Thank you all for your reviews and support, I really apriciate them all. I'm just sorry that I'm taking so long to get chapters to you. Circus.
The Goodbye Girl
I walked into the kitchen and as per usual, found Seth alone reading a comic before school. I sat down besides him and stole a sip from his coffee.
"So Theresa called last night-"
"This before or after Marissa snuck out of the pool house?" He asked me, taking back his cup of coffee without looking up from his comic.
"We have three minutes before Sandy walks in and pours a cup of coffee and then another ninety seconds before Kirsten goes straight to the fridge. Can I tell this story uninterrupted so everyone doesn't get confused?"
"That would work better than the normal flow of things." He nodded. "So Theresa called…" he waved his hand for me to continue.
"She apologised about Eddie turning up on the doorstep and her telling me that she only came to Newport for me-"
"She still loves you?" Seth suddenly spun round on his seat so that we were facing each other.
"No she never said that." I frowned back at him. "And what happened to me being able to talk to you uninterrupted?"
"Alex its me." He said simply. "You knew from the start that was never going to happen."
"What was never going to happen?" Sandy asked us as he went to the coffee pot.
"And so it all begins." I sighed, banging my head on the counter top.
"What's beginning?" Kirsten asked me as she walked into the room.
"You know what?" I told them all, jumping down from my stool quickly causing them all to look at me somewhat startled. "I give up." I headed out to the pool house before popping my head back into the kitchen. "Me and Marissa are back together again, by the way."
"Hey you." Marissa smiled at me as she walked into my room as I packed my bag for school.
"If I tell you something will you promise not to interrupt or allow any interruptions?" Marissa simply nodded as she sat down on my bed besides me. "I think Theresa is seeing someone here. She didn't say it in so many words but as she was talking to me last night it became very clear that she was staying around for a reason."
"Does it matter?"
"Well there's a very angry guy that thinks its me and will consequently kick my arse if there is someone… It turns out that she may be engaged to one of my brother's friends." I explained to her blank expression.
"She may be engaged?" She simply frowned back at me.
"She's trying to decide."
"Well that clears everything up." She nodded. "Where do you factor into this again?"
"Eddie, my brother's friend, pretty much called me out to duel over her last night; figuring that Theresa only came out here for me."
"Did she?"
"No, she came where the work was." I lied, quickly and easily, knowing that the question would eventually be asked.
"Just tell him that." Marissa shrugged, taking my hand and pulling me up. "Right now though, we have school."
We were all sat in the quad having lunch together. Seth and Anna with matching tuna melts, discussing the merits of 28 Days Later over 28 Weeks Later whilst Summer merely rolled her eyes between them. As Marissa struggled with her French homework, batting my hand away from it every time I tried to help her.
"Luke, thank god you're here." I sighed when Luke dropped his tray in between Marissa and Anna.
"Never thought I'd here you say that." He smiled.
"Well Marissa keeps hitting me and our odd threesome over there are, well… no, I think odd threesome covered it."
"I've swapped one for the other." Summer complained at me.
"And then back again." Marissa laughed at her, closing her French textbook. "Anyone want any coffee, I'm thinking caffeine may help me make sense of this."
"Americano." I smiled at her.
"Cappuccino." Seth and Anna asked her in unison.
"Ew!" Summer frowned at them both. "And I'm coming with." She told Marissa pushing her chair back.
"Do you two do that deliberately to creep her out?" I asked them once Summer and Marissa were out of earshot.
"It is a little weird." Anna nodded.
"What you should really be asking is whether she's dating the girl version of Cohen or whether she screwed the boy version of Anna." Luke told us, a mouth full of food spat across us.
"Boy has a point, although not voiced at the best of times." I nodded at them.
I simply watched as they both looked each other up and down, clearly trying to figure it out. Seth opened his mouth quickly before closing it, Anna doing the same.
"Meanwhile," I smiled at them before turning my attention to Luke, "the other pressing question is where the hell have you been recently?"
"Yeah every time we call you to hang out you're always busy." Anna nodded.
"May it be noted I am not one of these people," Seth smiled at him, "I still remember when you pee'd in my shoes."
