Hidden Valley (D. SWING)

XVII. Running in Circles

"Hello?"

Paulette speaks into the phone. "That's him. I'm going to hang up from the line now."

I fall onto Paulette's bed. My body slouches as I lean forward onto my knees, palm loosely hooding the phone in place. Marlene remains silent on her end. I can feel the tension through the phone. Too many feelings between us are tangled in yards of barbwire and me fooling around with Cynthia just dropped our already complicated situation on a pile of TNT waiting to explode.

I don't know why I did it. I really don't know why I did it. What screws with my mind the most is why I don't feel all that bad. Lusting after Cynthia was never my intent but at the end of the day, I look at her and all I see is another piece of ass, another girl I wanted to take down. I can see why it wouldn't be that easy for Marlene to swipe the slate. That's something I do feel a little bit bad about... Not thinking about how she would see it until talking to Javon, but it was too late by that point in the game.

"Do you want to start or should I," asks Marlene. She asks as if she knows I've heard what she's been made aware is going on down here in Charlotte.

"I don't know what to say."

She hums into the phone. A second of silence creates ellipses in the mental transcript of our conversation until she speaks up. "Did you sleep with her?" I hear the lump in her throat. "That's all I can think about right now. I just need to know if you left Lucy's party and slept with her."

I sigh, my body language mimicking the way Lucille reacted to me earlier, as my hand covers my forehead in shame. "I did," I admit. Marlene stops breathing. "I heard Ginger talking about you and your little boy—"

"And you didn't think to call me?"

"I did call you, Marlene," I bitterly express. "I called your phone over and over until Sam picked up and said you were out taking care of some sucker named Parker. Said you wouldn't be back for some days. You tell me what that sounds like?"

Samantha didn't mean any harm. She's one of the most clueless of Marlene's roommates and let Samantha tell it, I'm not Marlene's old man. I'm not Marlene's anything since around her all I am to Marlene is a close childhood friend. That means she won't lie for her or cover for her. She'll just tell it as it is. I know Samantha didn't lie to me. She didn't have a reason to. There wasn't any way I was going to wait around for Marlene to get back from swapping tongues with some dude in a Minnesota cabin when she's done nursing him back to health from the flu.

Marlene's words are creaks and squeaks as her froggy throat resembles a dam, doing its best to push away her urge to yell at me. "So you had sex with that girl?" I hear her disbelief. It's all too blatant.

"Was I supposed to wait two business days and call you back?"

"You're so fucking stupid, Don." My jaw unhinges at her statement. She's never spoke to me like that before. "I'm so mad—" The phone fumbles on the other line as if she's dropped it. A deep breath is taken in and released before she picks the phone up. "You could've easily asked Sam who he is!"

I yell back, "That's your job to tell me! Not Sam's job. Marley's!" Gripping the phone, I settle back down and try to contain myself. "That was your job," I grit. "You was supposed to tell me before you lied to me. I ain't the only one who got some explaining ta' do."

"Parker is my friend," she starts, "And Parker just found out he has AIDS. I didn't tell you. I didn't tell anybody at home in Charlotte because I don't need to be judged by a bunch of sinners about hanging around a gay person with AIDS." I smack my lips, mentally calling bullshit on her excuse. "Don't do that, Don, because you know it's true. Nobody is more judgmental than Hidden Valley."