21. Weston
TWENTY-ONE
You know those exercise balls that hamsters get to go in? Where they can run around and do as they please, but they still remain trapped? That’s what me and the guys are. We’re hamsters running around a big open space, yet we’re still trapped inside an enclosure. We’re trapped inside our own home and even if we escaped, we’d still be trapped. We escaped once, but we were never truly set free. On the night of Harley’s “murder”, things changed in ways one would never hope. We all lost a piece of us that day, but Harley lost his soul.
“There he goes…” Motley says as we both watch Harley and the girl he picked up from the dance floor walk towards the back of the theater. This isn’t anything abnormal with Harley by any means. He’s practically shagging any girl that would be willing to get with him and there’s a lot of them. It makes me wonder if he ever tells them that he goes both ways.
I let out a chuckle, sipping my luke-warm beer. “You think she’s single?” Motley almost chokes on his beer from my question.
“You think that matters to Harley?” he scoffs.
No, it has never mattered to Harley, but one of these days it will. Is it bad that I want it to happen? That I wish a boyfriend would walk in on him fucking what’s already been claimed, hoping that maybe it’d give him a reality check? That’s just me being jealous, though. I’ve always been the introverted, jealous type. I’ll never say it or show it, but it’s there in my shadow.
You could say our friendship with all of us is…different. We’ve always been close, but as of a few years ago, we got extremely closer thanks to Harley’s house party he threw. Ever since that night, something ignited within me that made me want to have them all to myself. For them to want me all to themselves. I want to be their good boy and if that meant staying on my knees for them, I’d gladly sit.
“What about you, Motley? You got your eyes set on anyone tonight?” He points with the cup in his hand to the dance floor. “Yeah, that one.” I follow his hand pointing to a girl with her breasts nearly spilling out. My face grows with heat, gulping down the rest of my beer. Why can’t he just say it’s me? Let me be your good boy, Motley…
“Oh shit, she’s hot!” I say, trying to conceal my jealousy.
“Dude, right? Could you imagine those tits bouncing up and down in front of your face?” He shakes his hands over his face while laughing. Playing along, I laugh with him.
It’s not that I don’t like girls, it”s that the guys always want them to themselves. Anytime I bring up the topic of sharing, they just laugh in my face as if it was one big joke. I’ve hooked up with plenty, but for some odd reason, I just wish we’d all be there. Does that make me a bad person?
Idon’t think so…
Motley pats my chest then points his finger in the direction Harley went, laughing. “Uh-ohhh!”
I watch as a man walks to the back wearing a white button up, black dress pants, and dress shoes, telling me he doesn’t belong here.
“Should we go see?” I ask with concern.
“He’s a big boy. Let him face the consequences,” Motley says before walking off to get himself another beer.
My whole body raises with goosebumps at the thought of him getting caught. This would be perfect. This could show him to stay away from taken women or even better – show him that he has everything he needs with me and Motley. Part of me is wanting to see the look on his face when he’s caught. Sitting my cup down, I start to walk in his direction when suddenly, a girl grabs my shoulder.
“Do you know where the bathroom is?” she asks in a slurred, drunk tone.
“This place is abandoned. No bathrooms in a place like this unless you want to use the old ones that I”m sure have old shit in them,” I smile. Her face shrinking in disgust.
“Oh…well could you–”
“What do we have here?” Motley says, putting his arm around her shoulder.
“She was asking if there were any bathrooms around here.”
“To fuck?” Motley asks, causing her to move away from him.
“Ew, no! I’ll go find one by myself, you weirdo,” she scoffs as she walks away, losing her balance every so often.
“Pfft. Women…” Motley says, holding up a red cup for me to take.
I look to the back of the theater noticing that nobody has come back yet. Did that guy join in on the fun? That would be just my luck. The one time Harley wants to share and I’m not even there!
The party has now dwindled with it being three in the morning. Only a handful of people take up the space around the dance floor. Empty, red solo cups scatter throughout while the bar looks like there isn’t even a drop of alcohol left. Jake, the DJ, starts playing Closing Time by Semisonic.
With Harley not having come back yet, I start becoming nervous. It’s been over two hours and nobody has come back, I know for a fact Harley can’t last that long. Shit, it takes him forever until he’s ready for a second round. Motley doesn’t seem concerned at all by it. Am I just being paranoid or is it the jealousy that resides within me?
“Harley has been in the back for hours. Shouldn”t we go see if he’s okay?” I suggest to Motley who is swiping on his dating app. “Motley!” I yell, getting his attention.
“What?”
“Let’s go see if Harley’s okay!”
“Dude, relax. I’m sure he’s fine. He probably got pissed he got caught and left.”
That doesn’t make any sense, though. We all came together and Harley would never leave us behind, even if a girl wanted him to go back to her place. We enter together, we leave together. That’s always been our thing.
