Pre-Arranged

Chapter-10

"Did I miss the flashes or they never happened?" Wes asked as he ran the comb through his sleeked back, gelled hair for potentially the thousandth time within the past fifteen minutes.

Ted stifled a yawn and blinked his eyes in confusion. "What flashes?"

"The flashes of camera, dude! Have they taken a photographic evidence of the single most embarrassing moment of my life?" Wes rephrased his question and leaned towards the full-length mirror. His tongue automatically wedged out from the corner of his mouth while his fingers arranged the stray locks on his forehead.

"They probably have," Ted eventually replied. At his inconsistent frequency of responses, Wes turned his head slightly and noticed his distracted expression almost instantly. "I didn't pay attention at that time," he added truthfully.

His cousin separated his lips to bring him to order for his absentmindedness when the phone in his room began to ring. He strode towards the grey instrument and shouted over his shoulder as he picked up its receiver, "Ma! I got the phone!"

"Okay!" came back the prompt answer from across the hall.

"One day when almost all calls are for me," he muttered before he spoke the customary greeting into the phone.

"Oh, hi. Why aren't you here? Is it? Damn. Do you want me to tell –? Okay, okay. Spare me the shout please. It's my birthday! Thanks for your wishes though, and get well soon."

"Who was it?" Ted asked, his ears having picked up the last three words in the one-sided conversation he had mostly filtered out.

"Just a guy from my college," Wes said, heading back to his spot in front of the mirror. "Wayne. Do you know him? I thought he'd show up today, haven't met him in a while. Fella fell sick though, talk about bad timing."

Ted's shoulders slumped once again and he phased out the rest of his cousin's rants. It was only when fingers snapped under his vision that he realized his attention had drifted off for the umpteenth time that morning.

"Let's go out to the party, mate!"

Wes slapped his cousin's back twice and beamed at his grimace as he gave him a shove with both hands. Ted stumbled out and was saved from a potential face-to-floor meeting by Wes who caught his arm and helped him straighten up, chuckling the whole while.

They entered the living room area to a fresh round of applause and first time hugs, the latter activity having been avoided when the birthday boy had been sporting undergarments. Only when everybody had stepped aside and had asked all forms of embarrassing questions including the usual exclamations of "Oh, you've grown so big so soon!" to which Wes had politely replied, "That's what twenty five years of life does," and had grinned when the exclaimer looked confused at his response, did Katherine detach herself from the wall where she stood glued to in one corner of the room and approached them.

"Wes, you old man!" she said with a warm smile and slapped his arm.

"You wish weird."

"Eh, what you gonna do about it?" Katherine said with a shrug of her shoulders. Before they could continue, however, Wes was whisked away from them and led towards the centre table where a large blue birthday cake had been set up, complete with cracker candles that spurted out sparks of gold.

"Wow, they could not make it any more obvious that Wes is their favourite," Katherine commented under her breath.

"Yeah, they adore him," Ted affirmed, his pupils trained on her as stealthily as he could manage. Even while she had greeted Wes with a smile, he had noticed the anger concealed underneath.