Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll

Part 13: Airsoft 3

We geared up out back at the tables behind Mark's house. I put on my camo shirt with my Airborne patch on it's shoulder. I put on my boots and tied them. I pulled down my goggles and slipped my bini over my head to protect myself covering all my hair. I loaded my M1A1 Thompson and put it's extra mags in my vest. After we were all readied up, we divided ourselves into teams, Me, Mark, and Tom, vs. Gordo, Max, and Weasel. We headed out. We were at the top of the property once again and went with a new strategy, kill them all. Tom went point and took out Max quickly but they pinned us with fire as we moved tactically through the lawn behind a number of crates and blinds we had set up. Tom was taken out by Gordo but he killed Weasel too. Mark and both ran out from cover at the same time guns blazing and shot Gordo like 30 times. We play 8 games that day. I don't remember who won all of them, but I remember every time my team won, Mark and were together. It was about noon by the time we finished airsofting and we went inside and played COD for a few hours. After that we all piled into Tom's van and went downtown. We bought subs and cokes and went to the drive in by the highway. We watched a re-run of Jurassic Park, my favorite and most of our favorite movie. Tom dropped us all at out houses, me last purposefully.

"Todd, what are you going to do about Tracy?" he asked as we drove, once he'd dropped off everyone else.

"I dunno. I can't break up with her because we aren't together, and I can't ignore her because it'd just be rude. What should I do?"

"Ignore her." he said.

"What? Tom th-"

"It's the only way you don't hurt Mark or yourself. Ignore her and eventually she'll forget about you. It won't be hard on her anyway, like you said you're not together."

I hated to admit it because I hated that plan, but Tom was right. I couldn't ever bring it up really with Mark. After all, she was one of the reasons, plus all that mean shit I said at the hotel and whatever insecurity Mark was feeling had almost made him kill himself. I couldn't date her either, Mark might try to jump again, or worse, something we couldn't stop. I knew that she probably didn't care about me either, she wanted to platonic with me and besides, she was older. She could get a boyfriend in a hot second with her looks too. Tom was right, this was the only way. The only person it would hurt was me, but I wasn't about to admit that to Tom. There somethings you can't even tell your best friends. Tom dropped me off.

"Oh here." he said handing me a thick and fat evelope. "2 grand for going to Vegas."

"I think owe you 2 grand." I said and tossed it on the seat of the van, getting out.

"Todd," he called as a walked up my driveway hauling my airsoft shit, "Thanks for going, it wouldn't have been the same without you."

"Likewise." I said.

A few weeks later, after blocking Tracy's number on my cell and not opening actual hand written letters, I picked up a no caller ID on my house phone, l like to mess with telle-marketers sometimes.

"Todd?" She asked.

I knew who it was and froze.

"Todd?" she asked again.

"Um yeah."

"It's Tracy. Look, you don't have to say anything, Tom came by today. He told me the whole story. I'm sorry Todd."

"It's not your fault. It was just me and Mark." I said sort of embaressed she knew I liked her for sure but I figured she probably knew the very night I climbed up on the roof of the country club. 

"Yeah I guess. Look uh I know we can't really have anymore contact, so I just wanted to wish you farewell and uh yeah."

"Okay. Uh bye I guess."

"Bye. Oh and Todd," she said right as I was hanging up. It's possible you could say she was going to tell me she liked me or that she liked Mark but whatever it was we'll never know. I hung up too quick. I didn't dare call her back and I only saw her one more time in my life. It was at a super market a few days later and we didn't speak and pretended not to see each other. I heard sometime later that she moved with her family to Santa Barbra and I never heard of her again. That was what I wish was different. I wish she had not entered my life in someways. But I guess it all doesn't matter. I still have Mark. And I still have my family. I'm okay. Better than most. So that's sort of what I want to leave you with. That if you have running, clean water, a meal every night, and a toilet with toilet paper, Having shit internet is probably the least of your worries. Also I hope you enjoyed this story which I made up and texted to Tom while taking a shit. Thanks Bye. (Mike Drop).