Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 28

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 35
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

"What are you doing here?"

I turned from trying to open my door. I'd really hoped that I was going to get to sneak into my apartment without seeing James quite yet.

"I had an altercation with a tree," I told him, leaning against the door. "I wanted to come home."

"Ben bringing the suitcases up?"

"No," I said, turning around again to unlock the door. "He's still in the mountains."

James picked up the bags I'd dumped on the floor and followed me into my apartment. "How bad was this tree incident? He didn't insist upon driving you back?"

He did try, for a minute or two, but we both knew I was leaving for good, so… he stayed with his friends.

"I'm fine." I told James. "Just some bruises. Wanna see?"

I shrugged out of my coat as Bates came into the room, sniffing at my shoes. "Hey, baby," I cooed. "Mommy's home."

He looked up at me, then jumped on the couch, ignoring me.

"JC has a way with animals," James informed me. "Bates loooovvveeess him."

"Bates only loves me!" I protested.

"He loves JC now. Anyhow, tell me about this tree incident and why your boyfriend is such a dick that he let you drive home by yourself."

"Look," I said, sitting on the couch next to my cat and pulling up my pants to show off my knee. It hurt like hell after driving for three hours. I'd had to stop four times to get out and stretch it.

"Wow," James said, suitably impressed by the bruising. "That is something. What did the doctor say?"

"Epsom salts and ice packs. I'll live. Looks good, though."

James settled into the chair across from me. "When was this?"

"Two days ago."

"I take it you have not discovered a love of skiing."

"Skiing sucks. And Ben's friends didn't like me much."

"Which explains why you came home early to celebrate the New Year in civilization, but why isn't he with you?"

I shrugged, getting up to see if I had any ice. "I told him to stay and enjoy himself. I just wanted to be home in my own bed and curl up with my cat."

"He didn't want to ring in the New Year with you?"

"It's just another night, James. Not a big deal."

"Another night? Then you're not invited over for crab fest, then."

"Crab fest?" I asked, dumping ice into a plastic bag. I loved ice makers.

"We're having everyone over. Mari knows restaurant suppliers, so she got us a deal on twenty pounds of crab legs."

"How many people are coming?"

"Me, JC, Mari, Darien, Jeremy, Lola, Joey and Kelly."

"Is twenty pounds enough?"

"Joey's making spaghetti and I'm doing a bunch of appetizers. We will be fine. You're gonna miss a great party, since it's just a boring night at home."

I wrinkled my nose at him. I loved crabs. "Fine, New Year's is the party night of the year. Can I come? After a long nap and a bath?"

"Yes. I will even reserve the couch for you so that you can sit with your leg up. Sit down."

I sat, wrapping the ice bag around my knee. "I'm fine, really."

"You don't look fine. I can't believe Ben didn't drive back with you."

I waved him off. I wasn't ready to talk about it yet. "I told him I was fine. I am fine. I didn't want to ruin his New Year's because I was stupid and ran into a tree."

"Ruin his New Year's? He could be having crabs with us."

"I didn't know about crab fest when I left, now did I?"

"I didn't think you were coming back or I would have invited you. Is everything okay with Ben?"

"It's fine. Could you get my other bags from the car?" I'd left my suitcase in the car. I'd stopped at a Target on the way back into the city and gotten Epsom salts and anything else that was supposed to relieve swelling, and that was all I'd brought up with me.

I didn't need anything in the suitcase, but James could make himself useful and stop asking about Ben.

He saw right through me. "Okay," he said, taking my keys. "I'm not going to stop asking about Ben, though."

"Can you give me a little while? Can I not talk about it with everyone tonight?"

He hesitated at the door, then met my eyes. "Does this have anything to do with certain pictures of a boybander and a hotel heiress?"

I shrugged. "They did appear in USA Today this morning."

"She's nothing like you, Rachel."

"And I'm sure that's why he's with her. No, I… " I just shook my head. "I need to soak this knee and then get into bed. When does the party start? Do you need help?"

