Episode 23 (8.2)
November 26, 2008 05:50 PM
* * *
Jillian leapt up as the door opened. Alicia held it open; then tried to softly shut it. Jillian coughed to alert her that her mother was standing there. “Hi, mom.” Alicia asked softly.
“That’s all I get, hi? You never come home last night and all I get is a hi.”
Alicia leaned against the door, staring down at her feet. “I’m sorry, I fell asleep at the Hathaways.”
“I know, Carleen told me.” Jillian watched her, arms crossed.
“I didn’t mean to. I was upset and I ran out into the garage and-” Shane came, Alicia omitted. “I woke up in the morning, I guess I fell asleep. I’m sorry, mom. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Jillian sighed and drew her daughter into a hug, “I know, you didn’t mean it. I was just worried, baby. Please don’t worry me like that.” Alicia allowed her mom to hold her; and she stayed enveloped in those arms, fighting back the urge to softly cry. Jillian pulled back and looked at her daughter. “I know last night was terrible, but I love you. I love all of you and sometimes I go about it-”
The door opened, cutting off Jillian’s speech. Isabel walked in and paused when she saw her family.
* * *
Jason sat in Levon’s Beans, staring out the window with a cup of hot chocolate. Carleen was walking by, carrying some decorations that she was preparing to pack away. She paused, placed them down on another table, and sat across from Jason. “Hello, Jason.”
“Hey, Carleen, how are you.” Jason smiled warmly, although he continued to look distracted.
“Well, I have this entire place to clean up,” Carleen dramatically waved her hand around the room, “But beyond that I cannot complain. Yourself?”
“It’s Saturday. Favorite day of the week for teachers everywhere.” He took a swig from his cup.
Carleen broached the next subject carefully, “How is your mother doing?”
“As expected,” Jason responded, glumly.
“When we dropped her off last night, Abby and I were worried. She was only beginning to calm down. We waited with her until she fell asleep, I was going to stay long-”
“No, that was enough.” Jason smiled, “Thank you for that. I think everyone in the family was dealing with their own drama last night.” Carleen glanced at Jason oddly after his comment. She was about to inquire further, but Jason continued, “Did Alicia stay with you all last night? She never came home.”
“We found her sleeping in the garage this morning. Luckily it’s heated.” Carleen shook her head, “Levy ended up carrying her upstairs. Lynne drove her home a little ago.”
“Well, that’s one less thing for mom to worry about, at least.”
“Jason, are you ok?” Carleen asked warmly.
“Sure, why,” Jason tried to reply cheerily, but he wasn’t really selling it. “I mean last night’s show was definitely embarrassing, but overall, everythings copacetic for me.”
“I don’t mean to pry, but it just looked like something might have been bothering you.”
“Nope, nothing. Thanks for asking though.” Something caught Jason’s eye and he turned his head. Carleen followed his eyes and saw a young man walking towards the shop. She remembered seeing him the night before; she turned to ask Jason his name and caught the young man watching him. Following his move with a look that was a mixture between happiness and apprehension.
Darren paused outside the window when he saw Jason, who quickly looked away. Carleen watched Darren stare for a moment, seem to hesitate, than march towards the entrance to Levon’s Beans. He came in and headed right over to their table. “Jason.”
“Hey, Darren.” Jason glanced up, feigning surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for you,” Darren admitted. He nervously glanced at Carleen, still sitting across from Jason.
She reached out a hand, which Darren shook. “Hello, Carleen. Darren is it?” Darren nodded. Carleen rose from her seat, “It seems like you two have something to talk about, so I’ll let you be.”
Jason’s eyes grew wide, “You don’t have to leave, Carleen.”
“We just work together,” Darren quickly added.
Their quick, nervous reactions were enough clues for the intuitive Carleen. She gathered up the decorations, “I wouldn’t be able to follow along with your teaching conversations, anyway. Besides, the shop isn’t going to clean itself. Jason, tell your mother to call me when you get a chance.” She leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek, then smiled at Darren, “Lovely meeting you.” Carleen walked off, leaving the boys in their wake. Darren and Jason nervously looked at one another.
* * *
“Isabel-”
“I’m here to get my things. I’m going to be spending a few days at Misha’s.” She made a move to quickly head up the stairs.
