Intensity

by S. Briones Lim

  Brian frowned and followed Celine’s gaze. He began laughing. “Yeah, that’s Teresa. Let’s just say there will be no hosting with her.”

  Celine smirked. “I take it things didn’t go well between you two?”

  Recalling a rather awkward incident, Brian grunted. “She just won’t ever live up to the high standards someone set for me.”

  Assuming Brian was speaking of Crystal, Celine was surprised to find him staring intently at her. She gulped and grabbed the wineglass off the table and began to chug the bitter red down.

  ***

  “This party’s lame,” Cash sighed. He let his arm dangle over Ruthie’s shoulder and shifted slightly. “Do you want to get out of here?”

  The room felt as if it were spinning slightly. Ruthie hated to admit it, but she was definitely feeling buzzed. She felt good though and not sick in the slightest. “Nah, let’s stay here for a bit. I feel bad ditching out on a friend…again.” She glanced at Celine from the corner of her eye. Surprised not to spot Noah, she found Brian at her side instead. He was leaning over and whispering in Celine’s ear and all at once, Ruthie’s protective instincts went up a notch. “Yeah, let’s stay here.”

  “Whatever,” Cash muttered, sounding extremely bored.

  Ruthie quickly found that half the partygoers either knew Cash personally or plainly didn’t care that he was there. It was a bit nice to be in public with him and not have to fight for his attention. She hated to admit it, but doing something other than sex was a welcome change.

  “This is nice,” she found herself saying.

  “What is? This place?” Cash asked with a laugh. He gazed around and grunted, “Wonder who did his decorating. It looks as if a thrift store threw up in here.” His head turned from side to side, taking in the weird vases, old chairs and antique looking furniture. “Never figured Brian for a hipster.”

  Ruthie could have rolled her eyes. That was the thing about Cash. She felt as if she had whiplash every time she was with him. One moment he was a sweet, caring man and the next he acted like an arrogant asshole. Choosing to bring out the sweet guy again she began to run her fingers up and down his pressed slacks. “No, it’s nice to be out in the public with you like this and not be bothered every five seconds.”

  Cash turned his head and grinned crookedly. “You like being out in public with me?”

  “Of course!” Ruthie murmured. “And it’s not just because you’re Cash or whatever.” She rolled her eyes. “It feels nice to have you on my arm. I’ve never dated a guy before who…” She frowned at the bewildered look on Cash’s face. His face scrunched up as if he smelled something awful. “Did I say something wrong?” she asked suddenly. She discreetly blew into her hand. No, it wasn’t her breath, either.

  Cash tugged at his neck, but didn’t answer. He lifted his arm from around her shoulder and shifted uncomfortably.

  “What’s wrong?” Ruthie asked with a frown.

  Cash didn’t answer and began fiddling with his phone. He sat there silently, giving Ruthie the opportunity to run a play-by-play in her head. No matter how hard she racked her brain, she could not seem to find anything she could have said to throw Cash’s mood off. Feeling a bit exhausted by it all, she excused herself to get a drink of water. At the same time, she desperately needed a chat session with her best friend.

  Her feet felt as if she was wading in mud. Each step towards the kitchen was unbearable. The guilt felt like it would never ease up.

  “Celine?” she called out meekly. She watched the head of magenta tinted hair slowly turn. Brian, who had been leaning his tall body towards her friend, also lifted his head methodically. They reminded Ruthie of those movies where aliens had taken over human bodies and were plotting to undermine the innocent. Unfortunately, in this scenario, she was the innocent.

  “Celine?” she repeated.

  “Oh, so you do remember me.” Celine’s voice was curt and sarcastic. Ruthie spotted Brian wincing and knew she wasn’t the only one who picked up on Celine’s iciness.

  Ruthie bit her lip and frowned. “You wanna get out of here? Cash is acting a bit strange and honestly it’s bumming me out.”

  Celine blinked. She crossed her arms and leaned back onto the wall, unknowingly resting her head on Brian’s outstretch arm. She jerked forward in surprise and smiled sheepishly.

  With a nervous look on her face, Ruthie tapped her Louboutin. “So?”

  “I’m surprised you want to leave Cash for me, seeing that you always leave me for Cash,” Celine snapped angrily.

