School Girls' Stories - New Generation

Chapter 31 – Shopping

“I loathe Christmas shopping,” Darrke griped, following Leela from store to store within the mall and hating himself more and more with each passing store. He had yet to find anything for anyone, everything was either too expensive or too crappy. Leela, however, had bought about eight bags worth of things and Darrke was carrying most of them.

“Don’t try to use fancy language,” Leela said. “No one loathes shopping.”

“I do,” Darrke argued.

“Then why did you come with me?” Leela asked, finding another store that she wanted to go in and dragging Darrke through. Darrke hated women’s clothing stores and could not think, for the life of him, of what woman in Leela’s life wore the same size clothing she did that she had bought four of the bags for. Leela’s best, and almost only, friend was Darrke, and he most certainly was not wearing women’s clothing.

“You said something about seeing a movie,” Darrke argued. “I was sure that you said, ‘Hey Darrke, let’s go see that latest Christmas crap movie’ and I said ‘sure I’ll meet you at the mall’. Now, three hours later, we still have not seen the movie.”

Leela grinned triumphantly. He should have known better than to have agreed to come out with her. She was conniving and she hated going to see movies. He could barely remember why she was his best friend, but he was sure he would remember sooner or later.

Darrke rolled his eyes. “Me and your bags are going to go wait in the food court,” he snarked. “I’m hungry.”

He walked out, and Leela could not blame him and allowed him to go join the dredges of the crowds while she fought the other half of the dredges, moving in for another Christmas shopping kill.

Darrke slipped into a chair outside the local Sbarro’s and banged his head on the table. This was not how he wanted to spend the day. If he wanted to shop he would have rather have gone with his mother than Leela. His mom at least went in and out and was less embarrassing to be around.

“No one should look so defeated at Christmas time,” came a sweet voice from above him.

Darrke thought he recognized the voice, but he checked out the curvaceous legs and the too high yellow heels on the feet before he wanted to wring his own neck. “I’m in Hell,” he told his uninvited guest, who pulled out a chair and slipped into the table and sat across from him.

“Don’t be so down,” Lilis smiled his way, though he did not see it. “Life is not so bad.”

“It is when you are around,” Darrke said lifting his head from the table, then rubbing at the point that was now turning red from him slamming his head down a little too hard to begin with. “What do you want?”

“Is there a reason you feel the need to be so rude to me?” Lilis asked, and damn her to Hell, she still sounded as pleasant as ever, her voice not even lilting to show if she were hurt or just annoyed. “Is it because I am marrying a man who does not love me, nor do I love? Is it because you are jealous because you feel that you should be with him and not me? What is it Darrke?”

“Because you are a liar,” he sneered. “You and him both are liars.”

“Yet, your animosity seems entirely directed at me,” she was brighter than he was giving her credit for. “Sure, you hate that Frost, or Mr. Diotrephes, calls you Dane, your rightful name, and you act out, but you act out to everyone. All of your anger seems purposefully directed towards me, so, darling, what is the purpose?”

Darrke snuffed her way, but did not have a rigid comment to go with her astute observation. He hated when she was right, and she often was not since she was such a true blonde in so many ways.

“I notice you are having a hard time answering me,” Lilis pointed out.

Darrke rolled his eyes. “I like you least,” he admitted. “I can’t help it. So what’s your reason for marrying Frost?”

Lilis laughed. “You admit you do not like me, and then ask me a personal question, all in one breath, like I am going to answer you now?”

Darrke shrugged and sat bag in his chair. “Just because I don’t like you doesn’t mean I’m not curious,” he admitted.
Lilis rolled her eyes. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying curiosity killed the cat? They don’t just say it because it sounds good. I had a cat when I was younger that was obsessed with our fire place-”

“Ugh, Lils, I do not want to hear about your dark stories right now,” Darrke coughed. “I mean, how many times do I need to hear about the fried kitty?”

“Lils? What kind of name is that?” Lilis asked. “Besides, the kitty survived, she just lost all of her whiskers and never went near it again, but because of curiosity she could have died.”

“So my asking you a question is going to kill me?”

“That’s not what I said?”

“See, this, this right here, is why I don’t like you,” Darrke snapped at her. “You are the most infuriating woman on the planet, if not the world, and then you do whatever you can to get me off of the subject. All I want to know is what your dirty little secret is that you have to marry a gay guy you don’t even love.”

“I’m in love with a student,” Lilis admitted as she stood from the table, not looking Darrke in the eye. “Now you know.”

“It’s me, isn’t it?” Darrke asked as Lilis began to walk away. He saw her stop, her ears flushing from behind as she turned around to hush him up, but he backed up, his voice invariably louder than it should be. “You are in love with me, and Frost likes me too, so you are trying to hide your feelings by marrying each other.”

“You are a vain little shit, aren’t you?” Lilis asked, her temper finally beginning to rise. “I think you should rethink all of that. Go home Darrke, before you get yourself into more trouble.”

Darrke watched her turn on her heels and walk away, but now he felt smug and like he had discovered the secret to life. Something about her blue eyes going wide, the shock in them all, told him he was right, and he had every intention of finding out for sure.