JUDAS GAME
Previously on… Oh fuck it! You already know what the hell happened.
“You!” He said in a calm and low voice, though I could see his jaw still dropped.
I panicked! I wasn’t ready for this… I wasn’t expecting for Charlie to stay up till late on Saturday night and rummage on my stuffs. I was shocked, terrified and utterly angry.
“I…I…” I tried to start, but I had to think fast, maybe he just saw the pizza video, maybe he didn’t know anything about the rest. I had to be careful with my next words.
His sour expression shifted from me to the alcohol intoxicated Alice and then he squinted.
“What’s going on?” Alice asked in a giggle, of course she didn’t know what the hell was happening or in which universe we existed at the moment, though when Charlie’s eyes and hers met I could see that she almost snapped back to reality. She probably reminded what happened between them early that day because she pursed her lips and looked away from Charlie like a stubborn child.
“What the…What the…” He started as his rosy cheeks reddened with every word.
Alright, I was wrong, he have had seen enough to have an idea of what was going on.
“Charlie calm down and I’ll expla…” I said but he rose his hand to shut me up.
“Calm down? Calm down?” He growled. “Are you insane?”
“Okay guys you’re scaring me, can you please tell me what’s happening here?” Alice said a little more lucid staring at both of us with some concern.
“It’s Mike…Or I should say Mikey?” Charlie snapped. “He’s recording a prank video along with his friends to piss everyone off”
“It’s not a prank video! It’s a documentary!”
“A documentary?” Alice frowned.
“Horrible human beings” Charlie hissed. “That’s how he calls them, the guys like Steve, yeah you remember Steve? The guy who almost made him kill himself? Well he’s trying to take revenge”
“Revenge? Cool!” Alice giggled and Oh god! I wanted to kiss her for supporting me.
“It’s not cool Alice! He’s living in the past! He needs to be done with Steve and all that straight-bisexual-curious guys! Don’t you see it? He’s been acting weird lately, he obsessed”
“Actually I don’t see it, because I don’t study with you guys and I don’t live here either, it is always Charlie and Mike and sometimes Charlie and Alice but Charlie, Alice and Mike? That doesn’t exist!”
What the hell was all that? I tiled my head toward her, Alice seemed pretty conscious of her words thought it didn’t make any sense to me.
“It doesn’t matter, he is losing his mind with all this…”
“Am I losing my mind?” I said open mouthed, I couldn’t believe him! “So, it is okay that Steve played with my feelings” I balled my hands to stop the shaking.
“That’s not what…” Charlie was saying but I cut him off.
“Is it alright that he gave my letter to his stupid friends so they could record that stupid video and upload it where everybody could see it?”
“You….” Charlie seemed as frustrated and angry as I probably looked. “You didn’t have to write that stupid letter in the first place”
What?! I stepped back incredulous. “Are you saying it is my fault? Are you saying I deserved what happened?”
“Jesus no! I’m not saying that! Why you have to be so defensive all the time?”
“Are you kidding me? Are you really asking me why? Tell me one thing Charles… is it okay that every year millions of gays, most of them teens, commit suicide because of bullies and pranks like that video?”
“No…But…”
“Is it fine that no one gives a crap about them?”
“Mike…”
“No Charlie, you’re the one who doesn’t understand. I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing this because all those gays who are out there being bullied and humiliated because of who they are”
“No! You’re just confusing people, what the hell has Eric to do with all this?”
“Eric?” Alice said suddenly, her swaying face went still and then her eyes flickered. “Oh! Eric! Is one of them? I can’t believe it, he was so nice tonight with you…And me….And Kristie…I can’t…I can’t believe that…”
“That’s the problem Alice it is part of their act! They make you believe that they are nice and great and…And…And they hug and stuffs” I explained exasperated.
“What’s stuffs?” Charlie demanded. “Are you sleeping with him? Are you planning to put that on video too?”
“What? No! I’m not! Jesus Charlie! I hate that jackass don’t you see it?”
“Umm…” He took a moment to think. “Actually I see it perfectly, you must really hate him, because you put him in a video to humiliate him in front of everyone when you don’t even know him”
“I know him, he is an asshole!” I affirmed.
“Yeah, he might be, but he and that Samuel guy aren’t Steve, you have no right to do that to them, you’re going to confuse everybody! People will think that all the straight dudes are assholes or that everyone can become gay!”
Jesus! Why he had to be so stubborn? “It is just a school project Charlie! No one else will see it, except for Mr. Perry’s class”
He stepped back blinking. “Cinematography? Are you saying that you let me down just because of that crappy video?”
“Crappy video?” I roared. “It isn’t even finished yet! Eric was right, you’re just jealous of me, because that crappy unfinished video will be ten times better that whatever boring thing you’re planning to display”
Damn! Burnt bitch! Okay I think I overpassed…No! He did! He had no right to talk to me that way! I was starting to get sick of him telling those kind of things whenever he was angry! No, I was done! I wasn’t going to let him treat me like shit anymore.
“Eric told you I’m jealous of you?” He scoffed. “So he is your best friend now?” He said with irony.
“No! I don’t like him! He is not my friend! I’m just pretending!”
“I don’t…I don’t know Mike…He looks really nice actually” Alice interrupted.
“Nice?” I laughed hard. Nice? She said nice!
“Come! I’ll show you how nice and innocent Eric Saunders is”
I walked to the bottom of the room, made Charlie aside and took my laptop to start digging in the files to find the video Jim recorded in the soccer practice. I clicked play and saw how Alice’s expression changed as she heard Eric’s plan of using me for his selfish porpoises.
“I…I can’t believe this Mike” She said at last.
“Well you better believe it” I said angrily. “Eric is an ass and he deserves everything I’m doing”
“But…” Charlie started.
“But what Charlie?” I said with frustration. “Didn’t you see it? He is a son of the bitch, he and Steve and the rest of horrible human beings”
He stared at me in a blank expression and then parted his lips. “Just like me” He whispered.
“Like what?” Alice frowned.
“You’re doing this because of me!” He grunted openmouthed.
“What? No! Why would I do that to you?” I said losing my patience.
“Because I’m a horrible human being too, don’t I? I played with your feelings, I hurt you when we were kids. That is the reason you’re doing all this. You hate me because I didn’t feel the same way about you, you need to get over it, you can go out there and ruin everyone’s life just because of something that happened years ago” He mumbled.
“What are you talking about?” Alice said confused.
“Charlie this has nothing to do with you, guess what? Not everything is about you” I shot bitterly.
“But apparently it is about you” He replied furious.
I was done! I couldn’t believe what kind of ass he was.
“And now you’re using my girlfriend in your twisted plan don’t you?” He roared.
My heart skipped a beat, damn!
“Using me?” Alice said in a mutter. “That’s why Eric and Kristie think you’re my boyfriend?”
“Look Alice… I wanted to tell you but…”
“You could have asked me Mike!” She chastised me. “You couldn’t just take there without warning”
“I’m sorry…I just…” Damn I didn’t know what to say! Why Charlie had to find the videos? Why? “I know I had to ask you first, I’m sorry I was just scared that if I told you, you wouldn’t help me. I was desperate”
“It’s alright, I had fun tonight” She smirked.
Charlie coughed. “Excuse me? You’re on his side?” He roared.
Alice craned her neck toward him. “Didn’t you just watch the video? What if Mike wants to record a documentary video? It is actually interesting to see how far things can go before everything gets fucked up between them. I think it has a lot of potential”
Oh god! I wished I was straight because I wanted to marry Alice right away! “It means you’re going to help me?” I asked hopefully.
She nodded.
“You have to be kidding me! This is insane! You’re both insane!” Charlie spat with despise.
“I don’t care if you support me or not, this is something I have to do” I said sternly.
“If you do this, we’re done” He warned.
My heart gave a lurch and I started trembling again… Oh god! I couldn’t believe that this was happening, and at the same time it all made sense, Charlie just was jealous because as always I came up with an awesome project for our finals, Eric was right about artistic careers…I just…couldn’t believe Charlie could turn out to be like Eric’s ex-roommate, he was supposed to be my best friend and support me no matter what.
