It had been
pretty warm lately, unseasonably so. Although, maybe it was normal now for
winter weather to be more rain than snow, what with global warming and
all. Whatever the reason for it, rain in
the winter sucked ‘cause everything just turned to slush, all grey and
gross. The wetness seeped into Terry’s
shoes as he stood outside the school with Nick, smoking a cigarette.
“So what
happened?” asked Nick.
“Nothing,
what do you mean?” Terry asked innocently.
“Bullshit. You fucking did something. You know I’m Vani’s friend on Facebook and
his last post was pretty cryptic but you obviously did something to Jay.”
Terry
shrugged and tossed aside the remainder of his cigarette. Nick did the same and they walked inside,
their wet sneakers squeaking on the floor as they went. They passed by the Munch Box on their way to
the cafeteria and there were the nerds at their usual table, Jay sporting a
gigantic bandage on his fragile nose. Shit. So it was for sure broken.
“You did
that, didn’t you?” asked Nick as they went on.
“Did what?”
“Terry, cut
the crap. You broke his nose!”
“Well…
fuck,” Terry mumbled. “I didn’t mean
to!”
“No wonder
the kid’s afraid of you!”
“Well he
fucking deserved it for what he did to Cerise.”
Nick sighed
heavily. “Like it was any worse than
what you did to her.”
“Whatever,
he still deserved it just for being like, himself.”
“Real
mature, Terry.”
Terry
stopped and shrugged. “I seriously
didn’t mean to. I was yelling at him and
shit, for like, you know, being an asshole or whatever and I lunged at him just
to scare him. But then he was all like,
‘fuck you’ and stuff and I just lost my temper.
Before I even knew it my fist was in his face.”
“Jesus,”
Nick sighed.
“And he
went down like a leaf. I seriously,
like, fuck Nick. I didn’t even mean
it. I was so embarrassed but I had to
act like it was on purpose, you know?”
“To save
face?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re a
bully.”
“I know,”
Terry sighed and kept walking. They
entered the caf and got plates of shitty lasagna. Actually the food here wasn’t bad.
“You should
go to like, anger management classes or whatever. Like get therapy I guess.”
“Seriously?”
asked Terry in a panic. “You think it’s
that bad?”
“Well it’s
not the fucking ‘80s! You can’t just
like beat people up and have it be no big deal!
For all we know someone put it on YouTube and maybe he’ll press charges
and you’ll like go to jail and shit.”
Terry hadn’t been worried when he’d beat up
Andrew because he knew Andrew was too prideful to go to the police but he
couldn’t say the same about Jason Harris and his stupid hair. Well, if he did go to jail or get community
service or whatever, that’d be ok. He’d
deal with it. At least that fuck-nut knew
not to mess with Cerise again. Shit,
Cerise was gonna be so pissed.
“Oh my god,
Jay! What happened to your nose!?”
exclaimed Sarah as she and Cassie came to the Munch Box.
God, this
sucked. Jay was attracting so much
attention with his bandaged nose and his twin black eyes. He actually thought he looked mildly cool,
like he was a boxer or something and he’d noticed some girls looking at him
sympathetically or least quizzically, which was better than being ignored but
the truth of how his face got this way was totally pathetic. Of course, even if he’d wanted to spin the story
he had no chance while Vani continued to exist.
“Oh my god,
Vani, is that what your Facebook post was about? Terry versus Jay, guess who won?”
“Yeah, I
wanted to add a pic of Jay’s face but he was a total pussy about it,” Vani
nodded.
“So you
were right to be afraid of Terry?” asked Cassie with a shocked expression, like
it was shocking that Terry Trebibrutesky was a caveman.
“Yeah,”
nodded Karl. “Terry totally hit him in
the face. It was pretty mega. Straight out of the olden days, ‘cause he was
defending Cerise’s honour or something.
Said he’d do even worse if Jay ever hurt Cerise like that again.”
“Yeah, it
was hilarious,” confirmed Willy.
“It’s not
hilarious, it’s horrible!” said Sarah.
