Leilei is rocking that red miniskirt I got her a couple years back, heels and a black shirt. Minimal make up and her hair is up. Something big, good, and important to her happened today. I haven't called or texted her today, but I've known her long enough to know. "What'd you do today?" I ask, knowing I have to be on my toes.
"Co-produced some demos with Josh and Justin, spent the day with them, became Josh's girlfriend, laughed with them, and just hung out," she rambles off.
"Whoa! Back up. Rewind," I say, laughing.
"Laughed with them?"
"One more."
"Became Josh's girlfriend?" she questions, a huge grin on her beautiful face.
"It's about damned time!"
"What do you mean?"
"Leilei, he's been at your side for six months, at your every beck and call, and talking with Justin about you. He's wanted to be your man since you broke up with shithead the first time. He's always been there. He's even told me if he got the chance, he'd be with you."
She smiles. "I told him that if Nickolas fucked up one more time, I'd be done with Nick and free for him."
"You can stop lying to me about fooling around for the past three months." A smile tugs at my lips as I drive to her favorite restaurant here in LA.
"Yeah, it's true. What gave it away?"
"I know you both, I don't need to be with you 24/7 to be able to tell."
"You heard us!" I laugh. "You ass! I hope you got your fucking rocks off!" she screams, slapping my right bicep for emphasis.
I stick my tongue out. "Maybe. Why couldn't you be honest before?"
"I thought you'd be pissed if we were screwing and not together," she admits, meekly.
We pull up, get out and head in. "Min, it's your life, your heart and your body. I just hate having to be the only one you let help you pick up the shattered pieces when you get hurt." I stop at the greeter's podium. "Reservation for two under James Bass." I look at her and give her a side hug. "Min, you've been through hell and I'm glad the last time around, you let JC in. I'm glad you didn't go it alone again."
"Your table, sir," the waiter informs us.
Min sits and I push in her chair, squeezing her shoulder to reassure her. "You're not upset about anything concerning Josh and I?"
"Not one bit, Min," I confirm, sitting across from her.
"Good, now we can be in the open about it all."
"Do you two know when you're telling your families, friends and the press?"
"Our families are finding out on Thanksgiving, our friend's will know by Christmas and we don't plan on telling the press for a couple years." She looks over the menu and orders shrimp scampi, a side of baked haddock and a bowl of various sweet fruits. Juice and sweet tea are her usual beverages of choice, she orders those.
"I suppose I'll indulge in the chicken parmesan with a marinara sauce, a sweet tea to accompany it." The waitress takes our menus and heads to the kitchen. "Sounds like you've talked about this before with him," I muse.
"Don't get too lost in those thoughts of yours," she says with a giggle. "Yes, we've had numerous 'if we date' conversations."
"No doubt you brought them up," I reinforce my argument I haven't begun to bring to her attention.
"Yes, he confessed that he's not great in relationships or when it comes to decisions."
"You recognized the argument I was beginning to pose," I state, wanting to hear her call me a dipshit.
"Of course I did, dingbat!" Our drinks are brought to our table and she takes a sip of her tea. "I've known you for far too long not to know when you're trying to inconspicuously pose an argument, James."
I nod, a grin on my lips as I stir my tea with my straw. "Very true, we've known each other far too long not to recognize the other's games. Congratulations on starting a healthy relationship with a good man, Min. You deserve it more than most girls." She glares at me. "Ok, women," I remit, intent on keeping our night calm and relaxed.
"I thought so!" she jokes. "He is so sweet to me. How often does he lose his temper?"
"Hardly ever and when he does, he walks away or takes off for a little while. Just give him space and time, he'll come back to you. You might be the one person that can set him off and turn around soon after to diffuse him. He's never gotten too upset with you around," I confess to her, recalling what JC had said years ago about her. He and I had spoken about her during her seven year absence, deeply missing her for our own personal and deep seeded reasons.
"I noticed that," she admits, lost in her thoughts. "Why did he wait so long? Ten years? He never moved, changed his number, and always tried to stay in contact. Why?"
"He said you meant everything to him, he wanted to be easy for you to find. He kept the same routine to make it easy for you to track him down, you've always been the predator and he's always been your willing prey," I profess his truth to her, laughing at how it sounds.
She smiles and rocks her head side to side as our food is placed on the table. She puts the haddock on the plate of scampi and smiles as she takes the first bite, enjoying the compounding of flavors, having put a piece of the fish, shrimp and scampi in her mouth in the same forkful. "Mmm, they always make it just right. Was that your deduction or his?"
"Mostly his. He's also admitted that he'd rather be your prey than anyone else's," I tell her nonchalantly, taking the first bite of my delectable dinner.
Her cell beeps and she checks her texts, giggling and blushing as she responds to the sender's message. "I suppose it works out then."
