Right There with You

by R. J. Sable

  Jason nodded and took a sip of his tea. “I ended up in this underground fight ring when I was around sixteen.”

  I wasn't expecting that.

  “It was a great way to take out my frustration and I made a bit of money. After a while I got pretty good and I won most of my fights. I used to take Ben with me, keep him away from Dad. I'd have a friend look out for him while I was in the circle. He got pretty good at analysing fights. He used his freaky little computer brain to help me find weaknesses and become a better fighter. With his help I stopped losing all together. He's always been good at maths. We used the money I made and put it back into betting on the matches. He bet on the outcome and on how many hits I'd take and so on.

  We made shit loads over the years. When he moved in with me, it only got better. He was still at school so I made sure that was priority number one, but he was like my lucky charm. I kept up the underground stuff even though I moved into MMA. It may have been a little less than respectable but the money was hard to turn down and I was supporting the both of us.

  I took a gap year and a job on the side until Benji finished school. We both moved to Cambridge after that, I'd been accepted there the year before and he applied to a good college nearby.”

  I listened silently, stroking his arm as he talked. I really appreciated his honesty, but I was finding it all hard to take in. He'd spent most of his life fighting, but then again so had Craig and he was a big softy most of the time. But underground fighting? That sounded like a whole new level of violence. Why'd he stop?

  “Is that what Ben meant when he said he could afford it?” I said, remembering the little discourse they'd had when Ben had brought his iPad out.

  “Yeah,” Jason nodded solemnly. “We saved up quite a bit over the years.”

  “Are you telling me you're secretly a millionaire?” I teased.

  “No, baby, I'm not a millionaire, sorry to disappoint,” he grinned. “But I don't have any student debt and I own my flat.”

  “You what?” I said, sitting up and looking at him wide-eyed. “That's awesome!”

  “'Tis a bit,” he grinned. “So no more moaning about me buying you coffee, okay?”

  “I'll never stop,” I stuck my tongue out at him.

  He grinned and shook his head at me. “You're impossible,” he chuckled, pulling me back to his side.

  “How come you stopped?” I asked, snuggling back up with him.

  I watched as a pained expression crossed his face.

  “The people you meet in that sort of lifestyle are not good people. I ended up drinking quite a bit and making some pretty bad lifestyle choices. One day Benji tried to stop me picking a fight with some random guy at a bar and I lashed out at him,” he grimaced, his jaw clenched shut. “I knocked him out cold. I thought I'd killed him. For a brief second I thought I'd killed my own brother.” His voice choked and he took a deep breath. “I vowed that night never to drink again. I stopped fighting full stop. I'd spent my life trying to protect Ben from that shit and in the end he needed protecting from me as well.”

  “I'm so sorry,” I said, wrapping my hands around him.

  “I did stop drinking as well,” he said, looking down at me. “Until I met you.”

  I pursed my lips, feeling a little guilty. “Sorry,” I mumbled.

  “It's not your fault, baby,” he soothed. “The irony's not lost on me, though. The first time I drink in years and I punch my best friend in the face.”

  “How come?” I frowned.

  “He hit me in the ribs,” Jason mumbled, rubbing them gently.

  “Why?”

  “I wanted to go back and smash your brother's face in,” he grumbled. “Grayson thought it might be a bad idea.”

  “He may have been right,” I smiled sheepishly.

  “Come on,” he said, getting up from the bed and taking my empty cup from me. “Time for dinner.”

  Chapter 34

  Friday, 9th November 2012

  “Jelly!” The twins yelled in unison as I answered my phone.

  “Hi, guys,” I grinned.

  “Jelly!” One of them yelled.

  “What?” I laughed. They sounded so happy.

  “We're coming to see you tomorrow!”

  “Awesome, how come?”

  “We're checking out a gym in Bradford tomorrow morning.”

  “Another one?” I asked, surprised. It must have been going well for them. They already had three gyms open.

  “Yup, thought we could take you out for lunch afterwards.”

