My Cup of Tea Ch. 04

"The Flaming Llamas?" Ian chuckled as his eyes scanned the concert ticket in his hand. "What sort of music do you like anyway?" He dropped the ticket on the counter and removed the apron from his torso.

Sara shrugged. "I don't know. I like sappy stuff," she admitted with blushing cheeks. Music... will Ian and I ever have a song together? When will we share our first dance? How many first memories will we share together? When will we kiss? Sara's heart soared.

"You'll come with me right?" she asked timidly.

Ian cocked his head and rubbed his chin. I wonder what he'd look like with a beard... Maybe he'd sport one in a few years after we're married, thought Sara with drool brimming at the corner of her mouth. We'll have fifty kids and live in a mansion and...

"Sorry... I'm busy tonight." The apologetic expression in his eyes could melt her, but his words were like an arrow that shattered her silly thoughts and pierced the bottom of her heart. Like an open book, the expressions on Sara's face were apparent to Ian and Ian curled his lips into a small smile.

"I have some applications I have to work on," he quickly added. Excuses... he was giving me excuses already?

You can't expect him to spend every waking moment with you, just because he's your boyfriend now, stupid Sara.

But... "Applications?"

Ian nodded. "I want to study architecture in Edinburgh this spring."

Edin-where? Sara cocked her head like a confused puppy.

"Scotland silly."

"Oh."Where was Scotland again?

"The UK?" Ian chuckled.

Oh... she knew where the UK was... so Scotland was hundreds of miles away...

And Sara would never, ever be in Scotland—she was deathly afraid of airplanes and mortified of change. She swallowed and felt her heart sank to the bottoms of who-knew-where, just somewhere deep, very, very deep.

------------------------------------------------

"Mama I'm hungry!"

"You have a bottomless pit for a stomach. Do they not feed you at the creamery?"

"I can't just drink milk and eat ice cream all day. Look at my hips! You gave them to me!"

Sara gave Mama, her paternal granny, a gentle poke at her sides. Mama smelled like cookies and bleach—when she wasn't cooking away the hours, she was cleaning. She had snow-white hair in curls atop her cute head, a glamorous face always made up for every occasion, and the perfect amount of plumpness in her body. Taking care of the house and the girls was quite a chore for an eighty-year old woman, especially when Sara's parents were away on a business trip. Sara's dad, nicknamed Mister Curry, was in charge of a refrigerator factory. Sara's mom, Madame Naggy, a housewife, could not let Mister Curry fly off alone to China, not after she had heard so much about the willing and sly females who aimed to be every wealthy westerners' mistress or concubine. In the Affen household at the moment were Sara and Gina, Mama and Taylor their sixteen-year old cousin who had the hots for Lisa.

On weekends, Lenra Ciea Affen, Sara's oldest sister visited them for lunch and dinner and brought Ace and Daniel, twin boys, over for their great-grandma Mama to play with. Sara knew of Lenra's cunning, she only wanted Mama to babysit the evil little twins so she could spend time with her husband Gary who was a dentist and could only afford to spend Saturdays with his semi-lonely wife, being so busy drilling away at people's teeth. Lenra was Sara's twin except in age. Save for being plumper and having more wrinkles, even the stupid and half-blind could see Lenra and Sara as sisters. Only Gina looked like a stranger, being so beautiful. I hate Gina. Sometimes...

Sara sighed. Lenra married a wealthy husband and have two boys. Gina's going to study law at NYU. Gina... was she home yet?

Sara the shadow was still unclear of her own future. She stood before a million roads with a fuzzy map. Oh well. Time to eat!

"You will have to teach me to cook one day."

"Cooking requires a little bit of talent and an ability to not make everything explode."

"Why does everyone tease me?" Sara asked as she stuffed her face. After devouring the last of the food, she ran upstairs to get ready for the Flaming Lame-something's concert. Hopefully Lisa wouldn't be there. Else Sara would have make Jenna teach her an invisibility spell. Jenna's spells suck though. None have worked so far!

"Gina?" No reply.

Where the heck was Gina? I can't worry about her now, I have to get ready for the Flaming Pickles... Cornflakes, Yams? Llamas, right... After all, the baby of the house never had to worry about her older sisters...

---------------------------------------------

"TDH! Freaking TDH!"1 "Kyle! You're so hot!"

"Sign my boobs!"

"Have my babies!" some guy or a very butch-gal screamed.

Sara exploded into laughter. A thousand fan girls dressed like Jenna lined up in front of the Jerry Cramerstin Ballroom where the concert would take place—yes the Flaming Llamas were playing in a "Ballroom." She had to stand on her tiptoes if she wanted to catch a glimpse of the band but Sara had flat-feet and standing on her toes were not good for her feet, so her podiatrist never said but Sara knew. Her lazy feet never lied!

"Yo."

"Hey Jen."

Jenna wore a blood-red dress with knee high black boots and had a cigarette crushed between her fingers. She never smoked. The cigarette just came with the outfit and if some important person showed up, Jenna would pretend to smoke it. Sara chose to wear a black skirt with a striped dress-shirt and sneakers... plain white sneakers. Unbeknownst to her, she was a fashion disaster and that was why Jenna always shook her head at first sight of Sara's current outfits. Why Jenna never told Sara, only the gods knew. Sara always thought Jenna had some kind of vestibular problem because she was always shaking her head and sighing... silly Sara.

"Lisa's not coming?"

"And that's a bad thing?" Jenna winked. Sara gave Jenna's arm a light punch.

"Your new boytoy didn't come?"

Sara shook her head. "He's not my boytoy."

"Whatever."

