The Tribuo - 26. Part III, chapter 8

- VIII -

I stopped by the Bean Stalk around seven in the evening. It was pretty cold outside, so I ordered espresso instead of my usual iced coffee. Then I realized that the girl behind the counter wasn’t Liz.

“Hey, where is Liz?” I asked, and the girl looked up.

“Oh,” she said. “She took two weeks off. I am Michelle.”

“I am Eric,” I said, and this time there was raw curiosity in her eyes. “What?”

“Eric,” she repeated. “Are you the same guy that Liz told me about?”

“Depends on what she told you,” I said carefully.

“The half-and-half story,” she said, and I grinned.

“Oh, that… Yeah. She saved my boyfriend’s head. Literally.”

Michelle laughed.

“When she told me, I didn’t believe her at first,” she said, swiftly making my espresso. “I mean, who would be crazy enough to throw fire in someone’s hair, right?”

I was about to say something witty in my usual manner, when the bell above the front door rang softly, welcoming someone inside. I turned around and blinked when I saw Mary.

“Hey,” I said, feeling awfully uncomfortable.

“Hello, Eric,” she said icily and glanced at the barista. “Could I get an orange smoothie, please?”

“Yeah,” Michelle smiled at her. “It’ll be just a second, okay?”

“Okay,” Mary nodded.

Talk about uncomfortable silence. Suddenly, Mary looked at me and smiled. For some reason, I felt extremely uneasy.

“So,” she said. “How are you?”

“I am good,” I nodded, wishing for Michelle to hurry the hell up with my espresso. “Really good… You?”

“Peachy,” she smiled again. “Oh, hey! I talked to Scott today…”

“Oh yeah?” Ugh, I knew where this was going now. Well, I guess not telling her right away wasn’t a very bright idea.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “We had an interesting little talk… Turns out that you are the one I should thank for this whole thing… And I am serious,” she continued brightly. “I mean, it would be quite upsetting for me to find out that Cole really had a thing for guys after we got married, you know?”

Oh, Scott… Couldn’t keep that big mouth of yours shut, could you? I wondered if he did it on purpose or if he just blurted it out. Knowing my brother, neither would surprise me. Mary leaned on the counter.

“So tell me,” she said intimately. “How did it happen?”

“Umm… Would you like cream or sugar?” Michelle asked in a small voice.

“No, thanks,” I answered evenly and gave her ten bucks. “Keep the change. Mary, I gotta go.”

“Sure,” she shrugged indifferently. “Just answer one question, okay? I mean, curiosity is killing me. Almost literally.”

“What?” I asked tiredly.

“Well,” she smiled. “How did it happen? I mean, did you suck him off, or did he? Seriously, Eric…”

“I gotta go,” I said and walked away from her.

I went to my car, got in, and tried starting it, my hands shaking. The engine was dead. Well, son of a bitch… I glanced through the window of the Bean Stalk. Mary was standing by the counter, her shoulders straight and rigid. Michelle was fumbling with the smoothie machine. Ah, screw this. I’ll just walk to the bus stop. I can always get my car tomorrow. I climbed out, locked the door, and started walking. Five minutes later, it started raining. Ten minutes after that, it was pouring.

MARY

I couldn’t believe my eyes. There he was, getting his coffee, or whatever the hell it was that he was drinking. At first, I wanted to simply turn around and leave before he noticed me, but then I thought, you know what? Forget it. I am going to get my smoothie, and I am going to say hello to him. I was never the one to run and hide. So I walked up to the counter, said hello, and when he saw me, he looked trapped.

When I saw Scott earlier today, I was dumbfounded when he started saying something about how badly he felt for what his idiot of a brother did. I had a very strong desire to just say “Huh?” but I didn’t. I just nodded solemnly. Somehow, I knew that Scott’s ranting had something to do with what I called 'The Cole Situation.'

When the whole thing happened, I thought I was having an extremely vivid nightmare. I mean, it came out of nowhere. He just called me on the phone, said that he needed to talk to me, and that it couldn’t wait. At first, I thought it had something to do with me getting drunk a couple of nights prior to that. I felt awful about it. I have no idea why I made up that story about Eric coming on to me. I guess I was ashamed of acting like a drunken slut, and I guess I was infuriated about the fact that he pushed me away, since I was still somewhat drunk when I called Cole. So I made up the story, and Cole was furious.

When he said that he needed to talk to me, I figured that he found out what really happened that night, and was trying to figure out why I lied to him. So I went to the Bean Stalk, and he was already there, waiting for me. I started saying something about me being stupid, immature, and something else. Cole just looked at me with a really funny and strange expression in his eyes.

“Mar,” he said. “It’s okay. No need to explain… I know what happened. It doesn’t matter.”

“You know?” I was confused. “So you are not here because of that?”

“No,” he said, and then he wasn’t looking at me.

“Then what is it?”

As soon as he stopped looking at me, I knew that it was something bad, but I had no idea just how bad.

“Mar,” he said finally. “You have every single reason and right to hate me, but I can’t do this.”

“Do what?” I frowned. “Cole, you are scaring me…”

“Look,” he sighed. “I can’t lie to you, and I would never lie to you. And I can’t go through with it, knowing that it’s not…”

“Cole,” I interrupted him. “What are you talking about?”

He finally looked at me, and I blinked when I saw how dark his eyes got all of a sudden.

“Mar,” he said. “I can’t marry you.”