"I don't need a thing and we don't start until eight. I'll bring your stuff up. Get in the tub."

I slept until nearly seven, then took my time getting ready. Luckily James had food as soon as I walked in the door, because I was starving. He got me a plate and a drink and made me sit down on the couch.

"I'm fine, James. Really. You don't have to fuss."

"Sit down and rest that thing."

"James said it looked awful," JC said, finally emerging from the bedroom where he'd been getting dressed. His hair was still half-wet from the shower and he looked great in a blue sweater that I was sure James had gotten him as a Christmas gift.

I liked that James was with JC just so I could stare at him. He might not like girls, but he was still pretty.

I hiked up my skirt. I'd worn a skirt just so I could show off my bruises. I liked the sympathy. Ben had been okay, but his friends thought I should just shake it off and get back on the slopes.

I liked my friends better.

"See?" I asked, and JC came over to examine it.

"Damn, Rachel. That looks horrible. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes," I said, flipping my skirt back down. "Ben forced me to go to the emergency room to get checked out."

"James has told me it's my job to wait on you all night," JC said, going over to the bar. "What do you need?"

"James, why are you foisting me off on your boyfriend?"

"Can't wait on you. Cooking!" James called out from the kitchen.

Or he wanted to make sure that I remembered that I liked JC. I did like servile men. Especially pretty ones.

"I'm fine, JC," I told him. "James already got me a drink and some food."

JC took my plate back to the kitchen where James was finishing up the appetizers. "You need more food."

I had finished that plate pretty quickly.

The doorbell rang, and JC came running out of the kitchen just as I stood up. He pushed me back onto the couch. "Sit down," he commanded, going over to the door.

"Happy New Year!" Joey yelled, walking in with Kelly. "You got spaghetti, right? Because I've got three different sauces here. Kelly thinks you forgot the spaghetti."

"I don't think that JC forgot the spaghetti. I think that you forgot to ask him."

"Joey asked and JC forgot," James said, coming out of the kitchen with a platter of goodies and placing them on the coffee table in front of me. "But I remembered. I'm done in the kitchen until we have to boil the crab legs, so it's all yours."

"Rachel!" Joey said, coming over to kiss me. "What are you doing here? Where's…" he hesitated and Kelly finished his thought.

"Ben, the hot lawyer."

"Ben's still in the mountains," I said. "I had a skiing accident and decided to come home early."

"He didn't come with you?" Joey asked, taking his box of stuff into the kitchen.

I needed to come up with a better excuse. I didn't want everyone to think that he was a lousy boyfriend.

I really didn't want to explain that I'd broken up with him. I just wanted everyone to stop asking about him at all.

"I told him to stay. If I had known that James and JC were throwing a party, I would have made him come with me."

"What kind of accident?" Kelly asked, sitting next to me.

"I'm a lousy skier," I told her, pulling up my skirt to show off my bruises. "I ran into a tree. I'm just bruised."

"That looks horrible! Are you sure you're okay?"

"The doctor said I was fine. I'll see my doctor here this week if it doesn't get better."

"I'm waiting on her tonight," JC said, handing Kelly a drink. "So this is the last drink you're getting from me."

The bell rang again, and JC let the rest of our party in, taking their coats while I told them about the accident and showed off my bruises.

"What is this?" James asked when Lola handed him a pan covered in foil.

"Chicken," she said. "Jeremy's not allowed to eat crabs."

"I can eat crabs!" Jeremy protested. "I love crabs!"

"I'm not taking any chances," she said. "It was bad enough spending Christmas Eve in the emergency room with you."

"What happened?" I asked, as Lola and James went into the kitchen with Joey.

Jeremy sighed, sitting across from me. "You know how I hate squid?"

"I never would have made you eat it if you'd told me that!" Lola yelled from the kitchen.

Jeremy shook his head at the rest of us who were listening to the story.

"I would not!" Lola protested, even though she hadn't seen it. She knew him too well.

