Tongue Tied

As soon as I had came home from sitting at the rink all day in hopes my concussion would some how magically go away, and I would be magically allowed back on the ice Alexa put me to work.

Since there was some swimming competition all day at the pool, I had spent the day milling around CONSOL in hopes of getting into some kind of trouble, but trouble didn’t seem to be able to find my way.

The table was set, dinner was waiting, and I was very confused as to why I was sitting- blindfolded, no less- in a nice shirt and slacks. As soon as I was sat down, Alexa bound out of the room, and said she’d “be back in a jiffy.” I should have known I would be in some kind of trouble when I heard the front door slam shut after she left.

I should have realized I was up to my neck in trouble when she came back in the house and I heard Alexa speaking softly to an obviously unwilling, and irritated Caroline, who wasn’t quite keen on having an evening.

“Alexa, my sisters are back home… I’m sure if my mother came back right now, she’d be pissed as hell to see her two six year olds marking up her freshly painted walls, and spilling juice on the rug.” I chuckled as they got closer and closer to the dining room.

“Calm down, once I get you all settled I’ll go back for Re and Bella.”

“What did you drag me over here for anyways?” Apparently she was left out in the dark- literally, because when I lifted the blindfold off my eyes just slightly, she also had a piece of black fabric across her eyes.

“I told you, it’s a surprise. You’ll love it. I just know.”

“The last time somebody had a surprise for me--”

“Just shut up, Caroline and take off your blindfold. You too, Sidney.” Alexa instructed us, and once Caroline’s was off, she was more than surprised.

“Alexa--” She began, eyeing me first. A slight tinge of pink was on her cheeks. I couldn’t tell if she were blushing, or hot with anger.

“Now I know you told me not to meddle a bunch… But I’m fourteen, and I know true love when I see it--”

“You’ve never seen us together, Lex.” She reminded her all the while I sat silent.

“Still.”

“Alexa, I seriously have to get home.”

“Not until you have dinner with Sidney. Now I took a lot of time to make this nice and you are going to sit here, for me at least.” Alexa pouted, and for the first time, Caroline looked me straight in the eyes.

“So help me god, Alexa, if something happens to my sisters I will hold you personally responsible…” She meant it too.

“Nothing will happen. Now will you please enjoy your date?” Date? I thought this was dinner… Not a date… Not that I was complaining or anything.

Finally Caroline complied, and whispered something to Alexa as she began to walk away. I didn’t hear much of it, but before she left the room- assumingly to go get Caroline’s sisters- she spoke.

“I promise.” She grinned, sending me a wink real quick.

Teenagers.

~~~~~

Dinner was… awkward wasn’t the exact adjective I would have used to describe it… more like different.

“She’s crazy,” Caroline finally blurted out while I took a bite of my salad. Besides typical pleasantries, we hadn’t spoken much more. “Absolutely insane. She came into my house and is all ‘get up, we’re going over to my house, here’s a blindfold, put it on’ and then trapezius me over here without a word.”

I started laughing. Maybe it was the glass of wine I had just drank that was started to make me feel a little warm, but it was such a damn funny statement.

“Stop it’s not funny!” She pleaded, obviously the wine beginning to get to her too. Her pleading and begging caused me to laugh more, and when my laugh hit the derpy, almost girl pitch; she began laughing- loud and raucous.

“It really is though. Because I came home from the rink today, and she told me to go pick up food at the local Italian place, Vinnie’s, and then I come home and she went into my closet and laid out this whole outfit for me, told me to shower, and blindfolded me too. I didn’t know what the hell was happening.” This made her laugh even more. So now we sat, in the formal dinner room all dressed up with good Italian food, and strong French wine, and laughed about how Alexa was basically setting us up.

“She told me she was going to set us up yesterday. I told her not too. Not to bother.”

“Why not?” In a way I was sort of hurt by that statement. She shrugged, and I noticed the ring she wore a couple of days ago wasn’t on her left finger.

“I don’t date anymore.”

“That’s too bad.” Again she shrugged.

“To each it’s own.” She replied back wistfully as she grabbed a roll out of the basket and took a bite. “What?” She asked, looking back at me. In a trance, I must’ve been staring at her. “Do I have something on my face?” I shook my head quickly.

“No, just dazing out into space.” It happened quite frequently, actually. Now especially since I had my concussion. One minute I was there, the next I was in some far off land thinking about nothing.

She laughed, and this time it sounded honest, and good.

