Lies and Forgiveness

Theo was curled up on the couch in the basement, reading. She’d been sitting down here for a few hours, lost in her story, and was not expecting company. Mickey was at work. Still, she wasn’t startled at the sound of someone opening the basement door. She looked up calmly from her book at the sound of someone coming down the stairs. She saw the scuffed and graying leather of Spencer’s boots and looked back down at what she was reading, her expectation on who it was right. “Are you ever going to learn how to knock?” she asked him curiously.

“I did knock.” he told her as he came across the basement floor, pulling his coat off in the process. “You didn’t answer.”

“What if I hadn’t been home?” she asked him as he draped himself over the back of the couch and buried his face in the pillows.

“I’d have waited down here for you.” he mumbled. She smiled and set her book aside, and after a moment he slithered fully onto the couch and threw his legs over one arm. “Your best friend is fucking insane.” he told her, looking at her upside down. “Did you dye your hair?”

“Yes, she is, and yes I did.” Theo touched the tips of her dark purple hair self-consciously. “It makes me too pale.”

“No it doesn’t.” he said, and sat up. “It makes your eyes look more brown though.” he ran a hand through his own pale brown hair and sighed. “I wish you’d stop wearing it like that, though.”

“I like my braids.” she snapped at him. She always wore her hair in two French braided tails on either side of her head. Spencer had never once seen it down, not even if she’s just rolled out of bed. He‘d known her for almost two years. “What’d Chloe do?”

Spencer leaned back and took off his glasses. “I pissed her off this morning when I took her out to breakfast.” he said, and polished his glasses as Theo tucked a cigarette between her lips and searched for a lighter. He slipped his glasses on and helped her dig under the couch cushions until he came up with a plastic disposable lighter. He wasn’t surprised that it was purple. He lit her cigarette and said, “Apparently, I’m not romantic enough.”

Theo snorted and blew smoke towards the ceiling. “Honey, you could pull a John Cusack in Say Anything… and she wouldn’t think you were romantic enough. I keep telling you this. Her expectations are unreachable unless you plan on throwing your entire life away.” Spencer looked miserable at this, and she leaned over and patted his shoulder. “I know you really care about her, but you’re going to have to get used to the idea that she’s always going to be upset about something. It’s just the way she is.”

“I don’t get it.” Spencer told her. “You and Mickey are doing okay.”

Theo rolled her eyes. “By okay, you mean I’ve learned to act like he doesn’t exist until he feels it necessary to spend time with me?” she asked, lifting one thin, heavily arched eyebrow. “Yes, we’re doing just fine. I have a part time boyfriend who cares about his computer more than me.”

Spencer leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Still, at least you two don’t fight all the time, like Chloe and me.”

“We don’t talk to each other.” Theo reminded him. “I barely see him, and we live in the same house.”

“But he lets you live your life. Sometimes I feel like Chloe’s my mother part two.” Theo nodded her head, and Spencer sighed again. “You know, she gets really upset when I come over here.”

“Why?” Theo asked, scowling. “You and Mickey are best friends.”

“Yea, but she knows I spend more time with you here.” he pointed out, and Theo shook her head. “She thinks we’re sleeping together, probably.”

“She knows better than that.” Theo told him. “I’m her best friend, and you have better taste.”

Spencer glared at her. “You know, one of these days I’m going to slap you around for those comments you make.”

“What comments?” she asked, tapping cigarette ash into the tray on the table beside the couch.

“Those things you say, about the way you look.” Spencer said. “They piss me off. You aren’t ugly.”

“Yes, I am.” she told him. “It’s just the way of things. I don’t say them to fish for compliments, or to get you to say that I’m not. It’s just how it is. I’m realistic.”

“You’re stupid.” he shot at her, and she punched him in the shoulder. “Really, I hate when you say stuff like that.”

She sighed and looked away. “Okay.” she muttered, and he wanted to smack her. He knew she was just dropping the subject because she was getting upset. He decided to let it go.

