Episode 3: Cloud Nine

Everything is going great. I have been dating Katie for about two weeks now and I could not be happier. She is an amazing girl. Not only do we have almost everything in common, but my friends love her too. Also, with my mind not preoccupied on my feelings for Stacy, I can actually hang out with her now without making myself suffer. I am on cloud nine.

John has also been in town regularly as of late. Remember the girl that was smiling at him from across the bar? Her name is Tiffany and the two of them have been seeing each other for two weeks as well. He somehow scheduled his classes this semester so that he has Tuesdays and Thursdays off, which is something that I was never able to figure out while I was in school. Anyway, he comes into town on the weekends and usually once a week on Wednesdays.

So, to recap: I have a great girlfriend, my friendship with Stacy is just that, a friendship, and I get to see my best friend all the time now. Life is good.

It was Tuesday evening, fifteen minutes before six, as Joel, John, Brian, and Jack sat at their usual table in Stratler’s Bar, awaiting the arrival of their friends. Joel, Jack, and Brian were having a conversation about their jobs as John sat with them sending and receiving text messages on his cell phone.

Joel looked over at John with a puzzled look, looked down at his phone, and then back up at him. “Dude, you are going to see her in like five minutes,” he said. “Why are you texting her?”

“Shut up,” replied John.

“I am just saying,” said Joel. “Do you have to talk to her every second?”

“Yes,” answered John, not looking up from his phone.

“Don’t say more than two words in response,” said Joel sarcastically. “I wouldn’t want you to pop a blood vessel in your brain or anything.”

“Shut up.”

“By the way, thanks for letting us sit with you while we are being good friends and carrying on a conversation with the people we are actually with,” said Joel cynically.

“Ass,” replied John curtly.

“Intelligent conversation on your part. It is always such a pleasure talking to you,” said Joel, turning his attention back to Jack and Brian as John ignored him and continued to text.

As the three of them continued their conversation about work, Joel glanced over at the bar and quickly did a double take. “Well, well, well,” he said.

“What is it?” asked Brian.

“Look whose here,” replied Joel, motioning toward the bar.

Jack, Brian, and even John looked over at a blonde woman who was sitting at the bar with two other women.

The blonde is my ex, Linda. We dated for a while a few months ago. Saying that it didn’t end well would be an extreme understatement.

“Linda?” asked Jack rhetorically. He then turned his attention back to Joel and asked, “I thought you got Stratler’s in the break-up?”

“I did,” responded Joel, not taking his eyes off of Linda while pushing his chair back.

“What are you going to do?” asked Brian.

“Run her out of here,” said Joel, standing and starting toward the bar.

John laughed as he finally relinquished his attention from his cell phone and turned to watch Joel. “This should be interesting.”

I’m still not sure what possessed me to approach Linda like that. Maybe it was the high from being on cloud nine. All I know is the before I knew it, and without thinking about it, I was out of my chair and walking toward her.

Joel walked over to the bar where Linda was sitting and propped his left elbow on the bar as he leaned against it while resting his right hand on his hip. It was not long until Linda noticed him as he was uncomfortably close to her.

Linda turned to see that it was Joel and scowled at him. “Hello, Joel,” she said brusquely.

“What are you doing here, Linda?” asked Joel.

“Well,” said Linda, looking down at her martini and back up at Joel before continuing, “it looks like I am having a drink with my friends.”

“Yeah,” said Joel, “in my bar.”

“Last time I checked, you don’t own Stratler’s, Joel,” responded Linda snidely.

“We agreed that I got Stratler’s, Linda,” said Joel. “You got the Ale House, remember?”

“Whatever,” said Linda, while rolling her eyes. “We aren’t leaving.”

“Ok,” said Joel, nodding his head as he looked around while taking in a deep breath. “Then I will just have to follow you around until you leave.”

“Are you really going to be that immature?” asked Linda.

“If that is what it takes to get you out of Stratler’s,” replied Joel, smiling slyly, “then, yes.”

Linda sighed in annoyance while looking at ther friends and once again rolling her eyes. “Fine,” she said angrily, “we will go.”

“It was a pelasure as always, Linda,” said Joel smugly, walking back toward his table.

“Wish I could say the same,” mumbled Linda under her breath.

Wow! That was awesome! I never do anything like that. That is something that you see on TV or read in a book, but never anything you do in real life. Incredible! I am loving cloud nine.

When Joel reached the table in which his friends sat, he returned to his seat and watched triumphantly as Linda and her friends paid their tabs and exited Stratler’s.

“Nice,” said John proudly.

“How did you do that?” asked Brian.

“I threatened to follow her around until she left,” responded Joel, much to the delight of his friends who laughed at his response.

