Page 10 of Social Sinners

Chapter Four

After arriving home, we made a mad dash straight for the kitchen and dove into the food, devouring all they’d delivered in record-breaking time before showing Jay where his room was. There were boxes everywhere. It looked like they’d bought out a mall. Easton already had him set up with a door code and wi-fi password. While he got himself situated the rest of us jumped in the pool. Me being me, I decided to do a cannonball off the top of the rock waterfall formation alongside it, landing next to Easton and damn near drowning him.

“Dude, how have you put up with him for a year now?” Joey asked him after he’d quit coughing up water.

“I have two words for you.” Easton grabbed his towel and plopped down on a lounge chair. “Prince. Albert.”

All eyes turned my way as I got out of the pool, “Why are you guys staring at my dick? Looking for a show?” I grabbed the rim of my swim trunks, pretending like I was gonna yank them down while swinging my hips from side to side. Who was I kidding, I had no shame. I’d yank them down without giving it a second thought.

Joey, Stoli, and Mickey yelled, “NO!” Halting the show.

Benny was cracking up. “I have a whole new appreciation for Easton. If he can take that monster, he deserves an award. Damn thing would be coming out of my nostrils like a deranged nose piercing.”

“Benny!” River and Mickey scolded him at the same time as River smacked him in the back of the head. Joey was practically pissing himself from laughing so hard. Stoli groaned but smiled at the same time, and I proudly puffed up my chest.

“Dude, I so did not need to know that about my brother.” The look on Jay’s face as he walked out on the patio was priceless. A mixture of disgust and disbelief which only intensified the cackles and sent my devious mind into overdrive thinking of all the ways I could fuck with him.

“Welcome to the jungle baby,” I said, blowing Jay a kiss before doing a backflip into the pool.

It saddened me to think about all the crucial moments I’d missed with my brother. Birthdays, holidays, even his graduation earlier this past month. Now that I had him back, I was determined to make it up to him.Right after I dunk him underwater. Yes, I have the attention span of a…ooh squirrel!

Randomly throughout the afternoon, my father’s words from earlier would come racing through my skull.Ask for forgiveness.Forgiveness…ha, what have I done wrong that would require the need to ask for it? He’s the one who should be begging for it given the way he treated us.How many other kids has he and his merry bunch of madmen done this to?

Later that night, we decided to veg inside and watch a movie on Netflix. While the others were watchingVenom, I went into my room, pulled out a notebook and pen, and wrote down the thoughts that had been running rampant through my head nonstop. By the time I was done, a wave of relief coursed through me, almost as though I’d freed myself from some invisible hold. I sat back in my desk chair, reading the random musings I’d penned and came to a decision about what to do with them.

“Here,” I said, tossing the paper in Stoli’s lap. “Think you can make something of that?”

He paused the movie, scanning the paper before handing it off to Joey. “You kidding me with this?” he questioned me.

“That bad, huh? Sorry, just some random thoughts I couldn’t get rid of. Once I wrote them down, my mind quieted. Thought you may be able to make something out of them.” Well, that was my one shot at contributing to the lyric police.

“Dude,” Stoli sat forward, staring me down, “you’re taking it the wrong way. This has the makings for a killer song and coming from you, I can feel the angst and the pain radiating within these lyrics. Looks like we’re getting away from the ballads we know you love so much,” he smirked.

“Wait, hold up,” Mickey ran to the other side of the couch reading over Joey’s shoulder. “Diamond wrote a song?”

“Yeah,” Stoli told him, “yeah, he fucking did.” And he actually sounded proud of me.

Joey began reading the lyrics aloud to the group:

Forgive Me Not

Forgive me father, for I have sinned

Isn’t that how it goes?

We put our faith in you, so you should know

For every action, there’s an equal reaction

But what have I done

To deserve such pain?

Where were you for the beatings?

Where were you?

Where were you every time I was fooled?

---