Ad-Hoc: Four
Jackie
I stood on the sidewalk waiting for the four others to assemble. But I was really waiting for Karen. The others could die a sufferable death or something else, I didn’t care. I just wanted Karen to be here and here now.
Cars passed and stopped at the red light, none of them a light blue mini cooper.
“Where is she?” I muttered to myself. “…that idiot!”
I heard a loud gasp behind my ear, “How could you say that Jackie?!”
I turned around to see Karen. “Karen!” I cried embracing her, and then quickly letting go from the stinky stench of booze. “Karen…?!” I cried.
She rubbed her head with a shy and innocent face, “Sorry, I was just really mad—but I’m not drunk!” she said quickly with a defending hand.
“Seriously…? I thought you hate beer!”
“Yeah, well, they all ended up being free. Nice-man gave them to me—well I ordered them and then he offered to pay for them in the end. He’s on a high level!” she said happily.
I quickly pulled her to me and looked deep into her eyes. She wasn’t drunk…a bit washed out…but not drunk. I sighed a bit in relief; at least she won’t hurt the poor accountant now. “Okay, well we have to go in quickly. You got the papers?” she asked.
“Yeah, maybe some of my good and on time payment will make them a little happier and lay off of me just a little more,” she said holding a file of papers.
“Well you go and try to turn this women—both her sexual orientation and her to make her lower your interest rates,” I said taking her by the hand into the bank entrance.
“No—” she said quickly moving my grip from her wrist.
“I want to do this myself—my money, so I’ll talk,” she said.
“You’re not going to kill her are you? Is that why you’re in that coat?” I asked thinking about the Columbine incident.
“No…” she said already expecting me to say that. “I just want to go face to face with the nigger.”
“Karen!” I scolded and then quickly shoved her to the side. People were withdrawing their money out of the bank and tucking the folds of cash into their pockets. I wish I had money like that….
“Really, Jacks, please?!” she whined.
“I’m going in!”
“No.”
I stood right outside the cubicle waiting for Karen and the accountant to finish their business. So far there wasn’t yelling or slamming desks. Steven and James came in the bank towards me and the cubicle.
“Is she dead?” asked James in a half whisper.
“Don’t joke about that in a bank!” I said quickly. And then I smiled…it was true—Karen really would have killed her, if she could. Maybe I should do an article on this—“Mad Accountants”.
James sighed and stood beside me while Steven only stood the side of us out in the walkway.
“So her interest was tripled?” asked Steven.
“Yeah,” I say. “I talked to the accountant. Karen’s trying to talk the lady out of it, but she really can’t. The lady said that she couldn’t do anything—it was the rules, if you miss a month then you get your interest doubled, tripled, sometimes even quadrupled.”
“Really?” asked Steven. “Why so severe?” he asked.
“Stupid recession,” said James. “It’s stupid Bush’s fault.”
“Bush?” asked Steven. “Isn’t he dead?”
“No,” I say. “He’s still alive—just old.”
“Then the recession? That was like six years ago,” he said.
“Yeah, but after the recession, the banks got a lot stricter, they want their loaners to really pay on time now and not miss a date. They thoroughly check their upcoming loaners like crazy making sure they don’t have a bad credit past and things like that. If you can’t pay at all, then they would evict you or your stuff slowly one by one until you pay,” I explain a bit disgusted. The ’08-’09 recession had effected the world really bringing attention to people, that it was mandatory to pay off loans and debts.
“Really?” asked Steven. “Then Karen…?”
“Well, if you’ve been doing pretty good or a bit more consistent that others, they would just double—or in Karen’s case, triple, your interests. But it’s only for a short period of time until the interests helped pay up most of the forgotten payments,” I explain.
I guessed Steven hadn’t been around since he dropped out of college. He was late on news around the world. He would probably be surprised that a bit less than half the country now has banned driving with a cell phone. And the country has also started charging people on wasting renewable energy like special renewable types of gasses and paper. They’re even willing to hunt people down now to keep them from not recycling. I guess it was a way to both make money and get money, and I guess to save the planet—as if the government ever cares about that.
“So, they’re going to triple her interest rates?” asked Steven.
“Well, Karen’s in there right now to try to fix it. They’ll triple to for the amount of time that she had missed—that’s seven months. So she has seven months of paying off a tripled interest loan. It’s messed up, I know,” I said.
