Kissing A Fool

KAF: (2)

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Travis:

Two hours later, we all sat in a pizza parlor discussing the earlier incident. The owner was one of my father’s closest friend, and he treated me no different from how he would treat his own son. Two years ago, his wife divorced him and took the children to a different city. He ran the parlor alone, so me and my twin sister often visited him because we knew he gets lonely at times. If we didn’t do that, mother and father would wring our necks for it. His pizzas were popular with the high school students. They would gather there everyday after school. Some found it strange that he seldom showed his face to the public eye. Uncle Henry preferred to keep to himself than deal with his customers. What can I say? He's a reserved man. 

I was staring off into a distance, zoning out momentarily until a hand shook my shoulder. “Travis, are you alright?”

Call me lost, but for a moment , I thought I heard Ashley’s voice again. When I turned to look, it wasn’t her, but my close friend L short for Louisse.

Louisse likes to be called just L. When we were younger me and Mishi, often ask her to pretend that we were related because she had the same family name as we did.

Out of all my friends, I think L had it the worst. Her mother died when she was eleven from a mysterious illness and like Dylan, she grew up without knowing her father. She lived with her stepfather who became her legal guardian after her mother died. Sometimes she would show up at school with a black eye and whenever I inquired about it, her usual reply would be...

“Got into a fight with my stepfather again.”

L is a fighter, I’ll tell you that. She might not look like it but she stood up for herself. She even took self defense class just so she could protect herself from her own stepfather.

Around school, no one associated with her because they assumed that she was a witch and that she had the ability to place a curse on them. They based her personality on her appearance. Most people would look at her at first glance and never bother to look again. They didn’t see her in the same light as I did. They didn’t see the pretty face that lurked beneath the hair which always seems to conceal half of her face. L's long silky hair was so dark, it appeared blue in the light. Another reason why people labeled her as a witch. It's hard to desribe her because she doesn't like to show much of herself.

“Are you lost?” she inquired tilting her face to look at me.

I sat up straight before answering, “Seems like it.”

“Trav‘s been doing that a lot lately. I think Ashley is really getting to him, and I mean it in a good way.”

That one came from my sister Mishy. Yeah, the other half of me. Miss Perfectionist. The blunt one. The male hater. We used to like hanging around each other and following each other around, but it seems that lately, we both couldn‘t stand each other‘s presence. Somehow, Mishy had grown a bit distant. She had new friends and most of them acted no different from her. A bunch of stuck up b*tches, if you ask me.

“Shut up, Mishy. You never know when to leave her name out of our discussions.”

She stuck her tongue at me.

Typical of her to do that. Whenever she couldn’t argue with me, sticking out her tongue out is what she does best. She is the most honest the person in the world. If you did something wrong she would let you know. She once told her teacher that his breath stank and ended up being punished for it. Around school people called her the Ice princess. I wouldn’t describe her as pretty, she was beautiful. The guys at our school made many attempts to ask her out or get to know her better but she paid no heed to them. Simply because she thinks all men are dogs, and that they were only after one thing. I don't blame her for thinking that. Half of my guy buddies are in fact horn dogs.