Come As You Are Ch. 14

"Looks like he injured his shoulder." Vienna held up her phone. "Danny being out for a couple of games is enough to make the front page on ESPN..."

"Um, Vienna?" interrupted Sadie. "I think Garrett's going bye-bye."

Garrett's eyes were locked onto Danny, who was still receiving hugs and well-wishes from his former teammates. "Danny wasn't supposed to be here," he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else at the table. He took deep, rapid breaths, and his gaze never wavered. "He wasn't supposed to be here..."

Colette recognized the look of fear in his eyes. History was threatening to repeat itself. "Garrett?" She leaned across the table towards him. "Be cool. You're here with us. Nothing's going to happen. Be cool and breathe."

He nodded several times at Colette's words, however, the tension was still noticeable in his body. His deep, trembling breaths threatened to become anxious gulps. His hands clutched at the white tablecloth, bunching the fabric between his fingers.

Colette got up from where she sat and quickly moved around the table. She crouched down next to Garrett. "Listen to me," Colette said, putting a calming hand over his balled-up fingers. "Listen to my voice. This is going to pass. This is going to pass and you're going to have a good time tonight. You're going to have a good time with us, your friends. You're going to have a good time with Vienna and four women who were looking forward to seeing you tonight. Are you with me?" Garrett's breath was still deep and barely under control, but it was under control. "Danny's over there, you're over here. He's there, you're here. And Gio will be here soon too, right? So you'll have your best friends and some new ones, and once this passes we'll have a good time." Colette squeezed his hand tightly. "You're standing on the rocky edge, Garrett. Take one step back. It'll be OK."

Garrett's breathing slowly returned to normal. The anxious tension bled off from his shoulders as he relaxed. "I'm good," he murmured. "I'm good. Thank you, Colette. I was several seconds away from having a full-blown panic attack."

"I know. You're talking to the local expert." Colette patted his hand with hers. "If that hadn't worked I was just going to have Sadie lean over and shove her tits in your face. That usually calms people down."

"My boobs are NOT 'in case of emergency, break glass,' thank you very much," Sadie exclaimed, pretending to be offended.

Garrett gave a small smile to the rest of the table after the laughter had died down. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean... I didn't mean for you guys to see me like that..."

Garrett flinched when a balled-up cocktail napkin smacked him in the face. "That was instead of the ski pole," Michelle told him. "Don't apologize for showing your vulnerable side. Remember our little mountain top picnic where I poured my heart out to you? Better to get it out in the open as opposed to keeping it all inside." She pointed towards Danny, who was openly laughing along with his former classmates as they began to catch up. "Maybe he's changed. Maybe Danny's a decent guy now, or maybe he's still a seething thundertwat. Doesn't matter. He's there, you're here, and like Colette said you're going to have a good time."

As Garrett soaked in Michelle's comments, a gentle hand fell on his wrist. "You're not the only anxious one," Brenda told him. "That's the first love of my life, the man I gave my virginity to, and the first man who broke my heart. I'm not as anxious as you, but... you're not alone. Right now my stomach's boiling over just hearing his voice. But I'm not here with him. I'm here with them. And you."

Garrett met Brenda's eyes as she grinned softly. He nodded at the comforting words before also nodding towards the other women at the table. "Thank you all. If you want to shove my face in Sadie's cleavage, though, I am not going to stop you."

"Sorry Garrett," Sadie laughed. "You need a prescription to use these for medicinal purposes."

Vienna craned her neck to lewdly stare at Sadie's cleavage. "What about for recreational purposes?"

"Depends on how many drinks we've had," Sadie responded with a wink.

"Alright then," Vienna laughed, "now that we've moved away from my boy's emotional problems and into an episode of 'Sadie's Bedtime Stories,' I'd like to officially declare the bar open."

Colette nodded eagerly at Vienna's suggestion before turning to look at Garrett. "I tell you what we're going to do, West," she said in a stern accent. "You're going to take that goddamn JCPenney tie off and we're going to have an old man-to-man drinking party."

"Well, that's OK but I'm not taking off the tie." Garrett managed a smile at Colette before they simultaneously proclaimed, "Philip fucking Marlowe!"

"Damn it," Vienna groused, "I knew it was a fucking movie quote. Come on," she said, getting up from her chair, "I'm going to the bar to start getting drunk and someone's coming with me."