You had to feel bad for Karen. Surprisingly, I had been able to keep up with my loans. I haven’t missed a month, a week, or even a day. But I had Karen to thank for that.
“Is it all like this?” asked Steven.
“Different banks have different plans. But in the end it’s all the same. They’re all just trying to rip us off.”
“That’s fucked up.”
“Tell me about it,” said James.
“What about you guys? Missed any at all?” asked Steven to us both.
“No. Nope,” we answered at the same time.
“Karen’s the one who went through crap. We had a backup—our parents. Karen didn’t but only a few hundred dollars in her back pocket and a few flattering moments with some men,” said James. “I feel good and bad about this though. Seeing her all messed up in there makes me feel like a better person.”
I laughed in agreement. “You’re so mean!” I say through a laugh.
“Yeah,” said James looking at Steven. But comparing ourselves to Steven, we were like gold. Steven didn’t have anything, and comparing Karen to Steven, Karen was pretty well off.
“Where’s Dave?” asked James changing the subject.
“Probably off studying or looking at the stars,” joked Steven.
“Yeah, probably,” I say.
“Hey, I heard that,” said Dave in his dark voice behind us. The dark tanned man with slightly long black hair and long black lashes came up to us. He looked tired and exhausted.
“Where were you at?” I asked.
“Looking for Karen obviously,” he sighed and rubbed his black hair. “Is she in there?”
“Yeah,” said James.
“She’s not killing her?” he asked surprised to not see blood leaking out of the cubicle.
We laughed, “No,” I say.
“Why are you guys just standing here?” he asked looking at us like newbs. He walked over to the sitting area where couches were assembled around a large flat screen TV. I was really happy now that everything has gone all digital- everyone is a bit more “advanced” and “updated.”
We waited for a few minutes more until Karen came out with both a slight frown.
I walked quickly over to her, “What happened?”
“Um…” she said avoiding my eyes. “She couldn’t change it. And I don’t think it was because of what I said earlier. She just couldn’t. It’s her job, I understand that….”
I sighed. Goddamn banks, think they own everything. “Well, we’ll help you through this alright?”
The others came over, already knowing what had happened.
Karen looked up with a semi-happy smile. I had expected her to already jump up and scream: “SURPRISE! I got her and I didn’t even have to take off my bra!” but she didn’t do that. She held her file of papers tightly.
“Hey, sorry, Kare,” said Dave patting her on the shoulder, calling her by her nickname. Dave was so amazingly tall. He towered over us and was maybe an inch or two taller than James. Men! “You wanna go for another drink? Jacks told me about that.”
“No…” she said. Then she laughed a little, “Why are you guys crowding over me?” she asked. “You’re making a scene around here.” Then she pulled me by the hand and everyone else out the door. We walked outside where the sidewalk bordered the street of runny cars.
“You don’t want anything? On us,” said James.
She sighed and then closed her eyes. This was her way of forgetting the problem. Her way of cleansing all the pain that seemed to always drown in her. She returned to old self now, jumped up and down like she had ADD. “Oh! Lookie! Today’s a nice day to go on the beach!” she cried pointing outside. “Mmh, I’m a bit hungry…ooh! Let’s go to Costco! Free samples!”
I smiled lightly, if I didn’t know that she was really in a rut, I would think of her as just a happy childish girl. But now, she just looked like a girl running away from her pains. “Yeah, Costco,” I say. I felt like free samples anyways.
“Everyone all in favor of Costco samples?!” she declared.
“Aye…aye…sure,” we all say a bit off unison.
“Oh! And I found this great pub to go to! We can go tonight to celebrate the great progress in James’s relationship!” she cried happily. “One year James!”
“No, we should just go home and celebrate on a few cookies instead,” said Dave pulling her closer into the sidewalk away from the street. She did that too much, moving too far to the street. It wouldn’t be too surprising if she got hit.
“No! I just saved almost thirty dollars today, ‘cus some guy was nice enough to pay for my drinks! So I’m gonna pay those thirty dollars on James’s and Cath’s great matrimony!” she declared.
“We don’t need that, for many reasons,” said James.
“No! And we still need to see if Stevie can really take it. So we would know if he’s gonna drink our whole bar at home or something. And it’s gonna be happy hour tonight so it’ll be a ten dollar discount! Ten!” she shouted.
