Bite Your Tongue

10:02 A.M.
Stevie;;

As glad as I was that Korinne seemed to be dealing well with the upsetting events that had occurred recently, I was starting to worry about her. It had been a little over a week since the fateful call from Brian that had prompted her to get her tongue pierced, and I’d expected her to snap out of her sickeningly good mood once she realized that she had a piece of jewelry in her tongue. I thought that she would freak out and declare that she’d been momentarily possessed by aliens, or something along those lines, but when we’d walked out of the piercing shop, she’d been happier than ever. When she’d been forced to spend the past few days sucking on ice and consuming mostly smoothies, she’d been ecstatic. And she was still ridiculously cheerful, something that completely baffled me.

“You know what we should do after this? We should go ride the London Eye. And then walk around Hyde Park, and take a tour of the Tower of London—”

“Korinne,” I said exasperatedly. “Could you please just shut up and enjoy your pedicure?”

Korinne rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, continuing to flip through a booklet of London’s attractions.

We’d tagged along with my mom to her spa appointment. I much rather would have stayed in the hotel and watched movies all day, but with Korinne’s recent and maniacal determination to visit every tourist attraction in the city, that would have been impossible. Even if I had to listen to my mom complain about what an asshole my dad was, it was still more enjoyable than being dragged around to dull tours of old buildings. She had also booked us a hair appointment for later in the afternoon, insisting that we could all use a little reinventing. I didn’t mind. I just hoped that Korinne wouldn’t do anything too crazy.

“Have you girls given any thought to what you’re going to do with your hair?” asked my mom, giving up on the Danielle Steel novel she’d been trying to read for the past twenty minutes.

“No idea,” I said.

“I think I might dye mine purple,” Korinne declared.

Oh, my God. I gave her an incredulous look. “Purple?!”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Because that’s crazy, that’s why!”

Next to me, my mom chuckled. “Relax, Stevie. She’s got the right idea. It’s summer. Do something out of the ordinary.”

“She already got her tongue pierced. I think that’s out-of-the ordinary enough.”

“It’s not like I’m going to dye it bright purple or anything. Maybe just a dark violet color or something. I don’t know.”

I took a deep breath and let it out. I wanted to leap from my chair, grab her by the shoulders, and shake her, screaming “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”, but that most likely would have resulted in me accidentally kicking my pedicurist in the face, earning reproachful looks from my mother, and causing a scene, so instead I masked my horror and tried to act like the idea of Korinne dying her hair purple made me jump for joy.

“Dark violet is better,” I lied. “Promise me it’ll be dark violet and not something else.”

“I promise.”

“You’re such a buzzkill, Stevie. Let the girl dye her hair fuschia if she feels like it.”

“Not helping, Mom.”

“Oh. Sorry.” She didn’t look the least bit sorry as she rose from her chair and walked carefully—so as not to disturb the polish drying on her toes—over to the wall to investigate the list of services the spa offered. “This is taking less time than I’d expected,” she said. “How about we get a seaweed wrap afterward? Or a mud bath?”

“I’m fine with my pedicure, thanks.”

“What about you, Korinne?” My mom looked at her excitedly. “My treat.”

“Um…” Korinne glanced at me hesitantly. I guess she thought I would object to being forced to spend more time with my mom. But really, as long as we weren’t out getting tattoos or anything, I didn’t care.

I sighed. “Go ahead. Knock yourself out.”

“Yay!” She quickly joined my mom over by the wall. The two of them began to chatter excitedly about the spa’s many pampering possibilities.

With nothing to worry about for the time being, I relaxed in my seat and ran my hands through my hair, letting some of the honey-colored strands fall in front of my eyes. I stared at my hair, frowning. Maybe Korinne did have the right idea. I sure as hell wasn’t going to dye my hair purple, but maybe going a shade or two darker would be kind of fun. I’d had the same hair color for most of my life, and it was about damn time for a change. And maybe getting some wacky spa treatments wouldn’t hurt, either.

“We should so get hot stone massages! Doesn’t that sound like fun, Stevie?” Korinne exclaimed.

That was pushing it, though.

“Absolutely not,” I said.

My mom laughed and directed Korinne’s attention to something else on the list. Instead of dwelling on how insane the two of them were, I began to search for some type of distraction. My gaze soon fell on Korinne’s cell phone, which lay abandoned on the floor near her chair. Hmm…I stared at it for a few seconds before a plan fell into place in my head. If the reason Korinne was acting so strangely was because of Brian, then it was my duty to make things right again, since she obviously couldn’t do so herself. I looked briefly in her direction to make sure she wasn’t paying attention. Then I got out of my chair, and, as silently as possible, retrieved Korinne’s phone. I picked up a magazine with which to shield the phone and got to work.

