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Broken Connection

A True Save

Mike: Any specific requests?
Jaime: Everything
Naira: Specific requests, Jaime, specific
Jaime: We’re stocking up Maya’s supply of booze that we can steal, we need a shit load of stuff
Naira: You do realize ‘a shit load of stuff’ is very expensive, right? I don’t have that money
Maya: Don’t worry, I’ll pay you back
Mike: It’s cool, I’ve got it
Maya: As much as I like free stuff, the leftovers are going in my cupboards
Naira: Just pay back with lots of love and hugs!
Vic: I can confirm that that is the best way to be repaid

Naira’s POV

“Does Vic really think we hate each other?” I asked out loud as Mike and I were in his car. I was sat in the passenger seat, staring out at whatever was passing outside.

Mike shrugged, not taking his eyes off the road. “He thinks that, I quote, ‘we don’t really like each other’.”

“Well, yeah, I was there too, in the same room, to hear what he said.” I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes just for the sake of not proving Vic’s statement right.

Luckily, Mike also decided to resist making a comment about it, otherwise also going against what we were trying to say. “I mean, we wouldn’t be ok with sitting in the same car and going out to buy drinks together if we really didn’t like each other, right?”

“Right.” I nodded in agreement, even though it felt a little forced. “We can tolerate each other.”

“Tolerate? Really? Out of all the words you can choose from you choose a negative one?”

“I’m sorry, I’m only a grade school teacher,” I scoffed, now longer stopping the rolling my eyes did automatically, “not some English literature graduate.”

“Well, I’m a drummer and didn’t even go to college, and my choice of words would probably have been better. You know, since you’re dating my brother, a lyricist, I would have expected you to pick it up a little,” he told me matter-of-factly as if that were to change anything.

“Ok, excuse me. Is this because I’m dating Vic or something? Because, as far as I know, this only started after that.”

“No, of course not! Vic’s happy with you, I’m not coming in the way of that. Honestly, you’re not the worst girl he’s dated.”

“I can take that as a compliment, but I’m thinking it’s more of an insult.” I pursed my lips. The thing I said next might have been a bit far-fetched, but we were already bickering, so what was the point of holding myself back? “It’s because of Maya, isn’t it? You’re annoyed that Vic and I managed to get together so quickly, but you still haven’t gotten the guts to tell Maya how you feel after all these years.”

“Why do you always bring it back to this?” He groaned, his eyes now refusing to even flicker in my direction. “And let me tell you, Vic wasn’t so quick either. Our parents thought you guys were already dating before the whole Jaime thing happened with the way he talked about you.”

“Well, that’s totally not awkward…” I paused until I saw he was going to comment something else to make me more uncomfortable. Little did he know that I didn’t mean the parents thing he told me. “You’re doing the exact same thing, always bringing it back to me and Vic. How am I not supposed to think it’s about our relationship or you being jealous of it?”

“We’re here,” he stated, not moving an inch.

“What?”

“We’re here,” he repeated and pulled his keys out of the ignition and pointed towards some small shop with a neon sign. “The store’s, like, right there.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, exactly, ‘oh’.” He gave me an over-dramatized smile and stepped out of the car before marching straight towards where he had been pointing at before.

I sighed loudly and quickly got out as well. I could tell that he was watching out of the corner of his eye to see when exactly I did get out, because as soon as I closed the door, it locked. That didn’t mean he was going to wait for me, though. I had to break into a near sprint to catch up with him. His lanky-ass legs were able to transport his body way further than mine with the same amount of steps.

“Gotta catch up a little, huh?” He smirked as I finally stood next to him, still struggling to keep up.

“Let’s just get this alcohol you guys desperately needed and be done with it,” I grumbled and crossed my arms. Vic was wrong. He intended for us to become better friends through this little trip. If anything, it just made it worse. We actually now realized how mean we actually were to each other, and it didn’t seem like it was going to be changing soon.

As we stepped into the store, a bell went off to signal the owner that somebody had entered. Mike promptly pulled out his phone from his back pocket and started texting. Not soon after, my phone buzzed. Knowing that it was probably Mike, I still pulled out my phone and a reply from Jaime came in at the same time. I answered back, wanting to be done as soon as possible. I wasn’t going to stay here any longer than necessary.

“Oh, gross.” Mike shook his head and scrunched up his nose, quickly putting his phone away afterward.