Dave sighed while James just looked away. Steven said nothing and only looked out to the street. “Okay,” I say. She’s got seven months to save her ass, we might as well celebrate now before she really does die. “Tonight, let’s go tonight. I’ve never been to a pub before,” I say.
“What?” said James.
“Seriously?” exclaimed Dave.
“…” said Steven speechless.
“Well, I’ll pay. You know I actually get better pay than you guys—put together,” I point out.
And I did. After following Karen’s crazy, but smart, plan, I’ve been able to build up my salary working for numerous magazines and parts for other newspapers. I’ve even built up my portfolio and made my applications look better with great experience. And I was happy to take my master’s degree while I was still working full time—as Karen made me. I was able to add two more thousand dollars to my pay just for my master’s. It was true, hard work really does have great rewards. Now, I have at least 52K or more going to my bank.
“And as top leader of pay in the house, I get to decide what we do. We go to Costco, we eat and buy Steven clothes, we shop around a little to fill up on supplies and then we go home to suit up. Then we’ll go to this bar and celebrate,” I say planning it all out in my head.
“You make more money than us?” asked Dave astonished.
“You make only 41K,” I say pointing it out. “James makes about 40K. Karen makes 60K but with what’s happened, I get the top place now,” I say declaring myself queen in the state of democracy.
They didn’t respond and neither did Karen really want to. She lost her place as Queen B. I’m just a jerk but it was all true. But I’m not doing anything so bad…we get free food and restock on stock. We get a nice celebration of my dumb brother leaving and a few drinks while we’re at it.
“You really think taking her shopping and getting free samples are really going to make her happier?” asked Dave following closely to me.
“She’s a girl, it’ll make her happier,” I say following Karen only by a few feet.
She rushed to all the booths and grabbed as many as she could.
“How do you know? It could just make her feel worse,” he said.
“She knows that, that’s why she wants me to do this,” I say.
He looked at me.
Yes, I know. I’m a bitch.
He sighed and walked off around the store looking at everything else.
“Steven,” I call.
Steven was off following Karen and her crazy expeditions to find the soup samples. He came to me with both hands in his pocket and his hair over his eyes.
“Let’s just get you some clothes,” I say uncomfortably. “What size are you?”
I looked at the size, he wasn’t that fat, but how could he be? He’s a hobo.
“Do I have to do this?” he asked darkly.
“Yes,” I say looking thru the pile of shirts. “We can go to Old Navy later on to get better clothes.”
“You know I don’t even want to be here,” he said looking away from me.
“Yeah, you tell that to Karen. We all want you to be here so we can help you,” I say looking through all the clothes. They were all too big for his size. They were all either 36 or 40. Too big from what I could tell. Gosh…how did I know this stuff? Why do I always have to shop for James?!
“I don’t need help,” he said. “I was a lot happier when I was off on my own.”
“You were on the streets when you were on your own.”
“I don’t need a house and clothes to be happier,” he said.
“You need food to survive, a place to have shelter, people to spend time with, you can be happier with that Steven.”
“That develops personal attachment.”
“And that develops strength.”
“I’m strong enough as it is. I’ve lived on the streets, I pretty sure I can take it,” he said.
I sighed and then moved over the next table of shirts. “Are you sick? Being on the streets—you can get a disease.”
“No, I’m fine.”
“We should get you to a doctor just to check. And an eye doctor as soon as possible,” I say trying to ignore the last conversation.
“No, you guys should save the money,” he said.
“No, on me, Karen’s gonna want to pay for herself through her own special ways. James will be off and Dave won’t want to help. On me,” I say.
He didn’t answer. He probably thought it was pity. It really kind of was….
“Here,” I say pulling out a shirt. “This should fit….”
He grumbled and took the shirt.
“We’re going to Old Navy as soon as we get food and some supplies,” I say moving on to the food section.
James ran on the big red shopping carts gliding through crowds of people—Dumb shit. “Whoo!” he screamed.
Johnny
I walked around my house for the third time. What now? Maybe another hour left till six? No forty minutes….
“Do something Johnny!” I cried to myself banging my head on the marble counter. I was in the large kitchen made for a party sized group but only one person barely ever used it.
I sighed loudly. “What can I do for forty minutes?”
The sun was setting outside. The dark red blood colors were scorching the bay area’s sky.
