I tried to keep to the sidelines, preferring to not draw any unneeded attention to myself, since the last time I was close to some of these guys was a rather violent altercation. Mia, however, had completely different ideas. She made it a point to drag me around like she did at the party on Christmas Eve, and made sure everybody knew that I wasn’t crashing her party. Once she had introduced me to basically every single guest, I decided to address Ava’s absence.
“You seem to have invited the whole cheer team, but where’s Joan and Ava?”
“Oh, Joan’s in Ohio. And Ava...” she looked a little uncertain. “I did call to invite her and bring Logan along. But she said she wasn’t in the mood. I don’t know about Logan. Haven’t heard anything back from him.”
I watched her demeanor a little more closely after that, though I could not reach a conclusion as to what it could mean. Maybe it was because she knew that I would not have enjoyed being around Logan, or she was worried about Ava.
She continued keeping me close for a while as she mingled with the different groups. I felt extremely uncomfortable. Not only did I have nothing to add to their conversations, I could also see the disapproval regarding my presence on some people’s expressions. But as time went on, and more alcohol was consumed, that seemed to change. Although I only noticed that after I was suddenly approached by one of Jack’s former teammates.
“So, I hear you’re working as an escort now.”
“What!?” I asked while turning towards the voice, and found myself face to face with Jack’s best friend. The one who got that very close look of my knee after I had knocked out Jack. To my surprise, he handed me a beer.
“My girlfriend was here on Christmas Eve. Mia told her something about your ‘hourly rates’?” he chuckled, and it was not a mean laugh. He was joking, and I was greatly confused.
“Uh ... well...” I stammered as I accepted his drink and immediately eyed it suspiciously, looking for powder residues and excessive foaming. He noticed my confusion, and his demeanor turned awkward.
“Tim, uh ... Look...” he said, not looking me in the eyes. I didn’t think he even knew my real name! “College is very different from high school. Truth is ... I made an ass of myself pretty quickly. My attitude didn’t fly with anyone from the new team, and they let me know it. I kinda learned that my shit
“You ... well ... thank you?” I was still unable to form complete sentences.
This was highly unexpected. Borderline surreal! Though, at that very moment, I realized something essential that no educator or responsible adult would ever say to a child. Beating the shit out of him and his teammates was fucking therapeutic!
Not only had I already paid them back, I had also bested each and every guy who thought he could use me as a punching bag, and then put the whole ordeal behind me with newfound confidence. I finally understood how that male bonding moment with Jack on Christmas Eve was even possible.
“I got to say, though, it looks like you did well for yourself after our last clash.” he grinned, his hand gesturing up and down my body. “Kinda makes me wonder if Mia’s joke about your job was really just a joke.”
“Well, at least half of it was true. I do get paid by the hour to be around her, just not to be
I found myself chuckling while answering him, and decided to at least acknowledge his efforts by taking a small sip of the beer he had given me. After that, though, I had no idea what to say to him. There was an awkward silence between us until Mia suddenly jumped up behind him.
“Hey! We’re gonna go down to the entertainment room to play a few games. Wanna come too?” she smiled, her eyes jumping between the two awkward guys that just reached some kind of truce.
“Nice! I’m game! How about you?” he looked at me expectantly, like he was genuinely hoping I would join as well.
As I had already realized after Nora told me about Mia’s honest efforts to change, I did not want to discourage him if he, too, wanted to better himself. And I was inclined to believe him when he apologized. After all, he had just publicly humbled himself in front of his old friends. If this was just the buildup to another ‘prank’, it would have to be a ridiculously elaborate one that somehow required them to put me in a false sense of security. Somehow, I doubted they would put that much effort into it. These guys would just jump me when I was occupied with something else.
