Celadon Bay - Book One

Party-less birthday

December 23rd, 11:45 p.m. The usual crew, plus one is gathered in our living room, waiting for the event of the month. And no, I'm not talking about Christmas. I mean, for any regular family it might be, but not here; not for us. Not when Martin's birthday happens to fall on Christmas Eve. Even though he claims he doesn't want anyone to make a fuss out of it. Yeah, you heard right. Martin, no fuss. No comment.

Back to here and now, and in the spirit of fulfilling our objective of trying every pizza in town (which we have been delaying ever since my first date with Vee), we're finally trying one from Luigi's. And even though Martin's opinion might be a little biased, the verdict is almost unanimous.

"It's like fucking chewing gum with a disgustingly strong onion aftertaste." (Only one person has such a foul mouth in this group.)

"Even the crust is soggy," Vee laments, scrunching her face as she holds a slice in front of her. The cheese is so gross and she watches in horror as some yellowish oil drips to form a puddle on her plate.

"You guys are too picky. I mean, it could be better, yes, but it's still pizza." This sin of a comment comes from the 'plus one' in our living room: Martin's temporary chick. I can't even remember her name. All I can tell you about her is that she has some remarkable red curls; flashy enough to get Martin's attention, and unusual enough for me to know I've never seen this girl around CJ High.

"Some people just don't know any better," Martin says, entirely dismissing her opinion. I'm tempted to think this means he's dumping her before I actually get to know her name. Instead, he spares us the food poisoning by doing something completely expected of him. He picks up the remains of the sub-par pizza and drops it into the garbage. "I can't believe we actually paid for that," he says with a sneer. "It's worse than dog food."

His date gapes at him in horror. "Are you for real?"

"Oh, trust me, he is," Vee replies, taking a long sip of her Coke. She keeps some in her mouth for a little while before she swallows, probably to get rid of the foul taste.

"But that was our dinner!" Martin's date shouts.

"Let's just go get real human food instead, shall we?" Martin says, making his way to the front door.

No offense, Luigi, but I can't say I disagree with Martin on this one, neither I can say I don't know where we're headed. Vee doesn't question him either, so we both get up and follow Martin. But the other girl still doesn't take the hint. She probably doesn't know yet that Martin's parents own Aloha-Aloha.

"You guys are nuts," she says, a sullen look on her face.

I want to tell her that she'll get used to it, but what would be the point? She won't be around long enough for that to ever happen, so I keep my mouth shut.

"I hate to state the obvious, Laetitia, but you've probably noticed Martin is quite an eccentric guy." Leave it to Vee to remember such a convoluted name. I can't even imagine what auto-correct would suggest if I attempted to type that on my phone.

"Well, it's pretty obvious right now, that's for sure," Laetitia says, unimpressed.

"Stop yapping already," Martin tells her. He loops an arm around her and drags her outside, walking on ahead. "You'll thank me later, I promise."

"So..." Vee says, clinging to my arm as usual when I lock the front door. "You're really quiet tonight."

"Eh? Really?"

"Mmmm. Those are the first words you've said in a while now. It's like the new girl got your tongue."

This happens a lot. And the truth is, I would actually make an effort at conversation if I knew the girl was going to stay around for a while, but I know this won't be the case. But instead of telling Vee this, I just joke my way out of the topic.