NINE

DAWN

Miguel, Zelda and I are cruising around Riverside in Miguel's beat up 1970's Volkswagen Beetle, bored and itching for something to do on a crazy hot afternoon after school.

Miguel's car pulses down the main drag toward the commercial district as the last dregs of late-afternoon sunlight turn everything toasted and gold. We pass by car dealerships and a dozen different chain restaurants, bright stuccoed strip malls filled with drugstores and tanning salons and payday loan parlours. The further we went, the more it looks like all the buildings had gone up in the last five minutes, everything somehow artificial-looking, as if it might fold down at night like a child's pop-up book.

As time passes by, Miguel, Zelda and I find a way back to mine to smoke the rest of our weed supply. Eventually, the munchies hit us all and we pool up whatever money we have to get some curly fries and milkshakes from Jono's, an old-fashioned drive-in where you order through a speaker and they bring your order out to your car. We drive back to my house with Miguel's leather seats stinking of grease and salt.

Jonah's not in his room or around the house when we got back. My mother is God knows where.

"Adrian says she and Arabella are coming over if that's okay," Miguel says to me, mouth full of fries.

"Yeah, sure!"

Zelda tosses the balled-up wrapper at Miguel's face from the side seat and I crack up. "Ew loser, chew with your mouth closed! Like damn, who raised you?"

"Your mom," Miguel retorts sarcastically and I laugh even harder.

Twenty or so minutes later, Arabella and Adrian show up at my doorstep.

My heart skips a beat when my eyes land on Arabella. There's just something about her that makes it hard to take your eyes off her. Even though Adrian has a louder personality, there's an understated but graceful air about Arabella. She can command so much by saying so little; a raise of a glittered eyebrow, the pursing of a glossy lip, the twist of a leg muscle or a shadow of a smile twisting at her dimples in all of her girl bravado. She doesn't fit your average caricature of a Queen B, that's for sure.

But I think that makes her more interesting, don't you think?

"Hey, thanks for letting us come," Arabella tells me, enveloping me into a hug when I open the door. She looks so stunning with her jutting collarbones standing out of her neon tank top. Her edges have been glued down despite her deconstructed ballerina bun and the sweat from cheerleading practice gives her skin a sexy sheen. I lower my eyes so I'm not caught staring.

"How was cheerleading practice?"

"Oh terrible," Adrian answers for her, "The new coach is a goddamn cunt. Arabella's not captain anymore."

"What? That's crazy."

Arabella Jones not being the captain of the Riverside cheerleading team is like pigs flying. Or me not being a stoner. Or Jonah not being a bonehead.

Arabella rolls her eyes and nestles herself into one of the crooks of the couch right next to me. "It's not that big of a deal. Is Jonah home?"

"No," I respond, noting her quick subject change. "I think he's out with some other girl."

"Jesus Christ, it's been, like, two weeks since Arabella and Jonah broke up and he's already with another girl?" scoffs Adrian as she sits next to Miguel on my couch.

"Jonah moves fast," I shrug. It's true. My brother goes through girls like toilet paper. Do you know how annoying it is to have the most sought after guy in high school be your brother? Girls are constantly asking you if he was single, if he was into them or why he's such a player. I don't know. The kid's a bonehead, I honestly don't know how he manages to get so much action.

"Why y'all break up anyway?" Miguel asks Arabella, passing a joint around the circle with one hand and a bag of Doritos with the other.

"We just saw things differently."

Adrian smirk while she's tugging at the straw of her diet coke, the squeaking grating on me. "What she's saying is Jonah wanted submissive pussy and sadly, Arabella doesn't put out because she promised Jesus she wouldn't."

"Adrian!"Arabella gasps as everybody busts out laughing at her words. If she was light-skin, I'd imagine she'd be blushing. She's so cute. She's playing with the promise ring on her finger, a little gold band with a crystal stud.

"It's fine, you're not missing out on anything. High school boys are so bad in bed," Zelda promises Arabella.

Miguel snorts at her. "Says you putting up with your jock boyfriend. How is the three-second wonder going?"

"He's actually getting better! Just the other day, he asked me to give him a blowjob and right after, I demanded that he should eat me out because I'm not going to give someone head without due payment, you know?" Adrian, Miguel and I laugh, not at her but just at the thought. "Trust me, ladies, you have not lived until you've been eaten out. And properly too."

Arabella gives me a look as if saying where is this going like I have an answer. I just shake my head and smile at her. Zelda goes off on her own tangent.

"Anyway so Kaden pulls me towards the edge of the bed and my legs are dangling off the bed and you know how hard that is? I was scared to like moan or enjoy it because what if I fall off the fucking bed and land on his face?"

Miguel burst out laughing. "Fuck Zelda, I love you."

"Yeah so he's actually so fucking good at it and I'm trying my best to relax but also not fall off the bed at the same time. And that's when I realize, female ejaculation is a thing."

"Motherfucker," Adrian gasps, clutching her sides.

"So I'm totally, like, shit I just peed all over my boyfriend's face-" All of us, including Jesus-loving Arabella, are cracking up laughing hardcore now, "-and I'm like about to cry when he looks up at me and was like 'damn, you taste good' and then I look it up in my brother's dumbass Playboy magazine to see if it's normal and it totally is."

"Thank you, Zelda, for that ever so enlightening class on female ejaculation," I interject sarcastically.

"Fuck off Dawn," Zelda says to me. "So Arabella, don't let these motherfuckers, especially Jonah, ever change your mind about when you wanna have sex. Have it whenever you want it but makes sure whoever you do it eats you out. That's your biggest takeaway."

"Um...okay," guffaws Arabella, who seems taken aback by Zelda's upfront attitude about her sexuality but not necessarily grossed-out.

A warm feeling expands in my chest. I know what the other girls in school say about Zelda- how she's a slut or she doesn't respect herself. I hate it. It makes me wanna throw hands or pull the hair of whoever says that about her and I was half expecting Arabella to be one of those people about to make a self-righteous comment on what Zelda wants to do with her body. Instead, Arabella has this wide-eyed curiosity about it- she's surprised but not mean. If anything, I honestly didn't think she'll have such an open, respectful response to Zelda's sex-loving disposition, considering her religious morals and upbringing.

Slowly, bit by bit, Arabella Jones is climbing up the ranks in my good books.

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don't hate me for not updating :(