Chapter 17
(Angel)
A Not So Quiet Night at Home
“I’ll be your hucklebutter,” Tiny drawled in what had to be the best attempt at an accent since they’d started the Ultimate Movie Trivia Game.
“Close, so damned close,” Billy said, “but wrong!”
He punctuated it with a loud buzzer noise, while Shanny giggled, and Ajay shook his head.
“It’s I’ll be your huckleberry ,” Ajay said.
“Huckleberry, hucklebutter, how am I suppose to remember what he said when I haven’t seen Tombstone in years?” Tiny complained.
“What does that even mean, anyway?” Shanny asked.
“Basically, it was Doc Holiday volunteering to get shot at,” Ajay said.
“So did the real Doc Holiday say it, or was it just a movie thing?” Shanny asked.
“Who knows, even legends lied back then,” Ajay said before his eyes lit up and he reached for the little notebook he was never without.
“Just think about how hard it had to be to become a legend back then,” Tiny pointed out. “No social media and more than half the people couldn’t read. You had to build a rep by word of mouth. That’s a lot of hard work, man, so what if they embellished a little?”
“Embellishing a little I’ve got no problem with, it’s when they inflate a guy’s kill count by more than a dozen unconfirmed kills that I had a problem believing in any of the so-called heroes from back then,” Billy complained, his cynicism shining through.
Even before the scars, he’d had a hard time believing in things without solid evidence, but afterwards he’d run more than one potential friend off by being overly cautious and even paranoid about their intentions, not that Angel could entirely blame Billy for his reaction.
What had been done to him was unspeakably cruel, but it hadn’t come from out of left field, and it hadn’t caught everyone off guard when they’d learned of it. They’d warned Billy almost from the moment he’d started bringing the fucker around that the guy was an asshole. The vibes he’d given off had led to Ajay and Shanny flat out avoiding him and finding some reason to leave the house whenever Billy brought him by, while Angel had put the gossip grinders to good use and had them dig up every shred of dirt that they could possibly find on him.
It hadn’t painted a good picture, but stubborn Billy had refused to see it until he was wearing the evidence carved into his face.
These days, between the bitterness and his downright confrontational behavior, nobody dared approach him on those rare times when he did go out. Because of it, Billy had developed a chip on his shoulder, blaming the scars and not the permanent case of resting bitchface he walked around with, as the reason he couldn’t get a date.
“And moving on to the next question,” Shanny said, prompting Angel to roll the die and move his game piece around the board.
“Halloween staples,” Angel declared, while Ajay reached for the card to read him the question.
Ding, Dooonnnnnggggg, bifttttt, diiiiiiinnnnnnngggggg.
“The doorbells fucked again.” Billy complained as he got to his feet.
“You should have let me get the barking dog one,” Tiny called out as he left the room.
“What good would that have done when we don’t have a dog?” Billy fired back, renewing the argument they’d had since the last doorbell shorted out.
“Because it’s supposed to fool people into thinking we do,” Ajay absently remarked, his focus almost completely on his notebook.
The line would prompt a song, Angel was certain of it. Angel thought back to all the nights he, Ajay and Shanny had spent sprawled out in the living room, some show on the television none of them were paying any attention to while Shanny drew, Ajay drafted song lyrics and Angel sketched ideas for different hairstyles he’d love to present to his clients. No matter where the future took them, that was one thing Angel vowed to never lose, even if they had to schedule regular rotating playdates at each other’s houses.
“I think we should have gotten the one that played music,” Shanny said, with Ajay nodding in agreement.
“Of course you do, only the only ones they had played classical pieces. Might as well tape a written invitation to the door telling the burglars to come right in,” Billy protested.
Angel’s head popped up. “Now if it played Let the Bodies Hit the Floor or something?”
Angel watched as Billy locked eyes with Ajay’s, twin grins appearing on their faces. Billy fumbled for his phone, punching in something on the keypad while voices drifted out from the living room. It was unusual that anyone crashed family night, especially when they’d specifically let best friends and significant others know that this one was just for the five of them. It had turned out that Billy wasn’t the only one missing the time
When Tiny returned to the living room, he was alone, but he was carrying a cardboard box that immediately drew everyone’s attention.
“Ohhh is it kittens?” Shanny asked bouncing a little as he peered up at Tiny.
“It is not kittens,” Tiny declared. “Nor is it puppies, ferrets, or any other four-legged friends we agreed we weren’t ready to raise yet.”
“I know, but kittens are soooo snuggly.”
“And curious, energetic and in need of constant supervision,” Tiny reminded him. “Does that sound like someone else we know?”
Shanny looked thoughtful for about a second, then nodded solemnly. “Me.”
“Exactly.”
“So... what’s in the box?” Shanny asked now that he’d temporarily given up on thoughts of kittens, not that it would last long, especially once he found out that Walker was getting Ajay a trio of ferrets. They’d already arranged to pick them up once they’d finished building the enclosure Ajay had picked out. He’d actually found them a ferret condo, complete with hammocks on the balconies and several tunnels and mazes to occupy them, but Tiny had made him promise not to tell Shanny for a while, since they were months away from being ready to get Shanny his own pet.
“Sandwiches and sides from Chili-Pops, courtesy of Bella and Dion,” Tiny explained as he set the box down beside Angel and flopped back into his spot.
“Oh man, Chili-pops infamous firecracker shrimp po-boy,” Angel remarked at seeing the first sandwich in the box. “And maple pepper mushrooms.”
“I’ll go grab some plates.”
“And a knife,” Angel called out as Ajay jumped up and hurried to the kitchen. “And the cutting board.”
