Chapter Eight
Eddie’s pregnant. Gavin’s scared. I let Lake go. That’s all I remember about last night.
The sun is brighter than it’s ever been. I throw the covers off and head to the bathroom. When I make it across the hall, I try to open the door but it’s locked. Why the hell is my bathroom door locked? I knock, which feels extremely odd-knocking on my own bathroom door when I should be the only person in my house.
“Just a sec!” I hear someone yell. It’s a guy. It’s not Gavin. What the hell is going on? I walk to the living room and see a blanket and pillow on the couch. There are shoes by the front door, next to a suitcase. I’m scratching my head when the bathroom door opens, so I turn around.
“Reece?”
“Mornin',” he says.
“What are you doing here?” I ask him.
He shoots me a confused look as he walks to the couch and sits down. “Are you kidding?” he asks.
Why would I be kidding? What would I be kidding about? I haven’t seen him in over a year.
“No. What are you doing here? When did you get here?”
He shakes his head with the same bewildered expression across his face. “Will, do you not remember anything from last night?”
I sit down and try to remember. Eddie’s pregnant. Gavin’s scared. I let Lake go. That’s all I remember. He can see from the struggle in my face that I need a refresher.
“I got back last Friday. My mom kicked me out? I needed a place to stay last night and you told me I could stay here. You really don’t remember?”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Reece. I don’t.”
He laughs. “Dude, how much did you have to drink last night?”
I think back on the tequila, then remember the medicine Sherry gave me. “I don’t think it was just the alcohol.”
He stands up and looks awkwardly around the room. “Well, if you want me to leave…”
“No. No, I don’t mind you staying here, you know that. I just don’t remember. I’ve never blacked out before.”
“You weren’t making much sense when I got here, that’s for sure. You kept saying something about a star…and a lake. I thought you were cracked out. You’re not cracked out…are you?”
I laugh. “No, I’m not cracked out. I’m just having a really shitty weekend. The worst. And no, I don’t feel like talking about it.”
“Well, since you don’t remember anything about last night…you kind of told me I could live here? For a month or two? Does that ring a bell?” Reece raises his eyebrows and waits for my reaction.
Now I know why I never drink. I always end up agreeing to things that I normally wouldn’t agree to when I’m sober. I can’t really think of a reason not to let him stay here. We do have an extra bedroom. He practically lived here when we were growing up. Although I haven’t seen him since his last break from deployment, I still consider him my best friend.
“Stay as long as you need to,” I say. “Just don't expect me to be much fun. I'm not having a very good week.”
“Obviously.” He grabs his bags and shoes and takes them down the hallway to the spare bedroom. I walk to the window and look across the street at Lake’s house. Her car is gone. Where would she be? She doesn’t really go anywhere on Sunday’s. They’re her movies and junk food days. I’m still watching out the window when Reece walks back into the living room.
“You don’t have shit to eat,” he says. “I’m hungry. You want me to grab you anything at the store?”
I shake my head. “I don’t feel like eating,” I say. “Just get whatever. I’ll probably go later this afternoon, anyway. I need a few things before Caulder gets back tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah, where is that little twerp?”
“Detroit.”
Reece slips his shoes and his jacket on and slips out the front door. I walk to the kitchen to make coffee, but there’s already a full pot. Nice.
***
As soon as I step out of the shower, I hear the front door open. I don’t know if it’s Reece or Lake, so I rush to pull my pants on to see if it’s Lake. When I emerge from the hallway, she’s holding the vase in her hands, making her way to the front door. When she sees me, she speeds up.
“Dammit, Lake!” I cut her off in the living room and don’t let her by. “You aren’t taking it. Don’t make me hide it from you.”
She tries to shove her way past me but I block her again. “You have no right to keep them at your house, Will! It’s just your excuse to make me keep coming over here!”
She’s right. She’s absolutely right…but I don’t care. “No, I want them over here because I don’t trust that you won’t open them all.”
She shoots me a dirty look. “While we’re on the subject of trust, are you sabotaging these? Are you putting fake ones in here, trying to get me to forgive you?”
I laugh. She must be getting some great advice from her mom if she thinks I’m sabotaging the stars. “Maybe you should listen to your mother’s advice, Lake.”