“I don’t care, I believe in what he’s doing and I want to help” Alice replied dryly.
Wait…what? Wasn’t he talking to me? I glanced down with my cheeks burning.
“You enjoined tonight don’t you? To be his girlfriend and act like a couple with him?” Charlie said with hatred.
“Are you jealous?” Alice mocked. “Oh that’s great! Now you know what it feels to share you with Mike”
Oh…Hey! The arguing is about me, not because of me.
“What are you talking about? You’re crazy” Charlie growled.
“Crazy? Christ Charlie! It is always, Oh Alice you should have been there, Mike and I did this and this and those things… Or last night Mike showed this awesome movie about…. Or I can’t go out, Mike is sick…Or this morning in class Mike did this…Mike…Mike…Mike! I’m sick of it!”
Oh shit!
“What? I don’t…” Charlie started not much convinced of his words.
“What are you going to say Charlie? It is always Mike in the middle! Well if you’re done with me then I guess I’m gonna be his girl now! You’ll know what is like to be let down because of him!”
Damn! What the fuck?
Charlie looked at Alice openmouthed and then at me and his face turned even redder than it was minutes ago. “This is all your fault!” He accused me with his index finger.
“Excuse me? I’m not the one calling my girl crazy” I shot back.
“You shouldn’t have recorded those stupid videos in the first place!” He shrilled.
Oh no! He wasn’t going to make me feel guilty, I was sick of that shit. “You shouldn’t have taken my laptop!” I replied glaring at him.
“What happened with mine is yours and yours is mine?”
“We’re not married Charlie” I spat bitterly.
He blinked a couple of times and stepped back as I kept glaring at him, I couldn’t recognize him, he was acting like crazy, was I the insane? Really? What about him? Giving Alice ultimatums and telling me that I deserved what Steve did to me.
“Okay, I’m sorry I touched your stuffs, it won’t happen again” He said dryly.
Oh crap! I didn’t want him to…. “Charlie…”
“My food!” He got it now. “The tortellini… You made me cook for him” He gaped at me astonished.
My heart slammed against my ribs so hard that it almost broke my bones. “Charlie…”
He didn’t reply, instead he silently took all his stuffs near my bed and took them to his side of his room, and then took off his pants and went under his covers.
“Can I sleep with you?” Alice said quietly though I could see that she was about to burst in tears. I couldn’t believe what she did for me.
I nodded with a sad smirk and we both got into my bed.
Of course I couldn’t sleep much, all that crap kept coming to my mind over and over. I couldn’t believe all the things that Charlie said and harder was to recall the exact words, it was like I was on autopilot while the whole conversation, but of all that I got to learn something. Every time that I felt really happy, Charlie managed to turn everything to shit, it was like he hated the idea of me being cheerful, it was just like Eric said. I know I have said before but it was right, Charlie was jealous of me, and with that last thought… I finally drifted away.
…….
The buzzing continued, and he came up and down, up and down. Now the song wasn’t a whisper but an annoying noise that finally woke him up.
Jim opened his eyes groggily and looked in both directions a little disoriented, though he got quite some time living in there he still kept waking up in the morning expecting to be in his room at the Taylor’s manor.
He picked his phone and put it on his ear. “Hello?” He said with tiredness.
“Jimmy!” Said Sam’s voice at the other side of the line.
Jim jerked and washed the rest of his drowsiness with a few blinks. “Hey Sammy”
“Is your class done?”
“Class?” Jim said confused and then he recalled, shit he said last night a lie about a Pilates’ class, damn he needed to be careful with the lies he said. “Oh yeah! An hour ago”
“Great!” Sam said excited. “Come to the community center then, the kids are asking me a lot about you!”
Community center? He thought and then the place came to his mind, he forgot about them.
“I’m on my way”
“Great! We’ll wait for you here!”
Still a little sleepy Jim came out of bed to take a shower, he could fetch something to eat from the store on his way there.
He drove slowly and silently toward the community center, he was so tired after coming home late last night. Aidan had the stupid idea of continuing the party at Jim’s loft a little longer and they drank a lot and even though they had a good time, now Jim felt like shit because of his terrible hangover.
He stopped at a coffee shop and got breakfast, took an aspirin and finished his trip at the community center. Sam was waiting outside when he stopped the car. The few rays of the rising sun made the golden strands of his hair shine but not even as much as his beaming smile. How could he be so enthusiastic that early morning? Sometimes… Sometimes Jim just wanted to punch his good boy face.
“Good morning Jimmy” He said patting his back when Jim joined him.
He opened the door for him, and when they came in, found most of the kids of the center crowded in the lobby playing with some toys, some were pushing other’s wheelchairs. Jim saw many familiar faces and some new ones.
They followed the kids to the playground in the backside and started playing with them. There were a large group of women that waved at Sam when they came in, they were playing songs for a small group of kids that they got gathered around them. Jim asked himself if it was safe for the kids to be out so often, but it was also truth that they needed as much attention and fun as they could get, after all, a smile in the face and good thoughts could be the difference between life and death.
“Jimmy come here” Called Emily from the other side of the backyard when they came in. She was playing with some girls in the landslide.
Jim joined them and watched them play, also he took some pictures with them and laughed a lot with the faces they were making for the camera.
With the corner of his eyes he saw Sam helping some nurses to feed the younger kids. Jim couldn’t help noticing how charming he looked there kneeling before those toddlers holding a spoonful of pureed vegetables and making funny faces to call their attention. Jim was sure he would be such a wonderful dad, thought with Beverly… Well, it was hard to imagine Sam having kids of such frigid bitch, why she wasn’t there with him anyway?
Jim rolled his eyes and continued playing the kids in the playground.
At lunch time Jim and Sam sat with Emily and her friends in a table while the girls told them about the things they did during the week and how Emily did her best to not cry when they took a blood sample from her on Wednesday, Sam seemed so proud of her, even he told her a few words and gave her a big hug. It was hard for Jim to believe that Sam seemed to understand them and that he actually paid attention to everything they were saying, considering that they were kids and everything, but it was truth. It wasn’t like the last time, that they played a lot with the kids and the place was crowded with tons of servers, this time was more intimate and the way he looked at them…It…It was nice, he wasn’t there just doing community service, he was…having a good time with his friends.
“Jimmy!” Emily said snapping her fingers in front of him.
Jim blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
Emily and Amanda giggled. “I think you’re in love” Amanda said with a mischievous smirk.
Jim arched a brow. “What? No!” He laughed. “I was just…daydreaming”
“About what?” Emily asked with a suspicious look in her tiny face.
“About what are we going to play now” Jim said smiling.
The girls exchanged looks and then Emily stood “I know!” She shrilled excited “Let’s play hide and seek!” Her voice echoed through the whole dining hall, making that dozens of voices started talking loud and enthusiastically.
“Oh no! Little miss!” Said the voice of the head nurse as she approached their table. “You know that hide and seek is a forbidden game. You always put the place upside down”
“Oh please Mrs. Please!” Amanda begged.
“Please! Please!” More and more voices roared from all directions and Jim couldn’t help laughing at the mini revolution he was being part of.
“Please Paige!” Sam said making… Making puppy eyes. He got to be kidding… The worst part of it is that… He looked so cute doing it.
“We’ll clean when the game is over” Jim offered.
Paige considered it for a couple of seconds and finally she gave up. “Alright! But I want the place sparkling when you’re done”
“Yes sir!” Sam said standing straight making a childish salute.
Oh god he was such a dump….Argh!
Luckily the rest of the nurses found the hide and seek game funnier than Paige and they happily helped the kids in wheelchairs to find their stashes while Emily who volunteered for count came to the far corner of the dining hall covering her eyes and singing aloud the numbers.
Jim held a laugh when he was passing next to Emily and started looking for a place to hide. First he went to the backyard, but the playgrounds, the bushes and the gazebo where all packed with kids. At his left he could hear Emily’s voice reaching ten, he didn’t know how far she was planning to count but he better hurried.
Cleaning rooms, cabinets, the reception, the nurses’ spare room, all taken. How many kids were in there?
