Black metal diamond

Jodie was awakened by Eric shaking her gently. She normally would wake enough to tell him goodbye and enjoy their first kiss of the day but Eric had never gone to any great lengths until this morning. "Hey. You awake?"

"Obvi, with, all the totally rude shaking!" She groaned, pulling a pillow over her face.

Eric gently pulled it down, "I know you're probably still mad but I want you to come somewhere with me later."

"Hm. Okay. Let me get dressed."

He laughed softly pushing her back down to the bed, "Not now. At seven tonight."

"Okay. Where?"

"You'll find out when you get there. Just promise you'll be ready okay?" His face was strangely serious, bringing forth memories of months ago when he threatened to kick her out of his life forever. Jodie nodded quietly. He gave her a final kiss before leaving quickly.

She kicked herself for not enjoying one more night with Eric. Watching something sweet and romantic while cuddled up with him on the couch. Taking a shower together. Having a beer and just talking about the weather. Instead he simply carried her to bed and massaged her feet until she passed out. She had loved feeling his hands on her. Sure he wasn't as talented as Adam but it didn't matter. Now here he was going to break up with her? 'Oh god, what if he found another woman?'

Eventually pure exhaustion pulled her into sleep and Jordan found himself standing beside a row of bleachers in a familiar park. "Hey I know this place. I haven't been here in years." Forest Hill Park was home to three baseball diamonds for pee wee T-ball to the high school level and a smaller playground in the corner of the park. Echoing through the park was the sound of the ringing of metal bats against rawhide balls and the distant cheers of happy parents. His never had much to cheer about, he could only remember trying one year to play baseball, hoping it would be something him and his dad could do together, but when he found his son couldn't throw a ball like a major league pro ten minutes after teaching him how to throw a ball for the first time he had given up. Closer to home he heard the soft sobbing of a young girl.

Peering under the bleachers he found a girl all of fifteen sitting on a cooler and sobbing into her hands. "Hey kid, you okay?"

"I'm not a kid!" She shook her head causing her long black hair to dance and her purple highlights to shine against the hot summer afternoon.

"Fine then." He started to leave when he felt her suddenly grab his arm.

"No. Wait. Please?"

Something in her face reminded him of old photos of his mom. "Okay. What's up?"

The girl pushed dirt around with her foot trying to find the words to talk. "My-well, like, my boyfriend is breaking up with me?"

"Oh." He awkwardly ran his hand through his hair only now realizing it was way too short. Feeling it out he discovered it must have been a buzz cut like his father used to **** him to get. "The hell? Is this a joke?"

"No! He's fer sure gonna break up with me cause like I yelled at him."

"Huh?" Jordan stopped playing with his hair long enough to acknowledge the girl was clinging to his arm. "He'd be a real dumbass if he broke up with you over that."

She cried into his shoulder, "He's not dumb! He's wonderful and perfect!"

"Then why'd you yell at him?"

"Cause he said I was replaceable!"

"Sounds like a dumbass. But you're a hottie with a good rack. You'll find another guy." Her black hair seemed familiar the longer he watched it, her subtle purple highlights now dominated her hair. He had always wanted to dye his hair purple when he was younger but his dad forbade it going so far as to shave his head when he found out he bought hair dye.

"I don't want another guy! I love him!"

"Please, that's greeting card stuff. He's probably fucking someone else anyway."

"Why are you being a jerk?!" She shoved him off of the cooler onto the hard ground below. He opened his eyes to yell when he realized the brunette with purple hair now had full red hair.

"What'd you shove me for?!" He felt a strange tickle on the back of his neck as he stood not realizing his own hair had grown out to equal length.

"Because it's your fault! You never listen to me!" Jodie stamped her feet before storming out from under the bleachers taking confident strides in six inch heels.

"The hell has that got to do with me?" He shouted fruitlessly at the strange girl who now dwarfed him. 'How does she walk in those?' Suddenly the bleachers were bombarded with baseballs yet the spectators made no motions to vacate the bleachers. Jordan had dropped to the ground curling into a ball for cover. The familiar clicking of heels upon a wood floor replaced the hailing ****.

He knew he had to run but it was too late, a feminine hand reached out of the darkness and yanked him to his feet. The hand though definitely feminine enveloped his spindly arm easily. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Mom!" No one would suspect behind that angelic face lay a soul blacker than her own hair. "I was just-just-" The scattered makeup, and paper towels streaked with black eyeliner, seemed like deja vu.

"I know what you were doing! Who said you could play with my makeup?!"

"N-no one but I just thought-"

CRACK he felt the familiar sting of her hand. "I know what you thought!" He knew she wouldn't listen or care he was just trying to be like Ronnie Radke. Even if his failure was laughably bad he still thought he looked cool. "You know what will happen if your dad catches you like this?!" She pulled him into the adjoining bathroom, scrubbing his face clean with rubbing ****. "I've got enough shit to deal with, I don't need this crap on top of it." She held his chin in a vice-like grip. "He's already pissed off at you for dying your hair."

"I know I-" he tried to apologize but was unable as she squeezed his chin even harder.

"If you were sorry you'd stop doing this nonsense but you don't care about anyone but yourself. Stop crying." She slapped him again. "Boys don't cry. And they certainly don't wear makeup! Next I'll find you in my dresses!"

"You won't!"

Jodie woke up in a cold sweat, the small pillow used to replace her fuzzy bear caught in a deep stranglehold. After catching her breath and realizing she was safe and far away in time and space from the terrible memory. She enjoyed the warm embrace of the shower, it's pressure was nothing compared to the hotel in Florida, nor the level of heat, and it didn't have a detachable pulsating showerhead, but it was home.

Jodie left the shower with a towel around her ample chest when she heard Lauren in the kitchen. It had felt like forever since she had seen her friend. She couldn't help but rush to her and wrap her up in a warm hug. "Lauren!" She cheered. "Girl you look, like, totally fab! How's working for the man?" She giggled while still holding on to her friend.

"It's... it's going." Lauren peeled Jodie's arms away.

Jodie frowned and backed away from Lauren, "What's wrong?" She thought for a moment how the guys wouldn't stop hitting on her even before her surgery and couldn't imagine what a real girl like Lauren must be suffering through, "Hey, they're, like, treating you nice, right?"

"Yeah." She refused to look Jodie in the eye as she finished preparing for the day.

"That's...that's good fer sure. Say, I don't have to work today so why don't we, like, go to the mall on your lunch break?"

"I'll probably be busy." Lauren caught her friend's hurt reflection in the microwave. She wanted to hate her for her brother's sake but she did genuinely like Jodie more than any ex of her brother's that came before. "But maybe I can get a late lunch."

Jodie smiled and hugged Lauren again before giving her a kiss on the cheek and walking back to her room. It didn't dawn on her until she was at her door that she felt nothing for Lauren. Before she always had to fight her erection whenever she was in close proximity to the beautiful coed and yet she felt nothing now. The dream was surely still on her mind. Of course she could scarcely remember waking up with a morning erection these past couple of weeks. Maybe it was just that she was finding it harder to see Lauren as anything but the sister she never had.