Disasterpiece

The tip of my tongue stuck out just slightly between my lips, my fingers ran over the jagged canvas edges; it was no use, this painting was never going to be whole again. I huffed and turned around to Joey who was scouring the room with a garbage bag. After the shortest, yet probably most difficult, deep and meaningful of my life we decided it would probably be a good idea to clean up the…mess. Joey was significantly happier than he had been, though still not as bubbly as he could be. It was almost surreal to be spending time with him; time that wasn’t riddled with snide comments, door slams and chlorine.

“Reckon you can fit this into that bag?” I asked Joey, pointing that the broken canvas on the bed. Joey looked up from a pile of ripped paper and grinned sheepishly.

“Probably just put it straight in the bin…I was planning on buying a new one anyway,” he replied, I sniggered and picked up the remains.

“Sure you were,” I said jokingly as I walked out the door in search of a bin.

We stood side by side staring at his room, aside from probably needing new lamps and another painting; the room looked decent, especially given the state it had been in. I glanced over at Joey through the corner of my eye; a sad wistful look shadowed his face as he stared out. I sucked the inside of my cheek and put my hand on his shoulder, a gesture of both comfort and to break him from his trance. The look disappeared immediately when he turned to look at me.

“Please tell me this is the only room your devil hands got to,” I said in an attempt to lighten the mood – though I really did hope that this was the only destruction we had to clean. Joey chuckled lightly and nodded.

“I promise I kept it contained to here,” he swore; he glanced back at the room once more then turned around to face the hallway. “You want a drink or dinner or…I dunno something?” he asked awkwardly; I grinned.

“Sure, as long as it’s not alcoholic,” I replied with a wink; Joey rolled his eyes lightly and gestured for me to follow him. We went down into the kitchen, I sat on the edge of a bar stool as he began to potter around the kitchen grabbing glasses and ice. I ran my hands over the polished bench tops; as well as the sensation of goose bumps up my arms from the cool temperature I was hit by something else. A warm feeling deep down somewhere – it was strange, almost comforting; like a hot coco on a snow day or that special Christmas food you only eat once a year surrounded by loved ones.

“Are you hungry?” Joey’s faint voice flooded my ears; I blinked looking up from the bench and shrugged; he was standing right in front of me with two glasses full of what appeared to be coke.

“I wouldn’t say no, what you got?” I replied, Joey grinned lopsidedly; scratching the back of his head with one hand he drew out his phone from his jeans pocket using the other. I raised my eyebrow in amusement and question.

“I cook with my phone,” he explained, I chuckled – looks like we had a fair bit in common, the inability to cook was just another on a rapidly growing list.

“You have such a big kitchen and you can’t cook?” I pointed out with a smile; he looked around briefly, smiling himself.

“Go figure huh – so Chinese sound ok then?” he asked, I nodded; he went over to the fridge, grabbed a pamphlet pinned under a magnet and dialled the advertised number. After deciding on fried rice and omelettes we each grabbed a coke and I followed Joey down to the basement, or ‘den’ rather. From what I’d seen of his house so far, this was my favourite room. There was a large flat screen TV on one wall surrounded by DVD’s and a black leather couch; ever other wall was adorned with classic movie posters and in the far corner there was cabinet filled with band box sets and figurines.

I walked up to the closest poster and stared up at it in awe; silently adding another common interest to our similarities. Joey watched me silently, almost it seemed in apprehension. I looked over at him and smiled encouragingly.

“Dude I love this movie, where’d you get all the posters?” I asked eagerly, his shoulders relaxed silently as he stepped forward.

“I get offered a lot of stuff cause I’m in a band ya know? Especially when we started Murderdolls, people were just itching to throw anything horror related our way,” he answered. “I think I have just about every B-grade horror film in existence,” he added, turning away he walked over to his movie collection and began to sift through the titles. I walked across the room and sat on the couch, taking a sip of my drink as I watched him. He stood up a minute later with a DVD in his hand, he walked over and handed it to me, I looked down and squeaked – I hadn’t seen this for years, my VHS copy had died before I’d even turned eighteen.

