Puckered lips planted a wet sloppy kiss right on my cheek. I let out a confused and angry yelp, thrashing my arms and legs, batting away and slapping Ivy even as I fell out of my chair. “GAAAAAAH!”
I landed on the carpet and kept scooting away, my eyes fixated on the Zoge’s ‘baby girl’ like she was a deadly cobra and I’d just been bitten. My ears became deaf to Ivy’s sudden and surprised shriek and my heartbeat thundered in my chest. In my periphery, I registered everyone else staring, some with jaws open and bits of cracker crumbling from their mouth.
She’d kissed me. Ivy Zoge had gone and kissed me. Had she been an actual child instead of a woman close to my own age dressed like an eighteen month old, I might have thought it cute in an innocent sort of way. Something to be corrected, yes, but no harm no foul.
But Ivy wasn’t really a kid, just a doll that had been conditioned to act like one. She was, unfortunately, a peer. An acquaintance at best; a strange one. but still a peer. Janet had already kissed me, and I’d already lost count of how many times I’d had my cheeks condescendingly pinched, but it was different with Janet. In a weird way, my Amazonian ex-friends got a pass. I didn’t expect as much from them.