Pelican Bluff - Chapters 3-4 Arc 1

Chapter Three

         As soon as Saturday arrived, Duncan found himself more nervous than he had been in a long time. The past few days around Georgie had been in a controlled environment, where he wasn’t forced to restrain himself. They’d met for study lessons at the library and only passed briefly in the halls. He truly felt as if he was getting the hang of avoiding the flutters she inspired in him, but the real test would be hanging out at her house, around Fisher and Lily, and not surrendering to his carnal impulses.
         “Get a grip,” he mumbled to himself as her castle appeared on the horizon.
         Lily had already arrived, donning the tiniest excuse for a bathing suit he had ever seen in his life. No doubt it was for his benefit. He took a moment to savor the image of his ex, stretched out and glistening by the pool. He’d had a good thing, he decided, but any sign of remorse for ending his relationship with her faded into the nothingness of his mind when his goddess emerged from her temple.
         “Good morning, Duncan,” Georgie smiled when she saw him peeking around the corner. Lily turned, having not noticed him.
         “Hey,” was all the stupor her beauty invoked allowed him to say.
         “Any word from Fisher?” Georgie asked, sitting down and dangling her feet in the deep end.
         “Not yet,” Lily answered, patting the cement by her for Duncan to sit. “He’s probably still at home trying to telepathically force the higher-ups at Krespy to call him.”
         Lily noticed, as she swept her auburn hair away from her face, that Duncan’s cheeks turned pink when Georgie splashed water on him. But he’d worn the baby blue trunks that made him look as if he had borrowed his thighs from Adonis. That alone begged for someone to splash him.
         “So, the two of you have been spending an awful lot of time together,” Lily suggested, adjusting herself so that the sun now baked down on her back.
         Aggravated, Duncan cocked his head and reiterated, “How many times in the past three days have I told you the grade whore is just tutoring me?”
         Splashing him again, Georgie added, “and how many times have I told you that the man whore is just benefiting from my dominating intelligence?” Lily couldn’t see her, but Georgie winked, and Duncan grinned like a schoolgirl.
         Beyond them Fisher’s car pulled up and spat him out through the driver’s side door. Staggering with glee he raced over to the trio, panting and beaming. “They called! They want me! Krespy Kollins wants me!”
         Finally the torture of Fisher the Mope had ended and now they had to deal with hearing him boast until the episode aired.
         And, probably for a long time after that.
         Lily was the first to congratulate him, when his presence seemed to suck the life out of both Duncan and Georgie. Meanwhile, Fisher shimmied out of his jeans and dove in, water rising and coating everyone on the sidelines.
         “So, Fish Face, when are you filming this reality TV travesty?” Duncan asked, sliding down into the water with him. He motioned for the ladies to join them, but both waved him off. “Suit yourselves.”
         “Next Friday, and they gave me three studio tickets in case I’d like to bring a few guests along. Three guesses who I‘m inviting!” All three plastered fake smiles on their faces. The love of all things Krespy did not extend beyond him. “I hope you’ll come, Georgie.”
         The tension had given way to something remotely whimsical, but that statement made all the apprehension come rushing back. Fortunately for Georgie the smile-and-nod method of answering was more than enough for the boy who hung on her every word.
         And Fisher.
         “She can have Duncan give her a ride after ‘tutoring’ I guess!” Lily jumped down between the boys, her gaze grilling Duncan.
         She knew, even if no one else did.
         Picking up on the chill in the air, Fisher observed first Georgie, then Duncan, and then Lily, whose face implied she was ready to spit fire if either of the other two so much as acknowledged the other existed.
         “What’s going on?”
         “Nothing!” Both Duncan and Georgie shouted in unison, guilt paving the way to denial. Again, it was good enough for Fisher, but not nearly what it would take to placate Lily.
         Inside, the phone rang and Georgie bolted up to answer it. “I’ll be right back,” she yelled, running into her house.
         Her wet feet left a trail behind her as she hurried to grab the telephone. Snatching it from its base, she jammed it against her ear. “Hart residence.”
         “Georgie?” Claudia demanded on the other end of the line.
         “Yep. Aren’t you home yet, mom?”
         There was static before she heard her answer. “No. I’m at the airport. They lost my luggage. Is your father there?”
