A Little Bit of Truth (Little Bits) (20 page)

I’m almost asleep when Maya starts giggling, snorting and thrashing and then kicks out, connecting with my thigh. Fucking ouch!

“Love you,” Maya says softly as James slides under the blanket with her and pulls it over both of their heads. Am I really in bed with these two? This is so wrong.

“Love you too,” James says softly back and I hear kissing.

“I’m going home,” I grumble and slide out of bed. Ugh, I look a mess. “After I’ve showered and raided Maya’s closet.
”

Nobody pays attention to my mumblings so I do as I said I was going to do but I also raid Maya’s makeup, not just her closet. I love taking her clothes, she always has nice expensive clothes. I shouldn’t take them but I always have done and after a while I put them back but by then she’s bought more. Woman has a problem.

I find my purse on the desk by the door, I check it. Holy fuck. Twenty seven missed calls. All from one person. Jacob. Maybe I should call him back… not before having my hangover cure.

“Good night?” Loryn asks as I walk into the kitchen.

“Yeah, it was great,” I think.

She smirks at me and slides a round of toast and eggs to me with an ice cold glass of OJ. Hell yeah. I dig in and mumble my love for her between every bite. “What time is it?”

“Almost twelve,” she nibbles on a piece of crispy bacon and watches me intently.
“So, you’ve been an ignorant wench as of late.”

“Gee, thanks.”
Wench?

“Just saying. Everything okay?”

“Yup.”

She only sighs and falls silent again. “Your phone is ringing.”

“So it is,” I say indifferently, ignoring the phone.

“Aren’t you going to answer it?”

“Probably not.”

“Stubborn woman. Fine then,” and she answers it. Great. Then she holds the phone away from her ear
with a wince, then she puts it on loud speaker.

“Fucking crazy woman. If that’s what you want to do then fine! Go fucking do it. But don’t drag Maya along with you, it’s not fair on James. (Pause) Body shots Marie, really? How old are you?”

I press the mute button so we can hear him but he can’t hear us and quirk a brow at Loryn, “Is he shouting at me?”

“I believe so.”

“Huh.” I continue listening, “What in the hell is wrong with you? James said he had to carry you… fucking
carry you
from the club! The last thing he needs is waking up in the middle of the night to peel your drunk ass off a bar!” And he keeps on going. “Anything could have happened. What if one of those guys had taken advantage of you. Grow the fuck up Marie!” At the beginning of that sentence my heart melted because I figure he cares about me, and then he told me to grow up. Now my heart has iced over and all I can see is red. So I snatch the phone off the counter, turn the speaker off, unmute it and put it to my ear.

“Grow up?” I scoff. “I’m twenty three! Twenty fucking three! Not thirty or forty or whatever age is the age you become too old for clubbing. Are you crazy? Who are you exactly to tell me how to act?”

“And she speaks,” he says with no little vehemence in his tone. “What were you thinking?”

“I was thinking I’m twenty three, single and without commitment, therefore I can do whatever the fuck I like and deal with the consequences later.”

“Fine.” He snaps.

“Fine.” I snap back.

Then we fall into an awkward silence. He finally breaks the silence, “Whatever, I’m done with this shit. Do whatever you want. See if I care.”

“
Darlin’,” I say with no little sarcasm. “I think you just proved that you do care.”

I’m sure I hear his phone crack. “Body shots Marie
? Fucking body shots with men you don’t know? You aren’t in college at a fucking frat party!”

“Ah,” I sigh wistfully. “Those were the days.”

“You know what?”

“No, I don’t know what but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“Fuck you Marie.”

“
Darlin’ you already fuckin’ did.” And then I hang up, my chest heaving and my anger at boiling point. Then my anger vanishes when I think on our conversation. Shit. I’m such a bitch.

A text comes through.

Jacob
:
I’m sending you a ticket. I want you in England with me.

What? But I have work and other commitments. I text him this. I’m surprised he doesn’t respond. Then I’m not surprised. Jacob doesn’t chase people, if I say no he accepts it. This is good. Or is it?

Jacob
:
Don’t give a fuck. Sending you a ticket. You take next week off. I want you here.

Well, he responds but it’s not for fifteen minutes. He better not have been buying me a ticket I’ll never use.

Marie
:
Why?

No response again. I can’t take time off, I’ve only just opened my new place. I’m fully booked for the next two months. Literally, fully fucking booked. Every Saturday included. We need the money. Loryn and I, I mean.

Marie
:
Don’t send a ticket. I can’t come. You know I can’t.

He doesn’t respond and two weeks go by, he doesn’t send a ticket and he doesn’t call me either. So I delete his number, probably a stupid decision but I felt like doing it so I did it. Time to put that complication in the past, especially now that I’m over it.

Message to all ladies, don’t fuck your friends if you want to keep on being friends when the fucking has finished.

Emails

“MASON!” I scream at the top of my lungs, startling
him from his deep and sloppy slumber. Sloppy because he’s lying in his bed on his stomach like a fucking starfish with the quilt tangled around him at least twice.

