Scream Me a Dream

“Hei!” Soya greeted happily.

“Ville!? Ville!?” The woman said into the phone, causing Soya to giggle.

“No, Anita, it’s not Ville.” Soya laughed.

“Kari! Does Ville have a new girlfriend?!”

Soya laughed, “No Anita, it’s Soya.”

“Soya!” Soya laughed as she heard the excitement in Anita Valo’s voice. “Soya Toivonen!”

“Yes, it’s me.”

“Kari! Kari! It’s Soya!” She heard Anita scoff. “Oh that man could care less at the moment! Oh Soya, it is so good to hear from you! What in the world are you doing with Ville’s phone?”

“I’m actually visiting with him while he’s staying in Westchester with a friend.”

“You’re at Bam’s house?”

“Kyllä rouva.”(yes ma’am)

“Oh! I could kill that boy! He never told me he found you again! When did this happen?”

“I actually saw his show in New York, and he caught one of mine the day after.”

“And you’ve been inseparable ever since.” Anita guessed, with a laugh.

“Almost.” Soya said. “Though I’m sure he just likes having me to himself at the moment, had the rest of the boys stayed he would have had to share.”

“He’s always hated sharing you.” Anita teased.

“So I’ve noticed.” Soya laughed. “Ville said you’re at a convention?”

“We’re looking at some new products on the market, for the store.”

Soya felt her face heat but laughed. “Sounds…fun.”

“It has been interesting, but they always are. What are you up to, Soya? Why are you answering my son’s phone?”

Soya gave a small laugh. “I came up to the room to pity myself, when I heard his phone ring.”

“What in the world are you pitying yourself for?”

Soya sighed. “God awful conversation with my mother.”

“Oh that Liz; what has she done this time?”

Soya smiled, this was why she loved Anita Valo. She had always treated Soya like a daughter instead of one of Ville’s friends. Then again, all of Ville’s close friends were treated as her children. Soya had never felt more at home, than sitting on Anita’s couch with a warm cup of tea and Ville’s family and friends surrounding her.

“Just being herself.” Soya admitted. “I was giving myself a few minutes before I headed back downstairs.”

“Oh Soya don’t listen to your mother, whatever she’s said to you this time, you know it’s not true.”

Soya laughed. “You don’t even know what she’s said.”

“It’s Elizabeth we are talking about, Soya. I know what she’s said and it’s not true. You hear me?”

“I hear you.” Soya nodded.

“Now tell me, when are you coming back to Finland, kultaseni? We miss you here.”

“I’m working on it.” Soya admitted. “But you’ll be the first person I call when I get everything together.”

“Oh Kari’s trying to get my attention.” Anita told her. “It’s been a pleasure talking to you Soya, as it always is.”

“Oh Anita, the pleasure has been all mine.”

“You tell Hermanni to call me when he gets a chance, all right?”

“I will.” Soya smiled as she bid the older woman goodbye and hung up. Feeling a million times better she got off the bed and headed back downstairs, noticing that the rest of the guys were up and by the pool, either inside or lounging on the pool chairs. She went into the tent where Ville was just hanging up her phone with a frown.

“Who was that?” Soya asked accepting the blue phone from his hand.

“Hannu.” Ville told her.

“Really?” Soya asked looking at the unknown number. “He must have gotten a new phone.”

“He said to call back, when you got a chance. He sounds very familiar by the way.” Ville told her, noticing his phone in her hand. “Did someone call me?”

Soya nodded smiling. “Your mamma.” Soya said handing him the phone. “She sounded very excited to hear from me. She also said to call back when you had a chance, but I would give her a few hours, I think your father was trying to show her something.”

Ville rolled his eyes. “Now that she’s spoken to you, she won’t stop bothering us until we get you to Finland, I hope you realize that.”

Soya laughed. “I do.”

“So who’s Hannu?” Bam asked.

“A friend.” Soya shrugged. “I’m going to ask him for a favor, but he and his idiotic friends are always breaking their phones or losing them somewhere, so it takes him forever to get back to me.” She rolled her eyes.

“You don’t like his friends?” Bam asked with a smirk.

Soya shook her head as she dialed the number and put the phone to her ear. “They’re idiots.” she shrugged, hearing the phone ring.

”Eeva!”

Soya sighed as she heard the voice that answered the phone. “I didn’t call you.” She said into the phone in annoyance. “Where’s Hannu?”

“Aw! Eeva! Do you still hate us?” The man laughed at her.

“You’ve never been my favorite person.” She said with a roll of her eyes. “I called for Hannu, not for you.”

“Well Hannu, is still asleep, I was put in charge of checking voicemails.”