  “That'd be awesome, I can't wait,” I beamed down the phone at them.

  “You still with Jason?” One of them grunted, Rick I think.

  “Yes,” I sighed with exasperation. “He's not going anywhere.”

  “A man can hope,” he mumbled.

  “I really like him,” I smiled.

  They grunted in response and I tried to change the topic.

  “You know it's really mean of you to ring me together,” I complained. “I can't tell whose saying what.”

  “Pfft, sure you can, my voice is way more manly than his!”

  I giggled as I heard them scuffling on the other end of the phone.

  “We'll call you when we get into Leeds,” one of them said. “You can bring Jason if you must.”

  “Thanks guys,” I grinned.

  I put my phone back on to charge and went back into the kitchen to find Jason. He was stood by the stove making a stir-fry with Josh.

  “Jason...” I said hesitantly.

  “Jamie...” He mimicked me.

  “Wanna have lunch with the twins tomorrow?” I asked cautiously.

  “Rick and Danny?” Jason asked, cocking his head at me.

  I nodded solemnly. I doubted he'd want to come but part of me really wanted my brothers to get on with Jason.

  “Sure, why not,” he shrugged.

  “You don't mind?” I smiled.

  “You want me to come, right?” He asked.

  I nodded, wrapping my arms around his waist. It was so sweet that he wanted to do this for me, especially considering what had happened last time he'd met my brothers.

  “You're the best!” I grinned.

  ***

  Saturday, 10th November 2012

  Jason held my hand as we walked towards the carpark to meet the twins. I was freezing, despite my scarf, hat and mittens. Jason wrapped his arms around me as we stood and waited. I spotted them coming out of the side door and ran over to greet them.

  “Jelly sandwich!” Danny grinned as I hugged Rick.

  They squished me and I giggled like a three year old and beamed up at them.

  “Hi,” I smiled, wrapping my arm around Danny's.

  “We're starving, find us some food!” Rick demanded.

  Laughing happily, I lead the way towards the main shopping area. Danny refused my offer of a café and demanded “real food” so we ended up at Pizza Express. So far the twins had failed to acknowledge Jason. I smiled up at him apologetically as he held the door open for me. The waitress guided us to a table, smiling broadly at the guys. I spent a good few minutes taking off my many layers and hung my coat up on the back of my chair.

  “What the hell, Jelly?” Rick demanded.

  I glanced up at him to see my both brothers frowning. “What?” I asked, totally at a loss as to what was wrong.

  “You're skinny as crap, you look awful!” Danny said, looking thoroughly disgusted.

  I blushed crimson and sat down quickly, hiding myself behind the table.

  “Told you,” Jason mumbled grumpily from my side.

  “Don't you give a shit?” Danny snarled at Jason.

  “I told her she needed to put weight on,” Jason shrugged. “I'm not about to force-feed her.”

  Danny scowled at Jason but didn't say anything.

  “I eat more now than I did at home,” I pouted.

  “You're obviously not eating the right stuff,” Rick scowled, glancing at his twin.


  “We'll take you shopping after lunch,” Danny nodded.

  “Guys, you don't have to do that,” I smiled as best I could.

  “We weren't asking,” Rick frowned.

  I shook my head resignedly and checked the menu. The overly happy waitress returned. She stood a little too close to Jason and asked him what he wanted to drink between giggling and playing with her hair. I frowned at her but I don't think she even noticed I was there.

  “What do you want to drink, Jamie?” Jason asked, taking my hand on top of the table.

  I beamed at him as I ordered a water. That's right, he's taken. I knew it was childish to be jealous, but I was beyond pleased that Jason had made it obvious to the big-boobed waitress that we were together. I glanced over at my brothers. Danny was making a fake vomiting face and Rick was glowering at Jason's hand.

  The waitress and her boobs flounced away from Jason and focussed her attentions on the twins instead.

  “Thanks,” I whispered to Jason, squeezing his hand gently.

  “What for?” He looked at me quizzically.

