Beautiful Oblivion

by Jamie McGuire

  I returned with a T-shirt and sweatpants. "The bathroom is right there," I said, nodding toward the hallway.

  "I'm good," he said, unbuckling his belt, unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans, and then kicking off his boots before letting the denim fall to the floor. He stepped out of them, and then looked at me with his most charming smile. "Think Kody will mind if I go commando under his sweats?"

  "Yes, and so will I," I said.

  Trenton feigned disappointment, and then slipped on the sweats. His chest and abs tightened and rolled under his skin, and I tried not to watch while he pulled the T-shirt over his head.

  "Thanks," he said. "I went by the Red and had a few drinks after work. Raegan said you'd be here alone and bored to death, so I thought I'd stop by."

  "It wasn't because the rain gave you an excuse to get naked?"

  "No. Disappointed?"

  "Not at all."

  Trenton wasn't fazed. Instead, he jumped over the back of my couch and bounced on the cushions. "Let's watch a movie!" He reached for the remote.

  "I was kind of enjoying my first night alone."

  Trenton turned to me. "You want me to leave?"

  I thought about it for a minute. I should have said yes, but that would have been a lie. I walked around the couch and sat as close to the arm as I could. "Where's Olive?"

  "With her parents, I bet."

  "I like her. She's cute."

  "She's fucking adorable. I'm going to have to kill at least one teenage boy one of these days."

  "Oh, she's going to be sorry she ever befriended a Maddox," I said, chuckling.

  Trenton pressed the power button, and punched in three numbers. The channel switched, and an NFL football game appeared. "Is this okay?"

  I shrugged. "I love the Forty-Niners, but they suck balls this year." I looked over to Trenton when I realized he was staring at me. "What?"

  "I was just thinking now was as good a time as any to acknowledge that you're perfect and it wouldn't suck if you fell madly in love with me anytime soon."

  "I have a boyfriend," I reminded him.

  He waved me away. "Speed bump."

  "I don't know," I said. "He's a pretty hot speed bump."

  Trent scoffed. "You've seen me nearly naked, baby doll. Your long-distance boy doesn't look anything like this."

  I watched as he flexed his arm. It wasn't as big as Kody's but was still impressive. "You're right. He doesn't have that many tattoos. Or any."

  Trenton rolled his eyes. "You have a pretty boy for a boyfriend? Disappointing!"

  "He's not a pretty boy. He's a badass. Just in a different way than you."

  A wide smile spread across Trenton's face. "You think I'm a badass?"

  I purposefully kept myself from smiling, but it was hard. His expression was contagious. "Everyone knows about the Maddox brothers."

  "Especially," Trenton said, standing up on the cushions and putting one foot on one side of me, the other he wedged between me and the arm of the couch, "this Maddox brother!" He began bouncing and, at the same time, flexing his muscles in different poses.

  I playfully smacked his calves, giggling. "Knock it off!" I said, bouncing.

  Trenton leaned down and grabbed my hands, forcing me to smack myself in the face a few times. It didn't hurt but, being the big sister of three brothers, this, of course, meant war.

  I fought back, and then Trenton grabbed my T-shirt, rolling onto the floor and bringing me with him, and then he began to tickle.

  "No! Stop it!" I squealed, laughing. I placed my thumbs under his armpits and dug in, and Trenton instantly jumped back. The same maneuver worked with T.J.

  T.J. Oh, God. I was rolling around on the floor with Trenton. This was not okay . . . not even kind of okay.

  "Okay!" I said, holding up my hands. "You win."

  Trenton froze. I was flat on my back, and he was on his knees, straddling me. "I win?"

  "Yeah. And you have to get off of me. This is not appropriate."

  Trenton laughed, stood, and pulled me up by the hand. "We're not doing anything wrong."

  "Yeah, it's kind of wrong. If I was your girlfriend, would you think this is okay?"

  "Hell yeah. I'd expect this shit to be a nightly event."

  "No. I mean with someone else."

  Trenton's face fell. "Definitely not."

  "Mmk, then. Let's watch the Forty-Niners get their asses kicked, and then you can tell Raegan you did your duty."

  "My duty? Raegan didn't tell me to come over here. She just said you were alone and bored."

  "Isn't that the same thing?"

