After seeing Blair, Mitch and Lily went back to Mitch’s and watched RoboCop. Seph showed up shortly before Frank Murphy beat up those guys at the nightclub. Knowing the movie quite well, Seph watched through the rest of it with Mitch and Lily. For the hours between the end of the movie and Blair and Emmit’s respective arrivals, Seph, Mitch and Lily just all tried to avoid how little they had to share with each other.
Lily didn’t understand; when the group of friends were in college together they could stay up night after night talking about whatever, but now they hadn’t spent any time together in so long she thought there would have been a reservoir of conversation. The friends were just trudging through shallow conversations like they were getting made minimum wage to talk. Lily liked Seph for his collected insight. She like Mitch for his casual interest in others. But now Seph wasn’t being particularly inspiring and Mitch seemed unusually bored. Lily then wondered if she was failing to live up to her friends’ expectations.
Seph didn’t want to ignore Lily, so he easily fought his unrelenting urge to go to his room and get on his computer. He had been arguing with various screen names about politics, movies and music. The previous night, Seph knew he had made some good points and wanted to see if anybody cared to respond.
-So…Seph….what’s up?
-Nothing. You?
-Nothing.
-You’re back in town.
-Yeah.
-That’s something.
-Yeah. Have you gotten into any adventures lately?
-Well, you remember Charlie?
-I’m sorry. I never knew a Charlie.
-Oh. Never mind then.
-Okay.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
Interrupting the following silence, Mitch suggested lighting up another bowl. Seph took him up on the offer. Lily might have, too. Then nothing really happened except the three finished off a bag of Doritos. And though they conversation surfed for two hours, everything was back to reality by the time Blair showed up. And even more so two minutes later when Emmit, with Bogart, showed up.
-So who are we going to invite to this whatever, asked Seph.
-I don’t know who still lives here, answered Lily.
-It’s just me and Seph.
-She meant in town, not the apartment.
Everybody started naming as many of their peers as they could with a complete disregard of whether they actually wanted to be with them tonight. They could invite Gary, Ava, J.T., Don, Jordan--No, said Lily, don’t invite Jordan. Well then Don is out, too. There’s Sophia, Cassidy, the other Sophia--oh I haven’t seen her in a while. Who else? Jobe, Emma, but remember: she prefers to be called Bella now. Then there’s Lane, Addison, Bo—Bo Who? Are you crying? Funny, Blair. Oh, I get it. Anyways. Well, there’s also Marley, Miley and Maddy. And Lou and Pax and Brooklyn. No wait, Brooklyn moved to New Jersey. Bummer.
Emmit, afraid to play the role of a bank yet again, reluctantly brought up the more uncomfortable aspect of throwing a party. Who’s paying for the liquor and stuff? Everybody waited for a second, just in case somebody else wanted to be the hero and say the party was on them, but that didn’t happen tonight--or any other night.
-I figured it’d be BYOB.
-Okay…so what are we bringing?
-Bring whatever you want, Mitch.
Mitch suspected Emmit had somehow taken his fifty dollars last week and was willing to settle the issue between just the two of them, but this public embarrassment was too much. Mitch admitted that his pockets were too empty for the party. Emmit, tired of always covering Mitch’s empty pockets, saw an opportunity to change the situation for good by making everything public.
-Mitch, you always need somebody to spot you. How do you never have cash?
-I don’t know. I never do. Sorry I’m not rich.
-I’m not rich either but I’m not always asking people for money.
-I’m not asking for money.
Both guys considered their next moves unabated thanks to the silence in the room. They both took a step closer. Were they willing to punch each other? They had before, but only Seph had seen it.
-You leave clothes at my house and your cereal in my car, accused Emmit.
-You took fifty dollars out of one of my pockets, shot back Mitch.
At this Seph buried his face into his hands. He didn’t want to deal with taking a side and making anybody, or everybody, angry at him. Granted, he knew both guys better than anybody, but for this same reason, he hesitated to do or say anything. Seph didn’t have a problem with controversy or people getting in fights, but not when it got personal. He liked debates, not duels and this was most certainly a duel.
Fortunately for all three guys, Blair and Lily stood up, bumped into each other themselves and separated Mitch and Emmit. Blair didn’t want to be alone with Emmit more than she had to, suspecting he still had feelings for her. Plus she felt she understood how Mitch’s mind worked better than anybody, aside from Seph. Conversely, Lily knew she was pretty neutral in Emmit’s book but didn’t want to tip her hand to Mitch, herself, or anybody, that she wanted to be closer to Mitch in every sense of the word. Seph, knowing as much about everybody as anybody, would later describe the situation as a “cluster-fuck.”