“What?” I asked and also put mine back into the pocket I had pulled it out of.

“You and Vic making not-so-subtle references to your sex life in a group chat.”

“We were not doing that!” I nearly shrieked, but kept my voice down. Mike knew I hated when he even mentioned it, so of course he was going to use it any chance he could.

He started walking towards the wall full with a large assortment of bottles, but pointed somewhere else. “You might want to go over there and find something.”

“Find what?” I asked skeptically before daring to take a step in that direction.

“It’s the aisle with all the condoms and shit.”

I glared at him with an unamused expression for a while before threatening him in a calm voice, “I will knee you in the balls.”

He looked back at me and gave me a stupid, annoying weird laugh to show that he didn’t care at all. And then he went back to choosing which bottles to get Maya. He already picked up the first bottle he saw on the shelves and checked the label before shrugging and keeping it in his hand. All I did was follow him around. I felt stupid. I didn’t want to seem like a lost puppy, but I also didn’t want to risk walking around randomly and have him make comments again. If I had to choose, I would rather possibly annoy him by constantly being on his heels.

Five bottles and three times me walking into him on ‘accident’, he finally was content with his decision.

“Do you think this will be enough?” He asked me, holding the bottles to let me have a look.

“I mean, you never know when to stop, so I say it might be a safe bet not to start again,” I told him, not really caring what he was going to buy anyway. He knew everybody’s preferences better than I did.

“This will be all I get then.” He gave me the next forced smile of the evening and started walking up to the counter.

But I grabbed him by the arm before he could. “Hold on. You’re forgetting beer.”

“Right…” He breathed in and slowly turned around.

After he had gotten two six packs, we finally got to the counter to pay. It seemed like that was going to be the last of it and all I needed to endure was the car ride back to Maya’s house, which I could easily force to be in complete silence, but of course it wasn’t going to be that easy.

“ID, please.” The employee said in a monotone voice, looking fed up with their life.

Mike was about to pull out his front his wallet, but the employee stopped him. “Not you, I believe you. Her.”

“Ha, you look younger than you are.” Mike poked me with a laugh as if it was supposed to be an insult.

“I’m not in my thirties like you are, Mike.” I rolled my eyes and pulled out my ID to hand to the cashier. They barely looked over it and gave it straight back to me.

He didn’t reply and paid the cashier who put all the bottles in a plastic bag while leaving the six packs out of it. Once again, I was the one left to follow and do nothing when Mike picked everything up with just his two hands and started exiting the store. I would have offered to help, but he seemed determined to show me that he could do it all by himself, as if to prove that being in his thirties did not mean he was any less of a young person. Honestly, I didn’t care about his age; I mean, I was dating his brother who was even older, I was the last person to care about things like that.

We were just a couple of steps outside the store, it now getting dark outside, when Mike froze up and put the six packs on the floor. “Hold up, I forgot my cigarettes.”

“That’s a bad habit, you know.” I pointed out like I had done many times with Maya as well.

“Does it look like I care?” He gestured towards himself and handed me the bag, shuffling the six packs so they were at my feet. “Are you fine waiting here?”

“Gladly.” I nodded. There was no way in hell that I was going back inside that store with him.

I pulled out my phone just like any normal human being did nowadays to keep themselves occupied and seem less awkward while waiting. The first thing I did was open my messages app and go straight to Vic’s contact.

Naira: You suck.

I didn’t even bother to wait for a reply and stuffed my phone away again. Right at that moment, I was mad at him that he was the reason that I was stuck with Mike. He could go on and on about how this was supposed to make us bond, but I just felt like it made everything so much worse. I might have actually started to build up a hatred in the time Mike and I had to spend together. Before it was just playful teasing, but it definitely felt like it had escalated.

While I stood there, arms crossed, I saw a group of men exiting their banged-up car and heading to the store as well. Of course, I didn’t think anything of it. It was a Friday night, it was pretty common to go to a store to pick up some alcohol. I couldn’t judge anybody for it because I was doing it myself. So, I just ignored them. But out of the corner of my eye, I could see one of the three guys nudging the others and nodding in my direction. Right after that, their course changed slightly.

My heart rate started picking up, but I was telling myself to calm down. I didn’t know what they were going to do, it was wrong of me to assume they had the wrong intentions. Maybe there was something behind me that they were going on about, maybe I saw it all wrong. I could hardly run away with all the heavy stuff I had to carry, and Mike was still inside as well. That would totally look great, him coming out and me having disappeared for no reason.

