Your Teeth In My Neck

Don't They Know it's the End of the World? It Ended When You Said Hello.

"Who is that?" Eliza was slurring when she pointed vaguely across the patio.

"Uh Harry Bingham? The guy who owns this house? You met him like 30 minutes ago?" Ali Pressman answered her younger friend with a roll of the eyes.

"C'mon don't be a bitch, I mean the guy he's talking to." Eliza reiterated, "Mr. Tall dark and menacing." Ali stiffened a little.

"That's my cousin Campbell. Campbell Eliot." She responded coldly, starting to regret inviting Elizabeth in the first place. She always hated to admit when Cassandra was right but as per usual, that's the way it was turning out. She took another swig of her drink, "Don't even think about it dude, not a good guy." Eliza just shook her head and giggled lightly.

"Trust me, you needn't worry." She glanced over in a different direction momentarily, "He's been eye fucking Maggie all night." Ali followed Campbell's gaze and then his steps. The eighth grader had her bare feet dipped in the pool, forcibly producing a smile for the people around her while she clutched her own arms in the oversized military sweater she was wearing, "That's who you shouldn't have invited my dear ."

The two watched as Campbell approached. At the door Harry had taken to Maggie straight away, maybe a little too eagerly in his whisky-addled state. But Campbell had always liked to stretch things out. The group around her dispersed when he squatted down next to her by the pool and whispered something in her ear. Maggie looked up curiously with wide eyes and leaned in closer to hear more. Then she took her feet out of the water and he grabbed the discarded pair of sandals next to her with one hand and took hers with the other, pulling her away into a crowd obscurity. Elizabeth touched Ali's shoulder suddenly, meeting her gaze seriously for the first time all night, her expression etched in worry even through the alcohol, "Why did you say that he's not a good guy?"

Ali looked back at Maggie now, sitting at one of the back pews of the church. Campbell had his arm around her. She hadn't seen her without him since she had started high school. Her hand was caught tightly in his from where it hung just below her collarbone. After a fateful dinner with her extended family, Cass had tried to assuage her guilt, reiterating multiple times that the match wasn't her fault. Ali'd been friends with Eliza almost all her life, they'd grown up as neighbours, sandbox soulmates. How was she supposed to say no to an extended invite for the sweetheart do-gooder whose father was serving overseas?

Cassandra and Ali were laughing with Sam in the living room while their parents had kept the brandy and desert for themselves in the kitchen. Campbell entered nonchalantly. Cass turned sharply. The smiles faded.

"What?" He smirked, "Where'd all the Family Matters bullshit go?"

"Ali told me what happened with that girl at Harry's party." Cassandra bristled, "That's fucked up Campbell even for you." Sam shook his head very sternly at his cousins, knowing what was inevitably coming but Cass continued, "She's a vulnerable kid and you took advantage of her." Campbell furrowed his brow for effect as he sat down next to her slowly.

"You mean Maggie?"

"Cassand--" Sam tried to speak up but Campbell cut him off.

"You know I actually have to thank Ali. I never would have met her if it wasn't for you bringing her to the party." He smiled into every word, "Maggie's perfect. I mean she's a tight eager virgin with daddy issues. Did Elizabeth tell you that Al? How she gets on her knees and begs to go down on me? You think I'm ever going to let her get away?"

"He spends every second out of school with her. It's not just sex. He cares about her." Sam signed to his cousins frantically. As if it could prove that it wasn't what they thought, wasn't what he got off on them thinking, or maybe that it didn't make his stomach turn every time he got home from school and saw his brother's bedroom door lock. Campbell regarded Sam with pure disgust but just shrugged.

"Sure, maybe I'm madly in love." He said, "Just like how Will feels about you right Al?"

The whole congregation fell into cover when the gunshot went off.

"Well. Fuck this." Campbell announced. He had pulled his girlfriend up with him and pressed her face into his shirt as he spoke. She shook a little as he held her but wasn't sure if it was from fear or excitement, "Harry's right, no one elected you king, cousin. Anybody vote for her, did they? Anybody elect her to speak on their behalf? No?"

"I don't want to be king." Cassandra stuttered.

"That's not what it looks like, is it?"

"Hey." Campbell said. Maggie's feet were getting numb from being in the cold pool for too long. The people around her were drunk and vapid but she knew her friend had brought her here to cheer her up so she tried her best to pretend, "You're unhappy with the ordinary. I can change that." 

He was beautiful.