Composed at Randy’s (Diner Days)

15. Wren

Chapter 15

Wren

M arty slams into me the moment I get into the door of my apartment. I’m off my feet and in the air, inflicted with a rib-crushing, feet-dangling bear hug. “Dude, what happened? I nearly shit a brick when Kai called me and told me he couldn't find you.”

“I’m okay!” I laugh into Marty’s chest, and I expect him to put me down after I hug him back, but after a solid minute, I’m still hanging in his grip.

Another beat and I’m still there. And another… and another. Still hugging. Yep. Stilllll hugging.

I wince as one of the rhinestones on his denim jacket starts to become one with my face.

This is no longer a co-hug. This is swiftly becoming a hug prison, and I kick my feet in protest. I'm about to complain loudly when I realize the heartbeat I can feel against my cheek is racing like mad.

Damn, Marty wasn’t kidding about that brick.

“I’m okay, I promise! A really nice doctor named Gwen checked me out twice and said I'm going to be fine. Then Kai dragged me to another doctor who said the same thing, only they were kind of a jerk about it.” They probably didn’t like how Kai bullied them into seeing me right away, so I’m not holding a grudge.

When Marty finally puts me down, my gaze becomes magically glued to the floor. I can't look anyone in the eye because I feel so stupid. Shelly is there too, and she gives me a much more respectful hug before she starts bustling around my apartment, going through my cabinets and refrigerator and calling out to Kai a list of things for him to buy.

It's a long time before I'm able to look up.

I square my jaw and I just fucking do it, shouting, “I’m sorry!” Everyone in the room stops and stares at me. “I'm sorry I'm so stupid and that you all have to put up with me. Please don't be mad at me even though I know I deserve it.”

“Wren…” Kai says. He puts his list away, comes up to me, and goes down on one knee so he doesn’t loom over me. “We’re not mad, and you’re not stupid. The only people we’re mad at are ourselves.”

“It kinda feels like you’re all three seconds from murdering me, or telling me to go fuck myself.”

“Aw, buddy.” Marty rubs one of his biceps sheepishly and pulls up a chair to sit next to us. “Every single person here knows exactly how lucky we are to have you in our lives. You’re a gift, Wren. You light up everything around you, and all three of us love you to pieces.”

“Do you think I would work for someone if I didn't want to? It's not like I need the money,” Kai says.

This isn't news to me. Kai’s car alone is worth a year of rent in my fancy-ass apartment building. Hell, his apartment might be nicer than mine.

“What did you used to do for a living, Kai? You always laugh at me when I ask.”

Kai glances at Marty who gives him the thumb to the throat neck-slicing gesture.

“It's porn, isn't it? I'm old enough to know about porn, Marty. You don't have to hide it from me. Kai, I promise I’ll still love you even if everyone on the internet has seen your dick. What was your stage name? I promise not to look it up.”

You better fucking believe I’m breaking that promise immediately if he tells me. No, I’m still not hot for Kai, but don’t tell me you wouldn’t go straight to Google if a close friend told you they used to do porn.

Kai laughs and shakes his head, and Marty buries his face in his hands.

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Marty says into his hands. “Maybe when you’re fifty.”

Marty always says this, and he always eventually caves. I am excellent at badgering people. I do wonder what Marty has over Kai that he could keep him from telling me. Kai isn’t known for listening to anyone if he doesn’t want to.

“And you’re not going to tell me?” I ask Kai.

He shrugs in a what can I do sort of way, and I know that's all I'm going to get out of him. My excellent skills aside, Kai cannot be badgered.

“Soooo… just to make sure we're all on the same page, the three of you aren't about to make a mass exodus from my life because you’re sick of dealing with my smooth brain issues, right?”

“God no.” Shelly has Kai’s list in her hand now, and she stops writing in it to give me the full force of her mama bear executive energy. “Wren, even if I didn't love you like my own child, you make me millions of dollars a year. You're stuck with me, babe.”

Marty takes my hand. “Buddy, you have the most brilliant mind I’ve ever seen. They only let genius-level artists into our school, and you blew all of us out of the water. Why do you think our teachers let you get away with everything you did? Because they knew that a mind like yours wasn’t built to follow the same path most people do. They don’t make tests for people like you because they don’t know how to quantify the way you think.”

I've heard this kind of talk before, but it's never made much of an impact on me. I know smart when I see it, and it's definitely not face down in a puddle of drool on a regular basis. It can also do taxes. I'm pretty sure that's a basic requirement for smartness.

“We all know who and what you are, Wren,” Kai says and takes my hand from Marty like it’s the group talking stick and he wants a turn now. “I’m grateful every day that I get to be someone you rely on. The art you create changes lives, and I’m honored to be part of your process. I’m not angry at you at all. It was my job to keep you safe, and I failed at it.”