With the song now ending, Jake cuts off the music, letting everyone know it’s time to go. People get the hint, drunkenly walking out thanking me and the guys for throwing the party.
“Yo, tell Harley this was sick!” one guy yells out as he leaves.
“Where is Harley? I haven’t seen him since the party started,” Jake calls out.
Having enough of the constant wondering, I make my way towards the back. I’m about to keep walking straight when I notice a little hallway that has a vague light coming out the side. Walking back a few steps, I look around seeing if Motley or anyone else is around before peering off. Slowly walking towards the light, I creep my head around the corner, noticing a dressing room. With no sounds coming from the room, I walk in only to find Harley hunched back over a vanity counter by himself. I see a broken mirror shattered right in the middle and his chest rising and falling deeply, not even noticing I walked in.
“Har-Harley?” I stutter, timid to what I just walked in on. Something’s wrong.
“I killed her,” he nearly whispers, still hunched over and looking down.
“What did you just say?” I calmly ask, making sure I heard that correctly.
“I killed her, Wes…I fucking killed her,” he whimpers, seeing tears clinging to his eyes.
My mind is so confused. I look around for any signs of blood or a body, but nothing in this room shows a murder scene.
“What do you mean, Harley?” Inching my way closer to him, I noticed he’s changed into a different outfit that looks nothing like he would wear. He looks like he just got out of a business meeting. He suddenly stands tall with his eyes closed, but the fresh stained tears remain visible.
“It’s all my fault.”
“What’s your fault, Harley?” He slowly opens his blood shot eyes, letting out a deep breath. I’ve never seen Harley look like this.
“Her death, Weston! Her fucking death!” he cries out, turning his whole body to me now. I don’t say anything, not even knowing what to say. I’m still so lost.
“I’m so sorry, Wes. I didn’t mean for all of this to happen.”
I notice a cut on his neck and immediately my stomach drops. There’s no fucking way he killed anyone, let alone a girl, for that matter. He’s not capable of that. Neither is me or Motley.
“Harley…” I grab his hand, squeezing it tightly. “Please. I can’t understand unless you tell me what happened.”
“When he calls, we answer…When he… Fucking. Calls.”
I blame myself every day for not checking on Harley sooner. If I would’ve gone in there like I originally wanted, maybe I would’ve stopped the murder. It’s also my fault for wanting Harley to get caught and apparently the universe didn’t like that very much. We all have to face the consequences of our actions. Even if we’re the ones who never committed the crime.
Harley was never the same after that night, but if I too witnessed a murder happen and then got blamed for it, I wouldn’t be the same, either. When he told me and Motley that we would also be targeted, there were no ifs, ands, or buts about being there for him. We stick together and through this shit storm, we need each other more than anything in the world. It made us closer than ever before.
The following weeks after it happened, we decided to stick to our plan we’ve had since high school and move away with each other. We all have wanted to move out of Texas and when everything happened, it was the perfect time to get the ball rolling. I was on board from the jump since I didn’t really have a home. As soon as I got a job in high school, I put most of my money towards my future with the guys. I wouldn’t call it perfect timing, but it pushed all of us to finally start looking at the states and towns we wanted to move to. Even though it all happened so fast, we needed a fresh start more than anything.
After a million different conversations and arguments about where to move to, we all agreed on moving to Willow Creek, Oregon with nothing but a few boxes and a chance to reinvent ourselves. It was pretty easy for me to move without having parents that care, but Harley and Motley gave theirs a run for their money. None of their parents understood why it was happening all so fast, but it’s not like we could say the real reason we were moving so quickly and so suddenly. Instead, we all told them that it was just perfect timing to leave.
After that, it wasn’t long before we arrived at the new to us, but very old house and business. Creating a haunted house wasn’t on our list of things we wanted to do, but it was a financial gain with Willow Creek being known for them. Plus, we’ve always loved Halloween. With the abandoned bank owned property we bought, we spent months turning the whole first floor into a haunted house. It was an underestimated project with not knowing just how much is put into them, plus all the permits to go with it, but as more props and decorations kept on getting built, word quickly started to spread throughout the town. I never thought I’d be living in a fake haunted house, but it gave me and my guys a home, and that was something I never really had.
For a moment, life was okay. Naturally, it was still in the back of our mind if he would ever call Harley or worse, if he himself would show up, but fortunately that didn’t happen after we moved. But when Harley’s phone rang six months ago, our stomachs dropped. You didn’t even have to be listening to know what was being said, Harley’s face said it all. What surprised us even more was that our job was to stalk a girl. A girl the guys quickly started to hate. I can’t say I was thrilled about it, but I never have truly hated her. My hatred is all towards our boss. He’s going to have to show up eventually and when he does, I’ll make sure he gets what he deserves. What goes around, comes around. I just don’t know if this new plan we have will actually work.