This choice: Call Lisa, invite her over • Go Back...Chapter #8Too Many of the Wrong Guests by: Seuzz   You turn your back on the others and dial Lisa's number, and she greets you in the same friendly, soft-spoken way that she used before your break-up. Quickly you describe the party. "It's pretty low-key," you say, "but I thought maybe you'd like to show up anyway."
"That sounds great," she says. "I was going to stay in tonight, but this sounds like more fun." Faint praise, you think. But she promises to be out there within an hour.
Connor is looking at you when you turn back around. "Was that Johansson or Tilley you were calling?" he asks.
"Huh? No. I was calling Lisa Yarborough. If it's alright with you," you add, though it's too late now, "I've invited her out."
Connor and Justin shrug, but Ioeger hoots. "You think you're going to get yourself and Lisa between the Rapist's clean sheets?"
A hot spurt of anger flare up inside you. "I was inviting her out because I thought she'd like to come!"
"Oh, calm down, Prescott, give me a little credit. Actually, I thought you guys broke up."
"Well, we didn't!"
"Then how come I see her hanging out with Mansfield so much these days?"
"Oh, Mansfield," Justin mutters.
"It's a menage," James snickers.
"It is not!"
"So what the fuck is it exactly going on with you two?" Carson demands.
You feel trapped under the four-way stare. You decide that this is much worse than if you'd not called Lisa.
"We weren't actually dating each other," you stammer, and hate yourself for using the formulation that Lisa used when she explained at the start of school that you and she were not a couple. "So she can see other guys if she wants, same as I can see other girls." You ball up your fists at the amused looks that appear on Carson's and James's faces.
"So are you seeing other girls?" Carson asks.
"Mostly Lisa and I have been seeing each other." Your tone is stiff, and your words true only if they describe the last three months rather than the last three weeks.
"Well, maybe you ought to start taking advantage of this open relationship you have with her," James suggests.
"And maybe you oughta start staking advantage of the non-existent relationship you have with Jenny!"
"Okay, you can shut up now, Will," Justin says. "This is supposed to be a friendly party and I don't want to have to suspend your drinking privileges." He points at your beer.
If Lisa weren't on her way over, you'd probably storm out. But you force out an insincere apology. You grind it out to him and James both, in the same set of words: "Yeah, I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too." James's tone doesn't sound any less grudging than your own.
Carson snorts. "You two romantic losers should be sympathizing with each other. Near as I can tell, you're in the same fucked-up state with two different girls."
James looks between you and Ioeger. "If you'll hold him down, Prescott, I'll spend the evening beating all that shit out of him."
But before you can take him up on the offer, the back door opens, and Jenny Ashton, Paul Davis, and Yumi Saito join your party.
* * * * *
So that starts to give the party an interesting vibe. You and Carson and James and your hosts were more or less extruded by the same mold. But Paul Davis -- the shortest of the guys now on hand -- has the look of a prep-school puppy; meanwhile, Jenny Ashton is a tomboy, and Yumi Saito is a Westside cheerleader. That gets her some ribbing from Connor and Justin, who knew her the year before as a hardcore gymnast who was brutally dismissive of the cheerleading crew. "Cindy got me to join," she mutters back at them.
"Vredenburg?"
"Yeah. Me and Lin Pol. She wanted friends on the squad, didn't want to be stuck all alone on it with Chelsea Cooper and her gang."
"I thought Kelsey Blankenship was set up to run the squad," says Justin.
Lin snorts. "Kelsey or Chelsea, what's to choose? Anyway, Kelsey quit at the start of the year."
"She quit? Kelsey Blankenship quit the fucking cheerleader squad?" Connor's eyes bulge. "What the fuck happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it!"
But other aspects of school do get talked about, and your attention wanders again, and you start checking your phone obsessively to see how long it will be before Lisa arrives.
You think the moment has arrived when the door next opens, but you almost yell when you see who it is stepping into the yard.
Geoff Mansfield.