“I’m sorr-”
“You’re sorry? Maybe when Julio speaks to me again, that’ll matter mom. Or when I don’t look like an idiot in front of this entire town. Until then, you can keep your sorrys.” Isabel didn’t meant to spit those words out so venemously. They just flowed out. The shock on her mother’s face didn’t really comfort her, but Isabel was to proud to apologize.
She stormed up the stairs. Alicia, glanced at her mother, then ran up after her sister.
* * *
“Iz, wait.”
Isabel turned. “What.”
Alicia paused, collected herself and then spoke. “I slept with Shane last night.”
Isabel found herself actually surprised. She grabbed Alicia and pulled her into the closest room, Allan’s. “What?”
“It was after you,” Alicia looked down. “I was upset and he’s going through stuff and it just happened.”
“Have you ever, isn’t this your?”
“First? Yea.”
“Did you use protection?”
“I’m on the pill. Beyond that, it was his first too.”
“Or so he’s told you.”
Alicia looked up, “Iz, I’ve been Shane’s friend since elementary school. His first girlfriend just broke up with him because he wanted to kiss her. Shane was a virgin.”
“So what now?”
“I don’t know.” Alicia confused, “What do you mean?”
“Well, do you like him? Do you want to be with him?”
“No.” Alicia shook her head, “It was a mistake. He must have realized it was a mistake, because apparently he left while I was sleeping.”
“He was probably just confused.” Iz didn’t really believe that.
“Yeah, confused as to how we could be so stupid to get into this mess.” Isabel groaned and dropped unto Allan’s bed. “What do I do?” She grabbed her head, trying to fight back tears.
Isabel heard Misha’s advice ringing in her head. Looking at her baby sister, however, that advice faded away. There wasn’t time for games. “Call him. Tell him you want to talk. You’ve been friends for to long to just pretend that nothing happened. Deal with it.”
Alicia bit her lip, “You think it’ll work out.”
“If he cares about you, it will.”
* * *
Tucker walked into the dorm, carrying their mail. Lee glanced up from his computer, an im conversation on his screen. Tucker plopped down and began to seperate their stuff into piles. As he did, he looked up at his roommate. “So how did it go?”
“What go?”
“Don’t play me, man. How did your date with Regina go!” Tucker laughed.
“Well.”
“Well? Did you get laid.” Lee shot Tucker a look.
“That doesn’t happen on the first date for all of us, Tucker.”
“Hey, I usually wait till the third or fourth. Then I just lose interest after.” Tucker seemed contemplative for a moment, but it a moment that swiftly passed. “Did you at least get a kiss.”
“Yes,” Lee begrudingly admitted.
“Nice man! You’ve definitely got some game going on there bud.”
Lee rolled his eyes. Tucker stood up, holding a large manilla envelope. “This is addressed for you, man.”
Lee glanced at it. Then he leapt up and raced over, snatching it out of Tucker’s hands. “Do you know what it is?”
“Uh, something that’s making you really excited?”
“This is it, Tuck. This is my letter! I’m going to find out if I have the internship.” Lee held back the envelope, staring at it nervously.
* * *
Molly looked up from her knitting at the sound of her phone. She grabbed the mobile and looked at the number, perplexed. She answered, confusion in her voice, “Hello?”
“Molly?” The voice on the other end was male.
“Yes?”
“It’s Tyke.” The name did nothing to relieve her nerves. In fact, Molly dropped her needle and yarn unto the floor.
“Oh, hey, what’s going on.”
“Didn’t save my number, huh?” She could sense his smile from the other side. So she lied.
“Of course I did. I was just busy.” She glanced down at the scarf she was making, “Cooking.”
“Nice, what’re your making?”
“Stew.”
“That’s pretty swee-”
“I really should get back to it, don’t want it to burn. Text me later!” Molly hung up the phone. She felt bad and her brother, walking by the room, glanced at her oddly.
“You ok?” Shane asked.
“I’m fine,” She replied coldly.
“Sure, whatever. I’m going out with Alicia. I’ll talk to you later.” Shane walked out; Molly was turning off her phone. She picked up her needle and prepared to start once more, but instead found herself staring blankly forward at her phone.
* * *
“You can sit,” Jason motioned to the chair across from him.
