I wrote this chapter especially for Cimmy, because it was her birthday…Happy Birthday Cimmy!
-Kristine
quick story notes: the first few chapters are a bit slow, because I’m setting everything up. sorry about that. read and review!
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Chapter 2: Caught Between
~Anthony’s POV~
We’ve reached Central Park, and I hate my friends. I hate them!
Ok, I don’t, but I’m very close to it, since Matt and Chris thought it a brilliant idea to throw me off a very big rock and into a very big trash can.
Jeff is laughing hysterically, as are Anna and Sammie. I don’t see Lex, but I don’t hear her, either. I think she said something about needing some water.
Either way, I don’t really have time to worry about Lex right now, I’d much rather worry about me. Chris has got me on my right and Matt on my left and I’m very close to being dropped into a trash can from ten feet up. Not that it’s such a huge height, but I’d rather not land in the trash. Who the hell knows what’s in there?
“Come on, guys, cut it out!” I snap at them.
“Anthony, just shut up and accept your fate,” Matt says, gripping me even tighter under my arm.
“Now remember, Anthony, this is hurting us a lot more than it’s hurting you,” Chris sniggers.
“I’m gonna be hurting you if I ever get away from here,” I growl, struggling to get out of their grip.
“Good thing we’ve got you tight, then,” Matt grins at me. His eyes are even smiling. Like in that song ‘when Irish eyes are smiling…’ If Chris wasn’t holding my other arm, I’d roll his smiling Irish eyes across the ground.
We reach the edge, and they’re just about to throw me off when God decides I’ve suffered enough.
“What are you two doing to him?” Lex’s voice asks.
Matt and Chris look at each other. Lex is going to be pissed. She really doesn’t like it when we mess around like this. She says it’s dangerous, and freaks out because we might get hurt. She’s actually very uptight about this kind of thing. I smirk to myself.
“Lex, look, before you go psycho on us-” Chris starts, but Lex cuts him off.
“Were you going to toss him off?” Lex asks.
“Well, yeah, but it’s not high and it’s into-”
“Are you idiots or something? Let him go, bastards, you could hurt him, or yourselves!” she yells.
“Come on, Lex, lighten up,” Jeff says, coming up behind her and putting a hand on her shoulder. She pushes it off and glares at him. “Alright, alright,” Jeff gives in. “Let him down, guys.”
Matt and Chris look very disappointed and put me down. What a relief! I owe Lex one.
“Spoil sport,” Matt mutters.
“I heard that, McDougal, and you’re an asshole,” Lex says, her voice quietly deadly.
Anna and Sammie are still laughing hysterically, but I can’t figure out why. They can be so weird sometimes.
“She’s got you whipped, Delricci,” Chris smirks.
“She does not,” Jeff says. “She’s right, you could get hurt.”
“She’s got you whipped,” Chris repeats.
“Hey, do you want to go into the trash can?” Jeff threatens.
Oh Christ. I should say something. “Alright, let’s all just relax,” I say. Wow, I’m good. Everyone’s stopped to look at me.
“You’re an idiot,” Sammie says.
“I agree,” Matt raises his hand.
“I am not,” I argue. I could just let it go, but I won’t…
“You’re all idiots,” Anna announces.
“Can we go now? This is stupid,” Jeff says.
“You’re the one who was just dying to go for a walk in the first place!” Matt yells.
“Was not,” Jeff grins. That bastard, he was the one! He’s just trying to bait Matt into a verbal battle of the wills.
“Matt, don’t even say anything,” Lex says, picking up on what Jeff is doing. “Because we all know about how you suck at letting things go.”
Matt gives her a wounded look, but stays quiet.
“What should we do now?” Sammie asks.
“Who knows? Walk, maybe? Isn’t that why we came?” Lex asks.
“Fine, let’s walk. Come on, beautiful,” Chris says, gesturing at Anna.
“You’re a shmuck,” Anna says to Chris.
I don’t know why I like these people. Honestly, they’re my best friends, but dear God, why? They constantly argue, tease, gang up on, are selfish, and obnoxious. They are, all around, twenty-four/seven, the most rambunctious group of people I know. Hell, they were just about to throw me into a trash can!
Lex hangs back to wait for me. She smiles, “I can’t believe they were going to toss you in the trash.”
“Yeah, well, you know Matt and Chris. They do dumb things,” I grin.
“Yeah they do.”
“Thanks for stopping them, by the way,” I say.
“Eh? Don’t worry about it. Kind of makes up for you making me feel beautiful,” she looks at the ground.
“What?”
“Well,” she says, “I know you were just saying that cause nobody said I was beautiful and you felt bad-”
“Oh come on, Lex, give yourself some credit. I do think you’re beautiful,” I tell her. She is, I guess. I mean, I think she’s pretty. I mean, why wouldn’t she be? She’s not beautiful, but she is, really…I’m losing ground and credibility here, aren’t I? I don’t know what I mean.
“Um...thanks,” she smiles shyly.
“You could work on your confidence though, you don’t give yourself enough credit,” I sound stupid, don’t I?
“I’ll give it a try, one day,” she says.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. What do you say we ditch this bunch and go grab some food?” I ask her. I suddenly have this need to spend some time with her and decide if she’s beautiful or not, since I’m such a confused prick.
“Yeah, sounds good,” she says, glancing at Sammie who was now trying to hit Matt’s head from her position- over his shoulder. He pretends not to notice her as she screams and yells and bangs her fists on his back.
