by CJ Adler
“You lied!” I exclaim, pointing out the facts. This is his fault. Not mine.
“So what?!” He glares at me. “I play cards with the devil too,” he says cockily as he taps his chest in pride and gives me a bold look. “What you gonna do 'bout that?” he challenges, trying to act like a badass while quoting a song.
I frown at him. “Are you drunk right now?”
“No.” He leers at me before losing his balance and toppling off the chair, his face meeting the floor.
I stare up at the ceiling and purse my lips, rolling my eyes in frustration. “Uh-huh, right,” I drawl out sarcastically before getting down to help him up. “You've had one too many drinks there, 'dumb-dumb',” I tell him, watching him get back on the bar chair. “Ease up.”
He shakes his head at me, unwilling to cooperate. “You ease up, Dumbo.”
With that said, I leave him be. He can suffer alone!
“Do you want to dance?” a guy asks Grey. “No.” Grey glares at him.
“Do you want a drink?” the guy prods, unknowingly entering the brink of no return.
“No,” Grey repeats, annoyed and ready to kill.
“Are you playing hard to get?” the guy questions, confused as to why Grey's being so harsh.
I'd say that Grey's figured it out by now.
Ferrot is just about to lash out at the guy when Nancy suddenly appears and saves him. “He's with me,” Nancy tells the guy and grabs ahold of Grey's arm.
Grey nods, playing it cool.
“Let's go, babe.” Nancy feigns possessiveness and grabs the collar of Grey's shirt before leading him away.
Now, who's the lovesick puppy on a leash?
Grey, of course, follows blindly after her without so much as a single protest.
***
“I've got a problem and it drains my soul!” Two horrendous voices sing aloud together.
I look up on stage to see Troy and Max singing with only one microphone between the both of them. Not this again! Last time, it was Max and Benley, the difference being that Benley could carry Max through with his talent. Troy and Max are as equally as awful as the other. There's just no carrying this one.
However, the drunkards seem to really be enjoying it. They're all waving their hands to the rhythm of the music, fist bumping the air or jumping up and down like mental people. It's evident that Max and Troy are also beyond wasted.
“Don't tell, nobody knows!” Max sings that part solo, placing a finger against his lips as if to imply what he's singing as he takes center stage. Troy stays hidden in the background as if to let Max have his solo moment.
A moment later, Troy steps forth from the shadows, retrieving the microphone from Max. “I used to feel alright…” He sings, placing a dramatic hand to his chest as he now takes center stage, Max falling to the back.
You'd think the two of them planned this all.
They both come to the center stage and grab the microphone together, both of them leaning into the single microphone. They crouch forward over the stage's edge, making out as if they're going to fall. “Now I'm u-u-u-uptight!” They sing and clap their hands, the crowd immediately following suit.
I wince in embarrassment and cover my ears with my hands, trying to block out the sound of them singing.
“I'm surprised they're not fighting over the microphone,” Bells says to me upon finding me in the crowd. “It's so weird that my brother and boyfriend are best friends,” she comments more to herself than to me as she ventures off again.
Max slips on stage when trying to hit the last high note. He quickly jumps back up to his feet like a dude from The Matrix. He continues on singing as if nothing happened, as if he didn't just face-plant.
In comes Benley on stage, out of the blue, with a microphone of his own. He bobs his head back and forth slowly to the song like a hungry chicken before joining in, starting with a random part to the song. “So, tell me do you like that?” He sings flawlessly, at least.
Max sings next. “I don't think I like that.”
“Well, maybe we should stop this,” Benley sings again.
“I wish we never started,” Troy jumps in, gaining his fair share of the crowd's attention.
“This is too good!” Jay says loudly in order for me to hear him above the atrocious singing. “They're such a bunch of clowns.” He grins as he continues to tape it all with his cell phone.
“Yeah,” I nod, agreeing with him as we both watch on in amusement. “They're real cheese balls.”