“I’m coming!”
Shit He had no place to hide and Emily was already searching, he was going lose and he hated losing.
He heard steps at his left and hurried to run to the next hallway, the whole corridor seemed pretty empty but the rooms were closed and all he could see was a laundry basket in the dark corner at the far end. Without thinking twice Jim hurried ignoring the steps he heard and jumped behind the big basket before anyone could see him.
“Ouch” A voice said when Jim landed on top of a big and warm mass of muscle. “Jimmy!” Sam groaned in a whisper.
“What are you doing here?” Jim said with disappointment.
Sam arched a brow.
“Oh yeah sorry” Jim replied laughing.
“Shhh!” Sam said covering Jim’s mouth with his hand and pushing him toward him.
“What are you doing?” Jim said in a muffled voice as he felt his heartbeat in the ears.
“Making sure you don’t make us lose too fast” Sam muttered.
Jim rolled his eyes when he saw Sam’s intents to choke a laugh. Oh come on! It was just a game! A kids game you dumb ass! Jesus why he had to act… That way? It made Jim nervous.
“She’s gone” Sam sighed with relief as he released Jim.
Weirdo. Damn! Sam made it hard for Jim sometimes, he was supposed to act nice so Sam could trust him, but Sam…Was a total mess. He was the kind of dumb boy Jim was used to mock about, God! So many jokes lost because he couldn’t say them. It was so depressing.
“Why…Why are you staring at me that why?” Sam said frowning
“I’m… I’m not staring” Jim replied tilting his head toward the shadows to hide his burning cheeks.
“Yes you are! The same way you were doing it at lunch” He affirmed looking at Jim suspiciously.
“I was… Just looking at the way you were talking to the girls” Jim explained rolling his eyes.
“So…?” Sam said a little confused.
Jim sighed. “I… Thought it was nice the way you treated them, you really care about them”
Sam smirked shyly. “I care about them”
“Of course you do” Jim tried to explain himself better. “Is just that, I don’t know, I used to think that…”
“That I was doing it because I want to go to heaven?” Sam joked.
Jim wasn’t bitch enough to nod, so he just stared at Sam in silence.
“I know what people thinks Jimmy, and the sad truth is that they are right, most Christians are more interested in doing good deeds to just climb another step in the stairway to heaven”
Jim swallowed embarrassed.
“I don’t know, I don’t like to think of me that way, I mean, yeah if go to heaven with my family that would be great, but I like in here” He said as his face brightened with that infamous breathtaking smile of his. “I like the way they laugh, I like when they hug me, when they said I’m their friend, it makes me feel especial, I mean, if this little and beautiful angels think I’m their friend…I…I don’t know… I think I’m heaven already”
Oh god! That was beautiful!
“You’re a nice boy Samuel Woods” Jim chuckled.
Sam blinked. “You too James Taylor” Affirmed with a shy smirk.
Jim scoffed.
“Oh come on! You’re a good boy and you know it, I see the way you look at them, and how much fun Emily has with you, she adores you”
“You’re being melodramatic” Jim laughed.
“You think?” Sam arched a brow mischievously. “I think you’re too humble, since you started coming this place is one hundred times better”
Jim’s heart gave a lurch. “I…I think you’re over…”
Sam shook his head. “I’m not, I like being here even more when you’re around”
What? What the hell he just said? Oh god! That was the gayest thing in the world and hell! One day I saw Liam wearing pink short denim pants over a mechanic unicorn in a rodeo championship in the club while the betches and I cheered him with pompoms.
Jim chewed his bottom lip feeling Sam’s warm and steady breathing over him. He swallowed hard.
“I found you!” Emily’s voice said at their back.
Jim jerked his head toward her and then to Sam and the three of them burst in laughs.
Sam and Jim stood and came out of their stash while Emily ran to at high speed to the next corridor.
“It’s your fault, you were talking to high!” Sam chuckled patting Jim’s back.
“No! It is yours for finding such crappy place to hide” Jim accused with a chuckle.
“You had the same idea!” Sam giggled.
Jim shook his head.
“Samuel! James!” Said a familiar voice and both of them spun.
Mrs. Woods was standing before them wearing an outfit similar to the one she wore the night before, though this one was lighter than the other which highlighted her fair skin and gray eyes.
“Hey Mrs. Woods!” Jim said with a smile.
“Hello James, is nice to you here, I didn’t know you were a volunteer too”
“I just started a couple of weeks ago”
“Oh! Isn’t he lovely?”
Jim blushed.
“Well Sam, it’s time to go home” The woman said putting a hand her sons’ shoulder.
“Wait mom, actually we have to help to clean, because we have been playing hide and seek and I promised that…”
“Samuel we will be late for church” His mom chastised.
“It will be a couple of minutes you’ll see” He promised.
“Oh look! There is one of the cleaning staff” She said pointing at their right where a black woman was passing by and…Wait! No! She wouldn’t…Wouldn’t she?
“Mom she doesn’t work here” Sam pointed out. “She Trevor’s mother”
“Oh!” Said the woman taken by surprise. “Well, go clean then, I’ll wait in the reception”
Sam and Jim started their way when the woman took Jim by the shoulder. “James, I would like to apologize for what happened last night with my niece, she had a terrible education since her mother died and my brother works out of the city and I just…”
“You don’t need to worry Mrs. Woods” He affirmed nodding at her.
“Oh sweetie, you’re such a lovely boy, would you like to go to church with us today?”
“Yeah that would be great!” Sam said a Jim’s back.
Jim gritted his teeth and managed to let out a little smirk. “I’m sorry, I have to study for tomorrow. I’ve been having a hard time with my classes.” He said hoping it was enough to make her forget the whole thing.
“What? Are you having bad grades?” Sam said with concern.
Jim nodded ashamed.
“Why you didn’t tell me? We both study the same career and I can help you”
“I don’t want to trouble you Sam, you have enough things to worry about”
“I can help you, tonight after church”
Jim rolled his eyes in his insides.
“It is a shame you have to study so hard for your exam, what about next week James? It would be divine to meet your girlfriend” Mrs. Woods said and Jim could notice something weird in her voice… It was a test…He could feel it, she was testing him.
Damn! He nodded. “That would be nice”
“Great, we will have such lovely day at church you’ll see, it will be splendid”
“I bet it will” Jim forced a last smile holding his sarcasm as much as he could, though apparently it wasn’t enough because Sam stepped on his feet and now he had to bit his tongue too to not tell him to fuck off in front of his mother.
Shit! As if his life wasn’t complicated enough!
…….
His bed was empty. That was the first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes all disoriented. Alice was lying next to me, breathing heavily with her eyes closed, though I was pretty sure she was awake. I sat on my bed and her eyelids fluttered open.
“How long you have been awake?” I asked rubbing my face.
“A couple of hours” She replied listlessly.
All her makeup was spread over her face, making it look as if she got a pretty bad injure.
I sighed.
“I just… Didn’t want to come out of bed, I didn’t feel strong enough” She explained.
“I know what you mean…I just keep seeing his face in my mind” I said hoarsely.
“I fucked everything up, didn’t I?” She said with sadness.
I shook my head.
“He’ll be fine, he is angry because I kept the secret from him”
“Why you did it?” She asked as she came out of bed and stared putting on her boots.
“I don’t know” I started crossing my legs. “I just… Knew everything would be like this if he ever found out the truth”
She took a towel paper and started cleaning her face in silence. I looked at her a couple of minutes and then spoke again.
“Thanks… For everything” I said embarrassed. It was all my fault, Charlie and she wouldn’t have broken if it wasn’t because of me.
“It’s alright Mike, I truly believe you can reach something with this research, someone has to do something about them”
“I didn’t know you were so fond to gays” I smiled with sadness, I mean, I…I…Always thought she didn’t like me or the betches much.