  "No way, Cami, I'm taking full credit for this one. I don't need anyone convincing me to hang out with you."

  I smiled, and then turned up the volume.

  "So, Cal said that for sure he's going to need someone at the desk."

  "Oh, yeah?" I said, still watching the television. "Are you going to apply?"

  Trenton laughed once. "He said, and I quote, 'Someone hot, Trent. Someone with nice tits.' "

  "Every girl's dream job. Answering phones and handing out waivers while being ordered around by a sexist asshole."

  "He's not an asshole. Sexist, yes, but not an asshole."

  "No, thank you."

  Just then my phone buzzed. I dug into the space between the arm and the couch cushion to get it. It was Coby.

  So . . . bad news.

  What?

  I got a final notice for my car payment.

  Pay your bill, doofus.

  I'm a little behind. I was wondering if you could spot me some cash.

  My blood ran cold. The last time Coby got behind on his bills, it was because he was sinking his entire paycheck into steroids. Coby was the shortest of my brothers, but he was the thickest, both in body mass and in brains. He was hot tempered, but the way he was behaving at the Red Friday night should have been a red flag.

  Are you using again?

  Really, Cami? Goddamn . . .

  Really. Are you using?

  No.

  Lie to me again, and you can explain to Dad where your car went when it gets repo'd.

  It took him several minutes to respond.

  Yeah.

  My hands began to shake, but I managed to keep typing.

  You enroll in a program, show me the proof. I'll pay the bill. Deal?

  That could be next week.

  Take it or leave it.

  Fuck you, Cami. You're such a self-righteous bitch sometimes.

  Maybe, but I'm not the one who's going to be without a car in a few weeks.

  Fine. Deal.

  I took a deep breath and let the phone fall to my lap. If I'm going to help out Coby, I need a second job.

  Trenton watched me with concern in his eyes. "You okay?"

  I was quiet for a long time, and then slowly met Trenton's eyes. "Cal's really looking for a receptionist?"

  "Yeah."

  "I'll give him a call tomorrow."

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Jesus Christ, Calvin," Trenton said. He was looking at the large Chinese mural on the wall, trying not to notice that Calvin couldn't manage to stare anywhere else but at my breasts. Trenton's red ball cap was on backward, and his boots were untied. On anyone else the look would have appeared sloppy and screamed douche bag, but somehow the look made Trenton even more appealing. It felt wrong to notice anything about him, but I couldn't help it.

  I didn't have the most voluptuous chest in the world, but my slight frame made my small D cups seem bigger than they were. I hated to admit it, but they helped score extra tips at the Red, and now they could help me get a second job. It was a vicious cycle of not wanting to be objectified, and using the gifts God gave me to my advantage.

  "When did you say you could start?" Calvin said absently, straightening a picture of a brunette beauty on the wall behind the counter. Her tattoos covered nearly every part of her, and ink and a smile were the only things she wore as she lay across the bodies of other naked, apparently sleepy
women. Most of the walls were covered in either art or photographs of tatted-up models draped over muscle cars or sprawled in a way that best displayed their skin art. The counter was a mess of papers, pens, receipts, and paper clips, but the rest of the place seemed to be clean, even if it did look like Calvin had bought the decor at an auction held by a failed Chinese restaurant.

  "Right now. I can work Mondays and Tuesdays, noon until close, but Wednesday through Friday I can only work until seven. Saturday I have to be off by five. I can't work Sundays."

  "Why not?" Calvin asked.

  "I have to study and do homework sometime, and then I have an employee meeting at the Red, before working the bar."

  Calvin looked over at Trenton for approval. Trenton nodded.

  "Okay, I'll let Trent and Hazel train you on the phone, computer, and paperwork. It's fairly simple. Mostly customer service and cleanup," he said, walking out from behind the desk. "You got any tats?"

  "No," I said. "Is that a requirement?"

  "No, but I bet you'll get one within the first month," he said, walking down the hall.

  "I doubt it," I said, walking past him to stand behind the counter.

  Trenton came over to me and rested his elbows on the desk. "Welcome to Skin Deep."

  "That's my line," I teased. The phone rang, and I picked it up. "Skin Deep Tattoo," I said.

