Synergy

by Georgia Payne

  She remembered him going home alone without Jason when they’d hooked up last time. It made her wonder whether he was trying to hook up again, but she shrugged off that thought. Either way, she didn’t really mind. She wasn’t trying to fuck, but if it happened, it happened. She did find it slightly funny that this rich white dude thought he would be more protection for her on her walk home when he wasn’t even from this area. She knew the streets, she knew the people, and she knew how to fight. She knew he didn’t know the area or the people and as far as fighting was concerned, she could only imagine rich white boy wouldn’t have the first clue. He didn’t look the type. However, he was cute, and polite, and frankly, there weren’t a lot of people with those qualities around her, so she let him walk her home.

  They chatted idly about his trip home on the walk, and the family and friends he was looking forward to seeing when he got there. She thought his family sounded like real down-to-earth southern people; they probably had a dog and a white picket fence and a pool. She was kind of intrigued by it all, and she wondered why someone with this good life was taking an interest in her. She wondered why he was even bothering walking her home when he was leaving for his perfect family tomorrow, but then she remembered she’d put out the first time they’d met and no matter how polite or nice he seemed, he was a guy, and he was probably after one thing. Men were still men no matter what background they had, and she knew she wasn’t going to be a catch to someone like him. She wasn’t even trying to be.

  As he talked, she looked up every now and then to see his face, and every time she looked, she saw those bright blue eyes shining in the glow of the streetlights. She had to admit they were beautiful. She hadn’t known a lot of people with blue eyes, so this was something new to her. She thought they looked honest, like he probably gave a lot away through his eyes. People hold a lot of emotion in their eyes, not just tears but everything they’re thinking. You can often tell someone’s lying by what they do with their eyes, and over the years she’d learnt to spot the signs. Nothing about his eyes made her feel uneasy or unsure, and that was always a good sign.

  Usually, on her walk home from the club, Dee put her earphones in and listened to her music to pass the time. However, tonight, she didn’t need it, she had conversation, and while some of it was small talk, she didn’t feel it was forced. As they made their way around the corner, a group of four men sat on a porch step drinking and smoking, while another two played dice games against the wall at the side of the house. While those playing were rowdy, the ones on the porch sat quietly, probably baked out of their minds. One man in particular, a thin skinhead, watched Jason and Dee walking past. While Dee was used to the stares she sometimes got, Jason looked slightly uncomfortable until the man stood up slowly before saluting in the air.

  “Ey, respect man!” he shouted across the street. Dee didn’t understand his meaning, but then he shouted again.

  “Ey Jason! Respect man!”

  Startled, Dee wondered how the man knew Jason’s name. Was his music industry status better than she was aware of? Maybe he was a really good producer; maybe he’d done some work for the guy in question. Jason didn’t say much but smiled and thanked the man before they moved on swiftly.

  As they moved out of sight of the group, Dee turned to Jason.

  “What was that about?” she asked. “You know him?”

  “No,” he laughed.

  “So, you like, a little bit famous or something?” she joked.

  Jason took a breath before answering. “Something like that.”

  “Really famous?”

  He laughed again. “Do you have to know?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re like, one of the rare people that didn’t know my life story before they met me. I liked that.”

  “Oh shit. So you are really famous!”

  “Doesn’t change who I am – I’m still a normal guy.”

  Dee stopped in her tracks and pulled gently on his arm to make him. He stopped and once again he looked at her with his twinkling blue eyes.

  “What’s your last name?” Dee asked, wondering now whether she was supposed to know this guy. Now she looked at him, and studied his face, she started to wonder whether she did recognise him.

  “Taylor,” he replied, waiting for her reaction.

  “Jason Taylor,” she repeated.

  Jason waited, slightly embarrassed, to gage her reaction, kind of afraid of what she would say.

  “Shit.” She said, as he saw the penny drop.

  “Fuck, I’m like, walking home with a famous dude. That’s fucked up.”