Sara looked around her and found her eyes studying the formation of groups in the crowds surrounding them. Girls stood in groups of four to five, some girls held on to their boys' arms, and some guys who looked like nothing but weirdoes stood alone or in creepy groups. The Flaming Llamas had strange fans.

"Who'd you get the tickets from anyway?"

"The lead singer."

Sara arched a brow. "Wow."

--------------------------------------------------- "I wanna be your gay lover I wanna make your man cry

I wanna be with you forever..." Wailed the lead singer of the Flaming Llamas.

Sara found herself shivering, not from the powerful AC in the Ballroom, but from the unexpectedly creepy lyrics of the band's songs.

Blood is what I drink from your lips

Every kiss is pain

Every goodbye is knife wound..."

"He's cute right?"

"Who?"

"Kyle. The lead."

"Oh." Ian's fifty times cuter. Granted Kyle was tall and dark and handsome too, with violet eyes—contacts of course—and dirty blond hair ruffled enough to be rock-star material. He wore a low-cut black shirt and from where Sara sat, she could see a silver chain around his neck. His voice, she would admit sounded charmingly delicious, even when he sang the words "I wanna be your gay lover..." Was he gay?

"We can meet them later."

"Really? Then Lisa's going to miss out."

"He's not her type. Your Ian is."

Sara felt the warmth from her cheeks spread to the base of her neck.

"I really like him."

"Good for you."

"Jenna..." Sara pouted. She knew despite Jenna's harsh exterior and words, inside Jenna's flat chest was a heart as golden as the teeth of some rich pimp.

Sara stared at the band and then at the glowing faces of the other people in the audience. Did they all think Kyle and the Llamas were singing to each of them and staring at them? Did they know when bands played, they never really acknowledged the existence of each individual member of the audience?

So Sara watched on with boredom clearly written across her face, all the while as her mind wandered and wondered what Ian was doing and if he missed her.

---------------------------------------------

"Why the hell are you here?" Ian smashed a fist against the wall and his face flushed.

"Did you miss me Ian?"

The man before his door smirked. Ian clenched his fist and delivered a swift blow to the man's face. The man laughed when he recovered from the punch and wiped away the blood from his nose.

"I guess you didn't. But your mother does."

With a shove to Ian's chest, the man made his way in through the door and sat himself down at the couch like the master of the house.

---------------------------------------------- Jenna whipped the cigarette up and planted it before her lips. "Swweet. VIP passes backstage baby. Come right in," said the loserly bouncer who stood guard in front of the band's makeshift dressing room.

Sara sent apologetic looks to the girls who screamed for entry. They shot daggers back from their eyes and Sara shivered.

"Forget them. Come on." Jenna pulled Sara by the wrist into the room, right when a cork from a champagne bottle had been released and it flew straight at Sara.

"Ouch." Sara rubbed her forehead. If only Ian were here to kiss her boo boo...

Peals of laughter filled the smoke-filled room.

"Hey sorry about that. It's you? Sara something-something?"

Kyle stood in front of Sara and Jenna and towered over them like a mountain, a good-looking mountain with lean muscles, tan skin, a great outfit, and messy hair any girl would want to fix or at least run her curious and aching fingers through.

Sara Something Something... Does he know me? "And Miss Jenna Moonlight. Welcome to my lair."

Sleazy, dark... Sara felt like she didn't belong here. She sent Jenna a look ignored and her eyes wandered. Four guys and two girls in a room—Sara felt like a groupie—one that um... did stuff for a band after a concert to entertain or relax them... Oh god... Sara would explode.

"We're just about to go out. You're going to join us right?" Oh... Sara would have to give her imagination a beating sooner or later...

Sara stared at her watch. Ten PM. Sara's bedtime was no later than eleven...

"Yes we will," Jenna answered.

"Great." Kyle landed his hand on Sara's shoulder and gave it a gentle pat. "You remember me right?"

Sara shook her head and Kyle laughed.

"I was the fat kid from Miss Ferginson's class."

Miss Ferginson... second grade, Dinklestein Elementary. Fatty fat fat Kyle?

"Really?" No way.

Sara scratched the back of her head and smiled. People could really change in a few years. Or a decade to be approximately exact.

"You look good," Kyle said while elevating his eyebrows. One thing was for sure. Kyle was not gay.

It took a keen eye to catch Jenna's split-second frown. "Sara's not single," she said with hidden agitation in her raspy voice.

"Really? Very interesting then." Sara in a daze failed to move when Kyle leaned forward and kiss her lips. She even felt his tongue trying to... to... She gasped and then quickly pulled away.

He had stolen her first kiss from Ian!

Sara covered her lips with her hand. Tears fell from her eyes and streamed down her cheeks.

"I hate you," she whispered before running out of the room.

"Sara..." Biea Affen... He had never forgotten her name. Kyle felt a sudden hit to his chest as he watched the girl he had a crush on in elementary school run off with tears in her eyes. He'd seen a dozen of girls cry, especially after he'd bed them and forget even their names the next morning—One time he had twins in his bed and then... well, bloody hell. Sara's tears hit him like a cold shower after a drunken night. "The hell..." Jenna looked at Kyle with incredulity in her eyes. "What do you guys see in her?"

Kyle shrugged and laughed. "Who? Let's go babe." We wrapped an arm around Jenna's shoulders and grinned at her like the mischievous fox he was.

For a second, Jenna saw lust in his eyes and she smirked. She'd just have to cast a spell on him and lock him as hers. Lisa was nothing compared to Jenna in the presence of a guy she wanted. Jenna allowed Kyle to light her cigarette and later she didn't even mind his lips on hers and her neck, even after he had kissed Sara first.