"Turns out that I'm allergic to squid."

We laughed and he shrugged. "I guess I don't like it for a reason."

Lola appeared, sitting on the arm of Jeremy's chair. "My grandmother's stuffed squid is a very big deal on Christmas Eve. So Jeremy tried it, and half an hour later, he couldn't breathe."

"How much did you have?" I asked.

"Like three bites," he said. "Evidently I'm really allergic."

"So we ended up at the emergency room on Christmas Eve."

"I told her to go back to her family," Jeremy said.

"Dude, I felt totally guilty. I had to stay."

Wasn't that Lola's job, though? To take care of us? So was that because she was dating him now or because she was working?

"You could have left me alone on Christmas."

She smiled at him. "We had more fun on our own."

Okay… maybe not because she was working. Had they spent the entire week having sex?

Probably. I remembered what Jeremy was like. They smiled at one another and I felt myself blush. Memories. Maybe a little bit of jealousy. I felt a little sad when I realized that everyone but me was in a couple.

I could be in the mountains with Ben. But even with the little bit of loneliness, I doubted I'd be having this much fun. I loved these people, and I didn't love his friends. It was better for me to be here.

"Why are you here?" Jeremy asked, and I sighed, pulling up my skirt.

"You shouldn't eat squid and I shouldn't ski," I told him, while everyone oohed and ahhed over my purple and green knee.

"Good thing we're not going on the road," Jeremy said, and I rolled my eyes at him. Jeremy wasn't good with sympathy. He didn't like getting it, either, so I was a little surprised that he wasn't annoyed with the Lola for fussing over him with the squid thing.

"She'll be fine by then," Lola said, going over to the bar to get a drink.

Hey! Didn't we pay Lola to worry about us?

I guess we weren't paying Lola to do anything for us at the moment.

Was that going to get weird later? Was Lola still our manager? If she came on tour with us, would she just worry about Jeremy and forget all about the rest of us?

"Where's Ben?" Mari asked, joining Lola at the bar. Mari loved Ben.

"Still in the mountains," I told her. "I thought I'd just be spending the night by myself, so I told him to stay with his friends."

"Isn't that all the more reason for him to come with?" Darien asked, and I just waved him off.

"Nah, I've been cranky and miserable."

"Aren't you always cranky and miserable?" Jeremy asked, and glared at him. I wasn't in the mood to be picked on.

"Not with Ben," Mari said, sitting next to me on the couch. "She's always nice when he's around."

"All an act," Jeremy said. He wasn't joking, even though it made the others laugh.

I couldn't look at him, or he'd know. He'd already figured out that I wasn't in love with Ben, long before I did. The last thing I wanted to do tonight was talk about my break up with Ben. Everyone was all happy and coupley, and that was sympathy I didn't want tonight.

James appeared with another tray of appetizers. We wouldn't need the crabs, the way he was feeding us already. "I've been kicked out my kitchen," he informed us, sitting next to JC on the loveseat. "Joey's taken over."

Kelly rolled her eyes. "Don't let him fool you. He cooks about twice a year."

"And it's damn good," Joey yelled from the kitchen. "So shut up, woman!"

"What did he say?" I asked, joking, and Mari joined in.

"Does he know who he's talking to?"

"The mother of his child," Kelly said. "And he'd better remember that."

We teased Joey for a while, then moved on to talking about the holidays and eating pasta and crabs until all of us were stuffed. Darien and I managed to finish every available bite of crab, however.

When Darien and I joined the others in the living room, Joey and Jeremy were at the window, where we could see the crowd at Times Square a few blocks over. "We should go," Joey said.

"There are a lot of crazy drunk people out there," Jeremy informed him.

"And that's different than us how? Let's go! It'll be fun."

"I have lived here for ten years or something," Darien said, "And I have never done Times Square on New Year's Eve."

"It's the biggest New Year's celebration in the world," Mari said, jumping up. "We have to go!"

I took her seat on the couch, watching us everyone else got excited about the idea. "I have dessert!" James complained.

