Author: Servo Blue
AUTHOR'S NOTE: ============= Here. I hope this got here quick enough.
--Servo Blue
DISCLAIMER: ==========
Mine. Read. Cheese.
The Out-Crowd ===========
Part 13: The Second Part Of A Typical Day
After about fifteen minutes, I finally noticed where my parents had gotten to. They were about ten feet from the door, standing with Milo, and shaking hands and talking to just about every single person who walked through the door. I found this odd, but hell, the whole day has been over the top on the Weird Fuckin' Days chart.
In just the short time that we'd been there, the place was now about half full, with people scattered about at different tables, and a semi-loud rumble of discombobulated conversation filled the once tranquil air. After another ten minutes or so, nearly every single chair was occupied, and there were a couple guys in these red vests that were going from table to table and filling the wine glasses as their respective chairs were taken.
Micheal had come in with his parents, both intact and perfectly well-to-do, might I add; Kate had showed up just after him with her parents and her older brother, whom I had yet to meet; Jeremy came walking in with his mother and what appeared to be a little brother, though there had been no sign of such a person when I stopped at his house, and the minute he lazily looked around the room and spotted Shelby and I, he said something energeticly to his mother, she smiled, and he bounded his way over and landed in a chair before even slowing down.
"Hey, congratulations, Shel!" he yelped, slapping Mr. Cool on the back, sending a wave of motion through Shelby's spinal collumn.
"Thanks, boss, but keep it down. We're keeping the Colorblind Kid, over here, in the dark until the big speech."
I glared at Shelby. 'The Colorblind Kid', like some kind of hero from the old west. What a clever boy he is. Jer just smiled bigger.
"OH-Hoooo, I see," said Jeremy, "we're ignorant of the situation. I find this amusing, in a funny sort of way."
If I could've thought of anything to say to the smart alek bastard, I would have, but all my brain could get through to me right now was 'hey, how about putting a stupid grin on your face and staring into those beautiful green eyes?'. Stupid brain.
"Well," said Jeremy, dropping his fist to the tabletop, "I'm gonna go find my people," and with that, he stood up and turned to Shelby, lightly swinging his arm and tapping Shelby's shoulder with his fist. "Seriously, bro," he said, in a calm, almost serious tone, "It'll be good."
"Thanks, boss," said Shelby, and as Jeremy turned to head back to his mom and little brother, Shelby said, "Hey--Jer." Jeremy turned again, this time a veyr solemn look on his face.
"I, uh...." started Shelby. Jeremy got a crooked half-smile on his face.
"Yeah?" he asked.
This is where the subtitles would be very helpful.
Shelby: "Thanks, boss. Really. For...you know.
Subtitle: I'm sorry about blowing up like that the other day.
Jeremy: (smiling)"The whole sha-bang?"
Subtitle: Hey, no problem. You were upset, and needed to vent. Consider it forgotten.
Shelby: (also smiling)"Yeah."
Subtitle: Thanks.
Jeremy: No problem.
Subtitle: Forget about it.
With that, Jeremy ran over to his family as they were headed to a table which was occupied by one other person--the guy from the junkyard.
O.K., I got home from school at about 3:00, and to the Full Deck by about 3:30. It was now just about twenty after four, and the place was full of people, some I recognised, but most were total strangers to me. One of the last people to actually make the trek over to the table that Shelby and I were sitting at was a girl with hair almost as dark as his, but that came down to just past her shoulders. Her skin was a lovely tan, and she had these big ol' blue eyes that would make a puppy hang his head in shame. A real knock-out, without the bitchy look of a supermodel whore. Oh, yeah, I hate supermodels. They're all whores.
She walked over and Shelby stood up right away.
"Hey," she said, a nervous smile appearing on her face as she said it, and vanishing instantly when the word was gone.
"Hey," he replied, just as well. I swear, I was gonna puke.
"How ya been?" he asked, putting his thumbs through the belt loops on the sides of his waist, and slightly swinging his elbows.
"O.K.," she said, fidgeting with her fingers. There was a second where neither of them said anything, and before you think anything unkind, no, I was not sitting there with my elbows on the table and my chin resting on my hands staring at the spectacle before me. I was sitting as I had been, and although I did watch her come over and him stand up, I quickly put my attention back to the stragglers that were coming in fashionably late so as to avoid either of them to feel uncomfortable and asking me to leave, because I really had nowhere to go, as I knew almost no one there. Anyway, getting back to where I was, they were both fairly tense. Or nervous--maybe both.
