Around 8-10 chapters to go and then I will wrap up this story.
*phew* I said it! xD
Anyway, hope you like it. :D
-----------------song- You are too good to be true. (Frank Valli and the 4 season)---------------------
*Thanksgiving dinner.*
‘’DO SOMETHING! We are not staying the night in this jail.’’
Remember the time when I said in T.G.I.F that Ben was scary when he was angry? Well, it was nothing compared to what he looked like right now. Scary doesn’t even begin to describe it, and even the cop flinched slightly.
‘’You very well are, for the night.’’ The older cop said, his back was to me and pushed Ben against the wall, ‘’and if you don’t just suck it up, I have better things to set you straight.’’ He nudged Ben even further and I cringed at the sight, since all of us were handcuffed there was nothing we could do, ‘’you get me, son?’’ The cop asked in a lower tone.
Ben gave a curt nod and the cop pushed him inside lockup and removed the handcuff. The same process was done for the all of us, until the five of us of were locked up in the small cell. Looking at each of their faces the supposed excitement was replaced by anger, annoyance and frustrations.
‘’It’s not so bad.’’ Ashley finally said, breaking the silence and settled on the bunk bed, ‘’It’s a county, you haven’t seen the prison.’’ Ben muttered back, and winced at the memory. I couldn’t help but shudder, when I thought what Ben had to go through, he had spent six months in a place that was far worse than this.
‘’How will the five of us sleep in here?’’ Ian asked, looking around the room, it was undoubtedly small, had a very bad stench and there was a small bunk bed that could only accommodate a small person like Ashley, ‘’we’ll have to pull up the mattress from the cupboard.’’ Ben muttered as he leaned against the wall, and the expression he had on his face was so shattering, he looked pained, worn out and no matter how much bizarre it sounds—defeated.
‘’Let’s get to work then.’’ Bryan murmured looking exhausted and advanced towards the small cupboard that was fixed to the wall. I quickly took the opportunity to talk to Ben privately, his behavior wasn’t normal.
‘’Is something wrong?’’ I asked him quietly, as the rest of them argued where to put the smelly mattresses, Ben shook his head once, ‘’No. Nothing.’’ He answered, looking away from me and it doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that something was definitely wrong.
I cradled his face and made him look into my eyes, his brown eyes were crinkled and they looked extremely angry and well, pained, ‘’Please tell me what’s wrong?’’ I pleaded with genuine concern, I didn’t know why was he so upset but, I wanted to make him alright.
‘’I…uh…I cannot afford to have another disciplinarily issue, and if we stay the night it’s definitely going to go in the record. And I need to stay clean.’’ Ben murmured in my hair, in a low sad voice.
‘’I am so sorry! It all happened because of us.’’ I replied back, I felt as if I was going to cry, we had put Ben’s future in danger, ‘’Will something bad happen? Will you be put back in prison?’’ I asked him a bit hysterically, for my own selfish reasons I couldn’t lose Ben, he was the reason I had patched up with my mother, he was the reason I had finally let my guard down and let myself love and I couldn’t let him go, no matter how cheesy it may sound, I may not be able to survive. Ben kissed my hair, cutting off the panic for a second, ‘’no, no…I don’t think so, either way, we can’t do anything about it. So, let’s just snuggle in the mattress.’’ Ben grinned at me, but, it was so forced that I felt like crying. I had come to comfort him and instead he was the one who was comforting me. Why can’t anything go as planned?
‘’Ben, please don’t leave me.’’ I hugged him tight, scared to let go off him. Since when had I turned so damn emotional? I was genuinely scared of the thought of Ben leaving me, I had somehow with a permanent damage have been able to cope up with my dad leaving me, but, I couldn’t just go through that twice.
‘’I wouldn’t.’’ He replied with sincerity and I sighed in relief, he unwrapped himself to help the guys who were glancing at us now and then, they had put up two mattress next to the bunk bed, ‘’where will we put the rest of the mattress?’’ I asked Bryan, whose response to my words was to snort, ‘’rest of the mattress?’’ All of them started laughing, but it was more of a frustrated laugh, ‘’Em, there are just two mattress.’’ Ian finally told me as Ben picked up the blankets from the cupboard and started drawing it out on the mattress quietly, I went up to help him and so did Ian.
