Chapter 26 : Crazy night
They spent the rest of the day to prepare the house for their little party in the evening. Luca took care of the BBQ while Street was preparing the video games and the materials to play. Hondo came in the afternoon bringing the packs of beer and some pies his mom had done.
"Charice is an angel!"
"Don't tell her this too loud, Luca. But yes she is! Be back in one hour, I've got to pick Darryl at his son's. He could see him today. Courtesy of his lawyer. See you later!"
Hondo got out the house quickly. "Hey Street, you can take care of what Hondo brought?"
"On it." He yelled from the living room.
The afternoon spent quickly. Time to organize everything and to go to the supermarket for the latest needed things. And soon Tan was the first to arrive. "Hey! Ready to take a thrashing, Street?"
"In your dream, man!"
"Who's talking about thrashing here?" Hondo was just behind. "My boy, Darryl, will smash your head in like two seconds."
"Is it a threat?" Tan asked amusing.
"Unless if I smash all your asses, boys." It was Chris coming just behind. "I told you I'm not here to laugh. I want to win."
"Oh, our girl is on fire." Hondo joked.
"You have no idea!"
"Wow wow wow! No fight before eating kids! Daddy Luca's BBQ is ready!"
"Let me fill my stomach before I crush you all." Tan passed in front of everyone and ran to the garden. Hondo and Darryl followed the path. As she walked just next to Street, Chris grabbed his hand quickly in hers.
"Hey." She told him, all smiley.
"Hey. " He answered. "You look amazing tonight." She laughed.
"Street, it's a sweat and jeans, nothing amazing here."
"Don't care, for me, it is." She grinned at him before lowering her head, a little embarrassed.
"Think we should join the others… You know…"
"Yeah… "He looked around them and as no one was here, he dropped a quick kiss on her cheek. "Couldn't wait to see you tonight." And he walked before her, letting go of her thin hand.
She followed him a few minutes later, pretending she needed to go to the toilets before eating.
[…]
Once again, Luca had planned too much food and was asking every and again who wanted extra meat or salad.
"It's Ok, Luca. I think we ate enough?"
"You sure, Hondo? Because I still get this big rib in my fridge…"
He was cut by Street. "Hold on, Luca? It was for tonight? I put it in the freeze for next BBQ!"
"You kidding man?"
"Of course, not." He burst into laughing, eyeing discreetly at Chris who answered to him with a large grin. "Look at all we have on the table, how could I guess there was more?"
Luca turned to the BBQ, a little upset. "Don't sad, Luca. There'll be other time and anyway we're full now." Street could hear Luca, grousing on his own. He stood from his chair and went to see him. "Sorry for the rib… This is just, look around. This is already a lot and all the team is replete…"
Luca nodded. "Got it, man. That's just I love to make food for my guests!"
"Know this and you did plenty tonight. It was perfect!"
"Hey Street, ready to bite the dust?" It was Chris calling him aloud.
"Don't be too confident, Alonso. I'll crush your game."
"Woooooooow" It was the whole team spicing things up.
"What about me crushing you two?"
"Ohhh Tan, my man enters the game!" Luca yelled.
"What if you're all beat by a kid?"
"Heyyyy that's my boy, Darryl! Go son, crush these swaggerers." Hondo encouraged him.
"Time to playyyyyy!" The four of them left the yard to go in the living room and start playing. Only Luca and Hondo remained outside. Enjoying the sudden calm of the place. "Thanks for the night, bro. Think the whole team needed this."
"You're welcome, man. Love to bring joy in my SWAT family." Luca took his serious face. "Any new information about this Karlsson?"
"Not really but Hicks is waiting for answers from his old informants. As Lynch does too. But the man has no other choice than to get out of his hideouts. We cut all his rents from all over the area. This means it has no more money to survive. The man will be back here in the next few weeks. And then, Lynch and Hicks will have all the information they need about his old habits and girl and boy friends."
"Sounds good, bro!"
"Oh yeah, glad we could soon move forwards from this nightmare… Speaking of nightmare, ready to see who's gonna win this competition?" Hondo concluded, showing with his chin the windows of the living room which a lot of noise and racket was coming from.
"My money on Chris, she's a boss!" Luca yelled.
"In your dream! Darryl is gonna crush all three of them! And also Tan and Street will discuss everything to prove they're right and that the others are cheating!"
"20 bucks on this!"
"Deal!"
They joined the rest of the team in the living room where Street, Darryl, Tan and Chris were playing hard. The screen was spilt into four, each corresponding to the car of one of the contestants. Tan was yelling at Chris because she just overpassed his car, damaging it in the process.
"Your fault, Tan. You have nothing to do here!"
Darryl was so focused he didn't even listen to the talking and kept his eyes on the screen. "Jim I've seen you, stop trying to steal my cars. There's plenty of them and you always come to mine!"
"Hey Darryl, not my fault if you took all the cars I wanted at the beginning, now I'm taking them back."
"Chris, stop crashing my cars!" Tan kept yelling at her.
"And you, stop using my hideouts!"
"Noooo Darryl, why did you too this?!"
"Told you guys to let my cars alone. Too bad, Street, you're off the streets." Darryl laughed out loud, followed by Chris and Tan.
"Great, guys! Thanks for the compassion!" He threw his gamepad on the sofa and got up to go to the kitchen to grab something to eat.