  At that, she started to walk once again. Jason burst into laughter.

  “That wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.”

  “Do girls usually fall at your feet?”

  “No...” He began, knowing it was a slight lie, but he didn’t want to sound conceited.

  “Yeah they do.” She smiled, before she turned to him and added “But not this one.”

  Before Dee realised it, they were already on her street and almost at her house. They’d already passed her brother’s Chevy parked on the road a few doors away before she could think of a way to ask Jason to leave her right here. She stopped and gestured toward her house.

  “This is me,” she stated.

  Jason looked toward the door.

  “Oh. It was nice to see you again,” he said, sticking his hands in his pockets like a teenager. For some reason, it made her smile.

  “You wanna come in for a beer?” she asked with spontaneity, her words surprising even her. As she watched him hesitate, she added, “My brother will probably be home but he don’t care.”

  She realised then that inviting him in after the way they met the first time could be misleading.

  “Sure, one beer.” He agreed.

  As she led him in the front door, she heard sounds from the living room, and opened the door slowly to see who was in there. Her brother Jarell was on his Xbox, the noise from the game on low, so all she could hear was quiet gunshots. He sat with no shirt on, but his chains still hung around his neck. An opened beer was on the table in front of him next to a bowl of half-eaten chips. A blunt sat in an ashtray by the side of him, burning away on its own. She figured he was loving having the house to himself without her there, seeing as her mom and Tushaun would be in bed. She opened the door fully then and told Jason to come in. As Jarell saw Jason in his peripheral vision, he turned his gaze to the door and made eye contact with Jason, who stood in the doorway nervously.

  Jason

  “You bringing people home now?” Jarell asked, sounding deadly serious. Jason felt like a teenage boy meeting his girlfriend’s father for the first time, though he barely knew this girl. The whole thing was stupid, really.

  Dee promptly told her brother to fuck off and he laughed and paused his game before standing up. He was around the same height as Jason, with dark skin and tattoos covering his chest and his arms. He even had one on the side of his neck.

  “What up bruh? I’m Jarell,” he stated, extending his arm out to Jason.

  “Jason,” Jason replied, taking Jarell’s hand in his and bumping shoulders with him.

  “Jason Taylor?” Jarrell said, in a manner that sounded unsure whether it wanted to be a statement or a question.

  “Yeah.” Jason said, used to this sort of conversation.

  “I didn’t even know who he was till now” Dee told her brother.

  “How you ain’t know?”

  “I don’t know, just didn’t.”

  After the three of them were acquainted, Dee went into the kitchen to find herself and Jason some beers. As the men sat down on a sofa each, Jarell turned to Jason.

  “You do that one song...” At that, Jarell sang Jason’s own lyrics at him. Jason laughed slightly, feeling pretty embarrassed, but took it on the chin.

  As Dee returned, beers in hand, she told Jarell to shut up, and handed one of the bottles to Jason before sitting down
on the sofa next to him.

  “Where’s mine?” Jarell joked, blowing smoke from his blunt before setting it back down.

  “On the table, half drank,” Dee replied, and Jarell smirked.

  On the coffee table in front of Jarell, smoke billowed. Dee eyed it and stood up to fetch it before sitting back down.

  “Who said you could smoke my weed?” Jarell questioned as she inhaled the fumes.

  “You fucking wasting it,” Dee snapped at her brother, making eye contact to punctuate her point. “And who fucking bought you it?”

  Jarell started to smirk again, and Jason decided he was probably one of those brothers that lived to mess with his little sister. Jason also realised how surprised he was by the way Dee snapped at her brother. When she spoke, she had such a sweet-sounding voice, almost childlike, so hearing her snap that way was like seeing a different personality altogether. He didn’t necessarily think it was a bad thing. He thought she could probably stand up for herself.

  In an effort to keep the peace, Jason piped up. “So, you two live here together?”