"Who was that from?" She looks at her plate before meeting my gaze, without lifting her head. "JC."
"Mmmhmmm."
"What did he send?"
"That I'm being missed and he's bored, seeing that we finished all the demos he and Timby had planned on doing through the night tonight."
"I hear you pay half of all the bills since you started working with Johnny again."
"Yes, he has me managing Aaron because of how close we are. I co-manage Brit with her dad because of the friendship we share."
One thing I cherish in her is her modesty. I treasure her honesty and intelligence as well. "I hope you can manage that, financially and whatnot."
"James, you know I can. I've also been writing again and a good portion have been contracted out to various artists. I can more than handle it."
When she gets motivated, just step back and stay out of her way. "Just making sure, hon."
"When have I proven otherwise?"
I glare at her, my eyes narrowing and stabbing into her. "One word-Nick."
"Two words-fuck up."
"Leilei, he was a nine year on and off mistake, which proves my point that you sometimes can't handle something and your pride won't subside long enough to request someone's assistance."
She rolls her sky blues, sighing. "Whatever, cock block."
"Why am I cock block again?"
"Josh was almost my first if you hadn't walked on the bus at that particular moment in New York."
"How close were you?"
"Another five minutes and I would've been in the moment," she blurts out, turning beet red.
I smile, realizing why she was so secretive about JC. "I would've had to explain why Darren's 17 year old cousin walked differently than the last time he saw her and would've been forced to deal with his wrath."
"I would've said I'm legal age to consent and who I lay with, that's my personal choice."
"He probably would've argued that you weren't of legal age."
"I would've pointed out that I was emancipated."
"Speaking of that, when was it finalized?"
"The summer Ma died."
"How old were you?"
"Fifteen."
"Why did you wait a year a half before telling me you were?"
"I wanted to finish school and relax a year, I stayed with Darren."
"That's understandable," I say, smoothing out her worries.
"Thanks for everything, James."
We enjoy the rest of dinner as we talk about our various memories we've shared over the past twenty-two years. "We should get to the theater. What movie do you want to see?"
"Breaking Dawn."
I look at her over the roof of the car and she's got that 'we are seeing it whether or not you want to' glare. "Why?"
"I want to find out if I should drag Josh to see it," she simply states. She's a Twilight fan (not a Twihard-owns the books and movies once they are on DVD or blu-ray). She is in love with Transformers, always has been since we were kids. She would dismember her dolls and barbies, she's a tomboy. She knows how to pull off the sex on legs look, tonight is the perfect example, but she usually has jeans, sneakers and a comfortable top on (a t-shirt, jersey or tank top). She loves sweats and pj pants more.
As a pre-teen and teen, she would watch Sonic, Power Rangers, BeetleBorgs, and a couple other shows that she never missed an episode of until it got overdone and 'retarded' (Power Rangers was just that when they brought in the Divatox or whatever her name is character, she would occasionally watch an episode) or cancelled. She loved the shit out of Jason David Frank (Tommy), Austin St. John (Jason), and Johnny Yong Bosch (Adam), she drooled worse than a teething baby over them. What's worse is she taped every episode or bought the tape and still has them! You didn't find it out from me, JC told you if it ever slips past your lips. She would bash my skull in, ha! Skullavage! Sorry, I just remembered a character from Power Rangers. I sometimes laugh for 'no reason'. "Ha, Skull."
"Did you just say 'skull'?"
"Uhhhhhh..."
"You were thinking of Power Rangers!" she screams, pointing at my face and laughs herself. This is one of the times I just let her poke fun at me.
"I'll tell JC all about your favorite shows," I warn. Ok, maybe not.
She audibly gasps. "You wouldn't fuckin dare!"
"I would, Justin already knows."
"Well, duh, he watched some with me."
"Who's to say he never said a word to JC about it?"
"He hasn't brought it up."
"I can let the cat out of the bag."
"Not if I beat you to the punch."
"You're on," I reply, crossing my left arm under my right to shake on it as we turn onto the road to the theater.
She pulls out her cell and texts someone, laughing after she gets a reply. She can be so evil. Darren used to tape the shows for her when she was with us and she'd have her marathon to catch up on them, it's kind of funny when I think back on it. I pull into the parking lot and kill the engine. "We're here already?"
"Yes, miss TwiHard," I tease.
She gives me her 'start and I will kick your country ass' stare, prompting me to hold my hands up in surrender. "Call me that one more time and you will be decked," she warns. I smile and shake my head, not doubting she would.
