Chapter Seventeen

The Yellow Red-Tipped Rose

      Instead of returning to Oakland that night, Kenny made a detour to the north side of Richmond instead and spent the night with Tonya in her two bedroom bungalow. They ordered pizza since it was her Friday, invited Teddy over who was also free to stay till the next morning and played a drinking game around her round glass table. With her black leather couches in an L formation, it made the room feel cramped but it worked for her, although Kenny made a comment every time he had to tiptoe by the couch to get to the front door.

      There were three joints lit and being passed around once Teddy arrived as Tonya brought out the large bottle of Belvedere Vodka with three shot glasses and placed it on the table with a slight force, causing the two guys to stop their conversation on the latest episode of Desperate Housewives.

      “I am NOT going to sit here all night and listen to you two women gab about those damn w****s on that damn show!”

      “First of all, we’re men, sweetheart.” Teddy softly corrected as Kenny snickered.

      “Not from where I’m standing.” Tonya sat and passed the glasses around while Teddy opened the bottle.

      “So did you flirt with that Kayla girl? Perhaps, get her number?” Kenny asked, filling his glass to the rim, passing the bottle over and taking a hit.

      “No, she’s straight and married. Turns out, she actually was just paying me a compliment.” Tonya glared over at Teddy who had already took his shot and was taking a large hit of his joint, “The game hasn’t started fool!”

      “So what? Didn’t know you were Miss Rules-A-Lot. I always despised her.”

      “And why are you off again in the middle of the week? Isn’t your job open only Monday through Friday?”

      “I don’t want to talk about it.”

      Tonya gasped as she looked over at Kenny’s conflicted face and Teddy’s brush off.

      “You got fired?!”

      “No! Girl, I got laid off! There’s a big difference.”

      Tonya gasped again.

      “When?”

      “Last month.” Teddy took another shot of vodka, “Pixar is ran by a bunch of b*****s, you know that? Only the permanent front staff was let go but not the temporary front staff. And when some little temp b***h whined about how she wasn’t going to stay unless she got a raise, that’s when little ol’ me tells them I’d stay on even if they paid me less! AND THEY KEPT HER!”

      Kenny and Tonya looked over and shrugged at each other while Teddy took his third shot at the table.

      “You know my severance package won’t last long so this tramp has to get on the ball.” Teddy burped and passed his small joint to Kenny with a tipsy looking smile.

      “Well, here’s to a new beginning for all of us!” Tonya raised her shot glass as the other two followed and they all took the shot together, “Apply at my job, Teddy, they just fired our front desk help.”

      Teddy gave a thumbs up and took another shot. The game of ‘Never Have I Ever’ started gradually, Tonya leading with the first Never. She claimed she had never rode reverse cowgirl before, to which Kenny and Teddy took a hit. Kenny stated he had never given a hand job in a park, to which Tonya and Teddy drank. Teddy swore, with a hand over his heart, that he had never had sex in a pool, to which they all drank.

      “Okay, okay, I got one…” Kenny slightly slurred, leaning back in his chair after a few passing minutes of drinking and smoking, “S**t, I am loaded.”

      “You said you had one, fool.” Tonya yanked the bottle from Teddy and poured the rest of the vodka in her glass. Kenny sat there in silence, blinking at his empty cup.

      “Uh, I lost it.”

      “That’s the third time!” Teddy complained drunkenly.

      “Did anyone ever tell you that you sound like a high pitched mouse?” Kenny was squinting at his friend as Tonya was laughing as she took a hit from her joint. Teddy huffed and refused to look in Kenny’s direction.

      “That’s entirely nothing but lies and gay rumors.”

      “And a prima donna.” Kenny added, jokingly as Teddy huffed again.

      “And you sound so hyper masculine.” He added sardonically.

      The game continued till after midnight when Teddy was passed out drunk at the table, Tonya was all over the couch with one leg on the floor and the other on the top of the sofa and Kenny was staggering in the room from the bathroom that separated the two bedrooms. A soft jazz record was playing on the vintage record player Tonya took from Phoebe as Kenny stretched out on the floor by the couch.

      He allowed the room to spin around him as the music lulled them all to sleep. By the morning time, Teddy was snoring loudly in the guest bedroom with a futon and small television and Kenny was wrapped in a knitted blanket on the floor. As soon as the roosters started to crow all over the neighborhood, he was awoken with a startle and huge hangover, groaning as he curled onto the empty couch above him, removing his sweat drenched shirt. He heard Teddy rush into the bathroom and vomit as the door slammed.

      “Did you know that your phone has been going to voicemail for the last few days?” Tonya asked, moping out her bedroom. Kenny covered his ears as she banged on the door warning Teddy to clean up his mess if there was one.

      “No, I’m not dying. Thanks for checking-” He gagged from behind the door and the cycle started again.

