Ten years ago - October, 28, 2009 - 8:02 AM

Leo Kelly

I watched in anticipation as Wren’s jet-black lips wrapped around the filter of my cigarette. I could practically feel my blood rushing below the belt as she began to suck on it. I swallowed, but the smoke had made my throat dry. I desperately needed to cough, which annoyed me because I was in the middle of the best show of my whole goddamned teenage life. The moment she pulled away the lipstick-stained cigarette from her lips, I couldn’t hold the cough back any longer.

Wren watched me as I doubled over, coughing onto the crisp, long grass beneath the picnic table we were sitting on.

I looked up to Wren the moment I calmed down, only to see another of my favorite sights. The cheeky smile on her face as she blew out the drag she had just taken.

“You ‘kay, Leo?” Her tone was way more sarcastic than concerned.

“Yeah,” I said, wiping my lips clean. “I’m good.”

“Whaaat? Are baby’s little lungs not—” I didn’t hesitate to throw my bag in the direction of Teddy’s voice. He must’ve hopped the fence to get back here so quickly. “Ow!” His voice bounced between the metallic sports shed and the old portables.

“Don’t even ask what that was for,” I said, looking back at the stupid hurt look on his face.

“You just want to look cool in front of—” Teddy shut up real fast when I threatened to throw my dad’s lighter.

“Ugggh,” Wren interrupted. I turned around on the rotten picnic bench to face her.

“Sor—” I started before she continued.

“Can we just fuckin’, I dunno, just leave or something?” she said looking through the chain link fence beside us. The view here was pretty cool. Or at least it would be if I hadn’t stared out at it every morning from my english class. The weather wasn’t too bad right now, but the dark clouds coming over the distant mountains told me that I wouldn’t be able to meet up with Wren again after school. I turned back to her, seriously considering joining her if she decided to cut class.

“I would, if you wanted to,” I said. She looked over and rolled her eyes at me, while she took another drag off my cigarette.

She continued after passing it back to me. “Calm down,” she said sardonically, “you know that if I miss another class this early in the year, Principal Aino will finally have the excuse to be on my ass after staring at it for so long.”

“Maybe after lunch or something then? Who’s gonna tell ‘em? Don’t you have shop class? I don’t think Mr. Laennec has ever done attendance, so how would he even know?”

“It’s not Laennec who’s the problem. It’s Mr. Davis. He just won’t give me a fuckin’ break, so you know I can’t miss Bio. Plus, I told you about that quiz, didn’t I?”

Wren pouted slightly as she waited for the cigarette, fingers extended.

“Well I don’t think being on the rag is a—” I turned around and stared daggers at Teddy. Looking back at Wren, she didn’t seem to even notice that he spoke.

“Yeah, what an asshole,” I said, trying to ignore the idiot as well. Teddy was quick to speak, though not the quickest to think. He was a year younger than Wren and I, and wasn’t really someone that I would’ve chosen to hang out with, but he was Rheese’s younger brother, so that earned him a spot with us at the bench even when he was a freshman. Now, a year later, Tim, Rheese, and Nikki were all gone, and we were still stuck with the dead weight. I had spent all of September and October trying to figure out the best way to get him to give us some space, but an idiot like him couldn’t get a clue if it smacked him in the face.

“Guess the bell’s gonna ring soon,” Wren said, looking across the faded football field. My gaze stayed on her dark brown eyes for a moment before following them. The few students trickling in from the East Gate had quickly grown to a steady stream. I didn’t recognize most of the kids. Most of them avoided the East Hall doors—which led directly to the shop hall and the club rooms—and rounded the back of the school to get to the North Side.

The only person I saw that went to the East Hall door was a tall black kid in a flashy jacket. I did vaguely recognize him. I was thinking maybe we had a class together when Wren plucked the cigarette from my mouth, tossed it under the bench, and stomped it out with her boot.

“What the fuck?” I said, annoyed, but couldn’t be too pissed. Wren’s hand smelled really good when it was close to my face, so I got something out of it at least.

“Here comes little miss teacher’s pet.”

“Who?” I looked around for the girl that Wren was talking about.

“Her.” She nodded toward a girl I had missed as she walked across the field toward us. Her blotchy, dark green jacket helped her blend into the field at a distance, and even as she got closer, she still appeared far away like some optical illusion.

Wow, she’s really short, isn’t she?

“She’s one of the teacher’s kids or something,” Wren said.

“A freshman?” I asked.