“It is not just about the gays Mike, you’re not seeing the whole picture, there are guys like those all of kind, you don’t know what is like to be a fat girl in high school, to crave for the team’s captain attention and then got it, and hear him say that he likes you, that you’re beautiful and funny, just to later discover that it was just a bet or something like it. It is not just straight people. It happens to everybody but no one says a word about it, because it is the common order of things”
Jesus! I didn’t know…Was she talking about her in school? Was she fat? She had a nice body now, how did she…? Now I realized that I didn’t know Alice much, and if I wanted my plan to work I had to act like her boyfriend for real and learn a thing or two about her.
“I never thought about it that way” I said pondering her statement.
“You should, because you could touch everybody’s heart with that movie, not only the queer ones”
I smiled. “Thank you”
“It’s okay” She pressed her lips in a thing line. “God! What am I going to do know?” She kneeled and pressed her forehead against her tights.
“You’re going to fix things up” I assured.
“I don’t know… He looked really pissed”
“Come one Alice, its Charlie, he can be a jerk sometimes but later he realizes how wrong he was, you’ll see, tomorrow he will call you and cook something delicious for you”
“You think?” She arched a brow.
“I’m sure of it” I nodded. “He loves you”
She smiled.
“And if it doesn’t work…” I teased. “I think I have a good idea to put the odds on our favor”
She moved her face to the side staring at me with dreadful eyes. “You’re doing it again….You’re looking at me like insane” She said with a frightened voice.
“Relax… Everything is going to be alright” I smiled devilishly as I tugged my phone from below my pillow and dialed.
“It’s Sunday afternoon betch, what are you doing awake this early?” Liam’s voice said when he picked the call.
“Shut up” I said rolling my eyes. “I need your help”
“With what?” He asked with interest.
“Just come here as fast as you can” I said cutting the call.
“Mike…” Alice started in low and careful voice. “What is going on?”
Twenty minutes after Alice and I have eaten someone knocked the door. My heart skipped a beat. Part of me wanted it to be Charlie, but that would be stupid, he wouldn’t knock the door unless he lost his keys as it usually happened.
When I opened the door I saw it was just Liam accompanied by Tim and Cass. I smiled at them though deep inside felt a little disappointed. I knew it was too soon to make conclusions but… I don’t know, something deep inside me told me that this time Charlie and I weren’t going to make up things that easily.
“Hey what are you doing here?” I said shocked when I saw the pair accompanying Liam.
“Liam was fixing my laptop when you called” Cass explained giving me a brotherly punch in the shoulder that almost sent me flying backwards.
“Oh I’m sorry” I said embarrassed.
“Don’t be” Tim hissed. “I…We…Have something to tell you” Finished avoiding the eye contact with me.
“Tim…What happened?” I murmured starting to feel anxious.
“Leave it for later” Liam rolled his eyes. “Where is my patient?” Added leaning to the left to get a glimpse of Alice at my back.
“Patient?” Alice said with shaky voice.
“You know why did I call you?” I said impressed.
“Oh sweetie, as soon as you called I knew you needed an extreme makeover”
“It isn’t for me” I hurried to say.
“I knew you would say that” He replied disappointed.
“What? Extreme makeover? Are you insane?” Alice said shaking her head.
“Come on Alice! It will be fun!”
“No…Mike…This won’t be fun at all…I…I don’t want to be like those bitches in the campus, I changed already…I don’t want to do it again, I like who I am”
“Honey when I’m done with you…You’re going to love yourself, actually you’ll gonna love yourself very much and every night”
Alice blushed and looked away.
“Oh come on Alice! It will be fun! This is exactly what you need, a fresh start, forget about Charlie for now, he’ll be back with his tail between legs”
She snapped her neck toward me thoughtfully.
“Wait…Charlie broke up with you?” Cass said openmouthed.
“Thanks Mike, now everybody knows!”
“Take it easy Alice, everything is going to be alright” I comforted her.
“So…shall we begin?” Liam arched a suggestive thin brow.
We all stared at Alice in silence. She looked at me and then at the rest, I could see it, she felt trapped. We were all against her and she was lonely and helpless. She was mine!
She nodded.
Now, to make this a little more interactive and funny I suggest you to play your favorite makeover song. I’ll be playing Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding because it was like taking a handful of random objects and mix them up in a blender, I mean, Alice, Liam and an extreme makeover! This was going to be hilarious, and as I said before, anything could happen.
Our first stop was that clothes store where all the girls in town went. I called the slut crafter, because even the most boring and depressing geek girl could came out as an authentic man-eater. Of course I had plans for Alice, and while she was trying dresses –I loved watching her trying dresses and not because they looked well on her but because of her face- I was telling her the whole story as she demanded while we were in the car, she needed to know everything I knew about Eric and Kristie so she could understand which was her part in the story.
The dresses and skirts flew, and actually it was pretty fun. I knew I could trust Liam to turn our graveyard princess in an actual sex bomb. At the end we choose the shortest skirts we could find and many strapless tops and dresses because guess what? She had big boobs! Though we couldn’t see them before because they were hiding beneath those layers of dark cloth and sweaters.
Next we came after the shoes, luckily it wasn’t as hard as I thought, Alice seemed like she was starting to embrace the new change in the life and she was starting to enjoy it, of course she was, I was the one paying for everything, bitch!
When the outfits were done we went to the salon and here is where things became interesting. Cass, Tim and I waited in a short dark room decked with animal print patterned furniture and awesome pictures of women with amazing haircuts and hair colors. Well, nothing was as cool as expected, turns out that Tim and Cass had the genius idea of stand up for me before Dumb ass and Moron –yup! They told them they were gay- Jesus! Why they had to do that? Don’t get me wrong, wow! I was grateful for what they did, but at the same time I was so angry, they just had to play their part! They had to convince the twins they were straight not tell them that that they were gay! They were rushing things pretty quick, they didn’t even know their girls yet! And now the twins didn’t want to talk to them! I couldn’t finish the video without the twins, I bet the letter video was their idea, if I wanted to mess with someone it was with those mother fuckers! But now… Argh!
“Mikey…Relax…It will be okay” Cass said not too convincingly.
“No Cass! Nothing will be okay….I was so close to finally fuck those assholes and now everything is fucked up”
“Hey, it’s not his fault! We couldn’t let them talk to you that way” Tim said crossing his arms upset.
“I know…And I’m sorry and thank you guys…But…What are we going to do know?”
“Give them some time, maybe they will reconsider things, they like to hang out with us, actually we have a lot of fun together” Cass affirmed. “Maybe they will make up their minds before is too late”
“You think?” I said chewing my bottom lip.
“You’ll see, everything will be fine” Tim said with a smirk.
I rose my head at the same time the door opened and without saying a word Liam came in taking all the bags with the stuffs we bought for Alice and then disappearing again.
God! Was she ready yet? I couldn’t wait, I was latterly chewing my nails in anticipation. I don’t know how many minutes or hours or days passed… You know how girls are…The can bend time when it is about dressing up or going to the bathroom.
When I stood to open the door and ask them if everything was okay it suddenly swung open.
Before me was a girl of bright skin that wore a mini brown skirt that led you to follow the trace of her long legs. On top you could see her tight breasts in that strapless light blue top with pink laces. Her beautiful green eyes sparkled behind long lashes, pink lips, thin nose and rosy cheeks all wrapped in sharp locks of black hair cut in a half-pixie half-hipster style spiced by a single golden cross pendant in her right ear. Ladies and gentlemen meet the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. Meet, the new Alice! Oh Eric! I hoped you were ready, because you were about to get tempted by a high heeled devil!
…….
As they accorded Sam went to Jims loft that night after church. At the beginning there was a little misunderstanding because he thought Jim still lived in his parents’ house so he got to take the train again back to Oakwood and by the time he got there it was pretty late already.
Jim opened the door for him and Sam gaped. Jim couldn’t help feeling a little embarrassed. His loft wasn’t that lavish but it wasn’t humble either, he knew he got some good stuffs and for some reason know he didn’t like them much.
“You have a beautiful home” Sam said smiling.
“Yeah umm…It isn’t a big deal” Jim smirked.
“So about what is your exam tomorrow?” Sam asked approaching the coach to sit.
Jim went to his room and took all the books and notebooks that were sprawled onto his bed. He had been trying to understand a couple of things since he left the community center and still he couldn’t get them in his mind, it was all so complicated and he was so mad because electronics used to be his thing and now he is just the dumb of the class.
