The soft sound of classic rock filled the pool hall while the mixture of the perfume of beer and the toxic aroma of cigarette smoke gently nibbled at everyone's nose. Joe, Ann, Amay, and Lucas gathered to watch Chris take his shot. Chris took a deep breath and guided the cue stick to strike the white ball. They all watched as the cue ball hit along the edges before landing in one of the pockets and completely missing the solid yellow ball in front of it. Their eyes quickly went to Chris as he stood straight up with his cue stick in hand and just chuckled.
"Man. I may suck at this game, but nothing brings me more pleasure than hitting that white ball. There's just some poetic justice behind it, you know?" he said, laughing at his own joke.
"Is it because it's white?" Lucas added in as he shook his head.
Chris did an exaggerated gasp and placed a hand on his chest. "Heaven's no. Lucas, how dare you to assume such a racist thing. I am appalled you would assume such a thing."
Lucas just stood there shaking his head at Chris, who started laughing. "I swear to God. You are abusing the hell out of the fact you are black, and this is why we can't take you anywhere."
"No, you can't." He then turned his attention to a very confused Amay. "Amay, I am what people call an oxymoron." He proudly stated before taking a sidestep to let Lucas go next.
"Don't spread your terrible influence on her," Ann told him as she stood in front of Amay like a shield. She could see the devilish look in his eyes as he began to cackle evilly.
"I....don't understand," Amay said, visibly more confused and concerned.
"He uses the fact he's black to make terrible jokes and sorta get away with it." Joe kindly explained to her.
Amay looked up at the giant, who seemed very kind and reserved compared to the other two. She tilted her head a little. "I don't follow. Are you all not the same?" She innocently asked.
"Aww. So pure. Lucas, why haven't you brought her around more often?" Chris said, wiping a tear from his eye as he found another person to corrupt with his personality.
"If only you knew the real truth," he thought to himself as he struck the cue against the ball and caused it to spin slightly. The ball turned towards the left and pushed a red striped ball into the pocket. He let out a sigh as he realized he knocked the wrong color in the hole. Lucas could feel his right arm throbbing with pain as he rose to stand. "Alright, Amay, you're up."
"Oh," Amay said as she found herself giggling at Chris and Ann's interactions. She then turned her attention to Lucas as he called her name. She sidestepped Ann and quickly made her way to Lucas. As Lucas passed her the cue stick, she looked puzzled by it for a moment and the table. "So I just hit any ball and make it go into the holes?"
"Kinda. You need to use the pool stick to hit the white ball and make it hit either the stripe or solid ball. In this case, you need to hit the solid ones. However, don't hit the black one in the hole, or you lose the whole game." Lucas carefully explained to her.
"Oh, then how do you hit the white one. Do I swing the stick?" Amay asked as her eyes became wide with wanting to learn more.
"Well...Not unless you want to get kicked out," he joked. He then held out his hand for the cue stick. "Let me show you."
"Okay."
As Amay passed Lucas the stick, he slowly bent over and held the cue stick in a position to hit the white ball. "Since you are shorter than me, you don't have to bend that much. But you want to get to the point where you can aim the white ball and find the target." He said, looking at her then passing her the cue stick back. He then spoke in a low voice to her so that the others couldn't hear them.
"Please don't use all of your strength. Just enough to tap it."
"Oh, okay," She said, taking the pool stick from his hand and gave him a slight nod of understanding. As Lucas took a step back, she took a step forward and focused on getting her aim right. She took a deep breath and hit the white ball.
They all watched as the white ball hit the solid red ball. The red ball moved forward, hitting multiple different colors before coming to a stop. Only one ball went into the hole and caused Amay to frown.
"I hit the black one in." She said, looking down a little. She then felt Lucas place a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see him nodding.
"It happens. Let's just set up and play another round." Lucas said, smiling at her. He then watched as food was finally being brought to their table. "After we eat," he jokingly told her.
His words brought a smile to Amay's face. Even if she messed up, no one was mad at her nor expected the absolute best from her. They even joked and involved her in some of their shenanigans when they sat down to eat. For once in a long while, she felt a part of a group.
As a few minutes had passed, Lucas had excused himself to the bathroom, leaving Chris, Joe, and Ann with Amay.
"Man. I haven't seen him this laid back since I don't know....the dirty Santa Christmas party?" Chis said, asking Joe.