Sloppy because there are three used condoms by his bed only three inches from the trash can and dirty clothing covering the ground along with tissues and other disgusting filthy items that don’t belong in a place where people live, walk or even pass.

“I DIDN’T TOUCH HIM!” Him?

He darts out of bed still tangled in his blanket and face plants in a pile of dirty socks. Gross.

“Him?” Laughter follows, I can’t help it. “Somethin
g you want to tell me brother of mine?”

“What?” He sits up and rubs the sleep from his eyes. “What’s going on?”

“Get this sty tidied by the time I finish work or I’m not making meatloaf later.”

“But Marie,” he whines like a child would whine to his mother. “That’s not…”

I give him the look. The look that also works on children whining to their mother. He instantly shuts up and nods.

“It better be good meatloaf.”

“It will be,” I close the door behind me. “And don’t bother me, I’ve got to work.”

“Kay,” He calls through the closed door.

After booting up my laptop I work on a few unedited photos. An hour passes before I decide it’s time for a coffee break. Once I have my drink I open my email.

Junk, spam, junk, spam. Stuff from Maya about products for the store. Something from Lucas about suit shopping. All boring.

Oooh, what’s this? An unrecognized email address and a funky subject.

From:
[email protected]

To:
[email protected]

Subject:
How many Maries does it take to make Jacob crazy?
  

I hate this. Please talk to me. Last night I woke up after a freakish dream and picked up my phone to call you and tell you about it. You ignored me. This sucks. Don’t ignore me anymore, even if it’s to insult me, I’ll take it. My overly large head from my inflated ego needs taking down a few notches.

Go for it, I’m giving you a free pass to be a complete bitch, with the promise that I’ll still worship you afterwards like the goddess you are.

P.S. They don’t have jelly here. They have jam but it’s nothing like jelly for pb & j sandwiches.

P.P.S.S. If my best friend, aka Marie, doesn’t respond within an hour I will prove just how crazy this is making me. I miss her. A lot.

PPPPPPSSSSS…. I’m SORRRRRRYYYYYY. Really, really, really sorry.

I can’t help but laugh a little. I also can’t control my urge to respond. I miss him too.

From:
[email protected]

To:
[email protected]

Subject:
How much drama does it take to make Marie respond?
  

Sucks about the lack of jelly.

Stop calling me at 1am. It’s annoying.

As for my free pass to insult you… I don’t need a free pass, I’m going to insult you anyway. Brace yourself…

Ahem… Ready? Good.

You’re an ass for leaving without saying goodbye. As for our friendship, if it means so much to you then why do that to me?

As for your apology, I guess it’s better late than never. But do you mean it?

I agree with the text you sent. We should never have slept together, I’m sorry for pushing you into doing it in the first place. I want us to be friends again.

I kind of, sort of, maybe, just a
li’l… possibly miss you too. This much (imagine finger and thumb only an inch apart in front of my face). So let’s just put it behind us… don’t do it again.

“Marie! The vacuum isn’t working!” Stupid brother, interrupting my stupid email time.

“What do you mean it isn’t working?” I shout back as loud as possible so he can hear the hysteria in my voice. If he’s broken my
vacuum I’ll kill him, that cost me about three hundred dollars. It’s top brand and the best of the best fr people who can’t actually afford the best of the best, best.

“It won’t turn on!”

“Is it plugged in?”

Pause and then, “WHAT?”

“DID YOU PLUG IT IN?”

“WHAT?”

I’m going to hurt him. “I SAID… DID. YOU. PLUG. IT. IN?”

“What rug?”

“I’m coming!” I close my laptop and push myself out of my seat.

Mason is stood over the
vacuum in his now tidy room, pressing the button by the handle over and over again. I head to the wall, yep it’s plugged in and it’s switched on.

“I’m not stupid you know,” he huffs but continues clicking the button on and off
without getting any result.

“Mason,” I tut three times and halt his hand with my own. “You’re pressing the
button for the bristles. The
on
button looks like this.” I point to the power button next to the bristle button. “See?”

“No need to get snarky.” Then he turns it on and chases me out of the room so he can
vacuum. My brother needs to get his own place, before I gut him like a fish and feed his innards to Loryn’s cat.

Wow. That was kind of evil.

I’m rather impressed with myself and my imagination.

Now a
ll I need is a fluffy grey cat. For disposing of the innards and for my lap, to stroke while I do my evil laugh.

Dear god. I’m turning into Maya.

+++++++++++++

From:
[email protected]

To:
[email protected]

Subject:
Thank the lord… (You’re welcome)
  

I was worried, but now I’m not. This is great. Brilliant. Fantastic. I’ve forgotten what my point was.

I’m a little bit poorly, my nose is running like a tap and my chest is full of shit, then there’s the infection in my right eye and the sore on my lip. British weather does not agree with me. It rains… all the time and when it’s not raining its gray.

I’m in bed and for a while I was convinced I was going to die. Then I thought, do I have any unfinished business? And decided I couldn’t die without telling you how sorry I am.

All is forgiven and a weight has lifted.

This movie is a tough one. At the moment we’re practicing stunts even though most of mine are done via a stunt double, which sucks because some of the stunts are fucking awesome.