Only Yours (5 page)

Not one to be left out, I put myself to good use, holding the bathroom door open, while Sasha silently inches her way towards the shower door. Between the thick steam and Tony’s loud voice singing a bad rendition of an old Michael Jackson song, he is totally oblivious to our presence. Standing on tip toes, Sasha raises the pan high above her head, and with a twist of the wrist, up-ends the entire contents of ice water over his head.

The girly scream he lets out if deafening. I wouldn’t be surprised if my most of my neighbors heard the slew of curse words he screamed. Throwing the pan to the floor, we hightail it back to my room. Our exit is not graceful. Laughing harder than I have in a long time, we stumble over our own clumsy feet, using the wall and anything hanging on it for support. Sasha is the true clumsy one, my feet just hurt too damn much to move correctly, they protest every fast step I take.

“Feel better now?” Tony grumbles, a towel wrapped around his waist and a frown donning his handsome face. My smile slips from my face as take in the beads of water running down his bare legs, leaving small pools in his wake.
Typical Tony.

“That was not cool Sasha. I think my nuts are permanently damaged,” he whines.

“Oh God,” Sasha groans, holding her tummy as she bends over in another fit of laughs. You screamed like a girl,” she giggles, trying to catch her breath.

“You deserved that and much more,” I murmur.

Tony walks around my room picking up all of his dirty and paint splattered clothing. Out of everyone today, I came out the least effected. I managed to hide through most of the paint war, and came out with only a few drops of neon pink and green paint in my hair, and one large splatter on my vest. Poor Sasha looked like a brightly colored Easter egg. I think some of the boys grouped up and targeted her. If she hadn’t talked so much shit to them in the beginning it might not have been so bad for her, but Sasha is never one to take the easy way out. They got her back good. Her hair was so covered, it was plastered to her head, and took three showers and half a bottle of shampoo to clean it all out.

After cleaning up his mess and re-dressing in cotton gym shorts and a tank top, he keeps stashed at my house in case of emergencies, Tony plops down on the bed between us. “You two still mad at me or are we even now that you got me back?

We both shrug. “You’re both cruel,” he pouts. “My balls have shrunk so small, you would think I hadn’t hit puberty yet.”

I throw a hand over my mouth to stifle the giggles bubbling up in my chest, but it’s useless. The mental image in my mind is too funny and disturbing, not to laugh. I love my friends. I can’t remember the last time I have laughed this hard.

Laughs must be contagious, because Sasha and Ton, also start laughing just as hard. When I finally catch my breath and calm down, I reach across Sasha and poke Tony in the ribs to get his attention. When he glances my way, I say,” I need food. All that running around and hiding from you idiots used up all my energy. You two interested in ordering in tonight?”

Tony grins. “Sounds like a plan to me. How does Chinese sound?”

Sitting on the other side of me, Sasha groans, her voice is filled with regret. “Please don’t be mad, but I kind of already had plans for tonight. I made them before everything blew up. I can cancel them if you need me to stay.”

“Don’t be silly,” I chide. I quirk my brow and look at her with a serious face. “Could your plans happen to include a tall, sweet hunk, with an uncanny way handling your crazy ways? Could he possibly also be cursed with a horrible lying bastard for a brother?”

I don’t have time to duck or throw up my arms before a flying pillow meets my face. Turning to my side, I bury my face in the comforter, and do to my best to prepare for the remaining ones that I am sure will follow. Sasha might be able to get out her frustration with only one hit, but Tony is another situation all together. He is a kid, through and through, and never misses a chance to show-off his immature side.

After the fifth pillow slaps my backside with more force than needed, I throw up my arms. “I surrender. I’m done. You hit me one more time and I will show all of your future dates that photo I took of you last Memorial Day at the lake.”

The pillow he’s holding immediacy fall to the floor. “You promised me you burned all those photos,” Tony wails loudly. Sasha begins laughing all over again. For a moment I almost feel sorry for Tony, but in truth I would never show anyone those photos. I could never be that cruel.

