Another Now

Lisa Silliard

Carol stumbled into my room with a blank expression on her face the morning of August 3rd. It was evident she had just woken up. Since we were really young, she's always woken up at least an hour later than I do. It's some kind of twin thing, we think.

"Wakey wakey" I joked, half smiling at my still dozed off sister.

"I haven't heard from any of them since Tom told me what happened with Jess and Grace" she blurted out. Her ability to hold a stable conversation while half asleep continued to amaze me.

"And? I don't want to be involved."

"Yeah, but I'm still worried. That night Mikey and I... ended things" she decided to phrase it, "just seemed off to me. I don't know, I feel like my phone should be overflowing with messages about what's going on."

"Maybe nothings going on" I suggested.

The look she gave me told me she most certainly didn't believe that possible.

"Okay, well. I don't know. Call someone, I guess. If you're really that interested in their never ending drama."

"They're your friends too, Lisa. You're supposed to care about your friends. You don't have to be like that cause—" she abruptly stopped herself.

"Cause what?" I demanded.

"Cause of what happened with you and Tom. And that girl. Kaylee."

"You don't need to say her name."

"Seriously, Lise! It was a year ago! Times up! Tom's still your friend. He's mine at least."

"Fine, whatever. I've been over that for a long time now anyway. It wasn't about that until you made it about that."

I could tell Carol was seriously considering it possible, but her short attention span diminished the thought.

"Well, I'm gonna call Barb. See if she knows anything. She is Leslie's best friend. Well, probably. Now that there's no way Grace is."

She trumped off, probably back to her own room and I tried to wash any thought of it from my brain, regardless of how curious I might've been.

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About 12 minutes later, Carol came recklessly running through my door, her iPad tight in her grip. She usually only used it for video chatting.

"What?" I snarled, feeling violated at her lack of respect for my privacy.

"Barb, she's here" Carol said, ignoring my earlier remark.

"What?" I spat for the second time, earning an alarmed look from my sister.

"Tell her, Barb" she ignored me again. I was met with Barbara Keane's blurry face on Carol's iPad. She waved at me from the screen. I reluctantly waved back at her, much to my unaffected sister's delight.

"What's up, girl?" Barb asked me, a proper way to start a conversation. Something Carol could get better at.

"Oh, nothing. What did you guys want to tell me?" I asked curiously, giving Carol a confused, worried glance.

"Carol here was just catching up on the latest gossip. She thought you might want to know too" Barb said, and I shot my sister an irritated look, having clearly expressed my feelings about drama and gossip only moments ago.

"Well,  what then? What is it?" I was aware of his disinterested I sounded.

"You know what happened on the 4th, don't you?" she asked. I nodded.

"Well, I confronted Grace and she totally tried to deny the whole thing. I could see the guilt written all over her. I talked to Leslie a while later too. I'm done with her, too."

"Wait, Leslie? What did she do?" I asked, suddenly curious about the shocking, new information.

"I went over there last week to help her through it, you know, just be a friend and all" I nodded at this, "and she totally freaked out on me because I said she could've been a little less oblivious to it before. She was such a bitch honestly, she attacked me for what happened with my dad."

"What?! No way! That's horrible! Who uses that against someone? Did she really?!" the thought of Leslie Burke making such an insensitive comment seemed extremely ridiculous.

Barb didn't answer immediately, and I thought at first it was due to shame and embarrassment and I felt bad, almost willing to punch Leslie out myself. I glanced at Carol's iPad and noticed her watching Barbara too. She must've not known we were looking when she tossed the grass green pill down her throat and swallowed. Carol and I looked at each other, wide-eyed, mostly to confirm what we just saw wasn't just a product of our imaginations.

"What was that?" I said bluntly. Obviously startled, Barb turned quickly to the camera as casually as possible, but it was too late, too obvious.

"Hm?" she mumbled, playing dumb.

"What was that?" I repeated more harshly. Carol looked mortified.

"What was what?" she continued the act, lying right out to my face.

"That fucking pill, damnit! What else? What was that? Don't lie to me" I glanced at my speechless sister.

"Us" I corrected.

"I don't know what you're—"

"Oh save it. I saw it. I'm not blind. Tell me what the hell it was or I'm going to say something" I threatened.

"Just something someone gave me, okay?" she said, as if it were just a jolly rancher candy she popped in her mouth.

"Who? What? What fucking is it, Barbara? I'm serious!"

She sighed, hopefully admitting defeat, I thought. I held her gaze.

"Marijuana."

"Marijuana?!" Carol bursted, the first thing she said since she saw first it.

"It's nothing, I swear."

"Nothing?! Barb, it's illegal! Illegal activity isn't nothing! You have to stop! Why are you taking that anyway?" I screeched, praying neither one of our parents heard any of what I just said. Carol must've sensed it too, cause she scattered off my bed and closed the door.

"Seriously, it's not a big deal. People do it all the time. It helps you forget the rest of the world for a little while."

"You can't seriously be defending yourself right now. Do you know what that stuff does to people? It kills them, Barb! It's illegal because it's toxic and it fucking kills people!"

"You're overreacting! It's my life!"

"You're under-reacting!"

"I'm not listening anymore."

"You never were!"

"Fuck off!"

"You fuck off! There's no way I'm just going to be okay with being friends with someone who openly and shamelessly does something so awful!"

"Well then it looks like we're not friends anymore, are we?"

"No, I guess not."

I heard Carol gasp, as if just now realizing the intensity of our words. One glance at my sister and when I looked back, Barb had ended the call. That, and both our friendship with her.