Trevor retreats into the back room and starts playing Unreal Tournament. He's running around shooting the inert character models that no one's playing. Amy introduces herself to everyone else and soon ends up on the couch with Eric, talking about people they knew from school. Do you ever talk to Aaron? Did you hear that Christian and Wendy are getting married? Did you know Patrick moved to California? Guess what? Matt finally came out of the closet and he's dating Jason.
Since they're on the couch, there's no room for the two guys playing Virtua Tennis to sit down, so they stand off to one side with their controllers. Amy lights a cigarette. Lisa glares at me so I tell Amy the smoking area is on the back porch.
"Hey, do you have another one of those?" Eric says, going out back to smoke with her. As far as I know, he doesn't smoke. When they come back in, Eric announces he has to get going. "Early day tomorrow," he says, spinning his keys on his finger.
"I'm just going to go ahead and get a ride with Eric since it's on the way," Amy tells Trevor.
"But don't you live out by Lake View? Eric lives on the west side."
"Yeah, but I have to go over to that part of town anyway," she says.
"What for?"
"You know, to pick something up."
"What do you have to pick up?"
"I think she has to make a booty call," Eric says.
"Eric," Amy squeals, slapping him gently on the arm, "He's just kidding. Don't be stupid."
"So, Amy, next time we go out, maybe we should just go somewhere and talk instead of you watching us geek out? You know?"
"Yeah, sure." She hands Trevor her beer and leaves with Eric.
"Does anyone want this?" Trevor regards her half empty beer. No one wants it. Trevor doesn't even drink beer, since it gives him a headache. He carries it back into the kitchen.
"You know, I'm not always as esteemed as I come across. You might find this hard to believe, but I have low self-esteem sometimes." He's picking at the label on the half empty beer.
"Don't be stupid. You have no cause for that. She wasn't really right for you anyway."
"What, do you mean she's like a lesbian or something?"
"No, no, I mean she's just probably not your type."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. You think she's Eric's type?"
"Maybe. They probably deserve each other."
"I'm tired of people telling him he looks like Patrick Swayze. I'm not going to tell him that anymore. It just goes to his head and he starts poaching other guys' dates."
"Next time you get a date, don't take her to Shoot Club. Take her to a movie or something, like Lisa said."
"Man, this is so embarrassing. Now I can never go back to that Denny's."
"Fuck it. There's another Denny's over by the freeway. We'll just go to that one instead from now on."
"No one wants this beer. Should I just pour it out?"
"You can just leave it on the counter."
"I'm going to pour it out. She probably spit in it or something. Hey, I have that champagne."
Of course, no one wants champagne either, but it comes in handy a few hours later when Eric comes back. He has a bruise along his eye where Amy's boyfriend hit him. He'd been fooling around with Amy on the couch when the boyfriend came home early from his security guard job. We reassure him he doesn't need to go to the hospital for a black eye.
"You know, I could sue that guy," he says. He lights up a cigarette and takes a drag. He makes a face and immediately drops it into a beer bottle.
“There’s no more ice left, dude, so use this,” Trevor says, handing him the chilled champagne bottle. Eric cradles it against the side of his bruised face. “All the ice got used in the Dr. Pepper because you guys are too lazy to find the part of the store where they keep the cold two-liter bottles. I bet you got sucker punched, didn’t you? Man, that dude would have gotten his ass kicked if he didn’t sucker punch you first. They don't give security guards guns, do they? Just be glad he didn't have a gun. A guy like that doesn’t even deserve to get his ass kicked. Just forget about him.”
Trevor's glad Eric is back. If I had been Trevor, I would have smirked while handing Eric the bottle of champagne. I might have even gloated. But Trevor, who is so much smaller than the rest of us, is in certain ways so much bigger. |
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