She tries to brush past me again so I grab the vase from her hands. She jerks it away harder than I expect and the vase slips and lands on the floor, spilling out dozens of tiny stars onto the carpet. She bends down and starts scooping them up. Her hands are full and I can see on her face that she doesn’t know where to put them since her pants don’t have pockets. She pulls the collar of her shirt out and starts shoving them inside by the handful. She’s determined.
I grab her hands and pull them away from her shirt. “Lake, stop it! You’re acting like a ten year old!” I set the vase upright and start throwing the rest of them inside as fast as she’s grabbing them, stuffing them inside her shirt. I do the only thing I can…I reach my hand down her shirt and start grabbing them back. She slaps at my hands and tries to crawl backwards but I grab the back of her shirt to stop her. She continues to back away as I continue holding onto her shirt until it slips over her head and it’s resting in my hands. She gathers more stars and stands and heads toward the front door with her hands clasped to her bra, still trying to hold on to them.
“Lake, you aren’t going outside without a shirt on,” I say. She’s relentless.
“Watch me!” she says. I jump up and wrap my arms around her waist and pick her up. Just as I’m about to release her onto the couch, the front door swings open. I look over my shoulder and Reece walks in with a handful of groceries. He pauses and stares at us wide-eyed.
Lake is still trying to struggle to free herself from my grasp, ignoring the fact that someone she doesn't even know has a front row seat to her tantrum. The only thing I can think of is the fact that she’s in her bra in front of another guy. I pick her up higher and toss her over the back of the couch. Just as fast as she’s on the couch, she’s back up again, trying to make her way past me. She finally notices Reece standing in the doorway.
“Who the hell are you?” she yells as she slaps at my arm that’s holding her back.
He responds cautiously. “Reece? I live here?” he says.
Lake stops struggling and folds her arms across her chest with an embarrassed look on her face. I take the opportunity to grab most of the stars out of her hands and I toss them back toward the vase. I reach down and pick her shirt up and shove it into her chest. “Put your shirt on!” I snap.
“Ugh!” She throws the rest of the stars on the floor and turns her shirt right side out. “You’re such a jerk, Will! You have no right to keep these here!” She pulls her shirt over her head and turns to Reece. “And when the hell did you get a roommate?”
Reece just stares at her, still wide-eyed. He has no idea what to make of the scene going down before him. Lake walks back to the center of the room and grabs a small handful of stars, then turns and rushes toward the front door. Reece steps aside as she moves passed him and goes outside. We both watch as she crosses the street, stopping twice to pick up stars she drops in the snow. When she shuts her door behind her, Reece turns to me.
“Man, she’s feisty. And cute,” he says.
“And mine,” I reply.
***
While Reece is cooking us lunch, I crawl around the living room and pick up all the stars that scattered. After I think I have them all, I take the vase to the kitchen to hide it in the cabinet. If she can’t find it, she’ll have to speak to me to ask me where it is.
“What are those, anyway?” Reece asks.
“They’re from her mother,” I say. “Long story.”
She might find them too easily if I hide them in such an obvious spot. I move the cereal again and place the vase right behind the tequila.
“So is this chick your girlfriend?” Reece says.
I’m not sure how to answer his question. I don’t know how to put a label on what’s going on between us. “Yep,” I say.
He cocks his head at me. “Doesn’t seem like she likes you very much.”
“She loves me. She just doesn’t like me right now.”
He laughs. “What’s her name?”
“Layken. I call her Lake,” I say as I pour myself a drink. A non-alcoholic drink this time.
He laughs. “That explains your incoherent rambling last night.” He spoons some pasta into our bowls and we sit at the table to eat.
“So, what’d you do to piss her off so bad?”
I rest my elbows on the table and drop my fork into my bowl. I guess now is as good a time as any to fill him in on the last year of my life. He’s been my best friend since we were ten, minus the last couple of years or so. We kind of grew apart after he left for the army. I still trust him, though. So I tell him everything. The entire story. From the day we met, to her first day at school, to our fight about Vaughn, all the way up to last night. When I finish, he’s on his second bowl of pasta and I haven’t even touched mine.
“So,” he says, stirring his pasta around in his bowl. “You think you’re really over Vaughn?”
Out of all the things I just told him, that’s what he focuses on? I laugh. “I’m absolutely over Vaughn.”
He shifts in his chair and looks at me. “Just tell me if this isn’t cool with you, but…would you care if I asked her out? If you say no, I won’t man. I swear.”