“We all did,” Shelly pipes in. “All three of us should have slowed down long enough to check in with each other, and I promise you we won't ever forget that again.”

“Never,” Kai says. “In fact, I have several ideas about that to go over with you, Shelly, after the opening tomorrow.”

“I’ll tell my assistant to make a hole in my schedule for you,” she says.

Kai gets up and goes back to the kitchen area to finish helping Shelly with the list, leaving me with Marty.

I feel like a bomb went off in my heart. Never have I felt so loved in my life, and it makes my chest ache. It also makes me think of Bael, and my heart lurches.

How am I going to fix this?

“Kai!” I cry out. “Did you do the thing I asked you to do?”

“Not yet. My priority is you first, but I promise I’ll contact your friends as soon as I can.”

“I really need you to do it right now. It’s urgent. Like super-duper urgent.”

“And I really need you to rest right now.”

“I’m not tired yet.”

“Aren’t you?” Kai gives me a pointed look and I realize I’d just said that mid-yawn.

The excitement and exhaustion of the past few days catch up to me, and suddenly I'm yawning hard enough to expel my soul.

“As soon as you’re asleep, I’ll take care of everything, Wren,” Kai promises.

“Come on, man, let's get you into bed.” Marty hauls me to my feet and starts to usher me to my room. It's a lot cleaner than I left it. Actually, the entire apartment is cleaner than I left it. I bet Kai panic-cleaned the entire place while he was trying to find me.

It’s a very him thing to do.

I'm out and dead to the world the moment my head touches my pillow. My dreams are filled with fishnets, strawberry blonde hair, freckles, and Bael’s majestic crow tattoo.

When I wake up, I know I've been asleep for a long time because I feel amazing. Gwen was right. All I needed was enough rest and food, and now I’m as good as new.

I catapult myself out of my bed, race into my living room and see that Kai and Marty are still there, but Shelly is long gone. They’re both wearing different clothes than before, and Kai looks fresh out of the shower, hair slicked back and still damp.

Wow. I slept a really long time.

Kai is making bacon and eggs, and Marty is being his weird-ass self by watching TV while sitting upside down on my comfiest chair, head hanging over the edge of the seat, legs flopped over the backrest. The kimono he’s wearing is falling down, but he’s wearing leggings so I’m not seeing the full Marty show, thank god.

“Bacon!” I cry happily as I race towards the kitchen and slam into Kai. I hang onto his waist until he gives me the sweet, sweet breakfast goods. Once I get my loot, he’s dead to me, and I scurry away to snarf down some of the best bacon in the world.

“Hey, have you two ever been to Randy's?” I ask around a mouthful of bacon dipped in maple syrup. “The food there is pretty good, and it's as gay as the day is long.”

Marty perks his head up and twists his body like a stretchy yoga cat until he's sitting up and looking at me. “You have my interest.”

“This place is so very you, Marty. It’s the kind of place where if Elvis was gay and still alive, that’s where you’d find him hiding out from fame and fortune.” In fact, I’ll bet that’s exactly who Randy is. No fucking wonder Shay and Mel keep arguing about who Randy is. If he is Elvis, I doubt Mel has had sex with him. Dude has got to be ancient at this point. His dick would probably fall right off at the first thrust.

Marty's up and out of the chair in a single, fluid motion. “Tell me everything.” I knew he’d be into that diner.

Did I mention that Marty moonlights as an exotic dancer? My bestie is jacked and bendy as hell. By day, he teaches art at our old school, and for funsies, he gets his slut on for a ridiculous amount of money.

I love him so much.

I regale him and Kai with the CliffsNotes version of my adventure, and they are both equal parts amused and alarmed until I end it with, “They're all wonderful people and I'm afraid that none of them will ever speak to me again because I ditched them.”

Marty gives me a hug and says, “Don't worry, man. Kai and I have your back. If you have a hard time finding your words, we'll help you out.”

“I think you did an amazing job taking care of yourself, Wren,” Kai says. When I snort, he adds, “I'm not talking about when you were at the apartment alone. You did a shit job at that, but none of us expect you to be good at long-term self-care. That's what you have us for. I'm talking about how well you did for yourself alone and with strangers. You allowed them to take care of you when you needed it, and you left the situation when you realized it wasn't working out for you.”

“But it could work out for me. With you guys still in the mix, I mean.” I need to make that perfectly clear. “Bael and his band are wonderful people. I can't wait for you to meet them. Speaking of which, were you able to contact Harvey, Kai?”

