Night's Not Over

That night, Julian was playing guitar on his bed, thinking about Gemma. Of how she laughed, she smiled, how he felt so easy around her. How her warm body pressed against his, how her arms were around his neck, how her lips lingered against his cheek. It was only for two seconds, but somehow he still felt the softness of her lips on the spot where she kissed him.

His cellphone rang, snapping him out of his thoughts. He didn’t recognize the number, but still answered the call. He expected some drunk stranger calling the wrong number and telling him how lonely the person was and how badly they wanted to have a dirty sex with him, but the completely sober voice who called told him he was wrong. Man, was he glad to answer it. “Hey, what’s up, Gem?” He smiled to himself.

“I just wanted to let you know that I had a great time today.”

“You already told me that.”

“I just wanted to say it again. What, am I not allowed to do so?”

“No, not at all. You can repeat it as many as you want.” The more you do, the better, he thought.

He heard her laugh a little – it was so cute. He could see her smile – the corner of her lips was pulled up and she bit her lower lip a little. “Can we go out again some other time?”

Julian grinned very widely. Score! “Yeah. Yeah, definitely.”

“Alright. Alright, well, I have to do this... thing... so I guess I’ll see you around or something?”

“Of course.” With that, they shared goodbyes and ended the call. Julian smiled at his phone, set it down, and was about to go downstairs to grab a beer when the phone rang again. He answered without checking the caller ID, figuring that it was Gemma again, forgetting to say something.

He regretted doing so. The voice in the other line wasn’t Gemma’s, but Sandra Wilson’s, the girl who he called his girlfriend for two weeks now.

“Hey babe,” his smile fading once he heard her voice. “I was just thinking about you.” Of course, he lied.

The next thirty minutes went by Sandra babbling about how her day went. How this girl at her work kept giving her dirty looks and blah blah blah. Julian only responded with occasional ‘hm’s and small chuckles. He didn’t like Sandra’s voice. It was pitchy and annoying, very much different than Gemma’s that was soft and low and rather seductive on the phone. She didn’t do it in purpose, but it sounded like it to Julian’s ears. In real life, it sounded even better, although louder and crazier, but Julian loved it.

“Sandra,” he cut Sandra off in the middle of her sentence. At least, he attempted to, because she still didn’t stop talking. “Sandra.” She didn’t stop. “Sandra, I want to break up with you.” She finally stopped talking. He could picture her on her bed, eyes wide, fingers tangled in her brown locks in the middle of twisting it.

He waited for her outburst, but nothing.

“I’m sorry.”

She finally spoke. Or rather, yelled. “WHAT DID YOU—“

He hung up.

Whatever, he never really liked her that much, anyway. Two weeks were more than enough to cope with her complaints and bitchy voice and sloppy kisses. He thought his friends weren’t fond of her too, so their break-up wasn’t going to be that big of a deal.

∙ ∙ ∙

It was one month later in the middle of November and Gemma’s college activities had begun to build up. She also had been seeing Julian, but they both agreed to hide it from everyone because Nick wasn’t a fan of the idea of his player bestfriend and his beloved cousin seeing each other, and if one person knew, everyone could know.

One night, Gemma joined the boys for a night out at their favorite bar. Her college tasks began to get on her and she needed refreshment. She was still deciding whether or not she would get drunk, because after seeing her cousin pass out and his friends were only slightly more sober, she knew she had to take care of him. That night she got Julian’s help, but she wasn’t so sure about it now because she heard that Julian was usually the last one to pass out just because he was the strongest drinker in the group and it needed 8745324 shots to get him passed out.

She arrived at the bar with Nick and no one was there yet, so she sat at their usual booth while Nick was getting them beer. She rested her chin against the palm of her hand and watched her cousin talked to the gay bartender (he didn’t seem gay, and if Gemma never heard him saying how much he liked Nikolai’s ass, she would never know).

Few seconds later someone stepped in front of her, completely blocking her sight of Nick. She looked up to him and almost cringed to see his abs wrapped in a tight shirt and his hair was long and greasy. Ew, only Julian could make greasy hair work.

“Did you realize the room got a LOT hotter when you got in?”

She tried not to burst out laughing at his super lame pick-up line. “Tu ressembles à une douche dans cette tenue; mes yeux sont de brûlure dans la douleur. Aussi,avez-vous déjà entendu parler de shampoing? Vous pourriez vouloir essayer. Oh, et n'oubliez pas d'apprendre un nouveau pick-up en ligne. Celui que vous avez juste essayé sur moi était totalement boiteux.” (You look like a douche in that outfit; my eyes are burning in pain. Also, have you ever heard of shampoo? You might want to try it out. Oh, and don't forget to learn a new pick-up line. The one you just tried out on me was totally lame.) She smiled and looked away in disinterest.

The guy just stayed in his spot, trying to figure out if she was speaking human language. Nick then came with a beer bottle in each hand. “Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing with her, man?” he asked, placing the beer on the table. “You’re not her type, man, run along.”

