Gold Dust Woman- Lip Gallagher

why do we help people we hate?

I got ready for school and played Kanye West's new album, My Beautiful Dark and Twisted Fantasy, as I picked out a tee, flannel, and gray jeans to wear. 

"Hey, Mayo, do you have a tampon?" Diana said.

"Yea, here," I said, handing her one.

"Thank you so much," she said, "I'll stop by the pharmacy later today and get some more so I'm not asking you constantly. So, uh, you and Cory?"

"Yeah, I guess so," I said, "We're not dating though. Just friends. With benefits. I don't want a relationship right now."

"You mean with him?"

I turned around, "What do you mean?"

"Come on, Mayo. I have eyes. I saw the way you and Lip were gawking at each other at the wedding and using Karen and Cory to get each other's attention." 

"I have no clue what you're talking about," I said, refusing to admit what I was doing.

She scoffed, "Yea, keep telling yourself that, babe."

"OK, so we kissed one time! It meant nothing," I said, slapping my hand over my mouth when I realized what I said.

She gasped as a smile tugged at her mouth, "When was this?!"

"The morning of the wedding," I said quietly before going downstairs. 

_______________________________________

After being pounded with questions by Diana the entire way to school, we found Lip, Ian, and Karen talking to Dale Harding, a kid on the basketball whom Lip was doing an SAT. I tried not to roll my eyes while Lip dumbed down the explanation of how the process was going to work. You know, with the IDs and such. 

"Saturday night. What time can I pick you up?" Dale asked Karen.

"7," she said, smiling wide.

"Done," he said before looking at Diana, "Looking sexy today, Pearson."

She smiled as Lip looked at Karen, "You're dating Oompa now?"

"He doesn't talk. It's fun," Karen said.

I started laughing as Lip looked at me, "Something you wanna share with the class, Mayo?"

"Nothing. Just remembered a funny joke from this show I watched," I lied as I slowly stopped.

_________________________________________________________

The five of us met up in the bathroom for a smoke during second.

"So, are you guys going to the parent-teacher conference tonight?" Karen asked.

"No," we all laughed.

"My dad can't be bothered," I said, "But he's also busy as hell. Is Jenna not going, Diana?" 

"She's going to Blake's."

"Hey, Louise got an A on that paper you wrote for her in English class," Karen said, "How do you keep doing that?"

"Well, to master the art of book report, you just take any novel, no matter when it was written, and you argue that the main character is a latent homosexual."

I chuckled.

"No, seriously. Most English teachers are either gay and agree, or they're straight, but too scared to disagree and get labeled as intolerant."

Karen laughed a little too hard as two football bros walked in.

"1870! Thanks, man. Appreciate it," one of them said, giving Lip a bro hug. 

"Perfect for the big ten. Happy to help, man."

"Man, you more than helped, now I'll definitely be a beer-swilling, roofie-slipping, fighting Illini next year, alright?"

 "Excuse me, roofie slipping?" I said, not gaining a response. Asshole.

The other guy stayed behind with an unsatisfied look.

"What happened, Tire? Not happy with your results?"

"Haven't come back yet."

"Any day now," Ian said.

"I better not look stupid."

"Impossible," Lip said.

"Hey! There's one last testing session this year, so tell your friends," I said.

 "Little white girl thinks she can tell me what to do," Tire chuckled before she walked off.

"Jerk off," I mumbled. 

"Why do we help people we hate?" Karen said.

"Because we get a fuck ton of money out of it," Diana said, "Hard to turn down."

_______________________________________________________________

I was working after school and sorted the nail polish when someone squeezed my hips from behind, "Guess who?"

I turned around and there was Lip. I recognized the voice immediately. 

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

"Well, got some good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

"Bad news always."

"Ok. Bad news is I got caught with the SAT stuff," he said, "But the good news is the guy who caught me is a professor at UChicago, and he wants me to visit his office sometime because of my grades."

"Oh my god, that's great!" I said, smiling, "Lip, do you have any idea what this means? You could end up at UChicago or Northwestern or even somewhere like Harvard!"

He chuckled, "Yeah, I suppose I could. When does your shift end?"

"Uh, I get off at six. So, twenty minutes?"

"OK. Fi and I need to be there tonight for the parent-teacher conference and convince them not to expel Carl. Frank won't go because well- I don't have to explain. You wanna come after your shift?"

"Jesus. What'd he do now?"

"Oh, just normal shit he does."

I shrugged. It was Carl we were talking about after all.

So, after my shift, we walked to school, and I waited outside of the office with Liam while the family talked to the principal. Liam fell asleep in my arms within the first five minutes or so. He was a pretty easy baby to take care of. He slept through everything and barely cried. 

By some miracle, Steve got the principal to have a change of heart. He says he "Got lucky."

"Daddy!" Debbie said as we walked down the hall. There was Frank with Karen. That fucker. He couldn't even be there for his biological kids, but he'll be there for the daughter of the nut job he's fucking? 

"Debbie, we gotta go," Fiona said.

"I wanna say hi to Daddy. Daddy!"

"Hello, pumpkin!" Frank said.

"Karen, what's going on?" Lip said.

"Well, you said you never come to these things, so I thought you weren't gonna come, and I asked Frank to stand in for my worthless father," she explained.

"Did they expel Carl?" Frank asked, gaining no response, "What did I tell ya? Drama and threats all for naught!"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head as I looked over at Fiona who smiled through the pain she felt. I could even see the tears in her eyes.

"Come on, guys," she said as we all left.