Ron Taylor: Raped cousin

She wondered, sadly, if they could even really be friends again. And it was all the fault of this twerpy-Lisa stopped short. She cocked her head to one side and stared at Debbie Marshall. There was something different about the bitch.

What? She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. The way she was dressed? Maybe.

Lisa didn’t remember the t-shirt Debbie was wearing. God, look at the way her nipples stuck out! She must have lost her bra somewhere. She had been wearing a bra, hadn’t she? Lisa couldn’t remember. But there was something about Debbie that wasn’t the same… • Holly noticed it too, and she was just as much at a loss as her ex-best friend.

Her eyes flashed toward Lisa and she thought, that dyke cunt! It could never be the same for them, not after last night. Not after the things they’d said. And Debbie had caused all of it. Oooohhhh, she wanted to jump the ugly bitch and tear her fucking red hair out by the roots.

But Debbie didn’t look so ugly today. Holly wondered if Lisa was thinking that, too. There was something about her twerpy cousin that looked almost as if-Holly just couldn’t figure it -out. It didn’t look like the same Debbie they’d pantsed yesterday morning, the fat dumb Debbie who’d run off crying and not come back for twenty-four hours. "Look," she said, /raising her hand, the index finger pointed at Debbie’s face, “I have been warned sick about you-”

“Eat shit, Holly,” Debbie smiled. “Eat a lot of it.” She turned to Lisa. “That goes for you, too.”

There was a profound pleasure in saying the words, and even more in watching the expressions on the other girl’s faces.

“We’d better finish packing,” Lisa said finally, her face red. “If we want to get home before lunchtime.”

“Oh,” said Debbie. “Are we leaving or something?”

“Yes,” Holly replied. “It’s been rotten, fucked-up weekend from the word go.

And we’ve had enough. We’re packing it in. All of it. You can thank yourself for that.”

“Mmm,” Debbie said lazily, “too bad. I was just starting to get the hang of everything.”

Holly and Lisa seemed intent on avoiding one another’s eyes. She couldn’t help noticing that. They seemed edgy, looked as if they’d both slept very poorly last night. Lisa had circles under her eyes, and Holly’s hair reminded Debbie of an untended haystack. And they weren’t speaking to each other, only to her. Strange. Had they quarreled or something while she was gone? And they seemed such good friends just yesterday. Well, things could change in the twinkling of an eye, Debbie reflected philosophically, and Holly’s and Lisa’s changes were of pathetically minor interest as far as she was concerned. If they wanted to go home now, that was cool. She’d go with them. Might as well.

It was too bad for Holly and Lisa that they couldn’t share the marvelous feelings that pulsated in her breast now. She felt just a little sorry for the girls because they could never know how it felt to be Debbie Marshall and so goddamned ALIVE on this loveliest Sunday morning since the beginning of time.

She walked past Holly, who grabbed her arm suddenly. Debbie whirled, her eyes blazing. “Don’t touch me unless you’re asked,” she said menacingly, and Holly’s hand fell away. Her cousin took a defensive step backward.

“Where the fuck were you all day yesterday and all last night?”

“Learning to fly like an eagle,” Debbie said. Holly didn’t understand, but how could she? “You ought to try it sometime,” Debbie added. “Maybe you wouldn’t ‘be such an obnoxious cunt.”

She walked on, still soaring, high, above the farthest clouds, where she’d always be flying from now on. She turned to face the girls again, and her mouth was wrapped in a smile she knew she’d wear until the day she died.

“I just wanted to say thanks for treating me to the nicest weekend I’ve ever spent anywhere, anytime. And I mean that, from the bottom of my heart. Honest, I do.” They didn’t understand, Lisa and Holly. She could see it on their faces.

They didn’t understand, but she did, and that was all that counted. Sam, she thought, vaya con dios, wherever you go. And Debbie-fly, Fly, Fly.