AN: This is probably my favorite chapter. It's kinda inspired by the song Super Rich Kids by Frank Ocean. I had so much fun writing it too. Enjoiii (:
Tommy Pickles
August 28th 2009
It's so good to be king.
I mean, so good to finally get what you want. Friends, money, girls - no limits. Literally, anything I want in life, I can get it with a wave of my finger. I could open my mouth to give a command and it would be done before I could even utter the last syllable.
But maybe I'm exaggerating. I'm drunk, I'm rich, and I'm Tommy Pickles.
The reason I feel like a fucking big shot right now is because I'm having this big ass party at my parents' crib tonight while they're out of town on vacation. I mean, they knew I was gonna have it, but they thought it was gonna be a couple people here. Shit, so did I. But, there are a few extras.
Who am I kidding? I'm in a room full of strangers right now. Not a familiar face in here, but everyone keeps yelling "Hi Tommy!" and giving me hugs and kisses like we've known each other forever. Some bitch in a denim skirt saunters up to me with these hoop earrings, swinging like pendulums, and she grinds her ass against me in a weird type of greeting.
"What's up, Tom-man?" She purrs. Quite horrifyingly, might I add, because her fingernails are scratching against my skin. She's trying to push my head into her neck or something. I try to snake away from her and grab my drink from the kitchen's island counter top, because honestly? Tom-man? How old is this girl?
I pull away finally, grabbing my special Styrofoam cup and taking a sip of the drink some kid mixed up for me earlier. It's fucking strong, but it's awesome. I'm looking at this cup like I've never seen it before. It's covered with a bunch of drawings Dil did in sharpie when he was bored. There's an eight ball, a marijuana leaf, a skull on fire, all these biker tattoo scribbles and my name written in this big graffiti-like script. It's the only thing in color. It's blue with a gold crown right over the Y.
It's fucking awesome too. My little brother is a fucking artist. It sucks though because my parents refuse to put him through art school. They think he smokes so much weed that he's lazy. At least he has a job. I've been sitting on my ass making movies and they promise to put me through any film school I want. It's really not fair if you ask me.
Speaking of Dil, I kind of want to see him right now. After prying myself away from this drunk cougar bitch, who actually looks to be in her early 40s, I slowly and stumblingly make my way upstairs into the theatre. No Dil, so I head to the balcony through the second floor foyer and there he is sitting on the ground, taking a hit from a bong with three other kids, one girl and two dudes. Or maybe one dude. Yeah, there's this chick who actually looks like a dude by the way she's dressed, so I assume she's a lesbian, but it really seems like she's feeling Dil the way she's watching him toke. Her eyes are half lidded and glassy, and she keeps moving toward him.
Or maybe she's high. Dil stands up after he clears the bong and smacks the palm of my open hand with his own. "What up, brotha?" He chimes happily and I shrug my shoulders, feeling a little looser than before.
"Nothin, man." I say, trying my hardest not to slur my words together. It's here when I realize how drunk I am. I realize the weight of the camera hanging around my neck and I hold it up, trying to flick it on. "Shit…" I mumble, fumbling with the switch. The words are warping on and off, back and forth. I'm fucking dizzy. Dil takes the camera away from me and turns it on before handing it back. "Thanks," I grin holding it up and taking a few shots of the kids sitting in a circle, smoking. Then one of Dil.
"Wow, dude. You're gone!" Dil says and he starts cracking up. His laugh is so infectious that all the kids on the ground start laughing too but it sounds forced, like they're trying to be in. I laugh at the fact that they've missed the joke. "Like, a Barry Bonds home run; going, going, gone!"
I nod and sit down on the ground with them.
"Shit, I know. I'm waiting for Mr. Charles Finster to get back so he can drink with me."
"He's actually coming here without work?" Dil asked skeptically. "Does Carter know? Is he even here?"
"Yeah, Carter's here. I told him." I explain. Dil looks surprised. There's usually no joking around when it came to Carter's business, but I knew how to talk to that guy. He happens to like me a lot. He likes Charles a lot too. He's one of his best runners. "He's fine with it. He said Chuck needs a little break anyway. You know that's all he does."
And Dil knows I'm right. The drug game is Charles' whole life, pretty much. He started dealing last year in the 9th grade after becoming close friends with Carter & helping him cheat his way onto the honor roll. See, I think the thing that makes Charles and Carter so close is their 'give-take' relationship. Charles is a smart guy and Carter is well known. Charles wanted popularity; and hanging out with Carter and me, he got it. Carter is a different story.
First of all, Carter is Suzie's younger brother. He's about 5'9, tall as shit, and intimidating. But he's very well liked since he keeps the drugs flowing and he's also a pretty cool dude if you're on his good side. You'd think to be so popular and basically sitting on a pile of cash, he'd be satisfied with everything... but truthfully, Chuck's told me how Carter has this dream of making it to med school.
