“You know what, Sessie?” Benji said. “I’m gonna go home right now, and I’ma call her.”
Sessie nodded, frowning at his alcohol-slurred speech. “Okay.”
“Whoa, wait, what?” Paul said, standing up as he had overheard Benji’s last comment.
Benji got off of the barstool and wobbled on his feet, Sessie there to steady him before he put a hand on the brass railing on the bar to keep his footing. “I’m going home to call Christina.”
Paul shook his head. “There’s no way I’ma let you drink and dial. You and Christina-” He said the name mockingly and with audible disgust. “-are ridiculous enough sober, I don’t wanna get into the depths of the stupidity that will reign if you two get into it inebriated.”
Benji walked close to Paul, looking up into his face, gripping his shirt not just for emphasis, but also to stay up. “You can’t stop me.”
Paul shook his head. “Maybe not. But the floor can.” Benji squinted at him, confused, then fell when the floor somehow dipped away from his feet as he tried to walk. “Yeah.”
“Goddamn you, Jack Daniels,” Benji groaned as Paul put a hand down to pull him up.
“Look, Aguilera is just not the right chick for you. You find the right one, I am 100% behind you, man. I swear it.”
“Christina Agui-fucking-lera?!” Sessie yelled, loud enough so half the place turned to look at her. She ignored them all and grabbed Benji’s shirt. “You’re going out with… you told me that shit over Christina Aguilera?”
“Told you what?” Chris asked.
She let him go and shook her head. “Man, I knew you never got over me, but Christina Aguilera? Let’s not go nuts.”
“I’m going home to call her,” Benji repeated as he smiled at her. “You should come. Do you wanna come over? Joel and Billy’ll be there. It’ll be like old times. Minus Aaron. And plus Chris and Billy. Have you met Billy before?”
“Thank you man of 20 questions,” Paul said, leading Benji towards the door.
“You always hung out with everybody?” Chris asked her when they were out on the street, Paul with Benji ahead of them.
“Yeah. Benji was my first friend after I transferred, soon after came Joel and Paul and Aaron. You know, I never told them, but I had a crush on Aaron, so I’m kinda pissed that you’re the new drummer guy. You got big shoes to fill.”
“Dammit,” Chris said. “I gotta fill Josh Freese’s shoes from the album, and now I have to fulfill your sexual desires.” He put a hand dramatically to his forehead. “It’s too much, no! I can’t do it!”
“You sleep alone?” She asked through her chuckles.
“Nah. In a room with Billy and Paul. But there’s a pull out bed in the living room. That’s prob’ly where you’ll be.”
“How big is it?”
“Big is what?”
“The bed in the living room.”
Chris wrinkled his brow and held out his hands as though to demonstrate the size with them. “It’s, y’know, queen sized, I guess. Couch sized.”
“Big enough for two?”
“Prob’ly big enough for three, actually. I think we’ve squeezed five drunk-ass people on that couch-bed before. These guys from this band called Simple Plan-”
Sessie stopped him. “You said you’re from Salt Lake?”
“Oh… yeah.” He nodded.
“Am I, like, the third black person you’ve ever seen up close?” He laughed at the question, but she took note that he didn’t answer. “Anyway, I figure in Utah the Mormons don’t have many pick-up lines.”
He looked down at her a moment, just as she was looking up at him. The perpetual twilight New York streetlights provided gave him just the impression that she was still smirking at him, despite that her dark skin made her difficult to see in the night. He smiled, whether she was doing the same or not. “No, the Mormons are not known for their smooth lines.”
“Wow, okay,” Sessie said. “Duly noted.”
“Hey Sessie, don’t freak out our drummer, okay?” Paul called back to her. “We tend to get skittish ones.”
“Got it,” she replied.
“Hey, man, the cold air clearing your head a little?” Paul asked Benji.
“My head’s cold,” Benji replied. “And yeah. I’m figuring what I’m gonna say to her. I left things badly last night. I’m such a fucking dumbass.”
“Benji,” Paul said. “You’re not dumb, that’s why I dunno why you keep this whole thing going when you know, you know it’s just a train wreck of a relationship. Just let her drop. Get someone else.” Benji didn’t respond right away, watching his feet carefully so as not to fall again like he had in the bar.
