Against the Wall (12 page)

He catches my hand on the way up. “Okay. Stop, Shel, or we might not get the damn movie started.”

We both laugh. I love this. Endless laughter, giddiness, butterflies doing somersaults in my belly. Cute. I could get used to having Matty around on a more permanent basis.

“
You know what?” He drops the DVDs on the table. “We need food. Forget the movie. Let’s go eat.” He’s right. We haven’t eaten anything since the cereal this morning and it’s way past lunch time and I do believe we worked up quite an appetite.

“
But I’m not dressed to go out.” I look down at my tee and yoga pants. Disclaimer: I don’t do yoga. Not since I tried it one time with Mel and we got kicked out for talking. I can’t shut up for five minutes, let alone sixty. And not when the 300-pound guy next to me is trying to fold himself into a pretzel while ridding his body of baby poop scented gas. Who can remain silent throughout that? Tell me, who?

“
We can go through a drive-thru,” he suggests. “Unless you wanna eat more cereal?”

I take a second to consider this. “While the Crunch Berries are calling my name, I think we could use some fresh air. It smells like non-sex in here and it’s making me horny. Fresh air would be good.”

Matty holds out a hand to me. “Let’s go, horn dog.”

“
Good idea. Let’s get some corn dogs.” I can almost taste the flavors in my mouth. “Wait a minute. I’m not sure I want to put something so phallic looking in my mouth right now.”

“
You’re so dirty, Shel.” He shakes his head, yet again.

“
Matty, do you need me to tone it down? My dirty mind shouldn’t come as a shock. I thought I could be myself around you.”

He slings his arm around me as we walk out of my house. “No, by all means, be yourself. I don’t want you to put on a show for me.
But
… if I’m going to watch you put anything phallic-like in your mouth, I sure as hell don’t want it to be a hot dog. So let’s get a burger.”

“
I like the way you think,” I tell him. He winks at me as I duck into his car.

The first thing I do is take my cell out of my bag to text Mel. She’s probably going crazy trying to figure out what happened last night.

Me: matty slept over. No sex. were spndng day 2gthr.

Mel: what? NO Sex? why the f not?

Me: he wnts me 2 <3 him 1st

Mel: what a girl. wht r u doin now?

Me: getting food. wrkd up an appetite. making out like horny teenagers

Mel: love it! Is it true wht they say bout shoe size? ;) ;)

Me: idk. YET!!! lol

“
Holy hell,” I say, watching my best friend step into my classroom. “You look like shit. Are you sure you’re okay to be back at work?” She’s had the flu since Sunday morning. Her face looks swollen, and she looks like she needs to sleep for another five days before she can even begin to appear rested.

“
Are you frickin’ kidding? I’m dying to hear about your love fest with Matt. I couldn’t wait another day. I’ll be fine.” She plops herself in a chair next to me and rests her head on my desk. “Now spill. You have twenty minutes. Give me the short but detailed version, if there’s such a thing.”

Her voice sounds like she's plugging her nose, and I look at the can of Lysol on my file cabinet and have to stop myself from spraying her with it. I have no desire to get sick right now and put a damper on any future 'love fests' with Matty.

Taking a swig of my Diet Coke, I think a beer would be so much better for this story, but it will have to do. I take a deep breath before I recount the details beginning with Friday night when Mel left. I can’t give her the minute-by-minute play by play, but I’ll try my best.

“
Here it goes. Friday night. He took me home. Thanks.” I nod at her, and she snickers. “Invited him in. Drank a beer. He kissed me. I questioned it. Not to worry. Just go with it. No strings attached. Invited him to stay. To sleep only. Slept in bed. Me in jammies. He in his boxers. Looked like Marky Mark ad, by the way. Woke up. He was gone. Almost died. He went to get breakfast. Got me Captain Crunch.” Mel gasps. I nod in agreement. “We ate. He decided to stay, be lazy, and watch movies. Started with The Notebook. Got steamy.” Mel’s eyes get wide. “I know,” I add. “So we kissed like crazy. Stopped. No sex till I’m in love with him.” We both roll our eyes. “Then Matty got to second base. We bumped bare chests, not uglies. Got some burgers. Watched The Shooter. Kissed again. Think my lips will be swollen for a month. Ate cereal and beer for dinner and a rice crispy for dessert. Slept together again. Only sleeping. Woke up and did a repeat of the day before. He went home early Monday morning to get ready for work.”

