Lackadaisical
Chapter Two: She Just Wanted a Little Something
Previously:
Stepping in front of the girl, Amy took her harsh words without flinching, knowing that she would have said the same. "You know that I'm fucking sorry, Alex. I was never after your boyfriend sober and that's all that counts. I don't even remember blowing him and I know that's not an excuse but maybe you should focus your hating on him who was totally aware of me not being you when I was doing it."
Alex tapped her foot impatiently but didn't move from her spot and continued looking at the floor.
"Or maybe you should hate on the other girl that willingly went down on your boyfriend more than once and earned the bracelets to show for it."
Alex looked up.
Two weeks later
"Please, help the community in any way that you can," Emma's voice rang out through the parking lot, attracting by-standers. Pointing to the decorated posters behind her, she urged, "Donate your blood this Saturday at four o'clock to help the children's hospital serve their patients better and more efficiently. Pick up a pamphlet today to see what you can do to be eligible—or just come by and support a friend that's donating!"
Smiling graciously at the family that approached the foldout table, Emma bumped her hip against Manny's. "Hey, can you get them? I'm out of pamphlets. I'll go and get the key chains from the van while I'm there."
"'Kay," Manny responded, widely grinning at her charges.
Opening the back doors, Emma reached into a sealed box, tearing the plastic wrapping, when she heard someone briefly stop behind her, casting a shadow. Carefully turning around, Emma was met with Jay's retreating back. Folding her arms over her chest nervously, she couldn't tear her eyes away from his regular attire of black clothing and the cocky swagger in his walk as he approached the cigarette shop.
"Think he's got a fake ID to go with those cigarettes?" Manny wondered sarcastically over Emma's shoulder, both girls still staring at Jay.
"He's eighteen," the blonde replied indifferently, moving to remove the key chains from the box. "Is Ellie still out there?"
"Yeah. I just ran out of the weight requirement pamphlets," informed Manny, glancing at Jay's form evident in the store's window. "He's bad news, Em."
Emma looked up at what Manny was observing and rolled her eyes, sticking her head back into the trunk. "No shit. Here are the pamphlets," she handed her two sets.
"You think he knows?"
Emma shrugged her shoulders, fishing out a handful of key chains. "About his psycho girlfriend and her gang? Probably."
"Ex-girlfriend," Manny corrected, and at that, Emma glanced once more in the direction of the cigarette shop.
"Whatever. I can handle myself with her and he sure as hell isn't going to defend me," Emma rolled her eyes at Manny dramatically. "My knight in shining armor. What a goddamn joke."
Slamming the trunk closed, the two girls returned to their posts.
"Any guys there that I could lecture you about? Because, honestly, my situation is getting too easy," Emma observed sarcastically, brushing her bangs from her eyes. Manny smiled, but shook her head emphatically.
"No time for guys—and don't you give me that shocked, dying expression. I've had enough mocking to last me a lifetime every time I say that to anyone," she pushed a clipboard with a sign-up sheet toward a middle-aged man with an AIDS Walk tee shirt. "I started work at the studio last week and the only guy I see is Bartholomew, the sixty-two year old copy monitor that started work there as a teenager to save up money for the Beatles concert."
Emma's eyes widened. "Are you getting creepy future-related nightmares, because I would be."
Manny sighed. "More than you will ever know. And then there's Craig—"
"Uh oh," Emma sing-songed, sticking a fallen corner of a poster back up. "You want to talk about bad news? Craig's the name of the game."
"I know. I really know," the brunette assured. "It's not like that. He's just always—around."
"And Ashley? I take it she's always around with him?"
Manny shrugged a shoulder. "I haven't seen her since I got the job. Maybe they kicked her out, seeing as her main purpose there was moral support and nothing else." Emma gave Manny a 'whatever you say' look but turned around at Ellie's voice.
"Ashley's in London with her dad this summer," the redhead informed, staring at Manny suspiciously. She looked as if she was daring the girl to say anything against her friend and even think to get away with it unharmed.
To her disappointment, Manny just nodded. "Oh." Emma followed suit.
- - - -
Walking home, Manny and Emma lugged the posters, signs, and shared the weight of the foldout table. Discussing Manny's advancement opportunities in order to rake in more cash, the two of them didn't notice when a red car paused at the stop sign at the nearby intersection.
The driver looked out the window at one of the girls in particular and was about to turn his eyes back to the road when something caught his eyes. He barely put the car into park before leaping.
"What the hell happened?" he shouted.
Emma and Manny promptly looked at Jay standing in front of them. Emma couldn't believe it as she rolled her eyes. "How is it that you're suddenly everywhere I am?"
