I spent the night on cloud nine. I lied in the double bed in complete giddy school girl mode. Did Michael feel like this with Samantha? Did Luke feel like this with Ally? I loved the feeling of being wanted, even if it was only temporary. I didn't want to get too excited on the idea of Ashton and I and ruin everything for myself when things didn't go as I planned in my head. I had to slow down before I got too far ahead, but I loved everything about my life right now. Minus minor details. I turned on my side to face the bed Evelyn usually slept in, but she decided to go home for the weekend since Elizabeth was with Calum tonight.
Ashton 2:34am:
I hope I can show you how much I care about you.
Ashton 2:34am:
There's no one else in the world like you.
I was a professional whenever it came to the talking stage or the moments leading up to the big reveal of feelings. Now, I lied here, reading over Ashton's messages over and over again without accomplishing to type up a reply. Embarrassing. At least if Evelyn was here we would be up talking about the perfect replies and over-dissecting Ashton's texts until I got weird and wanted to go to bed. This was simple girl code that I needed right now. Tragically, everyone that stayed at Lakewood on the weekends were no one I knew because they came from overseas or out of state. Everyone that I did know, were still at Calum's or home for the weekend because they were native to Seattle. This was so annoying to me. I was so annoying.
Ashton 2:45am:
Are you awake? Could you come back to Calum's?
Ashton 2:47am:
I could use your help.
Sage 2:49am:
Just randomly woke up. Be there soon.
-
There were still a lot of people partying and a few people passed out in random places in the house because they had too much to drink. Arrie stayed outside for lookout. The music was playing lowly now and some couples were slow dancing to trap music, nodding in and out of sleep too. Selfish of me to think the party always ended when I left. Michael was asleep on one of the couches and Luke was trying to convince Ally to stay at the party longer, but she was visibly exhausted.
"I'm tired." She said playfully so Luke wouldn't get upset at her tone. They held hands as they stood in front of each other, swinging them side to side. Ally was the only girl I knew who could look good in their makeup after twelve hours of wear. I needed to buy whatever she was using. Luke ran his fingers through her straight, long blonde locks, making her blush. He seemed to sober up in the few hours that I was gone. I was proud of him for managing that by himself.
"I'll miss you." He gave her a crooked smile, tucking her hair behind her ear on one side. "Can I spend the night?"
He was such a sappy fool with her and I hated to think I was the same way with Ashton.
"She's tired, Luke." I cut into the conversation, knowing how my friend could pester anyone into agreeing with anything.
"I'll see you tomorrow?" He pulled Ally into his body by her waist, pecking her lips. She nodded her head.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD!" Calum shouted, everyone's heads snapping towards the direction his voice came from. He was pale and very much had thrown up more once I had left, but the asshole Calum was back. "Oh. My. Fucking. God." He stressed every word in disbelief, taking a large picture frame in his hands before his eyes widened. The friend he was getting mad at, flinched with every move Calum made. Calum's friends loved him, asshole or not. They would always praise him for any small thing he did. But sometimes they were just not prepared to have Calum yell at them for the idiotic things they did. Even Calum had limits, but his friends had the mindset that as long as they praised Calum, Calum would never dare speak to them like he spoke those he claimed were "below" him. I liked to think of it as a classic historic tale. Those close to the king thought they were safe and could get away with anything but once you betrayed the king you found yourself staged in front of the entire city to be decapitated. A modern day very of that would likely unfold before our eyes tonight.
"Dude chill, it's just a painting." The friend shouted to Calum.
"Just a painting, Charles?!" Calum pointed to the painting. "Does this look like it's just a painting to you?!" I guess it was a little important, the painting seemed fancy. I don't know....I knew nothing about art.
Charles shook his head, trying to stare right into Calum's eyes even though Calum's eyes were glued to the object in his hands. "N-"
"Everyone get out." Calum interrupted Charles. "The party is over."
The drunken assholes nearby began to laugh and anyone should know better than to laugh when Calum turned that deep Crimson color that signaled he was ready to knock someone out or murder them and hide their body in his backyard.
"I said, the party is over. LEAVE!" He angrily ordered again.
Those who weren't ready for the party to be over were tossing their cups full of alcohol to the floor and were shooting annoyed glares at Calum. Gutsy drunks.
"Has he been like this since I left?" I asked Ashton.
"The last hour or so he's been on a rampage." Ashton tossed his arm over my shoulders and pulled me into his side. Did he just call me back to watch Calum lose his shit?
