Chapter Sixteen
     Vicky was the first to answer, and she did so by shuffling off the bed and hugging Earl. "I know this is wrong," she said, "but I love it! I feel like I have so much energy!" She bounced up onto her feet and did a little spin, arms raised to the ceiling.
     Simone wrapped her arms around her knees, hugging herself, and then let go and crossed her legs Indian style and put her hands in her lap. "God," she said. "I feel so alive!" and Earl laughed.
     "So what do we do next?" Simone asked. "I feel like doing something. How long will this last?"
     "Me too," Vicky chirped in. She stopped twirling and faced the pair. She still stared, but there was a softness and a vulnerability in it now.
     "You'll be up at least until dawn, maybe longer," Earl answered.
     "Maybe we can go to a club or rave or something," Simone suggested. "I know of a great place outside of downtown."
     Earl looked up at Simone and then tried to catch the eye of the dancing Vicky. What Simone was suggesting frightened him. Earl rarely went out to clubs and had no clothes for doing so. He also realized that he would be losing control of the situation if they went somewhere, that he would no longer be the center of attention, and he doubted that he could compete and maintain the interest of his two girls. There was a third reason why Earl winced at Simone's suggestion, and it was both embarrassing and compelling. "I don't have any money for going out," he said. He stared sadly at the floor and at Simone's shoe and stocking which lay there. "But you guys can go if you want."
     Simone acted as if she hadn't heard him, but Vicky suddenly stopped her dancing and the look of artificial joy that had been on her face was replaced by one of sad and shocking truth. "Oh," she muttered. "I don't have any money, either."
     It was Simone's turn to look hurt, but it wasn't clear to Earl if she did so because her idea had been turned down by the others or if she was feeling bad because she'd stumbled into making them confess. "You guys are broke?" she asked, and her voice carried more concern than surprise or admonishment.
     "'Fraid so," Earl said, and Vicky shrugged her shoulders and nodded.
     "Oh," Simone said slowly. "I see." She gave each of them a look of compassion and began patting her knees. "That's okay," she added in a cheerful voice. "It happens."
     She unwound her legs and began digging in her purse. A second later she pulled her phone out and put her finger to her lips, shushing her companions. Earl watched her dial and a second later she began speaking.
     "Hey, honey, it's me."
     Another second later, she spoke again. "Not too good. I'm feeling really yucky, and I think Earl's going out, anyway. Vicky offered to take me home so we left, and I won't be there tonight." Another pause, and she continued, "I know. I don't know what it, is but I just want to sleep." A few seconds later she added, "I love you too. I'll call you tomorrow," and hung up, bursting out in laughter. "We've got all night," she announced as she put her phone away and flashed a bright smile at other two. "I do, anyway!"
     Earl didn't know what to make of this turn of events. Simone knew that neither he nor Vicky could afford to go anywhere and he also realized that Simone had just shined on her boyfriend and had freed them all from his visit. "What was that all about?" he asked her. He couldn't imagine why she'd made the call.
     "I just thought Perris would get mad if he came over and found us like this," Simone said. "And I didn't want this to end."
     Vicky clapped her hands and did another spin. "We've got the whole night to have fun!" and it sounded as if fun were something that was also foreign and forbidden to her. "I just want to dance and talk and hug you all night long," she said, grabbing Earl's hair and kissing the top of his head. "I feel so good!" She then threw her arms around Simone, and kissed her on the top of her head, too. "Let's have some fun!"
     Earl's life gave him two options for having fun. He could get high or he could fuck. He pulled out his cigar box and began rolling another joint. When he was finished, he handed it to Vicky and lit it for her.
     When they'd finished smoking the joint and had killed off the last of the rum, Simone suggested that they get some more. "I'm not feeling the alcohol at all," she said. "I think I could do this all night."
     Since they couldn't go to the liquor store where Perris worked, they piled in Earl's car and drove off the other direction. Simone gave Earl some money and he took her order and returned a moment later with a large brown bag.
     "I've got an idea," he said as he started the car. He turned around and began driving. Simone, in the back, asked him where they were going. Vicky was busy flying her hand out her window.
     "You'll see," he said and while he drove the two women chatted on about everything they could find in common to talk about. When Earl pulled off the freeway and headed for the coast, Vicky leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
     "This is so nice of you," she said.
     Earl grinned and kept driving, but reached out and patted her knee. "No problem," he said. He pulled into a deserted parking lot in front of large and partially demolished building. The building was the only thing in sight and was surrounded by park-like grass and a few old trees. As they left the car, they could hear the waves crashing far below them and could smell the tangy salt in the air.
