"Why do some men suck?" Ann asks incredulously, after Claire has spilt her guts from the incident in Forget-Me-Not Valley two weeks ago. This is the first free opportunity that they've all had to get together. She lies on her back, sprawled out on her bed upside down while staring at the two girls in front of her. "Like, how are some people just so freakin' awful?"
"It's not all of them," Popuri chimes in, staring at her reflection in Ann's vanity mirror. She twists her hair back with two small French braids, like tiny ropes, pulling them behind her ears to form a pink crown. She hums softly, as if to distract herself from how truly angry she is inside. Considering everything, Claire would say that she's taking the break-up very, very well. Or, she's just refusing to let in how truly sad she is. "Not your father, or my father, or Gray, or Cliff-"
"Ugh, don't even get me started with Cliff." Ann scowls, angrily tossing a tennis ball across the wall from her bed, repeating the action and successfully catching it each time. "The other day, he was all like, 'why don't you act more girly?' And I was like, 'well, why don't you suck my dick?' And my dad overheard; he's such a snoop. And he was all like, 'how unladylike.' As if I give a shit!"
"I haven't even seen Trent since the wedding. He's been so busy," Claire says with a sigh. "It looks like men are seriously letting us down lately." Though ever since she wrongfully blew up on her boyfriend after he stood her up on their first date, she's been very understanding of his work ethic. He's a doctor; him taking a day off could mean risking someone else's life. So, she simply calls him each morning and tells herself that she gets it. Plus, he promised that the craziness would die down soon, and she'd be able to see him to tell him everything. After all, absence does make the heart grow fonder.
Ann reaches over to touch Claire's shoulder, her dark expression softening. "I'm really sorry that happened to you, Claire. I feel like I musta seen that jerk off when I used to visit Forget-Me-Not Valley. My father stopped letting me go because of how rogue it is there."
Popuri rises from the vanity to throw her arms around Claire tightly. She's always been one for hugs. "I feel so awful. I knew something was up the second you and Gray came back." She looks into her eyes guiltily. "This is my fault."
Claire hugs her back, shaking her head. "The only person to blame is that nasty freak. But everything happens for a reason. I'm fine. I mean, I wasn't at first, but talking about it has helped." She smiles, rolling up her sleeves under her overalls to expose her arm. "Plus, now Gray's training me to not be so puny and weak. I actually think that I'm already getting stronger!"
"Call a vet, 'cause these puppies are sick!" laughs Ann, poking Claire's flexed bicep.
Claire rolls her eyes. "Gosh, you are so lame."
"You are lame for fraternizing with the enemy!" Ann says with a tsk.
Popuri frowns. "It isn't Claire's fault that when she hangs out with Gray, Kai tags along because he's pathetic and hates feeling alone." She fiddles with a thread on her smocked dress, pulling on it until it runs longer and longer. "Plus, he isn't the enemy. We had something, and now we don't. It's as simple as that."
Claire puts her hand on Popuri's shoulder. "You seem to be taking all of this well."
"I mean, I've been distracting myself to keep my mind off of things. Once Rick comes home, it won't even be hard to find a distraction." Popuri's eyes shift doubtfully. "How is Kai handling it, by the way?"
Claire smiles weakly. "Well, he totally still misses you and loves you, but I honestly think that he's doing a lot better."
"Gray, this is the fourth night in a row that he's crying on my couch," Claire says with a sigh. Sure enough, Kai is curled up in a fetal position, sobbing into a dampened pillow like she did when she was fifteen, after watching A Walk to Remember. "The fourth!"
"It is, isn't it?" Gray is chewing on what she assumes can only be his sixth slice of pizza. "Hey, if I buy a shit ton of flour, do you think you can help me make some dough for my grandfather and I? So we can actually have a decent dinner?"
Claire stares. "You're serious."
"I am. I like your pizza."
"Focus!" She juts Gray's face to his crestfallen friend on the couch. "This goes beyond being 'bummed out.' He's totally heartbroken!"
