Careful with words

 

"Yeah, well..there is something I wanted to talk to you about," Tristan winced as he hugged himself in his favorite hoodie. Honestly, it was downright cold in Holden's garage. Why did they have to be out here. Holden really didn't need any help with the gas cap on his truck.

"What?" Holden looked at him as if he didn't want to listen to anything Tristan had to say.

"Um, I saw somebody a few weeks ago," Tristan didn't know if he should go on. "Magz. She was at the zoo."

"So." Holden sounded numb at the mention of Magz. 

"She's pregnant," Tristan told him. He kept calm. Watching how Holden might react. Maybe it was nothing or was it something? Obviously, Holden was not going to fold. He kept busy with whatever he was messing with. He just wouldn't stop the monotonous sound of slamming the cap shut and then popping it back open.

"Look, would you stop that?" Tristan stood up and noted Holden was going to break something. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

He didn't think Holden would ever cheat on Dora. Never. Not the way he'd been so passionate to find someone like her. It was like Dora was some kind of angel. And she'd saved him.

"Look, Magz and I are done." Holden turned to him as if to never mention that girl's name again. "I don't know who she's with."

Tristan nodded.

"Did you do something with her?" Holden swelled a frown.

"What? Are you kidding me?" Tristan winced hard. "I would never."

"Oh, she thought she had a chance with you." Holden nodded as if it was old news just ripened for this moment so they could disagree.

Tristan sighed. He shook his head, no. He then said she was too rich for his blood. "And then when I found out you were her-"

Tristan sighed. "I knew for sure I'd never think anything, but her being your girlfriend."

"I never really liked her," Holden said. "I only saw her because my Dad asked me to. Well, actually, it was my mother's doing. Before she passed."

"Like..like an arranged thing?" Tristan squinted. 

"I suppose." He sighed. "OK, I did try. I did. And well, we just kept getting into arguments. We just couldn't be nice to each other." He was quiet then. "It's not my kid. OK?"

"OK?" Tristan wiggled his lips to keep them straight. Maybe they were too much alike, Magz and Holden.

"I don't care if I disappointed my mom's parents. I really don't. Those kinds of old customs were just made to make you go mad. I want to believe my Dad loved my mom. But I hate to think how unhappy he'd been too. 

"So Dora and you have been talking?"

"Well, yeah, she makes me tell her stuff. She wants to know everything." Holden told Tristan.

Tristan smiled then. He could tell it took a lot out of his old friend to talk. He was the kind of kid who had always used his energy in sports. And sometimes, he just enjoyed a good fight to keep himself aligned. 

"Did you know he was having trouble sleeping?" Delia played with the tea bag in her tea while Dora went to get some cookie dip for the various cookies in the cupboard.

"Who? Tristan?" She looked at her as if that could mean trouble.

"No," Delia smiled. "Have you been listening to anything I've been saying? Eric and Derrick."

"Eric has problems sleeping?"

"Well, yeah, but its Derrick who's the problem. They can't even sleep together anymore." Delia didn't mean to spill Eric's secret but she'd heard an earful from him.

"Really?" Dora winced a smile as if how was that possible. "Don't they just have a one-bedroom apartment?" She sat the cookies in front of Delia but she knew she needed to be picky. She took a vanilla wafer and dipped it into the hazelnut chocolate dip.

"Well, Eric sleeps on the couch." Delia shrugged. 

"That can't be healthy, he's so tall." Of course, Dora used this moment of remembering Eric when he wasn't that tall, but suddenly, he was over six feet. Yes, he was a late bloomer, but a mid-west modeling agency signed him up for a fall fashion show.

They both smiled as if they knew that would happen. 

"Do  you think it bothers Derrick?"

"Well, Eric says he threshes around in bed. It was happening long before Eric started sleeping on the couch. According to Eric, Derrick has always been that way. He even hit him in the face once, but that didn't stop  him from sleeping with him." Delia shrugged. Somehow it felt better talking about somebody else's problems than her own. The surgery was coming up in a few days, and she knew it was nothing really, but still she'd never been in a hospital for surgery.

"Anyway, Eric did get him to go in and the doctor gave him something to help him sleep," Delia told her.

"Did it?" Dora's eyes were on Delia.

"Seems to have helped. The Melatonin wasn't," she sighed. "He's on an anti-depressant for a major depressive disorder. I didn't even know he was depressed."

They each took another cookie and dipped it into the chocolate goodness. It would be their secret. no more mention of Derrick's faults. They loved him and knew they needed to be his good friends. They would always fangirl over him.