You make me wanna shut it all down, throw it all away,

Because I'm nothing if I don't have you

What's the point of being on top, all the money in the world 

If I can't blow it all on you?

Chapter 16 – I Signed Up for the Personal Slave Department

“Now guys, as much as I’m so grateful that you’ve supported all my dumb plans, you should go,” I barked to Chuck, Reed, Ricky and Nathan who were wreaking havoc in the living room.

For three seconds, they quit throwing popcorn and jelly beans at each other to gape at me. Then they picked up where they left off. Sarah would probably come in a few minutes. And I needed the house just for the two of us.

“I said, you have to go!” I yelled at them. No response. “Okay, don’t mind me. I’d just… sit here and kill myself… or something.”

Nathan snorted with satisfaction and clicked his tongue. The boys froze like someone just pushed pause on an invisible dummy remote. Like a pack of dogs suddenly attentive for orders from the pack leader. Nate just loved that—having people on the palm of his hands and using them in his own little evil ways.

“This is my house too, you know,” he muttered with a sly grin.

“And we haven’t got any cash to hang out at Gil’s,” Chuck whined, lying on the floor and making invisible snow angels.

Reed just shrugged. “Plus, Mom would keep at us to get a job if we go home,” he said shuddering at the mention of the word job.

“And—“ Ricky started to say but I cut him off before he could rant away about his Grandma.

Sighing, I fished a key from my back pocket. I narrowed my eyes, throwing the key then catching it again. It seemed to catch my Nathan’s attention. I grinned lopsidedly. He wasn’t the only one who could manipulate people.

“The key to the basement,” I muttered.

Ricky just scratched his head, throwing looks at Reed and Chuck. They didn’t mind the curly-haired chess geek. They were busy drooling at the key. Which told me that Nathan already broadcasted what waited in the basement.

“You won’t,” Nathan snorted, sporting a casual smile. But with the way his eyes twitched, I could tell he was taking my bait.

“Oh, but I will,” I bluffed.

“Alright. That changes everything,” he replied, scooting up from his seat. “Give me it and you won’t hear a peep from us. You and Sarah can do whatever the hell chumps do. Alone.”

“Deal. First, clean up. In ten seconds.” I grinned. “Ten!”

“Dude! You can’t be serious!” Chuck whined as the rest of the boys scuttled to grab whatever they can and shove the trash in a trash bin.

“Nine! Eight!” I turned away. Sat comfortably on the sofa. Put my feet up on the coffee table.  Humming a tune I made up in my head. Wow! A tune. Finally. I should do this blackmailing thing more. Maybe I’d make a whole album out of it!

Nathan was dying to get in the basement—A.K.A. my private recording studio, slash man-cave. Dad was not so keen on letting him loose on the equipment. And I knew he’d do anything to get a hold of my stuff. And unleash his wrath on them. Because he won’t settle scores with me fair and square. I must admit he was smart to not try. Whatta wimp!

Ricky passed by me with an armful of empty soda cans and a popcorn bag dangling from his mouth. Chuck and Reed were nudging each other to scoop up the popcorn from the floor. Or eat some.

“Five… Four… Three!”

“Oh, man! D’you really know how to count?” Reed asked, running across the room. He tripped on a soda can and disappeared skidding into the kitchen. Then we heard a loud bang and a series of metallic clattering.

Chuck shivered flinching. “Awesome, bro!” Then he turned to the rest of us, lowering his voice. “That has got to hurt.”

“I’m okay!” Reed shouted while staggering back to the living room. After three seconds, he dropped to the floor with a thud.

“Two… One… Time’s up.” I stood up and looked around. “Not bad,” I said, beaming at Nathan. He looked annoyed which was just precious! And Leon won this round! Nathan, zero. Staring intently at them, I pitched the key to Nathan. “Now, break anything and I mean anything, I dunno… My tongue might just slip a bit and who knows? Dad might have an idea who broke the coffee maker. You know how he loves his coffee.”

For a second, Nathan froze on his spot. If there was one thing that could make Arthur Walden incredibly angry, it’d be that a certain someone—we could hide him under the name Nate—smashed the coffeemaker on the fridge’s door when he couldn’t get it to open. How many squirrels would it take to open the damned thing? Now, I didn’t have anything against Brits and their precious Earl Gray tea. Blimey, it must just be my brother having one of those bloody dim-wit moments. But seriously. Go figure.

“Either that,” I went on grinning, doing an impression of Nathan whenever he was in a blackmail mode or just practicing his hobby of making elaborate death threats. “Or I’d tie all of you together upside down and beat you up with a golf club for every single scratch I see on my guitars and my piano, my drum set and everything else.”

Nathan just smirked and threw me a scowl before he waved the guys to pile up to the stairs leading to the basement.