We get out and her fingers lace with mine. I swear she does it out of comfort and to keep other chicks at bay, even though I'm gay. We approach the ticket stand and I smile. "Two for 'Breaking Dawn', please." I take the tickets and she eyes the concession stand. "Go on," I groan. She always 'needs' to have popcorn, soda, and candy when we see a movie here. At home, all the 'goodies' are bought at the store and are set up on the coffee table in front of the couch. She always gets my favorite candies for me. We head for the right room and settle into the middle of the seats, talking while we await the start of the movie. When the previews start, we stop talking and watch them. "That one looks like it's going to be good," I comment.
"Oooh, we have got to see that one!"
The movies starts and so does our snacking. We don't talk during a movie in a theater, so we watch it in silence. She giggles at the sex scene, sniffles during Bella's birth scene, and coos every time Renesmee comes on screen. She loves children and every time she found out she was pregnant, Nick would violently dash the hope she had. "Ok, I admit that was a good movie," I say, draping an arm across her shoulders.
Her hand comes up to lace her fingers with mine. "Worth dragging Josh to see?"
"Girl, he'd watch a chick flick for you. He'd watch pretty much do anything for you."
"Really?" It seems I've piqued her interest.
"Yes," I tell her, more than certain about it.
"You're sure you're sure?"
"I'm absolutely certain."
We get in the car and she calls someone. "Can you bring over those tapes right now? Ok, thanks, man. Bye." She hangs up and dials a different number. "Hey, baby. How do you feel about getting to know my nerdy side? No, like the kind where people say things like 'you actually used to watch this shit?' and laugh at you. Yes, Justin's bringing over some boxes and don't open them. Joshua! I swear to you... I promise you'll laugh and it's ok. Love you too. See you soon." She chuckles about what JC had said to her.
"Think he might be it?"
"If he's not, I'm done with guys."
"You'll go lez?"
"Uhhhhh, yeah, duh!"
"For a tomboy, you sure can talk like a girl and go in a group of em covertly."
She gives me the single finger salute with a smile. "Fuck you."
"We did that nine years ago, baby doll."
"Before you made your final decision. At least your last hoorah happened with one hell of bang," she comments.
"You better believe it did. Mind-blowing, mind numbing and unforgettable."
She just laughs. "Well, I'm glad I got the chance to screw you while you were perched on the fence. Ya know, for a gay guy, you were a damn good fuck. I'm glad I gave you that chance, gave you my virginity and let you take it because it's one of the best birthday presents ever, one I won't soon forget," she confesses, her lips brushing my cheek.
I know that my face got hot and I blushed something fierce. "I don't know what to say." My hands tighten on the steering wheel, my knuckles begin to blanche.
"James, relax. Just say 'thanks' and go about life as usual."
"Thanks."
"Josh heard us saying 'second best' and Darren translated it, revealing that he's the best after that."
I had to laugh, Darren always did that kind of shit to her. She always confided in us, Darren and I know EVERYTHING about her. Turns out November 13 is a good day for her, now it's time to hope she's happier with JC and she gets what she wants. My body relaxes and I glance at my best friend. "Have you talked about kids?"
"Vaguely, yes. He said something about trying in a couple years, depending on our standing in the relationship."
"I'm surprised. Nobody has ever gotten him to say that. How was it brought up?"
"He put his head to my stomach, placed his hand there too and just asked if I could get pregnant. I told him I wasn't sure and why, he said we could try in a couple years. I'd get pregnant for six guys in a heartbeat just to feel life growing inside me," she says, resting her head on the seat and letting it loll in my direction to look at me.
"Who would those six be?"
"You, Josh, Justin, Joey, Chris and Aaron."
"Wow. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind, Min."
"You should come in and see his face," she demands, punching in the code for his gate as she leans across me.
"Sure, this is going to be hysterical."
Just as she situated herself in the passenger seat and we spot Justin's car in the driveway, her phone screams at her. "Hey, Timby. We just pulled up. Tell him no cookie if he don't quit," she says sternly. "I want him on the couch and ready to watch the first episode of MMPR, thuiscint? See you in a couple minutes. Thanks."
"He was trying to go through the boxes?"
"Yes, we have to get in there before Justin does that loogie thing that the kid in 'Big Daddy' did."
"The dangler?"
"The dangler," she confirms, her eyes opening wide as she rolls them exaggeratedly.
After pulling in behind Justin's powder blue Mercedes, I turn the car off and we head inside as I stuff my keys in my pocket. We get inside and notice the seven medium size boxes marked 'Leilei's Tapes' in her beautiful writing, followed by abbreviated show names (BB, MMPR, STH, TMNT, and of course NICKELODEON). She has 'Keenan & Kel' on the Nickelodeon tapes, she taped some airings of TRL, SNL and MadTV. "I want to know what's on these tapes, baby. The suspense is killing me," JC melodramatically exclaims, hugging her to him and kissing her lips. "I guess I'm curious as to what the letters mean," he states calmly, motioning to the box marked 'Leilei's Tapes MMPR Orig-4', causing me to laugh hysterically. The box below it contains seasons 5-7. Nickelodeon takes up two boxes between all the shows she taped on that station-Keenan & Kel, All That, Amanda Bynes Show, some of our appearances and performances, and other various shit. She grabs a familiar red paper covered box with a small lightening bolt on it and I smile, recalling the first time we watched the premier episode.