Ally was long gone, leaving Luke to lean into my side to get my attention. Michael never got up from the couch and didn't even look slightly disturbed by Calum's yelling.
"I'll talk to him?" I said very unsurely.
"What if he makes you cry?" Luke asked.
Rich people and their paintings. A combination I never understood. I didn't appreciate a beautiful piece of art because there were more meaningful things in life to worry about. I understood that there were better things to have as conversation starters than a painting. Like weather or the latest celebrity scandal, things that didn't require much money.
I followed suit of Calum walking to the kitchen with the large painting still being tightly gripped. "Shouldn't you have left too?" Calum muttered from over his shoulder, setting the art against the cabinets. He didn't seem to have a memory of me actually leaving early in the night, so that was good I guess.
"I thought what would Jesus do? But doing something good would involved staying here and helping you clean this place without a fuss. So, my second thought was, what would satan do? And he would sit here and cherish the moment when one of the worst people in the world has a break down over a painting and kicks everyone out of his house." I carefully picked up a part of someone's extensions, tossing them in the nearby trash can. The kitchen was such a lovely place to lose your hair. "I'm going to take advantage of the moment when you are at your weakest."
Calum laughed dryly while rubbing his chin and nodding to my words.
"Thanks for never treating me differently than I deserve." He began clearing all the cups into a trash bag. "You, Luke, and Michael have always been consistent like that. No matter how nice I treat you guys, you always strike back with some witty remark that reminds me I don't deserve anyone to treat me with the kindness I haven't shown them."
I was slightly taken aback by his comment. A breakthrough.
"We have more brains than your football buddies combined." I scrunched my nose because the scent of alcohol and sweat lingered all over the kitchen counters. Those scents mixed together made it avid end why the house always smelt strongly of bleach if you arrived ten minutes early to the parties. Every surface here was probably sanitized with a lot of care the day after a party.
"Obviously."
"What was so special about the painting?"
"It's a portrait of my great-great grandfather...my mom's side. The painting was passed down to her and she's super crazy about it. She loses her mind when there's even a speck of dust on it. She wants to pass it down to my sister when the time is right, but now it's ruined."
"Can't you get it fixed?"
"We don't have ten grand that we can just shell out to have it fixed." Calum scoffed. "My family is broke." We both paused, unsure of where to take the conversation now. "Laugh, go ahead."
I stifled my laughter because I did feel bad. People like Calum were supposed to have that picture-perfect family that swam in piles of money every evening after dinner. The Hood's were supposed to be the family that spent excessive amounts of money on things they didn't need and paid triple for the price for the nicest hotel room when they went on trips. Hood's were supposed to be happy because they had everything hand's reach. As badly as we all wished terrible thing upon The Hood's, terrible things never happened to them because they had money. Until now. And so that gave me the impression that his outburst was one waiting to be released. It was being built up by school, by Michael, by Luke taking his spot on the team, and by parents who would lucky to have a penny to their joint bank account.
"Ha-ha?" I huffed sarcastically, not in the mood to laugh in such a moment.
"My mom is away in Scotland with some of her richer relatives, trying to cope with my dad's cheating scandal about to hit the news. Dad's trying to keep the scandal from coming out and staying at the governor's place. Both return on Sunday and if they see what happened to the painting, I'll get put into public school. I need to get the stupid thing fixed, but I don't have enough money."
Public school wouldn't be nice to Calum. They hated our kind. I mean, the moment (if) everyone found out his parents were broke and the senator had been cheating on his wife would already be cruel enough for Calum, but public school? That would crush the empire he worked ruthlessly to build. That was what we all wanted. But now that it was happening it wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be. I felt myself feeling bad for him.
"How much do you have?" It was not like I was asking or forcing myself out of an intriguing nature. Nope. I definitely wasn't asking to have something to slip back to Michael. It would be a fantastic way to get back on track with him and I knew he'd apprecaite this.
"After tonight's party I probably only have like twenty dollars." He rubbed his tired, drunken, bloodshot eyes.
The thing about Calum was he always looked put together. He was put together in many different ways; money, life, appearance. To see Calum falling apart in every way before me was a sight I thought I'd never see.
"What if I told you I could get you ten grand in a few hours?"
I had no intentions in getting tied up in anything concerning Sam right now, but there were a few advantages to having someone so close to so many illegal things that were easy to get. And maybe it wouldn't hurt to help someone out though they didn't deserve it.
"I'd love you forever, but you can't tell Ashton that." Calum's eyes appeared more awake and whiter than they did a few seconds ago.
"Okay..."
