truth in fiction

            “You have breasts,” Trish said, sounding surprised.

            “Damn, Casey; are you secretly a Playboy Bunny and you never told us?” Meghan asked.

“You look amazing, Casey, and that shade of green perfectly matches your eyes,” Stephanie said in an encouraging sort of way.  Of course she found something wholesome about a piece of lingerie.

            “You do look…curvy,” Laura commented.  In her hand, I saw a leopard-print bra on a hangar.

            I grimaced.  “They got you, too?” 

            Laura nodded sadly.

            “Mystic, you have got to buy this,” Trish said emphatically.

            “No way.”

            Meghan looked at me like I simply didn’t understand what was going on.  “Did you look in the mirror?”

            “Yes, but…. Look, I wouldn’t ever wear this!” I protested.  “Besides,” I said, “there’s no way I can afford it.”

            Trish looked at the tag.  “You are in luck, Mystic; it’s fifty percent off!”

            “That’s still forty bucks I don’t have,” I said a little desperately.

            “Forty bucks that works miracles,” Meghan replied.  She grinned suddenly.  “Besides, I bet Adrian would reimburse you.  In more ways than one.”

            “For the last time, can we please not talk about this?”

            “You can’t deny you look hot in it,” Trish persisted.  Behind her, Stephanie and Laura nodded in agreement.

            “Trish, I can’t spend forty dollars on myself at Christmas!  I barely have enough to buy presents for my family.”

            Trish frowned at me and then nodded.  “All right.  You win.”

            I eyed her suspiciously, but she just looked defeated.  A little too defeated.  I headed back into the dressing room, closed the door, and looked in the mirror one more time.  It did look good.  But they didn’t understand that Adrian and I weren’t really dating.  And even if we were, we wouldn’t…do…what they thought we would do.  He was a vampire for Pete’s sake!

            But it did look good.

            I sighed and took it off, putting my comfy, oversized blue sweater back on.  I avoided looking at the mirror again.  When I opened the door, Trish and Meghan had their heads together and were talking quietly, but looked up when they heard me set the Green Thing on the unwanted items rack.

            “So, are we ready to go?” I asked.

            “Actually, I wanted your opinion on something,” Meghan said, grabbing my arm.  She pulled me over to a table that held a half a dozen dismembered legs.

            “Do you like the diamond pattern better, or the fishnet?” she said, pointing to the plastic mannequins.

            “Uhh…”  I wasn’t an expert on hosiery.  In fact, I didn’t have an opinion whatsoever.  But the diamonds looked a little less…hooker-ish.

            “Diamonds,” I said.

            “Really?  Because I also kinda like this pattern…”

            We stood there for another ten minutes talking over the specific details of each different leg until I wanted to scream.  Finally, the rest of the girls walked up to us.

            “Okay,” Meghan said.  “Thanks for your help!”

            “Which one are you going to get?”

            “None of them.  I still can’t decide.”

            I closed my eyes and let out my breath slowly.  I’d forgotten how…draining it could be to shop with a bunch of other girls.  I liked to browse as much as the next person, but I had my limits.

            “Let’s go!” Trish said.

            The rest of the shopping seemed to go by in lightning speed.  Laura kept us moving with her notebook of tasks and we made it to the food court by one-thirty where we all ordered pizza and sat down to eat.  Just as I was about to take my first bite, I thought I saw someone looking at me.  I peered closer and realized that the guy I thought had been staring at me was really just reading a book.  But I soon found three other guys that I swore were looking at me.

            “What did everyone get?” Stephanie asked, breaking my concentration.  I tried to focus on the conversation instead of my paranoia.

            “I got a henna kit for my little sister and a new belt for my dad,” Meghan said.

            “What about your mom?”  I asked the question without thinking and immediately regretted it.

            Meghan smiled at me.  “She bailed when I was five.”

            I felt so stupid.  “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”

            “It’s fine,” Meghan said with a shrug.  “I love my dad and I love Sarah.  That’s all that matters.”  She turned to Jenny.  “What’d you get, Jenny?”

            Jenny looked up, somewhat surprised.  With the light hitting her pale blonde hair from the overhead skylights, she kind of looked like an angel.

            “I got Jack a new Swiss Army knife.”

            It seemed like a perfectly legitimate gift, but in light of what may or may not have happened to her a few weeks ago, it seemed ominous, and I couldn’t quite suppress a shiver.  She didn’t say anything more, and there was an awkward silence for a few moments, which Trish gladly filled.  

