As I made my way over to the punch table I kept a watchful eye out for Bertha, BB, and Fish while also doing my best to block out the visions of that dude getting blown by that littler dude. I didn’t find my friends right away, however when I reached the punch bowl I did find someone else I knew. And thank God I saw him too because the sight of him had wiped that whole vial sex scene from my mind for the time being.
“Larry?!” I gasped when I saw him sitting beside the punch table in a wheelchair with his leg all done up in a huge cast that went way up his hip. A white tube sock had been stretched over the end of the cast to keep his little pink toes from getting cold.
“ALVIN!” he shouted loud enough for me to hear him over the blaring music.
“I-I didn’t think you would be here. I mean, I thought you would still be in the hospital or at least home in bed.” I said as I pushed past a lot of people to get closer to him.
“Nah,” he said with a wide, genuine smile, “they sent me home yesterday evening and there was no way I was missing this.”
You know, I don’t know why I recognized him because he didn’t look anything like himself. He looked really happy and was wearing a nice crisp white shirt with a smart looking black neck tie. Larry didn’t seem the type to own a tie let alone wear one. Come to think of it, the tie was probably his fathers. He was also wearing a pair of black sweat pants with the one leg cut off to accommodate his bulky cast. His normally slicked back hair had been parted on one side and neatly combed into the typical boy-next-door fashion. And if you overlooked the raccoon eyes and the swelling of the bridge of his nose, his face seemed sweet, almost innocent.
“Listen, I never got a chance to apologize.” I said trying to talk over the band.
He screwed up his face; I mean more so than it already was, “What the heck are you talking about?”
“Your leg! And…” I started to say, but he reached out and took hold of my shirt like he was about to pull me down so that he could punch me in the face.
“Listen! I am the one that was a jerk, not you!” he said sternly.
I was less than 6-inches from his face so I could see clearly that his eyes had become watery and his one good eye was twitching.
He stuck his fist right in my face as he continued, “You could have left me in the park and if things had been switched I probably would have left you.”
It seemed that Larry had more to say, but it was apparent that he was having a difficult time keeping his emotions under control. He released my shirt and patted at his still somewhat swollen eye with the back of his hand.
Have you ever heard of the saying, ‘Open mouth, engage brain’? It means you start talking before you think about what you are saying. That is exactly what I did. I opened my mouth and words began to fall out of it without any thought whatsoever.
“Listen, I think I have figured out something.” I paused long enough to swallow and drum up a little more courage to say what I felt needed to be said. “You like Bertha. Don’t you?”
Larry’s one good eye flew open while the other strained and twitched.
“And by ‘like’ I mean, like-like.” I said making my stitches dance by wiggling my eyebrows at him.
He violently shook his head from side to side. Amazingly, his neatly combed hair didn’t so-much-as budge. He must have used half-a-bottle of hair jell to achieve that kind of holding power.
“No way man, she’s yours now.” He said holding up both hands as though I were robbing him.
“No she’s not!” I shook my head too, but not as forcefully as he had. “She’s the one that asked me to this stupid dance! Don’t even for a second think that this was my idea!”
Larry puffed himself up and tried to sound tough as he said “Listen! I’m not going to stand in the way of you two!”, but I was able to see right through his tough guy act.
I then asked him point blank, “Do you or don’t you really like-like her?”, but he didn’t have to answer; I could see it in his eyes. Larry didn’t just like-like Bertha; he was and still is hopelessly and irrevocably in love with her, body and soul.
“You’re going to take her back and make her your girlfriend or,” it was my turn to try to act tough even though we both knew it was just that… an act, “I’m going to give you another black eye!”
Larry leaned back in his wheelchair and chuckled amusingly, “Uh, I think I’ll pass on the black eye,” he pointed at his eyes, “I already got two, but thanks for offering just the same.”
The mood seemed to get really weird for a few seconds as the band switched from a loud rock and roll song to a slower, quieter, and kind of sappy song.
Larry diverted his gaze downward and to save him from the embarrassment of being seen so vulnerable, I stuck my good hand right under his nose and said, “Tell you what; let’s forget the fight ever happened and be friends again,” and in the same breath I added, “and Bertha is all yours. I’ll even try to help you win her back.” And as soon as I said that I thought to myself, ‘Lord knows how I am going to accomplish that!’
Boy, Larry was almost glowing when he shook my hand. Well, he didn’t exactly shake it, he did some kind of weird gang style handshake where he grabbed, pulled and clutched my hand different ways before ended it with our fists knocking together.
“Deal!” he finally said.
“Good, now get up out of that chair and let’s go have some fun!” I said trying to look serious.
Larry’s face went blank, “Ha-Ha. That was so funny.” he said tritely, “Oh stop. Please don’t make me laugh. Ho-Ho-Ha-Ha.”
I laughed a little as I said, “Just kidding man; but at least let me push you around a while. We can go find the others. We can even go check out the band; they sound pretty good.”
“Nah, I’m good right here. Besides, I’ve already seen them like a million times. My twin brother is the drummer.” I looked toward the band, but we were too far away and the crowd was too thick to see any of the band members.
Larry continued, “They practice in our garage all the time.”
“Wow you have a twin?” I asked, unable to keep my voice from squeaking.
“We’re not identical.” He said.