Odd One Out

Chapter Thirty Six - His Memory

"I hereby call this intervention to order," Amanda tapped her full mocha on the table as a makeshift gavel just as splashes of the mocha spilt from her cup. "Aw shit," she whined using a napkin to clean the sides of her cup.

Connie sat with her hair wrapped neatly in a top bun, her wool jacket and leather boots complimenting her slim figure and making her look put tog- no, Mabel. You will not use that word again.

She was clutching onto her chai tea (her comfort drink) and her puffy eyes kept darting to me meekly and in an ashamed manner. I could tell she'd been crying a lot and I felt a new surge of guilt pass through me.

Amanda interrupted my train of thought, "We can do this the hard way or the easy way. You guys choose. But we are not leaving this table until one of you pipes up. Until 9PM that is. Because that's when this place closes."

She paused for a moment, surveying us. I didn't know where to begin and it seemed Connie was in the same boat as I was in for once. Connie picked at the lint on her jacket that she'd owned for as long as I'd known her. She had to work for months to afford it. But Connie had to work for everything she had. Tuition, meals, transport. Her parents were not well off and she worked for everything she had.

"No one? Fine, the hard way it is. I didn't plan on the hard way if being honest so I'm a little unprepared. But," She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts and taking a swig of her drink and swallowing loudly. "I think you're both being dumb."

I hesitated, waiting for her to continue. Only she didn't.

"Is that the hard way?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and sipping at my iced coffee.

"Mabel, thank you for volunteering to go first," Amanda smiled at me. "Please proceed."

I pursed my lips at her. Damn me and my big mouth. "Well, I guess things got a little out of hand." My gaze fell to Connie whose lips were already trembling. "I just feel like you lied to me, Con. I don't like feeling like this. I still love you, I'm just confused."

"I know!" Connie wailed. "If I could take back every conversation with him, I would! But nothing, Mabel, absolutely nothing happened that was inappropriate. He just said he was interning because he was weighing his career choices and if his family found out, they'd literally cut off his tuition fund. I didn't say anything, but I should have! And I'm so, so, so, so-"

"-She gets it," Amanda interrupted.

"I get it," I agreed.

Connie clamped her lips shut before parting them again and blurting out, "-I'm so sorry!"

I smiled at her. Connie always tried to do the right thing so there wasn't a doubt in my mind that she did anything inappropriate with someone I was interested in. "I know you, Connie. You don't have to explain that to me. And I forgive you. But, I think this intervention should be about something different - your feelings for Jackson."

"What," Amanda gaped at us.

"No way," Connie shook her head vehemently. "There's nothing going on there. No feelings. I quit the internship, Mabel. I'm staying away from him forever."

"You quit your internship?" I shouted a little too loudly gaining the attention of several other tables.

"You like Jackson?" Amanda spluttered.

"Yes and no," Connie confirmed.

"Why the hell would you quit the internship? That took so much work to get into!" I chastised her, recalling all the evenings she stayed in to work on her entrance essay and application. I dropped off so much lasagna (though that was only a part of the reason I was upset).

Her doe eyes set on me, "You're more important to me than that, Mabel. I don't want anything to come in between us and I'm so sorry that it ever did. That I ever let it."

I stared at her blankly, "I know that, Connie." I sighed, twirling the straw in my cup gently. "Let's be real - Jackson and I went on two dates. We weren't anything. I constructed this whole story in my head and what I was left with was some imaginary guy I'd made up. He's nice, but he's not mine. I spent more time thinking about him than actually speaking with him. Don't let that dumb dream get in the way of your reality."

Connie sniffled, "I'm so sorry, Mabel. I really screwed everything up."

I shook my head and reached for her arm, her long fingers reaching across to curl around my hand, "You didn't do anything wrong. I mean what I'm saying to you, I want you to follow your heart on this one. And get your damn internship back."

I looked across the table and gaped at Amanda who currently had tears streaming down her cheeks. "Don't cry!" Connie blubbered, "You're going to make me cry again!"

"I'm not crying," Amanda wailed, swatting at her eyes aggressively, "I never cry!"

I laughed, reaching my other hand across the table to hold onto Amanda's and knew that these girls were my anchors and no matter what screwed up vision of the world I had, they'd stick by me and help me find my way and I was starting to realize that maybe I could help them as well.

"I wasn't going to say anything, but I feel the need to contribute to this conversation and tell you guys that I've been seeing Max," Amanda admitted.

My eyebrows shot up, "Jackson's friend?"

Amanda nodded, her cheeks blushing furiously. Amanda didn't blush either. She was a notoriously no-man/woman kind of girl. She was laser focused on school and the thought of any guy seemed like an unnecessary distraction to her.

"That's not all," She continued, "My parents found out."

"How?" Connie questioned.

"They stopped by when he was over," Amanda deadpanned.

Connie rolled her eyes, "They don't have time to see you but they have time to stop by?"

Amanda frowned, "That's not all. They reamed Max out. Grilled him about why he thought he was good enough to be with me, what career he could get that could support me, his questionable career choice in general. And poor Max just sat there, taking it all like a man."

I had never met Amanda's parents and judging by this story, I didn't think I'd want to. "Why would they do that?"

"They're racist, Mabel. They couldn't stand the idea of me being with him. Hoity toity lawyers who can't stand the idea of their daughter not ending up with some other white hot shot lawyer. So I told them to screw off. Got any room in that apartment of yours? I'm cut off," Amanda joked, but her eyes were watering and this time it wasn't about Connie and I.

Connie and I rushed forward to hug her, "Of course you can stay with me. I'll make so much lasagna," I teased.

"Great," she muffled into my shoulder as I squeezed my arms around her tighter.

"I might need your leather jacket as payment, I mean," I blurted out as Amanda chuckled out a snotty, teary-eyed laugh.

We ended up sitting in that coffee shop until closing time even though we didn't need to and it felt therapeutic to speak because it felt freer now. I'd finally taken down those walls that I had built in my head about these two girls who were both amazing, but by no means perfect. Just like I was.

But as I sat there, sipping iced coffee after iced coffee, my mind kept traveling to one thing - Marcus and his lips against mine. I pulled out my phone.

Mabel: Hey, can we talk?