Plans Come Together Ch. 02

Steve didn't answer.

"What are you going to do if Bailey finds out how many times you've cheated on her?"

- "She won't."

- "But what if she does?"

- "You're starting to piss me off, Joanne."

- "I'm just curious. She doesn't look that stupid to me."

- "Look - she'll believe whatever I tell her. And even if she gets stubborn, her parents will come down on her. They fucking love me. Now shut up - I don't wanna talk about this any more."

We drove almost all of the way back to the cottage in silence. I stopped just before it came into sight.

- "I'm sorry, Bailey." I said. "Just so you know, I don't know how much of what Joanne was saying is true. I've never had sex with Maria Pereira. I think she just said that to wind him up." Part of why I said that was for Lisa's benefit. I wanted to remind her of the 'ten times better' part.

- "No. The rest of what she said was true. You heard Steve admitting it." Bailey reached out to put her hand on my arm. "I'm sorry about your sister."

- "Thanks. Then I'll apologize in advance, in case you do get back together, because the next time I see Steve I'm going to beat the living shit out of him."

- "You don't have to apologize. There's no way I'm getting back together with him. Joanne was right: I'm not that stupid. But... will you please send me those audio files, Kyle? I might want to listen them again. I may even play them for my parents, when they insist that I give him another chance."

I nodded.

- "Are we okay, Bailey?" I asked. "You and me?"

- "We're okay, Kyle."

I looked in the rear view mirror. Lisa had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy.

- "We okay?" I asked her.

She nodded.

I drove the rest of the way, parked, and started unpacking the groceries.

***

I texted Joanne.

- "You okay?"

- "Hang on. Five minutes."

She called me.

"Sorry about that. Fucker wouldn't drive me home. He dropped me at the mall."

- "You alright?"

- "Yeah. Fine. He was still swearing at me towards the end, but nothing major."

I didn't know what to say next.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

- "Yeah. I wasn't expecting you to bring up Katie, though."

- "I know. But I think that Bailey and Lisa both had to know about that - and it's better that they didn't hear it from you. Other than that - what did you think?"

- "You knocked it out of the park. That was amazing - better than anything I could have come up with. Except for that Maria Pereira stuff. What was that all about?"

- "Ah, I was just riffing. I figured that Lisa needed to hear something like that."

- "Thanks, Jo. For everything."

- "You know that I only did it partly for you. A little bit was for Bailey; now that I've seen her up close, I don't think she's that bad. She certainly deserves a lot better than Steve. But most of it was for Katie, and for me."

- "I appreciate it."

- "You'd better. And I want to hear how the rest of the plans go."

- "You will. Bye, Jo."

- "Bye."

Mike was reasonably patient. First, though, I wanted to talk to him with Diane and Amy.

- "It feels a bit weird to be here, after... what happened." said Diane.

- "I know. But Bailey doesn't want us to leave - not after going to the trouble of taking the time off, and driving all the way up here. She herself doesn't want to go home and face her parents right away." I also explained the problem with only having two cars left. "You three could go back to campus - and I won't blame you if you do exactly that if things get... weird. But Bailey is hoping that we'll all stay. She specifically mentioned how much she enjoyed you two last night."

I didn't have to remind Diane that I wanted Amy to stay, for reasons of my own. She looked me in the eye, and nodded.

Mike and I went for a short walk down to the boathouse. We'd be able to see anyone coming down from the cottage.

- "Are you finally going to tell me what's going on?" he said. "I know that you were getting Matt to drink far more than he should have, last night."

- "Look, Mike: I'll tell you the whole deal - but you can't say a word to anyone. The only other person who knows what I'm doing is Joanne."

- "What?"

- "Can you keep a secret?"

He looked mildly offended. "You know I can."

- "Alright. What I did to Matt was partly payback for Grade nine. But it was also because of Lisa. You know she's been living inside my head, rent-free, for the past three years."

- "Your head and your heart."

- "Right. And coming up here so that she could bang Matt fucking Ryan right in front of my face - well, close enough, anyway - that was a step too far. She's always teased me, but this is just disrespectful. So I have to get Lisa out of my head. Turn the tables, somehow."

Mike nodded. He understood my predicament with Lisa better than anyone, and he certainly wasn't going to lose sleep about Matt's epic hangover.

"That's Plan #2." I said. "Plan #3 is giving you a chance with Diane. The only reason you're third on the list is because I couldn't be sure that Diane would be coming to the cottage."

- "That's fair."

