Haven't a Clue

"I guess. I mean, it won't be the end of the world if we're not together, or anything. I'd just be nice is all I'm saying."

"I know."

"Well, I better be getting home. I got stuff to do before this all starts tomorrow." He stood up to leave.

"Like what?"

"I dunno. I should probably get some housework done and stuff."

"You think this is going to take up a lot of time?"

"Maybe." Mickey went over to the door. "How hard could it be, really? We start on Friday, which means we have the whole weekend, and if the list is simple, I think we'll be done early."

"I could see the list being really simple. It is the first time so they'll want to make it easy to get more people involved next year."

"That's what I'm thinking. See you tomorrow." He left and I turned the television on. I wasn't preparing for this anymore than making sure my car had a full tank of gas tomorrow. I was pretty sure the whole thing would be a joke in terms of difficulty. The people who ran this town aren't exactly brain surgeons, so I could totally see a list of 'get a road sign'-type stuff.

After a couple of hours of meaningless channel-hopping, I headed up to get ready for bed. I checked my face in the mirror again - almost all healed - and went to bed. I was sound asleep, again, when the phone rang. I rolled over and looked at the clock beside my bed - 1:19 am - and picked up the phone.

"This better be important."

"It is." It was Jayme, again.

"Oh. Hi." I rolled back over to my back and stared at the dark ceiling.

"I hear you had lunch today with a friend of mine."

"What the hell are you doing awake at this time?"

"I felt like staying up late. Why?"

"This is the second night in a row you've called me after midnight. Are you drunk?"

"No. I'm not working much right now, so I've taken a few weeks off."

"Oh. Yeah, Bri and I had lunch today. What does it matter to you?"

"What did you talk about?"

"Answer my question first."

"It doesn't matter to me. We're not together and she's not mine alone, so you two can do whatever you want."

"Does it make you jealous?"

"No. Actually, I'm surprised she actually went because of what she knows."

"She knows your version, not the truth."

"Fuck off."

"It's true. Once she hears my side, she'll be able to piece what she knows together and she'll side with me."

"Yeah, right."

"You wanted to know what we talked about?"

"Yes."

"Nothing to do with you, outside of her mentioning that she was your friend."

"That's it?"

"Yep. Why?"

"That's what she said, too. I thought maybe the two of you would have had a great old time, gossiping about me."

"You think you're the centre of our lives? Where the hell do you get off?"

"Well, you'd think the same thing if Mickey and I were out for lunch together."

"Sure, but I wouldn't be calling you up in the middle of the night to ask you about it." I was becoming increasingly frustrated - for two reasons. First, Jayme was just being irrational. Second, I was sound asleep for crying out loud.

"Fine."

"Fine? What's fine?"

"Well, I guess you and Bri can see each other again."

"You're giving me your permssion to keep seeing Bri? I can't fucking believe this... It's been four years since we broke up."

"I know..."

"And you're pulling this shit now? Come on... Most people do this just after they break up, not years later."

"Look, Nic, I've obviously said or done something to make you angry."

"Yeah. You called me in the middle of the night. I'm going to hang up now and I don't want to hear from you again. I know that we'll see each other at the meeting later, but I don't want to talk to you, okay? Goodbye." I hung up the phone and laid back down, replaying the call in my head. I tried to figure out where she was coming from - giving me her blessing for me to go ahead and see what sort of relationship I could have with Bri? I hadn't even figured out for myself what I wanted to happen. I usually just let the girl figure it out - I'm not very much of a go-getting type.

I finally fell back to sleep around three and woke with a start at ten. I got out of bed, showered and shaved in record time. I headed downstairs and noticed that Mickey's truck was still in his driveway. I went over and knocked on his door.

When he opened it, he looked different. Mickey usually had longish, dark hair that was kind of greasy - sometime in the last twelve hours, he'd cut it and dyed it to a pale blonde. He wasn't wearing his glasses, either. "Come in. I was just making coffee." I followed him into his kitchen.

"Um, Mick? What did you do?"

"Oh, you mean the make-over?" He handed me a cup of coffee and cleared off a chair for me to sit on. One of Mickey's bad habits was clutter - it was literally everywhere. There was a path from the door to the living room, through to the kitchen, down to his room and across to the bathroom that was a foot and a half wide, at most. It wasn't exactly messy, but it wasn't neat, either.

"Yeah. It's... uh... quite different."

"I know. That's what I was going for."

"I see. So, why?" I took a sip and tried not to laugh. He looked more like a rat-man than ever before. He's my best friend and all, but sometimes, I just have those thoughts.

"Well, I know that there are going to be at least six people in this thing I don't know. And it's a pretty sure bet that it's going to be an even split between guys and girls, right?"

"Yeah."

"See, I figure seeing as how you know two of them, that leaves three for me. And you're taken with one of them... so I've got a good chance to hook up with one of them."

"Ah. I see your logic. You're using this scavenger hunt as a dating service."

"Exactly."

