Possessions
Chapter 6
By: Makena
Paul knocked gently on the door across from Benji and Joel's room. He glanced around to make sure Benji wasn't coming before he knocked again.
"If it's not room service, I'm not opening the door!"
"Room service?" Paul called. "For a Phillips, Makena?"
"Phipps!" Makena yelled, her voice closer to the door now. "Phipps, Makena! Do you people not know how to read?!" She yanked the door open to a grinning Paul.
"I knew that'd get you to the door," he said, still smiling. Makena smiled and gave Paul a quick hug.
"Hi, Paul," she said. "Come in!" She paused. "Benji's not out there, is he?" Paul shook his head with a slight laugh.
"I hope not," he said. "Can I still come in?"
Makena laughed slightly and nodded, stepping aside so that Paul could come inside before quickly shutting the door. She walked towards the closed curtains and opened them up, making the room brighter than it had been before.
Paul looked her over briefly, making sure she was, in fact, okay. She was wearing red pajama shorts and a black tank top and she was quickly pulling her hair up into a pony tail.
"Sorry it's a little messy," Makena apologized, cleaning up the floor of her clothing and stuffing them into a random drawer. Paul just shrugged and watched her, noticing a couple of liquor bottles stashed carelessly about the room.
"What brings you here?" she asked finally, closing the open lap top that had was sitting on the table.
"I just wanted to see you," Paul said, inviting himself to sit on her bed. "Aaron told me you'd be here."
Makena nodded. "I see," she said.
"I heard you slapped Benji," he said. Makena sighed.
"Yeah," she admitted.
"Why?" Paul asked. "You're not drunk, are you?" Makena laughed.
"No," she laughed. "Not yet." She paused. "I don't know, Paul. I don't know why I slapped him. I just... agh, I'm such a fucking idiot."
"We've all wanted to slap Benji at one point or another," Paul admitted. "You just finally did it."
Makena shrugged. "I suppose." She paused. "How is he? Not drinking again, is he?"
Paul shook his head. "No," he replied. "He's actually been better. I mean, since the accident." He paused. "What about you? How are you holding up?"
"I manage," Makena replied. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"
Paul nodded and tried to swallow the memories that haunted him from the past year; memories of him swearing up and down that the accident had been his fault, that he should be dead, that Makena WAS dead. Now, he realized, he might not have been that far off about Makena's own death. He watched as she lit up a cigarette with a side glance. Makena noticed and laughed slightly, tossing him her pack and a lighter.
"It's a slow death," she told him. "But I can afford it now."
Paul helped himself to one of her cigarettes and also lit it as Makena walked to the window and cracked it open. She leaned against the window's frame, her right hand holding her left shoulder as she stared out the window and down at the world below.
"What are you doing now?" he asked her. "I mean, where do you work?"
Makena looked up at him. "I'm a novelist," she replied. "I guess it explains the booze and the smoking."
"You write books?" Paul asked, interested. Makena nodded.
"Yeah," she replied. "I'm working on my second novel right now. My first isn't out yet - it's all printed and stuff, they just haven't been released for sale yet."
"Do you have a copy?" Paul asked. "I'd like to read it."
Makena nodded and walked away from the window towards the bedside. Paul stood up to make room for Makena's suitcase, which she lay gently on the floral patterned sheets the maid had cleaned only hours before. She unsnapped the latches and opened her suitcase, quickly extracting a hardcover book that didn't appear to be too long in length, but not that short either. Paul looked at it and flipped through a couple of pages.
"I'll get it back to you as soon as I finish it," he promised. Makena shook her head.
"Don't worry about it," she said, closing her suit case again and placing it beside her bed. "You can have it. I have a couple of copies at my house."
"Awesome," Paul said with a smile.
"Here," Makena said, snatching the book up from his hands and taking it to her table where she grabbed a pen. "I'll sign it - it'll be more valuable once I die that way."
Paul laughed and watched as she neatly signed her name under a short message before she snapped the book closed once more, handing it to Paul.
"Women live longer than men do," he told her. Makena shrugged.
"Sometimes." She paused. "Hey, what are you doing for dinner?"
Paul shrugged. "We were probably just all going to order out or do whatever. Why?"
"I'm not doing anything, either - you guys wanna have dinner with me?"
Paul nodded but paused. "You know... that has to include Benji." Pause. "Unless, of course, you don't want to, cause, you know, it could just be Billy and me or something."
Makena laughed slightly. "No," she said. "That's okay."
"Are you sure?" he asked. Makena nodded.
"It's fine. Oh, and I promise I won't slap him again."
Paul laughed.
"I don't want to go eat dinner," Benji said, rolling onto his side as he stared blankly at the striped wall paper that clashed with the bed spread.
"Quit being so fucking difficult and get up," Joel said impatiently. "You're acting like a four year old."
"I don't care," Benji replied, finding a lose thread on his bed sheets. "I'm not hungry."
"Come on," Joel begged, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his gray zip-up hoodie. "We're all gonna go down and get some food at the chinese restaurant down the street."
"I don't feel like it," Benji said, trying to pick the lose string from his bed. Joel sighed.
