Short stories, vignettes and such: Commitment Madness

“Dude, I’m not going there, ok?” Randy sat across the table from his best friend Dean. Exasperated, he tried to explain, again, why he wasn’t ready to commit to Heather.

“I don’t know. It’s just that she wants to move in with me now, and I’m not ready to go there. I love her and everything, but do I really want to commit to a mall chick? I mean, if she’s going to be with me, I want her to be with me and not at the mall all the time with her wannabe friends.”

Dean studied Randy. “So, you don’t want to compete with her friends? Dude, that’s a totally lame excuse.”

“Well, I can’t help it,” Randy replied. “I know that she’s like, totally popular and has so many friends, but I don’t want them over at my place all the time. And they would be, because they’re always at her place. So then imagine what happens to my life - when do I get to have all my friends over? Her friends think you guys are all a bunch of hosers. In fact, we argued about this just the other night. I told her I didn’t want to make her choose, but I felt that I was riding backseat to her friends. Dude, if we’re meant to be together, then why do we fight?”

“Because love is a battlefield. You’ve got to roll with the punches to get to what’s real.”

Randy stared at Dean for a minute. “Who are you, freakin’ Einstein?”

Pausing briefly to readjust his bandana, Dean continued. “Fine, whatever dude. But you’ve been with Heather for like, four years. That’s so gnarly. And Heather’s so bodacious, I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to totally take her off the market.”

Randy looked intently at Dean, as though he were giving serious consideration to what he just heard. “You’re right. I think I’m going to ask Heather to marry me.”

Dean looked up at Randy in disbelief.

“Sike!” Randy teased.

“Dude, that was so not rad. I totally thought you were serious,” Dean sulked.

“Well, I was like, totally not serious. I’m going to tell Heather that she’s not moving in and I’m just going to keep things the way they are.”

“How are you going to tell her?” Dean asked. Glancing at his empty beer bottle, he continued. “She’s gonna completely freak out. We need a method to the madness, so let’s sink another drink ‘cause it’ll give me time to think.”

“You know I gave up drinking a long time ago.”

Shaking his head, Dean said “dude, you don’t drink, don’t smoke, what do you do?”

“Apparently not enough according to Heather’s friends,” Randy replied. “They didn’t think I did enough for Heather’s birthday.”

“What did you get her?” asked Dean.

“I got her a pet rock. She threw it at me. I think she was expecting a different kind of rock.”

“Dude, that’s seriously bogus. Are you sure you don’t want a beer?”

“Nah, just get me a Pepsi,” replied Randy as he handed a five dollar bill to his friend.

Slipping back into his black and white checkered Vans, Dean went to get the drinks, leaving Randy alone in his thoughts. He knew he was justified in not committing. He loved Heather, but did loving her mean he had to love her friends too? Was it fair to ask him to ignore his feelings and accept all her friends into his life? Did he have to pretend that it was all right? Maybe he should try. ‘No,’ he chastised himself. ‘Don’t you ever lower yourself, forgetting all your standards.’ He would tell Heather today; she was supposed to meet him here at the café soon.

Coming back with the drinks, Dean handed Randy his Pepsi and sat down. Randy looked at him for his change. “Dude, where’s my two dollars?”

Tossing Randy’s change across the table, Dean noticed the look on his face. “You made up your mind?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Randy said with a heavy sigh. “I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m making her choose, but I’m going tell her that I’m not ready for her to move in; that I want to keep things the way they are. Am I crazy for not moving forward?” he asked Dean.

Dean pondered for a minute before answering. “No, you have to be true to yourself, dude. If she moves in, things will probably change. All the drama, there’ll be tension with all her friends who don’t like your friends and everyone will be spazzing. You’ll try to be the middleman and keep the peace. The tension could mushroom, and you may say to yourself, ‘my God, what have I done?’”

Nodding, Randy agreed. “I can’t commit, but I don’t want to lose her. Seriously, I do love her and I’m not ready for her to just jet and say goodbye.”

“Dude, no time is a good time for goodbyes” said Dean.

“But what if she chooses her friends over me and leaves? What if I end up regretting my decision?”

“Whatever you do, dude, just don’t look back - you can never look back.”

“But I - ” began Randy.

“Dude, hang on, the tunes stopped.” Dean got up again and, digging into the pocket of his Jams, grabbed a coin and put another dime in the jukebox. As he returned to the table, he saw Heather walking through the door.

“Look, Heather’s coming in now. It’s time to stand and deliver.”

“Oh, man. I can’t tell her now,” lamented Randy. “She’s going to hate me forever. And forever’s gonna start tonight. I know once she looks up at me with those huge eyes I’m gonna fold and tell her she can move in,” he panicked.

“Relax. Don’t do it,” cautioned Dean.

Randy watched Heather make her way to their table. She looked awesome in her acid-washed Gap jeans, long Oxford shirt and pink jellies. When she got close enough he could smell her Camp Beverly Hills perfume. Closing his eyes and inhaling the scent, he wondered if commitment was so bad. He knew she was going to want an answer now. Under pressure, he started to sweat just a little. His mind was racing and he started talking under his breath: ‘you can win or lose - that’s a chance you take, when the heat’s on you’. Glancing out the front door, he saw a handful of Heather’s friends - waiting for her. And he knew that’s how it was always going to be.

