The only person more bedazzled than Charlus was Joanne. Seeing her old colleagues in the same room again was something she never wished for. Not in an eternity at least.
The simple truth, she wasn't overly fond of them.
"Catching up, Aren't we?" She said while advancing towards them.
Charlus looked as if he had a log stuck in his mouth. He didn't need lenses or anything to figure out that the woman standing in front of him was Joanne, his ex-girlfriend. He wasn't overly fond of her, probably because of the snoring, jealous bitch she was.
"Joanne?" Delia said as she got up, "you haven't aged a day!" She embraced her like a little sister.
Joanne did the same, not as a mere curtsy but because she actually liked Delia. She was the only one among the charbroiled runts who actually had a brain.
"Same goes for you," She said as she parted. "It's good to see you."
Delia motioned for her to sit with them. Joanne settled on the armchair opposite to Charlus and sat uncomfortably. "Hello, Joane," Grace said after Delia elbowed her in the gut.
"It's Joanne, just Joanne." She she smiled.
Grace fake-smiled with muttering: Whatever.
Delia then eyed Charlus, motioning for him to greet that blue-haired whor- woman.
Charlus didn't want to greet her, heck he didn't even want to see her but unfortunately, she sat right in front of him. Unlike James, he had an excellent vision. He couldn't just take out his specs to unsee her. Finally, Charlus said;
"So," he stated. "How's it going?"
Joanne looked startled as if someone was forcibly making her eat meat right after she said that she was a vegetarian. "Oh good," she said trying to keep a straight face. "I'm married-" she showed them her big diamond. "-And I have a daughter."
"Cool," Grace said. "I have a daughter too, she's down the hill."
"Mine is right across the hall." Joanne faked laughed again. "What about you, Charlus?"
He could swear that the way she said Charlus, it almost sounded like she was saying a curse word. "I have a son." He said.
"And your partner?" She asked reluctantly, "who could you marry? Grace?"
Before Grace could snap, Charlus quickly answered. "Bethany. Her name was Bethany, she was a nurse and she died of cancer."
Joanne wasn't much for sentimental, but she did feel sorry for him. Charlus looked haggard. He didn't look like the handsome playboy who managed to swipe her off her feet. He looked... heartsick. He still was fit and fine but his hair and the draining color of his face gave it away. Joanne then quickly changed the subject.
"What about you Grace?" She said, "Where is Mark?"
Before she could raise her fist, Delia stepped in. "They weren't married!" She quickly said. "Mark lef- I mean Grace left Mark ages ago."
Seeing herself be the dumper, a smile sparked on Grace's face. "That's right," she said proudly. "I left him."
Joanne smiled uncomfortably. She never like Grace, partly because during a brief period she dated Charlus, she found out that he liked Grace more than he liked her and partly because... Nah, that was it.
Grace, however, pretended as if she was completely oblivious to the fact that Charlus liked her.
I mean, Joanne thought. You know that a guy is bonkers for you when both of you yell and duel to the death, right?
The hall was once again filled with silence. Grace was now leaning back on the sofa and biting her nails. Delia was sitting gracefully with her one leg tucked behind the other along with her hands on her knee. Charlus had now propped his elbows against his knees and every now and then he stole glances at Grace.
While Joanne sat staring at the three of them with her Noctowal senses. She thought about Dawn and how miserable she must be sitting alone in the giant Parlor all by herself.
"So Diane," she said. "How's your boy?"
"It's actually Delia now," she said with a smile. "Delia Ketchum and he's good."
"Delia Ketchum?" Grace asked in a flabbergasted tone. "Sounds insane, I hope you know it."
"It does, I know." She replied. "Well, he's a-"
"Wait a sec-" Grace said suddenly as she got up, a sudden question arose in her mind out of curiosity. She then pointed her finger towards Charlus and then back at Delia. "You called her Delia outside even when she didn't tell you that she changed her name."
