Chapter eighteen - Crushed Contact

~*~

"What?" I gasp when I hear Lana's fresh news.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to go either, but I'm afraid I don't have a choice."

"You're really going away?" I pout.

"There isn't anything I can do about it."

"I can't believe you're breaking our tradition." I start to feel lonely. Although that sounds pretty stupid since she's still by my side, like she will always be.

"Look, maybe I can still make it. Maybe I don't have to miss all of it."

"That won't be the same." I sigh again.

"Come on Lors, it isn't that bad. It's not like I'm moving to the other side of the world." She tries to put the situation in a lighter sight, but nah; that doesn't work.

She's right though, I know that. Her leaving won't be the end of the world but still, it's something I wasn't prepared for. And what would I do if she wasn't around anymore?

"I'll come to visit as soon as possible, I promise," she speaks again. She holds up her fingers as she makes the promise, while the other hand vanishes in her bag of crisps.

"You promise?" She nods. "As soon as you arrive back here you come to look me up?" She nods again. "Okay, then." I'm not okay with this, not at all, but I have reached an age where I am supposed to handle these situations maturely. That's not my cup of tea.

"Plus I got you a little gift." She picks something out her purse. It turned out to be a rectangular object that was folded into purple wrapping paper. She hands it to me, saying, "This is a proof that you'd be a complete loner if you had never met me." I smile at that. It is so true, no denying that.

I open up the tape at the back of the present, taking the thing out of its package.

"Oh my god, thank you!" I fly forward and sling my arms around her shoulders.

"I knew I'd please you with that." She knows me all too well, that living piece of shit.

She has gotten me '17 again', starring no one else but Zac Efron.

And although I have seen the movie for over fifty times - not exaggerating - I'm excited to get a new copy of it, since the last one got damaged due to over-usage.

"Now you've got something to do when I'm gone." I take a seat again.

I sigh. "I still can't believe you're ditching me for New Year's Eve."

"It's not my fault that my stupid family wants to spend some stupid time with our stupid family," she says.

"I thought you'd at least try to sabotage everything, you let me down there Lanes."

"Hey, hey, hey, missy, I did everything in my mighty to stop all this from happening. I even pretended I had a broken leg, but you know my acting skills, right?"

I grin. "Yeah I had the misfortune to get to know it." She's the worst liar in the history of pathetic liars.

I throw the bag of the cookies we just ate like a bunch of crazy buffalos into the trash can. The cookies were amazing, delicious to be honest.

Geoffrey's grandma made them.

I was a little flabbergasted when he asked me if I wanted to meet his grandparents, his mom's parents. After being too shocked to reply the first few minutes, I replied with a full-mouthed yes and only two days later we were riding over there.

He told me he liked me to meet them, but I didn't get where he got the idea from. I mean, he only mentioned them once to me, when we were watching his photo album together. I admire them nonetheless, they seemed to have helped him and encouraged him when his mom passed away. They continued making the photo album, and threw parties for him. Although back then, he didn't seem to appreciate that.

Arriving there, I was so nervous I nearly peed myself. I made sure I looked good, presentable and neat, more then I'd care about my appearance any other day. But I didn't know what I had to expect actually. I knew that his grandparents knew I was coming along, so I couldn't even back out.

I got off the motorcycle and stood on their porch for a while, nearly making my Vespa collide with the ground due to my clumsiness. A delightful chuckle caught my attention.

"Don't you dare to laugh at me Rice," I hissed.

"Why are you even nervous?" He laughed again. "They're nice people, no need to worry."

"But-But, I'm Theresa's daughter, the woman who's dating the man their daughter was married to." I could feel his brain process to get what I was intending to say; it was pretty cute.

He closed the gap between us, throwing his arms around me. "They'll like you." Like that would calm me down.

I smiled up at him, unable to hide the blush that got spread all over my cheeks. His eyes were lighter than I had ever seen before, and his lips held an attracting shade of purple. Unwillingly, I licked my lips and when I had realized what I had done - and that his smile grew even wider - I turned even more red. In the meantime, my arms had found their way around his impressive torso as he held onto my waist, pulling me as close as possible.

My breathing hitched into my throat, and it did feel like my heart got stuck into my throat as well. Don't ask me how that happened.

"Geoffrey!" an elderly woman yelled from behind us, seeming oblivious to what was happening here.

"Hey Nana," he greeted her. He failed at escaping from her killer hug.

"I missed you so much," she nearly cried as she squeezed his cheeks. "It's been so long since you've visited us."

"I know." He sighed, before becoming aware of my presence. "Nana, this is Loren."

"Oh hi Loren, I've heard so much about you," she said, pulling me into a hug as well.

"Really?"

