Jacob woke up with a mild hangover and a headache. They wound up not having enough money for a hotel with two beds so they got a queen. At first Jacob had forgot about this detail and when he opened his eyes the first thing he saw was Derek with his mouth gaping open. He was snoring loudly.
Jacob crawled out of bed wearing his underwear and his pants and nothing else. He staggered to the bathroom and puked into the toilet. He felt slightly better but he needed water badly. He walked out of the hotel room carrying the ice bucket that was always provided with the room. He filled it with ice and slumped back to his room.
6 glasses of ice water, three puking sessions into the toilet and one long pee, Jacob was feeling a little better. He noticed that it was only 8am. He wanted to turn on the TV but he didn't want to wake up Derek. He quietly got back into bed and lay there staring at the ceiling and listening to Derek snore.
Jacob thought to himself what a great friend Derek was. It took a lot of trust and understanding between two straight men to just share a bed. Sadly most men are too homophobic to share a bed with one of their male friends. But both Jacob and Derek were comfortable enough with their sexuality that they hadn't even thought twice about it. This immediately made Jacob think about the conversation he and Alex had about cuddling with his male friends. He was suddenly very sad.
His mind took him back to the first night he had met Alex. He thought about the dialect they had together.
"Would you put your arm around a friend of yours? Or hug them if they were sad?"
"Sure why not?"
"Would you cuddle one of your other friends?"
"Well, all my other friends are guys. I suppose if one of my friend's parents died and he needed to be held, I would hold him."
The whole conversation replayed in Jacob's mind. He missed Alex. And then he began to think about Rose.
"This whole thing is stupid." He muttered to himself.
"HUH! What is stupid?" Derek said sitting straight up in bed.
"I just don't know what I should do next. Both Alex and Rose had feelings for me, and they seem to have feelings for each other. And now all three of us can't have one or the other. It is the most fucked up love triangle I have ever heard of."
"Dude," Derek said laying down and turning on his side so he could look at Jacob. "You keep forgetting what is most important in this whole thing."
"Yeah and what is that?"
"What do you want?" Derek said putting emphasis on the word YOU.
"I just want a girl in my life that makes me happy and that is happy being with me."
"Are Alex or Rose that girl for you?"
"If I knew that I wouldn't be in this situation."
They each took a shower separately and then went out to the nearest clothing store and bought clothes that were nice enough to go to the clubs in. They also bought some more casual clothes. Afterwards they threw the clothes they had bought off the strangers in the garbage.
Jacob couldn't help but stare up at the skyscrapers that seemed to be clustered at random all around him.
This city didn't have a major metropolis like most American cities. Instead it had several smaller clusters of sky scrapers and larger business areas. There were lots of hills and changes in elevation as well. The Hotel they were at was up higher than a lot of the city and from the lobby they could look out over much of the city.
In their casual clothes they set off to find some breakfast and complete the healing process from the night of drinking. As they sat in Denny's eating they delved back into the subject of Jacob's current situation.
"Ok, so first off what happened with each girl and what did you like about them?"
"You really think that is how I should approach this?"
"Yes, I think you should analyze your feelings about each girl. So tell me about each one from the beginning."
"Well, I met Alex first. The first time I hung out with her we were just friends. Yet, we cuddled up on her couch and watched TV and even wound up sleeping in her bed that night. But we didn't have sex or even touch each other in that way. Then later on Rose and I were walking to the gym together and Rose just all of the sudden kissed me."
"How did that make you feel?" Derek asked.
"I liked it, I even welcomed it. And afterwards I held her close to me and we had this wonderful moment. I told Rose that someone had told me she and Alex were sleeping together and she blew up and told me that she and Alex were just friends. Then she told me she really liked me. But we left the conversation at she liked having fun with Alex too. And that kind of left me confused. Later on I went over to Alex's. Alex said that she had always been more into girls but she was willing to try sleeping with a guy..."
