“Meeting?” startled Kidman. “With who?”
“You know, Harry, it’s not important. When we are there, you will see.”
The car stopped and interrupted the awkward conversation. A queue hundreds of people long stood in front.
“Pff, are we going to enter at all?” Odonal cried.
“Relax, I'll think of something.”
A young man approached Shelley and hugged her.
“Shall we enter?”
“Yes, but I’ll bring my friend Sarah.”
“Aaa,” said Mike, as Harry was still looking oddly, “aren’t you going to at least ask for us?”
“Mike, Harry, you are big boys. You will manage somehow, right?” the girl caught the arm of the man who was familiar from somewhere to Harry.
“Come on honey, let’s enter.”
The young man made a sign to the guard, and he let them in.
Mike angrily turned to his buddy, “I blame you. You couldn’t apologize on time at least once in your life. Now you will see Tess and Ice Cube only in your dreams. On top of that, my woman will wallow alone in thousands of drunken and horny men.” Odonal stopped talking for a moment and imagined everything he spoke about. “We have to enter somehow!”
People from the queue began to get nervous, “Hey, go in the back of the line.”
“Shut up, trash,” finally intervened Harry. “Stay in line and don’t bother me.”
And just when Kidman was about to get into the biggest fight of his life with the slightly enraged crowd, the Lord came to his aid once again.
Two Hummers and a Dodge stopped beside them and from one of the doors, Paco got out. After him showed up a few more familiar and five, six unknown, tough Mexicans.
“TAAA, Harry?” the Mexican looked at the young man. “Ahaaaha, Ugly, look who’s here?!”
Ugly came overjoyed and gave five to Harry, then the others who knew him also greeted him. Mike watched with perplexity.
“Paco, tell me that you’ll get my friend and me inside?”
“Are you kidding? I’ll even arrange a VIP space. You are my ese, tonight, you don’t have problems.”
The little Mexican turned toward the guards, “Hey, pendejo, these two are with us, remember them well.”
“Of course, Paco,” the dumb bodyguard scratched his head and took the money that was handed to him by one of the group.
Inside, the nuthouse was full. The rap music sounded loud and young girls, most of them drunk, were shaking their booties. The VIP place Paco arranged was perfect. Harry could see everyone, and everybody could see him. The waitress brought all types of alcohol before they could even order.
Shelley finally saw Harry, who was with a glass in his hand. Kidman also spotted her and raised his hand, giving her cheers. Inside he was dying of joy when he saw the face of her new friend. Dirty waved for Shelly and Sarah to join them. Under Mike girlfriend’s pressure, both of them joined the VIP.
“Paco bro, those two are with me. Please, don’t let the boys touch them.”
Mexican smiled, “No worry, holms. Which one is yours?”
“Aaa,” thought Harry, “the black haired.”
“Nice, good for you. Congratulations for the selection.”
The girls danced happily, already pretty drunk and the party was going. Harry and Mike pounded with the Mexicans, tequilas one after another. Finally, Kidman saw Tess on the dance floor, calling him challengingly with her finger.
Unnoticed, Dirty sidled up to her and, after a passionate kiss, the couple started dancing quite sexually.
At about the same time, Shelley noted that Harry was missing and started looking into the crowd. In the entrance, however, she recognized The Hammer, who was just entering the club. Both of them noticed Kidman, but the husky rapper managed to get there first. The Hammer pushed the unsuspecting, slightly tipsy, young man hard. Harry probably fell a meter away on his back, hitting some people on the way down. The rapper approached, wanting to kick him, but Shelley came from somewhere and managed to stop him for a second. The big man, obviously in awe of the collected testosterone, pushed her down on the ground too.
Harry, who did not like to fight, and for a reason, didn’t manage to withstand this. Pushed himself off the ground in "The Rock" style and hit the odd-looking Hammer with all his might, right in his teeth. The giant collapsed on the floor like a plank. The DJ stopped the music. Several guards came fast and just before they were about to throw themselves on Harry, Ugly suddenly descended.