  I just shook my head and smiled to myself.

  “Move it or lose it,” Rick said pointedly, nodding to Jason's hand.

  “Seriously?” I asked incredulously. “He's not even allowed to hold my hand?”

  Rick glared at me and I lowered my gaze. I tried to remove my hand from Jason's but he held onto it.

  “We promised Ian we'd give you both a hard time,” Danny grinned.

  I pouted at them both and they chuckled.

  “Just...” Danny sighed, apparently struggling for words. “Cut us some slack, Jellybean, this is new for us.”

  “I know,” I said quietly.

  “We'll try our best not to chop him up into little pieces but we can't promise anything,” Danny said with mock severity.

  “Especially not on an empty stomach,” Rick grumbled.

  We all chuckled and the tension in the air seemed to be dissipating somewhat. I asked the twins about the gym they'd been checking out. It sounded like they were going to go ahead and buy it, they just wanted to check out a few legal issues. I was so proud of them. That would be the fourth gym; they'd opened their first one four years ago, when they were twenty-four, and they'd done so well for themselves.

  I finished all my pizza, which had to be a first, and the twins insisted on dessert. To be honest, I think it was more that they wanted some themselves than that they were trying to fatten me up.

  They took Jason and me to the supermarket afterwards. They bought tonnes of fresh fruit, protein powder, enough peanut butter to feed an army, and tonnes of other stuff.

  “Guys, I only have one shelf in the fridge,” I reminded them as they loaded the trolley with chocolate mousse.

  “Might as well fill it with delicious food then,” Danny grinned.

  I shook my head at him with a smile. It was really nice of them to do this. It wasn't that I didn't have money for food. I did, but I was budget shopping as much as possible. My fresh fruit and veg intake was limited to three bananas a week and some carrots. I'd found that mixed frozen veg was a lifesaver when you only had one drawer in the freezer.

  “I've told you so many times that I can't eat those!” I groaned as Danny put a packet of jellybeans into the trolley. They weren’t vegetarian, but that didn’t stop them from giving me them at every opportunity.

  “You can have them on your bedside table to remind you of us,” he winked.

  I couldn't help but laugh, that was so typical of them.

  They helped us carry all the shopping up and I put the kettle on whilst we put everything away.

  “Tea or coffee?” I asked.

  “Tea,” Danny answered.

  “Coffee,” Rick answered.

  They both looked at each other and narrowed their eyes before turning back to me.

  “Tea,” Rick said.

  “Coffee,” Danny said.

  “Is something off with your freaky twin powers today?” I laughed.

  They both blamed each other so I offered to make them both one of each and they stopped beating on each other long enough to agree.

  “You coming to ours for Christmas, Jason?” Danny asked as I handed him his cups.

  I froze, glancing from Jason to the twins and back again. We hadn’t mentioned anything so far in the future. I didn’t want to be presumptuous in what was essentially a very new relationship.

  “We haven't really talked about it,” Jason shrugged.

  He glanced at me and I cringed apologetically.

  “What do you two talk about?” Rick grinned.

  “She mostly complains about you guys,” Jason said seriously.

  “Jason!” I glared at him.

  He grinned wickedly, seemingly pretty pleased with himself.

  “He's kidding!” I assured the twins.

  They didn't look amused. Jason slouched down in the chair next to Rick and I was forced to question his death wish tendencies once more.

  “I would never complain about you guys,” I smiled meekly, wrapping my arms around Rick's neck from behind.

  “I know,” Rick grinned. “You wouldn't dare.”

  “True,” I grumbled as I rubbed his shoulders gently.

  “This'll be the first Christmas we've all been home for a few years,” Danny pointed out.

  “Left a bit,” Rick demanded.

  I begrudgingly focussed my attentions to the left a little. Last Christmas Ian had been away saving the world, or launching missiles, or whatever it is he does. The year before that the twins had been working and the year before that both Ian and Karl had been on deployment again.

  “Yeah, you're right,” I grinned. “It'll be ace to have everyone together again.”