  Ruthie reached out and grabbed Celine’s arm. She was a bit hurt to find Celine immediately jerk away. “Please, Celine. Can we get out of here and talk?” She looked over her shoulder at Cash, who peered down at his watch and sighed with boredom. She shut her eyes and threw a pleading look at her friend. “Please? I really want—need—to talk to you.”

  Celine threw her head back and groaned. “Fine.” She sighed and shut her eyes. “Fine, let’s go.” She opened her eyes and turned at her waist, stretching her lips into another Joker-ish smile. “Thanks for the evening, Brian.”

  He frowned, but managed to put a smile on his face. It was plain as day to Ruthie how fake it appeared, but Celine didn’t notice. “Sure, of course,” he replied. “Glad you could make it. It was nice meeting your fiancé, too.”

  “See you later, Brian,” Ruthie said in an even tone. She lifted an eyebrow at him, keeping her head turned towards his direction even as she made her way to Cash. Celine trailed behind her, but chose to remain at the entrance of the living room, not wanting to have to speak to Cash again.

  Cash frowned when he noticed Celine standing a few feet away from him and clicked his tongue with distaste. Once on the shit list, always on the shit list. Ruthie walked up to the couch and smiled down at him. “You ready to leave?” he asked, eyeing Celine in annoyance.

  Ruthie jutted out her bottom teeth and nipped at her top lip. “Yeah, but if it’s okay with you, I think I’m going to leave with Celine.”

  Cash’s mouth dropped open, blinking in surprise. “Um, what?”

  Ruthie frowned. “Well, seeing as you’ve been acting a bit strange tonight, I figured I’d just leave.”

  “Acting strange?” Cash laughed and shook his head, standing from the couch. “You came here with me, Honey. It’s a bit rude to leave without me.”

  “Noah left Celine.” Ruthie didn’t mean for it to sound the way it did. She immediately felt horrible seeing how offended Celine looked.

  “Fine,” Cash muttered. “I’ll call you.” He pushed past her.

  Ruthie watched him walk towards the hallway. A part of her wanted to ask him when he would call. Yet, a nasty voice in her head kept telling her that she’d never hear from him again. Somehow ignoring it, she managed to keep her resolve up and merely nodded her head. “Talk to you then.”

  Cash cursed under his breath, apparently not used to being left behind. He headed towards Brian and began talking to him heatedly. Brian shook his head slightly, but retrieved his phone and started making calls.

  “What’s he doing?” Celine wondered out loud.

  “Probably getting a ride. I did let him drive my car over here,” she explained.

  “So you let Cash Walker drive your baby, but never let me?” Celine snorted with a shake of her head.

  Ruthie frowned down at her. “Celine, what’s wrong? Why are you acting so weird every time I’m with Cash?”

  Letting out a puff of air from her nostrils, she answered, “I don’t know, maybe because you constantly ditch me for him.”

  “When have I ever—” Ruthie’s mouth dropped open. Wincing, she asked, “How did you find out?”

  Celine used her head to motion towards Brian. “It’s his job to know Intensity’s whereabouts,” she replied, echoing Brian. “He told me they flew in this morning and after their meeting or whatever, Cash met up with you.”

  Meeting? Cash told her he flew specifically to see her. Ruthie scrunched
up her face in thought.

  “Anything wrong?” Celine asked. She tried to keep her voice stern, but no matter how mad she was at her friend, she couldn’t bring herself to not care about her; especially when she was visibly hurt about something.

  Ruthie shook her head. Tugging at her arm lightly she muttered, “No, let’s go.”

  “You sure you want to leave Cash behind?” Celine asked incredulously.

  Both women turned and watched as Cash spewed orders out at Brian. Most people wouldn’t be able to take it, but Brian held his ground and argued back.

  With a nod of her head, Ruthie answered, “Yeah. He’ll call me.” Though she wasn’t entirely sure.

  While Cash and Brian were still preoccupied, the women exited the house. The party seemed to have spilled onto the front yard, but still managed to remain high class.

  “Wow,” Ruthie murmured. “This kinda reminds me of those parties we went to back in college.”

