Chapter Fourteen

Lance

I'm not quite entirely sure if agreeing to Vincent's invitation was a good idea for my welfare. I honestly admit that I am more than astonished to see Vincent, out of all the people I know, to show up at my gig and just instantaneously invite me to a party. Who would even do that? Who would just hurt and mess you up pretty bad and then shows up to your workplace and invite you to party eight years later? Pushing that aside, I was even more shaken to see him with no other than Yhannie Thomas. Great, just great, two people who might probably be the last characters I expect to see just showed up to my gig out of the blue. Are they even together? I'm feeling rather dubious about this one because the last time I remember, Vincent tore my heart apart for a girl. I'm more than skeptical about agreeing to this but I'm just so desperate to have something interesting to happen to my life again, I'm hungry for something crazy to go down. As soon as we all got inside Vincent's car I received the confirmation that Vincent and Yhannie weren't together which brought peace to my mind.

For most of the drive, Yhannie was being the Yhannie that I know. She kept on talking and asking and joking nonstop and just to prevent some possible discomfiture among us I just sucked it up and went along with her. Mercy finally came to rescue me the moment we arrived at this big house where even far outside you can overhear the loud music reverberating from the inside. We all got out of the car immediately right after Vincent parked and killed the engine.

"Alright, here we are!" Yhannie squealed much to her excitement or maybe she just a lot to drink to give off that kind of energy.

"Come on Lance" Vincent waved at me as we all staggered towards the entrance.

As soon as we are all inside the house I immediately knew that I'm going to regret agreeing to this plausible debacle. I'm not the type of person who grew up to crashing loud and wild house parties like this, it's not just in my nature. I'm just that one odd person who's at peace with just going to a local acoustic bar and just sit down and chill. Maybe that was one of the reasons why my life went tedious spontaneously as soon as I graduated from high school. Everyone is already drunk as fuck and are already going berserk. There's this guy who just jumped into the pool with all of his clothes on. There's a skinny woman already puking on a plant while her friend rubbed her back. It is still early but a lot of people are wasted, what the hell. Each of us grabbed a drink and Yhannie quickly activated the social butterfly living inside of her.

"Oh, there she goes" I grumbled under my breath when Yhannie gleefully strutted her way towards the drunk crowd. Vincent's reaction was priceless.

We both decided to soak our feet at the pool. Everyone is kind of doing their own crazy shit so I guess no one will give a single fuck about us here. The water felt warm just as I wanted it to be.

"So, how are you?" Vincent turned his head to face me.

"Great. I'm doing great" I said mustering a deep breath. Here we go. I swallowed deep and buckled up for this is going to be an interesting ride. I reckon this is going to be the longest conversation I'm going to have with Vincent in eight years. I don't even know how to play this cool and make it less awkward but I'm going to try. I should've known that this day will come, that way I would've prepared myself for this. "To be honest, there's nothing really fascinating going on with my life right now other than my gigs. How 'bout you? How are you doing?"

"Me?" Vincent paused. "Well, I just went through a rough break-up" He huffed and raised his cup to which we had a quick cheer before pouring this some sort of whiskey mixed with coke thing that tasted like dust down to our throat.

"Oh! So, Uhm, I guess now you're back in the field?" I asked. "Not the football field but you know, the mingling field?"

For a second, I thought I sounded a little bit vindictive at what I just said but then I came to realize that I'm just beginning to release all of these questions that were left unanswered and were ordered to be sequestered at the very back of my mind eight years ago. This is the perfect time for me to ask those questions and actually get an answer from the person who caused it to be formed in the first place.

"Ahahaha" He chuckled briefly. "I don't think so. I just want to move on from him first, you know."

"Him?" I paused for a moment upon hearing that.

"Yes," Vincent answered confidently.

"What happened to Sabrina?"

"Sabina" Vincent quickly corrected me.

"Right, right, Sabina. What happened to her?" I made sure that my voice is spreading out firm and collected enough to establish some poise that I'm giving off to this conversation. The bus is already moving and I am not going to backpedal on this one. I am determined to get all of my unanswered questions answered once and for all. Maybe saying yes to this has its pros after all.

"Uhm, she's... Here's the thing, and I want to be honest with you, Me and Sabina, I don't know what happened between the two of us. We only dated for like a month and we ended it" I listened carefully to what he was telling me and I can positively tell that he's leaving some details behind the curtain.

"Oh, so who's this guy then?"

"His name is Keiran. We've been together for more than six years" I was slowly drinking my alcohol and I almost choked when I heard him say six years.

"Uhm, excuse me. I just need to go find the bathroom if you don't mind" I told him and then propped myself up off the pool.

"Oh, sure, sure, let me go with you" Vincent propped himself up as well and was already willing to accompany me to the bathroom.

"No, no, no. It's fine. I can go by myself"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah"

It was damn difficult to hear that. I just needed a moment to be alone and simmer down because I am about to blow up. I refilled my cup fully and gulped it all at once as if I'm an extremely thirsty man who just got stranded from an island for a very long time and finally just got rescued. Finding the bathroom was easier than letting that thought sink in on my mind. Wow, more than six years? I can't fucking believe Vincent lasted that long with someone else when he can't even admit to himself that he's gay back when we were together. I do perfectly understand the feeling of being afraid to come out of the closet and it's just hard for me to accept what I learned today. I could've been that person. We could've been together that long. We could've shared a lot of beautiful moments.

I can't even stay here when two strangers barged in and started smooching each other. I just went back to refill my cup again and drank it like there's no fucking tomorrow. Twenty minutes later my vision started to get blurry when I went to this huddled group of people who were dancing. There's no stopping me from getting drunk as fuck tonight so I partied real hard for the first time in my life.

"There you are Lance, I thought you went home already" Vincent showed up out of the blue and although I can perfectly hear him, he's moving so fast that he's like a film being fast-forwarded. I sensed his hand grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me away from the middle of the waving crowd.

"Oh hey Mr. Grande" I blurted out.

"Shit, you're already wasted"

"You know I've just realized how much I've missed you" The words flew out of my mouth like butterflies and bees as I leaned towards Vincent's physique.

"Yeah, I missed you too"

"I really do but shut up!" I pointed at Vincent's lips and clipped it.

"Okay, I'll shut up" Vincent was being patient at me while he doesn't have any idea what I am about to give him.

"I want to tell you this. Fuck you! Fuck you for hurting me, fuck you for loving me, fuck you for everything!!!!! Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you" I continued blubbering and sounded really drunk as fuck that my mouth went out of control.

"I've been looking for you" A woman suddenly appeared and after that, I can't remember anything at all.

I woke up the next morning right next to Vincent who was hugging me tightly. I don't know if I should cry or laugh or smile about this but I can't but hug him back. My head is banging and as much as I want to move, Vincent's tight hug limits me from doing so. I lay there for a while, trying to recall what happened last night but my headache won't just let me get a clear shot. I finally decided to leave; staying here until they wake up is pointless. I removed Vincent's arms off me and carefully got out of the bed. I didn't quite expect a lot of things to happen last night. I was about to step away when I felt a body on my feet that I almost jumped in fear. I looked down quickly to see Yhannie sprawled on the floor.

"What the f" I covered my mouth before I even make a loud sound that could possibly wake them both up. Of course, I don't want to wake up both of them. I'm just going to leave quietly as possible. I grabbed my phone and fuck my guitar is missing but then I thought maybe it was still at the backseat of Vincent's car. Moving quickly and steadily enough I was already downstairs and as soon as I open the door I saw Valentine.