You're not the only one who reacts badly to his arrival. There's a brief silence before some polite welcomes go up from most everyone, except for you and Justin, who looks almost as shocked as you feel. "Carr, Hutchison," Geoff greets his hosts with a limp handshake and a stare down the bridge of his nose. His smile turns nasty when he sees you. "Prescott."
"Hey," you reply. "I didn't know you were coming."
"I got a second-hand invitation," he says. "That's okay, isn't it?"
"Lemme guess," Carson says. He swallows some beer, and belches before offering his speculation. "Lisa called you."
"You must be psychic," Mansfield says. "So why aren't you getting better grades on your tests?"
Justin takes a few steps in your direction, bumps you in the shoulder. "I don't know how to thank you for getting him out here," he murmurs.
"It wasn't my idea."
"No, you just knocked over the first domino."
"I don't suppose you guys have any Blue Point Blueberry Ale," Mansfield says as he peers with distaste into the ice chest.
"No, but you can go pick some up," Connor says. "If you've got a fake ID."
"How did you manage to pick this stuff up?"
"Fake ID."
"You were supposed to bring something," Lamont says. "Or didn't Lisa tell you that?"
"I decided to see what was needed," Geoff sniffs. "I wasn't going to just grab up -- Pft! Potato chips -- and bring them over." From his pocket he pulls a twenty and holds it up between his index and middle finger. "Any suggestions?"
"A ball gag?" Justin murmurs, just inaudibly enough to escape Mansfield's hearing.
"Fancy chips and fancy dips might be nice," says Connor. "There's a Whole Foods on the other side of the campus. You can take your time browsing there."
"I'll need a ride," Geoff says.
"What's wrong with your car?"
"I parked it a couple of blocks away. I didn't want to take a chance on it getting stolen. It's not a nice neighborhood."
The ensuing silence would have been deafening, except for the sound of a jet overhead and the talk from the couples sitting in the other yards.
Jenny raises her hand. "I'll take you," she says.
"Let him drive himself," says Yumi.
"Nope, I know exactly where to take him." Jenny pulls at the front of Geoff's shirt. "Come on, I want to talk to you anyway."
"Actually," says Mansfield, and he turns toward you, "I was hoping that me and Prescott could -- "
He doesn't finish. Again the door opens, and now Lisa comes out. She smiles softly at everyone -- and especially at you, you imagine -- but looks at Mansfield a little quizzically. "Hey Geoff, you got out here fast. I didn't see your car."
Mansfield's mouth falls open a little, and he stares at her without replying.
And that's when you recognize the shirt he's wearing.
* * * * *
"Yeah, he parked a couple of blocks away," you say in a loud voice that makes everyone jump. "That's why he needs a ride to the store and that's why I'm going to give him one. Come on, Geoff." You grab him by the elbow.
"We could all go," Lisa says. "I mean, if we're picking stuff up -- "
"No, I need to talk to him alone. I mean, we need to talk." You pull him past Lisa and into the house. "We'll be back, uh, at some point," you call back before slamming the door and rounding on your "friend". "The fuck are you doing?" you hiss at him.
"Took you long enough to figure it out," Caleb snickers. "I'm doing pretty good, right? Rooty tooty, fuckin' snooty."
"Beautiful. Except you heard Lisa. It sounds like the real dick's on his way over now." You haul him out the front door and down the walk toward your truck. "And if one Geoff Mansfield is insufferable, two of them would be -- Awp!"
"What are you hiccuping about? Oh, fuck!"
He's seen it too: a dark sedan that's pulling into the space just in front of Lisa's car. You shove Caleb toward your truck; he turns his stumble into a sprint, and when he finds the passenger-side door locked he leaps into the truck bed and hunkers down.
Just in time, for Mansfield has is getting out of his car. "Hey, Prescott," he calls to you. "You know you've got that thing parked halfway in the street? How about you pull it in closer to the curb?"
"How about you go -- " The words die in your throat, for out of the corner of your eye you see Connor standing in the front door, his face twisted up in fear and amazement as he looks between you and Geoff Mansfield.
God damn it, he didn't see Caleb jumping into the back of your truck just as the real Geoff was driving up, did he?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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