"No, I'm sorry." She laughs. "The first time I heard of you is when Geoffrey called to say he was bringing along a friend." I smiled at that, I should've known.

"So where's Papa?"

"He's inside, come on in kids." I stood still for a moment, not entirely sure if I should follow but then Geoffrey flashed me his signature smile, and placed his hand on my lower back, pushing me in 'Nana's' direction.

I gripped onto my purse and held it in my embrace, a lot tighter than necessary. Oh my, he had no idea what he was doing to me!

He was touching my lower back for Christ's sake!

Oh my god, I seriously didn't know how to handle that.

And I was even more foreign with how to handle the fireworks inside my stomach.

Much too fast for my own liking, he broke the connection as Nana motioned for us to sit down. He let me have the chair that was already placed at the table and went to grab another one in the next room.

Soon enough a man - in his seventies - entered as well. He was drying his dirty hands on a towel.

"Loren, this is my granddad, Raymond. Papa this is Loren," Geoffrey introduced us.

"It's so nice to meet you," I said politely. This situation made me feel slightly awkward.

"The pleasure is all mine," he said, flashing me a row of surprisingly bright teeth. Yep, they definitely were related. Then he turned back to Geoffrey. "I could use your help, son, the lawn mower just broke down."

"Oh sure," he replied, getting up from his seat, heading out to help his granddad. When he passed me he placed his hand on my shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze, making our eyes meet for a brief second.

So now I was left alone with a woman I'd never seen in my entire life.

Great.

Did I mention me being socially awkward?

Well yeah, I was in trouble now.

Luckily for me, the woman seemed to be a waterfall of words. "So you're a friend of my little boy?"

"Yeah I am," I replied. I'm an 'awesome friend' even, I added in my head, still pissed at his words from a couple of nights ago.

"And you're Theresa's daughter?" she asked. I was surprised to hear her say this in such a light voice. It didn't feel like she was trying to blame me, nor make me feel guilty or anything.

I nodded carefully, not really knowing what I had to expect from this.

"Quick question, do you know about uh- about her?" she asked.

"Your daughter, Geoffrey's mom?" She slowly nodded, as if she was afraid to say something wrong. "Yeah, I know about her."

"Geoffrey told you?" Her voice sounded surprised, I nodded again and then her smile grew wide. "That's great."

"It is?"

"Yes!" she said. "That means he's finally talking to someone about it, maybe he can finally grief properly now."

"I sure hope so," I admitted. I hated seeing him like this. It might have been seven years since his mom passed, he wasn't over it at all.

"Oh Loren, you just made my day!" She smiled, hugging me once again. "I hope he can leave this all behind, he deserves to be happy again."

"He does." I suddenly felt like welling up, don't ask me why.

"I know he can be a pain in the ass from time to time, but he is a great kid," she continued. "He has done many stupid things, I'm aware of that, but he is such a wonderful guy when you get to know him, I can assure you that." It was adorable how she was defending her grandson.

"I'm familiar with the pain-in-the-ass-mood, but I also got to know the real side of him."

She let out a deep breath, sitting in her chair for a few seconds. "Well, I'll start making some tea." I could tell she was getting emotional about all this.

"I'll help," I proposed but she just waved it away.

"No way young lady, that's not how things work at Nana's place." She directed me to take a seat again and not move an inch.

The guys came back inside fifteen minutes later. We drank some tea together and she served us her delicious homemade cookies. Afterwards we prepared on going back home but not before she had given us both a major bag filled with her prestigious cookies.

I smiled at the memory of that, it really was a pleasure to meet them.

"So you're seriously going to spend New Year's Eve all alone?"

"Yup," I say, reaching out to her bag of crisps.

"What the hell." She pulls the bag out of my reach.

"Oh come on llama, just a handful!" I might have eaten a lot, but I still am hungry.

"Eat your own bag you greedy pick."

"Fine." I'm still planning a secret attack in the near future, though.

"So what do you think of-" the rest of her sentence goes to waste when the unbelievably huge amount of decibels produced by a motorcycle invaded the room.

"What the-" I curse, making my way over to the window with my curious other half trailing right behind me.

I knew for sure that that wasn't Geoffrey that has just made a loud entrance, his 50CC thing might be loud, but this thing takes noise to a whole other level.

We witness a man getting off of it. The man was unbelievably tall, I estimate him around 6'4 with giant feet.

I'm sorry, but the feet were something you just couldn't miss in his appearance.

Before he could even reach our front door, it slams open, revealing a redheaded Geoffrey. He doesn't seem too keen about the dude's arriving, nor do we to be honest. He doesn't look like the type of person Lana or I like to be around.