“I was, actually. In fact?—"

Marty cuts off Kai mid-sentence and grabs my arm. “Your guy’s name is Bael? Are you kidding me? Are you trying to say that you spent the past few days hanging out with Baelfire?”

I nod. “Have you heard of them before?”

“Have I heard of them? Have you been living under a rock? Never mind; forget I said that. Of course you have. Wren, Baelfire is one of the hottest bands out there right now. Everyone wants a piece of them, and you're saying that you're dating the lead singer?”

“Kinda? I mean, I might not be anymore now that I've ditched him. He's probably pretty pissed at me right now, which is why I need Kai to find him so that I can talk to him.”

“Harvey and I had a nice long talk,” Kai says, finally managing to break back into the conversation. “Bael definitely knows how to find you now.”

Wow. That makes me far more nervous than I thought it would. But it's good. Bael can find me and I can find him. I only hope to God we can work this out.

“I'd like to circle back around to how Wren managed to bag the notoriously single and sexiest man in the music industry right now. You're introducing me to him ASAP unless you don't want me to sneak you candy for Halloween when Kai isn't looking.”

“You wouldn’t!” I hiss. Then I remember Kai is standing right there, and I backpedal like my life depends on it. “Not that I would eat it without you knowing about it, Kai, because you’re wonderful and always make sure I get plenty of candy during every holiday.” I do the uwu girl hand motion where you tap your index fingers together and try to look cute and innocent.

Kai gives us both a serial killer stare but doesn't say anything.

I laugh nervously and change the subject. “So what should I do now? Should I call him? Or do you think I should wait for him to call me?” I've never done the relationship thing, so I'm definitely going to need someone to shepherd me through this.

“If I were you, I would call him,” Marty says. “You're the one who left, so it's your job to make contact.”

Kai nodded. “I agree, but don't do it right now. We need to be at the gallery soon, and no matter which way this conversation goes, I don't think you'll be in any shape to attend the opening if you talk to Bael beforehand.”

Part of me is relieved that I'll have more time to plan what I should say, but a larger part of me wants to be with Bael immediately because I know I hurt his feelings and I want to make it better as soon as possible.

Those kind puppy eyes... He’s such a soft man and doesn't deserve anything bad to happen to him ever. Only good things. I'll make it up to him somehow. I don’t know how, but I’ll do it.

“Buddy, slow down the thought train you jumped on,” Marty says, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “I can see by your face that your brain gremlins are taking over and making you feel bad. Don't forget that you're not the only one who fucked up here. Bael and his friends should have listened to you more, otherwise you wouldn't have felt the need to sneak out in the first place. I know you. You wouldn't hurt a fly unless you believed you didn't have any other options, so don't beat yourself up.”

I nod even though I don't believe him. But if Marty says it's the brain gremlins being mean to me, he's probably right. Even if I don't believe him, I believe in him, and it's enough to tell those gremlins to shut the hell up, or at least get in the back seat of my brain where they won't get in the way so much.

“Good,” Marty says. “Now that we have that settled, let's go find something for you to wear. You're the star of the show tonight, and right now I look ten times better than you do, and we can't have that. Right, Kai?” Kai gives Marty a serious nod and Marty stands up and gives a little spin.

As he spins, the tie on his kimono flies free, and I see a skin-tight crop top with a familiar name emblazoned across the front. I grab Marty’s arm, and instead of arresting his movement, he drags me along for the ride. He stops as soon as he realizes what happened and catches me by the shoulders before I get flung across the room.

“You’re wearing a Baelfire T-shirt,” I say accusingly.

“Duh, they’re my favorite band. You'd better hook me up with Mel by the way. You owe me for that time when you—oof!”

I tackle Marty and bounce right off of him. “Grab him, Kai!” I shout, and Kai dutifully holds Marty down for me as I strip his kimono and crop top off him.

“Mine!” I wave the crop top in the air triumphantly and race into my bedroom. I trust Kai to keep Marty from following me long enough to hide the shirt so Marty won't find it and steal it back while I'm taking a shower.

If Kai doesn’t want someone to go somewhere, they don’t go.

I spend my shower wildly vacillating between excitement and fear.

I try to hold on to the excitement as much as possible, but it's hard not to worry. Being with Bael felt so right, and I can't imagine how horrible it would feel if he never wanted to speak to me again.

I can’t let that happen. I just can’t.

I’m pretty sure I love him. Somehow, I went and fell in love with someone I’ve only known for a handful of days.

And then I ditched him!

Oh, god. What do I do?

Hopefully, Kai and Marty can help me not fuck it up the next time I see Bael.

If I ever get to see him again…

Goddammit.

Tonight's going to be a long night.