by Wanda Cunningham

Andie turned back to Melissa after Kelly had left the salon. "The kid really tears at the old hearshtrings, doesn't she?"

Melissa nodded thoughfully, "Yeah, she could be a heartbreaker if she wants to. But you know, I'm not sure..."

"Everyone is different. She's still just a kid and so far, she's just been happy being who she is, I guesh." Andie shrugged. "You didn't go through the same things, I did, either. We're all different."

"You were luckier than me, and braver, I guess."

"I dunno, maybe. Luckier in having an undershtanding brother." She used the tip of her tongue to play gently with one of the piercings in her lip. "Lucky that we had money and access to medical treatments. I'd like Kelly to have some luck."

"Luck is a big part of it," agreed Melissa. "Gorgeous looks like Kelly's are certainly a lot of luck."

"Yeah," Andie laughed. "The kid is gorgeous. You should see the effect she has on the boys, my nephews. And she likes that even though it shcares her."

They both laughed for a bit. "It's always scary. The boy-girl thing." Melissa said, remembering how it had been for her when she first began to explore her feelings for men. "You remember your first crush?" she asked Andie, softly.

Andie nodded. "I was younger than Kelly, and this boy in the fifth grade. I thought he liked me. But..."

"But you were a boy, too, then?"

"Yeah. It was Valentine's Day, I wanted to give him a card and I wanted it to be all mushy and girly and..." They both grinned with remembered pain turned to sweet anguished nostalgia. "Sho important when you're a kid. And I was a goofball, not like Kelly who is so damned shmart! I couldn't think my way out of a phone booth. Remember phone booths?" They laughed again.

"Did you figure a way to give your sweetie a card?" asked Melissa, teasingly.

"Uh, yeah." Andie finished with Melissa's nails and began to clean up her station. "I shtuck it in his backpack when no one was looking." She discarded some waste and srcubbed idly at a red stain on the stone counter top. "When you're a little kid, everybody can give Valentines to everybody else. It's just a fun game. But at ten, it feels more serious. Boys are shupposed to give Valentine's to girls and girls to boys."

"Yeah," Melissa said quietly. "Ever find out if he got it?"

"No," said Andie. "No, I never did. I was afraid to ask and he never said. Heck, it was just one more valentine for him. And I couldn't figure out if I wanted him to know I'd shent it." She shook her head and added, "That was in Sommerton, little town near Yuma. We moved to San Jose at the end of school that year."

"You remember his name?"

"Oh yeah, Mike. Mike Montana."

They were quiet for a bit as Andie finished cleaning things up. "Those should be dry but be careful. Give them a few more minutes."

"I'm in no hurry," agreed Melissa. "You never forget your first real crush. Puppy love." They both grinned.

"Funny thing," Andie said after a moment. "I got a Valentine that year that I didn't know who sent it. It was real shweet, too. A boy and a girl, riding on one of those moped scooter things. 'Let's go!' it said. And inside, 'With my Valentine'. Shtupid but sweet."

Melissa snorted a laugh. "Yeah? Did you ever find out who sent it?"

Andie shook her head. "No, no, I never did. And the only kid in our class that had a motorbike was Rudy Beltran. Rich kid, we weren't rich then. I didn't like him and I didn't think he liked me. He hung out with the bullies. You know, the rich kids always have a few thugs that like to hang out with them."

"Was it signed?"

"No. I wanted to think Mike had shent it. I found it inside my math book, like a bookmark. I wanted to believe Mike had sent it, I tried really hard to." She smiled, ruefully.

"You think one of the girls sent it?"

"No, I asked them. We were all good friends and had sent our Valentines to each other and talked about them and stuff."

"So wha'd they think?"

Andie sighed again. "They'd all gotten one, too. Not all the same but like they came from the same package?"

"Yeah. But you got the one with the Moped?"

"Uh huh, one of them. They were nice Valentines."

"Rudy sent them," Melissa said decisively. "And he gave one to you 'cause you always hung out with the girls."

Andie smiled. "Yeah, I did. And I think he did."

They didn't say anything for a while. Melissa tapped a nail to see if it were dry yet. They smiled at each other and Melissa sniffed.

"Don't start," warned Andie. "You know how you are."

Melissa sighed, "I can't help it. That was just so sweet of him."