Free A Little Bit of Everything Lost by Stephanie Elliot Page A

would sneak down to kiss her knees and work his way up. Now though, her bed was empty of him. Her head reeled from the intensity of the night before – from the beer, from their argument, from the extreme recklessness that was the two of them.
    She ached. She was sure there was a line of newly formed bruises across her low back where she had rammed against the edge of the stairs. Her thighs hurt, her insides felt twisted and her head pounded. Her mouth was a desert and no amount of water could clear the dryness. She lay in bed all day, waiting, feeling lost.
    Finally, when she could no longer lie there and think, Marnie called Collette.
    “Hey you!” Marnie was relieved that Collette sounded happy to hear from her, and not angry for having not been around so much.
    “Hi,” Marnie said.
    “Oh, wait a minute. You’re calling me. What’s wrong? Is it Joe?”
    Marnie felt a familiar guilt, knowing she hadn’t been a very good friend to Collette since Joe appeared, but girls did this, didn’t they? Ditch their best friends when a guy came along. Marnie remembered when Collette was with Sam, and she hadn’t been jealous. It was cool; Marnie understood Collette wanted to be with Sam. Marnie hadn’t been dating anyone at the time, so sure, she was left out, but girlfriends can always count on one another. It’s what girlfriends do. And Marnie needed Collette.
    Marnie filled Collette in on the fight, and then the stairway sex. “I don’t know what the fuck to do,” Marnie sighed.
    “Yeah, well, I heard from someone who knows Joe, and she said that he might be kind of trouble,” Collette said.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I don’t know. Helen mentioned he was a player. She knew him from her brother or something. And, I don’t know? That bitch from the party… sounds like there’s more to that than what he told you.”
    “I guess. I don’t know. Fuck. What if he doesn’t call me?”
    “I’m not trying to be mean or anything here, but what, you’ve known this guy for like a month? School starts in a few weeks, so maybe it’s… ”
    “What?” Marnie felt her skin burn, and she tried not to be mad at what Collette was saying, but what the hell did she know about the two of them? Marnie knew there was something there, something more than she had ever had with anyone.
    “Just that he’ll be going back to Eastern, and you’ll be at school, so what do you expect to happen? Come on, Mar. He’s a college guy. We both know how college guys are.”
    “I know.”
    “So, if he doesn’t call, then be done with it. If he does call, then maybe he’s got some apologizing to do. And maybe you see him for a little bit more, and then we’re off to school. New men to conquer!”
    Marnie wanted to laugh. She really did. She knew Collette was trying to make her feel better, but she couldn’t bring herself to laugh. She couldn’t bring herself to think of what might happen after Joe.
     
    **
     
    He did call, two days after the fight. It was as if he was punishing her, and he knew it, like he purposely planned to make her crazy by not calling.
    No hello from him when she answered the phone. Instead he said, “You didn’t call me.”
    While she felt a lightness move through her body at the sound of his voice, she said, “You’re the one who left mad.”
    “I wasn’t mad. And anyway, I needed to think.”
    She was quiet, hoping he would say he would be over later, that he missed her and he needed to talk, that he couldn’t stand being away from her any longer. That he wanted to feel her, against him, under him, under the coolness of her comforter.
    “Okay,” Marnie said. “And did you? Think?”
    “I did. I thought a lot. But I haven’t come up with anything.”
    “What do you mean? What do you have to come up with?”
    “I don’t know. I’m leaving for school earlier than I thought – less than two weeks. I have to get my shit together. With school. And some other things. I have to think about some