down the hall. Step-monster knocks on my door and jiggles the handle. He’s
so rude.

“Jinx,
I’m heading out. Do you need anything?”  

“No.”
My voice is a bit harsh. I hate Him. He’s a mooch among other things.

“Are
you sure?” His tone is way too sweet. It makes me nauseous every time I hear
it.

“Absolutely.”
While I wait for Step-monster to leave, my foot taps the fandango because I’m
so nervous.

His
construction boots clomp down the hall. The garage door opens then shuts. Good.
He’s gone. I watch out my window. As the car backs out of the driveway, Rena
drives down our street. She slows and waits for the car to turn the corner
before pulling in.

Phew.
I wipe my sweaty palms on my skirt. That was close.

I
skitter outside as best I can, trying to avoid landing on my ass on the icy
sidewalk. At least Step-monster shoveled the fresh snow from last night,
probably to impress Mom.

“Whoa,
you look smokin’, girlfriend,” Rena says as I open the door.

“Thanks,
so do you.”

Rena
wears the usual skintight jeans, black leather ankle boots, and a silky zebra
top under her Bebe leather bomber.

Rena’s
mouth gapes open. “What did you do to your hands?”

The
ugly welts from my cleansing scrub glow a painful red. I hide my hands behind
my back. “Nothing.”

Rena
screws up her lips. She hates it when I hold back. She’d kill me if she knew
who had taken everything away from me.

Iz
and Gabby are tittering in the back. They’re both dressed to take the best advantage
of their assets. Iz in a red and black checked skirt with knee high boots and
Gabby in black leather pants and a hot pink halter top. None of us wears
suitable coats for the weather. We’ll seriously freeze if we have to walk
anywhere.

“Your
eye looks better,” Iz says to me, lighting up a joint.

I
don’t think so. “Thanks. The magic of makeup.”

She
passes the joint to Gabby then me. I inhale a bellyful of medicinal weed. “Want
some?” I ask Rena, slightly choking.

“Not
tonight. You know that’s not good for your voice.”

“You’re
right.” I exhale acrid smoke. It instantly calms my jittery nerves from my
close escape from Step-monster.

Rena
parks at the station. Most of the commuters have returned home, so the lot’s
not too full. We get a spot close to the warmth of the terminal.

After
we board the train, Iz shares her iPod tunes with me. We bop and sing and
accidentally smack heads. Giggles escape. The other passengers back away from
us, except one. He glances our way, eyes us up and down until his gaze locks
onto mine. He smiles and nods at me.

Iz
catches this. “He’s really hot.”

He
grins bigger, apparently overhearing us. He’s got those bad boy good looks. The
guy is tall, not Lennon tall, about six feet and reminds me of Adam Levine. He
looks older and has a tat on his neck. He’s in jeans and a leather jacket. One
ear is pierced multiple times. He plugs into his tunes, sitting across from us.

I
like body piercings. Without my mother knowing, I did my bellybutton. Unfortunately,
it became infected, so I had to let the hole grow back.

Zach’s
lip is pierced. He wears this Marxist hammer and sickle in it. It means the
unity of the working classes. His music reflects his intellectual and emotional
depth. I really love that.

Iz
and Gabby wink at the guy standing opposite us. It’s so like them to hit on
every available guy, especially the ones I take notice of. He pops a mint into
his mouth. Amazingly enough, he’s watching me and not the blonde dynamic duo.

Rena
nudges me. “How does Lennon’s band sound?”

“Awesome,”
I say. “They know how to jam and are completely relaxed with each other.” Hope
I can reach that level of competency, then maybe Zach’s band will want me.

“We’ll
come see you on Friday,” Rena says, “Where’re you playing?”

“Kichee’s
Joint.”

“Oh.”
Rena wrinkles her nose. “That’s in a rough section of town. Isn’t it a biker
bar?”

“I
think so. They pay more than the other clubs,” I lie, feeling slightly
embarrassed performing at a scumbag joint.

“We’ll
come,” Iz says, scooting closer to me and bumping my hip. “They’re some really
hot guys there, and girls get in free on Friday night.”

Rena
bites her lip. “There aren’t any girls like me at that club.”

“From
what I hear, it’s pretty white,” Gabby says. “Lots of bad boys and some pretty
rough girls.”

Lennon’s
type, I think.

