nine girls rule
nine
girls rule
Marlowe
There was a knock on the door. I shot up out of bed and ran to let Naomi in. She carried a bag of Chinese takeout and a box of wine.
“An angel from above!” I screamed.
“You’re so dramatic,” she said, laughing as she walked into the living room.
Naomi wore baggy cargo pants and an old Metallica t-shirt.
My purple Hello Kitty pajamas were a stark contrast to my best friend.
My sister was at her dickhead of a boyfriend’s tonight, and Captain’s was closed.
Naomi and I were taking advantage of the night off by eating like shit and watching trash TV.
“It’s just been so long since we had a girls' night like this. My sister is always here and this new asshole she’s dating. Naomi, it’s bad. I need to get the fuck out of here. She won’t listen to me. And it’s not a little sister thing, it’s just her being stubborn.”
“Don’t you pay for half the rent here? Don’t let her push you around, Mar.”
Pulling pillows from the couch and setting them on the floor, we settled down comfortably at the coffee table.
“It’s not even that. This guy she’s dating is mean, and he’s made her mean.
You know we’ve never gotten along because of our mom, but it’s gotten out of hand now.
He beats her, Naomi. I’ve threatened to call the cops, but she won’t have it.
The moment he does it in front of me, or he lays his hands on me or my dog, I’m fucking done. ”
Naomi stopped pulling the food out of the bag and just stared at me. “You’re joking, right? Mar, that’s not okay. Come stay with me for a while at least.”
“Naomi, you’re an angel, but you live in a one-bedroom basement apartment that’s barely big enough for you. You think me and Dojo can fit in there too?”
“Dojo’s a Boston Terrier. He doesn’t take up that much room. And you’re small too. It’s fine. You can’t live like this.”
“I appreciate you more than you realize, but I’ll be okay. Soon enough I’ll be able to move out. Now let’s eat and watch TV. I’m starving.”
Naomi poured the boxed wine into the dolphin tumblers I grabbed from the kitchen. We ate beef and broccoli, sesame chicken, and fried rice while we watched true crime shows on the cable we stole from my neighbor.
Dojo began to whine to go outside a little while after I fed him dinner.
“I’m gonna go have a cigarette and walk Dojo. Want to go with me?” My feet carried me to the front door where I slipped on my sandals and grabbed Dojo’s leash.
Naomi stood and slipped her shoes back on. “Yeah sure.”
We stepped into the night air. The porch light flickered when I flipped the switch.
It was cooler than I expected but not too cold.
The sky was clear, and you could see stars shining.
Several lights in the trailer park were out, so it made seeing the stars even easier- not as much light pollution.
I lit a cigarette and started walking down the street.
“Where the hell is the moon?” Naomi asked, spinning around looking at the sky.
“It’s a new moon tonight. But it’s like right there.” I pointed in the general direction of the moon.
Naomi nodded in understanding. “Oh! I was going to ask you earlier, but I forgot. You never told me about what happened between you, Dexter, and Bunny that night. I’ve honestly been dying to know.
We just haven’t had a chance to talk about it.
There was no way in hell I was going to talk to you about this over the phone. I need excruciating details, Marlowe.”
Immediately, my head fell into my hand, and I broke out into a cold sweat.
“Well, you know what happened. I told you. We hooked up.” I shrugged, dropped my cigarette, and quickly turned around to walk back to the house.
“Come on, Dojo.” My loyal pup followed my command and began prancing back toward our door.
I wanted to tell Naomi all about it. Every single detail.
But saying it out loud made it real. Sure, I’d thought about that night many times over the past few months.
Gotten off to it more times than I wanted to admit.
But would telling my best friend mean I had to actually face the feelings that were churning around in my head?
I was terrified to acknowledge what that would actually mean.
“Don’t you dare run away from me!”
Once we were back inside, I started cleaning up our mess from dinner. Putting the leftover Chinese in the fridge. Knowing that even though I put my name on it, my sister or her boyfriend would most definitely eat it if I didn’t get to it first.