"I'll return the favor if you can get this money for me." His hands placed on either of shoulders and his eyes looked directly into mine and it was odd to be making such strong eye contact with someone I had never made eye contact with before. Not because he frightened me, but because he needed to know that I wouldn't take his bullshit and I let him know that with a beautiful lack of eye contact. He wasn't worthy of it. "I'll put in an extra good word for you with Ashton. Whatever you want."
"I think Ashton and I are good." I shoved his hands off my shoulders gently. "I'll be back."
Ashton, Michael, Luke, and Arrie all stood outside Calum's house, leaning against Michael's car. Luke was starting to doze off on Michael's shoulder and Michael was trying his best not to make a sudden movement that would wake up Luke. They were cute in their own way when they were being obnoxious or rude to me.
"What were you doing? Sucking hm off?" Michael rolled his eyes when Luke's head shot up.
"He has Ashton for that." I scoffed. "Michael, Luke - on a scale from one to ten how drunk do you feel?"
"One." They said together.
"Get your pale asses inside and help Calum clean."
"Yes m'am." Luke nodded and started running towards the house. Michael followed behind trying to trip him while giggling at Luke getting upset.
"What are you doing? Ashton asked with suspicion.
"Something nice for a change."
-
Arrie drove Michael's car halfway across town for me to do something nice. A quick phone call to Sam and an hour tops to wait for him to get what I needed made me feel giddy that a request so bizarre could be taken care of so quickly. The car was parked between beat-down warehouses and alleyways that looked like the smelt of urine as they were masked by rain.
"What the hell are we doing on the sketch side of Seattle?" Ashton asked from the backseat. "Yahoo! Answers told me not to step foot over here."
I turned to the boy who relied on Yahoo! Answers for everything. "I'm going to need you to not speak, do you understand?"
He nodded.
Arrie did a quick check of the perimeter before allowing Ashton and myself to get out of the car. Ashton tightly hooked his arm with mine. The place was pretty dead, no sign of life and definitely no sudden sounds besides Ashton's erratic breathing. The moon lit up the drenched pavement below our feet and a slight wind brushed our faces as we walked behind Arrie. We passed door after door, each being lit by a light that flickered on and off making Ashton's fear grow and his arm to further tighten on mine. Sure, I was scared, but acting on impulse kind of made me black out.
At last, we stopped in front of a door and Arrie banged his fist against it with a special knock. Seconds later Sam swung the door open.
"Do you have it?" Arrie asked.
"Yeah." Sam beckoned us in. "Follow me."
In the heart of the room was a table and a duffle bag. A small source of light shining down on the table.
"Ten grand all in fives, just like you requested." Sam pushed the bags towards me. "You can thank the governor of Texas for getting this so quickly to me."
I had the urge to spill out the contents of the bag and dump the money over my head, but I needed to stay professional and not do something that would involve me having to worry about my finger prints on the cash.
"Where the fuck do you get ten grand from so casually?" Ashton scratched the side of his head, staring at the duffle bag in disbelief.
"Connections are a great thing." Sam boasted without giving too much away.
"If the club finds out you got this money...what are they gonna do?" Arrie combed his fingers through his hair.
"I got an extra twenty grand to give to them so they'll lay off for a moment." Sam sighed. "Just a little longer to live."
"Sage, what does he mean by a little longer to live?" Ashton chewed on his nails and his eyes were darting to everyone in the room, too afraid to look at the bag of money anymore.
"I told you not to speak." I shot Ashton a glare.
"You can't bring a priest into a brothel and expect them to keep quiet." He argued.
Ignoring Ashton, I turned my attention back to my brother. "Are you worried?"
"On my bad days, yes." Sam zipped up the bad. "Today, not so much."
"Things are kinda making sense, but I still feel like I'm missing the big picture...I don't know..." Ashton. Spoke softly and insecurely with his nails still close to his lips.
"We should get going before Ashton hurts himself trying to put the pieces together. Thank you, Sam. This means a lot." Placing myself in in the familiar embrace of my brother felt scary each time I did it in recent moments. I stood in our hug for a good while, trying to remember tiny details of the sibling love in case it happened to be ripped away from me.
"Anytime, Sage." He pulled from the hug, giving me a small smile. "Stay safe. I love you."
Ashton's panic returned once we stepped out of the building we were in. His arm found mine again and his breathing was at a normal pace this time.
"Are you ever going to explain any of this to me?" He pointed to the bag.
"The less people that are aware of what's really going on, the better it is for those who are involved."
I hate my wifi so much