Love and Conspiracy

A couple weeks had passed and surprisingly Tre and Kat managed to maintain their relationship. However, there was still something mysterious that I just didn’t like. Chris and Mike seemed to be somewhat fond of her as a girlfriend for Tre; Billie Joe clearly didn’t give a fuck what was going on, while Jess and I couldn’t stand her.

“Have you noticed that every time she comes over, she spends most of her time just staring at Chris and Mike?” Jess said as we sat in the backyard.

“Oh, believe me, I’ve noticed,” I scoffed, “It seems like she hardly pays attention to Tre at all. Yet, he stills seems to treat her like a goddess.” Jess shook her head.

“I don’t like it, Luce. Not one bit,” she answered, picking at the grass on the ground.

“Don’t like what?” Billie’s voice interrupted from behind. He sat next to us on the ground and lit up a cigarette.

“Oh, you don’t wanna hear about it. Its girl talk,” Jess replied. He slightly shrugged before blowing out a puff of smoke. “I’ll be right back,” she said abruptly, leaving us outside. We sat in silence for a couple moments.

“So when’s your next show?” I asked, changing the topic.

“This Saturday, actually. It’s at a house party,” he said, taking another drag from his cigarette.

“Who’s party?”

“Some guy that Tre is friends with. You’re gonna come along, right?” he asked, playing it cool.

“Love to,” I said with a smile. He awkwardly smiled back.

“I’m working on a new song that we might play that night.”

“Oh, yeah? Can’t wait to hear it,” I replied. He let out a chuckle and scratched the back of his head.

“Billie! Get your ass in here! It’s time to make some baby-making music!” Tre yelled from the back door. He sighed before getting up.

“Talk to you later,” he mumbled so low that I almost didn’t catch it.

I sat outside, relaxing in the cool breezy shade for at least ten minutes before Jess came back out. She plopped down next to me where she was before.

“That shower was very much needed,” she said.

“No kidding, you were starting to smell,” I joked, waving my hand in front of my nose.

“Shut up,” she joked back, laughing. I laid down on the ground so I could get a better look at the cloudy sky above.

“Jess,” I hesitated, “I miss talking to Billie.”

“Weren’t you guys just talking though?” she questioned, taking what I said literally.

“That’s not what I mean, silly. Like, I miss being able to talk to him about stuff that’s going on and not being awkward about it; I miss being his friend,” I admitted. She lay down on the ground next to me.

“Well, what’s stopping you?”

“I’ve pushed him away for so long now that I don’t if he’d wanna be close again.”

“You’ll never know unless you just do it. What’s the worst that can happen?” she said. I bit my lip as I pondered the thought.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am. When am I not?” she teased. At that moment, we heard the back door open. It was no other than Kat. She stood there, not saying anything.

“You can join us,” I yelled, somewhat rudely to her. She slowly made her way towards us.

“Why are you guys lying in the dirt?” her annoying voice asked.

“Because we like to get dirty,” Jess joked. I looked over at her before we both started to laugh. Kat gave us a disgusted look.

“Are you guys going out, or something?” she asked, bluntly. The laughter immediately stopped.

“Excuse me?” Jess said, clearly hearing her the first time.

“Like, are you lesbians?” Kat continued, with her stuck up attitude.

“Yeah, how’d you know? We’re gonna convert you next,” Jess said, obviously pissed off. I playfully hit her.

“No, we’re not, thank you very much. Haven’t you noticed that she’s dating Chris and I’m dating Mike?” I answered.

“You are?” she asked, “I just figured that you liked to flirt around.”

“You know what, you can get your ass back inside if you’re gonna talk to us like that,” Jess outburst.

“Sorry, I was just telling it how I see it,” she said, non-sympathetically as she walked back
towards the house.

“Who the hell does that bitch think she is?” Jess said angrily, once she got back inside. I shook my head.

“Just let it go. Tre’s the one who likes her; that’s all that matters,” I said, knowing there was no way to get rid of her.

“Ugh, I have no idea what he sees in her. They must have some pretty damn good sex if he wants to keep her around!” Jess said, letting up a little bit. I laughed.

