Chapter #54Matchmakers Five by: Seuzz   You're really glad when Naomi splits for the night instead of going with you all to the Warehouse. But that's not for a couple of hours yet. Before that, you all play a second game of mini golf—changing foursomes around—and then a third game with Aaron and Daniel when they return, flushed and hyper, from the Go-Kart track. For that game people divide up into trios, and it's a lot of fun watching as everyone tries to keep from being the "third wheel" with Aaron and Naomi. She is very civil to him, but there's no missing the hint of anger in her voice, and his oblivious confusion. Leah Simmons finally volunteers for what looks like a suicide mission, and your own trio of yourself and Genesis and Hermione giggle as you watch them play behind you.
"You know what the sad thing is," Genesis says afterward, as you watch Naomi drive off. "The sad thing is that she and Aaron seem like a good match."
You wonder about that, but don't say anything. For all her smugness, Naomi is a very sensible and level-headed girl, and it strikes you that Aaron would be too much of a goof and a doofus for her. You noticed it at the table when you were eating popcorn: She kept wincing when he'd talk, for where she is very soft-spoken he brays enthusiastically. She also got kind of a pained smile after he kept going on about the go-karts.
* * * * *
The topic of Naomi resumes a little later when you're preparing to make your move to the Warehouse. Hermione and Wendy have also skipped out on a night at the Warehouse so it's only seven of you who make the trip to Eastman High School, from where you'll carpool in. Then Aaron and Daniel rush on ahead with a couple of other guys, leaving five of you to clamber into the bed of Leah Simmons's truck—which is bigger even than Will Prescott's—to pass around that joint she'd told you about.
And what do you talk about?
"Guys," Leah says as she lights the joint. "Let's talk about guys."
"What guys?" Susie asks. She hasn't even taken a hit yet, but already it sounds like she's got the giggles.
"Anyone except Aaron and Daniel." She passes the joint to Jack.
"What's wrong with Aaron and Daniel?" he asks. Neither you nor Brianna have a lot of experience with weed, but it strikes you that he handles it with casual ease.
"Nothing's wrong with them, if you want to talk about them. I just don't want to talk about Aaron and Naomi."
"Why?" Now it's Genesis's turn to giggle as she takes the joint after Susie passes on it. You notice her fingers trembling as she puts it to her lips. "Didn't you have fun with them tonight?"
"Sure, it was a lot of fun watching them realize they go together like asparagus and hot fudge sauce."
"Everything goes good with hot fudge sauce," Susie declares.
"Genesis thinks they're a perfect match," you announce, and your friend gives you a dirty look as you take the joint from her.
"P'fuh!" Leah says. "You know who'd be perfect for her? No, never mind, that's not what I want to talk about. I wanna talk about guys."
You peer at her, past the line of smoke that curls in front of your nose. To look at her, boys would not be a topic to interest Leah Simmons. She's a tall girl with a track runner's physique—she was on the team until this year, when a scheduling conflict forced her to quit—and she chops her copper-blonde hair in a very butch bob. That and the way she dresses—hiking boots; heavy khaki trousers held up with suspenders; flannel shirts worn over white tees—more or less spell out "dyke" in flashing lights and honking klaxons. But you—that is to say, Brianna—once had a half-drunken conversation where she confessed to a long-standing oral fixation.
"Cock," she groaned over a plastic tumbler that still held at least three shots of the original nine. "I want a hard, oven-hot cock I can wrap my tongue around and take down my throat." She also confessed to getting a Brazilian wax regularly, so that she could feel the guy's stubble better when he (whoever he was) went down on her. "I don't want a beard, but he's gotta have stubble," she'd said dreamily.
"Who'd be perfect for Naomi?" you ask her now as you hand her the joint.
"Huh? Oh, I don't know."
"You said you did."
"I changed my mind. I know who'd be perfect for you, though." She peers down her nose at you, and after taking a hit she opens her mouth wide to let the smoke waft in and out before swallowing it down.
While she's thus occupied, Jack interrupts her with a grunt. "If we're going to do this, we should do it right. Except," he adds after a moment's thought, "we don't have any paper."
"What do we need paper for?" Susie asks.
