POV: Becky (Earth)
December 16th Noon
“No one wants to know this shit!”, her ex-boyfriend complained. “I don’t care. I can get a D and pass.”
That attitude was the reason for the ex’s demotion. Becky couldn’t articulate why she didn’t like it. He wasn’t a loser. He had charisma. He’d probably do great at a company, like her dad’s. Everyone had to go to happy hours her dad said. Becky, however, had goals. She wasn’t sure happy hours were part of them. She was sixteen and wanted to see if she could do better.
She handed her ex some flash cards. “Drill with these. Just memorize, try to make sense of it afterwards.”
“Hey, thanks Becky.” Said the ex, flipping through the cards. “Seriously. I know you have rules. I got pissy last weekend and broke a few. I knew it was coming. My own fault. No hard feelings.”
Becky had not known that. She had wanted to break up for other reasons, specifically to be available for another guy. She wouldn’t tell her ex that, though.
“I appreciate your maturity,” she said to him. “If any girl asks, I’ll tell her you’re cool.”
“Hey, thanks, Becky.” Her ex-boyfriend was a decent guy, just not for her goals.
The conversation was direct and mature, that was how she liked it. Becky’s mother hadn’t believed her when Becky talked about her friends. So she’d unethically recorded a conversation without a boy’s knowledge. Her mother had been stunned.
“Teenagers don’t talk like this!” Her mom had said.
True.
Friends of Lily Drake talked like that and Becky was Lily’s best friend. It came with a lot of responsibilities.
Seven years ago Lily’s dad beat a guy up and got sent to prison. All the other girls made fun of her and pretended that Lily was just a step away from boiling over. One day, Becky found Lily crying on the side of the playground, looking at a piece of paper; it was a picture of a handsome man.
“Who’s that?” Said the nine-year-old Becky.
“Daddy. Are you going to make fun of me now?”
“Why?”
“Because he broke a man’s leg because he was naked with my mom.”
“He should have broken both legs,” Becky said automatically.
Lily declared them best friends on the spot and stuck to it.
When they were thirteen, Lily supported Becky losing weight and had traded her healthy lunch for Becky’s not-so-healthy lunch. Lily always threw most of the original Becky lunch out.
“Why are you making me do this?” Becky had whined.
“Because, I want to be a cheerleader, so you have to do it with me. And we’ll be friends forever.”
Becky hadn’t liked the idea, but she didn’t have many friends. She changed her mind after a few months. When she started losing weight and doing cheer gymnastics it was like a new page turned in her life. She was more open to different possibilities.
She was an intense girl, friendship with Lily Drake meant Drake sibling level of intensity. Becky had changed because of Lily and she liked those changes in herself.
It wasn't just the weight loss and activities; Lily demanded 100% honesty and never, ever keep dating a guy while you looked for another. Becky was allowed to be friends with them though, especially if they could handle her blunt talk.
Her ex, the guy who was struggling in ‘sport math’ was still going through the flash cards reluctantly. “I don’t get it, Becky. If Japan is fourteen hours ahead of us, why do we need to figure out what time it is there? We can look it up on our phones.”
Becky shrugged. “Maybe if it’s 2am on December 17th, people have a hard time finding their phones to look it up.”
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“I guess.”
“I’ll see you around.” Becky got up to leave. “And, hey, I mean it. I think you handled things really well.”
He smiled and went back to studying. The dude had potential, just not quite right for her. Then again, she was kind of spoiled. As a friend of Lily Drake, she often saw Ethan Drake. Now there was a guy who could use someone like Becky, whose life goals were to be 1) barefoot 2) pregnant, and 3) supporting a man who would support her.
One would think any guy could go for that. In Becky’s limited experience, the opposite was true.
- - -
POV: Ethan (Earth)
There were eight days until Christmas Eve when his self-righteous father would be given one last chance to be a parent. Ethan Drake didn’t think the guy had it in him.
How did he get zero time off for good behavior? It was almost impossible. Kai Drake had probably gotten into more fights. Was Ethan supposed to accept this man as a father figure? Please.
Except…
This Thanksgiving, his stepfather, the man who now walked with a limp thanks to Kai, had his daughters come over. The younger one was five years older than him and attempted seduction. Annoying. Ethan was applying to MIT, he didn’t like distractions. He was also busy with varsity basketball and his private project: preparing to beat the hell out of his father.
