Chapter 533) The Party

“Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.”

~Mark Twain

Brindleton Bay
The Elysium

Bri was hiding best she could at her own parents’ party, because Grandpa Blaine showed up, which he sometimes did, not too often as he wasn’t fond of the uppity Brindleton Bay crowd, and despite of Grandma Scarlett being with him to cap the worst, he was in rare form. Bri adored her grandparents, loved them very much and they had always been close, she just wasn’t in the mood for Blaine’s infamous jokes that night. Especially not in front of practically everyone she knew. She had her own emotional battles to fight, which made her more touchy than usual.

One of those inner battles was the choice all teens who once were born as vampires but unturned as children had to make at some point between their 17th and 18th birthday, knowing at some point they all would get a formal invitation to report to Vatore Castle whenever Caleb Vatore and his council could spare the time to hear them all proclaim their decisions to either stay mortal or be turned back to how nature once had intended them to be, as vampires. Bri and Iris’ birthdays were still over 7 months away, but the choice was life-altering, final, and not something you wanted to take lightly.
The other was about her having stumbled into a situation of kinda-sorta being involved with two boys at the same time, blinded by rose-colored glasses and the ignorance of youth, which seem to have worn off now, leaving her feeling guilty and terrible, while realizing that neither boy was truly within her reach. She just couldn’t laugh or even pretend to have fun right now. Hiding in her room was off the table, the first place everyone would look, so she stayed outside, praying it wouldn’t rain.

Due to her attempts to boycott the party, she missed the beginning of the latest drama, which started with Blaine bursting into a group of people who were talking, stepping between Dr. Cunningham and his wife, the latter stepping away startled, staring at him.

“So, you two are the ones who made Goldilocks over there break up with my precious and sweet granddaughter? And all because she now has one ovary? Doesn’t sound like a sound decision to me. Does it to you, Brat-fart!?”

“No, Sir, definitely not. Has anyone seen Bri? Can’t find her.” Brad said, ignoring the butchering of his name.

“Oh Braddy-pooh, Bri is a teen girl, so I would check either where there are mirrors, cos teen girls are either admiring their asses in the mirror or freaking out about some flaw they think they have, or she’s near the pastries for that sweet tooth. See Doc, that kid of yours is a smart one. Always a bitch when the kids get smarter than you, ain’t it? I got several of those, and a grandson who’s a literal genius. Ah, our sweet Con-Bear … at least I can claim I wiped a genius’ ass. Back when he was a baby, not so much recently. But I still would, if he needed me to.” Blaine rambled on.

“Mr. … umm … I assume Cameron?” Jeffrey Cunningham said, clearly not thrilled.

“Ding, ding, ding! Sure am a Mr. Cameron, the one and only, the original. The Blainester. Well, nobody actually calls me that except myself, but you get the idea. I am as original of a Mr. Cameron as you will find if you count out those who are dead and only go by those still roaming this earth.”

“Mr. Cameron, I do not recall meddling in your family affairs, so I’d appreciate …” Jeff Cunningham attempted, but Blaine cut him off, talking right over him.

“But you DID, you see. You did. And I don’t like that. Come here, pal, helicopter with me. Turn, turn, turn … vrooooooooooom!” Blaine decided, this time he put his arm so firmly around Cunningham that he couldn’t just slip out, as Blaine now turned around with him.

“You see that hot piece over there, the one now looking at us, giving that type of sultry smile, the one waving? She doesn’t mean to look so damn sexy all the time, she just does. Hey, do you not see me waving back? Are you rude? Wave already! Or I will wave your hand for you! Nobody is allowed to be rude to my wife!”

Cunningham implied a small wave at Scarlett, while pulling away from Blaine yet again.