“The question is, how do we get away?” I ask, wondering who would throw me over their shoulder if I tried to make a break for it.
Lex grins at me and says, “Watch this.” She walks up towards our friends, and says, “Hey Jeff, me an Anthony are tired, we’re going back to the apartment, meet you there in an hour or two, ok?”
Yeah, sure Lex, be careful going home,” Jeff says.
“Anthony will take care of me,” she says and walks back.
“That was quick and simple,” I tell her. I was expecting some sort of protest, but I guess not.
“It’s Jeff,” Lex smiles. “He never asks questions unless he thinks I’m in mortal peril.”
“So never, basically?”
“Well, a little more often than that, but not too many questions, too often,” she explains.
We make our way back out of the park and back towards her family’s home. Seven floors in an apartment building. It’s a huge home for anyone in the city these days. My family’s apartment has eight rooms. Nowhere near the size of Lex’s place.
They’re pretty rich, the O’Leary family. Her parents do something important on Wall Street. I like Mrs. O’Leary a lot. ‘Call me Erin’ she says to me all the time. Mr. O’Leary is pretty scary…his name is Tom, but he never allows Lex’s friends to call him that…he’s scary…and he’s rarely friendly…and I don’t think he likes me much.
The only time I think he ever said anything to me that could be remotely taken as friendly was ‘Please get a beer from the refrigerator’. And the only reason that could be considered as friendly is because he said ‘please’…because his voice wasn’t kind and warm like his wife’s, but more gruff and ‘do it or I’ll kill you’.
So I’m intimidated by her father and her money. Isn’t that fantastic? Lex isn’t scary though. She’s probably one of the least scary people I know. If you want a scary person, find Sammie when she has a bad case of PMS. That’s horrifying.
We end up stopping at a deli for some food, as I am hungry. I get a bacon-lettuce-tomato and one of those Lemon Snapple Iced-Teas. She picks up a cherry coke. I pay for both of us as she goes to find us a table.
When I get back, Lex waves the coke around and says, “Anthony, how much do I owe you for this?”
“Nothing,” I tell her.
“Come on, tell me, I have money, I can pay for myself…” she mumbles.
“I know you can. But I’m being nice today, and you benefit from that,” I tell her.
“Why?”
“Hey, have you ever heard the expression ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’ because it applies here,” I say through a mouthful of BLT.
Yeah but-”
“Lex, shut up now, one day you can slip the money back into my pants pockets. Then you can pay me back and I’ll think I just found some extra money in my pocket.”
“I’ll do that one day,” she mutters, still looking embarrassed.
I know I’ve embarrassed her, but I didn’t mean to. I don’t know why she’s embarrassed, really. I mean, come on, I paid for her soda, big deal. That’s nothing. Still, she looks a bit nervous, in a cute way. Poor baby…you know what? She is beautiful, I think. Wait, what the hell am I saying? Snap out of it, Nicholson, she’s your friend, not your girlfriend.
“You’re embarrassed?” I ask her.
“A little.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I don’t like other people paying for me even though I have my own money, ya know?”
“It’s ok, Lex, it’s just me. We don’t have to tell anyone or anything,” I say, unsure of what she wants to hear.
“Yeah, I guess it’s alright,” she says, looking at the floor.
Just then a man is tripped up by his own shoelace, and everything he’s carrying goes flying everywhere as he hits the ground with a thud.
At first, nobody in the shop says anything, but then people walk over and help the man up, asking if he’s alright. He says he’s fine, and he seems ok, just a little humiliated.
I catch Lex’s eye, and we both struggle not to laugh. She’s shaking like mad, keeping the laughter in. I don’t want to laugh too much either, I don’t want to embarrass the guy more than he embarrassed himself.
‘She is beautiful’, I decide right here as she covers her face in her hands while she silently shakes with laughter.
I really like the way she’s smiling. I really do. I have this fuzzy feeling, watching her. It’s this feeling in my stomach, it’s all warm. What is this? It’s the same feeling I get when I’m really happy or excited. But I don’t get it when I look at Lex. Not ever before, anyway.
What’s different now?
“Ready to go?” she says, now that she’s calmed down a bit.
“Yeah, I’m ready, let’s go,” I say.
“Cool, we can go back to my apartment.”
“Yeah,” I say, half heartedly.
“What the matter?”
“Nothing,” I force a smile as we leave the deli and reenter the cool October air.
I don’t really want to go back to her apartment. Her older brother and her younger twin brother and sister will be there. Her other older brother and her older sister might be there too, as well as her parents. Not that I don’t like her family (well, minus her father), but it means I’d have to share her attention, and I really don’t want to do that. I want her focus on me. I want her attention and focus on me. The way I’m paying attention to her. Like…like…
Uh oh.
This isn’t good. This can’t be good. Could I have a crush, here? Should I even be asking myself this question? Oh no, please let it not be like that…
This is stupid, I really shouldn’t feel this way about her, and so I’ll just wait until the feeling goes away. I’m just suffering a moment of temporary insanity, right? When I count to ten, it’ll be gone.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
I take a deep breath, and expect to be normal again. I’m not. I still have that feeling, watching her, as we walk along. It’s not going away. It should be gone. It will go. Count to ten again.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Oh, come on! This isn’t fair! This feeling should be gone! I don’t like this! Things are how they’ve always been! I want to be her friend, not her boyfriend…
I hear an annoying, little sing-song voice in the back of my head, mocking me. “That’s not entirely true anymore…”
Great, not only is my own conscience making fun of me, I’m officially falling for one of my best friends. Just what I need.