The younger and very drunk step-daughter was making a lot of small touches when she was near him. A lot of girls did that to him, with one exception.
He had told the stepdaughter to politely stop it. She cornered him in the hallway upstairs when his mother and Josh were down in the living room watching a show. She kept pressing up against him. He was almost at the point where he called for Lily. This was a social situation, and Ethan wasn’t good with those. He wanted to shove her away. Hard.
The step-sister had said, “I get that you hate my dad-“
Ethan didn’t. He thought Josh was a great stepdad. He was an arts professor and couldn’t do sports because of the limp Kai him, so they didn’t have much in common. But Josh showed up to his basketball games and was supportive when Ethan said he wanted to learn koryu bujutsu, an obscure martial art.
There were very few instructors and the ones that did exist wanted him to learn Japanese. It was a large expense. Ethan was pretty sure Josh had looked up koryu bujutsu and found out it was one of the few martial arts that was well-suited (which is to say ‘not awful’) at fighting a kendo martial artist like Kai.
Ethan was aware that he had issues. Kai was one of them. He planned to wipe the floor with Kai if he wasn’t perfectly behaved on Christmas. Except…
The step-sister had kept talking. “-I’d be pissed too if I found out my mom had been cheating the entire time she was married. You know, I’m so glad you look just like your Dad. Your mom wasn’t sure about the paternity. Isn’t that funny?”
Ethan didn’t find it very goddamn funny.
“Lily! I need help.” He he yelled.
“Oh you pussy little bitch!” The step-sister spat. “Big man, calling for a girl to help him out! Are you afraid of me?”
Yeah, sort of. The law was pretty clear about what would happen if he shoved her away. He didn’t trust her to tell the truth to the cops.
The thought triggered a memory, hadn’t the cops asked Ethan about his dad abusing him seven years ago? Ethan thought that was weird, he never tought about where the cops got the idea though.
Then Lily showed up and the stepsister stayed away.
The rest of Thanksgiving had passed by without issue. The stepsister kept her distance. Ethan thought a lot.
Lately, Ethan was trying to be a little nicer to Lily. He was wondering about a few things. His father was guilty of a crime, but that didn’t mean other ones couldn’t have happened.
Meanwhile, he had to make it through the rest of his senior year. Girls were bugging him. Ethan was straight. Very straight. He liked girls. He didn’t trust a lot of people though and women always intruded on his time, with one exception.
Nothing had to be this complicated. All that- oh no.
There was weirdness going on at his locker. Girls were arguing over a piece of paper. It was a list. At the top in big letters were the words ‘Winter Ball’. Ethan knew about it and didn’t want to go. The girls were arguing about him. They were ‘deciding’ who Ethan was allowed to date and in what order.
That fucking did it.
Ethan looked around to see if there was a friend to help with social extraction. Ethan didn’t know how to do that without shoving. Maybe Kai was the same? Empathy with his father. He didn’t want to think about that.
There wasn’t anyone around, with one exception.
She was the one exception to a lot.
He called out over the crowd, “Hey! Becky! You’re marrying me. Got it?”
She tilted her head, looked at the ceiling, and he could see her mouth move around as she mulled over something or another.
“You’re taking me to junior and senior prom. Don’t drag your feet on your graduate degrees because we’re celebrating your master’s by knocking me up with your first. I plan to make more.”
Ethan felt that was reasonable, but figured he should still negotiate. “Only if you grow your hair down to your hips.”
“Deal.” She walked off.
He turned to the girls, “Sorry, I’m engaged.”
Becky was a reasonable girl. The others should be more like her.
- - -
POV: Lily (Earth)
Something weird had happened about a week ago. She had felt pulled somewhere, but hadn’t gone anywhere. Now she was always feeling like she was in the wrong place and was having dreams about being an anchor for a boat that was really far away.
Becky sat down next to her, “Hey Lily. Your brother finally proposed to me.”
“I hope you’re kidding,” Lily said. “Did you get a big ring?”
“Dammit!” Becky said. “I knew I forgot something!”
“Yeah, that sucks. Hey, Becky? Did you ever feel like you should be somewhere else?”
“Yeah, whenever I sleep over at your place. I want to be twenty feet to the right.”
That would be her brother’s bedroom. Ick. Lily sighed. She was going to have to endure at least five more years of these comments.
And why was she thinking about a stack of membranes all the time?
It was gross!