He gave Sam’s his books and he whistled.
“What? Is there something wrong? If you don’t remember this it doesn’t matter, actually I’ve been doing some progress since I got home” He explained anxious.
Sam shook his head. “No, actually I remember this pretty fine, I’m just confused. Shouldn’t you be in second trimester? This are classes from the first”
Shit, it was true! Jim didn’t get to college until his supposed first semester ended and now Sam got that something fishy was going on.
Think fast betch. It was his new routine, he always had to think fast with Samuel Woods. He recalled even the tiniest detail about Jim’s life, like his old address, his classes, the way he looked at him, and the things he said. God it was so annoying sometimes!
“I… Had to take this class again” He lied pretending to be embarrassed. “Actually most of them” Added before Sam decided to check the whole notebook.
“James! Why? Was it because of the night trainings? Did you miss time to study?”
Great! That was perfect!
Jim nodded.
“Oh! I’m so sorry…I think maybe we should stop practicing for a while”
He hurried to shake his head. “NO! I’m doing better this time, I just need a little push up, that’s all”
Sam smirked. “Come here, let’s make you the first of your class”
“That’s wasn’t too humble from you, Mr. Saint” Jim chuckled.
“I can be a bad boy sometimes” Sam chocked a laugh and opened the book.
They sat there in Jim’s couch staring at the notebook while Sam started explaining to him. At first Jim noticed his rosy hands. For a second he recalled the soft touch of his fingers curled around his and he thought that the party happened in another life in another world, it seemed so surreal now.
He shook his head and tried to focus. Sam was talking about the proper way to address a circuit and Jim kept nodding to the stupid things he was explaining him because he knew them already. He got a really good memory though, how was that possible that Sam could recall all of those stuffs three years after he studied them for the first time? He seemed to know a lot about electronics, and he also was a good soccer player, and great son, and community server, gosh! he was so annoying! Why he had to look and act so perfect and charmingly cute all the time? Didn’t he know that there was bad people out there? People that could take advantage of how naïve he was, people like… Jim for example?
Damn! Jim couldn’t concentrate, his mind kept taking anywhere but the books. He made a last effort and finally got to listen to Sam without thinking stupid things, the trick was to actually look at the notebook instead of Sam.
They studied for hours and hours, and before Jim noticed all his doubts were answered bit a bit, now he felt a little more confident for tomorrow’s exam. Great! Sam was also a good teacher! The more Jim knew about him, the more he wanted to punch his face.
When they were checking up Jim’s results on the improvised quiz Sam made for him someone rang the bell.
Jim frowned, he wasn’t expecting anyone. He just hoped it wasn’t me, because it could be dangerous for Sam to realize that Jim and I were friends.
He stood and went to the living room to open the door.
“Hello James” Said Mrs. Foyer, the old lady from the second floor.
“Hi Martha” Jim said smirking at her. “How are you?”
“I’m fine honey” She smiled with a wrinkled mouth. “I made lasagna and I thought you would like some” She said handling him a food container.
“Thanks Martha” Jim grabbed the meal from her hands.
“Oh! You got a visitor” She said noticing Sam’s presence in the coach.
The boy stood and waved at the woman.
“Let me bring you some more so you can eat it together”
Jim shook his head. “It’s okay Martha, you don’t need to bother”
“It’s not a bother you dummy, I like it” She affirmed spinning her heels and making her way toward the elevator.
Jim rolled his eyes with a smile and closed the door.
“Who is that lady?” Said Sam arching a brow.
“It’s just my neighbor, sometimes I bought the food for her cats and help her with things like changing bulbs and those stuffs” Jim explained.
“She seems pretty nice”
“She is” Jim nodded. “Are you hungry? She made lasagna”
“That’s my favorite!” Sam said excited, approaching the kitchen to grab a dish from the pantry when the bell rang again.
Jim gave the food container to Sam and went to the door. Damn! Martha was pretty fast for someone with so short legs!
He opened the door and he wrinkled his brow in bewilderment.
“Hey dude!” Said Aidan coming in with a bag filled with what looked like bottles.
“Aidan! What are you doing here?” Jim said confused.
“Don’t you remember? We were going to watch the game today!”
“Game? This late?” Jim didn’t understand.
“What’s going on with you James? Don’t you remember?”
Crap! That bad he drank last night?
“Oh hey Sam!” Said Aidan waving at Sam who right then was engulfing the first bite of lasagna.
“Aidan…Hi” Replied Sam confused asking Jim with his eyes what was he doing there.
Aidan put the bottles in the table before the couch, sat and turned on the television.
“Aidan” Started Jim approaching him. “What do you mean by game?” He said disordered while Aidan skipped the channels until he stopped in the sports one where a hockey game was starting.
“Hockey? I don’t know shit about Hockey” He chuckled.
“Dude I think you drank too much last night, we talked for hours about the Maple Leaves this season”
No! He was kidding! Jim recalled everything that happened the night before and they didn’t speak a word about hockey, he didn’t even know Aidan liked hockey.
“James, are we going to study or should I go?” Sam said sternly.
Jim looked at Aidan and then Sam and then glanced back to the guy in the couch.
“Aidan I don’t…”
“I’m messing with you, my Television died two hours ago and I need a place where to watch the game and since you go such big screen I thought…”
He knew it! Aidan was an asshole! He almost made Jim believe he lost his mind the night before.
“Come Sam have a beer” Aidan offered with his eyes fixed in the screen.
“I think I should go” Said Sam thoughtfully.
“Come on dude! I just got here! Let’s have some fun, you’re going to like the fights”
Fights? Wasn’t hockey what they were watching?
Oh shit! Jim thought twenty minutes later as he took a sip of his beer and stared astonished at the fight that was taking place in the ice. What the fuck? Was that hockey or wrestling on ice?
“Kick him!” He shouted at the screen between laughs.
“Take the puck, take the puck!” Screamed Aidan like insane. “Yes! Yes!” He roared when the Maple Leaves scored!
“Yay!” Sam and Jim cheered wryly.
“Gotta go to the bathroom” Aidan said standing up and getting out of the living room.
Jim took a sip of his beer and noticed Sam’s eyes on him. “What?” He said arching a brow.
“I thought you needed to study” Sam pressed his lips in a thin line.
“I learned a lot today, thanks” Jim said feeling his cheeks burning. “I think I’ll do it great tomorrow”
Sam sighed. “You seem like you’re having a good time, like last night, that went home tired and instead had a drinks with Aidan”
“Yeah, it was crazy actually” Jim laughed. “I left him at his place but then he said, ‘hey why don’t we take a beer?’ and we came here and started drinking like mad and before we noticed it was two am”
Sam rolled his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Jim asked with crested brow.
“I’m jealous” Sam said and….
Wow…Wow…Wait. What?! Did Jim heard well? Did Sam said…?
“You just got to the team, and the rest of the guys listen to you, they even went to my house because of you told them, and you hang out and are friends with them and I…have been for two years and I’m the captain…I don’t know…I know is a bad thing but I can’t help it, I’m jealous”
Oh! So it was it! Jesus! He almost gave me a heart attack! Did the same happened to you? I bet it did.
“Take it easy Sammy, stop pushing things up” Jim advised.
“It’s been two years James, I should be their friend by now, but they don’t like to hang out with me, because I’m bossing them around in parties and those things because of the dangers of alcohol and drugs”
“Sam, they are not kids, nor your responsibility, they are your friends”
“It’s because you’re a bad boy” Sam looked up at Jim and smirked.
“What happened with James you’re a nice person?” Jim laughed.
“Maybe I need to learn to be more like you”
Ha! If he only knew!
“Don’t be so dramatic Sammy, just stop trying to be perfect, do something crazy and stupid sometimes, it will make you feel great”
Sam’s blue eyes shone with defiance and before Jim notice he was taking Jim’s beer and taking a long sip from it, in seconds his face wrinkled and he gasped when he gave the bottle back to Jim. “It’s sour!” He complained.