  “It’s my mom’s house.” Dee said. “So it’s my mom, Jarell, my sister, and my son.”

  “And you?” Jason questioned, though he thought it was more of a statement than a question when he first said it, as he assumed she would live here if her son did.

  Dee sighed from the opposite sofa and he realised he may have hit a nerve.

  “I did. Before I had Tushaun, I lived with my boyfriend, but when we split up I couldn’t...” Dee broke off then, and looked emotional. She took a sip of her beer and suddenly her ‘hard’ voice was back.

  “I couldn’t afford to raise him on my own and pay the bills so my mom took him.”

  Jason didn’t know what the appropriate thing to say was, so he settled with all he could muster.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, it must be hard.”

  Dee nodded and took a sip of her drink again. “I still see him every day. I take him to school and pick him up. I have dinner with him and put him to bed before work. I guess it’s the nearest thing to him living with me.”

  “I guess it’s lucky you’ve got your mom,” Jason said, focusing on the bright side, and the three of them sat silently for a minute digesting that thought.

  Conversation soon turned to the missing sibling of the bunch. Kiki was 6 years younger than Dee, so it was a surprise to hear she wasn’t around tonight, and was staying at her boyfriend’s instead. He knew at sixteen he would never have been allowed to stay over at a girlfriend’s house on a school night. Though, from the tone of the conversation, Kiki was the promising sibling in terms of education. Jason didn’t know how educated Dee and Jarell were, but from the way they spoke of Kiki, he thought it sounded like they’d given up on their own education.

  “Keeks is the clever one, she gon’ get her GED an’ shit.” Jarell said matter-of-factly, as he took a swig from his bottle. It was an innocuous enough statement, but Jason couldn’t help but feel the tension that built in the air. His eyes strayed to Dee’s corner and he saw a glimpse of something, maybe hurt? Embarrassment? He wasn’t sure. For what was probably only seconds, but felt like minutes, the three of them sipped their drinks in silence, the only sound being the pause screen from the Xbox which was now playing quietly to itself.

  All three were grateful when the awkward moment was interrupted by a ringing started from Jarell’s jeans pocket. He put his beer down and fished in his pocket for the phone, taking a look at the caller ID before answering it with ‘Yo’, and excusing himself with a head nod and leaving the room.

  “You okay?” Jason asked, feeling there was something wrong. Dee took another swig of her drink and sat back on the sofa, bringing her knees up to her chest.

  “Yeah, just hate the way he say snarky lil’ comments like that,” she replied.

  “The GED comment?” Jason questioned.

  Dee nodded before finishing the beer and placing the bottle onto the floor beside her before sitting back again.

  “I fucking dropped out before I even got to take it an’ then when I tried to re-do it, I couldn’t keep up with that shit.” Dee looked down into her lap before speaking again, this time more of a muttering to herself.

  “What’s the point anyway, not like I can go to college an’ shit.”

  As a natural response, Jason replied “Of course you could” but Dee snapped back before he’d even finished.

  “The bank fucking laughed in my face when I asked about a loan for college.”

  All Jason could do was nod. He wasn’t going to try to pretend to know anything about bank loans or what options she had. He didn’t know the girl well enough; he didn’t know what debts she might have, or what college intelligence she had. He decided to just listen; he wasn’t necessarily here to help.

  Jarell popped his head back into the room through the open door.

  “I’mma bounce, Daya’s mom’s got Shontelle.”

  Turning to Jason then, Jarell gave him a head nod.

  “Nice to meet ya man, look after my sister.”

  Jason smiled nervously and thanked him before saying goodbye.

  As Jarell made his way to the front door in a hurry, Dee shouted “Get out of here nasty ass!” before she rolled her eyes and laughed softly.

  Jason watched her laugh, and he found himself smiling along with her. She really did have a beautiful smile; he wished she did it more.

  “Where’s he going?” Jason asked, once they had both heard the click of the door.

