Tristan chortled.
“The guy handed me the mic, and I say to the camera, 'Micki, your mother just told me to tell you to be good at college. Don't be good! This is not the time for good! College is where you spend your mother's money and have a good time! Have as much fun as you can! But be safe. Remember to always use a—' and then Renee grabbed the microphone from me and sweetly said all the things my Aunt told me to say.” I laughed. “When she was done, the camera crew started cracking up, and the guy asked me, “Ho' sista, you like me delete that?' I said, 'Come on; tell me that isn't the best footage you got all night.' He nodded and agreed that it was, so it stayed. My aunt was not pleased.”
Tristan laughed into his wine.
“Finally, it's time to go home,” I wound down my story. “I'm sitting in my grandma's minivan while she says goodbye to everyone and opportunity finally presents itself. I look over at the truck next to me and notice that the bed is loaded with all the leftover bottles of wine; those big party bottles that are like three bottles in one.”
“You didn't?” Trevor laughed.
“I got out and grabbed me a bottle of red wine.” I nodded. “Then here come two of my younger cousins; Ikaika and Nohi. They walk up to my window, and I grin at them. Nohi narrows his eyes at me suspiciously and asks why I look so pleased with myself. I point at the bottle of wine at my feet and smile wider. Ikaika asks me how I got the wine, and I get out of the car and grab another bottle, this one white. Then I hold up my pilfered wine and say...”
We all said it together, “I got red. I got white.”
We all laughed.
“But it's not quite over,” I said. “My grandma drove me back to help with the unloading but before we get to my Aunt's house, I told her that we had to stop by my car so I could put the stolen bottles of wine in my trunk first.”
“You told your grandmother that you stole wine from your aunt?” Trevor asked.
“My grandma looked at those bottles and said, 'Good! They're not gonna drink them, those fuckers!'”
“Your grandmother said that?” Trevor gaped at me as Tristan and I laughed.
“There's a reason why I never introduced you to her, Honey-Eyes,” I said. “That's my grandma from the South; she's a bit hardcore and rather unpleasant.”
“V?” Tristan asked. “Can you pass the red?”
“Sure thing. Cause...”
And right on cue came, “I got red. I got white.”
Chapter Three
I took Tristan back to Hawaii later that evening. We had spent the day drinking, laughing, crying, and cursing Jackson's name. Oh, and making fun of his new fiance. I honestly couldn't understand it. The guy Jackson had left Tristan for was ugly—I'm not even saying that as a supportive friend; this man was gross looking—rude, and arrogant. For Jackson to have left a ten-year relationship for someone like that and then jump into an engagement with him was mind-boggling. It was enough to make me wonder if magic had been involved. I might be paying Jackson's fiance a visit soon.
By the end of Tristan's visit, I was more hopeful, though. It had made me realize that I needed to make a greater effort to have time for my human friends. They were important; especially since they wouldn't be around as long as my god friends. I was determined to find time to visit with all of my old friends. Tristan had been the first to meet Lesya, and I haven't seen Sommer's kids since before the Twins had been born. Four years was the blink of an eye for an immortal, but now I was realizing how much I had lost with my human friends during that time. Not just my friends either. That story I'd told of my cousin's graduation had reminded me that I haven't seen my niece and nephew in ages. That was just unacceptable. T.J. was probably pissed at me now.
On a happier note, Azrael had come home from his first day of school ecstatic. He loved his art classes, but he especially enjoyed the interaction with his fellow angels. The University had been a social outlet that he'd been denied for many years simply because he was Lucifer's son. But it had been Jerry denying him entrance, not the other angels, and the Host was happy to have Azrael with them.
“It was glorious!” Azrael raved on as he reclined in my giant bed. “The University has huge wings dedicated to art. They have pieces that humans believed to be destroyed. Nearly the whole library of Alexandria is there! The Host rescued it.”
“That's amazing,” I whispered. “How did they save the library?”
“They swooped in right before the city was taken and collected as many pieces as they could,” Azrael said.
“Literally swooped.” Trevor chuckled.
“Did you get to see any of it?”
“I walked through,” Az said. “There were so many other things to see, and Anael wanted to give me a tour of the whole place before we went further into the individual collections.”
Anael was Azrael's new college buddy. I couldn't stop smiling. The Angel of Death was making friends.
“Did you decide on a schedule?” Kirill asked.
Kirill was lounging on the couch in the entertainment area next to our bed. He had just come back from putting Lesya down for the night.
“I'm going with three days a week for now; Monday, Wednesday, and
