JAY JAY POV
Ahhh, these assholes!
But at least I said bye to Amy at the amusement park
Freya must have said something brutal to Percy before we left the park, because he was drinking like it was the end of the world. He wasn't the "Handsome Percy" anymore; he was just a mess with messy hair and blurry eyes.
And Aries? Oh my god. He was sitting in the corner, nursing a glass and staring at the wall. He was drinking like he was physically holding himself back from bursting into tears. It was heartbreaking and annoying all at the same time.
"ONE MORE!" Percy yelled, slamming his empty glass on the table so hard I thought it would shatter. "BRING…. OUT…. ALL….. THE... BEST... DRINKSSSSSS!"
He is definitely drunk now. Great. Just what I needed—a bunch of high-tier delinquents with zero motor skills.
I turned to Jare, who was sitting next to me. He was the only one who seemed relatively sober, but even he had that dark, broody vibe going on.
"So, are you going to talk to Mia soon?" I asked him quietly.
Jare didn't even turn his head. He just stared at his drink and took a slow, deliberate sip
"Jare," I said, firmer this time.
"What, Jay?" Jare snapped, his voice sharp enough to draw blood.
Asshole.
I didn't think twice. I reached out and smacked him right on the forehead. TAK!
"Aray! What was that for?!" he hissed, rubbing the red spot on his skin.
"You left her out of the blue, Jare! No explanation, no goodbye, nothing!" I yelled at him, ignoring the fact that Percy was currently trying to sing a K-pop song in a slurred voice behind us. "And now that you're finally back, you're just going to sit here and pout? Go talk to her!"
"It's not that simple, Jay-Jay," Jare muttered, his eyes flickering with a pain he usually kept hidden behind his "cool" persona. "There are things you don't understand. Things about why I had to leave."
"I don't care about your secrets right now!" I shot back, my voice rising over Percy's drunken rambling. "You know how much she cried? She thought you were just using her for fun, Jare! She felt like trash after you disappeared!"
Jare's grip tightened on his glass, his knuckles turning white. "I never used her for fun," he said, his voice low and vibrating with a mix of guilt and anger.
"Then tell HER that!" I yelled, frustrated. "Why did you even leave her anyway? What was so important that you had to break her heart without a word?"
He didn't answer me. Instead, he grabbed a full beer bottle from the bucket, popped the cap, and chugged the whole thing in one go like it was water.
Asshole.
I watched him slump back into the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling. Great. Just great. That's another one I have to worry about. First a heartbroken Aries, then a suicidal-drinking Percy, and now a silent, brooding Jare.
How am I even going to go home?
I checked my phone. It was late,
I couldn't call a taxi here, and I definitely wasn't letting Percy near a steering wheel.
"That's enough!" I snapped, reaching for the glasses Percy and Aries were clutching like lifebuoys.
"That is… mine… get your… its there," Percy slurred, his eyes rolling to the back of his head as he tried to snatch the glass back. He pointed a shaky finger toward the bottles on the shelf. "There's… more… for the… beautiful… baby sistah…"
"Let's get you guys out of here," I groaned, grabbing Percy by the arm and trying to hoist him up. He felt like a sack of wet flour.
"Noooooooo!" Aries suddenly yelled.
I jumped, nearly dropping Percy. What the hell? I'd never heard Aries make a sound like that—it was a raw, pathetic wail. It looked like Ella had tamed him so much that without her, he was just a broken mess of a man.
"Please, let's go!" I pleaded, shifting my weight so I could grab Aries with my other arm. Now I had two drunk idiots
leaning on me, and I felt like my spine was about to snap. "Jare! Come on! Help me!"
I looked over at Jare, hoping for a voice of reason. But Jare was staring into space, a goofy, lopsided grin on his face. He looked completely knocked out from that last beer.
"Hey, buddy…" Jare said, swaying as he stood up.
Buddy? Did he just call me buddy? I'm your sister, you idiot!
"Please help me, they're both heavy!" I shouted at him, sweating under the weight of the two boys.
"The first day I saw Mia… was when she was walking with you," Jare started, his voice drifting off into a dreamy, drunken state.
