Jealousy at TAC

by Richard Pinkerton

Maggie lay on her bed staring at the wall. She felt abandoned. Vanessa had completely ignored her the whole time at the pools. Well she hadn’t exactly ignored her, but she had been too busy with others to hang out with her. Vanessa had managed to spend about ten minutes chatting with Holly though. She’d found time for her. Now she was at her place helping her out with a stupid assignment when she should have been at the Squash courts with her.

  ‘I needed you today,’ she said as she stared out the window. She thought back to the last afternoon she had spent with Vanessa. Perhaps something about that had put Nessa off. Maybe it had been a big mistake. But no, she couldn’t see it like that. In fact, she longed for it to happen again and had hoped it might happen that afternoon.

  She thought about Holly and Vanessa together at Holly’s place. It irked her and then she realised what it was she was feeling. Jealousy.

  ‘It’s silly,’ she told herself. ‘It’s not like that with them. Holly’s straight.’

  However, it still bothered her.

  ‘Why does it bother me so much? I love Shawn. He’s my guy.’

  Although, he hadn’t acted like it the previous afternoon. All he seemed to want to do was hang out with her friends and talk to them.

  ‘I just really like your friends,’ he had said the previous day. ‘If they’re your friends, I should get to know them, right?’

  She had agreed. Nevertheless, it would have been nice if he had paid her a little more attention. At least she’d get his undivided attention tonight. There would be no one else around to distract him.

  Her cell phone rang and it was an unknown number. ‘Maggs here.’

  ‘Err, Hi Maggs. How you doing?’ She didn’t recognise the voice, but there was something familiar about it.

  ‘Who’s this?’

  ‘It’s me, Dwayne. From school.’

  Maggie started. ‘How the heck did you get my phone number?’

  ‘I saw it written down on one of your friend’s stuff.’

  ‘What do you want?’

  ‘I just wanted to chat.’

  ‘Well I don’t want to chat with you.’

  ‘Ah, come on. Don’t be like that. I’m a nice guy once you get to know me.’

  ‘But you’re not a nice guy. You’re a creep.’

  ‘Hey, hey, no need to start getting nasty.’

  ‘Well you won’t get the message. I’m not interested in you. I have a boyfriend.’

  ‘Oh right. Yeah, I heard about that guy.’

  ‘From who?’

  ‘Ran into old loudmouth Pete Cook this morning. He was telling me all about how that guy was trying to make the moves on Vanessa the whole time he was there.’

  ‘He was not!’

  ‘Said he was too busy chasing after her to spend any time with you.’

  Maggie felt like letting the creep have it right there and then, but then the horrible thought came across her mind. What if it was true? What if Shawn really had been interested in Vanessa? One thing was for sure, he’d spent a lot of time talking to her.

  She decided to deny it anyway. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about!’

  ‘I’m just repeating what Pete Cook told me. Maybe Cook was feeding me a load of bull, huh? But I doubt it, knowing how guys go gaga over Vanessa.’ He laughed.

  Maggie realised Dwayne had made a very valid point. Shawn was a red-blooded male. It would be unnatural if he hadn’t noticed just how awesome Vanessa was. Nevertheless, Maggie felt confident he was dedicated to her. ‘Shawn’s loyal to me. So you can forget about it.’

  ‘Yeah, whatever, babe. You keep telling yourself that, but just remember that old Dwayne is here in the bleachers waiting to be a shoulder to cry on when you need it.’

  ‘You’ll be the last shoulder I’d ever cry on!’

  ‘Ah, don’t be like that. I’m just trying to be nice.’

  ‘Well I don’t want you being nice to me, so you can just get lost. And don’t ring me again!’ Maggie switched off her cell phone and threw it onto her bed. ‘Creep!’

  Despite trying to reassure herself, she still couldn’t help but feel disturbed by the things Dwayne had said.

  Shawn arrived as scheduled, shortly before dinner and seemed to be in a cheerful mood. Afterwards, they went for a walk. Maggie didn’t mention anything about the trip to the aquatic centre and neither did he. For a while it was just like it always was for the two of them and Maggie was happy.

  An hour later they arrived back at the house and it was then that Shawn made an unusual request. ‘Hey, do you mind if we hop online?’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘There’s something I want you to see.’

  ‘Ok.’ Curiosity took a firm grip on her. Up in her room, Shawn took control of the computer and logged into FaceLink. ‘You know, when I first met Rex yesterday, I was sure I’d seen him before.’