"Oh yeah," Luke laughed, "that was great… or not, as the case may be." He corrected when he found he was being stared down by the three of us. "And I've just been busy." He shrugged popping the remainder of his sandwich in he mouth.
"Doing what?"
"Just you know…"
"Your coffee." Marissa smiled at me, placing a Styrofoam cup in front of me distracting Luke for searching for an excuse for why he'd been so absent. "And one friend."
"Now that I didn't order." I smiled at Theresa standing awkwardly with a newspaper as she looked around the quad, next to Summer. "What you doing here?"
"Uh, looking for a job," she held up the newspaper to show us, with various red circles, "You're school's looking for kitchen staff."
"Yeah but wouldn't that be weird?" Anna asked her, as she pulled over another chair for her. "I mean serving us all?"
"Hence the other red circles." She nodded back at her, as she sat down.
"Park ranger?" Seth questioned, having snatched away her newspaper to inspect the circles.
"I think she'd look good in the hat." Summer mused.
"So you're staying, huh?" Marissa asked her, as she opened up her French textbook again.
"I called Eddie this morning and I told him," Theresa nodded, "I'm not coming home any time soon."
"You did?" Seth asked her.
"He didn't take it well but, uh, now that I did it which I cant believe I did… I feel so much more free or something." She shrugged.
"That does not bode well for me." I whispered in Marissa's ear.
"Just tell him the truth."
"Yeah, but what if I'm right and there is someone here that she's staying for?"
"There is only one way to solve that mystery," she smiled at me before turning to Theresa. "You seeing anyone?"
"Who- who- who would she be seeing? I mean she only knows us here, and well, non of us are seeing her are we?" Seth answered quickly. "What?" he asked when he found all eyes upon him.
"Yes." Theresa answered for herself. "I met a guy when I was catering that party at the golf club. He's a caterer too."
"Or she could be dating a fellow caterer." Seth nodded.
"I'm so glad I'm not the only one you interrupt." I sighed at him. "What's his name?"
"Jacob."
"Jacob?" I frowned at her.
"What's wrong with Jacob?" She frowned back at me. "It's a perfectly good name."
"Fine." I conceded. "Can I meet him?"
"I don't think we're quite at the stage to meet ex's yet." She told me, "But when we are, you'll be the first ex I go to." She nodded at me.
"How about this." I pointed at her. "Tonight is Caleb's Man of the Year party why don't you bring him along, there will be tonnes of other people – I mean we'll all be there, so he won't just be meeting me."
"Plus you can check out all the Newpsie's with chin implants." Summer nodded.
"You get chin implants?" Anna frowned at her, sipping from her coffee.
"Yeah, they're like the new nose. My dad keeps getting requests for them."
"I don't have anything to wear." Theresa rolled her eyes at me, clearly as perplexed by the conversation parallel to her as I was.
"Marissa will lend you something!" I pointed at her.
"What?" Marissa looked confused at the table as she looked up from her French homework, "I mean yeah, sure." She nodded, after she had clearly worked out what had just been said.
"Now you've got no excuse not to come." I smiled proudly at Theresa.
Theresa left us all shortly after that, Seth and Anna went back to discussing horror movies and their sequels (though Seth was less enthusiastic than he was before), Summer tried to talk to Luke about The Valley and Marissa finally caved and let me help her with her French homework.
I had just got more caffeine supplies for Marissa when Eddie shoved me into the counter knocking one of the coffees out of my hand.
"That coffee cost me five dollars." I sighed at him pointing to the mess on the floor.
"You sleep with her?!" He asked me, shoving me again, causing the other coffee to join the first on the floor.
"Clearly money means nothing to you." I sighed, just to get shoved into the counter again. "No, I am not sleeping with her." I told him shoving him back, tired of being pushed.
"No? Then why would she call me an tell me she's not coming back? Why would she stay here, huh?"
"She came out here for the work." I told him, trying Marissa's tact.
"Why would she quit her job to come serve crap to a bunch of rich people?" He spat back at me.