            “Well, I got my parents a new DVD player; our old one broke.  I got Paul a new case for his rifle.  For Mark, I got a new dart-board.  For Jimmy, I got a flask with his name etched on it.  They’re all in college,” Trish said when I looked at her quizzically.  “Paul’s the oldest, he’s about to graduate, and Mark’s a junior.  Jimmy’s a freshman and he’s getting married this summer.  I told him he’s crazy, and he just smiled and said he was in love.  Speaking of love, well, let’s just say I got Ben’s present at our first stop.”

            Meghan made an “oooh” sound.  I was confused.

            “Wait, Ben?  As in, our class Ben?”

            “Yep.  We hooked up about a week after the party.”  Trish smiled at me happily.

            I still couldn’t wrap my mind around it.  “The big guy that never talks in class?”

            “As far as I know, there’s only one Ben at school.  And don’t tell anyone, but he’s a real sweetheart under all that muscle.”

            I couldn’t believe she’d been dating somebody for close to a month and I hadn’t known.  I’d been stuck inside my own world so much that I hadn’t even noticed that my sort-of best friend had been interested in someone.  She’d never said a thing about it.

            “…all this yarn, because they just learned to knit and they’re going crazy making scarves, so I’ll probably be getting some very pink home-made things from them this year, but they’re my sisters and I love them.”

            I’d completely missed the first part of Stephanie’s list while thinking about Trish and Ben.

            “And I also helped my dad pick out this necklace my mom’s been wanting for forever, but they don’t want us to spend money on them, so I didn’t buy my mom or dad anything.  I’ll probably just clean the kitchen after Christmas dinner.”

            Stephanie smiled, and I wondered if she really was a Christmas spirit, come down for the holidays to encourage all us selfish mortals to be a little more giving.

            “What about you, Casey?” she asked, breaking my reverie.

            “Um, I got my cousin this old copy of Black Beauty because she’s into horses.  And I got my aunt a new iron because our old one is about to bite the dust.  And I got my uncle a bunch of wool socks.”  For some reason, no one looked like they thought that was a crazy gift idea.

            “Yeah, my dad’s always running out of them,” Trish said.

            “When you’re outside working most of the day, they get worn out pretty quick,” Meghan agreed.

            “They’re nice.  Like, Scottish wool or something,” I mumbled.  I still felt bad for getting him socks, but he’d said he needed them.

            “What did you get Adrian?” Stephanie asked.

            “Oh,” I said, realizing that I’d completely forgotten him.  “Uhh…”

            Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Meghan flinch, like she’d just been kicked under the table. 

            Trish smiled at me innocently.  “I’m sure he’ll just be happy to see you on Christmas.  He seems like the selfless type.”

            “Yeah,” I agreed warily.  She was up to something.

            “Is there anywhere else anyone wants to go?” Stephanie asked.

            “I’m finished shopping,” Laura said.

            Everyone else said they were done, too.  I felt bad not getting something for Adrian, but I couldn’t think of anything at the last minute, and it seemed like everyone wanted to leave.

            “I’m done, too,” I said.

            We stood up and gathered our things before heading out to the car.  The sun had disappeared and it looked like it might start snowing again.  We all crammed in again, throwing our purchases wherever they fit.

            “I feel bad not getting Adrian a gift,” I muttered to myself a few miles down the road.  I thought I’d spoken quietly, but apparently Trish heard me.

            “Well, Mystic, we thought that since you’re so poor and all this year, and Adrian’s so…Adrian, that we’d buy his Christmas present for you.”

            All the blood drained out of my face.  “You didn’t.”

            Trish grinned.  “We did.”

            She looked very proud of herself.

            “We?” I asked in disbelief.

            “Yep, all of us.”

            I turned to Jenny.  “Even you?”

            She smiled a very small smile.

            Meghan turned around from the front seat looking very self-satisfied.  “And we’re too far away to go back and return it, and it was clearance anyway, so you can’t return it.”

            I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing.

            “You okay Mystic?”

            When I was sure I wouldn’t kill anybody, I opened my eyes.  “Thank you, guys.  I appreciate your…efforts…on my behalf.”  Either they missed the sarcasm or they chose to ignore it.

            “Don’t forget to tell Adrian we said ‘Merry Christmas.’”

            I smiled tightly.  “I’ll pass that along.”  Over my dead body.

            “Look guys, it’s snowing again!” Stephanie exclaimed from the driver’s seat.   Everyone looked out their windows, and I took the opportunity to sink into the seat and close my eyes.

            “Do you really not like it that much?” I heard someone ask quietly.

            It was Jenny.  We’d ended up sitting next to each other in the back seat.

