Somebody You Know
In which there is gossip and Nick runs into someone he doesn’t know.
Ian and John wave and keep walking up the street, discussing John’s upcoming show. Ian had decided to photograph it. Travis follows Nick into the ATM booth for no reason at all.
“Did you call Victoria back?” Travis asks. He’d left a message on Nick’s door that afternoon before leaving for the Engine Room.
“Yeah,” Nick replies, punching buttons on the ATM. “I told her I was gonna’ hang out with you guys.”
Travis smiles. “What’d she say?”
Turning around for a moment while the machine processes his transaction, Nick imitates Vicky in a huff. “Fine. I didn’t want to go out tonight anyway.”
“Sure she didn’t,” Travis replies sarcastically.
Nick gets his money, his receipt and card out of the machine. “Have you seen Cordova in a while?”
“Jason?” Travis asks. “Yeah. I run into him on North Campus now and then.”
The pair headed out of the ATM booth. “Vicky keeps talkin’ about him.”
“To you?”
“Yeah. She’s just trying to get sympathy.”
“You know, the more I talk to him, the less I sympathize with her.”
“Really?”
“He’s a pretty genuine guy, and she made him out to be such an asshole. I think maybe she was making up some of the things she said happened between them.”
“Maybe.”
“Did you ever hang out with them when they were dating?”
“No.”
“Damn. If he even talked to another girl, she’d get all upset. Even if he wasn’t flirting with them or anything. I don’t know how he put up with it.”
“Well, he is a playa.”
“Nuh-uh, girl.”
“I’m say-in.”
“Mm-mm.”
“He’s a flirt. But I certainly can’t hold that against him.”
“Nope.”
“That’s why I always liked Meryl,” Travis continues as he opens the door to Mean Mike’s for Nick. They both enter and nod to the bouncer. Being regulars, they never got carded anymore. Raising his voice over the crowd and the music, Travis continues, “She always took it as an indirect compliment if a girl flirted with me.”
Looking around for John and Ian, Dizzy and Kristin, Nick replies, “Yeah. Karen was the same way.”
“Meryl always knew I was going home with her,” Travis says.
Making their way through the crowd to the back stairs, Nick stops to shake hands with a curly-haired fellow. “What’s goin’ on, man?” he asks.
“Not much,” the fellow replies. “Thursday night, you know?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Nick agrees moving on through the crowd.
When they got a few feet away, Travis inquires, “Somebody you know?”
Shrugging, “Apparently.”
Travis laughs and they keep moving through the crowd.
Read the whole thread: Unthreaded