"What are you doing home from work today?"

"I took the next week off. I want to have all the free time I can to do this right."

"That's a change from last night. You have an epiphany overnight that this might be harder than you thought?"

"No. I still think it's going to be easy, but I want to use my time right."

"I'm just going to humour you and ask how?" I tried not to laugh. Mickey's been without a girlfriend of any sort for a while now and I can sort of see where he's coming from. If I was in his boat, I'd probably be doing the same thing.

"I'm going to try to drag out the searching as much as I can to spend as much time as possible with the potential mate."

"I assume you've got a back-up plan prepared just in case your partner isn't female or is Jayme, right?"

"Oh, sure. If it's you or Jayme, no problem wasting time. If my partner's a guy or a girl I really don't connect with, I can use my spare time to, ahem, clean up around here."

"Well, for your sake, buddy, I'm hoping your partner is a girl. For your home's sake, I hope it's a guy."

"Funny."

I finished my coffee and set the cup down on the table. I glanced at the clock and realized it was getting closer to noon. "I gotta go, man. I got things to do before tonight."

"Sure. I should probably get ready, too."

I stood up to leave. "I guess I'll see you there tonight, eh?"

"Yep. Makes sense to take our own vehicles, right?"

"Well, I know that if your's doesn't make it, I can take both of us. See you later." I headed out the back door and across the lawn to my house. The phone was ringing when I walked in.

'What, Jayme?"

"It's not Jayme, dear. It's me."

"Oh, hi, mom." I went into the living room and laid down on the couch. This was becoming an all-too familiar position to be having phone calls in.

"How are things going, Nic? Are you back with Jayme?" Mom never liked Jayme. She thought Jayme was only using me - for what, I don't know. Jayme was the one with the money, not me, and she's infinitely smarter, so it's definitely not that.

"No, I'm not back with Jayme. It's just been a wierd week."

"Start at the beginning."

"Actually, I want to hear about your week."

"Well, there's not much to tell really. Just meetings with my support groups and trying to keep busy."

"What do you do in your spare time? When you're not at meetings or helping other people."

"I'm sure I'm doing the same as you, dear. Watching a little television, reading, playing card games with friends."

"It's not quite what I do in my spare time, but at least you're getting out a bit, right?"

"Yes. I go to the hall every Tuesday and Thursday for card nights. Lots of fun, dear. You should try it sometime."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Now, tell me what's going on with you. Why did you think it was Jayme calling?"

I told her about how everything in my life had gone from being very normal, very ordinary to being incredibly random in the last five days. She told me to stay away from Jayme - they'd never gotten along, I think it's because mom thought Jayme was going to take me away from her. She asked how my time with Dr. Woon was. That was the one thing that mom and dad agreed on - Dr. Woon. Unfortunately, he couldn't help mom, but that didn't deter her from trying to get him to help me.

"Listen, mom. Why don't you come down for a visit sometime?"

"I don't know, dear. I'd be so far away from everyone here."

"But you'd be with me."

"Yes, but, please don't take this the wrong way, dear, but these people are my stability. They've been with me through all of this."

I hung my head in shame. When my parents divorced and my mom left, I didn't try to talk to her. I didn't try to talk to my dad, either, but I had to because I was living with him. I realized, too late probably, that I should have talked to mom as much as I could. We didn't start talking again till shortly before I left home. It felt wierd, knowing that I had lived my developmental years without my mother - even though I'm male, sometimes I need my mom just to give a little bit of reassurance and guidance that dad, or Dr. Woon, couldn't. Maria and Theresa tried, but they were trying to live their lives and deal with their own problems as best they could. Helping a younger brother get a girl wasn't exactly how they wanted to spend their evening.

"I understand, mom. But I will come out to visit you in a few weeks, okay?"

"Yes, dear. I'll be sure to arrange some things for us to do."

"You don't have to..."

"Oh, but I do. You don't want to sit around here all day, staring at the walls while your doddering old mother putters around, likely searching for her glasses that are on top of her head."

"Mom... you aren't like that."

"But I could be... soon."

"Look, mom, I have to go."

"Yes, dear. I have to get to a meeting after lunch, so let's leave with some nice words."

"Okay. I love you, mom."

"I love you, too, Nicholas. Be good this week."

"I will. Talk to you later."

"Bye."

"Bye." I hung up the phone and stared at the ceiling again. She was an amazing woman, my mom. She overcame a horrible addiciton and has moved on with her life, rather than life moving on without her. I made a mental note to call my sisters to remind them to go visit her this weekend. They lived closer than I did and usually made it out to visit her way more often than I did, and they had the benefit of taking grandchildren, too.

It was close to one o'clock - just over four hours till the game began. I went into the kitchen and made some lunch. I figured I'd better avoid the diner after yesteday. Gladys would have been all over me, quizzing me about the date, what I thought of Bri, how soon we were going to be married, when the kids would come... I just wanted a quite lunch before what could be the madness began.