Gray grimaces, swallowing his bite. "I know. And he's seriously cutting into the comedy hour that we're supposed to watch."
"Gray!"
"What do you want me to do, Blondie?" He finishes his pizza, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. "He doesn't wanna hang out, he doesn't wanna play video games, he doesn't wanna confront his feelings. And I'm pretty sure when he cooks he just cries into the grill. I think that the only solace he finds is being around us."
Claire chews on her cheek. Given that Trent's been so busy these past few weeks, she and Gray have been hanging out a lot more than usual. Not that she minds of course; being with her best friend is always fun. But Kai's sobbing presence after his shifts are painful to listen to, especially because she doesn't know how to help alleviate his sadness. Lately, they've been trying to get him to watch stand-up comedy specials with them, in hopes that he'll, at the very least, chuckle, but so far, the humour only causes his weeping to intensify. "How does he even know when you're here?"
Gray smirks. "You know if I'm not at home, I'm with you, right? I hardly go anywhere else."
"But, does he cry like this at your place?" Claire winces at the sound of Kai's wailing. "This is sort of getting hard to watch."
He arches his brow. "If my grandfather sees him crying, he'll shame him out of existence."
She shakes her head. "You paint Saibara in such a negative image. I don't believe that for one second."
"You think people cry in front of him?"
"Do you?"
"I don't cry."
She scoffs. "You're full of it, Gray."
"I'm not. That's why I never know what to do when you start bawling." He shrugs. "But, I think Kai must see your home as some sorta safe-space to lose his shit in, given the nice, feminine environment you've got going here." He gestures toward the room, with her pink wallpaper, collection of assorted fruity teas on the kitchen counter, and vases of seasonal flowers scattered about. "Plus, I mean, you break down often, so... there's also that."
Claire shoots him a frosty look. "Crying isn't only for girls, you know. And it's good to let your emotions out. I mean, I do it all the time-"
"No. Way."
"-But even I know that this isn't healthy." She gives Gray another glare as she walks over to Kai carefully, feeling as though she's stepping through a landmine. Her voice softens. "Kai, do you want me to make you a tea?"
"No," he mumbles through tears, his voice muffled by the pillow suffocating his face. "I just… I just want Popuri back."
"Well, Claire doesn't have a flavour that can do that," says Gray, reaching for her box of teas. "But, she does have some…" He rifles through them quickly and picks one up. "Berry… Hibiscus?" Gray smirks at her. "You would have this kind of shit."
"Um, that's actually a really good one," she points out haughtily.
He scrunches his nose. "I'm more of a coffee person. And how the hell is there even such thing as a tea made of berries-?"
"Popuri loves berries," Kai sobs, rolling off of the couch and onto her floor. Maggie stops licking her paw for a moment to stare at him blankly, like even she can't believe what she's seeing.
Claire sighs. "Now you've done it."
Gray makes a face. "I'll get another tissue box."
"I'll get the mop."
The newlywed couple returns the evening after, with beaming smiles and luggage in hand. "We're baaack!" Karen singsongs, kissing Lillia on both cheeks as she enters Popuri's house eagerly. Rick trails behind her, hugging his mother "hello."
"Wow, you got such a nice tan!" Claire exclaims, marvelling at Karen's olive complexion. Her skin is so sunkissed, like she's spent weeks lounging in the Barbados. Her green eyes are sparkling too, and even her hair looks lighter, filled with sun-streaks, like she just starred in a Britney Spears music video.
Karen tosses her highlighted locks over her shoulder. "What can I say? The sun loves me."
"Wish I could say the same for you, Ricky," Popuri says to her brother. She holds up her translucent wrist to his slightly darker one with a laugh.
Rick smiles, before questionably glancing around the room. He hands his luggage to Popuri, squinting. "Hm. That's weird."
Ann frowns. "What?"
Rick stares at his little sister, standing between her friends. "Where's Kai?" he asks suspiciously. "He's normally glued to your hip, Pope."
Ann, Claire, and Popuri say nothing. Even Lillia looks uncomfortable. "My, is that the kettle?" she calls, after no sound has erupted at all. "I believe it is… let me just… go and get that."
