Last Girls

7

"I'm sorry," Angel said. "Sometimes people fuck up in relationships. And we're friends; I shouldn't be a dick to you about it."

Alan was standing in the hole they'd been digging downwind and downhill from their campsite, and paused a moment to ask, "Why do I sense that there's an overly-exercised, possibly waxed but coming?"

"Because you used to peek at me in the showers?" Angel offered. "Or because there is. I'm not always the most attentive guy, but what I've come to know over time is that sometimes that doesn't matter,because if you're too close to something you still might not notice things that are obvious to people just passing by.

"So let me start with what I know about you. You want to make everybody happy. It causes you psychological pain when the rest of the group is split on where to go for lunch and you have to break a tie. If I had to bet that's what happened with Kelly, that there was some other girl whose heart you couldn't break, and you were trying to make them both happy.

"But you can't. Because what people want- most people, anyway- is fidelity. They want you to be theirs, lock, stock and barrel. That knowing that you are consumed with them, is a big part of what will make them happy. And I don't have a vested interest. Kel's a big girl, and she'll survive with or without you. And you're my friend,too, and you'll make it. But I don't want you together if it's not going to make both of you happy, and I don't think any of us win if someone is either settling or going along to get along. Because neither of those things can last, either.

"The takeway, though, is I've seen how you are, with Kelly, with Denny, hell, even with me. You're a people pleaser. But you can't prioritize everyone in your life, and pretending you can is lying to them, and yourself. You have to decide who you want to make happy- the person making happy would make you the happiest, and focus on that. Or even decide that you need to focus on yourself, instead. But you're not just going to lose Kelly if you keep it up- you could end up losing just about everyone. Except me. I could give a shit, and I like having a scrawny friend to stand next to."

Alan reached out a hand, and Angel helped lift him out of their hole. "I'm pretty sure this entire heart to heart was designed solely so you could make me dig most of the latrine."

"Quit your bitching. You could use the workout."

"We all don't have to look like the love child of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno."

Angel scrunched up his nose. "I don't like veins. Big, rounded muscles, but definition, nope."