"You know what," I shrugged, "I got nothing." I told him simply. "But I am not sleeping with her." I looked around the room and saw, what seemed like, the entire student body staring at us, I lowered my voice, "This isn't the right time," I told him as I touched his arm, trying to calm him.
"No!" he shrugged my hand away violently, "don't touch me man, after everything I did for you growing up the least you can do is be honest with me; are you sleeping with her?"
"No!" I shouted back at him.
"Excuse me," Mr Bendis said, walking over to us, "this lounge is for faculty and students only."
"Alright," he held up his hands as if in surrender, but before he left he whispered in my ear: "Believe me I'm not letting her go."
I wanted to tell him that the pain in my back, from where he'd pushed me repeatedly into the counter, was enough to make me believe him, but thought better of it. Instead I merely apologised the guy behind the counter about the mess on the floor and shelled out another ten dollars for coffee; tipping him heavily.
Seth and I were playing video games in the lounge, the caterers having kicked us out of the pool so they could set up the garden, it seemed that we were nothing without routine. As I slowly got bored of the game, I flicked through the magazine with Caleb's face on the cover as Seth gave me play by play besides me.
"What do you think this Jacob guys going to be like?" I asked him after a while, throwing the magazine to the side.
"Tall, kind of geeky but in a good way. Dreams of getting out of Newport, trapped here by society. Maybe even…" he trailed off when he realised I was looking at him funnily. "Or you know, whatever." He shrugged. "What do you care anyway?" he asked me going back to paying attention to the game in front of him. "I mean you're over her right?"
"Totally." I nodded, picking up my controller again. "Its just weird to think of T with a guy. I mean her list is longer than mine and there really aren't that many Y's in it."
"Her ex's are just X's?" he frowned at me, pausing the game for added effect.
"Maybe its her mom." I shrugged, hitting 'Start' on his control. "Sexuality was never spoken about but maybe she's putting her Catholic foot down."
"Or maybe it really was just a phase."
"That's far too… When is it ever just a phase? I mean, thinking of T with a guy is like…" I was lost for words. I had known Theresa all my life and though she'd always said she was bisexual no one ever saw her with anyone other than a girl. "Can you imagine me with a guy?"
"I don't know, what kind of guy? He hot?" Again I was looking at him strangely. "I swear that sounded less gay in my head." He rolled his eyes before answering 'No' to the question, however.
"I should call Jodie." I told him, dropping my controller and pushing myself up from the floor.
"Jodie? That dyke-" he stopped dead having realised what he'd just said. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. when I opened them again he was looking at me pleadingly.
"I'm calling Jodie." I told him, walking out to my room. When I reached the French doors he called out to me, not to apologise but to remind me I was caring more than I should do for a girl I was over.
I swivelled my dress round as I looked myself up and down in the mirror. Kirsten had insisted I wore a new dress to Caleb's party, even if it was just in our back yard. My protests were silenced when Sandy told me he was being forced to wear a tie and furthermore suck up to his father-in-law, muttering something about if he was Man Of The Year he would have more than simply a back yard barbecue.
I looked the dress up and down, Kirsten had described it as Sarah Jessica Parker in Failure To Launch rather than Sex And The City. Yet looking at me in said dress, I felt more like Lilly Allen only less 'indie-cool'.
"Well look at you." Marissa smiled at me, looking me up and down. "And pumps too." She pointed at my feet. "Just as well, if you'd worn Chucks with that dress you'd look like a Lilly Allen wannabe."
"In some cultures, 'Hello' is still seen as the acceptable greeting." I told her before looking at my reflection once more. "You know Jodie laughed when I told her that Theresa was dating a guy." I watched as Marissa rolled her eyes before dropping down into one of my chairs. "What was that?" I asked her.
"What was that?"
"That was a look, and you know it was a look which is why you're not admitting to it."
"You hate Jodie." She told me, another roll of her eyes thrown in for good measure. "Its not a big deal, so she's dating a caterer. Its nice that she's meeting people, especially as she's staying here."
"It is a big deal though. Imagine me with a guy." I pointed at her.
"You ever been with a guy?"