Once the excitement had settled , the four of them returned to their conversation and their drinks. Shortly thereafter, Dustin and Lauren arrived, then, within, minutes of each other, Katie, Tiffany, and Stacy and Ron walked into Stratler’s and joined their friends.

As I sat there surrounded by my friends with Katie at my side, everything felt right with the world. I could not believe how quickly I had forgotten about Stacy in a romantic sense and how hard I was falling for Katie. I could tell that she felt the same by the way she would watch me from the corner of her eye.

She didn’t think that I noticed, but I did, mainly because I was doing the exact same thing. Aren’t the beginnings of relationships great? I just love that new excitement that comes along with it. Nothing could bring me down from cloud nine. Well, at least I thought nothing could especially not one of my best friends.

It happened a little over an hour anf a half after Katie and Tiffany had arrived at Stratler’s when Jack and I went to the bar to get another round of drinks for everyone. Brian, Lauren, and Ron had already left, leaving Jack, John, Stacy, Katie, Tiffany, Dustin, and myself at Stratler’s.

As Jack and I waited for Mike, the bartender, to bring us our drinks, John came over to where we were followed closely by Stacy.

“Dude,” said John, nudging Joel. “Dustin is hitting on Katie.”

“Do what now?” asked Joel, turning around.

“Yeah, he did,” said Stacy. “I heard it too.”

An angry look came over Joel’s face as he started toward the table. However, Jack stopped him by placing his hand on Joel’s shoulder before he could take more than two strides away from the bar.

“Hold on man,” said Jack. “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll tell you what I’d like to do,” said Joel angrily, then stopping himself. “I am tired of him doing stuff like this.”

“You know how he is,” said Jack, trying to calm Joel down. “He does this kind of stuff to me all the time and it makes me mad too. You just have to let it go.”

“On more than one occasion, I have been talking to a girl when we go out and he just comes over and cuts me off in mid-sentence by literally getting in the middle of us,” said Joel, seemingly growing angrier by the second. “Both times that happened, I was ready to say something to him, but you would tell me what you just did: ‘That is just how he is, it makes me mad too, just let it go.’ Well, I am not going to let it go this time, Jack. You may not want to stand up to him, but I sure as hell will.”

John and Stacy watched on silently, nodding in agreement as Joel stated his case to Jack.

“Dude, come on,” said Jack. “Don’t make a big deal about this.”

“It is a big deal, Jack!” argued Joel, practically yelling at this point. “He is hitting on my girlfriend. Besides, if no one ever says anything to him, then he will just keep doing stuff like this.”

“We are all friends here, Joel,” said Jack. “He wouldn’t do anything like that intentionally.”

“Friends don’t do that and obviously he would do something like this intentionally because he just did it,” said Joel sternly, turning back toward the table.

It was at that time that Kaite looked over at Joel with a disgusted look on her face. Joel saw this and motioned for her to come over. As she stood and walked over to where he was, Joel asked Jack, John, and Stacy if he could talk to her alone. The three of them agreed and returned to the table.

When Katie reached the bar, Joel asked, “Did Dustin say something to you?”

“Yeah,” responded Katie.

“What did he say?”

“He said that I should be with a guy like him instead of you and told me to call him if it didn’t work out between you and me,” said Katie, obviously offended by Dustin’s actions. Joel did not respond to Katie’s answer. Instead he turned and marched angrily toward the table.

Upon arriving at the table, Joel stood across from Dustin and asked, “What do you think you are doing?”

“What are you talking about?” asked Dustin, a look of confusion came over his face.

“You know exactly what I am talking about,” said Joel, almost shouting. “Do you really think it is ok to hit on my girlfriend?”

“I didn’t hit on your girlfriend,” said Dustin defensively.

“Oh, so you didn’t say that if it doesn’t work out between me and her that she should call you?” asked Joel. “You didn’t say that she should be with a guy like you instead of me?”

“No,” responded Dustin, offended by the accusations.

“You are unbelievable!” shouted Joel.

“You were obviously lied to,” said Dustin smugly.

“Yeah, I have been lied to,” said Joel calmly, “by you. Because three people would not all fabricate the same exact story.”

“Man, forget this,” said Dustin, standing and grabbing his coat. “I’m leaving.”

“That’s what I thought,” said Joel. “Deny it til the end and run away like you always do. And by the way, don’t talk to Katie anymore.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” responded Dustin angrily. He then put on his coat and left Stratler’s.

There it was, a line drawn in the sand between Dustin and myself. Just when everything was going great, this had to happen. It makes me wonder what goes through people’s minds. What was he thinking? He had to of known that Katie would tell me. The thing that bothered me the most about the whole situation was that he is supposed to be one of my best friends.

It really got me thinking and the only thing that kept looping through my mind was: It is funny what jealous people will do to try and bring you down isn’t it?