         “I haven’t seen him since Duncan got here--” The words wanted to crawl back into her mouth as soon as she said them.
         “What is he doing there? Surely you’re not tutoring this early in the morning!”
         “Fisher and Lily are here too! We’re just hanging out. You don’t mind them being here, do you?”
         “I never mind Fisher and Lily being there.” Claudia paused. “If you see your father, tell him why I’m so late, would you, darling?”
         “Will do,” Georgie hung up. Sometime after her mother started being a top-of-the-line political reporter, Georgie had morphed into an lopsided daughter-secretary hybrid.
         Shock and elation enraptured her mind as she spun around and saw Duncan standing there, feet from her, dripping on the linoleum. Her hands suddenly trembled by her side, only the center island to keep them apart.
         Duncan struggled for words. What had possessed him to follow her inside? His actions weren’t those of a sane, coherent man. His feet were prepared to turn and run should she exhibit even the slightest sign of being uncomfortable.
         “I didn’t hear you come in,” she whispered.
         “I didn’t want to interrupt your phone call.” His eyes searched the room for something - anything - to keep his focus off the angel in front of him. Nothing worked. She had complete command of him, whether she wanted it or not. “Oh! Lily sent me in for a bottle of water.”
         Georgie slipped over to the fridge and retrieved from it a small container of spring water. As he took the bottle from her, his fingers danced over hers, and electricity shot down their spines.
         But did the other feel it?
         Duncan became bolder. His hand traveled to her slender wrist, his fingertips against her skin, brushing delicately. He shouldn’t be doing this, but he was, and it felt mind-numbingly unbelievable that she wasn’t slapping his face and forcing him to leave.
         Georgie stepped in closer, bringing her hand up and resting it on the stubble of his cheek. His eyes possessed more soul than she had ever seen in anyone before. It was as if she could see into the heart of him, and as if he could do the same to her. And, as he spoke, she could feel his breath warm and soft on her hand.
         “Georgie, I--”
         “Shh.” She pressed her fingers against his mouth, and when he was silent, she replaced them with her lips. They were soft and pleasant, everything he fantasized they would be. His tasted of licorice, and if she wasn’t completely enthralled with his kiss, she would have chuckled at the boyish sincerity of it all.
         The bottle of water dropped onto the nearby counter as he pulled her against him. Her body felt at home against his, like a missing piece of the Duncan puzzle falling into place. He wanted - needed - more of her, and she probably would have given him anything he asked of her, were it not for Lily’s eyes searing through them.
         “I don’t know which one of you is more transparent,” she scoffed, jolting them back to reality. As quickly as their hands had found each other, they were torn apart, and mortified. “So which one of you is going to break the happy news to Fisher?”
         “There’s no news to break,” Georgie covered, her words instilling a universe of doubt in Duncan’s mind. Had he imagined everything that just transpired between them?
         “It was just a kiss,” he added, looking to Georgie for approval.
         “Save it. I don’t need a diagram. You guys are hot for each other. I get it. It’s not like it’s any of my business anyway, considering I am so over Duncan that it’s like we were never even an item.” She smiled like the cat who just caught an entire nest full of canaries. “Fisher, on the other hand lets his sun rise and set for his magnificent Georgie.”
         Guilt. She was a mistress of making people feel an inch tall, even when they shouldn’t.
         “I can’t control how Fisher feels about me, Lily.” Her explanation was as weak as Duncan‘s chest was firm.
         “Of course not. But, of all the people you could have chosen, you pick his best friend? Why don’t you grab a meat cleaver and stab him in the back while you’re at it?”
         Fisher elected that moment to come strolling through, in a Krespy-induced haze of ignorance that blinded him from feeling the paramount tension until he caught a glimpse of his friends’ faces. “Whoa, what’s going on here?”
         Silence.
         Lily had all the cards in her hand. How she chose to play them was entirely up to her. “I just caught Duncan and Georgie,” she began, watching devastation flicker on their faces. “Bickering about his study habits,” she lied.
         Fisher chortled. “The two of you are just never going to get along, are you?”
         “Guess not,” they mumbled, looking at one another.
