Ummm sorry this is never updated.
CHAPTER TWO
you're friction
Her familiar blue wallpaper, that was almost completley covered in pin-ups looked so immature to her now. She wondered if this is how Henry felt every time he came home. She pulled the Bob Dylan one off the wall, it had been right next to Sophia Loren at one point but that had been pulled off the wall long ago. She would be taking Dylan to California with her.
The house smelt like pancakes. That was an odd smell, even if she had never left. Neither of her parents were huge on cooking.
"Bless her heart," Helena Robinson said, staring out the window.
There was a petite redhead pushing along a baby carriage. It didn't seem out of the ordinary for Amara, but the way her Ma had said it was like she pitied the poor girl.
"That's Tim Shepards kid, y'know. He went and knocked that poor little girl up."
Tim having and kid was news to her, nobody had mentioned it and as much as she disliked Tim, it took two to make a baby.
"He good with it?"
Her mother nodded, that surprised her too. "As good as a hood can be."
Shepards and babies made Amara think of Angela, after picking at the food her mother prepard she headed off to find Angel. She wondered how she was doing- after a shotgun wedding and a baby coming along. Angela Shepard was the toughest girl Amara knew, but Amara couldn't help herself but worry about her. In a house of two boys and a lost mother, she didn't have much to depend on.
The red row house was too familiar, she thought maybe that would have worn off after a year but she still recognized every bit of it, it was exactly the same.
Mary opened the door, her expression unimpressed. She glowered down at Amara, arms crossed. Amara smiled.
"Curlys finally over you- if you think you're just gonna come knock on my door and-"
Amara stopped her. "I'm here to see Angela."
A part of her wanted to see Curly, but not to continue on like old times. But the 'he's over you' part of his mothers speech rubbed Amara the wrong way. A part of her hoped selfishly he was still pining over her, since he had ruined the relationship and she could show him just how happy she could be without him. The mature part of her was glad they had both moved on from their toxic teenage relationship.
Amara caught a blurry glimpse of curly brunette hair and leather. Curly was home.
"Angela lives in an apartment with her husband, I'll give you the address." Mary Shepard told her the address very rushed. Amara knew why, she didn't want Curly to see her.
He had seen her, though and he smiled as he walked over to the two of them.
"Amara, I'm flattered but it's been a year."
Amara rolled her eyes and Mary shot him a look.
"She came for Angela, get back inside."
"Angela?" His brow raised. "I'm headin' over there now to see Ricky, if you want a ride?"
She shook her head. Half because she didn't want one and half because his mother was giving her a fierce glare.
"I'm good, I drove here myself."
"Then we'll take your car." He grinned and stalked off to Amara's car. It highly needed a paint job, but she knew better than to be embarrassed about that stuff around Curly.
She gave his mother an apologetic look and followed after him. She thought she heard Lord have mercy muttered breathily as she left the steps.
He was in the drivers seat of her car and it felt just like old times.
"Did you really need to go see Ricky?" She asked as he pulled out of the driveway. He laughed in disbelief.
"Come back from California with a ring on your finger and now you're cocky, huh?"
Her cheeks flushed. "That's not what I meant - I thought maybe you were trying to piss your mother off."
He ignored that and kept his eyes on the road.
"It's odd seein' everyone just pairin' off," she could feel his eyes on her ring. "It happened so fast."
"You got yourself a girl, Steven says she's been around for awhile."
Curly nodded. "But it ain't serious. She wouldn't like if I popped the question. She don't believe in that stuff."
"Are you dating a hippie?" She joked and Curly visibly stiffened.
"Willow- I mean, Joan's a former hippie. She's still a bit... different. But she don't believe in that whole lifestyle anymore."
Amara nodded like she understood, but she didn't. Hippies were something Curly never understood at one point either - now he was dating one. Amara was now dating a man like she had always dreamed about - blonde, creative and lots of ambition. But Amara had stepped completely outside of that box when she fell for Curly, she never understood gangs or violence but she had loved him anyway. Maybe Joan was Amara's Curly, in a way.
Angela's apartment building was small and dingy. She hadn't expected more from two seventeen year olds.
"Curl, you here to see Ricky? 'Cause he just left, went to go pick up some beer."
It was only just past noon, Amara had never drank a beer this early. But she wasn't a big drinker.
Angela's eyes flickered behind Curly. Amara had been tucked behind him while he had knocked. She smirked.
"You two? Y'all back together or what?"
Amara was about to tell Angel no, but Curly raised her left hand up into Angela's view, a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Popped the question last night."
Angela looked from Amara to Curly, then back again.
"Shit, Curly, don't lie to me. Is he lyin'?"
"He's lying." Amara said giving in to Angela.
Angela chuckled. "I knew it, that's one fancy ring. You can't get that fixin' cars for a couple months."
Amara was confused. "Fixing cars?"
Curly appeared sheepish. "Yeah, didn't ya hear? The Shepard Gang is no more. He works at Phillips service station now."
Amara felt she was the last to know anything around here since she got back, it was the same but different. She wasn't the same either. But Curly had gone on the straight path and Tim had a kid and everyone was getting hitched - including her.