"We'll take it with us," Darien said. "We'll need coffee to keep us warm."

JC and James exchanged a quick look. In the middle of all of those people, they'd probably never be recognized, but… if they were, there could be no New Year's kiss at midnight.

"I need to beg off," I said, and everyone turned to me. "I don't want to take the chance with this knee in a crowd like that."

Joey pouted at me, making me laugh. "You can go. I'm just saying. I'll save it for next year."

"We'll stay with you," James said quickly. "I want to clean up anyway."

"Rachel can clean up," Jeremy said.

"You're going, right?" I asked him.

"No, it's good," JC said. "You guys can take dessert and we'll stay with Rachel."

Half an hour later, they were gone, the kitchen was clean, and we had a couple dozen cookies to eat between the three of us. Not that I was complaining. James flipped on the TV to coverage of Times Square and sat next to me on the couch.

"Do you need to call Ben at midnight?" he asked, and I looked into my cup of cocoa. James made great cocoa. Almost as good as my dad's.

"Not really," I admitted, and James stretched out an arm, rubbing my shoulder.

"I thought so," was all he said.

"I know. Everyone knows, don't they?"

"It's a big night. You should be with the one you love," he said, glancing over at JC on the chair across from us.

"But I don't love Ben," I said, and James nodded again.

"Knew that too."

"I wish I did."

"Not really," James said. "You think you should love Ben, and he's a great guy. But he's not for you. You need drama and excitement."

"Justin's still available," JC offered, and I shook my head.

"Too much drama with that one. And… I figured out today how much me being with Justin might hurt Nick."

"Paris is nothing," James said dismissively. "Stop worrying about her."

"You keep telling me that," I said, putting down my cocoa before I spilled it. "But I keep seeing him with her. She's been around since the moment we broke up. Before. And these pictures today look real. I can't keep thinking that it's all staged to make me jealous."

"And that makes you even more jealous," JC said, and I looked at him, nodding.

"I can't breathe with it," I admitted. "He's moved on. And I thought I had until I saw those pictures this morning, and I haven't. I had the tour and then Ben and I haven't spent any time since I left Nick getting over him."

"That's why this March thing is crazy," James said.

"It was your idea!"

"It was a crappy idea. You keep thinking you'll get back together with him in March, so you haven't moved on. I accept responsibility for ruining your life."

I smiled, shaking my head. "It's not your fault. I don't have anyone to blame but myself. I… I have to get over him. He's obviously moved on and reverted back to type. He's not going to fall into my arms in March. He hasn't spent the last four months pining for me."

"You haven't spent all your time pining for him, either."

"I've done a lot of things to avoid thinking about him." And I'd spent plenty of time pining for him, too. I had a notebook full of letters to him.

"You need to think about yourself a little," James said, and I arched an eyebrow at him.

"I don't think I need to be encouraged to be more self-centered, James," I said, making both boys laugh.

"I was thinking the same thing," JC said, and I wrinkled my nose at him. It was one thing for me to say it. I hadn't entirely forgiven JC for breaking James' heart yet.

"True," James said. "But instead of running from the whole Nick thing, what has it taught you? I mean, I liked the guy, but it was all angst and drama there at the end, and all of your relationships seem to end that way. Ben was, like, anti-drama, but he didn't hold your interest very long, as much as you've always said you want the safe stable stockbroker type."

"Maybe I'm just intrinsically fucked," I said, and James shrugged.

"Aren't we all? No, I just think you need a little time to yourself to think about things. We've got all of January free, so take advantage of it."

"And not date, you're saying."

"Maybe not date," he admitted, and I nodded.

"New Year's resolution. No sex, no dating, until I'm sure what I want."

James snickered. "I give you to MLK day."

I hit him with a pillow.

Disclaimer | Sudden Silence Website
Feedback to Authors | Tragical Fiction (home)

Subscribe to receive an email when this site is updated!

Powered by groups.yahoo.com