Slugger

3: Favourite Slugger

The next day I'm all kinds of excited to tell my friends about what happened between me and Dante. Which really wasn't much, but still. However, the fact that Stacy, who is a total princess, comes in with leaky eyes and is wearing sweatpants to school takes precedence.

"Wayne dumped me!" She yells in the courtyard at break. Nicole runs a hand through her hair and leans back into the bench we're sitting on.

"I thought you wanted to dump him," she says and then sighs. "Kenny, could you braid my hair?"

"Sure," I say and sit up on the table. Nicole rests her head in my lap and hands me a rat-tail comb so I can begin doing my work.

"I did want to dump him!" Stacy groans and then wipes her eyes. Her eye makeup stays flawlessly intact which in itself is amazing but I don't actually think she's crying.

"I don't get it," I pipe up, sectioning Nicole's hair into two and then tying one section into a bun. "If he dumped you then didn't he do the dirty work for you?"

"Well yeah," she says and then sighs. "But I don't think I was actually going to do it."

"Then why'd you say you were?" Nicole asks, visibly confused. "I don't get it either."

Stacy pouts and then puts her arms up on the table top, delicately resting the tip of her chin on them. "We were supposed to be together forever because I love him."

"And I love my cell phone but I'm gonna dump it for another one next year," Nicole says firmly as I finish one of her braids. "Wayne was a creep anyway, he'd always stare at my tits." Then she sneakily pinches my leg, signalling me to say something.

"Yeah, true. And didn't you say he had a thing for your mom too? That's way outta line."

Stacy sniffles and then looks up at the two of us, her insecurities shining through.

Her mom used to be an actual beauty queen who became Miss United States like three times. They're still surviving off her winner's prizes but then the fact her mom was also a sugar baby whose daddy died and left all his shit to her means they've got enough to last three lifetimes. It's a mystery why they're living in a huge ass house in Pasadena of all places but it is what it is.

"I'm as pretty as my mom, right?" She squeaks, her voice getting quieter and quieter on every word. 

"Damn straight," Nicole says. "And your mom is way older than you too so you'll be prettier for longer."

"Very true," I add lib, focusing more on the head in front of me rather than the conversation at hand here. "Besides, you won't have to compete with your mom when you get to college which really isn't that far off... I'm all done Nicole."

Stacy gives us a watery smile. "Thank you girls so much for being my friend. I don't know who I'd be without you two,"

There's nothing like bonding over ego boosts.

Nicole pulls out a compact mirror and looks at the two braids I did on her head with careful scrutiny. "Thank you Kenny." She says in a sing song voice, a smile colouring her face. I just give her a thumbs up.

"How was your baseball match yesterday?" Stacy asks, straightening up. Nicole rolls her head in my lap and grins up at me.

"Well, Kennedy here nearly killed a guy and he ended up being the love of her life," She says with a large smile on her face. I roll my eyes.

"Okay, first of all, I didn't almost kill him... just almost caused severe head trauma,"

"Which would have ultimately killed him but I digress," She laughs. "It didn't really matter though because he was so into her and literally smiled at everything she said."