|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 4:20 pm
Mara nodded, but looked to Lucien. “Are you sure it’s okay if he comes to the bar?”
Something informed her that the toddler tagging along with the two mothers (soon enough, right?) would not be a wise idea. She thought of many things that could go wrong. Mara was a rather...reckless drunk- nothing quite phased her while intoxicated, so any responsibility she had wouldn’t be a priority in that state. Mara could only think of one thing to save this situation.
“My friend could babysit him, if you’d like,” she suggested. “I don’t think I want to have my cabbage with me in such a state.”
Leon would have to get used to the thought of her having a child, and this would be a good start.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 4:42 pm
Grace looked down at Lucien with a frown; would she really trust someone she didn't know to watch her son while she went drifting through pubs drinking herself into oblivion with someone she barely knew? An uncomfortable feeling stirred inside of her; could she really be that irresponsible?
"Yeah, okay, alright, that sounds good." Grace nodded, cocking her head to the side. "But so help me God if anything happens to him," she placed her finger against a small piece of skin on Lucien's cheek.
"You see that tiny patch of skin? It's more important than the entirety of your friend's being, and if that patch of skin -- or any patch of skin, anywhere, is damaged in any way I will make it my honor, no, my duty amidst a sea of mediocre metaphors to give him a lifetime of my foot up his a**. And golly gosh if that isn't the kicker of all kickers, I'd make sure that blah blah blah blah testicles blah blah untimely death. 'Kay?" Grace made a face before lifting Lucien to rest upright against her chest, his head resting against her shoulder and his arms around her neck.
"So how're we getting out of here without, y'know, drowning?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 5:05 pm
Mara laughed at Grace’s remark, a reaction which was light and honest. She grinned and shook her head.
“Yeah don’t worry,” she replied. “But you didn’t leave any torture for me! He’s a reasonable guy, I don’t think Leon-said friend, that is-can do anything worse than we would if your son was left in our, drunken care. That is to say he’s sufficiently afraid of me, and if anything goes wrong he knows I’ll have his head. I’ll give him a call to pick us up.”
And with that she took out her cell phone and swallowed her pride.
“Hey honey,” she said suavely over the phone.
“I’m hanging up,” replied Leon flatly.
“Now, now, don’t be such a spoil sport.” Mara took a deep breath and took a few steps away from Grace, turning away from her. She hated apologies. “Listen, I’m sorry about not telling you about the cabbage, I knew you wouldn’t support me. I need this though...”
There was a silence at the end for a while, followed by a sigh. Mara could tell Leon was shaking his head at the other end. Fortunately, he knew her well enough to see how difficult it was for her to be doing this. “Alright, fine.”
“Wonderful, now could you do me a favour?”
----
A short while later Leon was on his way to pick the two women up from the paper shop.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:09 pm
After exchanging pleasantries with Leon and informing him that if he likes his testicles in tact he'd do well to take care of Lucien, Grace bent down and kissed the top of her son's head before moving from the car. The bar itself was nothing special; a low-key, middle-class building with twenty odd socialites and drunkards conversing and leaning against walls to support themselves. In other words, it was perfect.
Grace let out a breath and started towards the pub, only pausing to glance over her shoulder at Mara.
"So, whathisface, Leo -- I thought he was going to explode with sexual tension. I mean, honest to blog there Mara, with those puppy dog eyes and the look of a labradoodle that just got kicked in the face, you think you'd pick up on the fact that he wants nothing more to take you home, throw your dainty legs up over your head and cry about just how long he's wanted this moment."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:29 pm
If Mara had a drink she would have choked on it. Unfortunately she didn’t have one, so she briskly walked to the bar and demanded two shots of liquid cocaine. Once she had downed those and her lips were tingling slightly from the burn, she turned to Grace and narrowed her eyes.
“Leon?” she asked, waving the bartender back to serve them next. “No way, we’re friends...we have been for ages. He rejected me a few years ago, anyways. We’ve been friends since, nothing else.”
She shook her head and pursed her lips. The woman put her elbow up on the bar and rested her chin on her palm. “It’s weird to think of him as anything else,” she muttered. “Men are pigs, anyways. They’re sweet as honey at the beginning, then they realize something or another whether it be another woman, they’re not into you, or they’re gay, and they turn into swine.” She let out a sigh and shook her head quickly, as if to snap out of that thought.
“Anyways, what are you having?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2009 7:43 pm
Grace smiled crookedly before slamming her palm onto the table.
"Whisky on the rocks," she ordered, taking the glass from the barkeep shortly after and downing it. She relished in the burning sensation the alcohol left in her mouth, her fingers gesturing for two more before turning to Mara, her elbows leaning against the bar and her head cocked to the side.
"Pigs," she said with a nod, her nose wrinkling. "Every morning I've ever woken up next to a man I've stared into his eyes and passively aggressively tortured him until he packed up and left. My mother had the right idea -- I once saw her knock my father unconscious with a blunt axe. I was a trooper, though. I kept right on going with my birthday party." Grace raised her drink to her mouth and winced at the burn it left in her throat.
"Men are ********>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:57 pm
Mara stared at Grace, blinking a few times. She shook her head. “Wow, that’s ridiculous,” she finally said. “Did he at least deserve it? Your birthday party, that is.”
Mara ordered a dry martini and another whiskey for Grace. “My treat,” she said, nodding towards the drink. “You really need that. So how exactly did you come into possession of a cabbage without knowing what was in it? And your son was from a cabbage as well?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:35 am
Grace frowned into her final glass before throwing it back and finishing it off.
"Whenever my father wanted to show me affection he'd purposely miss when he swung his fist at me." Grace nodded a thanks, taking the glass in her right hand and rubbing at her nose with her left. "First and last time she did anything, mind. She was so blind half of the time that she just took to laughing when he beat me from room to room."