Karen frowns as Lillia walks over to the kitchen. "What, is he working the late shift tonight? Got in debt with some gangsters who made him an offer he couldn't refuse?"
Popuri doesn't respond to Karen's poor Godfather impersonation. She's concentrating on a crack in the wooden floorboard beneath her, looking like she's trying her hardest not to cry. It's the first time that Claire's seen her wavering since she announced the break-up.
"Don't tell me his wedding gift for me was to finally move away!" Rick muses.
"He's still here alright," says Claire quietly.
With a forced wave of her hand, Popuri swallows, having trouble looking her brother in the eyes. "We, um… we're not together anymore, actually."
There is a heavy, thick pause in the room. If someone had a knife, Claire swears that they'd be able to cut through the silence with it.
"Uh, say what?" Karen looks at Popuri as if she's just announced something impossible; like she's quitting the poultry business to launder money for a drug cartel. "Tell me this is some kind of joke!"
Rick pushes his thick, wire-rimmed glasses up his nose, his expression joyful. "You mean it, Pope? You actually mean it?!"
Popuri huffs, gripping the handle on his luggage hard enough to make her knuckles turn a bone white colour. "Yeah, Rick. I mean it."
He throws his arms around his sister happily, much to the girls' dismay. "Oh jeez, this is the best news you coulda given me! I'm so glad you got that deadweight off of your-"
Popuri pushes him off of her, slamming his luggage to the floor in between the two of them with a hard thud. She bites her lower lip, spinning on her heel, up the small set of stairs to her room.
Karen glares at her husband. "You idiot," she mutters, rushing up to Popuri's room with Ann and Claire darting behind her.
"Oh snap!" Karen exclaims. She's sat wide-eyed and silent for Popuri's entire story, her face painted with shock. "Holy shit, that really sucks."
"Tell me about it," says Popuri, falling back on her bed with a groan while Claire fishtails her hair. "I haven't even gotten my period yet. I'm two days late."
"It said it could potentially delay it on the package," Claire points out. "Don't worry. It'll all be good."
Karen frowns. "I had to take it once, but-"
"You did?" Popuri widens her eyes.
She shrugs. "Yeah, it was 'cause I missed a whole slew of my birth control pills and didn't use any back-up methods of protection. After that, I figured I'd get an IUD instead. It's worked ever since."
"Which one's that?" asks Ann. "That's not the shot, is it?"
"No," says Popuri. "That's Depo-something. I tried it; it was awful."
Karen shakes her head. "I don't like the hormonal ones. I got a copper IUD; that's the non-hormonal intrauterine device."
Claire winces. "Ugh, that sounds like it hurts."
"It was such a bitch when they put it in!" Karen says with a grimace. "And to have Hardy of all people do it." She shudders. "And now I'm going to have to get it removed."
"Huh?" Popuri turns over on her side after Claire has secured the end of her fishtail with an elastic. "Why?"
"Your brother and I want kids," Karen says, poking her forehead. "Duh."
"Little Ricks and Karens running around," Claire comments with a laugh.
"What a nightmare!" adds Ann. Karen tosses a pillow at her head.
"Well, I'm going to have a word with that moron when we have a moment," says Karen, glaring at the door. "But you also need to talk to Kai."
"As if, Karen," Popuri snaps. "Besides, I don't have what he wants. I don't have the boobs, or the butt, or the hips, or-"
"He only wants you," she says. "I know he's a total doorknob, but he really, really loves you, Pope. And I can tell that you still love him. Don't be stupid."
"Why am I being stupid? Isn't this what your husband has wanted all along?"
"My husband, aka your stooge of a brother, thinks that throwing an egg into the hot springs is the correct way to boil them. He's another one."
Popuri crosses her arms with a groan. "Let me be a single pringle and exhibit girl power."
"That kind of empowerment also comes with the territory of taking responsibility for your actions," Karen chides lightly. "I know that you don't like when people play devil's advocate, but I'm just gonna say it: this whole thing is not entirely on Kai."
