Page 25

I nodded, weakly.

“Maybe I need a little more… of this…” I whispered , running my thumb under her lips “… before the competition.”

“We can't, Ken. We have to be careful, you know…”

I sighed, upset.

“You could sleepover tonight, right?! After the competition.”

“My father won't let me anymore, you know that.”

Ah..., there was that now! The pastor thought that his daughter should no longer sleep at her friends' house because she was already too “big” for that. The truth was, he didn't trust her, and honestly, he probably didn't even trust me.

I wanted to challenge her, I wanted to come up with an argument that we could use to convince her father, but I couldn't think of anything before someone started pounding on the door.

We put the makeup in our bags and looked at ourselves one last time in the mirror. We were splendid. We opened the door and, to my complete misfortune, we came face to face with my worst haunting: Veronica Torres.

Her deep brown eyes stared at us as if she were reading our souls. And then she smiled like the devil.

“Hi, Kendra! Ready to lose regionals this year?”

“To you? Unlikely.”

“Have you finished your princess makeup?” She complained. Her eyes had a very strong smoky black and yellow eyeshadow. And on the lips, black lipstick with glitter.

“At least we don't look like we got beaten up...” I snapped back. “See you on stage, raccoon.”

I knew Veronica Torres well enough to be certain her face would never waver and reveal the sentence had affected her in any way, but I knew it had. Her eyes silently told me the exact moment when that happened.

“Don't worry, blondie, I'll let you take a photo with my trophy later...” she mocked before entering the bathroom. I snorted, burning with hatred. She closed the bathroom door in our faces and Delilah dragged me out of there, back to the rest of our team.

I didn't want to let Veronica get to me, but it was hard when she brought out the worst in me. It was a chaotic side, which I didn't know how to control very well.

“Hey...” Delilah tried to calm me down, holding my hand gently. “Forget about her.”

I sighed and whispered to her:

“You could help me, right?!”

Delilah laughed weakly and then looked around, pulling me with her behind the stands, where the people who had come to watch the competition wouldn't see us. She leaned me against one of the metal structures there and pressed her body against mine, devouring my lips as if our lives depended on it.

I couldn't control the low moan that escaped me before someone called me:

“Kendra?”

We both pushed away from each other. And I stared at my cousin standing there. Colleen was the team captain and she had definitely come to get us for a few words before warming up, but at that moment I felt dizzy and completely scared.

“There's nothing going on here...” Delilah was the first to say.

I was in shock.

My cousin's eyes analyzed us silently for a few moments. She also seemed unresponsive. After all, there was no manual on how to react when you find out that your little cousin likes girls.

“I really didn't see anything, don't worry, I just want you to join the rest of the team. Let's go?"

Delilah almost ran off, hurrying ahead with Colleen, while I needed a few more seconds to gather myself before moving. Then my cousin shouted my name, and I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other until I caught up to her.

That year, we lost regionals because I landed wrong and fell on my butt.