Belle:Is there someone you are close to who no one else likes? What's the story?
“It was a while ago, we don’t talk anymore, but I’m convinced Rhodey didn’t like Ty, even if he never said as much outright.”
“Tiberius Stone. We went school together. Childhood friends, when I was finally bumped up to his grade. You know, all that shit. We were competitive little fuckers; who could drink the most (incidentally, he could, I ended up throwing up all over him, the table, and the two girls we were talking to), who could get into Susan Buxton’s panties first (again, him, see reasoning above) and who could do a lap around the school buck ass naked without getting caught (me, ha, eat dirt, Ty).”
“He’d come by MIT every so often, bringing with him the kind of designer drugs that left you thinking you could smell colours and taste words, a game to see who would white out first (me, always me) and by the time he’d head off, Rhodey would have that (now very familiar and very common) pinch between his brow and, fuck me, he’d be such a sarcastic, unsympathetic ass, he was unbearable.”
“We stopped talking - but I s’pose your dad bankrupting his dad would do that. Dropped off the face of the earth. I think he’s in London now.”
“I’d love to say it doesn’t bother me - and why should it, I have Rhodey - but we’d been friends for a long time, y’know? And sure, we fought, everything was a competition and he was a fucking ass; but he’d been familiar (and the first boy I’d looked at and thought I’d like to kiss you because, okay, clearly I have a type that includes authoritative and, as later proved by Sunset, slightly assholy-ish).”
“But, yeah - we were close, I guess, and I really don’t think Rhodey approved of him. I don’t think Rhodey approved of me when Ty was here; I kinda played up when he’d come to visit, and it’d be nice to blame that on the folly of youth but I’m just not so sure, and I was an absolute dick to Rhodey if he ever showed his face when I was with Ty.”
“You know, that was some thirty plus years ago now, and I still don’t understand why Rhodey stuck with me, throughout all that. Why he’s still here. Secret masochist at heart, maybe?”