"Oh, god, I'm an idiot," said Shelby, snapping out of his trance and shaking his head. "This is Casey," he said, pointing to me. "This is the kid I'm stayin' with now. Casey, this is...this is Lor." he said. I stood up and said 'hi', and shook her hand.
"Wanna sit down?" I asked them both.
"Yes," said Lor, looking right at Shelby. "Yes, I do, but--"
"It's over, Lor," said Shelby, interrupting her. I was kinda shocked by such a comment, from appearntly out of the blue, but she didn't even look at him funny. "It's over. There's no more bad guy. I couldn't be happy, he wouldn't let me."
He started to tear up, and I could see she had a not-so-happy look on her face, as well. His voice heavy now, but weak. The kind of voice you have when you're trying not to shout from torment, not anger. But you're also trying not to cry.
"I never stopped, Lor, I mean it, I never stopped. He--he said I didn't deserve it, and that you didn't really--"
In a second, she lunged at him, ensnaring him in a hug that he returned at the speed of light. They buried their faces into each others' shoulders and weeped softly. I could only assume what they were talking about. That is, of course, until....
"I love you, Shelby."
"I love you too, Lor. I always have, and I always will."
O.K., this was beautiful and touching moment, really it was, but people were starting to notice that the appearant man of honor was crying in the near middle of the room. I mean, come on, this isn't good for morale.
"Um, I don't wanna sound like a jerk, or anything," I said, quietly, "but the offer to sit still...uh...stands."
I really didn't mean to say that. Really. Shelby and Lor released each other and chuckled a bit. They rubbed their eyes, and Shelby motioned to the table.
"Shall we?" he said. They smiled and finally sat down, Casey beside me and Lor across. They each picked up a couple napkins from the napkin holder thingy and dabbed at their eyes.
"So, that was nearly an akward moment, huh?" I asked with a smile. This got a laugh out of both of them.
We had ourselves quite a talk that day. Well, not really that day, more like that ten minutes. I learned an awful lot about Shelby, and I discovered a whole ne person named Lor. However, after those ten minutes, there was the tinging of a spoon against a wine glass, near the front of the room. Milo was standing at a podium type thing and had a very happy look on his face.
"I'd like first to thank you all for coming," he said in his awesome, deep voice. "I know that the majority of you here know of the purpose behind this rather oddly timed get together, but for those of you as yet unaware, I think you'll find it simply joyous." Here, he paused, shuffled the cards in his hands, and then looked back up at the roomful of people. "As many of you know, my son Charles and his wife Janet were taken from us quite some time ago, in a a fairly...unpopular fashion."
I looked at Shelby, and he and Lor were holding hands. She glanced at him as well, and sqeezed his hand tightly. His eyes were so watery I figured his brain must've drowned. He shot his eyes to mine for a second, blinked, and looked back at his grandfather. As he blinked, a tear found its escape from his eye to his chin. Taking the hint, Lor and I looked at eachother, then to Milo.
"As his other relatives all live in either Florida or Montana, and I, living on my own and with a business to run--and nearly by myself, I might add--" he said, looking slyly at Steiny, bringing a slight laugh form the room,"it was my son-in-law David who was given custody of their only child. It is a severe understatement to say that David, who at the time was married, was a poor family man. I may embarass Shelby here for a moment, and for that I apologize in advance, but the reason David's wife left him was because he had gotten himself into an awful mess with his passion for intoxicating fluids. Just two years after his parents' deaths, and being forced to live with two near total strangers, only one of whom, the one not blood-related, actually cared for him, and now she had left, David began to take out his anger on the only other available person. No matter what I did, it was unsuccessful in helping the situation, and, in some ways, I fear I often offered to only make it worse."
Shelby was now weeping on Lor's shoulder, and had his left arm draped around her, his other laying on the table. Lor had a few tears on her face as well, and as I noticed that I was also crying at the idea of how terrible he had had it, I reached out and took his other hand, holding it firmly. He didn't move his head, in fact, he didn't even make a sound for the duration of Milo's entire speech, but he tightened his grip on my hand in response.
"Many of you may be wondering how this is at all appropriate for a celebrational title. Well, here's the thing. I never knew the extent of what was going on. At least, not until just recently when Shelby made a new friend."
My ears wasted no time in sending that to my brain. I snapped my head from my gaze at Shelby and looked up to Milo, only to find him looking past the first seven tables right at me.
"A friend, whose name just happens to be Casey Blazer, that he told me he just knew he could trust. 'I don't know what it is, Gramps,' he told me. 'There's just something about him that tells me I'm going to be O.K., and I don't really know what it all means.'"
