The Death Card - Part 3

Here's the third part of "The Death Card." Now we see the infamous Max from his point of view, and it's not pretty...

Apparently, calling Jake a dumb blonde was a bad idea since Shelley immediately slapped me. In the cold air, it didn't sting that much, but the shock was enough to make up for the lack of pain. She looked pretty damn furious, flicking some piece of paper at me before walking to her front door and going in without another word.
I picked up the piece of paper she had thrown at me; it was the two of hearts. At first, it made no sense, but then I remembered an incident when Freddie pulled a similar card out of his wallet when George was being annoying. More annoying than usual, that is. For some reason, he shut up after seeing it; they called it the Death Card or something. I didn't really need to know the story behind it to know what it meant. One thing I've always been proud of is the fact that I know when to cut my losses and book it, but for some reason that little talent had failed me where Shelley was concerned. The card reminded me of that.
Instead of trying to appeal to Shelley again, I thought, fuck it, and left. I didn't get very far before I heard someone shout my name from behind. Thinking Shelley had changed her mind, I turned around right away. But it was just her roommate, Alice. Great.
"Hey, Max, what are you doing around here?" she asked. Her voice was always just a little too peppy for me. The only good thing about the fact that Shelley wanted to us to hide all the time was being able to avoid Alice. She was cute enough, but I wasn't into brunettes.
"Just walking home. I happened to be passing by."
"Really? Well I'm going in the same direction. Mind if I walk with you?"
Perfect. Now I had to make small talk with her until she went on her own way. But I always thought of myself as a gentleman, so I said, "Sure."
"Awesome!" she said, then started chattering on about something or other.
I wasn't really paying attention to anything Alice said, just interjecting an, "uh-huh" and "hmm," whenever I remembered to. I liked Shelley because she mostly kept her thoughts to herself. We did what we came to each other for, and that was it; nice and simple. Alice, though, just didn't seem to know when to give up.
Finally, I couldn't stand her anymore and just said, "Alice, I've kind of had a rough day. Do you mind just going on without me?"
She looked pretty crestfallen, but didn't really take the hint. "What's wrong? Not girl problems, I hope. I can't imagine that you'd have any issues there."
The way she smiled at me was the way girls smiled when they wanted something from me. It was the smile that Shelley gave me right before she told me she wouldn't mind another guy on the side whenever Jake wasn't around.
"Look, I really don't want to talk about it. Thanks anyway."
"Well, if you ever want to talk," she started to say, but I wasn't about to let her continue deluding herself. Just as I was about to cut her off, I realized the card was still in my hand.
"Here, I'm sure you know what this is all about. Maybe that can get my point across a little better." I handed her the card and walked away. It was pretty shitty of me, but after getting stomped on by Shelley, I didn't really care about pretending to be a nice guy anymore.

Next time, we'll see how Alice copes with Max's insensitivity.

Serialization

In case you've been wondering, there is more to the Death Card story, and I think I'll post a new point of view every few days as I rewrite and rework the story. I pretty much wrote the story out of necessity because I had to submit 20 pages of revised fiction, and I only had 14 pages (of an entirely different story) at the time that I began rewriting "The Death Card." Then, it just got away from me and went from a 5 page, dialog heavy scene, into a 15 page story about a bunch of twenty-somethings and their interactions with each other. The link between each character, though, is mostly...for lack of a better word, romantic. But as you've already gotten a glimpse of, the romantic lives of these people are hardly ideal. And now we've met Max, the suave player who can have any girl he wants, and unfortunately wanted Shelley.  Next time we'll be seeing events from his perspective.

Death Card - Part 2

The continuing story of the Death Card.  After I wrote that first part for class, I decided that I wanted to expand on the story by cycling through the points of view of each character.  Now, we meet the nefarious Shelley...

I saw Jake before he saw me, and as I watched him cross the street, I forgot everything I had planned on saying to him.  He looked so angry and hurt, and knowing it was my fault made my stomach churn painfully.  I felt like a black hole had opened up around me, dragging me in, swallowing everything.  His blond hair was messy as usual, and he walked with his hands stuffed in his pockets, trying to keep warm.  Right then, he was more attractive to me than ever.

