Silver Springs

Billie anxiously tapped his foot against the floor. His antsiness was bothering me. “What’s wrong?” I asked him.

“I don’t want to be here, this is between you and Mary Lou,” he responded.

We were at the diner. I was scoping out for her. Her mother said she’d moved out two weeks before and that she hadn’t heard from her. We walked into the tiny place and I immediately recognized Mamie’s coworker, Maisy. She stood at the cash register, she looked up and didn’t recognize me, but Billie.

“Hey Billie!” she greeted him. I looked over at him and he froze.

“How do you know her?” I asked him.

“I don’t. Well, I do. Uh, I stopped to say hi to Mamie a couple of times,” he explained.

Maisy looked horrified as I introduced myself. “Hi, I’m Gunnar. Is Mamie around?”

“No. She quit,” Maisy replied.

“What?” Billie and I asked at the same time.

“Yeah, she just called and said she couldn’t work here anymore, said she’d found a different job.”

“Do you know where?” I asked, but she shook her head. We thanked her and exited the restaurant.

“When’s the last time you talked to her?” Billie asked me. He lit up a cigarette and anxiously took a long drag.

“Two weeks ago, when we had sex,” I replied.

He winced and nodded his head. “Alright. Well, I guess all we can do is wait for her to turn up,” he said.

I nodded. He was bothering me and I had no idea why. He had come to see Mary Lou? When? And so then I asked him this. “When the fuck did you come to see her?”

He hesitated. “Not long ago. Just wanted to check up on her,” he finally said.

“Why do I feel like you’re a fucking liar?” I asked.

“Back off, Gunn,” Billie then said with steely eyes, “You’re being paranoid.”

“Don’t tell me I’m being paranoid. Why are you going to talk to her?” I asked.

I felt my chest tighten because it suddenly made sense. It made sense. “You smelled like her,” I suddenly whispered, “Sometimes you smell her Mary Lou, and that flower shit she puts on.”

Billie took a long drag and then threw his cigarette harshly on the ground. I watched him in slow motion.

“You’ve been my friend since we were eleven. Tell me the fucking truth,” I said softly.

“I slept with her. A lot. When we all broke up.” He said it steadily, looking into my eyes. I could even see relief on his face.

And without a second of hesitation, I pounced on him. He was ready for it, but he let me hit him across the face. I pounded into him until I could bear it no longer. He put his hands up and through his own series of punches.

“What the fuck?” I yelled, “What the fuck did you just say?”

“I’m sorry!” he bellowed.

“Not her, “ I groaned as I threw a fist into his ribs, “Not –her!”

Someone came along off the street and pulled us apart. “Take this somewhere else,” the stranger said as he lifted me from under the shoulders, “Or I’ll have to call the police.”

Billie stood up and so did I.

“I’m going to ruin you,” I said and spit at his shoes before turning around and walking away.