Part 3 Girl's Night Out
"Girlfriend, I think old Shego's HABOT."
"Say what?"
"Had a Beer or Twelve." Monique translated, taking another drink of her soda.
"Somehow I think she is well past just beer." Bonnie snorted, stifling a giggle. The three women watched from their table as one of the two guests of honor at tonight's celebration took the stage. The music started and Sherry launched into Gretchen Wilson's All Jacked Up with gusto. Somehow the song seemed so appropriate, given the circumstances.
She climbed down off the stage as the other bar patrons cheered and made her way to Kim's table.
"I had no idea you could sing like that." Kim said, gingerly licking some of the salt off the edge of her glass.
"Well, I get plenty of practice when Drew drags me to his favorite karaoke place." She took a look at Kim's nearly full margarita glass. "How many of those have you had, Princess?"
"I'm, ah, still working on the first one."
Sherry raised an eyebrow. "'Kay, Kimmie, this is your party too. Live a little! It's not a real shindig until we have to call a cab!"
"I…I don't really drink."
"Shego's right, K, bottoms up!" Bonnie leered across the table. Her own glass was bare even of ice cubes.
"Go for it, Kim. I've got your back, I'm the DD tonight." Monique said.
She eyed the drink as if it would rise out of the glass and bite her. She'd only ordered it when the rest of the women at the table had, thinking mainly she would nurse it through the evening, just to be social. Warily, she picked it up and took a sip, then an honest swallow of the pale green concoction.
The face she made sent her old foe and her old rival into gales of laughter.
"Okay, okay Kimmie. I get it, just loosen up a bit."
"You're the one who wanted us to go to a male stripper club, this is a loose as I want to get."
Bonnie chirped up again. "I've thought about it, Shego, and I'll do it."
"You sure, cheerleader?"
"Yeah, but you've gotta stop calling me that. My name's Bonnie, remember?"
"Oh I remember fine, you're the one who keeps forgetting I don't answer to that name any more."
"Sorry." She said, accepting another drink from the waitress.
"Are you really, really sure about this Bonnie?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Gives me another chance at grabbing the bouquet, if you know what I mean. Better chance at Sherry here's wedding than at yours, considering my competition is mainly you and that other woman, and the two of you don't count since she's married and you're getting married in a few weeks."
"Oh, I'm going for it!" Kim's mouth slid into a sly grin.
"Bring it on!" Bonnie said with mock danger.
"Bad news on that front." Sherry said, sipping her own fresh drink. "Amy's not coming."
"Aw no! Why not?" Kim asked.
"Seems ole monkey boy doesn't want to have a thing to do with it if you and Spankable are there."
"Sherry!" her eyes carried the usual warning about her pet names for Ron.
"Not apologizing tonight, sweetie pie. Gonna get 'em all out of my system."
Kim thought furiously of a comeback involving Drakken, but all she could come up with at the moment was 'Blue Boy' so she let it rest.
"So what are you so concerned with?" Bonnie asked Kim.
"Oh, nothing." She said sweetly.
Sherry guessed where the line of questioning was going and decided to deflect it a moment. "So, Kimmie, what's your dress going to look like?" She gave her a meaningful look that she hoped said your wedding dress, Princess.
She caught the look and pressed a couple keys on her bracelet. A holographic image of a shimmering white strapless dress hung in the air.
Monique stared at the hazy image dreamily. Bonnie raised an eyebrow. Sherry just commented, "It's so…white."
"So?" Kim asked, confused.
"Well, if you don't mind everyone in attendance saying 'bullcrap' to themselves. You've lived with the Sidekick-Formerly-Known-as-the-Buffoon for what, a year now?"
Kim said nothing, instead taking a large swallow of her drink.
"See, here's what I'm wearing." She pulled a photo out of her jeans pocket of a light blue gown with a short train.
Kim scrunched her brow. "Beautiful, but don't you think it's going to clash with the bridesmaid dresses?"
