Suzie’s House 368 : Unloading

Lisa had no intentions of doing anything with Tracy today, let alone with Tracy and her band. She was on her way to the library when she happened to see them drive by. Or, more to the point, she saw Bruce trying to drive a van that kept stalling out and gave in to curiosity. She thought the fact she could keep up with them while on foot spoke volumes about Bruce’s driving. Then again, it was only a few blocks.

When they stopped, Bruce practically fell out of the driver’s seat to the sidewalk. He heaved a huge sigh, and wiped at the sweat glistening on his forehead with the hem of his T-shirt. The guy was ripped.

Seriously. Lisa thought her boyfriend’s chest was pretty good, but this guy made him look like a stick.

Bruce glanced at her, scowled, and walked off without saying a thing. She’d have taken offense, but he was probably embarrassed to get caught driving so badly. Besides, it wasn’t like they were friends.

Tracy crawled out of the back with a drum under one arm. Lisa went over to help and found parts of a drum kit all over the place along with all the rest of the band’s instruments. It was all jumbled together with the band members themselves.

“Wow. That was some driving,” Lisa said a bit dryly.

“Yeah. That was something all right.” Gene spoke just as dryly. He grabbed a drum and promptly put his back to them.

“Well, HE’S in a good mood. What happened.”

“Ah! It was great! We went down to Peace Park to throw a mini-concert but it turns out Bruce’s uncle didn’t get a permit. A cop showed up, so we had to run for it. And then it turned out that Bruce has never driven a van before. It was funny.” Tracy grinned.

“We’re lucky to be alive,” Emma muttered as she took the drum from Tracy. “The whole thing was a farce.”

“Yeah, I think you might be the only one who thought it was fun,” Justin said as he grabbed something from the back of the van.

“I thought it was fun.” Kate crawled out with her drumsticks in her hands. She stood there looking from one of them to another for a minute before taking a drum and going into the studio with it. “Well, I did.”

Gene was already back for another load. He tended to do a lot of glowering anyway, but this time he kind of flinched away from Tracy as he brushed past. Tracy looked at him like her heart was breaking.

“Wow. What’s up with you and Gene?”

“We broke up.” Tracy grabbed her bass case and walked off.

“What?!” Lisa followed. If Tracy broke up with Gene then that changed everything with Ben.

Not that Tracy and Gene going together were the only reason Lisa and Ben were together. She and Ben had a lot in common. Like the writing thing. And they were interested in each other since before Tracy got dumped on them by her mother. But the four of them hanging out as two couples was a lot different than hanging out as just friends. Did this mean Ben and Lisa should split up? No, that was silly. Except if Tracy and Gene couldn’t stand each other now then everything was going to be different.

“Wait! Tracy!” Lisa sped up. “Why did you break up with him?”

“It wasn’t me! He said I had to put out or break up.” Tracy looked like she might start crying.

“Wait. When was this?” Lisa grabbed Tracy’s arm and made her come around.

“A couple of days ago.” Tracy wouldn’t look at her.

“So that’s why you’ve been moping around the house. Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because I knew what you would say.” Tracy still kept her head turned. A muscle in her jaw twitched.

“Oh….” Lisa thought it over. “It’s because you can’t do it, isn’t it? I know you want to. You said it yourself.”

“So what if it is.”

“Then you didn’t tell him. About why you’re here, I mean. Why your mother dumped you on my mom and me. About what happened in Las Vegas.”

“Like it would make a difference,” Tracy grumbled. Then she looked over Lisa’s shoulder and her eyes went wide.

“What happened in Las Vegas?” Gene’s voice came from directly behind Lisa.

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