     "Where are we?" Vicky asked as she followed Earl from the parking lot out onto the grass. Simone, walking next to Earl, looked around as if she were searching for a sign. She could see a cloudless black sky that seemed to be suspended higher above their heads than ever before. Dotted within its expanse were countless small stars, suspended even higher, and a full, bright moon lay directly overhead.
     The building was behind them and there were a series of posts stuck into the ground near the edge of the cliff toward which they walked. Vestiges of chain drooped between some of the posts, rusted and ruined remains lay on the ground between others. Other than the incessant hiss of the waves crashing somewhere below them, it was quiet.
     "A special place," Earl answered. "And it's all ours." He led them the remaining way to the feeble barrier and put his arm around Vicky's waist to steady her. "Check it out," he said and pointed down.
     Some one or two hundred feet below them lay a thin and rocky beach. They were on the end of point of land that thrust into the ocean and the waves could be seen as oscillating thick streaks of white as the ocean broke against the rocks. Simone stood on Earl's other side and he slipped his arm around her waist as well as she leaned forward to look down.
     "This is fabulous," she whispered. "I never knew this was here."
     "Me neither," Vicky said. She twisted out of Earl's grip and began doing pirouettes on the grass a few feet from the edge. Her dress billowed with the movement and flipped around as it caught the breeze that wafted up from the point. Earl could see the white of her smile and kept his arm close around Simone.
     He could smell her perfume, even over the ancient smell of the salty ocean and studied her profile as she looked out over the landscape. She was strikingly beautiful in the moonlight, her white skin radiating blue in the moon's reflected light and her cheekbones so sharp that they stood out even in this dim light. He could not see her eyes, they were dark and mysterious slits that captured any light that came that way. She allowed herself to be held, Earl thought, to be possessed, but it was clear that she was in charge and that she would triumph.
     She was warm against him, but trembling slightly. Earl noticed that her skin was speckled with goose bumps and thought of her jacket back at his house.
     "Are you cold?" he asked.
     "A little, but not really," she answered, never taking her eye from the view. "You're keeping me warm," she said, still not looking at Earl.
     "That's good," Earl answered.
     Vicky danced over next to them and wiggled under Earl's other arm. "This place is awesome," she said, and Earl felt her snuggle closer.
     "Beats the hell out of sitting around my room and playing Monopoly," Earl said. Playing Monopoly had been the only other thing he'd been able to think of when they'd started planning what to do all night.
     "What is this place?" Vicky asked.
     "You mean the building?"
     "Yeah, what is it?"
     "I think it's an old armory or something. This used to be some sort of old military something-or-other."
     "Is it safe?" Vicky asked.
     "Yeah, I think so."
     "Can I go explore?"
     "Sure," Earl answered. "I'm gonna hang out here, though. But give a shout if you get lost or something." He turned to Simone. "Ya wanna go with her or what? I'm gonna head back to the car and get the bag."
     Simone tore her attention from the hypnotic activity of the sea and turned toward Earl. "I'll stay with you, if that's all right."
     "Cool with me," he said.
     Vicky stayed with the others long enough for Earl to retrieve the bag from the car. He pulled out some cups and filled them with ice, then made a round of drinks. Vicky picked hers up, took a sip, smiled and waved good-bye as she took off to explore.
     Earl and Simone watched her leave, then turned back to the ocean far below them. Other than the fringe of surf, the ocean was as black as the sky and it wasn't easy to distinguish the horizon line.
     "Thank you, Earl," Simone said as she stood next to him. She laid her head on his shoulder for a moment. "This is nice."
     "Glad you like it," he said, and made to wrap his arm around her. This time she stepped aside and stopped him.
     "I'm sorry about earlier," she said in a quiet voice. "About the kiss."
     "What do you mean?"
     "It wasn't right. It was just a pity kiss."
     Earl moved and stood between Simone and the ocean, blocking her view. "A pity kiss?"
     "I'm sorry, Earl. I love Perris. He has such great prospects, I'm sure that he's going to be rich and successful and he's the only guy I've ever been with. It was his idea tonight for me to come over to your house."
     "I know. You told me that earlier."
     "But I didn't tell you that he told me to be nice to you, to keep you company and to keep you happy."
     Earl thought about that a moment, but said nothing.
     "Then, I was mean to you, and I thought that you were mad. I didn't want that, but only because I thought that Perris would find out and then he'd be mad at me. So, I kissed you and hoped that that would make you forget how mean I'd been."
     Earl stuffed his hands in his pockets, and stepped a foot or two away. He began to wonder how much of the rest of the night had been Simone's idea of making him happy. He kicked himself for ever thinking that she'd have any interest in him or his life, and the worst part was that he'd known all along that he could never hope to interest or attract her.
     "It's okay," he said. "I knew that you didn't mean it, that you don't like me." He turned to walk away somewhere, but Simone reached out and grabbed his shoulders, stopping him.