            “It’s not that,” I said with a sigh.  “It’s just…we’re not…”

            Jenny nodded.  “That’s okay.”

            I smiled at her tiredly.  “Thanks.”

            She never talked, so I kind of expected that to be it.  But she surprised me.

            “Just because people think that you’re supposed to do something doesn’t mean you have to.”

            She wasn’t looking at me anymore, just staring out the window at the snow.

            “Jenny…” I began, not knowing how to phrase it tactfully.  “You don’t have to answer this at all, but…I heard…things.  About something that happened at the Halloween party.”

            She smiled at me calmly.  “None of them were true.”

            I nodded, still curious about what was true, but not willing to push her for further details.  I did ask, “Are you okay?”

            She blinked a few times and went back to staring out the window.  “Some days I’m okay.”

            “Is…is Jack okay?” I asked tentatively.  That might be a line she didn’t want to cross.

            She was so still she looked frozen.  Her deep blue eyes seemed to be made of stone.  “Jack…is still very, very angry.”  She said it so quietly I almost couldn’t hear her.

            I looked down at my hands.  “Y’know, Jenny, if you ever need somebody to talk to, I’m here.”

            She didn’t answer.  My own thoughts were drowned out by the sudden blast from the speakers.  Everyone besides me and Jenny burst out into song as Christmas music played over the radio.  It was a long drive back.

            When we pulled up to Stephanie’s house, a familiar black truck was parked in the driveway.

            “Hey Mystic, isn’t that Adrian’s truck?” Trish asked as we parked.  Just then, Adrian got out of the truck.

            “Yep,” she said, answering her own question.  “Don’t forget to tell him to have a merry Christmas.”

            “I won’t,” I said between gritted teeth.

            We piled out and Trish stuck the Victoria’s Secret bag in my hand.  With flaming cheeks, I went around the passenger side of the truck and climbed in, the bright pink sticking out like a sore thumb.  Adrian started the car, and backed out of the driveway, but glanced occasionally at the packages lying at my feet.

            “What’d you buy?” he said with the hint of a smile on his face.

            I stalled.  “Just some socks and an iron and a book.”

            “Really?  I didn’t know Victoria’s Secret sold irons.”

            I crossed my arms over my chest in a classic five-year-old move, my patience almost at the breaking point.  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

            To his credit, I think he tried his best to suppress a smile, but he didn’t quite succeed and it was enough to throw me over the edge.

            “Y’wanna know what I got at Victoria’s Secret?” I asked on the edge of hysteria, ripping at the bag.  I pulled out the Green Thing and held it in his face.  “This.  I got this.  No, I didn’t get this, they went behind my back and bought it for me.  No!” I corrected myself again.  “They bought it for you!”  My voice was getting shrill.

            “Casey,” Adrian said calmly, “I can’t see the road.”

            I took the Green Thing out of his face and slumped in my seat, staring at the road in a sort of shell-shock.

            “I take it shopping was a bit…stressful?” Adrian asked in the same calm tone.

            I kept staring in horror at the road.  “They wouldn’t stop talking about it.  How am I supposed to answer those types of questions?  You’re the hottest guy in Warren County and now they know I’m not sleeping with you.  So they’ve taken it upon themselves to see to it that…well…and then they started talking about home runs and bases and ‘tell Adrian we said have a merry Christmas,’ and I thought I was going to scream.”

            I heard something from my left and looked over.  Adrian had one hand in front of his mouth, trying, unsuccessfully, to muffle his laughter. 

            “You think this is funny?” I asked him in a low, dangerous voice.

            He glanced over at me.  “Case, you gotta admit—“

            “I had to try this on,” I said in the same low tone.  “Do you know how hard it is to hook that many clasps?”  I didn’t wait for him to answer.  “Really hard.  And now they expect me to actually wear it.  For.  You.”

            I went back to staring at the road in shock.  We were coming up on the ranch.  “How am I going to get it into the house?” I whispered in horror.

            “Casey,” Adrian said in that calming voice of his.  “I don’t care what you tell those girls.  If it makes it easier, tell them that you wore it.  Tell them that I liked it.  Tell them whatever you want.  In the meantime, I have a bag you can put it in.”

            He parked and handed me a brown, unmarked paper bag.  I stuffed the Green Thing in it and scrunched down the top so there was no chance of anyone looking inside.

            “Thanks,” I mumbled, and opened the door.

            “Oh, and Casey?”

            I turned back to look at him before shutting the door to the truck.  He smiled at me.

            “Tell the girls I said ‘thank you.’”

            I slammed the door shut as I lugged the Green Thing and my other Christmas presents into the house.

            He would pay.