"It has been a while," Joe agreed with him.
"What do you mean?" Amay asked them as she sipped on her soda. She felt the room slightly change when she asked. She could see a worried look spread across all of their faces as if they didn't know what to say. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No. no," Ann told her. "It's just...Lucas is...well?"
"He's a push-over," Chris said in a severe tone breaking the silence. He then took a heavy sip of his Rum and Coke. Ann looked at him with a shocked face but didn't have anything to say. He even felt Joe shaking his head at his sudden outburst. Chris just let out a sigh and placed his cup back on the table, pushing it away from him.
"I don't mean to say it in that kinda way. I honestly will do anything for Lucas, even take a bullet. He's like a little brother to me. But he's too timid and such a big-hearted person that people easily take advantage of it." Chris said, trying to explain himself.
"What Chris is trying to say," Joe said, speaking up. "Lucas is a very kind soul, and he would go above and beyond for anyone. But people tend to take advantage of that good side of him a lot, and it also doesn't help he doesn't fight back."
Amay remembers the boss who talked down to Lucas and how he didn't stand up for himself when he said that. She didn't say anything but continued to listen and could tell that they genuinely cared for him.
"Sometimes, he takes so much of it that it does visibly affect him. He shuts down and barely speaks, or when he does, he's not there." Joe said, letting out a long sigh.
"God. I hate seeing him like that. He's like....like a..you know?" Ann said, looking at Chris.
"Zombie." Chris sighed. "Poor guy. We tried to reach him but didn't want to make it worse by mistake. He always seemed like he's always one set away from either snapping or self-destroying himself."
Both Ann and Joe nodded in agreement. Then, they looked at Amay, and this made her slightly uncomfortable.
"Sorry to look at you like that, but you were able to do what we couldn't," Joe said.
"Yea. I could see how slowly he started to change during some days at work. It was small, but now it's like he's a whole different person." Chris said. He remembered when they were on the street and barely noticed who he was.
"Definitely! He's more confident. When he's around or brings you up, he's so relaxed and enjoying himself. " Ann added in.
"Oh...." Amay said as her face slightly blushed. She felt embarrassed that they were saying how much she effect him in a good way. "I...just suggested that he....you know, live a little and enjoy things." She shyly said.
"Well...I guess I speak for all of us when I say thank you." Ann said, looking at the others.
"Agreed," Joe said.
"Diddo," Chis added.
"No. No. You three don't have to do that." Amay said as her face turned redder. Having them appreciate her made her even more embarrassed.
"Nah. You're one of us now. If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask. I wish you were older; we would buy you a drink to celebrate." Chis said, raising his glass and taking a sip.
"Celebrate what?" Lucas said, finally coming back from the bathroom. He noticed Amay was embarrassed, and all the others were smiling.
"Oh. I was saying Amay is cool, and I was gonna give her an Official N-word pass." Chis said jokingly.
"Please don't. We already can't say a lot of things because the author might get in trouble." Lucas chuckled.
"Bitch, the author loves me," Chris said, taking a sip of his coke.
Amay tugged on Lucas's shirt a little and waved him to come closer. "What's an "N-word pass"?" She asked innocently and slightly curious.
Lucas's face went pale as he honestly didn't know what to say. He just kicked Chris's leg for getting him in this situation. "It's something none of us expect Chis can say, but it's very, very, very offensive," Lucas explained to her.
"Yeah. It's a double standard word, honestly. Ironic because my race uses it so much but will get easily offended by others." Chris chimed in. "So let's not touch on that, just in case."
"I see," Amay said, sort of confused, but thought it would be better not to dive any deeper.
"So tell us something about yourself," Joe said, trying to move the conversation onto something else. "What made you want to come to America if I'm not intruding on your personal life."
"Oh. No. You're fine." Amay said, looking down at her drink for a moment. She figured one of them would ask her this sooner or later. She knew telling them the truth would be very dangerous, but she knew she could give them information without diving too much into too revealing. "I wanted an escape."
"My parents were not the best. We had money, power, and everything, but I was the black sheep of the family. When my mom talked to Elizabeth about me coming over here to finish my studies and to do a lot better, I didn't hesitate to leave them." She continued as she looked down at her glass of water.
"Do you miss them?" Ann piped in.
They watched as Amay moved her finger in a circle on the table. Her face told them many different stories, but most of them got sad thoughts.