Dammit! I'm done! I'm totally done! I couldn't even call Ben, Robin, —they were all away on a trip. I was the only sober person in a room full of emotional, muscular idiots.
"For fuck's sake, please, let's go!" I grunted, trying to drag Aries and Percy toward the door.
"Mia… she was a beautiful girl," Jare continued, stumbling after me, his eyes glazed over. "I still remember our first kiss… damn, she was good… her lips were like—"
"STOP! BEFORE I THROW UP!" I screamed at him. "I don't want to hear about your love life! I don't want to hear about kisses! I just want to go home!"
I managed to drag them all the way to the door, but Percy's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the floor, pulling Aries and me down with him. We were just a pile of limbs on the carpet.
"Ella..." Aries whispered again, his voice cracking against my shoulder. "I don't like her anymore, Jay-Jay. I swear to God, I don't like her... she just used me for her own games."
My heart twisted. He sounded so small.
I patted his head awkwardly, but I couldn't stay like this forever. I had to get help before I lost my mind.
I lunged for Percy's pocket, trying to fish his phone out.
"HEYYY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Percy shrieked, squirming like an eel. "Sexual harassment! Help! The Barakuda is attacking my pants!"
"Asshole, shut up! Someone might think I'm actually doing something to you! I just want your phone!" I yelled, finally elbowing him in the ribs and snatching the device.
I scrolled through his contacts with shaky fingers and hit Felix's name.
"What do you want now?" Felix's voice came through, sounding completely annoyed and probably halfway to sleep.
"Your brother is drunk. Come to Kingground. Now," I said, not even bother with a 'hello.'
"Jay—" Felix started, probably about to make an excuse.
"Kingground. Fast," I snapped and hung up before he could argue.
I threw the phone back at Percy's head. Jare was leaning against the wall now, staring at me with a lopsided, terrifyingly cheerful grin.
"Jay... do you want to hear a joke?" Jare asked, swaying on his feet.
"NOOOOO!" I yelled. If he told a joke in this state, it was either going to be about his 'first kiss' again or something that made absolutely no sense.
But of course, once they start something, they don't stop.
"Jay, listen... if you're American when you go into the bathroom," Percy started, his voice high-pitched and slurred, "and you're American when you come out... what are you while you're in the bathroom?"
I stared at him, deadpan. "I'm going to kill you guys. I'm actually going to do it."
"PeRcY! I kNoW tHaT oNe!" Aries suddenly shouted, bursting into a fit of hysterical, drunken giggles. He lunged toward Percy, nearly knocking me over again. "It'S... EuRoPeAn! Hahahahaha! Get it? You-re-peeing! Hahahaha!"
The two of them started howling with laughter, leaning on each other and sliding down the wall until they were sitting on the floor, breathless.
"Get it? European!" Percy wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye.
"I hate my life," I whispered, rubbing my temples. "I truly, deeply hate my life."
I stood there, frozen in utter embarrassment, as a man from a nearby group walked over, looking concerned.
"Miss, do you need some help?" he asked, eyeing the three heavy guys currently draped over me and the floor like discarded laundry.
I was about to offer a grateful 'Yes, please!' but Percy—the absolute traitor—decided to open his big, drunken mouth.
"Miss? She isn't no 'miss'!" Percy slurred, waving a shaky hand at me. "It's a 'mr'! Did you see... did you see how he punches? No girl punches like a truck!"
"Yeah," Jare added, nodding sagely while leaning against the doorframe. "My sister is... trangenter." He didn't even say the word right, but he said it with such confidence that the man's eyebrows shot into his hairline.
"JAY! YOUR A MAN!" Aries suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs, pointing a finger at my chest with a look of pure, drunken revelation. "I KNEW IT! BROTHER!"
The man burst out laughing, his shoulders shaking as he looked from my murderous expression to the three idiots failing to function.
"I see," the man said, trying and failing to stop laughing. He gave me a sympathetic look. "Miss, if you need any help, my friends and I will be just inside. Feel free to come get us if the... 'mister' here gets too heavy to carry."
"Thank you," I squeaked, my face feeling like it was literally on fire. "I've got it. Just... family genetics, I guess."
"Whatever you say, buddy!" the man chuckled, heading back inside.
As soon as he was out of earshot, I dropped Percy's arm, letting his head thud lightly on the carpet.
