Long Live the King

Fifteen

Raymond was sitting in the patio chair in front of the tv when Adrienne finally arrived home. He didn't look up, but he knew it was her from the sound of her footsteps. On screen, two actors argued in black and white.

"Dishwasher's broken," he grunted, not breaking eye contact with the movie. "Next time you see Marshall ask him when he has time to fix it--and how much it'll cost."

"I don't know if I'm going to see Marshall anymore," she said quietly, edging into the kitchen.

"Thought you guys were friends."

"We were, kind of," she said, her voice starting to crack. "I just don't know that we still are. Maybe we can just hire a different repairman or something."

Raymond muted the television and twisted in the chair so that he could see his sister. He looked at her faintly trembling hands and depleted expression. Using both hands, he pushed himself out of the chair.

"What did he do?" Raymond asked, his voice ominous. "Did he hurt you?"

"No! Why do you always assume he did something?"

"You're clearly upset and you were just with him. I can put pieces together. I never liked him anyways."

"Yeah, you can put any two pieces together if you try to force them to fit," she said, exasperated. She reached up toward her neck, fiddling with the pendant on a thin silver string. "I'm telling you he didn't do anything to me, so you can relax. Okay?"

"Where did you get that?" Raymond pointed at the necklace. "I'm between jobs. We don't have the money right now for you to spend on fancy things."

"I didn't buy it," she said. "Marshall gave it to me."

"Right." Raymond laughed, but from him it was a chilling sound. "The guy buys you a necklace and you don't know if you're friends anymore? Sounds like you're still friends to me."

"He asked me out," she blurted. "Like... on a date."

"Idiot," Raymond grumbled. "I told him to back off. He's lucky I don't bash his face in like I promised. What is he, like fifty?"

"He's twenty six and it's not your place to tell him anything."

"Whatever, he's a grown ass man and you're basically a child."

He walked past her, to the fridge, and pulled out a another beer.

"I'm nineteen!" she said indignantly. "It doesn't matter anyways. I'm not interested and I told him that, but you don't need to make him sound like some sort of creep. He's a nice guy, Ray."

"Men aren't nice Addy." He took a swig of his beer. "Thought you of all people would know that by now."

"Whatever," she said. Shaking her head she once more touched the pendant hanging from her neck then turned and took the stairs two at a time up to her room.

#

A thorough search of the Reynold's house had borne nothing of interest. Tired and disappointed, the three of them grouped out on the sidewalk to discuss their lack of findings. Although the sunlight was already starting to fade, Regina still seemed excited about touring the town. She waved off Marshall's offer to accompany her but did take him up on the use of his car and drove off on her own. Marshall and Adrienne glanced at each other, shrugged, and began walking slowly back towards his house.

"If I tell you something," she asked, her arms swinging heavily. "will you not tell Regina?"

"I don't know what your problem is with her but yes, if you tell me something in confidence I'll keep it that way.."

"The necklace," she said, pulling it out of her pocket again. "I didn't realize it before but it's mine."

"It is?"

"Yeah," She handed it to him. "You probably don't recognize it. I mean I didn't either at first but..."

"I gave this to you," he realized.

"You did."

"I remember that now." He sucked a breath through his teeth. "That would have been right before I awkwardly expressed my feelings to you and put a damper on an otherwise pleasant evening. I saw it a store and I thought about how you didn't have a lot of things. Jewelry seemed like it was a luxury you couldn't afford. I thought you'd like it."

"I did," she said. "But anyways I was thinking and maybe Ray wasn't trying to leave me a message after all. Maybe he was just returning something that I forgot. He knew I liked it."

"I guess that's possible." He handed the necklace back to her and she stowed it away in her pocket again. The walked a block in silence, listening to the sounds of neighborhood dogs barking and cars rumbling.

"Marshall," She spoke up again. "I hate to even ask this because it's really none of my business and there's no way to ask without it being weird but... is there something going on with you and Regina?"

"Me and Gina?" He shook his head. "No. She has asked me out a couple times but I don't know, I don't think that I'm interested."

"When did this happen?" she asked. They turned onto the pathway in front of his house and stopped there by the mailbox. She pushed her hands deep into her pockets and looked up at him.

"Most recently? Back at the house. Don't worry about it though. I don't think I'm going to take her up on it."

"You turned her down?"

"I told her I wasn't sure, but I think that I'm going to turn her down."

"Why?" She bit her lip and looked down. "I don't mean to sound egotistical but... this doesn't have anything to do with me, does it?"

"No, of course not," he said immediately. "Maybe a little. I don't know. Gina's great, I just don't feel it going anywhere."

"Marshall..."

"Don't look at me like that. I'm not a fool and I'm not expecting anything from you. But me caring about you? That's not a switch I can just flip to off. Things are a little weird where you're concerned but if I wanted to go out with Gina then I would."

"I know it's none of my business but I think you should tell her yes."

"You do? You hate her."

"I don't like her, but she's not bad and I just think maybe the reason you're not feeling it is because you never really gave it a chance. And hey, if she ends up making you happy... I can tolerate her."

"Okay," he said. "I'll give it a shot then I guess."

"Good." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Well... I think I'm gonna go drop by the salon."

"Isn't it closed?" He pulled a frown.

"Yeah, but Nadia might still be there. Working late and all. I'll be ho--back--in a hour or so. That's okay, right? I'm not going to get in the way of your sleep?"

"No... I'll probably still be up," he said. "But Addy you realize it's going to be dark by the time you start walking back here? I don't like the idea of you out there on your own. I wouldn't think you'd be comfortable with that either."

"Okay..." She looked around as though just noticing how much the lights had faded. "Point taken. I'll go tomorrow I guess."

She shrugged and headed for the door, Marshall following on her heels and shaking his head in disbelief.

"You guess?" he said. "You're going to be the death of yourself, you know that?"

"Well," She smirked. "It's a good thing I have you then, isn't it."