The Green Dress
He had noticed his friend´s appearance changing at their weekly bar get togethers, was he getting skinnier? He was definitely growing out his hair. For a few weeks he kept mum, but this time he was wearing two hoop earrings
“Dude” He measured his words, his friend had always been on the sensitive side
“What's going on with this?" he moved his right hand gesticulating at him "Are you planning on becoming a pirate?”
His friend started laughing at first and then he broke down crying.
It came as a shock to him at first, his best friend had always been manly, almost to the point of being a caricature, He drank too much, cursed too much, and was always looking for trouble. A few bar fights and a few nights in jail were one of his memories of their early twenties. They studied together in college and had started a band which had ended due to "creative differences". It had always seemed that his friend had something to prove and couldn't relax. They both had gotten married about the same time, they both had kids around the same age. He had divorced two years ago and this explained why his friend was going through a bitter divorce. In fact this explained most everything about his friend.
He grabbed his friend by the neck and bumped their foreheads together, like they had always done when they were drunk.
“Stop crying."
"Look at me.” He took a deep breath
“I accept you in whatever you want to do or whoever you want to be”.
As the night progressed, some things started to clear up and he had gained valuable knowledge about his friend. He would be reffering to him as “her/she”, and although he was a woman, she still was attracted to other women.
"So you're a lesbian?" his friend nodded. Afterwards they had ordered some celebratory shots and a thought crept into his mind
"You want to come to my Father's fourth wedding?" he was laughing "Dude, you and me, it'll be awesome, and people will avoid asking me about my ex"
She looked flustered and mumbled “I'm not a dude”
"Come on woman, It'll be great. We'll get drunk on champagne and hook up with some girls!"
"We'll see"
For some unknown reason, the weekly bar meetings had become monthly, and after a while he realized he hadn't even spoken to her in a month. Obviously he hadn't meant to, but life is life and a new project with his father had kept him busy.
He texted her and started a conversation. The news had left him worried for her. She had become unemployed and it seemed all the doors had been closed to her in her profession. She was now working in a call center, and even though this meant a huge paycut, she insisted she was happy living her life.
Afterwards he checked out her profile on facebook. There were pics of her going out with what he inferred were new friends. He also noticed that his friend looked really feminine in the newest pics. If he hadn't known her most of their adult life, he would have no idea that this person on the screen was his best friend in college. Maybe she was happy
After that text conversation, more time had passed and he had lost all communications with her, he occasionally checked her facebook page, but as time passed there were fewer posts, until there were none.
He decided to text her, using the upcoming wedding as an excuse.
“suit or dress?"
“l o l"
“it's up to you buddy, I support you either way”.
He had texted her a few times afterwards, but she hadn't replied. Everybody’s life was busy, he reasoned.
He texted her again after he noticed that the wedding was that weekend. He needed his drinking buddy with him on this fourth magnificent even in the life of his father.
No answer
He decided to call her up to remind her. “Hey, just a quick call to remind you the wedding is this weekend”
“suit or dress?”
“Surprise me. I´ll pick you up at 3, I want to start early so I can deal with all these new people in my life”
He heard her take a deep breath
"Saturday at 3, it's a date"
That Saturday, on the way to his friend's house he took out the old cd that they had recorded and listened to it on the way there to get in a good mood. It brought a smile to his face. He called his friend but there wasn't an answer.
He texted her “I hope you´re not one of those girls who ´s always late because of the salon” No reply.
He parked and rang the doorbell. His friend opened. She looked nothing like her last pics, she had black circles under her eyes ad her makeup was ruined from cryng. She looked really bloated some 20 pounds since he last saw her, she now had short hair, and she was wearing those hoop earrings.
She had a green dress on and some combat boots. There were clumps of hair on the floor, her hair.
“Aaaaaah dude! I think this new look looks better with a suit”
"I' not a dude"
Tears started flowing from her eyes. She sobbed as she told him how some person on the internet, someone she didn't know, had taken her photos and quotes from her Facebook page, created a dossier, and started mailing it to everyone she knew, parents, friends, friends of friends but worse of all, his ex, and her ex´s family, parents, aunts and cousins. She told him how she couldn't get a job because all the employment agencies had her blacklisted as a " Lazy faggot".
Her ex had had threatened her that morning that if she continued looking and acting like a "fucking queer" she would be taking out a restraining order against her, ending the non legally enforced joint custody of their child they had enjoyed . That explained her new hairdo
He listened to his friend, but he was a practical man. He worried about making it to the wedding. he coudn't leave his friend. not like this.
“Here's what we´re going to do, you´re going to take that dress off, get a suit on, we´ll have some drinks at the wedding and maybe we´ll hook up with some girls there”
“ I don't have a suit, they´re all at my ex's house” his friend paused "take me there, please”
He closed his eyes and sighed “You know, I don't think it's a good idea."
“i´m ok, let me wash my face, I clean myself up. Five minutes. I get my suit, I change myself in the car on the way to the wedding”
“Fuck” he thought to himself. He stared at his friend seriously. “Ok this has got to be done and over in half an hour tops”
In the car he played the old cd “Remember that concert we had in the beach?" "Remember those girls that lied their way into our rooms for a surprise afterparty?”