      “S**t. In the midst of everything, I forgot I haven’t seen my phone since Halloween.” Kenny tried sitting up but the throbbing pain on the side of his head yanked him back down. Tonya had shuffled into the kitchen and slammed at kettle onto the stove.

      “Could you be any louder?”

      Tonya purposely started banging the kettle around on the stove before it all abruptly stopped.

      “Yes.” She simply stated from the kitchen as the sounds of belching were still coming from the bathroom until Teddy let out a moan of relief and his body making a muffled thud noised. Tonya cussed and pulled his passed out body into the guest room and left him on the floor, snoring loudly again.

      “TONYA!” Kenny exclaimed when she slammed the door behind her.

      “What?”

      “Really? Do you not hear how heavy handed you are? Some of us are suffering from lack of dehydration here.”

      “Then get your lazy a*s up and get some water,” Tonya walked back into the kitchen, “No one told you to get pissy a*s drunk.”

      Kenny groaned again and face the part of the couch that would block all the light from hitting his eye lids. He felt the earth necklace against his chest and a small smile brightened his face. The simple thought of the smell of lilac and lavender filled his lungs with imaginary sweetness and ended with a quick dream that flashed in his mind. He ran into Christian’s arms on a summit of a rocky mountain and the two kissed passionately before the dream suddenly ended, leaving him with a wider smile on his face.

 

      The clear cold crisp day of November saw less sunlight during the day and the roses in the garden began to cocoon from the ground up on the estate. It was a spectacle to see when the glittery shell finally covered the entire flower leaving the whole garden looking like a monument garden of roses. But according to Percy, they still had a couple more days to behold the roses before they go into transformation and bloom a different color in the spring.

      Kenny was following behind him with dark glasses as they were crossing through the rose garden with a groan in each step. The tall British guy in his three piece suit was explaining the different types of roses and their meaning: red stood for the most known of love, yellow was friendship but with a red tip meant falling in love, white stood for happiness and pink was his favorite, beauty and admiration. They came to a junction of stone rocks and Percy took the left set and proceeded down onto a small section of beach, secluded in a cubby of rocks.

      “What are we doing at the beach? My head is killing me.”

      “Training today, Mister Whitley,” Percy said hungrily, “Something of which I will need your full functioning body to be intact so here.”

      He suddenly punctured Kenny with a small needleless pin in his neck and after a brief wince, the pain everywhere in his body seemed to vaporize off of him.

      “That’s amazing! Did you make that yourself?”

      “Yes, and please don’t follow after your Protector and become a lush too.”

      Kenny stood dumbfounded for a few moments before Percy continued, looking back out into the blue sparkling ocean.

      “Now that the power of the Chaos seed is awakening in you, I’m going to need to test your magic ability. Not to be confused with what humans know today as magic, which is just a religion that calls the energy of the earth.” Percy quickly added when he noticed Kenny’s reaction, “But in reality, each Host is instilled with a unique ability to influence the course of events with using mysterious forces, whether that be telekinesis or energy sourcing. My unique ability is the power to manipulate electricity in every form.”

      He started pressing invisible rippling buttons in the air as a shock of a pixelated floor rushed over the ocean and dissipated quickly. Kenny began following with caution, following Percy deep into the middle of the ocean where large ships were seen on the horizons and whales under his feet.

      “Sorcery,” Percy abruptly began, turning to face Kenny, “and Witchcraft are also not the same in human life as it is ours. Whereas both on earth are used as an attempt to contact the dead or conjure up spells, Sorcery for us is the most deadly attack from the Hells that we can withstand. Our powers are only limited to superhuman abilities but as far as higher up on the Supernatural Hierarchy, we are sort of low on the chain.”

      Kenny looked around at the open water, listening to the waves softly crash into each other and sighed.

      “And witchcraft? Lemme guess, also demonic?”

      “On the contrary, it’s an item. But enough of that, are you ready to begin today’s training?”

      “What am I doing, parting the sea?”

      Percy scoffed and smiled.

      “Good one,” and with a snap of his fingers he disappeared from Kenny’s sight, who was sinking into the ocean suddenly. The waves mercilessly flooded his mouth as he tried to yell out for Percy to no avail. In the midst of his freaking out, he noticed a ship docked in the distance. Without thinking, he gasped a huge gulp of air and ducked under the water to swim. He was making good distance and speed, floating through a school of rainbow fish and dodging a nurse shark, when he closed in on the shadow of the large barge.

      Coming up for air, he noticed a metal ladder hanging within his reach but as soon as he reached for it, he was yanked back under the water. Long boney hands were sprouting out of the darkness of the ocean and were pulling Kenny down. Struggling to breath and frantically panicking, he tried to calm down and fell his racing heartbeat. He figured he wouldn’t die here in the middle of the ocean for some damn test and as he was being drug further down and his lungs burned like dry ice, the gauntlets flickered on his arms allowing him to breath underwater.

