Joey

The girls all walk back in with solemn expressions on their faces. Liv says nothing, just goes upstairs. Koren and Kate walk over to me and JC. Koren sits on the arm of the couch next to where I am and Kate plops down on JC’s lap in the loveseat.

“Is Liv okay?” JC asks Kate, who shrugs.

“I think this weekend is just a lot.” Kate replies and runs her hand through her hair. “It’s only quarter til ten. Remember when we could stay up all night?”

“Yeah, but we’ve also all been traveling.” Koren reminds her. “Even I’m beat and it’s still early in California.” She yawns and stands up. “Are you coming to bed?”

I nod and stand up with her. “Yeah. Following you, babe.” I turn back to JC. “Hey, sorry about…that earlier thing.”

JC just shrugs and strokes Kate’s arm aimlessly. “It’s okay. He’s obviously stressed or upset or something.”

“Are you talking about Chris?” Kate looks from JC up at me.

“Yeah. He got a little agitated earlier.” JC tries to be nonchalant in his response but I can see Kate glancing at Koren.

“Ok, well, goodnight guys.” Koren walks ahead of me up the stairs just as Kate is about to say something else.

Once we get up to our room, Koren sits on the edge of the bed and looks at me. “Did Chris talk to you?”

I know exactly what she’s referring to just by the look in her eyes.

“Yeah. About Liv?” I’m trying to speak softly. Chris and Liv are next door to us and after Chris’ reaction earlier the last thing I need is him storming in here yelling at us.

“Mmhm.” Koren shakes her head. “I never would have expected Liv to, well, you know.”

I just nod. I don’t know if Koren knows the truth about our second year of college. It’s too late, though, because she’s already seen the look on my face.

“What?” She stands from the bed and goes over to the suitcase by the window. “You look like you want to say something.”

I can’t hide anything from Koren. She knows me much too well.

“It’s just, well, I guess I can’t get too mad at Liv. Did she ever mention anyone named Dayna to you?” I’m leaning against the dresser as Koren unzips her suitcase. She pauses and turns slightly towards me.

“Dayna?”

Chris

“I’m leaving, baby.” Liv told me as she and Koren headed towards the exit of the bar.

I looked at her in a drunken state, my eyes glazed over, still feeling the buzz taking over me. “Aw, come on, Livvy. Just one more dance!”

At that moment “Party Up” by DMX started blaring through the club. I grabbed Liv, forcing her back on the dance floor.

“You have to dance to this one!” I yelled at her over the music.

Liv rolled her eyes and moved away from me. “Chris, I’m tired and my English Lit paper is due tomorrow at 6am. It’s almost one. That means I have to be up for the next three hours so I can get it done. Goodnight.” Liv kissed me and walked off with Koren behind her.

“Where’d they go?” Kate called to me. She was walking out onto the dance floor with JC behind her.

“Liv has a paper. I guess Koren did, too.” I shrugged and walked back to the bar. Joey was there ordering a beer.

“Our girls left us.” He looked defeated. “I tried to convince them to stay but Koren says she was exhausted from nannying all day and Liv…”

“…Had a paper.” I finished for him. “C’mon. The night’s still young. Lance is out there on the floor with Kate and JC.”

“Where’d Justin go?” Joey followed me back out to where everyone else was.

I shrugged. “Beats me.” Justin had disappeared earlier that night with yet another girl from either the local high school or the freshmen class. He was good at that.

“So watch what you do or you gon’ find yourself buried next to someone else and we all thought you loved yourself..” DMX blared and seemed to get louder and the beer I had disappeared before I knew it.

“Another?” I asked Joey and made my way back to the bar before he could answer.

“Hey, Chris.” I looked up next to me and there stood Dayna Evans, my partner in Health and Physical Fitness. It was an easy A class and I’d only taken it because of that fact. Dayna had been my partner last semester for the physical fitness portion.

“Hey!” I smiled at her and took the beer from the bartender. “How’s it going?”

“Ok.” Dayna answered and I saw she was nursing an Appletini. “My boyfriend and I just broke up today. I’m trying to forget about it.”

“Oh shit, Dayna. I’m so sorry to hear that.” I found an empty bar stool and pulled it next to her.

“Yeah. I mean, it was probably for the best. You know, that’s what everyone says.” She tugged on a piece of her brown hair and then put it behind her ear.