"To write down the answers." He takes the joint from Leah, but passes it on to Susie. "We each write down who's perfect for Brianna—"
"Why me?"
"—then read them out loud afterward to see if we all agree. But we don't have paper."
"Too much planning anyway," Leah says. "I should be in charge and just tell you all who you should be with."
Jack demurs, and eventually he figures out a way of doing it without writing implements. "It'll be more fun this way anyway," he says. "So here's who's perfect for Brianna." Even in the darkened parking lot you can see the twinkle in his eye as he leans over to whisper in Susie's ear. She squawks. "Okay, that was a joke," Jack says. "Now, for real." He whispers in her ear again.
Susie's eyes go wide, and she gives you a long, thoughtful look. "Really?" she says. "Actually, I guess I can see—"
"Now Leah, you tell me who you think is perfect for Brianna," Jack says. She gives you a gleaming glance before whispering her choice to him. He laughs out loud. "Oh God no!" he exclaims. "But it's a great idea anyway! Now Genesis, you tell Leah."
Your face is burning by now, and you grimace as Genesis hands you the toke and scrambles past to hiss into Leah's ear. Last, it's Susie's turn to whisper her choice to Genesis. "I went along with what you said," she tells Jack. "I think you're right, I think—"
Your phone dings just then, and you take it out. It's a text from Maria Vasquez: How are things going for you?
I'm Brianna Kirschke and I'm smoking weed in the Eastman parking lot with my best friends and we're talking about who my perfect boyfriend would be and I've never had this kind of thing happen to me before and I think maybe I'm buzzed from the marijuana already because I feel kind of funny but this is awesome and I'm going to have so much to report to you and your stupid sociology project about Brianna and her friends and who's friends with who when we get together tomorrow.
You think all that but don't send it, obviously, while tugging absent-mindedly at your hair. You do a double-take when you look up to find Jack gazing at you speculatively. You quickly put your phone away.
"So, now you have to tell us who you think would be perfect for you," Leah says.
"No," Jack says, "she has to tell us who she wants."
"Same thing."
"No it isn't," Jack takes the joint from Susie and gives it a quick pull before handing it back to her. "The head tells you who's perfect. Your loins tell you who you want."
"Ewwww!" Susie cries. "Loins?" She must already be high.
"Come on, sweetheart," Jack says to you. "Who do your loins cry out for?"
You're about to say something obvious and cliched, like, "Laurent Delacroix" (the captain of the school's wrestling team), but you catch Genesis giving you a very close smirk. "Fine," you say, rolling your eyes. "Philip Fairfax."
Jack snorts while everyone else giggles and guffaws. "If that's true, you've got the world's most sensible set of loins," he says.
"So who do your loins cry out for?" you retort.
"Nope, I go last, because I made up the rules. Leah goes next, 'cos all this is her fault. But first—" He grins toothily at Leah. "Who did Genesis say was perfect for Brianna?"
Leah gives you a sidelong smirk. "Scott Frazier."
"What?" You wheel on Genesis as everyone else laughs. "He's your crush, not mine!"
"He's perfect for you!" she protests. "He's sexy and he's smart—"
"You can talk about it later," Jack interrupts. "Leah says that Marc Garner would be perfect for you."
Again, you can only choke and gasp as everyone laughs. At the same time, you can't help blushing with pleasure at the compliment. Not only is Marc handsome as hell, and captain of the soccer team, but he's an AP student. And he's popular across the school.
Is Leah serious? Does she think that you and Marc ought to be together? You're so dazed that it takes you a moment to disentangle yourself from Brianna's surprise and delight.
"I think you need to be with Luke Richardson," Jack says. "Since you like red-heads so much. He's a lot sexier than Philip, though. Can you imagine Philip writing a sonnet? Tch!"
You crimson some more. Like Marc, Luke combines athleticism—he's on the baseball team—with good academic credentials, and adds to it a cheerful bohemian style that comes out in displays of poetry.
"So we did you last, so you start us off." Jack tugs his ear. "Come tell me who's perfect for Leah."
"Will Prescott" would not be perfect for Leah. But you wonder what people would say if you dropped your real name into the suggestions for Genesis or Susie.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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