Done. I lean back in my chair, out of breath, and then take another drink of my soda to soothe my parched throat.

“
Fucking awesome.” Mel dabs at the corners of her eyes with a tissue.

“
Are you crying? Cut it out.” She’s so emotional all the time, crying at commercials or love songs on the radio.

She dabs again and asks, “What now? How’s work been?”

“
He said he doesn’t want to crowd me. Or freak me out. So he’s staying away during the week. He wants me to miss him, I think. And it’s working. He might have lunch with me tomorrow.”

“
Oh, Shelly, I’m so happy for you.” She rises out of her seat and hugs me. I hug her back, swaying back and forth. “I gotta run. I’ll call you later to keep your mind off him. You don’t want to start calling him right away and seem needy.”

“
Too late. I called him before you got here. No games here. If I wanna talk to him, I’ll call him. If he can’t handle the real me, impatient and needy, then it’s not meant to be.”

“
Good idea,” she says, leaving my room.

On my way out, I decide to stop in and check on Mel. She looked terrible today. Maybe she’ll let me cook dinner for her and Nick. What am I thinking? Of course she will. I’ll have to think about what I can throw together. I can’t go over there with a 12-pack and beer nuts to heal her.

“
Hi,” I say to the stranger sitting at Mel’s desk. “Is Mrs. Cruz around?”

The older guy looks up. “She went home early. I subbed for her the last part of the day. I’m just finishing up my comments to her.”

“
I see. Did her kids behave?” I can’t help but ask. Whenever I’m out, I’m always thinking about my class and how things are going, or
not
going.

“
They were perfect. They didn’t even need me. Went straight to work without making a peep.”

“
Great. Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day.” Mel will be happy to hear this. There’s nothing better than coming back after a day off and finding out your classroom is still standing.

I make a pit stop at Rite Aid on the way to Mel’s. Walking up and down the aisle, I toss anything even remotely healing in my basket. Theraflu, Pepto, Tums (you never know), Motrin, cough drops, and some Nyquil (when all else fails, some decent rest always helps). I make another stop at a deli for some homemade chicken noodle and broccoli and cheese soup. And finally, I cruise through the drive-thru at Starbucks for a venti hot green tea with honey. I also add a few boxes of tea bags so I can refill her tea throughout the night.

Nick’s car’s not in the drive-way. I swear. Would it kill the guy to leave work early and take care of his wife? I use my key and let myself in. I drop all the stuff in the kitchen. I begin to empty the bags when I hear something. It sounds like sniffling. Not like stuffy nose sniffling, but crying.

I follow the sounds to the living room, and I find my best friend balled up on the couch weeping, with crumpled up tissues all around her. Mer Der, her Taco Bell pooch team, rest at her feet. Meredith, a light brown breed, springs her head to stare me down. She decides I'm not the culprit and rests her head back on Derek, the ruffly black dog who has a coat that gleams like silk. My focus turns back to Mel and my heart breaks at the sight of her. I’ve never seen her like this in my whole life. Sure, she snivels at least once a day during a TV show, or when she hears the national anthem. But this is different. She looks so sad.

I kneel down before her and my throat tightens. “Melly belly. I’m here.” I pause staring at her red nose. “Whatever it is, it’ll be okay.” I reach out to her, pushing her tear-soaked hair out of her face. Her eyes are even more swollen then before. And it hits me. She doesn’t have the flu at all. She never did. “What can I do? Do you wanna tell me what’s wrong? How can I fix it?”

