Black Flag (Racing on the Edge) (36 page)

“What’s she doing in
there again?” I asked Alley who was again drinking something from the mini bar
in her purse.

“Well
...
” Alley laughed. “Charlie convinced her
and Aiden to get married. I’m pretty sure his exact words were “
Aiden, take
the bull by the horns and marry that girl!
” It was entertaining.” She
smiled searching her bag.

She was drunk because
sober Alley would never let something like this happen. As much as everyone
claimed Aiden was the planner and incredibly indecisive, Alley was too.

“You didn’t feel the
need to stop either one of them?”

“No
...
it
was funny.” Her eyes
light up. “Look, Spencer got me a press on tattoo!” she began to take her shirt
off.

“That’s okay Alley.” My
hands quickly stopped her. “No need to show me.”

“Okay, let’s go back to
the bar. I need another one of those delicious lemon things.”

“They’re called lemon
drops.” I slung my arm around her, well tried. Alley was like four inches
taller than I was. Walking toward the bar, I voiced my concern. “I wish I could
drink.”

She laughed. “You will
be soon and then I won’t be able to again.”

“What do you mean are
you guys going to have another one?”

Alley smiled. “Yeah,
we’ve talked about trying after the first of the year. Lane will be four in
April; I think it’s time to have another one.”

“That’s great Alley.”

Though I held concern
for Spencer parenting another child, I couldn’t really say that because I
myself was no better.

The next hour was spent
watching Alley drink entirely too many lemon drops and texting Jameson who was
with Tommy and Spencer at Treasure Island again. I hadn’t seen Jimi or Nancy
for a while, I assumed they went to bed but I couldn’t be sure.

Eventually I met up
with Jameson again and was surprised to say the least.
If
that were possible anymore with this family.
You’d think at some point
nothing would surprise me but that’s not the case at all. Every day it was
something new. It was like a surprise party every day.

“Where are your shoes?”
My eyes dropped to his bare feet.

Jameson shrugged. “Over
there.”

“Over
where?”
His shrug gave nothing away.

“Huh?” He asked
distracted so I slapped at his shoulder for not paying attention. “That guy,”
He pointed toward an older man in the corner. “He wanted to walk in my shoes
for a day. I gave him my shoes.”

Examining the man, he
was in fact wearing Jameson’s Puma shoes, or at least trying too. They looked
to be about three sizes too big on him.

And then, I finally
noticed Jameson’s attire. He was dressed in a white Elvis costume. I have no
idea how this escaped me until now.

“Where did the costume
come from?”

“That’s what he had
that
I
wanted.” He grinned widely and nodded while holding up his arm of
tassels.

I smiled knowing where
this was going. “So you traded?”

“Yep, pretty cool huh?”

This was exactly why I
say he has the maturity of a seven year old.

“You gonna sing for me
now?”

And this is why we are
maybe sixteen when combined together in age.

“I’ll sing whatever you
want honey.” He whispered pressing me firmly against his Elvis costume.

I noticed Aiden was
acting really strange over by Spencer who was holding him up. It was difficult
considering Aiden acting similarly to a jumping bean.

“What’s wrong with
him?” I voiced my concern for Aiden.

“Don’t know.” Jameson
shrugged uninterested in his spotter’s appearance and more on the beer in his
hand.

I ignored Aiden for a
few minutes because Jameson was singing
Can’t
help Falling in Love
in my ear until the more Aiden bounced around, the
more I realized there was something actually wrong with him. Not only was he
acting bizarre but he was also perspiring to the point where his light blue
polo shirt was soaked.

“Seriously, what
happened?” Aiden continued bounce. “What’s he on?”

Aiden reached out to Jameson’s
cheek only to be delivered a left-handed pop to his shoulder.

Not only did Jameson
not like being touched, but Aiden was also soaking wet. So you add that and
sweat on his skin and he wasn’t pleased.

“We don’t really know
...
” Spencer paused for a moment as his
hand came across Aiden’s chest to hold him in place and away from Jameson. “He
just started acting weird.”

Moving from Jameson’s
lap, I grabbed Aiden’s slick face in my hands; he was burning up. “Aiden, what
did you take?” his pupils were dilated to the point where you couldn’t actually
see the blue in his eyes any longer.

“Nothing, it’s getting
hot in here, let’s take off all our clothes!” Aiden wailed out his best
impression of
Hot in Here
by Nelly.

“Oh god,” I covered my
head with my hands. “Jameson?”

“What?”

“Were you with him?”

Jameson rubbed the back
of his neck a soft chuckled escaped him. “No, I was in the bathroom. Where were
you?”

“With Alley looking for
Emma,”

“Where’s Emma?” Aiden
asked. “I haven’t seen her in a while.”

“Trying on wedding
dresses,”

“What?” Jameson asked
laughing.

Aiden’s eyes got
bigger. He was
definitely
on something.

“Yeah, um
...
don’t ask.” Attempting to diffuse his
surprise in fear he’d have a heart attack soon, I lightly patted his back.

“You know,” Aiden spoke
up looking toward Spencer. “If you ever needed to hide a body, I’d help you.”

“We should
...
get him some water.” Spencer replied
looking at Jameson and me.

“Really I would.” Aiden
told him with a straight face—all joking aside. “I would never tell anyone either.”

Spencer patted his back
propping him up in the booth. “I know buddy.”

I yawned and helped
them get Aiden controlled and drinking water.

