One More Time Left to Say Your Goodbyes

I woke up to the noise of the toilet flushing. I rolled over and rubbed my face, seeing Charlie come out of the bathroom just a few feet away. I sat up and looked around me, seeing Casey on the couch. I stood up and walked slowly out the front door. I was greeted by the sound of chirping birds and the sun blazing down on me like I was a fucking ant under a god damn microscope. I squinted my eyes and grabbed my cigarettes out of my pocket, lighting one up. It didn’t take long for the cigarette smoke to attract Charlie, who came outside and sat down next to me, sighing loudly. I handed her the cigarette that I had already started puffing on and lit another one, not saying a word to her.

We sat in silence for a few minutes and when Charlie had half her cigarette left, she let out a long stream of smoke and then coughed loudly.

“My fucking throat hurts.”

“You probably got stem.”

“Stem?”

“The stem of the plant.” I said, looking over at the wall. “Shit’s pretty harsh sometimes.”

She nodded. “Does the stem get you higher?”

I snorted, blowing smoke out my nose. “No. Lacing it makes you higher.”

“Lacing it?”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Charlie. You act like you’ve never done drugs before.”

She laughed. “I haven’t. I told you guys that last night. I smoke cigarettes, not weed. Not crack, not meth or whatever the fuck else all you crazy bastards try. That’s it. Just a little bit of the street and some rat poison.”

“All the power to you.”

She was quiet again for a while. She took one last drag and put her cigarette out. “Did you hear anything last night?”

I turned to look at her. “Hear anything?”

“Yeah, like any noises?”

“What?” I scoffed. “The fuck are you talking about? Noises like what?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Just noises.”

“You must’ve been fucking gone last night. Holy shit, Char. No I didn’t hear anything. Me and Case stopped smoking and then you and Ronnie went into his room to smoke some more and we just put in a movie and passed out. You were tripping.”

She ran her hands through her hair and stood up, putting her hands on her back and stretching. I could see the hemline of her underwear sticking up from her jeans. I reached out, innocently and grabbed them, snapping them against her skin. She jumped back like I’d fucking burned her or something.

“Hey, calm down.”

“Did I give you permission to touch me? Fuck Max, you think you can just reach out and grab my fucking underwear?”

“God damn, Charlie. I was just fucking around with you. I do that shit to Ronnie all the time, you don’t need to freak out about it.”

I stood up and went around the corner of the stair case without bothering to listen to anything else she had to say. I hated being around her sometimes. She was always treating me like a big piece of shit. Like I was always trying to touch her or pull one over on her or fucking making fun of her or something. It was annoying. Sure, I’d spent the first couple of days being an asshole, but you’d think she’d realize that I was over it by now. I didn’t want her. I had Casey for right now and plenty of other girls once I was back on tour.

That was one thing that had changed in Charlie that really bothered me. She seemed to think that everyone was out to get her lately. That everything revolved around her. Fucking her boyfriend being all crazy and shit, she just had to get all of that out in the open, she was convinced that Ronnie wanted her ass (which he did, but she thought that even before it was obvious), and she’s convinced that I’m stupid enough to try and mess around with her while Casey is just around the corner. Maybe if Casey was down the street I would try it out. But I already did that, and it didn’t work out so well, therefore I didn’t understand why she was still going at that.

I walked through the front door and Ronnie was in the kitchen, wearing only his boxers. His body was halfway in the fridge and he was digging all the way towards the back of the shelf to get something to drink.

“Thirsty?” I laughed, leaning against the counter.

He finally was able to pull out an old glass of beer that had probably been in there for ages. He cracked open the top and took a long pull on it. Once he swallowed, he set the beer on the counter and looked towards me. “Charlie out there?”

I nodded. “Yeah, she was out there smoking with me.”

“Casey’s still passed out on the couch.” He laughed. “You know, I got out of bed and tripped over Charlie’s shoes. I’m pretty sure I yelled as loud as I could and she didn’t even wake up.”

“Yeah, she could probably sleep through a fucking bomb.”

I turned around to look at her when the front door opened up and Charlie walked in the apartment. She plopped down on the couch at Casey’s feet, grinning when Casey groaned and sat up.