“I’m
out,” Rena says.

I
don’t blame her. I wouldn’t go there if we weren’t playing, and Lennon better drive
me, so I don’t have to walk alone to the train station.

Iz
and I hear a great rap song with Pit Bull on her iPod. We play our air guitars
in our seats. Pretty soon we’re dancing with each other. I haven’t even had a
drink yet, but the medicinal weed earlier helps. The commuters give us wary
looks.

The
bad boy grins at Iz and me tossing our hair around. Gabby laughs so hard she
falls out of her seat.

“I
wonder what they’re on,” a middle-aged woman says, sitting down from us.

Life,
I want to say to her, but she wouldn’t understand. She’s past all that.

Before
we get off downtown Chicago, the guy says to me, “Where will you be later?”

“I
don’t know,” I say.

“Lancelot,”
Izzie screams. To my knowledge, I don’t think she’s had a drink yet either,
though it sure seems that way. She’s fizzing over like Mentos and Coke.

“Lancelot
sounds good,” Gabby says.

“I’ll
be at Sammy’s later tonight,” he says—Zach’s primary social outlet.

“Maybe,
we’ll see you there,” Gabby yells at him. “What’s your name?”

“Ran.”
He salutes us as he departs.

“Well,
don’t run away,” Iz says, giggling hard.

“I
won’t,” he says.

“Hot
name,” Iz whispers into my ear. “Raaaan, not run but Rannnnnnn.”

“Lancelot,
it is,” Iz says.

“Okay,”
Rena adds, not too happily. Her ex used to hang out there. It’s popular with
the professional athletes.

“Yuck,”
I say. I’m not fond of that place either, but I’ve been outvoted.

We
loop our arms and huddle together. The wind Chicago is famous for whips around
us. I button up my suede coat. The icy air cuts right through it as we hurry to
Lancelot. Its stone building has two turrets out front. Drinks here are like
taking out a loan for a Lexus.

The
bouncers card us. We each pull out IDs we bought from some Chinese website. The
licenses are so real they can fool TSA. According to the IDs, we’re just over
twenty-one.

After
a hefty cover charge, he waves us through. Gabby is the only one of us who
doesn’t have a part-time job because she doesn’t need to. I quit mine today, so
the band better pay more and soon. My mom is still pulling us out of debt after
my dad’s hospital bills. She travels all the time to earn extra cash as a
pharmaceutical sales rep, which leaves me stuck with Step-monster.

As
we head to a table, Iz says, “Order vodka drinks.”

“Why’s
that?” Rena asks.

Gabby
laughs. “Because Iz only brought Grey Goose, silly. We’ll top off our drinks
and keep them filled all night long.”

That
explains their bubbly fits on the train. “Good,” I say. That will cut down on
the cost. Iz is always thinking.

Rena
clutches Gabby’s arm. “Don’t get caught. Remember last time.”

“Don’t
worry,” Gabby says, shaking off Rena’s grip. “We won’t. Don’t have a heart
attack.”

Rena’s
right. It’ll suck if we get kicked out after the hefty cover charge.

Iz
spots a table on the second tier overlooking the main dance floor. Blue and
purple lasers cut through the river of people dancing. It’s a maze of colors,
swirling in a nauseating fashion.

We
sit down and order drinks. When they come, Iz spikes them with more liquor
under the table. We aren’t allowed into Shamrocks because of this.

I
raise my glass, wanting to erase Him touching me earlier. It was an accident I
convince myself. He didn’t mean to. I already feel much better being with my
friends. “To the pursuit of having fun.”

“To
only good times,” Gabby says, bumping shoulders with me.

Iz
gulps her drink. “So what about Ran?”

“So
hot,” Gabby says. “He looks like the kind of trouble I want to get into.”

I
wish they’d give me a shot at the cute guys. They’re always first in line as it
is.

“I
don’t know,” Rena says. “Something about Ran isn’t right.”

“This
come from the lips of the girl that likes Lennon, the Naperville slut,” I say.

“You
don’t know him.” Rena stares into her glass. “He takes care of his little
sister full time and pays all the bills.”

I
knew he did some things for his family, but this surprises me because Lennon’s
dad is the infamous playboy Jonathan Tyler who could afford an entire household
staff. “Lennon does? Why?”