The idea was so obvious that I wanted to kick myself for not thinking of it sooner. I should have told Korinne to send those inappropriate pictures to Brian the second she’d received them, so he’d have proof of the crazy shit his girlfriend was doing. Better yet, I should have called Zoe and told her to sleep with one eye open in preparation for me coming to kick her ass. I had been so worried about Korinne not being miserable that I’d skimmed right over the obvious things that would have made her feel better and gone straight to “Here, have some wine.” I’d been a sucky friend.

But if my plan worked, I would make up for it, right now.

It took a moment, but eventually, I managed to find where the pictures were stored. I quickly selected the intended recipient, added a snarky caption, and sent the pictures. I returned Korinne’s phone to its previous location, looking up just in time to see her headed towards me. She didn’t seem to notice how shifty I looked.

“We’re going to go see if there are any mud baths available,” she said, grabbing her flip flops. She gingerly slipped them on and pocketed her phone.

I tried to sound excited about being immersed in mud. “Awesome.”

“You’ll enjoy it, honey. I promise.” My mom gave me a reassuring smile as she paid the woman who had done our pedicures.

“Oh, I’m sure I will.”

“Come on!”

Korinne seized my arm, and I allowed myself to be dragged out of the room, hoping that the pictures would make Brian see the error of his ways.

+++

4:23 P.M.
Zacky;;

“Um, Zacky?”

I looked up from the sizzling vegetables in the pan in front of me to see Delia fearfully watching me.

“What?”

“Maybe you should let Brian handle the actual cooking.”

“Why?!”

“Because you’re going to burn that shit to pieces, dumbass,” Brian said.

“Fuck you. I’m doing fine.”

“Then why does it smell like something’s burning?”

I glanced at the pan. Whatever that yellow vegetable was did look kind of burned.

“Fine,” I said. “Here.”

I moved away from the stove and hoisted myself up onto the counter next to Jimmy, who was eating his way through a bag of potato chips. We’d been at Delia’s house since noon, helping her cook lunch for her division of the gymnastics camp she worked at. She’d volunteered to provide a nutritious lunch for about twenty kids, and since she needed the food for tomorrow, she’d asked us to help. Matt was out with his family—I think it was his dad’s birthday or something—and short shit had gotten stuck babysitting again, so only Brian, Jimmy and I had been able to come over. I could tell that Brian wished Jimmy was working today, and that Jimmy wished Brian was home with Zoe, but at least they’d put aside their dislike for each other long enough to save Delia from some stress.

“What else can I do, then?” I asked.

Delia handed me several vegetables, a cutting board, and a knife.

“Here, chop these.” She handed a pre-sliced loaf of healthy-looking bread to Jimmy. “When you’re done, you and Jimmy can assemble the sandwiches.”

“There’s something missing,” Jimmy said. “Meat.”

“These kids are like, eleven. I’m not going to pollute their tiny bodies with unnecessary fats.”

“But—”

“There should be some deli slices of peppered Tofurky in the fridge, if you want to add that in. That’s perfectly fine.”

Intrigued, I hopped off of the counter and headed for the refrigerator. I soon spotted a small red box with the word ‘Tofurky’ written on it, removed its contents, and informed Delia that it looked disgusting.

She rolled her eyes and otherwise ignored me, turning her attention instead to the pot of brown rice cooking on the stove.

Jimmy joined me by the refrigerator. “It can’t be that bad,” he said, peering at the brownish slices. He took one out of the package, folded it in half, and dropped it into his mouth. He spit it out less than a second later, cursing.

“I think I just threw up in my mouth a tiny bit.”

Brian and I laughed. Delia, on the other hand, snatched the Tofurky from Jimmy and glared at us until we had returned to following her orders. Jimmy decided to help me with the vegetables, so he got a knife and grabbed two bell peppers. We soon settled into a comfortable rhythm, with Brian sautéing things for some sort of casserole, Delia obsessively checking the rice, and Jimmy and I chopping the vegetables. Half an hour passed, and then someone’s phone was beeping and Brian was muttering curse words under his breath.

“If that’s a text from Zoe,” he said, retrieving his phone from his pocket, “I am going to smash my face into this pan.”

“You have fun with that, man.”

He gave Jimmy a dirty look before focusing on the screen of his phone. He frowned, and then, after a few seconds, all of the color drained from his face.