- "Plan #4 is to for me to have an opportunity to get to know Amy better. She's hard to reach. If I asked her out, she'd probably say no. Like you, I thought she'd do better in an environment with other people around - especially her best friend. Make sense?"

- "Yes. But what's plan #1?"

- "It just succeeded, earlier today. Steve Holmgren had to pay. It wasn't just because he treated us like shit. Bailey didn't deserve to be cheated on. And then there's what he did to Katie."

I had never told Mike the story, because I had no idea what shape my vengeance was going to take - and I didn't want him talking me out of it. But I told him now.

Mike knew Katie well, and thought of her almost as a sister.

- "Fuck, Kyle." he said. He put a hand on my shoulder, and squeezed.

- "I didn't know if you'd go along, if you knew beforehand. I probably should've trusted you more."

- "Is Plan #1 finished, then?"

- "Pretty much."

- "Then I hope two, three and four go just as well."

***

Matt came out to rejoin humanity sometime around five o'clock. Bailey agreed with me that hamburgers and sausages would be a good idea for tonight's supper. I volunteered to man the barbecue.

- "As long as somebody brings me a beer every now and then."

- "Done." she said.

Lisa wanted a word - alone. We went out to the corner of the deck.

- "I'm really sorry, Kyle. About Katie. But why didn't you tell me?"

- "What could you have done, Leece? Would you have told Bailey? You must have known - or at least suspected - that Steve cheated on her." At that moment, I had a sudden flash of insight. "After all," I said, "how many times did he hit on you?"

Bullseye. One thing about fair-skinned redheads: when they blush, there's no hiding it.

"You should have told her." I said.

- "How? They were the perfect couple. How could I spoil that for her?"

- "It was already spoiled. Rotten from the very beginning. Did you ever see how he treated me? When he saw me at the golf course, he pretended not to recognize me."

Lisa flushed again. She knew it very well. But she'd always put her friendship with the golden couple far, far ahead of her hopeless admirer.

"How is Bailey doing, anyway?" I asked. She and Lisa had spent a good two hours in the master bedroom after we returned from our shopping run.

- "Better. She's glad that you guys are staying. Mostly she's feeling foolish, for not having seen Steve for what he was." Lisa looked over her shoulder.

"Kyle? You won't tell her... that Steve hit on me. Will you?"

I gave that a moment's thought.

- "You should tell her yourself, Leece. So I won't say anything about it until you've had a chance to do just that. And if I'm going to spill the beans, I'll warn you first, so that you get another chance to come clean on your own."

- "Kyle! That's not what I meant."

- "I know. Best offer you're going to get, though."

She looked at me oddly, as if she didn't recognize me.

Mike offered to help me with the barbecue. Matt came out to join us, because he was a guy.

- "Rough night last night?" I said.

- "Fuck, yeah." he said. "Did I really puke all over?"

- "Oh yeah. Yourself, the couch... you should probably thank Lisa and Diane - they did most of the cleaning up." Lisa would love to be reminded of that, I thought.

It was a warm, humid night. Matt was shirtless. So was Mike. I decided to risk a few spatters from the barbecue in favour of showing off a bit.

Matt was a soccer player. He had powerful legs, and I suppose the girls would rave about his ass. His upper body was toned, but not muscular. Mike wasn't fat, but he was pale and a bit scrawny. I had biceps and triceps, abs and pecs. Maybe Joanne had been right about my body.

Lisa pretended not to notice, but I caught her looking. Score one more for me.

I cooked up a dozen burgers and half a dozen sausages (Amy didn't want one). The girls had laid out buns, condiments, lettuce, tomato and pickles - plus a salad - on the island in the kitchen. Everybody got a plate, picked up a bun, and came out to me to be served, then went back inside to load their burgers or sausages.

Bailey was kind enough to bring me another beer, and offered to fix up a burger for me.

- "You're an angel." I told her.

She smiled, but it hurt me to see how uncertain her smile was.

"Bailey?"

- "Yes?"

- "Back in high school, everybody liked you. You were nice to everyone. You remembered our names. Not Steve. His only claim to fame was being your boyfriend. You are just as beautiful and just as kind as you always were."

She was looking straight ahead, over the lake. "Thanks, Kyle." she said. "That... that was a nice thing to say."

- "All true. Ask Diane. Ask anybody."

- "Let me get your burger fixed up."

As chief barbecue technician, I was excused from clean-up duties. Diane and Amy spearheaded those. I was the last one to bring in my plate.

- "Nice job, Kyle." said Diane.