I just stared at him. At first, I thought that it was just some idiotic joke, and then I realized that he was dead-serious.

“I see,” I said calmly.

“Look,” he sighed. “I am sorry for doing this… I am sorry for doing this now… The thing is,” he shrugged. “I only realized everything last night.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked him politely. “What is it that you realized, Cole?”

“I am in love with someone,” he said dully. “And, believe me, I tried ending it, I tried to… But I couldn’t. And I can’t lie to you, so…”

“You are in love with someone,” I repeated. “I thought you loved me.”

“I thought so too,” he closed his eyes for a second. “But then… It just happened, Mar… I wasn’t looking for it, and God is my witness, I wasn’t asking for it… I tried to stop, I really did, but then I realized that if I am not with…” he stuttered. “With that person… I’ll die,” he finished simply, and suddenly I knew that he wasn’t lying.

I understood plain and clear that it wasn’t just some stupid one night stand; that he wasn’t talking about a fling or infatuation… I looked into his eyes and I knew that he was completely honest. He was madly in love, but not with me.

Then I just sat there, staring at my hands, while he was saying something. I still have no idea what it was, because all I could hear was the sound of my own heartbeat. The worst part (besides the fact that he was breaking up with me less than three weeks before the wedding because of some girl) was that he never knew that I loved him as much as he loved whoever the hell it was that he fell for.

So I sat there silently, while he kept talking, and then my apathy was replaced by such burning fury, that everything around me turned red. Without saying anything, I threw at his face the first thing that I grabbed. It turned out to be a saltshaker. I didn’t really aim for his eyes, but that’s where it hit him. Oh, and the lid wasn’t tight enough, so all that salt stung him pretty badly. Then I threw a jar of syrup at him. Yes, I know it was a stupid and childish thing to do, but I couldn’t help myself.

Then I think I tried stabbing him with a butter knife, I don’t remember. And right before I stormed out, I grabbed his lighter that he was playing with, lit a napkin, and threw it in his hair. I didn’t even care that it might seriously hurt him. I have no idea what happened next, because I flew that coffee shop as if Satan himself was chasing me.

So, when I was listening to Scott earlier today, I just kept nodding while he was talking. I suppose, he figured that I knew what he was ranting about. Then, after he said something like, “I can’t even look at my brother ever since they moved in together,” I thought I misunderstood him. So I said, “Moved in together?” hoping he’d elaborate. He did. I have no idea how I managed to keep myself from screaming something unintelligible. Cole left me for Eric?! He is madly in love with a guy?! Oh my God…

I told Scott that I had something important to do and left, afraid that I would lose it completely in front of him. I aimlessly drove around for several hours, calmed down a little bit, and decided to get an orange smoothie. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, who do I see in that coffee place? Eric.

I guess I was pretty rude and nasty when I started spitting poison at him, but once again, I couldn’t help it. I knew he wasn’t the only one to blame -- after all, Cole was the one who dumped me for a guy -- but God help me, I hated Eric right now so much that my hands were shaking.

He left without saying anything to me, and I leaned on the counter, trying to calm down. The barista girl kept slapping the smoothie machine with desperate anger. I guess it wasn’t cooperating.

“Am I going to get my drink tonight?” I snapped at her, and she looked at me with a very guilty expression.

“I’m sorry…” she muttered. “It’s not working… I don’t know why…”

I blinked at her almost scared face. Oh, God, way to go, Mary… Take it out on this kid. She is what? Sixteen or something? I closed my eyes for a second or two.

“I am sorry,” I said. “I am really sorry… I didn’t mean to yell at you, sorry…”

“It’s okay,” she smiled tentatively. “This machine is just weird… Give me just a minute…”

She climbed underneath the machine and unplugged it.

“Usually, if you unplug it for thirty seconds, it helps,” she said with an apologizing expression.

“I’ll wait,” I said, thinking that I was going to give her a hell of a tip regardless of the machine’s working state. “Don’t worry about it. I have plenty of time.”

Then, just as I was saying it, there was a huge clap of thunder outside, and the barista jumped up and hit her head on the counter.

“You okay?” I frowned.

“Yeah,” she winced and rubbed the top of her head. “Thunder scares me, that’s all.”

She plugged the machine back in and climbed out from underneath the counter. Then she pushed the lever, and the machine began to purr.

“It works,” the girl breathed with great relief.

She quickly got me my smoothie and almost dropped it, when another clap of thunder made the windows shake. Immediately after that, the rain came down so hard that for a second, it seemed like someone put blinds over all the windows.

“Oh my God…” the barista whispered.

I put a twenty on the counter.

“Keep the change,” I said.

“I am going to close this place,” she said without even looking at the money. “I will clean it tomorrow morning! I have to get to the bus stop!”

“Bus stop?” I frowned, and she looked at me.

“Yeah. I don’t have a car.”

“I can give you a ride,” I offered and she bit her lower lip.

“Are you sure?” she said finally.

“Yes,” I nodded. “It’s not a problem. I’ll wait for you.”

“You don’t have to…” she started saying when another clap of thunder made her jump. “It’ll take me less than ten minutes,” she said quickly, and all but ran into the back room.

She wasn’t lying. It took her maybe seven minutes at the most to unplug everything and turn off all the lights. I almost laughed when she would close her eyes every time there was yet another thunderclap.

“Let’s go,” she finally said and threw her apron under the counter. “Thank you so very much!”

“Not a problem,” I smiled at her.