Have You Ever Really Danced On the Edge?

Days went by, and everything was at a standstill. Vic didn’t really talk directly to me. Whenever I addressed him he wouldn’t look directly at me either. Things were confusing.

Luckily Taylor didn’t patronize me about it because I think I’d probably blow up. With Brandon, fights happened of course, but things were fixed quickly.

But with Vic… it seemed like it was something to work at. It was a foreign idea to me: no one really cared I guess. But it was exciting as well. Sometimes, it’s nice to know there’s something to fight about, that everything isn’t always perfect. It’s like faking it otherwise. With Vic, everything was real, raw, and emotional and it was addicting.

I looked up from where I was spacing out, locking eyes with Vic. We both look away quickly. Too quickly. Talk about awkward.

"Well Vic?" Mike asks. He’s wearing a baseball cap with SD on it. Pierce the Veil clearly loves their San Diego roots.

"Yeah, sure." Vic says without hesitation even though he wasn’t listening. Mike’s sunglasses he's wearing rise as if he's raising his eyebrows. Then Vic notices the sunglasses on his brother’s face.

"Mike take the glasses off, man. You're inside and it's cloudy outside today."

I looked Mike who was lounging lazily on the couch. The worst thing about Mike, I’ve observed, is that he can say the most brutal things without blinking an eye. You could say anything to that fucker to bring him down, but he’d just laugh you off. He was so confident.

Only this time Mike didn't retort anything back to Vic - which seemed to anger the older Fuentes more.

“Mike, take the fucking sunglasses off,” Vic commanded again. I see Tony and Jaime grin at each other. Obviously this is going to get good.

“Or what, little guy?” Mike says, slouching even more. He looks so relaxed; I struggle to keep from laughing.

I see the muscles in Vic’s jaw clench, “There’s two types of people who wear sunglasses inside, Mikey: Blind people… and assholes.” At this everyone laughs, except for Mike. He stands and he’s significantly taller than his older brother.

They stare each other for a while. Vic’s hand shoots up, grabs the sunglasses and throws them off to the side. Mike suddenly moves around Vic to put him in a headlock. Jaime jumps up and encourages this behavior.

“Half-nelson, Mikey! No, no, no… try a TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER!”

I cannot stop laughing while Vic shouts out curse words. “Get the fuck off, asshole!” Instead of any hardcore, serious wrestling move, the Fuentes brothers were just lumped together in a pile on the floor. In the fighting, I could vaguely see Mike giving Vic a nuggie.

In all the drama, my cell-phone starts buzzing. I pull it out of my pocket and notice there's a text message from Brandon. I tried to keep from groaning aloud. I flip my phone open, fearing the worst.

All it says is, Hey.

I stare at the screen, trying to figure out what to do. I hope by running my hands over the keys all the answers will come to me – why is he texting me? Hey, that’s it? Why a text, why couldn’t he call me?

My fingers fly as I type back, Hey? What do you need?

Taylor is looking at me. It must be obvious that I’m conflicted. “Who ya texting?” She asks and Tony looks over, hearing us.

“Um…” I say, but it’s quiet over the shouting. Tony and Taylor exchange a look.

“It’s not Brandon, is it?” Tony figures out.

“Oh my god you guys –“ My phone buzzes, Taylor and Tony pounce next to me. They’re both looking eagerly over my shoulder. “Ugh, get off me!” They both ignore me and if anything, try to get a better look at my phone.

I need to know what the fuck your problem is, you stupid whore. The phone screen is glaring at me.

“What did he say, I can’t read it! – Oh –“ Tony looked up at me, his brown eyes only several inches from my blue orbs. His eyes widen, “What the fuck?”

I feel my stomach drop out of my butt and onto the couch beneath me. I vaguely hear Vic and Mike still fighting. Everything else just stopped.

Taylor was hugging me but I felt a thousand miles away. “What do I say?” I ask her. She only squeezes tighter.

My phone buzzes again and we all look at it, scared. Jaime looks over, still chuckling and goes, “What’s wrong with you guys?” We all shake our heads at the same time but he doesn’t buy it. He comes over and peers into the screen.

I cringe at Jaime looks at me and goes, “The fuck?”

Vic is messing up Mike’s hair on the floor in front of us while I open my phone. They were still completely oblivious.

You’re so stupid, Anna. What the hell was I thinking dating you? You have no backbone, slut, so predictable. Why am I still with you? I could do so much better.

“Say something back!” Taylor commands, reaching for my phone. Jaime holds her back, obviously upset. “Tell him to go fuck himself! He can fucking rot for all I care –“

“Taylor,” Jaime says, “Come on now, let’s be rational. Getting mad at Brandon would just fuel the fire. He wants a reaction.” Jaime looks and me and smiles. “Anna you don’t have to deal with this. You could call him up and end it now. You’re above this.”

“Well… I think he’s just drunk.” I say and look down, shocked at the proposition he’s just set out. Breaking up with Brandon just doesn’t seem to be an option. Tony puts his arm around me; Jaime and Taylor join in creating a little group hug.

