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…
Once Ethan, who wore a black suit with red button shirt underneath, made sure all of us were here, we went up to the door, but he allowed me to knock on the door. I shifted my black tie against my white shirt while I wore a black suit too and dress shoes; this is the kind of clothes that I only wear at church.
The door swung open to a man in a tuxedo that I knew was none other than Cal Kingsley. He eyes widen at me and he grinned. “Declan? Declan Phoenix? Is that really you, my boy?”
“Sure is, Mr. Cal. Nice to see you again, sir,” I greeted while he embraced me like I was a son, and I nodded to him when he released me as he let the pack in. Cal inquired, “Are you all Jay’s friends?”
“It’s mostly the guys who are, but they brought dates; most anyways,” I informed, and Cal sighed. “Figures as much. Jay was always more of a tomboy. Nice to meet you all!”
The pack all shook hands and exchanged pleasures with Cal, who was especially friendly with Suzy, who was, the only actual female friend of Jay. Most of the guys had dates, a little over half, but the rest didn’t. I was among those without a date.
Cal went off to greet and to conversant with others, leaving the pack and I just standing there while some of the guest stared at us once in awhile. I felt like an outsider here. Well, no duh. That’s because not only am I one, so is the pack. We were more like street boys than rich people.
“Oh thank God. You guys are here. I was just about to lose my mind,” Jay’s voice rung behind us, and our eyes sought up on the stairs to see Jay coming down in elegance. Her strapless white dress flowed freely down below her knees with a slightly puffy skirt, and a thick pale green ribbon wrapped around her waist and hemmed the dress; it really brought out her attractive eyes. Her hair was done in a neat yet messy side bun, and pale gold eye-shadow only drew more attention to her eyes. Wow…she looked amazing.
“Jay, you look…” Ethan trailed, still examining her, and Jay signs, “I know, I know. Ridiculous, right? But Cal insisted I wear it.”
“Ridiculous? You think you look ridiculous?” Jag repeated, his eyebrows rose, and Jay glanced around and nodded. “Yeah. I mean just look at…”
“You look beautiful, Jay,” Suzy interrupted, her eyes admiring. Jay’s shocked face stayed like that for several seconds then she smiled at Suzy. “Um…thanks, Suzy. You look great too.”
Generally, the guys tried to stay near Jay and only conversant with themselves, but it was completely unavoidable when Cal and two other men came up to Ethan, Toni, and I. “So, Ethan is it?”
“Uh, yes sir.”
“What do you all do for a living?”
Uh oh… How are we supposed to tell Jay’s uncle that we’re outside the law? Ethan stuttered, “Well, you see sir, we…”
“Work on cars that end up in the junkyard,” Jay saved us. “And sometimes idiots just loose their cars, so the guys tow them in and make sure everything’s alright with them. Wouldn’t want a nice car to go to waste, right?”
Cal and the two other men nodded in agreement, and geez, Jay had me almost convinced that’s what we did. Cal queried, “So you work in this business, Jay?”
“Yes, Cal. I’ve been there for months, and I’ve loved every bit of it,” Jay assured him. Car freak. Cal nodded. “Well, that’s good. Doing something constructive. Just like…” His voice trailed away from us as he led the two men away from us.
Ethan let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks for having our backs, Jay.”
“Just don’t forget what I said. No hinting in the slightest of what we really do, got it?” she warned him, and he nodded.
The rest of the evening was pretty boring. The pack and Jay got our own dining room while Cal and his investors got another next to ours; there mansion was so huge. Our table was just hexagon shaped and had five on each side. Jay was between Ethan and me. I kept shifting farther away from her because whenever I touched her, even if was a friendly brush, I kept remembering that night she and I...
Damn it, this was killing me inside! Why couldn’t Jay see I liked her more than a friend? How can she not see that’s what I’ve always wanted? A better question yet: how could I be so stupid not to tell her sooner? Things would’ve been different if I had just told that I’d been hurt by the way she said we were just friends, like we’d never anything more. And I longed for more so badly that I just wanted to scream it out sometimes.
Though I won’t tonight. Jay probably would chastise me till I was in my thirties for screaming my feelings, even if it was to her. She always knew how to put everybody in their place. She was tough and amazing like that. Too damn amazing…gorgeous…funny…sweet…
Shit, I’m so whipped.