by Mia Archer
“You don’t need to thank me,” I said. “It was the right thing to do. I wasn’t going to let him have his way with you.”
“How did you just happen to be there at the right time?” she asked.
I blushed and looked away, but she touched my chin and pulled me towards her.
“What’s wrong?”
I cleared my throat. “Um, well actually I was sort of keeping an eye on you.”
Mari pulled away ever so slightly and arched an eyebrow. “You were keeping an eye on me? Seriously? Why?”
“Well the last time we were together, when we went out to the tracks? I sort of saw Alan hiding in the shadows creeping on you and I figured he was going to start trouble sometime, and I figured you’d be out here for another church thing this weekend so I sort of just hung around to make sure there wasn’t any trouble.”
Mari held my gaze for a long uncomfortable moment. Her eyes darted back and forth as she looked into my own and I figured this was the moment when she would tell me to fuck off. That she didn’t need someone stalking her on top of what Alan had already done.
Instead she leaned in and surprised me by kissing me. Not a quick kiss either. No, her lips parted and her tongue darted against my own lips and I was so surprised that I didn’t respond before she’d pulled away.
“Thank you,” she said. “I know your heart was in the right place, and you were right.”
“Yeah, I guess I was,” I said.
Any further interesting conversation was cut off by Mr. Li appearing with a couple new containers filled with noodles of some sort. I peeled mine open and saw that it was lo mein. I sighed.
“What’s wrong?” Mari asked. “Did they get your order wrong or something? Do you not like chicken lo mein?”
“Oh I do,” I said. “It’s just that this stuff is awfully garlicy. Means we won’t be doing any more kissing tonight.”
Mari stuck her tongue out at me. “You might be surprised. If our breath smells like garlic doesn’t that cancel out or something?”
I shrugged. She had a point there. A point I might be willing to try out later in the evening if things continued to go well. It seemed she was recovering from her encounter with Alan quite nicely.
Alan. That prick. Every time I thought of him I saw red. The guy had been an asshole to me in school. One of the people who loved spreading rumors about me and trying to make me miserable.
I tried not to let it show, but there’d been a couple of times when I’d been tempted to jump on him and show him the consequences of being an asshole.
It had been pretty fucking cathartic to finally get a chance to follow through on some of those old thoughts tonight.
“Y’know I don’t think it’d be a good idea for you to hang out with Alan anymore,” I said, pausing with the lo mein almost to my lips.
Mari looked at me sideways and had an unreadable expression. I wasn’t sure how she was going to take this.
“Oh? And who do you think you are to give me orders like that?”
I reached out and put a hand on her leg. Her leg that was so smooth and there was so much of it to feel because her shorts were pretty darn short. Definitely not the sort of clothes I figured a good girl would wear to a church function, but I wasn’t complaining if I was getting a feel and she wasn’t stopping me.
“I’m worried about you,” I said. “I want you to be safe, and I think safe means staying away from Alan. Otherwise you’re going to get in trouble again, and that’s going to get me in trouble because I’m going to keep him away from you and we both know who his dad is.”
Mari frowned. “Like the accident over on 500 west?”
“Exactly like that,” I said.
Everyone in school knew about the accident over on 500 west. Alan had a little too much to drink at some good old boy party in the country and he’d ended up wrapping his car around a telephone pole and hurting some people in the car with him pretty badly.
No one got killed or permanently hurt, but somehow he’d never been charged with drunk driving or anything. And there were rumors that the first car on the scene was his dad. Rumors that the reason his dad was the first on the scene was because it was his party where Alan had got the booze in the first place.
Small town corruption at its finest. No, the cops in this town weren’t going to do jack shit about a crime if Alan was the one committing it.
Finally Mari smiled. “I think it would be a good idea if I didn’t spend as much time at places where he’s going to be. Now the only question is where am I going to spend my time instead?”
I didn’t think she could move any closer than she already was, but somehow she found a way as she molded against me. Her face was so close to mine and I could smell some of that garlic on her breath, but I didn’t give a fuck.
“Maybe we could get to know each other a little better?” I said.
“I think I like that idea,” she replied.
We kept on chatting well after it was completely dark and the streetlights came on outside. We talked like we were old friends, and there was never any awkward pause in the conversation. The entire time I kept my hand on her leg and she kept herself snuggled right up to me.
I figured she’d pull away eventually. That she’d worry about someone seeing us together like that. Only she never did, and that felt almost as good as feeling her pressed against me.
All good things must come to an end though. Eventually Mr. Li appeared.
“I have to close the place up soon,” he said. “So you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”
He chuckled as though he’d made some sort of great joke. I’m sure in his mind he had, but I had no idea what he was talking about. Mr. Li was the sort of guy who always had a smile and a laugh ready.
I looked at Mari. “You ready to go?”
