“David …” Tami said, but I held up my hand.
“Give me a minute,” I warned.
They both knew me. I would flash angrily, but if you gave me time, I calmed down quickly. I just needed to work it out.
So much had happened since that day. I’d become involved with three wonderful girls in Halle, Brook, and Zoe. Pam was having our baby, and Tracy had become a good friend. Jim, Tim, Wolf, and Yuri had become my best guy friends. Alan had been around, and the two of us had come to an uneasy truce. I’d gotten to the point where when I saw him, I didn’t immediately think of that night.
More importantly, I’d come to grips with the fact that Tami wasn’t destined to be my one and only. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
What did I really want? The simple answer was that I missed my best friends. The problem was that Tami had hurt me over and over again. It had started in middle school when she told me she never wanted to see me again. I understood I had been a little jerk, and my drinking and taking drugs were the cause, but it still hurt when she took the tough-love route with me.
I mentally shook myself. No need to go down that rabbit hole again. Tami and I had worked through all this last summer. I pushed all the old hurts down and reminded myself that we’d shared the blame for much of it.
Six months had passed since I’d made my final gesture to get us together. Enough time had gone by that I could look back at it with a fresh set of eyes. If I were honest, Tami had been immature and selfish, as far as I was concerned. God only knows what teenager wasn’t, sometimes. The problem was, in many ways, she was right; we weren’t ready for a serious relationship. How Tami had gone about it, though, had guaranteed that we would never have one.
That thought made me sad, but it freed me. I felt the hurt and anger drain from my body. I looked up at Tami and could see the concern on her face. She recognized that I’d come to a decision, and for once, she had no idea what that was.
“So, Alan’s a good kisser,” I said with a straight face.
“Aw, shit,” Alan moaned as his face turned bright red.
Tami blinked a couple of times to process what I’d just announced and then smiled.
“You’re so mean,” she said, which made me laugh.
Alan looked at me and then at Tami, and she gave him a reassuring smile.
“Jerk,” he mumbled.
“What did you say?” I asked with a mock scowl.
“I didn’t stutter,” Alan shot back.
That made me laugh. When I finally stopped, I looked at them both with a smile on my face.
“Friends?” I asked.
Tami shook her head.
“No, best friends,” she amended.
“Okay,” I said and nodded.
“You’re still a jerk,” Alan said, but I could see a smile creep onto his face.
We all relaxed and just acted like we’d been friends forever, which we, in essence, had been.
“Jim called me,” Tami said.
“I don’t think I want to hear about this,” I said.
“About what?” Alan asked.
“Jim is plotting some payback on Mike,” Tami explained. “He wants me to invite Harper to a party after your game.”
“And Jim thinks Mike will show up because the party’s at his brother’s apartment,” I said.
“What party?” Alan asked.
I let Tami fill him in. My curiosity got the best of me.
“What does Jim plan to do?” I asked.
“Kevin offered to serve Jell-O shots made with Everclear. He calls them ‘panty droppers.’ Jim’s asked him to make some with no alcohol. You know Mike; once he’s had a few, he gets handsy,” Tami said.
I raised an eyebrow to ask how she knew that, but she just ignored me. I guess it wasn’t really my business. That didn’t mean that Mike wouldn’t die, though.
“The plan is to let him get drunk and act the fool. Missy and Lisa have volunteered to help him get falling-down drunk. Jim says that Kevin told him these Jell-O shots will put you on your butt if you’re not careful. When Mike passes out, they plan to strip him and draw with magic markers all over his body.”
I had an evil idea. Mike had sent me a picture of Mona after he’d had sex with her.
“We could have Ray recreate Mike’s picture of Mona.”
“David!” Tami screeched.
“Who’s Ray and what picture?” Alan asked.
“I’m not explaining that to him, and there’s no way I’ll let you do that,” Tami said.
She was right. My first ideas were never the best. If I didn’t already have an enemy for life, that would guarantee it.
“Who’s Ray?” Alan repeated.
I told him, and Alan looked disgusted.
“Don’t worry, she said I couldn’t do it,” I said to defend myself.
“Sometimes I don’t even know you,” Alan said, getting on his high horse.
“Oh, bite me.”
Like he hadn’t had some terrible ideas. He just wrinkled his nose, because the thing with best friends was, we had stuff on each other. He let it go. Tami rolled her eyes at us.
“I have a bunch of colored permanent markers,” I offered.
“Where did you get those?” Alan asked.
“He’s a movie star,” Tami said, guessing correctly.
I used them to sign pictures.
“What are you going to draw on him? Shouldn’t you have a plan?” Alan said, letting his OCD run amuck.
“What the hell, Alan?” I asked.
“If Jim wants to get revenge, he should have a plan,” Alan said.
Tami and I looked at each other. This was too good. I needed to hear what he was thinking.
“What kind of plan?” Tami asked.
“I don’t know, like a bag of dicks. You could draw one on each cheek pointed at his mouth and … uh … other places. Or, you could turn him into a woman. Draw boobs on him,” Alan suggested.
Tami giggled.
“Can you just see him if we did him up in eye shadow and makeup using the markers? We could make him look like Lady Gaga,” Tami said.
“I seriously don’t want to get involved with this. I’ll leave it to Jim to figure out the plan,” I said to end our brainstorming session.
This was another reason I didn’t drink. I could only imagine what my friends would do if I got so drunk they could do stuff to me. Maybe I would wake up with no eyebrows. I figured that they had slim to no hope of Mike getting so drunk he passed out. It was fun to dream, though.
◊◊◊ Friday March 17
Moose had let us out of practice because we had two games tomorrow. I received a text from Tracy, reminding me I had my mystery date tonight. She hadn’t told anyone who it was. I’d let it slip to Alan, and he was on it, but couldn’t get Tracy to reveal her name. I warned him she carried pepper spray, and that seemed to slow him down.
All I knew was that I was supposed to go to Tracy’s house at seven and that she had it all planned. I tried to ditch my security but found Fritz waiting for me in the kitchen before I left. Mom was feeding him a bowl of chili. I’d had some when I got home, and it was spicy.
“Where are you going tonight?” Mom asked.
“Tonight is mystery-date night. Tracy planned it.”
“That’s nice. Tell Tracy thank you. Your dad and I will have the house to ourselves tonight.”
“Where are Peggy and Little David going?” I asked.
“She’s spending the weekend at her folks’ house and took Duke with her.”
Last time she’d left for the weekend to her parent’s house, Duke had moped around until she brought Little David home. Evidently, he had a new master.
Dad strolled into the kitchen. It was evident that he’d just showered.
“You’re still here?” he complained.
“I could use some spending money,” I said.
Dad made a big show of searching his pockets. Then it struck me.
“Hey, how come I don’t get an allowance? You give Greg money,” I complained.