X X X X X

"Looks like the party started without me."

Michelle spun her chair around at the sound of the familiar voice. Even while she shot up from her seat, she was flinging her arms around the large man in front of her. "Gio!"

Anthony Giovanni laughed as he returned Michelle's hug, both of them squeezing the other tightly. "Hey, Michelle. Sorry we're late."

"Don't be! I'm... damn, you still clean up nice." Michelle stepped away and took in his entire frame. The former co-captain of the ski team had slicked his hair back and wore a tailored black suit, with stylish black shoes and a red tie to complete the outfit, and still wore the same bright thousand-watt grin from high school.

"I haven't bought a new suit in a long time," he casually shrugged. "Brooks Brothers was having a sale so I thought 'why the hell not?'"

"More like why the hell yes," Sadie remarked, also eying Gio from her seat while sipping her gin-and-tonic.

"Indeed." The soft voice came from the pale woman standing next to the tall Italian. "Anthony does look rather impressive tonight."

"Hello Evelyn." Vienna saluted with her glass. "Good to finally run into you."

Evelyn Ballion inclined her head slightly in acknowledgment of Vienna's greeting. Her ankle-length black dress was somehow darker than Gio's suit. Her black hair was straightened and parted in the middle, much like Colette's, except that Evelyn's hair was styled to fall well past her shoulders. Black eyeliner and blood-red lipstick completed her look, punctuated by the fur-lined overcoat draped elegantly over one arm. Brenda remembered the jokes about Evelyn being half-vampire and wondered if there was a grain of truth to them. She didn't appear to have aged a single day.

"Arriving fashionably late then?" Vienna teased.

"Just late," he answered with an embarrassed grin. "It took longer to get ready than I expected. Then I picked up Evelyn and drove down here. I parked over by the football field, but they closed off the old shortcut by the pavilion so we had to take the long way around. But hey, we're here," he smiled. "That's the important thing."

"Anthony was kind enough to give me a ride," Evelyn added. "In this case, I am referring to a ride in his automobile and not as a metaphor for he and I having sex three times in the past twenty-four hours."

Evelyn's casual comment caught Vienna off-guard, who barely managed to avoid spitting her drink across the table. Her surprised look was shared by the women at the table. Gio was laughing nervously, a slight blush somehow evident on his dark features, versus the calm, neutral look from his unexpected lover.

It was Garret who reacted with a loud burst of laughter. "Hello Evelyn," he said, getting up from his seat and pressing his cheek against hers. "Good to see you again."

"Charmed." She pressed her cheek against the opposite side of his face. "You also have become more attractive since I last saw you."

"I swear to God Garrett," Vienna proclaimed, having recovered, "if you've slept with Evelyn too I'm going to... I don't know, be proudly annoyed at you!"

Gio looked around the table. "I'm feeling like I walked into a movie 15 minutes after it started. Would someone mind filling me in?"

"Grab a seat for this one." Sadie extended her leg and pushed one of the empty chairs out towards Gio. "We're about to rewrite everything you know about your best friend." Sadie waited until Gio had politely pushed Evelyn's chair in before taking his seat. "Turns out that Garrett," she grinned, "is a regular Don Juan."

"What, did he hook up with one of you?" Gio's comment was said in jest, however, the amused expressions and smile-filled silence drifting across the table caused him to glance over at Garrett. "Dude, I was joking," he said. "Tell me you didn't... you did." Gio's jaw dropped open as he watched Garrett shrug half-heartedly with a sly grin on his face. "Dude! DUDE!" Even though he had just sat down Gio got back up from his chair and leaned across the table to gently rack Garrett on the shoulder. "You never told me!"

"He never told me either," Vienna added.

"I was sworn to secrecy! Seriously," Garrett said, playfully rubbing his shoulder, "I was asked not to talk about it."

"Can you talk about it now?" Gio looked around the table again, this time with amazement, as Garrett answered with another shrug.

"I would like to hazard a guess as to the identity of this person," Evelyn proposed. "I am not a vital part of this circle of friendship, however much like Anthony my curiosity is piqued."

"There's no need to guess." Gio gestured towards Michelle. "You guys hooked up over Spring Break."

"How did you guess?" she asked casually.

