Chapter Seven:

Eugene Belcher was an awful person. There he said it. Gene knew he should be punished for what he was doing. For crying out loud he was dating his sister's first love/ex-boyfriend who had tried to ruin her reputation. Who was also the oldest child of his dad's biggest rival? What was wrong with him?

It wasn't that Gene deliberately set out to date Jimmy Pesto Junior though. He was well aware of the Belcher loyalty code that existed between him and his sisters and he didn't want to break it. After all, they supported him and didn't watch any shows produced by Martin or Gareth on the local tv channel after they had cheated him out of getting to produce the theme music for 'Get On Up!' and they stopped going to Cheesey's Bakery even though they made the best cream cakes ever because they told Gene that he wasn't allowed to have any more samples. They were incredibly loyal and were there for Gene through thick and thin, so what type of brother was he?

Still, Gene thought, he had tried to push Jimmy Jr. away when the boy first tried it on him. He remembered the night vividly, even though he had drunk quite a lot. It was back in June, him and Courtney had gone out to a LGBT fancy dress disco night at a bar in King's Head Island. Courtney had gone as Marilyn Monroe, while Gene was going all out as a rainbow version of Willy Wonka. Halfway into the night, Courtney had disappeared with a girl who dressed up as Cat Woman. She had thrown the key to her parents summer house at Gene and told him to help himself to the booze there and not to break anything. Knowing that he probably wouldn't be seeing his best friend until it was time for them to get the ferry back to the Wharf, Gene settled at the bar with a half-off multi-coloured drink that he couldn't really remember the name of, to scope out any cute boys.

That's when he spotted him. Jimmy Jr in the middle of the dance floor, dancing like nobody was watching. But to be honest, he always danced like nobody was watching. Even though Gene could see a few people pointing at him and laughing. He wondered if the oldest Pesto child knew or cared. Eventually, Jimmy Jr must have gotten exhausted/thirsty due to his dancing and went over to the bar. Now that Gene was up close to him, he could see that the boy wasn't wearing a costume of any sort. He wondered why the bouncer had let him in if he wasn't wearing one.

"Where's your costume?" He asked, leaning in close to the other boy's ear in order to be heard. Jimmy Jr jumped slightly, clearly startled, before turning to face him. When he saw who he was talking to his face immediately became a bit wary. Gene didn't blame him. Him and Louise didn't have the best relationship with Tina's former flame after it was revealed what he was doing behind her back. Jimmy Jr carefully dug into his pocket before pulling out a pair of sunglasses and putting them on. "I told the bouncer that I was a James Bond type of spy. I don't think he believed me but he let me in" Jimmy shrugged. "And you do know that people have been laughing at you or to be more specific, at your dancing for at least the last hour right?" He questioned. Now Gene wasn't a stranger to people laughing at him, his dress sense often got a snide comment when he was walking down the street, but Jimmy looked oblivious to what was happening in his surroundings.

The other boy shrugged in response. "Let them, I don't care, I'm dancing because it makes me happy, I didn't come here to impress them." Gene couldn't help but nod to what the Pesto boy was saying. Jimmy was a bit like Tina and her writing and him with his music when it came to his dancing. He did it because it made him happy and didn't care if it wasn't popular. "Do you want to get out of here and go talk somewhere a bit more quiet?" Jimmy asked. Now Gene blamed his alcohol soaked brain, that was still getting used to the influence of alcohol, as he had only turned twenty-one two months before, for what he said next.

"Sure."

Louise was going to kill him.

After making a stop off at the local liqour store at Kings Head Island, they ended up sitting on the beach, watching the sea roll in, as they split a six-pack of beer. The night was quiet and calm as the breeze from the sea, ruffled the Pesto boy's aurburn hair and lifted his shirt a little showing his own six-pack on his abs. At that moment, Gene could see why Tina was so obessed with him when she was thirteen. After talking about some of the crazier people at the club (laddy liberty wearing a hula skirt) and whether or not Jimmy Pesto Snr would forgive Andy and Ollie in time for Christmas (according to the younger Jimmy, it didn't look likely, his father still wasn't even admitting that he had twins), Gene decided to get some answers he was waiting for years to get.

