August 1980
"We're home!"
Gus looked up from where he and Lois were propped up against pillows on the waterbed.
Bob came in, closely followed by Demi, who shut the door and looked around. Her eyes stopped at Mick, seated on the recliner. She stepped around Bob and looked hard at him.
Tilting her head, she asked, "What happened?"
Gus looked at Lois, then at Demi when Mick ignored her question. Mick looked at the floor, a lit joint between his fingers. His eyes glowed red, the look one gets when stoned out of their mind. His hair was disheveled and there was a stain on his dark t-shirt.
"Um," Lois said as she and Gus got off the bed, then came around. Lois hugged Bob, then went around and gave Demi a quick hug. "Glad you guys are back."
Gus stood next to Mick, a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah. Uh, some shit went down the day after you left." He stepped over and hugged Demi, giving her a quick kiss on the lips, then hugged Bob, his fists beating his back for a moment as Bob returned the gesture.
Mick sighed, then looked up. "Hey." The others waited as Mick took a deep hit off the joint, then lowered his gaze to stare at the floor.
Demi sighed. "Okay. Want to fill us in?" She and Bob sat in the customary spot at the end of the couch, near the recliner and Bob's daybed.
Gus and Lois sat in Mick's normal spot where he and Sam cuddled. Until a few days ago, anyway.
"Mick?" Gus asked, and waited, and Mick looked up. The look on his face broke Gus' heart.
"Yeah?" Mick asked, his voice sounding more tired than they'd ever heard.
"Can I tell them?"
Mick shrugged and took another toke. When he sat back, Demi snatched it from his hand and crushed it in the ashtray on the table. "That's enough for you, I think." She got up and headed into the kitchen. "I'm putting on some coffee, and you're gonna drink it."
Mick shrugged again and sat there, silently.
Gus sighed, then told the story of Sam coming over in tears at Dan's news about Mick and Lois making out in his car. When he finished the tale, Demi was near tears and Bob was frowning.
"Damn, that's tough. But nothing was going on, right?" Bob asked, looking at Mick, then Lois.
"Of course not!" Lois said. "It was just stupid bad luck that Dan drove by at that exact moment and saw me hugging Mick."
"But you were kissing, too?" Bob asked.
Lois exhaled. "Yes. I kissed Mick. I was thanking him for being there for me. It was like for five seconds." She shook her head. "Not like you haven't kissed me, or Sam, for that matter."
Bob held up his hands, palms out. "I didn't mean it like that. We all know how it is between us. I was thinking of how it looked from Dan's perspective, driving by like that."
Lois nodded. "Yeah, just damned bad timing."
"But doesn't Sam know all this?" Demi asked.
"She wouldn't listen." Mick's voice sounded hollow, as if coming from far away. Heads turned to look at him. "I tried to tell her. She screamed at me and left. I've called her, gone over there, she won't talk to me."
"Damn." Demi shook her head and got up when she heard the coffee pot finishing. She brought a steaming cup back and held it out to Mick. He ignored it, staring at the floor. She kicked his shin.
"Hey!" Mick's leg swung sideways.
"Here! Drink this. You look like shit."
"Thanks," he said, frowning, but took the cup and blew on it. He sipped, then cradled it between his hands.
"So what are we gonna do?" Bob asked.
Lois sighed. "I need to talk to her."
"She was really freaked out," Gus said. "Poor thing's been dumped before. I think some asshole treated her very badly. It shook her confidence."
Mick nodded and sipped his coffee. "Yeah, she told me about that asswipe. If I ever see him..."
"Anyways, she's holed up in her room I guess. Won't talk to anyone." Gus pulled Lois closer, kissing the top of her head.
"I'm going to call her. She has to talk to me." She got up and went over to the bed where the phone was on the nightstand.
---***---
"Hello?"
"Hi, Sheila. This is Lois. Can I speak with Samantha, please?"
In the time that Sam's mom paused before answering, Lois' heart sank. With each passing heartbeat, the chances of fixing this with her friend faded.
Finally, Lois heard the sigh over the phone. "I'm afraid she doesn't want to talk to anyone right now." There was another, shorter pause. In a low voice, Sheila said, "I don't know why, and she won't tell me anything."
Lois sighed, an identical sound as Sheila's. "There's been a big misunderstanding. I want to fix things with her. Tell her what actually happened. She's mad at me, and I know why. I want her to know that we love her and miss her."
"Let me see if she'll come to the phone."
Hope pulsed faintly in Lois' chest. "Thank you." She heard the receiver being put on the table in Sam's living room. Lois could picture the room with the small table and one chair in the corner where the phone was.
After a minute, there was noise, then a long exhale.
"What?" It was Sam, but not like Lois had ever heard her before. Usually, Samantha's voice was like fine silk, soft and warm. Her single word was uttered in a flat, angry tone.
"Sam, please. Let me explain what happened." Lois took a breath, ready to launch into the explanation she'd thought through carefully.
Before she could speak, Sam spoke loudly. "I don't care about anything you have to say!" Her volume rose as she began yelling.
"I've been through this before, and I'm not falling for it again. You're not going to trick me and tell me everything's alright when I know it's not!"
"Sam!" Lois cried out into the phone. "Stop, please! Listen to me."
"Shut up!" Sam screamed, the sound fading as Lois could tell Sam held the receiver away from her head.
"Sam!"
There was no sound, then Lois thought she heard faint crying. "I trusted you. I thought you were my friend." Sam sobbed into the phone.
"I didn't do anything."
"You did!" The venom returned in force, her words cutting like a knife. "I saw you! And Dan saw what you two were doing. I can only imagine what else you two have done."
"We didn't!"
"I saw you!"
Lois hung her head. "Yes, I mean, we did that. But nothing else, I swear!"
"I don't believe you. I know how this goes. He's got you doing him now. He doesn't need me."
"He does!"
"I very seriously doubt that. I know you like to be in a threesome. You lost Demi, but now you and Gus have Mick. You wanted that, didn't you?" Sam's words were as hard as bricks.
"No, Sam, it's not like that. Mick wants you back."
"You're so full of shit! You and Demi are more than enough for those three, and probably ten more!" The words shook Lois, making her rock back, her eyes wide.
"I'm done with the lot of you. Don't ever call me again!" With that, Sam slammed the phone down. Lois heard it miss and a mournful wail as Sam picked up the receiver and slammed it down again, breaking the connection.
Lois sat there, staring at the phone in her hand. She looked down for several moments, then hung up the phone and placed it on the floor by the waterbed. She looked up at the others, sitting silently, watching her.
Gus got up and went to her, sitting and wrapping her up in his arms. Lois burrowed against him, tears spilling from her cheeks.
"Oh, God. I've messed everything up."
---***---
Gus opened the car door for Lois, and she got in. He closed it, then got in the driver's seat. They backed out and headed out of the apartment parking lot.
"I hate seeing him like that," Lois said as Gus turned onto the main street.
"I know. He goes to work, comes home. Hardly talks." Gus shook his head. "He smokes weed and drinks beer, and just sits there."
"Has he tried to talk to her?"
Gus nodded. "Oh yeah, but not for the last week or so. He's called so many times, but she won't come to the phone. Her mother won't let him inside when he goes over. He even wrote her a letter, but she sent it back in a big envelope, all ripped up. You could tell it was never opened, the pages were still in the original envelope."
"Oh, damn," Lois sighed. "Has anyone else tried to talk with her?"