In truth, Spencer sometimes thought that Theo could be beautiful. Where Chloe was always well dressed, her hair perfect, her make up flawless, Theo didn’t care about those things. She liked comfortable clothes instead of the fashionable things Chloe liked. Where Chloe was long and thin, Theo was shirt and curvy. She had a tiny waist but big hips and chest, and her skin was icy pale in contrast With Chloe’s healthy pink glow. Theo’s face was all sharp angles and lines, her nose just slightly too big, her mouth full but narrow. She had huge hazel eyes and hair that was always some strange unnatural color. Both Theo and Chloe liked their body modification; Chloe tended towards piercings, where Theo had lots of tattoos.

Spencer knew they’d been best friend since they were kids, just like Mickey had been his best friend. Lately, though, Spencer found himself annoyed with Mickey’s inability to treat Theo like a priority, and spent more time with the girl than with his friend. They had a lot in common, he and Theo, although in a lot of ways they were complete opposites. They both loved video games and horror movies, their favorite foods tended to be exactly the same, and they both preferred a book and a quiet place over anything else. Theo was mistrusting and skeptical by nature, where Spencer always tried to see the best in people. Theo was full of fears and hang ups that kept her from doing much with her life, where Spencer tried to live as much as he could. Still, he loved spending time with her. She rarely judged him, and always listened, even when he didn’t know he was saying anything important. She was perceptive, and tried to be helpful, especially when it came to Chloe, even if her help was merely informing him of the truth about his girlfriend.

Theo was glaring at the bookcase across the room inside of looking at him, and the silence was getting on his nerves. “What’re you reading?” he asked her, hoping to bring her out of the mood she’d gotten into. She was quick to slip into these depressed ruts, and she was almost impossible to be around during those times.

“A Martin novel.” she said vaguely, and gestured at where her book was on the floor.

“Is it good?”

She shrugged one shoulder.

“Damn it, Theo, knock it off.” he snapped at her, and she turned her head to glare at him. “Why is it that every time someone tells you something you don’t want to hear, you get all bent out of shape and shut down?”

She shook her head. “I just don’t like being lied to, Spence. You know that.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t lie.” he wanted to shake her. “You aren’t ugly, and no matter how many times you tell yourself you are, you aren’t. So just stop.”

“Whatever.” she curled her legs under her and shoved one of her tails back over her shoulder. He knew that one of the things she was most touchy about was her appearance, but sometimes it got to him, how down on herself she was. It didn’t come up often, and the way she had reacted to it this time made him wonder if she was itching for a fight today. She got like that sometimes.

“Is everything okay?” he asked her, and put a hand on her calf. She flinched away from him, and he knew right then that something was wrong. She didn’t like to be touched, but over the last few months she’d warmed up to Spencer and usually had no problems with the fact that he tended to be a physical sort of person. He watched her shift away from him, and became concerned. “Theo, what happened?”

She sighed and covered her eyes with one hand. “Nothing. I’m fine.” she told him, and he scowled at the lie. She looked at him through her fingers and sighed again. “Really, Spencer, I’m okay, don’t worry about it. You came here to talk about Chloe.”

“But you’re upset.”

“I’m just fine.” she said again. “Really. I promise.”

He studied her carefully. “No.” he said finally, and she threw her hands in the air in a defeated gesture. “What happened?”

She didn’t answer for a moment. After a pause, she said, “Mickey and I got into a big fight this morning.” she smirked at him. “Seems like every time you fight with Chloe, I fight with Mickey.”

“Yea, we’re in sync that way.” he tilted his head to one side and considered her again. “Tell me what happened.”

She shrugged. “I got hair dye on the floor in the bathroom.” she said. “And I thought I’d got it all, but I apparently missed a tiny spot. I’m talking the size of a flea. He threw a fit about it. We just redid the bathroom upstairs, you know.” she chewed at her bottom lip for a moment before continuing. “Somehow the fight escalated into a huge thing about money.”

