Synergy (10 page)

Being in
such a small town again was a strange experience. He’d forgotten
how tight-knit the community was. Almost every neighbour from a
mile away had arrived at the ‘homecoming’ party, baring food and
cheer. He knew his mother had probably put a lot of people up to
it, however, he knew there would also be a lot of people that
offered anyway. People liked to know each other’s business here.
Not in a malicious way, but sometimes their curiosity could come
across a little nosy to someone who didn’t know them. He remembered
growing up here and rumours spreading faster than a rash with
Chicken Pox; which wasn’t exactly ideal when you’d been caught
having sex with your fourteen year old girlfriend by your mom. He
chuckled to himself remembering the embarrassing memory from his
teenage years. Sometimes, it was easy for people to forget that
celebrities were people too, and they all had their own
embarrassing moments, especially when you’re young. Jason hadn’t
revealed that one to the world till he was around twenty-one and
had just gone solo. When he was in his boy band, they were a little
too cheesy for sex stories.

After
everybody had left the party on the first night, Tom and his wife
had stayed late to help clear up. His other friend Chris had
stayed, and he had plenty of stories from back home to tell them.
Chris had grown up with Jason and Tom but while Jason left the town
for bigger things, Chris had stayed behind. While Tom’s mother had
driven him to see Jason while he was working, Chris never visited.
He would speak to Jason every now and then and each of them would
ask about each other which would then be passed between people, but
Chris’ mother never drove him to see Jason. Chris was a home bird,
and while others left and pursued dreams elsewhere, he settled for
an IT job in their hometown and married his high school sweetheart.
They had their first child at twenty and had since had two more.
Having a wife and three kids was the ultimate dream for him, and
while Jason wasn’t one to judge, he sometimes wondered how things
may have been different for Chris if he had left their small town.
Still, he always saw him when he came home and they always laughed
and joked like he had never left.

Tonight,
on his second night, Jason was having a night in with his parents
and grandparents watching TV and eating food. He hadn’t planned
anything and for once, he didn’t want to. He was perfectly happy
sitting in the company of his favourite people and not having to
worry about some impending work. Sometimes he wondered how his life
would be different if he had stayed home and got a regular job like
the rest of his hometown. Maybe he would be happily married with a
few kids by now, or maybe he would have been miserable, wishing for
a way out. There wasn’t really any way to tell. Plus, it’s true
what they say; the grass is always greener on the other
side.

Later in
the night, after his grandparents had left and he had polished off
some of his mother’s famous cocktails, he started to look through
his phone. He didn’t get a lot of time to surf the internet or use
social media, so when he did, he took everything in. After signing
into his Twitter account, he saw numerous messages from fans,
varying from marriage proposals to kind words of admiration. He
really was humbled by the loyalty of his fans, even after a lengthy
break from releasing music, they were still there supporting him
and waiting for the next instalment. He fumbled through his
messages, trying to answer as many of them as he could. On some of
them, he simply wrote ‘Thankyou so much’, on others, he tried to
make it more personalised. After finding a message from a young
lady who had battled breast cancer, he read on to find her naming
his music as ‘the main thing that kept me going.’ He paused for a
moment while he took it all in. He felt honoured and touched that
somebody who was going through so much would still take time to
support him. He decided something so great was worthy of more than
a few words, so he took the time to write something
longer.

“
Dear Nicki,

I’m so
sorry to hear about the hard year you’ve endured, but I’m glad
you’re finally in remission and are feeling better. I want to thank
you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me and my music, it
means so much. Your children are beautiful; I’m sure they will be
very proud of you and your strength. Keep smiling, and keep
praying.

Jason xx
“

As he
sent off the message, he smiled, hoping the message would go some
way to making that woman’s day better. After the alcohol he had
consumed started to kick in, he decided sending back messages may
not be the best of ideas now, and so he went back to his news feed.
He retweeted a few people who had included him in their tweets, and
a few funny quotes from some friends. It wasn’t long before he
started to wonder about Dee, and if she had ever entered his number
into her phone. While sober Jason may not bother, he typed in her
name into the search box and before long, he found a profile that
matched. He couldn’t mistake her long curly locks or her thick
lips. @DeeThompson had posted on there just over 10 minutes ago.
Hesitating, he paused for a while before he quickly pressed the
‘follow’ button. He then spent the next few minutes looking through
her pictures, mesmerized by her beauty. He decided it wasn’t even
all the makeup and hair that she wore when he saw her at the club,
as there were a lot of bare-faced pictures, and he found this Dee
so much more attractive. He knew it would probably sound corny to
some, but he really did believe some women were more attractive
without makeup, and she definitely had natural beauty.

Before
he had chance to send her a message, his mother walked back into
the room with a tray full of cocktails, smiling.

“
Are you trying to
get me drunk mom
?” Jason asked,
laughing.

“
We’re celebrating
you being home
!” his mother insisted,
taking a glass off the tray and handing one to her son and her
husband.

“
She’s drunk
herself, so she needs drinking partners
,”
his stepdad chimed in, smirking as he took the first sip of the
cocktail, as his wife nudged him in the arm and protested her
innocence. She then sat down next to her husband and cuddled into
his side, sipping from her own cocktail glass. It wasn’t very often
Jason saw his mother drunk. Maybe at the odd party, but not usually
at home. Still, he didn’t mind, he knew she was enjoying
herself.