Jim laughed. “Just forget it Sammy, it isn’t your thing”
Sam shook his head. “You’re wrong…I….I…Will show you I can be a bad boy too”
Oh! He was so adorable! I would have liked to be there and squeeze his cheeks.
Jim snorted though later that night he couldn’t stop thinking about Sam’s statement and he couldn’t wait to see what the good boy had in mind.
…….
As I expected, Eric’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets as soon as he saw Alice’s new self, and it wasn’t just him but everybody in campus. Being her boyfriend brought me a new status in school. Now I was the guy with the mother fucking hot girl. I wasn’t planning to let the news spread but somehow they did by themselves. There were many whispered at my back, saying that I was a son of the bitch for stealing my best friend’s girl. At least it was good because that way I didn’t have to give anybody explanations of why Charlie and I weren’t friends anymore.
The following days were madness, Eric, Kristie, Alice and I went everywhere. We hanged out pretty often and it was refreshing, my social status rose in the town, because when you mixed my supposedly more confident way to dress accompanied by the sex bomb that Alice was, it made that everyone’s eyes went to us as soon as they got a glimpse of us. .
We laughed and drank and got wasted so often that I felt like I was living on autopilot. Now I couldn’t tell if the things we did happened months, days or just couple of hours ago. We were the ultimate team. We got invited to so many parties and got kicked of so many others because there were one or two morons trying to steal Alice for me, it was crazy. The best part of all was that she seemed to like the attention, or at least it was what I thought at the beginning until I found her crying in her sleep one day after going to a club with Eric, Kristie and a couple of guys from Eric’s team.
I couldn’t help feeling responsible for what happened between Charlie and Alice and I guessed that that was the reason of her misery. To make things more complicated, since Charlie and I weren’t friends anymore, I got used to starve, yeah! You know how helpless I was at cooking and most of the time I was so depressed that I didn’t even want to go to the store and get something to eat. I lost of lot of weight those days, every time I recalled my fight with Charlie I balled my hands with fury, but who was I kidding? I missed him, I craved for his attention.
The first days after our fight I kept looking at him stealthy in class, at home, everywhere, and it made me jealous to see how happy he looked and how normal things seemed to flow for him. It was like nothing happened, as if I never existed in his life. Those days watching him cracking in laughs with Missy and some of the coders made my blood boil and heart ache, I craved for his attention, I longed for his eyes to at least meet mine by mistake, but it never happened. It was killing me deep inside. I wasn’t happy. No one helped me carry my stuffs after class anymore, there weren’t delicious but healthy meals waiting for me in the nights, there weren’t laughs in our room and forget about the thing in the woods. Everything was over.
Eventually I grew tired of waiting for him to apologize and since Eric used to have some spare hours at the same time I got classes I started to ditch more often, that way I didn’t have to see Charlie living his beautiful and perfect life while I died inside.
My relationship with Eric got better and better every day, we teamed in the course for any exercise that Julia suggested and hanged out almost every day, it was hard because with Charlie’s absence in my life I just… Sometimes forgot that Eric wasn’t my friend and felt tempted to tell him how miserable I actually felt while I pretended to laugh to his hilarious jokes. I had to do my best to keep up with the plan and not ruin everything by no talking to him ever again and run to Charlie’s arm and tell him that I was going to cancel the project.
One morning I woke up tired of all that situation and when I saw Alice that afternoon I realized that she was thinking the same. Charlie wasn’t going to come back to our lives anytime soon and we got to get used to it. It was June already, which meant that the time to present the project was nearer with every second. As Cass and Tim predicted, the twins apologized to them for acting like assholes and they were friends again, it was good news, so I needed to stop my the pity party and get ready to work on Eric and Kristie’s relationship if I really wanted to finish the documental at time.
The next day Alice and I went to the pizza store to spend the day pretending to act as the loveliest couple, which was complicated since we got a rule of zero kisses, but we said silly things to each other and held hands. Eric got us a pizza and there is where our plan started. I paid a couple of guys from economics to go to the pizzeria and pretend they were reading a book for an hour. Thanks to Tim and his amazing designing skills we created a series of fake book covers with suggestive titles like Is she the one? And other like all the women cheat, and my personal favorite your girl is a slut and some many others. I almost cracked in laughs when I saw Eric’s face when he realized that half of his costumers were reading strange and unknown books that were sending him signals.
At the beginning was hard to convince Alice to help me ruin Eric’s and Kristie relationship because she thought it was a pretty bitchy thing to do, and I couldn’t blame her, I felt like shit myself, but then I told her that we were going to get rid of Eric and that later it would be Kristie, Alice and I. It wasn’t Kristie’s fault that Eric was an asshole and it seemed like Alice got my point because after that the girls started having time alone for gossiping while Eric and I messed around, thought it was partially a waste of time. Kristie seemed more interested in learning about Alice and me and how things worked up between us, she even asked her the size of my penis. Can you believe it? That was so wrong! And even worst was that Alice told her that it was a monster-cock. I felt so embarrassed when she told me that, I mean, weren’t the girls supposed to talk about things like makeup and kitties? What the fuck was wrong with those two? But the most depressing thing of all is that I wished Alice was right.
Other thing we learned from their conversations is that Kristie sometimes didn’t like to have sex with Eric because occasionally when he was really horny he started making animal’s noises. Yeah you read right! Animal’s noises! It was so twisted! I laughed like for twenty minutes when Alice told me and so she did too. So I got the idea of telling Eric that when Alice and I had sex sometimes I couldn’t contain myself and I used to say bad words and roar like a lion, because… She loved it when I acted like a lion, I hoped it worked because I was running out of ideas.
…….
In other news, while my life was a mess, things seemed to go pretty good for James the bitch Taylor. Now that Sam was tutoring him, his grades started going up. He felt so pleased because he finally was seeing the results of all those hours studying with Sam. He got better at soccer too, he even scored a goal in one of the practices and even Eric congratulated him.
On Sundays he woke up early to go to the community center and brought clothes and food for the kids. They spent the day playing and the afternoons watching cool movies that the kids seemed to love, the nurses in the center grew fond to him and now every time Jim and Sam arrived everybody looked so happy to see them.
When the time came to go to church with Mrs. Woods Jim felt a little anxious, he knew the woman wanted to know who he really was, after all he could see in her eyes that she knew him from somewhere else, and that feeling hadn’t vanished from his chest either since the first time they met. He had to make a good impression and at the same time he got to bring his girl with him because Sam wanted to meet her.
Here is where Ash gets in the game. When Jim came to my room to talk about girls I couldn’t help laughing by the way Charlie looked at us. Jim wanted to know if it was a good idea introduce a girl to Sam that early and I agreed that it was the right moment, after all we were running out of time, soon we were going to come out of the closet before them and put an end to all this madness. So he talked to me about Ash. Well, turns out that Jim’s life didn’t start the night we met and that actually he had a lot of friends out there. One of them was Ash. A foxy girl he met in high school and who according to Jim was his community service project.
When Jim and Ashley were in high school, she was a dork, but a huge! Dork! She even played dungeons and dragons and disguised and everything…LOSER… Anyway, one day she got in detention because she felt asleep in class and since Jim was always in detention for god knows what, they met and started talking to each other, she even taught him how to play the game, I didn’t know that! Well, Jim liked her and felt pity because she had like two friends and a half, so with a lot of effort, blood and sweat Jim transformed her in a sexy and cool bitch that everybody learned to love, yeah it was basically the same thing I did with Alice…Well, what Liam did with Alice.
Anyway, Jim and Ash went to church that Sunday with Sam’s family, he was anxious and excited at the same time, he didn’t picked Ash from all his girlfriends just because he had an undeniable and strong chemistry but also because she was black, and since that day in the community center with Mrs. Woods and Trevor’s mom he could swear that the all lovely and god fearing woman was a racist bitch deep inside.
As soon as Sam saw them he ran to meet them and showed them the way inside. For my surprise Jim didn’t burst in flames nor the place crumbled when he got inside. Ash greeted Sam with a kiss in the cheek just to see how he reacted because… Well, she was the female version of Jim and she went to church dressed as a… Well, let’s just say she didn’t look very saint that day. Jim left Sam and Ash alone a minute to move his car before he got a ticket and found Mrs. Woods on his way.