“Nah, a junior too. She’s in my bio class with Mr. Davis.” That was a shock. From the way that she was curled in on herself, she reeked of freshman shyness.

“Why is she coming over here?” I whispered as the girl approached.

“Some stupid shit probably.” Wren plastered an unnatural smile across her face. “Hey, what’s up?” she asked, managing to sound not completely dismissive.

“Did you…” The wind picked up through the smoke pit, and drowned out her soft voice. As the girl was talking while muted, Wren’s saccharine smile melted a little, sagging into a sugar-coated snarl that was more familiar to me and Teddy. Wren was readying her talons to sink them into the little mouse-like girl.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Wren’s tone of voice became decidedly sharper.

“Did you do your half of the assignment?” It was a little funny to watch someone else start to squirm when Wren turned the screws on them, but this girl was next level. Before Wren even had a chance to twist anything, I watched her eyes dart from Wren, to me, Wren again, then to her feet, the sky, all before ending up again at her feet.

“Assignment?” Wren asked playing dumb, “which assignment was that?”

“The cell presentation? Did you do—”

“Did I do what?” The girl flinched when Wren interrupted. “Last time I checked, we decided that because you’re so quiet, you didn’t want to present so I would have to do all the talking. And you’d handle everything else.”

“But I didn’t—”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t do it! Oh my god, can you believe this?” Wren said, dramatically turning to me and Teddy.

“What are you going to do now?” I heard Teddy choke back a snicker. We both knew what was coming next. I almost felt bad for the girl.

“Right, how are you going to get this done? I’m so busy with my classes I couldn’t possibly find the time!”

“Oh.” The girl’s eyes didn’t meet Wren’s again.

“What are you going to do?” Wren repeated.

“I… I guess I could still finish it.” The girl’s shoulders drooped as she continued. “At lunch or something.”

“Would you? That’s amazing! Thank you.” And with that bell-like lilt at the end of her sentence, I could tell Wren had decided the girl’s screws were sufficiently tightened. Retracting her talons, she faced me, her sickly-sweet smile transformed into the devilish one that I enjoyed so much.

Wren sat silently and watched my eyes. I felt the rhythm section quicken in my chest as she stared at me, silent and unblinking like the most aesthetic statue. Seeing that, the girl nodded and, with her shoulders just a bit lower, turned to cross the field. I couldn’t help but feel a little bad for her.

“Wasn’t that a bit harsh?”

“Give me another cig,” Wren said, ignoring me as she laid on the bench. I handed her another one of my cigarettes. She took it, and without looking at me, she asked, “lighter?” As soon as I reached into my coat pocket, the first bell chimed loudly over the loudspeakers around campus. Wren threw her head back, before sliding the cig in between her cleavage—an action that lifted up more than just my spirit. “Later then.”

I heard Teddy leave as he crunched away toward school.

“Are you just gonna sit there?” Wren said. With a sigh, I grabbed my bag as well, and quickly followed her.

“Don’t you think that was a little harsh?” I repeated, then immediately regretted saying it.

Do you really want to pick that fight?

“Don’t worry about the Pet. She’ll be fine. Either she gets it done, or Davis gives her an extension.”

“I thought you said Mr. Davis was a hardass?”

“Yeah, he is, to everyone but his little pet,” Wren said with enough venom to kill an elephant. I backed off a bit. Even when she was angry I still thought she looked cool, so as long as she didn’t come after me, there wasn’t any issue. “The plaything doesn’t ever have to worry about that.”

The plaything?

***

After grabbing my lunch from my locker, I cut through the East Hall on my way back out to the smoke pit. I absentmindedly stared through the windows into the various club rooms. Only stopping outside of the dark computer lab, my attention grabbed by the light of one of the computer monitors. The blue-lit face was none other than the girl from this morning—or Pet, as Wren called her—sitting in the dark, no doubt working on Wren’s half of their assignment. The girl was dutifully typing away, not even looking down as she did so. It was creepy about how still she was, and paired with her features: big wide eyes, smooth dark skin, cute curly hair, that whole shy demure act, it stitched together into this perfect look. I wondered if Pet realized just how much she looked like she could be a doll.

Maybe she really is just destined to be a plaything.

I pulled away from the door’s window when she glanced up from her work. As I pushed open the East Hall doors, and caught a glimpse of Wren’s flowing platinum hair from across the field, I couldn’t help but realize one more thing. Just how different the two girls were.