Splitting Pearls

That night we said goodnight to our last guest a little after midnight. Rhea and I stood for a moment in silence, basking in the calm. Caleb walked into the room, kicking a can out of his way so that he could stand with us. Our place was wrecked.

“Is it so hard for people to clean up after themselves? Imagine what would have happened if we had let anyone get half as drunk as they wanted to be,” I complained.

Rhea and Caleb exchanged glances. “Let’s not worry about the mess tonight,” Caleb said softly, putting a hand on my arm. “I think we all should talk.”

That placating tone instantly had my back up. I scoffed. “Please. If we do need to talk, it can wait until morning. I’m inches away from falling asleep here where I stand.” Another glance was exchanged. My scowl deepened. “What?”

“Flo, honey, you’re a little out of sorts, you know? The last time you were this wound up we were in high school and you’d just sat in gum at a dance.”

I took a deep breath. Perhaps I was a little tenser than usual, I conceded silently. Could you blame me for it? Look at what I was putting up with. They were acting like I was some sort of porcelain doll, like I’d break if I had the slightest bit of stress put on me. “I’m just tired.”

“We all are. I made more coffee. Do you really think we’re going to bed tonight? Caleb has to catch us up on his life and I seem to remember plans being made a couple of hours ago for a Lord of the Rings marathon?” Rhea’s voice was measured. She was trying not to rile me up further.

“Right! Lord of the Rings!” Caleb put in with false enthusiasm. I rolled my eyes, huffed.

“Please?” And then, just as though they had planned this conversation out, Rhea and Caleb both rearranged their expressions into their most pleading, big-eyed pouts.

“It’ll be a sign of weakness if I let that work,” I pointed out. They kept at it. I tried to wait them out- no way could they stay like that for very long. I really wasn’t strong enough to resist for very long, though. I was terrible at dealing with silence. It made me itch. “Fine. I’ll make the popcorn.”

“No way!” Caleb protested. “You always burn it!” He ran into the kitchen and started rooting around for the popcorn. I left him to it. Our kitchen was way too small for him not to find it easily.

“It’s Killian, isn’t it?” Rhea asked me quietly. I stared at her. “I mean, he’s kind of needy,” Rhea continued hastily.

No way was I responding to that right now. Good thing I had the perfect subject change. “I think we need to go on another road trip,” I said. “Please.”

Rhea studied me for a solid minute before her face broke out into the most brilliant of smiles. “That’s perfect! Goodness, we haven’t gone on any trips since spring, and that one hardly counted anyway.” She was referring to the time that we had tried to go to D.C. to see the Holocaust Museum, but had gotten lost and hung out at a beach in Maryland for the weekend instead.

“Of course that counted. I mean, at least we made it somewhere.”

“But the museum!” Rhea protested. A trace of the selfsame pouty face from before made an appearance and I had to laugh.

“Well, why don’t we try going there again? Or maybe we could try having no destination at all? That’s always sounded like a lot of fun. I mean, I’m pretty sure it only works out in the movies, but I’m willing to give it a shot if you are.”

Rhea considered. Caleb walked into the room carrying two gargantuan bowls full of popcorn. He froze. “Are we having this marathon or not?” he asked.

“Of course we are! Flo’s decided that we should take a trip. You could come,” Rhea explained. She headed over to our DVD case and dug up the movie.

Caleb tried and failed to hide his concern. “Is that really a good idea?” he asked.

“Of course it is! Trips are fun! Besides, they can be life changing. I could use some change,” I said. “I mean, look what happened when we took that New York trip, Rhea. It was the start of your relationship with Reed.”

Rhea laughed. “What? No way. That was the night he lied about having a girlfriend, remember? We didn’t get together for months after that.”

I shot her a no-nonsense look. “Please. I don’t care if you two realized it, that was definitely the start.” Rhea shook her head, smiling. I knew that she still disagreed, just as I knew that she wouldn’t keep arguing. That was close enough to a victory for me.

We settled down on the couch with every blanket in the apartment piled on us because everything was cozier that way. Rhea lit a couple of unscented candles and we sat quietly through the opening of Fellowship of the Ring.

When Merry and Pippin set off Gandalf’s fireworks, Rhea jolted, almost turning over one of the popcorn bowls. “Watch it!” Caleb protested.

“Sorry. I just had this idea. We should go somewhere with fireworks!”