The woman gave him a big hug and waited for him to park the car in another way and accompanied him in his way back with Sam and Ash and here is went things went crazy.
As soon as Mrs. Woods saw Ash and before Jim got time to tell her who she was, she approached the girl and told her that St. Peter’s church was three blocks at their left. Ash squinted at her and was ready to tell her to fuck off because… drums roll…St. Peter’s in that neighborhood was an African American church. She was racist! Jim knew it! Oh what a bitch! Well, at least now Jim knew he couldn’t trust that woman…Oh! He would have given everything to kiss Gabe in front of her and give her a heart attack, it was sad Gabe was a closeted moron and that Jim didn’t see him anymore.
Jim explained Mrs. Woods who Ash really was and the woman went pale and apologized by saying she swore she saw her singing that church’s choir one day… And if you were was cunning as Jim and me you would notice that it didn’t make sense considering that if Ash was in that choir she wouldn’t ever get lost in her way there…Conclusion…RACIST!
Since Ash and Jim got really pissed with Mrs. Woods after that they sat a couple of rows away from her because they “couldn’t find any empty places” And they got a lot of fun because Sam was near them and Jim could swear he saw him listening to all the things she was whispering in his ear, like. “I don’t get it, who the hell was the genius idea of crucify the only guy who could turn water into wine?”
Jim had to choke a laugh and was tempted to tell her to shut up before they got in trouble, but… He was having such a good time.
……
Friday June twenty seven. Today was great game, the day Jim and his team were going to fight for their chance to enter in the championship. I wasn’t planning to go because soccer was boring as fuck, but first Eric started bothering me with I had to go and whatever and then Jim said that if I didn’t go to watch him score the winning goal he would be really pissed at me. And since I didn’t want to spend the day watching Charlie –Who still didn’t talk to me- sitting in his bead watching movies all by himself I decided to go see the game.
On my way there I found Hip walking down the campus, when I asked if he got new videos he just gave me a flash drive and kept walking, by now he had sleep with twenty guys and eight girls, of course the girls weren’t my business but I couldn’t help feeling jealous of how easy sex was to him while I was still a virgin.
I got into the stadium and gaped when I saw such amount of people in the bleachers, if I recalled well, not many people believed in Oakwood’s soccer team, everybody said their sucked and in the videos of Jim’s games I always saw such small amount of persons in there, Kristie among them, though of course by them I didn’t know her.
I sat in the only empty place I found in the last row, it was a good seat because I got to see the whole playing field and was already scanning it with my eyes looking for the player in Oakwood’s team with the number seven in the back.
“Hey honey” Said Alice’s voice suddenly and I craned my neck when I saw her approaching accompanied by Kristie.
“Hey babe, what are you doing here?” I said surprised while the girls asked the guy next to me to move a little to the right.
“Kristie asked me to come to help her cheer Eric, look! There is Jimmy! HEY JIMMY!” She shouted waving at Jim coming out of the locker room at the other side of the field.
Shit! I made her signs to shut up as soon as she sat next to me.
“Take Mikey” Kristie said at the other side of Alice handling me a brochure.
“What is it?” I asked frowning looking the burning soccer ball in the front side.
“We’re heating up things here” She started playing with her brows. “There is an intercollege championship in Sunset Valley at the end of school year, and we want people to go to cheer up the team, I’m hoping to get everybody hooked with the idea of summer and the beach near the hotels”
“Great” I said excited.
“You definitely have to come guys, it will be a total badass party the four days of the event”
“Look it started!” Said Alice pointing at the playing field.
I craned my neck and spotted Eric in the middle of the playing field facing a guy from the other team. A whistle was blown and the crowd started roaring. I saw Sam lunging toward the guy with the ball and…Wait a minute, where the hell was Jim?
…….
The bench? Was the fat mustache kidding? Jim improved a lot in matter of weeks, he wasn’t the loser he was when he joined the team! He even scored… Once! But he did! Gosh! He was so furious right now next to Garret.
He could see how Aidan and Eric had fun fooling the other team’s players with their crazy fast legs, he should be there with them, not in the bench listening to the annoying crowd and the stupid yells of the coach to the guys when they passed by them.
Now… In the game, Well, I don’t know much of soccer but in the first five minutes Eric scored the first goal and the crowd went mad. Sadly the happiness didn’t last long because ten minutes after that the other team scored too. Now they were as in the beginning of the game, and the more minutes passed the more anxious and furious Jim became. Hell! What the hell was wrong with him? It was just a stupid game.
“Kick! Kick!” He shouted at Eric when he approached the goal again but he wasn’t fast enough and they stole the ball from him.
Sam retrieved the ball and approached the goal again. He swung his leg and a guy came from behind, everyone let out a cry when Sam rolled down the floor holding his right leg with both hands.
Oh my god! Was he…Was he okay?
Everything went silent and all the eyes were on the whirling Samuel Woods on the grass, Jim swore he almost saw Mrs. Woods trying to break free from her husband to get in the middle of the field.
Eric and Aidan grabbed Sam by the arms and helped him stand, his face was red as raw meat and wrinkled in a painful grimace, while the guy who almost broke Sam’s leg yelled at the referee that he didn’t kick him that bad, but the man ignored him and drew a red from his pocket.
Jim stood when the guys brought Sam toward him, why…Why in the hell wasn’t an ambulance there? Jesus! Something serious could have happened to Sam! Jim was more than furious! He wanted to kick that son of the bitch’s ass!
“Easy…Easy” The coach said when they sat Sam next Jim.
Jim glanced at him with his jaw set, Sam was all damp in sweat and red by the sun and pain, his ankle was a little sore but it didn’t look that bad.
“I’m…Fine” He said between a gasp.
“Bullshit I’m calling an ambulance” The coach said upset.
Sam shook his head. “I’m fine coach, I swear” The boy said changing his expression.
The man held his phone thoughtfully.
“Look…It doesn’t hurt that bad” The boy affirmed touching the bump in his leg and pressing. Jim saw him let out a soft and short gasp but that was all.
The coach sighed. “Alright! Garret you’re in!” The man announced.
The boy stood excitedly and joined the rest of the team in the playing field.
“Are you…?” Started Jim when they left them alone but Sam spoke faster.
“Well, things didn’t turn out as expected” He said with a surprisingly calm voice.
“What are you talking about?” Jim asked.
“It was supposed to be you on the field and no Garret”
“What are you saying? How would you know that…Wait a minute! You lied!” Jim said open mouthed.
“Silence James, or they’ll find out”
Jim looked around, no one was paying attention to them, the game was resuming already.
“Are you insane? Why did you do that?” Jim said angrily.
“I wanted to help you to get in the game and prove them that you’re not the worst player anymore”
“Sam, it was crazy you could have get caught! And that guy got expelled, what did you do make him kick you?”
“That wasn’t the plan actually, it was me the one getting expelled”
“You…” Jim breathed out shocked. No…This couldn’t be… “You were going to kick them to get expelled? Are you insane?”
Sam scoffed. “I told you I could be a bad boy too” Sam smirked mischievously.
“You’re crazy” Jim grunted rolling his eyes and focusing in the game to not punch Sam for being so stupid, what the hell was he thinking? Those guys were tough, the team needed his captain to win and go to the championship. He couldn’t believe Sam actually risked their chance to go to the championship in sunset valley just for…just for him.
Luckily for Jim when the second half started the coach called him in the playing field. At first he didn’t even get the chance to see the ball, those assholes were fast! And plus they were good dribbling. As soon as Eric neared their goal all of them ran after him. They needed a plan, a way to get rid of those morons to let Eric a clean shot and win the game once and for all.
Twenty minutes later after, Jim got the ball for a minute, he ran to the goal being chased by two guys, he kept craning his neck looking for Eric, but he was covered by half of the other team, it would be useless to try to pass the ball to him…The goal was near, maybe…maybe he could…
Jim shot and saw how the ball spun in slow motion toward the net, his heart beat rose, and his breathing hitched…The goalkeeper did catch it. Oh come on! You don’t actually believe that Jim were going to pass from loser to hero of the team in one single game…No, he didn’t score.