O.K., now I felt a little embarrassed. I looked at Lor, and she was looking at me, a smile on her face that would've been glowing, had it not been snubbed out by the signs of sadness. I smiled back, but I also felt myself turn to what must've been a downright lovely shade of red.
"At first, I was confused, but then when I discovered that his new friend's parents were such beautiful people and had come to me seeking information on the condition of my grandson, I knew exactly what he meant." As he mentioned my parents, he had motioned to them by turning his upper body slightly, enough to look directly at them as he made note of them. "You see, without evening knowing so much as the boy's last name, when they had learned of his situation, having more knowledge of it than I, they began proceedings to make an addition to their family."
There was a sudden, almost inaudible, gasp of both surprise and relief when Milo said this, and a smile reborn on his face as he noticed the mostly hidden reaction.
"Yes, friends, we've finally gotten to the part of my speech that's worth celebrating." Another small laugh from the room. "Some people say that you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. Boy, were they ever wrong. You see, as of Yesterday evening, although my grandson's name is Shelby Jet, he is officially part of the Blazer family." At this, he turned to the table behind him and picked up a glass of wine. Turning back to the room, he held it out in front of him, a look of victory on his face. "I'd like to make a toast," he said, and with that, the room stood, almost in unison, holding their glasses in the same way as their host. "A toast to the greatest of friends imaginable...and the fact that they're always your family."
With that, the room exploded into a combination of tinging glasses, 'here, here!'s, and applause. I swear, about fifty different heads popped in out of nowhere to congratulate both Shelby and me. When I finally realised that I had actually contributed to Shelby's well-being and that this many people thankful and happy about it, I felt really good inside, but it was another of those ironic feelings that are so, so good that words cannot let others know how good you truly feel, and the fact that you can't so easily spread it makes you feel almost bad. It's a vicious cycle, one that I'm sure I'll always be stuck in. At least, when I feel that good.
"Now please, eat, drink, and heavily tip the caterers."
That was the last thing that Milo said at the podium, and brought the strongest roar of laughter of the evening. My father came over and said that he was 'checking in'.
"How is everything?" he asked.
"What do you mean 'how is everything?'?" I asked him, a bit surprised. "If you and mom were over here, you'd know!"
"Uh...you want us to come sit with you guys and get our uncoolness all over you?"
"Mmm. He's got a point, boss." Shelby chimed in. "Oh, by the way Mr.--"
"What did we tell you, Shelby?" asked my dad, in a voice that was playfully made to sound like he was irritated. Shelby rolled his eyes and smiled.
"By the way, DAD, this is Lor." Shelby corrected.
"Well, hello, Lor." said my dad, extending his hand.
"Hello, Mr. Blazer," she said with a small smile, shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"The feeling's mutual," said my dad. "I...trust we'll be seeing you around fairly often?" Boy, can my dad be subtle, or what? Shelby and Lor smiled at each other.
"Yeah," she said, looking back at my dad. "I think I'll be around now and then.
"I thought so," he answered, and winked at Shelby. "Well, your mother and I are going to be eating up at the head table with Milo and Herman and all the other old people. See if you can find someone to fill in this seat over here, it looks bad for the man of honor to have an empty seat at his table."
We thanked him and he walked away. Lor stood up.
"I'm going to check with my dad and see if I can sit with you guys."
"Alright," said Selby, "hurry back."
Just as she passed the fisrt table to her destination, Jeremy landed in th chair across from Shelby, startling both of us.
"Where'd you come from?" asked Shelby.
"Well, your dad told me you had an open seat, so I thought I'd fix your problem." Then he looked at me. "That O.K.?"
"Sure," I said. Then I looked at Shelby. "You got a problem with it?"
It was really two questions, but I think he answered them both.
"Not at all, boss. I think it's great."
Lor came back and she and her glowing smile sat down.
"I guess that's a yes?" asked Shelby.
"Of course," she answered, saw Jeremy had arrived. "But with these two studs at our table, I don't know if I can stay, should I lose control of myself."
"Hey, you can keep tabs on your control, Beautiful," said Jeremy, as he grabbed my right hand with his left and held them in the air. "We're both outta the race."
"Oh, really?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning back in her chair, her smile never changing. "Well when you put it that way, you make me sound bad. Besides, even a pair of hotties like you two don't add up to Mr. Perfect."
"O.K., that hurts," said Jeremy, putting a hand over his heart. "That hurts right here. You hear that, Shel? Even you and I together aren't as good as Casey! Jeez, talk about depressing."
This brought a laugh at our table, and a swing from me to Jeremy's arm.