“What happened, ese? Are you okay?”
“I’m good, Ugly.”
“What are you waiting for? Throw this scum out of my sight,” he pointed towards The Hammer.
Harry patted the Mexican on the shoulder, “I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry, Harry,” smiled the fat man. “You have a heavy fist.”
Kidman turned to Shelly, helped her stand up and gave her a hug:
“Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
After these words, the girl was about to leave, but Harry went after her. Before he spoke, four guards passed them with the rapper still unconscious and threw him out on the street. Tess, before whose eyes all this happened, still looked oddly on the side and didn’t believe the scene. She was expecting another turn of events.
“You saved my ass again, Shell.”
“Harry, I’m going home. If you want to stay with Tess, don’t worry about me. I’ll just catch a taxi.”
“Wait for me outside. I’ll just check if Mike and Sarah want to go with us.”
“All right, Harry.”
She went outside, and Kidman went to his buddy.
“Ha ha ha, you kicked his ass. And how you rose up from the ground, you have seen a lot of movies.”
Dirty just smiled casually, “Shell and I intend to go, are you staying?”
“No, no. We came together, we will go together.”
Harry turned towards the Mexicans, “Take it easy, Paco. I'll see you when I see you.”
“Okay, Harry. Take care, and if you have problems with this scumbag again, you know my number.”
The two hugged like in the mafia movies. Ugly also greeted Harry and gave him a fist bump. Ice Cube was just beginning to sing, and under the rhythm of the rap, Kidman made his way out with his most gangster-like walk.
Chapter VI
The Realization
The four friends walked to the bus stop, which was not far away.
“Harry, I didn’t know you could fight,” Sarah broke the silence. “Where did you learn that?”
“I trained this and that,” Kidman mysteriously smiled. “But I don’t like beating people.”
“Ha ha ha,” Mike laughed, just as they reached the bus station, whose back was one big glass. A few drunk guys were sitting on the bench. “As you stood up the way you did, I thought you were going to hit him with a 360 spinning kick, Jean-Claude Van Damme style.”
Mike whirled, trying to show the popular kick but hit the bus stop, and the glass broke. Most of the glass fragments crashed on the youngsters who were resting on the bench. Misunderstanding what had happened, two of them jumped to beat Odonal. Harry initially tried to break up the fight, but his friend had already fallen on the ground. While Kidman was trying to save his buddy, the bus arrived and its doors opened. The girls slipped quickly.
“Mike, jump on the bus.,” Harry shouted while kicking one of the attackers in the nuts.
As he was laying, Odonal abruptly rose and tossed himself into the vehicle, which slowly started to move.
Kidman began to run and tried to climb inside, but one of the boys who was running behind him caught up and began to pull him. Dirty managed to grab the iron handle near the door, but under pressure from his opponent, he could not enter inside. The situation started to become complicated, because if Harry stayed there, he could take a lot of beating.
Shelley, who was next to Kidman, suddenly grabbed her shoe, which had a long and
thin steel heel. With one fell swoop, she hit the head of the man who was pulling her friend. The young boy screamed as if he was dying, dropped Kidman and he jumped on the bus. The passengers looked puzzled during the whole situation, while the four friends were laughing like crazy.
“What a heel you hit in his head, hahaha, you have sent him directly into a coma.”
“He will most likely wake up on New Years,” Mike patted Shelley on the shoulder and added. “A lot of action has happened in one week and yet Harry is at the center of things.”