Grace made a noise in the back of her throat and raised her drink once more, downing half before placing it back roughly on the table. "Angus, my brother for all intent and purposes. He left me a note and a goddamn cabbage on my front door. I can't remember what it said, so don't ask. When Angus and my sister were born, my father stopped systematically destroying any chance I had at a normal life. They never," she swallowed the remains of her whisky and closed her eyes against the burn. "They never saw him for what he was. They just saw me, this-- this bitter, narcissistic, ego maniacal child who was emotionally ******** detached from the world. And here's the real skinny, I never-- I never told them. I just let them hate me, and eventually.. and eventually I hated them too."
Grace looked at Mara with tired, almost desperate eyes. "I guess this was Angus' final move in our twisted game of cat and mouse."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:36 pm
Mara pursed her lips and played with the stem of her martini glass, contemplating whether or not to tell Grace what she had taken from the story. She had the feeling Grace would not agree with her, and Mara realized she could very well be wrong...
“Maybe he didn’t want you to be alone,” she said, regretting her decision. “You seem quite detached from your family. It could be a blessing in the guise of a curse-of course; I don’t know your brother or his intentions. It’s just a thought.”
Mara downed the rest of her pure alcoholic concoction, wincing slightly from the burn which followed the cool temperature of the liquid itself. She prepared herself for the worst.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:50 pm
Grace said nothing for a moment, her finger playing idly with her empty glass before raising a finger to signal for another. She looked at Mara with an expressionless expression, her arm reaching out blindly for her new drink.
"He knew I had Lucien," she said slowly, grasping her drink in her right hand and pulling a small piece of paper out of her jean pocket with her left. She handed Mara the folded note before settling in silence and sipping at her drink. Inside the note read:
Gracie,
Heard you had a kid, so congratulations I guess. Figured since you were starting your own brood you might appreciate another, free of all the pushing and counting and breathing and bleeding. Mom says ******** you, dad died of a heart-attack last year, Sarah sends her apologies to the kids and I couldn't give a flying ********. Look after the cabbage or you might be charged with murder.
- Angus
"Somehow," she said between sips. "I don't think he was looking out for me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 4:08 pm
“Pffffff,” Mara attempted to hold back a laugh. The alcohol was starting to set in, and she was beginning to lose a bit of her composure.
“Yeah,” she chuckled. “I think you may be right.” She shook her head, and handed the note back to Grace. “Geez, your family is messed up. Not sure if it’s better to have a messed up family, or no family at all. I don’t have any living relatives and I never met my parents. I know what you’re thinking: Oliver Twist, right? Yeah, that’s sort of how it is, minus all the drama and ‘please, sir, can I have some more?’ My orphanage was alright.”
Mara signaled for another martini and laughed softly at the thought of living in the 19th century. “Anyways, Lucien seems like a saint of a kid, how bad could another one be?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 4:21 pm
The faintest of smiles played about Grace's lips before she finished off her -- fifth? -- sixth? -- whateverith drink. While she too was beginning to feel the affects of her whisky, she also prided herself on her ability to keep her composure until the very end of her ropes. A little more loose-tongued and slurred, perhaps, and maybe a little less coherent, but still relatively well composed.
"Orphanage," she said lightly with a nod, raising a finger once more. "Y'know I think I would have preferred that over what I did have. My one regret is not being there for my father's funeral; I would have liked to 'ev danced on his grave, the ********."
This time she did smile, her eyes softening with concealed pride.
"Yeah, kid's alright," she gave a short laugh, reaching up to run a hand through her hair. "But I don't know. I've just never been that lucky, y'know? I can't see this other kid working out to vomit rainbows like Lucien does.. constantly." Grace grabbed her next drink and raised it to her mouth, but before she drank she said:
"What about you? What made you decide to raise cabbages?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:45 am
“Mm,” Mara nodded in agreement. “I don’t blame you, your father seemed horrible, to say the least.”
Mara laughed loudly again at the comment about raising cabbages: it sounded so strange to hear it, yet that’s exactly what they were doing. She sighed shaking her head and replied “Men.”
“Another relationship gone to the shitter,” she said, laughing softly and hiding her still sore pride. She took a sip of her next martini, relishing the refreshing temperature of the drink. “I realized how disgusting men can be-- especially all the men I end up dating -- so I decided to try my hand at raising a kid right.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:28 pm
Grace nodded, finishing her current drink and reaching for another before responding.
"I hear ya," she mumbled, raising a hand to rest behind her head. "Men are a total waste of time. My father and every one of my pathetic boyfriends never failed to show me that. "But I made you breakfast, cleaned the- cleaned the lounge, did both your and my washing, fed the dog, washed the dishes and colour coordinated all of your underwear. You want me to go to the video store and get Jerry who? Gerard Butler? But when will I have time to kill myself?" And I'm like, that's not my problem. Men, they're just a slower form of- of suicide in the end. ********' assturds."
Grace rubbed the back of her head and took another swig of her drink. "Sucks if you have a girl."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:47 pm
Mara laughed loudly at Grace’s comment. “I like you,” she said frankly, still laughing. “Yep, they’re all the same. Nothing that you give is ever enough, nope. The attention span of a goldfish, I tell you. At least a goldfish has the decency to die before you get too bored of it.”
Mara called down another drink, this time rum and coke to slow things down a little (not like it would help any). She shook her head loosely, her veil of hair becoming rather messy in the process. “If I get a girl, I’ll make sure she’s not as stupid as I was,” she said, grinning. “And I can tell you, I’ve been through a lot of ridiculous relationships.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