         “Well,” Fisher’s Krespy smile returned. “I’m going to get going. I have to start preparing myself to be on TV!”
         When he was gone, Lily examined the two of them, as if they were lovers and she was the betrayed wife who had barged in on their tryst. “I’m going to leave, too, and not just because I think the two of you together is the worst thing to happen to Pelican Bluff since Duncan’s mom.”
         She didn’t even give him time to become irate that she would blast his mother like that. Lily only left the sound of a door slamming, and two people staring at the floor.
         Duncan was the first to move after what seemed like an eternity. He grabbed the water bottle from the counter and chugged it down. Suddenly he was parched. Maybe he was in the desert and everything that had happened the past few days was a strange hallucination. He kept his distance. Even if Georgie was a mirage he was dying to savor again, there was no need in making her uncomfortable.
         “Do you think she’ll tell him about us?” She asked, folding her arms in an effort to keep her heart from flying out of her chest.
         “Is there an ‘us,’ Georgette?” Duncan wiped water from his mouth. He didn’t just ask something so cliché and corny, did he? “You know, just forget I said anything. I suffer from Gatsby syndrome, remember?”
         “How do you mean?”
         “I’m always falling for girls who are unavailable for some fill-in-the-blank reason. First Lily, now you.” He tried hard to keep from finishing that sentence, but it was like some dam in his mind burst and all the words he didn’t want to say kept coming out.
         Not that she needed him to say them. She could feel his emotion radiating off of him.
         “I’m not with Fisher, but I don’t want to hurt him, either.”
         “Me, neither. So what do we do?”
         With everything obscured and aching, they realized there was only one thing they could do in this situation: Walk away.

Chapter Four

         The summer in Pelican Bluff was going to be long and hard, if the recent heat wave was any indication of things. It had been six days since Georgie and Duncan spoke, and six seconds since they’d thought about one another by the time school let out. Duncan kept quiet, inspiring questions and awkward glances from his friends, while Georgie was oddly on edge, as if she had some secret that everyone was conspiring to get her to reveal.
         At the ringing of the bell, she flew to her locker, determined to stash her books and make it out to her car before Duncan did. Their assigned spaces were directly across from each other, and it was proving too difficult for her to not sit there in her sparkling Mustang, waiting to just catch a glimpse of him. She was amazed that two weeks ago she was completely oblivious to the man Duncan was, and now she spent her nights dreaming about him.
         And, him her.
         Down the hall a ways, Fisher was surprised to open his locker and discover a plate full of homemade brownies with a note on them. “They say a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Here’s hoping Krespy is good to you today.” He pushed his hair out of his eyes and glanced down the hall to Georgie, as she sped out the door.
         “She wants me back!” he hooted, rushing after her.
         In the lot, she groped around in her handbag for a second, before finding her keys and unlocking her car. Before she could step inside, however, she felt two arms wrap around her and hold her against a six-foot-tall man. Smiling, Georgie whirled around, and Fisher planted his lips on hers.
         For the briefest of moments, her mind entertained the notion that maybe Duncan had inhabited Fisher’s body, and it was Duncan kissing her now, vicariously through his best friend. If that were true, then it’d be Fisher in Duncan’s body climbing into his truck not ten feet away. Either way, it’d be Fisher getting his heart broken, when she came to her senses and pushed him away.
         “What was that?”
         She didn’t realize that Duncan had seen them, until she heard his truck peeling out of its space. Horrified, she wanted to run after him, but Fisher grabbed her hand and smiled at her with his goofy, lovelorn smile.
         “I got your brownies.”
         “What brownies?”
         “The ones you left in my locker, silly!” He tried to kiss her again, but she put up her hand and shook her head. “You didn’t bake me brownies? Oh.”
         His cheeks glowed red with embarrassment.
         “I’m sorry. It must have been some other adoring fan.”
         Fisher rubbed his neck. Thankfully he had his upcoming exposure to Krespy Kollins to keep him from running off the nearest bridge he found after that little incident. He should have thought. Georgie couldn’t bake brownies. She’d had a live-in cook for the first fifteen years of her life. Sometimes they thought she could boil water, but only if it was in the microwave, and only if they gave her six hours to do it.
         “If you didn’t put them in my locker, then who did?”