The trouble is, Carter's grades aren't med school worthy in the slightest. So in the beginning, Chuck would help him pass classes by slipping him the answers to exams, even going so far to hack into the online school books to change his grades. Then, Carter started asking Chuck to help him study, you know. Sometimes to just get some one-on-one help outside of the classroom. Last semester, I think Carter had the highest grades in our class.
I hear someone yell Charles's name and I dap up my little bro and tell him to have fun. Dil simply smiles and lays back on the cement balcony, inviting me to come up later and watch some fucked up flick one of the guys have with them.
As I descend down the stairs, I see Chuck stroll in with a crew. Getting closer, I see that he's not exactly with a crew. Just with Suzie and Kimi who both are wearing unamused expressions. A drunk girl topples by my girlfriend, nearly spilling her drink all over Kimi's favorite halter. Suddenly roused, Kimi shoves the girl off into a piece of furniture, yelling a few choice words at her.
I wonder what's got her so upset as I get closer to the three of them, when the nameless girl jumps up and gets in Kimi's face. So I hurry up and wedge my way between the two of them and I tell the drunk bitch to chill before she gets kicked out. Thankfully, she leaves it at that and staggers away.
"This is exactly why I hate these stupid fucking parties," Kimi spits, her insult directed at me. I look up at her and shrug, way too fucked up to put up with her anger and I smile.
"I'm sorry, baby. Look. If you want, you and I can hang out by ourselves upstairs," I reply, touching her arm and moving close to her. "We can have some alone time."
Kimi isn't amused, so she slips away and rolls her eyes. "No thanks, hot shot." She scoffs.
I shrug again and turn to Suzie, slurring a hello and she hugs me. I've always liked Suzie. No matter how many times the boys and I fuck up, she has always been there. She's like the mother of our circle, no matter how much we piss her off and disappoint her. Despite the fact that she hates seeing me drunk, she looks happy to see me,which cheers me up a hell of a lot. "Drunk already, I see." She laughs.
"Suze, I've been drunk since noon yesterday. And it's about... 2 in the morning. I am fucked up," I laugh. Chuck laughs along with me and so does Suzie. Kimi is the only one upset so I try to ignore her. "So, what are you guys getting into tonight? Chuck...?" I look at him first, knowing that he's most likely the only one here to actually party.
My redheaded best friend shrugs his shoulders modestly and smiles. "I don't know, man. I'm sure to find something."
Kimi cuts in again, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Oh, we're staying? I thought we were gonna leave after I finished talking to Tommy."
"No one said that. Suze volunteered to be my designated driver tonight. I assumed that meant I was allowed to have a little fun." Chuck replies, obviously annoyed. "If you want to leave, you and Suze can take the Camero and go, but I actually did want to go home at some point."
Kimi looks over at Suzie for her defense, but it doesn't do much because Suzie just shrugs. Then Kimi looks at me. And I look at her; her dark, dark brown eyes and her pin straight black hair and her flawless skin. I look her up and down, and her choice of attire, and I smile. "You look great tonight, baby."
My girlfriend gives me a bland thank you and pulls me out of the room, full of smoke and lasers and loud music and drugs, and she winds me through hot, sticky beer breath and bare skin. Then we go down a winding staircase and into the basement. It isn't much of a basement though; it's my dad's office.
Coming down here, I think for a second about how my father used to make toys out of our basement, in our old house in the suburbs, and I think about living there. And I think about how as soon as he got rich, as soon as I got older, everyone changed. I think about how different my life is now, compared to then.
I can't think anymore because Kimi is standing in front of me with her hands on her hips. She's standing right in front of the glass wall that makes up most of the room and I see her silhouette against the crystal white moon. "Tommy... we need to talk," she says slowly and I nod, trying not to curse myself for not having my camera. My girlfriend, my killer babe of a girlfriend, could be posing for shots right now, in front of that glass and the moon. It would make a great picture.
My eyes droop shut and I hear myself tell Kimi that I love her and that I wish that we were fucking right now, and she responds in anger but I don't hear the words that she says.
"Are you even listening to me, asshole?"
That, I do hear. I look up and say, "Yes, Kimi Finster, I hear you." And I salute her like we're in the Marine Corps.
She shakes her head at me. "Why do you do this?" She says. "It's always something. You're always getting drunk off of your ass, you're always partying... having a good ol' time with all these people that don't even give a shit about you."
"Your brother gives a shit about me," I say in rebuttal. "Suzie gives a shit about me, Dil does. And a few of those people I don't even know give a shit about me. Those people fucking love me," I laugh and my eyes roll shut again. "So, what's the problem?"