  ‘Yeah, well he’s a top sportsman. Plays rugby and is fantastic at athletics and swimming. He tends to get noticed, especially at interschool events.’

  ‘That’s why I figured at first, but then it occurred to me that I’d seen him on FaceLink.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Pictures of him in one of my classmate’s profiles. She writes blogs and she mentions him all the time.’

  ‘Oh, he knows lots of girls who don’t go to our school.’ So far Maggie couldn’t see anything startling in his revelations. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder who the girl was.

  He brought up the profile of a girl whose handle was Carolisa. Maggie had never seen the girl before, but she was very pretty. Shawn clicked on one of her albums entitled “friends”. There were a few of Rex in there. Underneath one of him standing on the beach dressed only in togs, it said, “My sexy darling”. Another one of him said, “The man I am going to marry one day”. Other similar tags came with the other photographs as well, but Rex’s name was never used.

  ‘Ooookay,’ Maggie said.

  ‘Yeah, no big deal, right?’ Shawn grinned. ‘Probably just some chick who’s obsessed with him and wishes he was her boyfriend.’

  ‘Yes. There are a lot of girls like that.’

  ‘But wait until you read her blog. Check out this one here...’

  He clicked on one entitled, “My Secret Lover”.

  It read:

  No one can ever know about my secret love. We see each other sometimes, but not as often as I wish we could. You see he has a girlfriend already. Her name is Vanessa. They are very much in love, but he says he loves me too and can’t live without me. He cannot tell her about me, because she would never understand. So he comes to see me whenever he can and when we see each other we make beautiful love together. She must never know. Nobody must ever know. It must continue to remain a secret. I will keep his secret, because I love him. As long as I can continue to see him. His name is Rex. But no one must ever know who he is.

  Maggie stared at the screen for almost twenty seconds before finally finding something to say. ‘Well... it’s not really a secret anymore then, is it?’

  Shawn snickered. ‘What? Is that all you can say. This girl is obviously seeing Rex behind Vanessa’s back. She obviously has no idea.’

  ‘Rex wouldn’t do that. He’d tell her.’

  ‘Well why don’t you ring her then? Find out whether she does know.’

  ‘She’ll be at Holly’s place most likely.’

  ‘So what? Call her.’

  She spoke with bitterness in her voice. ‘No. She’ll probably be too busy to talk to me.’

  ‘Well next time you speak to her ask her if she knows.’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘But for hell’s sake, don’t tell her I showed you this. I don’t want my friend finding out that I dobbed her in.’

  ‘I won’t say anything. I’ll just say I found it myself.’

  ‘Yeah. Good idea. Tell her you were checking out friends of friends or something.’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘So what’s the matter with you and Van
essa then? You sound pissed at her.’

  ‘Oh, it’s nothing.’

  ‘Come on, you can tell me, I’m your boyfriend.’

  It was pretty much impossible to explain why she was upset without letting him know the truth about her relationship with Vanessa. There was no way she was going to let him in on that dirty little secret.

  ‘Hey, she might be online now. Can you access her profile?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Then let’s see.’

  ‘OK.’ Maggie logged in and brought up Vanessa’s profile.

  ‘She has a lot of photo galleries. Hey, what’s that one... restricted?’

  ‘Yes, only her close friends can get access.’

  ‘Can you?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Then let’s see.’

  ‘No, it’s private.’

  ‘Ah come on, she doesn’t have to know.’

  ‘Why do you have to see it for?’

  ‘Just out of curiosity.’

  Maggie paused and studied the expression on his face. Why was he so keen? The horrible thought occurred to her that maybe Dwayne had been telling the truth all along. ‘No! They’re sexy shots and you shouldn’t be looking at them. I’m your girlfriend.’

  Shawn sighed. ‘Yeah, ok. Man, what’s with all the sexy graphics all over her home page? Scantily clad chicks...’ His voice trailed off.

  Maggie opened her mouth to tell him she was gay, but then quickly clamped it shut. She didn’t want him to know that fact. She clicked back to her own home page.

  ‘Hey wait. Go back.’

  ‘She’s not online.’

  ‘I don’t care. Go back.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘What was that she said on her profile statement?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘No, I said go back! I want to read it.’

  He pushed Maggie’s hands aside, gripped hold of the mouse and clicked “return”. Maggie sighed and gave up trying to fight him.

  When Shawn read her statement, his eyes widened. ‘This is a joke, right?’

  Maggie said nothing.