"Some coincidence," Manny muttered, ready to tell off the tall, lean body in front of them.
"What the fuck is that on your face?" he asked again, reaching down with his hand toward Emma's eye. Before his fingers made contact, she recoiled, eyes burning holes though his.
"It's nothing; don't touch me."
"You should go," Manny suggested none too softly.
"Oh, it's nothing? You always have purple bruises the size of cantaloupes on your face? My mistake," Jay retorted, not even paying any mind to Manny. The brunette, on the other hand, stepped in front of her friend who, although hostile, seemed unable to tell him the brutal things she promised she would in the passing.
"Well, she has them when your girlfriend and her band of girly Nazis attack her after study hall," Manny informed him sassily. "Oh, that's not even the best part. The best part is it's because of you. Apparently, Alex is tired of being mad at Amy for helping you cheat on her so they've turned on Emma."
Jay's expression was one of slight confusion and helplessness.
"You should be so proud," she finished with disgust. Finally, the cap-clad head turned to Emma's friend and gave a predatorial once-over.
"I didn't force anyone to suck me off, did I, genius? Your friend here agreed," he stated simply. Off Manny's repulsed look, he added, "And who are you to talk? Weren't you the chick that got knocked up last year?"
Before Manny's hand could make contact with Jay's face, Emma caught it and willed her friend to calm down with her eyes.
"Shut up, Jay," she said lackadaisically. "I can deal with Alex. If she wants to fight, well—you should probably get a look at her face the next time you get the chance. Goodbye."
Pulling Manny's hand along with her, she glanced back to find Jay climbing into his car and angrily speeding down the street, leaving tire marks on the pavement.
"Ugh, can you believe that jerk? To have the nerve to say the things he did about you," the brunette spat. Emma, however, looked straight ahead, not meeting her friend's worked up eyes.
"I can… because they're true," she said quietly. "I don't expect him to walk on eggshells around me; that's not Jay."
"Oh, and you know Jay?" Manny raised her eyebrows before hooking her arm in Emma's. "Listen, Em, there's nothing to know about guys like that except that they're assholes that are ready to fuck anything that walks. They don't think—they don't want to think and they don't care when their deranged girlfriends go after you because they don't feel emotion. So don't let him make you feel guilty."
Prying her arm out of Manny's, the blonde picked up more of the table's weight. "But I am guilty. He didn't make me go with him into that van, Manny. I know you're trying to make me feel better but I did give him blowjobs, okay? And I got fucking gonorrhea and then I treated it. So if anyone is any more sure of the fact that I share the blame in this, it's me. I'm okay with that. I've accepted it or whatever," she rolled her eyes, realizing how Oprah she sounded at that moment. "But blaming him is just going to make me think about him more than I already do and that's not what I need right now."
Manny looked at her tired friend and she knew it wasn't from a day in the sun at the blood drive rally. "Okay."
"Okay? Because I can't handle anymore of this," Emma stopped, speaking quietly, tears welling up in her eyes. "This is so much worse than a breakup because he never loved me and it was never about love or caring." Crying, she stepped into Manny's arms, hooking her chin on her shoulder. "I miss being loved, Manny."
The brunette soothed her friend for a moment before asking, "Did you—you didn't, like, love him… did you?"
Letting out a few hoarse chuckles, Emma withdrew from her embrace and wiped her tears. "No, I didn't love him. I'm just being a selfish bitch because I want caring and loving and all that stupid stuff I refuse to watch in movies."
Smiling a small smile, Manny rested her head on her friend's shoulder and sighed. "We can be selfish bitches together because I want all that stupid stuff, too."
- - - -
"Want a ride?" Marco stuck his head out of the window. "I promise I'm a great driver."
Grinning, Manny approached the driver's door and leaned in to inspect the interior. "Sweet ride, Marco. Please don't tell me something illegal here, because last I remember, you didn't have any car."
Rolling his eyes at her good-naturedly, he patted the passenger's leather seat. "Safe to ride, Manuela. My dad let me take it out of the garage for like fourteen minutes, so take advantage of the offer while you can."
"Don't say I never took advantage of you, then," Manny laughed as she got in and loaded her under-arm luggage.
"What's all that stuff?"
"Oh, I was helping Em recruit people for the blood drive this Saturday," she replied, putting the posters in the back seat. "We haven't done something like that together in so long."
"Ah, blood drives," Marco started the engine. "Not my favorite charity functions in the world, but Lord knows we need them. So where is Emma?"
"Walked her home, and was just headed to my house," she replied, pointing at the street perpendicular to the one her house was on.