“So, the weirdest thing happened to me…” Jay hesitantly changes the subject. “This guy came and hit on me, asked if he could buy me a drink.” I stifle my giggles, trying to keep a serious face as he continues. “I told him I was straight. Then it happened again.” He shakes his head, puzzled. “Weird.”
So weird.
“You're just that good-looking.” I wink, choosing not to tell him that we're currently in a gay club.
I follow his gaze back to the stage to see Troy frozen in place as Max continues to sing his lines. Benley's moonwalking in the background. Max finishes his line before attempting to pop and lock, throwing the microphone over to Troy. Troy suddenly unfreezes and catches the microphone in one hand before singing his line, Max now frozen in place with a weird expression on his face.
It's a few minutes later when the worst of the worst happens:
Troy, making out as if he has a rope in hand, begins to pull as if pulling in a fishing line. With each pull, Benley, making out as if he has the rope tied around his waist, hops forward until he's standing directly in front of Troy. Max busts out his own move and comes sliding on his knees in between the two.
From my left, Jay bursts out laughing again. “And this is why I prefer not to drink.” He grins, completely upbeat tonight.
“Listen, man, I'm gonna head on home,” Grey interrupts us. “This one is all over the place.” He motions to a drunk Nancy clinging onto him, giggling to herself.
Jay nods, his attention still focused on stage where Troy is now attempting to do a headspin, except, he can't do it by himself. Max and Benley are both trying to keep him balanced upward as they spin him around on his head.
“You go and take care of her then,” I tell Grey teasingly when Jay doesn't reply.
Grey flips me off before leaving with his soon-to-be girlfriend.
“Okay, admittedly, I've seen enough,” Jay eventually says when Max, Troy, and Benley do the wave with the crowds of people around us. He reaches for my hand.
“Let's get out of here,” he suggests, opting for the same out Grey took.
“Calling all Aqueelas to stage!” Max shouts into the microphone for reasons unknown.
I push Jay that he goes stumbling forward, hurrying him. “Go, go, go!”
He responds by shoving people out of his way, maneuvering us through the crowd until we finally manage to exit the club. He throws an arm around me, drawing me into his warm side as the cool evening wind picks up. He glances down at me with an expectant grin. “Ice cream?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
He shrugs. “I like to be polite. I'm working on being a gentleman seeing as you always tell me that I'm not one,” he defends himself, a playful smirk on his face as he steers us in the direction of Dylan's ice cream store.
“Dylan! Bex!” I shout, happy upon seeing them both. I'm not overly fond of the two but depending on what I want to do one day, I might not be sticking around these parts for much longer. I might as well start saying my goodbyes now.
“Hey, Aqueela,” Dylan greets, courteous and reserved as always.
“Hi,” Bex manages a forced smile as she glances from Jay to me in confusion. “Where's Grey?”
I furrow my eyebrows, puzzled by her question. “How should I know?”
“You're his fiancée, are you not?” Bex questions, at a loss. “You're two- timing with his best friend?”
Dylan rolls his eyes, most likely because he knows that I was never really with G
rey to begin with.
I press my lips into a thin line and slowly nod. “I just can't allow myself to be with someone on the run from the mother ship,” I mock Grey behind his back. “One day, he's there, and the next, he's been abducted.”
Dylan crosses his arms over his chest, offering me a deadpanned stare.
“Really? That's what you're going to go with?”
I pretend to think it over before nodding as if to confirm it. “Yeah, I'm sticking by that.”
Bex's eyes land on our interlaced hands and she raises a skeptical eyebrow at Jay and me. “So, does this mean that you two are finally together then?” she quizzes, curious, almost like she'd been expecting it.
I nod at her with a small smile.
She grins, actually returning my smile for once. “That's great. I actually thought you'd be better suited with Jay than Grey. You seem to have more chemistry
Chapter 61
The Long-Run
Benley lets out a groan as he ducks his head in pure shame. “This is so humiliating.” He sighs before hitting his head against the table. “Most embarrassing moment of my life,” he complains at seeing himself doing the rope move with Troy on stage.
Jay continues to play the video on his cell phone for the three of them to see while I relish in their torment, laughing aloud at their expense.