"I am going to shave your eyebrows off while you sleep!" I hissed at them. "I am not a man! I am not 'trangenter'! And I am definitely not your 'brother'!"
"Don't be mad... bro," Jare whispered, closing his eyes. "You're a... very pretty man."
The silence was broken by the familiar, annoying engine of a luxury car. My heart plummeted. Oh fuck, it's Yuri.
"JAY," Felix said, his voice tense as he looked at the approaching headlights.
"Felix, if you don't mind, can you just drop us off at Percy's house?" I asked, completely ignoring the "Rooster" as he stepped out of his car. I didn't have the energy for his games.
Felix nodded, his jaw set. But the drunks had other plans.
"JAY! THERE IS THAT STICK!" Percy yelled, pointing a wobbly finger at Yuri.
Stick? I thought he was a rooster. I guess Percy's drunk brain was switching through animal and object insults.
"Jay, get me closer to that rooster," Aries whispered, his voice suddenly cold despite the slurring.
"Aries, stay—" I started, but I was too late.
Aries lunged forward with surprising speed and landed a solid punch right on Yuri's jaw. "You son of a bitch! This is all your fault!" Aries yelled, his eyes bloodshot and filled with months of suppressed rage.
Then Percy joined in, swinging wildly. "If it wasn't for you, all of us could've been together! Everything is a mess because of you!"
I stood there, stunned. Yuri didn't even try to fight back. He just stood there, taking the blows as if he deserved every single one of them. For once, the smug look was gone.
"Felix, stop them!" I screamed.
Felix finally snapped out of it, grabbing Aries and dragging him back toward the car while I struggled to hold Percy's waist. But as soon as we had the first two contained, Jare—the "responsible" eldest—stepped up and delivered a punch that sent Yuri stumbling back against his own car.
"JARE!" I shrieked.
"You son of a bitch," Jare spat, his voice low and dangerous. "You blackmailed my sister into a wedding. Don't worry, Yuri. I'll make sure that never happens. I'll burn everything down before I let you touch her."
I quickly shoved Percy into the car, then turned around to grab Jare by his collar, hauling him away before he could do more damage. Felix tossed a struggling Aries into the back, and I squeezed in between them.
The car was packed. Percy and Aries were squished against the windows, and Jare sitting next to me.Felix sat in the passenger seat, but my blood boiled when I realized Yuri had slipped into the driver's seat of his own car to follow us—or rather, it was his car we were currently piled into.
"JAY! IT SMELLS LIKE THAT ROOSTER! I DON'T WANT TO BE IN THIS CAR!" Percy wailed, scratching at the door handle.
"Open that door and I will really push you off!" I threatened, my patience thinner than a strand of hair.
Percy looked at me in horror. "I wasn't wrong... you are a man," he whimpered.
Jare and Aries burst into a fresh fit of giggles. "A very... scary man," Jare added, hiccuping.
"Oh god, please let me not commit a crime today," I muttered, leaning my head back and closing my eyes.
"Why are they drunk again?" Felix asked from the front, looking back at the disaster in the backseat.
"Percy saw Freya and tried to talk to her, but she must have crushed his soul. Jare is mourning his ex's lips, apparently," I said, then I shifted my gaze to the rearview mirror, locking eyes with Yuri. "And Aries? I think the man driving knows exactly why my brother is drunk."
Yuri immediately avoided eye contact, staring straight at the road, his lip bleeding from where Aries had clipped him.
The ride was a nightmare. Between Percy complaining about the "rooster smell," Aries crying silently about Ella, and Jare trying to tell me another bathroom joke, I felt like my brain was rotting.
We finally pulled up to Percy's house.
"Help me get them inside," I told Felix.
As we hauled the three of them out, the cold air seemed to wake Aries up just enough to be dangerous again. He grabbed my wrist, his grip surprisingly tight.
"Jay-Jay," he whispered, leaning close to my ear. "Don't let that rooster take you. We're still here. Even if the others left... we're still here."
I looked at his tired, drunk face. Even in this state, they were trying to protect me. I patted his hand and looked toward the gate of Percy's house.
"I know, Aries. Now go inside before I turn into a man and beat you up for real."