Spencer shook his head. Theo and Mickey argued about money constantly. Mickey worked a lot. Sometimes sixty, seventy hours a week. Theo’s job paid more, she worked less, and from home. Mickey was bitter about it, and anything that could even remotely lead to money usually did with them.

“He called me a selfish bitch.” she said softly, and Spencer looked at her, startled. “He’s never called me a bitch before.” she shrugged. “I guess it’s not too big of a deal, it’s just a word, but-”

“But nothing.” Spencer jumped in. “Name calling is childish and petty, for one, and two, calling you that is really disrespectful.”

She nodded, then shrugged again. “I’ll get over it.” she told him. They sat in silence for a while, and then she asked, “Now, tell me what happened with Chloe this morning.”

He thought for a moment on how to explain what happened. Theo leaned back and stretched out her legs over his lap, and he traced the lines of the tattoo on her shin with the tip of one finger. It was an amazingly lifelike tattoo, a hawk in mid-dive. It was done all in shades of gray, except its eyes, beak, and tongue. “Chloe made some comment about her birthday, and I asked her what I should buy her.” he said, and Theo hissed through her teeth.

“Say no more.” she said, and laughed. “Man, you walked right into that one, didn’t you?” she rolled her eyes, and when she spoke again, her voice was almost a perfect mimic of Chloe’s. “I shouldn’t have to tell you. You should just know what’s the best gift for me. We should know each other well enough by now. There‘s nothing romantic about having to tell you what to get me, I might as well just buy it myself. You need to be more spontaneous. You need to be more in tune with me, Spencer.”

Spencer smirked. It always creeped him out a little that she could do that, especially the way she said his name in exactly the same tone that Chloe did when she was upset with him. “Pretty much.”

“I know.”

“Funny part is, she had no idea what to get me for my birthday. She bought me a fucking gift card.”

“To a store you don’t like.” Theo reminded him, and they both snickered. “Listen, you want my advice? Buy her those hand painted high tops she wants so much. Get her that and some roses, preferably a weird color, just not the peach ones. Make it an off number, like how many months you’ve been together or something, instead of a dozen. Wake her up with the gift on her birthday, and then spend the entire day letting her drag you around town spending the huge stack of cash her father is no doubt going to drop into her lap. Smile a lot, and compliment the stupidest things she does all day. You’ll be good for at least a week.”

He nodded slowly, then sighed. “I wish she wasn’t so much work sometimes. This is her birthday so she‘s got expectations, and I know it‘s not that big of a deal that she got mad about me not knowing what she wanted, but…” he trailed off, unable to express how he felt.

“I know what you mean.” Theo said. She paused, and then asked, “Is she worth it?”

“What?” he stared at her. “You’re asking me if your best friend is worth the trouble? Isn’t that against some girl code?”

Theo rolled her eyes. “Please. According to Chloe, the fact that you’re touching me is against the girl code. Which is bullshit, in my eyes. Furthermore, I’m a realist, remember. Just because she’s my best friend doesn’t mean I gloss over who and what she is. I know her. She’s a pain in the ass, and she’s way more work than I’d be willing to put into a relationship. Answer my question.”

Spencer thought about it. He thought long and hard about what Theo had asked. When Theo realized he was taking the question seriously, she picked up her book and started reading. She’d gotten twenty pages before Spencer answered her.

“I don’t know anymore.”

They looked at each other for a long time. Finally, Theo leaned forward and kissed the tip of Spencer’s nose, startling the hell out of him. “Then you and me, we’re in the same boat.” she told him.

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Just the introduction of the two direct main characters. next chapter is already almost finished, so hopefully that will be posted ASAP.

Don't worry, smutty goodness coming up quick, and in the next chapter, the other two characters both show up. So let me know what you think of these two so far, because reviews are both epic and cherished, even if they aren't nice.

And no, I don't have a beta, so yes, there's going to be errors.