Serpent's Kiss (7 page)

    "How're you doing?" Lucy said, smiling up at Marie and pulling her chair out for her.

    "Oh, pretty good."

    Lucy leaned in and said, "Sorry about Tommy."

    Marie smiled, grateful for the friendship.

    She sat down next to Lucy and looked closely at her friend. Lucy was beautiful. Not just pretty the way Marie was but truly and classically beautiful. With her long but perfectly formed nose, her striking blue eyes, her soft and friendly mouth, Lucy was just about ideal. Many times Marie found herself envying Lucy her looks, which only made it all the more curious when

    Lucy told nervous little jokes about herself- 'blotch face' as she many times referred to herself. Lucy didn't seem to know how beautiful she was no matter how many times Marie told her-because of the birthmark, Lucy saw herself as a freak.

    "Have to work tonight?" Lucy asked.

    Marie nodded.

    "I'd come over and visit you except that I have to work tonight, too." Lucy worked at a Baskin-Robbins. Many nights, she'd bring sandwiches and come over to the bookstore where Marie worked and they'd have a great time.

    "Too bad," Marie said.

    "Maybe next week."

    Marie worked two nights a week and Saturdays at a bookstore next to the university. She liked the job but her mother worried about it. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the store was only four blocks from the university, it was located in a transitional neighbourhood, so that in addition to students and professors, you also got occasional derelicts and perverts.

    "If you had any comics, I'd come over," Tommy said. "All you got there is novels."

    Marie smiled at his intolerance. While most people weren't interested in middle aged men who jumped around in the somewhat goofy costumes of most comic book super heroes, Tommy saw the real squares as Marie's customers.

    "Anyway, I've got some studying to do. I've got to get at least a B in trig to graduate," Tommy said.

    For the first time today, Marie found herself feeling sorry for Tommy, the way his sister might, or his mother, or some weird combination of the two. While Tommy was indisputably a brain-very high SATs, for instance-he was a terrible student. He'd never learned anything remotely resembling good study habits. He spent his time with comics-some of which Marie enjoyed-and let his grades slide lower and lower, so that now he really was sweating graduation. She knew what was going on here: a counsellor had once explained the concept of self esteem to her. People like Lucy and Tommy didn't have much. A few visits to Tommy's house had told her why, too. All the time she was there studying, Tommy's mother was in the bedroom of their tiny apartment, arguing violently and profanely over the phone with her boyfriend. Every once in a while, his mother's sharp voice got so loud that Tommy looked humiliated. His mother had been married four times and was planning on marrying the guy she was presently shrieking at. So instead of retreating into his schoolbooks and making way for a better future, Tommy retreated into adolescent fantasy-he sometimes talked about Batman as if he had not only met the man but also become his confidant-and let his grades slide. When Batman liked you, you didn't have to worry about not having much self-esteem.

    Marie was just about to tell Tommy that she would help him study for trig when Richie Beck leaned across the table and said, so quietly she couldn't even be sure he said it, "I'll come over to the store and sit with you tonight, Marie."

    Lucy kicked Marie under the table and smiled. Lucy knew how much Richie's soft spoken words meant to her friend. Marie had expounded many times on how much she liked this strange but intriguing boy. Right now it was hard to tell who was more excited, Lucy or Marie.

    Lucy and Marie looked at each other. Marie didn't want to do or say anything that would spoil the moment here. All she could muster was "Really?"

    "Sure."

    "You don't have to. I mean-"

    "I know I don't have to." He averted his eyes, glanced elsewhere in the cafeteria, then looked back at her. "But I want to." He shrugged again. "Probably not a good idea for you to be in a neighbourhood like that by yourself."

    "Gosh, Richie, I really appreciate it."

    He leaned forward. "How're you getting over there?"

    "I usually take the bus."

    "Why don't I pick you up?"

    She felt herself flush. "Really?"

    He grinned. "Really."

    "Gosh, that would be great."

    "What time, then?"

    "Five-thirty is when I usually leave."

    "I'll be there at five-thirty. I'll just honk if that’s all right."

    "Sure. But you don't even know where I live."

    Once again, it was Richie's turn to look uncomfortable. "Uh, yeah, I've, uh, driven by a few times."

    "You have?"

    "Yeah. On my way, uh, downtown."

    Then he was up on his feet, a slender boy not a great deal taller than Marie. He wore a white button down shirt and plain Levi's jeans. He always gave the impression of quiet intelligence coupled with a kind of sadness, which was why Marie had always suspected he had some kind of secret. "I'll see you tonight," he said, and then faded away, into the sounds of rattling plates, the odours of steam table food, and the spectacle of more than thirteen hundred high school kids eating lunch at one time.

    Lucy cocked her head to the left and cupped her hand behind her ear, as if hearing a distant sound. "Are those wedding bells I hear in yon castle?"

    Marie punched her playfully on the arm. "All he said he'd do is give me a ride to work No big deal."

    "Right. No big deal, Marie. I can tell you're not excited."

    Marie grinned. "God, I can't believe it."

    "I can," Lucy said. "See, I told you he had a crush on you."

    "Yeah, right."

    "Wait till you tell your mom. She told me how you had his graduation picture on your bureau. Did you ask him for it?"

    Marie shook her head. "No, I got it when I worked on the yearbook. After the printer returned everything, they were just going to throw everything away so I-"

    And then she saw Tommy and realised what an impact all this must have had on him. Obviously, he'd heard everything. He was only two chairs away at the table.

    Lucy followed Marie's gaze.

    Tommy had his hands folded in front of him and his head hung very low. He was not moving at all. Even just watching him, you could sense his grief over Marie's happiness.

    Marie said, "Don't you have that appointment in the counsellor's office?"

    At first Lucy looked confused, then catching on, she nodded and said, "Say, you're right. I do.''