I looked at the picture the girl in the bar drew out. It was a very nice sketch….a very nice sketch, a nice sketch of me. She had left this picture there after rushing to leave. And this very picture, she drew it all out within a few minutes.
“What was she going to do with this?” I muttered softly to myself. I looked at the straight detail of the sketch. It was almost perfect. It had a picture of me at the bar thinking so precisely. What was I really thinking then? What was I thinking so hard on that it made me forget the girl sitting next to me?
I sighed. At least I did do something today. I should feel good about myself; I gave a sad, mad girl free drinks. I did charity today.
Whoopi-doo but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m still the bored playboy living off the expense of his rich father. He has nothing to do but nothing. He’s sick of playing with women and hates his job.
“I’ll pick out my outfit then,” I say. I could be like a chic and take an hour to look through the closet.
Karen
I sat on my bed for almost the longest ten minutes of my life. I stared at my closet thinking of so many things at once. The bank loans, the nice man, James and Cath, what to wear….What was I supposed to do now?
I sighed and pulled out a white blouse and then a pair of blue jeans. I’ll do something cliché-ish today. Will a skirt do? No, I have bad legs…jeans…should I wear boots with it? No, no blouse. A dress—how about a long one? Should I wear a coat? Ugh, I sound like a blonde….
I decided to wear something a bit more light...a dress, yes, a dress will do. But it’ll get cold, a coat, yes a coat. I took my dark navy blue coat, pulling it off the hanger racking it to its sides against the other racks. I laid it on my white covered bed and then walked farther into my walk-in closet to where all my other nicer clothes were. I shuffled through the dresses of many colors all in a beautiful rainbow.
“Light…light,” I muttered pushing through each rack a bit gently. Then I spotted a white dress, one that for some reason reminded me of beer. I pulled it off its rack and looked at the dress a bit more. It was a pure white dress going right past the knees. I remember this one…. Okay this dress and a coat it is.
I adjusted my hair in a nicer bun now. Some lose locks flew to the side of my face and I tried to push them back but they disobeyed. “Whatever,” I muttered and quickly grabbed my handbag which I always refused to call a purse, and quickly went out the door.
“Hey, James…?” I asked knocking on his door. The door slid slightly open to a half empty room but a pile of packed boxes and a bed filled with clothes. “James?” I asked softly already knowing what was happening.
“Oh—Karen!” he said slamming the door in my face.
I sighed…everyone is leaving me. James…money….
“Sorry Karen!” said James in the room. “I was just changing!”
I sighed, he lied. It bothered me of course…but I didn’t really take it like that. “Hope you have a good time with Cath…” I say thinking it over. “While it lasts….” I shouldn’t have said that. Shit. Fuck.
“Karen?” asked James.
“Never mind James,” I say leaving the doorway.
I trotted down the stairs past the family room. My heels clacked against the floor echoing through the large house. I walked across to the kitchen to grab a quick bite, since I wasn’t really expecting to eat at the bar…too costly.
“Oh! You’re wearing boots too!” cried Jackie happily.
I smiled, “Yeah, just the same stuff as this morning.”
“Oh, you’re wearing Kevin’s necklace?” she asked looking at the diamond droplet on the silver chain of my necklace.
“Oh,” I say touching the small but lovely thing. “Yeah,” I say with a laugh, “I always do.”
“Hmm…we should invite him…to our celebration…he knows right?” she asked.
“Hmph, yeah- after James announced it, I told everybody,” I say with a laugh.
She laughed, “Really? What’d they say?”
“They were all in awe,” I say with a smile. I really do hope they do well with each other. Cath and James…they’d be a beautiful couple.
“Are we going?” asked Dave, walking into the room. He was in what he always wore: shirt jeans shoes. He wore casual clothes as always.
“Yeah, just as soon as James comes down,” said Jackie.
“Davey…?” I asked him softly. “Can you call Kevin for me?” I asked.
He looked at me a bit uncomfortably and then said, “Yeah, the more the merrier.”
I smiled, looked away, and then went back to eating my granola bar. It wasn’t much—I knew I would get hungry later, but whatever.
Johnny
I snapped my phone shut. Dave just called; he told me that he couldn’t make it tonight. Damnit!