Our moment was broken quickly.

Vic shouts, “Mike! I swear to God if you wear sunglasses inside again I’m disowning you.”

“Get off Vic!”

“Promise me, say you won’t or I’m not getting off!”

“GET OFF!”

“Say you won’t!” Vic says, and stays sitting on Mike’s stomach.

“I won’t! Get off, asshole!”

Vic gets off and Mike pinches him one last time on the leg before getting off the ground.

“What’s wrong?” Mike finally notices us, and Taylor giggles.

“You guys are complete idiots, you know that right?” She says and breaks our hug circle. “Brandon’s being an asshole and we are going to have a party in celebration that we aren’t assholes like him. Got it?”

“That stupid fucker, his loss. But hey, any excuse to party!” Mike cheers, pumping a fist in the air. “Vic, get plastic cups out, we are definitely taking on Tony and Jaime in beer-pong.”

I sneak a glance at Vic, who’s looking at me. His facial expression is unreadable, but he stares hard for a long moment before nodding at Mike.

I can’t help but wonder what that was about.

- - -

It’s been an hour since Taylor proposed a party and everyone was pretty tipsy by now as the beer-pong game was now over. Except for me, I wasn’t feeling any reason to celebrate.

My boyfriend was a complete and utter asshole and I didn’t have any balls to break up with him. In my defense, I am a girl, thus having no balls. I couldn’t. As stupid, annoying, pathetic as that sounds, Brandon and I had been together for 3 years and he’s the only boy I’ve known. It was hard giving up all the memories.

I sighed and then decided to have a beer. One couldn’t hurt me. Michael Christopher Fuentes stumbled up to me, and while I took a sip of beer, push the bottle upward so that more liquid would run into my mouth.

I sputtered and choked a bit, “Ugh Mike!” He just chuckled, and when I looked at him, he couldn’t stand straight, just kept swaying. He was obviously very, very drunk.

“Keep drinking, you need to forget about that shit boyfriend of yours, yeah?” He says, putting an arm around me. I snuggle closer to him.

“Yeah,” I say and smile a little bit. He looks at me expectantly and I take a giant swig of my beer until it’s gone.

He smiles and gets me another beer.

15 minutes later, and I am just as, if not more, drunk than Michael himself. We are giggling and laughing and more than once have I snorted at Mike’s jokes. I don’t remember the last time I’ve had so much fun. Everyone else is out on the patio but Mike and I just sat in the living room.

Suddenly, I feel another presence in the room and look up to see Vic. He looks like hell, literally. The boy can barely stand, and his eyes are blood-shot. He’s standing in the doorway, leaning heavily against the door-frame.

Mike notices him too and stands awkwardly. “I gotta get another beer.”

“Oh Mike –“ I say, really not wanting to be in the same room, alone with Vic. Especially with his stance and appearance that seems very intimidating. But Mike is already up and stumbling for the door. I sigh as Vic attempts to walk toward me.

One foot takes a step, the other crossing over it – suddenly, he crumbles to the ground, laughing drunkenly. “Holy shit I can’t even fucking walk,” He nearly shouts, his words slurred closely together that I can barely understand him.

I stand to help him but he holds up a hand to stop me. “No… I got this.” Clearly he doesn’t as he attempts to stand but ends up on the ground again. “Actually, come here.”

I walk toward him and crouch down by him. I put my arm around his back and put my hands under other his armpits. “Up we go…” I say and lift slightly. It’s hard because Vic is basically just dead weight. I groan as he leans totally on me.

He looks at me and our faces are really close. I try not to breathe. Vic’s big brown doe-eyes are locked on mine and it’s so hard to concentrate that I fear I may drop the poor guy.

“You know,” He slurs, “I never meant it.”

I’m puzzled so I say, “What do you mean?”

“All of that shit. I didn’t mean to be nasty to you, or make you feel bad. I just… I’m so jealous of Brandon, you know?”

“Jealous? For what?”

“Because he has you and I don’t. I know we just met, but I’m just really attracted to you.”

I sit there, and think shit. I’m too drunk for this. I’m too confused and Vic is too nice and Brandon is too stupid.

I smile at him and say, “It’s because I’m a pretty fucking classy drunk, right?”

He looks at me, closes his eyes and leans his head onto my shoulder. “Fuck yeah. You just carried a scrawny little Mexican across an entire room. You’re my new favorite person.”

“Vic, let’s just try being friends. You can do that, right?” I’m lying through my teeth. I don’t know what I want with Vic, but I definitely want to be more than platonic.

“I don’t know. Maybe. But I don’t want that, it’s not enough. It’s like, if I can’t be your boyfriend I don’t know if I want to be anything to you.”

Mike comes back wordlessly with three more beers and gives a beer to each person. I hold up my bottle to theirs and clink them together. “Cheers for friends?”

Vic clinks his bottle hard against mine so that I fear for broken glass to be spewed everywhere and says loudly, mockingly, “Cheers for being just fucking friends!”