“Well why don’t you tell Hannu to call me when he wakes up?” Soya said with a roll of her eyes. “That way I don’t kill you over the phone.”

“It’s been 15 years Eeva.” he pointed out with a laugh.

“And obviously those 15 years have not been enough to even curb the annoyance I feel just thinking about you.”

“You think about us, do you?! I’m going to tell Hille you picture him naked!”

“The day I picture Hille naked will be the day I fly over the ranch with Britney as my plane.” She growled, causing the boys at the table to laugh. She felt the heat cover her cheeks and looked at Ville who looked very amused by the conversation.

There was silence on the phone before he responded with al laugh. “Is that your way of saying ‘when pigs fly’?”

“Yes, that is my way of saying with pigs fly, Lassie.” She mocked with a roll of her eyes.

“You love us Eeva, admit it, you adore us.”

“About as much as I adore my mother.” Soya hissed.

“AH! She likes us!” he shouted over his shoulder.

“Olet kaikki tyhmä!”(You’re all stupid!) she said, trying to hold in her laughter.

“Olenko tehnyt sinut nauramaan?”(Have I made you laugh?) he teased. “Oh the others want to say ‘hi’”

“No!”Soya shouted, only to groan aloud when she heard the loud flatulence over the phone speaker. “That’s disgusting! Oh I can smell it over the phone Lassie!”

“Admit it, you love us!”

“This is why I never talk to any of you and why I refuse to hang around you when I spend time with Hannu.” Soya growled. “You’re all annoying little bastards.”

“She called us bastards!” He shouted. “I think she’s starting to warm up to us!”

“Tell Hannu to call me back Lassie.”

“Love you too Eeva!”

She hung up the phone and placed it on the table with a glare. “I hate them.”

“You don’t hate anyone Soya.” Ville laughed.

“I hate them!” she said pointing at the phone.

“What’d they do to you?” Dunn asked with a smirk, he had to say, seeing Soya this riled up was really amusing.

Soya shook her head. “I refuse to talk about it. Hannu knows they annoy me to no end so whenever I see him he tends to come alone so I don’t deal with them. They love to aggravate me.”

“When did you meet Hannu?” Bam asked.

Soya frowned. “I was fourteen when I met him the first time.” She said thinking back. “But I only saw him a handful of times since he doesn’t live in Helsinki, he use to commute twice a week to practice.”

“He’s a dancer?” Bam asked.

Soya nodded. “He used to be my partner, but his passion wasn’t dancing. When the rest of the guys found out why he was coming up to Helsinki so often, they decided to put it on camera make this whole skit out of it. Our initial meeting went fine.” Soya said, remembering her part in their little film. “It was after, when we all went out for lunch, that I found out just how much I despised Hannu’s friends.”

“You called one Lassie?” Dunn asked. “Real or nickname?”

“Nickname.” She laughed. “I hate being called Eeva, and since they refuse to call me anything else, I have nicknames for all of them.”

“So Hannu is a nickname?” Bam asked.

“Real.” Soya said. “I’m the only one that calls him Hannu though. Hannu-Pekka.” She said with a smile, causing Ville to choke on his Red Bull as he looked at her in surprise.

“You’re friends with Hannu-Pekka?” Ville asked slowly.

Soya nodded. “Do you know him?”

“Do I…” He looked at her with wide eyes. “Soya, Bam knows them!”

“You do?” Soya asked looking at Bam with a smile.

“I do?” Bam asked with a raised eyebrow looking at Ville. “I don’t know anyone by the name of Hannu.”

“Because he doesn’t go by Hannu, you know him as HP though.”

Both Bam and Dunn looked at Soya stunned. “You know the Dudesons?!” Bam asked.

Soya nodded slowly. “I can only tolerate Hannu though.”

“How in the world have we never met?!” Bam asked. “You know the Dudesons, you know Ville, you apparently know some chick who has connections with The 69 Eyes.”

Soya laughed. “Remember Ville and I haven’t talked in nearly 13 years, Hannu and I mostly play phone tag these days and see each other on the rare occasion that we’re in the same city, but mostly he’s in Finland. And I’ve never met The 69 Eyes.” She reminded him. “Even though Rosalind has been trying to get the meeting to happen for years, our schedules have always been a few days off, sadly.”

“I’m surprised you and Ville didn’t meet sooner then you did.” Dunn pointed out. “With all the friends you guys have in common.”

Soya laughed. “Trust me, I was thinking the same thing once I found out we had Rosalind in common.” She turned to Ville who was looking back at her. “Do you even realize how close we were in the last few years to seeing each other?”