In such conversations, the four traveled towards their neighborhood. From the bus radio suddenly sounded "Meredith Brooks - Bitch." In the already empty vehicle the young group started to sing, "I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother, I’m a sinner, I'm a saint, I do not feel ashamed, I'm your hell, I'm your dream, I'm nothing in between, You know you would not want it any other way..." Slightly drunk Shelley leaned towards Harry’s shoulder, and he hugged her. In his drunken head already spun restless thoughts. He was considering the situation at the club. He concluded that Tess was just having fun with him because she didn’t try to stop The Hammer when he arrived but pulled away with a smile instead. Now the whole scene flashed before him. Kidman looked at his half asleep friend and thought deeply, “Hopefully, it’s not too late ..." Mike looked pointedly, knоwing his friend very good and smiled. Kidman in his turn winked and smiled. Now they were both aware.
The bus left them at the bus stop, and the quartet split. Odonal accompanied Sarah to her home, and Harry and Shelley headed toward theirs. The two walked silently in the lighted street.
“You were right,” the boy broke the silence. “Tess is a bitch and intrigante.”
The girl looked at him, “And what gave you such an idea?” she joked.
“Well, who was the man that was waiting for you in the club?”
“Harry, for the last time, I tell you, it’s my cousin, with whom you met at the pool. He was just dressed better.”
Kidman raised his eyebrows, pleased, “At the pool, I was prevented by the situation, and it was hard to concentrate...”
“It doesn’t matter,” interrupted the girl, “my meeting was not with him.”
“And with whom?” the youngster gritted his teeth.
“It doesn’t matter anyway, it was postponed...”
“And do you intend to renew it?”
“I do not know, Harry, why do you ask me these questions? Am I asking you what are you going to do with Tess?”
“Ask me, I'll tell you.”
“Okay, tell me, what are you going to do?”
“She is no longer in the game, I realized that there is another girl for me, I just hope it’s not too late.”
“Who is this girl?” Shelly asked with interest.
Harry was about to say, but they had come to their house, and Joe shouted from the doorway, “So, how was Ice Cube? Is he still good?”
“The best as always,” Dirty lifted his thumbs. “Better than ever,” after this, he continued to talk to Shelley. “Over the weekend, I won’t be here, my parents wish to go to see my grandma. Do you want me to pick you up for school on Monday?”
“Sure,” the girl smiled. “When will you tell me who this mysterious new girl you like is?”
“I will tell you when the time comes,” Harry winked and left.
While entering the house, Kidman almost got a heart attack. His parents had music playing "Rick Ross - Hustlin" and they were having sex on the couch while watching TV. Harry put his hand to his eyes and yelled over the loud music, “What the hell?”
“Ahh, Harry,” his father looked up, “why are you back so early? Usually, you are back in the morning, or you sleep at Shell…”
“Please put your clothes on! Things developed differently today.”
“Dear, will you throw me my bra? It’s next to your hand.”
The teenager grabbed it with hostility and threw it on the couch. His parents got dressed and moved to the bedroom where they probably continued. Their son foresightedly put on his headphones and played light lullaby music, which would turn off after an hour.
The weekend was cumbersome and prolonged. Harry stood on his grandmother’s porch, dreamily staring away. In his thoughts, he was passing thousands of events with Shelley and Odonal's words. He wondered how the hell had he failed to notice or sense that he felt the same way. The black-haired beauty stood straight in the pizzeria also staring at the empty booth in the corner. The radio was playing in the background - "Beatles - Let it be", which made her thoughts even sadder. On the other hand, she vividly remembered his words from yesterday and that was eating her on the inside, wanting to know if she was the mysterious girl. But as much as she wanted it to be her, for a moment she remembered dozens of times in which Kidman was in love before, and how he, always disappointed by yet another relationship, complained to her about. And she, like a best friend, always consoled him and didn’t leave him alone. As she was staying conceived, she pulled out her phone and dialed Mike.
“Shelley? Kidman is not with me, he is at his grandmother’s.”
“I know. I’m not calling about that. Last night, he mentioned that he would no longer deal with that bitch Tess and that he realized that there is another girl for him. Do you happen to know who this girl is?”
“Sorry, Shell. He didn’t tell me anything about it. I didn’t even know that he quit on Tess.”
“Can you call him and find out?”