“Genius,” I said, grinning just as widely as she was. “We’ll just look up firework shows and go wherever the internet leads us.”

Now, maybe this sounds like sarcasm, but I assure you that I was being entirely sincere. Spontaneous, that’s what this would be. Heck, maybe we would even get into the car with our bags loaded in before we even figured out our destination. How much better a road trip could you have?

“Really, ladies?” Caleb put in. He shook his head, amused. “I think I forgot just how... how absurd you two are. You have no idea how much I missed you.”

“Aw, Rhea, you know what I’m hearing? That Caleb wants a hug!” We smiled at each other for a heartbeat before tackling him as one. He struggled against us and we were engaged in general silliness until the part in the movie where Samwise is caught eavesdropping.

“Look, just look at how excited they are to be leaving!” I said. “That’s going to be us soon. Let’s go next weekend!”

“Excited? Frodo looks terrified,” Caleb pointed out.

“Okay, yeah. But Sam? He’s fantastically excited.”

“Underneath the trepidation, you mean?”

This was said sarcastically, a fact that I chose to ignore. “Yes! Now he gets to see elves! Hey, Rhea, we should go somewhere with elves. Maybe a renaissance faire?”

Rhea considered. “Do they have elves? I don’t think so. Just lords and ladies and faeries. Besides, there aren’t any fireworks at those places.”

I shrugged. “We’ll work it out later.”

The conversation ended there, until a final revelation was made by Rhea, one that changed everything. “We should bring the band.”

Rhea’s decision to include the band had several ramifications. It led to an immediate epiphany for Caleb, who remembered that his parents had just bought an RV a month ago. “I know they won’t mind lending it to you, Flo. You know that they love you. They got a big one for when we have family reunions. It’ll fit everyone no problem.”

I sat, stunned for a minute. Did they not realize the gaping hole in this plan, that it would lead not only to me being on a trip with Marcus, but being in a confined space with him for hours on end? Rhea was quick to accept though. “That’s perfect! I knew there was a reason we were friends with you. But of course you’ll come along too, Caleb. You can’t imagine we’re going to go off without you.”

Caleb and Rhea beamed at each other and, as one, turned to me. Rhea’s smile faltered. “Flo? You okay?” I avoided her gaze but saw the realization break across her face through my peripherals. “Oh, honey. It’s Marcus, isn’t it? Okay, we won’t bring the band. I wasn’t even thinking. It would have been nice for us to make a little tour out of it, that’s all. We’ve been talking about trying for a couple of weeks now and... I got ahead of myself.”

“No, don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine.” The words were out before I had much of a chance to think about it and I regretted them immediately. I saw how relieved Rhea was, though, and I couldn’t take them back.

“You’re just saying that to be nice. You know how much I hate when you do that.”

“Of course you don’t. Besides, I’ll be fine. Really. He and I have been working on staying friends.” Finally, something I said was true. We had been trying to keep up our friendship... or I’d thought that’s what we were doing. Rhea told me last night that he was back in town. Now he had been around for over a day and he still hadn’t bothered letting me know. “Why hasn’t he called me?”

Rhea frowned. “Marcus?” I nodded.

We were all silent for a moment before Caleb got up and announced, “I’ve seen this look before and I know what the usual solution is. I’ll be back with ice cream.”

Caleb had to know that we were both past being full and into the part of fullness where you are absolutely convinced your stomach will burst. I thought that maybe he was just trying to give us a minute alone. I was grateful.

Rhea chewed her lip for a moment before answering. “I think he wants you to call first. Look, he wanted to come see you yesterday, right after he got in. I stopped him. I wasn’t sure whether you’d want to see him. Then I told him about Killian and he...”

I held my breath, waiting for the end of that sentence. She didn’t say anything more, though. “Oh.” I did feel a bit better knowing that he had wanted to see me.

“Are you sure you can travel with him? I won’t be hurt, won’t judge you for saying no.”

“I’m fine. Just... Don’t mention it to the guys before I have a chance to talk it over with Marcus.” Every word was sinking me deeper. I hoped that I came off more confident about this than I felt. If nothing else, I would just tell Rhea tomorrow that I’d talked to him about it and we had mutually decided not to push our friendship that way yet. Rhea nodded, Caleb returned with bowls of ice cream, and we went back to watching the movie.