McClain fondly called MC by his friends and family was parked outside Travis, his best friend's house. He dialed Travis's number excitedly, anxious to share his news with him.
“Travis, I'm parked outside your house. Come down ASAP , I have news!” MC said.
Travis yawned tiredly at the other end of the phone, then asked, “What's your news? Did Angelina Jolie propose to you?”
“No Travis” MC replied smiling
“Did you just sell your parent's house, and you want us to run away and spend your ill-gotten wealth together? Because I'm totally down for that!” Travis asked.
“No Travis!” MC replied, fighting the urge to laugh.
“Then what is it? Unless…” Travis began.
“Oh my God, Travis, just get your lazy behind down, you crazy twit” MC groaned, then ended the call.
A minute later, Travis walked up to his car and got in.
“Bro seriously? We live together in school, or you could have called or texted?” Travis said after exchanging a handshake with MC.
“Well good evening to you young man” MC said, earning himself a glare from Travis who was busy trying to open the packet of chips he'd found in MC's car.
“You better have interesting news, you just interrupted my sleep” Travis replied.
MC and Travis had come down from their college campus to spend the weekend with their families.
“So guess who I saw at my house when I walked in this evening?” MC asked.
“Your parents? Your sister Faye? Your dog? Your cat?” Travis said.
“Obviously, you dimwit, but no, not my family. Someone unexpected…” MC said excitedly.
“Ryan Gosling? The president? Your father's new bride?” Travis asked, his eyes glinting with excitement.
“I saw Jasper O'Connor” MC blurted out before Travis could think of any more scandalous thing to say.
He watched in amusement as Travis slowly put down the packet of chips, dusted his hands, contemplated the news for like five minutes and asked in disbelief.
“As in the same Jasper O'Connor from high school?” Travis asked.
MC nodded and laughed when Travis yelled, “Christ Almighty!”
Jasper had been their High school nemesis. He had been their senior in High school and for some he reason picking on juniors, especially Travis and MC, was what he did for fun. They'd suffered embarrassing pranks, having their lunch and money forcefully taken, heads dunked in the male toilets and flushed nightmare. The whole bully schedule, and they'd passed through it every day of their lives for 3 years until Jasper graduated. It had been traumatizing.
“What in God's name was he doing there, did he recognize you?” Travis asked.
“I don't think so and according to my mom, he's been trying to get Faye to go out with him for months now” MC replied.
Faye didn't know Jasper or what her brother had passed through in his hands because she'd attended a private boarding school for girls. And also because he and Travis hadn't told their families what was going on in school then.
MC drove home after assessing the situation with Travis, he knew he couldn't let his darling sister end up with a bully like Jasper. He got home to find Jasper on the porch, and watched in amusement as Jasper kicked their cat Tammy into the hedge and dusted his pants. He walked up to him, and they talked for a while.
MC confirmed that Jasper couldn't really remember him. Not that he could blame Jasper, MC had gotten bigger and taller over the years, and a vigorous workout routine made his body look awesome. He was just about to head indoors when Jasper said.
“Hey man, before Faye comes out let me say something”
MC quietly nodded and shrugged.
“The thing is I really love your sister, and I've been trying to get her to be my girl, but I must be doing something wrong or something.” Jasper continued.
“So…?” MC asked.
“So I need your help. Tell me what to do, what she likes and dislikes. How to get through to her” Jasper replied.
Before MC could reply, Faye walked out, looking gorgeous as usual. Jasper told her that he was getting to know her kid brother and that he'd invited him to go running with him the next day.
As they headed to the bar, Jasper turned around and mouthed“ See you tomorrow” to a stunned MC, who went to bed that night with a smirk on his face as he finally figured out how to pay back Jasper.
“Firstly, my sister likes grand gestures, don't just tell her you love her, do something outrageous to prove it” MC said to Jasper as they walked back the next morning.
“Really, Faye is a private person, who could have guessed she'd like public display of affection?” Jasper asked grinning.
Jasper was right of course, Faye hated drawing attention to herself, especially unnecessary attention. She preferred a private lifestyle, and she rarely posted about things on the Internet.
“No offense but Faye is my sister, I think I know her better than you since we've practically lived together since we were kids” MC replied feigning nonchalance.
“Right, go ahead, I feel like I should be writing this down” Jasper said
“So as I was saying, the bigger, the better, make it loud and rowdy. Did I tell you she loves rock bands? And masquerades?” MC said.
“Really?!” Jasper asked in shock.
“Of course man, it's her secret so don't tell anyone, just invite her to a concert or something” MC replied trying not to laugh at the lies coming out from his mouth and how Jasper was so gullible to believe him.
“So I've been doing all the wrong things then” Jasper replied.
“Yes bro, in fact, an idea just occurred to me now” MC said making an ‘I'm thinking face’.
“Spill it out” Jasper urged.
“Since I'll be leaving on Sunday evening I would love to help you organize something to get my sister to agree to be your girlfriend” MC replied.
“Thanks, man, I would really appreciate it” Jasper said.
“So how about you take her to dinner, then I can organize a mini rock concert outside the restaurant. We'll invite some friends and coworkers. Then just to spice things up, add a few dancers wearing masks, and you can appear from behind wearing a masquerade mask of course and surprise her. It'll totally take her breath away” MC replied hurriedly.
“Hmm, she'll love it!” Jasper said happily.
“Leave the preparation to me, just worry about your mask and the restaurant then send me the location” MC replied humbly.
They parted ways, both looking happy and excited. MC quickly called Travis and told him what he planned to do, and Travis agreed to help him wholeheartedly. They enlisted the help of some of their old schoolmates, and MC felt confident that nothing would go wrong.
Help thought Faye to herself that Sunday evening, Jasper was a great guy, and she had been thinking of accepting his advances tonight, but she'd changed her mind the minute he stated behaving strange since Saturday afternoon. Once they were done with dinner Jasper led her outside to the car and to her surprise, there was a band playing rock music at the car park.
She hated loud music and was about to tell Jasper when he tugged her to the front and disappeared. As she turned to search for him, she began to recognize the faces of her friends and coworkers and some friends of Jasper's as well. Oh! No, she thought to herself, what had this man done?
Soon enough, Faye heard what sounded like Jasper's voice screaming about how much he loved her as the band played on. The whole thing seemed funny to her until the masquerade dancers appeared and began to dance around her in circles.
Faye had always been scared to death of clowns, or any sort of mask/masquerade, after she had accidentally locked herself in a storage room during a circus show when she was five. Spending almost the entire day staring at scary, different costumes and masks had scarred her for life.
So it was no surprise when she pulled off her shoe and started beating one of the masked men who had tried to lift her up. The band stopped playing and everyone watched as the pretty girl held on to the masked man and attacked him fiercely with her Loubotins.
“Ow, for the love of God! Faye, it's me, stop it” Jasper groaned trying to protect himself.
“Jasper you creep” Faye breathed in shock, “Is this a joke?”
“No Faye, I thought you loved things like this,” Jasper replied, trying not to cry.
“You know what, I'm not even going to ask where you got that idea from! I never want to see you again. Ever.” Faye screamed.
Jasper watched in shock and humiliation as Faye walked away from him. His shame further increased when he noticed people were recording the incident on their phones and laughing at him. MC and Travis were already in the safety of their college hostel, laughing their heads off at the video of his sister attacking Jasper.
Just to rub it in, MC sent a picture of he and Travis in their junior year to Jasper with the caption “Remember us?”. He rested easy knowing his sister would support him and not Jasper when the whole story came out.