A Sunday afternoon family BBQ, how cool is this? The four of us head over to the picnic tables where Jane, Bob, Aaron and other people are hanging out and talking. A boom box is playing and it sounds like the older generation's music. Aaron runs over and starts to wrestle with Nick and they end up on the ground rolling around. Aaron gets ahold of his pants and everyone laughs as Nick's tan line and then some is exposed. He jumps up, face full of dirt and a small cut above his eye,
"Aaron, I'm going to kick your ass." Aaron laughs as he stands near his mom,
"Whatever man, you're a punk." I pull Nick by his hand and sit him on the bench,
"You're bleeding." He rubs the spot with his hand,
"I think I landed on a rock or something." I lean over and grab a few napkins off the table. For a moment I almost did the motherly thing and wet the napkin with my tongue but I don't think he would like that so I go over and dip them in one of the coolers full of ice. I stand between his legs and wipe his face clean of the dirt, I can feel his fingertips lightly run over my legs as he looks up at me,
"You should be a nurse." I laugh,
"Wiping your dirty old face hardly qualifies me as a nurse." Just then one of the teenagers walks over with a bottle of peroxide and a tiny band-aid. Nick grabs her hands and pulls her towards him,
"Angel, my angel...thanks baby." She smiles, gives him a kiss on the cheek and walks away. Angel, younger sister, Aaron's twin, ok I got it one sister down two to go,
"Aww, that's sweet. You guys must be close." He nods,
"She's my favorite but don't tell anyone." He laughs but a little part of him probably means it. Just like they would never admit it but deep down, somewhere my parents like my brother a little more than me because he doesn't date outside his race,
"What?" I must have zoned out for a few seconds there,
"Huh?" He smiles and it's the most beautiful smile I've ever seen,
"You're like out in space." I step back,
"Ok, you're all done." He grabs my hand and shakes his head,
"You're not done. You forgot my kiss." I frown and look around but no one seems to be paying attention to us, they're caught up in their own conversations, laughing, dancing and some eating. I lean down slowly and confused and kiss him briefly on the lips and he smiles,
"Hmm, tastes like strawberries." It was my lip gloss he tasted,
"That was nice but I meant the band-aid. My grandma told me you keep the germs from getting to your cut by sealing it with a kiss." Oh God, I feel like the biggest idiot,
"Oh sorry." I lean down and kiss his band-aid.
The food was pretty good and the alcohol was plentiful. Nick's parents are funny and his dad tells the funniest stories. I met everyone, neighbors, employees, friends and family. The only one who wasn�t there was Leslie. BJ and Angel don't seem to be so talkative, well with me anyway. But I try not to let it bother me because they don't know me. They don't know Becky either but they seem to all enjoy each other's company, then again Becky isn't the 'one' with their brother.
"So I'm not sure I want to do this song we recorded." Jane sighs,
"Nick, make them listen. You're not just window dressing. It's time they listened to you, you are the majority of the reason the group is popular." Nick sighs and shakes his head,
"We're a group, it's all of us." I could see Jane wasn't convinced by that,
"Please, it's you, trust me. You know, they don't hesitate to use you when it will benefit them, it's time they started listening to you and you made some decisions for the group." Bob speaks up after placing his beer on the table,
"You're not 12 anymore." I don't know where to go or what to say so I just sit here trying not to bring attention to myself. I shouldn't be hearing this.
"I just want to do something a little different and they think it's going to ruin the song, so I just dropped it." Bob nods his head,
"That reminds me of a story." Nick shakes his head, his face full of fear as he whispers ,
"Oh God." Bob looks at Nick briefly before continuing,
"When I was driving trucks I had an idea about loading the trucks...you know how to do it to save time. No one wanted to do it and the guys in charge just wanted to do it the way they always did it. One day a guy got hurt and we had to do it another way to get it done. We ended up using my idea and it worked better than the other way." Angel, who was sitting on the other side of Nick asks,
"So they started using your idea?" Bob shakes his head,
"No, they went back to the old way, the bastards." Nick stares at his Dad intensely and shakes his head slowly. His words were just as slow,
"What...in the world...does that have to do with me? AND...they didn't even use your idea." I want to laugh so bad but I hold it inside and simply smile while I hold my head down.
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Mixed Feelings
Chapter 51