They start to yell at each other and when the dude seems to have spotted me and Lana, we duck onto the ground to prevent Geoffrey from catching us as well.

The only things we can make out of the conversation - which was surprisingly little when you know how loud they were being- are some curses from two different voices.

As far as we could follow, there's no fighting included but we're too scared to look back up again. I am dying to know what was going on though.

"Open the window," Lana whispers.

"What?"

She points at the window, more specifically at the handle to open it. That's a good idea; I could do it without having to poke my head through the window, just reaching my arm up was enough to open it a little.

I know I might be invading his privacy by eavesdropping on him, but he is currently at a public place so technically, I am not breaking any rules.

I bite my lip as my arm rises to the handle, slowly and quietly making it move upward, as does the window. Soon enough the voices become more clear.

"I told you this before man, now is not a good time!" It's Geoffrey who said that, empathizing the last part of the sentence.

"He doesn't want to wait any longer," the other one says.

"Look, I don't have any cash on me right now."

"That's a cheap excuse, Rice," the other laughed his statement away. "And you know just as well as I do that he isn't satisfied with cheap excuses, he wants to see the cash."

"Then he'll have to wait." I can only imagine the look on his face he's currently having.

"What did you say?" Mr. Loud Motorcycle spits. "What did you bloody say?"

"I've said this over a hundred times, I do not have any money right now, come back in a week!"

"What the hell are they talking about?" Lana's shaking voice says from beside me.

"I have no idea," I say but I'm lying. Of course I have a main idea what this is all about.

"You think you're all smart aren't you? Being your glorious self, but from what I've heard, we found your weak spot." Geoffrey doesn't respond to that one.

Their voices lower noticeably and I hope they'll keep on talking loud enough for us to hear. Good thing was that they have moved closer towards the door, so they are standing right underneath my window.

"I told you: I don't have any money right now, I'll go to the bank and give you the money next week."

"I heard she's cute."

I gasp. "Oh my god, they're threatening Latoya!"

"I know," Lana says in disbelief.

I suddenly feel sorry for the girl. Sure, she deserves a punch in the head with a chair made out of steel once in a while, but being threatened by this random guy with the dangerously loud motorcycle, that's a bridge too far.

"Leave her out of this!" We hear Geoffrey hiss.

"Don't ruin my shirt pretty boy."

"Listen, I'll go to the bank tomorrow, in 24 hours you can have your stupid money."

"That seems more reasonable," a voice belonging to a grinning face said. "But I still need a little advance."

"Dude are you deaf? I don't have anything." My left leg starts to itch, as I have been sitting on it this whole time. I hope this is going to lead somewhere, otherwise I risked losing my leg for nothing.

"Come on Geoffrey, you'll figure something out, be a little creative." More silent talking followed and then a door opens and closes again. Lana and I are both suspecting that the dude would leave, but the sound of the motor doesn't follow.

"I'm going to see what's going on." I crawl over to the door. "Don't you dare touch my crisps!" I point at her, but by the evil grin on her face, I know the bag will probably be half empty when I return.

I make my way downstairs. Soon enough I hear Geoffrey going through the different drawers in the living room.

I witness him standing in front of the sideboard, bending over and taking something out of it.

"What the hell are you doing?" He jumps at the sound of my voice, but doesn't turn around yet. He just continues ruffling through the things inside. I spot him put something in his pocket before finally facing me.

"Nothing," he replies, heading over to the door.

When he passes me, I surprises him - and myself - with my ninja moves, pulling his hand out of his pocket. He's holding two banknotes of 20 dollars and one of 10 dollars.

I shift my face to the side, realizing where he just took the money from.

"You're stealing?"

"No, I'm not." The fucker is lying to my face... Well that sure hurt.

"That money is meant for groceries and stuff!"

"Loren chill out."

"No!" I yell. "No, I won't chill out, you're a thief for crying out loud! That's money my mom earned, money your dad earned!"

"I've got it handled."

"No you don't!" I spit. "You have to steal to be able to pay your dealer! This is getting out of control!"

"You don't know shit about this, Loren," he says, trying to pass me again.

But I push him.

I push him hard because the bastard deserves it. He stumbles a bit backwards but doesn't lose his balance.

"You don't just do that! I am not letting you get away with that!"

"You don't get it, okay! You don't," he hisses.

"Indeed I don't, this makes you a criminal do you even realize that?"

"I'll fix this," he says.

I shake my head, making a decision that probably is best for me. "If you go through with this, than I don't want to be around you any longer." I cross my arms over my chest.

He hesitates for less than a second before sending me a glare and brushing passed me as if it were nothing. I watch him go outside again, with the money he stole.

I stand there for another second before returning to my bedroom, only to find Lana there with a half empty bag of crisps.