Amay let out a breath of air as she found it hard to answer herself. It's been a very long time since they saw her or even heard from her. And part of her wondered if they even cared about her or not.
"Honestly, no. I never felt like I belonged with them. The only person I did care about was my little sister and my uncle, but the rest never really felt like family to me. I honestly don't feel anything about if they miss me or not."
Her words brought their area to silence as no one knew what to say. Lucas was taken back by her speaking about her family, and he wondered what part of it she made up and which part was genuine.
"I'm sorry for asking," Ann said, feeling bad for asking her.
Amay shook her head quickly. "No. No. You asked an innocent question. There's no need to feel guilty for it." Amay said, giving her a small smile. "It's just life, and that's why we must live in the moment," she said, raising her cup of water.
"Here! Here!" All of them said as they brought their drinks together in a toast.
They all continued to have fun and enjoy the night until it got late. After saying their goodbyes and creaking a few more jokes of their own, Amay and Lucas called for a ride and went home.
Later that night
As Amay lay in Lucas's bed under her own blanket while Lucas faced the wall, she got to thinking about her own family a little. She felt a mixed set of emotions about everything. She began to wonder if they actually missed her, did they worry about her when she didn't come back, or they assumed she just died and didn't bother with finding out. She just let out a sigh as she turned over to look at Lucas' back. She raised her left hand and hesitantly tried to touch Lucas back to awaken him.
"You alright?" Lucas asked her. He could feel her hand near his back as if she wanted to ask him something.
"Oh. Just...It's nothing." Amay hesitantly said as she backed down on her question. She saw as he was about to turn over to look her in the face, but she quickly used her hand to stop him. "Could you please stay facing the other way?" She asked him as her face began to blush.
"Oh, okay." He said, respecting her wishes. He could feel the question he's been wanting to ask her so badly start to build up. With a sigh, he went for it. "How much of it was true?"
"Say again," Amay asked, taken back by his sudden question.
"You're family. When you answered Ann's question, it felt too real to make up." Lucas explained. "Was it?"
"What if I decide not to tell you?" Amay said defensively. She moved a little in the bed as her eyes didn't look at him.
"I will respect your decision. However, I will say if you ever feel comfortable talking to me about it, I will listen." Lucas said, blushing himself. He didn't know if those were the right words to say, but his chest began to beat a little faster.
Amay went silent for a moment as she processed his words. Her eyes then moved back and forward as if she was deciding on whether to tell him or not. She got out of her cover and got under the one Lucas was in. Without thinking, she scooted closer to him and placed an arm around him. Her arm rested on him for a moment before her touch began to feel up his body. Amay noticed that he wasn't wearing a shirt, so she continued to feel a lot of the details in his body. The soft areas to the more rough parts.
"Amay....what are you doing?" Lucas softly asked as he wasn't sure how to feel about her doing this. He noticed that her skin felt soft, and he noticed how unbelievably warm she felt. He was stuck on telling her to stop or allow her to continue.
"Hold me," Amay said in an unsure voice. She paused for a moment as Lucas turned around to face her. She could see it in his soft brown eyes as the moonlight illuminated them. She saw the concern look in those eyes along with the care he had for her.
"Are you sure?" Lucas asked her. He saw a worried look on her face. She looked as if she was on the verge of tears with her red snake-like eyes. Before he could ask her anything else, Amay made a move and buried her head into his chest. He could feel her warm arms wrap around his back as she almost dug her claws into his back. A wave of warmth came over his body as she rested on him.
"Just shut up and hold me." She told him while keeping her face hidden. Tears fell from her eyes as she just laid on him. She could feel his hands slowly begin to rest on her. Amay jumped a little but allowed his arms to rest on her and hold her as she asked.
Lucas didn't say anything as he held her. He just laid there and could feel a warm liquid hit his chest. He assumed she was crying but felt best not to force her to tell him what was wrong. He just slowly rubbed her back, trying to comfort her the best he could.
"Nearly all of it," Amay said in a broken voice. She wanted to act like nothing was wrong, but she and Lucas knew it was a losing battle. "Just...Just...hold me." She spoke, trying her best to keep it together.
Lucas didn't say a word as he could feel her claws dig into his back a little more. He just pressed her into him and allowed her to cry.
"Who really are you, Amay?" Lucas thought to himself as he looked down at her red hair.