The Tribuo - 55. Part V, chapter 9

- IX -

Jess was home when we came back from Starbucks. She saw me, and her eyes immediately became almost perfectly round.

“Oh my God,” she muttered and pressed her hand against her mouth. “Lex, I am so sorry! I completely forgot! Oh, crap!” She closed her eyes for a second. “I am so-so-so sorry!”

“I called you, like, five hundred times,” I said with laughter. “Where have you been?”

“My phone was off,” she said guiltily.

“Uh huh,” I nodded. “But where have you been? And what have you been doing?”

Her face turned pink, and I laughed even harder.

“You’ve been with Landley,” I managed finally. “And that’s what… Errr… Who you’ve been doing!”

“Oh, shut up,” she muttered and glanced at Russell who didn’t even pretend that he wasn’t listening. “Come on, let’s go for a drive. I’ll buy you coffee, I feel guilty.”

“Okay,” I finally stopped laughing.

“I’ll just wash my face real quick, okay?”

“Go,” I waved my hand.

She almost ran into the bathroom and I turned towards Russell.

“I guess I’ll see you later,” I said.

“Uh huh,” he nodded, his eyes tense again.

And then there was that uncomfortable silence that I hate so much. Great, I thought bitterly. Now it’s hitting him. Ugh, I knew it!

“Ummm,” I said finally. “I’ll see you in school on Monday. I gotta do some serious apartment cleaning today and probably tomorrow, so…”

He took a deep breath, and now he looked like someone who was going through a huge inner struggle.

“Need help?” he asked finally.

“Nah,” I squeezed out a smile. I knew he was asking just to be polite. “My apartment will be worse than a war zone. It’s dangerous for someone who never witnessed anything like that before.”

“Danger is my middle name,” he said solemnly, and I chuckled weakly at that.

“No, really… It’s okay,” I wished for Jess to hurry the hell up already, but water in the bathroom kept running.

He looked at me intensely and I looked away. Come on, I thought. No need for this. Now you are probably kicking yourself for the whole thing.

“I don’t want to wait until Monday,” he said quietly, and I blinked and looked at him. He gave me a small smile and shrugged. “I wanna see you before that.”

“Why?” I asked before I could think. But I was really wondering why. Because I look like whoever the hell I look like? I didn’t ask that, but I suppose, he could see it written clearly on my face.

“I don’t know,” he muttered. “If you don’t want to…”

“I didn’t say that,” I sighed and briefly closed my eyes. Oh Jesus, what am I doing…

I felt a very light touch on my face and my eyes flew open. He was standing right next to me. Huh, I didn’t even hear him move.

“Listen,” he muttered. “I don’t know what the hell I am doing…”

Yeah, that makes two of us, I thought bitterly.

“...but I do know that I wanna see you again. Not just because…”

Water in the bathroom stopped running.

“I’ll drop Jess off after we done,” I said. “I’ll come in.”

“Okay,” he muttered.

He brushed his mouth across mine, and I closed my eyes when his tongue traced my lips ever so slightly. I heard the bathroom door open and took a step back. I had no desire to talk to Jess about this whole thing right now.

“Ready?” she asked brightly.

“Yeah,” I turned towards her. “Let’s go.”

“My car?”

“Let’s take mine. I feel like driving.”

“Cool.”

*****

We were sitting in the park, and I was drinking my coffee in silence.

“Okay,” Jess said finally. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing,” I shrugged. “Why?”

“Because you’ve been acting weird ever since we left the apartment,” she said, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when she pulled a skinny pack of cigarettes out of her pocket.

“Since when are you smoking?!” I asked incredulously, and she made an annoyed sound.

“Don’t start,” she said warningly.

“Uh huh… You gave me shit for smoking ever since we’ve met… What are you doing?”

“These are really light,” she grimaced.

I just shook my head. She looked at me above her sunglasses.

“So how long did you stay last night?” she asked, and I choked on my coffee. “You okay?” she laughed and slapped my back.

“Fine,” I said finally. “Not too long,” I said quickly. “Don’t worry about it…”

“Good,” she nodded. “Listen, I am sorry for this whole…”

Suddenly, she stopped talking and frowned. Now she looked very thoughtful.

“What?” I asked.

“Hold on,” she said slowly. “What were you doing there in the morning?”

Ah yes, here we go.