"I should have known from when Garrett told me you crashed in his room late in the week, but I was too high off Irina to even think about it. And that the kiss you two laid on each other when we dropped you off? No one kisses someone like that unless there's been a mutual exchange of bodily fluids. Plus you got him to go ice skating. One of those things should have smacked me over the head with a massive clue by four."

"In your defense, Irina had you distracted. But yes," Michelle confirmed with a smile on her face, "Garrett and I pretty much spent the second half of Spring Break going at it like rabbits."

"I'm going to be a guy here for just one second. Just one second." Gio looked over at Garrett. The young Italian man smirked at his friend, giving him a slow nod of approval. "My man. Nice." As soon as the words were out of his mouth Gio sat back up, the cocky bro-esque expression replaced by a kind and friendly look. "OK, I'm good. Thanks for that."

Michelle laughed. "You're not mad that your best friend nailed your prom date?"

"Not at all," Gio answered. "My best friend slept with someone I was once very close to who happens to be stunningly attractive. I'd high-five him if I hadn't just thrown the douchebro card."

As Michelle and Garrett shared an amused look at Gio's comment, Sadie realized that Evelyn was now staring at her. Her lips pressed together as she drank in the curly-haired brunette. "Michelle would have been my fourth choice. My fifth if I were to count Vienna in my theoretical appraisal. This is especially true considering my conversation earlier this week with Colette."

Sadie crossed one leg over the other while she politely asked, "And who would have been your number one choice?"

"You, of course," Evelyn instantly answered. "Considering I not only saw Garrett naked in the basement hallway but also observed you two arriving together for breakfast the next morning, I would say your encounter took place during prom night."

Smiling, Sadie toasted Evelyn with her drink. "And graduation night."

Evelyn glanced over at Garrett, one perfectly plucked eyebrow raised into the air. "Perhaps I need to reconsider my type if my continued relations with Anthony fall through."

"Whoa, hold on..."

"Stop. Everyone just stop." Garrett put up a hand to quiet Gio before he could get going. "There are a whole lot of different conversations going on right now and my boy here," he said, gesturing to Gio, "is lost in the weeds. I'd like to ask everyone to just pause for a moment, take a breath, and let Gio and Evelyn have the floor."

Gio started to open his mouth, but Garrett, a confident smirk on his face, cut him off. "I need a break from the spotlight. If you're cool talking about it I want to know how the hell you two got together in the past twenty-four hours. You tell us that and I promise to fill you in about what the hell happened on my end. Deal?"

"I am pleased with the quality of your lovemaking and have no qualms with you boasting about it." Evelyn placed her hand on Gio's wrist. "If you are comfortable with it, tell the story of our brief courtship. I will add details when necessary."

"You sure?" Gio asked hesitantly. "I don't want to embarrass you or something."

"If this is the price to pay to hear the juicy details of a social circle I may become a member of, either directly or by proxy, then I am willing to let you pay the cover charge for me. However," Evelyn added, "I would like to ask you to obtain me a martini from the bar before you begin. One olive, please, as dry as the Sahara during the high summer."

"One dry as sand martini coming up," Gio said, his bright and beaming smile a sharp contrast to the thinly pressed grin of Evelyn as he got up from his seat.

"I'll go with you," Michelle said as she got up from her chair as well. "Some of us need refills before this story gets going."

X X X X X

Gio stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Garrett. "God it was good to see you tonight. Get used to seeing me more often now that you're only five hours away."

"Looking forward to it." Garrett returned the hug and, once they had separated, gave Gio a fist bump. "Five hours from you and a couple of blocks from your family. Which reminds me," he added, "tell your Mom I'll be over on Sunday for dinner."

"Alright, I'll tell her. See you... tomorrow at 8 o'clock, right?

"Vienna and I will meet you there." Garrett gave Gio a fist bump. "Get home safe."

"You too. Goodnight!" Garrett turned and began heading down Pine Street on his way to Granite Circle while Gio made his way up the gently sloping sidewalk of Bluff Street. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his long coat as he whistled to himself, managing to keep the tune despite his state of minor inebriation. Or perhaps because of it.

The residential houses on either side of the street displayed darkened windows and soft porch lights. Despite growing up in Chicago and spending the decade since high school between Northwestern University, the Mississippi coast, and now Cheyenne, the five years he had spent living here in Emerald Pines, skiing the slopes of Sapphire Drop, had been what made him define the small Colorado town as that most important of words - "home."