"Our boy is mad!" Hondo turned to Luca, smiling mischievously.
"Can't wait for the follow-up of the event!" Luca handed a beer to Hondo and they sat on the two chairs they had put aside earlier.
"Darryl, stop coming at me, now." Chris scolded the teenager.
"Ah ah ah ah ah, it's not funny when people come after you, Alonso. Well-played, Darryl." Tan told the boy with a proud smile.
Chris didn't tell a word and kept it cool. Five minutes later, she put his car out of the track. The car was dead. "You shouldn't have encouraged Darryl to come after me!"
"Chris, shut the fuck up! Dammit! You don't know how to play fair there."
"Oh come on, Tan, I'm playing fair. You just don't like to lose. Go with Street drink a beer between losers."
Darryl and Chris put the game in pause for a second and shared an high five. "Now it's you and me, kiddo. May the better win!"
They kept playing for more than thirty minutes. The battle was hard and tight. Until Chris crashed Darryl's car in the wall. "And boom! That's how you win!" She got up and started a little dance in the middle of the room.
"And you own me 20 bucks, Hondo! Come in my arms, my girl!" Luca came closer and lifted Chris from the ground. "This is the winner!"
Evening kept going on, with other games and other battles. Street won the pinball one while Tan crashed everyone to Super Mario Kart. Luca killed all the contestants to the basketball game teaming with Darryl.
"Hey everyone!" It was Chris calling the guys from the yard."Deac just send me a video of Lila's recitals! Who wants to watch it?"
They all came in a hurry from the basketball pitch and surrounded around her holding the phone. Lila was really cute with her clarinet. Of course, she was not playing very well but she really believed it which made her really sweet. Street enjoyed the moment to place just behind her and stand really close to Chris. He let his fingers ran along the bottom of her back. Just a stroke because he never had enough of her.
"She's really too cute, Deac must be proud!" Hondo told when the video ended.
"Let me answer to him and I join you on the pitch. You seem to need help to crush the other team."
"Really Chris, again this hate towards us?" Tan told innocently, showing him and Street.
They kept playing for at least one hour. Tan and Street won the fight and couldn't stop swaggering.
"Hold on, hold on. We'll take our revenge but not tonight. It's late and we have to get home. But mark my words, we won't let this like it is! Good night all, see you in three days!"
Hondo and Darryl left, soon imitated by Tan who had just received a text from Bonnie telling she was finally home. "See you in three days, suckers!" He told them, sticking his tongue before getting in his car.
"Guess it's only the three of us now!" Luca announced to Chris and Street. "Who's ready for a last pinball fight?"
"More than ready!" Chris was already in her fight mood. The night was far from over. They played for a few more hours. After all, any of them had to get up in the morning. Street won again the pinball competition.
"Told you I was the king at this thing. You can't compete." He concluded, curtsying.
"One last drink?"
"Nothing for me, thanks. Need to come home and…"
"Since when you two are you dating?"
Luca's words froze them. They came from nowhere. And to be fair, they didn't see them coming. They shared a look, concerned and scared. "Kids, I may be old but I'm not blind. You two are different since the last few months."
Chris and Street remained motionless for some more minutes. Like paralyzed. Street couldn't help but to come closer to Chris. As if doing this, he gained more confidence. Chris swallowed hard. She needed to know.
"For how long have you known?" Chris asked, leaning on the doorframe. She feared the answer but she needed to hear it. She shared a look with Jim, standing next to her.
Luca let out a laugh. "For you two being together? I'll say four weeks at least. For you becoming a thing one day? About four years." He burst into laughing. "You guys were so obvious. I mean, I'm even surprised it didn't happen earlier. You have this kind of chemistry that makes BOOM when you enter the room. And I may have seen you in the yard kissing while Chris was sneaking out like a teenager one night a few weeks ago. It helps to figure things out too."
Chris and Jim exchanged an embarrassed look. Had they been so obvious? Were they still so obvious? They didn't hide correctly and Luca had caught them. Was it the case for the others? And if it was the case, it meant everything they knew was about to change. Chris couldn't help but spiraling and turning red. As she turned the head towards Jim, she saw Jim he was exactly in the same state.
"Don't blush, guys! I didn't want to make you uncomfortable. I mean, what you have, It's great, awesome. Just fun that you didn't notice this chemistry earlier. You two are literally fire."
He stood up and hugged them one after the other. Both were surprised and relieved of his reaction. But it didn't suppress from their minds that the others might know about them. First Jim. Then Chris.
"So glad for you, Chris. You deserve this little bunch of happiness." He hugged her harder. He loved her like his little sister and was often overprotected with her. But now that she was with Street, he knew she was in good hands. Street might have been a little asshole when he arrived in SWAT, he had been growing a lot and had become a very serious man. And more important, he admired Chris more than he could tell. Luca just needed to watch the way he looked at her while they were hugging to know his guy Street was totally into his lil sis.
"Finally together! And don't worry, nobody knows except for me. I'll keep your secret as long as you want to keep it…" He saw from the corner of his eye that they were both relieved.
"What about a pizza, some beer and a movie night to celebrate this? If you agree, I stay with you… But I can go to my room for more privacy if…"
"No that's great you're staying." Street approved, nodding. "I mean if…" He turned to Chris.
"You're kidding? A night with my fav men in the world, I can't argue with that!"