Let's Play Pretend

IX. A Little Slip-Up Part 2

Middle-End of Day Five 

She stared at me in shock. How could this be? I saw her this morning. She was sitting next to Arin at the counter, normal as ever. Her wide, worried eyes flicked back and forth between me and and Andrew. I looked over to him then. He looked just as shocked as I did. He knew about James. I'd told him. 

Finally, I worked up the nerve to say something. 

"Lucy?!" I couldn't keep the shock out of my voice. 

"Oh, um, hi...Charlie." She nervously tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. I clenched my fists at my side, my nails digging into the skin of my palm. 

"Can I talk to you in the other room, please?" I asked through clenched teeth. Andrew placed a warm, soothing hand at the small of my back and traced small circled with his index finger. 

"Baby, maybe we should calm down a bit and all take a moment to breathe," he whispered...rather loudly. 

"What? Do you two know each other?" George piped up in his British accent that made me want to hit  him right then. 

"Oh, yeah. We know each other," I hissed. Lucy flinched and looked at her coral painted toe nails. I didn't know why I was getting so worked up about this. It wasn't even my relationship that was ruined. 

It just shocked me so much. James was one of my friends too. I'd know him almost as long as I'd know Arin. We all went to grade school together. Sure, he'd been one of the jocks who'd only talked to me when proven necessary. But he'd always been one of the kinder ones. Plus the fact that he and Lucy had been together forever was something. Since the beginning of high school! 

They were the power couple of our school; of our town,. Almost everyone knew about them. You were most likely going to be stared at if you didn't know who they were. 

Lucy's face had gone white. She was biting her llip so hard that I'm sure she had to be drawing blood. Her fingers stretched and twisted the hem of her tank top and the bow of her-my-pajama pants. 

"Lucy," I repeated. "Can I talk to you?" After a moment, she nodded smally and followed out of the kitchen and into the bedroom connected to the kitchen. I pulled the door shut behind us. As soon as the door was shut, I grabbed her arm and yanked her towards me. 

"What the hell are you doing?!" I snapped, trying to keep my voice down. 

"You're hurting me," she whimpered. I looke down at my hand on her arm. Without knowing, I had indeed been digging my nails into her forearm. 

"Sorry," I murmured and loosened my grip but didn't let go entirely. I pulled her over to the bed and made her sit down with me. 

The bed was messy. Clothes were strewn across it and blankets were amuck. I looked over at Lucy. Tears were beginning to collect in her eyes. 

"Really...Luce...why would you do it? Why did you do it?" She sniffed and wiped at her eyes. She shrugged. 

"I don't know. I have no idea."

"What about James?" She was crying in earnest now. On instict, I watned to put my arm around her and tell her it was okay. But it wasn't. 

Through her sobs, she managed to answer my question. 

"I love him. I love him so much. And he knows that. I know that he loves me too." Now I do comfort her. I took her hand and let her rest her head on my shoulder. 

"We had a fight last night," she whispered into my shoulder and sniffled again. "You were with Andrew last night; I didn't want to pull you away from him. Arin was out...so I went to Taylor. She took me out to some party...I got drunk. I met George. I didn't know what I was doing I don't even remember what that stupid fight was about." She curlced into a ball and rested her head in my lap.