“Y’know, I don’t care if you don’t think much of our relationship, when it comes down to it I’ma do what I want.”
“I know,” Paul replied.
“I’d rather you supported us, of course.”
“But that’s not gonna happen,” Paul added quickly.
Benji sighed heavily, sending a plume of condensation out ahead of them. “Do you think Joel’ll be home?” Paul looked over at him. He and Joel had gotten into a knock-down drag-out lately and Paul assumed it had been about the girlfriend. How something so sluttily insignificant as Aguilera could begin to wedge apart brothers as close as these was a mystery to him.
“He probably will be,” Paul said.
“Great.” Benji reached over and nudged Paul to make sure he was listening to him. “Hey, just don’t tell him what I’m doing, all right?”
“I make no promises.”
Benji looked at his friend with pleading eyes as he cringed against the wind. “C’mon, man, please.”
Paul shrugged. “I can only promise to try not to tell him. I’ll try to try, all right?”
When they got to the apartment building the doorman let them in, introducing himself to Sessie and she shook his hand, telling him he reminded her of a friend of hers. Her boss, actually. The doorman, Pete, laughed and asked if that was good or bad. Paul called to her, wanting her to hurry up and come into the lift. Sessie replied to Pete with, “Well, I guess that just depends,” as she started toward the elevator with a quick wave goodbye.
“Making new friends?” Paul asked her when she joined them in the old-fashioned elevator. He fondly remembered how personable she always was, charming anyone she met, making lasting impressions on friends and family members alike. Still, whenever he went home his mother always asked how that nice girl Sessie was doing. And until now he always had to answer that he didn’t know.
“Shit, you guys don’t even call me so I better get some new friends, hunh?”
Benji bristled. “I totally tried to call you, but you don’t live in your house anymore.”
“Yeah, and your mom didn’t know your new number,” Paul added.
“That’s because I didn’t give it to her.” Chris pulled open the old-fashioned doors to the lift when they got to their floor. Sessie stepped out into the apartment and looked around herself, whistling. “Holy shit. My whole place could fit in this living room.” Joel appeared at the sound of her voice and when he saw her looking at him it was one of those moments that stretched out like warmed caramel: long, slow, and sweet, hoping that it wouldn’t break.
“What the-” he began, his eyes becoming round with surprise when he saw her bounding across the room towards him. He met her half way and grabbed her up in an embrace, losing his balance and falling with her onto the couch.
“I fucking hate you, dude,” she said, words muffled by his shoulder.
“What for?” He looked down at her. She seemed not at all uncomfortable beneath his body weight.
“You get to do what you want every day and you get this huge place. I do what The Man says and I get something, like, a third of this size, get no screaming fans outside my door and I get to dodge bullets as a pass time.”
Joel thought about that a moment. “Cosmic payback?” He ventured as he got up off the couch and pulled Sessie up to standing again. “Just to make up for being on welfare.” Benji quietly made his way around the perimeter of the room, surreptitiously slipping into his and Joel’s bedroom to use the phone. Christina was staying at the Sheraton; he knew that, so at least it’d be a local call…
It dawned on him that he was attempting to justify this to himself. Odd actions for someone who wasn’t supposed to give a fuck.
He snatched the phone off the receiver and sat on Joel’s bed as he dialed. The comforter was warm beneath him, so Joel must have just gotten up when they came in. Someone at last picked up on the third ring. “Hello?” A male voice asked.
“Hey, who’s this?” Benji demanded.
“Who’s this?” The voice demanded in reply.
“I’m looking for Christina. Is she there?”
The other man laughed, not meaning to laugh directly into the phone, like there was something else in the room that was drawing his attention and amusing him. “She, um, she’s a little bit tuckered out right now. Should I take a message?”
The voice was starting to ring a bell with Benji, as well as piss him off. “What the fuck?! What is she doing ‘all tuckered out’? The fuck does that mean?”
“Um, it is 3:30 in the morning,” the voice said, too fucking snotty for Benji’s taste.
“Who the fuck is this? I wanna know your name so when I come over I know who to punch in the face.”
“Johnny Depp,” the voice said plainly.