  "Yeah . . . uh . . . what time do you guys close tonight?" Whoever he was, he sounded drunk off his ass, and it was only three in the afternoon.

  I looked at the door. "We close at eleven, but you'd better sober up first. They won't ink you if you're intoxicated."

  Trenton made a face. I wasn't sure if that was a rule or not, but it should be. I was used to dealing with drunks, and I would probably see my fair share of them here, too. In a weird way, I felt more at ease with drunks. My dad had popped the top of a Busch beer can every morning for breakfast since before I was born. The slurring, the stumbling, the inappropriate comments, the giggling, and even the anger was what I was used to. Working in a cubicle around a bunch of uptight weenies discussing memos would be more unsettling to me than listening to a fully grown man crying into his beer over his ex-girlfriend.

  "So, if it's a personal call, and it's for one of us, you can either transfer it to the back like this," Trenton said, pushing hold, the transfer button, and then one of five numbered buttons at the top. "One hundred is Cal's office. One-oh-one is my room. One-oh-two is Hazel's room. One-oh-three is Bishop's room . . . you'll meet him later . . . and if you hang up, that's okay, they'll call back. The list is taped under the phone base," he said, pushing the base to the side.

  "Fantastic," I said.

  "I'm Hazel," a tiny woman said from the other side of the room. She walked over to me and held out her hand. The dark bronze skin of her arms was covered from wrist to shoulder by dozens of pieces of colorful artwork. Her ears glistened with hardware that spanned the entire rim of her cartilage, and a rhinestone glistened in the place of a beauty mark. She was naturally a dark brunette, but her faux hawk was a brassy blond. "I'm the body piercer," she said, her thick lips forming around the words with elegance and the tiniest hint of an accent. For such a tiny thing, her grip was tight; her bright turquoise nails were so long, I wondered how she did anything, especially the complicated task of piercing small areas of the body.

  "Cami. As of two minutes ago, I'm the receptionist."

  "Cool," she said with a smile. "If anyone asks for me, always get their name and take a message. If it's a girl by the name of Alisha, tell her to choke on a dick."

  She walked away, and I looked at Trenton, eyebrows raised high. "Okay, then."

  "They broke up a few months ago. She's still angry."

  "I caught that."

  "So, here are the forms," Trenton said, pulling out the long, bottom drawer of a metal filing cabinet. We went over those between phone calls and customers, and when Trenton was busy, Hazel came up to help. Calvin stayed back in his office for the most part, and it didn't occur to me to mind.

  After Trenton finished a client, he saw her out, and then poked his head inside one of the double glass doors. "You're probably getting hungry. Want me to grab you something from next door?"

  Next door was Pei Wei's, and the delicious, salty, and savory smells of their food wafted in every time someone opened the doors, but I was working two jobs to help Coby get caught up on his bills. Eating out wasn't a luxury I could afford.

  "No, thanks," I said, feeling my stomach growl. "It's almost closing time. I'll just grab a sandwich at home."

  "You're not starving?" Trenton asked.

  "Nope," I said.

  He nodded. "Well, I'm going. Tell Cal I'll be right back."

  "No problem," I said, feeling my shoulders sag a bit when the door closed.

  Hazel was in her room with a customer, so I went back there and watched her impale the septum of some guy's nose. He didn't even flinch.

  I recoiled.

  Hazel noticed my expression and smiled. "I call these The Bull. They're pretty popular because you can just tuck the ring right up into the nostrils and hide it, like so."

  I winced. "That's . . . fantastic. Trent went next door for dinner. He'll be back."

  "He better bring me something," she said. "I'm fucking famished."

  "How do you fit food in that body?" the client said. "If I eat rice, I gain ten pounds, and all you Chinese chicks are tiny. I don't get it."

  "I'm Filipina, you fucktard," she said, flicking his ear, hard. He yelped.

  I pressed my lips together, and walked back to the vestibule. A few minutes later, Trenton walked in, two large plastic bags in his hands. He set them on the counter and began pulling out different dishes.

  Hazel walked up with her customer. "I already went over the care instructions, so he's good to go," she said. She took one look at the thin boxes on the counter and her eyes brightened. "I love you, Trent. I seriously, motherfucking love you."

