The Tribuo - 4. part 1, chapter 4

- IV -

THURSDAY

The sub looked over the class and narrowed her eyes.

“Well, I see that some of your classmates decided not to show up today,” she said dryly. “Tell them that the project had better be done and turned in on Monday morning, since there will be no…”

“...mercy,” I finished her sentence in my head.

“…deadline extension,” she said.

I looked around. Besides Lucas, there were at least five more people missing today. I blinked when I realized that Julie was one of them. Huh, wonder if I should call her or something. Is she sick? I looked at Jess and wasn’t even a bit surprised when I saw her whispering something into Ally’s ear. They both looked at me almost simultaneously. Great, I thought with annoyance. They are plotting something against me. My own sister!

Before the class was over, I decided to skip the rest of the day and head straight to Jennah’s place. Need to finish that project before it gets dark. I was getting really tired of the whole thing. I mean, hanging out with Jennah was just fine. In fact, it was quite entertaining. Typing, arguing, and coming up with endless ideas, however, was starting to get on my nerves.

I was almost out the door when I heard Jess’ voice. What now? I stopped and waited for her.

“Where are you going?” she demanded.

“To Jennah’s,” I said calmly.

“Who?” She blinked with confusion.

“My project partner,” I said. “Why?”

“What did you do to Julie yesterday?” she asked, her eyes two blue ice shards by now.

“Julie?” I frowned. “Nothing! Why?”

Jess chewed on her lower lip for several seconds.

“Nothing?” she asked finally. “Really? Didn’t you go for coffee or something?”

“I still don’t see how it affects you,” I sighed. “But yeah, we did. So what?”

“Well,” now she seemed doubtful. “She was beyond distracted when she came over… And she was all…” now she looked uncomfortable. “Upset,” she finished finally.

“So, naturally, you figured that I had something to do with it,” I nodded.

“Did you?” Jess asked in a less hostile voice.

“No,” I sighed. “Jess, if I want to sneak out unnoticed, I need to do it now, okay? Can you please make something up, in case if anyone wonders where the hell I am? Look, I didn’t do anything to Julie, I swear. I did ask her for her phone number, but that’s it!”

“Fine,” she grumbled. “Just go… Oh, by the way!”

“What?” I looked at her impatiently.

“Rose was asking Ally if you guys were still together.”

I winced. Rose? Ugh, great… Rose was one of the girls that I thought was special last year. Weird, ever since I gave her the whole 'It’s not you, it’s me' speech, she wouldn’t as much as look at me. Why would she…

“What did Ally say?” I asked unwillingly.

“That you are a pig,” Jess sighed.

Right. Why did I even bother asking?

“Okay, fine… Whatever. I’ll see you tonight, okay?”

She just waved at me and went away.

****

I rang the bell and heard Jennah’s voice almost immediately.

“Open!” he yelled.

I walked inside.

“It’s me,” I called loudly.

“Come in,” he yelled. “Read the stuff I printed out, will you?”

“Sure,” I said and walked into the living room.

The place looked like a bomb went off in there. There were papers, empty mugs, and half-empty packs of cigarettes all over the floor. I made my way to the printer and pulled out a stack of paper. Jennah walked in and climbed into the chair, pulling his bare feet under him.

“Writer’s crisis or something?” I asked, glancing around the living room.

He grinned.

“Something like that. Read that, make corrections or whatever… That should take care of the rest of the damn thing.”

“Huh,” I said, scanning the papers with my eyes. “I thought you said you sucked at those.”

“I do,” he agreed solemnly. “But not because I can’t do them…” he threw a pack of cigarettes at me.

“Why then?” I caught it easily and shoved some stuff off the empty chair next to his.

He shrugged.

“I am the king of procrastination,” he admitted finally. “It gets pretty bad. Usually I don’t even get started until the thing is due in, like, two hours…”

“I see,” I muttered, reading the papers.

“That’s why I was somewhat relieved that I didn’t have to do it by myself,” he said and threw a lighter at me. “The damn thing would never get done.”

…I was finished reading and correcting in two hours, and I was starving.

“I am hungry,” I said and handed Jennah the papers.

