An Eye For An Eye

Cinquante-Quatre

Tamika shut the door behind me and I left my shoes by the door. Friday had arrived sooner than I had expected and a movie was a welcome distraction from the fact I would be a year older tomorrow.

“So… what movie are we watching?” I asked as I pulled out some snacks I had brought. I wasn’t sure what Tamika and Charles liked so I bought food I knew I would eat if they didn’t.
“No idea, Charles will be back soon though,” she said and then motioned to the couch. “Feel free to make yourself comfortable.” Her hair was no longer in the cornrows, she had taken them out like she had said she would.

Nodding, I headed over to the couch. I had fetched a blanket from my apartment the day before when I had headed over to check everything was alright. I curled up, the weather had suddenly gotten a lot colder.

The door opened behind me and I watched Charles walk in. He waved before shutting the door.
“Hey,” I greeted waving back with a smile on my face. He seemed a lot less nervous than usual.

“How was work?” asked Tamika. She offered me a drink but I politely refused the offer.
“Boring,” he said with a sigh as he started pulling his tie loose. “Same guy came in yelling at us again about wanting his job back because of something. I don’t really know, I was on lunch break at the time.”
She furrowed her brow. “Again? Didn’t he try that last week?”
“And the week before,” he sighed. Charles accepted the offer of a drink from Tamika with a nod as he headed towards a slightly open door. “Anyway, I’m going to take this suit off, what are we watching?”
“No idea.”

“So, are we finally going to watch the Princess Bride?” asked Charles as he left his room in a shirt and some shorts. I laughed, I remembered loving the movie when I was a teenager.
“But why?” asked Tamika with a groan.
“Because you’ve never watched it,” he said and I gasped.
“How have you never watched it? Please tell me we’re watching it,” I said. Charles nodded and disappeared into his room.

He returned with the DVD and Tamika reluctantly agreed to watch the movie. We started watching it once Tamika had ordered a pizza for Charles since he hadn’t eaten anything since his lunch.

“You know, it’s not fair,” said Tamika with a frown. She sat by me on the couch and hugged a cushion to her chest. “How is she so pretty?”
I scoffed. “Are you kidding? They’re both beautiful.” For a moment, I thought one of them was going to pick up on what I had said.

“He’s handsome,” Charles said quietly. He had been left to sit on the bean bag in front of the couch and since I was curled up, my legs wouldn’t hit him. “She’s good looking but he’s far better looking.”
“Charles, you’re biased, you’re gay,” Tamika said bluntly. She stuffed some popcorn into her mouth.
Charles twisted and faced Tamika. “I can still tell when someone's pretty,” he argued before turning back to the movie and Tamika almost spat out her popcorn as she tried to refrain from laughing.

“Is it just me or is the Prince and the six fingered man in love with each other?” asked Charles. I hummed and nodded.
“They do kind of seem like they’re in love but hiding it because he can’t have an heir with another man,” I agreed. Tamika just stared at both of us.
“You guys are insane,” she said as she shook her head at us.

“Oh come on,” said Charles. “He called him by his first name and then said that he loved watching him work, how can you say he doesn’t like him?”
“Well, he likes Buttercup!” protested Tamika.
“Yeah, he likes her because he can murder her,” I said. “Besides, if I like both, I’m sure the prince can too.”
“She has a point,” said Charles with an approving nod.

“You two are teaming up against me, aren’t you?” said Tamika as she crossed her arms.
“No, we’re not,” I said and Charles agreed.
“We just think they’re gay. Like me.”
I laughed. “I think the prince is more like me, he doesn’t strike me as completely gay, I think he just prefers men.”

“I think that you just prefer Deucalion,” teased Charles and I could feel my cheeks heat up in the dark.
“So what if I do?” I asked. I hadn’t expected Charles to be so open, he was usually so nervous. “He’s nice anyway.”
“Right…” said Tamika. “If he could look at you, oh boy, if he could look at you, I would not want to be in the same room.”

I laughed and covered my face. I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. They had said something a little like this back at the penthouse so I shouldn’t have been too surprised.
“He doesn’t have to look at her,” said Charles as he turned and knelt on the bean bag, facing us. “Remember when we helped him pack things? Tasha knew they’d been doing something, she told me when they’d gone on the picnic.”
“Really?” gasped Tamika. “That’s what she was talking about?”

“She knew?” I said and then immediately regretted it.
“So you two…?” Tamika trailed off but I just hid behind the blankets. This was not what I was expecting to happen.
“Are you two going to do it tomorrow? For your birthday?” Charles asked and I was glad I wasn’t eating or drinking otherwise I would have just spat it out at what he asked.

“I thought you were supposed to be nervous,” I exclaimed while still hiding behind blankets
“I am usually but I don’t really have anything to be nervous about here, the apartment is a safe place,” he said and I just nodded.

“I didn’t hear a no for tomorrow though,” said Tamika as she yanked my blanket from in front of my face.
“Well, I don’t… why do you even want to know?” I asked, feeling rather awkward. My sex life involving Deucalion was not something I wanted to discuss.
Tamika shrugged. “Just because, I guess. You’re not denying that you didn’t do anything before we got there to help pack either.”
“Well...” I squeaked. I felt like a mouse who wanted to hide from cats.

“Is he good?” asked Charles and I stared at him.
“Um… I’m not liking this conversation, can we go back to the Princess Bride? Besides, I need to go back to the house at some point,” I said. Tamika just made suggestive eyebrows movements and I sighed.
“Sure, but after you answer Charles’ question,” she said.
“I don’t want to,” I said, shaking my head as I snatched my blanket back.

“Fine, we’ll just talk about what Deucalion’s long and ha-”
“Okay, okay,” I said quickly, not wanting Charles to finish what he was saying. It was nice seeing Charles so relaxed but not quite like this. I did not want to hear the end of what he was saying at all. “He’s good, now can we go back to the Princess Bride?” Tamika and Charles high-fived each other and I suddenly had the feeling they had been planning to bring this up all along.

“We can go back to the Princess Bride.”

I let out a sigh of relief and thankfully, the conversation stayed on the Princess Bride and food until I headed back to the house.