Last Memorial Day, we rented a party boat on the lake with a bunch of our friends. Needless to say, we spent the entire time swimming and drinking more than our bodies could naturally handle. By three in the morning, Tony was completely wasted and passed out on the front of the boat deck. In our half drunken stupor, Sasha and I re-dressed Tony in a spare bathing suit we brought. It was a sexy pink bikini with matching thong bottoms. It didn’t cover a whole lot and when it came to stuffing his man parts into the front, we had to play a game of rock, paper, and scissors to see who would do it. I luckily won. Sasha got to do the honor and get scared for life. It’s not like Tony has anything to be shy about, he has a nice package, but as one of his closest best friends, I don’t want to see that.

To glorify the moment we posed with him and took several pictures. I thought he was going to put out a hit on us the next day. He had slept on his stomach until well after lunch the next day and awoke, with not only several people pointing and laughing at him, but his ass had been facing the sun, and had burned to a nice cherry red. He had to sit on one of those donut shaped cushions for the next week.

I lift my shoulder in a jerky shrug. “The photos are locked away in a special place that only I know about. I would never show them off, but I couldn’t make myself throw them away either. They’re too funny and a momentum of a great time.” Ignoring his narrowed eyes, I lean over and bump my shoulder against his. “I promise, one of these days, you will be able to put aside your humiliation, and laugh at them too.”

He gives me a dubious look. “I’ll get you both back one of these days and I’ll make sure to get my own piece of insurance to hold over your heads.”

Sasha snorts. “In your dreams, buddy boy.” Using us both as a prop, she propels herself off the bed and begins retracting her things spread about the floor. In our haste to get cleaned up and out of our camouflaged gear, we threw clothing, accessories, and our “special” protection gear, which in my opinion was worthless, all over my room. At a quick glance, my place looks like a setting for that TV show,
Duck Dynasty.

“So what are you and Trey doing tonight?” I ask with honest intrigue.

I might not be happy with Daemon right now, but Trey has been nothing but be nice to me from the beginning. And to be honest, any guy that can hold Sasha’s attention for longer than a week, deserves four gold stars and a round of applause.

“Dinner and a movie,” she responds with a roll of her eyes. Pushing the last of her belongings into her gym bag she glances my way with almost a panicked look. “I never thought my dates would sound so cliché. Am I getting old and boring?”

“Old Lord have mercy,” Tony snorts. I grab a pillow and throw it his way to shut him up. Sasha does not do ‘normal’ on the best of days, and if she gets it into her mind that being with Trey is causing her to become boring or ordinary, than the crazy girl will end up doing something stupid and sabotaging the relationship. She has only had a few healthy relationships ever and all of those ended in a puff of smoke and ash.

I stand and pull her to me, giving her a reassuring hug. “Sweetie, Trey is amazing and there is nothing boring about that man. He is finer than a glass of expensive wine and most girls would give up their fake boobs for a chance to catch a dinner and a movie with him.” Leaning closer to her I whisper low so only she can hear, “Just enjoy being with him and please don’t do anything stupid to mess it up. You deserve all the happiness he brings you.”

Her face goes blank and for a moment I think I might have gone too far. With a slight nod, her shoulders slowly relax, and a small smile blossoms on her face. Tucking all her belongings under her arms, she gives each of us a good-bye kiss, and heads towards the door.

“
Thanks guys. I would love to say today was a blast, but that wouldn’t be exactly truthful.” Noticing Tony’s face fall, she quickly adds,” But...it was interesting. Tony, you did an amazing job at keeping our girl here smiling and her mind clear of unpleasant things. You did well.”

He bobs his head in appreciation. “Thanks babe. Have fun tonight and tell Trey I said hi.”

She gives a wave and heads out the door. Closing up behind her, I call out to Tony and ask him to pick out a movie or two for the night. Stopping off in the kitchen, I painstakingly search through the two junk drawers I have, until I finally find the local Chinese take-out menu I stored in there, after finding it taped to my front door a few weeks ago. I am actually surprised I kept it. If it hadn’t been for the cute hand drawn red dragon on the front, I think it would have probably ended up in the trash, like all the other advertisements I find.

Grabbing my cell phone off the counter, I retrieve two can Cokes from the refrigerator, and go find Tony, who I can hear rummaging through my movie cabinet in the living room.

