Toothpaste Kisses

Chapter 2

~~ Edited 18/08/2013~~

CHAPTER 2  —  For you I would lose both, both of my shoes

It was Tuesday and I had my head resting on the table listening to Mr Crawford, my English teacher as he flamboyantly read the text ‘Of Mice and Men’ to the less enthusiastic class. I knew the text like I knew how to spell ‘and’. I knew all the themes, the characters, all of the things the exam board would question us on thanks to my psychotic English teacher who preached it to us like the Bible.

“Where we goin’ George?” Crawford asked playing Lennie’s character spot on. It was comforting to listen to Mr Crawford tell the story compared to when Mrs Cal used to tell my old English class it with her Lancashire accent as she strained the deep South tone, piercing your ear drums and making you struggle back a laugh.

I looked up as the bell rang to see Mr Crawford with his mouth open wide with a grin as he tried to pronounce the next line. His smile fell to a glum look at the low tone that caused the scraping of chairs. Poor man, I got up picking at the hair that had been plastered to my face from being compressed between my face and the table.

“Oh, Miss Thomlinson,” I looked up to see Mr Crawford smiling at me as he placed his battered copy of literature into his top drawer. “Mr Darcy wants to see you now.” With a smile and a nod I walked out of the room and started down the hectic halls to the front door.

The end of the day had come and with it the more laid back freshmen were walking slowly through the halls, guy trying to push their friends into the girls’ toilets and the girls gossiping about what colour nails a girl had on today. The older students, the ones who were in their last years were rushing through with their heads low and their strides long.

“Thomlinson,” I rolled my eyes an A* arsehole – or should I say A+ asshole? – called my name behind me.

 Why, oh why did she have to do this now? I was about a hundred yards from the school doors, ready to leave for the day. I was ready to go and get away from the world for a bit, get away from that girl and just think about dance. Why couldn’t she leave me alone for a few hours? I knew I was sexy and all but…

With a sigh I put a smirk on my face and turned to look at her. She was standing there, all plastic and shiny with her now-yellow nails planted on her hip that was jutting out in a very Regina George fashion. Her hair was expertly flipped onto one shoulder, curling down to her waist – a thing I wouldn’t be able to do with the harshest perm and the strongest hairspray. And then there was her outfit; with her regulation pleated skirt that she had rolled up to just above mid-thigh and her fishnet tights she had that real prozzie vibe going on.

Looking at her in all her hooker glory it seemed to easy – like her – and forgetting about how Darcy needed to see me right now I took on the ‘challenge’ of making Angel look like a fool.

“Aaaaa,” I stretched, “nal,” I finished and grinned my most charming grin as her lip twisted into a sneer. People fell quiet around us, knowing how explosive our fights could be and waited for the show to commence. I ignored them though, staring coolly at my roommate, waiting for her comeback.

“It’s like you actually want a slap,” she took a step forward. Okay, so she was going down the ‘violent’ route, I thought with a roll of my eyes.

“Angel, if you wanted to slap me you would have by now, you had so many chances when I pissed you off to do it.” Her jaw tightened as she glared at me, seeing that I could see right through her guff. My smirk widened as I said; “Come at me bro, slap me, I don’t care!” A few sniggers went through the small crowd that was around us and I couldn’t help letting the smirk form into a smile. “But that’s the thing! You are all talk and no trousers!”