Tall oak trees lined the sidewalk. A light breeze coming down from the mountains rustled their branches. The whisper of the leaves, the porch furniture and lawn decorations, the street lights spread out along the sidewalk, even the way the crisp night air scraped at his nostrils with every breath he took, all combined into a symphony of senses that never failed to invoke a feeling of pleasant nostalgia in Gio's mind. A drunken haze, just strong enough to let him know he shouldn't drive or operate heavy machinery, contributed to the feeling of positivity. He continued to whistle quietly to himself as he walked, slowly getting lost inside his head while letting reflex and memory push him along.

He was two blocks away from his house when a voice called out somewhere ahead of him. "Good evening, Anthony," they said in a soft tone.

Gio stumbled to a stop as the voice drew him back to reality. A long brick wall, about three feet high, ran along the length of the corner property, curving at the corner and continuing up the hill. Taking a few steps forward in the direction of the voice, Gio's eyes slowly were able to make out a dark form sitting at the end of the wall where it met a driveway. A smile crossed his face as he shook his head. If the voice hadn't given the identity away, the house he would have been walking past would have. "Hey Evelyn," Gio answered in a quiet, friendly tone, coming to a stop in front of her. "How are you this evening?"

"I am doing well. I hope the same can be said for you."

He shrugged in response, flipping the bottom of his coat open with his hands still in his pockets. "I'm having a pretty good evening, yeah."

A brief orange glow illuminated Evelyn Ballion's face as she took a puff from a rolled cigarette. As she exhaled, he was still to detect the strong scent of pot. "Would you care to partake?" She held the joint out towards him.

"No thanks," he politely declined. "My company drugs tests on a random but obvious basis."

"Would you like me to put it out then?"

He shook his head. "Just don't blow smoke directly in my face."

A black fur-lined parka was Evelyn's coat of choice for the evening, complete with black gloves, black shoes, and black sweatpants, each one providing a sharp contrast to the pale skin of her face, with her black hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Where are you coming from this evening?" Evelyn asked as she blew a plume of sweet-smelling smoke to one side.

"Pike's. Had a couple of beers with Vienna and Garrett."

Evelyn responded with a thin-lipped smile. "It is good to see some friendships are eternal."

"What about you? Just having a late-night smoke?"

"I am waiting for the sunrise so I can go to sleep." She maintained the smile while Gio chuckled at her comment. "I have been awake all evening unpacking my belongings to obtain the ones I have a pressing need for in my current residence."

"Your current residence?" Gio motioned to the three-story Queen Anne house that dominated the property. "You're back home?"

"Emerald Pines full time, my childhood residence temporarily." Evelyn gestured to the three-car carriage house set away from the main house. "I am living above the garage and promised my parents I would not smoke in or near the house. This," she said, holding the joint up, "is a brief escape before I dive headlong back into the hell that is categorizing my life. May I inquire about your plans for the remainder of the evening?"

Gio motioned towards the top of Bluff Street. "Heading home. Probably watch TV or play around on my phone until I fall asleep."

"That sounds dreadfully boring." Evelyn took a final puff before extinguishing it against the stone wall. "Would you be interested in a nightcap? I have some cognac I would be willing to share."

"Sure," Gio immediately answered. Together they began to walk up the driveway towards the carriage house. "Having a drink and catching up sounds tons better than staring at my phone until I pass out."

"Outstanding." Evelyn led Gio towards a set of wooden steps that ran up the side of the carriage house. Beyond the door at the top lay a makeshift living space. A worn and threadbare couch sat in front of a first-generation flat-screen TV, with a small tray table between them. Sitting at the foot of a twin-sized bed was a space heater providing the bare minute amount of warmth needed to keep the room toasty. A mini-fridge sat among several cardboard boxes, and scattered in the nearby area were various articles of clothing and personal belongings.

"Apologies for the bare bones condition of my abode," Evelyn said, shutting the door behind them. "This space was never meant to serve as a residence for guests."

"I can tell," Gio said, shrugging off his long coat and handing it over to Evelyn who hung it up along with her parka on a coat rack next to the door. Underneath the long coat, Gio was wearing a Chicago Kodiaks football jersey over blue jeans, while Evelyn had on a black t-shirt to go along with her black sweatpants. "How come you're not staying in your old bedroom?"