The Sweet Dealers

The first thing is, they don't have sex with the boys
Not the boys they deal to

Because then it seems too much, like, ugh, you know?
Like, they're whores or something

Even though that really wouldn't be the case at all

They still have sex
Just with other boys
Clean boys
Good boys
Boys who have no idea that they deal

They don't have tattoos
Or piercings in places other than their ears
They wear a modest amount of make-up
And most of the time
Their hair is down

Each of them plays the part of the All-American girl
And plays it well

Then they go dealing

One deals specifically
With the mini-van dads
Getting in their cars on Montecito
Driving to the 7-11
Talking about their wives
And their kids
And how hot their daughters' friends are
And then she sells them
Right in front of the shaggy dealer
Who looks like he was transported forward in time
From 1991

She's putting him out of business
And she likes it
Because he's her ex-boyfriend

He's the one who gave her the idea
And the other girls are merely tributaries of her
And therefore him

Pretty soon, he'll just be a user
And when that happens
She'll know that she's finally become a woman
Having crushed the man who created her

One sells strictly to family
Including her mother
Who keeps asking for discounts
As if she's the fucking Target or something

She sells to her step-dad
Who's a fucking loser-creep-waste paper basket, unlined
And she sells to her step-brother
Who snuck into her room once
And tried to touch her

Little did he know she keeps scissors by her bed
And now he has a scar going down his back
That might as well say--

'I tried to fuck my sister'

She likes her family better high anyway
They're slower that way
Easier to catch
And put down
If need be

One is having an affair with her Civics teacher
But he's not a customer
So it's okay

But his son is
So it's not

Not really

They lay in bed
And in the next room
His son gets high
And nobody says anything
To the wife and mother
Because they both want to keep
What they have

It's one big happy family secret

One deals to fat kids

'Here,' she says, 'Do this and you'll be skinny'

And they do
And they are
And so they keep doing it
To stay skinny

She's a fitness nut
Works out everyday
Same as her Dad
And if there's one thing she knows
It's that people don't like being fat
They just don't like to work
At being skinny

So she bridges the gap
Between what they want
And what they're willing to do
To get what they want

This, she believes, is consumerism
At its finest

These are the sweet dealers

They go to the mall
Sit at the food court
And, to an outside observer
They'd appear to be talking about boys
Or hair
Or school dances

But really they're talking about product
And expansion
And cutting in another girl
To take things to the next level

It's not hard to find someone willing
To make a little extra money
What's hard is finding someone
Who could be on the cover of Teen Vogue
And doesn't have that pesky morality
That is embedded in the young and the beautiful

Given time, that wears off
But then, does the beauty

So it's tricky

Do they feel bad about what they do?

They tell themselves it's necessary

To save for college
And future apartments
And the cars their parents don't have to pay for
And the ridiculous cost of gas
And the ridiculous cost of everything really

Being a teenage girl is not cheap
Not even when you're pretty
Especially when you're trying to stay pretty

So they deal

They'll deal until...probably college?
And then stop
They say
But really--

Will they?

Who knows?

'How many things are you really going to be great at in your life?'
One of them asks

And they all know the answer
So why bother saying it out loud?

If there's one thing they all have in common
It's that one thing most pretty girls seem to be good at

And that's staying quiet
And letting people think
Whatever they want