"Hold on! So Alex tested her sexuality on you? Had she ever slept with a guy before?"
"It...didn't feel like it." Jacob said. "And she hurt a lot in the morning. Kinda like she had never done anything down there."
"And then what happened?"
"Well before I say anything I have to mention that me and Alex had a heated moment before all that. I confessed that Rose had told me she had feelings for me. But I told Alex that I had feelings for her over Rose and that I wanted to be with her. That is what convinced her to see if she could have feelings for me in return."
"So Alex knows Rose has feelings for you?"
"Yeah."
"Then why would Alex sleep with you if she had feelings for Rose?"
"Maybe she truly didn't know if she could love a boy. Or, maybe she just wanted to see what it was like. Either way Rose caught us in the act the next morning and Alex was more devastated that she had been caught by Rose than anything else. Then she told me that she just couldn't have feelings for me."
"So back to the original question. Which one of these girls do you have feelings for?"
Jacob sat back against the booth and looked at the ceiling. "I just don't know." He sighed.
They walked down the sidewalk towards the hotel and Derek once again pressed the subject.
"I just don't understand. If Alex knew you liked her over Rose, why did she act more concerned over Rose catching you two than anything else?"
"I guess because she truly just has more feelings for Rose than she does for me."
"But Rose told you that she doesn't like Alex in that way. She just likes a woman's touch every once in a while."
Suddenly Derek stopped dead in his tracks. Jacob kept walking and then noticed Derek had stopped. He turned and looked back at Derek.
"What's wrong?"
"I know what the three of you have to do."
Jacob's face grew skeptical. "Oh god don't tell me. I don't like how you said 'the three of us'. And if you are thinking what I think you are thinking, how is that going to solve anything?"
"Well, let's see. If all three of you sleep together that will put Rose even with Alex. The two of them won't have to have any anger towards each other because they both had a crack at you. Rose likes a woman's touch so she can get as much of that as she likes in the process. Alex can once and for all prove if she likes to be with a woman more than being with a man. She can literally try each out one after the other."
"I do not really agree with you on this but how would I benefit?"
"Besides the obvious reason you and Rose would be even and you could start out on a clean slate."
"But what about Alex?"
Derek stared at Jacob for a second or two before he answered. "Well that does complicate things."
"What complicates things?"
"I think I know which girl you truly have feelings for."
Jacob didn't say anything else. He knew Derek was right.
The night descended on the big city and Derek and Jacob once again donned their night clothes and headed for the bars. They first hit a club called Moonies. It was a huge place with three stories. The top two floors had balconies and bars were located indoors and outside.
Loud booming dub step and techno music boomed throughout the club and large screens on the walls and ceiling displayed cosmic color patterns and weird spirals and circles that constantly pulsated and rotated to the music.
Jacob and Derek made their way to the third floor where they proceeded to the balcony.
There they each grabbed a drink from the outdoor bar and decided to stand near the fence surrounding the balcony. They looked out over the city as the music continued to blast in their ear drums.
After a few drinks they made their way onto the dance floor and began to move to the music amongst a sea of other dancing people. As Jacob bounced and bobbed to the beat he noticed that someone in the crowd was waving to him. He squinted and tried to see who it was. The person was short and he couldn't quite make out the face. As the person got closer he could tell it was a girl. Then all at once he wanted to turn and run. Making her way through the crowd was none other than Claire. She came to a stop right in front of him.
"I want you to fuck me tonight Jacob Lifeson." She said.
Even over the sound of the bass booming in his ears Jacob heard every word she said.
All he could think about was Alex telling him that she just couldn't have the kind of love for him that two people that spend the rest of their lives together could have. All he could see was her face looking at him and telling him that same phrase over and over again.
He was really drunk at this point. As soon as Clair had intercepted him in the club he had gone over to the bar and started pounding shots. He didn't care anymore. Next thing he knew he was in the passenger seat of Clair's convertible sports car. No doubt her father had bought her the car as a "going off to college" present.
