The Taste of You and Me

“Hey, kiddo, it’s down time! Get out while you still got your dignity!” Lilly shouted from behind her desk. I balanced the tray I was holding on one hand (whoa, look what you can achieve when you put your mind to it!) and mock-saluted her, before knocking on Leah’s office door.

Lilly was brilliant and sharp, and had a wicked sense of humour: her and Leah were pretty much extreme polar opposites - while Leah was an immaculately dressed, horse hair wearing control freak who got her kicks from belittling people, Lilly was a flame-headed, panda-loving, teetotal wildchild who got her kicks from messing with Leah.
Leah would have long fired Lilly if she hadn’t been aware of the fact that she was one of the most promising photographers, only underrated for being a relatively young age in such a competitive industry. Lilly was three years older than me (I was twenty-three).

“Come in,” Leah called. I opened the door and placed the tray of coffee mugs on the table between her and one of the other editors, Lucas.

“I’ve photocopied and given out the changes you wanted made to the layout, handed the applications in to HR, given Accounts the numbers for the advertisements and endorsements and helped Photography to pack away their equipment. I’ve also given your corrections for the ‘New Music’ to Thomas, and there’s the final write-up for the album reviews in the left drawer of your desk.” I said. She didn’t look up.
“It’s just past five now, so I’ll be on my way, if that’s OK with you.”

“That’s fine.” she replied curtly. I blinked at her sourness; what a cow.

“OK. Uhm…” I paused at the door, letting myself out, “have a nice evening.”
There was a hideously awkward silence as I left the room, closing the door behind me.

“How’d it go?” Lilly called, chucking a rubber at my bum as I picked my bag up from behind my desk. I stood up, pulling my bag over my head: she looked at me intently, and I blew a raspberry. Lilly giggled.

“I’ll see you later.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair and pulling on my beanie.

“Alright. Bye, babe.” she replied. I was about to reply when several loud honks of a car horn sounded from outside. Lilly and I looked at each other blankly as she commented, “That was weird.”

I shrugged and turned to leave when the sound came again, longer and evidently more impatient this time. Lilly pelt to her feet, desperate to evade work, and shoved an intern to a side with comical ruthlessness as she barged to the window.
“What the…!” She gave a short, amused laugh and turned to look at me over her shoulder, beckoning me over. “I think they might be yours!”
I frowned and went over to the window, sticking my head out like her.

The idiots standing outside, leaning against a shiny black Ranger Rover, grinned up at me from four storeys down.

“Hi, Maya!” Jaime yelled from besides Vic. Vic pushed him to a side and waved at me, motioning for me to come down. Tony smile up from his other side.

“Damn, I would so be on that like fat people on cake if I were straight.” Lilly giggled her dirty little giggle, “Let me know when you’ve had your fun - I’ve got first dibs!”
I groaned in protest as she winked at me and we pulled away from the window.

“You perv. I’m going now!” I said, running to the other side of the room, pausing to wave at the door.

“DIBS!” Lilly shouted after me. I hopped and skipped down the stairs, humming slightly as I mulled over what they might want: maybe they had come to tell me they were moving out of the building after realising their new neighbour was the new town crazy. I hadn’t seen Mike with them, and for some reason, I doubted it was just because he was too lazy to get out of the car.

Swiping my ID card that hung around my neck at the checkout point and brushing the thought of him from my mind, I smiled at the receptionist on the way out.

“Little lady, hello!” Vic cried, immediately engulfing me in a hug.

“This isn’t weird.” I said awkwardly, standing still (my arms were pinned to my sides from his hug). He didn’t let go - just spun around to beam at the other two.

“I definitely didn’t stalk you to work.” Vic chirped.

“Where’s your arsehat of a brother?” I asked.

“With his arsehat of a girlfriend.” Tony replied with a roll of the almond eyes. Vic gave me one final squish of the ribs, then looked me intensely in the eyes.

“I know where you live.” he said monotonously.

“I know where you live too.” I replied, raising my eyebrows. Tony gave an unsure little titter.

“You’re both delightfully weird, yeah, we get it, nocanwego?” Jaime demanded, pushing us towards the car.

“Wait, what? Where the fuck are you off to?” I said as Jaime ushered us all into the car.

“There’s a funfair in town, and Hime’s practically pissing himself to go.” Tony explained again. Vic started the car, with the weird man-child himself having called shotgun, leaving Tony and I in the backseat.

“Why am I not surprised?” I sniggered, rooting through my bag and pulling out some Parma Violets. “Want one?” I offered it to Tony first. He hummed in approval and took one, giving me a smile in return.

“Hime, my dear?” I said, tapping his shoulder and offering him the sweets.

“Ooh! Candy!” he chortled, taking one a licking it tentatively. I eyed him dubiously as he did.

“How much meth has he done today?” I said.