  "You're making me blush," he said with a smile. I had seen the scary sides of Trenton more than once, in middle school, high school, and more recently, at the Red. Now he had the most content look on his face, just happy that he'd made Hazel happy. "And this is for you," Trenton said, pulling out a box.

  "But . . ."

  "I know. You said you weren't hungry. Just eat so you don't hurt my feelings."

  I didn't argue. I peeled the cellophane off a set of plastic utensils and dug in, not caring if I looked like a wild animal.

  Calvin strolled up from the back, clearly led by his nose. "Dinner?"

  "For us. Go get your own," Trenton said, waving Calvin off with his plastic fork.

  "Goddamn," Calvin said. "I almost wish I had a vagina so I could get fed around here." Trenton ignored him. "Did Bishop ever come in?"

  "Nope," Hazel said, her mouth full of food.

  Calvin shook his head and pushed out the double doors, likely on his way to Pei Wei's.

  The phone rang, and I answered, still chewing. "Skin Deep Tattoo . . ."

  "Is uh . . . is Hazel busy?" a voice said, low pitched but feminine, like mine.

  "She's with a client. Can I take your name?"

  "No. Actually . . . uh . . . yeah. Tell her it's Alisha."

  "Alisha?" I said, looking at Hazel. She began silently mouthing every cuss word in existence, and flipping off the phone with fingers from both hands.

  "Yeah?" she said, sounding hopeful.

  "The Alisha?"

  She chuckled. "Yeah, I guess so. Is she coming to the phone?"

  "No, but she left a message for you. Eat a dick, Alisha."

  Trenton and Hazel froze, and the other end of the line was silent for a few seconds.

  "Excuse me?"

  "Eat. A. Dick," I said, and then hung up the phone.

  After a few moments of shock, Hazel and Trenton burst into a duet of laughter. After a full minute of trying to stop laughing and making that tired sigh sound in between giggles, they both began wiping their
eyes. Hazel's thick mascara was running down her cheeks.

  Hazel leaned in to pull a tissue out of the box sitting on the counter next to the computer. She dabbed under her eyes, and then patted me on the shoulder. "We're going to get along just fine." She pointed back with her thumb as she retreated to her room. "Land that one, Trent. She's right up your alley."

  "She has a boyfriend," Trenton called to her, staring into my eyes and grinning.

  We just stood there for a few moments, exchanging small smiles, and then I righted my posture, looking for a clock. "I've got to go. Need to read a chapter before bed."

  "I'd offer you help, but school wasn't really my thing."

  I slipped my red hobo over my shoulder. "That's only because while you were there, partying and girls were your thing. It might be different now. You should look into taking a class."

  "Nah," he said, pulling his cap off his head and turning it forward. He adjusted it a few times as he mulled over my suggestion, as if he had never considered it until that moment.

  Just then, three college kids stumbled in, loud, obnoxious, and giggling. Even if they weren't drunk, it was easy for us locals to spot the transplants. Two guys, probably freshmen, approached the counter, and the girl, wearing a pink sundress and thigh-high boots, followed behind. Trenton immediately caught her eye, and she began smoothing out her hair.

  "Jeremy lost a bet," one of the kids said. "He's going to need a Justin Bieber tat."

  Jeremy let his head fall to the counter. "I can't believe you're making me do this."

  "We're closed," I said.

  "We have money," the kid said, opening his wallet. "I'm prepared to give everyone in here a tip that will blow your mind."

  "We're closed," I said. "Sorry."

  "She doesn't want your money, Clay," the girl said with a smirk.

  "She wants my money," Clay said, leaning in. "You work at the Red, don't you?"

  I just stared at him.

  "Working more than one job . . ." Clay said, thinking.

  Jeremy cringed. "Come on, Clay. Let's just go."

  "I have a proposition for you to earn some extra cash. You'd make in one night what you probably make in a month here."

  "Tempting . . . but no," I said, but before I could finish the sentence, Trenton had Clay's collar in both fists.

  "Does she look like a whore to you?" Trenton seethed. I'd seen that look in his eyes before--right before he beat the shit out of someone.

  "Whoa!" I said, rushing around the counter. Clay's eyes were wide. Jeremy put his arm on Trenton. Trenton looked down at Jeremy's hand. "Do you want to die tonight?"