One Step Too
Far
Chapter 6: Marked for life
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“Eternity
is far longer then you could ever imagine, so do not take it lightly.”
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Guy walked into to Rainbow Café, looking for someone who wasn’t suffering from an evil hang-over. He had already decided to not go and bother Charlie and Fred again, since all they did was to throw things at him.
He was very surprised to see Fred standing at the counter, building a little fort out of the spoons and pepper-mills. “Hey, what are you doing up? I expected you to be in your room, sleeping,” Guy annonunced and walked over to him.
“Well, I couldn’t sleep, and when I tried, I felt sick. Where did you and Connie disappear last night?”
“We got thrown out again, thanks for noticing. It didn’t matter anyway, I don’t even know why we had to go to that other club in the first place.”
“Charlie told me that it was Julie’s request, and her demands are laws to me, obviously. But I bet she had a great time, and I have to say that the club wasn’t all that bad. We have to go there more often.”
Guy watched as Fred poured out sugar on the table and divided the mess into different sections, using a knife. It wasn’t clear if it was out of boredom or complete fascination, because he seemed rather amazed by his work.
“Uhm, Fred? What the hell are you doing?” Guy asked after a while. “Is everything alright with you?”
Fred was quiet for a second, and then he nodded slowly. “My girlfriend is hiding things for me.”
“Ah, you’re mad at your girlfriend. Did you argue, because then you can join the club.”
“What was your argument about?” Fred mumbled. “It’s not because Connie’s still mad at me?”
Guy shrugged. “Sometimes I don’t even know myself who she actually has a problem with. You’d think it just had to do with you, but no, I had to be dragged into the whole thing as well. Can’t you just be friends with her again?”
“Me? What did I do? I never stopped being friends with her. She just got the idea in her head to be mad at me because I happened to be mad at Charlie at one point in my life. She’s the only one still yapping about it. Tell her to get over it, the rest of us has.”
“Tell her yourself.”
“Coward.”
“So, why are you hiding here instead of being with your girlfriend?” Guy continued.
“Because I’m a coward too. I run from disagreements. You know, I never realized this until last night, but Cecilia is kind of... What’s the word? Flirtious?”
“Huh?”
“Flirty?”
“Cecilia being flirty? Fred, I think you can be calm. That girl is icy, not flirty. She’s hard as stone, not soft as cotton. What was the argue about? I told you the reason for my latest argue.”
“Cecilia has a tattoo.”
“So? Did she make it last night and didn’t ask for your permission? What’s the big deal?”
“No, she made it years ago, and I didn’t find out about it until last night. So I asked her why she hadn’t told me, and it kind of went downhill after that.”
They sat in silence for a while, until the fort/tower fell apart on the table, making lots of noise. “I know this is a sick question, but what did you two do last night that made you find a tattoo you’ve never seen before?” Guy wondered.
“Don’t ask,” Fred growled.
“Okay.”
Fred sat up straight and slammed the knife into the table. “How could I’ve not have noticed it before! It’s on her body for God sake! I can’t have missed it, ‘cause I’ve been pretty much everywhere on her body!”
Guy sighed. “Maybe you should save some of that conversation in your brain, where it belongs. Or save it for your memoirs. ‘My life on my girlfriend’ is an appropriate title, don’t you think? You could dedicate a whole chapter to that tattoo she’s been hiding from you.”
“I know I’m obsessing, but this is very important, and I need you to listen,” Fred went on. He grabbed one of the ketchup bottles and offered Guy. Guy just shook his head.
“Can’t you just keep it trapped inside like all normal people do?” he asked.
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“So, you argued about something as stupid as a tattoo? Who are you two? Tom and Jerry?” Connie sighed and looked into the mirror.
“Excuse me? I’m trying to have a conversation with you, and you compare me and my stupid boyfriend to a cartoon? Was that the only thing you could come up with? Tom and Jerry?”
“I don’t like my appearance,” Connie whined a little. “Waddya say?”
Cecilia sat down on Connies bed and went through her notebook. “You see, Con, that... What’s this? ‘My work experience out on the field should be to your...’”
“Hey!” Connie got up from her chair and tore the book out of Cecilia’s hands. “Ever heard of privacy? This is none of your business!”
“Okay, sorry,” Cecilia blinked, surprised at Connie’s outburst. “You looking for a job?”
Connie gave her a threatening eye. “If you breathe one more word about this, I’ll pick your eyes out with my skates, got it? I need the money, because I’m broke. Okay?”
“Sure, I’ll just sit here and shut up,” Cecilia nodded and chewed on her lower lip. “What did you and Guy argue about? The money again?”
“Didn’t I say that you should drop it?” Connie muttered. “Don’t go digging in my stuff, because you have no right to do that. Why are you even here? Don’t you have anywhere else to be? God, Guy’s right, you keep following us around twenty-four seven. Why did you come here?”
Cecilia shrugged and pulled her knees up and put her arms around her legs. “Because you’re my friend?” she asked quietly. “Because everyone else are angry at me? I’m sorry I made you angry, Connie. I’ll go if you want.”
“Don’t try to make me feel guilty,” Connie suggested. “That only works on the guys. So, what did you say about a tattoo?”
“You still mad?”
“At you? Is that even possible? But you’re right, I had a small fight with Guy...”
“Wasn’t there a fire?”
“That was all Fred’s fault. He was really drunk, so I guess he didn’t do it on purpose. Why should he have, it was his room,” Connie said. “Anyway, I got into a stupid fight with Guy why you and Charlie wasn’t invited, and now we’re not on speaking terms anymore.”
Cecilia jumped down from bed and strolled over to the window. “You wanna make a tattoo? Appearantly that is worse then killing someone.”
“Did he overreact? Because guys do that sometimes, I happen to know. And why did you make one in the first place? What if you changed your mind later? It’s a stupid thing to do.”
“Oh yeah? Is that your opinion? Or is it Guy’s?”
Connie’s face darkened and she turned around. “You’re the one to talk? You back down from everything Fred says, even if he’s wrong.”
“You wanna come with me or not?”
“Where?”
“I told you, to make a tattoo. If Fred wants to whine, I’ll give him something to whine about. You’ll see, I won’t be his treasure for much longer.”
“You really wanna have one of those things for life? They can’t be removed, you know,” Connie told her.
“Thank you, little miss Obvious, I know. I’ve done much more stupider stuff in my life than this,” Cecilia smiled.
“Yes, like using the words ‘more stupider’.”
Connie watched as Cecilia left the room, and then she grabbed her jacket to follow. “This is psycho, and I still don’t think it’s a bad idea,” she mumbled. “Maybe I do have some sort of problem.”
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