         Even if he hadn’t verbalized that question, he would have gotten every answer he needed, in the form of a high-pitched yelp that managed to pass for “Fisher” coming out of Penny’s mouth. Two seconds later, she was standing next to him, staring up at him from behind her glasses, little animated hearts floating around her head.
         Remember, if you kill her, the police will arrest you before you get to meet Krespy, he told himself. Instead, he gritted his teeth. “Hey, Penny.”
         Georgie took the opportunity to drop into the driver’s seat, wave, wink and pull out, leaving him to fight World War Penny all alone. Meanwhile, Penny took a yellow card from her pocket and showed it to him, pride smeared across her freckled face.
         “I got a front row seat to today’s taping!”
         Bad had been mistakenly kissing the love of his life. Unbearable would be being plagued by the Penny on what should be the happiest moment of his young adult life. Still, what was he going to do? Demand she not go? How could he be consciously cruel to someone who batted her eyelashes and was as steadfastly devoted to him as he was to Georgie?
         Oh what a web we weave, he thought to himself. When first we practice being on TV.
         “That’s wonderful, but are you sure you want to go? A lot of people find Krespy boring.”
         “You’ll be there! Of course I want to go!” She opened her arms as wide as she could, then clasped them around him like a bear about to devour some poor, delirious hiker in the woods. Fisher stood there, in her clutches, looking to the sky and praying that if lightning was ever going to strike him, let it be then.

         Thirty minutes later, a team of makeup specialists had Fisher strapped down to a chair, puffing and buffing everything they could find to puff and buff. He’d never had so much powder and gloss on in his life. Was this what a woman had to go through every morning?!
         Lily stood in the corner of the room, chuckling at the awkwardness he was experiencing. He had this coming to him for dragging her down to the TV station when she could have been at play rehearsals. Eh, it’s experience for when I’m a major television star, she decided, covering her mouth so he couldn’t see her laughing at him.
         Through the gaps in the mob surrounding him, Fisher saw Krespy pass past his dressing room, reading something and sipping coffee. It took him a moment to recognize Krespy without all the clown makeup and the orange wig, but no one could deny those huge Krespy feet. He let out a squeal of joy, bouncing up and down in the chair like a four-year-old who’d just seen Santa shimmy down the chimney.
         Out in the audience, Georgie hurried down the aisle, looking for chair 37. When she saw it, her heart sank when she saw it was right next to 38, which was occupied by an obviously angry Duncan.
         “So, you’re back together, huh?” He asked, not even having to look up to see her.
         “No!” She flopped into her seat, slipped her ticket stub into her pocket and did everything she could to make him listen to her. “He kissed me, and if you would have stuck around long enough, you would have seen me push him away.”
         Duncan said nothing, just bent down and adjusted the cuff of his jeans. His navy-colored T-shirt had a tiny hole in it just under the arm. Any other day, before their weird pseudo-affair started, she would have stuck one of her fingernails in it and made him make the little yelping noise that he made when anyone jabbed his skin with a fingernail.
         “I’m sorry things are weird between us, and I don’t expect you to be entirely comfortable with me, considering how things are. But, you need to know that anything you saw in the parking lot was entirely Fisher.”
         Duncan jumped up, the seat of his chair folding sharply against the back. “It’s none of my business who you kiss, even though I’d prefer it be me.” He ran off, not giving her a chance to say anything, and disappearing into the crowd of the audience filing into the back seats.
         “Where’s Duncan?” Lily asked, sitting down next to Georgie, who herself was about to start weeping from everything that was going on. If breaking up with her on-paper soul mate Fisher had been hard on her, then not being able to be with the man who made her feel alive would surely kill her.
         “Long story short? He saw Fisher kiss me in the parking lot and is avoiding me.”
         “Ah.”
         Go after him! The angel on one of her shoulders demanded. In the meantime, the detrimental Devil of self-loathing urged her, Let him go. Please your parents and Fisher. She cupped her long, brown hair behind her ears and groaned, inspiring Lily to touch base with that minute piece of her mind that managed selflessness.
         “You really care about Duncan, don’t you?” Georgie nodded. “I don’t like you very much since you broke up with Fisher. In fact, I think barring Osama and Krespy Kollins, you’re my least favorite person on this planet. However, as angry as I am that Duncan and I never work as anything more than people who occasionally make out, I also care about him, probably as much as I care about Fisher.”