Standing and meeting Heather halfway, he gave her a small hug and led her into a corner of the room where they could talk in relative privacy. She looked expectantly at him, and he swallowed hard and began. “I can’t do it, baby. I need to keep our relationship where it is: we’re together, but just not living together. I can’t commit to someone who’s not serious, who’s always out shopping with her friends….”

Heather cut him off. “Oh my God, like, I can’t believe what I’m hearing. That is so not good enough for me. I can’t stay in limbo forever. I need to know that I’m moving forward with my life. You don’t know how it is for me. The phone rings in the middle of the night, my father yells ‘what you gonna do with your life?’ She began to sob. “I thought we had something special.”

Gently holding her, Randy replied “we did have something special. Making love to you was never second best. It’s just that...well, it’s not just you moving in, it’s all your friends over all the time, and mine will feel like they suddenly have to call before they come over and it’s just not going to, it won’t….” his voice trailed off as he looked away.

Realizing what he was going to say, Heather tried to stop him. “You’re givin’ me the chills baby, please baby, don’t.” She realized she was pleading now, but she couldn’t help it as she continued. “You tell me that you want me, you tell me that you need me, you tell me that you love me, and I know that I’m right ‘cause I hear it in the night.”

Looking into Heather’s eyes while standing his ground was the hardest thing Randy has ever done. But he needed her to know that he wasn’t going to back down.

Realizing he was serious, Heather gathered her pride together and decided to cop an attitude. “Well, I guess I shoulda known by the way you parked your car sideways that it wouldn’t last. You never had any intention of committing. Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye.” Shaking her head slightly, she looked up at Randy and continued. “I should have totally seen this coming a long time ago. You are so hard to read, you play hide-n-seek with your true intentions.”

“Not even!” Randy replied. Trying to make her feel better, he continued. “I’m sorry, Heather. It doesn’t have to end. We can just like, keep things the same, right” he asked hopefully.

Heather just smiled sadly up at him as she turned slightly away.

“You look so sad Heather. What are you thinking?” Randy asked her.

“Oh, thinkin’ about all our younger years, it was only you and me, we were young and wild and free,” she replied wistfully. Then, glancing at her Swatch, she gave Randy a quick kiss on the cheek. “Oh my God, it’s late and my friends are waiting for me. We only have two hours before the mall closes.”

Randy watched with mixed emotions and Heather walked out of the café and, presumably, out of his life. Was she really giving him up so easily…. for the mall??

Dean caught the expressions playing across his friend’s face and thought he could use some distraction. “Hey, the guys are all chilling over at Moby’s. Do you want to go?” Dean asked.

“That new club downtown? Nah, that place is hellacious. They don’t even have a dance floor.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Dean. “We can dance if we want to.”

“Thanks, but no thanks. I think I’m just going to chill by myself for a while.” Shrugging into his red Member’s Only jacket, Randy said goodbye to Dean and left the café. Just before he climbed into his Camaro, he caught a glimpse of Heather and her friends as they rounded the corner. To her parting back, he whispered, “I’ll be alone, dancing you know it baby.”

*****

Note: Those of you who grew up in the '80s will probably notice that I’ve thrown into the dialogue some random '80s song lyrics. There are, I believe, 25 such incidences.

I borrowed from the following artists/songs:

Pat Benatar Love is a Battlefield

Van Halen                               Jump
Billy Idol                                 Dancing with Myself
Adam Ant                               Goody Two Shoes
Adam Ant                               Prince Charming
Talking Heads                         Once in a lifetime
Starship                                   Sara
Don Henley                             The Boys of Summer
Joan Jett                                  I Love Rock n Roll
Adam Ant                               Stand and Deliver
Bonnie Tyler                           Total Eclipse of the Heart
Frankie Goes to Hollywood    Relax
Queen & Bowie                      Under Pressure
Glenn Frey                              The Heat is On
Cyndi Lauper                          Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Modern English                      Melt with you
Toni Basil                               Mickey
The Romantics                        Talking in your Sleep
Prince                                      Little Red Corvette
Bon Jovi                                  You Give Love a Bad Name
Paula Abdul                            Straight Up
Bryan Adams                          Heaven
Men without Hats                   Safety Dance
Simple Minds                          Don’t You Forget About Me

And one movie: Better off Dead

This was written for Blogophilia

Week 40.10 Topic - The Method to the Madness

Bonus Prompts:

Hard (2 pts) Use a song title from the '70’s *
Easy (1 pt) Use the word “Bodacious”(seventh paragraph)

* "Imagine" (fourth paragraph)

Modified today’s date to fit in new prompts. Originally written for Loaded for Blog in 2010 for the following topic:

Your topic this week is a story. A man and a woman are in a long-term relationship but he won't commit. Men, you write from the woman's point of view, and women, write from the men's.