When Lily asked Emmit to join her in the kitchen, Emmit’s frustration was compounded into incomprehensible muttering. He wasn’t as pissed as everyone clearly thought he was and they clearly thought he was more pissed than Mitch, which again, he was not. Secondly, if he was going to be pushed into the kitchen he would rather it be Seph, his old friend, or Blair, his old girlfriend. Who was Lily? Granted Lily knew everybody, but there was no way she knew the problems. It was like joining a poker game an hour late. Sure, you can know the rules, but you don’t know the players. But Lily needed to think she was a peacemaker, apparently, so Emmit would let her try. He told her he and Mitch had a complicated dynamic (half true) and that they were actually good friends (less true).
Seph, now alone in the living room, yelled into the kitchen, letting Emmit and Lily know he could still hear them. Emmit heard Seph and then heard his own phone beep and flipped it open.
-[Ten bucks on Orlando]
Emmit didn’t have to think long. Gary obviously thought the teams were even because Vegas wasn’t giving a point-spread. Which was gleefully shortsighted of Gary. Orlando was at home and home court advantage gives anybody at least a 2½- point bump. To Emmit, this meant Cleveland was the better team and the smarter bet. Also, it was about time for Emmit to start winning back his losses.
-[Deal]
While Lily waited on Emmit to think and text-message a response, she got a text message herself.
-[Sorry. Who is this?]
-[Its Lily]
Lily was hurt. She had invited Cassidy to the party but apparently Cassidy had deleted Lily from her cell phone contact list. Lily realized that at some point her old friend consciously thought, “No, I’m never going to want or need to call Lily ever again.”
Lily, still not having heard Mitch and Blair come back into the apartment, asked Emmit about life. He was a twenty-nine year old who didn’t know how next week could possibly be different than last week: what was there to say? Lily understood perfectly and was thankful Emmit didn’t hit her back with the question.
-[Sorry. New phone. But I can’t make it to your party. We can hang out some other time]
-[No problem]
Emmit watched Lily respond to her own message.
-You know, Lily, nothing has changed.
-I’ll cover Mitch’s debt with you if you lend him the money.
-Why don’t you lend him the money?
-I don’t have cash right now.
-So instead of him owing me money, you’ll owe me money?
-Diversifying your funds is good advice.
Emmit now kept his voice in the kitchen and asked if Lily was defending Mitch because she liked him. Lily, if for no other reason than carrying over a habit from her school girl days, adamantly denied any interest in Mitch outside an equal friendship she had with Emmit. Lily crossed her arms and leaned on the doorframe, finally giving Emmit enough room to walk past her if he wanted. He didn’t. That’s why she wanted to help both guys.
-Friendship is important, said Lily, but it requires work, too.
Moments earlier, Blair had asked Mitch to join her outside. Mitch, allowing Bogart to join him, agreed and left the room shortly behind her. On the front porch, Blair held her hand just above the horizon. She gauged the sun was about three fingers above the horizon. What would that be? About forty-five minutes? It’d be dinnertime soon and it seemed unlikely that anybody had eaten. Empty bellies make for crankier friends. If they got some food together, maybe got some drinks together, everybody would remember why they were more than friends-by-convenience. Mitch slowly moved next to her, leaning on the porch railing, unconcerned about the silence that lasted for some time. Meanwhile, Bogart ran around the yard begging Mitch and Blair to play with him. Mitch wanted to, but didn’t.
-When did you last see the fifty dollars, Mitch?
-It was in my right-front pant pocket here.
-How sure are you?
-Well I never put it in my left pocket.
Mitch reached into his left front pocket and froze. Oh. Blair raised an eyebrow. Mitch slowly pulled out some money.
-Is that your fifty-dollar bill, asked Blair.
-Yeah. No wait, it’s actually a five-dollar bill. I guess I just thought it was a fifty.
-Yeah?
-Some jerk went and drew an extra zero in the corners.
-I heard that’s been going around.
-I guess I forgot.
-Yeah.
-I’m sorry, Blair.
-It’s okay. You cool?
-Yeah.
-Let’s go inside.
Blair and Mitch walked back into the multi-purpose room with Bogart, joined seconds later by Lily and Emmit.
-Cheech Rockefeller here has an apology, announced Blair.
-So does…uh…Emmit, said Lily.
Silence temporarily invaded the room once again.
-I’m sorry man.
-Hey, I’m sorry, too.
-It’s cool.
-‘K.
Seph, partially thankful he didn’t have to be behind the scenes, got up and walked to his vintage record player trying, in more ways than one, to lighten the mood. Choosing a record, Seph looked at them and smiled. That was just beautiful guys.
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