The Fall

Paisley

CLAIRE POV

"Hey Claire...If I ask for your help with a small matter, would you promise not to tell me that you told me so?" Sally looked at me sideways as we whizzed through the city streets, taking full advantage of a rare green streak. This was the fourth set of light that her lemon yellow beetle had breezed through between the sea and our apartment building. It was stranger than the entirety of the day so far, lending to my hypothesis that this was all just some sort of fantastical dream.

"Not likely." I answered honestly, still upset at her. Just because I knew she had a fair reason to have lied to me did not necessitate my automatic forgiveness. Especially with these mood swings eating away at my frayed emotional tether.

"What about if I tell you that you are right first, and then tell you why?" Sally asked plaintively, searching for a way to solicit my assistance and keep her pride intact.

"I deem that perfectly acceptable." I answered primly.

"You were right." She managed to verbate through gritted teeth, hissing at the inconveniently placed red light ending her supernatural run through the city streets. It eased a subsection of tension somewhere around my middle, conforming once again to the traffic I knew and hated.

"Ahh, the three little words that lead straight to a woman's heart." I reached over to squeeze Sally affectionately on her neck. "What's up?"

She leaned into my hand and bit both of her lips, gathering words behind them and building suspense. "Do you remember that TA I was telling you about?"

"The one with the something something complex? The guy that you were studying like some sort of dangerous bug in the name of your blog and or term paper?" I asked, thinking back to the last time she had talked about someone new. That was the night at Boatman's Bar that all this tom-foolery had snapped it's jaws around my life, and begun shaking it like a dog with a new toy.

Now I was walking around, ripped at the seams with stuffing showing.

Sally snorted and changed gears with a little more acceleration than was strictly necessary. "Yeah. That one." She waited for me to say something. I waited for her to finish the explanation. Eventually the stalemate broke and Sally poured the rest of the details into the confined space.

She had gone on all of three 'dates' with Mr TA when - as predicted - he began to lose interest. Given that she had predicted the change in behavior, it only bolstered her self esteem. This was when Mr TA realised that something was amiss with his initial assessment of their relationship. In the interests of full disclosure, after being prompted, Sally explained the whole thing to him.

Which was when plan A began to careen wildly out of control. Mr TA decreed that his lack of enchantment with regular women stemmed from his ability to manipulate them. That Sally's behavior thus far had proved her worth in his esteem, and that she was 'The One' for him.

I bit my tongue. Hard. Keeping the words I had promised not to say bouncing inside the chamber of my mouth. They tasted so good, and desired freedom. But I restrained myself, being a better person than I really wanted to be.

Sally continued to detail her predicament.

The ego of Mr TA had not taken kindly to Sally laughing in his face at the proclamation of his intention. Shocked beyond belief that she had never considered him a contender on the playing field for her heart. Literally beyond belief, as in, he did not believe it. Requiring a detailed explanation as to why that was the case, and then determined to make up for it.

"He says all of the right words, lining them up in the most sincere of orders, but it is still just a game for him. The more I pushed him away, the better he behaved. Right up until the point he decided that we were in a relationship." Sally screwed her face into an unflattering configuration, dropped her voice an octave and continued on in mimicry of Mr TA.