“Oh, I’m so, so scared, little brother. How do you Americans say it? That is so bad! I’m so proud of you now I might just cry, considering that we don’t even own a golf club.” He pretended to brush imaginary tears from the sides of his eyes.

I sniggered at him. “Don’t worry. There’s a big whole turkey in the fridge. And it’s frozen. Now shoo,” I muttered intently. Ugh, holy turkey. Looked like I wasn’t spared by the Nate-Virus. I’d probably grow horns and an arrow-tipped tail soon.

After a few minutes, I heard a loud drum solo that sounded like it was played by drugged kangaroo from a Mardi Gras party. “I said! Not a scratch!” I growled, restraining myself from busting into the studio and giving them a taste of hell. “At least close the goddamned door!”

I closed my eyes until the noise faded out, replaced by the soft knocks on the front door. The doorbell hadn’t been working for a year now since Nathan yanked it off the wall during one of his spaz episodes. Long story. Don’t ask.

Anyhow, I opened the door and stood aside to let Sarah in. She seemed reluctant to come inside even if there were clearly no land mines under the floor. Grunting, I snatched one of her hands from the box she was holding and pulled her nearer. Her fingers were shaking a bit and they were as cold as ice. Her eyes were wide, like she’d just seen a ghost. Or a Black Widow wolfing down its mate’s head off. I’d no idea why she looked so scared when I clearly didn’t have fangs or glitter in the sunlight. Brrr… The thought just sent shivers down my spine.

Just being this close to her made me want to put my arms around her. I missed her so much. I missed us. But before I lost control, I backed a step away.

“I… I’ve come to collect,” she mumbled, looking around the house and taking a step back. “Where’s your dad… and Nathan?”

With a shrug, I took the box from her hand and took a little peek. Chocolate cake with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting. Just enough chocolate to keep me up until the end of the month. Cute. I set it on the table and offered her a seat. She tiptoed to the couch, keeping an eye at me. I couldn’t help but stare at her. Her long dark reddish-brown hair that waved a little over her waist. The faint hue of pink on her cheeks. But I guess my real weakness was her eyes. Whenever I looked at them, it was like I couldn’t look at anything else.

“Dad took off for business and Nathan,” I gulped. “…is busy destroying the basement as we speak. So technically, we’re not alone. Don’t worry. I won’t try anything on you,” I said sporting a wide smile that said I don’t like you that much to try that shameless kind of thing. I’d like to live longer, if you know what I mean.

She just narrowed her eyes, breathing out angrily. I just loved it whenever she got angry. “Can we just go straight to business?”

I sat across her, folding my elbows on my lap. Then I stared intently at her. “Okay. I’m listening.”

She drew a deep breath and shook her head after gaping at me for like half a minute. “First of all, I have no idea how I won this bet… but…” She dropped her gaze and flushed, rubbing the side of her head before raving on. “I’m… I’m really sorry about last night. About your shoes and about my unacceptable behavior. The truth is… I can’t really remember everything that happened. I was so drunk. I shouldn’t have acted that way, whatever that was and I’m sorry that I’m being so hard-headed and insecure and complicated—“

“Okay. Sarah. It’s cool,” I told her firmly. She looked so nervous I thought she’d pass out. “Wait. You… heard that?” I gulped trying to meet her eyes. I remembered saying those to Jer last night.

Weakly, she nodded, still hyperventilating. “S-something like that,” she stuttered.

I wanted to take her hand and pull her to me. Tell her that everything was going to be alright. But all I could do was smile. “It’s alright, Sarah. You might not remember it but I made a promise to be here—“

“As long as I want you to be…” she mumbled mindlessly in a thin papery voice. Like she was reciting a bookish definition that was forcefully recorded in her brain. “And I don’t know why… b-but I… I do.”

My heart just did a backflip. For a while, I couldn’t say a word. “You do,” I repeated like a moron. Stared out the window. Looked at the floor. The ceiling. Then I looked at her again with a surprised chuckle. “You do?”

She cringed. Then stared. Her eyes darted to seven different directions. At last, she nodded. I sighed, loosening my clutch on my knees.

“Are your memories coming back?” I asked, a tad too pessimistic.

As expected, she shook her head. “And that being said,” she began. “I would like you to be my contractual best friend.”

Before I could ask whatever that meant, she fumbled for a folded piece of paper from her jeans pocket. She cleared her throat and handed it to me.

I read it silently. “A contract.” I grinned at her shaking my head. This was exactly what Sarah would do.

“Y-yes. Just so we are clear about my terms and conditions,” she mumbled, looking straight at me in a very lawyer-ish way. “You have to help me remember the last two years. Or at least, try. You have to be there when I need you. You’ll accompany me anywhere I want and when I want it. You’ll act like my best friend when I need one and you’ll help me review for my validation exams. You can do that, right?”