Sherry started laughing (long and hard and full of youthful abandon, if you know what I mean) finally getting her composure back well enough to speak again after a few minutes. Bonnie was having a giggle fit herself, apparently in on the joke.
"Gotcha, Princess. You really thought I was going to have anyone wear that thing? Man, you are gullible." She pulled out another photo, this time of a nice, navy blue dress.
Kim finished off her drink and waved to the server for another.
Several hours later Monique deposited a visibly wobbly Kim off at her apartment. She fervently hoped the guy's party was either winding down or over. Cold fear gripped her, knowing what she would likely be in for by morning.
She was walking up to the stoop as the front door opened. None other than Josh Mankey emerged, fishing in his pockets for the keys to his red sports car. "Hi Kim!" he said cheerily in his usually mellow way.
"So, did my fiancé behave himself?" She asked, not really expecting an honest answer.
"Oh, he's still going at it pretty hot and heavy up there. I'll tell you what, I'm not going to be right for quite a while after hearing those kinds of sounds coming from him." He smiled and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Good night and congratulations." He turned and headed for his car.
What was going on up there?
Despite her present condition, she sprinted up the stairs to her door. Ron's voice carried through it. "Oooooh, Bay bay YEAH! Who's your daddy?"
Almost in a panic, she turned the key and walked in. Immediately she saw the crown of corn silk hair over the back of the couch. Visions of all the bachelor parties she had seen in the movies all rolled through her head at once.
Then she noticed Felix's chair sitting off to the side. It seemed everyone else had left already but the two young men had something capturing their full attention.
"Oh, no. Not yet, I'm not ready yet! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" He moaned.
Kim shot around the couch, hoping beyond hope she wouldn't see some skanky stripper performing some lewd act.
She was just in time to see Ron's Zombie Mayhem character meet it's untimely demise. Seeing Kim, Felix hit the pause button before his character could join the other.
"Hi Kim! How was the party?"
She shook her head in wonder. Hours of drinking and carrying on with the women and all her man could do was sit at home playing video games.
She loved him so.
The cemetery was one of Charlotte's older ones. Although, officially the plots were open to all who could afford a space there, in practice there were sections that were clearly for certain ethnic groups. One such section bore many names of distinct Greek heritage, many of the older monuments including ceramic tiles depicting photos or paintings of the departed loved ones.
The headstone the slender woman stood near was somewhat newer than the rest, made more along the lines of a conventional memorial; a granite slab with rough hewn edges and a polished face. She knelt at it and brushed a few dead leaves away before laying a single light green rose at its base.
"Hey, you." Sherry Lipsky said, putting a hand on the stone. She knew he wasn't actually buried there. There wasn't anything left to bury except for a few mementos his parents and friends had gathered. Among them was a solid black Team Go uniform her brothers brought, the different sheens of the materials revealing the pattern.
It was the first time in many years she actually, honestly hugged her oldest brother.
"I can't begin to tell you how much I miss you." She sniffed before going on. "I know you wanted me to be happy and I know Drew will do his best to make me. Under all that buffoonery of his, he's really a good man. He loves our daughter and I hope you aren't upset he calls him Daddy. That's what she needs. We'll still tell her who you are and what you did, why you couldn't be here for her. When she gets old enough, she'll understand."
She got up to return to the hovercraft hidden just behind the tree line, then stopped and kneeled at the monument once more. Fearfully looking around, she decided she was alone. Her fist flared up with green light, a beam of focused power reaching from her fingertip to the polished granite surface.
Satisfied, she got up, her skin slowly fading back to normal. She inspected her handiwork.
The stone read:
James Neil Argus
1982 – 2006
Beloved son
Hero
And right below that, in script identical to the original:
Father
Soulmate
Her new husband was waiting a respectful distance away. He put an arm around her shoulders, kissed her forehead and took her home.
fin