- "Yes, thank you." said Amy.

- "My pleasure."

The moment the last dish was dried and put away, Matt suggested a late swim.

- "Or we could skinny dip!"

- "I don't think so." said Bailey. "When it's this muggy, we usually go for a swim just before going to bed. We should play some games first."

- "Music trivia!" shouted Lisa.

Diane and Amy both grinned. Bailey approved, too.

- "Should we maybe switch up the teams?" I suggested. I had a vision of being paired up with Amy. Win or lose, it could only bring us closer together.

- "Hell, no!" said Lisa. "Let's see what you've got, Kyle, when Joanne isn't here to win for you."

Just after she said that, Lisa sheepishly turned to look at Bailey - who didn't react to Joanne's name at all.

- "That's right. The three guys can be a team. Diane and Amy. Lisa and me."

- "What are we playing?" said Lisa. "Sixties again?"

- "Let's move it up a decade." said Bailey. "Seventies."

Not having Joanne was going to be a handicap. Adding Matt to our team was like adding zero to any random number. But what Lisa didn't know was that when my father abandoned us, he left his CD collection behind.

Now, I hated my father for what he did to my family, and especially to my mother. But I did listen to his CDs. I didn't have the money to stream all of the music I liked, but I had my deadbeat Dad's collection. And the seventies rocked.

The very first song was Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way. My ringtone for Lisa. An omen? Everybody groaned when I got the artist and the song after all of three notes.

They weren't any happier when I nailed the next one.

- "Heart. Barracuda." Is there a red-blooded male in North America who hasn't fantasized about Ann and Nancy Wilson? The guys at the golf course played this one all the time.

The next song was by Dire Straits. We all whiffed. On the following tune, I recognized David Bowie, but got the song wrong. Joanne would have nailed it. I made an instant resolution to try this game with her.

I got Led Zeppelin's 'Rock n' Roll in two seconds. Everyone groaned again. It was 7-0 for the guys. Matt gave me a high five.

- "Maybe we should change eras." said Lisa.

But I stumbled on the next one. I knew it...

- "Black Sabbath. War Pigs." said Amy.

- "Partner!" said Diane.

Everybody looked at Amy as if she had two heads. Amy... and Black Sabbath?

- "I like the video." she said, a bit sheepishly.

Nobody recognized Thin Lizzy, because it wasn't 'The Boys are Back in Town'. The next song I knew, but Mike beat me to it.

- "Layla."

- "Derek and the Dominoes." said Diane, with a wink at Mike.

Nobody recognized Supertramp, but I nailed Aerosmith's 'Dream On' right away.

- "This is the last time we play the seventies." said Lisa.

Everybody - and I mean everybody - was absolutely floored when the next song began, and Matt leapt up of the couch

- "Queen!"

No, it wasn't Bohemian Rhapsody. The song was 'Killer Queen'. I high-fived Matt, because... why not?

Lisa recognized 'Sweet Home Alabama' before anyone else. None of us knew the band. Then, on the next song, Bailey blew us all away.

- "Kiss. I Was Made For Loving You."

Diane scored two for the Eagles' 'Hotel California'. I got a point for the Police, next, but I didn't know the song. Jo loved the Police. Would she have been proud of me, or pissed off?

Amy shocked us all again, by chiming in after two notes.

- "Rolling Stones. Angie."

I nailed The Who's 'Baba O'Reilly'. Nobody has ever done male teen angst like The Who. But I whiffed on a Creedence tune. Joanne would have got it.

Diane got Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb', which I knew the stoners all liked. The last song was 'Smoke on the Water'. Lisa beat me to it by a hair - though none of us knew the band.

The final score was Guys 14, Diane & Amy 9, Lisa and Bailey 4. But Bailey looked quite happy.

- "Now we can go for a swim." she said.

We all got changed, and went down the dock, next to the boathouse.

Amy wore a conservative one-piece that couldn't conceal the heft of her bosom, or the lean trimness of her body. Trim leanness?

I tried not to gawk. Matt made no such effort.

Diane was slender, too, but almost flat-chested. Her beauty was mostly in her face. I'd never seen Lisa in a bathing suit, either, much less a bikini.

- "Whoa." said Matt, when we saw her. He was correct. She looked amazing.

But Bailey outdid them all.

Her dark-blue bikini wasn't outrageously revealing, but it did showcase her nearly-perfect body and her suntan. Her dyed blonde hair looked almost white.

