Friends and lagomorphs

“You called her a bitch? That was fucking dumb.”

Stranded at the Cheesecake parking lot I called Hank to pick me up. We now sat in the car, me weaving the tale and him critiquing it.

“It’s just been building up I guess.” I was pinching and massaging the bridge of my nose trying to undo the headache that was breaking ground in my skull.

Hank silently drove on.

“Just all this shit with her family and mine plus the money.” I trailed off.

Hank grinned knowingly and switched hands on the wheel.

“You can blow me.”

He looked over at me with his grin smeared from ear to ear. “Ten minutes you’ve been in the car and you haven’t made one dumb ass joke.”

I rolled my eyes and stared out the window, “I get serious when I get stressed.”

“No amigo, you get serious when you deal with people you don’t like. I’ve said this shit to you before so we’ll see if it sticks this time.”

I watched a family pull up in a burgundy van beside us. The father wore a bristly moustache and seemed ready to leap screaming from his car. The children sat in the back of the van flailing limbs and glowing under the glow of the headrest video set. Their mouths hung open and I could just imagine the sounds they produced.

“Are you going to call her?”

That man looked like he wanted nothing to do with the world he lived in.

“Eventually.”

“Is her mom staying with her?”

The light turned green and the van sped away, the father must be desperate to get home.

“I don’t think so. Rebecca’s place isn’t very comforting for Lady Agatha. Not to mention she’d probably kill her mom before the night is out.” I knew she wouldn’t though.

“So what do you want to do now?” Hank’s voice carried mischief.

“Nothing that doesn’t include me sleeping for work tomorrow.”

We drove for a while in silence. Hank’s mystery offer sounded enticing after a botched dinner but I wasn’t interested in watching him talk to girls. I was in no mood to play wallflower to his social slut.

He dropped me off at my car just outside of Rebecca’s place. Before he pulled away he rolled down the window and gave me a serious look and commanding finger wag. “Don’t do anything else dumb tonight.”

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. My keys were already in my hands and jingling.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about Sid. Call me tomorrow after work, you could use company.”

“I’ve got Sam.”

“Yeah. Call me tomorrow.” With that he accelerated hard and disappeared around the corner the sound of his muffler echoed its loud hum for a minute more before also vanishing into the night.

I looked at my car and tossed the keys from hand to hand. My feet turned and took me instead to where I didn’t want to go.

Rebecca answered the door slowly. From the dim light of the hall I could see her eyes were bleary and red with the remainder of the evening written in them.

“What.” Her voice was like grating stones and her lips quivered. I must have just caught her in the middle of it.

“I wanted to apologize.”

Her strength slowly gathered. “Okay.” She stood there, her body remembering itself and straightening.

“I’m sorry.” This wasn’t what I had planned to say but it came out naturally.

“Me too.”

That response I had not expected. “Come again?”

Her jaw clenched and she said nothing.

“Anyways I wanted to see if you were alright.” My hands were alternating being inside my pockets and being against my hip. It felt like I was asking her out for the first time again.

“I’m fine.” I wondered why she had to be so strong and brutal with me and me alone but didn’t voice the question.

My feet rocked back and forth as my mind searched for something else to say or do. Kissing was out of the question, maybe a hug. Should I ask to come in, walk away. My hand wanted desperately to touch hers but kept its fidgety self at my side.

“Go home.” Her voice was so flat when she said it. The marks on her face from her tears were gone. She had willed them away. She wanted to will me away.

A moment passed where I just stood watching her, my hands and feet had stopped their anxious idling. She was a marvel to me and so frustrating. Words and phrases streamed before my eyes like a teleprompter but I didn’t find the voice to air them. I wanted to be a lot of things at that moment but all I could do was walk away.

The door clicked closed behind me and I didn’t break my retreat. Each step was surprisingly easier as though I’d walked away from what could have been a hard situation.

“A hard situation.” I muttered. Every hard situation I had faced before and yet each one that dealt with us I found myself either whimpering away with my tail between my legs or just throwing my hands up in defeat.

