The Chaos Read Free

Claudia?”
    “Obviously, Claudia’s the slut! You know how this works. Girls get called sluts.”
    “And guys who sleep around get called what? Studs?”
    He shrugged. “Yeah. And when people call a guy a stud, it’s kind of a compliment. But when they call a girl a slut—”
    “Then the next step is chewing gum in her hair and talking shit about her on MyFace.”
    “I know it blows, but that’s how it is.”
    I sighed. “Okay, but check it out.” I counted off on my fingers. “So Claudia’s dating Simon and Mark. Right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “And Simon’s dating Mark and Claudia.”
    “Yup.”
    “And—hold on, my head always spins, trying to figure this one out—Mark’s dating Claudia and Simon.”
    “You got it.”
    “And each of them knows about the other two, and all three of them go on dates together? With each other? At the same time?”
    Ben said, “Uh-huh. I saw the three of them at the movies once, all holding hands and snuggling! I don’t know how they do it. I’d be too jealous.”
    Claudia’s happy tinkle of a laugh cut through the break-time noise. She leaned over and kissed Mark on the cheek. Shenever seemed to notice the glares she got from some of the girls in school.
    I continued, “Why does everyone call them the Thompson Twins, anyway? There are three of them. And none of them’s named Thompson.”
    He grinned. “Ah. For the answer to that question, my pretty, you need my fairy-certified sparkle dust obsession with pop music. ‘The Thompson Twins’ was the name of an old eighties band. There were three of them, too.”
    I shook my head. “If high school’s this complicated, how am I ever going to figure out being a grown-up?”
    Ben crossed his arms, cocked his head to one side, and looked at me. “Okay, I hate to even ask this, but you’re not thinking of hooking up with Jimmy Tidwell, are you?”
    Glory and Panama were shrieking happily over something or other. I didn’t look over there. “Maybe I am. So what?”
    He took my hands. Gently, I pulled the telltale hand away, leaving him holding just the other one. He didn’t seem to notice. “Darling, the boy’s a total geek!”
    “Which means he might actually take me seriously when I say we’re going to use rubbers.”
    “Scotch, for real, what’re you thinking?”
    “I dunno. I think it might be fun.” That was what was so cool about having changed schools. At LeBrun High I’d been the school slut even though I wasn’t having sex with anyone. Here I was one of the cool girls and I could do whatever I wanted. I could experiment. So long as my parents didn’t find out.
    “But you only just broke up with Tafari! Like he really didn’t mean anything to you, or what?”
    “He did! You know he did. But he’s not the only boy in the world.”
    Ben looked doubtful. “So, are you drowning your sorrowsor whatever by hooking up with some random guy?”
    I sighed. “No! At least, it’s not because I’m drowning my sorrows. I’m just exploring, okay?” Like I’d been doing before Taf. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed me while I’ve been dating Taf. I’d known all these guys since grade nine, when they were shy, awkward boy-men with voices still breaking, and I was the new girl with the chest bigger than anyone else’s in my class, who was too scared to speak to the boys for fear the girls would get jealous and it would be like LeBrun High all over again. For fear it was something to do with me that had made the harassing and the jeering and spitballs happen.
    But pretty soon the other girls’ bodies had caught up to mine, and I didn’t stand out so much anymore. And Ben had taught me how to stand up for myself. All of us kids, our bodies had filled out and changed, and we were dying to try them out. Take Michel Beaulieu, who’d been short and zitty with that funny, squeaky voice; now he had a sharp trimmed goatee and his voice was all deep and shivery, and his hands had become the size of shovels