  ‘Yes, I am gay... I don’t swing that way... She’s joking, right? She just says she’s gay on here so guys won’t keep bothering her.’

  ‘Of course!’ Maggie’s eyes lit up, seeing a way out of a potentially awkward topic. ‘It’s just a joke.’

  Shawn eyed her suspiciously then turned his head back to Vanessa’s profile. He quickly clicked on the restricted gallery. Before Maggie had even realised what he had done, thumbnails came up showing Vanessa posing in a swimsuit and some other sexy and revealing outfits. There were also a couple of shots of her embracing and open mouth kissing an unknown girl.

  ‘Shawn!’ she snapped. ‘Close that now!’

  ‘Oh my God. She is gay, isn’t she? Look at her and that chick.’

  Maggie grabbed the mouse and clicked return so that he could no longer see the pictures. For a moment, she had been terrified that the pictures of Vanessa kissing her on the bonnet of the Lamborghini might be there, but thankfully they weren’t.

  Shawn leaned back in his chair and stared at Maggie. ‘Why didn’t you tell me she was gay?’

  ‘Does it matter?’

  ‘You should have told me.’

  ‘Why? What difference does it make? Why would you even care...? Unless... unless you’re into her.’

  ‘What?’ Shawn shrunk back. ‘No way, it’s not that at all, but... Hell, I don’t get it. If she’s gay, why is she in love with him?’

  ‘You read her statement didn’t you? He’s special.’

  Shawn turned back to face the monitor. ‘That’s screwed up man, really screwed up, but I guess she’s more bi-sexual than lesbian if she’s into a guy.’

  ‘Maybe.’

  Shawn snickered, but then his brow furrowed. ‘Wait a minute... She was alone with you in your bedroom the other night.’

  Maggie froze for a moment. ‘She was on the computer.’

  ‘Yeah, but she was alone with you in your bedroom and then you didn’t want me to go into the room and your underwear was lying on the floor...’ He turned to her and horror appeared in his face. ‘You two were doing it, weren’t you?’

  ‘No!’ Maggie gasped, desperate to remove any suspicions he had. ‘We’re just good friends. It’s not like that. We don’t do that sort of stuff.’

  ‘You two were doing kinky shit.’

  ‘No! Look, just because she’s gay and I’m her friend doesn’t mean I’m gay too!’

  ‘Seems strange to me.’

  ‘What, that I should have a friend over in my room. Don’t you have guys in your room some time? Does that make you gay?’

  ‘Don’t be stupid!’

  ‘It doesn’t make me gay either. You should know I’m straight.’

  ‘How do I know? Sometimes you do act a little bit gay.’

  ‘I do not!’ Maggie stared, mortified.

  ‘I just took it as being girly, but now I’m not so sure. You kiss other girls all the time.’

  ‘Not in that way! Come on, Shawn, don’t be a prick. I’m telling you the truth. Vanessa is just my friend, that’s all.’

  Shawn snorted and stared at the monitor again. ‘Ok,’ he finally said. ‘But now you’ve got me worried.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Hanging out with her. She might try to trick you into doing stuff.’

  ‘She’s not like that. She knows I’m straight and she’s not into me like that. She’s just a...’

  ‘Yeah, yeah, a friend, I got it.’ A gleam appeared in his eyes. ‘So ah... does she fancy this Holly chick?’

  Maggie hated to even think about that, but Vanessa had made no secret of the fact she thought Holly was hot. ‘I don’t know... maybe.’

  ‘Cool.’

  ‘What?’ Maggie expected him to act disgusted because he had always put down gays before, whether they were female or male.

  ‘It’s kind of hot.’

  ‘You’re kidding, right? One moment you’re accusing me of being gay and talking like it’s all some disgusting perverted thing and then you’re saying it’s cool?’

  Shawn shrugged. ‘It’s different. You’re my girl. If you were even bi-sexual it would be an insult to me. It would make me look bad.’ He burst out laughing. ‘Hell, that Rex Cassidy must be one hell of a lousy lover if she needs this Holly chick to satisfy her as well.’

  ‘He’s not!’

  ‘What? How would you know?’

  ‘Because...’ She froze for a second, thinking about the odd time she and Rex had been together before Shawn and her had become an official couple. ‘Vanessa says so!’

  ‘Yeah, whatever.’ He continued to laugh. ‘But if he was anything special, she wouldn’t even look at other girls.’

  Maggie decided not to argue. She didn’t want to have to discuss the topic anymore. She just hoped like hell that he would never find out about things between her and Vanessa.