“Go look in the fridge,” he said, turning on his laptop. “There might be some food in there, I am not sure.”

“Don’t you eat?”

He shrugged.

“Sometimes I do,” he said absent-mindedly. “Usually I just survive on granola bars, coffee, and smokes.”

I left him alone with the computer and the papers, and walked into the kitchen. He was right; there was some food in the fridge. And it was even edible, amazing! I ate three or four hot dogs and dug out a can of chocolate frosting. I looked at the expiration date. It was a month ago. I shrugged. Who cares. Chocolate is chocolate. I found a spoon and went back into the living room.

Jennah was typing away. He glanced at me and grinned when he saw the frosting.

“What are you gonna do this weekend?” I asked.

“Dunno,” he muttered without interrupting his typing. “Nothing, probably. Why? You wanna ask me out or something?”

“Right,” I hemmed and licked my spoon. This frosting wasn’t too bad actually. “No, I am just wondering what I should do this weekend…”

“What about that Julie girl?” he asked without much interest. “The one you told me about yesterday?”

I shrugged and set the frosting can on the table.

“Not sure,” I admitted. “She is boring, man!”

“Uh huh,” he muttered. “So you want an intellectual diamond in a glamorous wrapper, is that it?”

I thought about it for a second.

“To be honest,” I said finally. “I have no freaking idea what I want… That’s the problem.”

“I’d say…” he finally stopped typing and looked at me. “I don’t like this,” he said finally and I blinked.

“What?” I asked carefully.

“This,” he smacked his pencil into the middle of the paper. “You completely screwed up this paragraph…”

“Did not!” I frowned and Jennah rolled his eyes.

“Did too,” he said sharply. “Here… Read this!”

He got up and handed me the paper. I read the paragraph he circled. Well… I guess he was right. I scratched my head.

“Fine,” I said unwillingly. “Change it.”

“You change it,” he snorted. “You screwed it up, you change it!”

I growled at him and grabbed the pencil. Suddenly, he laughed and pulled the paper out of my hand.

“Break time,” he announced and took the can of frosting off the table.

I laughed out loud when he just dipped his finger into the can and licked off the chocolate. He shrugged.

“Fingers are nature’s spoons,” he said melancholically, and I cracked up again.

“I need to remember that one,” I said and followed him into the back yard.

It was almost four in the afternoon and the weather was great. I sat on the grass and closed my eyes, enjoying the sun on my face. Suddenly, my phone rang. I pulled it out and flipped it open.

“Hello,” I muttered and opened my eyes.

Jennah was licking chocolate off his fingers and he looked very serious.

“Matt?” someone said on the other end of the line.

“Yeah,” I frowned. Who is that?

“Hey, it’s Rose… Remember me?”

Ugh.

“Yeah… Hey, Rose,” I sighed.

“Hey, what are you doing this Saturday?” she sounded so cheerful that it made my teeth ache.

“I am busy,” I said immediately. I managed to soak some regret into that though.

“Oh…” Now she sounded disappointed.

“Why?” I asked, trying not to laugh at Jennah wiping his hand on the grass.

“Oh…” she sighed. “Just wanted to see if you maybe wanna hang out or something… I mean, the last time we hung out was, like, forever ago, right?”

“Err…” I said.

“Come on!” she laughed. “It’ll be fun! We could… You know… Go to the park or something…”

I frowned. What the hell is up with her? Why is she trying so hard all of a sudden?

“Umm,” I said finally. “I don’t know, Rose… I mean, yeah… Sounds good, sure…”

“Awesome!” she squealed immediately and I sighed.

“But hey,” I said, surprising myself. “I will call you about it, okay? I mean, I don’t know if I’ll be actually free on Saturday.”

“Oh, come on, Matt,” I could actually hear her pouting right now, can you believe that? “I mean, what can you possibly be doing on Saturday night that is soooo important?”

“What time on Saturday?” Man, I am such a pushover sometimes!

“How about seven or seven-thirty?”

“Okay, seven-thirty on Saturday… Sounds good. But Rose, I’ll call you to confirm, okay? I am not promising anything…”

“Sure, sure,” she laughed. “Talk to you later!”

I shut my phone and frowned at it. Maybe I should just turn it off. Forever. Yeah, that sounds good.