“Shit,” I muttered thru the crowd. “That ditcher,” I say sighing. I took another sip of beer. I had been sitting here for maybe a half hour or so, since I didn’t take as much time looking through my closet as I thought I would.
I couldn’t believe Dave would bail on me like that! That ass!
The pub was slowly crowding for its Saturday night rush. The room was a bit more brightened, people crowding around the TV. I wondered what sport was on at this time. I should catch up on my sports then….
“So a no show then?” asked George pouring drinks out from the taps.
I ignored him. Amy was off serving the guests; she was too young for all this. She shouldn’t be here. Being swooned by half-drunk men, and men that thought they were drunk. She should deserve a better place to be working at. George was fine where he was. He loved playing with his beer taps and drying his beer mugs. His wife, Annabel, loved this too. She worked as the other waitress passing out so many beers and plates of food. This was a family owned pub, they only had an extra helper Jimmy, the busboy, to help clean up and take part time shifts.
I looked around seeing the small herds of people getting drunk. I sighed like the many times I had sighed today and took another drink.
A small crowd of maybe four came in through the door and then another separate crowd in again. At this rate the pub would be filled within thirty minutes. More crowds came in shouting: “Mama’s Here!”
I sighed and finished my beer. I threw out my lighter and wiggled a cigarette out of the box. I swooped in the fine smoke and let it out in a sigh. Good…good….
Maybe I should host a party tomorrow. It would be breaking the rules, but…I’m so bored.
Karen
“Yeah, you guys go in first. I’ll park the car,” I say slowing to a stop in the middle of traffic.
“Okay, find a good spot,” said Jackie patting my shoulder. They jumped out of the car and walked towards the small pub at the corner of the street.
San Francisco nights were an ass, finding parking around its crazy hills was like looking for the needle in the haystack. “Wish me luck…” I say to myself.
“Bingo, thank you mad family tourists.” I quickly swerved in and parked perfectly. “Yes!” I say congratulating myself on the successful park. I turned the engine off and started shuffling thru my bag checking if I had enough money.
“Oh…” I say to myself. Should I really buy the drinks? I mean, I did tell them that I would right? Maybe they’ll want to pity me and then pay for me. But…pity? Would I really stoop so low to that? But I live off of pity! I hoard off men for money and free shit just to fend for myself! Shit…maybe I should just move out. The first month’s payments will take my entire job’s pay from the tripled interest. I’d have to live off the others. And the yarn money, it’d be barely enough, it was my month to pay the taxes and groceries.
I sighed and laid my aching head on the steering wheel. Why does life have to be so tiring? I tried calculating all the money through my head. Something I was terrible at. I was an artist. Paper and pen is what I work on, the mind is only the platform where all the magic takes place. It wasn’t a calculator where calculations and math took place.
So, my month’s pay would be taken. Then I could just pass this month paying all the taxes, but then I would have to skip out on this month’s rent. Then next month I could start paying the rent. Maybe I could get another part time job elsewhere, maybe try a raise at work? But there’s not much of a raise I could get. No, more online videos. Ugh, not enough!
A knock on the window startled me from my deep seeded thinking. I lost my concentration and saw Kevin bent over looking thru the window.
“Ah! Kevin!” I cry quickly opening the door.
He stepped avoiding being hit, like the many times I had hit him in the stomach from opening the door too quickly. “Hey—”
I interrupted him with a great hug. It’s been so long since I’ve seen Kevin, even talked to him. He felt so warm, just as I remembered.
He laughed—I could feel it in his chest, that little vibration that made me tickle sometimes. “Yeah, it’s nice to see you too,” he said returning me with an even warmer hug.
“You still look great!” I say without even looking at him.
“Yes, and you still look beautiful,” he said. This always made me blush. This would make every girl blush, especially from this strong and handsome guy. It always made me wonder how he got those strong arms without ever needing to workout.
“And you’re still a lady’s man,” I laugh, letting go of his warm embrace. That was before; I could never be with him again.
He laughed, “Well, I heard about what happened. It’s alright; you know we’ll help you through it.”
“What? James moving out…?” I asked trying to get away from that conversation. “I can take the pain! I don’t like him that much anyways.”
He laughed and then smiled kindly. He knew I was trying to avoid the conversation. He knew me too well. “Well, who’s going to take James’s place then?”
“Oh, Stevie’s gonna take his room. But we still have to find him a job,” I say.
“Steve?” he asked.
