Fantasy As Day Follows Night by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"And I still haven't figured out what you two are up to. I see what you mean. And I'd have loved it if you'd come straight to the castle and let me go all out for you instead of all this hotel nonsense. Remember partying on rich guys' yachts? Mine's more decked out than any of their 'Daddy-Bought-Me-This-To-Compensate' machines."

Julie tamped out her cigarette and leaned against the railing opposite Helen.

"Dammit, Helen, we care about YOU, not all this shit!" Julie pulled off her earrings and hurled them off the balcony to land somewhere in the moonlit garden below. "This is what I've been talking about: You couldn't just accept our wedding invitation, you had to buy the hotel and snipe my bid and take control of Troy and our friends, just to fucking talk? So we'd come watch you live in your Barbie Dream Castle and drive your Barbie Dream Car around?"

"Ok, let's take these things in order," Helen said, starting to pace angrily and setting her cigarettes and lighter on an old metal patio table. "First off, the earring thing? Would've been more impressive if I didn't know you had two more pairs just like them at home. Second, it wasn't exactly difficult to figure out who I was bidding against, MerryPoppynz666. Third, you wouldn't have just come for a visit after the way we left things unless I lured you somehow. Fourth, no, you were supposed to decide you liked this place and wanted to stay because I fucking love and miss both of you! And fifth, it's a Ferrari, SHOW SOME FUCKING RESPECT, YOU SKANKY COW!"

Julie walked across the balcony and started shouting in Helen's face. "WHEN DID I SAY DIDN'T LOVE YOU, DURING THE TWO YEARS WE WERE FUCKING? I SAID IT ALL THE TIME AND I MEANT IT! WHY WASN'T THAT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU, YOU FUCKING CUNT?"

Helen bowed her head. She took a short, deep breath and looked up and back into Julie's eyes, tears forming in the corners of her own.

"Because I knew who you really wanted it to be; even when you didn't. Because when he fucked me and said it, I knew who he really wanted ME to be too."

The anger on Julie's face and in her voice subsided immediately. "Helen, that's not..."

Helen cut her off. "Haven't you ever wondered why neither of you could ever hang onto a relationship when you didn't do our thing to the other person? They sensed what I already knew. They'd see the two of you together; see the energy between you and Troy and how close you are and think 'There's no way these two aren't screwing behind my back, they BELONG together!' Haven't you wondered why every Last Argument you had with someone, including me; ended with 'Well, why don't you just go fuck Troy, then?' I can promise you all his relationships ended with someone telling him he should go fuck you." She paused for a moment. "Because ours did."

Julie turned and leaned on the railing next to Helen, putting her arm around La Contessa and seeing tears forming in her eyes.

"And we'd both say 'Ew, gross, he's like my brother.' Or she's like my sister. You know."

"Keeping that to myself, knowing you two are meant to be, but that it'd take some outside force like being split apart for college for you to see it... I always had to settle for second with both of you. Not doing anything to help it along was the closest I came to leaving either of you with something to keep for myself."

Julie put her other arm around Helen as well and turned her so that they could hug.

"We didn't know. I mean, I always knew we'd be together forever and that he meant the world to me, we just didn't know how deep it went." Julie paused for a moment. "Wow, we REALLY don't pass the Bechdel Test, do we?"

"Is that a Facebook thing? The castle and the government are on there, but I've been advised against getting my own account."

"Sorta, and you need to keep listening to those advisors."

Helen broke the hug and sat down, lighting another cigarette. Julie took the other chair but declined a second smoke and picked up her drink instead.

"You know what it's been like? Like watching two people play that Snake game that they used to put on phones: They keep moving around each other, and more reasons why they should crash into each other keep getting added and you keep waiting for them to either do it or hit a wall but it kept not happening."