“Rose?” Jennah looked at me with curiosity. “What about Julie?”

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Julie might be a lesser evil, to be honest.”

My phone rang again and I felt trapped. Jennah rolled his eyes, got up, and took it out of my hand. He turned it off and threw it in my lap.

“Here,” he smirked. “Simple, really.”

“What the hell…” I frowned.

“Break’s over,” he announced. “Come on. Move it!”

I followed him inside, thinking that for some strange reason, I didn't even feel like getting mad at him. In fact, it made me feel relieved when he turned off my phone. Hell, maybe I should just spend the weekend with him and send everyone else to hell? I mean, we could watch some crappy movies, eat frosting out of the can, and I wouldn’t have to worry about the following morning and endless phone calls…

*****

“And…” Jennah paused for almost a minute, his fingers flying all over the keyboard. “Done!” he said finally and hit the Print button.

“How many pages?” I asked with genuine interest.

He looked up at me and grinned.

“Twenty four,” he said smugly and I whistled.

“You serious?”

“Yup,” he got off the chair and walked to the printer. “Even though I was the one fixing that damn paragraph…”

“Since you didn’t like what I did…” I shrugged.

“Yeah, yeah…” he waved his hand at me. “What time is it?”

“Err…” I glanced at my watch. “Holy crap! It’s eight-thirty!”

“Cool,” he nodded calmly.

Suddenly, the printer made a whining noise and stopped humming altogether. Jennah frowned.

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered.

“Paper jam?” I asked.

“Uh huh,” he nodded and lifted the lid.

He pulled almost the entire jammed page out, when it decided to rip apart in his hand.

“Dammit!” he hissed. “Great! Now it’s stuck even worse!”

“Way to go,” I said sarcastically and walked to the printer.

Hmm, he was right. It was jammed pretty bad. I looked at it thoughtfully for several minutes.

“Okay,” I said finally. “Pull this thing up, will you?”

He obediently pulled up the little black stripe of rubber that was running along the edge of the cartridge. I grabbed the tiny piece of paper that was sticking out, and pulled it forward so carefully as if I were disarming a bomb. Finally, the paper came out.

“Ha,” I said seriously.

“Excellent,” Jennah smiled. “Oh hey, you’ve got ink all over you hands now…”

Yup, he was right. My hands looked like I just got into a box of coals or something. Of course, right then my nose itched, and of course, I scratched it without even thinking.

“Umm…” Jennah started to laugh. “Ink, remember?”

I groaned. Right, ink… Jennah laughed again.

“Here…” he said finally and rubbed his finger on my face. “It’ll come off, hold on…”

I blinked when suddenly his finger lingered on my upper lip. It still smelled like the chocolate frosting that he was licking off it earlier. I looked at him in confusion. His face suddenly grew very serious.

“What…” I muttered. “Jennah, what are you doing? Hey, hold on just a…”

I never finished that sentence because all of a sudden, he was really close to me, and I realized that I never noticed before that his eyes were light-green. Before I could say anything else, his mouth was on mine, and his fingers slowly traveled towards my hair. Oh, Jesus Christ… Is this really happening?

I stood there, frozen, and then his tongue slowly traced my lip. That brought me back to life and I weakly pushed him away.

“What…” I muttered in astonishment. “What are you doing?”

He closed his eyes and just stood there, his breathing shallow. I couldn’t believe this. Is this a joke of some sort? God…

Jennah bit his lip.

“Sorry…” he muttered finally. “Look, just…”

And then I have no idea what the hell happened and why, but I just pulled him towards myself, and now it was his turn to stare at me in shock. Except, he didn’t push me away. He buried his fingers in my hair and kissed me back, his mouth hungry and cautious at the same time. My inner voice tried to squeak something reasonable, but after a few tries, it simply gave up. I didn’t blame it. I mean, I had no idea why and what the hell I was doing, but for some very bizarre reason, it didn’t feel wrong.

