the flesh failures

“You wanna see what kinda liquid comes outta my other major organ?” For his joke’s sake, he was really hoping that a cock was an organ. Hey, I’m just makin’ sure nobody fucks with her. I’m not against the lady gettin’ some dick, not like I’m not gonna get any at the end of the night. Two seconds ain’t enough, don’t tease me like this, woman.“

"We were just talkin’ about how gorgeous you look, Mrs. D” He said and gave her a smile that was way too innocent for his face, but he often pulled off anyway.“ He patted Liv’s shoulder and whispered in her ear, "Speaking of a snack. Your dad…I would.” He told Liv, quickly, “Why don’t we show him what he’s missin’ on the dance floor? You ladies wanna dance?”

“You’re cute, but cuteness will only get you so far. With Liv, anyway.” Grace reached forward to ruffle Two-Bit’s hair, then to grab Liv’s hand and pull her up. “With me, it’ll get you...most places, if you’re a good dancer.” She waited for Two-Bit to rise from his seat on his own before stepping to his side and whispering in his ear. “To be fair, I would too.” She winked, then turned to Liv, who was grimacing.

“How is he the favorite child? We’re not even related!”

“Fuck you, I shoulda saved that for when you were on your period.” The greaser told her and sipped on his drink, just water because he had a long night ahead of him watching after his mother, who had actually wanted to come tonight, “Bein’ overprotective is a bizarre complex, and for the record you mom is a fuckin’ snack. I mean I wouldn’t eat her, gross, but I’d watch. So do I or do I not get to look down your dress tonight?” He asked while his free hand draped over her midsection.

“But now I know that you’ve said it and revealed your bleeding heart. And you’re never gonna live it down.” She scoffed. “Oh, whatever, like you’re not the same way with your mom. Do you want any skeevy guys around her? Exactly.” Liv was about to answer his probably entirely serious question when she noticed her mother heading their way. “Aw, what a shame, you have about two seconds left to do that.”

“What are we talking about over here?” Grace inquired, hands on her hips as she observed her daughter with her best friend. “Have either of you seen Liv’s dad around here? I’m afraid he heard the call of some shitty eighties song and then lost his way back.”

“Yeah…” Two-Bit didn’t get what was up with Liv, sure her mom was a knock out but… alright, maybe he got it a little, but there was still only one Olivia. After he thought the, he figured it might be one of the few things that came to his mind that would actually be a good idea to say out loud, “I think you shouldn’t have nothin’ to worry about, there’s only one you, Blanche. Are you serious though about hittin’ on you? This isn’t a trick that’s gonna get me hit, right?” 

“Well, duh.” Liv smirked, rising from her seat to instead lay herself across Two-Bit. “I’m not saying it because my mother makes me insecure. You make it sound like I have some bizarre complex. I’m saying it because you’re a perv. So don’t be a perv, and maybe I won’t hit you.”

FAMILY CONNECTIONS:

OLIVIA inherited her last name from her mother, a practice that will continue with EVIE. #nonwhitefeminism

Grace is a stage actress, a profession in which Evie follows suit. Liv takes a detour and takes up her father’s career, lawyer and eventual judge. Their family is at a bit of a standstill at the moment; Grace’s husband has always dreamed of serving on the Second Circuit, but the political climate has brought those plans to a halt for the time being.

Grace is incredibly close to her daughter and always has been, despite those rocky high school years. She never had any other children, instead choosing to focus on her activism, which has been close to her heart since she was a teenager. That at least provided her more time to focus on Liv’s particular, ahem, issues.

RANDOM FACTS:

Think Judith Light. Feminist badass, killer activist, Tony winner. That’s Grace.

Grace has always been kind, but she has a wild streak in her, and a certain darkness that is well hidden and maintained through self-care but has never gone away. In her business, she’s seen a lot of people die — and though that staved off a long time ago, she’s constantly surrounded by ghosts.

Is very firmly an atheist. Blame her parents. She married a Muslim, but Liv ended up not ascribing to any religion either.