"Look Jimmy, there's something I need to know" Gene began as Jimmy shifted on the sand. "It's about what happened with Tina in high school isn't it?" He stated bluntly. "Yeah" Gene confirmed akwardly. "I just need to know. Why?"

Jimmy refused to meet his eyes. "I don't know Gene. It's been six years and I still can't find a reason to justify what I did. It's just that something about Tina always annoyed me. It might have been my dad's influence that gave me the idea. It might have been hormones. It might have been jealously over the fact that she didn't care for me anymore and was happy. I just don't know. But it was wrong, I know that now and I deserved ten times worse then what she did to me."

"Yeah you did" Gene agreed, laying down on his back beside him, staring up at the night sky. The stars twinkled like diamonds. He remembered when Tina was reading out 'The Hunger Games' to him because she was annoyed that the films had missed several important points from the book. He remembered how one of the characters had a suit with lights in it to shine like the sky. He liked that idea, he was going to have to remember that for when he was sober and able to shop around.

"Hm" Jimmy mumered before slowly leaning down towards him. Once again Gene would like to blame his drunken brain for not realising what was happening before he was kissing Jimmy Pesto Junior. With tongue. For over a minute. And he may have been running his hands up and down his toned chest.

Screw Louise, Tina was going to kill him.

Eventually though, Gene's brain finally started working and he shoved the older boy off him and unsteadily got to his feet. "No" he mumered, "no I can't do this. It's wrong. Belcher sibling loyalty." And with that he ran off into the night. He knew that Jimmy tried to follow him but he was even drunker than Gene was and ended up collasping into the sand. Gene absentmindly hoped that the other boy would be able to get off the beach before the tide came up and drowned him. Not that he stopped and checked. He didn't stop running until he was at Courtney's parents summer home and slapping himself for what he did. His only consolation was that considering how drunk the dancer was, he might not even remember it. And nobody had seen it so there was no chance of his sister's (namely Louise) finding out. This night was just one big whole drunken mistake.

For the next few weeks he tried to avoid Jimmy, but it seemed that the universe had a different idea and kept throwing them together. At first he tried to ignore Jimmy, but whenever he was with him he felt this electric feeling pass through him. Soon the hostility turned to flirting, which turned to kissing, which led to them having sex. They were so anxious to keep it a secret. Their families rivalaries had escalated ever since the disaster between Tina and Jimmy Jnr. The only surving positive relationship between the families was Louise's friendship with the Pesto twins. But now they had this. That was probably going to cause World War 3.

Gene had no idea on how he was going to tell Tina. He couldn't just drop it into a casual conversation. But there never seemed to be the right time. Either she had gotten a fantastic new date only moments before, or she was working like a dog trying to manage the shop and finish her book, or she was helping Phoebe plan her wedding. But he knew he was going to have to tell her soon, he wanted her to find out from him and not on the grapevine. They already had way too many close calls (he almost died when Louise had come over to ask him to DJ for the wedding when him and Jimmy were in his bedroom. How she knew that he wasn't at work he'll never know). But maybe he'll tell her after the wedding. She was really looking forward to it. Let her have one more good day and then he'll tell her. Besides the wedding was only three weeks away. Him and Jimmy have been hiding this for weeks, a few more wouldn't make much difference.

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Robbie bent over the car, double-checking that he hadn't missed anything important in the check-up. Well he knew he didn't he just didn't want to leave and get sucked into the wedding crisis again. Matthew was busy calling him a jerk for not helping his fiancée (he still couldn't believe it - his fiancée) try to solve their catering crisis, while his dad looked at him in disapointment. But he did try to help. He had offered advice on a replacement venue. But Phoebe had whacked him with a wedding magazine and shouted that he wasn't going to take the situation seriously, then he had to leave. Seriously he thought it was a good suggestion. He thought she loved KFC.

