Two
“Hey! Thanks.” Lara took the casserole dish from
Tammi. “This is one of those delicious
little Southern things you came up with, right? Yum.”
“You
Pennsylvania people are just weird,” Tammi said, shaking her head.
“So…Chris
gave you a ride over here?” Lara went
into the kitchen of the house she shared with JC and put the dish in the
refrigerator.
“Yes,
and before you get that tone in your voice, we are JUST friends.”
Lara
sighed and slapped the counter. “WHY
won’t you say anything?”
“Because
we ARE such good friends. I don’t know
if I want to risk that. And he’s just
been…weird lately.”
“Tammi,
we’re talking about Chris. He was born
weird.”
“No…it’s
just different. He’s all about being someone else right now. I think it’s the
whole FuMan thing,” Tammi said. “I think it’s faltering, so he’s getting
paranoid. He’s putting up this front.”
“Where
is he, anyway?” Lara asked.
“Out
back with the guys, I’m assuming.”
“C’mon.
Let’s change into our suits, and then I can go observe this new and unimproved
Christopher of yours.”
“Uh,
no.” JC pulled himself out of the
pool. “No, no, NO.”
“What?” Lara said absently, watching the water slide
down JC’s slim chest.
“You’re
not wearing that out here. Where the hell did you GET that?”
“At
the store, yesterday,” Lara replied, looking down at her new dark blue bikini.
“What? It’s just a bathing suit.”
“That
is hardly a bathing suit,” JC snapped.
“I
like it,” Joey volunteered.
“You
would!” JC yelled back.
“Tough
cookies, baby. I’m wearing it.” Lara grabbed Tammi’s hand and led her over
to sit under an umbrella. “He looks
normal enough,” she said to Tammi as she watched Chris attempt to dunk
Justin. Justin stood in the shallow end
of the pool, arms crossed over his chest as Chris jumped all over him.
“I
know…with these guys he’s not so bad. I just wish…” Tammi sighed. “You don’t see it because you don’t know him
like I do.”
“Relax. I’m sure you’re just seeing things,” Lara
said soothingly. She looked on the other side of the pool and smiled. “Let’s look at that.” She discreetly pointed
to where another friend, Cindy, was talking to Lance.
Tammi
shook her head sadly. “I told her. I mean, I told her we have photographic
proof of Lance with a man at a club.
She just doesn’t believe it.”
“The
man is straight as a windy mountain road. I mean, I love him to death, and I
sure as hell don’t care if he’s gay…but in a way it pisses me off. He won’t tell her, just lets her flirt with
him.” Lara glared at Lance’s blond
head.
“We
could go over there and MAKE him come out to her,” Tammi suggested. Lara shook her head.
“Nah…if
you said something to her and she STILL doesn’t believe you, then it’s out of
our hands.”
“Chris,
your bag is ringing!” Lance called
suddenly, motioning to the small duffel on the ground near where he and Cindy
were sitting.
“Oh. Thanks.”
Chris pulled himself out of the pool and went to answer the phone. “Hello?”
“Oh,
great. The FuNazi at work,” Tammi
mumbled.
“No…I
can’t make it up there today. Hello,
I’m in FLORIDA!” Chris snapped.
“Tomorrow. What’s going on NOW?” Chris slowly walked over and sat at the
table with Lara and Tammi. “Fucking
hell…” Chris began, then stopped. “I
don’t know WHAT to tell you. This was supposed to have been taken care of. Just do it. I don’t care. I’ll be up first
thing tomorrow.” Chris slapped the
phone closed. “Pricks.”
“Are
you okay?” Lara asked quietly. Chris
pasted on a smile.
“Absolutely
fabulous, beautiful. Don’t you worry
your pretty little head. When’s
lunch?” He kissed the top of Lara’s
head and dove back into the pool. Tammi
watched him and sighed.
Tell
me, why you have to go and make things so complicated? I see the way you’re acting like you’re
somebody else, gets me frustrated…life’s like this…you fall and you crawl and
you break and you take what you get and you turn it into honesty…and promise me
I’m never gonna find you fake it…no no no