Kevin was a bit older than us. By three years. I was a freshman and he was a junior when I met him—it through a series of many letters, back and forth through different class periods. He was sixth period animation, I was fourth period. The tables we had in animation class were like big boxes with a light bulb attached inside. We would keep the letters in there even when the teacher, Mr. Pence, always told us not to trash stuff in there.
He was more of a pen pal during the first half of my school year. I didn’t meet him till by accident when I was in fourth period drawing for a new animation clip and he came in from a class change. We sat in the same seat, but in just different classes (of course, different periods). So he figured it out that it was me, a white girl who liked drawing Zac Efron on the tables calling him a “cunt” and a “fuck head”.
“Steven, Steven Wong,” I say. I told him a lot of stuff a little fourteen year-old should never tell to a guy. But Kevin was really just that cool. He’s a cool guy, believe me.
“Oh, Steven…glasses-and-long-hair-Steven?” he asked. “Boozeyman?”
“Yeah, Boozeyman,” I say. “Jackie found him on the streets!”
“He’s a hobo now?” he asked surprised.
“Yeah, I guess. We found him yesterday, he was in downtown at the time I guess,” I say. “We need a new stimulus plan.”
“Really…? I guess I could pitch in,” he said. Cus’ he’s just nice like that. “Is he cool?”
“Yeah, he’s cool,” I say.
“Are they inside right now?” he asked.
“Yeah, oh—they’re probably waiting for us right now!” I say. I quickly pressed the button to lock the car and started off.
He swiftly took my hand in my sprint, “What’s the rush?” he asked laughing.
“Ah! Oh! Uh…” I say thinking it over.
He smiled and walked me to the glowing bar entrance where the light seeped out into the San Francisco night. It was nice to just be by his side again. Where all the chaos fell apart into beautiful flowers and where all the stupid banks became stores free to the public selling at no cost. He took care of everything; everything that made problems for me was only a small little hair in his food. Things should always be like this….
Johnny
Wow, what a record- ten drinks and I’m still not drunk—or at least that’s what it seems like. I was only a bit light headed but everything else was fine. Words were not blurred to me and my eyes were not failing. It was only on the bare pre-first stage of drunken age.
“George,” I say. “…give me…the Long Trail Ale.” I had drunken most of the beers in the house already. It was thing I did when I was extremely bored. I would just drink all the types of beers critiquing each.
“You better watch out,” he warned a bit viscously sliding a mug of the dark ale to me. But he was too busy to say more.
I sighed and chugged it down.
Okay, pretty good, a nice crispy taste. All the beers became a bit bland after the sixth. Everything was just beer, nothing more. I emptied the bottle all in one gulp and then dropped the mug on the table making a light noise. It was too loud to be heard through the crowd. They were watching some sports channel.
I sighed and pushed the mugs away aligning them in straight rows and then in a whole mess. More people came through the door making the place even noisier. I set one of the clear mugs at an angle and then laid my head right in front of it. The mug was placed right between the entrance to the pub and my eyes blurring the view into a dense fog. Smudges went through and past the mug’s view, magnifying the people and then minimizing them when they left the view.
Then a white blur entered the view. A pure white ghostly figure surprising me from all the dark ones entered the pub. I looked up to see who it really was—that girl.
She wore a pure white dress that went right past her knees and then a dark navy blue coat that went only past her hips. She looked so much cleaner now, her hair put into a pretty bun that left curls hanging on its sides. This morning, she only looked pretty, but she looked much more beautiful under the might’s bar light.
“Shit,” I muttered. “Too much beer….”
I watched her cross the bar to her group of friends. She had all smiles—nothing like this morning’s pissed little girl. She was cheerful and happy, happy to be with her man and her friends.
I turned back around and ordered another drink, I would never be happy with my girls and my numbing parties.
Goddamn mothers….
Karen
I screamed collapsing over Cath. She was just as beautiful today as on Thursday, and on Wednesday, and on Monday too. She was always beautiful. She was just like Jackie, foreign, and naturally beautiful.
Cath had a reddish auburn hair that was always so light and curly—in fact, it looked almost fake at times. She had beautiful green eyes to match her hair. She had thin lips and tanned skin that stretched upon her slim body. She was about James’s height, which was just a bit taller than me. She was short for an Australian, and short for any other white person at that. (I’m just short because I got the bad Asian genes).
