Everything Fails. T Van Santana

the air.

      “Well, I, uh … Plum wants to know if …”

      Wendy flicked away her smoke, dropped down from the tabletop to the bench and slid up close to me. “I mean, Plum’s sweet, but I can’t do anything with that.”

      My throat went tight and hot. I felt the heat swell all over me and couldn’t see anything except Wendy in the sun.

      Wendy put her hair around mine, her face very close to me. “I mean, what do you think?”

      I swallowed. “Think about what?”

      “Plum?” Wendy put her hands on either side of my face. “I mean, what do you think I should do?”

      My pulse picked up and threatened my loyalty to Plum. I dropped my cigarette.

      “Well, I … uh … I think you should do what you want.”

      Wendy’s breath was hot on mine, her lips brushing my cheek very near my lips when she talked. “Anything I want?”

      “Anything you want,” I said, softly.

      “Even if it’s bad?”

      “What could be so bad?”

      She let her lips touch mine, but just a little. “Oh, I can think of some things that are pretty bad.”

      I just sat there, our hair pushed together creating a little tent for our faces, our lips touching, barely.

      “Wanna see?” Wendy asked.

      Of course I did. But Plum … “I dunno. I mean, Plum …”

      “Forget about Plum. Plum’s sweet, but Plum’s not here. It’s just me and you here.”

      “Yeah …”

      “So, do you wanna see?”

      “Yeah. I do. Badly.”

      She smiled. “Good. Lemme show you.”

      I moved in, pulled by her gravity, my mouth leading the rest of me straight into her puffed lips, ready to receive. Wendy put her lips on mine and that was that. I was hooked.

      We took some breath with our foreheads resting together.

      “What the fuck am I gonna tell Plum,” I said, not really asking.

      “Tell them that it just happened. You know. You did what they asked, but then it just happened.”

      “How did it just happen?” Plum asked. And not nicely.

      “Shit, Plum, I dunno. She just kept taking more clothes off and …”

      “Shut up!” Plum covered their ears. “I can’t hear any more!”

      I couldn’t help but smile. I was happy as shit. Not that I’d hurt Plum, but that Wendy and I were together again.

      “I trusted you!”

      “Yes, I suppose that’s true, but you also picked me.”

      A deadly sort of calm came over Plum. “What the fuck does that mean?”

      “I mean, you asked me to do this.”

      “So? You’re my best friend.”

      Probably true. Plum wasn’t my best friend, but I was theirs.

      “Yeah, okay, whatever,” I said, “be that as it may, but still, you picked me to talk to her. I had no interest in Wendy whatsoever.”

      Plum’s eyes grew dark. “So, you’re saying this is my fault? That I did this?”

      “Well, not that you did it, per se, but you had a hand in the events as they unfolded …”

      Plum broke my nose. Like, fucking punched me in the nose, broke it, blood gushed everywhere. It was fucking nasty.

      Then they just walked away.

      Shit only got worse.

      They started something of a hate campaign, enlisting random strangers to tempt my blade with comments from the corners of the halls.

      I confronted Plum.

      “What the fuck, Plum? When is this shit going to stop?”

      “Oh, I dunno,” Plum said. “How about when you’re dead?”

      “Seriously?”

      “Yeah, seriously. Deal with it. Now get out of my face, before I cut you.”

      A blur, and I’m at the park again. Chemmed up.

      “Where is that dirty motherfucker?” I yelled. “I’m gonna fuck ‘em up.”

      Tijn tried to calm me down. “Listen,” he said, “maybe you should just chill out. You know, sit under a tree or somethin’.”

      “Fuck that,” I said.

      “I think I saw them over by the tables,” Kilroy said.

      Tij looked at Kilroy, then asked, “What the fuck are you doin’? Can’t you tell they’re fuckin’ blitzed?”

      Kilroy shrugged.

      “Good,” I said. “Then I’m on my way to take a big fucking bite of Plum.”

      I stormed toward the tables.

      “Fuck, wait,” Tij said to me, then to Kilroy, “Thanks a lot, asshole.”

      I reached the tables and my chemical-infused eyes took in a motley cast that I knew from shit gatherings like this one. “Where the fuck’s Plum?” I shouted.

      They all stopped talking and looked at me, then around at one another.

      This dude, Bosse, said, “Why don’t you take it easy, okay? Come on over and have a drink and sit down.”

      I knew Bosse from school. He’d taken my sister’s virginity, which I wasn’t supposed to know, but I did. I think I knew it then. Pretty sure.

      “Fuck that.” I skulked around the edge of the group, looking between and among people, trying to find fucking Plum.

      “What’s the big deal?” this dude Argos asked.

      “Plum’s sniffin’ after my girl, is what’s the what.”

      “Who’s your girl?”

      “Channah.”

      “Channah?”

      “Did I fucking stutter?”

      “No.”

      “Yeah,” I said. “Channah. I saw Plum talking to her. Wait … where the fuck did she go …”

      “I think she’s down by the lake with Trix,” Argos said. He’s being friendly, and I could feel it.

      “All right,” I said. “That’s good. I’ll go down there when I’m done.”

      I tried to bat the chems from my eyes and shake them from my limbs. No luck.

      “I thought you were with Wendy,” Argos said.

      “It’s complicated.”

      “Hey, why don’t you sit down for a minute and rest. You’re looking kind of cooked.”

      “Fuck off.”

      Argos withdrew the hand he’d extended and sipped his drink.

      “Where’s my fucking gun?” I asked.

      “Wait, you have a gun?” Argos asked. “Here?”

      “Well, yeah. In my car. Wherever in fuck I parked it …”

      “Hey, they’re sayin’ they have a gun …” Argos shouted to the group.

      I saw Tijn was