“I figured it out.” Ville nodded. “There’s about eight that I remember.”

Soya smiled sadly. “Like you said a few nights ago though, we’re here now.”

Ville nodded solemnly, though he knew she was right, he couldn’t help but dwell on those moments when he could have seen her. All those damn missed years, he thought.

“So…” Bam said slowly, looking at Soya. “Have you ever skated?”

Soya looked over at him. “Like a skateboard?” she asked, knowing that that was what he did for a living, at his nod she shook her head. “No.” she laughed. “Not once.”

Bam smirked. “Wanna learn?”

Soya bit her lip and gave him a small smile. “I have to warn you, I may be an excellent ballerina, but I have no type of coordination when it comes to other things.”

Bam laughed. “I’ll take it easy on you.” He turned towards the pool, where Novak was swimming under the condition that he wear swim trunks and not take another dump in the pool, seeing as they had just had it cleaned. “Novak!”

“What!” Novak shouted back, swimming towards the edge closest to them.

“Go get me two boards!” Bam shouted, Novak nodded and got out of the pool, before going into the house. Bam got up from his chair and started to follow Novak.

“I’ll actually be right back, gotta make a call.” He said absently as he headed towards the house. He grabbed his phone off the counter where he’d left it when he’d woken up and told Novak to take the boards to the snake drive where he’d start teaching Soya.

He looked though his contacts before he found the person he was looking for and pressing ‘send’. The way he saw it, if Soya wouldn’t take an ‘I’m sorry’ verbally then he would at least make it up to her somehow. Yeah, he could be an asshole, but he did feel bad about crossing the line with Soya, especially after witnessing the conversation she had had with her mother earlier.

“Hei?” The deeply accented voice answered distractedly.

“Jussi?”

“Bam?” Jussi asked.

“Yeah, hey.” Bam laughed.

“Hey.” Jussi said, though he sounded as if he wasn’t paying attention to the phone conversation.

“Everything ok? You sound distracted.” Bam said, use to a more active and vibrant Jussi.

“No… yes… no.” he repeated with a deep sigh. “Some shit’s going down and we’re waiting on a phone call.”

“What’s up?”

Jussi sighed again. “Nothing, not-”

“Jussi?”

“Jyrki!” Jussi yelled. “Jyrki! I fucking found her! Bam? I have to call you back. Jyrki!” Jussi yelled again.

Before Bam had time to react, the phone went dead, causing him to frown at his phone. “Well, that was interesting.” He stuffed the phone in his pocket before he went back out to where Soya was sitting. “So, you ready to learn?”

“Now?” Soya asked with a laugh.

“Yeah, now.” Bam smirked. “Afraid?”

“If I break my ankle, you’ll have to answer to Josef.” She warned, standing up; she leaned down and whispered something to Ville, before he nodded and kissed her cheek wishing her luck. She followed Bam out to the snake driveway where she saw two skateboards sitting.

“I’ll teach you the basics, how ‘bout that?” Bam asked. “After that, we’ll see if you want to learn more.”

Soya nodded and looked down at her flats. “Are my shoes ok?”

He looked down and nodded. “Fine for now.”

Bam went through the basics of skating with her, showing her the parts of the board, because she had asked, and then teaching her to balance and kick off. Throughout the process, he found her receptive and ready to learn, as well as willing to ask questions that showed her interest in learning to skate.

An hour later, he found himself throwing her a bottle of water as they sat on the lip of the snake drive to rest.

“Thanks for teaching me.” Soya smiled at him. “It was fun.”

Bam nodded. “Yeah, no problem.” He shifted slightly before looking at her. “Hey, I am sorry for giving you such a hard time.”

Soya gave him a small smile and a nod. “I know.”

“You know?” He asked with a smirk.

Soya nodded. “I do. Why is it you really dislike me?”

“I don’t not like you.” Bam said slowly.

Soya raised an eyebrow not quite believing him. “When I dropped Ville off you had the same look on your face that I have every time I see Jukka, Jarppi and Jarno.”

“And what’s the face?” Bam smirked.

“Great annoyance.” Soya laughed. “And resignation.”

“Resignation?” Bam asked.

“It means-”

“I know what it means.” Bam cut her off offended. “I meant why resignation?”

“Oh.” She laughed at herself. “Well I can’t tell Hannu not to be friends with them, he’s known them all his life and whenever I end up having to spend time with them as a group, I just suck it up and deal with their idiosyncrasies. You had that face when I asked if it would be okay if I stayed.”

Bam nodded. “You have a point.”

“So why is it you don’t like me?” she asked again.

Bam sighed, deciding to be honest. “I just think it’s kind of sketchy, you turning up after thirteen years.”