“I don’t do meth!” Jaime protested loudly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Yeah, you don’t.” I sniggered. “Victor? Would you care for a Violet?”

“Not unless you want us to die horribly.” Tony piped. “He takes his eyes off the road for a second and we’re roadkill. Seriously. He’s a bad enough driver.”

“Fuck you.” Vic mumbled. I rolled my eyes and leaned forward to squish his cheeks.

“Awh, poor sweetheart. Here,” I said, popping one in his mouth.

“Suck up.” Tony accused. I grinned like a crazy and squished him cheeks too.

“You’re just jealous.”

*

Two hours, seven skeezeball matches, four roller coasters and a hell of a lot of street food later, we were walking down the boulevard, admiring the view of the beach. I stole one of Tony’s orange Smarties and popped it into my mouth quickly, flashing him a bright grin. He pulled some of the candyfloss off the stick in my hand and bit into it. Vic did the same, calling Jaime’s name to get his attention.

“Hime, babe, you look like an idiot!” Vic said; Jaime - who was a few paces ahead of us - turned around and flipped Vic off with one hand, using the other to clutch his giant stuffed banana toy that had dreadlocks to his chest.
He’d won it at skeezeball.

“You’re just jealous you lost!” Jaime shouted back indignantly. Vic darted forward and snatched Barry the banana (Barry, yes, I know) out of Jaime’s arms, running out onto the sand-covered shoreline: Jaime swore loudly, drawing some attention, and ran after him.

“For the record,” Tony piped, “the guys have taken a liking to you. Especially Vic.”
I looked up at him questioningly as we followed them onto the beach at our own pace. “He has a thing for taking new kids and underdogs under his wing. It’s like one of his key traits - sort of how we became friends.” Tony explained in his calm, quiet voice.

I nodded slowly, taking in his expression: he appeared to be the more shy, reserved one out of all four friends, but it was impossible to believe he was capable of malice or deception. If he told me something, I would take his word for it.

“How long have you guys known each other?” I asked as we slowed to a standstill. Tony let an impish smile curl onto his lips as he shot a cheeky sideways look at me.

“Long enough to have pretty much adopted each other as family.” he replied. I smiled back and opened my mouth to ask another question when we heard Vic yell.

“Hey!” We looked over at him as he motioned for us to come over to where he stood. A we began to walk, I noticed figures sat close by to where he stood: Jaime ran past Vic and threw himself at one of the figures.
I chuckled as I realised it was Mike who threw Jaime to a side, pinning him down by managing to sit on his back.

“He-he-hey! Turtle! Maya!” Mike laughed, pushing his Ray Bans up his nose. “How you guys doing?” Tony smirked at Jaime and nodded at Mike.

“Fucking great.” he replied. “ Hey, AR.”
I almost jumped out of my skin, realising Mike’s girlfriend was sat there too - I hadn’t noticed her. She didn’t say anything to Tony in answer; just glanced at him briefly.

“Maya, sit down, come on,” Vic said from by Jaime’s legs. I glanced at Tony, who had already flopped down on the sand. Mike patted the towel he had laid down on the sand for himself, now deserted in favour of Jaime, then reached over with a long arm to touch AR’s shoulder.
“Hey, baby, I didn’t get a chance to introduce you properly earlier.” Mike said. I quirked an eyebrow and sat between them, but said nothing as he politely sidestepped his girlfriend's rudeness. “This is Maya, our new neighbour. Maya, this is Alicia-Rose.”

Alicia-Rose looked over at me, eyes shielded by those huge sunglasses every pretty girl seemed to where to hide her contempt at having to interact with the common people; she tossed a perfect glossy ringlet over her shoulder and sat up a little straighter, stretching out long skinny legs in front of her. A baby pink bikini barely covered her huge boobs (honestly, I thought if she breathed too hard at one point, she might knock me out with one), and a thin wispy sarong was knotted around her waist.

I smile vacantly at her pretty face and fiddled with the sleeve of my t-shirt a little.

“Hi.” I murmured quietly. She didn’t look away, or even visibly react for a moment, just kept her face titled in my direction for a while.

“Hello.” she replied coldly after a second. “Mike, I think we should go get some dinner.”
Mike looked at her strangely. “Don’t you?”
I looked between the two of them steadily and pressed my lips together to suppress a smile. Mike was her plaything.
His expression said quite clearly that he didn’t, but he hesitated for a minute and nodded, getting off Jaime to pack away their things.

“Catch you later, Whiskeyhands.” Jaime said, waving as Mike followed AR’s trail along the beach. He looked over his shoulder and waved at us. I smile and waved back instinctively.

“Poor bastard,” I mumbled, “he’s wrapped around her finger.” Vic and Tony chuckled, whilst Jaime sat up abruptly, a horrified expression dawning of his face, then launched himself at Vic.

“What did you do to Barry?!”