Chapter 5: Smacking Butts

Here you go!

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Luciana's mouth dropped, as my face reddened.

"He should've kissed your lips instead."

My face became a deeper crimson. "He won?"

"Well, he's your boyfriend now."

"He beat me," I mutter.

She waves her hand in front of my face. "Hello? He's all yours."

"He actually won."

She flicks my ear, gaining my attention. "He's your boyfriend now," she repeats again.

"Not for a good reason," I remind, "I didn't even agree to it."

"But, your heart did," Luci remarks, "You know you want him."

I almost make a face at her, but I stop myself. "The same way you want Ken?"

She groans, "Shut up."

"He loves you and you love him," I taunt.

She sighs, sniffing the perfume.

"That perfume sure looks expensive."

"It has to be," she sprays some into the air, inhaling it. "Look at how fancy the box looks."

I babble, "I know that was worth a lot of hours at Grammerdom's."

"He has a part-time job?" she asks, curiously.

"Two part-time jobs actually," I respond, "He also works at Gante Deli too and as a student-aide at this school. So, I guess he pretty much has three jobs."

Her eyes grow big. "Three?"

"It's all to support his family."

"Isn't he rich?"

I shake my head. "No, Luci. He lives with his single mom, three younger brothers and a sister."

She guiltily eyes the perfume. "And why would he buy me this expensive gift? It looks like it cost hundreds of dollars."

"$400 to be exact." She shoots me a look of astonishment. "What? I saw it at Wynter Express, when my aunt forced me to go inside with her."

"He went in a store like that?" She gapes at the perfume. "It must have been weird going into a girly store like that, with the bras and lingerie at every corner." She punches my arm. "Why didn't you tell me any of this before I went all bitch-mode on him?"

I shrug. "I didn't know he would buy something like that for you and it's not my fault you judged him. Also, it's your job to find out important things like that about him yourself."

"Can you blame me though?" she exclaims, taking a bite from her banana. "He has excellent grades, great attendance, name brand clothes—"

"That he works for," I remind. "Why were you so cold to him, Luci? Are you trying to make him hate you?"

She breaks eye contact and sighs deeply. "His name is Ken for a reason, right?"

"So you are," I conclude.

"I'm telling you right now, Rico," she starts, "He would get hurt much worse if we were to be in a relationship and he met my family."

"That's only if you let him."

"Rico, you don't understand." She adds, "Remember when you met them?"

"Yeah. They seemed—"

"They said, 'Don't you even think about dating that boy,'" she imitates her parent's deep Indian accents. "Then I spent almost twenty minutes trying to explain to them that you're only my best friend and that you're gay. "

"Twenty?"

She nods. "Right after you left. They interrogated me."

"Is that why you never want me to visit anymore?"

"Yep."

"Makes sense."

"Mhm. My parents are... crazy and protective of me, when it comes to guys." Her face lights up. "I loved how you made this conversation about me, Rico. Nice try."

"Damn," I murmur. It was working just fine.

"He kissed you." She makes kissing noises, teasing me.

"He forced that kiss on me, plus he only did it to make me untouchable to any gay guys at this school," I growl, "He ruined my chances of finding—"

"Finding what? Your true love?" she teases, "Wipe that pride off and take a look at him. He's your true love."

I gibed, "Coming from the hopeless romantic, that just tainted their chances with their potential boyfriend?"

"Tainted," she states, rubbing her index finger on her chin, "Reminds me of something."

"In my defense, I have never heard him use that word! He would've used spoiled or corrupted!"

"I wasn't even going to say that," she retorts, "I was going to say that I watched a movie called 'Tainted' genius."

I feel my face heat up in a disconcerted manner. "Oh."

She leans, giggling, "You really do like him. And you're happy about him kissing you." She hugs me tightly. "I guess there is still hope for you two!"

The bell rings, dismissing lunch.

*~*

I head to my locker, to retrieve my afternoon textbooks.

"Hey, baby," Jake greets, kissing my cheek, as I open my locker.

"Déjame en paz," I mutter, wiping away his kiss, not amused.

He looks at me in confusion. "No comprende. I take IB German high level."

"I told you to leave me alone."

"Don't be that way, babe," Jake pretentiously mopes, placing his hands on my waist, "I just missed you so much."

I respond, by grabbing my books and shutting my locker. In a rush to get away from him, I end up dropping my books on the ground. I quickly bend over to retrieve the fallen books. Causing me to convulse in shock, I feel a palm sharply smack my butt as I stand back up normally, which makes my books fall back onto the floor.

"Nice ass, baby," Jake whistles.

I sigh, "Touch me again and I'll charge you for sexual harassment, asshole."

He smacks my butt again. "Sue m—"

I spun around, tightly clasped the front of his shirt, and yanked him forward. "I'm going to say it as clear as possible, bastard. Leave. Me. Alone."

Jake chuckles uncomfortably, "You're cute when you're upset."

"I mean it," I snarl, shoving him away.

Jake questions, "Are you threatening me?"