‘’How will the four of us sleep in this?’’ I asked as we had made up the bed.
‘’we’ll snuggle.’’ Ian whispered to me, and a shiver ran through me as I remembered Ben had said the same thing. Ian and Ben were too similar for my liking, ‘’No way in hell are you sleeping next to her.’’ Ben told Ian from the other side of me and it was wise of Ian not to argue with Ben when his mood was like this.
‘’And so aren’t you, got that?’’ Bryan told Ben as he spread the blanket on Ashley, she was sleeping on the lower part of the bunk bed.
Ben glared at Bryan, ‘’Yeah he wouldn’t.’’ I said hurriedly, and squeezed his hand to keep him shut, Ben turned to glare at me, ‘’Why can’t I sleep next to you?’’ He grumbled as Ian snuggled inside our so-called bed and rolled off to a corner.
‘’It’s—
‘’For the sake of our sacred minds!’’ Came Ian’s muffled answer from the blanket as he cut me off. Ben let out a frustrated sigh but his face lightened a bit, ‘’your sacred mind? The only thing that’s sacred in your whole body is probably your toenail!’’ Ben replied as I removed all my shoe and socks and threw them underneath the bunk bed, Ashley started teasing me how comfortable she was on the bed and we started bickering and there near the mattress the brothers were getting on each other’s nerves.
‘’Shut up all of you! It’s two thirty at night!’’ Bryan shouted above all of us and we fell into silence looking at him, he looked very tired, bruised, even though the cuts and wounds were cleaned, and had a ‘don’t you dare mess with me’ look on his face, ‘’Ben go to bed! And you too Emily. Ash shut your mouth and sleep!’’ He paused for a second as I hurriedly got inside the made up bed and rolled off to the opposite side to Ian, Ashley stuck her tongue at Bryan and he chuckled in response, ‘’Ben, come on! Get in the bed.’’ Bryan sort of pleaded to Ben and he too came inside the mattress. No matter how smelly the blankets were, and I wasn’t even sure if it was wool or somebody’s hair but, it was nonetheless very warm and cozy, thank god, Ben wasn’t sleeping next to me.
Bryan settled beside me with a sigh, ‘’Goodnight everybody.’’ He shouted like a stern mother and all of us grumbled back in response.
‘’Kids!’’ A voice shouted.
‘’If you want to spend the day here too. I have no problem.’’ The shrill voice shouted again and I recognized it this time but, felt too tired to response. Somebody must have got up, as I felt the mattress move and then then the sound of metal, a few seconds later I heard the heels knocking over the stone floor.
‘’They look dead.’’ My mom commented in a lower voice this time, but unfortunately, I couldn’t fall asleep now, ‘’just tired. We are bailed out?’’ Returned the other voice, which was undoubtedly of Ben.
‘’Yes. Sorry, Couldn’t do that yesterday night…your dad insisted on doing it today. Hope you guys didn’t suffer much.’’ Mom said and I knew she had reached a touchy subject, I quickly got up, knocking Bryan over, he stirred but didn’t get up. Being more gentle this time I removed the blanket and got up.
‘’Yeah he—
‘’Hi mom, good morning.’’ I quickly cut Ben off, noticing he was getting angrier by the minute, he glanced at me and I smiled at him, his demeanor lightened a bit, ‘’Morning.’’ Her eyes moved pointedly towards my one nest of a hair, ‘’Yeah, uh…’’ I trailed off realizing we didn’t have a comb around here. Mom shuffled through her purse which looked more like a huge rucksack, ‘’Here, ‘’ She smiled at me and finally Ben had seemed to realize what all this was about and let out a chuckle at the sight of my hair.
‘’Where’s my egg? Em, please look at your nest properly, I think I have lost my egg.’’ Ian sniggered from behind us and after stepping on Ben’s foot and stopping his hysterical laugh midway I turned to look at Ian, ‘’Your egg? Dogs don’t give eggs, hon. you need to work on your biology.’’ I retorted and moved haughtily towards the bunk bed to wake Ashley up.
‘’Burned!’’ Bryan had apparently got up, because he commented and a second later grunted. Ian naturally had hit him.
Ben’s voice echoed through the cell, ‘’She got you Walter.’’