She had a tattoo on the back of her left shoulder. Chinese characters. I had no idea what they meant, or why a non-Chinese person would want them in the first place. What would future girlfriends think if I had 'Let's get it on' in Arabic tattooed on my ass?

Bailey could get away with it, I suppose. She was ridiculously hot.

Matt did a cannonball into the lake. Classy. Diane and Amy went in, but moved away from Matt, who was thrashing about and yelling 'Woo!'.

- "Go ahead, Leece." said Bailey.

Lisa frowned, but she climbed down the ladder on the dock, into the water. That left Bailey and me alone on the dock.

- "Can I talk to you, Kyle?" said Bailey.

- "Of course. Any time."

- "You asked me earlier if we're okay - you and me."

- "I remember."

- "We're better than okay, Kyle.. Thanks to you, I'm finally getting to know Diane, and I really like her. And now I'm getting to know you. I have to apologize again. I really only thought of you as the guy with the hopeless crush on Lisa."

- "Understandable."

- "But that's hardly the whole story, you know? And Steve never said anything good about you - that's no surprise either, right? I guess what I'm trying to say is that I had completely the wrong impression of you."

- "Thank you, Bailey."

She dipped her head. "I know. I should be embarrassed - and I am."

- "No. That's not what I meant. You were never mean to me. You never snubbed me, even when you never heard anything... well, anything positive, I guess, about me. You're a good person. Too good, maybe."

- "I don't know about that."

- "Look around. You invited Diane and Amy, and Mike and me, to your beautiful cottage, to play hostess to a group of people you didn't know very well - if at all." I didn't mention Joanne. "That's not only generous; it's also very kind."

- "Thanks, Kyle. You make me sound so much better than I am. I feel foolish, now, when I see how cool Diane is... and how nice you are."

I shook my head. "You have it backwards. Diane is nice. Me? Not so much."

- "Oh, please. Lisa says you're a teddy bear."

- "She's been wrong before."

Bailey smiled. "Thank you, Kyle. This should feel like the worst day of my life... but it doesn't. I'm really, really glad that you guys are here."

- "That's really... really nice of you to say."

- "Could we talk a little more, later? After we swim?"

- "Sure."

The water was cold. I knew that it would be. June in Ontario can be hot - but in cottage country, there are only two certainties: black flies and mosquitoes. Those, and the fact that the lakes will still be fucking cold.

It was bracing, though. As far as I could tell, 'bracing' meant that your testicles shrink and retreat inside your body, and most of the alcohol you've consumed instantly evaporates.

- "You get used to it." said Diane, happily treading water between Mike and Amy.

- "Not in a million years." I said.

There was some swimming, some jumping in and out of the lake, and quite a bit of shivering. Most everybody ran back up to the cottage, where Bailey had set out a selection of drinks, including brandy, scotch, and cognac.

- "This should help you warm up!" she said.

I chose the cognac. Wow.

Bailey was watching me. "You like it?"

I could only nod.

"Could we.. continue our conversation, from before?"

- "If you like."

- "Leece - you got this?" said Bailey.

- "Yep. Go ahead."

Bailey took me by the hand. "Come on."

She led me upstairs. Down the hall. To the master bedroom.

- "Bailey?"

She sat down on the edge of the king-sized bed.

- "You heard those audio recordings, didn't you?" she said.

- "Yes."

- "Steve is going to come crawling back, pretending that he's sorry. I know better, now. I want to be able to show him that we're done. Absolutely, completely done. Will you help me?"

- "What do you need?"

- "I want to suck your cock, Kyle. And take pictures. My face, my mouth, and your dick. I've never been with anyone but Steve. I need to show him that we're over. That he doesn't own me."

I had never heard someone talk like that. Bailey Walker was the hottest girl in our high school, bar none. Never mind that she dyed her hair, or that she had a silly tattoo. Bailey was... smoking.

Bailey Walker wanted to suck my cock? And take pictures?

- "Bailey - you shouldn't send him any pictures. They could end up anywhere."

- "Oh, I won't send him anything. But I'll have them on my phone, so I can show him." she said. "So... will you let me, Kyle?"

Now, her offer wasn't all that flattering. If she wanted shots of her sucking a cock, her only choices were Mike, Matt, or me. But if she really wanted to drive Steve berserk, she could let him know whose cock it was.

Acting as a stunt cock for Bailey? Never mind her reasons: my dick was instantly hard. She glanced down, and saw that I was pitching a tent. She smiled, and placed her palm against it, her fingers gently seeking out the contours of my erection.

- "Can I see it?"