His friend´s eyes were lost in the horizon, it seems that she had forced herself to smile.
When they parked at her ex's house she turned and told him “Ok, I´m going in and I´m getting the suit, you just wait here” His friend had opened and closed the car door mid-sentence and was inside the house before he could process what she said.
He entered the house behind her. The house was being renovated, plastic over the furniture, fresh paint and a new dining room.
There was some shouting upstairs. He frowned, rubbed his nose,and then walked up the stairs to see what was going on. He was in the corridor that lead to the master bedroom.
By the sound of it, she was in the bedroom with her ex “How could you give them to charity?”. Her ex replied “look at yourself, you´re a mess, what the fuck is wrong with you?” she continued “you did this to us, you left us, you became this queer faggot that I can't even describe to our child , how was I supposed to know you wanted your male clothing? His friend didn't reply and her ex continued ”Look at all your pics looking ike a woman” they were both sobbing, he moved to go into the room to try to calm down the situation when he heard a third voice, a man´s voice. “look dude, you need to calm the fuck down, You're acting like a crazy person and I'm calling the police if you don't get the fuck out”
“I told you we needed the locks changed ”.
He hurried to the master bedroom when all of a sudden the man flew out of the room and his friend started pounding his face in the corridor.
“Stop this you maniac, haven't you done enough harm to what's left of this family?”.
He tried to pull his friend off but somehow an elbow landed on his forehead and he stumbled backwards. He remembered that his friend lost his mind whenever he fought and it was extremely difficult to get her to stop. The ex was crying, he was shouting and his friend and the man were now struggling on the floor.
In the midst of this chaos, a small voice shouted at the top of her lungs piercing the chaotic scene.
“DADDY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
Everyone stopped and immediately stared at the little girl with tears in her eyes.
He seized the opportunity and pulled his friend by the collar. “We leave NOW”
“You son of a bitch, can you see what a fucking lunatic you are? Can you see how you destroyed our family?”
The man stood up coughing up blood as his nose was bleeding, the ex hugged him.
"Get him the fuck out of here before I call the police!"
He hauled his friend out the house while the little girl just looked on.
"I'm so sorry, baby, daddy loves you” she said to the little girl as if in a trance.
They got in the car. His friend grabbed his face and started sobbing.
There was uncomfortable silence in the car as they drove, so he turned on the radio. His friend grabbed his wrist. “I think I´m going to have to use the green dress”
“Dude, what you need is a fucking pirate ship”
"I'm not a dude" she said as she laughed, and then she started to cry.
“Dude” He measured his words, his friend had always been on the sensitive side
“What's going on with this?" he moved his right hand gesticulating at him "Are you planning on becoming a pirate?”
His friend started laughing at first and then he broke down crying.
It came as a shock to him at first, his best friend had always been manly, almost to the point of being a caricature, He drank too much, cursed too much, and was always looking for trouble. A few bar fights and a few nights in jail were one of his memories of their early twenties. They studied together in college and had started a band which had ended due to "creative differences". It had always seemed that his friend had something to prove and couldn't relax. They both had gotten married about the same time, they both had kids around the same age. He had divorced two years ago and this explained why his friend was going through a bitter divorce. In fact this explained most everything about his friend.
He grabbed his friend by the neck and bumped their foreheads together, like they had always done when they were drunk.
“Stop crying."
"Look at me.” He took a deep breath
“I accept you in whatever you want to do or whoever you want to be”.
As the night progressed, some things started to clear up and he had gained valuable knowledge about his friend. He would be reffering to him as “her/she”, and although he was a woman, she still was attracted to other women.
"So you're a lesbian?" his friend nodded. Afterwards they had ordered some celebratory shots and a thought crept into his mind
"You want to come to my Father's fourth wedding?" he was laughing "Dude, you and me, it'll be awesome, and people will avoid asking me about my ex"
She looked flustered and mumbled “I'm not a dude”
"Come on woman, It'll be great. We'll get drunk on champagne and hook up with some girls!"
"We'll see"
For some unknown reason, the weekly bar meetings had become monthly, and after a while he realized he hadn't even spoken to her in a month. Obviously he hadn't meant to, but life is life and a new project with his father had kept him busy.
He texted her and started a conversation. The news had left him worried for her. She had become unemployed and it seemed all the doors had been closed to her in her profession. She was now working in a call center, and even though this meant a huge paycut, she insisted she was happy living her life.
Afterwards he checked out her profile on facebook. There were pics of her going out with what he inferred were new friends. He also noticed that his friend looked really feminine in the newest pics. If he hadn't known her most of their adult life, he would have no idea that this person on the screen was his best friend in college. Maybe she was happy
After that text conversation, more time had passed and he had lost all communications with her, he occasionally checked her facebook page, but as time passed there were fewer posts, until there were none.
He decided to text her, using the upcoming wedding as an excuse.
“suit or dress?"
“l o l"
“it's up to you buddy, I support you either way”.
