Tangled webs….
I’m on Christmas break. A rare early afternoon music break at Steve’s.
“So you’re going with Doug when he gets beer up in State Hill?”
I nod. “Across from the inn.” I’m cautious; now Steve and Doug have met after my ‘birthday’. “You and Doug have an arrangement?”
He nods passively. “Good,” I say, “I don’t want to know. Not my fucking business.”
“Just….umm……Let me know when we watch naked Ginger Rogers next door, if you’re going, ok?”
“But you won’t……..”
He waves his hand. “No, no, no. I just want to know. Maybe I’ll talk to him at school, maybe I won’t. Just good info. My problem is that I can’t let one fucking soul know I’m in with Doug. He hates gossip and people who say they know him when they don’t. I have to be very quiet about what I’m carrying and where it came from”
“And, of course,” I say with a smirk, “I have to treat Allie nice.”
“Yeah, my next topic. I hadn’t seen her in a while. She IS very pretty, and that body could make a corpse dance. Does she always dress that way?”
“No, it was just for my birthday. He took us to McDonald’s.”
“You’ll have to show me after school some day. I need to know where it is. Anyway, I just want you to know that I will do all I can to make sure you don’t fuck things up with her. She seems like a textbook ‘nice’ girl. The way she looked at you was really intense. She’s hooked.”
I thank him, but I’m no fool: if Allie and I splinter, Doug won’t be speaking to Steve. I now have a tangled web!
“So now, with that in mind, I’m going to warn you. About ‘THE TALK”.
Next time: Oh shit.