Jennah’s lips weren’t as soft as any girl’s I’ve been with, but they weren’t too rough either. His tongue started tracing my mouth once again, and this time I felt shivers running down my spine. We kissed for almost half an hour, and then his mouth ran down to my neck, and oh my God, did it feel good…

I stopped thinking altogether, and just kept stroking his hair. After a while, he traveled back up to my face, and I couldn’t get enough of his taste. I have no idea how much time has passed, but finally, I realized something and pulled away. Both of us were breathing like two heavy lifters, and my heart was beating so fast that I could feel it in my throat.

“I need…” I muttered weakly. “I… Need…”

“Yeah…” he muttered as weakly as me. “Yeah, sure…”

“I need… To make a phone call,” I finished finally, and he blinked.

“Sure,” he breathed after several seconds and handed me his phone, since I forgot what the hell I did with mine.

I took the phone out of his hand, and when his fingers lingered on mine, I didn’t pull them away. Finally, I shook my head and got that damn phone close enough so I could punch in my home number.

“Please, please, please…” I was thinking. “Please, Jess… Jess, pick it up… Don’t let Mom get it… Jess…”

“Hello?” she said and I exhaled with great relief. I guess the twin thing comes in quite handy once in a while.

“Hey, Jess, It’s me…” I tried to breathe normally but -- alas! -- to no freaking avail.

“Matt?” she sounded concerned right now. “Jesus, Matt, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I said quickly. “Nothing is wrong… Is Mom someplace nearby?”

“Ummm… No, she is watching TV upstairs… Why? Where are you?”

“Jess, I am going to…” I coughed and looked at Lucas who stood several inches away from me; his breathing was even worse than mine, eyes closed. Uh huh, some help he would be…

“Jess, I am staying at the friend’s house tonight, okay?”

Oh sure, now that I said that, his eyes immediately flew wide open.

“Friend’s house?” her voice was getting dangerously loud.

“Jess, please! Just make something up for Mom, will you? Please?”

“It’s Julie’s house, isn’t it?” she hissed angrily, but at least she took it down a notch.

“No, no, Jess… Not Julie… Look, I am staying at Lucas’ house tonight… Jennah, remember him…? Yes, the project… Well, it’s almost finished, and we figured that if we pulled an all-nighter, we’d finish the damn thing for sure, okay? Jess, just cover for me… Please!”

“Hold on a second,” she almost whispered into the phone. “You are going to pull an all-nighter in Jennah’s house? To finish the project?”

“Yeah… That’s it…”

“Well, that makes perfect sense,” she said very calmly, but I knew my sister as well as she knew me. I could feel the interrogation looming on the horizon. “So you are breathing like that because… Let me see… You finally figured out how to work Word Processor?”

Yup, here it comes.

“Right... It makes sense, good. Look, I owe you a huge one if you cover for me…”

“Oh, I will cover for you…” she said, and I almost laughed at the amount of glee in her voice. “But can you at least tell me who are you with…? At Jennah’s house? Who is the girl?”

“Jess…” I coughed. “No girl. We are seriously working on the damn project…”

“No girl…” she sounded very thoughtful now. “And you are pulling an all-nighter in Jennah’s house to finish a project… No girl…”

“Jesus Christ on the tricycle!” I hissed at her. “No girl, Jess… Look, I gotta go…” I stuttered when I felt Lucas’ mouth on the back of my neck. Oh God, that one kiss turned my legs into jelly.

“Oh my-Lord-Jesus-Savior-Almighty-God…”

“Jess, shut up…” I moaned for obvious reasons. “Please…”

“You and… and…God…”

“No, not me and… oh, God…”

“You and Jennah?!” she hissed, and all I could come up with was:

“Uh huh…Uh ohhh…”

“Matt!!”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jess, bye…” I muttered and dropped the phone on the floor.

I think Lucas actually managed to turn it off, but maybe he didn’t. The phone was not anywhere near my mind right then -- the only thing that mattered was Lucas. His mouth, his hands, his fingers that were unbuttoning my shirt with envious speed... The other thing -- well, things -- that mattered were my own fingers that were undoing his belt buckle so swiftly and professionally, that even I was impressed.

And then we just collapsed on his couch, that turned out to be quite comfortable, and the rest of the very short night was… Ugh, tell you what. Whatever happened, it’s going to stay between Lucas and me, all right? But that night was really too damn short.