Dead On Arrival~ Season 2- Episode 15: The Dinner (Part 1)

Episode 15: The Dinner (Part 1)

I can’t remember the last time I dressed up. I was never the type. A black t-shirt, a nice pair of jeans, and some jewelry was my formal wear. Instead, I was sitting here in an itchy blue knit sweater and dress pants. I felt ridiculous.

“You look nice…for once,” Matthew said sounding almost sincere.

I looked up to see Matthew. He wore a brown sweater, slacks, and glasses. He looked strangely normal. Like someone’s douchey dad. He sat down one chair away from me at the end of the table. Too close for comfort for my liking. I turned my back to him ignoring him. As expected he wouldn’t take such an insult quietly.

“You know this dinner is for you. I agreed to this,” he said scowling. “Just so you know.”

I scoffed. “Oh and I’m supposed to thank you or something? Fuck off.”

“Well, getting along I see…”



We both looked up to see Madison standing over us now. She sat down between us. She looked different. Less boyish. She was all dolled up in a floral dress, earrings, and heels. Makeup adorned her face. It even smelled like she was wearing perfume. I caught myself staring at her in shock and looked away. Matthew, on the other hand, look like an idiot with his mouth hanging open. He was practically drooling.

“You look…well…um nice,” I mumbled blushing. Too chicken shit to even look her way.

“Wow. Thank you, Vince,” she said smiling.

“You look better than nice. You look beautiful,” Matthew burst. He then looked over her shoulder and smirked at me. The smug bastard.

“Thank you, Matt. Very nice of you. You look nice as well actually. Both of you,” she said studying us. “Those are nice sweaters”

“Yeah. Yeah. Where’s Audrey?” I said waving her away.

“Always the gentleman,” Matt scoffed. He pointed at the archway. “She’s over there talking to Aaron.”

I quickly spotted her and was completely taken aback. Gone were her jeans, messy hair, and blood-soaked oversized jackets. She was dressed to the nine’s in a little red dress and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail. No bandage in sight. She even had makeup on. She looked like an actual chick for once.

I caught her eye as I gaped at her like an idiot and she looked embarrassed looking away. I cringed staring at whatever I could to hide my own embarrassment, but I glanced over to see she was headed my way. I cursed under my breath and sat up with my back to her. When she stood over me I turned around as if I hadn’t seen her.

“Hey. Sup! Didn’t know you were there.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right.”

“So um…you look…decent.”

She shook her head and smirked. “Decent. Well, you look pretty decent yourself.”

“So how’s the head?”

She smiled and turned around. She pointed to a partially shaved head and in the back was stitches. “It’s better. Said the stitches should be coming out soon.

"That great.”

“Yeah, and I got a cool haircut out of it too. It’s probably going leave a gnarly scar. It’s going to be badass.”

Madison chuckled. “Would you like to sit here, Audrey? I can move.”

“No. I don’t think so,” she said cutting her eye at me and frowning. “I promised to sit next to Grace’s tonight. Besides, I’ll be right across from you.”

She didn’t utter another word. She nodded and took her place across the table next to Grace. The two exchanged pleasantries as Omar joined them. Her gaze making sure not to meet mine.

“Decent?” Madison reiterated. She laughed. “I hope she looks better than decent. I helped pick out her outfit and did her makeup.”

“I think she looks lovely,” Matt injected grinning stupidly.

I rolled my eyes at him choosing to keep my mouth shut. It was then I was greeted by two morons arguing behind me. Not loud enough to wake the dead or garner the attention of the rest of the room, but loud enough to get the attention of the three of us. We all turned around to see it was Nathan and Aaron. Both in grey suits bickering.

“You said once she was better, you would give me my letter. That was the terms of our agreement! Now she’s better, so please give it to me!”

“I’ll give it to you after dinner.”

“No. I want it now. That letter is very dear to me.”

He frowned searching around in his pockets. “Look, it’s somewhere here. I just got to find…”

“You lost it?!”

I groaned. “Can you two shut the fuck up?”

“He has my letter,” Aaron continued to whine.

“What letter?” Matthew inquired.

“I found a love letter in Aaron’s room and decided to use it as an incentive…”

“More like blackmail!”

Matthew stared at the two of them looking utterly confused while Madison seemed amused watching them.

“Who’s it from?” she asked completely enthralled. “Sounds romantic.”

Nathan shrugged. “Some chick named Alex.”

“Parker!”

“Oh, is that your wife?”

He sighed. “No. Just someone very dear to me.”

Nathan then pulled a small letter out of his pocket and held it up. “Found it.”