    "I'll see you in study hall at two o'clock."

    "Right." Then Lucy started grinning. Obviously she was going to say something more about Richie and Marie.

    But Marie shook her head and glanced again at Tommy.

    Lucy nodded and said, "I'll see you at two, then."

    And left.

    Tommy sat unmoving for a long time. So did Marie. She made a pass through her notebook, getting ready for history next hour, and then read a few pages of Of Mice and Men, one of her favourite novels, and the book she was reading again for English with her favourite teacher, Mrs. Lattimore. Twice, kids came up to sit down and eat lunch at their regular table but then they saw Tommy with his head down and then Marie sort off waved them on to an empty table nearby.

    Finally, she got up, her leg and foot very stiff as always whenever she'd been sitting for a time, and walked down the long table and sat near Tommy.

    "You feel like having a Pepsi? I thought I'd go get one." Actually, she didn't want a Pepsi and if she did go and get one, it would have been the first time in her three years at Polk. Because getting one meant walking in front of everybody for a long time, then walking all the way back to her table. Her friends were nice enough to save her the trouble by automatically getting her one whenever they went up.

    He didn't raise his head. "No, thanks."

    She wanted to tell him about how he dressed sometimes-say,
Tommy, those comic book T-shirts you wear just emphasise your size and make you seem younger.
But now that she sat here looking at him, she sensed the obstinate pride he took in his T-shirts. Wearing Batman on his chest was his way of telling people he didn't care what they thought of him. Wearing Batman on his chest was an act of defiance-he probably knew how silly it made him look, and he probably revelled in it perversely. She was no different in always wanting to hide her foot, nor was Lucy any different in the self deprecating jokes she told about the birthmark on her face. She did something now she'd never done before-she reached out and touched Tommy's hand. She could feel him jerk at the touch, as if he'd been shot or electrocuted, as if he could not quite believe it.

    But he didn't raise his head.

    "Tommy."

    He said nothing. She left her hand in place.

    "Tommy."

    Long pause, then: "What?"

    "Do you know how much I like you?"

    He said nothing, kept his head down.

    "I consider you one of my best friends."

    "Yeah. Right."

    "I do."

    He raised his head. She could see the tears in his eyes. "Is that what you consider Richie? A friend?"

    She felt herself blush, heard herself stammer. "A different kind of friend."

    "Right."

    He hung his head again. He said, "Please take your hand away."

    She removed her hand.

    They sat there silently for a long time. Kids came and went; the kitchen help dropped plastic trays, shouted joking insults to each other, ran automatic dishwashers that roared with the force of Niagara and smelled oppressively of heat and detergent.

    "Tommy."

    "What?"

    "Won't you look at me?"

    "Why should I?"

    "Because we're friends."

    "No, we're not."

    She sighed, waited, then: "I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings."

    "I suppose you think he's cute, huh?"

    Now he raised his head. "I'm sorry I said that."

    They both tried to disregard the fact that he had tears in his eyes.

    He put his hand on her wrist. It was a fleshy hand but a strong one, and damp with sweat. In a curious way, it felt like a baby's hand, and so the sensation of it lying on her wrist was not unpleasant.

    He said, "I don't like you as much as I used to, anyway."

    She smiled. "Well, I like you more so I guess that evens things out."

    "You don't like me more. You like me less. I can tell just by the way you look at me. About half the things I do irritate you."

    She said carefully, wanting to change the subject but not be too obvious about it, "Whatever happened to Judy?"

    He shrugged. "Said she didn't want to see me anymore."

    "Why?"

    He shrugged again, fatty shoulders beneath the Batman T-shirt. "Said I embarrassed her every time we went to the comic book store."

    "How did she say you embarrassed her?"

    "Oh, arguing with people and all. Like one day there was this guy in there who said that the Green Lantern was better than the Flash. So I just kind've told him his opinions sucked."

    "In a real loud voice?"

    "Well."

    "And making your argument very personal?"

    "Well. He was kind of a geek, you know?"

    "We're all geeks, Tommy, our whole little group and everybody like us-don't you understand that yet?"

    He stared at her. "Is Richie a geek?"

    "I suppose."

    "Really?"

    "Why else would he sit here with us?"

    "But he isn't fat and he isn't crippled and he doesn't have any birth defects and he-" He shook his head. "He doesn't look like a geek to me." He patted his massive belly. "I'm a geek."

    "So am I."

    "No, you're not, Marie. You always say that but-"

    The bell rang, ending lunch hour, summoning the kids back to class.

    She said, "When's the last time you talked to Judy?"

    "Last weekend. She hung up on me."

    "Why?"

    "Because she said this copy she had of Wonder Woman was in mint condition but it wasn't. It had a crease on the cover and the back was kind of wrinkled and-"

    "And so you told her that?"

    "Sure. It was just the truth."

    "Sometimes you need to spare people the truth, Tommy."

    "You mean lie?"

    "I mean take their feelings into account. Judy's probably proud of her comic book. Then let her be proud. Don't spoil it for her."

    Tommy stared at her and sighed. "I screwed up, huh?"

    "Yes."

    "And I should call her?"

    "Yes."

    "And tell her the comic book's really in mint condition when it isn't?"

    "No, call her and tell her that her feelings are a lot more important than any comic book, and that you're sorry, and that you'd like to see her again."

    "What if she hangs up?"

    "Then wait a few days and call her again."

    Tommy smiled. "You always make things sound so easy, Marie."

    She touched his hand. "Things can be easy, Tommy. At least easier than we make them sometimes."

    He shrugged. "Maybe so."

    "Well, good luck, Tommy. I hope things go well for you with Judy."

    He smiled. "I hope they go well with Richie, too." He patted her small wrist again with his big hand. "I really mean that, Marie."