“Fuck.”

“What is it?”

He handed me the phone. I ceased all vegetable chopping for a moment and tried to figure out what he looked so upset about. Several pictures of him and Zoe stared back at me, pictures that made me raise my eyebrows. I kept scrolling, though, and eventually made it through the enormous message. Beneath the last picture was a caption that read “YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT. LOVE, STEVIE.”

I refrained from laughing. Brian had told me everything, how Zoe had been upset by the unpleasant message Korinne had left for Brian; how he’d called her to see what her problem was and she’d blamed it on pictures that he didn’t believe existed. I’d told him he was being a dumbass by believing Zoe’s side of the story, but he hadn’t listened to me. And now it was kind of nice to have proof that I’d been right.

“Don’t say ‘I told you so’, Zacky. I will kill you,” he said, as if he’d read my mind.

“I’ll kill you back, dude. Go right ahead.”

“I can’t believe this. I hate myself. I yelled at her for no reason and now she’s probably—”

“Yelled at who? Korinne?”

“It’s none of your business, Jimmy,” Brian spat. “Fuck off.”

“Why’d you yell at her?”

“I said, fuck off.”

“Would someone please explain to me what the hell is going on here?” Delia said.

“Zoe got angry over a voicemail Korinne left for Brian saying a bunch of bad things about her, Brian believed her when she said she didn’t do anything to cause it. He called Korinne and yelled at her. Stevie sent him proof that Zoe’s a lying bitch, and now he’s mad because Korinne probably hates him.” I glanced at Brian. “Did I leave anything out?”

Brian slammed his fist down on the counter, letting out a stream of expletives.

“You’re a dick,” Jimmy said.

“I’m really not in the mood to deal with you, Jimmy.”

“Yeah, well, you’re gonna have to get over that.” Jimmy rose to his full height and cracked his knuckles. “You really shouldn’t have yelled at her. You know how sensitive she is.”

“Fuck you. You barely know her!”

“I know her well enough to take her word over Zoe’s!”

“Do you really want me to kick your ass again?”

“Oh, I have no intention of losing. I plan on kicking your ass, all up and down the kitchen.”

I moved to get in between them, hoping to stop the fight before it started, but Delia got there first.

“Excuse me!” she shouted. “There will be no fighting in my house.”

“Move, Delia.”

“No!” She shoved Jimmy backwards as hard as she could. “My house, my rules. No. Fighting.”

“Delia, he—”

“NO. FIGHTING.” she shrieked. She pushed Brian in the direction of the door. “You! Outside.”

“Why me? He’s the one who started it—”

“OUTSIDE!”

Brian obeyed, grumbling something about going to call Zoe and inform her that she was a filthy liar. Jimmy stared at his retreating back with disdain.

“I hate him,” he declared.

“Yeah, we know.”

Delia whirled on Jimmy.

“You ever threaten someone else in my house again, and I will call your mother, James.”

He rolled his eyes. “Ooh. I’m terrified.”

Raising her eyebrows, Delia grabbed her phone from its spot on the counter. Jimmy’s eyes widened.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I won’t threaten anyone.”

“Good. Now, go sit down until I tell you that you can get up.”

“I’m not some little kid you’re babysitting, Delia; I’m seventeen—”

“GO SIT DOWN!”

Reluctantly, Jimmy went over to the kitchen table and took a seat. He pulled out his cell phone and started to type in a number.

“Did I say you could make a call?”

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“Give me the phone.”

“I’m just calling Korinne to make sure she’s okay!”

Delia looked at him for a few seconds, seeming to consider his answer.

“Fine,” she said. She stormed over to the stove, muttering about Brian and Jimmy acting like children, and removed the cooked rice from the heat.

“That was kinda hot.”

She blushed and looked up at me shyly. “What do you mean?”

“Seeing you take charge of people like that…it was kinda hot.”

Grinning, she set down the pot of rice and moved closer.

“Would you like me to take charge of you, Zacky?”

“Yes, please.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck. We were millimeters away from kissing when Jimmy cleared his throat loudly.

“I’m sitting right here, you know.”

“Then go sit somewhere else,” I said.

“I don’t feel like moving.”

“Suit yourself.”

Shrugging, I grabbed Delia’s hips and planted my lips on hers. She pushed me against the refrigerator as the kiss deepened, which kind of hurt because of the magnets digging into my back, but mostly, it was a turn on. Just to mess with Jimmy, I let out a low moan that wasn’t entirely faked.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Jimmy said, exasperated. He stood up quickly, nearly knocking over his chair in the process, and left the room.