“Oh, and YOU’re her type?” The lame pick-up guy took a step towards Nick. Nick was taller than everyone in the world, so the lame pick-up guy had to look up to him like he was looking up a building. He glanced down Nick’s paper-thin body and scoffed in intimidation.

“Yo, I don’t like your mouth, man.” Nick took a step forward. He’d done this a million times – fighting against someone who was twice his size. He didn’t always win, but he didn’t always lose either.

Gemma leaned over and grabbed his hand. “Laissez-le aller, Nick.” (Let it go, Nick.)

He shook off her hand. “Non, non, il a essayé de foutre mon ex-copine quand nous étions encore ensemble; je ne suis pas le laisser essayer de baiser ma cousine.” (No, no, he tried to fuck my ex-girlfriend when we were still together; I'm not letting him try to fuck my cousin.)

The atmosphere felt so intense and Gemma didn’t know what to do, until Albert suddenly clung his arm around Nick’s shoulder from behind. “What’s going on, mann?” he asked cheerily. “Oh, hey there, Rocky,” he nodded at the lame pick-up line guy whose name was Rocky.

“You know him?” Nick turned to Albert.

“Yeah, he also went to school in Switzerland. Working at that sports equipment store few blocks down.” He read the situation the three were in, and came with the correct conclusion. “Was he hitting on Gemma?”

“Yeah, he was.”

Albert laughed. “Sorry about him, Rocky,” he said, “Nick’s just protective about his cousin.”

Rocky lifted his eyebrow. “Cousin?”

“Yeah, they’re not dating. But, uh, how do I put it...” Albert drummed his fingers against his chin, thinking. “She’s still not going to fuck you. Don’t take it the wrong way; she’s clearly not into you.”

Angered with embarrassment, Rocky flung his fist to Albert but Nick grabbed it before it could hit Albert, and hit Rocky in return. The next thing Gemma knew, they were punching each other, earning attention from the whole bar. Rocky hit Nick on the face and Nick turned around from the contact, falling on a table behind him and made the glasses fell to the floor. He wiped the blood from his lip and threw a punch against Rocky’s head.

Albert and the gay bartender finally stopped them. Albert got a hold of Nick and the gay bartender got a hold of Rocky. The gay bartender threw them out of the bar.

“You guys are my favorite customer,” he said, pointing at Albert, Nick, and Gemma. “You’re not abandoned from this bar forever; just come back again after a few weeks.” Then, he went back into the bar while Rocky just cussed and walked away into the night.

Nick sighed and sat on the pavement, taking out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. “You tried stopping us from fighting,” he said to Albert, “but in the end we still fought. But thanks for trying, and thanks for stopping us. He could do worse if we weren’t stopped,” he chuckled.

“Nah, man, thanks for standing up for me,” Albert sat next to him and gave him a manly one-armed hug.

“Where’s Julian by the way? You guys always arrive together,” Gemma asked, taking Nick’s cigarette that was just lit. He just shouted ‘hey!’, shook his head, and took another stick.

“He had to do something,” Albert answered, asking for a cigarette from Nick. Nick rolled his eyes and gave him the whole pack; there was only one stick left anyway.

Gemma inhaled the nicotine stick. It wasn’t menthol, different than what she usually had, but a change was nice for once. “So what are going to do now?” The boys shrugged. She looked around, inhaling the cigarette again when she found Julian, Nikolai, and Fabrizio walking towards them.

“What’s up?” Fabrizio asked, knowing something was wrong. There had to be a reason why they were sitting outside, having a smoke with no beer. He turned to see Nick and found his temple bruised and some dried blood on the corner of his lips. “Woah, Nick, what happened?” He wasn’t too surprised; they got into a fight every now and then. It was New York City, after all.

“Some guy hit on Gemma,” he answered, taking a puff.

“And you hit him?” Nikolai said in disbelief. It was a bit too much.

“Nah, he was going to hit Albert.”

“What? Why would he hit Albert?” Julian asked.

“Because he said she wasn’t into him.”

“Heh, some crazy night in New York City. Come on, let’s find another bar,” Julian suggested. They all agreed. Nick and Albert stood up and the six of them started walking.

“Why aren’t we taking Albert’s van again?” Gemma asked to no one in particular.

“Because it’s in the workshop,” Albert answered.

Gemma mouthed an ‘ah’ and nodded. Fabrizio who was in front of her started talking to Nick who was walking beside her, so Nick picked up his pace to walk next to Fabrizio. Julian who had been walking alone behind her and Nick, decided to walk next to her. She looked up to him and smiled.

“What were you doing before this?” she asked, referring to why he didn’t come with Albert.

“I had dinner with my mom, it had been a while.”

“Oh, how did it go?”

“Great, she seemed nice as always.” She nodded and started thinking about her family in France. She had three older siblings; two boys and one girl. All of them had finished their education. She missed them and made a mental note to send them a letter soon.

Gemma then realized Julian was holding her hand, the warmness of his hand knocking out the coldness in November had given to Gemma’s hand. She smiled and squeezed his hand. He smiled back. With everyone – especially Nick – around, this was the most that they could do.