“No.” Marcie reaches forward and tries to take my book. “I don’t wanna read that anymore. It’s lame.”
“You don’t?” I set it down by my leg and study her sickly face. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to watch you blush some more.” She snickers. “Reply to him. You don’t have to talk dirty if you don’t wanna. But I want to see your love.”
“Marcie.” I tilt my head to the side and take her hand in mine. Hers is bony and so close to catastrophic pain if she breaks something. Her bones are brittle, her fat reserves all gone. “Honey, you’re not still pining for that jerky jock are you?”
“No.” Instead of holding my hand, she tugs and brings me to her side. It takes us a moment to get comfortable and work our way around the cords, but we easily fit, and lay side by side on her bed until I turn onto my hip and study her face.
“I don’t want him anymore. I don’t like selfish jerks, and he’s already shown his true colors.”
“I don’t think mine is selfish, nor a jerk. He likes me even without… ya know.” I gesture toward my chest.
She nods. “I know what you mean. You landed a good one.” With shaking hands, she reaches out for her glass of water and takes a small sip, then replacing it back on the bedside table, she snatches up her well used Chapstick and slides it over her cracked lips. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“Ready?” My brows knit. “Ready for what?”
“I want you to call him.”
“Call hi–” I pause. “Call Spencer?”
She nods. “I want to watch you guys for a sec.”
“Marcie!”
“Not the touching yourself thing,” she snickers. “I just wanna watch him look at you. Just one time. I want to see what it’s really like.”
“Likewhatis really like?”
“Love,” she sighs. “Did you know Doctor Rhett’s wife was here yesterday?” When I shake my head, she smiles. “She wanted to say hello before I went down for more treatment. I watched him watch her, and it helped me get through the afternoon. It’s nice to see the real thing sometimes.”
“Honey…”
“This is my wish,” she finishes. “This is my Make-A-Wish wish. Just call him.”
“He doesn’t have a filter. He swears a lot, and says dirty things. He’ll try to tone it down for you, but he’ll forget two seconds later, and then he’ll say something wildly inappropriate again and laughingly say sorry. He won’t mean it. He’ll just say it because it’s the right thing to do.”
“I hear cussing every single day,” she rasps. The more she talks, the rougher her voice becomes. “You don’t have to protect my sensibilities, Ab. Just make the call.”
“Okay…” I lift my phone with hesitant hands and pull up the text he just sent.
My pulse races, because I just know in my heart of hearts this is probably a bad idea. But I hit dial anyway, because he said I can call whenever I like while he’s away and he’ll never get mad. I want to talk to him too. I want to see his face and watch him watch me.
“Fuck me sideways, Priss. You want it so bad that you’re just gonna call me up in the middle of the day rather than wait till tonight?”
I press my spare hand to my face and shake my head. He’s so perfectly crass. So ridiculously insane. Marcie giggles beside me. It begins silently, breathily, until the bubbles begin and her entire body spasms from the laughter, and Spencer finally focuses on the world around me.
“Aw, fuck.”
This induces a brand new explosive bout of giggles that even make me start.
“Spencer…” My chest bounces while Marcie clutches to her stomach and probably wets herself. “Um, this is Marcie. She’s my friend, and she’s also a minor, so perhaps try to dial it back.”
He looks so handsome today, so roguishly perfect, with his tight, black t-shirt and chain dangling around his neck. He was wearing sunglasses, but now he drags them off and shows me his beautiful dark eyes, filled with something entirely different from the hunger that I expect.
He’s outside somewhere. In a field of sorts, with other voices moving behind him. But I guess it’s a safe space, and not during something important, otherwise he wouldn’t have accepted the call.
“Hello, Marcie.”