“You are good friends, I can’t do it. It’s as if he asked me to ask you. You’ll have to understand by yourself. Why do you ask, if it’s not a secret?”
“You know why!” the girl snapped. “Our entire group knows, only this idiot Harry doesn’t!” she raged even more furiously and hung the phone.
“Relax,” came the voice of Joe reassuring, “you’ve waited for so long, what are two more days?”
“You’re right, grandpa.”
“If you want, you can call him. You might feel better.”
Dirty was still standing on the porch staring in the neighborhood. He had played music on his phone and now had "4 Non Blondes - What's up" on. With headphones on his ears, he was occasionally singing, when the phone suddenly rang. He heard the tune had just set for Shelley’s number today - "Barry White & Shaggy - Sexual Healing."
“How are you, Harry?” asked the voice from the other side. “Is your grandmother well?”
“She is good and asking about you.”
“Send her greetings from me. Are you okay? Last night you were talking strangely?”
“I feel great. I was talking weird because I felt strange.”
There were a few seconds of silence…
“But as I said, I’m okay.”
“Well, I’m glad,” Shell responded even more confused. “When are you returning tomorrow?”
“In the afternoon, around five.”
“Pass through my job if you want to talk with me?” the girl bit her lip with hope.
“Okay, I will come. Bye for now.”
“Bye.”
Kidman hastily dialed Mike…
“I had a feeling that you would call me...”
“How did you receive that feeling?”
“It doesn’t matter. What’s up, are you coming home early?”
“No, I wanted to ask you something. Are you sure in what you said that day by the pool, that Shell was in love with me since forever?”
“Everybody knows! Only you are falling from the moon because you are friends with her since childhood and you are not accustomed to looking at her that way. That’s why you have hurt her thousands of times, without even knowing.”
“Why didn’t anybody tell me earlier?”
“Harry, you were always dealing with somebody. There was Maria, Deni, Stanila, Nati, Mati, Patty... Get it?”
“Yes!”
“What is this sudden interest? You are dealing with Tess now, right? Did your nous finally come?”
“Fuck Tess, Mes and everyone else. Since I realized things, only Shell’s been in my head.”
“Well done. Just in time, Harry. Just don’t screw things up, be honest, do not subterfuge or you will miss the train.”
“No, tomorrow afternoon I will meet with her at Joe’s. Then I’ll tell her.”
“Okay, I’m out, Sarah is here. Call me when it’s over, we can go out and celebrate.”
“Sure, see ya.”
“Bye...”
This Saturday was one of the longest in Kidman’s life. His timing was terrible as always. Once again in his life, just when he was about to do something big, he had to wait. Harry smiled at that thought. He had already submitted documents to several universities, not for what his parents wanted, but what he liked instead. He planned to keep it as a surprise until he saw whether he was accepted or not. However, nothing was important at the moment. At this thought, his pulse doubled. He felt like a beast in a cage.
The next day, when everybody woke up for breakfast, he had already prepared the luggage, put it in the car and made food for the whole family.
“Good morning all. There are coffee, tea, and orange juice. Dig in,” he looked at them with satisfaction and pulled up a chair for his grandmother. “Sit down grandma.”
The grandmother smiled, sat down and looked at Harry’s father, “Some girl is involved,” then she looked towards Harry again. “Your dad was doing the same when he met your mother and was in a hurry to go out.”
“Do we know her?” his mother asked as she sat.
“Perhaps. We will see.”
The father’s eyes narrowed, “So we know her,” he took a piece of toast and continued. “How many girls do we know for which he would arrange the whole house and cook for four people?”
“Shit, it’s Shelley,” the delighted mother hit the table, then felt that she exaggerated her joy a little. “But, I mean, it was about time you two got together. Just in time, I would say.”
“Thank you for your enthusiasm, but let’s eat so we can get out. Nothing has happened. And don’t say anything until I tell you.”
“To whom can we say?” the surprised father asked.
Harry Kidman Page 4