Soya nodded slowly. “I understand that.”

“Ville’s been hurt a lot in the past, I don’t want him to be hurt by you.” Bam told her looking her straight in the eyes. “He seems to have blinders on when it comes to you, this unquestioning trust. He listens to you and whatever you say, goes.”

Soya stared back into Bam’s blue eyes and swallowed. “Do you think I’ve turned up because I want money?”

Bam shrugged. “Do you?”

“No.” Soya said quietly. “I don’t.” she bit her lip looking down at the rainbow that made up the driveway, and brought her knee up to her chest. “I love Ville, very much.” She said quietly, causing Bam to look back up at her. She kept her eyes averted and on the driveway. “Same with Mige and Linde. I didn’t have a very good childhood,” she nibbled her bottom lip, wondering how much she was willingly to tell a virtual stranger.

“My father wasn’t home very often and my mother isn’t what I would consider a maternal type. The few friends I did have from school all came from the same family background and just…” she shrugged. “While we shared common interests no one really understood me. There was always something to prove with them. I was held up to a high standard because of who my father was, so I had to act in certain ways in order to uphold that level.”

She played with the tip of her shoe. “Hannu was the first person that accepted me, you know, he didn’t care who my father was but he dropped out of dance when he was about fifteen, and he rarely made it down to Helsinki after that. The only time I saw him was when he was asked to sub in for another dancer or when he and his friends came down. But even with Hannu, I never felt completely comfortable being myself. I always held something back.”

She looked up at Bam, and found him staring at her. “When I met Ville, there were just…no expectations of me. We never talked about my family, which was a nice change, we never talked about the parties I had to go to or the society functions. We talked about music, movies and books. We would people watch and just…” Soya shrugged. “For the first time in my life I felt like I could finally relax. When Linde and Mige came into the picture it was like everything just fell together for me.”

“Then you left.” Bam told her.

Soya nodded. “Then I left and Josef was the person that filled the void.” She laughed. “I’m going to tell you something I have yet to tell Ville.”

Bam raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

Soya nodded, “I had just turned twenty one, I’d spent a year dancing with Josef, it was our first recital with Ben’s company. Josef found out that I’d never had any hard alcohol to drink so he got me completely and utterly drunk.” Soya shook her head. “I remember a few moments of that night, according to Josef when I get drunk I get chatty.”

“How chatty?” Bam laughed.

“Enough to tell Josef that I was in love.”

Bam looked at her. “In love?”

Soya sighed. “With Ville. Josef didn’t have a clue as to who I was talking about, and put me to bed when I started crying. Apparently, I’m also a crying drunk.” She laughed. “He asked me who Ville was in the morning and I told him.” Soya bit her lip. “Josef told me what I had said and it took me a very long time to realize that what I had said was true.”

“Do you still?”

Soya nibbled on her bottom lip for a moment, squeezing her leg tighter. “I will forever hold love for Ville, there’s no denying it. When I was sixteen, I’m sure I believed I was in love with Ville because of who he is and everything he meant to me. Now?” she shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ve never truly been in love. I’ve loved.” She admitted. “But the type of love that I hold for Ville has always been different.”

“What about Linde and Mige? Don’t you love them?”

Soya laughed. “Of course I do, but that love has always been easy to identify. It’s brotherly love what I hold for them. Ville and I…We have always been different, there’s something about our relationship that holds a level of intimacy that I’m not sure what to do with. I’m not sure how to react to.” Soya groaned. “God I’m such a novice when it comes to this type of thing.”

Bam laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure it’s throwing Ville off kilter.”

“What do you mean?” Soya asked.

“I mean, the guy’s so obviously in love with you, Soya, it’s got to be hard for him to share a bed with you and not be able to fuck you.”

Soya looked at him with wide eyes as a blush crept up her cheeks. “I’ve…never thought of it that way.”

Bam looked over at her and saw her blushed cheeks, but the sadness in her eyes, and backpedaled. “I’m not saying he wants you solely for sex.” Bam laughed. “But that intimacy you’re talking about? It’s definitely sexual.”

Soya swallowed and gave a nod. “I want to assure you Bam, I’m not back in Ville’s life for his money. Josef, he’s been trying to get me to a HIM concert for ages, but the schedules never worked out when they tour the U.S. until this time around. Ville’s money is the last thing I think about when I’m with him. But…” she said smirking at him. “If it’ll make you feel better I’ll show you my bank statements to show you I have my own money, and a good amount of it.”

“How fast can you get your laptop down here?” Bam teased, causing Soya to laugh and bump her shoulder with his.