Magic Mushrooms and Other Hallucinations

Chapter 2 - Love Stinks ©The Beez 2018

LOVE STINKS



When you're sixteen, there's only so much boy crap you can take. Then you've got to bust out and stand on your own two feet. Laela and me, we both had boy troubles. My trouble was named Mike and hers was named Joey.

Both Mike and Joey would come and spend time with us on a regular basis. Everyone knew we were hooked up. We were couples on the weekend and week days we didn't see each other because they lived across town and went to different schools. I hadn't seen Mike in a while but we were together as far as I knew. Laela was blown away to find out we'd been dumped without discussion, but when a teenage boy wants to be single, it doesn't take him long. Rumor had it that last weekend both those sons of bee's decided to get unhooked from us two lovelies and go sniffing around the chicks up in Buckmaster Circle. Like anyone sensible would go near The Circle looking for a date. Grody!

If you know anything about Laela, you know there is just no way she's going to stand around and let some ball hanger make her look the fool. And me, well I'm happy to move along and find new trouble to help me forget about the last one.

"Smooch," Laela says to me, she rarely calls me Sally, and she continues, "I think we need to show those idiots what they're losing out on. Whaddaya think?"
We are sitting in her room. She's on the bed smoking steadily and I'm cross-legged on the floor sucking back a Coke while drooling over the latest Teen Beat Magazine. "Look," I say as I flash her a full-length pullout poster of Leif Garret, "babe-o-rama! I'd do him in the Avalon Mall parking lot with everybody in town watching."
"Oh, gawd! If yer mudder could hear ya now she'd be makin' ya eat six or seven bars of Ivory soap." Laela jokes, she knows that nobody gives a rat's ass what I say or do as long as I'm out of their hair.
"You tell me you wouldn't hump the guts out of him if you could? You're the biggest liar this side of the Avalon Mall." I know she's lying.
"I don't want to talk about Mr. Gay Garret. I want to talk about Mike and Joey. They shafted us. Tossed us aside like we're nuttin'." She says.
"I think you're right. It pisses me off too. Me and Mike went out for eight long weeks. I was committed. I turned down a make out session with Frankie 'Octopus' Fitzpatrick."
"Frankie? He's got great lips but man his hands are fast. Wouldn't pass up a roll with Frankie, he could bounce me all over town." She giggles and snorts.

I toss my Coke in the garbage, grab my Teen Beat and make my way out the door and down the stairs.
"Hey Smooch. Come back. Come on, where are you going?" Begrudgingly she follows me.
I'm half way up Watson Street before she catches up with me, she's pulling on her jean jacket and tying up her sneakers when I stop and sit down on a green power box in front of Brown's. There's loud music coming from inside but no one is out front. We can see the black light on inside Ray's downstairs bedroom, the sure sign of an ongoing party.
"Lae, what's wrong with you tonight? You're like a dog with a stick up its arse." Laela lights two smokes and sits beside me. She passes me one and waits to see what I have to say. I don't know what I have to say, I just know I'm real depressed that Mike left me for some bag that doesn't even go to high school.
"She's about twelve years old for god's sake."
"Who?" Laela asks.
"Cookie," I give Laela my frustration look, "Who do you think? The chick Mike is supposed to be going with goes to Saint Pius Elementary School. Jeez!"
Laela can tell I am upset. She puts an arm around me and squeezes my shoulder. She knows I hide my sadness really well so she's not used to me 'looking down'. Nothing bothers me normally; I've grown a tough shell because of my family life. She jumps up and grabs my hands, "How about we join the party? No point us moping over those losers. Maybe there are new cute dudes?" She asks but now I'm not really in the mood.

While I ponder whether I want to party or not, Laela counts the money in her pockets. "You got any cash," she asks.
"Six bucks," I tell her, "but I got no smokes."
"Gimme your cash and you can smoke mine. I'll talk Doobie into getting us a bottle of Screech." She sticks her hand out waiting for my money.
"Screech?" I complain, "Can't we get something that's fit to drink? How about vodka?"
"Okay, I don't care. I'd drink piss now if it'll get us drunk." We laugh. She slaps me on the back and heads into Brown's to find Doobie, who's old enough to buy booze for us. Doobie will do anything that puts him in a position to glare at Laela's huge melons for any amount of time.