Frustrated, Kimi does the arm-cross thing again. She stares at me for what seems like an hour or so and then she says, "You need to grow the fuck up, Tommy... because this?" She says, pointing at the ceiling where I can hear loud music pounding. "This?" She says, pointing outside to the crowded pool where I catch a few guys tossing this bitch in. "This?" She says, finally pointing at me. "This is disgusting. Do you honestly think this is what life is about?"
I laugh again and place an arm around my girlfriend, which she throws off like a big piece of wood hanging around her. "Kimi... I'm sixteen years old. You're sixteen years old." I say. "We're young. This?" I wave my arms around the way she did earlier, but perhaps in a more drunk way. "This is what we're supposed to be doing. This is what a teenager's life is about. No one around here is thinking about growing up. We're just having fun."
"You don't realize how dangerous this is, Tommy. It might be fun, but those people up there, aside from myself, Suzie, Chuck, and Dil... they do not give a shit about you or your well-being." She snaps.
When I try to respond, she cuts me off. "Here's a scenario. Say you go up there right now, run into some guys that you've hung out with maybe once or twice. They're cool and all and they have coke with them... and they're asking you to try some."
I try to jump in again and tell Kimi that I don't do coke, but she quickly starts up again.
"And you do, and you try a lot and you fucking overdose. And then what? Tell me how many people are gonna stop their fucking party to call an ambulance and try to save your life. How many of those bastards would ride with you to the hospital to make sure you get out alive? Tell me."
During the moment of brief silence that we have, I tell Kimi that I don't do coke. I tell her that I would never do coke. And while she's standing there, about to reply, I tell her that I can take care of myself. I tell her that if I did decide to do coke, I know my own limit. I don't indulge. I tell her how responsible I am for my own well-being and she just laughs it off.
"Alright, obviously you care enough about yourself. But how about for any of the people up there?" She says pointing at the ceiling again. "Or out there?" She says, pointing outside of the glass.
And I hear myself say, "Of course I care," but my voice trails off when I think about that babe I found chilling in my bed tonight. The pretty, fragile blonde that I ripped the covers off of. Her own blood leaking from her, into the thread of my sheets. I think about her dilated pupils and her glassy eyes, one so swollen and blackened that it was hardly even open. I think of the residue lining her nostrils and the large, hand shaped black and blue mark around her neck.
I think about the way she sat up and smiled at me after I woke her. I ask to take her picture. Her, wearing nothing but the remnants of ripped lacy panties, stained red. And she nods, looking up into the lens. Topless, bruised, bloody, smiling.
Click.
"Alright cool, now get the fuck out."
"Tommy, all I'm saying is... I care about you. I love you. I don't want to see any stupid shit happen to you or anybody else here. I understand that 'fun' is a lifestyle, but going overboard like this... someone's going to wind up getting hurt. I just don't want it to be you."
And as Kimi pulls me into her arms, I touch her. I run my hand down her side, against her ripped leggings, between her two thighs, and I press a firm hand against her. I rub my fingers against her clit and she stares into my eyes. Her dark, dark brown eyes. I can't see a thing within them.
"Tommy..." She says. No, more like moans. And right when she does that, I kiss her. It's gentle at first, but Kimi doesn't let it stay that way for long. All of a sudden, I find myself pressing Kimi against the glass. Her leggings are half way down her thighs and I'm kneeling down, about to lose myself between them. Suddenly, she stops me. She pulls me up to her, pulls up her leggings, her panties. Pulls me right up to her face and asks. "Are you cheating on me, Tommy?"
Damn.
Damn it, Kimi. Of all the moments to ask a question like that. I realize that I've said that last part out loud and my girlfriend brushes her hair to the side and turns, like she's timid after a moment like that. "I'm sorry, Tommy... but you know how I feel about that stuff."
I reach down, grab my hard dick and look up at her in disbelief. "Do you know how I feel about that stuff?" I say.
She ignores my little joke and walks away from me, but just far enough for me to hear her voice. "Are you cheating on me?"
Great.
Not only am I stuck with this boner, but now I have to lie. I have to lie because the truth would hurt Kimi and this relationship. And I have to lie because I don't want to lose this girl. I lie because, fuck. I have needs and they're being met. Just... not by Kimi. It's cheating, but it's only because Kimi can't satisfy me right now.
So I walk to her, I pull her back into me by her waist. I lay my head against her shoulder and I kiss her earlobe before I speak. I stroke her hair and I notice that her eyes are slowly falling shut. She leans against me and I trace my fingers along her waistline. "Kimi... You are my world and I would never, ever put what we have in jeopardy. I love you." I say, kissing her neck. I cup her chin and turn her head toward me and I kiss her again, gentle at first. But it doesn't stay that way for long.
