Art imitating life

Burt

When Mark and I walked back into LJ's room in the hospital, Jamie was already sitting there, flipping channels on the TV.

"I didn't know we had a TV," Mark said. He nudged Jamie's shoulders. "Where have you been all day?"

"I needed to do something important," Jamie said, not taking his eyes off the quickly switching images.

"More important than busting Burt out of jail?"

"I wasn't in jail, Marky," I gently reminded him. I went to LJ, who was calmly watching Jamie channel surf. "How are you doing, kid?"

The edges of his lips twitched into he barest minimum of a smile and he gave me a thumbs up. Jamie must have struck a deal or made a bet or something with him to get him to stop talking. Only Jamie can do this, he has super powers or something.

"Yeah, so what happened in jail?" Jamie asked, still flipping channels. "Did you drop the soap?"

"This isn't funny, Jamie," Mark shook his head.

"Did they press charges?" Jamie asked.

"They had nothing to go on, because Mark vouched for me and the bar owner sent his CCTV footage, so the police dismissed their case," I replied. The most harrowing afternoon in my life summed up in one easy sentence. It just didn't seem fair. But what can you do? I patted LJ's hand, the one that wasn't in a cast. "You're lucky the club you were at doesn't have CCTV in the ladies' room."

"They _say_ they don't have CCTV, but of course they do, Barnes probably paid them off more than what we make in a year," Mark grumbled. "Has anyone heard anything from Steve?"

"Missy called me earlier, crying because Steve had turned his phone off," Jamie said. He stopped flipping channels and stopped on us jumping over a couch, bags of potato chips in our hands. It was a TV ad we did seven years ago. I did something funny, I don't remember what, but I had the oddest look on my face, and all four boys fell into each other, laughing with their entire bodies.

I felt something squeeze my hand. I looked at LJ and he smiled at me broader than he did earlier. I squeezed his hand back.

Jamie started flipping again. "Anyway, Ned said there's a photo of Steve gassing his car near the North Expressway that was posted an hour ago, so hey, at least we know he's not dead."

"Jame," LJ suddenly said in a feeble voice. Jamie immediately stopped flipping channels and a burning car was on the screen. He turned the volume up and Mark and I both froze. It was Song 6.

They really went ahead and launched it. Damn pricks.

It looked like an art film - the cinematography, the angles, the narrative. The unhappiness and discontent on all our faces. Is this what they call art imitating life?

"Damn, they didn't show me sing," Mark hissed.

"They'll probably focus on you when you rap," I assured him.

"I have one singing line and they didn't show me sing it," Mark was unconsolable. "Oh but look, they need me to romance the girl and set up the love triangle with LJ, who looks like he's about to kill me."

I did feel for Mark. It was obvious that his role in the group was to ensure that people would constantly look at us, and it was something Mark was never comfortable with. Never mind that the video was 50% him and LJ fighting over that girl, both looking very handsome. My heart swelled with pride. Michelle's make up skills are the best.

"And the editing is sloppy," Mark opined. "If they wanted to go for the edgy art film thing, it could be edgier. This is just really bad editing."

"Obviously, the editing is sloppy, they had to finish it in two days," Jamie snorted. Then we all shut up as the camera focused on Steve as he sang the chorus.

"Why won't he call us?" Mark asked suddenly, as the camera cut to Jamie singing the next verse. None of us replied to that. I, for one, had no idea.

Mark's rap then came up and we all held our breath as his rap was interspersed with the fight scene. "Man, you look really angry," I had to say. Whether he was rapping at the camera or pushing LJ, he really looked dangerous right now. Jamie got in between them and pushed them apart, shoving LJ away from Mark. No clips of Steve, or of Jamie punching Steve in the face.

Damn, this feels like it happened ages ago. But it's only Tuesday.

As the camera cut to Jamie, his part was interspersed with Mark angrily leading Angela away from us, towards the car, with Angela looking back at the camera with misery on her face. Cut to LJ staring at them, with as much misery and incredulity. I flinched. This was the exact same look on his face when the guards wouldn't let us into the dorm, when Ned told us to stay away.

This art imitating life thing sucks.

Cut to Mark and Angela getting into the car, and Mark putting his hand on the key in the ignition. "You're gonna love this, Marky," LJ suddenly said, mirth in his voice. Before we could ask him what he meant, Mark's hand turned the key and... the car blew up.

Both LJ and Jamie burst out laughing. They had obviously seen this already. When I came out of my initial shock, I held my own laughter in check as Mark hissed, "What the fuck..."

Still laughing, Jamie turned to LJ and said, "That's 50 dollars."

I looked at LJ. "What was that?"

"Everytime I say anything, it's 50 bucks per sentence," LJ explained, also still laughing.

"100 dollars," Jamie said.

"It's worth it, though," LJ chuckled.

"One fifty."

"I'm never driving again," Mark muttered.

The video ended. It was aired on a music channel. Apparently, Jamie and LJ had been surfing the TV to catch the airings of the mv on the different music channels. The MCs of that channel reminded the viewers that we had just seen Boy Next Door's latest single, and to watch out for the launch of the album next week.

"Oh, they moved the actual launch to next week?" Mark said, reflecting some of my own relief.

"If by some miracle, Steve is back and LJ looks human again," Jamie sneered.

"Awww," said the girl MC, "I thought they were going to launch the album tomorrow, on LJ's birthday!"

"That was the plan," said the boy MC, "But it seems the guys wanted some time off and opted to celebrate LJ's birthday in private. In any case, the funeral of Chastity from Succulent will be held on Friday, and all the music shows will be off the air to mourn her."

We all looked at LJ, as if by slow motion. We had forgotten it was his birthday tomorrow.

"Happy birthday, dude," Mark said. LJ smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

"Let's get you a cake tomorrow," I said.

"That's done already, I ordered it yesterday," Jamie said. He looked at us. "Wait, did you guys forget?"

"That's really sad about Chastity, isn't it?" said the girl MC on the TV. "And she was close to Boy Next Door, I'm sure they're grateful for this private time to mourn. So it's probably best for Boy Next Door to start promoting their new album next week, and I really can't wait..."

I had this bad feeling that if Steve found out what was going on, that we were launching the album without him, before he even felt that it was ready, he would get even angrier than he was already and might never come back. But I don't say this aloud. I felt like there should be more I should be doing, but sharing unnecessary stress was not it.

I looked at the clock. "I have to pick Billy up from my mother in law's."

"And I have to check on Missy," Mark said.

"I'll be here, getting rich," Jamie grinned at LJ, who snorted a laugh. "200!" LJ's eyes widened and he looked at us, pointing at him, that he was being unfair or whatever. They'll be fine.

As we closed the door and pulled our caps back on, Mark sidled up to me and said, "Can you drop me off? I don't think I want to drive anytime soon."

I tried not to laugh. This one will be fine, too. "Sure, kid," I said clamping my hand on the nape of his neck and walking down the corridor with our heads down.