In a few minutes, a few waiters had brought everyone their dinner of fillet minjion, or however the hell you spell it. I most definitely got it wrong, but so what, it know for a fact that I ate it correctly. There were many anecdotes and jokes told during our meal. It was also full of stories of the silly things we'd done as children. Jeremy dominated the conversation, and was just short of a riot. I swear, you could laugh at just his personality, and that's not a slam, either. After a few hours, about ninety per cent of the guests had left. A few people were milling about, talking to Milo, Steiny, my parents, and a few others. Kate had said her goodbyes and congratulatoins, had Micheal, Luis, whom I hadn't seen arrive, Wally, then a rash of kids that I didn't know, and, lastly, the very nice-looking blonde boy with the sexy, frazzly hair had come over and waved.
"Hey, bud, how's it goin'?" Shelby asked the newcomer. He just smiled and shrugged, tilting his head a bit, and glancing at Lor, then back to Shelby.
"Good," said Shelby. "Juke, I'd like ya to meet Lor. Lor, this is Juke, one of my best buds."
"How ya doin', Juke?" she asked, smiling again. Juke, which I think is an awesome name, just smiled and did a weird thing. He held his hands out with his palms facing him and his fingers apart, and kinda wrung them up and down a couple times with his middle fingers pointing toward his chest.
"Oh, really?" asked Shelby. "What about?"
Lor looked at me and I looked at her. Neither of us knew just what happened.
Here Juke held up his right hand, fisted, except that his index and middle fingers were held together pointing upward.
"Aw, how sweet. Why?" asked Shelby, smiling big.
He remade the fist-like sign again, which I just recognised as a 'U' in sign language, but followed it with several more motions. First, he took both hands, cup-shaped, and brought them up until his fingertips touched his chest. Then he signed an 'A' with his right hand, the only other movement I recognised, then held up both of his hands with the thumb and index fingers touching while the others were held out, and then circled them up, so that the thmbs and indexes all touched, then circled them down so that the pinkies only touched. Then he brouhgt his hands up against his shoulders in a 'Y' shape and brought them down to elbow level. After that, he was still.
We all looked at Shelby, who had yet another tear running down his cheek.
"He said he's excited for me," said Shelby, wiping the tear away. "because I have a family now."
Juke reached up and wiped a tear from his own eye, but kept his little smile.
"What's that mean?" I asked. Shelby just looked at me.
"It means he was wiping his eyes, genius." Everyone laughed. Shelby looked up at Juke.
"You do, of course, realise that no one else here has any idea of how to understand you," he said. Juke nodded happily. And Shelby laughed. "Juke, the guy in the brown there is Jeremy, and the other one is my savior, Casey."
Juke looked right at me. He held his hands palms-together and wiped the top one against the bottom in a perpendicular fashion. Then he held both of his hands in the shape of a 'D' about a foot apart, and brought them together so that his knuckles and the tips of his index fingers met.
"He says it's nice to meet you," said Shelby.
"Oh," I said, sounding like total moron. "It's nice to meet you too, Juke."
After a few more translations from Shelby, Juke's parents called him over to them and they were gone. Right after Juke and his family left, the little guy that came in with Jeremy and his mom came running over to us.
"Jeremy!" he called, right before reaching us.
"Hey, bud. What's up?" asked Jeremy, Catching the kid and hoisting him up onto his lap.
"Mom says we're gonna go home really soon and you hafta say goodbye," the little kid squeaked.
"Alrighty," said Jeremy, just a little dejected. "Go on back to mom now, Git," said Jeremy, and the little boy scurried back to his mother.
"'Git'?" I asked.
"Yeah, the first time Micheal was over at my house, Franky came running by as best as a three-year-old can run and bumped right into the couch and landed on his butt. Micheal just looked away from the tv long enough to call him a 'git', and I was laughing so hard because I'd never heard the word that I decided then and there that that was the name to haunt him with for the rest of his bloody life."
"You're evil, you do know that, right?" I asked him. Lor and Shelby both smiled. Jeremy did, too, but in a different way.
"Come on," he said, standing up. "Let's go say 'goodbye'."
I got up and waved at Shelby and Lor, who waved back with a pair of such insinuous smiles that I'd have to smack them both the minute I next saw them, the cheeky little monkies. Anyway, Jeremy lead me out through the door we'd come in just a few hours ago, waving to his mom on the way. We trekked our way through the dimly lit bowling alley and out to the parking lot, where only a few cars remained. As we got to a red ninety-something Lumina-looking car, a turned and started walking backwards.
"I'm glad we got to sit together tonight," he said, just before bumping into the car. He hoisted himself up to sit on the trunk, and motioned for me to join him. I did.
