The phone ringing caught Joey off guard, and he jumped before snatching it up. "Hello?"
"Can I talk to Joe?"
A smile covered his face. "Hey, Steve! What's up?"
There was a pause. "You know a girl named Gina?"
The pause was ominous, and Joey closed his eyes. "Yeah, I met her about a year ago, I guess. At that country club they let us hang out at. Why?" There was a knock on his connecting door, and he beckoned Chris in. Chris sat down on the bed to wait for him to finish with the phone call.
"You doing anything with her?"
This was definitely ominous. "Anything like what?" he asked, sitting up straighter. He waved away Chris' concerned look.
"You know Jared, my best friend?"
"Yeah, dumb question. Why?"
There was a second pause, and Joey took a deep breath. It was bad news; usually Steve ran through his news like he did a sprint. "Jared met this girl, Gina Kara, who claimed to know you."
"Right," Joey said. "It's not like people don't do that all the time, sometimes they're lying, sometimes not. If it's a girl with dark hair and big brown eyes, yeah okay, so that wasn't the most descriptive," he laughed as Chris rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, but Joe...." Joey's laughter faltered.
"What? I call her occasionally and we talk for awhile, we've been on a couple of dates, nothing big." He winced; it sounded too defensive.
"She said the only reason she even got to know you...."
His brother drifted off, and Joey scowled. "Why?"
"She told Jared she wouldn't go out with him because she was waiting for you to get back and get her pregnant."
Everything seemed to stop, then move forward again at a dizzying pace. "What?" he demanded. "It's not like we had that kind of relationship! Or that I would have ever...." His outrage cut off his words, and he just stared out the window.
There was a strained silence on the other end. "I'm sorry, Joe. It's just... I thought you'd rather hear it from me." Joey didn't answer. "Joe? You there?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, fine. Thanks, Steve. I'll talk to you later." He hung up, still stunned, not even seeing Chris' concerned face.
"Hey, Joey. You okay?"
He snapped back to the present. "Huh? Oh, yeah, fine."
"You said that to Steve. Somehow, I don't believe you. What happened?"
Joey blinked a little. "Oh, you know Gina?"
"Yeah." He said it warily, almost afraid of what his friend was going to say.
"She... Steve's best friend asked her out, she said no. She was waiting for me to come back and get her pregnant." If he hadn't been in so much pain, he would have reacted to the surprise on Chris' face.
"She actually said that to someone?" Chris asked after a minute, unwanted memories of his own surfacing. He'd seen the look on Joey's face in the mirror about a year ago. He knew exactly how he felt.
Joey gestured aimlessly. "It's not like the relationship was even going in that direction; she's a good friend but nothing more." It still hurt, and hurt more the longer he thought about it. "I don't want to do whatever you came in here for," he said blankly.
Chris grimaced. "You don't have a choice. Sorry. Photo shoot."
Joey sighed, and gave a short laugh. "Timing. Timing. I hope they don't want me to smile." He got up and followed Chris out the door.
Chris turned to him in the hallway. "Don't jump to conclusions," he said softly. Joey blinked. "Talk to her before you decide she's guilty." He had that luxury, Chris thought. He'd found out from the girl herself.
Joey nodded, and the black cloud over his head lightened to gray.
He called her that night, wondering what he was going to say. "Hello?"
"Hey, Gina. It's Joey."
"Joey! Hi! What's up?"
"I heard a rumor about you, and wanted to check on it."
"About me?" He'd thrown her; he could hear it in her voice.
"Yeah, about you."
There was a pause. "Was it bad?"
He gave a short chuckle. "Well, from my point of view.... I'm not sure you'll like it either."
There was a longer pause. "What was it?"
"Just... that... Someone overheard you say that... You were waiting for me to come home and get you pregnant." He cringed inwardly.
"Who told you that?" She was furious, and he almost sighed in relief.
"Not important. I just heard it from someone, and I wanted to check it with you. And to let you know people were watching."
"It's... I... Joey, that's ridiculous!" she said, shaken quite a bit. He sighed this time in relief.
"I thought it was. Be careful, Gina. People are jealous, I guess." But I trust Steve, and Jared's never spread a rumor like this before, he thought.
She didn't answer for a minute. "I guess I can understand that," she said with a short laugh. "Hey, I've got to go; Mom's calling me for dinner."
"All right. Talk to you later," he said.
"Bye," she said. She must have thought he hung up, because he heard her say faintly "He found out about it! Some idiot ratted on me!" before the phone clicked and the connection was terminated.
He was never entirely sure how he got the phone hung up, but when someone knocked at his door, the receiver was sitting innocently in the cradle. "Come in." His voice cracked.
Chris poked his head in. "Hey! Ready...." He stopped, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. "Joe?"
"Jared was right," he said in a soft monotone. "He was right. She thought I'd hung up, but I heard her."
Chris sat down on the bed, slowly, then took a deep breath. "I take it that means you don't want to go out tonight?"
