"Are you sure that your mum will let you sleep over?" I ask her dubiously.
"Yeah, of course. She won't mind at all," she assures me with a smile.
Looking at all the bags surrounding her, an overwhelming feeling builds up in my chest. It looks as if planned to stay here for a much longer period than the weekend. I believe you need these many bags to go overseas or on vacation or when you stay over at your grandma's for the summer holidays.
Taylor did not even inform me that she was going to come over. She just showed up out of nowhere. The proper thing to do would be to tell me that she was coming over so that I could at least clean up my room. It currently looks like a tornado ran through there.
I guess now I have no choice but to let her in. You know, when I called her earlier on to tell her that my mum finally agreed to let me have a sleepover because I jokingly complained about Chu Hua being her favourite child and that is why she gets to invite her friends over and go over for sleepovers, I meant that we would decide to do it later on. Not now.
When she gives me a look which silently tells me that I should get on with it, I halfheartedly walk past the doorway and get the bags, dragging the heavy items inside.
"As I was saying, she lets me do stuff like this all the time, Seong Jin. Besides, when I heard that your mum finally agreed for this sleepover to happen, I couldn't contain myself."
"And you packed your entire wardrobe just for the weekend?" I grumble out, struggling with her baggage.
"Yeah, man. This weekend is going to fucking rock."
A few hours later…
"This weekend sucks," she drawls out, slouching into the sofa as I blankly stare at an informercial playing on television.
"I did say it would be pointless coming over so soon. You blew your wad too soon, Taylor."
"I actually did. How come there is nothing to do here?"
Helpfully, I suggest, "You want to watch Twilight?"
"Nah, it isn't as hilarious to make fun of it as it was back then. It's actually quite frustrating that I can't hear them speaking and even when I do hear what they are saying, well... need I say more?"
"The Fault in Our Stars?"
"Too heartbreaking for my weak heart."
"True," I agree just for the sake of agreeing. The truth is, I might be the only person in existence who actually didn't cry at the end of the movie. Perhaps a second watch will open the floodgates.
"Also, kind of ruined after I read The Fault in Our Pants."
I gasp playfully. "You read something?"
She shoves me into the arm of the sofa. "Shut up!"
I chuckle in hilarity and move back to occupy my previous spot.
"Junk food?" she muses out of the blue after a moment of quiet.
"That's it," I exclaim, snapping my fingers. "We just need junk food. Taylor, I don't say this often enough, but you're a gen—that was a great thought."
"Well, I don't like to brag or anything, but I did just recently get accepted into community college," she says, smirking smugly.
"Really?"
"Well… I'm still on the waiting list, but it's almost looking good."
I smile in amusement and say, "So basically, you just have to drive us to the store, and we'll get—"
"Wait, why am I the one driving?" she interrupts me, frowning in bemusement.
"What do you mean, why are you driving? You know that I can't drive without instructions and you're not exactly very good at giving people instructions. You'd much rather ask me if I should check my mirrors before driving or if I should change gears."
"Well, I mean, it's your choice." She shrugs indifferently. "If you want to change gears then change the flipping gears."
"Yeah, so you're driving."
"I'm not driving. I'm tired."
"Well, I'm not driving either."
A silence drones on between us, as we both challengingly stare at the other, waiting for someone to concede. All I know is that person is not going to be me.
A few minutes later…
"So let me get this straight," he starts, finally staring up at the both of us from his bed as he stops flipping through his magazine, "you guys want me to drop everything, get my fat arse off this bed and drive you two all the way to the shops in this rainy weather?"
"Yes please," Taylor says, grinning brightly at him.
"No."
"Yang Jin, don't be such a dickhead. We're having our first ever sleepover. The least you could do is help us get us some candy and snacks."
While pressing a fist against my mouth as if to muffle my words, I bluntly point out to my friend, "Improper grammar."
"Do you really think I care about grammar right now, Seong Jin? I'm candy-less and your brother doesn't want to drive us to the store."
"Hey, grammar saves lives," I defend myself. "I mean, without syntax and inflexions, we are all basically dead."
"Wait, did you just say junk food?" Yang Jin exclaims, slamming his magazine down and jumping up.
"Well, technically she said candy and snacks, but—"
"Yes, I said junk food," Taylor interrupts me through gritted teeth, glowering at me.