He came up to me and said, "Whatever you think you can accomplish by coming here, think again.  I don't want to talk to you."

"Jake, please listen–"

"No, I'm tired of listening.  I can put up with a lot of fucked up things; I am friends with George, after all.  But you sleeping with another guy is too much."

"But Jake–"

"If telling you is not making things clear, then maybe this will."  He ignored my protests and started unscrewing the cap of his Nalgene.  Inside was some red tissue, and out of that he pulled a playing card.  Slapping the card in my hand, he got in his car and drove away without a look back.

I looked at the card.  It was the Death Card; George's stupid joke that he invented for all the guys.  But this wasn't a joke.  I felt something in me crumple up and die.

As I walked home, Death Card in hand, I criticized myself for all my bad choices.  I didn't know what made me tell Jake about Max on that day, of all days, but it didn't matter anymore.  The truth was out.

They weren't actually friends, but Max did hang out with Jake and his group every once in a while.  At one party, we were all so drunk that no one was really paying attention to what they were doing.  Jake disappeared with George and Freddie, again, and I was pissed.  Alice may have been ok with Freddie taking off without her, and he only ended up cheating on her, but I hated it when Jake did.  Max didn't leave though.  He was mysterious and suave, a definite smooth talker.  Nothing happened that night, but a few more inconsiderate incidents on Jake's part were enough for me to talk myself into making something happen.

I turned the corner to my place, and there was Max, standing outside my door.  It was windy, but not a single dark hair on his head was out of place.  He always dressed immaculately too; today it was a suit coat with a Burberry scarf wrapped around his neck and leather gloves.  Seeing him only made me feel worse.

I walked up to him and said, "What are you doing here?"

"To see if you made good on your threat to tell Jake."

His tone implied that he was sure I hadn't.  That smug voice made me want to puke.  How could I ever have been attracted to this guy?  Jake was so much sweeter.

"Well, I did tell him."

That wiped the smile off his face.  "Why?  What could it possibly accomplish?"

"Oh, I don't know, me not feeling like a traitorous whore, perhaps?"

"So now that you've aired your grievances, everything is ok then?" he said.

"No, it's not, thank you very much.  And I don't appreciate your sarcasm right now.  My life is falling apart."

"Who cares about Jake?  I don't care if he knows.  We can still go on as we've been doing.  In fact, it'll be easier now."

"No, Max, it's over.  It was fun at first, but reality's caught up with me, and I can't do this anymore.  All of my friends are going to know soon, and when they find out, I don't want them to think we're together."

"That's just great.  This whole time I've been sneaking around because you wanted me to, even if it meant watching that dumb blond be with you when it should have been me."

Hearing him call Jake that set me off entirely.  I slapped him across the face.  He stared at me outraged, but I didn't care; I just wanted to get rid of him.  The Death Card was still in my hand.  Flicking it at him, I turned and walked away, going into my house without looking back.

The Death Card

This started as a writing exercise in my fiction class last year.  Everyone had to bring an object to class and tell a story about that object, but there had to be some sort of untruth in the story. After everyone told their stories, our homework was to choose two objects that other people had brought and write a story about those objects. I chose to write about a Starbucks water bottle and a playing card that two girls had brought. So, without further ado...

George was antsy, his whole body in motion, so impatient for me to open his gift, which turned out to be utter crap.  But what are friends for, right?  We were standing outside his apartment in the freezing cold, and I was not in the mood for his games.  I held out the plastic water bottle and said, "Are you kidding me?  This is my birthday present?"

"Dude, it's a water bottle.  I thought you wanted one?"

I sighed.  "It's a Starbucks water bottle.  You know I hate Starbucks.  Why would you give me this?"

"But it's a water bottle, man.  Who cares what it says on it?"

"I do; that's the whole point I'm trying to make here."  This conversation was getting infuriating, and it was completely typical of our friendship.  I can't talk to George for more than fifteen minutes before my mind explodes from listening to his illogical thought processes.  Already I could see that look in his eyes that said he wasn't really listening to a single word I said.  It was enough to make me want to punch him in the goddamn face.  "How did you even get it into your head that this was just the perfect present to give me on my birthday?"

