Her Imaginary Friend
mc; Xg; Xdom; nosex
Mackenzie and Alana huddled together at the far end of the playground, taking care not to stand too close to any of the other children from their class. Several other kindergarten classes were sharing recess time with them, but it was particularly important that no one from their own class overhear. Curly wheat-blonde hair pressed against straight raven-black as Mackenzie leaned in, her lips inches away from her best friend's ear.
"You have to tell me," the tiny blonde girl said, her voice rasping as it neared a whisper. "You promised, during recess."
"You said you'd tell me who you liked too," Alana accused, turning her head to look into the other girl's brown eyes.
"I did: no one," Mackenzie said smugly, looking inordinately pleased with her loophole. "Now you have to tell yours."
Alana's pretty face wrinkled as she frowned. "I don't like any boys either."
"Liar, liar," the blonde girl said, her voice returning to its normal pitch, although none of the other children were close enough to hear the friends' conversation. "You said you did and you promised to tell. You can't break your promise. No, she'll tell me."
Alana started and looked up after the last sentence, which did not seem to be directed at her. Indeed, Mackenzie's face was angled up and she seemed to be addressing the clouds.
"Um, if I did tell, you can't. Tell anybody, I mean," Alana said after a pause.
"What? Yeah, I know," Mackenzie's head turned back and she met her best friend's eyes guilelessly. Alana stretched out her right hand, extending her pinkie finger. Mackenzie mirrored the motion and the two tiny fingers twined together before both girls dropped their hands.
"Okay. I like..." Alana paused as if preparing to deliver nuclear launch codes, "Brandon."
Mackenzie nodded solemnly with the weight of the secret. Then the little blonde's head swung upwards and to the left again. Alana cocked her own head, strangely disappointed at the lack of reaction. Mackenzie was nodding at the clouds but then she turned back to her friend and asked bluntly, "So, do you want him to be your boyfriend?"
Alana looked down coyly. At the kindergartner's age, a dating relationship meant little more than promising to be boyfriend and girlfriend, and occasionally holding hands. Along with that, the entire class would find out and there would be encouragement and teasing in equal amounts. It was the teasing that worried Alana. "Nuh-uh. I don't know."
"Barry says that you have to give Brandon your panties if you want him to be your boyfriend," Mackenzie said, looking between Alana and the clouds.
"Kenzie, your mom says you're not supposed to talk to Barry anymore," Alana said, looking up sharply. As far as Alana was concerned, Mackenzie was too old to have an imaginary friend, but even if she was not, Mackenzie's mother had pulled Alana aside during one of their playdates and made Alana promise to keep Mackenzie from pretending anymore. Mackenzie always blamed Barry when she got in trouble for saying or doing bad things.
"I didn't. He talked to me," Mackenzie said sullenly, her talent for finding loopholes a sure sign that she had a bright future as a lawyer.
Alana frowned for the second time in as many minutes. Her next words were intended to be hurtful, since she saw Mackenzie's behavior as making fun of her. "Tell him that I don't do dirty things like you."
"He's right here. He heard you," the blonde girl answered, gesturing with a small hand. Alana looked, seeing only sky and sunbeams. Mackenzie paused and then said, "Barry says he'll let you see him."
"Fine," Alana said, still annoyed. The girl folded her arms across her flat chest defiantly, pulling at strands of her long, black hair that were pinched by her armpits.
Quick as blinking, Alana saw Barry for the first time. He was a teddy bear with purple fur, which Alana already knew from Mackenzie's descriptions, but knowing was quite different from seeing. The plump anthropomorphic animal stood at five feet tall on his hind legs, not extraordinarily large but towering over the kindergartners. His muzzle was spread in a silly grin and his beady black eyes were nearly lost among the short purple fur lining his face.
"Hi there, Alana, it's nice to meet you," the oversized teddy bear said politely in a squeaky voice similar to the way Alana's father spoke after sucking on a helium balloon. The animal lifted a plushy arm nearly as thick as Alana's torso and held it out. The arm had no definition, not even a paw, but after a moment, Alana reached out with both of her small hands. For a few seconds, she felt the bear's soft fur and the warmth of its body. Then it turned insubstantial and her hands slid together, seeming to disappear inside of the furry arm.
"Are you real?" the black-haired girl asked uncertainly, dropping her hands.
"That's a hard question," Barry said, tipping his ponderously large head to one side. "But I don't want to talk about me. I want to help you be Brandon's girlfriend."
