Guardian Girl (The Chronicles of Staffordshire) (15 page)

“I will, Ma’am,” the barista laughed and poured the next customer’s quite ordinary cup of double-whip café Mocha. “I certainly will.”

Eleven

“Hi, Freaky Baby! I’m HO-ome!” sing-songed the nicely caffeinated roommate. The lights in 1426 Stilson Hall were off and it appeared nobody was home.

“Freaky? You in here?”

A loud sniff from the supermodel’s side of the room gave Lena all the direction she needed. While Lena was off getting her frustrations soothed by the world’s greatest cup of coffee, the freaky supermodel was back at the dorm having a meltdown.

“Lenore?”

Lena snapped on the lights.

“TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!”

Lena obeyed, snapping them off in an instant. “But… How am I supposed to see you, Lenore? Where are you?”

“I am in my bed.”

“Well… Can I come over and see you? Are you okay?”

“NO! Leave me alone! I am not okay! Go away!”

Another loud sniff helped Lena home in on the supermodel’s precise location. She slipped off her sneakers and tiptoed to Lenore’s bed. Her roommate was under the covers. ALL the way under her covers, with her head tightly mummified and the sheets pulled taught from crown to toe.

“C’mon, Lenore. We talked about this before I left you at the dining hall. You know I still love you, right? What’s wrong?”

“NO! I do not know if you still love me! You sound happy! You sound as if someone
else
helped you become happy! You did not need me! You did not need my love! You left me here alone in our room and you did not need me to love you! You said you still needed me and yet you left me here by myself while someone else helped you feel better!”

Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, the Wild Child sat gently at the edge of Lenore’s bed, resting her hand on what she thought would be Lenore’s shoulder blade. Whoops. Left breast. Lena quickly jerked her hand away and moved it northward, to the top of Lenore’s head.

“Come on, Lenore. Take the covers down and let’s talk, okay? Don’t you want to know
why
I feel better? Don’t you want to know what happened?”

“NO! It is another person! You are in love with someone else!”

“Fer cryin’ out loud, Lenore! I’m not in love with someone else! That’s not what happened! Come on, Freaky! Let me talk to you!”

“OH, so NOW you want to talk to me! After someone else made you feel better NOW you want to talk to ME! I am not good enough for you! I am not good enough for the Wild Child! I am JUST your roommate and I am not good enough for you to love anymore!”

“Oh… My… GOD! What a frigging diva!”

“Well guess what, Freaky… I’m going to tell you what happened anyway. So you don’t have a choice. You have to listen whether you want to or not.”

“No! I will not listen! And get your hand off my head! You do not love me anymore!”

“Lenore, would you stop with the love stuff? Of
course
I still love you! I just went out and had a frigging cup of coffee! By myself! Nobody was with me, Lenore! N
obody
! I was all by myself!”

A loud sniff prefaced a curious pause. “You… You just had… A cup of coffee? That was it? A single cup of coffee made you happy again?”

“That’s it, Lenore. Just a cup of coffee. That’s all. Now take the covers off your head and let’s talk, okay?”

Another loud sniff prefaced another pause. “I cannot.”

“Why not? Why can’t you take off the covers?”

“I do not want you to look at me, Lena.”

“Okay, it’s time for some reverse psychology. Freaky Baby needs a dose of her own medicine.”

“Come on, Lenore? Why won’t you come out? Don’t you love ME anymore? Is that what’s going on here? I left and got myself a cup of coffee and suddenly you don’t love ME anymore? Maybe I should just go to the Dean’s office and ask for a new roommate… Maybe I hurt you too badly and I should go find you someone who won’t hurt you…”

Lenore threw the blanket free and lunged at the Wild Child, wrapping her arms around Lena’s neck in a stranglehold. “NO! I LOVE YOU, LENA! Please! Please do not leave me alone again! I love you!”

“Ugh… Len… Leno… Baby… Freak… You’re… I’m… Choking…!”

Lenore loosened her grip but hugged Lena tightly.

