Facade

I am so mad at Claire right now I could spit in her eye, right in it without missing, I'm that mad. Last night, she had the nerve to tell me that it was the last time she was gonna help me and Tommy out. Don't get me wrong, I know she's helped us out a lot, but she's the only friend we still have down here and we tell her over and over again, that once Tommy's business gets off its feet and starts working, we'll do whatever we can for her.

Last night, she just stared at me after she brought Tommy home. I came out to tell her thank you and to offer to make her some of my brownies that she loves, but she just stared at me with her eyes peering into me like she saw something there that she hadn't seen before.

When I asked her what was wrong she just shook her head and pointed at Tommy who was looking at me with a silly grin. "That man has some explaining to do." She said, like she was Ricky on the I Love Lucy show. Tommy shook his head at me and walked back into our bedroom, spinning his finger around his ear to let me know that Claire was off her rocker. "He wasn't on Main street this time," she said, "He was over off of Turner and 5th, where that woman lives."

That woman, that she was referring to, is Tommy's ex-girlfriend Amy Lollabe who keeps on claiming that he comes over all the time to visit and then some, but I know she's a liar. Everybody knows how much in love with Tommy, Amy still is, with her big sad eyes following him around whenever we go into the grocery store where she works. She just stands there ignoring all her customers and stares at him, admiring him from his long blond hair, down to his brand new shoes. I will say this about Tommy, he knows exactly the latest styles to wear and how to wear them. Anyways, Amy Lollabe went around telling half the town that she was pregnant with his kid about seven months ago and everyone knew she was lying cause he's been with me for the past two years and then when her stomach stayed as flat as a table top it just proved what a liar she really is.

Back to Claire who by this time was fuming smoke out of her ears and making the straggly pieces of hair that had fallen out of her night time curlers, curl. "Don't you get it?" She almost yelled, leaping towards me so that I backed away from her. "Don't you get it, you dumb little girl? He's been with her! Everybody knows it, why don't you?"

At this point, Tommy came running from the back room and stepped in front of me. For a long moment they were both really quiet, just staring at eachother. I could only see the back of Tommy's head, where the curls were all curling to one side from a sweat mark smack in the back of his head, but I could see Claire and the way she just stared at him with angry sparks flying out of her eyes that still had a little sleep crusted around them. It was a long stare that they shared and then I saw something leave Claire's face, and it kind of collapsed down into just her usual everyday expression and she shook her head. "This is the last time I am going looking for him, when you call me." She said over his shoulder to me, then she just shrugged, looked at us with this look of pity and left. Tommy laughed then, and turned towards me, kissed me and went to bed. Needless to say, I'm not gonna call her for at least three days, which actually works out great, cause Tommy is working on his boss' car, so we will be able to run all of our errands in that. So, last laughs on Claire!