The snow melted two weeks later and Chris's frosty feelings seemed to go with it. The only upset at school was still Teddy. He was being more obnoxious than usual, shouting at random people during lunch. It was more than embarrassing. Chris, Vern, and I would simply duck our heads and try and look as innocent as possible. He'd been in detention all of last week for using profanity in his writing class, Teddy's pot was certainly boiling over.
He'd tear out of the cafeteria like a bat out of hell, leaving the rest of us speechless. All we could do was stare at the door still swinging back and forth with curious eyes. Chris finally broke the silence, "Vern you're with him more than anyone else. What the hell is going on?" Vern avoided the question by mopping up some of Teddy's spilled milk with a napkin.
"Seriously, you have to know what his deal is." I insisted. Teddy and Vern were like Chris and I in a way. Just more opposite, Teddy was loud and brave and Vern stuttered like a spineless jellyfish. Despite their traits they got along perfect, or at least they had.
"I don't know. He doesn't really even talk to me anymore." His tone was defeated. Vern's eyes never left the table.
"Is it 'bout all those hickeys? Is he jealous? Wasn't that your theory, Gordie?" Chris's sly smile couldn't relax Vern; he sighed and gripped his tray.
"I s'pose." He frowned, "Nothing I can do but let him go off and do what he wants." He picked lint off his shirt and got up.
"But man, he's making himself look insane, Vern. Nobody wants him around; he's like this time bomb." I knew as well as he did but he just wouldn't admit it.
"I can't control him! I can't fix him! I don't know what's wrong!" He yelled. The tables around us fell silent and eyes turned to him in shock. Vern had gone quite a ways from being the chubby timid kid.
"Calm down." Chris told him, "Jesus, take a breath. This ain't an interrogation." He patted the bench next to him and Vern settled back down.
"Is he jealous? Is he sweet on the girl you've been buddy-buddy with?" Somehow in the weeks between the snow fall and now it had become our business to find out why he was being so…crazy.
"No. He's not sweet on her." Vern answered without much emotion.
"You sure?" Chris prodded.
"Yes, I'm sure." He was growing impatient with us, his tone was changing.
"Positive?" If the look in his eyes had the power to kill I'd be dead.
"Yes!" He huffed, jumping to his feet, tray in hand. "You have to ask him what his problem is. I'm not him." And with that he marched out the door. Chris and I sat there looking at each other bewildered.
Walking out of our final class, "Something is going on with them." Chris said.
"Obviously." My tone was dry. I was in my head trying to figure it out but nothing was adding up. "We need to talk to them separately. "
"We just tried that with Vern." He reminded with a slight eye roll.
"I meant privately, not at school one on one. Not…us cornering Vern." I suggested.
"So who gets who?"
"Well you're used to dealing with the ramblings of a screaming drunk, Teddy can't be worse." I tried to smile.
"Come on Gordie, that's low." He frowned.
"Chris, please. " I begged, sticking my bottom lip out and clasping my hands together. He sighed.
"Fine, but you owe me." He walked off trying to find Teddy in the crowd of students leaving. All I had to do was find Vern.
I hadn't caught up to him until he was most of the way home, "Vern!" I hollered running to catch up. He turned, pausing briefly to wait on me.
"What?" He asked, still in defensive mode. Vern always caught a lot of crap, not only at school but from his brother and all his hoodlum friends. I knew it really used to irritate him. Since we really hadn't hung out since we were kids I didn't know how he dealt with it now but the look on his face wasn't very friendly.
"Jeeze, calm down. I just wanted to apologize for lunch." I said backing away from him, my hands raised slightly. We were quiet for a while walking towards his house, the porch was beginning to sag with age.
"It's fine." He finally said stopping all he had to do was cross the street and he'd be home. "I just hate that people blame me for him being so…out there. Did everyone forget his dad's a really nut job? It's not my fault."
"Did his dad get out?" Teddy's dad had been in and out of the mental hospital since we were kids; he had screws loose and nearly burnt Teddy's ear off.
"Nah, he hasn't been out since we were freshmen." He shook his head and leaned against his neighbor's wooden fence. I sighed, Vern did had a point but that wasn't what was going on, if he hadn't seen his dad since then it wasn't some near death incident making him bonkers like a Saturday morning cartoon.
"I just can't figure out what his damage is." I said, frustrated.