I raise my hands in the air, surrendering.
"So… will you drive us to the shopping centre?" Her demeanour changes as she bats her lashes at him innocently.
"Well, I mean, when I weigh the pros and cons, on the one hand, it's junk food. On the other hand, I'm lazy, I'm busy, I'm flipping through this magazine, I'm tired, I'm making love to my bed, I'm lazy."
"You said lazy twice," I point out.
"I've decided to take you to the store."
"That was quick."
"Stop muttering snarky comments," Taylor chastises me, frowning. "He might just change his mind."
"I'll drive you two there on one condition."
"Of course," I reply sarcastically, smiling sweetly. My older brother is the one who taught me never to do anything for free. "What condition?"
"I'll drive you to the store if you allow me to join your sleepover."
Taylor releases an immediate yuck, scrunching up her face in disgust.
"Yeah, what she said. We're not letting you sleep with us, mate. Don't be creepy."
"Yeah, who knows what he'll do to me in my oblivious state," she whispers at me through clenched teeth. Looking at Yang Jin, she adds, "No deal."
"Then," he picks up his magazine and occupies himself with it, "good luck on your voyage, little halflings."
"Yang Jin, I'll tell Amma on you."
"What will you tell her? That I don't want to drive you two to the store to buy candy for the sleepover she doesn't even know about?"
"Uh… pr-precisely."
He stares at me dryly and I realise that I have lost this match. Why does he want to join our sleepover in the first place? I know it has something to do with Taylor. He has always had a little thing for her even though she has told him a gazillion times that she has a boyfriend. Even if she didn't, "it's not gonna happen between us, Yang Jin" she once said to him and she has stuck by that.
Just then my phone decides to ring, and the beautiful melody of Redbone fills the room. I frown when I catch the name of the caller shining blue in my face and shake my head in irritation.
"Sorry, I have to take this," I say to them and quickly leave the room, heading downstairs just as I answer the call. "Hi, this is Seong Jin speaking. How may I help you?"
"I need your help," he immediately replies, and I can't even add a sarcastic remark about him not greeting me back. It has become the norm now.
"What is it now?" I ask, exhaustedly.
"I thought I could tie a tie but turns out I cannot tie a tie and I can't go to the restaurant without a tie, because the dress code literally says that I need to be wearing a tie so you've got to help me with my tie," he says in one whole breath and I can imagine his face turning red from having to do that.
"Okay, first of all, stop saying tie so much. It's making my head hurt."
"How come I can't tie a tie?" he mutters more to himself, even after I have just told him to stop saying tie.
"Why don't you just look up a tutorial on how to tie a tie on the internet or something along those lines? Google is everything, mate."
"My parents didn't pay for my phone bill this month. I have already gone over my limit. I need you to come here."
"How do you know that I can tie a tie?"
"Did you go to the same primary school as Jodie?"
My nose wrinkles at the question and I sheepishly respond with a slow drawl which does nothing to obscure my blatant lie, "No…"
"Yeah, get your arse over here, Starr."
My face drops and I cannot help the irk that curls my lips.
The rain patters against the window pane, a sombre melody accompanying the tense silence that hangs between us. At the thought of driving in such rainy weather, I unconsciously grip my phone tightly, my knuckles turning white and I muster the courage to speak.
"You know, I'm getting sick of you thinking that I'm at your beck and call all the time. Some of us have lives, you know?" The words tumble out, laced with a subtle defiance.
"And some of us have incriminating love letters, you know?" he reminds me, his voice smooth and calculated with the dangerous threat lying under his simple question.
A pause follows, pregnant with the implications of my situation. My heart quickens in my chest, the blood pounding in my ears vehemently. Reading between the lines of what he just said makes it very apparent what he actually means.
"Is that a threat?" I manage, the question coming out more as a statement than an enquiry.
His response is neither affirmation nor denial, but a chilling silence that speaks volumes. It is a silent warning, a reminder of the precariousness of the position I found myself in, trapped in a web of my own making.
I huff my weariness out and hang my head in defeat at the situation I have landed myself in with my God forsaken, secret love letter to my best friend's boyfriend.
I should have listened to Chu Hua when she told me not to get a hardcover sketchbook. Why did I not simply download an app on my father's iPad and draw on that to my heart's content?