Claire watches Popuri's eye twitch. "Karen, if you think that I dumped him just because of that, then you're sadly mistaken."
"Alright, alright." Karen holds up her hands in mock self-defense. "Don't go postal on me. Just thought I'd give my two cents. We can stop talking about men now." Her expression brightens as she climbs off the bed to zip open her backpack. "Let me show you what I got you guys from my honeymoooon."
"Gifts? Sweet!" Ann's eyes glimmer.
Karen flicks her head. "I must have forgotten to get you something though, biotch."
Ann rubs her temple with her middle finger, flipping Karen off. "Quit buggin' out and show us, Kare."
"It's clothes," says Karen, which elicits a groan from Ann. "Actually, to be specific, it's sexy, sexy bathing suits."
"Why?" Claire has to laugh. "You have so many."
"It's an addiction. It's like Ann's collection of those nasty Puma sneakers that she loves, for some reason."
"Oh my God, Karen. Kiss my ass!"
She snickers. "Sorry, I'm on a roll today." Seating herself on the carpet in the middle of the room, she rifles through her bag. "Okay, well I got you this über cute bikini. It's stringy, it'll make your butt look great, and you can't say no."
Ann rolls her eyes. "No."
"It's yellow."
"Whatever, fine. Show me."
Karen retrieves it, tossing the dandelion-coloured two-piece at her. Ann holds it up skeptically, before nodding her approval. "Okay, and for Claire: I got you this one piece, because the last one I tried to give you had all of those slits in it."
She giggles as Karen throws her a whirl of fire-engine red fabric, catching it successfully. "Oh man! This is giving me serious Baywatch vibes." It looks like it has a square neckline, with a high leg and cheeky-cut hips.
Karen winks. "I got one for myself in green. The material is super stretchy and forgiving, so I'm thinking I can still wear it if I get knocked up."
Claire smiles. "Thank you."
She rummages through her bag one last time gleefully. "And for you, Popuri, I got a bandeau with some super cute, ruffled bottoms."
Popuri frowns. "What's a bandeau?"
"It's like a tube top, but super cropped against your boobs. It's very cute, and there's padding, and you'll look bomb dot com."
Popuri sighs. "Look, I appreciate it, Kare, but I hate my stomach."
Karen makes a face. "Why, exactly?"
"It isn't toned at all. I'm not as skinny as you guys."
"Are you nuts?" Claire lifts the hemline of her shirt, grabbing her own lower stomach. It isn't as tight as it used to be, but she's trying to learn to not care as much. Bloating, pooch, and imperfect lower stomachs need to be way more normalized. Besides, she'd rather this than be as unhealthily skinny as she was in high school. "This is called pizza with Gray at like, three in the morning."
"Pizza?" Karen arches her brow with a smirk. "And at three in the morning, eh?"
Claire makes a face. "Yeah, when Kai is crashing on my couch."
Karen pitches the swimsuit at Popuri. "Whatever. It's supposed to be gorgeous tomorrow, so we're all going to go to the beach, and we're gonna look smokin'."
"You don't understand," Popuri says with a scowl. "Kai is a total nimrod. Even if I wear this dumb thing, he'll be so busy looking at someone else's tits or ass."
"Ew, gross. Who buys swimsuits to impress boys?" Karen gawks. "You gotta wear it for you, and no one else."
She manages to smile, caving in so easily to her sister-in-law. "You always do know what to say, Kare." She yawns, crashing back on her bed. "It's getting late, and I'm so sleepy."
Ann rises. "I better get going, too."
"Popuri!" Lillia knocks on her daughter's door before opening it slightly. The girls all perk their heads up. "Kai is outside… again."
"Tell him I'm not home, again," replies Popuri, inspecting her nails.
Lillia frowns. "But, where else would you be at this hour? Just what is going on between you two?"
"Mother," Popuri huffs. "We will not go into details. All you have to know is that I truly do not care."
"Oh my God, he has a guitar," says Karen, deadpanned. She stares out the window. Claire and Ann rush over to peer through it, as Lillia sighs, shutting Popuri's door.