I woke Ashley up as gently as I could, that was pulling her up by the hair, and she cursed me as she opened up her eyes, but, quickly gave me the compact that had the mirror.
‘’Lay off him boys, get up and clean this place.’’ Mom instructed all of us, and quickly made us get to work. We had made a mess of this place as much as we could, the boys coat and shirts were lying all over the place, then my accessories and stuff, and let’s not talk even go to our socks and shoes.
After cleaning up the place, collecting our stuff in the huge bag mom was carrying, and also after keeping back the blankets and mattress which my mom had forced us to do; we were finally out of the lock up.
‘’You can collect the cell phones from the first drawer there.’’ A new cop, who we hadn’t seen yesterday nodded towards the huge cabinet in one corner of the room. Ian and Bryan went over to get our phones as we signed the document we had been asked to, it was regarding our bail and my mom had acted as our guardian.
Once out of the station, I had been expecting some chastisement from my mom about our irrational behavior and rash actions but, instead she was looking normal, and was busy in an animated conversation with Ian, who was telling her all about the Dance yesterday.
‘’For the breakfast where do you guys want to go?’’ She looking back at us.
‘’Bamboo tree—
‘’Hard rock—
‘’Grease!’’
‘’No. KFC?’’
Finally, my mom decided to interrupt us, ‘’we’ll go to Grease.’’ She deadpanned and Ian fist pumped in the air, because he was the one who had suggested Grease. He looked at us with a superior look and wrapped a hand around my mom’s shoulder in affection. Stupid mom, stupid Ian!
Me, Ashley, Ian were driving with mom in her Volkswagen, Bryan and Ben were riding in Ben’s car.
‘’So, was it fun?’’ She asked as we strode off out of the campus. Ian was sitting ahead with Mom, he had called shotgun. Did I mention I hate Ian? ‘’yeah,’’ Ian grinned at mom and his black eye bulged out, actually it was bulging anyway.
‘’wait what?’’ I interrupted their excited conversation, ‘’you are asking us if spending the night in jail was fun?’’ I asked my mom and she smiled at me sheepishly from the rearview mirror.
‘’Yeah, it was quite fun when we had to.’’ She replied and me and Ashley exchanged a startled glance. My mom had been arrested and found it fun? Are we in a parallel world or something?
‘’when was this?’’ Ian asked her excitedly and I saw my mom hesitate but then she started, ‘’It was our senior prom, and most of us were drunk but, Adam wasn’t, so he was our designated driver. We forced him to speed up through the street and we were caught, I mean who wouldn’t if they were going almost two hundred mile per hour?’’ She laughed and Ian nodded at her, ‘’And then instead of ticketing us, they arrested us and the six of us had to spend the night in county.’’ Mom smiled fondly at the end, and I had a hard time digesting the fact that my mom used to be fun and jovial, and most of all, that she loved my dad.
‘’You found it fun?’’ I asked her, astonished, ‘’you sure you are my mother?’’ I added.
‘’Come on Em! Aunt wasn’t born like this!’’ Ian shook his head at me, and probably I was the only one who thought my mom was a born bitch.
So, all the way we were taunted by our mom, and then Ashley’s parent’s called too, and she was harassed by them, apparently this was ‘a very funny situation.’ and we were punished right! Oh good lord, oldies don’t have a sense of humor!
Ben’s mood improved a bit after we had a food in Grease, as the name goes everything there was very greasy and all of us ate like cave men. My mom had gone a little overboard in making fun of us, and after two hours, only me and Ian had to go through her pathetic little joke, the rest of them had bailed out.
Turns out, almost everyone at school had heard about us getting arrested. And it was no wonder; we were picked on by many people. In the starting I took it sportingly, but, after a while it got very annoying, Ian flipped one day when his long time enemy, Daniel said, ‘’I know what you got arrested for? You were doing your own mother, right?’’ It had gone too far, so, Ian, Ben, Bryan and Chris had beaten the shit out of him and his bunch, after school.
Needless to say, I had never been so happy to get the break for Thanksgiving, after two whole weeks of harassment at school.
