The Tribuo - 9. part II, chapter 2

- II -

I was reading Wolves of Calla for the third time, when my phone rang.

“Yeah,” I muttered into it without taking my eyes off the page.

“I am coming over,” DeeDee announced. “If I stay in my house any longer, I will kill someone.”

I sighed and shut the book.

“What did you do now?” I asked, and DeeDee snorted.

“Me?! I didn’t do anything!”

“Fine,” I said. “Tell me all about it when you get here.”

“Andrew!!”

That was my mother.

“Hold on,” I said into the phone and covered the mouthpiece with my hand. “What?!”

I could yell almost as loud as her. Runs in the family.

“I need more juice!! Run to the store, will you?!”

“Okay!!”

I put the phone against my ear again.

“I gotta run to the store,” I said. “So if I am not here when you come, just hang out with my mother. I’ll be back in, like, half an hour or so.”

“Word,” she said and hung up.

I grabbed my car keys and went downstairs. I knew that my mother was going to give me a list when I got there. In her book, 'Juice' meant, 'Go get groceries.' She hated going grocery shopping and so did I, but she would almost always get me to do it, and I would just shrug and go. It didn’t happen too often, and I could live with that.

“Here,” she said and handed me the list. “Get some groceries too, will you?”

She handed me a hundred dollar bill.

“Keep the change.”

I glanced at the list. Hmm, it’s not bad. The change would be somewhere around forty bucks. I could handle getting groceries if she tipped me nicely, which was usually the case.

“DeeDee is coming over,” I said and grabbed my jacket.

“What did she do now?” my mother asked absent-mindedly. She knew DeeDee almost as well as I did.

“No clue,” I shrugged and rummaged through my pockets, trying to find my lighter. “The usual, I guess.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “I’ll entertain her until you come back.”

“Sweet,” I said and walked outside.

****

I memorized the list by the time I got to the store. I always had good memory, so I only had to look at it twice or so. I grabbed the cart, and was shoving packages in it, when I almost ran someone over.

“Crap,” I said and moved my cart back. “Sorry about that.”

I expected the person to say the usual 'Not a problem' when I heard:

“Shoot! I spilled my tea!”

I looked up and blinked. Sigh, it was Ellie. Of course, who else would I run over with a cart, but her?

“Hey,” I said uncomfortably and she looked at me.

“Oh, hey!” she smiled.

“Err,” I muttered. “Sorry about your tea…”

She shrugged.

“Yeah… I still have some left.”

“I can get you another one,” I offered, hoping that she’d say yes.

She laughed.

“It’s all right. I need to get home soon; maybe next time?”

I was pretty sure that I looked like someone with mental deficiency right then. Did she just say 'next time'?

“Err…” I said. “Err… Yeah, sure!”

She looked at me thoughtfully.

“Are you Goth or something? Or Emo, or whatever?”

Huh?

“No,” I said slowly, not understanding why she would ask that, but then it hit me. “Oh, no… I just like black, that’s all.”

“Huh,” she said. “And your parents don’t freak out at your hair color?”

“My mother doesn’t care about my hair color,” I grinned. “Plus, it’s just black, and not orange or green or something…”

“True,” she nodded. “What’s the difference between Goth and Emo anyway?”

I shrugged.

“No clue. I can look it up.”

Ellie laughed again.

“That’s okay. Well, I need to finish this,” she nodded at her cart. “And I need to get home. I gotta do some reading for tomorrow’s test.”

“Test, right… Ummm…” Suddenly, I felt daring. “Hey, do you want me to get that tea for you after the test tomorrow?”

“No, thanks. You look beyond weird, and I am pretty sure I don’t want to be seen in public with you,” I thought immediately, and just stared at her when she said:

“Sounds good. See you tomorrow.”

“Uh huh,” I said and she grinned at me.

“Bye, Andrew,” and she walked away.

“Bye, Ellie,” I called and moved my cart without looking where the hell I was going.

I immediately ran over some woman. Dammit!