“See, that hot piece is MY hot piece and you know what else she did other than evidently wake up your trouser dwelling friend hoping to play doctor with her? Spoiler alert, never gonna happen, she’s all mine and she doesn’t want nobody else, can barely handle me. But that stunning creature over there, she made me a daddy, long time ago. Our Vivien, that silver-stranded raven-haired beauty over there by the piano, that’s my lil girl. Anyway, my hot piece and I had some troubles, I ended up marrying another girl, who had issues with her insides, lost both ovaries, so my hot piece gave her one of hers, so wifey and I had a son, Blake, who’s not here cos he’s getting his ass tanned on Sulani, but he in a way is also my hot piece’s son, biologically and emotionally. The marriage failed, finally married the right one, yeah, my hot piece, and we had a baby, that handsome devil over there, aka your host for the evening, our Chase, Con-Bear, Iris and Bri’s daddy. And then my hot piece and I proceeded to have another baby, Caitlin, she’s over there, and then twins, Fallon and Blythe, I have seen Fallon creep around here somewhere, and since they are identical, she counts for both, and then another baby, Gavin, who ain’t here cos he’s too noble now, just kidding, he’s on vacay … and after him we finally bought a TV. Just kidding, we had one all along, but it didn’t keep us from fuckin’, hell we fuck with that TV on. Well, anywho … in case you lost count, that hot piece over there is Briar Rose’s grandma, and she created 6 kids on ONE ovary, five herself and one by proxy. Sooooooooooo, see where I am going with this, pal? You feel REALLY stupid yet? If not, I can keep going till you do, cos you should, Beavis!”

“The name is Jeffrey. DOCTOR Jeffrey Cunningham.”

“You’d rather have me call ya Butthead? Cos either works. My girl made a bunch of kids, some intentional, some not to so much, but all warmly welcome, on ONE ovary, so ya need to back the fuck off my little Bri with your surgery and dumbass Romeo and Juliet routine BS. You made her sad and ain’t nobody gonna make my grandbabies sad and get away with it! She wants her Brat-fart, so she shall have him, and you get no say here! Trust you me, pal, your kid can’t do any better than Bri. And that’s a fact.”

“Mr. Cameron, if medicine were THAT simple, like sliding pearls back and forth along an abacus, we wouldn’t need doctors, including specialists! I have ‘doctor’ as my title for a reason, I am well-versed in the medical field, I get that it is technically possible for her to have a child, but in her special case there was scarring and it is highly unlikely for Bri, even though I am well aware that some women have such good luck as your lovely wife …”

“Luck? Bitch, that was just some good old fuckin’. No luck needed. Just insert tab A into slot B, repeatedly until the bun is in the oven. Didn’t need luck or a doctor for that. How do you think the Neanderthals got us all here? Last I heard, they didn’t have any doctors.”

“All right, Mr. Cameron, I have had enough of you now! You are unreasonable, crude and vulgar!”

“You know, ditto. You made my sweet grandbaby sad, and you know, I don’t like that. And your son doesn’t look all that happy either, and your Misses looks as if you could use a few pointers about fuckin’, happy to help, cos I am thinking you bore her to death in the bedroom with graphs and test results when you should have been putting a couple more babies in her, so you don’t have to helicopter the one you got. Me, I don’t have the time to micromanage all my kids and guess what? They all turned out excellent. One of them is a Lord now. A real one, as in actual nobility. Yeah … how many Lords to you have? Aww, so let’s just go with I know a thing or two about parenting. And about fucking and making babies. The vulgar way!”

“You are absolutely disgraceful! Shame on you! You would be another sound reason for Brad not to marry into this family.” Dr. Cunningham now angrily raised his voice at Blaine.

“Daww, you hearing this, girls and boys, he’s trying to show teeth. Lemme tell ya, Cunt-ingham, mine will always be bigger than yours, goes for my family, my dick and my teeth. You like your family history so much? So proud of it and think my family has no business in your family? Well, research me this in your dusty old tomes: go back about 7 or 8 generations, maybe lil more, and look for someone in your family tree named Anastasia and then look at her maiden name. You will jump out of your spanx, DOCTOR Cunt-ingham, when you discover whom she was related to. Oh, you wanna be sittin’ down for that. Wish I could be a fly on that wall when it dawns on ya that one of your ancestors was my great-aunt Ana! Ouch, that’s gotta sting and burn like a bad case of gonorrhea, huh? And look, the crude rude idiot even knows some big words. Quickly, your smelling salts.”