As I sat in my car, I allowed a moment of quiet to pass before starting the engine. The creaking of the night with its ambient noises was so peaceful. Cold air had taken refuge in the cab so I found myself shivering as I turned the key. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I considered not looking at it. Images of Rebecca sniffing while on the phone sent my hand into the pocket to retrieve the device.

“You’re a fucking idiot.” Was all that it said. The message was from Hank.

I banged my head once into the headrest and put the car into reverse. In the best Impersonation my car can do, I stormed out like I had seen Hank do minutes before.

* * * * *

I opened the door with a push, allowing it to swing slowly before tapping the wall. The air was warm inside and the noise of the bedroom fan tapping back and forth was audible from the front. Small thumps came from just inside. Sam was awake and looking for me.

Closing the door and doffing my shoes I walked over to Sam’s enclosure. She stood on her back legs and stared up at me. Her long ears hung down over her back like straight hair and her nose twitched furiously. Her white face watched me curious and expectantly.

There was a box nearby her cage where I hold all of her food and treats. I dug around for a piece of parsley and handed it to her. Tearing it from my grasp she hunched over and chewed furiously, devouring the long stem like a piece of spaghetti.

Sam is my Lop eared rabbit. I acquired her when I was in college while she was a kit, raised and trained her. The soft white and brown spotted fur that keeps her warm provides me with a place to rest my hand. Of course I do this at her insistence. She does love to be pet.

As she eats I open the door for the enclosure. Then I walk to the kitchen to get a glass of water before I collapse on my futon and think about the evening one more time before bed.

Sam finishes the parsley and sniffs the rim of the doorway. She hops our and shakes her body. Probably loosening up before scampering around my living room like a wild beast. The sight of her moving quickly along the rug conjures the scene at the restaurant.

With the glass of water in hand and the evening freshly restored to the fore of my mind I toss my body limply into the couch. The glass is cool so I press it to my temple. The headache that had begun surfacing before remained a constant, although dim, presence in my head.

Sam wheeled around the room before standing before the futon. Standing on her hind legs she gazed up at me. The gaze may be intended for my hand actually. With a pat to the cushion, she jumps up and sits beside me. My hand returns to my lap and my eyes close. If only I could will this headache away the way Rebecca probably could.

There’s a grunt as a head prods at my palm. Sam is attempting to draw some affection from me no doubt. Absently my hand strokes her slowly, grabbing the long ears on their way down her back. After several passes her body lowers.

I open my eyes to see her lying beside me, her head resting on the cushion, her back feet thrown out to the side. A smile curls from my lips.

Returning to my thoughts I go over the night in my head again. From the hostile meeting to the hide and go seek of the menus to the dinner itself. I try to hold the scenes of us three at the table in my mind’s eye. It’s difficult considering the overwhelming amount of distraction about to occur. I can hear Agatha’s words clear as day, the malice in them as she whispered loudly to Rebecca. With my keen sense of hindsight I can tell that she was goading me into a confrontation.

“It happens the same way each time.” I tell Sam, “She speaks through the serpents in her hair. She draws you, enrages you to look upon her. As your eyes meet hers you learn in that moment that she has you. And poof! Petrifaction.”

Sam’s ears tilt forward at poof.

“I just reacted too quickly this time, too harshly.”

Sam’s nose twitched slowly.

“Last time was about the same, minus bitch.” I took a deep breath before continuing to complain to my rabbit, “She pushed me into starting the fight then played victim and unleashed a flurry of verbal blows. Then Rebecca and I fought on the way home and saw each other the next day and apologized for rudeness and family.”

Sam began to lick the cushion sheet.

“Not this time. I may have crossed the line this time with that bitch thing. At least I think that’s what it was.” I thought about it for a moment, “But she’s called her mom a bitch before. In front of me once.” Another pensive second passed, “Maybe it’s because I did it? But that woman has eaten whole babies, sucking down the umbilical cord and slurping the placenta. It is the method she uses to stay so youthful looking. By absorbing their lack of age.”

I laughed at the visual of her consuming a child then noticed Sam beginning to chew the sheet. Pushing her bottom I made a hissing sound that sent her bouncing from the futon.