Accepting Barry's existence for the moment with childish ease, Alana returned to her own problems. The little girl ducked her head, not meeting the eyes of Mackenzie or her imaginary friend. Scuffing her toe against the dirt, Alana answered, "He won't want me to be. He said girls are gross. I heard him, last week."
"That was just because he hasn't seen your cute little panties." Barry declared, his authority undermined by his cartoonish voice, but both little girls looked up at him, accustomed to listening to those taller than them.
"My panties?" Alana repeated doubtfully. Disbelief stole over her face, no different from when Mackenzie had first voiced the idea. As stubbornness set in, Barry leaned in close, and the tiny black eyes on his huge bear face flickered with red and yellow flames.
"Yes, your panties. You want to give Brandon your panties and ask him to be your boyfriend," the teddy bear said, looking as silly as ever.
"My... panties..." Alana echoed, her own eyes vacant as her thoughts were burned away by the fires dancing in Barry's gaze. "I want... to give... Brandon... my panties... ask... my boyfriend..."
"Good idea!" Barry did a merry jig in front of the dazed girl. After a few seconds without him speaking to her, Alana roused herself, intelligence returning to her eyes. Mackenzie had watched the exchange in silence, though a frown was creeping over her pretty face. Alana reached under her skirt and Mackenzie hurried around to shield her friend from the majority of the playground's view. Alana's panties were free in her hand a moment later, smaller than a square of tissue paper and just as white, except for a thin, slightly yellowish stain at the crotch.
Alana walked away from Mackenzie without another word. Barry ambled off after the small girl, taking one step for every three of hers. Alana approached a group of three boys passing around a ball. The boys stopped their game and then, although Mackenzie could not see a difference, Barry must have become visible because the three boys jumped backwards. In the next moment, though, all three boys were staring at Barry with their shoulders slumped and their mouths hanging open. Then two of the children abruptly walked away and Alana and Barry were left with one blond boy with short-cut hair.
As Mackenzie watched, the boy looked down from Barry to meet Alana's eyes. The little girl held out her fist, full of balled up fabric, and the boy accepted it. Alana said something and Brandon replied, and then both kindergartners turned their head to look back at Barry. After another minute, Barry turned back towards Mackenzie and lifted one massive arm in a wave. The little blonde did not wave back. Alana and Brandon started to walk off, holding hands and ignoring Barry.
Barry skipped back to Mackenzie, taking lumbering leaps that looked like they should have shaken the ground but were completely silent and did not so much as ruffle the grass. The giant teddy bear's muzzle wore a dorky smile which faded into wounded confusion when he saw that Mackenzie was frowning at him.
"What's wrong?" Barry asked in his squeaky voice. He reached down and must have made an effort to make himself solid because the kindergartner's hair flattened as he patted it with one oversized furry arm.
"You promised you wouldn't make my friends do bad things anymore," the little blonde girl accused. "You promised. You promised after, after you made Alana stick her water bottle up her butt and, and she was crying even though she was smiling. You promised."
"I know, I know," the teddy bear waved his arms, placating. "But I made her forget all of that. It's like it never even happened. This time she only took off her panties. That's not really bad."
"What did you talk about with her and Brandon after?" Mackenzie asked sharply, her young voice bordering on shrill as she frowned up at her imaginary friend.
Barry bent down, his eyes kindling with unworldly fire. "It doesn't matter what I told them."
"It... doesn't matter..." Mackenzie echoed. The kindergartner's face was clear of her anger from a moment ago as she gaped at the bear's eyes with her mouth hanging open.
"You like it when I make your friends do dirty things," the teddy bear reminded her.
"I... like it..." the tiny blonde girl said dumbly.
"Because you're a kinky slut," Barry told the kindergartner.
"I'm a... kinky slut..." Mackenzie agreed. Drool slid over her bottom lip to dribble towards her chin as her mouth fell open again.
"And you love having me as your imaginary friend," the giant bear finished Mackenzie's weekly brainwashing tuneup.
"I... love you... Barry..." the tiny girl said with a vacant smile.
The teddy bear stretched his massive paws over his head as he waited for Mackenzie's abused mind to kick itself back into gear. When the child looked mostly alert again, Barry grinned down at her. In his characteristic squeaky voice, he said, "Hey, Mackenzie, while you were busy yesterday, I followed Kendall to the bathroom and told her she should try to seduce her big brother. Do you wanna ask her how it's going?"
"'Kay," Mackenzie said with a gap-toothed smile. The little girl walked off to find her fellow kindergartner, with her invisible friend beside her all the while.
