FicWad

5. BRIGHT LIGHTS AND BILVY NIGHTS

“Hey Ollie!” William called from the end of the pier, “come and check out the sting rays under here.”
Ollie let go of my hand and raced down to William, crashing into his long legs and holing on tight so that he could look around them and down into the water.
It was a cloudy overcast Tuesday afternoon in LA.
Ollie had taken an immediate liking to William and was all smiles.
“Muuuuuum! Look!” he screamed clinging tight to William and pointing into the water.
I wandered down to the pier not particularly wishing to see a sting ray. They scared the lights out of me.
“It humongous mum!”
I looked into the water and watched the large sleek, underwater creature, gracefully flap its wings and glide under the dock that we stood on.
“Holy sh—” I began.
William gently stopped my swearing my pulling my hand into his. My wide eyes traveled from the sting ray to his smiling face
I smiled too, “thanks.”
Ollie leaned as far over the railing as he dared one hand clinging to William as if his life depended on it.
I smiled even wider. William liked Ollie, he didn’t cancel our plans at the last minute faking influenza or anything… he showed up early.
“Do you want to see the sting ray Trixi?” he had sly smile on his face and he pulled me forward to the end of the railing.
I pulled back, “not really. I don’t like those things too much.”
He laughed, “oh c’mon. We’re up here. Just have a look.” He didn’t let go of my hand but he managed to yank me closer. Now I could see right down in the water.
There was more than one. The long strip of their barbed tails followed then while they circled under and around the dock.
He let go of my hands and put each of his around my waist.
“Pretty scary shit huh?” he whispered in my ear.
I pushed away from the railing.
William and I both took one of Ollie’s hands and we walked back along the lake shoreline.
“It was like the size of our bathroom! You saw it didn’t you Billy! It was massive! I bet that that one is the boss stinger.”
The whole walk back to William’s car, Ollie exaggerated the size of the sting rays and which pokemon could take on the stinger and win.
The black Mercedes was parked under an oak tree in the car park.
So far today we had been to the zoo, a theme park and now here.
William learned quickly that Ollie wasn’t much of materialistic kid at the zoo.
They were in the toy store gift shop where I had never seen so many stuffed animals and plastic figurines in my life.
In amongst all of those toys, Ollie just looked out of the window to the lion enclosure and after quietly whispering to William, the two of them left the shop to watch the real lions. I following behind wondering what the heck was going on.
I followed them around all day while they both ran from enclosure to enclosure. William’s long legs were useful for hugging the giraffe when Ollie was on his shoulders.
Amazingly there was barely any “OMG its William Beckett!” despite the zoo being a tourist attraction.
I collapsed into the front seat and relaxed. William was son in the driver’s seat and we were heading home for dinner and bed.

William tried to help out in the kitchen, I turned him away and the next second he was playing with a dump truck while Ollie operated the digger.
Not once did he show any signs of revulsion that my apartment building had no elevator, or that my carpet was old and decrepit and worn in places.
I cooked spaghetti and stirred the bolognaise sauce and leaned back on the bench watching Ollie and William play together.
It was so cute how William did whatever Ollie told him to.
There were keys in the door and it swung open to reveal Pete, who looked a whole lot worse for wear and tired too.
Ollie was the only one that spoke.
“Petey!” he ran to Pete and was flung up in the air, Pete trying to ignore the awkward moment.
William had his eyes wide and a confused look on his face. He stood up and came to face me.
“Explain?”
While Ollie filled Pete in on the ‘Big Stinger’ I filled William in on the diluted version of how it a normal for Pete Wentz to just roll on up into my house unexpected. He even had his own key.
William nodded slowly, not quite knowing what to make of the situation.
“So you two are tighter than I thought?”
I nodded, tighter than you could imagine.
He smiled lightly and put his arm around me and whispered in my ear, “Well lucky for me, he’s already married.”
Pete looked over at us his smile flickering slightly.
“Hey Bill, how’re things?” he asked William from the door way with Ollie in his arms.
William answered with his arm still around me. “Pretty good lately. Yours?”
Pete shrugged, “they’re alright, I caught up with Sisky the other day…” I moved away back to the front of the stove while those two talked tours and shows.
I stirred the pasta and the sauce while the boys talked. Ollie set the table and I put the two dishes in the center of the table. Then I took Ollie to wash his hands.