“Yeah, that has to be it.” Little did we know, she was still listening to us from the kitchen.

~~~

“She called you guys lesbians?” Billie said with a laugh, “That’s fucking hilarious.”

“Yeah, well Jess wasn’t too happy about it,” I said, pouring myself a cup of water.

“Neither of you even look like the lesbian type, no offense,” he said as he sat down at the kitchen table with me, “She was probably just trying to push your buttons.”

“Well, it worked. I thought Jess was about to rip her head off,” I said, giggling about the incident myself.

“Eh, don’t worry about it. Tre’s relationships never last long, so she’ll be outta your hair in no time,” he said. I slowly nodded.

“Yeah, I guess we’ll have to see how that plays out.”

Thus far, Jess had been right. As soon as I opened up with Billie a little more, he did just the same. Although we weren’t talking about anything too serious, it was still better than nothing. Plus, I think it was easier for us to do since Mike was at work and we could talk alone.

“So, what about your relationship status?” I asked awkwardly, “Have any girls you got your eye on?” He was silent for a moment.

“Now you wanna talk about things with me again? What happened to ‘we shouldn’t be close since I’m with Mike’?” he mocked me, “Questions like that seem to fall in that category.” A pain of guilt shot through me.

“I’m sorry; I don’t know what got into me. I was just being really selfish and wasn’t thinking clearly at the time,” I said, avoiding eye contact, “I realize how stupid that was to say to you because you were a really great friend to me. But I mean, if you don’t want to accept my apology, I totally understand.” I felt completely vulnerable, knowing my plan had failed.

“Well, yeah. That really fucking sucks to have someone just drop a friendship like that. I just don’t get how you didn’t want anything to do with me and completely avoided me for this long, and then all of a sudden, everything is just fucking peachy perfect in your mind and you can ask me something like how my relationship status is,” he stated, angrily, “Especially when you know that’s a rough topic for me in the first place. So, if you’re just gonna kick me to the side and ignore me again after this conversation, then you’re damn right I won’t forgive you!”

“I wasn’t gonna do that, Billie,” I said quietly, fighting back the tears as much as I could.

“No? Then what the hell is this, Luce! You just expect our friendship to go back to normal again after all this time?” he yelled, becoming just as emotional as I was. That was the last straw; the tears started to pour out of my eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” I barely whispered, “I don’t know what else to say.” He remained silent as I continued to let the tears roll down my face.

“Dammit, don’t cry. That’s the last thing I wanted to happen,” he said softly.

“I’m sorry,” I said, getting up and heading towards Mike’s room. Before I could make it past him, he quickly grabbed my wrist and stopped me from making it any further. He looked at me as I pathetically tried to stop myself from crying. However, in one swift movement, he pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly. I immediately felt comforted against him.

We stood there for at least a full minute, just hugging each other while I cried, before he finally said something to me.

“I forgive you, Lucy,” he whispered.

“Are you sure? I don’t blame you if you don’t,” I quietly muttered into his shoulder. He pulled me away just enough so he could look at me.

“Yeah. It just hurt enough the first time, that I want to make sure it won't happen again,” He said, a smile forming on his face. My mouth quivered into a small smile, itself.

“It won’t. Thank you,” I whispered, wiping away the leftover tears.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, hugging me once more, “It’s in the past now, so we can forget about it. Alright?” I nodded against his chest.

After I completely contained myself, we sat back at the kitchen table across from each other. I figured that it would still be awkward after that little scene, but surprisingly it wasn’t.

“To answer your question from before,” he mumbled, looking down at his hands, “No, I don’t have my eye on anyone. I’m terrible when it comes to relationships.”

“Well, I guess it’s nothing to stress about. The right person will come along eventually,” I lamely attempted to comfort him. He let out a small laugh.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Hell! Don’t you have girls falling for you all the time?” I asked. He chuckled.

“No, I think you’re mistaken there. A lot of them find me to be an asshole, which I’m not denying. Most girls just aren’t worth the effort to even waste my time with. That’s why I’m so rude to people all the time.”

“Well, I’m a girl aren’t I? You ‘wasted’ your time caring about this friendship, so why not try the same for another girl?” I questioned, causing him to look up at me.

“You’re different.”