Ten minutes to go. They were still one to one and Jim was starting to feel the toll of running to none stop, though of course not as hard as when he joined the team, he was a new person.
He ran after the guy of the other team and managed to kick the ball from one side and send it to Kev who took it with his hands and then kicked it as far of their goal as possible, well, at least Jim got to help with that.
Gasping he joined the thong that fought for the ball in the middle of the field, again most of the other team was over Eric, they knew he was the star of the team and were doing all in their power to not let him play, damn it! Jim needed to do something, Aidan got to take the ball but they stole it from him easily, he seemed pretty tired. The guy with the ball now came after Kev again and Jim was alone, when he passed near Jim he lumbered and snatched the ball without thinking twice.
He started dashing as far from him as possible and now he could see the rest of the other team following him in stampede. He craned his neck toward Eric and quickly he got surrounded again, damn he needed to find a way to deliver the ball to him.
Now everyone was near the goal, shit! He was so near, he had no time to try a shot! The game just had four more minutes. He needed to do something.
Aidan, Surrounded. Eric, completely blocked. He didn’t trust the rest of the guys to do a clean shot and plus they were too far away from him and had to keep going from one side to other to dodge the attempts of the other team to take the ball from him. Three minutes… Garret made him signs and before thinking twice Jim shot.
Garret made a half spin and kicked the ball hard, making the net tense when it got into the goal.
Everyone went mad! The bleachers made such amazing roar that made Jim’s heart give a lurch, it was like a beautiful song being played inside of him.
No one shut up the last two minutes of the game, everybody was too excited. When the referee whistled all the team ran after Garret, Jim was so happy! They did it! They did it! They were going to Sunset Valley!
“You did well” Sam said standing next to him pretending to limp.
“What? I didn’t score” Jim complained.
“What you did for Garret” Sam explained.
“I didn’t do anything” He shook his head. “He was my best choice”
Sam nodded with a smirk. “You’re right”
“Don’t you see it?” Jim said with proudness in his voice. “They are not cheering the boy with autism who did a good job. They are congratulating the amazing player who scored the winning goal” Added happily.
“Look at you talking that way James, you seem to like to be a good boy” Sam teased.
“Yeah and you suck being a bad one” Jim cracked in laughs and took Sam’s arm around his neck to pretend he helped him walk back to the bench. He smiled happily because he did well, he finally did something well for the team. He didn’t even bother Sam’s sweaty body over him. Actually he was kind of getting used to it.
…….
They won! They fucking won! Oh my god! I was so happy! I wanted to climb down the bleachers and join the celebration but… I wasn’t part of the team.
“Did you see that? My bad ass boyfriend won the game!” Said Kristie excited.
“We’re going to Sunset Valley! We’re going to Sunset Valley!” Eric shouted when he got up where we were sitting.
“Hey tough guy how’s your ego?” I laughed when he stopped before us.
“What? I scored a goal” He protested punching my arm softly.
“Yeah but it wasn’t the wining one” I teased.
Eric was about to reply but Kristie made him signs to shut up. “Is everybody ready?” She asked.
“Yeah, Sam is telling the guys about it” Eric explained.
“What’s going on?” I said frowning.
“We got a little surprise for the guys in the team” Kristie said with devilish grin.
“Hey! You have to come with us!” Eric suggested.
“Where?” I said not getting the whole thing.
“My cousin is in the team and he asked me help to do something cool since his parties suck” Kristie explained.
“Did you get enough for everybody?” Eric said looking at her with an arched brow.
“Don’t worry, Mikey and Alice where on my list from the beginning” She chuckled.
What the hell were they talking about? I wanted to know!
“Guys! What is going on?” I said stubbornly.
“You’ll see Mikey…You’ll see” Eric laughed.
I rolled my eyes and followed them to the playing field.
Do you remember the last party? Well, this time there wasn’t time to get a bath and get dressed. Kristie, Sam and Eric where going to led the rest in one of the guys’ team car to god knows where.
I got into Jim’s car along with Alice, Sam’s girl and Ash who I didn’t even know was watching the game too. I wanted to give Jim a big hug and tell him how proud I was of him, but since Sam’s girl was there I needed to pretend that I didn’t know him which was sad.
We drove for thirty minutes until we got out of town and then we entered in the woods, whatever fuck they were planning was starting to sound interesting. I mean, a group of young adults alone in the forest to celebrate… Aren’t all the cliché horror movies start that way?
We parked the cars outside a huge cabin before a vast and quite lake that gave the creeps. When I climbed down the first thing I noticed was the scent of pine in the cool and fresh air. Everything was so calm and beautiful! The perfect place for a party…If it wasn’t…If it wasn’t because it reminded me of Steve’s parents’ summer house in Lagoon and all the shit that happened there.
“Listen up everybody” Called Kristie at the almost forty persons that were there.
We surrounded her.
“Here is the deal, we’re going to have a good night, because you guys won the game and my gorgeous cousin here asked me help to plan this for you, so you better have a good time or I’ll kick all your sorry asses”
“Kristie please” I heard Sam say from somewhere in the thong, but the girl ignored him and continued with her speech.
“There is food in the cabin and enough room for all of us, and if not…” She said with a mischievous grin. “Well, I guess some will have to share their beds”
“Kristie…” This time was Eric who spoke.
“God!” She complained. “Okay listen, there is another cabin at the other side of the lake, it’s from a family with a horrendous and moody old guy who can’t even walk, the losers are going to drive there and steal booze from his shed”
“Losers?” A voice I didn’t recognize said confused.
“It is a game guys” Eric explained.
“What game?” Another voice said.
“This game” Kristie replied chuckling.
I heard some weird noises and started pushing people aside to watch what the hell was going on, and when I saw it I gaped.
“Guns!” Said Sam’s girlfriend with disgust.
“I rented this babies in a store, sadly they are not real”
Wow! Thank god!
“They are sniper paintball guns, so don’t worry, they won’t kill you”
“We need to split in two teams, so we need two captains” Sam explained.
“Of course I’ll be one of them” Kristie said thrilled.
“A girl? Are you kidding?” Said a guy I didn’t know.
“What’s wrong?” Eric grunted.
“This is a guys’ game, if we’re going to compete for real, let the men command” The guy added.
“That’s not…” Eric started.
“Leave him Honey, he’s alright, girls can’t handle leadership or violence” She said with a hurt voice. “He’s is the first captain, what’s your name?”
“Kevin” He replied.
“Alright, we need another captain” Eric called out.
“I’ll be the other” Sam offered.
Since no one protested, they started to pick up their team, we were thirty six, which meant that each team would have eighteen members. The first one to pick was Kevin who chose Jim. Great! Another popularity game, it reminded me of school and how I always ended up being picked at last. Next Sam called Garret and Kevin Sam’s girlfriend. And that’s how it went, at the end this Kevin guy who didn’t want to be led by a girl, asked all the girls in his teams, including Alice and so many other guys, and Sam finally picked me.
When everyone knew their place Kristie talked again. “We’re going to take our flags to a safe zone nor farther than two miles from the cabin, the first team with the two flags wins”
Everybody nodded.
“Oh but that’s not all!” She added. “Here my beautiful assistant, say hello assistant”
Alice waved at everybody with a shy smirk.
“Is delivering a couple of pieces of paper in each team”
She stopped before me and I grabbed a piece absently.
“You’ll see guys, to make this more interesting, each team will have five traitors, and it could be anyone except for the captain of course”
Wait what?
“So, if you get one of this” She picked one and showed it. “You swing for the other team” She made a pause to laugh of her “Hilarious” joke “It means you’ll have to figure out a way to steal the flag of your team and take it with the other”
“But…” A guy started confused. “If you don’t know who is a traitor and who isn’t, it means…”
“That you can’t trust anybody” Kristie grinned with malice. “Alright everybody! Let the first Judas game begin”
I unrolled my piece of paper and smirked.
May the odds be on my favor.