Shut Up And Kiss Me (gxg) ✓

3. F*ckity

         I WAS LAYING ON MY BED, DEBATING whether or not to time travel three thousand years back in time to murder the founder of trigonometry, when I heard about the new girl.

         It was Sunday night, and tomorrow, I could officially say that the first week of eleventh grade was done.   

         "What's a better music band name?" I asked. "The Flying Pigs or the Tyrannical Lagoon Monsters?"

        "Neither," Cody said. "Those are both awful."

         "Hey!" I threw my pencil at him. "I thought those were both artistic."

         My sister's head popped into the doorway of my room. "How about the Superstitious Bing-Bang-Bongers?"

         "Claudia, do yourself a favour and go to jail."

         My sister only grinned in response, closing the door to my room.

         Cody set down his phone. "Talia, there's a reason you're a drummer and not an artist. Anyways, have you heard the news yet?"

         I rolled my eyes at him. Knowing him, it was probably something like, Do you think Shannon Callaghan got a boob job over the summer?  

         And if we were being honest, the answer to that was probably yes. 

         Not that I had noticed.

         Focus. I looked down at my paper again, trying to ignore both Cody and Skylar. 

        Kenny goes to the store to buy 87 watermelons, which is five times less than Spencer has. If they are driving in their Maserati at a speed of 245 km/h, how much pink icing is required for 12 cupcakes?

         "This is impossible," I groaned. And as if in answer, my pencil snapped in half, splintering against my palm. It was a bad habit―my drummer's grip. My fingers tended to be stronger than average.

          "I know!" Cody fell back on my bed, holding my stuffed bear to his chest. "Isn't Aaron so fucking annoying?"

          Slowly, I unfurled my hand. Letting the pencil halves roll onto my notebook. "What about Aaron?"

         "Haven't you been listening to me?"

         "No, not really."

         "Aaron isn't here tonight because he's helping his cousin get settled in. She's moving back to town after two years."

         Oh. That made sense. Every weekend, we spent Friday at Skylar's, Saturday at Cody's, and Sunday at my house. On school days, we frequented The Indie Queen, a shadowed velvet parlor that was half an actual café and half a fortune-teller scam.

          Aaron was usually always here―he lived directly across the street―but all he'd said to me today was that he would be late.

         He's helping his cousin get settled in?

          Skylar fell out of the desk chair. "You're not talking about . . ."

         Cody nearly chewed on the words. "Monroe. Fucking. Kingston."

         "Am I supposed to know who that is?"

         "Talia, you don't remember?"  Skylar's gasp was one of pure disbelief. "When we were in grade nine, she was in grade ten. And she was a fucking legend."