Chapter 19: Disgusting Or Charming?
It was pass eleven, it looked cold outside, he was all the way downtown and he was drunk – there were a lot of reasons why I told Marshall I wasn’t going to go. I could make an entire list if I had the energy to, but I didn’t, I just told him I was going to bed instead.
“Fine,” he shouted into the phone. “Don’t come! Just go to sleep!”
“Ok,” I yawned. “Goodnight.”
“No wait! I didn’t mean that!”
“Well then, what?”
“Look… Can’t you… I don’t know. Isn’t there something I can do to make you come?”
I heaved a sigh into the phone since the conversation was starting to drag and I just wanted to go to sleep. “Marshall,” I groaned, adding a tone of finality in my voice to strengthen the impact. “You can sit there and wait for me the entire night if you want, but I’m not– ”
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay what?”
“Okay, I’ll sit here and wait for you.”
“No, that’s what I meant: that I’m not going to– ”
“In front of the clock-tower fountain, I’ll sit here and wait for you.”
“I’m not going,” I told him, and that was when Marshall decided to entertain me with a boyish chuckle.
“That’s okay Camila,” he said. “I’ll still wait for you.”
I hung up after, flicked off the lights and crawled into bed. Stupidity was like a virus and I was certain the more time I spent with Marshall, the more likely the chance I’d catch it. Did he actually take me for an idiot? Why would I believe him? Who in the world would actually sit there the entire night and wait for someone that swore they weren’t going to come? Only an idiot would do that!
I yawned, shifted on my bed until I found the perfect spot, and then relaxed my mind. He would probably wait for twenty minutes, no ten, before he got bored and found something else better to do. Call up another girl maybe. There was no need for me to ponder over it; I had two theatre productions tomorrow – one at four and one at seven – and I needed to get enough rest tonight or else I wouldn’t perform at my optimal.
“Alright Camila,” I yawned. “Sleep. Sleep. Go to sleep.”
Twenty minutes later, I was in my car, pulling out of the driveway and heading downtown towards the clock-tower fountain. Initially, I had already fallen semi-asleep when the realization hit me like a tonne of falling bricks. I mean, wasn’t I missing the biggest point in this whole entire thing? Sure, only an idiot would actually wait all night, but Marshall was an idiot! He was an idiot right? He was a complete idiot!
Still, throughout the seven-minute drive downtown, it still bothered me what my intentions were for going. Sure, Marshall could have waited for me the entire night, but that still didn’t give me a reason to leave my house, did it?
Setting the thoughts aside, Marshall wasn’t even there when I arrived in front of the clock tower. There were a few people hopping on the last bus when I appeared, and a few drunks walking around the pub nearby, but the fountain was voided of anything living entirely.
I sighed and took a seat on the edge of the fountain, angry that Marshall wasn’t there, but even angrier with myself that I had believed him. Wasn’t this what I told myself earlier? That he wouldn’t be here? That he’d get bored after a few minutes and leave? I knew that from the beginning. I warned myself that from the beginning. But then, if that was the case, then what was I doing here? What was it that I was feeling inside? Why was I… disappointed?
I frowned and after taking thirty seconds to realize there was no reason for me to be there, got back up on my feet both mentally and physically. The low hum of the waiting bus had started pulling out of the central station and it was only after it had left and I had started walking away from the fountain that I heard faint boyish laughter from the surrounding area. I heard the excited groaning before I recognized the voice belonged to Marshall.
“Oh yeah,” he moaned deeply, followed by a short chuckle. “That feels good.”
Was I surprised to hear him? Not really. So he had called up another girl during the time it took me to get down here and was taking her in some back alley with dim streetlights; it wasn’t a big deal. What did surprise me though was the fact that his voice wasn’t followed by his girly feminine counterpart, but by an equally masculine voice.
“Oh yeah,” his buddy groaned. “I’m feeling ya. Oh god, this feels good.”
It was obviously a scene that I shouldn’t witness, but I couldn’t help the curiosity that was fuelling viciously inside of me. Following the sound, I took a right and made my way down the alleyway until I reached a much bigger space with the streetlight shining directly down. I held my breath until my eyes found them – just the two of them – standing with both their backs facing me, pants down, bare butts.
The good thing was: it wasn’t what I thought it was.
The bad thing was: the both of them were standing beside each other, taking a huge leak on the wall of some public building, Marshall moving his hips and drawing some sort of picture on the wall with his.
“I think I drank too much,” Marshall groaned. “My bladder felt like it was going to die back there.”
“I could... keep going,” his friend giggled before letting out an angry scream. “What the hell Marshall! Watch where you’re spraying that thing!”
