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I’m pissed about his comment about myself and Elise, but a pang of guilt stabs my heart when he mentions Roxanne. For all Andries knows, they’re perfectly fine right now, but the fact that she owns that cabaret is hanging over them like a storm cloud and he doesn’t even know it. If I was in his shoes, I wouldn’t care about the cabaret itself, but the lying would hurt like a knife in the back. With the way Andries feels about sex work and things like cabarets, plus the lying… he’s right. She’s currently pulling a fast one on him and he’s none the wiser.
“People aren’t perfect, my friend,” I tell him, trying to sit aside what an asshole he’s being concerning my own sins. “Your expectations for your friends and family are so high that meeting them is almost unattainable. Just because people make mistakes doesn’t mean that those mistakes are a personal slight against you.”
“Did I ever backstab you?” he snaps, maudlin attitude switching to anger in a snap. “Or my sister? Or Roxanne? No, I didn’t! I’ve got morals, unlike all of you. Exceptyou!” Andries cranes his head and points behind us, where Johan is walking out to us with a confused look on his face. Andries pulls away from me and moves to Johan, throwing a loose arm over his shoulders and patting him rather hard on the chest. “You, Johan, haven’t betrayed me yet, right? You’re a good lad.”
Johan meets my eyes, bewildered and slightly alarmed, obviously hoping that I’d take the reins so he didn’t have to get involved in whatever fit Andries is having. “This is getting fucking ridiculous, man,” I grate out, temper flaring despite how hard I’m trying to control it.
I can’t stop myself from getting pissed off. Johan is a ‘good lad’ but he’s just as interested in Elise as I am. Hell, if he had been here with her from the beginning and I wasn’t in the picture, there’s no way to know how close the two of them would have gotten! But somehow, Andries is sympathetic towards Johan and his desire to be with Elise. Me, though? He treats me like shit, and it isn’t some silly teenage crush I have for Elise, either. I love her.
Looking at Andries hanging on Johan, I feel another seed of jealousy planting itself in my chest; Johan has Elise’s attention and Andries’s trust and blessing.
“Johan didn’t have to put up with your bullshit of an oath. He could have fucked your sister and you wouldn’t have even been bothered!”
“Come on, Dan… that’s not fair,” I hear Johan say quietly, but Andries snicker on my face, drowning out whatever else he has to say.
“Because Johan isn’t a fuckboy like you are! He’s got standards!” Andries raises himself to his full height now, pulling away from Johan and coming at me faster than I would have expected in his inebriated state. He pokes a finger into my sternum, opening his mouth to say something else, but before things can get physical Johan is there, inserting himself between us.
“Enough,” he snaps, pushing us apart. Andries stumbles but manages to keep himself on his feet. “Aren’t you two supposed to be best friends? This is supposed to be a celebration!”
“Dan seems to think that throwing money at our friendship gives him a free pass to do whatever the fuck he wants, so I don’t know anymore. Are we best friends, Dan?” his voice is tight and furious.
I’m so angry that I can hear the pulse of my blood rushing in my ears, but I’ll never be able to forgive myself if I kick my best friend's ass when he’s both drunk and on his bachelor’s trip. I clench my jaw, but still manage to force out a response. “As of right now, yeah, we are. If you’re still this much of a dick when you’re sober though, we can revaluate.”
“Enough,” Johan repeats again, more calmly this time. “Shake hands like gentlemen and let’s get back to the villa. This night has obviously gone on a little too long.” When neither of us moves, annoyance creeps into his tone. “I said shake hands!”
We both reluctantly extend our arms and shake brusquely just as the cab arrives. I exhale in relief that we won’t be fighting like hormonal teenagers out in public anymore. Johan works to cram Andries’s tall frame into the backseat of the cab, climbing into the middle, and I take the other side. I feel like Johan is a parent separating two naughty siblings, and the thought almost makes me laugh. Andries tries to broach a conversation a few times, but Johan shushes him before he can speak, and as the short trip continues a lot of my best friend’s rage bleeds away and all that’s left is his drunken stupor. He looks significantly worse for wear as we pull up to the villa, but at least we’re only feet away from salvation and being able to turn Andries over to his fiancée. Poor Roxanne. Cabaret or not, she doesn’t deserve Andries in this state, but I’ve already put in my hours taking care of him today.
Seeing how he’s nearly passed out, his head leaning on the window and breath fogging up the glass, I figure that we might need some backup.
Dan:Hey, Elise, not that I want to talk to you, but we might need some help getting your brother inside.
At that, I tuck the phone into my pocket and open my car door. “Hold him steady so he doesn’t fall out when I open the other side,” I tell Johan, who nods, grabbing Andries by the shirt so he doesn't slip away.
I walk around the vehicle and open the other back door. Johan lets me take Andries’s weight long enough to unbuckle and extricate himself from the vehicle out the door I had originally exited. He comes around to join me, and as a team, we shake my friend to semi-consciousness and tug him out of the car.
“Good God you’re heavy,” I groan, helping him to sling an arm over my shoulder. Johan does the same on the other side of Andries.
“It’s all muscle,” Andries slurs. “You can ask Roxie.”
As angry as I am with him, it’s still pretty funny. “I’ll pass. Thanks.”
“Did you know I’m getting married, Joe?” Andries gasps in excitement to Johan as we drag him up the driveway. He takes one step for every three Johan and I take, and it’s like maneuvering a large, clumsy toddler.
“It’s Johan,” the other man corrects, his tone deadpan. “And yes, I’ve heard.”
“One of you is going to marry my sister I bet. I don’t know why, she’s such a brat sometimes…” Andries sighs, almost going limp before we shake him again.
Where the hell is Elise?
“Come on dude, you have to walk,” I groan.
“I am!” he insists.
Finally, Roxie and Elise rush out of the house, both of them in what appears to be their pajamas; Roxie’s wearing a white floor length robe with cherry blossom trees curing up from the bottom and over the sleeves, while Elise is in a silvery nightgown that hits right above her knees, her bronzed, long legs bare, and a matching short robe is thrown over it but untied. I guess they had an early night, and part of me is jealous because an early night sounds way better than trying to corral pissed off, overly-tipsy Andries.
“What the fuck, Johan!” Elise snaps as they meet us at the top of the driveway. “I told you to keep an eye on him, and now here he is, drunker than I’ve ever seen him before! All I needed you to do was watch him and you couldn’t even accomplish that simple task?”
I soak in how Johan looks like a whipped dog at her rebuke, but before he can apologize I speak up. She’s already mad at me, so what’s a little more going to hurt? “It was my fault, okay? Not his. I needed to speak to him so we went outside for a minute and when we came back in, your brother was already doing shots with the rest of the team.”