"Yes I am," I respond, angrily, "Touch me one more time and I'll black your eye."

Jake puts his hands up in defeat. "I never knew my baby was so tough."

"You should know already, fatty," I challenge.

Jake looks at me in surprise. "Is it your desire for history to repeat itself?"

"I wouldn't mind. After all, you were the one that ended up with a black eye for a week."

Jake clenches his fists. "You know, I accomplished that war in preschool. I mean, look at me now." He turns around in a complete circle. "You can't call me obese anymore. I'm in shape and I'm much taller than you." He looks down at me. "I'm taller than you for a reason."

"You're taller, because of genetics. Not because you supposedly won the war."

He leans in closely. "Just think about it, Rico," he chuckles, "Even when I was overweight, I was a bigger person than you."

I agree, "Yeah, you sure were a bigger person than me."

"Meaning that I was always one step ahead of you," he clarifies. "I remember when I let my guard down for a second and you became student of the month."

Now, I lean in close to him. "Got a little insecure, because I used to get better grades than you?"

"That was one time," he reminds, "Your GPA was only 0.15 higher than mine."

I grin. "The best moment of my life. We both had all A's, but I happened to have a higher percentage than you in social studies."

"That's in the past, Rico. We're in the present."

"It obviously still bothers you."

He laughs, placing a hand on my face, "Am I still below you as we speak? No. I scored a perfect 36 on the ACT and 2,380 on the SAT." He places his other hand on the opposite side of my face. "Now, tell me. What did you score on the ACT and SAT?"

I bite my tongue in annoyance. Damn. He always has to win, doesn't he? I still don't know how he found out about my scores. I scored a 29 on the ACT and a 1,950 on the ACT.

"Exactly what I thought," he states, caressing my face in a mocking manner. "Your face is so readable."

I recoil away from him.

He chuckles, "I'm no longer chubby, am I?" He grabs my hand and places it on his arm. "Go ahead and feel the difference for yourself." I groan, removing my hand from his well-defined arm.

I jab, throwing it out there, "I remember making you crying like a baby."

"If I recall, you were the one crying like an infant, all because of a scraped knee."

I remark, "Because a fatty pushed me to the ground."

"History is history, baby. And it will remain history." He picks up my books and hands them to me. "I will always be better than you."

In victory, he walks off to next class.

*~*

Going to Music Club after school, I'm greeted by Ken.

"Ken, I'm sorry, okay?" I apologize. "I'm terrible at my pokerface and Luciana saw through it."

"It's okay," he responds, laughing to himself, "I guess she isn't interested in dating a perfect Ken Doll." I grow uncomfortable with the subject, so I force out a laugh. Ken easily detected it, quickly apologizing, "Sorry. I know she's your best friend, but she's wrong for judging me the way she did. She has no idea how much trouble I went through for that perfume."

"Make her jealous," I jabber, "When you make yourself too available, you're bound to get broken."

He laughs, "I'm not going to make her jealous, Rico. Besides, making her jealous is impossible, since she's not too fond with blondes... or Ken Dolls."

I sigh in relief, that he's not taking my impulsive advice.

"Also, I'm not that kind of guy," he adds, "If she's interested, it will just have to unravel the old-fashioned way. No tricks or manipulation involved."

I nod in agreement. "You're right." Gee, I wish Jake was the same way. Wait—what am I thinking? He's not using any tricks. He's just trying to make my life miserable, which is his life goal.

"So, you and Jake."

"Me and Jake?" He couldn't come up with anything else to discuss?

"Congrats on the relationship," he congratulates.

I shook my head. "Him and I aren't together. He's just a blockhead, that's after me."

"So, you have a chaser?"

"No," I respond, "Him and I have been enemies since grade school."

Ken cackles, "Just admit it already, Rico. You like him."

I sigh in annoyance. "No I don't. I hate him and I didn't even agree to date him—"

"You like him, man. It's fine to like your enemies."

"But, I don't—"

"Rico, you're constantly talking about him," he reminds.

"That's because he gives me a reason to talk about him. He's a jackass."

"Did you ever think that he does all of these things to have a grasp of you in his life?"

I scoff, "Yeah right."

He gives me the are-you-kidding-me look. "Do you really think that he would hold a grudge from grade school?"

"Yes, because he's petty like that."

The expression on his face doesn't change. "He wants to have a reason to talk to you. That's why he pesters you constantly, since you two have some history."

"History!? You say it like we did a lot together."

"History, Rico," he claims, "You two share that same piece of history, so he uses it to his advantage to have you in his life. Besides, whatever history you two shared carried on this long."

"You sound like Luci," I mutter.

He scowls at me. "Nice, Rico."

"Sorry. I didn't mean it the way it sounded. It's just she's always telling me the same thing."

"It's cool," he reassures. "About you liking him?"

I nod.

"At least you're having more success in your love life," he says, slightly grinning. "It's okay to like your nemesis."

I know I should be smiling until my cheekbones ache, but I just can't bring myself to it.

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You found who each person was from the prologue. DUN DUN DUN. :D