“From
what Bailey tells me, Heather Tyler has never been a mother to either of them.
She doesn’t even go to his little sister’s dance or violin recitals.”

Talent
runs throughout that family.

“Bailey
talks to you?” I ask.

“That
skank,” Gabby says.

Rena
fingers the top of her glass so that it sings a lonely tune to us. “Bailey’s
actually really sweet and would love for Lennon to come out of his shell, but
she’s not counting on it.”

“So
she’s not planning on marrying him?” Iz says. “That’s a shock.”

“From
what Bailey’s told me, she’s been accepted into several top schools like Duke and
doesn’t plan on sticking around here unless Lennon has a breakthrough,” Rena
says. “I feel sorry for her. Out of all the girls at school, she’s probably
closest to him, but she’s still an island away from him.”

Iz
lets out a breathy sigh of disbelief. “How did Bailey get into a school like
Duke?”

“She’s
in several of my AP classes,” I add. As far as I’ve noticed, she works hard at
school.

Maybe
I’m too hard on Lennon. He doesn’t really have a mom and his dad lives in LA,
and Lennon’s never been offensive to me except at my party. That still curls my
lip.

“There’s
so much more to Lennon than what we see on the surface,” Rena says.

“I’ll
say,” Iz says. “The way that boy fills his pants is downright nasty.”

I
blush, not meaning to.

“You
are too easy,” Gabby says, giving Iz a friendly shove. “I’d so get with him.
His voice makes you want to trip in front of him, so he can catch you.”

“He’d
probably drop you,” I say, scanning the club for bouncers while Iz tops off her
drink.

My
breath hitches when I spot a guy who resembles Lennon from the back and stands
close to us. Is he following me?  Did he hear us? When the guy turns around, I
realize he’s not Lennon, definitely not as handsome as Lennon.

A
cute guy from the same table as the imitation Lennon comes over and asks Iz to
dance. When he takes her hand, she turns toward us and gives her famous wicked
grin. I sip on my glass of liquid courage. I’m almost always the last one asked
to dance, probably will be tonight because I promised Rena I wouldn’t drink
much.

Guys
have told me I’m unapproachable, too smart. Zach used to tell me that’s what he
liked about me. That I looked off limits. The thought warms me almost as much
as the vodka.

Rena
seems to be lost in thought. She keeps glancing away from our table.

“What
are the other guys like in Indigo Blues?” Gabby asks.

It’s
a cool name for the band. “Danny is really cute, dark hair, baby face, and
seems nice, but I think he has a girlfriend. Clive is British and easy on the
eyes.”

“British,”
Gabby says, raising her eyebrows. “We need to see this band.”

I
track Rena’s gaze, which has lingered too long on a table down from us—a
forlorn expression marring her pretty face.

No.
It can’t be. It’s Byron. He’s a professional athlete who stole Rena’s heart and
her virginity. She’ll never get over him unless Lennon comes around. Byron’s
talking with two white girls, who happen to be brunettes.

Rena
tosses back her drink then slams it on the table before running for cover. I run
after her to the restroom. When I barge in, tears have already smudged her
makeup. I hand her a tissue to mop up the mess.

I
hug her as hard as humanly possible. “It’s going to be okay.” I know how much
this hurts because the pain from losing Zach has never gone away.

Rena
buries her face in my neck. “Why did he have to ruin my life?”

It’s
not like her to be the drama queen. If anything, she’s usually the most stable
out of all of us. But Byron is a whole other story. He wined and dined her,
sent roses to the school. She was so into him. What girl wouldn’t be? There’s
always that one guy that does it for you. For me, it’s Zach. For Rena, her
poison is Byron.

“Iz,
Gabby, and me, we’ll always be here for you,” I say.

I
don’t tell her how we all told her that Byron is a player and that she lied to
him by saying she was eighteen when she was only sixteen. “He’s a jerk. You can
do better than him.”

“He
told me he loved me, and I believed him.” They dated for almost a year when she
realized he was cheating on her all the time.

“Byron
probably does in his own twisted version of the world.”

“Could
I feel any worse? Why can’t I be attracted to a nice guy?”

“Because
love is dumb, deaf, and blind,” I say. “Especially dumb. I’ve been there. Iz
and Gabby, too. We all make mistakes.” I won’t even tell her everything about my
big whopper. “I’m just sorry he hurt you.”