“Well, hello there!” One of them whistled stopping just two feet away from me, the other two surrounding me.

I just acted like I didn’t see them, hoping that they’d leave if I didn’t give them a reaction. They probably fed off of girls getting mad, giving them a good laugh. I was not going to do that.

“Excuse me, I’m talking to you.” He came a little bit closer. “Haven’t you learned your manners? You should respond when somebody addresses you.”

I took a deep breath, trying my best to calm my nerves. They couldn’t do anything in a public place like this, even if there practically wasn’t anybody else around.

“Come on, pretty lady, we want to hear your voice.” The one to my left purred, licking his lips as he stared me up and down.

I couldn’t take it not to say anything back, to at least try to defend myself. “I’m fine, thanks.” I hoped that would tell them I didn’t need them around me.

“Awe, but somebody like you shouldn’t be out here by herself. You deserve to have company.” The man to my left started joining in as well. I refused to look at any of their faces.

“Really, we’ll give you something you’ve never felt before.” The leader took over again, being the one right in front of me. He reached out and used his forefinger and thumb to force my head upwards so I couldn’t do anything but look right at him. “You’re even prettier than I first thought.”

“Please leave me alone.” I tried to keep my voice steady and pull my head out of his grip, but he only made it tighter.

“But what’s the fun in that?” His free hand went onto my shoulder and slowly trailed down my arm, slowly down slightly at my armpit as if contemplating whether to go inward to my chest. However, he went further down my arm until he had a good grip on my wrist.

I tried to reach out for my phone with the arm he hadn’t controlled yet, but one of his accomplices noticed and grabbed my hand to that I couldn’t even try. He clicked his tongue and shook his head at me so show he disapproved. I was so badly trying to stay calm, but my heart rate was going into overdrive and the fear was clouding my mind.

“So, what do you say, we go back to my place and have some fun?” He leaned in closer, his breath that smelled like cigarettes hitting my skin. I wanted to move away, but I couldn’t. They were holding me in place.

I still managed to shake my head a little. “No.”

“Now, that’s not the answer I wanted to hear.”

And that was when I decided screaming was the only way I could break away from them. But as I opened my mouth, they noticed exactly what I was about to do. Why wouldn’t they? They seemed to know exactly what they were doing. The leader swiftly moved his hand from my chin and covered my mouth with it instead, making my scream sound like nothing but a muffled sound. This was it. This was how I was going to die.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” A voice growled from behind me, which I recognized to be Mike’s.

For a second, I had hope and was relieved that somebody was there to save me. But the men didn’t even flinch. They looked at him and smiled. “Oh, you know, the usual?”

“The usual?” Mike approached slowly, knowing he had to be careful in case the guys had any weapons with them.

“Yeah, you must know. Let us have this one.”

“Does it look like I harass women, let alone for fun?”

They shrugged, they probably thought Mike was ‘one of them’ with all the tattoos. If anything, they thought Mike was trying to scare them away so that he could ‘have this one’. “Come on, man, we can leave one that looks like this!”

“That’s my fucking brother’s girlfriend, you fucking dickbag!” Mike no longer tried to conceal what was going on in his mind and covered the remaining distance in two large steps.

Everything around me happened so fast. One moment, I was still being held in place and quieted by three strong men that I should have avoided immediately, and the next fists were being swung. The men didn’t even know what was going on, it was that quickly that Mike had changed his mood. Instead of going for the weaker two first, he went right for the leader, decking him in the face as if there wasn’t any serious danger in it. While the other two probably should have defended their friend, they backed away out of fear, not understanding how somebody as lanky as Mike had so much strength in him. They quickly picked up the guy who was punched and rushed back to the car they had come from in the first place.

And Mike and I were left standing there, trying to make sense of what had just occurred.

“Are you ok?” He asked me, lightly placing the hand that was unscathed on my shoulder, only now fully grasping the seriousness of the situation.

I couldn’t reply. After staring out in front of me for three more seconds, I turned around and hugged him so there was no more space between us. We might have had a gigantic height difference, but it was what I needed right then to thank him and for support. Even Mike was taken aback at first, but adjusted quickly my wrapping one arm around me and stroking my hair to try and calm me down. I couldn’t even imagine what would have happened if Mike had not come out at the time he did, maybe I would have been nowhere as near as mentally stable as I was right then.