Ann cranks open the shutter. "What the hell? Why are you both here?"
Gray rolls his eyes, clutching a bass underneath them. "This is your father's. Kai made me speak to your father to get this. And now he wants to gift it to me. I really can't keep doing that shit." Kai stands next to him, dry-eyed for the first time in a while, trying to tune his own guitar. Their instruments are plugged in to two small amps, the cord running into an electrical socket by the side of Popuri's house. The streetlamp near them illuminates their figures like spotlights at a rock show.
"These go up to eleven," he adds, his comment directed toward Claire. She laughs, clearly getting the reference.
"Haha, from Spinal-"
"Popuri!" interrupts Kai loudly. She rushes to her window with blatant irritation, reaching up for the clasps to close it. "WAIT. I… we have prepared a serenade of songs. To showcase my forgiveness."
Popuri narrows her eyes at him. "Kai, put a sock in it."
"But, Popuri. I love-"
"-You are so fake."
"I'm not! My heart genuinely beats for you, baby."
"Don't baby me."
Kai quickly nudges an annoyed Gray, who starts to strum the bassline of that one song by Aerosmith. You know. The one from Armageddon, the one that everyone uses as their first dance for their wedding. Kai joins in and all of the girls collectively groan.
"That movie sucked!"
"I'm over this song. What is this, 1999?"
"Ah!" Kai says, panicking. "Okay, that's fine. Let's just throw it back, then." He waves his hand for a bemused Gray to cut it out, and begins to strum the opening chords for "Sweet Child O' Mine." Ann smacks her face.
"Way to play an overrated song written by crackheads."
"Hey," says Gray, strumming. "Only their guitarist was on crack."
Popuri sighs. "Kai, I'd like to go to bed. And I don't even enjoy any of these songs."
Claire frowns. "Who are you trying to appeal to anyway?"
"WAIT, I CAN PLAY BOYZ II MEN!" Kai stares into Popuri's eyes deeply. "Remember? That one song we used to-" He presses his lips together tightly when he notices daggers shooting out of her eyes toward him.
Karen facepalms. "Kai, so help me GOD, if you play 'I'll Make Love to You,' it'll be the last thing you do," she warns, but Popuri has already turned away, out of sight from the windowsill. She goes to her, as Kai rushes over to the front door, knocking on it in hopes that Lillia will answer.
Ann rolls her eyes, climbing out of the window. She jumps down, landing on the ground beneath her carefully. "I'm peace-ing out," she says, dusting her pants off. "See ya!"
Claire leans into the windowsill, sighing as Ann runs home to the inn. "That last one… how exactly did he think that'd be a good choice?"
Gray watches as Kai frantically talks to Lillia at the front door of the house, definitively asking her to deliver yet another message of his love toward her daughter. Rick stands behind his mother, glaring.
"I don't even know how you'd play bass on that one," says Gray. He extends his hand to Claire, tall enough to help her out the window of the bungalow, since she'd really rather not go through the front door right now. He catches her with the bass still fastened like a sash around him, her knee accidentally knocking a few strings. A conflicted noise erupts from the instrument.
"Oh, sorry."
"Ehh?" Barley slowly makes his past them on the street, pressing his cane with each step. "That was a good song, whippersnapper. Play another one, will ya?"
"Crazy old man," mumbles Gray, as Barely drones on, walking away. "What's that?"
He's pointing to the red, bathing suit fabric that she's forgotten is still clutched in her hands. Claire shrugs. "Oh, you know, a sexy little number, according to Karen."
"A what?"
"You heard me."
"You're hella uncool, Blondie."
Claire giggles. "What else can you play on that?"
He sits by the tree next to Popuri's house, with Claire taking a seat beside him. The stars are twinkling tonight, the moon a mere sliver of a crescent. "I'm not a street performer, you know."
"Show me!" she exclaims, grabbing his arm.
"I'm also not a trick monkey."
"Oh, stop. I didn't know you were this good, Gray!"
