Chapter Six: Lost Ones
DISCLAIMER: Only own the made up characters. Tristan, Jesse, Wes, and Gia.
Dim candle lights that were underneath glass red covers lined the tables at Amici's and created the perfect intimate setting for five friends to catch up. Paige sat next to her older brother who was rubbing his boyfriend's leg next to him and next to Marco were the sweet husband and wife, Jimmy and Ashley Brooks. The group finished their second bottle of wine between them and grinned at one another above the flickering lights.
"We need to do this more often." Ashley proclaimed while smiling thinly across the table at her friends.
"I agree." Marco nodded. "We should try and gather up more of the old gang."
"Well, Alex is living in Wasaga." Paige shared with the group. "At least that's what I last heard."
"Manny is out in LA." Marco shared, which everybody knew, since she stared on the hot teen series Motel 72 as the young gold-digging widow, Natasha Zloty.
"Please, don't bring her up." Ashley still hadn't forgiven her for the drama they both were involved in back when they were hardly young teenagers. "It's bad enough that I have to see her on the TV every Thursday night at seven eastern standard time." She rolled her eyes that were glowing above the light. "Besides, she was never a apart of our clan."
"Well, Spinner," Dylan cleared his throat to correct himself. "I mean, Gavin's always busy. He just got promoted to sergeant." Dylan had remembered reading in the paper last week.
"Good for him." Paige smiled memories of her first boyfriend always made butterflies dance in her stomach. It also forced her to lightly chuckle. She and Spinner were such a funny couple.
"Well, no matter what it takes, I say we have an early reunion." Jimmy brought his cold glass of water to his lips. He was the designated driver for the night.
"Yes," Paige nodded. "And we should invite Jay." She stated while trying to be casual about her suggestion. Everyone's set of eyes stared her down like she was sniffing glue. That was eight eyes, all different shades and sizes, staring her down like she was foreign to her.
"What is with your new fascination with him?" Marco asked.
"Man, I can't believe he's popped back into our daily life." Ashley scoffed.
"She sent him to fix my car yesterday." Marco shared with the group.
"His son punched out Wes." Ashley continued.
"What?!" Dylan and Marco both leaned in, intrigued by the story they knew they'd hear.
"Yes, and they're teammates." Ashley continued to thicken the pot.
"What was it about?" Dylan was not foreign to fighting with team mates being he had played hockey his entire life and was now coaching the Maple Leafs.
"He's a Hogart, he doesn't need a reason." Ashley sipped her wine glass very delicately like it would break if she drank any other way.
"Jay did come into the gym at practice yesterday and apologized, though." Jimmy nodded.
"What? You didn't tell me that." Ashley turned all her attention over on her husband.
"It's not a huge deal." Jimmy shrugged.
"I wish you wouldn't put up with him." She went back to including everyone at the table in conversation. "That family is clearly a mess."
"I don't know about that." Jimmy wasn't a big fan of Jay or Jesse Hogart but, he wasn't going to pass judgment on the entire clan. "Tristan has always been very pleasant. She puts the cheer in cheerleader." He smiled.
"Who's Tristan?" Marco asked, feeling very out of the loop.
"The daughter." Said Jimmy.
"And I work with Gia at the magazine. She's a brilliant writer, very insightful and quick."
"Doesn't sound like the Hogart type." Dylan laughed.
"Well, she married Jay clearly she's demented."
X
"Jayson, please, go to sleep." Exhausted from wildly jumping her husband's bones, Gia was tucked under the covers in nothing but a pair of Jay's boxers. Her eyes were shut and she had her back facing Jay. It didn't matter though, she knew him well enough. If there was no grizzly bear noises coming from his mouth and he wasn't kicking her, he wasn't asleep and if he wasn't asleep, he had something dancing inside his mind.
"How do you know I'm not asleep?" Jay slanted his eyes at his wife.
"You think I have to look at you to know what's going on?" She yawned and rolled over onto her back and then planted her face on his stomach. "What's going on in your busy head?"
"I'm really backed up at the shop." He told her, generically. It couldn't have been an easier lie. It surprised Gia to hear him admit that because she knew him to have very dedicated work ethic when it came to his career.
"Are you going to go in tomorrow?" She asked, her eyes still closed tightly.
"I might. We'll see." Mindlessly, he picked up one hand and began to play with her strands of wild midnight colored hair.
"Anything else?"
Truthfully, Jay couldn't shake thoughts of who Jesse was becoming out of his head and the fact that both Marco and Jimmy wouldn't forgive him was causing a rough itch inside his skin that he wasn't able to scratch away. He must've been all kinds of horrible back in high school.
"No, I'm just restless." He told his wife.
"Want me to make some tea?"
"No, I will." Jay used that as his an excuse to get up out of bed and beat the built up energy out of him. He pulled the sheets off him and left his son to wrap herself up in them like a caterpillar spins itself into its cocoon. He quietly tip toed through the hallway even though there was nobody but, Gia to really wake up. Tristan was sleeping over at one of her friend's from the squad's place and Jesse was out doing things that Jay didn't even want to think about with his friends.
Scratching his chest and yawning, Jay filled up their steel kettle with water from the tap and left it on the warm element to boil. While waiting, Jay sat down on his living room coach where Gia had her work laptop sitting open on the coffee table. Usually, he'd only check his emails at work but, considering it was one in the morning and the only things on television was infomercials and reruns of the Golden Girls, Jay logged onto his account and clicked on his Inbox.
He'd sent out a few e-mails to old friends, Towerz, Sean, Alex, Amy, Manny, and the Montreal Boys, at least the ones who managed to stay out of jail. Still, nobody answered him back. He was especially hoping that Manny would've. He'd sent her three e-mails in the last month.
"Fourth times a charm." He said only to himself and began to compose another letter.
To: .
From:HogartStyxAutobody
I'm judging by the unanswered messages that you really don't care to get back to me. That's understandable, I guess. I know you're busy with a Hollywood career, but if you ever find the time to drop me a line I'd really appreciate it. My cell phone number is the same as it is in all the other emails.
I'd really like to talk to you.
Jay.
P.S. My daughter will kill me if I don't let you know, she thinks Natasha should end up with Taylor instead of Mick on the show. Or maybe it's the other way around. I don't really know.
The sound of the kettle screaming was just the sign Jay needed to send off his message and shut down the screen. Perhaps, he needed to move on the way the rest of his old high school classmates had but, he couldn't help but want to continue on his apology crusade.
READ AND REVIEW PLEASE.
LOST ONES - LAURYN HILL.