“Now that I got you to admit that you miss me, we can just end it here for tonight. It was nice seeing you.” he said, as he pretended to walk away before stepping back flashing goofy grin. “I’m ready to be done so I can focus on getting into a film school or an internship. Oh football is amazing, I’ll be playing alongside Tom Brady any day now, just wait on it.” he deadpanned. “And not to put any pressure on you, but I’m co-president of my fraternity so my cool factor has gone up since we last spoke. Consider yourself lucky.” he says jokingly, poking her side. “How about you? keeping up with your studies without any dumb distractions right?”

He fell back into being his usual self so easily, as he always did, and Liv had to envy that; she wasn’t ever that good at acclimating into anything that didn’t feel familiar to her — or, in this case, no longer felt familiar. She laughed at him anyhow, because it was hard to resist. “Being a Heather pretty much beats anyone in this town in terms of cool factor. But nice try.” She was slowly but surely falling back into place — until his quip at the end of his question. Still, she continued smiling, and tried her best to answer. “School is going fine. Dean’s list. A few firms are already interested in me.” Even after making it through, she couldn’t hold her tongue. She sighed. “You weren’t a dumb distraction, Kendall. Not to me.”

He said what needed to say to her, assuming this would be their closure and they’d completely move on with even more awkward tension than before. But hearing that she was willing to work at it caught him by surprise. She was always throwing curve balls and giving him another chance when he least expected it. “I am. Your friendship meant a lot to me and not having you in my life one way or another just seems off.” His gaze drifted back over to her, as he refrained himself to hug her. Kendall knew it was going to be a slow process, but that didn’t bother him this time around. It was better than nothing. “Thanks for not giving up on me.” 

Thanks for not giving up on me. The statement made her wistful, then a bit sad, because he’d given up on her before. Maybe that was because she’d given up on their relationship — or at least the idea that she could actually have a decent relationship at all, for once in her life. She smiled tightly, stuffing it all down. “I owe you this much. And it’s not like I don’t miss you, so.” She paused, trying her best to maneuver to a different subject. “What’s going on with you these days? School, football, girls?”

“Yeah, I get it. It goes deeper than just breaking up. If feels like you lost a friend too.” He said nodding solemnly. Kendall understood where she was coming from and why she couldn’t completely open her arms out to him like he wanted. He made that choice to end their relationship, assuming they could just go back to being friends, but being naive bit him in the ass. It wasn’t going to be the same like he hoped for. “We don’t have to rehash the past. But I want you to know that I’ll always be here for you. I know it sounds like such a cliche line, but I mean it. I’ll even take our awkward small talk whenever you come back.” he began, chuckling at the suggestion, “Just as long as we don’t become strangers. Okay?”

She nodded, averting his gaze, because that was true, but it wasn’t it entirely — and she wasn’t going to provide further details and risk the conversation becoming even tenser, if that was even possible. It wasn’t like she hadn’t expected their breakup, and she didn’t really blame him for breaking up with her in the first place. She would have done the same thing. She had in the past. “I don’t think it’s possible to just ease back into things like nothing ever happened, but I’m willing to work at it if you are.” It felt like the honorable thing to do, anyway, even if she wasn’t sure if she’d ever take him up on his offer to be there for her.

“Then we should try to make the most out of this situation.” He replied stubbornly. The selfish part of him scratching the surface. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t miss spending time with her. But at the same time he wasn’t excited at the thought of her telling him how much happier she was without having his friendship. “But if it’s too weird then I’ll respect your decision for not wanting to do this. You shouldn’t have to spend time with me anyways.” 

“C’mon, don’t do that. It’s not even about —” She sighed, dragging a hand through her hair as she considered what was the best thing to say. This was Kendall, who knew her well enough to understand that she wasn’t callous enough to rebuff him; she just didn’t like having these kinds of conversations about why her relationships had ended, because, well, she’d had them enough. And it was always unpleasant. “It’s not about you. And I know you know that, if you take a minute to think about it. You were my friend before all of this. I want to be able to be your friend. But it’s not that easy.”