"Well you haven't even opened the whole thing.  There's more inside."

I had assumed that the red tissue inside the bottle was just filler, but it was apparently his makeshift wrapping paper for what turned out to be a playing card.  Not just any playing card, though; it was the two of hearts.  It was the Death Card, a sort of mock death threat that George had invented in a moment of boredom.  Most of our friends had one, and they all had received it from George, but since no one took him seriously, it had sort of become a "show this to George when you're pissed off at him" card.  I certainly needed it right now, but I was feeling perverse, and decided to give him a hard time about it.

"I can't believe this, George.  Not only do you give me a Starbucks-branded water bottle, but you give me the Death Card on top of it?  It's my birthday for Christ's sake."

"Oh come on, Jake, why you gotta be so nit-picky today?  Now you're in the club; you can flash that baby around whenever one of us is pissing you off."

"How about now?  Can I use it now?  I'd really like to use it now, George."

"Um, no, not right now because I just gave it to you.  Wait about a week or something."

I closed my eyes, held my breath, counted to ten, and let it out.  "George, you do not give a guy the Death Card on his birthday.  Maybe on some other day that doesn't matter, but not on his birthday, you know?  And just your luck, you've caught me on an especially bad day.  It might as well have been Shelly who gave me the Death Card.  First her, and now you.  I really can't take this on my birthday."

"What?  What happened with Shelley?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow and assuming the "tell-me-everything-in-excruciating-detail-right-this-second" look.  He's a gossipmonger; he never lets an opportunity to gather new information pass him by.  The problem with that was I knew our entire group of friends would possess every last sordid detail of my relationship issues before the day was out.  That's George for you: best friends 'til the end.

"No way, I'm not telling you anything, George.  I shouldn't even have mentioned it in the first place."

"Wait, why?  I'm your best friend; aren't you supposed to tell me all the juicy details of your life or whatever?"

"You're kidding, right?  I can't tell you anything because it'll be all over the place before the day is out.  You'll tell everyone."

He put his right hand over his heart and raised his left hand in the air.  "I swear by your shiny new Starbucks water bottle that I won't tell a soul.  Come on, man, I'm a vault.  Nothing gets out of the vault."

I stared at him for a moment, contemplating the consequences of wringing his neck, or maybe just bludgeoning him over the head with the water bottle.  It had quite a bit of heft to it with that half-inch thick plastic.  I decided against it.

"You know that doesn't mean a damn thing to me?  Remember what happened with Freddie?"  I thought he had forgotten about the last time he said he was a vault, which was when he found out Freddie was cheating on Alice and swore not to tell a soul.  Alice knew all about it within two hours.  Their relationship was over within two hours and twenty minutes.

George stared off into space for a moment before understanding dawned over his face.  "Oh wow, I forgot about that time.  But, alcohol was involved there, and there were other extenuating circumstances.  Besides, you know I would never make a promise I can't keep."

Sighing, I rubbed my forehead, trying to stave off the headache I knew was coming on.  He had a tendency to give me headaches – excruciating, mind-numbing migraines.  "I appreciate the distinction you're trying to make here, but you do realize that it was a promise you didn't keep, no matter how inebriated you were?  That said I'm going to take this water bottle and run over it with my car.  Thank you."

"No, come on, don't do that, Jake.  It was expensive."

Once again, I stared at him in disbelief.  "Now that is a lie.  I can see the water spots in it from going through a dishwasher."

"Damn, I knew I should have put some Jet Dry stuff in that last load.  In that case, you can't do it because it's a Nalgene and those things are indestructible."

Typical George.  No remorse.

"Ok, we're done for the day.  Thanks for the half-gift; I'll be sure to remember this when your birthday comes around."

"Don't be like that, Jake," he said.  "It's just a gag gift."

"Crazily enough, I'm not in the mood for your 'jokes' today."

He fidgeted around for a bit while I stared him down.  "Well then, can I have the stuff back?"