“Holy fuck, Charlie. Why do you have to sit on me, I’m trying to sleep.”

“It’s like noon.” She mused.

“Yeah, hey.” I looked at Ronnie. “Can I borrow your car? I forgot that Casey and I need to stop by my mom’s later to see her and later is in like half an hour.”

Ronnie looked at Casey and Charlie, then back to me. “When are you guys bringing it back?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, we won’t be gone too long.”

“Are you going to drop Charlie off at the apartment?”

“No, I wasn’t planning on it. Can’t she hang out with you for a little while?”

He grinned stupidly, looking over at Charlie. “I wasn’t saying she couldn’t hang out here. I was just wondering if you were planning on bringing my car back tonight and if not, if you were taking her home.”

“Why would you give a fuck?” I snapped. “She might as well live with you anyway.”

The whole room got really quiet and Ronnie took another sip of his beer. “The keys are on my dresser.”

I walked quickly into his room and grabbed the keys. By the time I was back in the living room, Casey already had her shoes pulled on and was waiting by the door for me. We walked out to the car and I jammed the keys in the ignition, starting the car. Casey pulled down the mirror and licked her finger, fixing her smudged make up.

“Charlie’s bags are in the back if you wanted to change or put on some extra make up or anything.” I said, mostly for the sake of conversation.

“I can’t believe we got all fucking stoned last night and forgot that we were supposed to be at your mom’s today.” She laughed.

“Well I don’t think she’ll notice.”

Casey was quiet for a couple minutes. She unrolled the window and opened the jockey box, then dug around in the console, and finally rummaged around the backseat, finding a pack of gum and jamming a piece in her mouth.

“Want some?”

I nodded, grabbing a piece from the pack. “Did Monte and Robert drive home last night?”

“Yeah, they came down after a couple hours. They smoke more than everyone else, so they’re used to it. But they left a little after you fell asleep on the floor.”

“So you just stayed up and watched that movie all night?”

“Yeah, I did my best to sleep through Ronnie fucking Charlie.”

“What?” I said, stopping short of hitting the car in front of me. “Ronnie and Charlie had sex last night?”

She laughed. “That they did. All fucking night.”

I tried to hide the anger surfacing. Of course that’s why Charlie asked me if I’d heard any noises last night. She wasn’t fucking tripping, she was trying to make sure I didn’t hear her getting her brains fucked out by Ronnie.

“Fucking disgusting.”

Casey turned and looked at me. “Why is that disgusting? What’s wrong with them having a little fun? I mean, Jesus Christ Max, Charlie just got out of that fucked up relationship with Alex and her and Ronnie really like each other.”

“Ronnie hurts everyone.” I snapped. “He’s gross.”

“Shut the fuck up, Max. You are the one that goes around fucking every girl you see!” She yelled, rolling up the window as we pulled up outside my mom’s house.

“Yeah well you’re the stupid one that stays with me. Fucking Christ, you’d think you’d fucking get it and you’d dump me.” I laughed harshly. “Apparently I’m the best you’ve got.”

“Oh I’m sure I could find someone better than you.”

“Oh yeah, like who? Ronnie?” I paused. “You going to be just like Charlie? Start out with me and move on to Ronnie? Is that what you’re going to do Casey?”

She turned and looked at me, “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Remember my abused girlfriend, the one with the fucked up dad? The one that I stole from my best friend? Charlotte?”

“You piece of shit.” She seethed. “Are you fucking kidding me? You fucked my best friend?”

“No, I didn’t fuck her. Ronnie fucked her.”

Tears started rolling down Casey’s cheeks now. And now I looked like the douche bag. I wanted Charlie to look bad. But not only had I let the jealous side of me come out, but I had been a complete asshole to Casey and then outed not only Charlie, but myself.

“I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me.” She cried.

“Yeah, some great best friend you got there, huh?” I laughed. “Get out of the car, my mom’s going to be pissed if we’re late.”

And just like that, her tears stopped. I walked around the other side of the car and grabbed her by the hand and we were fine.

For right now, everything was fine.