Ramifications

A few days later I showed up with a girlfriend to a bar to visit old friends from dodgeball season.

"Hey! Sarah!" waved the girl from the Irish pub on Sunday.

"Oh! Hey!" I immediately headed towards her table. Sitting across from her was Clemson. One chair down from her was Statham's ex. Uh oh.

We chit chatted about our Monday mornings and how rough they were due to the weekend activities. She said she wasn't drinking that night, but still managed to have a shot and a beer in front of me.

She leaned towards me, "I noticed, by the way. First Baseman was too drunk to notice, but I did. Statham had his arm wrapped around your leg on Sunday."

I immediately looked up. The ex had her back to us; she was deep in conversation with another girl I recognized from girl's night. I had a feeling I knew what she was talking about: the very same boy we were talking about.

"Oh. Ha ha. Nothing happened," I worked out.

"I noticed," she repeated.

I didn't say anything.

She looked around the room, uninterested in my answer. "My drama isn't here tonight." Funny, because First Baseman is out of town. She's referring to someone else. Statham was right about everybody being with everybody.

"I don't like drama. I love other people's drama, but I don't like my own," I told her.

She looked hard at me, "You better be careful then," she warned. She turned around, "Doesn't the ex look so sad? I IM with her while I am at work."

Her loyalties don't lie with Statham; they lie with the ex. Statham warned me that his breakup was going to create a fissure in the group and that he was going to lose friends. I just didn't think it was going to be the girl in front of me. Everything was fine a couple of days ago. She was even trying to set him up with one of her friends.

I didn't say anything again. I was too concerned with the current situation with the ex to be bothered to see if Clemson had heard any of this.

My girlfriend arrived and I was grateful for the distraction. We headed to the opposite corner where our friends were. Meanwhile, I typed out a text to Statham:

Did you say anything to our friend?

I'm confused. About what?

I'm at the bar. She just said something to me.

I learned later is that this is the exact moment Statham's phone blew up. I wasn't the only one texting him. So was the girl from Sunday, and so was the ex. When Statham realized we were all out together and he wasn't there, he damn near had a panic attack.

What I didn't know then that I know now is that in between Statham's and my hookup and me being at this bar, Statham met up with the ex for some closure. The morning after meeting up with his ex, he contacted me to set up a date. He asked if we could go somewhere in my part of town "preferably somewhere without the chance of gunfire." I originally thought he was making a crack about my apartment location, but now I'm beginning to think that "gunfire" meant a situation such as this.

Even though Statham and I promised to each other that neither of us would say anything, everyone knew in less than three days. Despite Statham flat-out telling the girl from Sunday that he hit on me and I turned him down, and despite me being tight-lipped to her as well.

Later on in the week, Statham would be sitting on my bed and telling me what really happened in the bar the night I was there. The girl from Sunday told the ex that Statham got drunk, hit on a girl and she took him home. Thanks to Facebook, it was pretty apparent that the girl was me.

She knew. The whole time I was there, she knew. And to give her credit, she didn't say a word to me.