“Not really,” she said. “I’m fine right here, but I suppose this night has to end sometime.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” I said, but somehow I managed to pull myself away from her long enough to step out of the booth.
Not that I should have worried too much. No sooner were we out of the restaurant than she was pressed up against me again. Only this time there was something more there. A longing that I could feel moving from her to me. A longing that I felt as well.
I wanted to press her up against a wall and have my way with her right now. The town was deserted at this time of night. The only thing that stopped me was the thought of Alan doing the same thing to her earlier.
It might be too soon. Way too fucking soon for that sort of thing.
“Is your house within walking distance or did you drive?”
Mari rolled her eyes and laughed. “In this town? Everything’s in walking distance. C’mon.”
She put her arm around me and we walked on in silence. I enjoyed the sounds and smells and sights that the evening had to offer, but more than anything I enjoyed feeling Mari’s body pressed up against mine. She was soft in all the right places with curves in just the right places as well.
It was dizzying walking next to her. It was going to take all my control not to press her against a wall in an alley, and so it was a good fucking thing we shortly got into a residential area where there weren’t any alleys to speak of.
There weren’t that many buildings in town big enough to create that sort of big city thing.
I was so preoccupied by feeling her against me that I almost didn’t notice when she came to a stop. I looked around and saw a street corner that I knew in passing. The town was small enough and I’d spent enough time roaming around as a kid that just about every area was familiar to me even if it wasn’t a place I visited that often.
“My house is just down the block,” she said, looking that way and biting her lip.
And suddenly I understood. She was willing to sit with me at the Chinese restaurant. She was willing to walk down the deserted streets arm in arm. What she wasn’t willing to do was walk to her front door with me.
&nbs
p; “I understand,” I said, even though it did hurt just a little.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “It’s just that my parents…”
“No, really,” I said, not quite meaning it but knowing that I needed to mean it for her. I needed to be strong for her tonight. I ran a hand along her cheek and she closed her eyes and leaned against it.
“I want to see you again,” she said.
“Yeah? What would you think about a date?” I asked.
I trembled as the words left my mouth. What happened down at the tracks and what happened tonight had all been happy accidents. Two people coming together because of circumstance. Something told me asking her on a date, asking her to deliberately go out with me somewhere, was crossing a line.
The question was would she cross it? Was her desire for me that intense?
“I’d like that,” she said.
I fought back the urge to let out a triumphant whoop. I was supposed to be the calm one here, after all, even if I was jumping for joy inside.
“Maybe we could hang out this weekend or something?” I said. “I could even go to one of your church events or something.”
Her eyes opened and they shone with something that surprised me. A mischievous twinkle that didn’t belong in the good church girl’s eyes.
“Fuck that,” she said. “If we’re going out then I want to have a good time. See how the other half lives. No more church stuff if I have to deal with Alan.”
“Fair enough, so what did you have in mind?”
“I want to go to a party,” she said. “A real party. The kind they have down at that factory or something.”
I opened my mouth to protest, to tell her that could be a rough crowd even when it was kids our age hanging out, but she leaned up and kissed me and then she was off before I could say anything.
I stared after her. Damn it. I was going to do something stupid. I was going to take her out to the abandoned factory for one of the parties people in our class put on there almost every weekend to celebrate graduating.
I’d been doing a lot of stupid and risky things under the influence of Mari Reynolds. What was one more?”
I watched until she disappeared into her house. A nice little house where a family could live and kids could be raised by a mother and father. The kind of childhood I didn’t get to enjoy.
I wasn’t going to let that get me down tonight though. I put my hands in my pocket and whistled a happy tune as I made my way back towards my house.
My past might have been shit, but things were looking up with Mari in my life.
9
Mari
I looked down the street and felt a flutter in my stomach. Sure enough she was down there waiting for me at the street corner. Looking around like she was worried someone was going to see her there and realize what was going on.
Heck, I was a little worried someone would see her there and realize what was going on. Sure it was a stretch to go from a girl standing on the street corner to that girl going on a date with the girl who lived down the street, but nothing ever seemed rational when you were sneaking around.
I walked downstairs and stuck my head into the dining room. My heart was beating so fast that it was threatening to burst through my ribcage. I’d never done anything like this before and it made me feel like I was a horrible person.
But I wanted to spend time with Robin, and there wasn’t a chance that was going to happen if my parents had any idea what was going on.
“I’m going out now,” I said. “I’ll be with Richard if you need anything.”
My mom looked up from her needlework and frowned. “Is anyone else going on this thing? I don’t know if I approve of you going out with a young man on a Friday night all on your own.”
I wanted to groan in frustration. All the times I’d hung out with Richard in the past and this was the time she decided to make a big deal out of it? Not to mention that it was hard not to giggle. Of all the guys in the world she should be worried about Richard was the last.