Cath came to America when she was a bout fifteen. She’s been in San Francisco the whole time. She met James at one of his gallery openings, where he was presenting some of his pieces along with mine at one of Rob’s art galleries. James’s artworks were the talk of the crowd. He had the most unusual and symbolic work there that spoke out to the people. Cath loved his work and I guess she fell for him at that time.
But Cath isn’t like the rest of us (excluding Dave). She’s a computer analyst. She only went to the gallery opening because her friends wanted to see “real art”. She’s good at her job, gets good pay and lives well. I’m sure James would have no trouble getting that apartment or condo. She works for that one software company, Rhineheart, and gets a six figure salary. Something I always wished I had. But you can’t say you wanted to get into art for the money!
“Ahh! I love you!” I screamed embracing her.
She toppled over trying to get her balance from my weight. “Ahaha,” she laughed. “I love you too Karen….”
“You’re the best!” screamed Jackie joining in on the hug.
“You’re all idiots,” I heard Dave say to himself quietly.
I laughed as we released Cath from her paining hug, “We love you too Davey!”
“I hate you Karen,” he said with one of his (great) fake sarcastic smiles.
Jackie returned the conversation to Cath, “So, how’d you guys come up with this? Was it out of the blue or you thought of it from the start?”
“No, no,” she said with a giggle. Cath had lost her Australian accent a long time ago. But you can sometimes hear it in some of her words. “We just…it kinda forms after a long relationship.”
Long…I wish mine were a bit longer.
“You guys can move out tomorrow?” said Jackie quickly.
“Yes! Yes!” I agree quickly with a jump.
“Yes,” said James.
“What? Why so quickly?” she asked bewildered. She was probably surprised to see us not bickering or disagreeing. But all of us had our own motives to this.
“Oh! We didn’t show you the hobo!” I cried.
Steven was sitting on a table with another empty chair in front of him. He sat quiet with his hair long down covering his face. We seriously need to fix that….
“Come on!” said Jackie quickly pulling him up.
“This is Boozeyman!” I cry.
“His name is Steven, he’s an old friend,” said Jackie more formally.
“Oh, really?” she said concentrating more on the term “Boozeyman.”
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi,” she said more joyfully. She took out her hand to shake, “so then I guess you’re the one replacing James?”
He smiled lightly and shook her hand, “Yeah, I guess.”
“He has a very green room, you should repaint it,” she said.
“Green?” he asked.
“Karen and Jackie picked the color,” groaned James. “It’s a nasty color.”
“Stop complaining, mine’s a terrible orange,” grumbled Dave.
They were terrible colors. And it was their fault for being such butt faces. “Yup! ‘Basil Pesto’ and ‘Crab Bisque’!” I say reciting the color names.
“Crab bisque? Basil? What’s with the food?” asked Steven. Oh, yes, he hasn’t seen the rooms has he?
“I thought they were nice colors,” said Jackie laughing.
“For gay people!” cried James.
“Well, you have to admit it James, you are kind of gay looking yourself,” said Cath. Sometimes, Cath liked to join in our little bickering and tooling with the guys. That’s what really made her so cool.
“Teehee! Dave is gay!” I cried.
“Just get the goddamn drinks!” growled Dave. He didn’t like the “you’re gay” remark. He’s worse than my uncle.
I laughed and went into the thickening crowd to the bar.
Johnny
I downed the mug as if it was really nothing. I already started hating this place. So lively and cheery, sometimes I wish that everyone could just sit down and be depressed right when I am. Be happy and cheery when I’m cheery. Then be mad when I’m mad. But it seemed like nobody really noticed my stressed sighs and the many drinks that I had down in the last hour. Everything was getting a bit hazy now. When did the fog roll by?
“Hey! It’s you!” cried a cheery voice in front of me. I tried to focus my eyes a bit more now and saw that it was the same girl from this morning.
“You?” I asked surprised. I was a bit more awake now, more alert to see the girl again. She looked even prettier in the night life. “Um…hi?” I say bit awe stricken and almost speechless.
“Hi!” she said. She was so different from this morning. Mad and sad, a bit lost. This girl was happy and cheery now.
“Um, what’re you doing here?”I asked as if it were the end of the world for this girl to be here. I had almost forgotten to change to my English accent.
