“Been busy.” She gave the standard reply that she gave everyone.
“Doing what?” Killyama wouldn’t drop the subject.
Sex Piston looked at the car in front of hers, not meeting her friend’s sharp gaze. She had been spending the evenings at Stud’s after his kids had gone to bed. She had also been avoiding the clubhouse, not wanting to see him with the usual skanks that hung around. Sex Piston hadn’t let anyone know yet that her and Stud were seeing each other. She couldn’t explain why, even when Stud had asked.
She kept expecting their time together to come to an end, either by him pissing her off or him getting bored with her. It hadn’t happened yet and it was beginning to freak the crap out of her. The man never reacted the way she expected him to and he fucked better than he raced, which was even better in her way of thinking. It was becoming harder and harder to stay away from him until his girls went to sleep or he came home from the club.
He spent all his free time with the girls, only going to the club when they fell asleep and the sitter came in, which was only when he saw they were down for the night. She had come to respect the bastard for that detail; it was more than her pops had done for Diamond and her.
Every day, she swore she would break it off with him, yet find herself getting on her bike to go to his house, inevitably spending the night. She would sneak out in the morning before his girls got up for school.
“You fucking Stud?”
Sex Piston had never been able to hide anything from her shrewd friend. “Yeah,” she admitted.
“He any good?” she asked with a smile.
“Yeah.” She smiled back. She was relieved Killyama wasn’t going to give her any shit.
“Damn.”
Sex Piston laughed, but it was caught short when their eyes were caught by a large group of girls to the side of the school building. There was an obvious meaning to the circle of students—they were hiding what was happening inside the circle from the teacher’s attention. The crowd parted briefly and Sex Piston recognized Keri as the one involved in fighting with another girl bigger than her.
“Killyama—” Before she could finish the sentence, Killyama was already getting out of the car and moving toward the girls. Meri was in the crowd, watching her sister. Sex Piston lips tightened at her actions, or lack thereof.
Finally, the slow line moved and she was able to inch forward. By the time she was at the head of the line, Killyama was waiting with the girls, giving the oblivious teacher a piece of her mind.
Keri and Meri climbed into the back seat, buckling their seatbelts quietly. Killyama got back in the front seat, slamming her car door.
“What was going on?” Sex Piston questioned Killyama while her eyes studied the girls’ reactions in the rearview mirror.
“Nothing,” both girls gave the same mutinous answer at the same time. Sex Piston pulled away from the school, turning in the direction of her home.
Silence filled the car as the girls stared out the window. Killyama threw her a glance, but Sex Piston shook her head.
When she pulled up to her house, the girls grabbed their backpacks and ran in while Sex Piston and Killyama were both slow to get out of the car.
“Did you find out the other girl’s name?” Sex Piston asked as she shut her car door.
“Brittany Staff,” Killyama answered grimly.
“She Allison’s kid?” Sex Piston recognized the last name.
“Yes,” Killyama confirmed.
The advantage to being the only hairdresser in town with any talent was that most of the rich bitches came to her shop. The very ones who had snubbed and made fun of her in high school clamored to make appointments with her.
When they got inside the house, Meri and Keri were already sitting at the table with their snack. Fat Louise was holding Star, watching with curious eyes as the girls remained silent. She turned to Sex Piston when she came into the kitchen.
She gave an imperceptible nod and then Fat Louise took the little girl out of the room. Before she left, though, she started to open her mouth to question Sex Piston, but Sex Piston shook her head, motioning again for her to leave.
Fat Louise finally left, leaving the girls and her alone with Killyama who went to the fridge to grab herself a beer before sitting at the table. Sex Piston took a seat across from the girls, opening the bottle of water that Killyama had set down for her.
“Why did you get in a fight, Keri?” Sex Piston questioned the sullen girl.
“It’s none of your business.” Keri’s smartass comment couldn’t hide the hurt in her eyes. Sex Piston’s eyes ran over the pretty girl.
Sighing, she leaned forward in her chair, her perfectly manicured red fingernail playing with the label on the water bottle. “When I was your age, I got in several fights atschool—”