Angela's apartment was nice. It was small but it was surprisingly clean. Vaguely, Amara remembered being in Angela's room to drop off that note. Her room had been cleaner than the rest of the house. There wasn't a single baby toy around the house, or anything kid related. She wanted to ask, but she didn't. She had come over to see how Angel had been holding up, but something told her not to bring up the baby on her own.
"Why're you two here anyway? And together?"
Curly shrugged, he was rummaging through Angel's fridge now. He had grabbed two Cokes, then handed one to Amara.
"She came to the house," Curly said in between sips. "Said she wanted to see you, I was goin' to see Ricky so I hitched a ride."
Ricky came back not even ten minutes later, four cases of beer in his arms. After putting them away, Curly and him went outside. There was something wrong with his car and Curly had offered to fix it up, for a six pack. Angela had rolled her eyes at that.
"Why'd ya wanna see me?" Angela asked her once the door had slammed shut on the boys. "Or was that just an excuse, I won't be hurt."
Amara laughed. "No, I actually wanted to see you."
"After you left, he got with Nancy." Angela told her and Amara had no idea why. She didn't want to know that - a hook-up was easily looked past, but she didn't want to known he had feelings for the girl he had fooled around on her with, Amara wanted to believe he had actually liked her.
"I don't know why he'd do it, she always ruins him. She overdosed, though. A cocktail of too much booze and heroin. He had cried so much that night and I've only see Curly cry one other time- when our dad passed. But he wasn't crying for her, not really. He was asking for you. He even said he was going to California."
Amara's stomach hurt. She pictured vividly Curly sitting in a hospital chair, tears pouring down his face, nonsensical words uttering from his lips.
"Why are you telling me this?" Her voice was just above a whisper. She had hated Nancy, but not enough to not be thrown by this.
"Thought it'd be somethin' worth hearin'." Her gaze firmly planted on Amara's left hand.
Amara cleared her throat and put a smile on her face. "What about you? You doin' okay?"
Angel nodded. She didn't seem to be too into the conversation anymore. "Me and Ricky are good, the baby was a false alarm."
That explained the lack of baby items and smell of infant puke. Amara's mind had went directly to the thoughts of a miscarriage or abortion, the baby not being real was less devastating.
"You and Ricky never...?"
"Got an annulment? No our parents wouldn't let us."
Angel overall seemed like things were going well for her. So did Curly -fixing cars. It was such a mundane, blue collar job, she thought he would be in that gang forever. But it made since, yesterday she had seen Curly at Stevens and he had been covered in grease; his hair, pants, and shirt were black with it, he even had some smudged across his face. She hadn't read too much into it, Amara was aware Curly could fix up a car as good as anyone; she had just assumed something had went wrong with his beat up pick-up. It wouldn't be shocking, that thing was in it's last life.
Curly and Ricky returned, Curly splattered with new stains of black.
"Doll, you wanna bring me home? I gotta get my truck and head off to work."
Doll, no one had called her that since she left. It was only a genric term of endearment, used by lots of people, but Curly had been the only one she had come across to call her that. Babe, sweetheart, she had even got peach a couple times, doll was reserved for him. Will called her sugar and she never thought it quite fit.
"Sure," she snapped out of her thoughts. "Come on."
Angela was smirking at her, Angel's smirks were scary because she thinking of something or coming up with something and you never really wanted to know what it was.
Curly was grinning at her like he had nothing else better in the world to being doing, and he was talking to her about how she should have been there when the two new Beatles albums had come out, since there's no one else who would even think of listening to them with him. She wondered why he was saying this because he had cheated on her, if she had still lived here they probably wouldn't be talking at this point. California, being far away from him, had given her the strength to forgive him. Amara liked hearing it, despite herself. At least he had missed her for something, like she so selfishly wanted.
A rusty, yellow T-bird in his driveway. There was a Grateful Dead bumper sticker follow by another bumper sticker that read PEACE in abstract letters. She assumed it must have been Joan's. She had remembered who Joan was now, briefly. Willow, or Joan now, was the girl that Curly had encountered on a bad trip, she had been one of his buyers. He had been so upset that night.
She stepped out of her car the same time Amara pulled into the driveway.
Joan had light, brunette hair. It fell the whole ways down her back and was partened in the middle. She was short, very pale and had bright blue eyes, Amara saw once she started walking closer. Nothing about her reminded Amara of herself, there was no resemblance. But in all the girlfriends Amara was aware of, including herself, they had one thing in common. Each of them was a "fixer-uper".
Amara rolled down her window without thinking as Joan neared the drivers side.
"Hello." Her voice was soft, drawn out; as if she was stuck in a daze. "Amara, right?"
Usually when the girlfriend officially met the ex they would feel threatened, especially when she was the one driving him home. Joan didn't seem threatened and Amara didn't feel any real jealously towards Joan. It was calm.
"I was just dropping Curly home. We were at Angel's." Amara felt the need to confirm that nothing had happened. Joan didn't seem to have a single a worry either way.
"Curly and mines relationship is very... flexible. It's no mind to me."
By flexible, Amara knew she meant they were in an open relationship. She'd never got those but maybe that was because she was needy and insecure. She wanted things closed and labelled.
Adruptly, Curly hopped out of the car and was waving her off.
"I gotta head of to work," was his excuse but he seemed off. She ignored it.
Amara pulled out of his driveway. In her mirror she saw Curly and Joan wrapped in an embrace. She didn't look in that mirror again until she was off his road.