  “What you getting us for Christmas, Jelly?” Danny grinned as he pulled me away from Rick and demanded his own neck rub.

  “Name tags,” I mumbled grumpily as I began rubbing his shoulders.

  “Original,” he laughed.

  I gave them badges with their names on every year. They usually wore them on Christmas day and switched them over periodically to cause confusion. The only one they never fooled was Ian. Ian always seems to know which one is which.

  “What do you want for Christmas, baby?” Jason asked.

  “Baby?!” The twins said with disgust.

  “You're definitely not allowed to call her that in front of us,” Danny grumbled.

  “Or else what?” Jason grinned.

  Danny stood up and loomed over Jason, making his best scary big brother face..

  “Danny, please!” I begged.

  Jason ignored Danny and carried on drinking his tea.

  “Jason, why wind them up?” I asked with exasperation as I put myself between the two of them.

  “I'm just kidding, Jamie,” he sighed. “They take it too seriously.”

  Rick laughed as he watched his twin slump down into the chair reluctantly. I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn't really understand Jason's face-off tactics. Over the years, I'd learnt it was best to be passive, to just let stuff slide and not provoke them whenever possible.

  “What do you and Ben usually do for Christmas?” I asked Jason, intent on changing the subject.

  “Nothing much,” Jason shrugged. “He spent last year at his girlfriend's, probably will this year as well.”

  It broke my heart to think Jason had spent last Christmas without any family. My brothers may not be the perfect family but I hated being away from them over the holidays.

  “When does term end?” Rick asked, handing me his empty coffee mug for a refill.

  “My last lecture's on Friday the seventh,” I answered.

  “You can come home on the seventh then,” Rick nodded.

  “No, she can't,” Jason shook his head.

  I looked at him, completely puzzled.

  “Don't really think you get a say, mate,” Danny frowned.

  “I think you'll find I do,” Jason said calmly. “Jamie's booke
d up that weekend.”

  “I am?” I asked, frowning slightly.

  Jason nodded and finished his cup of tea.

  “With what?” I asked when he didn't elaborate.

  “A surprise,” he grinned mischievously.

  “You need to check with Ian first,” Rick said to Jason.

  “Why?” Jason scowled.

  “He'll want to know,” Rick shrugged.

  “You guys do realise Jamie's an adult,” Jason frowned.

  “She's still our sister,” Rick scowled, standing up and taking a step closer to Jason.

  “I know, and I'm fully aware of how much you all take care of her, but none of you get to say what she can and can't do,” Jason said calmly, standing up so he was eye-to-eye with Rick.

  I watched as Danny moved to his twin's side. Not again. I sighed inwardly as I stood nervously behind Jason.

  “Guys,” I said cautiously, putting my hand on Jason's arm. “It'd mean a lot to me if you could all try and get along.”

  “Look, Jason,” Danny said, his voice a little icy. “I get that you want to seem all chivalrous and macho in front of Jelly. Defend her honour or some shit. But you've only known each other a couple of months. We barely know you, and so far all of you done is take every opportunity to piss us off.”

  I swallowed hard as I felt the tension between them increasing. I racked my brain, trying to think of a way to ease the situation.

  “You have no right to comment on, let alone interfere with, our family. You don't know shit about us,” Danny finished.

  Jason cleared his throat and relaxed his shoulders somewhat before answering.

  “I want what's best for her, I understand that it's hard for you to accept. She's my girlfriend and if I want to do something with her one weekend I'm not going to ask anybody's permission but hers.” He sounded calm but firm. He kept eye contact with Danny the whole time.

  I waited nervously for one of the twins to react. It could go either way, I realised as I studied their body language. Danny frowned at Jason a little longer but eventually he sat down in his chair and smirked.

  “Fine,” he nodded. “But if I were you I'd ring E and let him know.”

  “As a good will gesture,” Rick added.

  I sighed with relief that they were being reasonable.

  “It really does feel like you want us to kick your ass though,” Rick smirked.