I felt a little sleepy after eating so I headed back into the living room and laid down on the couch. I remember turning the television on before falling asleep, but I was dead to the world within minutes.

"Hey!!" I felt something punch me on the arm.

"What the fuck...?" I opened and eye and saw Mickey's shin beside my head. I rolled over and sat up, wiping the sleep out of my eyes.

"I wanted to borrow a shirt and came over and you were sound asleep. Fuck... get up, you only have half an hour before we have to get over there."

I stood up and stretched. "How long were you trying to wake me?"

"Ten minutes or so. I was almost going to get a pail of water and dunk your head in it to see if it would help. Geez, you sure as hell sleep like a log."

"I've been doing that a lot lately, but usually only for short periods of time. Jayme keeps calling me right when I'm in my deepest sleeps." I headed upstairs to change and do a quick once-over. By the time I got back downstairs, Mickey had obviously forgotten about the shirt he wanted to borrow as he was already dressed his usual outfit - black jeans, black shirt, white shoes and denim jacket. With his newly dyed hair and lack of glasses, he looked presentable.

"You do have contacts in, right?" I walked past him to grab my coat from the chair by the door.

"Of course. I'm blind as a bat without my glasses - do you think I'd risk driving my truck without proper vision?" He followed me out the front door and went across my lawn to his truck. "I'll meet you there."

I started my car and backed out of the drive. I'd never been to the community hall before so it took a little longer than I expected to find it and a parking spot. It seemed like there was a lot more than just competitors here for the kickoff.

I got out of my car and headed inside. I waited by the door for Mickey.

"Hello. My name is Anna. I'm the promotions director." This woman, with unrealistically large hair, appeared suddenly at my side.

"Oh. I'm Nic."

"What number are you?" She put her hand on my arm. I jerked slightly.

"I'm, um, number 5."

"Oh!" She giggled - not a normal giggle you'd expect from a grown adult, but one you'd expect from a ten-year old.

"Is there something wrong?" I noticed Mickey parking his truck and heading for the hall.

"Oh, no. I just remembered how I told a friend of mine that I wouldn't go visit her in this dinky little town I lived in a few years ago unless she got married. And then she did."

My eyebrows shot up as high as they'd go. This woman was definitely a piece of work. Mickey came through the door and stopped suddenly when he saw her. "Hi." He hesitantly stuck his hand out.

"Hi. I'm Anna. I'm the promotions director. I have a son who's the most cute thing in the world. We also have a teenager living with us, too. He's just a boy."

"Um, yeah." Mickey turned to me and grabbed my coat. "Nic, I think we should go this way, now." He pulled me behind him as we made a quick retreat from Anna.

"Thank you." We stood by the refreshment table and drank the watery fruit punch.

"What the fuck was that?"

"I don't know. I just don't want to talk to it again." I could see her on the other side of the room, starting a network of alienation. Whenever she turned away from whomever she was speaking to, they walked away - some ran - and headed for the furthest part of the hall from her.

We were standing there, eating dainties, when Jayme and Bri came in. I waved them over, hoping that they could get in without Anna discovering them. They were about halfway across the room when she latched on to them and led them over to us.

"Jayme, Bri, this is Nic and Mickey." Anna was standing between them and had a firm grip on their arms.

"We know them." Jayme struggled to free herself from the clutch.

"Yeah, we do."

"Oh!" More giggling. "Well, isn't this just great!!" She turned and headed off to another group of people.

"Yes, go. Terrorize!" Bri was watching her walk away. "Where did they find her?"

"I don't want to know." Jayme reached by me and took a cup of the punch.

"She's like a cheerleader or something. Just really grating. I hate those people."

"Me, too. Far too fake. Mind you, they are usually dumb as doornails."

Mickey and I stood and listened to Jayme and Bri comment on Anna. They discussed her hair, her clothes, her speech - which was not unlike a 10-year-olds as well, her attitude, everything. It was astounding they could say so much about someone they'd just met.

Mickey leaned over and whispered in my ear. "Bri seems nice. A little out of your element, eh?"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"You usually go for the 'normal' type. She's not quite up there with Jayme, is she?"

"Hey, she's way more normal than any of us."

"Okay, if you say so. She's awfully tiny, too."

"Shut up."

"Whatever." He walked away, headed to another group of people. I stood silently with Bri and Jayme as they critiqued everyone else in the hall.

"Hey, Nic, do you know that guy over there?" Bri pointed to the corner of the room.

"I don't think so." I squinted into the distance and noticed someone was waving in our direction. He started walking towards us.

"He's coming over here."

"I see that." As he got closer, I realized who he was. Travis. What the hell was going on?

"Nicky, buddy! What are the chances of meeting you here?" He came up and pulled me into a crude bearhug and slapped me on the back. Over his shoulder I could see that Mickey had rejoined the girls and was snickering at me.

"I got an invitation. You?"

"I'm sponsoring part of this."

"You are?"

"Yep."