“Sorry,” I sighed, and this time I got my 'Not a problem' answer.

****

I was driving home when I realized that I would have to tell DeeDee about the whole Ellie thing. Especially, if I was going to get that tea for her tomorrow. Well, I shrugged, DeeDee would just have to deal, because there was no way in hell I'd be leaving school tomorrow with anyone but Ellie.

I saw DeeDee’s red Bug parked next to the curb and sighed. Here we go. I went inside the house and immediately heard DeeDee’s laughter. For some bizarre reason, I thought she sounded like she was on the verge of hysteria. That wasn’t possible. DeeDee was the most positive, cheerful, and optimistic person I've known. She could be serious, don’t get me wrong. We could talk about my crushes, her infatuations, break-ups, and whatnot. She was an awesome listener, and sometimes her advice sounded better than Dr. Phil’s. She was my best friend on the face of the planet, and I knew that I was the same for her.

“Hey,” I said when I walked into the living room. “I got the groceries, but I am not putting them away!” I looked at my mother. “I think it sounds like a fair trade.”

“Fine,” she sighed and got off the couch. “DeeDee, wanna help me?”

“Sure,” DeeDee shrugged and I knew that she meant it. Believe it or not, she really didn’t mind.

I sighed and followed both of them into the kitchen.

“So what did you do today, D?” I leaned on the door of the kitchen and shoved my hands into my pockets. “Ate the last cookie or something?”

“No,” she snorted. “By the way, I still don’t understand what the big deal about the last cookie is… I mean if it’s there, that means nobody wants it, right? Otherwise, they would eat it by now… And if nobody wants it, then why the hell should I feel guilty about eating it?”

“I am with you on that,” I nodded.

“Yeah…” she handed packages to my mother who was shoving them into the fridge without any particular order. “No, it’s not the cookie…”

I blinked when her face actually looked almost grave. It was bizarre to see her so upset.

“It’s Caleb,” DeeDee said finally. “He is such a dick lately that it’s not even funny.”

“See,” I looked at my mother. “This is why I am thankful to you that I am the only child!”

“Right,” my mother hemmed.

“What did he do?” I gave up and pulled some stuff out of the bags.

DeeDee sighed.

“Remember how I told you that he was a total prick when he's drunk? Yeah, well…” she handed my mother a carton of milk. “So he didn’t come home until this morning, he was in a really bad mood, have no idea why… Then later, when I was talking to you on the phone, he got pissed off that I wouldn’t get off the line… So it turned into another screaming match, and my dad was on his side, as usual… My mom didn’t even care! Like she is deaf or something! Ugh!!”

I sighed. I knew that DeeDee’s father firmly believed that his son -- who was twenty-three, unemployed, and not in any kind of school -- was practically a saint simply because he was his firstborn child, and also a guy. He also believed that since DeeDee was a girl, she should just shut up and do whatever the hell her brother thought was right. In Caleb’s book, 'right' meant, 'whatever makes me pleased.' He wasn’t a bad guy, but he could be a huge pain in the ass.

I remember how he was trying to look all tough and intimidating one day, when he came to my house to make DeeDee come back home after their yet another fight. She flipped him off and told him to get lost. So he looked at me, his dark eyes beyond pissed off, and told me to get his sister back home 'Right now!!' I just laughed and said that she had her own brain whether he believed that or not, and that she was perfectly capable of driving herself back home when she felt like it.

So he was doing that whole 'What did you say?!' thing with clenched fists, puffed up chest, and whatnot. I just stood there without moving, and kept staring into his eyes. You know how you can intimidate a dog by doing that? Yeah, that what happened to Caleb. He huffed, and he puffed, but he never got anywhere further than that. I didn’t really care even if he tried something. I can hold my own.

Ever since then, Caleb and I would actually get along okay. I knew that he was still bugging DeeDee with his mood swings, stupid remarks, and plain malicious acts that he was pulling out of boredom; but whenever I was around, he was somewhat tolerable.

