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"Don't Tell Me Twice" Chapter Eleven

The Truth Unplugged

By Nicole Higginbotham-HoguePublished 2 years ago 5 min read
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"Don't Tell Me Twice" Chapter Eleven
Photo by Frank Alarcon on Unsplash

“Hey, can you pour me a beer?” Buck asked a skinny woman that stood in front of a nearby keg. Finding out that Ziggy and Viola were related had come as a shock to her, and she wanted to find Spike and Jemma so that she could talk to them about her newfound knowledge.

“Here you go,” the skinny woman replied in a gravelly voice. “Any party favors?” the woman questioned, holding out her hand to show off a number of colorful pills.

“No thanks,” Buck replied, looking the other woman up and down. The woman looked sickly, and in the glow of the fire, Buck could see the dark circles around her eyes.

“Suit yourself, Buck,” the woman replied.

Buck looked at the other woman closely. “How do you know my name?”

“How do you not recognize me?” the other woman shot back.

“What do you mean?” Buck asked, confused. The other woman looked nothing like the people that she usually hung out with so it came to a loss to her as to where the two of them would have met.

“It’s me. Olive,” the other woman said. “It hasn’t been that long. What is wrong with you?”

“You look different,” Buck said, looking the other woman in the eyes. Surely enough, they were Olive’s eyes. “What happened to you? Why are you so skinny?”

“I lost weight,” Olive replied. “Why are you so concerned?”

“Because you look sick, Olive,” Buck stated. “Your clothes are hanging off your body. What did Viola do to you?”

“She didn’t do anything to me,” Olive retorted. “Why do you have to be so jealous? Can’t you just be happy for me?”

“Happy?” Buck exclaimed. “Happy about what? Happy that you left me for Viola? Happy that you look like you’re on drugs? What do I have to be happy about?”

“You’re causing a scene,” Olive sneered. “Leave me alone, Buck. I don’t need this.”

“You’re the one that started talking to me,” Buck shot back. “I just came to get a beer.” Buck shook her head and began to say something else, but just as she did, Viola came up from behind Olive and pulled the other woman close to her.

“Is there a problem?” Viola asked, stepping closer to Buck.

“No,” a familiar voice replied, pulling Buck’s arm. “She was just leaving.”

“Hey,” Buck said, turning around to see who had pulled her back. “Ziggy? Why did you do that?”

“Because I’m not going to let you ruin your reputation or the reputation of the band over a minor squabble. I’ve worked hard to get here. I just gave up everything, and if I can do something to prevent bad publicity for the band, I will.”

“It’s not your situation,” Buck retorted. “Did you see her? Did you see how Olive looked?”

“Yeah, it’s unfortunate,” Ziggy replied. “But you can’t control what people do.”

“No, but I can kick your cousin’s ass for getting her involved in bad shit,” Buck replied. “Olive was never like this when she was with me.”

“I think that you need to stop assuming that Viola is behind everything,” Ziggy stated. “I’m not saying that she didn’t contribute to Olive’s habits, but people make their own choices. Maybe, Olive was doing drugs the whole time, and they just caught up with her.”

“I’m done talking to you,” Buck said, storming off. She picked up another beer and made her way down to a small, nearby pond. The area around the water was quite besides the small notes of crickets chirping in the distance, and the serene environment was just what she needed to think. Life had become a never-ending nightmare lately, and her emotions were all over the place. She felt so alone. Buck looked out onto the pond, noticing a ripple here and there and wondered how long it would take until her life made sense again.

“I’m sorry if I embarrassed you back there,” Ziggy’s voice said from behind her.

At this point, Buck had calmed down, and she had realized that Ziggy really was trying to help her avoid a potentially bad situation. “You didn’t embarrass me,” Buck told her. “Honestly, you probably made the right decision to pull me away.”

“Still, you are right. It wasn’t any of my business,” Ziggy said. “I just saw the chain of events play out in my head, and I wanted to stop things from escalating before it was too late. Besides, Viola’s a punk, and she has no limitations to her behavior.”

“Yeah, I could see it in her eyes,” Buck replied. “It was like she was waiting for the fight. She seemed almost happy about it.”

“You know,” Ziggy began, sitting down next to her. “Viola thrives in chaos. She doesn’t know how to adapt to peaceful situations.”

“How can anyone live like that?” Buck inquired, watching the starlight dance off the water.

“I don’t know,” Ziggy said. “But I didn’t want you to get sucked into her world. It would have only taken one fight, and she would be causing issues for you every time that she saw you.”

“I take it that you don’t like her too much,” Buck commented, surprised by the way Ziggy described Viola.

“Look. She’s family. I have to love her, but I don’t have to like her,” Ziggy said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Buck said.

“Don’t let her ruin the night for you,” Ziggy told the other woman, patting her on the back. “It’s really not worth it.”

“Why do you care so much about how I feel?” Buck questioned.

“I just do,” Ziggy said, looking her in the eyes. “I feel bad about everything that’s happened to you lately, and I feel like it wouldn’t hurt you to have one more friend.”

“Thanks,” Buck said, looking away. She didn’t have the words to express how good that it felt for someone to want to be there for her, and somehow, she knew that she didn’t need them. As the two sat looking out into the water, Buck felt comfortable in the silence that they shared, and she hoped that this memory would be one of many in the newfound friendship they now had.

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About the Creator

Nicole Higginbotham-Hogue

Nicole Higginbotham-Hogue is a lesfic author at amzn.to/36DFT2x. Sign-up for her newsletter at higginbothampublications.com

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