“What?”
“My name. Johnny Depp. You wanna go? C’mon over.” He felt his chest tighten at the name, his pulse rate jumping through the roof as his stomach fell to his shoes. He pressed the talk button to disconnect and dropped the receiver on the floor beneath him. Then he went into the bathroom to find something in the medicine cabinet that was going to make the sudden pulsing in his head go away.
Billy had joined in the conversation in the living room, giving Sessie a polite hug, as they had only met once before. He had been introduced as “Billy the guitarist,” and she addressed him as such on first greeting. “So I understand you never went out with any of them,” Billy said as he sat on the arm of Paul’s chair, facing Sessie and Chris as they sat on the couch.
“Nope, never,” she confirmed. “We’re all just friends.”
“You ever heard the story behind Bloody Valentine?” He asked, a smile spreading on his rosy lips. Joel reached out and punched him in the chest.
“It’s not her, dufus.”
Billy put up his hands. “All right, all right.”
“Wow, this couch is comfy,” Sessie said. “You sure it won’t bother you guys if I sleep here?”
“Nah. ‘Specially if you still sleep naked,” Joel said as he folded himself into the womb chair, not really realizing what he said until it was out of his mouth. Everyone looked at him for a silent moment, Sessie’s face fading from momentary shock to amusement.
“Whoa, whoa, how did I not get let in on that?” Paul demanded.
“I meant… I figure you won’t actually be getting much sleep,” Joel said, offering an alternative answer to Sessie’s inquiry. He dropped his eyes to his watch to get away from all the stares that were still turned his direction.
“Oh, well not if I have anything to say about it,” Sessie said with a pointed look at Chris along with a covert rub of his back, so light that Chris barely felt it but it sent ticklish waves coursing through his body. “You know what’s fun?” She leaned closer to him as she inquired.
“Uh, what?” Paul asked and snickered, knowing she was hitting on his friend for the fun of it, because she knew he wouldn’t recognize it or wouldn’t know how to handle it. Not that she wouldn’t take the opportunity in the off chance that it presented itself.
“Chocolate syrup.” Chris frowned, watching her mouth move as she spoke to him. “So much you can do with chocolate syrup you can make every day an adventure.”
“Holy crap, dude,” Billy said, mostly to himself.
“But know what’s better than chocolate syrup?”
Chris shook his head “no.”
“Icing.”
“Icing?” Joel asked. Sessie looked over at him a moment and smiled. “Yeah, icing.” She turned back to Chris. “Especially some sticky, warm, white butter cream icing…” She leaned closer to him, hand on his knee as she shifted her weight. “…pressed between layers of moist, hot, chocolate cake…” her hand moved higher on his leg as she moved closer to him. “…so hot that they melt together, gooifying on your lips and on your fingers.” She sucked two of her fingers, pretending there was icing running down them and she had to catch it before it dripped. “And every bite makes you more hungry, no, more ravenous than the last.” Chris’ face was blank as he looked into her eyes, obviously at a loss as to what to say as he felt the heat of her mouth on his lips.
“Goddamn,” Billy said quietly. “Anybody really want some cake now?” He asked.
“Well-” Chris began slowly, tearing his eyes away from the stare Sessie had locked him into. “That-“ he cleared his throat, “that would be some weird cake, right? It makes you hungrier the more you eat?”
“Aww, dude,” Paul said and tossed a pillow from his chair at him. Joel started laughing.
“What?” Chris asked, catching the pillow and putting it behind him. “Wasn’t there a cake like that in Alice in Wonderland?”
“Hey, where’s Benj? He’d love this,” Joel said as he got up and went into his room before Paul could attempt to pretend to do a thing to stop him. As he went through the door he heard Sessie laughing and correcting Chris, telling him the cake in Alice in Wonderland had a shrinking affect. “Benji?” He called, not seeing him in the bedroom. He saw light coming from under the bathroom door and tried the knob, finding it locked. “Hey Benji?” He called through the door, listening for any movement but hearing nothing. It was just then that he noticed the phone was off the hook, the receiver on the floor next to the bed. He walked over and picked it up, setting it in the cradle as he heard the click of Benji unlocking the door. Joel approached the bathroom wondering why his fucking brother had be so fucking difficult sometimes, especially when a friend they hadn’t seen in forever was here. He pushed into the bathroom and found him sitting fully clothed in the bathtub, staring at the tile on the opposite side of the tub, his fist to his mouth as he sat silent and pensive. Joel sat on the edge and looked down at his brother. “Benji? What’s up, buddy?”
