Moments: A BWWM Short Story Collection

XXIII: Replacement (Pt. 2 of 3)

The inside of Buck-E-Beaver's was predictably noisy, and I allowed my ears to adjust to the crush of noise as I caught up to Seth at the reception area. To my relief, I found something had caught his eye; namely the bored-looking goth girl on her phone.

"Welcome to Buck-E-Beaver's, where fun and magic never end." she droned as she scrolled down with her thumb. "Is this a party visit, or...?"

She trailed off as her eyes flicked up to me, and I couldn't help but notice the way her gaze tracked up and down my body. I did most of the heavy lifting at the shop and spent over six hours a week at the gym, and the from the way the girl's piercings rose along with her eyebrows she appreciated the results.

I, however, was less than enthusiastic about being ogled by a teenage girl, so I cleared my throat as I put a hand on Seth's shoulder.

"No, we're here to meet someone. I'm not sure if she's under Evelyn or Jones."

Seth threw my hand off my shoulder as he blushed furiously, and the goth girl smirked at him as he stared down at his shoes. I shot him an apologetic look, but he only returned a glare as the receptionist browsed her list.

"I'm gonna guess "Princess Evelyn" is the one you want." she said dully as she exited her booth. "I'm Serendipity, by the way. Not that anybody cares."

We fell behind Serendipity as she led the way to Evelynn's table past groups of screaming kids. I turned to tell Seth I was sorry for embarrassing him, only to notice that his attention was planted firmly on Serendipity's khaki-clad posterior. I bumped him with my elbow and arched an eyebrow at him, and he set his jaw in defiance.

"Yeah, because you totally didn't notice her butt." he hissed.

I gave him a stern look as I breathed out through my nose, but truth be told, I hadn't noticed at all. Evelynn happened to be particularly gifted in that area, and a few short months had biased me towards what I considered physically attractive. Such were the perils of dating an African-American woman, I suppose.

"Noticing is fine." I whispered as we passed a buzzing claw machine. "But girls hate it when you treat them like pieces of meat, so knock it off."

"She didn't seem to have that problem doing it to you." Seth said resentfully.

I wanted to point out that he still had growing to do and that he never joined me when I invited him to the gym, but such things were a moot point now. Seth had never enjoyed a good relationship with women because of how Lily neglected him, and any girlfriends he made inevitably dumped him after a few months for being "clingy."

This only contributed to a downward spiral of loneliness, and as much as I tired to help, it only further deepened his resentment towards women. That anger was the main hurdle to pass tonight, and as we spotted Evelynn frantically waving at us, I knew that she and I had an uphill battle to convince Seth to let her in.

Especially considering his first impression of Evelyn was her leaping up to wrap her arms around me in a lovey-dovey hug.

Seth gave an "augh" and rolled his eyes, while Serendipity shook her head in mute disgust. Teenagers couldn't wait to get their hands on each other, but they never seemed to tolerate even the mildest forms of PDA in strangers.

"I'd like to point out that there are kids present." Serendipity droned as Evelynn peeled herself off of me. "So do your best to keep things PG in here, would you?"

"Yeah, dad!" Seth said. "You're embarrassing everyone around you!"

He gave an exaggerated shake of his head, before throwing it back with what he must've assumed was a suave, debonair look at Serendipity. Her nostrils flared before she studiously ignored him to lay a trio of menus down.