“Marlowe!” Naomi was laughing when she yelled my name. “Come on, you can’t do that. I’m your best friend. You know I’m not judging you.”
“It’s not that, trust me. I know you’re not.” Slamming the refrigerator shut, I looked up at my friend. “If I talk about it, it makes it all real. And I just don’t know how to feel about it all. But I do know I can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t know what to do.”
Grabbing my hand, Naomi pulled me to the couch, and we sat down together. Dojo jumped up to sit down behind me. “Mar, if you need to talk about it to get it off your chest, you know I’m here for you.”
“Thank you. I guess I’m just scared that talking about it would make me realize how I really feel, and I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”
“Oh babe, I’m pretty sure it’s already real whether you talk about it with me or not.” Naomi gave me a tight-lipped smile.
Falling over onto the back of the couch, I sighed, “You’re right. Ugh, why are you always right?”
Dojo had fallen asleep on the couch behind me. He and I spent most nights locked up in my bedroom, so I’m sure he felt like a little prince having free range of the house. His light snores rumbled quietly as I considered how to tell my best friend about that night.
“Okay.” Naomi situated herself on the couch, grabbing a pillow to hug like she was settling in for a long story.
“It’s not that crazy of a story really. I don’t know,” a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding released from my nose, and Naomi raised her eyebrows.
“Nicki was throwing herself at Bunny all night, and he asked me to help keep her away from him. We were like play flirting all night. At one point we ended up sitting with Dexter, you know the two of them are always together. Well, the three of us got really drunk. Girl, I swear, between the three of us we drank a bottle of J?ger and had, I don’t even know how many beers.
Well, Nicki left Bunny alone all night, but I ended up staying there.
They both insisted because I was drunk. I didn’t argue because I knew there was no way I’d be able to get home.
Bunny gave me some clothes to sleep in, and after I changed, I can’t really explain what happened.
It was like everything that we were pretending to do all night wasn’t pretending anymore.
As soon as I went back out into the living room.
Bunny kissed me, then Dexter kissed Bunny.
It all felt so normal. Nothing was awkward. It just happened.”
Naomi stared at me with a blank expression. Then her mouth formed a huge smile.
“Ew, stop looking at me like that.” Using my foot, I shoved her away from me.
Dojo let out a small bark when Naomi burst out laughing. “I’m so sorry, but this is the best thing I’ve heard in so long. Two boyfriends who are also boyfriends. That’s almost perfect.”
“Oh my god, stop it! It was one time, and we’ve barely talked since.
I don’t even know how to bring it up to them.
If I even should. Things are back to normal with Dexter, it seems, but Bunny is acting so fucking weird, kinda mean actually.
I don’t want to make things even worse. What if I ruined everything? ”
Naomi placed her hand on my leg. “Relax, Mar, really. Don’t stress yourself out. We can always talk about it, but if you feel like you want to bring it up to them, you should. Do it when it feels right though. Who knows, maybe one of them will bring it up first. That might even make things easier.”
Knowing she was right, I shifted more comfortably on the couch. Pulling a blanket over our laps. Dojo shifted to lie on the other end of the couch. Flipping through the channels, a new true crime show had just started, so I stopped there, and we settled together to watch it.
“Hey Mar,” Naomi said after we sat there a little while. “Do the guys know about the stuff with your sister’s boyfriend?”
“Who? Solace? No. Why would they know?”
She took a sip of her wine and glanced at me over the cup. “They care about you, as I do. I just don’t think they’d be okay with it. Especially Bunny and Dexter.” She raised her eyebrows.
“Come on, Naomi. They care about me, yeah, but we’re just friends.
Did you not just hear everything I told you?
Nothing has really changed between us.” My hands spread out in front of me like a platter.
The platter that held the millions of things I didn’t want to face if I actually admitted how I was feeling about Dexter and Bunny.
“Oh, I heard you.”