Benley turns his gaze to me. “I thought we were friends. Why didn't you drag me offstage?” he mutters, bashful.
I offer him a grin, in turn. “It's 'cause we're friends that I didn't drag you off stage.”
Benley frowns. “No. Just no,” he disagrees, annoyed.
“At least, you can sing,” I offer, purposely insulting Max and Troy in the process. They don't seem to pick up on it.
Max shrugs. “I think we could have done better. There's room for improvement, on Benley's behalf in any case. I don't know, I just don't feel fazed about this.”
I'm not surprised by Max's reaction. I didn't expect much from him.
“How do you not faze for something as downright embarrassing as this?” Benley questions him. “And I did a lot better than both of you put together.”
“Man, I look freaken gorgeous as hell. Hot damn!” Troy pipes in, giving his two cents' worth. “We were total rock stars, although I was obviously the one who owned the stage. People couldn't keep their eyes off of me. The heart wants what's hot: me!” He points an accusing finger at Max and then Benley. “You two were like my silly backup dancers.”
Max begins to protest. “No way, I nailed that performance—”
“I'm going to stop you right there, seeing as what I'm about to say is probably more significant than anything you'll ever say in your entire pathetic, measly existence,” Troy immediately cuts him off.
Max rolls his eyes and motions for him to continue. “Go right on ahead then, Kanye West.”
“No regrets, brothers!” Troy hollers as he throws his arms around Benley and Max. “Team Troy!”
Benley groans for the billionth time as he throws Troy's arm off of him, moving his chair far away from him and that much closer to Jay and me.
Troy snatches Jay's phone right from his hands before admiring himself in the video. “Wow, I'm beautiful!” Troy grins as he taps at himself in the vid to get a close-up of his face. “There is not a hair out of place on me, I tell you, not a single hair out of place,” he compliments himself and lowers his head to kiss his own face on the phone. “My existence is not fair on the human race.”
Troy hands the phone back over to Jay soon after. Jay cringes in repulsion. “Your existence is not fair on me. Now I need a new tree house and a new cell phone.”
And a new car.
“I'm just glad no one else has seen this clip. I'd hate to relive this for the rest of my life,” Benley voices his fears.
“Well…” Jay drawls out slowly before grinning cunningly at Benley, “I uploaded it on YouTube. It's already got a million views.”
That's my boyfriend!
“Good thinking, BroJay!” Troy snaps his fingers. “Send the vid to me so I can upload it on Twitter for all my precious followers to see as well.”
“My life is over,” Benley moans as he hits his forehead on the table again.
I pat him on his shoulder, feigning sympathy. “There, there.”
Benley scowls at me and slaps my hand away.
“Yo, guys, check this!” Troy exclaims in excitement before showing us the video again, except, now there are 'Troy faces' photoshopped onto Benley and Max's bodies. “I prefer this version, as I'm sure everyone else will too. It's more aesthetically appealing to the public…if you catch my drift.”
When none of us say anything, he carries on with his self-involved prattle, thinking that we don't understand. “I'm saying, I'm the best-looking here.” Troy shakes his head at us as if pitying us. “You guys are so stupid.”
I blink up at Troy, dumbfounded.
***
“So, you're the boy dating my granddaughter?” Gramps asks Jay; he insisted on visiting my grandparents with me. “You're the one who saved her from that wench, Yolanda?”
Jay nods, holding his hand out to my gramps to shake. Gramps, no longer skeptical, shakes his hand. I smile. This is a start.
“Jay Taylor,” Jay introduces himself.
“Howard, Howard Lawson,” Gramps greets, trying to portray himself as 'cool'. “But you can just call me Howie.”
“Howard's good,” Jay replies, subtly refusing to call him 'Howie'.
“Totally, bruh.” Gramps holds his crotch, trying to pull off a gangster look. “Whatever goes, homie.”
Jay's cool stature has obviously had an immediate impact on Gramps. Gramps , feeling threatened by his age , is now trying to match Jay 's easy-going nature . He always tries to fit in with the young people . It's as hilarious as it is embarrassing.