Delia sweat dropped because Grace now wore her instant kill expression. She motioned for her to sit down as she said, "Well Charlus helped me settle, we kinda stayed in touch."
Ouch, Charlus though. She should not have said that.
All those emotions which Grace had locked away, burst out in a fury of speed. "You fucking stayed in touch with the tree!" She burst out. "You stayed in touch with him and not me?! Great Diane, just great!"
Delia was going to give a sensible answer which could perhaps calm Grace down. But like the busy body she was, Joanne stepped in. "Calm down Grace," she said as she swapped her hand in thin air. "It's nothing, Charlus is more reliable than you."
Both Delia and Charlus facepalmed themselves.
Grace gasped as she turned back. "Excuse me, Miss-all-people-like-me," Grace said in a shrill voice as she faced Joanne. "You're that I'm not reliable?! Huh, I fucking took a bullet for her!"
Charlus jumped to his feet to restrain Grace before she could leap and strangle Joanne, who nearly jumped back to her sofa and grabbed its arms for support.
"Stop!" Charlus said as he grabbed her by her arms and lifted her up to drag her away from Joanne. "She's not worth it!"
"I'm not worth it?" Joanne repeated as she stood up, "Did you just say I'm not worth it?"
"Not now Joanne," Delia said.
"Oh shut up Diane- Delia whatever the fuck you're called now!" She snapped.
"Hey!" she complained.
"You don't get to 'hey'!" Grace now diverted towards Delia as she shrugged off Charlus's hand. "You lost someone, big deal, that didn't give you the right to disappear from my life."
"I had every right!" Delia said as she back off. "It was my life and I wanted to be alone."
"Alone, huh," Grace sighed. "And to answer your previous question, yes, it was the other way around. I couldn't live without you and yet you left. You knew that, and still you left."
It was true, Delia did know what would happen to Grace if she left. But she couldn't bring herself to face her friend back then, the worst part was that Delia still blamed them all for James' death. Perhaps if they weren't slow, he would still be alive.
"I lost Jame-"
"Yeah, you fucking lost James!" Grace burst out again, sick of hearing James as an excuse. "We all lost someone. But it was always about you wasn't it? Did you ever stop and think for a moment, that what would happen to me?!"
Delia didn't know what to answer. Grace now stood at a fingers distance away from her, the answer was yes, Delia didn't think about her when she left. She just thought about herself and her son, she didn't want to stay in touch with people who took her James away from her, and that included Grace.
"I loved James," Delia concluded. "It fucking hurt when he died right in front of my eyes. I had a son to take care-"
"So did I!" Grace yelled. "I was the youngest among you, I was fucking seventeen! You lost James you say, I fucking lost my whole family! I know I pretend I don't care, but I do. I freaking cared about them and they died in front of my eyes! All you lost was Jam-"
"All I lost?" Delia asked, taken aback. "He was my whole world! How could s-"
"Say that?" She repeated. "He wasn't 'your world' until the last two years. You were my world! Did our friendship mean nothing to you?"
"Of course it did." Delia cried, "I wasn't ready to face-"
"Oh do shut up, I haven't seen a person as selfish as you, I was with you during your toughest times and what about me? You left when I needed you the most, everyone left when I fucking needed them!"
Grace was sad, both Joanne and Charlus knew that. Because they had never seen her cry.
It wasn't fair, Joanne was thinking. She too had bottled up her emotions, she wanted to scream to, just like Grace. After all, she wasn't the only one who had suffered. So, she turned to face Charlus.
"I'm not worth it?" She replied as Grace and Delia shouted in the background. "You're not worth it you bloody bastard!"
"Seriously, you're gonna do it now?" Charlus said in a disgusting way. "You didn't change at all, did you? You're still the selfish little bitch you were back then."
Joanne gasped back dramatically but quickly maintained her composure, "The first lesson, I'm going to teach my daughter is to stay the fuck away from your fucking son, who I'm damn sure has inherited your bloody man whore genes!"