Homecoming - Chapter 31
Friday
Matt
“Isn’t it a little early to be drinking?” I said as I sat down to next to Mason at the bar.
“It’s Friday afternoon.”
Yeah… afternoon . I shrugged and grabbed the beer he’d gotten me. “Cheers,” I said and tapped my glass against his.
He didn’t respond. He just downed his whole glass and ordered another.
“Are you okay?”
“Yup,” he said, but didn’t look at me.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m great. Tell me about your emergency.”
I didn’t even know where to start. “I got dirt on Poppy like I wanted, and I still can’t shake her. And Felix is back in town. I went to dinner with him and Kennedy last night. And he was hitting on her right in front of me. Can you believe that?”
Mason finally looked at me. “Well that’s great news.”
“What?”
“I mean, the two of them were into each other in high school, right? That makes everything a hell of a lot less messy.”
“How does it make it less messy? I like her.”
“Right.” He cleared his throat. “Fuck.”
“Exactly,” I said.
He took another sip of his beer. “So…what else is up?”
“What do you mean what else is up? Poppy is still blackmailing me. And I’m pretty sure Kennedy has feelings for Felix.”
“Man, what are the odds that Felix shows up again out of the blue too?”
“Too? What do you mean?”
“Nothing, it’s just weird.” Mason shook his head.
“I have Tanner to thank for that. For some crazy reason he thinks Kennedy and I aren’t a good match. So he decided to set her up with Felix instead.”
Mason shook his head. “Tanner must know too.”
“Know what?”
“If you’ll excuse me for one second,” Mason said. “I need to take a piss.”
“Okay…” Why was he acting so weird?
By the time he came back I was halfway through my second beer. “Is your stomach upset or something?”
“No. I was just making some phone calls.”
I laughed.
“No, seriously,” Mason said. “I wasn’t taking a shit. I needed to talk to James. And Rob. And Tanner.”
I shook my head. “Sure.”
“This is all so fucked up.”
“Is it a real mess in there? I kind of needed to go too.”
“I’m not talking about the toilet,” Mason said. And then he just stared at me.
“Seriously, what’s wrong?”
He exhaled slowly. “I promised I wouldn’t, but this is all crazy. And I’m not going to lie to you. I…”
“Hey, guys,” Tanner said and sat down next to me. “What are the odds that I’d find you two here?”
“Because you just insisted I tell you where we were on the phone,” Mason said.
Wait, Mason really had made a bunch of phone calls while he was taking a massive shit?
“Oh, right. I remember now. A word, Mason,” Tanner said and stood back up.
“Tanner, I really think that Matt has the right to know…”
“No,” Tanner said.
“But he…”
“Shut your whore mouth,” Tanner said.
What the fuck? Why did he keep saying that to people?
“Matt,” Mason said. “It’s about…”
“Blah boink!” Tanner yelled at the top of his lungs.
“Tanner what are you doing?”
“Distracting you.” He waved his hands in my face. “Is it working?”
“Yes?”
“Great.” And then he grabbed Mason’s arm and yanked him off his stool. “A word in private, Mason.”
Mason sighed. “Okay fine.” They started walking toward the bathroom.
A few seconds later Nigel sprinted into the bar and ran straight past me toward the restrooms.
“Nigel?” I called.
And for the first time ever, he ignored me. I’ll be honest, I was a little hurt.
Eventually all three of them remerged. They’d been in there a solid ten minutes. And I didn’t know whether to be worried or annoyed.
“Seriously you guys, what is going on?” I asked.
“Food poisoning,” Nigel said and slid onto the stool next to mine. “Do they have meat sandwiches here? I’m starving.”
“But isn’t your stomach upset?”
“Oh.” He frowned and pushed the menu aside. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Okay, I’m not an idiot,” I said. “I know you’re lying.”
Tanner shook his head. “No, it’s like Nigel said. We’re all three quite ill. Right, Mason?”
“Yup.” Mason scratched the back of his neck. Which was a sure tell that he was lying.
But I had no idea why all three of them were lying to me. Maybe I was wrong. They had been in the bathroom a long time. “Do you guys need to head home?”
“That’s probably a good idea to leave you alone,” Tanner said. “So no one says anything. Because of the germs involved in that. Nigel, will you pull the car around?”
“Should he be driving if he’s that sick?” I asked.
“Right,” Tanner said. “I’ll call an Uber. Rest on your laurels, Nigel.”
“I love resting on my laurels,” Nigel said.
Okay. “Do you guys think you’ll make it to the game tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Nigel said. “I’m the water boy. I’m very important.”
“We’ll all be there,” Tanner said. “It’s going to be the best night of your young life, Matthew.”
“I mean…if we win it’ll be pretty great.” But I didn’t know about the best night of my life.
“Sure the game is important. But there’s only one true way to win at life. And this is going to be epic. Right, Mason?” He turned to Mason.
“I have no idea how this is going to play out. But I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Mason said.
“Thanks man,” I said. It was so great that all of them would be there for the game. It meant a lot to me.
Nigel sighed.
We all turned to him.
He looked up at me. “I really like Kennedy.”
What did that have to do with the game?
“Hush, child,” Tanner said and put his finger against Nigel’s lips. “You don’t mean that.”
“Yes I do,” Nigel said. “I think she’s very nice. She let me sit with her and the other boys at dinner last night.”
That was a really weird way to put that.
“Nigel, you little traitor,” Tanner said. “You go get in the Uber.”
“No.” Nigel folded his arms in front of his chest.
“Right now, houseboy,” Tanner said and pointed to the door.
Nigel sighed again.
“If you don’t go right now, I’ll call your contractor and tell him you don’t need him for your project.”
Nigel’s eyes grew round. “Okay, I’ll go. I need my contractor.”
“What are you building?” I asked.
“It’s more of a renovation,” Nigel said. “I told you about it yesterday. You said we were friends and that I should go forward with the project.”
I did remember him saying something weird like that. But I still had no idea what he was talking about.
“I’ll see you for the big game,” Nigel said. “Hut, hut,” he slapped my butt and ran off before I could yell at him.
“What the hell was that?” Mason asked.
Tanner shook his head. “He’s been out of control recently. Matt’s been a bad influence on him.”
“You think I’m making him act like that?”
“He never acted like that before you moved in. I don’t know what the two of you have been up to, but he barely works at all anymore.”
“That is definitely not my fault,” I said.
Tanner shrugged. “It’s fine. It’s nice for him to have another friend. Mason, we should be going. We don’t want the Uber to be expensive for you.” Then he turned to me. “See you at home,” he said and started walking toward the exit.
“See you tomorrow,” Mason said. “Should be an exciting day.” He slapped me on the back and hurried to catch up to Tanner. I could hear them arguing on the way out.
“Why am I paying for the Uber?” Mason asked. “You ordered it.”
“Why would I pay? You made me rush all the way down here because you have a big mouth.”
“Well maybe you should have fucking told me all this when you found out.”
“I’ve been a little busy trying to fix everything,” Tanner said.
And then the door closed behind them.
Okay, they definitely weren’t sick. But they were up to no good. All three of them.