  “Daya’s his baby mama. Shontelle’s my niece.” Dee explained.

  “You ever think you got problems, you look at them and you think you functional as shit.” She laughed.

  “So what time you leaving tomorrow?” Dee asked, as she watched Jason finish his beer but keep the empty bottle clutched in his hand.

  Jason told her their plans; what time they were checking out of their hotel room and what time they had to be on the plane, then realised he didn’t have a clue what time it was right now and checked the Rolex on his wrist. Seeing it was the early hours of the morning, he raised his eyebrows in surprise.

  “Shit, I didn’t know it was so late. Guess I’d better head out. Sorry for keeping you up,” he apologised, as he stood up from his seat still holding his beer bottle.

  “Where can I put this?” he asked.

  “Just leave it on the table, I’ll sort it.” Dee replied, standing up to take it out of his hand before he had chance, and placed it on the table herself.

  “Thanks,” he said, and smiled at her, before going out to the hallway.

  “Enjoy home,” Dee said, as she followed him out.

  “I will.” He replied. Hovering near the door with his fingers around the handle ready to turn it, he hesitated. He knew what he wanted to ask but he wasn’t sure whether to risk it. Then again, he didn’t know whether he would be lucky enough to run into her again when he came back to Detroit, and he couldn’t exactly start stalking her at the club.

  Taking his hand off the door and turning back to face her, he took a breath.

  “Do you think...I could get your number, maybe?”

  She stood for a second looking at him.

  “I just...lost my phone” she started, and assuming she was making her excuses, Jason had already quickly turned back to the door when she added, “You could give me yours?”

  Chapter 8 – Home

  Jason

  Home was bliss. Stress free, drama free bliss. Jason had forgotten how good it felt to be back home. Every time he was closer to another visit, he thought he remembered how amazing it was, but it wasn’t until he spent a night there that he remembered it was always better than he imagined. It may sound corny to other people, but when you worked 24/7 like him, it really did feel like the best thing in the world. With his successes, he was used to a ‘champagne lifestyle’ as such, but no amount of free designer clothes or money in the bank could compare to the love and affection he received from his fami
ly. On the first day he arrived, his mother and all his family had put up a ‘welcome home’ sign in the kitchen and had surprised him like it was his birthday. There was a spread of food on the table made by his grandmother and drinks were flowing. Sometimes he felt like he was returning home from war but it gave him a sense of pride still to know he was so loved and appreciated. His mother as usual shed some tears on his chest as he hugged her on arrival. He expected she would do exactly the same when he went back to work.

  Seeing his grandparents always reminded him how old they were now getting, and he worried about their health and how they weren’t getting any younger. He worried that he didn’t see them enough, and every time he would vow to visit home more often. He was reminded by their aches and pains and their hospital visits that their years were precious, and he always wondered if this time may be the last time he saw them. He tried to shake any negative feelings but it was hard when he spent so much time away. Nevertheless, his grandmother had made her famous cobbler and his granddad played him a few rounds at Golf; something he hoped he could still do at his age.

  Being in such a small town again was a strange experience. He’d forgotten how tight-knit the community was. Almost every neighbour from a mile away had arrived at the ‘homecoming’ party, baring food and cheer. He knew his mother had probably put a lot of people up to it, however, he knew there would also be a lot of people that offered anyway. People liked to know each other’s business here. Not in a malicious way, but sometimes their curiosity could come across a little nosy to someone who didn’t know them. He remembered growing up here and rumours spreading faster than a rash with Chicken Pox; which wasn’t exactly ideal when you’d been caught having sex with your fourteen year old girlfriend by your mom. He chuckled to himself remembering the embarrassing memory from his teenage years. Sometimes, it was easy for people to forget that celebrities were people too, and they all had their own embarrassing moments, especially when you’re young. Jason hadn’t revealed that one to the world till he was around twenty-one and had just gone solo. When he was in his boy band, they were a little too cheesy for sex stories.