“My god, Jay, I’m so sorry we made fun of you for being afraid. Obviously Terry is like, totally out of
control.”
“It’s no
big deal,” Jay said. “Barely hurts.”
“Hah!”
scoffed Willy. “Not what you said when
you were all crying and shit yesterday!”
“I didn’t
cry!”
“Please,
you were blubbering so wildly I almost mistook you for Willy,” smirked Karl.
Everyone
laughed even though it was a complete lie.
Jay hadn’t cried! Or at least he
didn’t think so. It was all a bit of a
blur.
“Well
congrats, Karine,” said Janice with an appropriate lack of enthusiasm.
Karine
nodded as she read the cast list on the wall outside the green room. She got the main part, as usual. Yay.
“God, this semester is totally gonna suck.”
“Oh my god,
you guys!” exclaimed Cassie as she approached them with Sarah in tow.
“Cassie,
you’re Big Al.”
“Oh,
seriously? ‘Cause I’m short? That’s so lame. She’s the worst character in the whole
thing!”
“They’re
all the worst!” said Karine, even though it was true that Big Al was among the
crappiest roles. She had maybe two
lines.
“You guys,
stay on target! We have crazy news!”
interrupted Sarah.
“What is
it?”
“Terry totally
broke Jay’s nose!”
“What?!”
Janice and Karine exclaimed.
“He has a
massive bandage and two black eyes. It’s
insane! Apparently Terry like totally
lost his shit and beat him up, all like to defend Cerise or whatever, I guess
‘cause he broke up with her, which barely makes sense, you’d think Terry would
be happy they broke up, but I guess like, he was pissed ‘cause Cerise was upset
or something. Like, could it be any more
obvious that he’s still in love with her?
Not that he ever pretended he wasn’t.
Still, so crazy!”
“Yeah,”
Karine nodded, taking it all in. “I
guess that’s not so unusual for Terry.”
“Really?”
asked Cassie. “He’s done this kind of
shit before?”
“Well I
just mean ‘cause like, he’s like an enforcer in hockey, right? He’s pretty violent, like in general.”
“I guess he
was a bully in high school,” mused Sarah.
“But not really. It was always
Andrew who actually hurt people. Terry mostly just ignored everyone, like he
was so far above us all. God, such a
poseur when you think about it.”
“I wouldn’t
call Terry a poseur,” countered Karine.
“He’s pretty genuinely indifferent to most everyone. With the main exception being his little
Cherry angel. I’m not surprised he’d fly
off the handle ‘cause of her. I mean, he
used to be so laid back before he met her but then he became all volatile and
shit.”
“Oh my god,
what are you like, one of those girls all defending Chris Brown for beating up
Rihanna?” asked Sarah.
“What are
you talking about?”
“It’s not
Cerise’s fault if Terry acts violently.
It’s Terry’s fault!”
“I know,”
Karine nodded, conceding the point.
“So like,”
Janice said after a beat. “I’m the only
one who thinks it’s hot? I mean that
Terry did such a like, manly thing?”
“Oh
god.” Sarah rolled her eyes. “Yes Janice, you’re the only one.”
“Well,”
Cassie shrugged. “It’s maybe a bit
romantic. I mean, no the violence part,
but the defending her honour part. I
mean a bit.”
“It’s not romantic,
it’s barbaric!” Sarah insisted.
Before they
could argue the point further, the Cherry angel herself came along and the
others pounced on her, all asking if she’d heard about what happened.
“I didn’t
hear, I saw,” she said, stone-faced.
“I know,
his face is like a total mess!” Sarah nodded.
“Is
it? Fuck. I haven’t seen him today. I meant that I saw it go down. Yesterday.
Willy texted me saying to come to the back door, you know, where the bus
stop is? So I go and I see Terry talking
to Jay. I couldn’t hear them and I
didn’t go outside. I just stood there by
the door and I saw it. Terry just hit
Jay square in the face. It was insane!”
“It’s so
macho,” said Janice with a grin.