Halfway
through his cocktail, there was an ad break on the TV and his
mother got up to use the bathroom. Complaining that she had taken
the nearest one, his stepdad hobbled onto his feet, cursing a dead
leg and used the stairs to the next bathroom. As Jason sat alone,
watching an ad about sofas, his phone, which was sat on his lap,
received a notification. As he opened up the twitter app, he
noticed Dee had sent him a message. While it was only a greeting,
he smiled and replied.

Dee

“
Who you
texting
?” Shaneeka Adams asked, trying to
look over her best friend’s shoulder as she smoked a blunt.
Shaneeka was taller than her friend, especially when she wore her
Monolo Blahnik’s, but she was no match for Dee’s strength, which
was currently elbowing her away.

“
Nobody
” Dee replied, moving further
away from her friend so that she couldn’t see her phone. Playing it
cool, Dee put the phone back into her jeans pocket and moved to the
kitchen counter where she poured herself another Vodka and
Cranberry. The kitchen of her friend’s house was packed with
people, some drinking shots in the kitchen, some playing dice games
outside, and some upstairs trying to take advantage of a spare
room. Dee felt comfortable here, knowing it was owned by her best
friend in the world. She had known Shaneeka since they were kids,
maybe around six years old. Their mothers knew each other before
they were born, and while they didn’t always see eye to eye, they
got along for the sake of their girls, knowing they were such good
friends.

Dee had
literally been through everything with Shaneeka by her side. They
had experienced all the usual things you did growing up, periods,
boys, school, plus some darker things. She knew she always had a
friend in this girl, despite anything. Sure, they had fought when
they were younger, but there was nothing they couldn’t fix.
Shaneeka was there for Dee when she had her son two years ago and
Dee was there for Shaneeka when she had her twin boys six months
ago. Shaneeka was one of the lucky ones, for now at least. Her
babies’ father was still around, devoted to both Shaneeka and the
boys, plus he had a real, paying job. That’s not to say he wasn’t
doing anything else on the side, but to the world as they knew it,
he had a real, legal job. Dee always had a feeling Dashal (Or Dash
as they called him) was going to be good to her friend. They’d
started dating when they were in school, in the same way Dee and
Trey did. However, when Trey started to change, Dashal didn’t. He
never felt the temptation of using drugs, or sleeping with other
women, he was good to Shaneeka.

Noah and
Caleb, her twin boys, were born six months ago, and Shaneeka had
her hands full with the both of them. While Shaneeka joked during
her pregnancy that she was going to give the boys ‘normal’ names
and not ghetto ones like herself, she despaired that they were the
most naughty babies she could have asked for, always getting into
mischief. Dashal had told her they took after their mother, and
Shaneeka couldn’t deny it. Still, she took to motherhood like water
over a ducks back. Tonight, it was her time to let loose after
months of staying in. She had organised a huge party around her
house while Dashal’s mother had the boys, and she was taking
advantage. Dee had already seen her drink a few men under the
table, and she only hoped that her friend made it to see the end of
the night.

As the
night progressed, and more drinks were consumed, Dee and Shaneeka
had already joined in a strip poker game, played numerous drinking
games and now, four hours later, they were sat side by side on a
sofa sharing a blunt and winding down. Their best male friend Tip
was sat on the opposite sofa with Dashal playing video games,
shouting drunkly through the excitement and dismay at the others
victory. Dee and Shaneeka watched them for a moment and laughed
when they both stood up, Tip with his hands in the air celebrating
and Dashal protesting and asking for a rematch.  The girls
rolled their eyes as the boys began a new game and as their shared
blunt was stubbed out, Shaneeka turned to her friend.

“
So, who was you
texting earlier
?” she asked, turning her
body all the way round to face Dee.

Dee
rolled her eyes and then smiled at her friend’s curiosity, and
pulled out her phone. She couldn’t believe she’d remembered from
hours ago and had kept the question on lockdown, just waiting to
ask again. That was the thing about Shaneeka, she didn’t let things
go. Sometimes it was a good thing, but sometimes, and more often
than not, it was damn annoying, especially in an argument. Dee
imagined Dashal never won an argument with her, probably just
because he couldn’t be bothered.

As Dee
scrolled through her phone looking for his profile to show her
friend, she paused for a moment and looked at her
friend.

“
Shanny, don’t be
all weird about it, but there was this guy
...”

“
Oooohh I knew it
was a guy!
” Shaneeka squealed before Dee
could even finish her sentence.

“
Let me
finish
!” Dee exclaimed.
“
This guy came into the club a few weeks
ago or some’in, and we...sorta ended up going back to his
hotel.
”

“
You dirty
girl
!” Shaneeka laughed, expressing this a
bit too loudly. The boys who were sat playing on their game glanced
over for a second, wondering what was said.

“
Shut
up
!” Dee told her friend trying not to
laugh.

“
So, are you two
like a thing now
?” Shaneeka
asked.

“
No. I just saw
him a few nights ago, he walked me home from work and we had a
beer
.”

“
Aww, he walked
you home? That sounds sweet
.”

“
Don’t get all
mushy. He’s like, some rich dude
.”

“
Gold
digger
!” Shaneeka laughed, and this time
Dee elbowed her hard.

“
Ok Ok, show me a
picture
.” Shaneeka
asked.

“
Listen
” Dee started.
“
I didn’t know who he was till the other
night when we walked home, so don’t be weird about
it
.”

“
What d’ya mean,
who he is
?”

Dee went
onto his profile and handed her phone to her friend. Shaneeka took
the phone from her and peered at the screen silently for a few
seconds.