“Can we watch this?!” I asked excitedly, Joey grinned; obviously it had been his intention when he handed it to me. He put his coke on the coffee table and reached out for the DVD, I extended my hand to give it to him; but as he took it from my grasp our fingers brushed against each other. I felt my cheeks heat up as I hurriedly pulled back; he cleared his throat quietly and turned quickly on the spot to put the DVD in the player. I stared at his back, cringing internally; with the understanding that was now between us and the loss of malice there was plenty of room for that lustful feeling to surface again.

I pulled my legs up underneath me and sunk a bit deeper into the leather, Joey grabbed a few remotes and dimmed the lights. Sitting on the opposite end of the couch he glanced at me with an awkward smile before pressing play.

My head rested in my arms on the couch arm; eyes drooping further down with flickering scene. I was just moments away from falling into a deep sleep when my phone went off startling both Joey and I; evidently he was on the edge of sleep as well. He watched me pull the cell from my pocket and answer it through a yawn.

“Hello?” I asked groggily.

“VJ what the fuck, where the fuck are you?!” Corey bellowed; I blinked slowly holding the phone a few inches away from my ear. Joey snorted, rubbing his eyes.

“Calm down I’m at Joey’s,” I replied, stifling another yawn; I was met by silence on the end. “Corey?” I asked in worry.

“…did you kill him?” he asked seriously, his voice lower and more sombre than I’d ever heard before. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing, I suppose it was a legitimate question given how wrathful I had been and the fact that there were screams coming from the television – but hearing Corey ask it so seriously was just too hilarious. Joey gave me a confused expression, grabbing one of the remotes he turned off the movie so he could hear more clearly. “It’s not funny VJ…what the hell are you doing there out of all places?” Corey asked over my laughter. I stopped laughing immediately and sighed, how would I explain this to him over the phone with Joey in the room? I was sure it was something he wouldn’t want brought up again.

“I’m here because we had some stuff to work out,” I answered honestly, playing with hem of my shirt nervously.

“And you worked it out?” Corey prodded.

“I think we understand each other now,” I said; I looked at Joey who offered a weak smile; my stomach did a flip so I quickly looked away. Corey went silent for a few moments, I could almost hear his brain ticking trying to comprehend exactly what was going on – I knew his frustration and impatience would soon surface once he realised that he didn’t have any idea what was going on. “Corey I’ve got to go, I’ll come over tomorrow and drop your car off ok?” I told him.

“I guess that’s ok,” he agreed. “But you still owe me a fucking explanation,” he added warningly.

“I know, I know you’ll get it have no fear,” I sighed.

“Good, see you then love you,” he said.

“Yeah love you too bye,” I replied, pulling the cell away from my ear I closed it and shoved it back into my pocket. I heard the remote been put down on the coffee table, causing me to look over at Joey.

“Sorry,” he apologised, I squinted in puzzlement; shaking my head. Joey breathed out, leaning back into the sofa he looked down at his hands that were sitting in his lap. I watched him silently for a minutes or so, unsure of what to say. “He really cares for you doesn’t he?” Joey asked quietly, breaking the silence; he did not look up from his hands though. I bit my lip and shifted apprehensively closer to him, extending my hand out I put it on top of his; my heart began to race immediately. Joey looked up at me; I could see his eyes shining sadly.

“He cares for me just as much as he cares for you or any of the other guys, it just so happens that I’m a girl and he feels the need to be more overprotective of me,” I said softly. The corner of Joey’s mouth lifted ever so slightly as he shook his head.

“You try way too hard to make me feel better,” he chuckled weakly; I took my hand off his and shrugged.

“You need my bullshitting talent right now,” I replied shifting backwards to my original place. “Anyway how about you put in another movie and I’ll go get us some more coke?” I suggested; I knew neither of us probably felt like more coke let alone another movie but I didn’t want to go home and leave him here alone; and sitting doing nothing but trying to make conversation was a recipe for failure.

“Sounds like a plan,” Joey responded. We got up, stretching from sitting down for so long and went off to do our designated tasks knowing full well that we were both probably going to fall asleep during the opening credits.