      The hands multiplied and had him struggling to get free around the escaping marine life when he felt the energy around him shift rush around him like a funnel and in a blink he was standing in a bubble of white flame emitting from the gauntlets, burning the hands off of him. Just as he was victoriously looking down on the retreating arms, he noticed a shimmering light below but a beeping sound grabbed his attention and with what seemed like a jumper cable tied to his back pulled him out the water and back onto the spot Percy vanished from.

      “So…” Kenny coughed and shivered, dripping water from every part of him, “I can manipulate what? Fire?”

      Percy shook his head.

      “Even better, Divine Energy. It’s a power that will need constant control over and, just how I expected, will grow over time. You can create fields of force from what I could see and that’s a great start,”

      “Can I just get dry please?”

      A red bean was dropped in front of Kenny as it combusted into a cloud of red dust, absorbing into the wet fabric and immediately causing him to become dry and warm. When they returned back to shore, twilight was starting to set in and Christian laid on the sand with his hands behind his head. As he set up, he flipped off his sunglasses onto his head and brushed the sand off his leather jacket.

      “You guys were out there an awfully long time. Were you teaching him how to deep sea fish?”

      Percy chuckled, patted Christian on his shoulder and vanished in a pixelated rush of blue electricity. Kenny smiled politely up at his Protector, who was clearly worried.

      “When you guys start activating your powers, you disappear off the grid and I have a hard time locating you.”

      “You knew I was with Percy.”

      “But still, with Valencia awoke and rampaging all over the earth, I can’t be too careful with your safety.”

      Kenny blushed as they began the trek up to the safe house. There was a comfortable silence between them as they hiked up the stone steps and entered the small hills of cocooning roses. The glittering made the ground glisten with every ray of sunlight when Christian slowly halted and stared up at the blue-black sky.

      “What are you looking at?”

      He pointed to a portion of the sky that was fading darker each section but only one star had appeared.

      “The constellation Pegasus is going to appear in that spot once the sun goes down and it’s my favorite one to look at.” He noticed Kenny was intently looking at the sky as well, “Pegasus was a true and faithful sidekick and not many people know that he was also very wise. One that many people think of him from that Disney movie but he was so much more than a winged horse.”

      “You enjoy astronomy a lot?”            

      “My favorite subject in school.”

      “Christian, can I ask you something?”

      There was a small pause.

      “Shoot.”

      “Where is the guy who cursed you now?”

      Another pause and then a sigh.

      “I honestly have no clue,” Christian lowered his head, “Honestly, I hope he’s dead but that would be too lucky for me. There’s so much out there that I want to do that I can’t do with Percy or Kayla. Places I want to go with someone I enjoy like to Norway or the Galapagos Island.”

      Kenny looked up at Christian, who was peering from the side of his eye.

      “Norway?”

      “Yeah, but I guess I can scratch that off the list, huh?”

      Kenny smiled.

      “I’m in love with you, Kenny.”

      “Huh?”

      “I have been in love with you since the moment you opened your door to me.” Christian had turned to face Kenny entirely, “The moment I saw your smile I knew my heart had fallen for you. I’m sorry because I know about you getting over William, but-”

      “I’m over him! Why doesn’t anyone believe me?”

      “Not even seeing him again, even though he isn’t the man you remember?”

      “The moment he left me for someone else was the moment the energy I had for him left me. Seeing him here again just brought back why I loved him to begin with but he quickly showed me, like always, why I was glad he left. So you are never going to be a rebound to me if that is what bothers you.”

      Christian lightly smiled.

      “Apart from my cursed nature.”

      “What happens if you, you know, kissed me.”

      This time a large sigh left him and he shook his head in frustration.

      “Excruciating pain to make me wish I was dead instead of…” He met Kenny’s hazel eyes, “Instead of being with you.”

      Kenny abruptly hugged Christian, who was caught off guard with the action. He felt him nuzzle his face into his chest, tightening his grip around his waist. Christian just returned the hug warmly.

      “I plan to get you out of this curse, just so you know.”

      “How very brave of you, but even Percy hasn’t been able to lift it. Apparently, Clark used sorcery when he did it. Sorry, that’s my ex’s name who went through all the trouble to do this to me, right underneath Jack’s nose too.”

      They both sighed deeply as the sun set completely over the ocean, leaving a trail of an orange and black sky. A gentle ocean breeze swept through them, still embraced in a hug. They heard nothing but each other’s heartbeat and the soft crashes of the waves behind them. Kenny wanted to cry but knew the time for crying wasn’t now and he had to find this Clark guy.

      “Wait. Whatever did happen to Jack?”

      Christian inhaled deeply and broke the hug suddenly.

      “That’s right, Percy hasn’t showed you that piece yet. Let’s go see together then. I mean I wasn’t there until after everything had already happened so I’d like to see it too.”

      “I think I remember the way to the Galaxy Lab.” Kenny exclaimed, but Christian held him back, doodling on his palm.

      “No, I’m sick of walking. This place is gigantic.”

      And without any more talk, they disappeared in a rush of fiery energy.