"Wow, that just totally blew up in my face. So what have you done with Theresa?" I asked her, taking her hand, pulling her out of my chair and out of my room.
"I left her with Seth." She said simply, closing the door behind us as we were suddenly surrounded by people. "Jacob isn't here though."
"He not coming?" I asked her, allowing her to lead me through the crowd to the others, she merely shrugged before stopping in front of Seth and Theresa by the island in the kitchen, they stopped talking as soon as we fell within earshot. "He's not coming?"
"Thought it would be weird, mingling with people that think his name's 'Oi, you!'" she told me quickly. "And I see his point, especially as I have a compelling urge to hand out glasses of champagne." She admitted quietly, watching the caterers work around us.
"Just tell people you're an aspiring actress." Seth smiled at her.
"The L.A. smog hasn't quite reached Newport yet." She smiled back at him. "Close though. Enveloped Chino the other week. Why I moved."
"I miss the smog." Anna told her, as she and Summer found us. "Newport has no seasons. I miss the city, it had seasons, Chinese food at 3am, I miss the smog."
"Her aunt called just before the party." Summer explained. "Something about a dog. Did you know people still have dogs?"
"I had a dog at one point." Marissa nodded, "I think the IRS took it though, I haven't seen him since the middle of the summer. I need to talk to my dad." We all watched as Marissa walked back into the garden to find Jimmy, only when she'd disappeared did Seth say:
"Ten bucks says he tells her he gave the dog to a farm."
"Fifteen says he tells the truth." I raised him.
"This is how you pass the time?" Theresa pointed between us.
"Well I tried burning down houses, but that got a little boring after a while."
"Speaking of," Seth smiled, "you want to meet the Man Of The Year?" holding out his arm for Theresa to take.
"You never did that for me." Summer pouted, pointing at his bent elbow.
"Nor me." Anna nodded. "He told me chivalry was dead."
"And you see where that got me?" He kind of half smiled at them, "Shall we?" he asked, turning back to Theresa.
I opened my mouth to mention that Theresa was probably not the best person to try out his chivalry upon, especially if he was hoping to find a girl that didn't like girls, but I caught Marissa's eye, as she stood in the doorway, and watched as she simply gave me a knowing smile before shaking her head at me. So I simply extended my arm for her to take and walked out onto the patio behind Seth and Theresa.
"You know he called Jodie a 'dyke' earlier." I whispered in her ear, cutting into her knowing smile.
"Can you blame him?" she whispered back, "The only two girls he's kissed prefer kissing each other. And then there's us."
"What you mean by that?" I frowned at her.
"We're like his best friends and all we do consume him in our L Word drama!" I looked at her, her knowing smile returned to her face and simply conceded to her greater wisdom and let the party consume me.
"Not your typical back yard barbecue." Theresa breathed out looking at all the people.
"They never are." Marissa nodded, looking round the garden, clearly already bored or simply just thinking about her dead dog.
"Hey," Anna cut across us, pointing to the drinks table, "Luke's here-"
"And talking to your mom." Summer frowned, following Anna's eye line.
"Yeah, according to Caitlin he's forever round the house doing something to Mom's modem." She shrugged. "I tune out every time I hear the word computer, plus my sister's crush on Luke weirds me out slightly."
"Understandable." I nodded.
"It would be like if I had a crush on the step monster."
"A little less weird than that, Sweetie." Anna smiled at Summer.
"Its stuff like that, isn't it?" I pointed between them, whilst smiling at Marissa just to watch her knowing smile cross her face once more. "I really hate you sometimes."
"I can live with that." She nodded back at me, but she wasn't looking at me for long. "That Jacob?" she asked, pointing over my shoulder. "Sum, you ever seen that caterer before?"
"No, and well I've been to a lot of these things." She said looking around the party. "That's totally a chin implant there." Summer pointed across the crowd.
"Can we focus on the potential that could be Jacob?" I asked her, "Which one could he be?"
"Oh just tall, dark and goatee over there." Summer waved, whilst clearly still looking over the woman's plastic surgery.
"I'm sorry I'm going to need a minute to process the fact that my girlfriend just called a guy 'tall, dark and goatee'!" Anna laughed at me.
