Carl

My phone rang and I groaned because I’d forgotten to turn it off. It was on the dash and Melanie got to it before I did.

“Looks like it’s your girlfriend calling.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Bianca.”

“We broke up.”

“Then why is she calling?”

It was a simple question and I still didn’t know the answer to it because I didn’t want to talk to her. Melanie answered the phone and put it to my ear. I had to take it.

“Bianca?”

“Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get ahold of you?”

“For a while from the amount of missed calls that I’ve gotten. What’s up?”

“I need to talk to you.”

We’d taken too much time getting Melanie’s mind off of things and now I didn’t know if we were even going to make it for the funeral. We had to get to the reception on time. I was going to have to explain why were late and I was coming up with nothing. The last thing that I needed was to have a conversation with Bianca. I didn’t want to talk about ‘us’ anymore because I’d moved on.

“I don’t think that we have anything else to talk about Bianca. I wish you would stop calling me.”

“So it’s like that huh?”

She was mad, I knew she would be, but I didn’t like the way she was saying it.

“I’m going to a funeral Bianca. I’m really not in the mood for this right now. I just want to go in peace.”

“You can’t just ignore me forever Carl. What I’ve to say is very important.”

I’m sure to her it was important, but I wasn’t as convinced about myself thinking the same thing. I’d like Bianca when things weren’t complicated, but now she was pushing and I wondered if this was the true side of her all along.

“I’m sure you think it is Bianca, but I’ve got to go. Please stop calling me. I’m turning my phone off now because I know you’re not going to listen.”

I hung up and she was still talking. The phone started to ring almost immediately and I had to make good on my promise and actually shut the phone off so I could get some peace and quiet for once.

“So, that was interesting.”

“Not really. We broke up and she wants to get back together. I guess she thinks she can pester me into it, but it just makes me want to not even be friends with her.”

Melanie told me that she was okay with it and would rather we weren’t friends at all. “It’s just not natural Carl and I would rather the two of you didn’t speak at all.”

Her jealousy surprised me. It hadn’t taken long for that to come out and I have to say that I liked her having the feeling because the same one had plagued me from the beginning. I didn’t want to think about Melanie with anyone else.

“Dad said that you promised to take care of me.”

That was out of the blue and a reminder of where we were going. It certainly straightened out the smile that was on my face.

“I did.”

“In what way?”

She was being serious now; I could hear it in her tone.

“In all ways. He seems to know about us, as well as your mother. All that’s left is Scott, but today is not the day for that.”

“I don’t want to keep it a secret much longer.”

I agreed, but that worried me some. I knew that she was getting antsy to make it all official, but that still wasn’t the best idea that she’d ever had. She seemed to underestimate how upset her brother was going to be. I knew him well and I knew that he was going to be pissed and betrayed. It wasn’t a confrontation that I was looking forward to, not with Scott anyways. Anyone but Scott.

“Well at least for today, we will keep it under lock and key. There’s going to be a lot of emotions running around and I don’t want it to get out of hand.”

“I know. Not today. But soon.”

“Soon.”

The word lingered in the air and we were pulling up to the church to have the prayer and fellowship that was called upon for after the funeral. We had missed the actual funeral and I was still scrambling to figure out what we were going to say.

I didn’t have to worry though. Melanie took it from there and she assured everyone that we were late because she’d gotten really sad and I’d comforted her. I felt guilty as hell in the way in which I had and I didn’t meet anyone’s gaze.

Melanie seemed to like getting me into these impossible situations. She was worth it, but I was still left stiff and not sure what to do about it all. Soon was too soon. I wasn’t ready to come out. It was all so new and now I was going down a road I told myself I wasn’t going to go down. I kept thinking, now what, over and over again. How was my best friend going to react when he found out that I was having sex with his sister?