“
Find anything good to watch?” I ask handing him the paper menu and drink.

“Your taste in movies is almost as bad as your taste in music. Everything in here is so girlie,” he complains, tossing a DVD of
Pretty Woman
at me. “Do you have anything that we can watch that doesn’t require for me to have a vagina and a tits to enjoy it?”

“You are such a pig,” I answer, I stick my tongue out at hi. This is a normal complaint of his, and yet if you go to his place, and search his movies, you will find he has not one, but at least three movies that include the great and talented Julia Roberts. I think he has a hidden crush on her.

“Here,” I say handing him my phone. “You call and order our food and I will search for a unisex movie that doesn’t ruin your manhood. Just remember to order me steamed rice instead of fried.”

“You want your usual orange chicken or are you feeling adventurous and want to try something new?”

I roll my eyes, knowing he is only trying to bait me into a challenge. “You know me better than that. Orange chicken, steamed rice, and don’t you dare try and eat my fortune cookie, unless you feel like sleeping with one eye open.”

His brows raise. “You drive a hard bargain,” he laughs. Tony stands and hands me the stack of movies occupying his arms. “You find a good movie and I promise to leave your cookie alone. Pick a bad one and I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”

Dropping to my knees, I begin searching through the stacks of titles, looking for the one that I know will make Tony smile, and keep my cookie safe. I can absently hear Tony on the phone while I keep looking through case after case. “
Fried Green Tomatoes, French Kiss, When a Man Loves a Woman...”
I mumble absently to myself. None of these will work. Grabbing a new stack, I ruffle through a few more. My eyes widen. I found it!

“
Ah-ha, here it is,” I yell, holding up a thick DVD, as if it was a golden ticket. “Back to the Future. Movies one, two, and three.” I say triumphantly.

Tony gives me a thumbs up, and finishes ordering our food. Handing up the phone, he turns to me and gives me a large, cheesy grin. “Your cookie is safe from me, my lady,” he says in an awful English accent.

“
I’m holding you to that,” I warn, doing my best to sound tough. I probably couldn’t scare a flea off a dog, but I like to think that I could do some damage if the situation ever called for it. If not, then Mark, my hard as nails kick-boxing trainer, and I need to have a discussion on increasing my work-out.

I hand over the movie bundle to Tony and let him get it set-up in the DVD, while I go stretch out on the couch next to Dimples. For such a little thing, she sure can take up a large amount of room. I try and push her over a little, but she protests, giving me a swat on the hand with her paw. Leave it to Daemon to pick out the pushiest kitten around.

I take a sip of my drink and prepare for the movie to start. “Thanks again for baby-sitting me tonight,” I say as Tony moves to take his seat.

He glances down at me and frowns. “Baby girl, I did not stay behind to baby-sit you. This is me spending time with my best friend. I love being around you. Especially when you feed me los of yummy food and provide me with quality entertainment.”

“You only think the food is yummy because I didn’t have a hand in cooking it,” I retort with narrowed eyes. He snorts and affirmative and takes a seat at the end of the couch, stealing Dimples attention in the process.

The rest of the night feels just like old times. Well, old times minus Daemon and Sasha. We made it through two movies and enough food to feed at least four people. With a full belly and an exhausted body and mind, I say a quick goodnight to Tony. Instead of climbing into my large bed by all by myself, I grab a pillow and blanket and pass out on the couch.

I know it sounds childish, but I’m not ready to spend a night alone in a big bed by myself yet. The emptiness reminds me of
him
, and I’ve had enough thoughts of him for one day.

“You look like shit, bro,” Trey grins, not even trying to hide his enjoyment at seeing me bent out of shape, and still strutting around in last nights wrinkled clothes.

“Can it,” I growl, not in the mood for his normal quips.

Pushing my briefcase out of my way, I slink down into the chair next to him and run a frustrated hand through my hair. I know I must look horrible. I need a shower and a change of clothes, but I don’t care. I’m tired, hungry, and in one awful night, everything around me crumbled.

“Why are you hanging out at my place instead of your own?” I growl, palming my tired eyes.