With that Blaine just walked off and left him standing there while he made out with Scarlett.

“Nice going, dad, now you pissed off Bri’s grandpa. Great job embarrassing all of us. But at least you heard it from him too, everyone thinks you’re totally nuts with your crazy breeding ideas! Bri doesn’t need surgery! She still has one ovary and it’s not such a big deal. Just may take longer to have a baby, in MANY years down the road when we are actually ready to even think about that, and who would mind more ‘practice’? I wouldn’t! I am gonna go find her now. She has to be around here somewhere!” Brad said walking past him.

Cunningham grabbed his son, slapped him hard across the face, making Brad stumble against Iris and her boyfriend Sterling, who caught him, as all stared at his father.

“See what you made me do with your constant blame and snarky remarks?! Can’t you finally pull your head out of your entitled rear and see I am doing this for YOU, for YOUR future!? Unbelievable.” Dr. Cunningham’s recent public humiliation got the best of him, lighting his now very short fuse.

But now Blaine had him by the collar, got up right in his face and landed a slap that echoed off the walls.

“You like slapping? Imma gonna bounce that mug of yours off the walls a couple times and then continue with the floor once you fall over, you nutsack! We don’t hit kids in this house or anywhere if I am there to see. You are gonna get …”

“DAD! Stop. Let go. I’ll handle this. My house, I’ll deal!” Chase had come over with Connor, trying to pull Blaine off the doctor, unsuccessfully, until Scarlett showed up, squeezing in the middle, instantly ending the fight.

“Blaine!” was all she had to say for him to halt.

With a grim look at Dr. Cunningham, then a defeated one at her, he relaxed.

“He hit a kid, Scarlett!”

“I saw. And I am sure his wife will deal with him for it, as any mother would. Not our place.” she said, then pulled him along and away from the hot spot.

Chase went over to Cunningham.

“I’ll walk you to the door then. Time for you to go home. Come on.” he said firmly, when Dr. Cunningham’s wife, Judge Cunningham, got up in her husband’s face, with the next slap of the evening.

“Unbelievable! How dare you, Jeff?! How dare you raise your hand against our son! I have stood by, letting you do your thing, knowing how you feel about all this and when you marry a man, you marry his family and his quirks too, but this is enough! I let you speak your peace, even raise your voice on occasion, but laying hand on our son – NO! Find a place to sleep tonight, so you can reflect on what you have done, cos you are NOT coming home! I do not want to see you at our house tonight, if you show up anywhere near the house, I will have you arrested and that would not look good for either of us! Come back tomorrow with a clear mind and ready to discuss this!” Judge Cunningham finally lost her cool, after reprimanding her husband.

“Belinda …” Cunningham tried, humiliated, but Chase pulled him along to the front door.

“Exit is this way. You can send her a text or something. Oh, and to circle back to what you dared to say to my father about him being a reason for your son not to marry into my family, straight back at ya! I do not want ANY of my family to be in ANY way related to you, Slapnuts! You disgust me! How dare you come into MY home and insult MY father?! And just for the record, if you ever raise your hand against any of my kids, there’d be nothing left of you! Not even confetti! I dare you to take that as an empty threat and deal with the consequences. I am DONE with you! Now get out of my house!” Chase’s voice sounded dark, deep and dangerous, completely unlike him.

The mood at the party had clearly been dampened by the incident.

“Damn Brad. Been spending too much time with my sister, her drama is rubbing off on you now.” Iris said bone-dry, while gently touching Brad’s glowing cheek.

“How’s that cheek, man? Looks like it glows in the dark. Your old man got ya good. If you need a place to crash tonight, you can come over to my house.” Sterling offered.