“Okay,” Ajay replied, returning a few minutes with everything and setting them down in front of Angel, their game momentarily paused. By then, Angel had the box unpacked, reading off the label of each container as he did. Some sandwiches he cut in thirds, others in fifths, while Tiny divided the sides between the plates the way Angel did the sandwiches. Working in tandem, they soon got the large, colorful squares of plastic passed around, each more a platter than a plate and absolutely perfect for the smorgasbord Dion and Bella had sent over.
The note on top had simply read, Happy Game Night Angel Baby with a big damned smiley face beneath it. The man knew he was playing with fire, only the moment Angel leaned to put sections of sizzlin’ steak n’ pepper-jack sandwiches on three of the plates, his rear end throbbed out a reminder that he could only push his Papi so far before big hands or a hard cane made its way across his bottom. Was enough to give him pause and reconsider making an Old Man Papi comment, especially in the wake of such a thoughtful gift.
“Is he everything you were waiting for?” Ajay, ever the romantic, asked as he set his plate in his lap.
“And then some,” Angel admitted. “He doesn’t mind that I prefer activities over toys, and he never takes himself so seriously that he won’t play with me. Even when all I wanted was to sit and blow bubbles with my feet dangling off the edge of the dock, he didn’t make me do it alone. It would have been easy for him to just sit in a deck chair with his book and glance up at me every now and again, but he sat next to me with a bubble wand, and even got us super bubble guns so we could run around firing bubbles at each other. He played. That was the best part of the whole weekend. There was never anything I wanted to do that he wasn’t up for. I think he took more turns on the floating slide than I did and wants us all to go to the waterpark together along with Riggs and Walker.
“Oh man, I can’t wait,” Ajay declared. “I’m already looking forward to hitting the slip n’ slides tomorrow.”
“I’m nervous,” Angel admitted.
“Dude, it’s gonna be packed,” Ajay declared. “Do you know how many flyers I passed out at my performances? People will be there. There will be lines. There will be dancing. There will be good food, comedy and a full on neighborhood celebration and you, my friend, will come up on the stage when I call you so you can take the bow you richly deserve. The kids are gonna have a splash pad and no one is gonna forget how you made that happen. I hope you’re prepared for people to start coming to you the next time they have ideas that they don’t know how to bring to life. You may have kickstarted a whole new career for yourself.”
“Oh, hell no,” Angel said. “The stress of these past few weeks has been more than enough for me. It’ll be a while before I jump into another project like this.”
“Sure, it will.”
“I mean it.”
“Right now, yes, I believe you do.”
“What he’s trying to say, without coming right out and saying it,” Billy cut in, “Is that you are the Patron Saint of Lost Causes, which is why you put up with all my bullshit. The moment someone brings you an idea you can’t stop squeeing over, you will jump onboard and do whatever you can to help them make it happen. I wish I had your optimism; I really do. I thought the splash pad was dead in the water when the city wouldn’t fund the whole thing.”
“I felt it was important enough to put my life on hold over, not that I had much going on in it when the idea first began to take shape,” Angel replied, holding his gaze and glowering at him. “And if I ever hear you refer to yourself as a lost cause again, I’m going to team up with Shanny and Ajay to create the most insane glitter bomb prank in the history of glitter bombs and your room is gonna be ground zero.”
“Dude…” Billy began, looking a bit thrown by the threat.
“Don’t dude me.” Angel began only to be cut off by Shanny.
“Yeah, don’t dude him like you wouldn’t deserve every glitter fleck you wound up wearing,” Shanny said, a fierce scowl darkening what was typically a happy face.
Not right now though, not with the way he glared at Billy, hands going to his hips as he stared him down.
“I’m tired of you putting yourself down,” Shanny went on to say. “We all are. It hurts when we hear you say stuff like that about yourself ‘cause that means you’re sad and self-destructive and it scares us when you get that way.”
“He’s right,” Tiny said, laying the sandwich piece he’d been holding back on his plate so he could catch Billy in a headlock and mess up his hair. “So quit that shit before I get in on the glitter bomb action too. I’ve still got plenty of ideas left for spring-loaded disbursement methods.”
“Oh come on, isn’t there a rule about everyone ganging up on one person?”
“There is,” Angel said. “But there is also an amendment to that which deems it lawful when the person is involved in self-deprecating behaviors or actions that clash expo…expo…the fuck was that word again?”
“Exponentially?” Ajay said, half question, half comment.
Most of his focus was back on the page he was rapidly filling up with notes, though with Ajay, the conversation itself could wind up as part of the lyrics if it fit the flow and direction of the song.
“Yes, thank you,” Angel replied, turning his attention back to Billy. “The amendment clearly states that when actions clash exponentially with an individual’s goals, dreams or self-professed desires, the remainder of the household can band together to ensure that they do not engage in self-sabotaging behaviors. Now I know you know what the definition of self-sabotaging is, which is why I also know that you know that berating yourself is one of those things, so knock it off.”
“Alright, already, fuck” Billy growled, wiggling free of the hold Tiny had on him, but there was no malic in it, in fact, he was even smiling a little. “I hear what you’re saying. I’ll try to do better.”
“Thank you,” Angel said. “That’s all we ask.”
“That’s all he’s asking,” Ajay interject as he glanced from the paper to his friend. “I’m asking you to promise that you’ll be nice and try to smile at Leith’s party when you meet Ren’s friend.”
For a moment, it looked like Billy was going to protest, only Tiny lunged for him and Billy fell over backwards trying to keep from getting another nuggie.
“Okay, okay, I’ll smile, once, that’s all I’m promising!”
In unison, Shanny, Ajay and Angel all piped up together. “We’ll take it!”