“Come on, let’s go get you something to make you feel better.” Mike picked up all the alcohol we had bought before and lead me back into the store, probably confusing the cashier as to why he was coming in for the third time. But he was right, I needed something to get my mind off it a little.

That’s why a few minutes later, I was sitting in the passenger seat again, my legs up to my chest and the biggest cup available filled with both the red and blue slushee in it. Some people might have said some strong alcohol would have helped them, but I wasn’t going down that road. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity and Mike didn’t even ask if I wanted it, he just got it for me. It was like he knew something stronger would not help.

“Do you think I should tell Vic?” I asked absentmindedly as I was just staring out the window without watching anything.

“Hmm?” Mike asked, briefly looking in my direction.

“Should I tell Vic what happened?” I clarified, my hands getting cold from holding the cup the entire time.

“I think the question should be why you wouldn’t tell him.” It wasn’t an annoying comment like he used to give, but a genuine wonder this time. Of course, to him it would only make sense if I did.

“Because he’ll probably freak out. Wouldn’t you freak out if Maya told you this happened to her and you weren’t there to do anything?”

“Yes, of course.” Mike nodded without hesitation. “But you and Vic love each other, right?”

“Well… umm…” I tapped my fingers against the plastic of the cup, always getting uncomfortable when the conversation turned to this. I honestly had no idea how Vic felt and was too afraid to fall for him because of that.

“Ok, are you lying to my brother? Because if you are, I have a valid reason again to hate you.”

“No, no, no.” I shook my head almost too rapidly, causing a small headache. “We just haven’t exactly gotten that far yet.”

Mike sighed loudly and shook his head. “Let’s put it this way instead then: you and Vic love each other but neither of you want to admit it. You should tell him because this wasn’t just ‘nothing’ and you have no clue what it’s going to do to you. It’s pretty traumatic and you’re dealing with it way too well. If you won’t do it for that, do it because he’ll flip out more if he finds out himself.”

“Ok.” I brought the straw to my lips and slowly sipped on the freezing cold drink and didn’t utter another word until we got back to Maya’s house.

Once we entered the house, I still didn’t speak much more. Mike loudly announced that the alcohol had arrived, holding up the beer while I quietly followed with the plastic bags. We went straight to the kitchen to put everything down. Maya was already waiting for us there to check out what we had bought and to take out the corresponding glasses. As soon as I had put down the plastic bags I slowly shuffled back to the living room, where Jaime, Tony, and Vic were fighting about which movie to play.

Rather than going forward and stopping the dispute, I stood to the side, watching what was going on while still drinking from the slushee. I didn’t even think the guys noticed that I was there, not that I minded. As long as I could avoid it all, I was for it. However, it was ended faster than I had anticipated. Maya and Mike came back with a selection of things and put them on the coffee table. I had to join them as well and slowly went to sit on the same couch as Vic, it was the most logical thing to do.

Maya was the first to notice something was off, and not just that Mike and I weren’t bickering as soon as we came back. “Naira, are you ok? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Did Mike do something to you?” She then turned to look at Mike with a disapproving look. “I swear to god, Mike.”

But I was already shaking my head softly. I moved my gaze towards Vic and made eye contact with him making a weird feeling soar through my body. He frowned, now noticing exactly what Maya was talking about.

“Are you ok?” He asked as well even though I hadn’t answered Maya. Once again, when I didn’t reply, it was turned towards Mike. “This wasn’t supposed to give you an opportunity to make this whole thing you two have got going on even worse.”

“Why is everybody attacking me?! I didn’t do anything!” Mike tried to defend himself, looking at me to help him out so that they wouldn’t get mad at him for no reason.

And then even Jaime and Tony got involved. Everybody noticed that Mike was staring at me, so now all eyes were on me for answers. I had five people drilling holes into me with their eyes all around me. Every direction I looked, there was somebody looking directly back at me. I really tried to not associate it with the three men surrounding me, but it was so difficult.

Mike was the only one who picked up on the signal and could understand it. “Ok, don’t gang up on her now, that’s not right.” So, all the attention switched back to him, now waiting for him to tell the story. “I’ll take all the blame, I’ll take the responsibility. I was the one who told her to wait outside while I ran back into the store. I shouldn’t have done it. At least I came back in time before they could seriously hurt her.”