“Oh… I am so sorry, Lena! I
love
you, Lena! I was so afraid that you did not love me anymore… You sound so… So happy… And… When I saw you last you just sounded so angry and… I felt so… Alone. When I came back here to the room, I realized… I am so alone without you! When I came into our room and… I knew you were so angry… I could not take it!”

Lena clutched the back of Lenore’s head, petting it. She kissed Lenore’s cheek. Lenore’s smooth, silken hair felt weird. Lumpy. Gnarly.

“Look, Lenore… Let me turn on a light, okay? Please? We need to talk and I just want a little light in the room, okay? Please?”

“Well… Okay… But… Please… Do not laugh at me.”

Lenore released Lena, letting her turn on the light over Lenore’s bed. “C’mon, Freaky. Why would I…”

The light popped to life.

“…Laugh…”

“Ohhhhhh brother.”

Thick, runny mascara was smeared everywhere on Lenore’s face and pillow. Lenore’s luxurious hair had become knotted and tangled. A long, messy squiggle of bright, red lipstick ran past her lips and halfway to each ear. An overabundance of bright, red blush was caked atop a thick layer of foundation. Lenore somehow managed to plaster her eyelids with a hideous shade of navy blue shadow.

Lena pressed her palms to Lenore’s sticky cheeks. She smiled a sad, sweet smile at her roommate and embraced the supermodel’s fear of abandonment. Lena’s worst nightmare hinged on public humiliation. Lenore’s hinged on losing the only love of her life.

“Lenore… Sweetie… What happened? What did you do?”

The freaky supermodel sobbed, throwing herself into Lena’s chest. “Lena!
I was so afraid
! After you left me at the dining hall, I… I could not eat dinner… So I… I came to our room… But… You were not here! So I… I wanted to look beautiful for you when you came home… And… And… I tried… I tried to… To… Look beautiful for you… And… I… I messed up! I got… So shaky… And so… So afraid… And then… One thing led to another… And I could not control my hands… And then my comb… And then… I started crying and… I could not fix my… My mascara and… Nobody was here to… To… To make me look beautiful for you… And… I kept making it worse, and worse, and worse! And I knew… You would be back and… I was so ugly! And I thought you hated me! And I could not… I could not fix myself!”

Lena stroked Lenore’s hair, taking care not to run her fingers through knots and tangles. Just petting Lenore’s head seemed to ease her anxiety.

“Lenore… Sweetie… Easy, Freaky Baby… Take it easy. I’m not leaving you. And I’m not laughing at you. It’s all okay… I’m here now. Look, Freaky… You’re still beautiful to me. No matter how you look right now… You’ll
always
be beautiful to me. Inside, Lenore. Where it really counts. You’re
always
beautiful and you
always
take good care of me. I never wanted you to think you don’t take good care of me. All I wanted was a little alone time, Lenore. Just some time to be on my own and focus on my game. I didn’t want you to think I was leaving you or that I didn’t love you or that I didn’t think you were beautiful. You’re the most beautiful girl I know, Lenore. You’re the most precious person I know. And you take such good care of me. Every day. And every night when we get in bed. I can’t sleep unless I’m in your arms, Lenore. You know that, right? You know I can’t even sleep if I’m not in your arms?”

Lenore nodded and wept into Lena’s hoodie. A huge, blackish wet spot spread breast to breast on Lena’s chest.

“Do you really need me, Lena? Do you really need me to be able to sleep each night?”

“Absolutely, Lenore. When I get in bed… When you hug me… I feel safe. Never forget that, okay Freaky? That’s not just… It’s not just convenient, Lenore. That’s like… It’s like life to me. Being with you is like… It’s like living and breathing. I really can’t live without you, Lenore.”

“Really?”

“Really. And… You know what…?” Lena pulled Lenore back from her chest and lifted her chin. “I’m going to help you be beautiful again. I’m going to help you fix yourself up and get you ready for bed. Okay? WWould you like it if I helped you be beautiful again so you can put your arms around me and we can both feel beautiful together?”

