Pitbabe S2, Chapter 16 pg7

 Pitbabe S2, Chapter 16 pg7

   WILLY:

   “Don’t know what you’re staring at, you foreigner?”

   And I never imagined I’d end up sitting here, watching the great Pitbabe, drunk as a dog like this.

   I don’t know if it’s fate or destiny playing a joke, but today, out of nowhere, I felt like being a mysterious guy, ditching my friends to drink alone at an unfamiliar club. And on the very day I decided to play the lone wolf, it just so happened to be the same day Pitbabe, the celebrity, came to secretly drown his sorrows in alcohol, alone. Apparently, he’d bragged to his friends that he was over his breakup, but instead of sitting down to vent with someone, he ended up at the bar, staring into space, all by himself. I couldn’t stand seeing him sit there with his head hanging low, so now I’m here, getting cursed out by him, as you can see.

   “Staring at a heartbroken guy,” I said, looking at him with pity. Even though Pitbabe is my idol, in real life, he’s not that cool. He seems like an ordinary human—flawed, occasionally special (like now), but “drunk as a dog.”

   Even so, I still like him.

   “Heartbroken, my ass,” Pitbabe slurred, his voice dragging. He was so wasted he could barely hold his head up, swaying back and forth like a deflating air dancer outside a gas station. “Heartbroken is when you like someone, but they don’t like you back, idiot.”

   “So how’s that different from you wanting to stay together while she wanted to break up?”

   “You little—!” The drunk guy pointed at me, trying to act tough, but it wasn’t intimidating at all. In fact, he wasn’t even pointing at my face. “When did I say I wanted to stay together?”

   “If you didn’t want to stay together, why are you so upset?”

   “I’m not upset!”

   “Drunk like this and not upset?”

   “I’m celebrating,” Pitbabe said, giving me a smug look, as if he had the upper hand in something. In his current state, he could barely win against gravity, let alone anything else. “Single after almost three years. Can’t I celebrate?”

   “If this is celebrating, it’s the most depressing celebration ever.”

   “What do you know?”

   “Alright, alright, I get it. I’ve never been in love like you,” I said, not bothering to argue further. First, arguing with a drunk person is a waste of energy. Second, it’s true—I don’t have enough experience to be giving opinions to a veteran of love like him. So, sitting here and letting him rant at me seemed like the best option. “If you want to celebrate, go ahead. I’ll sit here and cheer for you.”

   “Damn right. You better cheer for me hard,” the drunk guy said, reaching out to shove my shoulder. He missed the first time, so I had to grab his hand, place it on my shoulder, and tell him to try again.

   “From now on, I can go wherever I want, do whatever I want, come back whenever I feel like it. No need to tell anyone. No worrying about someone waiting for me, someone caring. I can drink as much as I want without getting nagged, smoke a pack of cigarettes a day—it’s my business.”

   “Uh-huh, sounds great.”

   “Do you know how cunning that Charlie is?”

   He said he wasn’t heartbroken, didn’t want to stay together, and was out drinking to celebrate being single. Yet Pitbabe couldn’t stop talking about someone named Charlie for even a minute.

   “He didn’t say I couldn’t smoke, but he said if I did, he’d smoke too. He knew I didn’t want him messing with stuff like that. In the end, I had to quit because of him, that bastard…” Phii Babe hiccuped softly, then downed his drink in one go, slamming the empty glass on the counter. The bartender hurriedly mixed more drinks, afraid Pitbabe would run dry.

   “Anything he didn’t want me to do, he’d say, ‘If I did it too, would you like that, Babe?’ And if I still did it, he’d go, ‘What did we agree on? I told you not to raise your voice. I told you not to break things. I told you not to fight. I told you…’ So damn annoying.”

   I didn’t say anything, just sipped my drink and listened to him ramble about his annoying ex, knowing Phii Babe didn’t want my opinion right now. He just wanted to talk about his ex, that’s all.

   “He always acted like I needed him to teach me everything, even though I’m way older than him. I was born long before him—how would I not know you don’t pour water into boiling oil?”

   “Why did Phii Charlie suddenly have to teach you about pouring water into oil?”

   “Because I poured water into the pan while making an omelet, that’s why.”

   I scratched my head, knowing better than to take a drunk guy’s words too seriously, but I didn’t expect Pitbabe to spout such contradictory nonsense when wasted. Lucky I felt like playing the mysterious stranger today, because if I’d left him to get this drunk alone, Pitbabe’s name would probably be trending number one by tomorrow.

   “He called me a whiner, but he was just as bad himself.”

   “Whining because you poured water into oil in the pan, right?”

   “Yeah, but why make a fuss? It was just an explosion.”

   “You’re lucky to be sitting here complaining after that.”

   The more I listened, the more I admired Phii Charlie for handling Pitbabe, despite seeming so refined and being years younger. From what I heard, Phii Charlie was probably the one managing everything in Phii Babe’s life. No wonder he’s so off-balance now—going from having someone who was everything by his side to suddenly having nothing. Anyone would struggle to cope.

   “Charlie…”

   Again and again.

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