“It’s
disgusting!” countered Sarah.
“I
dunno. It was weird,” shrugged Cerise
with obvious discomfort. “I mean,
scary. Terry’s temper… I guess I have a
temper too, but I don’t go around hitting people. It’s just, yeah, scary.”
“Fuck, I
gotta go to class,” said Sarah, checking the time on her phone. “We’ll talk later, ok?” she said, squeezing
Cerise’s arm as she went.
The rest of
them walked towards the theatre. “Oh
wait, who am I?” asked Cerise absent-mindedly as she craned her neck to see the
cast list. “Bernice? Who’s Bernice?”
They all
shrugged. Bernice? Karine couldn’t even remember a Bernice in
the script. Wow, even though Cerise had
been off her game lately, Karine hadn’t expected her to get such a terrible
role. How embarrassing for her. Kinda funny though. Karine tried not to smirk as they went to
class.
“Ever had
him? Whitmore, for humanities?” asked
Kim.
The
question wasn’t directed at anyone in particular but Shauna figured she
shouldn’t answer. Just because she was
having lunch with Leanne’s friends didn’t mean she was their friend. Brenda and Kim probably hated her, same way
everyone hated her.
Leanne and
her friends kept talking about teachers and other boring school stuff and then
Shauna suddenly realized they were waiting for her to say something.
“Uh, what?”
she asked.
“Your least
favourite class?” asked Leanne.
“Oh, I
dunno, all of them,” Shauna shrugged.
They all
laughed like she was trying to be funny.
Shauna smiled like she was in on the joke. They kept talking and every so often Shauna
even said something, but only when Leanne asked her a direct question. She couldn’t presume to actually be in on the
conversation. They still hated her, even
if they thought she was funny. After a
while they got up to go to class and Shauna walked with Leanne.
“So what’s
so horrible about them?” asked Leanne.
“Huh, what
do you mean?”
“Well
‘cause you hate gay people right, and they’re gay.”
“I never
said I hated you guys,” Shauna shrugged in discomfort. Is that why they hated her? ‘Cause they thought she hated them?
“So you
like us? You like me?”
“Uhh…”
Shauna stammered. What exactly did
Leanne mean by that?
“I mean as
a friend, Shauna. A freakin’ friend.”
“Um yeah,”
Shauna nodded, hoping this wasn’t some lead-up to Leanne dumping her as a
friend ‘cause she was such a loser.
“So then
why does my sexual orientation offend you?”
“It
doesn’t.”
“Could’ve
fooled me.”
“It’s
fine. I just don’t think I’m like that.”
“Like
what?”
For fuck’s
sake! Why did Leanne constantly have to
torture her?! “Stop trying to make me
say that word!”
“Which
word? Gay? Homosexual?
Lesbian? Flaming dyke?”
“I have to
go to class,” Shauna scowled.
Leanne
sighed and stopped walking, staring Shauna in the face. “You know this isn’t fun for me, Shauna. Hanging out with someone who rejects what I
am. ‘Cause even if you’re not gay,
you’re still a homophobe and I can only take so much. Just ask yourself Shauna, do you prefer being
alone, silently stalking that Cerise girl and being continuously rejected or is
it better to have friends who will support you and who won’t judge you and who
will like, actually hang out with you?”
Shauna
shrugged and looked at her feet.
“Just think
about it, Shauna.”
And with
that she walked away. Shit! Shauna was getting a hole in her boot.
“Bernice is
totally a good role,” said Karine without even trying to sound like she meant
it.
Cerise
looked at her skeptically and she shrugged apologetically. They sat in the green room as usual, having a
snack before that evening’s rehearsal.
“I guess I really fucked up my
audition,” Cerise sighed. “But I
would’ve thought that my performance last semester would make up for it. I mean Hugh and Fred know what I can do.”
“Yeah but
they obviously saw that you’re in a funk lately and it’s not about what you
once were, it’s about what you are now.”
“God, was I
really that bad?”
“I dunno, I
wasn’t there,” shrugged Karine.