         Georgie’s ears perked up.
         “That said, it’s unfair of me to ask you or Duncan to sacrifice what makes you happy in the name of the delusional non-relationship that makes Fisher happy.” Georgie’s face became engrossed with pure glee. “But, I swear on everything that’s holy to me, if you hug me I will slap you and run blabbing to Fisher.”
         Georgie squeezed past her, ready to race off in hot pursuit of Duncan. “Thank you, Lily. But, what changed your mind?”
         Lily looked up at Georgie, her eyes telling the story before her mouth figured out which words to use. “I was just remembering how I fell in love with Duncan when Fisher and I were together. I can’t really blame you for doing something I did, myself.”
         Georgie nodded, restraining the urge to pat her forlorn quasi-friend on the shoulder.
         In the men’s room, Duncan stood before the mirror. He splashed water on his face, observing the wreck he had become since getting the mushies for Georgie. How could anyone not? With her soft face and her incredible gentility, she was a princess with her very own castle. And, he was a little slave boy dreaming of being her knight in shining armor.
         He wiped his face off with a paper towel, discarded it in the bin by the door and began the long, lonely track back to the studio. Seeing Fisher kissing her had cracked a mile-deep fissure in his usually-granite stomach. Duncan felt like punching something, but the only person he had to hold accountable for things happening the way they were was himself, for having the nerve to fall for someone so out of his league.
         “Duncan!” Georgie called, rounding the corner.
         “Just go back to the set, Georgette. They’re going to start soon.”
         She didn’t budge from where she stood. For the first time in a long time, Georgie Hart wasn’t backing down without a fight.
         “I want to be with you.”
         Duncan furrowed his brow to mask a tear welling in his eye. “We can’t be together. If we could, we would be. The fact of the matter is that as much as I want you and as much as you seem to think you want me, it’s better for everyone involved if we just keep our distance.”
         “Who cares about everyone else?” She demanded, not masking how upset she was. “I don’t want to hurt Fisher anymore than you do, but it’s not worth denying ourselves of what we’re starting to feel.” Her eyes pleaded to him to reconsider, but even they weren’t enough to get him to disregard his steely conviction over what was right for her.
         “This isn’t just about Fisher. If it were, I’d go tell him right now how damn much you mean to me,” his voice cracked. “But, your family has high hopes for you, and you deserve someone who fits you perfectly. You deserve someone you can take home and have make them proud.”
         Georgie didn’t realize it, but as he broke down, she had been ambling towards him, her feet resisting her mind’s resolution to stay put until he came to her. “You do make me proud!”
         And, suddenly her head was resting on his shoulder, as her hungry arms locked around him. What he had felt in her kitchen - that she was the missing piece that made the Duncan puzzle complete - she felt now. Without him, she was Georgie the girl. With him, she was Georgie the woman.
         “What if this thing doesn’t work out?” He whispered.
         “Then it doesn’t work out. But, we leave it knowing that we gave it a chance to be.”
         Duncan touched her face. She had woven silk for skin. He could kiss her, now, but what if he did and everything vaporized as if he was in yet another dream of her? He’d have to risk it, if it meant experiencing even one more of her kisses.
         Swooping down, he held her face in his hands for a moment longer, before carefully laying his lips down on hers. They lingered there for a moment, before hers parted, and allowed him to explore her mouth a little deeper with his.
         Georgie’s body clasped against his, as if latched there by a magnetic force inside them. Her heart, beating violently within the confines of her chest, demanded more of him, as suddenly the world around them became a spinning vortex of heat and passion.
         Panting, Duncan pulled away and waited for the earth to stop spinning. He’d never seen such a thirst in her eyes before. She wanted him. She needed him. He could see it for himself now. But, not there. Not in the hallway. Georgie was the type of girl who didn’t demand perfection, but deserved it nonetheless.
         “We have to go back to the studio. Fisher will notice us missing.” He kissed her forehead. “When this is over, if you still want to do this whatever we’re doing, meet me at the edge of your driveway at sunset.”
         Nothing, no one was going to keep her away now.