“At your place, you mean?” I asked nonchalantly.

“Uh huh,” she said as slowly as before. “My place.”

I shrugged.

“Came over to see if you showed up…” Oh man, that was a lame excuse.

“Why was Russell with you?” she looked more and more suspicious by the second.

“We went to get coffee,” I shrugged. “They have weekend special. Buy one drink, get one free.”

“Yeah,” she pulled off her sunglasses. “I know. If you come before eleven in the morning… Lex, when was the last time you got out of bed on your own before noon on a Saturday?”

“I woke up early,” I shrugged. “Big deal!”

“Oh my God,” she said even slower, her eyes huge by now. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”

I almost glued myself to that coffee cup. Jess just stared at me.

“You did, didn’t you?” she repeated finally.

“Jess…” I said finally, and she bit her lip. “It doesn’t matter, okay?”

“Like hell it doesn’t,” she said a bit louder. “Lex… Oh my God… You’ve known him for what? Five days?!”

“You are the one to talk,” I snorted, and she grimaced.

“It’s not the same,” she said sharply. “I’ve known Landley for at least two years!”

“Yeah,” I nodded, feeling strangely angry. “You’ve known his name and his face. You never even said hello to him until Wednesday night! How’s that different?”

She winced.

“Well, fine,” she muttered. “I see your point… But Lex… Landley doesn’t see someone else in me!”

Those words hit me harder than a punch in the gut. I tried to keep my facial expression indifferent.

“We don’t even know if I really look like…”

“You do,” she interrupted me. “You look like that guy’s freaking twin!”

I stared at her and she shrugged.

“I saw his picture,” she said calmly.

“He showed you his picture?” I asked in disbelief.

“No,” she snorted. “I snooped.”

“You snooped,” I repeated.

“I was curious,” she nodded. “It was eating me alive. So yes, I went through his private stuff until I found the damn picture!” Now she looked almost pissed off. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about yesterday, but I forgot, I am sorry! But Lex, please believe me when I say it…” She angrily puffed on her cigarette. “You look just like that guy! I don’t know what happened between them, I don’t know who that guy is, and I have no idea where he lives, but you look…”

“I got it,” I interrupted her. “I got it, okay? I look just like him. When he was fucking me, he was really fucking him, is that it?”

She blinked and dropped her cigarette on the ground, her eyes instantly losing all that anger. I noticed that my hands were shaking.

“I didn’t say that,” she muttered. “Lex, I am sorry… I didn’t mean that!”

“Why not?” I smirked and finally finished my coffee. “That’s what I’ve been thinking this entire freaking morning! It makes sense. I mean, they probably broke up, and it was probably beyond messy. That would explain why he transferred here in the middle of the goddamn semester… And then he sees me and…” I laughed. “The rest is history!”

“Lex,” Jess muttered. “Oh, God… Listen, I didn’t mean that, okay?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled at her briefly. “I’ll survive. I’m gonna talk to him after I drop you off. It’ll be fine. Just a drunken hook-up, that’s all.”

“Drunken?” she frowned.

“Oh, yeah,” I coughed. “You are out of rum, by the way.”

“What?” Her voice flew up almost an octave. “I had a full bottle! Well, almost full…”

“You are out of rum,” I said again. “I’ll buy you another bottle, relax.”

“Jesus,” she shook her head. “So how was it?”

“Rum?”

“Ha-ha,” she said seriously. “I know that rum was good, I tried it. No, how was Russell? Any good?”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“How was Landley?” I asked poisonously, but to my greatest surprise, she didn’t even flinch.

“He was all right,” she said lightly. “Not bad, actually… Man, he can last forever,” she sighed. “Your turn. Was he any good?” and she smiled sweetly. Damn her.

“He was,” I muttered finally and looked away. “Great, actually,” I finished in a smaller voice.

“Slut,” she said very seriously and I looked at her.

“Whore,” I said without missing a beat.

She laughed, but I didn’t feel like laughing. I squeezed out a smile and looked away again. I am not going to talk to him, I thought. I’ll drop Jess off and go home. I was dumb, I made a stupid mistake, I am going to pay for it, it’s my own fault. But I am not going to talk to him. That’ll make the whole thing even worse.

“Come on,” I said finally. “Let’s go. I gotta go home.”

“But you said…”

“I gotta go home,” I repeated quietly and she stopped talking.