August 28, 1993
"James! It's coming on! Hurry!"
"It's supposed to be cool!"
"I'm coming, Min. I hope you're right and it's not a waste of my time. If it is, Darren, your butt is grass!"
"Who's the lawn mower?" Min inquires.
"Me," I reply, bringing out the popcorn and soda.
I sit down and she has the remote hidden, indicating she has control of the tv. It's on Fox and it starts.
~~~~~
"Anyone finds out I watched this, I'm going to kick your butt, D! I'll tell them I was bound and gagged by your cousin! You watched it too," I warn.
"What if I tell people, Bassy?"
I cringe at the nickname his nine year old cousin, Min had given me when we had met four years earlier. "Don't call me 'Bassy'."
"Deartháir, it is."
I have no clue what she just called me, so I look to Darren for an explanation. "She called you 'brother'."
"You see me like your brother?"
"Yup!"
"You've stuck by her through Brandon's shit, she's moving to Leominster, Ma during the spring break and I'm hoping she comes back by the end of the year. She loves you like family." I give her a side hug and smile.
That was a good day, finding that out. "Are you serious, baby? You actually watched this?" JC asks, speculative.
"James did too," she confesses my embarrassing sin 18 years later, eyeing me from the couch while I'm perched on the chair to their left.
"Are you fucking serious?"
"Yeah," I shrug.
"I watched some episodes with her," Justin interjects.
"I expect that from you, seeing as you have two years between you."
"I really got into them, along with some other shows," he admits, shuffling the boxes around and finding a tape he was looking for. "Here it is." He fast forwards the MMPR tape and puts in the blank. The Keenan & Kel icon pops up and he fast forwards it to the part where Kel declares his love for orange soda, the three of us speaking the lines with the two main characters.
"Who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda. Who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda. Who LOVES orange soda? I do, I do, I do-hoo!"
JC is laughing his ass off. Min gets up and searches through a box. "Here we go," she exclaims. She rewinds the tape in the VCR and turns to us with the one she picked in her hand. "Now, before I put this in, remember that I love you guys and it was just too funny not to tape." She switches the tapes and I laugh at our skit on SNL, the private school boy skit with Mrs. Reardon. I can't stop laughing while JC and Justin are horrified at the fact she taped it and still are in disbelief and shock that she kept it this long, more than a decade.
I get up and pick a tape. "She had the chance to embarrass us, now I'm going to embarrass her with a mix tape of scenes from the Power Rangers series," I tell the three of them as the tape rewinds.
"One question," JC asks, curious.
"Shoot."
"Is there any similarities to the characters and anyone in her life?"
"Watch and learn," I cryptically say. I pull out the tape containing some of our things and put in the mix tape.
"I'm going to kick your ass!" Leilei says once she realizes which one I put in.
"Love you, Min!" I respond, smiling.
"I swear-" is all she says before she sees Jason David Frank without a shirt on and begins to drool.
"Hey!" JC yells.
"Imagine what she did when we ran into him," I spill, reminding her.
"It was like hitting a brick wall with my head. He was so sweet," she begins to explain, spacing out. She shakes her head. "I think I was 18 and I was 3 months into my relationship with Nick. James said he had a special surprise for me and I hear these oddly familiar voices. When he took the blindfold off, I saw the actors who portrayed Jason, Rocky and Tommy. I nearly creamed right there. Lawdy, I saw the guy who played Adam stop in and I was in heaven! I hugged each of them and hung out on set for the day. I walked into each of them that day and learned a few things. I still have that video somewhere."
"I have that in my safe," Justin admits. "I have copies, too." She smiles and shrugs.
"It guarantees you some serious action tonight!" I joke.
"You have no idea how much you just handed him!"
"On top of what she already promised," he says, beaming.
"You ain't sleeping tonight!" she proclaims, straddling his lap and kissing him.
"I can sleep tomorrow right?"
"If I can't take anymore, sure."
"Otherwise?"
"You're screwed until I'm exhausted."
"I think I'm going to head home," Justin says, stretching his body.
"I need some sleep too," I tell them.
JC waves at us and Min breaks the kiss. "See you two later."
"Yeah, later, Minny."
"Bye, Min."
I know what they're going to do, more like what she's going to do to him. She's going to fuck his brains out until she's so raw and spent that she can't move a single muscle from riding him and taking it for so long.
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