Free Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis

bring it every time.”
    L EAH SITS FROZEN ON the dressing-table stool in Rainey’s pink room while Rainey and Tina cross and recross thelengths of hair they’re braiding flat against her head. If she’s breathing, Rainey can’t tell.
    The girl has a Renaissance face, half beautiful and half plain. “You look like a Botticelli,” Rainey says.
    “Andy Sak might like her when we’re done with her,” says Tina.
    Leah winces, though it might be from how Tina combs out each new section with a yank. “Botticelli,” she murmurs. “He did Venus on that shell.”
    “Goddamn,” says Rainey. “I should have talked to you sooner. We should go to the museum. Tina won’t come with me.”
    Tina looks over at her. “Yes, I will,” she says. “I will, Rain.”
    Rainey ignores this. Miss Delectable Dial will have to earn her trips to the museum. “Reach over and get her something cute out of my drawer, Teen.”
    “I don’t need to change,” says Leah. “Just the makeover.”
    “This
is
the makeover,” says Rainey. “We’re hanging out tonight.”
    “I’m not allowed,” says Tina, but she hands over a white blouse that Rainey has altered so it’s mostly lace below the bust. She looks at Leah with her hair completely off her face and says, almost to herself, “I don’t recognize you.”
    “I know,” says Rainey. “Gorgeous, huh.”
    Male footsteps make the stairs creak. Tina tends to a new section of braid as if studying an algebra equation in very small print. Rainey listens to the second flight of creakingand waits for the doorway to fill with Howard. On the stairs, he is humming bebop.
Hum job
, thinks Rainey. It sounds half musical and half obscene, a phrase she has heard before, probably in this house.
    When Howard appears he is all door. His hair falls to his shoulders in a way that makes women tuck it behind the Kool over his left ear.
    “Hi, Howard.” Tina’s voice is slow and musical, as if everything in the room is under water. Rainey watches her closely. Stolen earrings gleam from under Tina’s hair, and on her wrist is Paul’s watch, which seems to Rainey like a terrible risk: walking down the street with plunder flashing like traffic lights.
    “Miss Temptation.” Howard bows his head formally.
    “Hi, Mr. Royal,” says Leah, and to Rainey, “It’s beautiful, but I can’t wear it. You can see everything—”
    “I wear this to
school
,” Rainey says.
    “It’s Howard,” says Howard, “and somebody in this room should definitely wear that.”
    “Can I try it?” says Tina.
    “Not you,” says Howard, studying Leah. “Her.”
    Leah says, “I decline.”
    Rainey watches Tina’s fingernail slip into her mouth. She marvels that Leah thinks everything is about the shirt, when in fact Tina is waiting to be tuned again by her best friend’s father’s attention, and Howard is flirting with the school giraffe.
    “What, do I not get a vote?” says Howard. He uncocks the Kool from behind his ear. Tina rises with a pink plastic lighter, and he grips her entire hand while he inhales.
    Then he kisses her knuckles.
    Rainey, fierce, says, “Howard, would you get
out
? You got the clarinet vote, that’s it. Put it on, Leah.”
    “Where’s the bathroom?”
    “Leah, will you just turn around and put on the top before I undo this whole damn makeover? I swear I’ll take out every braid.”
    “Why are you doing this?” says Leah softly, fingering the lace. “I can’t change here.”
    “But you can,” says Howard. “I won’t look.” He turns sideways in the doorway, extends one arm to the opposite doorpost, and tucks his head down behind it, smoking.
    “He won’t cheat,” says Rainey, because she knows this one thing about her father. He likes to win what he gets.
    Leah looks at Howard with his head under his wing. Then she scoots around on the dressing-table stool. Her spine is as long and pale as a yardstick, bisected by a white bra strap. When I’m done with her, thinks