“Give it to me!”

Matthew seemed to be growing just as annoyed as me. “Just give him the letter already, Nate. Dinner will be starting.”

“She must be really hot to be this hung up on a letter though,” Nathan said cheekily. He held the letter up just out of the doctor’s reach. “Come on give me the details. Is she hot?”

“Parker, please!”

He winked. “I’ll give you a letter if you tell me.”

“It was a he! A ‘he’! Are you happy now?! I loved him and that letter was the last thing he gave to me. Now please give it here and leave me be!” he cried loudly.

Everyone seemed to hear him and froze. The room grew completely silent. Matthew and Maddison looked stunned. Nathan stood wide-eyed and held out the letter looking dazed. The doctor snatched it glaring at all of us.

“Thanks a lot,” he snarled. He stuffed the note in his suit pocket and stormed up the stairs. His face a mask of anger.

Nathan stammered. “Wait. Aaron..I..I..”

Lin stood in the doorway with a glass in her hand. She took a drink and smirked. “Well, this is an interesting dinner already.”

Wade then entered the room. He joined us at the table and sat down next to Nathan looking like a country hick straight out of the 70s in his formal attire.

“Hey, I just ran into Aaron in the hall. He looked pissed. Did I miss something?” he perplexed.

“You missed everything and nothing”, Lin cooed sitting down next to him.

“I don’t know what the hell that means, but did you have anything to do with you huh?” he asked leaning over to Nathan. He smirked. “You look like you lost a bet and some, boy.”

“Wade…now is not the time,” Nathan mumbled looking utterly miserable with a full glass of wine beside him.

“Leave him alone, Wade,” Lin said rasing to her feet. “He a wounded animal who stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. You know how that feels right? Being an animal and all.”

“Oh, real funny. A real comedian you are,” he huffed as he watched silver tongue Lin slink away.

The awkwardness of earlier dissipated and our host, Mr. Jones entered the room garnering everyone’s attention. The only remnants left was Nathan’s unusually quiet and sadden demeanor. Then there was Audrey making it a point to ignore me again despite sitting across from each other. She talked gleefully with Grace and even sprung up a conversation with DJ at some point as dinner was being served. In fact, both DJ and Tao seemed to be all over her fighting for her attention. Pretty typical for young little dudes, but I couldn’t help but be annoyed as she chatted with him as if I wasn’t there.

“Vince… Vince!”

“What?!”

“The least you can do is answer me,” Lin spat. “I’m trying to serve you, dickhead.”

To my amazement, I was served three slices of roast meat. I look around to see the table with servings of food scattered about and plates in front of each individual. It was no giant feast, but I was pretty impressed. It almost looked like a dream. I picked up the fork ready to dig in. Not even paying attention to my surroundings, but Madison slapped my hand bringing me back to reality.

“Wait,” she whispered pointing at the head of the table beside me where Mr. Jones now stood. “Prayer.”

I bowed my head and closed my eyes as prayer was said. I don’t think I’ve heard prayer or even had anything close to this in a while. The last time I had sat down for a proper family dinner was at my Mom’s house for Thanksgiving. My daughter, Mya. My girlfriend and Mya’s mom. Uncles. Aunts. Cousins. My grandmother. They were all there. All so vivid, but simply memories now. Would I ever see them again?

Once prayer was done, we all proceeded with dinner. I wasted no time digging into my plate while some took small bites cautiously. Things went pretty typical from there. A few laughs were shared. Lin teased Wade as usual. DJ and Tao took a break from fawning over Audrey to fling food at each other. Everyone just basically goofing off and chatting. It felt nice. It felt normal. It felt comfortable.

Mr. Jones stood up clearing his throat and the chatter died down. He beamed. “This has been quite an evening and it’s all thanks to our two newest friends, Vince and Audrey.”

“They didn’t fill those bellies though,” DJ joked loudly causing some to chuckle.

“Oh, hush you,” his grandfather said smirking. “Now’s let’s go around the table. Each say something about ourselves.”

“Yeah. How about our professions? I often wonder what the hell you all got up to before the dead took over,” Madison said. “I know some of your stories, but not everyone. I’m especially curious about you, DJ.”

“Being as fly as fuck was my job,” DJ jested winking.

“Oh, give me a break,” Jones moaned causing everyone to laugh again. He sat down in his chair and leaned over to me. “How about you, Mr. Martez?”

I stared at him at feeling beads of sweat form on my face.

“How about you go first?”

Part 2 is next. More to be revealed and not the last you’ll see of an Aaron. Bringing back the vote/poll soon too. :)