Maverick Effect (Chapter 3)

Angie laughed as she regarded the new techie. “Techie” being a term the crew used for the new ones on the tech crew. She saw that her laugh didn’t do much to give an answer to the tech’s question.

“Does Maverick have a girlfriend? Well, that’s an interesting question I suppose. A funny one once you understand a little about him.”

“Well, that’s why I’m asking. So I can find out more about him.”

“Honestly, do you think you have a chance with him.” Angie regarded her, giving the statement, not condescending or offended, but truly curious.

Mari, the techie, gave a defensive look and replied, “I think I have as much chance as the next girl, maybe a bit more since I work on the crew and I’m not just another groupie.”

“Mari, you asked me to be honest, so I’m going to do just that. Honestly you do have as much a chance as the next girl. But what you need to realize is that the next girl has no chance. If you want to get his attention, or even get into his bed you, honestly, could probably do so. You’re pretty enough. But to be his girlfriend? Not a chance…Maverick doesn’t have girlfriends.”

“Ever?”

“Not anymore.”

“Why’s that? What made him that way?”

Angie regarded the young girl for a few moments. Trying to decide if she was sincerely curious, or if she was one of the girls that automatically assumed there was some tragic event that made Mav that way..or just assumed that since Mav didn’t want them as a girlfriend then he must be gay. But she didn’t see any of the latter on Mari’s face, so she decided to answer her questions as best she could. Better to do so, if Mari was really interested in Mav, than have her not know and still be after him.

“Well, I’ll start with the short version and add detail from there. I think that’s about the easiest way to do this. Mav had been getting very tired of being second on everyone’s list, especially his female friends, most of who he was interested in. So, when he became famous and girls throwing their selves at him left and right, he swore to himself that he’d never make someone that close to him. In a way it was his way of making every girl feel exactly as every nice guy feels, being the second one on the list, never the main thing on his mind. Mav was not your typical nice guy, he was the very definition of a nice guy. So, he was pretty fed up with just be second to every girl he knew. His becoming famous just gave him the ability to take that “revenge” I guess one could say.”

“How do you know all this about him?”

“That’s in interesting question too. You know, you’re the first one that’s gotten the courage up to ask me that. I don’t know why everyone is so scared to ask me that. I know a lot of them wonder about that too. I knew Mav before he became famous. I was the closest person to him. Closer than any of the girlfriends he had, closer than any of his friends. Well, Mav had a thing for me as well. But I was too into my own world, too indecisive to do anything about it or even really consider it. So, by the time I got around to making up my mind about him, he had already sworn off being exclusive with anyone. We got into a big fight about it. Mav was pretty fed up with everyone in general by that point, so he threatened to write me off. I knew he would do it too and probably without really looking back either. Honestly, I think that all that secondary treatment he received from every girl he ever was interested in worked him over pretty hard. So, I opted to just keep my mouth shut about a relationship than have him just write me off completely. So, since then we’ve stayed pretty close, but I don’t think we’ll ever be in a relationship.”

“Why do you think that?”

Angie sighed, “ I think my own secondary treatment of him just caused enough damage to where he’ll always remember that somewhere. Even if it’s in the back of his mind. That would always be a part of our relationship.”

Right after that a door slammed open down the hall and Maverick’s voice came out, loud and harsh.

“Get out. I didn’t ask to deal with your baggage. You shoulda checked that at the door cutie. Now get out.”

A girl ran out of the room and down the hall, her hands covering her face. The door slammed shut.

Mari had been looking at the disturbance from the sound of the door slamming open. She turned back to Angie, her eyes wide.

“What was that all about?”

Angie gave a smaller sigh, hardly audible before replying.

“As I said, Maverick was the definition of a nice guy. The type that a lot of girls run to with their problems, but forget about when everything is nice again. So, since he swore off relationships, he also swore off anything having to do with it. He claimed that he had to deal with baggage from every girl he was close to, including relationships. Swore that he’d never deal with it again. So, he gets mad whenever any girl tries to “unload” on him about one thing or another.”

“Isn’t that being kind of a jerk. I mean the way he deals with it and all.”

“ I guess it is. I can’t really see it that way. I guess cause I’ve seen that he’s gone though a lot of his own problems on his own, he’s had to cause there’s been no one there for him a lot of the time. But he’s always been there whenever someone needed him. So, I think that’s just another thing that just worked him over really hard. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry. I think that’s enough history for now anyway.”

“Sure, I’m hungry. And thanks Angie.”

“For what?”

“For answering all my questions.”

“Sure, anytime Mari.”

Angie and Mari walked off together to go find something to eat. Meanwhile in Maverick’s trailer candles were aglow all over. He sat, meditation style in the middle of the room. He breathed deeply, trying to calm the torment in his soul.

-Damien

“…the cultivation of the mind, the body, and the soul, and we must always cultivate the soul.”