“No, I’ll be okay. Not a wimp. He’s never done that before. I don’t know what to think right now.” he sighed.

“Maybe I’ll get you a bag of frozen peas or something.” Iris decided.

“Come on Iris! I am not gonna stand around your home holding groceries to my face. I am humiliated enough, thanks to my father!”

“What happened here? I heard loud voices, sounded like a fight … looks like I was right.” Bri showed up, staring at Brad’s cheek.

“Yeah, take care of your man, he’s mildly cranky, understandably so, his dad literally just sucker punched him. Grandpa flipped his shit and the drama just boiled over like milk on a stove. Smells about the same too.”

Bri looked shocked, then grabbed Brad’s hand, pulling him with her, outside, where she pulled his head close and kissed him.

When the kiss concluded, he couldn’t help but smile.

“Wow. Had I known all it takes for you to do THAT is some physical abuse I would have taunted the high school football team jocks weeks ago.” joked Brad.

“Yeah – I shouldn’t have kissed you. I can’t really be accused of making sound decisions of late.”

“I think you should kiss me again. Or is it my turn now?”

“Brad.”

“Bri, my mom had enough. This could be it. The moment I have been waiting for. WE have been waiting for. I didn’t know what that moment would look like, now I know this is what it took to make my mom drop her stupid Switzerland ‘neutrality’ thing. It could mean we could be together again as early as tomorrow, Bri.”

“Brad … you don’t know anything at this point! Your mom hasn’t stood up for you, for us, thus far. I wouldn’t bank on things changing much until you heard it from them. Plus, I can’t think about that now. I have other problems haunting my brain other than trying to solve the unsolvable, knowing we’re both at someone else’s mercy.”

“What kind of problems? Maybe I can help?”

“No. This isn’t one of those things where anyone could help. One of them is something I am not supposed to discuss with anyone outside the fold, something to do with my heritage and a choice I am going to have to make before I turn 18. The other is a terrible choice I made myself, with no easy way to undo. I got myself into this mess, I have to face the consequences.”

“Try me. Give me something.”

“Ok. One thing is about stuff I can’t discuss with you, the other is about Jackson. Still feel so helpful? I told you, let it go, so … just let it go.”

“You know I am not gonna let it go. What about Jackson? Don’t tell me you chose him now! Come on, Bri! We are so close to fixing this! What DOES he have that I don’t? A cowboy hat? A farm? If that’s what you need, I’ll buy a goddamn farm, Bri. And a hat!”

“Chill, Brad. You’re off into the wrong direction.”

“You’re cutting him loose?”

“Okay, you really wanna talk about the thing I don’t want to talk about, because it is a sore spot for both of us, but fine, here goes: I had a long talk with Jasper, after he got back from some Vatore family thing where Taylor was too, in case you don’t know, they are distantly related. I didn’t know that until recently and I grew up with Jas. Anyway, he opened my eyes to things I should have considered and realized. He always had this way to talk sense into me. He tried it before, but it didn’t stick, but this time it did. So, this coming weekend Colton will come pick me up supposedly for a fun weekend with Jasper, but in reality, Jas will be driving me to Chestnut Ridge, so I can tear a very sweet guy’s heart out and stomp on it because I was dumb, inconsiderate, egoistic and stupid enough to let it all go way too far for way too long. I should give lessons in ‘asshole’. Either way, this is the best I can do for damage control. That is me now, Brad. You sure you wanna keep hoping there’ll be an ‘us’, knowing that about me? I am not a great person. That was a revelation I had during my heart-to-heart with Jasper and I am not liking myself these days.”

“So, you don’t love him then?”

“Who? Jasper? I will ALWAYS love Jasper. He’s my brother, in every way except blood.” Bri told him.

“Bri – You KNOW I meant Jackson!”

His eyes were locked onto hers, trying to read in them, anticipate her answer, while a brief moment of silence fell between them, until Bri finally said.

“I realized I am deeply in love with someone else.”