Bliss in all its Purity

FIFTEEN

"I should probably tell you what I know about Tim," said Brandy.

I looked away from her, keeping my eyes on her blue bicycle she had parked behind the building.

"Me and him have some history."

I looked up at her in surprise. "Did you two...?"

"Yeah, we dated. He was fourteen and I was thirteen. You see, he joined our friend group after his parents died. He had always known who we were, just never approached us. We knew he'd come around. Our group is full of broken people." She looked at the sky, and it seemed like she was thinking back to all of the memories. "We watched him sulk. He'd sometimes cry behind the building of our middle school. He was in eighth grade at the time, and some people thought it was pathetic that he was acting the way he was. He was even bullied."

I looked at the ground. I couldn't imagine other kids putting James down.

"After a week, he'd had enough. He punched some guy and broke his nose. Tim had to stay home for a while and do his school work there. But he never actually worked. He always snuck out of the house - Valerie never seemed to care - and that's when he found us hanging out in the woods."

Brandy smiled at the thought, and then pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She offered me one, but I shook my head, eyes wide. After she took a drag, she went on with her story.

"I was in love with him... well, not really... I was just thirteen. Every girl that age thinks they're falling madly in love when they like a boy. He seemed to like me, too. He asked me out only five days after knowing each other. We were really happy. Stupid children, but happy. While we were dating I turned fourteen, and we were the same age. That's when I started experimenting."

I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering what she meant.

"I started holding his hand, and he seemed fine with it. Pleased, actually. Then we started hugging goodbye, and I know this sounds stupid, but it was a big step for us. I would rest my head on his shoulder when we sat down. His face always flushed, but he never said anything. Then I tried to kiss him. He became really timid after that."

I leaned back against the building, wanting to hear more.

"I remember it like it was yesterday. It was probably two o'clock in the morning, and it was my first time over at his house. I had snuck in. We were in his small room, The Twilight Zone on his TV. It was some episode about a woman who kept seeing the same hitchhiker over and over again on a road trip."

I smiled to myself. I had seen that one.

"I looked at him, and he was looking at me. I thought it was the perfect time. I leaned in, but he jumped off his bed. He said he wasn't ready, and that we needed a break. It had only been a month. The thing is, after we broke up, we couldn't imagine getting back together. We were best friends. He's like a younger brother to me now, which is odd because he's older. But that's what it feels like."

I crossed my arms, thinking back to me and James' conversation in the woods. "James said you guys got involved in some drugs, and that's why you're not friends anymore."

Brandy tilted her head to the side, crinkling her nose. "James?"

I blinked, and then realized she didn't know. "It was, um, the name he called himself when he came to my school."

Realization lit up behind her eyes. "So that's how you guys know each other." Then she rolled her eyes. "He probably just said that because he didn't want to talk about the whole money situation." Brandy shivered. She was probably cold in the clothes she was wearing.

"James - or Tim - told me that he was supposed to get the money anyway. It was a deal you guys made," I said.

Brandy put her head down, looking embarrassed. "I know. The thing was, we loved pranks. And, hell, we were good at them. That was what we were planning to do to him. Dare him to do something and give him a pretty good amount of money in return. We told him we would give him $500, even showed it to him. We had it in a jar." Brandy looked up, her face unreadable. "One of our friends just took the money from his parents and was planning to put it back. It was going to be a prank we'd never forget..."

She looked off into the distance, a frustrated look on her face.

"Except, some bastard actually took it," she spat. "You can't trust anyone anymore."

"It wasn't Ja - I mean Tim." Saying "Tim" felt weird on my tongue.

Brandy gave me a small smile. "I don't care if you call him James. And I'm sorry for the way I treated you in the bathroom. I was really pissed off because I was sure Tim had done it. I had trusted him for so long. We were so close," she said quietly.

I just nodded, not knowing what to say.

"We should probably go back to him," she said.

Again, I nodded, and we walked back to the front of the building. James was leaning against his car, staring at the ground. When he heard us, he looked up with a worried expression.

"If you think we were talking about you, we were," said Brandy, moving to stand beside him.

James deflated. "What did you tell her?"

"The past. Me and you. I felt like she needed to know," said Brandy.

James turned to me. "What did you tell Brady, you know... about all of this?" he asked.

"Just that we met at my school," I told him.

"And my guess is that you two are running away together for some reason," said Brandy.

James and I both nodded. Then Brandy gave me this look, a look that let on that she understood exactly why I was running away. I just turned the other way.

There was some awkward silence for a minute, and then Brandy broke it.

"So, do y'all mind if I tag along for a while?"