"God, I love space," I said, as we laid on the back window and stared at the sky, or lack thereof.
"What?" asked Jeremy in surprise.
"I don't know," I started. "There's just something about the total lack of anything solid that I find intriguing. But it also kinda scares me."
Jeremy said nothing, allowing me to go on.
"I mean, think about it: Earth is positioned in the perfect spot in our little solar system. Two more dgrees closer to the sun and we'd fry, two farther and we'd freeze. It's like we were meant to be here. But then, why waste so much work on so many other planets--not to mention the rest of the whole universe--if only to make us? That's when it seems like nothing more than coincidence. It's just that...it's just that I look up at night and see a beautiful sky, dark, yes, but with a countless number of twinkling lights in consistant patterns. However, I also know that it's just a bunch of flaming balls of gas in sparatic points in a gigantic void of cold nothingness."
I rolled my head and looked at Jeremy.
"Man, am I a downer, or what?"
"You know, in the beginning, God created the Universe. This has made a lot of people angry, and been regarded throughout history as a bad move."
I laughed pretty good at that.
"Casey, how big is a degree?" he asked without moving. "And just how do you know that other planets don't have things on them that are built to think that 2000 below zero isn't warm? Seriously, I hate it when people do to themselves what you've just done. You don't need to worry yourself about anything that isn't going to effect your life, and unless the universe decides to come over and kick your ass, I really don't think it's going to effect you that much. But," he said, taking my hand in his once more, "I do believe that you should worry about the things that WILL effect you, until you're up to six packs a day and have a tumor the size of Linda Tripp."
"Can you be serious for five minutes?" I laughed.
"Of course, but can you resurrect me?" he asked. "Look...Casey...all joking aside.... I really like you. In fact, I'd almost go to the extent to say I love you, but I've never felt this way before and I don't really know what it is yet, although love wouldn't be such a bad thing."
"Are you serious?" I asked, as we were both now looking into the other's eyes, in the dark of night. "Because I've felt the same way since the night you kissed me. And it's not any 'obligated' feeling, either, I really mean it."
"I do, too," he said, just above a whisper, and had it not been for the fact that we had been unconciously drawing nearer to each other, I wouldn't have been able to hear him. "And I've got this crazy idea in my head that I always will."
With our eyes nearly closed and our lips just inches away, Jeremy's little brother came screaming into the parking lot with such a sudden and high-pitched "EEEEEEEEEEE" that it scared us both and I rolled off of the trunk and back-first onto the parking lot.
"Dude..." Jeremy started, trying to speak through uncontrollable laughter, "Dude...are...are you O.K.?"
"Ow...yeah, yuk it up, pal," I said, standing up and rubbing my sore back with a twisted smile on my face. "That's as close as you're gonna get for the rest of the week!"
"What?!" he shreiked, the smile still present on his shocked face. "NOOOO!"
Jeremy's mom, along with Shelby, Lor, my parents and hers, all came walking out. Shelby and Lor had an arm around the other's waist and all the parents said goodbye and split up. I said goodnight to Jer and walked over to meet my parents at the car, but I stopped halfway. I looked over at Shelby and Lor, who were now facing each other, their arms holding them close. They were speaking, but what they said, I couldn't hear. I finished my journey to the car and got in. A few minutes later Lor hopped into her family's SUV, and Shelby hopped in the back beside me.
"I trust all is well in Shelbyville?" I asked as he buckled up and my dad started the car.
"You bet your dice, boss. It's all groovy--the whole sha-bang." After we'd been on the road a few minutes, he asked with the slyest smile I'd ever seen on his face, "So, how did you and Jer make out?"
I coulda killed the bastard right then and there.
I laid in bed that night staring at the ceiling. A dodecillion thoughts spinning in and out of my poor little brain. Mikro and Luis were truly concerned with Shelby's well-being, one of the signs of being true friends, but what an odd topic to pick to actually confront me without our mutual friend. And who the hell was Lor, and why was she never mentioned before? Was I really so much of an impact on Shelby's life that I may have quote-en-quote "saved" him? And how many different people--in that room alone--did I help indirectly because of it? Oh, and Jeremy. Well, there were plenty thoughts about Jeremy. And who in the world was Juke?! I don't know when I fell asleep that night. Hell, I honestly can't remember if I did. But I definitly remember thinking that this.... This was no typical day. And as such...it was.
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....To Be Continued.... Hope this was O.K. Any Comments or Criticism go to me at servo_blue@usa.com or inverse@mindless.com Whatever floats your boat.