Joey let out a short laugh. "No. I think I'll stay here and watch something, even if it's just... infomercials."
Chris nodded. "I'll have my phone. Give me a call if you need me for anything."
The smile felt like it was going to crack his face, but he managed it anyway. "Anything?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
Chris gave him a disbelieving look, then shook his head and chuckled. "No, not anything. I can bring you back a nice blonde, though, if you want. Or a red-head?"
Joey shook his head, the smile fading in spite of Chris' attempt to cheer him up. "Thanks. I'll be fine."
Chris nodded. "All right. I'll see you when I get back."
Joey didn't see him; he'd fallen asleep long before they returned. Chris left the room muttering curses on half the human race. The tear tracks on his friend's face were enough to tell him the story.
The whole thing really bothered Chris, the more he thought about it. He kept an eye on Joey through the next day, not surprised to find that he was less energetic, and he even ate less, which was a sure sign that something was wrong. The others definitely noticed, but when asked he brushed them off, and soon retreated into his own space whenever he could. This lasted a couple of days, and instead of getting mad at Joey, Chris got angrier and angrier with Gina.
Two days later he heard Justin and Lance talking about Marissa, and he stiffened. If she'd set Joey up for a fall too.... But then he reconsidered. It wouldn't just be Joey, it would be all of them. He sat down to send a long over-due email message.
Why have you been so nice to us?
The email from Chris took Marissa completely by surprise; he hadn't sent her a message since the thank you that she'd received after the dinner in Denver. She took her time in answering.
Because you're human. Because you haven't given me a reason not to be nice to you. Because I believe guys and girls can be friends and not have sex get in the way. She looked at it, changed her mind and took the last line out. Because I like to have friends she decided was a much nicer and less... provocative statement. Then she added Why do you ask?
To her surprise, the message was answered by the next time she checked her email, that evening just before bed. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Marissa snorted. "Oh, that makes sense, Chris. And you're the college graduate! What are you talking about?" Other shoe? she wrote back. I don't understand you.
She'd just gotten home from work the next day when the phone rang. She left the front door unlocked for Anika and went to answer it. "Hello?"
"Why are you our friend?"
"Who is this?" she asked after a stunned pause.
"Chris Kirkpatrick." He said it as if she should have known.
"Oh. Hi, Chris." She shrugged out of her coat, trying to put her thoughts together. "Um, I'm your friend because you'll let me be."
"Oh, really," he said flatly.
She sat down on her bed. "Why? I mean, your last email messages have been rather cryptic."
"I'm just sick of it, of this fake friendship thing. Joey just had his heart ripped to pieces."
Marissa gasped. "What happened?"
"One of his ‘friends'," and the venom in the word was more than any she'd ever heard before, "finally showed her true colors." His voice had grown colder.
"That she was a friend because of who he is," she guessed, suddenly sad for her friend.
"Exactly."
"How's he feeling?" she asked gently.
"Betrayed. And how many people have you told you know us?"
She paused to think, not really sure why he was attacking her like this, and not sure how long she could take it. "One and a half." Weren't they friends?
"Who."
"My mother, and you share telling Anika. I told Teresa, a woman I work with, that I met a Joe Fatone and his friends, but she's clueless, Chris. She likes the Offspring and DMX. If I asked, she couldn't tell me a song you'd done."
"Just don't tell anyone else."
The chill in his voice went through her ears to her heart, and she took a deep breath. She felt like she was going to cry in a minute. "What do you take me for?" she asked. "I'm not going to boast about being friends with you. I didn't even tell Anika I knew you until she talked to you on the phone at Thanksgiving! I can only imagine what it's like for you guys, wondering if someone's your friend because of who you are. I like you for you, you guys make me laugh, and you took the time to cheer me up. What more can you want?"
"What more do you want?" The words were biting.
Marissa took a gasping breath, hoping it was soft enough he wouldn't hear, and swallowed hard, waiting to speak until the tears in her eyes didn't come out in her voice. "What does anyone want from a friendship? Look, Chris, if you want me to leave you alone, I'll stop writing you. I'll stop being your friend if you want. All you have to do is tell me."
"As if it would be that easy," he hissed. "You've managed to get under everyone's skin. We'd all be hurt."
She took a deep breath that trembled, and swallowed again. "You don't..." Her voice trembled, and she paused to get herself in control. "You don't have to threaten me, Chris. I get the picture. I won't bother you anymore. Good-bye." She hung up and set the phone carefully on her bedside table, finally giving in to let herself cry.
She didn't even notice Anika had come in until her friend sat next to her and wrapped comforting arms around her. "Marissa, what happened?" she asked softly.
"Chris c-called and accused me of... of taking advantage of their friendship," she sobbed, and pulled away to look at her friend. "I haven't, have I?" she asked, tears running down her face. "I mean, I wonder about that too, sometimes, but I haven't asked for anything, I've gotten no special treatment...." She trailed off forlornly. "I just don't know."