He hasn’t changed a bit. Of course this is the one thing he would pick up on out of my entire confession. The single girl.
“Reece? I could honestly care less what you do with Vaughn. Honestly. Just don’t bring her here. That’s one rule you can’t break. She’s not allowed in this house.”
He smiles. “I can live with that.”
***
The next few hours are spent finishing homework and studying the notes Vaughn left for me. The first thing I do is re-write them and throw her original notes away. I hate looking at her handwriting.
I’ve cut my spying down to about once an hour now. I don’t want Reece to think I’m crazy, so I only look out the window when he leaves the room. I’m at the table studying and he’s watching TV when Kiersten walks in; without knocking, of course.
“Who the hell are you?” she says to Reece as she walks across the living room.
“Are you even old enough to talk like that?” he asks.
She rolls her eyes and walks to the kitchen and takes a seat across from me. She puts her elbows on the table and rests her chin in her hands, watching me study.
“You see Lake today?” I ask without looking up from my notes.
“Yep.”
“And?”
“Watching movies. And eating a lot of junk food.”
Of course she is. It’s Sunday. “Did she say anything about me?”
Kiersten folds her arms across the table and leans in closer.
“You know, Will. If I’m going to be working for you, I think it’s a good time to negotiate fair compensation.”
I lay my notes down on the table and look at her. “Are you agreeing to help me?”
“Are you agreeing to pay me?”
“I think we could work out a deal,” I say. “Not with currency, of course. But maybe I could help you build your portfolio.”
She leans back in her seat and eyes me curiously. “Keep talking.”
“I’ve got a lot of performance experience, you know. I could give you some of my poetry…help you prepare for a slam.”
I can see her thoughts churning behind her expression. “Take me to the slam. Every Thursday for at least a month. There's a talent show coming up at the school in a few weeks that I want to enter, so I need all the exposure I can get.”
"An entire month? No way. This reconciliation between Lake and I better happen before four weeks! I can't go through this for a whole month.”
“You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” She stands up and pushes her chair in. “Without my help, you’ll be lucky if she forgives you this year.”
She turns to walk away.
“Fine! I’ll do it. I’ll take you,” I say.
She turns around and smiles at me. “Good choice,” she says. “Now…is there anything you want me to plant in her head while I go to work?”
I stew on this for a moment. What’s the best way to win Lake back? What in the world can I possibly say to get her to see how much I really love her? What could I have Kiersten do? I jump up when it hits me. “Yes! Kiersten, you need to ask her to take you to the slams. Tell her I refused to take you, and that I said I’m never going back. Beg her to take you if you have to. If there’s one way I can get her to believe me, it’s while I’m on that stage.”
She gives me an evil grin. “Devious… I love it!” Kiersten walks out and goes to work.
“Who is she?” Reece says.
“She is my new best friend.”
***
Other than the fight we had over the stars today, I’ve given Lake all the alone time I can possibly give her. Kiersten reported back to me and said Lake agreed to take her Thursday, after an intense bout of begging on Kiersten’s part. I rewarded her with one of my old poems.
It’s after ten now. I know I shouldn’t, but I can’t seem to go to bed without trying to talk to her at least one more time. I can’t decide if me leaving her alone or me hounding her is the better choice at this point. I decide it’s time for another star. I really hate that we’re opening them so fast, but I consider this an emergency.
When I get to the kitchen, I’m shocked to see Lake peering her head in one of the cabinets. She’s getting sneakier. When I pass by her, she jumps. I don’t say anything as I reach into the cabinet and pull out the vase she’s looking for. I set it on the counter and take out one of the stars. She looks at me as though she’s waiting on me to yell at her again. I pick the vase up and hold it out to her and she reaches inside and grabs her own star. We both lean against opposite ends of the counter while we open them and read them silently to ourselves.
Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
And so I do just that…I practice patience. I don’t speak as she reads hers. As much as I want to run up to her and kiss her and make it all better, I decide to be patient instead. She scowls as she reads the paper in her hand. She wads it up and throws it on the counter, then walks away. And again, I let her go.
When I know she’s gone, I grab her slip of paper off the counter and unfold it.
“So if you could find it in your heart
To give a man a second start
I promise things won't end the same.” ~The Avett Brothers
I couldn’t have said it better if I would have written it myself. “Thank you, Julia,” I whisper.
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
I’m not giving up
You’re not giving in
This battle will turn into a war
Before I let it come to an end.