“It’ll get better,” I said after we were done with the groceries.

“When I move out, maybe,” she said, and this time, she sounded like her usual cheerful self. “It’s okay. I am somewhat used to it by now. It’s just he pissed me off tonight, and I couldn’t stand looking at his stupid face anymore!”

I realized that now wasn’t the best time to tell her about Ellie, but I didn’t really have a choice. My mother was in the living room watching TV, and I started making coffee.

“Hey,” DeeDee said. “Let’s go raid Starbucks tomorrow after the test!”

Oy… I sighed and looked at her.

“DeeDee,” I said, and she squinted her eyes at me with a great deal of suspicion.

“Frey,” she said dangerously. “If you gonna start that whole test thing again…”

“No,” I grimaced. “I don’t care. You can cheat off me all you want, it’s not that.”

“Huh…” now she sounded even more suspicious. “What’s up, Andrew? You are acting all weird. Spill!”

“Ugh… DeeDee, I can’t raid Starbucks tomorrow.”

She blinked.

“Are you broke again? I’ll buy your drink, don’t worry about that.”

She is not making it easy, is she… I took a deep breath and looked into her eyes.

“DeeDee… I am taking Ellie out tomorrow after the test.”

Well, 'taking out' is not really the correct description, but it’ll do. DeeDee blinked at me as if I just said something in Chinese.

“Who?” Her confusion was almost funny.

“Ellie,” I said quietly. “Ellie Sheldon.”

“Miss Righteous?!” she asked incredulously, and I nodded. “Jesus, why?! You killed her dog or something?”

“No,” I said patiently. “DeeDee… Okay, I know that I should’ve told you earlier, and if you throw something at my head, that’s quite all right…”

“What are you blabbering about?” she demanded, her arms propped on her sides.

I sighed.

“DeeDee, I kinda have a…” I coughed. “...a thing for Ellie…”

She stared at me as if I just confessed to her that I worked as a stripper on my nights off school. She shook her head.

“Hold on,” she said slowly. “Hold it, Frey… You have a thing for Miss Righteous?!”

“Yeah,” I said miserably, thinking that she was going to storm out of here right after she killed me with something.

“Jesus…” she muttered. “For how long?!”

“Since the school started,” I sighed.

“It’s the middle of October,” her brown eyes grew huge behind thin-wired frames of her glasses. “Andrew, are you trying to tell me that you had a… a thing… for her for almost two months?!”

“Uh huh,” I nodded guiltily.

“Good God, Frey! I don’t believe this!”

Yup, here it comes. “What happened to 'We hate her'? What happened to our club that we had since fifth freaking grade?! How can you have a thing for someone like her? She is…”

“I can’t believe you never told me,” she said, and I almost dropped coffee mugs that I pulled out of the cabinet.

I carefully set the mugs on the kitchen counter and looked at her. She looked gloomy and almost hurt.

“Andrew, I always tell you stuff, always!”

“Err…” I mumbled. “Hold on… You are not shocked or anything?”

“Oh, I am shocked, believe me! I am shocked that you had a crush on her for almost two months, and you never told me!”

“I was afraid that you’d poison me or something,” I said, and she looked at me like I was out of my mind.

“Jesus, Frey… And I thought I knew you!” DeeDee shook her head in frustration. “Why on earth would I poison you?”

“Well,” I filled the mugs with coffee. “Because of the whole 'We hate Ellie' thing…”

She rolled her eyes and took a mug out of my hands.

“Lordy… Andrew, it was when? In fifth grade?! Yeah, I mean, I don’t care about her much, but…” She shrugged. “I can see why you have a crush on her. She is pretty.”

I stared at her with amusement.

“Lawrence,” I said. “You are something…”

“It’s called a friend,” she said poisonously. “Come on, let’s go outside. I need a smoke.”

So did I. I couldn’t believe that DeeDee didn’t throw anything at me, and that the only thing that upset her was the fact that I never confessed to her about my crush. Good God, and I thought people couldn't surprise me anymore!