“Oops. Sorry bro.”
“You got some on my shoe damn it. What the hell are you drawing anyways?”
“Camila’s face,” he laughed.
I clenched my fists and grinded my teeth in what must have looked like a demonic manifestation on my face. Somebody was going to find his dead body lying in a ditch somewhere tomorrow morning.
His friend laughed. “I don’t see it,” he said excitedly, hiccupping.
The both of them finished what they were doing and pulled up their jeans before Marshall started explaining his artwork to his buddy. “See that’s the eyes,” he said, pointing at some wet splotches on the wall. “And that’s the nose, and that’s her hair, and that’s the big frown she always wears on her face.”
I crept up to them and stood beside Marshall as he finished explaining the piece. “It’s beautiful,” I said. “I totally see the resemblance.”
“Yeah,” he giggled. “I wish she would smile more though. She’s prettier that way.” Marshall turned to me and smiled and I smiled back. He smiled. I smiled back. He smiled. I smiled back. “Holy Jesus freakin’ Chr– ” He screamed and in complete shock and panic, jumped away and fell flat on his butt, ending his sentence with a trail of curses.
His friend quickly backed away as I turned around and stepped forward to where Marshall was sitting, holding his body up with one hand on the ground as he waved his other hand at me, signalling me to stop. “Before you hit me…”
“Yes?” I said. Smiling.
“You should try seeing this in a romantic way,” he said in his defence. “At least I was… thinking about you?”
“Charming,” I said, and then smacked him across the head.
With my foot.
When it was all said and done – and I had witnessed the both of them washing their hands in the fountain – Marshall introduced his buddy as his best friend, Jere-Bear. “That’s it?” I asked him. “That’s your name?”
Jere-Bear, who looked like he had a bit of mixed blood and was extremely good-looking in his own right, shook his head and laughed at me. “No it’s Jere-something-else,” he said, rolling his eyes at me like he wasn’t sure why I was even asking him such a question. “I’m just so happy right now.”
“Okay,” I said, and then watched him take off one of his shoes before throwing it in the fountain and watching it float away.
“I’m washin’ it,” he told me.
“And I didn’t even ask,” I said.
Marshall was a lot more manageable. He sat himself quietly down on the edge of the fountain and did nothing but smile sheepishly at me. “What?” I asked when I was finally fed up with how happy he was just to sit there and watch me.
“Nothing,” he said.
His smile enlarged with my suspicion and the effects promptly irritated me, making me feel anxious. “If you have something to say, just say it Marshall.”
He shrugged, restrained a laugh, but eventually failed and had a good chuckle at my expense. “Can’t you take anything at face value?” He asked. “I’m just happy to see you Camila.”
I frowned at his remark, but there was something about the way he said it and the way he looked at me as he said it that made his words seem half-true if not entirely. I lowered my gaze and stared intently at the ground as I rolled a pebble underneath my flip-flop. “Even after I hit you?” I asked.
“Even after you hit me.”
I rolled my eyes at him, ignoring the uneasy feeling inside my stomach and watched him pop open his mouth in sudden surprise. “Oh!” He shouted, peering at me with glazed over and bloodshot eyes. “Did you bring a shirt?”
I nodded, reached for the T-shirt I had tied around the belt-loop of my jeans and finally freed the fabric. Marshall laid his hands out for the shirt and I mindlessly handed it over to him, watching him study the shirt before laying it on top of his naked upper half. “Camila,” he said, after a moment. “This is a girl shirt.”
“I know,” I said. “It’s my shirt.”
It took two seconds for his expression to morph from confusion to utter despair. “But I wanted you to bring me a shirt,” he cried childishly. “Me!”
“You never said that,” I screamed. “All you told me to do was bring a shirt and I brought one! Why are you running around half naked anyways?! Where’s your shirt?”
Jere-Bear started to laugh and Marshall scratched the back of his head nervously, leading my gaze to the trail of hickeys on his neck. “Uh… some girl took it,” he said. “We were at this house party right? And then the pigs came, but I was mid-action with this girl and then we ran and she took it.”
“A teenage girl?” I asked, assuming pigs meant cops or something of similar authority.
Marshall smirked. “A college girl,” he replied.
I rolled my eyes at him before shifting my gaze over to Jere-Bear, sitting with both his legs – and his pants – dangling in the water fountain. “Who’s the pig now,” I muttered, “and where were you during all of this?”
Jere-Bear flashed me an innocent smile, his eyes just as bloodshot as Marshall’s if not more. “Everything feels so green right now,” he said, his body swaying to the wind.