He shrugs. "I'm not just your regular run-of-the-mill blacksmith." He starts playing something, a grungy sounding song that she's never heard before. The rift sounds cool, though, like something you'd hear at an underground punk music scene. "I also do birthday parties."
Claire laughs. "What's this one called?"
"'Longview' by Green Day. You know it?"
"Nope." She nods to the music. "But you play it really well."
He nods, stopping to play another one, strumming very carefully. Claire grins. "My mom used to love this song!" Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell... how iconic.
"'Aint no Mountain high enough…"
"... To keep me from getting to you, baby," she finishes, tapping her foot to the melody.
"You have a pretty voice," Gray says, plucking the chords.
Claire holds her hands as if she's praying. "It's from the church choir."
Gray smirks. "You know what I wanna know? Why does the priest have to sing in church? Like, is that necessary? You got the choir for a reason; it's just so friggin' creepy."
"Why do you talk?"
"Why do you talk?"
They stare at each other before bursting out laughing. "Do you know how to play anything from the 80's?" she inquires.
He rolls his eyes. "You and your 80's." But he begins to play Queen, 'Another One Bites the Dust.'
She scowls. "Um, this is late 70's."
Gray arches his brow. "It's early 80's."
"I think you're wrong."
"I'm definitely not. You wanna put money on it?"
Claire shrinks back in her seat on the grass. "No. Because you might be right this time." She shrugs. "For once."
"I'm always right. I've never been wrong in my whole entire life."
"Oh, talk to the hand."
"Listen, my father engrained rock trivia in my mind." Gray points to his temple. "I don't get this shit wrong."
He rarely talks about his father, and when he does, it's usually followed by a snarky remark about him and his drug-addiction. Claire would like to pry, given the fact that she knows so little about his family, but she can tell how fresh that wound still is. Instead, he starts playing 'Living on a Prayer,' from her and her mother's favourite band, which elicits a scream from Claire. "Ahh! Bon Jovi!"
Gray squints at her, not looking at the instrument as he strums it. "You're like every suburban mom ever."
"This song is my favourite."
"'Cause it has 'prayer' in the title?"
"'Cause it has 'prayer' in the title," she mimics in a pitched voice, wrinkling her nose at him. "I can play this on the flute, you know. It took me forever, but I learned it!"
He chuckles. "You are such a loser."
Claire grabs his hat, turning the cap backwards as she throws it on her head. "C'mon, Gray! Let's run away and form a band together." She maneuvers her fingers into the rock and roll symbol.
"Yeah, right."
"Wanna come to the beach tomorrow?"
Gray glances at the bathing suit in her hands for a brief second, before averting his gaze to hers dubiously. "You know, Blondie, I've been seeing a lot of you lately."
Claire hugs her knees as an evening summer breeze rolls past them. Kai is still pleading his case, but it looks like he's getting ready to give up, as he gathers his guitar in his hands. He begins to solemnly sulk his way back to them. "Is that a bad thing?" she asks.
The corner of Gray's mouth lifts. "Not a bad thing at all."
A/N: PLEASE TELL ME THAT SOME OF YOU GET THE "do these go up to eleven?" REFERENCE FOR THE AMPS LMAO. That movie is honestly my favourite xD
Remember in Pitch Perfect, in the songs about sex category, they start singing: "Babyyyyy all through the night I'll make love to youuu, like you want me tooooo." Yeah, take in that Kai was really about to serenade Popuri with that Boyz II Men song ¬_¬ Yikes.
Can you tell I have a soft spot in my heart for bass players? (I'm looking at you Flea, Mike Dirnt, Pete Wentz, Victor Wooten & Mikey Way) ;) I wanted to have some fun with this chapter! Don't worry, stuff's about to go down in the next one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(Ah, by the way everyone, I wanted to take the time to say thank you for all of the reviews and support I've been getting! It honestly means the world to me :') Idk if it gives a notification when I reply on here, but I just wanted to let you guys know how much I truly appreciate it. Feedback and comments from readers honestly make me so happy, so thank you again! ❤)