Ever since I informed my grandparents that I got a boyfriend, they've insisted on meeting him properly. However, I never thought my boyfriend would be as keen.
Jay, unsure how to respond to that, merely nods. “Sure.” “You want some joint?” Gramps asks from out of nowhere. “What?” Jay sputters, stunned.
“Isn't that what you youngsters are into these days?” Gramps asks, puzzled.
“You a drug lord now?” I tease Gramps. He'll clearly say and do anything to get on Jay's good side.
“Would you kids keep it down?!” Grams yells from the TV room as she increases the volume of the TV. “Trying to watch Dragon Ball Super over here!”
She's going to die in front of the TV, I've accepted it. We all have.
Gramps waves the matter off as if Grams yelling is the norm 'round here, which it totally is. “That's just my biscuit, Lillian,” Gramps tells Jay.
“We don't call our partners our 'biscuits', Gramps. It's just strange,” I update Gramps before leading Jay through to the TV room in order to introduce him to the only person on the face of this earth that I truly and wholeheartedly fear.
Upon seeing Jay, Grams instantly switches the TV off, shocking me in the process. “Well, well, well, who do we have here?” Grams purrs flirtatiously. She stands up to greet Jay. Lookers don't get passed her. She has an eye for them.
“My boyfriend,” I answer, emphasizing the 'my' part seeing as she harassed Troy the last time I brought her a boy. “Grams, this is Jay Taylor.” I do the introductions. “Jay, this is my grams, a.k.a. Howie's biscuit.”
Jay's doing well so far. I'm impressed. It seems my grandparents are already taking a liking to him, which is rare because they're not exactly people persons.
Jay forces a smile. “Nice to meet you.”
Grams takes the liberty to hug Jay upon hearing his name. “So, you're the one who helped with Yolanda? The Jay Taylor that my granddaughter always rattles on about? The one who's captured her heart since forever ago?” Grams asks, being genuine for once. She knows just how much I care about Jay. I never stop talking about him. He's my remedy to pretty much everything.
>
I notice the way Jay stiffens under my gram's hold. I'm the only one that hugs him, so Gram's actions catch him completely off guard.
“I guess you could say that.” He finally relaxes, awkwardly patting Gram's back as if to return her affection. He has that hint of a smile playing at his lips. He wants people around who will accept him as family, as their own. He will never admit it but family is something extremely important to him, especially considering he's never really had one.
Grams is a terrible person just about all the time — like Gina from Brooklyn Nine-Nine — but she has her sincere, warm grandmother moments. Those moments are rare but worthwhile. “Welcome to the family, Jay Taylor,” Grams chimes, offering him a heartfelt smile.
Jay's taken aback by her words but recovers quickly and returns her smile. “Thanks?” he states, unsure, rather posing it as a question than a statement . He's confused that my grandparents are willing to call him family upon just meeting him.
“Don't scare the boy off, Lillian,” Gramps lectures Grams as he tugs her away from Jay, giving Jay a chance to breathe again.
Grams apologizes and politely offers Jay and me a glass of soda, taking me by surprise. Jay thanks her before sipping from his soda.
Gramps turns to me as if to make conversation. “Your friend, Ella—”
“Bella,” I correct him.
Gramps continues on as if he didn't just make a mistake. “Ella told me that you went to visit a long-lost relative in Africa. I didn't expect you to be back so soon,” he states, skeptical, as he strokes his nonexistent beard.
“You actually bought that, Howard?” Grams asks, shaking her head at him in disbelief. “The girl obviously lied to cover for Aqueela seeing as she was doing who-knows-what with Jay at the time, probably tilting each other's worlds or—”
Jay begins coughing on his soda upon hearing Gram's blatant assumption.
Gramps pats Jay on the back. “Don't worry, son, so long as you used pro—”
“No! None of that!” Grams cuts Gramps off in protest. “I want grandchildren now!” Grams insists, disagreeing with Gramps, sounding a lot like Max right 'bout now.