Dinner was nice. I watched Ollie as he watched Pete adoringly and I watched William watch Ollie and I could feel Pete watching me. But the chit chat was there.
I was cleaning up afterwards with William (he refused to sit don and relax) we didn’t talk much, more like we just caught each others eye every now and then and smiled.
WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING?
A week ago there was no awkwardness there was barely and speaking much either but at least we were comfortable in each others presence.
I put the last dish in the cupboard and heaved a big sigh.
“Far out.” I said, “I need a drink.”
William smiled a cheeky smile, “does Pete do babysitting?”
“I sure hope so.”
So I asked him. Ten minutes later, William was speeding into central LA with the music pumping through the speakers in his car.
We rolled up to a thumping club there was a huge sign of and ‘AK’ that was adorned with flashing lights, the line went down the street.
William took around the back to park.
“Flashy much?” I looked over to William. His eyes were wide and the whites of his eyes glowed from light reflecting off them. He shrugged.
“I’m surprised you haven’t been here before.”
I must have looked confused, I felt confused.
“Why?” we unbelted and stepped out of the car.
He locked the doors with a click and together we walked to the front door, Right to the front of the cue.
“This place is called Angel-Kings. It’s Pete’s bar.” He stated as if it were obvious.
He clapped the bouncer on the shoulder, “Dave! How you been?”
Dave smiled and let William through the velvet rope.
William yanked my hand and pulled me through with him; I smiled and gave a nervous little wave to Dave. He waved back and then returned to his clipboard and the rest of the line.

We spent about an hour at A.Ks, after barely two drinks we were both buzzing enough to power a light bulb.
The whole time we were inside I had been shoved up close to William, people bumping and jumping and rioting had been keeping me very close to William—even though he had been holding me there all night.
Women constantly came up to him and asked him to sign this or that, the club had a ban on camera so thankfully he didn’t have to endure camera flashes.
I thought that the Las Angeles dwellers would have been used to all of the stars and musicians and what not, or maybe it was just the sketchy group of obvious minors that huddled wide eyed an high in the corner of the dance floor.
We went up to the VIP lounge. It was so much less crowded than the other party and I could actually breathe.
Up there, anyone we bumped into knew William and would buy me a drink. I had o refuse one guy almost twelve times.
Then there was Gabriel.
It went like this…
“Bilvy!!!”
“Gabey Baby!”
man hug
“Whoa and you even drew Tinkerbelle from her hiding place? I’m impressed man!”
William laughed, “It was nothing, but what about you Gabe? You’re not going bachelor on us are you?”
“What are you talking about? I’M A PIMP BIARCH!!!”
William laughed and someone went past and knocked me out of the way but half a second later his hand was around mine and he pulled me back and pinned me with his arms. Gabe nodded approvingly, “about time! Geez Tinkerbelle, I thought that all of those times you comatose in the Jacuzzi might have made it easier here for our Bilvy to finally get his hands on you but it took until you were sober? Sometimes I just don’t understand you…” he mocked sadness.
I laughed, “Shut up Gabe! You can talk, I’m sure I woke up next to you a few times in that Limo-tub fully clothed and hung-over to the nines.”
He put his finger to his lips in a naughty ‘sssh don’t tell’ way.
“Looking out for you is all I was doing. I was being a good Samaritan.”
I rolled my eyes, “and the pills were? Medication? Samaritan would be the last way to describe you.”
He smiled, “you liked those did you? Knock yourself out.” He whipped out a little pack and did a gangster shake with William.
“Are they legit?” William asked pocketing his goods.
“The best of Bilvy! You kids have fun now.” He drifted off after some girl in leather after clapping William on the shoulder and blowing me a kiss.
William looked at me. His expression read exactly what his mouth said.
“Care for a taste?” he kissed me intensely
He pulled out the little packet from his pocket that Saporta had given him.
Through the translucent cover I saw two white tablets.
“E?” I asked eyebrows up.
He took one from the packet, “Open up.”
I obeyed and he placed an ecstasy pill on my tongue.
I did the same to him.
After fifteen minutes back on the dance floor, we left the club and retired to steaming up the interior of the Mercedes intensely tinted windows.