“Oh, thanks.” Darren sat down, then proceeded to stare at his hands. Jason sipped at his hot chocolate, attention intently invested in the swirling chocolate. Darren coughed, then started, “Thanks again for the ri-”
“You know what, don’t.” Jason suprised himself with the hostility in his tone. Darren looked around, perhaps afraid that he was in for a McCaulley scene of his own. Jason, however, managed to stay calm. “I get it. Back at your place, with your girlfriend, you didn’t want to sa anything, but I am not going to pretend.” Jason glanced around, then dropped his voice to a whisper. “You kissed me.”
Darren bit his lip, “I know.”
“What’s up with that?”
“It was an experiment.”
Jason fought back the hurt. “An experiment?”
“Yea, I was kinda in a bad mood and since we’ve met, you’ve been a pretty capital guy. I’ve never really been friends with a gay dude before, so I kinda-”
Jason raised an eyebrow, “I never told you I was gay.”
“I sorta guessed,” Darren admitted.
“So you thought you’d try out a kiss on the gay dude.”
“Don’t read anything into it man, please.” Darren continued to chew on his bottom lip as he spoke. “It was really dumb of me and I totally don’t want to lead you in. I really love Samantha and I would never want anything to come betwen us. Can we keep this between us.”
“Darren, I don’t kiss and tell.” Jason tried to smile, but he felt a little queasy inside. “So what now?”
“What about it, the air’s clear, right? We’re cool.”
“Yeah, I guess we are,” Jason lied.
“So then we just stay being buds.” Darren clapped Jason on the shoulder. Jason smiled weakly, but for Carleen, watching from the distance, it was obvious the way he was staring at Darren. Jason was falling for him.
* * *
Alicia and Shane sat on a swing set, slowly moving back and forth. He dragged his feet on the ground, while Alicia moved back and forth, half-heartidly putting in some effort. She glanced over at him, “So did you end up getting any sleep last night?”
“Not really,” he admitted.
“I apparently passed out at some point.”
“Yeah, I know.” Shane looked down at his feet. “I was leaving and I saw Levy, so I told him you’d fallen asleep. We got you upstairs without waking you.”
“He didn’t mention.”
“I asked him not to.”
The swing creaked repeatidly above them. Alicia sighed, “So, we going to talk about this.”
“If you want.”
“We usually talk about everything.” She replied.
“We don’t usually have sex.” Shane responded.
“I was really upset last night, Shane.” Alicia stopped swinging. “Everything that went down with Isabel, it bothered me. Made me think about stuff with my family.”
“So you’re saying that you didn’t want to.” Shane sounded slightly hurt.
“No, what I’m saying is that I was . . . that we’re friends. Best of friends. I don’t want anything to come between that.”
“I wouldn’t either,” Shane admitted. “I think I’m screwed up with Keira. I don’t know if I’m over her yet.”
“It’s only been a week and change.”
“Exactly. I think maybe both of us were looking for something.”
“Comfort.”
“Something like that.” He glanced at Alicia, “Can we, like, not let this screw up everything. Let things get all weird and stuff?”
“I would like that,” She admitted.
Shane shuffled over to her and pulled her into a sideways hug. Alicia rested against him; she didn’t mention anything she’d talked with Isabel about. And in Shane’s arms, sitting there, she couldn’t help but feel an odd sense of comfort, of wanting to stay. When he pulled away, she couldn’t help but wish he put his arm around her once more.
* * *
Carleen pushed one of the boxes back into the garage. As she closed the door, she found Levy standing behind her. He handed her a boquet.
“What are these for?” Carleen took the flowers, surprised, but slightly suspicious.
“You did so much work yesterday, I wanted you to know that it was appreciated. I know that when I opened this shop, I promised that it wouldn’t impact your life at Stella’s. But you took vacation time to make it possible. I want to thank you for making it a success.”
Carleen leaned in and kissed her husband. “I love helping you and Lynne. Don’t ever think that either of you are a burden on me. Besides, a vacation from women screaming at me about clothing sizes or returns is a vacation well spent, no matter where it is.” Levy smiled and hugged his wife. She snuggled into his shoulder, he looked off into the distance, feeling conflicted.
Posted at 11/26/2008 by beck | Comments? (0)