Bad Ideas

16

Chapter 16

Shayla

Saturday night

I had to get her off my lips and out of my mind. It was ridiculous the way I was letting this kid genius consume me. Her birthday was next week. She'd be 17 and I'd be 19. Not so bad. Until I was 20 and she was still in her teens.

"You seem like you need a drink, toots." The cute bartender with purple hair told me.

"She does." A beautiful lady with blonde hair sat down next to me with a warm smile. Her red lipstick was pretty, but some of it was on her teeth.

"Get her a boxcar, Dotty."

"Sure thing, Cher." The bartender said, darting away to make me an old fashioned drink. I thought it was weird I wasn't carded, but I do look old enough. The lady held her hand out to me.

"Hello, I'm Cher. Like the singer. 30 years old and hoping you're legal, single and mingling."

"Shay, and I'm very legal, I assure you. Although, I'm definitely into someone at the moment." I winked at her taking a sip of the drink she ordered for me. It was bitter, but delicious all the same.

"What's she look like?" Cher winked.

"He is tall, dark and handsome." I winked back.

She giggled "You liar, liar, pants on fire. You're into vageens. I bet you're into the curvy lipstick girls and the bull dykes."

"Hmm...I was in love with a bull once. She was 250 lbs. of pure muscle and held all her weight in her jugs. Fuck, I miss her." I sighed, taking a sip of my drink.

"What happened to her?"

"She died in a deep dark hole somewhere."

"Oh, lord. Are you an assassin?" She leaned in, her face so close to mine I could kiss her. She smelled like cherry blossoms from bed, bath and beyond.

"No. I'm a soldier." I whispered back.

She nodded. "I know a soldier who's the best man I've ever met. Are you the good kind?"

"I'd like to think so." I told her without any emotion.

I felt guilty for wanting to take her to the bathroom. I couldn't stop from reaching out to touch her cheek though. I brushed some hair behind her ear, she batted her eyes.

"You should swallow that drink. Wait a minute then follow me to the bathroom." She told me, standing and walking away towards the washroom.

I drank the drink in one gulp. The bartender winked at me making me feel very promiscuous, which was stupid because it made me feel like Cyn. Like, sin get it?

Ha ha ha.

With every step I took my heart vanished a little. I'd tell you what happened once inside that stall when her tiny hands and mouth took over, but it's shameful as shameful can be. Just know the whole time I was thinking of our girl and praying no one ever found out about this.

****

Cynthia

Sunday 3pm

"You're not coming." I yelled, throwing a spoon at my grandma.

Maybelline stopped by after going to the grocery store to buy wine. She wanted to say hi. Really she was checking her books. She read over my red journal carefully.

"Which one is taking from me?" She asked, closing the book, taking off her glasses.

"You're changing the subject. But to answer your question. I think it's Reggie. The baby is coming so I think he's panicking. Nothing else makes sense, grams." I told her, spooning the mashed potatoes I made for dinner at Kam's into a Tupperware bowl.

"Yeah, seems like he would do it. Right?" She sighed. "And I am going, so is Sharon."

"What the fuck? Why?" She smacked me in the back of the head.

"I ain't going to get fucked alone."

I shook my head. "You're ignorant. And you're using that word in the wrong context."

"God, sometimes you remind me so much of Kam I want to kill you." She told me, pulling me and my potatoes out of the house without letting me put on my coat first.

******

Sharon

"Mother, this is the worst idea in the world." I told her, stopping her at the door.

"I know that Shayla character has something to do with my barn burning." Maybelline grumbled.

"Rosie's barn."

"My best friend's barn I use. I know she did it because Rosie saw her. If I kill her right away it'll look suspicious. This is the next best thing to do." Maybelline explained, smoking a cigarette before we went inside.

I hated this house. The house Kam's mom and father bought when he was a kid. My mom made Rosie move out of it as soon as Kam left town. Why? Who knows really. I hated the house because it held a lot of really bittersweet memories of when we were kids together.

"You should have told me who she was before you sent me into that bar to seduce that girl." I whined.

"Shut up, it paid for your nails and hair dye didn't it?"

I mumbled that I hated her, but didn't finish my thought because Cyn opened the door for us. She'd gone in without us to put down the food and wine we all brought. I truly had no business to be here other than to make trouble.