The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop

The Fuzzy End of the Lollipop: Chapter Ten

Maya's attitude to men was similar to the way she dressed. If his company felt good, he was allowed to stay, but if not he was shown the door. Occasionally she would talk about her exes, describing them as too boring or too sweet but never expressing anything further than that. Apparently, she had only had one not very nice boyfriend but she rarely spoke of him. On the other hand, Toni loved telling the story about how she had made him cry in front of all his friends.

"So, we were outside this club right and I saw him."

"Toni," Maya sighed, "Sally really doesn't need to know about this."

"Shh, I am telling the story. So anyway, he was surrounded by five or six of his mates."

"It was more like two. "

"Don't ruin it! So, he was standing with like, ten of his mates, right. And I walked up to him and gave him what for. Rocked his world."

Maya shook her head, "You should have been arrested."

"No, he shouldn't have cheated on my sister," said Toni matter of factly.

Sally laughed awkwardly, fearing the day when Maya and her would have a fight. What would Toni do then? Would she just be booted off to the side and used as another anecdote?

"So how's this Jamal guy, then?" Asked Sally.

"Oh he's great," grinned Maya.

"How long have you guys been dating now?"

"Like a month, I think I met him a few days after Gran's birthday. You guys really need to meet him, he is so nice." 

Sally nodded but did not say anything. She did not know how she felt about Maya having a new person in her life. Jamal could easily jeopardise everything she had worked so hard to achieve but the way Maya looked when she spoke about him convinced her there was nothing she could do. It was obvious, she liked him but in some ways knowing that only made things worse.

Sally desperately wanted to tell Maya about Him, she wanted to tell everyone about Him, but every time she tried the words always came out wrong.

"My ex was really weird," Sally began saying one night.

"Weird as in how?" asked Maya shocked by the change in subject.

"He was, like, really young."

"How young?" Asked Maya, "He wasn't underage, was he?"

"No, that's not what I mean," said Sally cursing herself for getting it wrong again.

"He was just immature. Like, His mum did His laundry and He still didn't make His own bed."

"Oh, okay well that's a relief, I thought you were going to say he was like a kid or something."

"No! Just immature," said Sally, pinching the side of her hand. Why couldn't she explain it properly?

"I once dated a guy who had never used an iron in his life," said Maya, unable to understand where Sally wanted this conversation to go, "Like what the heck. No one should be proud of that."

"What a loser!" said Sally, trying to hide her disappointment.

She longed for the day when Maya would ask her a question about Him. The right one, at the right time, would allow her to let everything out but Maya was just a girl. She was not a therapist or a mind reader; she had her own shit going on and did not have time to translate Sally's Klingon into digestible English. It was up to her to verbalise what happened but to speak of it was to feel it and Sally did not know if she was capable of that. The memories from that time were so distorted. Her mind had stepped back and hunkered down while her body trundled along, only partly aware of what had happened around it. Back then she was blinded by what she thought was love. Sally could remember that "love" without any struggle or hesitation. It still hung within her, paper-thin, looming over the bad times, casting shadows over the truth.

Thankfully, Maya and Toni rarely asked her about her love life. Maya was busy enjoying the first few weeks of love and Toni was far too busy teasing her about it.

"So, are you guys, like, going to get like, married and everything," said Toni in a whiny valley girl accent.

Maya rolled her eyes, "Shut up."