"Maybe he's sick of getting turned away by recruiters." Vern muttered. Teddy had heard it all every time he tried to sign up for the service; he was blinder than a bat and couldn't hear as sharply as everyone else. Chris and I had heard about it in the halls, you could hear Teddy cursing up a storm the whole next day. Most of the time after a day or two he'd shrug it off and move on, it couldn't be that either. I leaned up against the fence with Vern looking at his house.
"Remember when you buried those pennies?" I asked. Thinking about that seemed like ancient history, when I glanced over at him, I practically could see twelve year old Vern smirking back at me with chubby cheeks. I miss that, that feeling of when we were twelve. Even if at the time things weren't simple, that seemed like it now, between everything between me and Chris, to Teddy freaking out and graduation crawling towards us.
"I never did find those god forsaken things!" He let his head bump lightly off the fence. "I guess if they ever tear down our house someone will find them." Vern frowned slightly and then laughed. I joined him and soon we were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe and it really wasn't that funny in the first place. "Gordie, can you keep a secret?" He asked me suddenly. I nodded.
"Of course, man."
"I'm serious, you can't tell anyone. Not Chris, not anyone, especially not Teddy." His voice was low I had to lean over to hear him.
"I promise I won't tell anyone." I hadn't heard a secret in a long time, despite my own. Nostalgia was roaming all over my brain and I had a weird feeling in my chest.
"I swear to god Gordie, you can't say shit. Okay? This is serious. If you say anything I…I'm fucked." His voice was thinner than air.
"Shit Vern I promise." I nodded. He looked around even peeking over the fence. His street wasn't busy at all, but he dragged me over to his house and led me to the back yard. Vern's wide eyes scanning for any other person and then cupped his hand together around my ear. I felt like I was in elementary school again. "It hasn't been a girl leaving my hickeys." Traveled so quietly in my ear I almost didn't catch it, I looked at him. "I-I-I." He frowned and looked at his shoes. "Please don't hate me Gordie, I miss hanging around with you and Chris. I thought you might understand. You're…better than here, you understand things more than everyone here."
Vern was so concerned with me hating him, I just couldn't get over the fact that Chris and I weren't really…alone. Not that I would ever tell Vern. It's not that I didn't trust him; I just couldn't share it with anyone but Chris. It was him and I and no one else with our problem. We'd struggled so much I couldn't speak about it. "I don't hate you. Not at all. I mean I'm pretty weird myself, man. Do what makes you happy." I sounded cheesy, but that's what I wanted to hear from someone about my predicament.
He looked relieved. "It just stunk to keep it in. I just had to tell someone." I patted his shoulder.
"I won't tell a soul." Not matter how badly I wanted to tell Chris I couldn't. I promised, even if it made me feel better. Somehow I don't know what would happen if I repeated Vern's secret out loud. I didn't want to be responsible for something that wasn't mine and I couldn't control.
Later on my walk home I mulled everything over, again and again in my mind. When I reached my steps Chris was sitting on them. "How'd it go with Vern?"
"Good." I pushed all my other thoughts away, "Nothing revealing about Teddy. He's tired of everyone looking to Vern to know why he's so…odd." I shrugged sitting next to him, "How was Teddy?"
Chris laughed, "Well after a half an hour of him bitching about the Army and school and how stupid everything was, I brought up Vern's hickeys and he didn't want to talk anymore. He said Vern wouldn't tell him who's the skirt leaving them." All I could think about was it wasn't a skirt, never a skirt and all the thoughts I'd pushed down slammed into the front of my brain, bursting to get out. I swallowed.
"Maybe that's the problem, Vern won't tell him who." I suggested.
"Nah, he's not one to get upset over something so…I don't know, private?" Chris looked at me as I rubbed my forehead.
"We'll never know, guess we'll just have to deal with it." I stood up, Chris did the same.
"See ya tomorrow." He said going down a step but stopping to take hold of my arm, "Gordie, don't stress about it, you've already got plenty going on in your head." He gave me his typical Chris smile and headed home.
I couldn't help but think. While I was avoiding my homework, it clicked so fast I almost fell out of my chair. Vern and Teddy were running through the same emotions as Chris and I. Only more publicly, they were going through the same messed up dance, the thing was they were already ripping apart their friendship alarmingly fast and I didn't know how to fix me and Chris let alone them.
A/N: So I'm not sure how well you guys will like this little loop in the story. Maybe it's a mistake, maybe foreshadowing, maybe a warning, you'll never know. But I plan on being a good person and to stop going forever long without an update. I recently read all my reviews and like I've said you guys have been nothing but supportive and kind and I hope you continue to be. I hope you like it. (: