Love Is a Losing Game

“It’s the only thing that slowly stops the ache, but it’s made of all the things I have to take… Jesus, it never ends, it works its way inside...If the pain goes on... I’m not going to make it.” Angie and Stuart sang along with Corey Taylor as she pulled up outside their new house behind the removal van. She shut off the engine of her Escalade and the music abruptly stopped much to Stuart’s disapproval.

“Oh, I was enjoying that.” He grumbled as he followed her out of the car.

“Don’t worry sweetie, why do you think I didn’t want to pack the iHome? The first thing I’m going to do is get this connected and let all our neighbours know that we’re here!” she replied taking the iHome off the back seat and carrying it up to the house.
She weaved her way around the various boxes that were scattered around the house and made her way to what would be her bedroom and plugged the device in and immediately Slipknot began playing again.

“Much better!” she heard Stuart yell from somewhere in the house. She smiled at turned to look out of her large bedroom window. The smile widened as she looked out to the ocean just a few hundred yards ahead of her. The song changed to Paradise City and Angie turned around and began to sing along loudly. She heard Stuart’s voice singing along too from one of the other rooms and went to find him.

“Where do we start?” she said loudly over the music looking around at all the boxes.
Stuart shrugged his shoulders as he too looked around the living room.

“Isn’t there someone we can pay to unpack?” he asked. Angie sighed deeply and shook her head.

“Let’s start in here.” She said unenthusiastically. Stuart returned her sigh and walked over to the nearest box and took out a set of keys from his pocket. He stabbed the tape with one of the keys and drug it along the box lid, splitting the tape and pulling the lid open.

They quickly got into the swing of unpacking and were soon back to dancing around singling loudly as they found new homes for their belongings as the removal men finished unloading the last of the boxes from the truck.

****

“Dude I think your new neighbours have arrived!” Jimmy yelled as the sound of Slipknot came blaring from the house next-door.

“Yeah, I’ve just seen them pull up outside.” Brian replied walking through to his back yard with a beer in his hand.

“Did you see them?” Zack asked straining his head to try and see if he could catch a glimpse of Brian’s new neighbours.

“Only the back of them as they walked into the house.” Brian replied.

“Girls?” Zack asked not taking his eyes off the house next-door.

“A girl and a boy I think.” Brian replied as the music changed to Guns and Roses.

“Well, their music taste is pretty good so far.” Jimmy mused taking a sip from his beer as Aimee and Scarlet joined them on the decking.

“Why don’t you just go over and ask if they need any help?” Aimee asked as Brian pulled her into his lap. The three guys all shook their heads.

“They might say yes. We’re better off just sitting out here spying on them for the time being.” Jimmy replied.

“Once we know there isn’t any heavy lifting to be done, then we’ll go introduce ourselves.” He added with a satisfactory nod. The girls rolled their eyes.

“Why should you two be introducing yourselves?” Jennifer asked quizzically pointing at Zack and Jimmy. “They’re Brian and Aimee’s neighbours.”

Both guys looked at each other and shrugged.

“Don’t know. We only started talking about it when we were hoping that two hot girls were moving in.” Jimmy said honestly earning a slap on his arm from Scarlet.

“Ow. Like you three girls weren’t hoping two fit men were moving in?” Jimmy replied clutching his arm.

The three girls exchanged smirks and shrugged their shoulders.

“See, we’re all pervs!” Zack yelled.

“Angie, I believe I am done!” Stuart yelled triumphantly waving his arms walking into her bedroom three hours later. He lowered his arms quickly and looked around the bedroom looking for Angie. He turned and noticed her closet light on and found her sat on the floor surrounded by her collection of converses.

“Need any help?” he asked causing her to jump at the sound of his voice.

“You finished?” she asked and he nodded, sitting down next to her.

“Are these going in any particular order?” he asked picking up a random pair. Angie shook her head.

“Just make sure they’re in pairs.” She stated putting a purple pair on one of the shelves.
This was Angie’s guilty pleasure. Converses. She had them in almost every colour imaginable with a range of different designs as well.

“So are we going out tonight? Check out the new neighbourhood? Or shall we just hang out here and enjoy those bottles of Jack and Jose we’ve acquired?” Stuart asked wiggling his eyebrows to show which idea he wanted carried out.

“Staying in and getting hammered is fine by me, we can explore the neighbourhood another night. I’m exhausted and really can’t be bothered to make an effort.” She sighed as she picked up the last pair of shoes and placed them on the shelf.

“Ok drinks in the back yard it is.” Stuart said getting up from the floor.

“I’m going to need a shower first though, even if we are staying home, all this unpacking had made me feel all icky.” Angie said also standing up.

An hour later and Angie and Stuart were sat on the veranda outside their house, looking out at the ocean as they began to make their way through the bottle of Tequila, Angie’s Nano playing on shuffle through her open bedroom window.

“Here’s to new beginnings.” Angie said raising her freshly filled glass.

“The start of a new era!” Stuart said raising his glass to hers. They drank their shots and Stuart refilled them.

“Another toast. To the best decision we’ve ever made.” Stuart offered raising his glass again.

“And leaving that shit hole behind!” Angie yelled charging her glass again before knocking back the golden liquid.

“And that cocksucker.” Stuart yelled before knocking back his shot.

“I promise you Angie, I won’t let anyone hurt you like that again.” Stuart said seriously as she poured them each a glass of Jack Daniels.

“Hey, we’re never talking about him, or that part of our lives again” Angie warned. “Promise me Stu!” she glared.

“Promise” he replied with a weak, sympathetic smile which quickly turned into an excited smirk as he realised what song had just began to play.

“Time is Fleeting!” he yelled jumping up out of his chair. “Madness takes its toll.” He continued as Angie stood up with him.

“But listen closely not for very much longer, I’ve got to keep control.” Angie sung as the pair danced around in time to the music. They’d danced to this song a million times and knew it word perfect and knew all the moves.

“It’s just a jump to the left!” they both yelled over the music, following the songs instructions.
They were both too busy dancing and singing that neither of them noticed the three sets of eyes peer over the wooden fence that separated their house to next doors.

“Well it’s the pelvic thrust, that really drives you-“ Stuart trailed off as he spotted a fourth pair of eyes peer over the fence, giggling.

“Insa-a-a-a-ane, let’s hey, why did you stop?” Angie yelled as she slowly followed Stuart’s gaze before quickly turning a deep shade of red as she realised that she was being watched. She quickly grabbed the remote off the table and turned down the volume as then more people appeared over the top of the fence.

“Hey, don’t stop on our account, that was very entertaining.” Brian smiled.

“Yeah, you guys were good.” Zack added as both Angie and Stuart blushed.

“Sorry about these guys.” Aimee said with a smile, indicating to the two guys who had just spoken with a roll of her eyes.

“I’m Aimee, this is my boyfriend Brian, we live here and these are our friends, welcome to the neighbourhood.” She smiled warmly.

After the initial shock and embarrassment of being caught singing and dancing by their new neighbours, Stuart and Angie introduced themselves and were invited over to meet everyone else.

“So where about are you from anyway?” Jimmy asked as Angie lit a cigarette.

“Denver.” She replied simply as she inhaled deeply on the cigarette.

“So how come you moved?” Jimmy continued with the questioning.
Stuart glanced quickly at Angie as she blew out the smoke. She glanced back before looking over at Jimmy.

“Got fed up, we always wanted to give California a shot, so when the opportunity came we jumped at the chance.” She said with a warm smile.

“So how long have you guys been together?” Jenni asked causing Angie and Stuart to glance at each other again, this time giggling.

“We’re not together, we’re just best friends, have been since third grade.” Stuart said through chuckles.

“Oh sorry, I just assumed.” Jenni replied blushing.

“Don’t worry about it Hun.” Stuart replied trying to stop his giggles.

“Yeah, seriously, you’re not the first one to think that.” Angie said, giving another warm smile.
“So what do you guys do anyway?” Brian asked.

“Bar work, we’ve been working and managing bars for almost four years now.” Angie explained.

“Cool, so have you got any work lined up?” Scarlet asked.

“Yeah, do you know Beach….”

“Oh my god, are you the new manager at Beach Front?” Zack yelled interrupting her. “Damn, for once Jason wasn’t lying when he said you were hot!” he added earning himself a slap on the arm from Jenni.

“Ow, what? She is.” He replied quietly as he rubbed his arm.

“Sorry, how did you know that?” Stuart asked with a look of confusion.

“We run a security firm for bars and nightclubs in Huntington, Beach Front being one of the bars we cover.” Brian explained.

“You met Jason last week when you had your interview, he told us that you were hot.” Zack said.

Angie diverted her eyes as she felt herself blush, deciding that it was a good time to take another shot of tequila.

“So anyone starts any trouble, I’ve got you guys to watch my backs?” Stuart asked.

“Pretty much, yeah.” Jimmy replied.

“Scary thought.” Stuart said, rolling his eyes with a wink in Angie’s direction.

“Hey!” Jimmy yelled, frowning as everyone began to laugh.

The group continued to make their way through the bottle of tequila and did a good job of getting through most of the bottle of Jack they had as well. Stuart and Angie were filled in about Huntington Beach, their other neighbours, the bar and the other guys who worked in their security company.

As they made their way back into their new house, Angie was glad that they’d been able to keep the conversation in Huntington and nobody had talked about Denver. She was happy that these people could be really good friends, but she wasn’t ready to share her past with them yet. If she played her cards right they’d never need to know.