  They squeezed through a crowd of people, who gripped onto their alcohol as if prohibition was coming back into style.

  “Yeah,” Celine agreed. “Except there’s a severe shortage of Solo cups at this party.”

  Ruthie pivoted on her heel and held out her keys with a grin on her face. “Here.”

  Celine lifted an eyebrow. “What’s this?”

  “Drive,” Ruthie answered simply.

  “Drive? As in your car?” Celine asked in surprise. No, she was probably hearing it all wrong.

  “Yeah,” Ruthie nodded adamantly. ‘I’ve had one to many drinks—unless you drank, too?”

  “Only half a glass,” Celine admitted.

  “There you go! I can’t drive at all tonight so I think you should.”

  Celine pursed her lips. “This wouldn’t be because I called you out on letting Cash drive, is it?”

  Though part of it was, Ruthie wasn’t going to admit to it. Shaking her head, Ruthie grinned. “No. I think it’ll be nice to be a passenger.”

  Celine hesitantly grabbed the keys. “Fine. Where’d you park?”

  Chapter 44

  “Slow down!” Ruthie hissed, throwing a look over her shoulder. A car horn blared right beside her ear. The cool night air hit her face and she found herself desperately wishing she had put the top to her car back up.

  “I am going slow!” Celine shot back, coming to a stop at the light. Annoyed, she told Ruthie, “Stop being such a backseat driver!”

  “How can I be? I’m in the passenger’s seat,” Ruthie replied sardonically. “Besides, it’s my car, so I can be a backseat driver whenever I want.”

  Celine rolled her eyes and accelerated forward on the green light. Due to Ruthie’s prodding, the two were skipping the freeway. Taking the side streets home seemed the safest solution to counteract against Celine’s lead foot. However, as Celine pointed out, it would also take double the amount of time to get home. Ruthie didn’t care. Going fifty miles per hour seemed a lot safer than the hundred Celine was bound to do on the freeway.

  Except for the lull of the radio and the sound of the blowing wind, the car was relatively silent. It was odd not speaking to one another, but neither of the women knew exactly what to say. Ruthie fought an internal struggle, knowing she had messed up big time. She knew she should apologize, but was too worried to even bring it up. Celine, on the other hand, was ashamed of her own behavior. She knew Ruthie could tell how much she loved Brian’s attention, but like her best friend, she was too worried to bring the topic up.

  After twenty minutes of silence, Ruthie finally spoke up. “Listen, I’m sorry for leaving today. I know dress shopping meant a lot to you and it was wrong of me to leave before you were finished.”

  Celine’s eyes widened. “Are you serious? You think I’m mad because you left while I was dress shopping?”

  “Well, yeah.” Ruthie blinked. “Aren’t you?”

  Celine huffed. “It’s not about the dress shopping, Ruthie. This is my wedding! You are my Maid of Honor for a reason. I didn’t even choose my sister for that position and here you are, acting like it doesn’t mean anything to you!”

  “Well, technically she’s your Matron of Honor,” Ruthie pointed out. Celine glanced at her in annoyance to which Ruthie shouted, “Eyes on the road!”

  “This is my wedding,” Celine explained. “It’s supposed to be the happiest time of my life, but instead I’m here fighting with my best friend because some celebrity warped her way of thinking.”

  “Cash didn’t warp my way of thinking!” Ruthie defended herself. She found herself gripping onto the side of the car. Celine’s driving was really getting out of hand.

  “Oh, really? Would you ever have done half these things you’ve done recently if it hadn’t been for Cash?” Celine accused.

  “What things?” Ruthie asked.

  “Get belligerently drunk in front of a bunch of people you didn’t know…” Celine’s voice trailed off when she realized she had done the exact same thing.

  “Celine?” Ruthie prodded.

  “You put him first for everything!” Celine exclaimed, feeling tears skim her eyes. “I need my best friend right now and I feel like she’s gone. I need someone to calm me during my wedding jitters—”

  “Wedding jitters?” Ruthie asked curiously.

  “I needed my best friend to be there as I navigate this bride-to-be crap as well as someone to be there for me when I was nervous about public speaking!”

  “You’re being selfish, Celine,” Ruthie pointed out.