     "I don't think you understand," Simone said. "I didn't know you then, all I knew is what Perris told me and what I'd seen at the fight. I was all prepared for a big, fat slob of a guy, a dumb, simple troll. It was easy for me to play that guy and to do what Perris wanted.
     "But then, later, when Vicky showed up and since then, it's been different. You're not at all what I thought you were like, Earl." She stopped and forced Earl to look at her. "You're sweet."
     Earl's eyes, which she'd arrested, blurred a bit, and he looked away.
     "You really are," Simone said. "You're sweet, and you're generous. You really are the big ol' teddy bear that Vicky said you were, and now I need to apologize for my apology."
     Earl's head swam, and he wasn't sure if it was because he was high or because of what Simone was saying. "Yeah, well," he muttered.
     "No, really. I feel terrible about how I treated you, and I wish I could make it up to you. I don't know a lot of people," she said. "Perris doesn't trust me much, and he gets very jealous. He told me to take care of you, and I did. But now I wish I hadn't, or that you weren't such a sweet guy."
     "So this whole night's just a big joke to you," Earl said. "Wonderful. I hope you and Perris get a lot of laughs out of it."
     "That's just it," Simone said. She moved her hands off his shoulders and was rubbing and feeling his large arms. "I was just supposed to take advantage of you, but you managed to turn it all around. Once I got to know you, I found that I was doing what I wanted to do, that I saw past the big exterior and that there's an incredibly warm and sensitive guy in there, a generous one. I'm sorry if I hurt that guy, if I treated him like a thing."
     Earl shrugged Simone's hands off. "So what are you saying? That you're sorry you kissed me or what?"
     "I'm sorry that I did it for the wrong reasons," Simone said. "I'm sorry I tricked you. I want you to know that." She put her hands again on his upper arms and gently kneaded the muscles she found there. "It's all me now, not what Perris wants, and it hasn't been that way since Vicky showed up. Now it's genuine," she said. She drew Earl closer, an inch or so from her.
     He wasn't sure what to do, or what was going on. "I've had a good time tonight," he said. "Or I thought I was."
     "I have, too," Simone said. "And I wasn't supposed to. Perris told me what to do, and I tried to do it, and then you showed up, and you haven't told me what to do all night. You let me do what I wanted to do, and you laughed if it was what you wanted or not. I'm not used to that."
     "So what are you telling me?" Earl asked. He didn't shake off her hands this time, not even when she moved them to grab him around his waist.
     "You're not stupid," she said. "So don't play that way." She moved imperceptibly closer to Earl and tilted her head slightly to the side. "I wish I could kiss you."
     Her lips were parted and just in front of Earl's. Simone had taken up the whole of Earl's perception, and it was her he smelled, not the ocean. It was her breath he heard over the distant roar of the ocean, and it was her breath that moved his hair, not the wind.
     "So, the phone call..." he started.
     "...was all my idea. To get away from Perris."
     "The drugs, the partying..."
     "All mine," she said. "All what I wanted to do."
     "But the kiss wasn't," Earl said.
     "Not the way it was given, no. Not what it should have been."
     "Not like this one?" Earl asked, and leaned forward to kiss her.
     "Your lip is so hurt," she whispered. "I shouldn't."
     Earl wasn't sure if she was protesting or not. He didn't know if she was saying no because of his injury or because of her involvement with Perris. He only knew that he reached around and hugged her, and that she hugged him back. She kissed his nose and lay her cheek against his and hugged Earl back as hard as he hugged her.
     "Simone," he said, and she drew back her head and lay it alongside his other cheek.
     "Don't," she whispered. "Don't ruin it like I did." They stood there like that, wrapped in each other's arms and swaying gently, with and against the wind. "I can't be with you, and I can't let you think that I can."
     She leaned back as far as she could, their hips still touching and their arms around each other's waists. "You are the sweetest man I've ever met," she said, and punctuated it with quick kiss on his nose.
     They were standing like that, wrapped in each other's arms and thoughts, when Vicky came bouncing back to the party. Simone saw Vicky hesitate and let go of Earl with one hand and used it to beckon Vicky into the hug.
     Whatever Vicky thought was replaced quickly, and she hurried over to snuggle between Earl and Simone. The three of them wrapped their arms around everyone's waists and Earl kissed each girl on the cheek in turn.
     The three of them found a comfortable spot and sat down. For the next several hours they talked, laughed, and flirted as if they were old friends, none of them with a care in the world. Vicky told how she had come here to LA from her home in Eastern Colorado, and how the first people who had drawn her in and close were her friends in Scientology. Simone mentioned that she'd come down from Oregon when her mother had been offered a job as a makeup artist for one of the studios. She still lived with her, but it was an easy arrangement since Simone stayed in the rear part of a duplex. She had her freedom to come and go as she pleased, and her mom never questioned where Simone was or who she was with. Her mother approved of Perris, whom she considered a bit too driven, but the three of them rarely spent any time together.