I continue to stroke Mel’s hair while she sobs. Tears puddle in my eyes, and I can’t stop them from running down my cheeks. My best friend, who may as well be my sister, is hurting and I don’t know how to help. I don’t know if I can and it’s the worst feeling in the world.

She always manages to make me feel better whenever I’m down, which has been quite often in the last year, and here I am, at a loss. I don’t know what to do.

When Chase dumped me, Mel was there in a flash. And hardly left my side. I was broken and she was there to put me back together, when I didn’t think it could be done. She forced me to get back to normal after moping around for way too long.

Oh shit. It’s Nick. Mother fucker. I’m going to kill him. What the hell did he do? The only reason Mel would be in this state is because that fucking asshole did something. I’m going to kill him. I think I said that already. But I am. When I find him, he better run. He better have on a Kevlar vest, a cup, and a helmet, because first I’m going to shoot him, then I’m going to kick him in the balls, and finish him off with a bat to the head. Take that, dickhead.

Mel’s sobbing slows to a whimper as she tries to catch her breath. She holds my hand. She gazes down at me like she wants to tell me everything, but she’s not ready. She stares off in silence, and her eyes start to flutter before shutting completely. She sounds like a baby who’s cried herself to sleep. Trying not to wake her, I get comfortable sitting down beside her on the floor, still grasping her hand. I can’t let go. I’ll stay here as long as she needs me.

Hours later, Mel wakes me up, and I lift my head from the sofa cushion. Still holding her hand, I look up to her sorrow filled eyes. Mer Der are still at her feet, saddened eyes peering up at their mama. It must be true, dogs can sense when something is wrong.

“
Are you ready to talk to me?” I ask her.

She looks up and dabs at her eyes with her free hand. “Nick and I are getting a divorce.” I don’t say anything. I just nod. “He’s moved out. Or rather, I kicked him out.” I nod again. I think I know what’s coming next. “He’s been cheating on me, Shel.” She squeezes my hand tighter. “For over a year. They’re getting married as soon as our divorce is final. He actually had the papers ready, and I signed them.”

Wow. This is more than I could have ever imagined. Sure, I had a feeling she was going to confide in me about him cheating. But divorce? Already? I wasn’t expecting that. And I sure as hell wasn’t expecting her to tell me Nick is going to marry his mistress already. While he hasn’t always been the most attentive husband, I wouldn’t have thought him to be a complete jack ass.

“
Holy shit, Mel.” What else can I say? I sit up and throw my arms around my friend. She holds onto me, crying quietly into my shoulder. No more sobs and whimpering, just silent tears. After a few minutes, she releases me and I sit down next to her on the sofa, careful not to disturb her watch dogs.

“
I found out Friday night. Although, I guess I’d always suspected.” Deep down, maybe I did too but I don’t share this with her. “After I left you with Matt, I called Nick. He said he had about a couple hours left of work and would pick us up some dessert on his way home. I was almost here when I thought I’d surprise him. Take dessert to him, you know.” God, I want to kill him. Or at least, chop off his sac. “So I got us some Ben & Jerry’s and went to his office. When I pulled in, I saw them. Nick and one of the other partners, who I know very well by the way. He had her pinned against her car. They had their arms around each other and they were talking. I parked across from them and a few cars down and they didn’t even notice me. They just went on about their business, without a care in the world that both of them were cheating bastards. Talking, kissing. I went from shocked, to disgusted, to hurt, to angry. I got out of the car, and walked over to them.”

“
Oh, God!” My hands shoot up, covering my mouth. “What did you do?” The sound is muffled through my fingers but she hears me.

“
I called him a fucking asshole, and I socked her in the face,” she explains. I glance down at her hand, and sure enough, I see the yellowed skin of healing bruises. “Just a little F.Y.I., no matter how much you want to, I wouldn’t recommend hitting someone. That shit hurt like a son of a bitch. But I didn’t let it show. No way. I told him he had an hour tops to get home, pack his shit, and get the fuck out. I walked back to the car and went home.”