Mornings suck.
Especially mornings after a long night of livin’ it up at the Rattlesnake with all of his new found friends. Or drinking partners. However you want to roll with it.
Barry wakes up feeling like he drug himself out of WWII trenches and smelling just as bad! He can barely keep his eyes open long enough to choke down his cereal.
Mornings suck.
Well, that’s a little better, anyway. A hot shower and a change of clothes… freshly brushed teeth. It all helps and Barry doesn’t feel like centuries old death any more.
He’s got to quit with the all-nighters, but there’s nothing else going on in this crappy town. Not really. He’s been meeting lots of people, though, and not all of them while he’s been drunk.
J Huntington’s uncle wants to see some of his wood carvings. Maybe to sell them in his store in Oasis Springs. J keeps telling him about it, but then he also keeps forgetting to give Barry Uncle T’s cell number.
But J keeps the juice flowing and the babes are plentiful.
Like this pretty little thing. Clare Morin. She’s hot and sweet at the same time and Barry jumps at the chance to get to know her a little better. He invites her over to hang out. Watch tv and eat a meal. They chat about nothing important.
She asks about this wood carvings… and he stammers that he doesn’t have anything on the workbench right now.
“I’m… ah… looking for new inspiration…”
It’s not a total lie. He is at a total loss for inspiration right now. The hangovers several times a week don’t really help matter’s but Clare doesn’t need to know that.
“Oh… well, you’ll let me know when you find it,” she says, batting her eyes at him. “I’d love to see your art.”
His art? Oh boy…
And then there’s Arlene… Arlene… she’s still his first friend in this dinky little shit hole, and she’s making it less like a shit hole with every day she calls or visits.
Barry doesn’t think he’s falling for her, not like that, but he’s pretty interested in keeping things going. She seems to be of the same mind.
After some talking up, he finally convinces her to come with him to the Rattlesnake.
A little bit of ‘viper juice’ and Arlene really cuts loose. She does push ups! It’s kind of shocking really, and Barry has to pull her up off the floor and into his arms.
“Crazy girl…” he tells hers, holding her close.
“Crazy for you…” she murmurs back.
She’s drunk, but not that drunk, just tipsy really. Barry makes a move he’s been thinking about for a long time now.
It’s just a kiss… and a rose he plucks from one of the vases at the bar. But she responds… oh baby, does she respond!
“I should take you home,” he says at the end of the end. She’s in no position to drive, but she still shakes her head.
“Your place…” she pleads.
Barry only has a couch and an air mattress. Neither is the place he wants to deposit a drunk friend, and he isn’t about to seduce her or anything else in this condition! He’s not that kind of guy.
But he takes her home anyway, because that is where she keeps insisting she wants to go. Not to her house – and its odd that he doesn’t know where she lives yet? – but to his.
He helps her into the air mattress and puts himself on the couch. It’s hard and unyielding, and he wakes up with a sore back and a throbbing head.
“Man.” he thinks to himself, trying to quiet not to wake Arlene up as he starts breakfast. “I need to get a coffee pot and quit drinking. This sucks.”
Breakfast is ready by the time Arlene wakes up. She’s headachey ( as Barry expected) but hungry. They chat a little over scrambled eggs and toast, but Arlene seems… off. After a tense meal, Arlene gets up and heads for the bedroom to get her things.
Confused, Barry follows her. “Arlene? What gives?”
She stops in front of the bedroom door. “You don’t want me. I thought you did. Obviously, I was mistaken.”
Her voice is terse. Barry is more confused.
“You were DRUNK,” he points out. “So was I. It would have been wrong to take advantage of you.” He thought that was just basic common sense. If she hadn’t wanted him, but was too drunk think straight, it would ruin everything between them. This much, he explained, too.
“So… you do want to be with me?” she asked uncertainly.
“Arlene…” Barry said with a deep sigh. “You’re the first person to reach out to me after I moved here. My friend. But yes… I have feelings for you. Strong ones. But I don’t want to jeopardize our friendship by doing something extremely stupid.”
“It’s not stupid if we both want it.”
It’s hard to argue with that logic, especially not when he’s having such an emotional response to her right now. After a passionate embrace, Barry let’s Arlene lead him into the bedroom.
She was right; they both wanted this to happen.
And this time, he felt no regrets as they vanished under the covers.