I sighed as the both of them cracked up in laughter for no reasons, and shook my head at whatever stupidity they were in an uproar over.
That aside, I made it known that I wasn’t going to stick around any longer to watch their merry parade downtown. I had left my dad a short note at the front door telling him Todd was forcing me to watch Star Wars at his house till late tonight, but Todd was an early sleeper and my dad would get suspicious if I stayed out too late.
They both groaned and complained when I told them I was going to leave, but after some negotiations, they decided to hitch a ride off of me home as well – mostly because Marshall was getting cold now that the wind was getting stronger and neither of them had a way of getting home if I left. It was probably their intention from the beginning, call a girl up that had a car, fool around, and then bum a ride off of her later. If the "pigs" hadn’t come crashing the party, I had a feeling their night might have ended up being a lot more colourful, but thus, some things don’t always end up according to plan.
I didn’t end up having too much trouble getting Jere-Bear home much to my relief. Though Marshall was reasonably sober despite himself, Jere-Bear had issues walking for a block without tripping over something – though that could have been thanks to the fact that he only had one shoe. The boy couldn’t even tell me where he lived, but he must have been a veteran when it came to getting overly intoxicated because he giggled and showed me his arm when I asked where he lived. I turned on the car lights and read the words on his arm out loud, “Sorry. I had too much to drink tonight. If I’m lost, can you please return me to this address below? There’s twenty bucks in my back pocket if you want it. Thanks, Jeremy.”
I frowned at him when I finished glancing over what must have been his house address. “Your name is Jeremy?” I asked. “And it was written on your arm this whole time?”
His mouth fell open. “Oh yeah…”
I think I may have internally thanked the lord when I reached Jeremy’s house and he sluggishly hopped out. It was already past midnight and since my energy was quickly disintegrating, I was praying that Marshall only lived around the neighbourhood so I could drop him off with ease.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked as Jeremy staggered out of the backseat and onto the sidewalk. He beamed at me and walked up to my window after closing the backdoor, gently knocking on the glass for me to roll it down. “What?” I asked, propping my elbow out the window once the glass disappeared. “Do you need something?”
“I just want to say thanks-you,” he said. “You know, for the ride. Everyone always says you’re really mean and stuff, but I think you’re kind of nice!”
“Obviously you weren’t watching when I smacked Marshall across the– ”
For what it was worth, I was still talking. I was still in the middle of rolling my eyes and talking which was why I was taken completely off guard when he suddenly grabbed my face in his hands and smashed his lips against mine.
The whole thing wasted five seconds of my life, this soul-sucking smooch that left a good amount of saliva on my lips when he pulled apart. I was disgusted beyond belief, but I couldn’t even express the disgust because I was so shocked by what he had done.
“Okay,” he said after. “Bye-bye Marshall. Bye-bye… girl.”
Paralyzed, I watched Jeremy stagger up to his house, but instead of going through the front door, he made a diagonal cut to one of the windows on the side and after some fumbling, lifted it up. Even from where I was parked on the curb of the street, I could hear how loud the crash was when he propped himself up and crawled through the window to the other side, landing on who knows what. Lights quickly turned on from the second-story and I quickly stepped on the gas pedal before I got myself further involved.
“Was that even his house?” I cried, turning to Marshall after wiping the saliva off my face, but was horrified to learn that he had already passed out. I let out a loud groan of agony at that point, because really, why did I come out tonight?
After turning down the corner of the next street, I parked my car on the side of the road and again, wiped my mouth before trying to shake Marshall awake. Sadly, whatever I did, Marshall wouldn’t budge, only giving me a few moans here and there, and covering his ears and turning away when I screamed in his ear. Was he kidding me? Was this what I was awarded after coming to his aid in the middle of night?
“Come on Marshall,” I pleaded desperately to the sleeping boy. “If you wake up now, I promise I’ll never hit you again.” No response. “Come on, you have to wake up otherwise I don’t know where you live!” No response even after I gave him a hard shove. “Well, what do you expect me to do with you then!” I screamed. “I don’t even know where you live so where am I supposed to take you?!”
It was a stupid question though, and an extremely rhetorical one. I mean there really was only one answer, correct? Marshall had passed out and had nowhere to turn to that I knew of, where could I possibly take him?
Home.
I was going to have to bring him home with me and I couldn’t just let him stay inside the car either because I didn’t want him getting up in the middle of the night and puking all over. No. I’d have to drag him inside, shove him in the laundry room or something. I just hoped my dad wasn’t going to be back at the house by the time we got there, but of course, he was.