Just then the sound of a car pulling to a stop outside the garage and footsteps entering the garage interupted Robbie's thoughts. Twisting around, he saw a tall, stocky boy roughly his age standing at the door. "Hey" he said, his Southern accent evident in the voice and helped him figure out who it was pretty quickly. "You busy?"

"No just finished on this one" Robbie commented, waving his arm vaguely in the direction of the finished car. "What can I do for you Zeke?"

"Somethings up with my car. I figure that it serious cause I can't seem to figure out what the hell is causing it to stop in the middle of the road. Which is not good when your on the freeway."

"Think you know cars huh?" Robbie challenged with a smirk on his face. "Know enough so I don't have to fork over cash everytime this old banger makes a funny noise" Zeke replied with a matching smirk, jerking his head over to where his beat up pick-up truck was parked. "Hey Phoebe ain't around is she?" Zeke added glancing around nervously. "No" Robbie shook his head. "She's stressing about the wedding."

He knew why Zeke was keen to avoid Phoebe, but he never held what happened in high school against him like Phoebe and her friends did. Maybe it was because he was actually good friends with Zeke unlike the rest of them who were closer to Tina. They had both been on the wrestling team in high school and often got detention together. But lately he hadn't seen Zeke around much. He knew that Zeke was working in town, but he often went out to his parents house who had moved to the countryside any chance he got to help out.

"Oh yeah, congrats by the way!" Zeke babbled. "You know the other day we had to a catering job for a wedding at the restaurant I work at and-"

Robbie didn't hear the rest of what Zeke was saying after that. His mind could only focus on one thing 'at the restaurant I work at'". Moving quickly over to Zeke, he grabbed his customer by the shoulders and looked him right in the eye. "Did I just hear right? Did you just say that you work in a restaurant?"

"Yeah" Zeke nodded. "I'm the head chef at the Creme Supreme. Ever been there?" At that moment Robbie felt that God was finally allowing him to catch a break.

"Yeah. Listen Zeke I need a massive favour. Our caterer phoned and had to cancel because they were double booked and didn't realise it. The wedding is in three weeks and we have no caterer and Phoebe is getting ready to lose it. I can do whatever you want done to your car for free if you could get your restaurant to cater for one hundred and ten people in three weeks. Please we're getting desperate and Phoebe been pretty mad at me ever since I suggested going to KFC for the meal. Come on help a mate out?" Robbie babbled all in one breath.

Zeke was silent for a moment, processing the amount of information that came out of Robbie's mouth at breakneck speed. Then for a split second he hesitated and Robbie paniced. "Look if this is about Tina, I can make it that you two don't even have to be near each other."

"Tina?" Zeke asked, his full attention on the mechanic now. "Yeah she's a bridemaid" Robbie said absent-mindly, not noticing how Zeke became much more attentive and interested in their conversation. "So?" he asked hopefully, "can you do it or not?" Zeke nodded in confirmation. "Yeah just give me the type of menu you guys want and where and what time the meal is being served at and I'll work my magic. But I expect an invite to stay at the reception after."

"Sure. Thanks so much Zeke you are a life-saver" Robbie grinned relieved. "Yeah I know and Rob?" "What?" Robbie asked. "Did you really suggest going to KFC for your wedding meal?" Zeke asked baffled. "Oh shut up" Robbie muttered before excusing himself and going to the office to phone Phoebe and tell her to calm down on the search for a replacement caterer.

The second Robbie left, Zeke did a little fist pump to himself. He hadn't spoken to Tina since after they had met at the supply store and she had phoned him asking for his help in getting a reservation for the restaurant's European dish night. But now the perfect opportunity was being offered up on a sliver platter. And one way or another he was going to talk to her and get her to listen to his side of the story. He wanted her friendship back, but if he couldn't get that, he'd settle if she just knew the whole truth.

And that's chapter seven! Sorry it took so long. Writer's block and stuff in the real world going on. Anyway please don't forget to review!