User blog:SodaCat/style chapter 3

FINALLY

“When did you plan on telling me that Johnny hates me?”

Peanut Romano turned around slowly at Alexis’ voice, a bit nervous. He’d meant to warn Alexis about Johnny’s current feelings towards her, but it wasn’t exactly easy to stride up to someone you cared about after they just got back and tell them that someone they cared a whole lot about didn’t want to be near them. It’d just been easier to not say anything to her, maybe Johnny’s mind would change when he saw her.

But, clearly not.

“Hey, Alex,” he said nonchalantly, eyeing her. She was all dressed up in her uniform, though of course she’d had to make a few edits to it. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she was pouting at him. She would’ve looked cute, if she hadn’t been glaring daggers at him.

Alexis froze for a moment, staring at him just a little bit slack-jawed. “Don’t ‘hey Alex’ me! Why didn’t anyone warn me Johnny can’t stand me?”

She walked up against him and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. Feeling sorry for her, Peanut lowered himself a little so she could reach easier, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“It’s not that he hates you,” Peanut replied, tightening his grip on her as he felt her begin to shake with little sobs, “he’s just really hurt at you is all.”

“I didn’t wanna leave,” Alexis mumbled, straightening up to face him square on, “th-they just started fightin’ over custody and I just got thrown into foster care and then they shipped me off to live with my mom, and—”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Woah, woah, woah,” Peanut interrupted, surprised. “Foster care? Your mom?” She hadn’t exactly mentioned anything about a custody battle, and especially not foster care. Sure, she’d mentioned living with her mom and her weird boyfriend, Alastair, yesterday at breakfast, but the boys had just thought she’d just gone off to live with her for two years for kicks.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“None of us knew about that, Alex,” he continued, the alarm in his voice apparent. “I didn’t know that, Ricky didn’t know that, Hal, Lefty, Lucky, Norton, and Vance didn’t know that, and I can bet you my jacket that Johnny didn’t know that.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Alexis smiled a little, but she didn’t look none too happy to Peanut at all. “Well yeah,” she sniffed, wiping at her eyes and smudging her eyeliner terribly, “they wouldn’t let me call from the police station and then my foster family was way too anti-technology to own anything but a landline, and I wasn’t allowed to use it, anyway.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">He watched her for a moment, hopelessly wiping at her eyes and ruining her make-up further, and remembered his own home life situation. Peanut had been taken from his drunk of a dad too, once, and placed in a foster family for an entire summer, and he’d hated every minute of it. Sure, Alexis got placed with her mom after a bit, but from what he knew about Lilian Monroe was that she wasn’t exactly a piece of cake, either. And Peanut really doubted that Alexis had anybody like himself, Johnny, or any of the guys in the Upper East Side.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Peanut took her hands and placed them by her sides—he really couldn’t stand her ruining her make-up like this anymore. Pretty soon, she’d start looking just like she had back in seventh grade when she used to load up on black eye shadow and then he’d start laughing, which, coincidentally, wasn’t exactly appropriate for the situation at hand.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Come on,” he said, taking her hand and guiding her to the Boys’ Dorm, “we’re gonna talk, okay? And then we’re gonna find Johnny and get youse guys fixed up. Then we can all have a smoke, on Lefty.”