“Hey Joel,” he said softly, not looking up or even blinking.
“Yeah, why are you in the bathtub?”
He shook his head. “Don’t know.”
Joel looked over at the multiple open amber vials on the sink. “Were you looking for something?” He asked nonchalantly, knowing that being excitable only served to push Benji further into non-responsiveness and to press gently. “What have you taken?”
Benji scraped his knuckles against his teeth, closing his eyes and knitting his eyebrows together as he thought. “Looking for… something to stop this pain.” Joel shifted so he could look Benji in the face. “In my head,” he finished.
“We ran out of aspirin,” Joel concluded.
“Yeah. That’s why I still have this headache.” Joel gripped Benji’s wrist and pulled his fist away from his mouth as his teeth were widening the cuts on his knuckles, making them bleed in tiny rivulets down his pale skin.
“How about some Band-Aids instead?” Joel offered. Benji looked up at him. “And Sessie’s here. You don’t want to disappoint her, right?”
“Okay,” Benji said.
“Okay.”
Joel returned to the living room before Benji did, sitting down in the womb chair and straightening out his pants. Benji came out a few minutes later and sat down between Chris and Sessie. “Where you been?” Chris asked him. Paul and Billy talked to each other, Joel not listening or talking to anyone, looking like a tossed rag doll in the womb chair.
“Phone call,” Benji replied simply.
“How’d it go?” Sessie asked. He put his head on her shoulder and sighed, peeling off the bandages Joel had so carefully applied moments ago. He had used Bactine to disinfect them and everything. She sucked in an audible breath through her teeth at the sight. “That well, hunh?”
“Benj, what the fuck?” Joel said to him when he saw that his brother had removed the bandages. Benji ignored his brother.
“I didn’t get to talk to her,” he told Sessie. “She didn’t pick up the phone.”
“Well,” she gently pressed the bandages back down on the wounds. “It’s 4 in the morning.”
“No, Johnny Depp answered the phone.”
“The Johnny Depp?” Chris asked, excitedly. Both Benji and Sessie looked at him a moment. His smile faded and he nudged Benji so he would continue his story.
“The Johnny Depp she offered a bite of dress to, yeah.” Both Sessie and Chris stared blankly at him after that, completely thrown by that statement.
“What?” Sessie asked.
“Christina’s at home right now fucking Johnny Depp,” Benji said loudly, leaning forward to cover his face with his hands. “All right? Are we all clear on that now? Jesus Christ.”
“Oh shit,” Joel said, putting a hand to his forehead as he slumped further in the womb chair. Usually he felt better sitting there, like the world suddenly shrank small enough for him to get a handle on it but it didn’t seem to be working this time.
“That fucking bitch,” Paul said under his breath
“Sorry, dude,” Sessie said, putting an arm around him.
“It’ll be okay, man,” Chris said.
“You know,” Billy said slowly, thoughtfully. “Nah, nah, nah.”
“What?” Benji looked up at him.
“We could always… blow up her house.” Joel shook his head as Benji stared at Billy.
“Don’t fuck with my emotions like that, Bill. It’s not funny.”
Billy shrugged, turning his gaze to the air as he conceptualized it. “Seriously, Benj. Just say the word.”
“But she’s in a hotel room, not a house.”
Billy nodded. “Remember Fight Club? Took out one apartment. And that was between levels. This would just be a top floor blow-out.”
Benji blinked at him a few moments then a smile slowly grew on his face and color leapt back into his cheeks along with that animated glint in his eyes. “Let’s do it.”
“Don’t fuck with my emotions like that, Benj. It’s not funny,” Billy said, pointing a finger at him.
“Seriously,” Benji responded. “My word is my bond.”
Ha ha! I bet y’all were wondering what the deal was with Billy’s pyromania, right? Well, there you go. It was all part of my plan. More to come.