Did I hear him right?  Did he seriously just do take-backs?  "You're taking the gift back?  You can't do that, it's a gift."

"Jake, you just said you didn't want any of it.  If you don't want it, I can find other uses for it all."

"But you can't take back the Death Card.  It's a death threat; how do you take back a death threat?"

"I don't want you to have the Death Card if you're just going to pull it on me all the time.  It's supposed to be used sparingly, and I have a feeling that you'll be making a little too much use out of it."

"You can't be serious.  I'm not giving any of it back."

"Ok, so you want to keep it?"

"Yes, I'm keeping it."

"Alright, awesome, I'll see you on Saturday then; party at Freddie's place!"

"What?  George, we're not done here," I yelled after him, but he was already walking down the street, waving at me over his shoulder, his way of saying that he wasn't really leaving me hanging; he just had better things to do.

This was all typical George too.  Once he was done with you, you suddenly weren't angry anymore, and you didn't have the slightest idea how it had happened.  As I walked to my car, crappy presents in hand, I seriously considered how good it would make me feel to smash the stupid thing into the ground, though it was a half-hearted kind of contemplation.

I forgot all about my annoyance when I came in view of my car to see Shelley standing there, arms wrapped around her body trying to keep warm.  Not cool.  Why she thought this would be a good time to talk to me, I have no idea, but there she was, and I couldn't turn around and pretend not to see her because she had already spotted me.  If walking away from her once didn't do the trick, it probably wouldn't work again, so I crossed the street to my car and said, "Whatever you think you can accomplish by coming here, think again.  I don't want to talk to you."

Inspired by...

    This is something I wrote one night as I stared at this picture.  My friend Meiko drew it, and she was kind enough to give it to me after her art show ended in May.  Here's her site too if you're interested in seeing more.  She's really very talented.  Anyway, Here it is:

    The rain fell down in torrents, soaking the clothes she'd left hanging on the line. Cursing her bad luck, she hurried out into the downpour, grabbing shirts and blouses and pants off the lines and dashing back into her living room. Her things were even wetter now than they'd been when she pulled them out of the washer in the first place. She carefully wrung out as much water as possible onto the back patio, doing her best to stay out of the rain, hoping there wouldn't be a change in the wind's direction.
    Monsoon season was always like this, but she sometimes felt like it purposefully snuck up on her, teasing her with a relatively clear day only to turn to a violent storm while she wasn't looking. She had been so happy this morning, thinking that she would save on electricity by not using the dryer, but the rain made that impossible now. Everything tossed into a hamper, she carried her sopping laundry to the dryer, made one last attempt to wring out the excess water, and dumped it all in to dry for an hour.
    The sudden rain had interrupted her lunch, so she went back to finish the sandwich sitting on her desk. Aside from the half eaten meal, her workspace was covered with paper, sketches, pens and pencils. Her computer's screen saver has kicked on, so she tapped the spacebar and picked up where she'd left off in the email she was reading. Much of it was junk, spam about sex and penis enlargements, but there were a couple thing of interest. First was a job from a small local business asking for a new logo design and whether she was available for a short meeting this Wednesday. She definitely needed the work, but what really interested her was the other email, a very short and intriguing message that read, "It's been a long time, and I know you're out of the country, but please give me a call. --Dorian 415.612.3879"
    So, he knew she wasn't in the States, which was interesting in itself, but if he had found out that much of her current situation, why not get her number and call himself? Bastard's probably too cheap to spring for a long distance call, she thought with a wry smile. Oh well, why not humor him, except she wasn't going to play by his rules. Clicking the reply button, she quickly composed her message, "Yes it has been a while, but why don't you call me first? -Alice 011-81-03-3425-6552," and sent it along. There, now he could call her if her felt like it. She picked up her sandwich and started eating again, watching the rain lash against the windows as the wind picked up and the storm grew fiercer.
    Her self-satisfaction barely had time to warm her before the phone rang loudly, making her choke and cough in surprise.
    "Hello?" she said with difficulty, still coughing.
    "Hey, Alice," said a familiar, arrogant voice. "Nice of you to email me your number."