     "But tell us about you, Earl," Simone said, when she was done. "I think you're the most interesting one."
     "Yeah," Vicky said, throwing her arm around his shoulders and drawing him close. "How did you end up in the Single Spire."
     Earl sighed. His story, he felt, wasn't much and wasn't likely to interest either of these two. He'd grown up in Lawndale, a small working-class community a few miles inland. There were the usual problems with divorce and welfare, since Earl's mother was never able to hold a job for more than a few months.
When Earl was seventeen, she took off to work with a rodeo and with a man who'd promised her everything and had given her a belt buckle.
Earl dropped out of school and lived for awhile in a series of garages owned by parents of his friends. Some of them knew of the arrangement, and others did not. Over time Earl learned a little about metal working and a lot more about welding. He'd taken a job at Ed's a few years ago and the Single Spire Motel was within his budget and close by.
"So not so much to tell, not really," he said, summing up his history. He looked at Simone, who flicked her eyes at Vicky. Earl glanced down at the top of her head, which was still on Earl's shoulder, and he laid a little kiss on the top of Vicky's head.
She stirred, and looked up at him, all attention and fully alert.
"What was that for?" she asked, but she didn't act as if she were at all mad.
"Just because," Earl said.
Vicky righted herself and sat up straight. "The same 'because' that you had when you were kissing Simone?"
"We weren't kissing, silly," Simone said. "You mean when you caught us out by the cliff?"
"Yep."
"I was just telling Earl what a dear he was, what a sweet guy I think he is, and we hugged. That's it," she added, moving an errant wisp of hair back behind her ear. "Besides, Perris would never let me kiss anyone but him."
"Oh, yeah, that's right. Perris," Vicky said. "I'm glad you got away from him tonight to hang with us."
"Me, too," Simone agreed. "He would never have understood any of this."
"Hey," Earl said, changing the subject. "It's getting light out." He pointed back to the east, where a thin drab ribbon of dark gray was appearing along the horizon. "Soon this place will be busy."
"Busy?" Vicky asked. "With what?"
"Daytimers," Earl said. "A lot of the old people around her come out here and sit and play chess and shit during the day. This is kinda their spot, and I don't think they'll be happy to see a bunch of freaks hanging around drinking and partying."
If Simone or Vicky objected to being called a freak, they didn't show it. Instead, they followed Earl's lead and began loading the empties and trash into the bag and began walking back to the car. They threw the bag in a large steel trashcan and both Vicky and Simone asked if they could ride in the back.
"You want me to chauffeur you?" Earl asked, and the girls giggled and told him they did. He shrugged his shoulders and began driving Simone home. "I think I'm going to be sick today," he said as he got back on the freeway and began heading north.
"From the drugs?" Simone asked. "Is it going to make me sick, too?"
Earl laughed. "No, the drugs won't make you sick. But I'm going to call in sick so I don't have to go to work today. I've been drinking all night, and I don't think I should go in drunk."
"I don't have to do anything today," Vicky said. "I guess I'm lucky."
"Am I drunk?" Simone asked, and Earl reached back and felt around, eventually grabbing her breast.
"I don't know, are you?" he asked, grinning at her in the mirror.
She playfully slapped his hand away. "Not that drunk," she said, and burst out laughing. Soon, Vicky joined in and Earl lit a small joint and passed it back to the girls in the rear.
When they got to Simone's home, the party subdued. It was still early and the streets were deserted around Simone's home, but some lights were on in some of the houses, including the front of Simone's where her mother lived.
"I guess this is it," Simone said, crawling out from the back of the car. She dusted off her pants and sweater and straightened herself out as best she could. She wavered slightly as she stood there, and Earl got out of the car.
"Hey," he said. "Thanks for coming over." He stood there, not sure what to do or even what was expected of him. Vicky walked around and joined them.
"Thanks for everything," Simone said quietly, then tried to contain another fit of giggles. She gave Vicky a brief hug, then looked at Earl and ran her tongue over her lips.
He leaned forward to give her a hug, and was surprised when she kissed him full on the lips. He felt her tongue stab quickly against the front of his mouth and teeth, but before he could react she'd broken off the kiss.
"I'll see you 'round," she said, hurrying back to her home.
Earl threw his arm around Vicky and they watched her turn toward her door and give a little wave. A moment later she disappeared inside and Earl and Vicky climbed back in the car.
"You don't get to ride in the back anymore," Earl said. He grinned as he said it, and Vicky laughed.
"I wasn't going to," she said, putting on a pout. "I want to be with you."