"Whatever," Joel said, irritated. "Just come down of you change your mind." He left the room quickly, seeing Chris, Paul and Billy waiting in the hall way, as well as a girl in a what looked like a red Chinese dress with a yellow flowers stitched into it. Her blond hair was done up with a couple of strands left hanging in her face, and she wore shoes that gave her a couple of inches to her short height. Joel paused when he saw her.
"I knew you were coming," he said softly, "but I couldn't really believe it."
Makena smiled a little as the two met and hugged for a moment. They let go and Makena stepped back a little. "Where's Benji?" she asked curiously. Joel sighed.
"He's being childish," he explained to the small group. "He doesn't want to come."
"Oh..." Makena said softly, lowering her eyes towards the ground.
"He doesn't know she's coming, does he?" Billy asked. Joel shook his head.
"Nope."
"Well get him out of bed," Paul said. "Somehow."
Makena nodded. "I'll head over to the restaurant, okay?" she said. "Some one has to keep the reservations."
"I'll go, too," Chris volunteered. "You guys can work on getting Benji up?"
"Yeah," Joel agreed.
Paul followed Chris with his eyes as Makena and the drummer began to walk down the hall. His hand shot out and grabbed Chris' arm, stopping him from walking much farther. "Don't try anything," Paul said in a threatening voice. "She might look available, but Benji still loves her."
Chris shrugged. "I'm not going to do anything," Chris told Paul, shaking free from his grasp before walking to catch up with Makena, who was already waiting for him at the elevators. Paul sighed before quickly turning to join the other's in the twin's room.
Benji was still lying on his bed, hardly moving at all except to breath and even then Paul and to check again to make sure that he was, in fact, alive.
"Come on, Benji," Joel said. "We're going out for dinner - you need to eat."
"I said I wasn't hungry," Benji said grumpily.
"Benji, you've been lying in bed ever since you saw her," Joel said, sitting down on Benji's bed. Benji shrugged a little.
"I don't care," he said. Joel sighed and a silence fell over the entire room and for a minute everyone had thought Joel had given up. Just as they thought they were about to leave, Joel jumped up and grabbed Benji by the ankles, dragging him off of his bed and to the floor.
"Joel!" Benji screamed. "Stop it!"
"Come on!" Joel yelled at his friends. "Help me! Billy, grab his arms. Paul, get his hoodie."
Billy and Paul did what Joel commanded, Paul grabbing Benji's black "Unseen" hoodie and Billy managing to get a hold of Benji's arms, dragging a kicking and screaming 24-year-old into the hotel hall way where they dropped him to the ground and quickly locked the door. He sat himself upright against the wall, looking heinously up at his so-called friends and his brother.
"Now," Joel said. "You have two options: you can come eat dinner with us or you can sit here like a four year old and wait for us to come back."
Benji narrowed his eyes at them, slowly going over his options before realizing that he really didn't have one. "Fuckers," he grumbled, letting them help him up.
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Makena and Chris sat down at a large booth that wrapped around the table in a semi-circle and glanced at their menus.
"So," Makena began, not very interested in the menu. "You forgot to mention that you were in Good Charlotte."
"When?" Chris asked, taking a ship of water.
"Earlier. In the hotel lobby. You forgot to tell me you're a drummer in Good Charlotte."
"Oh! Did I?" Chris asked. "Sorry about that, although if you were me, you'd know better than to go around telling people you're in Good Charlotte."
"I thought you said you weren't famous?" Makena pressed. Chris laughed.
"I'm not - but the other guys are."
"Ah. Gotcha." Neither of them said anything for a moment as they began to look over their menus again.
"Are you still interested in Benji?" Chris asked suddenly. Makena looked up at him.
"Umm... I don't know," she replied slowly. "I guess a little, still. I assume the story's been explained?"
Chris nodded. "I'm sorry about the accident, by the way," he said.
Makena rolled her eyes and took a sip of her ice water. "Why do people feel the need to keep bringing that up?" she asked no one in particular before glancing at Chris again with a small smile. "Sorry."
Chris didn't say anything about the matter, but continued with his questions. "So, you're not seeing anyone back in Michigan, then?" he asked.
Makena shook her head. "Nope." She paused and looked over Chris, who was pretending to read the menu. "When are you going to kiss me and stop playing "20 Questions" about my love life?"
Chris' head snapped up from his menu and he looked at her, a small smile spreading to his lips. "Paul told me not to try anything," he confessed to her. Makena cocked an eyebrow slyly.
"Did he?" she asked, leaning closer towards the drummer. "Well he didn't tell me anything."
Chris smiled a little as Makena leaned in and kissed him passionately on the lips until the waitress could be seen just to the left. They pulled away and watched as she led Paul, Billy, Joel and finally Benji to the table. Benji stopped in his tracks when he saw Makena and stared, both surprised and feeling slightly sick. Makena stared back, her face turning slightly red. It was clear to both of them they didn't know how to act.
"Can I get menu for you?" the waitress asked with a thick Chinese accent, making it obvious that English was not her first language. "I serve drink?"
Everyone requested a drink and she scurried off for menus and six different drinks. Benji glanced over at Makena after she had asked what kind of alcohol they served and noticed the disappointment in her voice when she was forced to order a diet coke instead. She noticed him and quickly turned her head down towards her menu. Benji sighed and stirred the ice in his water as conversations began to flare between the rest of them.