As always my mom and Aunt Eva had decided to make the Thanksgiving dinner together and we would have this huge dinner in the backyard with bonfire. But, this time my mom had invited some of her colleagues from the office and the Parkers’ were coming too. Basically, they were going a bit extravagant this time.
On the day of the Thanksgiving, we were put down to do a lot of work, my gay friend, Ian, was busy with the mothers’ making the dinner and me and Uncle Rob were assigned to take care of the backyard and do all the responsible stuff.
Responsible work?! Yeah, right.
You wouldn’t know, you stupid piece of shit!
F You.
F you too!
‘’Emily!’’ Ian shouted from his kitchen, while I was setting up the table with Uncle Rob, ‘’Yeah?’’ I shouted back.
‘’Could you come here for a second?’’ Ian shouted back and I kept the bowl on the table I had been setting up and ran to Ian, this was the eleventh time, he had called me up, I don’t know how but, Ian had gotten into his head that he was doing a very important job! And my mom seconded his opinion, ‘’What is it now?’’ I asked him as soon as I entered and saw him in a white wife beater and jeans, his back was to me, ‘’Come here.’’ He ordered and I followed his command, sniffing the delicious scents coming from the turkey that was inside the oven.
‘’Taste this.’’ Ian held the spoon to feed me, what looked like was the gravy for the turkey. Before I could say anything, He stuffed the spoon into my mouth and it was bliss, pure bliss. The taste of the gravy was so damn good that I closed my eyes to savor it, ‘’How is it?’’ Ian asked me looking a bit nervous.
‘’It’s delicious. Where did you get it from?’’ I asked him this just to annoy him, I envied his cooking skills, ‘’I made it dipshit! Are you sure it’s good?’’He asked again, and I nodded dipping the spoon in the huge bowl full of the delicious gravy, but Ian took the spoon from me, ‘’Not now piglet, later.’’ He murmured and grinned at me evilly, I scowled at him, he was pissing me off big time. I hadn’t eaten much to save stomach for the big dinner and now it was making me crabby, ‘’when are you coming out, Ian?’’ I asked Ian who was now doing something with mash potatoes; we always had the traditional dinner, which explains the traditional menu.
‘’Coming out?’’ He asked me, confused.
I moved closer to him just to note his reaction, ‘’Coming out of the closet?’’ I snorted and Ian whipped his head to glare at me, ‘’I am not gay!’’
‘’Sure, you have good choice for clothes, and are a great cook. Of course you are not gay.’’ I retorted back and I know, I sounded like a typical stereotype but, I was just messing with Ian. I always adored guys who could cook; I found it a great quality. Not like I would tell that to Ian.
Ian folded his hand on his chest and gave me this supposed intimidated look, actually, it was intimidating since he had all that new bruises on his face that he had gotten from fighting with Daniel, I shrank back a little, ‘’So, you were saying?’’ Ian took a step towards me and I took a step back, that earned a smirk from Ian, ‘’Emily? You were saying?’’ He took a step again and before I could step back he pulled me to him and I hit his chest, ‘’Even if I was gay, you’ll still be attracted to me.’’ He smirked at me and I pulled myself harshly out of his grasp. No way in hell I am going to let him walk over me! ‘’In your dreams, Walter.’’ I muttered and turned back to go to the backyard, a grin lit my face as I heard him let out a frustrated sigh.
After a while, the backyard was almost done, Uncle Rob was putting up the woods to light up the fire and the table and the food was set. My mom had got her dishes out too, looking exhausted but excited and asked me to go and get changed into the clothes she had chosen for me. Sulking, I went inside, knowing I couldn’t wear jeans or anything.
I saw the dress I had to wear kept on the sofa, it was deep maroon in color and simple but, still I didn’t want to wear it and I couldn’t even argue with or, she’ll roast me like that turkey! Freaking super!
Haha, good one.
Shut up!
As soon as I was dressed, and was still wondering what to do with my stupid hair, I heard the bell ring and then a knock, leaving my hair open I ran off to the door and quickly opened it.
‘’Happy thanksgiving! You look more delicious than that turkey.’’ Ben murmured as I looked at him wide eyed. I guess, I need to stop doing that! ‘’Happy thanksgiving.’’ I muttered back, Ben wrapped a hand around my waist and gave me a quick kiss, ‘’definitely more delicious.’’ He grinned at me with his swelled lip, during the fight with Daniel; Ben too had been bruised pretty well, ‘’Shut up, and give me a minute.’’ I replied and unwrapped myself from Ben and went to my mom’s room to comb my hair once. I hadn’t got a haircut in so long that now they were just inches away from my waist.