Nobody was going to hack me. Even though fate does strangely seem hellbent on destroying my life. Why did Dominic, of all people, have to find my incriminating items? Why couldn't it have been someone like Michael who would blackmail me into being his fake boyfriend and then as time went on, I would presumably fall madly in love with him?
In a defeated tone, I ask, "Where are you?"
"Outside the Dillon's Hotel. I'm standing at the entrance. Hurry up and get here."
"Yeah, yeah," I respond, rolling my eyes. "I'll be there in fifteen."
After hanging up, I press my lips together in irritation. I am so fucking tired of being his lapdog. When are he and Jodie going to become an official couple so that I can be released from the cage of blackmail he has me entrapped in? What will I tell Taylor now? What excuse can I come up with? Maybe I can tell her that I have diarrhoea all of a sudden; blame it on the cookies and cream ice cream.
Outside, the rain continues to fall, its steady patter a mocking soundtrack to the realisation that has dawned upon me. Because I'm at his mercy, trapped in a game like a puppet on strings, I'm going to have to drive in the rain.
After swallowing hard, the echo of his words in my mind suffocating my resolve, I turn around to go and tell my friend my made up excuse only to jump out of my skin when I find her and my older brother already standing there, giving me accusing looks.
"Hey… you guys," I stammer out, "how long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to know that you're not coming with us to get the junk food," Taylor replies, scowling furiously after crossing her arms over her chest. If looks could kill, I would be very much six feet underground.
"I… well the thing is, it's—"
"Dominic?" she ends musingly even though the look on her face portrays how rhetorical her question is. She already knows the answer.
"What?" I drawl out, a little too high pitched. I release a burst of nervous laughter at the way she hit the nail right on its head. "Pfft! No, it's something… completely unrelated to Dominic… something about my diarrhoea…"
She cocks her hip out.
When her earlier spoken words come back to me, my brows furrow in bemusement and I interrogate her, "Wait, what do you mean us?"
"Oh, she invited me to join your sleepover," my brother decides to chime in at the moment.
My gaze flicks from him back to stare at her, flabbergasted. "You did?"
"I did."
I gasp in surprise. "You decided without me? That's betrayal."
"No, betrayal is you choosing to spend time with Dominic during our first sleepover. This is supposed to be a special moment. Our first ever sleepover." She looks at me seriously and I blink guiltily. "It's a big deal, Seong Jin."
"I know it's a big deal, but," I answer slowly and my face forms a sheepish grimace when I end my statement with, "I have to go."
Her face falls at my words.
This is the ultimate betrayal. I have essentially just broken the oath we made. No zit-bearing boy will ever come first in our friendship. And even if Dominic doesn't bear zits, it still probably hurts the same.
I give her a look which is a cross between guilty and apologetic, but she just averts her gaze and purses her lips. She seems annoyed. I know I would be if she ditched me on the day we were going to have our first sleepover just so she could hang out with some guy. If only she knew that I was not going out of my way to hang out with him, more like helping him tie his stupid tie.
"Let's go, Yang Jin," she grumbles grabbing a hold of his wrist and dragging him along with him. When he leans in to whisper something to her, she instantly drops his wrist and incredulously mutters, "I have a boyfriend, mate."
The door shuts loudly after them, causing me to flinch. For a few seconds, I stand in the living room and wonder what my brother said to her to make her say that to him. Knowing Yang Jin, something inappropriate.
After a while of guilty silence, the door is pushed open again and he pops his head right back inside and sees me still standing in the same spot I was. Our gazes lock awkwardly.
He presses his lips together.
I quirk an eyebrow.
He gives me a weird look.
I give him a weird look back.
"Forgot the keys," he answers my unasked question and then scrounges in the bowl on the table near the door. "By the way, we're taking your car."
"Maybe that's not such a good idea, because what if I need to," the door shuts, cutting me off before I can finish my sentence, "use it."
I quickly jog over to the window, flicking the curtain to the side to see them already settling into my car. The muffled sound of the engine rings loud and before I can even ponder if I should stop them, he has already backed out of the driveway into the road.
Could I ride my bicycle instead? How badly is it raining? I glance up at the darkened sky, the once vibrant colours of the day now muted, just like my options I realise.
With a resigned sigh, I open the door and rushed out into the rain-soaked grass to grab my bicycle.