Thomas and Niko in the City of Trees - Chapter 9
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It's past three in the morning and the party is starting to quiet down. Maybe Madison finally convinced Thomas to come down out of that tree, or maybe he made up his mind to come down on his own. Either way we all sort of reconvene in the living room. Thomas turns down the stereo and people start to leave.
Garrett and Driggs are both passed out on the floor by the kitchen. I see one or two more people just kind of stirring around on the grass in the backyard.
I'm pretty amazed the four of us aren't a little more fucked up, all things considered. Especially Thomas. He might actually be the least fucked up among us. I don't know what's gotten into him. He goes into Alfred's room to check on him and reports back that he's just sleeping peacefully in bed. The kid's friends must have left at some point. A lot of people were booking cars to come pick them up, so maybe they got into one of those. Lexie's makeup is smeared a little and she's going around like a zombie dumping bottles and cans into a black trash bag. I step around collecting a few more and she holds the bag open for me. In that moment, I'm feeling very grown up. Don't ask me why, because I don't know.
"We'll clean up the rest in the morning," says Thomas.
Madison has fallen asleep on the couch. Thomas picks her up and carries her to his bed. I watch the whole thing unfold, from the way he gently hooks one forearm under her legs and the other under her back, to the way her long blond hair just spills over his shoulder. He lifts her like she weighs nothing. As he's passing by me, his eyes just sort of fixate on mine. They're saying, "What the fuck am I supposed to do?"
Lexie and I sleep on Thomas's dad's bed. We're really careful not to disturb anything. We even bring in sleeping bags and lay them on top.
"I kept thinking the cops would come," she says.
I'm lying there next to her. Our sleeping bags open up toward each other. "I'm pretty amazed they never did," I say.
"Were you planning to run if they did?"
"Yeah."
"Would you have taken me with you?"
"Of course," I say.
She smiles. "Well, it never came to that. I guess you get a free pass sometimes."
I guess you do. She reaches for me in a pretty suggestive way a couple times and I tell her I'm just too exhausted. I tell her I'm not feeling well. In a way, I guess it's all true.
I wake up at ten in the morning. I feel like I haven't slept enough, but I can't seem to get back to sleep. I get out of bed slowly so I don't wake up Lexie. I walk past the open doorway to Thomas's room and am surprised to see his bed empty.
I got out into the kitchen and survey the place. Somebody already did some cleaning up. Anyone who stuck around to sleep on the floor or the lawn or wherever else is long gone. I'm kind of wondering where the hell Thomas and Madison went. I go over to the garage door at the edge of the kitchen and open it.
There he is, lying flat on his bench. He's in the middle of a set. I let him finish and then I say, "You shouldn't do that without a spotter."
He sits up and stretches out his fingers. "Get the fuck over here, then."
"Where did Madison go?"
"She had to go home and sweet-talk her mom. Turns out she never got permission to stay over."
"Wow," I say. "Who is this person?"
"I know." Thomas is looking pretty energized from the workout. "She really mellowed out once school ended."
"I'm starting to think we all did," I say.
Thomas doesn't answer me. He's just sort of staring off into space for a while. "Your turn," he finally says.
"Are you fucking kidding me? I'm not doing that shit right now."
He makes way for me to lie down on the bench. "Come on," he says. "It'll make you feel better."
"That's a lie."
"I promise." He's just looking at me.
In all honestly, those dark eyes have a way of convincing me to do just about anything sometimes. Fine, you win Thomas. I'll just do whatever the hell you want. I lie down on the bench and he helps me get going. It's too much weight for me, so we have to remove some. I do what I can and he's just encouraging me through the whole thing. Anyway I finish up with pretty good form and set the barbell back on the rack. I sit up and take a moment to breath in and out a few times. I decide I'm not going to focus on anything else but my breathing.
But then Thomas says, "I kind of thought something might happen again last night."
"Excuse me?" I say.
"We were both pretty drunk, right?"
"I guess," I say. Classic Thomas, bring this shit up out of left field. "I mean, didn't something kind of happen?"
"I don't know," he says. "Did it?"
"We told each other. We found out we're both..." I literally stop talking right there. I'm not trying to get all dramatic, it's just that I can't see any good way of finishing that sentence.
He's quiet about the whole thing for a minute. Then he says, "I thought we already knew that."
"I guess we did," I say.
It's just the most fucking useless conversation I've ever been a part of—I don't know what else to tell you. We're both kind of sitting there, a little sad, and more than a little confused about where to go next. I'm not moving an inch. I'm completely still. I don't want to be the one to say it, but at this point I guess that's just how it has to be. "What ever happened to going back to how things were before?"
"No, you're right, that's what we said." And just like that, he flips a switch, and he's back to all-business Thomas again. He lies down on the bench and I go over to spot for him.
We continue on with the workout, although I'm feeling quite a bit weaker than usual. Lexie opens the garage door a short time later, just as we're finishing.
"What the fuck got into you two?" she says. "You're choosing now to work out?"
"It's Thomas's fault," I say. "He made me."
"I didn't make you do shit," says Thomas.
