This was caught in the site glitch, apologies if you receive multiple alerts.
Technically this scene was off camera, as far as 'Our Kind' goes. But I thought it might be fun to eavesdrop :) It fits right at the end of chapter 14.
'Let's you an' me have a little chat...'
Dangerous words, in the mouth of a chick, when directed at pretty much any given guy. When said given guy is me, you got yourself a guarantee that I'm outta there... But this isn't any old chick. Not some broad tryin' to get serious, tryin' to convince me that 'she and me' oughta be 'we'. Nah, this is Tink.
Now, okay, we had our moment, out by the lake that time. But I called it right, then. She wasn't into me, not for real, that was all about Randle. Back when she was all about Randle. I ain't blind, she's cute an' all, but he's my buddy and, goddamn it, I feel like she is too. So, no more 'moments' for us. She wants to talk, I can dig that.
I think, when I just told her about no one knowing me at the club, about why it feels like a relief not to be 'Dally's buddy' all the time, I think she gets it. She gets that I can't only be the guy whose friends bought it. An' I sure as hell can't only be the gang clown, not all the time.
I mean, I love those guys. I grew up with those guys. I love Huey, Dewey and Louie, and Randle too – Jeez, look how cute she is when she smiles. He's a dick, that Randle – but sometimes, just sometimes, I can't be talking about Johnnycake and Dal. I can't.
Bad enough I wake up sometimes, thinking I'm there again, watching him hit the ground. Or thinking I smell that smell again, that hospital antiseptic and smoke, that burned smell. Bad enough.
I ain't sure if it makes me an asshole to want to be anonymous. I just know that sometimes, when things ain't good, you can pretend enough that they seem that way. And sometimes, seeming's gotta be enough.
I tell Evie I don't wanna go in the bar. Not with Sylvia right there. I always try real hard not to look in, if the door's open when I go past.
We never were down this way much. It suddenly strikes me that maybe Sylvia likes this part of town, for the same reason I do; maybe she ain't 'Dally's girl' here. That's all I got against her, really. Dally gave her as much of a runaround as she ever did him. That was their business, not mine. I got no problem with her. She reminds me of Dallas, is all.
Evie laughs a little when I try and explain. Tells me, Sylvia's well on her way to being 'Danny's girl', whoever the hell Danny is.
We hit up the diner at the other end of the block.
"Lay it on me, Tink, whose number do I got already?" I ask as we sit down. She gives me a look that lets me know she ain't standing for no bullshit. How can she be that tiny and that tough?
"You got that many girls on the go? Like them circus guys, with the plates spinning on sticks?"
See, that's why she was good for Randle. I bet she told him how it was. He was different in the summer. Or maybe it's just that Johnny and Dallas were the end of summer. Maybe we were all different before then.
"It's only fair," I tell her. "It would be cruel not to spread the love."
She folds her arms. My mom does that. I think every female I ever knew does that. It's probably an evolutionary thing, probably cave women did it to cave men when they were pissed about them staying out too late, down at the cave bar.
"Now what are you smiling about?" Evie looks suspicious.
"Cave men." Well, she asked.
"Quit acting like your brain fell out. I'm tellin' you something important."
"I'm listening!"
"Kathy. I'm talking about Kathy."
I know she is. I also suspect she ain't taking no for an answer.
"You're kind of stringing her along, an' I don't think she deserves it."
Whoa. I'm stringing her along? Last time I called Kathy, she was washing her hair. That's code for 'take a hike, bud', every fool knows that. How long does to take a chick to wash her hair anyways? Seems like they must do something really complex, for all the times they use it to cancel out a whole evening. I tell Evie how it was.
"Oh, for Pete's sake, Two-Bit, she was mad at you, is all. You can't just call her on the off chance, to go out that same night."
"Why not?"
Evie goes to say something and then she stops, gets a thoughtful look on her that makes me nervous.
"Two-Bit, have you ever had a girlfriend?"
"Yes, thank you, and twice on Sundays. Whaddya mean 'have I ever had a girlfriend'? You met plenty of 'em..."
"Nah, I met girls you picked up, girls you took out and never called again, girls you banged once and –"
"Okay. Okay, I get the picture." She's making me...not embarrassed, I don't do embarrassed, I'll settle for 'uncomfortable'.
"I mean, did you never have a serious girlfriend? Someone steady?"
"What can I tell you? So many chicks, so little-"
"You say 'time' an' you're getting this in the kisser." She's threatening me with her Coke. I paid for that! Well, I didn't yet, but the principle's the same.
"Two-Bit, Kathy ain't one of those one-time chicks. She really digs you, an' if you just call, like you got let down an' she's second choice that night, it don't seem like you value her."
Oh, she's serious now, this buddy of mine, Miss Evie, Tink the Invincible, she ain't letting this go easy. Wait, like I don't value Kathy? That's fucked up, right there, because I think Kathy's real special...
"I know you like her. I seen you with her. I know you like her."
"I ain't keeping it a secret."
"You kind of are."
Am I?
"See, if you an' she were on a more...permanent basis, you wouldn't need to make last minute calls. And, after all, what would you be giving up?"
"Huh?" What is she getting at now?
"How many other hook ups you had this week? Last week? The week befo-"
"Tink, I ain't arguing with you. I been busy." I interrupt before she gets the whole last few months listed.
"Playin' pool?"
"Snooker." There is a difference.
Evie makes a very unladylike snorting noise, but I am too much the gentleman to point it out.
"You don't want to see no other girls, you dig her, what's holding you back?"
"Her guard dogs? I gotta be like the dude in that Disney movie, only fighting through River Kings instead of thorns an' shit?"
She shakes her head. "Not buying it. Her brother likes you. It's win-win, far as I can see."
Is it though? Like, for real? It's a freaky thing to admit. I don't know. I don't know if Kathy digs me as much as I dig her. I'm used to having fun. Getting kicks. Girls who are happy enough with a one nighter – okay, maybe not happy, but not unhappy neither. What if she don't dig me, what if she laughs at me for how much I dig her? What if she don't dig me at all?
"Two-Bit? Would you like to know what chicks really want? More than anything?"
Oh, hey now, this may be worth paying attention...
Evie leans in close and I do the same.
"Communication." She sits back again, grinning. That's usually my job. Instead I'm stuck, staring like my eyeballs froze in place. She nods, like that was some deep, feminine secret. "Communication. Tell her what the hell you're thinking. She. Likes. You."
I'm hearing her. Glory halleluia, I'm hearing her. But I think I should make sure.
"So, I should ask her out, for like, next week instead of tonight?"
"And the week after, an' the frigging week after that! Let her know you like her more than any other chick and you're investing time in her."
I wink. "I think maybe we should go out all together. Then you can keep feeding me my lines."
"You wanna double with me an' Buzz?"
Nah, I wanna double with you an' Steve, is what shoots through my brain, but miraculously NOT out my mouth. Because she don't want to hear that, I know.
Evie laughs. "Get real. You don't need no lines. You may need lines less than anybody else in the whole world. You just needed direction."