“I barely
even remember the audition,” said Cerise even though this wasn’t entirely
true. She remembered that she’d flubbed
her lines several times and it really was that bad. Screw Jay and his stupid emotions, dumping
her for no reason and getting her all upset!
Not that she could really blame anyone but herself for a shitty
audition. “Oh well whatever. Everyone’s roles are shit.”
“Yeah,
besides, there’s no such thing as a bad role, just a bad actor, right? I mean, we just have to put the right
attitude into our performances and it’ll be fine, even if the script sucks.”
“Hey, I
wonder if they’d allow a bit of improv.”
“Wouldn’t
it be hilarious if like, on closing night we just totally improvised it?”
“We could
totally do our own thing?”
“It’d be
wicked!”
“But then
we’d fail the course. I mean I didn’t
think it was even possible to fail Theatre Workshop but I think we’ve just figure
out how,” smirked Cerise.
“Yeah,”
nodded Karine. “So… you gonna make me
bring it up?”
“What?”
“Jay’s
nose?”
“I dunno,
Karine, I’m not sure how I feel about it.
I mean, when I saw it I just couldn’t even believe it. I was in shock. And now I guess I’m just… disappointed?”
“I guess
it’s a bit romantic, for like Terry to defend you.”
“You really
believe that?’
“No,”
Karine admitted. “What went on between
you and Jay was none of Terry’s business.”
“Exactly! And I mean even if it was, does that give him
the right to hit someone? It’s so
scary.”
“He’d never
hit a girl.”
“So it’s ok
to hit guys?”
“I dunno,”
Karine shrugged. “I guess it can be
cool. Like rugged or whatever. Janice thinks it’s manly and I guess I see
where she’s coming from.”
“Did you
think it was cool when Terry beat up Andrew?”
Karine’s
face turned white and Cerise instantly regretted the question. She apologized
hastily but Karine shook her head. “I
dunno. On the one hand, I’m glad the
Asshole got hurt you know?”
“Yeah,”
Cerise nodded.
“On the
other, it annoyed me that Terry interfered.
It was my thing, not his.” Cerise
kept nodding and Karine went on. “I wish
I could have done something to the
Asshole. I didn’t want Terry to have to
like, save me or whatever. It made me
feel weak that he could do something I couldn’t. Same was as how the… incident made me feel
weak.”
“I totally
get that,” said Cerise, hesitant to bring the conversation back to Jay.
“But still,
the Asshole deserved it. And as much as
Jay dumping you was lame, he didn’t deserve to get a broken nose for it.”
“Exactly!” nodded Cerise emphatically. “The punishment was like, way
disproportionate to the crime, I mean even if I had elected Terry the
executioner or whatever. I mean is Jay
ever gonna talk to me again? He must
hate me now.”
“Who cares
about that? I mean I thought you hated
him.”
“I dunno,”
Cerise shrugged. “I don’t really hate
anyone I guess. It takes too much energy
to hate people.”
Karine made
a face like she understood, like maybe she was tired of hating people too. “So you don’t hate Terry either?”
“No, I
don’t hate him. I’m annoyed. Not even angry, just annoyed.”
“You wanna
get back with him?”
“I dunno,”
Cerise shrugged, really not sure of what she wanted anymore.
“Well, he
doesn’t wanna get back with you,” said Karine bluntly.
“You’ve
talked to him about it?” asked Cerise in surprise even though she knew Karine
and Terry probably talked about everything.
“He’s still
hurt. He feels betrayed by you getting
with Jay, or by you liking him at all.”
“So why’d
he do it then? Hit Jay? It makes no sense.”
“I dunno,
boys are stupid.”
“Yeah and
girls are geniuses,” said Cerise sarcastically.
“Well I
don’t know about you but I’m pretty fucking brilliant,” said Karine with a
laugh.
“Me
too! I’m awesome!”
“Woo! Girl
power!” Karine shouted and they laughed while the others in the green room jumped in on the chant for no reason whatsoever.
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