Fill Me (Rouse Me 3)

"But you're visiting this weekend."

"You know, I have a telephone," she says. "And I also have a life outside of the drama hurricane that is you two."

"Me, drama? Don't be ridiculous."

She rolls her eyes. "I'm not spending my hiatus time trying to fix your problems. Get on with it so I can reject your idea."

"I'm worried about her."

"Did you talk to her?" she asks.

"Yes, I talked to her. But she's nervous and there's only so much I can do here."

"So go visit her."

"I will," I say. "But I can't get away from work until next week. And since you're going to be there already..."

"What do you want me to do?"

"She said she's been skipping meals."

"Really?" Laurie asks. Her expression fills with concern. "Are you sure?"

"It slipped out like it wasn't a big deal."

"But that's a huge deal!"

"All I want is for you to check on her," I say. "See if she's lost weight. If she's eating or not eating or being weird about eating."

Laurie looks at me. "I'll check on Alyssa because I care about Alyssa. But I'm not going to spy and I'm not going to give you a report."

"We have the same goal."

"I do like you, Luke," she says. "But you need to grow up. If you want to check on Alyssa, do it yourself. I'm not a tool you can use to make your relationship better. Alyssa is my friend too, and I'll do what I think is best for her."

"All I want you to do is check on her."

"Fine. But I would have done that anyway. And I'm not stupid. I know that if she's slipping in her recovery, I can't be the one to save her. I would talk to you and try and work something out together."

"Good."

"I wouldn't try and manipulate you into doing what I want," she says.

Zack interrupts. "Don't you spend enough time being a hard-ass at work?"

"Shut the fuck up," she says. "You have no clue what this guy is like."

"He seems sweet."

"No."

"It's nice that he's concerned about this Alyssa girl," Zack says.

"Please. Like you know anything about relationships. You haven't had a girlfriend in about eight million years," Laurie says.

"And you haven't had a boyfriend in nine million years."

Laurie smiles. She's definitely got a thing for Zack. She looks at me. "Fine. I can see Zack's point. Alyssa does love you very much and you do appear to have her best interests at heart."