Delia and I laughed before taking advantage of the empty room and returning to our previous activities.

+++

7:15 P.M.
Korinne;;

“I am so hungry. I could eat a person right now.”

“I wouldn’t say that too loudly if I were you, Stevie.”

“Oh, shut up. No one actually thinks I’m going to eat them.”

“Maybe. But there is that guy over there, who is now staring at you like you just broke out of the crazy house.”

Stevie rolled her eyes. “Mom! How long until we can eat?”

“I told you, darling, about fifteen minutes.”

“UGH!”

Laughing, I leaned against the bench we were sitting on while we waited for the hotel restaurant to free up a table and let Stevie’s antics distract me from my own hunger. We’d barely eaten anything since breakfast—the spa only served portions so ridiculously tiny that your stomach didn’t even realize you were eating. After getting our nails done, I’d convinced Stevie to join her mom and I in getting a mud bath. She’d all out refused the hot stone massage, though, and we’d been late for our hair appointment anyway, so we’d simply left.

I was in a fabulous mood. I’d never been to a spa before. All of the luxurious treatments left me feeling refreshed, like I’d just stepped into a new skin. And my new hair color definitely helped, too. I’d gone with a reddish-purple color that was several shades darker than my natural hue. Stevie said that it looked super dark brown until I stepped into the sun; then the purple was more visible. Even if it wasn’t what I’d originally planned on, I loved it. Stevie had gotten a dye job as well, only hers was a warm brown color. She looked gorgeous.

“All I can think about is food. This is torture,” Stevie said. “Do something to distract me.”

“Uh, okay…um…”

The sound of my phone ringing made Stevie squeal.

“Perfect!”

She snatched the phone from my pocket and said hello before I could even blink.

“Stevie! Give me my phone!”

“Oh, hey, Jimmy. Yeah, Korinne’s right here. I was just answering her phone because I’m hungry as fuck and needed a distraction—”

I took the phone from her.

“Hey. Sorry about that. You know how Stevie gets when she wants something.”

Jimmy chortled. “It’s okay. So…uh, how are you?”

“Good.”

“How’s London?”

“It’s awesome.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I tried calling you earlier, but you didn’t answer, and I didn’t want to keep calling and make you think I was some psycho stalker, especially if you weren’t answering because you didn’t want to talk to me.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to talk to you?”

He paused. “I figured you’d be pretty upset after….you know, what Brian did, and that you might not want to talk to anyone.”

“He told you about that?”

“Zacky did.”

“Oh. Actually, I’m fine.”

Liar!

DIE.

“Are you sure?”

“Yep.”

You are so full of shit that it’s practically leaking out of your ears.

I’m ignoring you.

“Really sure?”

“Jimmy, I’m fine. I was sitting in a hair salon for the past two hours; that’s why I didn’t pick up.”

He seemed intrigued. “A hair salon? Did you get a haircut or something?”

“A trim. And a dye job.”

“What color?”

“It’s a surprise,” I said, shocked by how flirty my voice sounded. Where had that come from? I didn’t even know that I knew how to flirt. Especially not over the phone.

The pleasant rumble of Jimmy’s laugh met my ears.

“Oh, okay. Well, you’re gonna have to show me this surprise sometime when you get home. You like food, right?”

“Um…yeah…”

“How about you call me when you get home, once you’re all unpacked and everything, and I’ll take you out to dinner? I figure it’s about time we went on an actual date.”

My jaw dropped. Stevie, who had been sitting abnormally close to me as she listened to the conversation, let out a muffled squeal. I glanced at her, unsure of what to say. I liked Jimmy, there was no doubt about that, but I still wasn’t—and doubted that I ever would be—over Brian. Was it really fair to date Jimmy if my heart wasn’t one hundred percent in it?

Yes. It’s not like he’s asking you to marry him. You’re just dating. Have some fun.

But…

He’s cute, he’s nice, and he’s funny. He may not be the brightest crayon in the box, but he’s a pretty sweet guy. Stop moping around and give him a damn chance.

The rational side of my brain was right. And as if that wasn’t enough motivation, Stevie was practically jumping up and down in her seat next to me, whispering “SAY YES SAY YES SAY YES!”

“Okay,” I said, smiling. “I would love to go on a date with you, Jimmy.”

“Awesome.”

We said our goodbyes and hung up. Before I could even begin processing what had just happened, Stevie was all over me, squealing and jumping up and down and loudly proclaiming how happy she was for me. And, for the first time in what felt like forever, I was really, truly happy for myself, too.