“Yeah, it’s a little weird. It feels familiar, at least we have that.” he says chuckling, referring to their history of Rosewood parties always pulling them together. “But it doesn’t have to be weird. I don’t want it to be like that.” he confessed abruptly, his eyes wandered around her face slowly. The words just flowed out and he was glad because he was being honest. He still cared for Liv just as much as he did when they were together. It was something that wouldn’t change. So being back at square one just didn’t sit right with him. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good thing,” she retorted, laughing nervously. She had a brief recollection of what had happened the last time they had gone to one of these things, but set it to the wayside as quickly as it came. “I don’t think we get to decide whether or not it’s weird. It just is. But if you’re trying to ask if that’s how I want it to be, I obviously don’t. Doesn’t change the facts of the situation, though.”

“Yeah, yeah. Save the waterworks, pretty girls always ugly cry. I’m gonna go see what the hubby’s up to. I think it might almost be time to cut the cake. See you a little later?”

“You won’t because he’s going to be sucking up all of your attention. Which he should. I’ll see you back in New York, okay?” She raised herself up to give him a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek of her own. “Come straight back. Don’t play any games with me, Kerry. Or you won’t get your actual wedding present.”

“Pssh, you went soft for real. You corrupted me. Go to college, Two-Bit. Cultivate your talents Two-Bit.” He grinned and kissed her cheek, “You’re already my family.” 

“And you proved me right, didn’t you? I put so much work into you that I’m too tired to work on anyone else, so it’s your fault.” She felt herself grow warm from the sincerity of his statement and looked down in order to process it. “If you don’t want me to cry, you’re doing a pretty shit job at keeping me from doing it.”

“Oh yeah, I am, it just rolls off the tongue you know? Husband. Like what’s over there? Ah, it’s just some broad talkin’ to my husband. Hey if I liked girls I’d be all about that Indian wedding, but it’s practically a rite of passage for this kind of shit, you ain’t gotta marry nobody, just roll around in the sack for a night, clear out the cobwebs, give those D batteries a break. Jacey’s nice, and you’d make a good cougar.”

“I’m not really into corrupting the youth these days.” She flipped a few stray strands of hair behind her. “And why are you trying to sell me on them anyway? You want me to marry into your family now?”

“Suit yourself, but it’s a nice sight all that nakedness.” He clicked his tongue, “Ah you’re afraid of my husband, eh. It’s alright, I guess. I wouldn’t be able to look at your twat anyway, they’re just big, squishy messes.” He chuckled while his hand slid down her hair. “You alright now, Blanche. You ain’t gonna fuck a groomsman cryin’ all night.” 

“You’re getting a real kick out of using the word husband whenever you can, huh?” She rolled her eyes. “You mean one of your friends? Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. And you’d never let me live it down anyway. Even if they were into the idea of an Indian wedding.”

“Aww come on, you cryin’, I ain’t a big fan of it.” He smiled a bit, and brought the pads of his thumbs to her face to wipe away her tears, “You probably won’t, but I bet you’ll find someone real close.” Two-Bit pulled Liv into a hug, shielding her from everyone else while they had their moment and while she got herself together, composed again. “I get it, I might have a real hard time sharin’ you with another man. Fuck it, come on the honeymoon with us, I’m smugglin’ ya in my suitcase.” He joked, still not quite ready to let her go just yet. He sighed, “My only regret is that we never had drunk sex.” 

She helped him out by wiping the rest of her tears away, slightly embarrassed about being so melodramatic. Once he brought her in, she sniffled into his shoulder, feeling comforted by his closeness. “I don’t think I want to interrupt whatever the hell is going to be going on. I’d just get in the way of all that constant nakedness. Knowing your dumb ass, if you were straight, you would have gotten straight to baby making.” She separated from him just enough to look him in the eye, raising a brow. “I’ve known you both long enough to understand that Keegan is sweet until he’s not. So no, that’s not on my list of regrets.”