I stared at the piece of paper. It was way scarier than I thought it’d be. Well, being her personal gopher wasn’t actually that bad. Plus, tutoring and studying had always been my two favorite things. Not! What d’you expect? The glasses were for show. I didn’t actually use them to read volumes of whatever stuff they stack up in the school library. I graduated a C student. Don’t judge.

“Yeaaahhh… that—“ I started to say while chuckling but Sarah cut me off.

“All of your other obligations are stated in there.” She pulled a pen from her back pocket. She really thought this through. “Now if you agree, sign below.”

I picked up the pen from her hand. My fingers accidentally touched hers and she dropped the pen on the table. “Easy. You look tense,” I scoffed lightly.

“I’m… not tense,” she stammered flushing. “J-just sign it so I could get going, will you? I have places to go after this.”

“Ouch,” I put on a hurt face while signing on the paper. “Is that the way to treat your new best friend? Maybe if you’re a bit nicer, we could actually get along.”

She snatched the pen and the contract from me. “Contractual best friend. The contract ends in less than three months,” she muttered angrily.

I laid back on the couch with my hands under the back of my head. Contractual best friend, huh? Not really what I’d expected but better than nothing. “I don’t mind being enslaved by you forever,” I said laughing.

Narrowing her eyes, she huffed. Something told me that she didn’t like the joke. “Well you did say you have to go,” she retorted distractedly.

With a sigh, I stiffened on my seat and looked intently at her. “What if— What if I… don’t have to go? If I don’t want to go anymore…”

Sarah took in an inconspicuous gasp, looking confused and scared stiff. “W-well… it would depend in y-your… work performance,” she mumbled meeting my eyes.

“Well let’s hope you don’t fire me too soon,” I replied smiling. “Now that everything’s taken care of, where are we goin’?”

She got up and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “We?”

“Yeah. We. This is what best friends do. They hang out. Together. Am I right or am I right?” I stepped to her side and pocketed my hands.

From the top of the stairs leading to the basement, I saw Ricky, Chuck, Reed and Nathan peeking at us. They were nudging each other to get a better view. I put my index finger and my thumb inside my mouth and whistled. That startled them and they all tumbled in front of us, one over the other. For a minute, Sarah and I stared at them while they wrestled against each other to scramble off the floor.

“Quit scuffling and get your bloody bums away from me!” Nathan rumbled from under Chuck and Reed.

“What’s scuffling?” Chuck asked, barely able to breathe inside Reed’s headlock.

Reed smirked while strangling the life out of his younger brother. “Fool! It’s a kind of dessert in small cups with burnt sugar on top.”

“That’s soufflé!” Ricky grunted from under all of them before groaning, “Oh, I’m in pain! I am very much in pain!”

“Oh…” Reed’s forehead crumpled as Chuck tackled him down shouting, “I’ll teach you about pain!”

The blond brothers rolled on the floor like dogs trying to bite each other’s tails off. Nathan got up and tugged on his red shirt that said, I See Dumb People. Ricky didn’t even bother getting up. He just sprawled pale face down on the floor mumbling, “Oh, Gran. It wasn’t me.”

Grunting irritably, I turned to Sarah. “You go ahead. Give me two seconds. I’ll just… sort things out.”

Sarah seemed a bit relieved, throwing me something between a wry smile and a twitchy grin. I waited until the door closed. I glowered at them one by one. If I wasn’t in such a good mood, I’d probably try to pick a fight. Lucky for them, I got things to do. With Sarah! Ha.

I felt an involuntary smile coming. Soon, Nathan started laughing at me.

Reed tumbled over Chuck and pinned his brother’s hands down on the floor. Chuck looked away shyly and let out a tiny eeep! Very much like a cheesy chick flick scene.

“Yes,” Reed said, doing his impression of a strong manly voice. “I shall be your contractual boyfriend.”

“But you said you’re leaving,” Chuck replied in his freakish girly voice.

“I don’t mind being enslaved by you… forever,” Reed announced, looking at me with a mocking smirk. He let his brother go and they both sat on the floor.

“Oh, Leon,” Chuck trilled, touching his brothers cheek.

That was so wrong it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand. “Kill me now,” I groaned exasperatedly while they all laughed their throats out.

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Heh... an unlikely development. LOL so there. Vote. Comment. Fan. Promote. Breakdance. Kiss your Granny. Have a cookie. See you after another 3 days. If you want to go on with the vote-upload scheme, please tell me :)

God had been unfair when he made Logan Lerman in all His likeness. *throws popcorn* Thank God.

~shim