Never mind that there probably wasn’t much need for her to worry about any guy ever, but the less said about that the better. That was a conversation to have when I was off at college and not relying on my parents quite so much anymore.
“I think she’s going to be fine honey,” dad said, looking up at me and winking. Mom couldn’t see it since she was turned away from him. “Something tells me we don’t have anything to worry about from Richard.”
Something about that look made me think my dad knew something. Maybe he suspected about Richard. My mom lived in a small town bubble where she couldn’t conceive of someone from that same small town being gay, let alone her daughter or one of her daughter’s friends.
Yeah, that was going to be a really interesting conversation when it happened. Assuming it ever happened. I suppose I could always live life in the closet where my parents were concerned.
“If you say so honey,” she said, but she looked worried.
“Right, well I’ll see you all later. Don’t wait up!”
I left before they could say anything else. The more time I gave my mom to think about her worries the more likely it was that she’d change her mind about letting me go hang out with a guy I’d known my whole life and never shown any romantic interest in.
Not that I had any intention of going out with Richard tonight, but what mom didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt her.
Guilt ate at me as I walked down the street. I constantly checked over my shoulder to make sure mom wasn’t looking out the window, but she must’ve been pretty busy with her needlepoint because I didn’t see the telltale sign of curtains moving.
I turned around and grinned. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. My parents would kill me if they realized I was going out on a date. With a girl. With Robin of all people.
But again, what they didn’t know wasn’t going to hurt them. I had to admit it was actually kind of thrilling to break the rules like this. I was starting to wonder why I hadn’t done this a long time ago.
Robin held her arms out like she expected me to go in for a hug but I looked over my shoulder again then turned to her.
“Not right here,” I said. “There’s still a chance my mom might be looking, and it would start World War III if she realized what was going on here.”
I searched Robin’s face for any sign that she was hurt by the rejection, but I wasn’t going to change my mind. It would be the end of the night before it even started if my mom was spying on me and saw me getting too up close and personal with a girl. Robin was cutting it close by even being out here in the first place.
“Fair enough,” she said. “I get it. Have to put on a show for the parents. I’ve done it before.”
I sighed in relief. It was nice to know that she understood, even if I felt like a piece of crap doing that to her.
Robin reached out for my hand and I was more than happy to take hers. I smiled uncertainly as we walked away, but I resisted turning around to look at the house.
If mom was looking out any windows trying to spy on me then she just saw something that was going to blow her mind, but that was something to worry about later tonight. Still, as we moved along I couldn’t shake the feeling we were being watched even though I was pretty sure dear old mom wasn’t spying on me.
“So what do you want to do tonight?” I asked. “I guess there’s not a lot to do around here, come to think of it.”
“Well what did you tell your parents you were going to do?” Robin asked. “Maybe we could do that. Could be fun.”
“I told them I was going to see a movie with Richard the next town over,” I said. “Not exactly a fun night.”
“Oh I don’t know about that,” Robin said, reaching out and intertwining her fingers with mine. “I think we could think of a few ways to make movie night a lot of fun if we did it just right.”
I shivered as I got the gist of what she was talking about. There were a few guys who’d tried to get a little hands
y with me in the back of a movie theater over the past couple of years and I’d always pushed them away and told them I wasn’t interested.
I’d never felt anything with those guys, but I was starting to realize that maybe the problem was with me and not the guys. Though it wasn’t even really a problem. It was just how I was.
I wasn’t into guys. I was going to have to admit it sooner rather than later.
My reverie was interrupted by a buzzing at Robin’s side. I looked down to her pocket which was lighting up.
“Looks like you have a call,” I said.
“That’s okay,” she said. “Whoever it is they can wait. You’re the most important thing to me right now.”
“You sure about that?” I asked.
“Positive,” Robin said.
So we walked along in silence for another block. Her phone buzzing the entire way. Whoever was on the other end of that call really didn’t want to give up on getting ahold of her.
“That’s my truck up ahead,” she said.
I smiled at the old beater on the dark street up ahead. It was too dark to make out much of anything right now, but I knew the truck was a lime green color that had probably been fashionable when the thing was manufactured back in the seventies.
Fashion had moved on, and the thing had faded over the years. Still, it was infamous as the truck Robin drove and everyone in school knew she absolutely loved the thing.
“So I get to go for a ride in the famous green monster, huh?” I asked.
“How’d you know that name?” she asked.
“I think about everyone in school knows that name Robin,” she said. “The truck is distinctive.”
“Almost as distinctive as that rusted blue beater you drove to school?”
I blushed at the very accurate description of my car. It was some old boxy thing my dad bought new back in the early ’90s, and he always figured that buying it new meant it was as good as new when he gave it to me years later. Never mind that the car was older than me and suffered from a well known issue with those cars where the paint flaked off exposing the rust underneath.