‘’How about we stay here?’’ Ben shouted from the living room, and I could make out the smirk in his voice. Pervert! ‘’Alone in the house, with you in that dress. It’ll be perfect.’’ Ben laughed. I quickly ran out once I thought I looked as good as I could, ‘’let’s just go.’’ I glared at Ben and he started laughing. His mood had improved since that whole jail episode. And boy was I glad!
Once out, I was overwhelmed at the sight of so many people and so much food. I could recognize some of my mom’s colleague and even Aunt Eva’s and Uncle Rob’s friends and colleagues were there. Thanksgiving was supposed to be about dinner with family! Anyway, I had to act like I cared when mom introduced me to some of her colleague and I went on to sit next to my mom after the customary greeting. Ben too went on to sit next to his parents and I could definitely sense the cold vibe between him and his dad.
The night wasn’t as bad as I had expected it to be. Ian had settled himself comfortably with the daughters of colleagues, and it appeared that he was having a very nice time indeed. But due the professional situation in the whole dinner, I couldn’t really talk or be with Ben, I had just talked to him for a few seconds when I had went to wish Mr. and Mrs. Parker.
Maybe because of the whole situation or because of the way Ben was getting attention of the girls, it was almost impossible to keep my eyes off him and it seemed that similar was Ben’s case.
And thus started our whole Shakespearean age love. Weird, since I am not even sure I know how to spell Shakespearean.
You are a dumb, dumb child.
Again, you are insulting yourself.
F you!
During the whole night, I and Ben exchanged secretive glances, sly smiled and some suggestive winks but, the last was just from Ben. Even though we hardly talked to each other the whole night, it seemed like we had spent the whole time together, it was simply beautiful.
And of course, weird. I hate to admit it, but, I found all of this more interesting than the food. No kidding! There has to be something very wrong with me, because the food was delicious.
My mom had turned a blind eye to what me and Ben were up to. But, unfortunately many people had started noticing our chemistry, ‘’something’s going on between the two of you?’’ Stephanie, a very young attorney who I knew from before, asked me. She worked under Uncle Rob.
‘’Nope. Nothing.’’ I dug into the apple pie, and then the mincemeat one to restrain myself from grinning like an idiot.
Stephanie smiled at me and her dove-like eyes crinkled, ‘’we are not idiots!’’ I tried not to blush under the piercing gaze of Ben, I knew he was staring at me with a very inappropriate look on his face, ‘’we?’’ I asked her back, as she put a flock of her red hair under her ear, Stephanie was red head but she wasn’t fierce, ‘’Yes hon, everyone here has noticed it.’’ She replied back and looked at me with her eyebrows raised and devious smile on her face.
‘’No it’s nothing like that!’’ I told her and looked around our crowded backyard, everyone who met my eyes, be it Aunt Eve or my mom or mom’s very old colleague Mrs. Trisha or Mr. Abraham Parker, they all gave me this sly knowing smile, that made me blush.
Oh fuck! So much for being ‘Secretive’.
So, by the end of the night, everyone who were earlier speculating about our relationship were now dead sure. Generally, this would have bugged me to no end. But, it didn’t bother me much; actually it didn’t bother me at all.
But, it did bother Ian, quite a lot. He chastised me for this stupid behavior in fact he was the one, calling a girl home right in front of his mom. But, even that didn’t bother me, something was really really wrong with me!
And by the end of the night, I finally figured it out; when I got the much awaited goodnight kiss by Ben, right in front his, mine and Ian’s parents and even some of the guest.
I was falling hard for Ben.
No not like ‘Yay! I am in love.’ Hard, but like ‘I can do anything for him.’ Hard. I could finally understand why, my career oriented, fierce mother gave up everything to be with my dad, that too fresh out of college.
I was willing to give up everything from Ben, my career in journalism, my passion for higher education and even going out of this house which had all my dad’s memory.
No way in hell was this a good sign!
Okay, you are not all that dumb.