"Oh. How's work?" Marco asked, giving her a knowing grin. Determined to ignore the bait, Manny smiled at exaggeratedly at him.
"Actually, it's really very—okay," she gave up, laughing at herself.
"Really very okay? Well, that's good. I was worried it was really very terrible, but really very okay is a good sign," Marco teased.
"Shut up," Manny replied. "It's weird, okay? I keep running into Craig on my mail runs. Speaking of which, what the hell do you guys do in that studio that Craig is always off somewhere? Isn't he supposed to, like, sing?"
Marco laughed, twirling the wheel easily in his hands. "We're recording the instrumental solos right now, and his bass was the first one we got, so he's pretty much free to do whatever he wants. Unfortunately for some people."
Smacking him, Manny opened the door and retrieved her posters as Marco pulled up to her house.
"Thanks, Marco."
He grinned that big smile of his. "Don't worry about it."
"Hey, when you're done with your recording," Manny stuck her head in the window, "come down to the mail room and keep me company. Lord knows Bartholomew won't mind and… we haven't hung out in what seems like forever. I miss you."
"You just want to know about my latest guy, Santos," Marco narrowed his eyes at her. "Don't think you can fool me."
She gave him a pseudo-innocent look. "Did I ever deny wanting to, because I really don't think I did."
- - - -
"Emma."
Said girl turned toward the kitchen at the sound of her voice as she walked through the front door.
"Hold on, Dad, I just need to drop this stupid table off somewhere," she explained, leaning it against the living room wall, mentally noting to lug it downstairs later. "Okay. What's up?"
Archibald Simpson was seated at the kitchen with no food in front of him, hands folded in that space instead, looking extremely calm and foreshadowing a serious talk that Emma had no foreseen.
Raising an eyebrow, she took a seat across from him, almost worriedly. "What's wrong? Is it Mom—where is she?"
"Your mother's fine, Emma; she's at work. It's not about that," he explained, looking down in difficulty, then regaining the hard voice he thought suitable for such a talk. "When you… were treated after the outbreak at school, Emma, I thought we were out of the forest. You promised your mother and me that you were done running around with peculiar boys and sneaking out at night. You promised us, remember that?"
"Well, yeah," she answered cautiously, wondering if that was some kind of trick question. "Why? What are you insinuating?"
"I'm not insinuating anything. I'm just looking at the facts," Archie answered.
"Which are…"
"Not twenty minutes ago, a boy in a black baseball hat came to our door asking for you," he revealed slowly, never breaking eye contact with his daughter. "That boy, if I'm not mistaken, was the very same that was in the middle of the outbreak at school and the same boy that I saw you talking with in the library. Jason Hogart. Is that right?"
Sighing heavily, Emma shook her head emphatically. "I know you're concerned, Dad, but you have to believe me, I'm done with that—with him. I don't know why he came to our house, but I didn't invite him, and don't in any way think that I'm breaking my promise. I'm not hanging around with Jay anymore. Not at all."
"Emma, if you're lying to me—"
"I'm not. Look, I know I haven't given you much reason to believe me seeing as—well, what happened last month. But I'm not lying. I know that Jay is just trouble and I told him that. He's probably upset or mad or something."
Archie relaxed a bit, lips not as tight.
"Is he bothering you, then? Because you know if he is, all you have to do is tell me and I'll—"
"Dad, he's not. Just—please let me handle this. He'll never come to our door again, okay? I promised you that I was done with all of that and I am. I'm the same Emma you knew so long ago, okay? It's just me." Rising, she crossed the distance between her and her stepfather, enveloping him in an awkward sideways embrace. She felt him relax and pat her arm in forgiveness.
"I'm going to go and put the blood drive stuff away and then call Manny, okay?"
"Didn't you just spend the entire day with Manny?" Archie teased, tension gone from his voice. "Still you want to call her as soon as you get home?"
"Thanks for your input, Dad," Emma responded wryly, taking the posters down to her room.
As soon as the door slammed behind her, the smile was gone from her face, and she leaned back against the wooden slab. Taking a few steadying breaths, she couldn't help herself but slide down to the floor at the top of the stairs and felt her personal recovery being invaded.
When she was finally coming to terms with putting her rebellion behind her and reconciling with her parents once again, he just wouldn't leave her in peace. Did he really hate her that much that he couldn't respect that she wanted nothing to do with him? Did he really just want to constantly remind her of what an idiot she had been and what a disturbance his presence in her life had caused her?
Feeling around for the cordless telephone she snagged from the living room, Emma dialed a few key numbers from memory and pressed the phone to her ear, breathing heavily and nostrils flaring, grief replaced by anger.
"Jay Hogart, I'm going to kill you."