~~~~~

“Okay, my turn!” She cried in between bites of Alfredo. We were on our sixth round of two truths and a lie, and so far I found out: her favorite band were the Spice Girls, she had two tattoos (but wouldn’t tell me what they were or where they were), and her secret was she liked to bake. The ‘lies’ were sometimes ridiculous, crazy and goofy, but the whole point of the game was to keep as close to the truth as you could in order to keep the other person from guessing correctly.

“I wanted to be Ariel from ‘The Little Mermaid’ until I was in ninth grade… um… red isn’t my natural hair color, and my favorite color is sea foam green.” She grinned. I thought immediately the first was a lie.

“Little Mermaid is a lie.” And I thought I was correct.

But I wasn’t.

“Nope. Hair color.” This, honestly surprised, since I was a master at this game and usually guessed correctly. “I am naturally a dirty blonde… Kind of like Hilary Duff, but I dye it red.”

“Why?” Hey, inquisitive mind.

“I used to get teased when I was younger because I swam and the chlorine turned the tips of my hair green, and no matter what my mom did it always turned and so I told my mom in seventh grade I was going to dye my hair red… and it stuck.” I tried to picture her as a blonde… but I just couldn’t. She looked way better as a red head.

She pointed her glass towards me and I began to rack my brain of things I could say.

“If I didn’t play hockey I would be a firefighter… I didn’t have a girlfriend until I was almost twenty-two and I hate pizza.”

I knew I had her stumped. She tapped her chin and let out a giggle.

“Girlfriend?” I shook my head.

“Pizza.” I replied back.

“You’re joking?”

“No, I hate pizza.”

“No about the girlfriend.” Of course I should’ve known she’d ask about that. She was a girl.

“100% serious. I’ve went on dates, and stuff… but nothing serious. I never had much time for it. When she broke up with me I realized how much I liked having another person around to share my life with besides my family…” Now I was being a sentimental fool. I hadn’t thought about Sarah in a long time.

“What happened?” She asked, hiccupping. I knew it was probably the alcohol speaking, which was why I answered the question… or should I say the alcohol answered it for me.

“She cheated on me… We didn’t get to spend much time together, I guess… So I probably should have seen it coming.” Her face melted a little bit.

“I’m sorry.” She replied, and I shrugged. It was all old news.

“But, if you got to ask about my past relationship… What’s up with the ring? One day you wear it, the next it’s off… What’s up?” She simply sighed and shook her head.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” And I left it at that, because for some reason, I think she was really being honest.

~~~~~

“So I had a really good time tonight,” I grinned as I stood on the front porch of Caroline’s house. After we had finished up our dinners and deserts, Alexa had taken her younger sisters back over to Care’s house, and put them to bed, leaving us time to continue our game.

“Me too.” She smiled. It was warm and inviting.

“So I have one more for you,” I grinned trying to not get too far ahead of myself. She raised her eyebrow. “I think you’re beautiful, you’re lovely to be around, and I really, really want to kiss you right now.”

Before I could even let her answer or respond, I just dove right in to kiss her. I knew if I didn’t keep my balls together I probably would have never done it, so bing, bang, boom, done. When I finally pulled myself away from her- she tasted of tiramisu and vanilla- I saw her standing in front of me, crying. A deer in the headlights look was on her face, but I seemed to be able to look past that. She was crying.

“They were all true.” I finally said as she looked like she was about to break down right on the porch. She shook her head, and quickly hightailed it on her feet back in her front door, slamming the red piece of wood in my face.

I had kind of fucked up.

Big time.