  “Me?” Celine yelped. “How am I being selfish? I’ve been trying to look out for you all along!”

  “You’re so ‘me, me, me’ that you can’t even be happy for me when the guy of my dreams has finally walked into my life. I feel like I can’t even share my happiness with you because you have this stank face all the time!” she exclaimed.

  “Well, maybe it’s because I don’t trust Cash and I’m worried about you! Ever think of that? Maybe if you stop obsessing over the image and start seeing the actual man you’d see what I see—”

  CRUNCH

  Their bodies lurched forward, snapping back with the pull of the seat belt. The sound of crunching metal echoed through the night, causing her ears to ring. Ruthie groaned, gripping at the seat belt which pressed against her chest. She gasped for breath, coughing incessantly. Her vision cleared, momentarily clouded by shock. She blinked, taking in the scene around her.

  The orange glow of the street lamp illuminated the women. Celine rolled her neck, feeling her skin bruising, and winced in pain. “Are you okay?” she asked, reaching out to the side without looking. Her head jerked when she didn’t feel her friend beside her.

  Ruthie had already jumped out of the car. Ignoring the pain, she circled her vehicle inspecting the damage. “Fuck! My car!” she cried out in horror.

  Ignoring the burning of her muscles, Celine unbuckled her seatbelt and exited the vehicle. She gripped at her hair in shock. Ruthie’s red convertible was smashed into a beat up station wagon that looked as if it had belonged to the Brady Bunch. It was an odd sight to see the cherry red car pressed into the wooden paneling of the other vehicle, which didn’t seem the least bit damaged.

  “Fuck! Fuck!” Ruthie kept mumbling, staring at the damage.

  Celine blinked, unsure of what to do. Finally getting her wits about her, she rushed over to the driver of the station wagon to make sure he was all right. To her relief, the old clunker seemed sturdier than Ruthie’s luxury vehicle. The man seemed more shocked than hurt.

  After thirty minutes of speaking to the police and waiting for a tow truck, the women sat in silence as they were driven back home. The cab of the tow truck smelled of Doritos and feet, and was littered with empty water bottles. Ruthie pressed herself against the window as far away from Celine as possible, infuriated. Of course Celine would wreck her car. Why wouldn’t she? She peeked out the back window and felt her heart lurch at the sight of her baby being dragged behind them. As if the night couldn’t get any w
orse.

  Celine cleared her throat, but Ruthie ignored her. “Um, I called Noah to see if he can take a look at it. You know, just to see if there’s anything he can do tonight.”

  “There’s nothing he can do tonight,” Ruthie shot back, without looking at her. “My car is ruined! I don’t even want to look at the CarFax report!”

  “You know I’ll fix it! I’ll pay for everything! Even the other guy’s damages are coming out of my insurance,” Celine reminded her. She couldn’t help but imagine her tiny wallet crying out helplessly.

  “Whatever,” Ruthie grunted, still staring out the window. She watched the buildings fly by and gazed up at the lit windows. She wondered what the people inside were doing at that moment. Were they also pissed off beyond belief? Or were they happy and content in their quaint little homes? If only she could trade places with them for the night. She’d give anything not to have deal with all the crap she currently faced.

  The tow truck finally rolled up to Ruthie’s duplex, squealing to a stop. Usually her sanctuary, the two story beige duplex did nothing for her that night. She listened to the metal chains of the two truck clink loudly behind her. It only meant more damage to her tainted vehicle.

  The grumpy driver was beyond dispassionate, his greasy features only betraying his disinterest. Ruthie jumped out of the cab and turned her back, unable to stare at the damage directly. She had worked so hard to buy that car and there it sat, in shambles beside her.

  A defeated Celine pulled out some money (what little she had left) and thanked the driver for his duties. She stepped back and watched the clunky truck drive off into the distance. “Ruthie?” she squeaked.

  Ruthie spun on her heel angrily. “Do you know that you are one selfish bitch?”

  “Excuse me?” Celine stepped back, aghast. “Where do you get off calling me selfish?”

  “Think about it! You’re too jealous of the attention Cash is giving me and you’re finding any dumb excuse to hold it against me!” Ruthie raised her voice and began clapping her hands to make her point. It was painfully obvious how furious she was.