"He is though." Marissa mused with Sum, having got her attention back from somebody else's chin.
"Where is this guy?" I sighed.
"Him." Summer pointed past the woman with the botched chin to the possible Jacob. "Tall, dark, goatee and angry?"
We all watched as he pushed through the people. And I saw him; tall, dark and goatee but it wasn't Jacob it was Eddie.
"Where's Theresa?!" I asked Marissa.
"I don't know? Inside with Seth?" She shrugged.
"Make sure she stays there. Your Jacob is her Eddie." I told her, crossing the path of people to meet him head on. "Hey man." I had no idea what to say after that, so I was forced to go with the awkward wave.
"Where is she?" He asked me, not paying me much attention, simply scanning the crowd for Theresa.
"You know, I have no idea. You want check the driveway? Maybe even town?" I suggested, calmly I thought.
"You!" He spun round quickly though, apparently my nonchalant was actually me admitting to sleeping with Theresa. "Stay the hell away from me, okay? You're lucky I don't kick your arse right here!"
I looked my dress up and down once again that evening and realised that I really wasn't dressed for an arse kicking, as I watched him continue to search the Newpsies for his fiancée I was going to have to go for a different tact. I waved once more, but this time towards Sandy.
"Whats going on kid?" Sandy frowned at me, loosening his tie. "The man of the year is about to make his speech." His tone suggested that he was making special effort to de-emphasis Caleb's new title. "Hey," he smiled at Eddie, "can you get some more champagne round to everyone?"
"What the fuck? You want me to park your car too?" Amazingly, that one assumption from Sandy had distracted Eddie from Theresa. "You think cause I'm Hispanic I'm here to wait on you?"
"No I think since my wife is paying you; you're here to wait on me." Sandy frowned back, his hands suddenly on his hips no longer caring about the state of his tie.
"I'm not no bus boy."
"He's, uh, Eddie and actually a mechanic." I told Sandy adding the explanatory 'Theresa's ex' when all I got was a blank expression from him.
"That changes everything then." Sandy sighed, his hands back at his tie. "She want to see you?"
Eddie said yes, whilst I said no. Soon after Jimmy had also been waved over, a couple of glasses were smashed, Caleb started swearing loudly in our general direction. But Eddie left, not a punch thrown and only mild reference being made to the police being called.
"Did that just happen?" Jimmy asked as we watched Eddie down the drive to the sound of Caleb making his speech into the microphone.
"I know, I may need a drink to get over the shock." Sandy nodded.
"I didn't get hit." I found both of them looking at me. "I'm at a party and didn't get hit." I smiled at them.
"Well you're a Cohen now." Sandy laughed. "Come on, you need to tell your ex that her ex is still present."
The party was over, the caterers had more or less returned the garden to its normal state and yet Theresa was still passing up and down in my room. Summer and Anna had given up and gone home after the first holes were worn into my carpet. And so left Marissa and I sat on my bed, Seth in the corner and Theresa still pacing up and down.
Everything was discussed. Back and forth it went, as she went back and forth. Every sentence ended with the question: 'He was here?' and after about the fifth 'And I wasn't hit!' the three of us gave up trying to talk her out of her pacing and simply nodded and smiled as she walked up and down, back and forth.
She was gone when I woke up. As was Seth. When I rolled over to check the time, my hand fell on a small piece of paper. I sat up so and rubbed my eyes, moving the piece of paper back and forth as I tried to get my eyes to focus on the impossibly small writing that was Theresa's hand writing.
Sorry, we both knew I was going to have to go back to my real life at some point.I will drop Marissa's dress off at her dad's apartment on my way to the freeway.
I'll see you next time you have to steel a car or an event needs catering.
T x
P.S. Tell Marissa I'm sorry about her dead dog.
And so I rolled over, draping my arm across Marissa and pulled her closer to me as I realised that it was far too early in the morning for L Word drama. I just wanted to sleep next to my L Word romantic comedy and deal with drama after a cup of coffee.
Please read and review, you have no idea how much I love getting them. Thank you, Circus.