“What?! Who hurt her?” Vic immediately interrupted, sitting up straighter as if getting ready to fight.

“I don’t know, three guys. I didn’t really take a good look at them, but at least I threw a good punch. They were out of there in no time.”

“The fuck!” He exclaimed and looked at me again. I could tell that he wasn’t sure what to do. At least he knew that showing aggression wasn’t the best option, but he had no idea whether or not to touch me.

“I’m fine,” I told them all quietly and shuffled over a bit so that I could rest my head against Vic’s shoulder to show he didn’t have to be afraid of scaring me.

“Ok, I’m getting the spoon.” Maya stood up in protest and marched back to the kitchen. “Nobody gets to hurt my best friend!”

“I’m pretty sure Mike already hurt them enough.” I countered, knowing for a fact that she would not be able to find the guys back anyway.

“Right…” She clicked her tongue and breathed out, her gaze not shifting away from Mike. Something was also going on with her, and I had a sense that she was not going to tell me unless I forced it out of her. But that was for another day.

Vic brushed his fingers through my hair, asking one last time, “are you sure you’re ok?”

I nodded and held up the cup in front of his face. “Yeah. I mean, Mike did get me a slushee, so…”

“Alright.” He chuckled as I brought the cup back to myself and took a big gulp from it, surprisingly not giving me a brain-freeze.

“Ok, now, I’m going to go outside,” Mike got up and went straight for the door that led to the backyard, “and smoke those cigarettes that got us in this situation in the first place, anybody want to join?”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Maya skipped after him, closing the glass door behind them.

That left me to watch Tony and Jaime fighting about which movie to watch while Vic just ran his fingers through my hair and kissed the top of my head as if that would make everything better. At one point, Jaime and Tony almost made a final decision before they suddenly both saw something else they really liked and started a heated discussion again. It took so long, they weren’t even finished when I decided to speak next.

“My slushee’s finished.” I pouted and sat up straight again. I had even finished the last part that had turned into hard ice after it had melted due to the heat of my hands.

“You’re going to have to pee so bad in a bit.” Vic teased, gesturing to the size of the cup.

“I know, but not yet.” I pointed out and got up to get myself a different drink that was not just based on sugar. “So, for now I will drink as much as I want.”

“Just don’t get too drunk.”

“Oh god, no. That’s not my goal.”

I started my way to the kitchen where all the closed bottles were still waiting to be opened, but something got in the way. If I hadn’t looked in the direction of the door to the backyard, I wouldn’t have been interrupted at all; if I had kept looking straight forward instead of to the side, everything would have been fine. But, no. Of course, I had to look outside.

There they were, Mike and Maya, standing next to each other, both a cigarette between their fingers. But that wasn’t what had made my eyes go wide. There was so much more going on, something involving their lips being pressed together. And it wasn’t just nothing either, it was way too deep to be anything slightly innocent.

Out of shock, I dropped my cup to the floor, making everybody who was inside turn around to see what was going on.

“Everything ok over there?” Vic immediately piped up, afraid that maybe I was having a flashback or something.

“Yeah, yeah.” I nodded and bent over to grab my cup that surprisingly hadn’t opened or broken, and quickly made up an excuse. “You were right, I have to go pee.”

And with that I rushed away and straight to the bathroom, trying to make sense of what had happened.

Notes


How is this nearly 5000 words? What?

Comments

@aweirdkindofyellow
yeah, i understand. Plus- writing is a great way to keep your mind off of stress. ily <3 :)

ptv.love ptv.love
3/13/17

@ptv.love
Well, for me, things at school are only getting started. The perks of only having a year left... Writing is the perfect way to take a break, though.

@aweirdkindofyellow
that's totally okay. I hope you guys are doing well. <3

ptv.love ptv.love
3/12/17

@ptv.love
Oh my god, this is so awesome to hear. Thank you so much. Unfortunately were a little busy this week, but there's still so much to come. I have so many ideas and keep thinking of more. So, don't get too frustrated if it takes another little while. We haven't forgotten about this story, school is just getting in the way right now. We will update.

I just wanted to let you guys know... I've been binge-reading this over the past few days and now I'm finally caught up! and TBH- this is the best story i've read so far. PLZ update soon!! <3

ptv.love ptv.love
3/10/17