<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Johnny Vincent let out a distracted sigh as he puffed on his cigarette while sitting on the hood of one of the old, broken down cars in the auto shop that same night.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">So low and behold, what Peanut had told him on Saturday was true. Lex—no, Alexis—was back. After leaving them all stranded with no idea where she’d gone, and turned out she’d simply run off to live it up with her mother in Manhattan or whatever. So they’d spent two entire years worrying that something had happened to her for nothing.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Yeah, real fuckin’ nice.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">He shoulda known better than to trust that broad. Sure, she was just the type of girl who’d kiss a guy and make him think happy thoughts about how maybe the two of them could have a future and all, and then just run off like that. Rich kids—they were all the same. And to think she’d gone ahead and made him think she was one of them—all that talk about daddy who didn’t give her the time of day and mommy who’d walked out as soon as she could talk—all bullshit. Girls were fuckin’ lame.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey, good-lookin’,”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Johnny smiled at her familiar voice. Yeah, rich kids sucked, and girls like Alexis Monroe were lame as hell, but Lola was perfection itself. Sure, maybe the guys thought she had a couple flaws—but who didn’t? At least Lola embraced them, and even with ‘em, she was still beautiful.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Best of all, she didn’t kiss him and then disappear for two years.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Two hours, maybe, but not years.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">He turned to her, still smiling lovingly at her. It was incredible that she could wear those old leather clothes and still look better than the Victoria’ Secret models Peanut was always going on and on about. Lola was breathtaking.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Hey,” he said simply, patting the spot beside him on the car, signaling her to come sit.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Lola strode over to him easily, hips swinging, red lips curved and sculpted into a lacey smile. She took a seat on his lap, cuddling up real close to him—Johnny could swear she could hear his heartbeat. She always knew when he needed comforting. It’d been a stroke of luck that he’d met her after moping around about Alexis for the remainder of 9th grade. She was an angel—his angel.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“What’s got you down?” Lola purred, fixing his shirt collar for him and smoothing it out over his leather jacket. Man, she could just read him like a book.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Not that he’d ever seen her crack one open?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Nothing,” he mumbled, but from the look of apprehension on her goddess-like features, he could tell she didn’t believe him. He took a deep breath and started again.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Alexis Monroe is back,” he said simply, taking a drag from his cancer stick.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Lola let out a soft breath, ‘tsk’ing gently. “Alexis Monroe, huh?” she asked, shaking her head gently. Johnny watched her intently, grateful to have her. She’d seen how torn up he’d been after Alexis called it quits for her and Bullworth. He should’ve come to Lola as soon as he walked out of that stupid chemistry class.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I know she hurt you, honey,” Lola said, smoothing the hair at the back of his head, “but you’ve got to move on! Look at you, I bet you haven’t slept since you found out.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“And look!” she said, grabbing the almost empty pack of Kools beside him, “You’ve been smoking more than Lefty! All ‘cause of one girl? Should I be just a little jealous, Johnny?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Johnny sighed, almost laughing at the notion that Lola need even be remotely jealous of anyone—especially Alexis. But he knew she was right, he was letting this entire thing eat at him. He hadn’t really slept well since Saturday… and pretty soon he’d be out of cigarettes, and would have to bum them from the boys so that he wouldn’t go into withdrawal before they opened up the damn front gates again. As usual, Lola was right.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“You’re right,” he said automatically, smiling at her. “I don’t need nobody but you, Lola,” he whispered, leaning in to kiss her.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">She moved away from him before he could, pulling out her cell phone and checking the I.D., angling it so that Johnny couldn’t see. She flipped the phone open and put it to her ear, holding her index finger to Johnny’s lips, and then hung up as promptly as she’d picked up.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I’ve gotta cut this short, honey,” she said, pecking him quickly on the cheek and standing.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Lady issues,” she called as she walked away, “you wouldn’t want to hear about them.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Johnny watched, slack jawed, as Lola walked away—hips swinging, red lips surely curved and sculpted into a lacey smile.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Man <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif""> he loved her. She always left him wanting more.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Johnny! Johnny!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">His head snapped to the source of the noise—and Johnny’s brown eyes quickly met the frantic, determined face of Peanut Romano, his now only childhood best friend.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“What’s the matter, Peanut?” Johnny asked, trying to shake away the brief feeling of fantasy Lola had left him with as he stood up. “You’re lookin’ worked up. Did one of those rich kids mess with you?!”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“No, man,” Peanut replied, panting slightly as he placed his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. He cursed his ‘short’ legs under his breath for a moment before looking back up at Johnny.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“I gotta talk to you. It’s about Alex.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Johnny stiffened automatically at the sound of Peanut’s nickname for Her. Damn it, why did things always go sour when Lola wasn’t around?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">He sat back down, bringing the cigarette back up to his lips and trying not to bite down on it from anger. “I don’t wanna hear about her, Peanut. I’ve moved on.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Peanut sat back down, pulling out one of his own cigarettes, lighting it, and putting it to his lips so fast that to Johnny it seemed like one fluid movement. One familiar, fluid movement…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">So he’d been hanging out with Her, huh?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“’S not what ya think, man,” Peanut said, not taking his cigarette out from between his lips, “I know you’re mad ‘cause she ran off, but she didn’t. Her mom made a case against her dad and she got put into foster care for a bit before she got shipped off to Lil—”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Larry,” Johnny said, his voice solid and stern as it was when he was giving orders, “I don’t wanna know nothin’ ‘bout Alexis Monroe.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“But Johnny,” Peanut insisted, his voice whiny like it was when they were kids, “she’s got a pretty good excuse for it. C’mon, you remember what foster care was like for me—”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Johnny let out a sigh, throwing his cigarette to the ground and stomping it out before it touched some spilled gas or somethin’. This place was a death trap. He looked to Peanut, not sure if the pity he was feeling at the moment was for Larry or for himself.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Look, man,” Johnny mumbled, letting out a sigh, “I wasted a lot of time hung up on that chick. You saw me. And I didn’t get better ‘till Lola came ‘round. Lex—she…”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Johnny stopped for a moment, unsure of what to say. There was no way in hell he was about to tell Peanut about that kiss that night in freshman year. He started again.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Alexis ain’t good for me, at least not right now. I’m happy right now. Real happy.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">Peanut crossed his arms for a moment, studying his best friend. “Where’s Lola, Johnny?”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif"">Damn <span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif""> him. “Lola’s gone off to sleep. And we should, too.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">He stared impatiently at Peanut, still sitting there lookin’ all grown up and like he knew better.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Fine. So she didn’t run off. I ain’t mad. She’s forgiven. But I ain’t lookin’ to restart things.” Johnny hissed, irritated. Why did Peanut have to act like such a know-it-all? Peanut didn’t know anything.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">The shorter greaser finally let out a sigh, shrugging. “Alright, Johnny, fair enough.”

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">“Good. Now let’s get to the dorm before someone comes to chew our asses off.”