“Y’all gon’ make me act a fool, up in here, up in here…”

I turned my attention back to the dance floor where Joey was dancing near JC and Kate with two random girls that I was pretty sure Koren would flip a lid over if she’d seen them. JC and Kate were oblivious to anyone else and I had to smirk. Kate looked as though she would tell JC to take her right then and there she was so lost in him.

“So, how’s this semester going for you so far?” I took a long chug of beer.

Dayna shrugged. “It’s ok. I’m finally taking classes for my major.”

“Which is what again?” I asked.

“Journalism.”

“Right. Cool.” I nodded at her and ordered another beer. I was throwing them back tonight, that was for sure.

Forty-five minutes later, I was pretty drunk after five beers in a row and Dayna had just ordered a third Appletini. We were laughing at something one of us had said and then Amber’s “Sexual” began to play.

“Wanna dance?” I asked her, getting up.

She nodded and followed me out to the dance floor.

“Don’t you know that when you touch me baby that it’s torture…brush up against me I get chills all down my spine…”

Dayna threw her arms around my neck and my arms rested around her lower back.

“Don’t make this intellectual…the way I feel is sexual…the way I feel is sexual…”

The music seemed to get louder and louder and all I could see was Dayna dancing with me in perfect rhythm. She swiveled her hips with mine, turned around and purposely backed into me.

“Shit.” I muttered into her ear and I heard her chuckle softly. My mind was hazy and alcohol had done its duty.

Dayna turned back around and her arms were wrapped tightly around my neck. I looked down at her and soon it was as though I’d forgotten that Liv had even existed.

“Chris!”

I broke away from Dayna and looked up to see Kate throwing daggers at me with her eyes.

“Um.” I pushed Dayna aside and tried to play it all off as though it weren’t a big deal.

“You little shit!” Kate was also drunk and a drunk Kate was never a pretty sight.

“Babe, calm down. Come on. Let’s just go.” JC pulled her back to him and the next thing I knew they had left.

All I could picture was that Kate would go straight to Liv and tell her everything.

“Um, let’s get another drink,” I said quickly to Dayna and she agreed by following me back to the bar.

“Sorry.” Dayna apologized. “I didn’t mean to-“

“Hey, it’s just as much my fault.” I interrupted her. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to Liv.”

At three, the last call came and everyone started piling out of the bar. Joey followed me and Dayna outside.

“Can you walk me back to my dorm?” Dayna asked me. I heard Joey snort but ignored it.

“Sure.” I stumbled behind her.

“Be careful.” It was the last thing I heard Joey say to me as I walked next to Dayna across the street.

Joey

“And then what happened?” Koren was sitting on the bed next to me.

“Chris didn’t come back til the next day.” I tell her and lay back on the bed. I rub my eyes and groan. “So I guess Kate never told Liv, then?”

“Not that I know of.” Koren lies down next to me. “You know Kate would have blabbed to both of us. She’s not the best at keeping secrets.”

“She kept that one.” I point out.

“Well, that’s…true.” Koren finally sighs. “I don’t know. Maybe Kate was really drunk that night and forgot.”

“Could be.” I pull Koren next to me so that her head is resting on my chest. “You would have told me if you cheated on me? Right?”

“Kor, you know I liked to flirt but I never cheated.” I kiss her lips and she grins up at me.

“I know. I just like to be assured. After being with everyone here, it just makes me realize we might be the most lucky couple here…”

JC

“What?”

I break out of my trance and look at Kate. I realize I’ve been staring at her for the better part of the last minute.

“Nothing, honey. I was just…thinking.” That part was true. I have been thinking. I’ve been thinking about how Kate has been holding back something from me and I’m just now beginning to wonder what it is. After talking to Chris and Joey earlier, I’m now starting to think she might really know more than she’s let on these last fifteen years.

“Well, you won’t believe what Liv told us tonight.” Kate continues and starts to change into her pajamas. “She’s been having an affair.”

“I know.” I roll onto my side and watch as she pulls her sundress over her head. “Chris told us.”

Kate whips her head around and looks at me with a curious expression. “What did he say?”

“Tell me what Liv said first.” I prop my cheek on my chin and continue watching Kate throw her bra in the suitcase. I can’t help but think that even after two kids and fifteen years, Kate is still as sexy to me as she was when I first met her.