“Honey, you should go
get some sleep.” Jameson kissed my forehead. “I’ll come with you?”

“No
...
that’s
okay.” I told him
motioning toward Aiden. “You stay with him. I’m worried.”

“I’m great Sway!” Aiden
announced proudly as though he’d just been jump started. “I feel alive!”

“I know buddy.” I
ruffled his blonde sweaty mess of hair.

“I’ll come with you
Sway.” Alley announced removing herself from Spencer’s lap. “I think I’ve had
too much to drink.”

Once inside the hotel
room, Alley kept rambling on and on about wanting to do something drastic so I
convinced her to cut her hair. Now, when I encouraged her to do this I was
envisioning maybe some layers to add bounce to her straight golden blond hair
that hung about the middle of her back.

Alley disappeared into
the bathroom for about an hour while I watched reality TV.

Now that I was in the
room, I wasn’t tired. I was also worried about what was happening in the
bathroom with a
drunk
Alley, alone with a pair of
scissors and two bottles of hair dye.

Where the hair dye came
from was beyond me.

When the door opened, I
realized leaving her alone was a
bad
idea. The result was not at all
positive. She looked like she lost a paint ball fight with a hairdresser named
Shoniqua
and a pair of scissors.

“You look great!” I
lied.

Her hair had been
chopped almost as short as Emma’s had and the color, well
...
that was a little harder to describe. It
looked as though she intended to add some black highlights or maybe brown. Now
she just looked like
a
S’mores
exploded on her head.

I kept reassuring her
that it looked great. I didn’t know where the lies were coming from but I couldn’t
stop myself. Alley scared the shit out of me and telling her the truth did not
seem possible. I knew I would need to stop lying at some point and calmly tell
her she needed to get this fixed in the morning but I didn’t know
how
to
at that point. Luckily I didn’t have to lie any longer as the next few hours
were spent holding
S’mores
hair as she puked and then
fell asleep on the bed with her.

Engine Block –
Jameson

I was drunk but it was
reassuring to know that everyone else around me was worse off. There I sat in
the Viva Las Vegas wedding chapel while Emma and Aiden got married. I still had
my Elvis costume on because for one, it was fucking awesome, and two, I gave
the dude my clothes. I had nothing else to wear.

Spencer leaned against
my shoulder. “Dad is totally going to kill her for this.”

I just smiled taking
another drink of my beer. He
was
going to kill her but that was the
least of my worries right now. Keeping up with Charlie was my main concern. The
guy was out of fucking control. He was exhausting to watch.

Aiden could barely
stand on his own two feet as the Elvis impersonator said the vows.

After Sway snuck away,
we figured out Aiden had accidently taken Ecstasy when a girl told him it was a
breath mint.

When Emma and Aiden
were officially married, we made our way back to Treasure Island once again
where I may or may not have been singing Hound Dog on the bar. I can’t be sure
because I really don’t remember. I do remember prying some hooker off poor
Charlie when he looked as though he was about to have a heart attack. I
distracted him by convincing him to play pool with me, trying to sober him up.
It didn’t work. Instead, he decided the pool sticks were entirely too much work
and opted to use his hands. One straggler ball got out of hand and hit the wall
behind the bouncer’s head, where it stayed.

We were asked to leave
after that.

At around 3 a.m.
Charlie was still going strong and I was moments away from passing out. I had no
other choice but to dilute two Tylenol PM’s into his beer. An hour later, he
was sound asleep in his room.

Another hour later and
I was curled up next to Sway only to discover Alley curled around her too. I
pushed Alley off the bed onto the floor. It didn’t look like Alley but had her
long ass legs and the same clothes as before. I decided I was too tired to give
a shit.

Spencer was in charge
of Emma and Aiden, neither one of them was in any condition to be left alone,
especially Aiden. So I wasn’t surprised when I got a text from him at six in
the morning that if I ever wanted to see my spotter make it to the next race
alive, I’d come get him right now.

Apparently, Aiden had
woken up and couldn’t decipher where he was at, and ended up peeing on Spencer.
I personally thought this was hilarious. Spencer did not.

In the morning, Emma
had some explaining to do and for a reason I did not agree with, she wanted me
to do the explaining for her. I wasn’t okay with that for a number of reasons.

“Jameson
please
!” she begged. “You have to talk to them for me.”

“No,” I shook my head.
“This is all
your
doing.
You
tell them
what
you
did. I don’t want any part of that conversation.”

And I really didn’t.
They still weren’t happy that Spencer and I were present when Emma decided to
get the Trash-R-Us token. Wait until the find out we were both present when she
decided, on a whim, to get married. I was sure that wasn’t going down well.

“That’s not fair!” she
stomped her foot like a goddamn child in the middle of the casino lobby. “I
helped you with the candles the other night.”

“All right,” I turned
to face her; tears streamed down her cheeks, her mascara smeared under her
eyes. “That was for Sway
...
this,” I held up her
left hand pointing to the quarter machine ring she was now wearing. “
is
entirely
your
fault.”

“Why didn’t you stop
me—you were there?”

“Yes I was there, but
if you remember correctly, I was just as drunk as you, and wearing an Elvis
costume. I don’t think I was in
any
position to help.”

“Mom and dad are going
to kill us.”

“No, they’re going to
kill
you
, not us.” I pointed out. “At least it’s not a tattoo. Just take
the ring off, they’ll never know.”