A smiling, sniffling nod gave Lena her cue.

“Come on, Lenore. Come over to the desk. Where’s your makeup kit, eh Freaky? Let’s get all this makeup off, let me fix your hair, and let’s get the
real
you shining through again, okay?”

Lenore let Lena take her by the hand to the desk.

“Which drawer do you keep the makeup stuff in, Freaky?”

Lenore opened the left drawer and revealed her secret stash. The Wild Child rarely used makeup – except when a professional put it on during a shoot - and never paid attention to the freaky supermodel’s trade secrets. An uncharted path lay ahead of the novice makeup artist.

“Uhhh… Lead me through this, okay Freaky? You just tell me what to do and I’ll do it. You just hand me things and I’ll do what you tell me to do.”

Lena stood behind Lenore, receiving each tool and cream in turn. She gently sponged away mascara, blush and foundation, eye shadow, and what was left of the smeared lipstick.

“Now, Freaky, hand me your comb and brush. Flip forward for me.”

Standing over Lenore, Lena alternated between the brush and comb to work through the thicket of Lenore’s tangled hair. After freeing all the knots, Lena slowly stroked Lenore’s hair with the brush, each trip through her sexy mane bringing it a step closer to its usual, supermodel perfection.

With Lenore’s makeover out of the way, the time seemed right to circle back and talk through the girls’ meltdowns. Lena cupped Lenore’s cheeks and rested her chin on the top of Lenore’s head.

“My God, Freaky! Look at yourself now. You are SO beautiful, Lenore! Look in that mirror. What do you see?”

Looking up, Lenore smiled widely and returned Lena’s volley. “I see my beautiful Wild Child!”

Lena shook her head. “No silly.
You
, dear. I’m talking about
you
. What do
you
see when you look at
you
?”

“I see… You taking care of me,” said Lenore with a hopeful smile.

“Cut the crap, Lenore. Look at
you
,
not
me.”

Devoid of makeup, Lenore’s photogenic mystique filled the mirror. Her eyes sparkled with love for Lena. Her full, seductive lips shone with anticipatory dew, awaiting Lena’s kiss. Her cheeks blushed with yearning for her roommate’s touch.

“You made me beautiful again. You made me… I am
me
again.”

“That’s right, Freaky Baby. You are you again. Now… How do you think that makes me feel right now, looking at you, knowing that my hands helped the most beautiful girl in the world become beautiful again?”

“I… I do not know, Lena.”

“Well… If you were me… And the tables were turned… And I was the girl sitting in that chair and you were the girl who just got done letting all that beauty come out again… How do you think you’d be feeling right now?”

Lenore smiled and touched her cheek with her fingertips, slowly bringing her fingertips to her lips. “I would be… I would be in love with the girl in the chair.”

“That’s right, Freaky. You’d be in love with the girl in the chair. Just like I’m in love with the girl in the chair. I’m totally in love with the beautiful, amazing girl in the chair.”

“Lena…” Lenore began, taking tentative steps across a thin, crackling sheet of emotional ice. “Please tell me what happened. I will believe you. I will believe anything you say. I… I do not ever want to have this happen again. I must know.”

“Lenore, you need to trust me when I tell you that I didn’t leave you alone tonight because I don’t love you. Do you believe me?”

Reveling in Lena’s ongoing care of her hair, Lenore nodded. “Yes. I believe you.”

“Good, Lenore… ‘Cause… This may not make much sense, but it’s the truth. Sometimes… Sometimes I just get so angry I feel like exploding. I mean… I love playing tennis… And I love competing… Most of all, I love winning. I mean… Who doesn’t love winning, right? You like winning? Right?”

Lenore nodded and shrugged. “Yes… I really like winning.”

“Well… Sometimes I get so angry because I screw up or I lose a match or - like lately - I lose my serve and I know I’m about to face a really tough player. When I get like that I know I could really hurt someone if I’m not careful.