To Deal With It

chapter eleven

Eleven

“Hey Jay, where did you run off to this morning?” Toni questioned me when I arrived at the warehouse. I smiled a little nervously when I saw Declan appear next to him. Okay…how will they react to this? They were the ones to rescue me after all. Then again, it’s none of their business. Ah well, better to get it out now rather than later.

“I bailed my uncle out of jail,” I dismissed as I examined the first car in front of me. Toni stuttered, “You did what?”

“I bailed Cal out, okay?” I repeated to him. Declan questioned, “Why did you do that? He’ll just—“

“He’s my only family left, guys,” I snapped calmly at them, giving them a firm look. “He’s about all I got left. And today… he told me I should’ve told him he was beating me. He was always so sure it was his wife that left him; he didn’t blame his children since it was my old aunt who took them away. But he said sorry for everything…and that he wants to make it up.”

“What did you say?” I heard Ethan’s voice inquire; I guess he joined us sometime. I smiled, turning my head up to them. “I forgave him. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. It’s why it’s called the present.”

“Kung Fu Panda?” MJ inquired, and I chuckled while I nodded. “It’s true though. He’s family. We’re the last two Irish Kingsley’s. We need to look out for each other.”

“Well, I think it’s great that you made up with your psycho uncle,” MJ complimented me, and I smiled at him. “Thank you, MJ. At least you see sense.”

Toni, Ethan, and Declan rolled their eyes at me, but then I remembered what Cal had proposed to me. “Hey guys…you want to go to a dinner party?”

“A dinner party?” Ethan repeated, and I nodded while sighing. “Yeah. Cal is getting his old investor for a night, and he’s gonna have a big, fancy dinner party so they can see he’s ready to get back to business. He said I could bring friends if I wanted, number doesn’t matter.”

“You want to bring us over your high school friends?” Toni raised a skeptical eyebrow, but I just nodded. “I don’t ever hang out with those losers. Only at school I do. And I don’t think my friends at school would jump into a fire to save me or rescue me from a madman.  But you guys did that and that makes you my real friends.”

“Aww, I’m touched, Jay,” Ethan laughed while patting where his heart was. I rolled my eyes with a smile. “So you guys in or not?”

“I’ll spread word, but I’m pretty sure we’ll all be in,” Ethan assured me. I nodded. “Awesome. I really don’t want to be alone on that night. These things are always so boring. Oh, go ahead and bring dates if you want, and you all have to clean up and wear suits.”

They groaned at the ‘suit’ part, but I think they were still in for the dinner party. Toni inquired, “When is it?”

“I don’t…” I was about to finish when I got a text from my phone. It was from Cal with the info about the dinner party. “Okay, now I know. It’s one week from tonight at 5:30 pm. Don’t be late, please?”

They nodded dismissively, and I smiled at them. Such dorks. At least I got my friends to come to the stickin’ dinner party.

*****

Declan pov:

It was the night of Cal’s dinner party. All the guys in the pack had agreed to come, but I knew almost every single one hated the have-to-wear-a-suit-part. All twenty of us met outside her house, and I was next to Toni, who had brought Suzy, who wore a nice blue dress that brought her eyes out. They looked really good together. They’re lucky to have each other…