“Oh, heh,” she giggled. “Just out with my friends…were you here all day?”
I looked around myself. “Um, yeah, I guess.”
She laughed a bit more. “Wow.”
George came over. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the same girl from this morning. He looked over to me and I shook my head already knowing what he was thinking.
“Oh! The George-man! Um, can I get five drinks please?” she said politely.
George turned over like a broken robot hesitating to go back to the taps. “Um, er, what kind?”
“Ooh! That one from this morning—the dark ale!” she said happily.
George went to work getting the drinks.
“So,” she said sitting on the stool with her feet resting on the legs of the stool. “What’re you doing here all day? A mighty fine guy like yourself….”
I smiled lightly in a thank you way for the compliment. “Well, just nothing to do today.”
She threw a surprised face, “What?! How? You should have something to do….”
I smiled, “No, nothing. My friends are busy.”
She smiled lightly, “You wanna come with me and my friends. We’re celebrating a bit, come on over!”
“No, no,” I say. “No thanks, I can take the night alone.”
“No!” she complained she took my arm with a little tug on my jacket. “I owe it to you. You bought me what, seven drinks? C’mon!”
“Six actually,” I say a bit drunkenly. “No, I’m alright.”
She crossed her arms with a puff of her breath. I smiled a bit and took another sip of her drink. “Fine,” she muttered.
George came over with the five jugs of beer in both hands. His skilled ways, not a drip fell out; this is why I sometimes want to be a bar tender. “’Here ya go darlin’,” he said to the girl.
“Mmph, what’s your name anyways,” I say.
“Oh, Karen Dailey,” she said perkily forgetting that I denied her request for me to join her friends.
“Johnny,” I say with a smile.
“Ooh!” she cried looking at all the jugs of beer in front of her. She tried to do the same thing as George, two in one hand and three in another and only got two in one had.
I laughed a bit at her failed trials.
She glared at me and tried to get the three handles into one hand. “Argh!”
“Hey Kare, what’s taking so long?” said a familiar voice from behind me. I looked around. Well, what do you know….Davey Raj Jones. So that’s why he ditched me- for this girl, I couldn’t blame him.
Dave starred at me for a long while probably wondering why I was here with this girl. “Kare?”
“Oh! This is Johnny, he’s the nice guy who bought me the drinks, remember?” said Karen introducing me. “Johnny, this is Dave!”
“Hi…” said Dave with a suspicious and hesitant face.
I couldn’t help but smile, “Hi Dave, I’m Johnny.”
Oh, the irony.
The Schema Factor
Jasmine
“Okay, that will be the end of our session today,” said Professor Lockhart. At this, everyone got up to leave. I packed all my books into my bag and quickly slipped it onto my skinny shoulder. I hated being so skinny—skinny and tall. I was like a stick walking around with a head atop it. I sighed and got out of the large classroom and to my next class. Why was college so boring? And why did I have to wait so long just for a master’s degree?
“Hey, Jasmine!” called a voice from not too far away.
I turned around to see one of my classmates, um…I think her name was Hornet?
“Yeah?” I asked.
“We have a group study today, remember?”
“Yeah—yeah, I remember,” I say a bit surprised. I was always surprised. Even at the smallest things. “See you there, library right?”
“Three o’ clock!” she called back.
“Okay, sure,” I say and I continue on to environmental biology class. I wondered about what I would eat for dinner—maybe McDonald’s? I always ate fattening foods. But that’s probably because I could never get fat. It was in the genes, nobody in my family was every near obese—or even had a pot belly. I was just waiting for my metabolism to slow down and then I’ll get fat.
“Oh, hi Jasmine!” said a voice just passing me.
I turned around just to answer it while walking and then I bumped into someone in front of me. “Oh! Sorry,” I say blushing at the slightest.
“Hello,” said the guy. He was just as tall as I was. A bit pale and had a broad smile that scarred me a bit. He was skinny too, like me….
“Hi…” I say adjusting my bag a bit.
“Here’s an apple,” he said handing me a nice red apple. I could see from behind him and a few that had already passed us, were his friends giggling—or chuckling, whatever it is that guys do.
“Um, thanks,” I say taking the apple into my hands.
He smiled and walked off with his friends where they were laughing in a small chuckle.
I starred at apple, round and red. It was a perfect, shinny apple. But why did he give me an apple?
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