He had texted her a few times afterwards, but she hadn't replied. Everybody’s life was busy, he reasoned.
He texted her again after he noticed that the wedding was that weekend. He needed his drinking buddy with him on this fourth magnificent even in the life of his father.
No answer
He decided to call her up to remind her. “Hey, just a quick call to remind you the wedding is this weekend”
“suit or dress?”
“Surprise me. I´ll pick you up at 3, I want to start early so I can deal with all these new people in my life”
He heard her take a deep breath
"Saturday at 3, it's a date"
That Saturday, on the way to his friend's house he took out the old cd that they had recorded and listened to it on the way there to get in a good mood. It brought a smile to his face. He called his friend but there wasn't an answer.
He texted her “I hope you´re not one of those girls who ´s always late because of the salon” No reply.
He parked and rang the doorbell. His friend opened. She looked nothing like her last pics, she had black circles under her eyes ad her makeup was ruined from cryng. She looked really bloated some 20 pounds since he last saw her, she now had short hair, and she was wearing those hoop earrings.
She had a green dress on and some combat boots. There were clumps of hair on the floor, her hair.
“Aaaaaah dude! I think this new look looks better with a suit”
"I' not a dude"
Tears started flowing from her eyes. She sobbed as she told him how some person on the internet, someone she didn't know, had taken her photos and quotes from her Facebook page, created a dossier, and started mailing it to everyone she knew, parents, friends, friends of friends but worse of all, his ex, and her ex´s family, parents, aunts and cousins. She told him how she couldn't get a job because all the employment agencies had her blacklisted as a " Lazy faggot".
Her ex had had threatened her that morning that if she continued looking and acting like a "fucking queer" she would be taking out a restraining order against her, ending the non legally enforced joint custody of their child they had enjoyed . That explained her new hairdo
He listened to his friend, but he was a practical man. He worried about making it to the wedding. he coudn't leave his friend. not like this.
“Here's what we´re going to do, you´re going to take that dress off, get a suit on, we´ll have some drinks at the wedding and maybe we´ll hook up with some girls there”
“ I don't have a suit, they´re all at my ex's house” his friend paused "take me there, please”
He closed his eyes and sighed “You know, I don't think it's a good idea."
“i´m ok, let me wash my face, I clean myself up. Five minutes. I get my suit, I change myself in the car on the way to the wedding”
“Fuck” he thought to himself. He stared at his friend seriously. “Ok this has got to be done and over in half an hour tops”
In the car he played the old cd “Remember that concert we had in the beach?" "Remember those girls that lied their way into our rooms for a surprise afterparty?”
His friend´s eyes were lost in the horizon, it seems that she had forced herself to smile.
When they parked at her ex's house she turned and told him “Ok, I´m going in and I´m getting the suit, you just wait here” His friend had opened and closed the car door mid-sentence and was inside the house before he could process what she said.
He entered the house behind her. The house was being renovated, plastic over the furniture, fresh paint and a new dining room.
There was some shouting upstairs. He frowned, rubbed his nose,and then walked up the stairs to see what was going on. He was in the corridor that lead to the master bedroom.
By the sound of it, she was in the bedroom with her ex “How could you give them to charity?”. Her ex replied “look at yourself, you´re a mess, what the fuck is wrong with you?” she continued “you did this to us, you left us, you became this queer faggot that I can't even describe to our child , how was I supposed to know you wanted your male clothing? His friend didn't reply and her ex continued ”Look at all your pics looking ike a woman” they were both sobbing, he moved to go into the room to try to calm down the situation when he heard a third voice, a man´s voice. “look dude, you need to calm the fuck down, You're acting like a crazy person and I'm calling the police if you don't get the fuck out”
“I told you we needed the locks changed ”.
He hurried to the master bedroom when all of a sudden the man flew out of the room and his friend started pounding his face in the corridor.
“Stop this you maniac, haven't you done enough harm to what's left of this family?”.
He tried to pull his friend off but somehow an elbow landed on his forehead and he stumbled backwards. He remembered that his friend lost his mind whenever he fought and it was extremely difficult to get her to stop. The ex was crying, he was shouting and his friend and the man were now struggling on the floor.
In the midst of this chaos, a small voice shouted at the top of her lungs piercing the chaotic scene.
“DADDY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
Everyone stopped and immediately stared at the little girl with tears in her eyes.
He seized the opportunity and pulled his friend by the collar. “We leave NOW”
“You son of a bitch, can you see what a fucking lunatic you are? Can you see how you destroyed our family?”
The man stood up coughing up blood as his nose was bleeding, the ex hugged him.
"Get him the fuck out of here before I call the police!"
He hauled his friend out the house while the little girl just looked on.
"I'm so sorry, baby, daddy loves you” she said to the little girl as if in a trance.
They got in the car. His friend grabbed his face and started sobbing.
There was uncomfortable silence in the car as they drove, so he turned on the radio. His friend grabbed his wrist. “I think I´m going to have to use the green dress”
“Dude, what you need is a fucking pirate ship”
"I'm not a dude" she said as she laughed, and then she started to cry.
Oof. Too real. <3
ReplyDeleteLulu