“She just admitted that she had had an emotional affair with some man she met at her kids’ school.” Kate says and throws a long t-shirt over her head. She crawls into bed next to me and pulls my arm around her waist.

I kiss her and then pull away. “That’s what Chris said. Well, for the most part.”

Kate frowns. “What? Do you want to tell me something?”

I hesitate and she can already tell I’m holding back. “Babe, do you have something you’re not telling me? I mean, about Lance?”

Kate looks shocked. Or else she’s feigning shock. “What? Josh, of course not! You know I would have already said something to you!”

I have to chuckle. Kate can be so dramatic sometimes. “I know, baby. I just had to ask. That’s all.” I don’t tell her that Chris thinks she’s hiding something. There’s no need for that. I don’t need this weekend to be even more chaotic than it’s already turning out to be.

Kate settles next to me and pulls me on top of her. “Wanna finish what we started in the kitchen?”

I can’t ever say no to her. Not since we first slept together in our harried, drunken state and not now.

Kate

It doesn’t take long for JC to fall asleep after we make love. I kiss him and get up from the bed, watching him breathe rhythmically as he sleeps. I shudder at the thought that JC thinks I’m hiding something from him. It’s bugging me to no end.

I know I’m not going to be able to fall asleep, so I decide to head back downstairs.

It’s completely dark and the only sound I can hear is the waves crashing on the shore outside. I grab a blanket from the back of the couch and curl up in the recliner, looking out at the darkness.

Life seemed so much simpler back when we were in college. Granted, most of that time was spent drinking and having sex and occasionally studying. For Lance and me it was mostly spent memorizing lines in the theatre building. That’s really how we’d bonded.

“Ok, so if I come in stage right and you come down center stage, would that make sense?” Lance was standing in the middle of the black box theatre reading over our assigned script for our acting class.

“Um, I think so. Let’s try it.” I was sitting on the floor and stood to join him. I went to the middle of the stage and waited for Lance to say his first line.

“Brenda? Where are you?” He came on stage right, waiting for me to enter.

“I’m right here, Dave! I told you I was going to be late!” I ran down center stage and met him in the middle. Just as he was about to cross towards me, he tripped over his feet and stumbled to the ground.

“Are you okay?” I asked, going over to him and helping him up.

“Yes. Dammit. I’m so klutzy. Wanna start over?”

“Sure.” I smiled at him and walked back to my position on the stage. “Also, is it me or does this script kind of blow?”

Lance snickered. “No, it definitely blows. I heard a former student wrote it and Dr. Mason is just keeping it for acting exercises.”

“Well, maybe we doctor it up a little.” I suggested and walked off the stage to my book bag to dig for a pen.

“Um, we probably shouldn’t.” Lance cleared his throat. “I mean, I don’t want us to get in trouble.”

I turned and faced him. “Trouble? Lance, we’re in college, not high school. And we’re doing the future acting students of Presley College a favor!” I sat down and beckoned him over to me. “Come on. This scene is ridiculous. ‘Brenda’ is always running late because she’s grocery shopping? What is this, 1955?” I started to cross out dialogue and Lance just stood there looking at me as if I was crazy. “What?” I looked up at him.

“You’re serious.” It was a statement and not a question.

“Well, of course I’m serious!” I retorted. “Look, if Dr. Mason sees our scene with a few tweaks, what’s the worst he can do?”

“Um, how about fail us?!” Lance was honestly worried.

“You’ve never done anything remotely ‘bad’ have you, Bass?” It was the first time I’d ever used just his last name.

“No.” At least he was honest.

“Well, Lancey, it’s time we changed that!” I threw a pen at him. “Start writing. I promise it’s going to be fine. And really, if this is the worst thing you do in college – changing a scene in a lousy script – then I don’t know if we can be friends.”

I chuckle as I think back on that day. We’d known each other for about a week. We revamped it and our professor loved it.

“Oh Bass.” I say out loud to no one in particular. “What the hell were you thinking leaving us like that? That wasn’t how it was supposed to be.”

I then remember my conversation with my husband just minutes earlier and am still perplexed as to how he even has an indication that I’m hiding something from him.

How the hell is he so intuitive, anyway?