‘Can I pick the film tonight?’ Clover whined and I rolled my eyes at her.
The three of us—me, Griff, and Clo—were all crammed on my bed, struggling to get comfortable, about to watch TV together.
The whole week, Clo and Griff had been arguing every night about what the three of us would watch next. No evening passed without the two of them disagreeing about something. They kept trying to get me involved, but honestly, I couldn’t be arsed to get between them. I would just let the two of them duke it out. Sometimes, when Ollie was present, they didn’t act as bad—probably because Clo didn’t like him and didn’t want to give him more fuel to dislike her.
But Ollie rarely joined us.
Instead, he spent a lot of time in the pool practicing with Leo—or at least that was what he told me. I never asked for too much detail because I wasn’t his keeper. He was able to hang out with Leo without me demanding to know everything they did.
‘No, my lady, you picked last night,’ Griff said in reply, his signature cheeky grin plastered on his face.
‘Why don’t we watch a musical?’ I asked, feeling the need to sing along loudly to a film with great songs.
Last night, Clover had made us sit through Mean Girls 2 and seriously, the fact that the film was even allowed to tie itself in with the first one was a total travesty of epic proportions. Really, they weren’t even on the same level—like at all.
‘What you got in mind, fair maiden moonie?’ Griff asked me, sticking his tongue out like a five-year-old in the playground. He kept trying to make nicknames happen, but nothing he’d tried out yet had stuck. Mostly because they were all complete and utter wank and there was no way I would allow him to call me them in public.
I reached over to him on the bed and punched my fist into his upper arm as hard as I could.
‘Do not call me moonie, dickhead. Just sounds like you want to show me your arse.’
‘Fine, oh beautiful light of my life, please enlighten your most humble servant of the film you have chosen,’ he replied, not letting my ire faze him, batting his eyelashes for good measure.
I hit him again, even harder, and I knew it hurt when he elicited a tiny, ‘Ow!’
‘How about something Disney?’ I asked, knowing that the two of them would have to agree on that.
Who the fuck doesn’t love Disney?
‘Eurgh,’ Clo grumbled, pointing her finger at Griff. ‘I guess we could watch an animated one. None of that High School Musical crap, Griffin.’
‘You wound me, good lady,’ he said, covering his heart in a swooping motion as if she’d stabbed him with an actual dagger and not just a metaphorical one. ‘I love myself a bit of Troy Bolton.’
‘Will you stop talking like you’re from medieval times?’ Her tone was filled with exasperation, but her small smile playing at the corner of her lips told me she wasn’t that mad at him.
We’d watched a documentary about King Arthur, and the boy hadn’t stopped with his lyrical nonsense since. Every word or phrase had some kind of olden timey-ness to it and I wasn’t sure who was going to hurt him first.
‘You are so uncouth,’ he spat, folding his arms across his chest before moving himself back onto the bed so that his back was resting up on the wall behind us.
‘Says the boy whose spit just landed a whole six feet away from his gob?’ Clover asked as she rolled her eyes at him, but when she turned her head away from Griff, I saw her lips turn up at the edges, unable to keep her happiness from showing.
‘Okay, lads,’ I called out, getting the attention of them both. ‘What about Peter Pan?’
‘Not enough singing,’ Griff grumbled.
‘Fine, what about Tangled?’ I tried again.
‘Too recent,’ Clo huffed.
‘You two honestly,’ I said, ready to sack them both off and go to the pool and watch Ollie and Leo swim. At least that would be a better view. ‘How about Hercules?’
‘Yes!’ Clo exclaimed as Griff said, ‘Yeah, boy!’
‘That’s settled then.’
Thank fuck.
* * *
Clo started singing as soon as the film started.
I joined in, laughing, shimmying my body in time with the beat.
It was at that point that Griff joined in, louder than the two of us combined, butchering every note but not caring.
We sang the rest of the song in unison, dancing while sitting side by side, and all I could do was smile and feel like I had become a part of something. A real group of friends that I loved to be around, and ones that loved to be around me back.
Around the halfway point of the film, Griff nudged both me and Clo to get our attention, the words wanting to burst from his mouth. When we both looked at him, they slipped out in a rush.
‘Have you ever thought about Hercules in real life?’
‘What?’ I asked, laughing at him. Griff always had the most random thoughts.
‘You know, the Labours of Hercules. The myth this is all based on.’
‘Right… What about it?’ Clo asked, her eyebrow raised at him quizzically. I caught her eye behind his back and we shared a baffled look.
‘Well, do you ever think about it?’ he asked, looking dead serious.
‘Can’t say I have,’ I replied, stifling a laugh.
‘I do,’ he mumbled, then, abruptly, he stood up to face us.
Pacing in front of the bed, he ran his hands through his red hair in agitation. I paused the film and got ready to listen to whatever he was about to say. No way was I missing any of the songs for whatever was about to come out of his mouth.
‘I’m serious,’ he said, his eyes boring into ours. ‘Hercules had to go through twelve labours for what? To make amends for killing his wife and children, a crime he was persuaded to take part in?’
‘Okay…’ Clo bit her bottom lip, moving her teeth from side to side.
‘What’s this about?’ I asked him, unsure where his mind was at, but worried it wasn’t a good place. It all seemed a little odd and abrupt, even for Griff.
‘Oh. I don’t know.’ Griff shrugged. ‘I guess I just find it unfair on the dude.’
‘It’s only a myth, Griff.’ Clo shrugged and I tilted my head, confused why he was so upset about something that wasn’t real.
‘True. But you never know, dear ones, when something like that could happen in real life,’ he said, his eyes dark and sombre, but within a moment, his face had gone back to the normal carefree Griff we were used to seeing, as if nothing happened.
‘What, being persuaded to slaughter your entire family?’ I asked with a smile teasing my lips.
‘Yeah, New Girl.’ He looked at me dead-on. ‘Just remember, persuasion can kill.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind.’ I chuckled. ‘Now get back here, you knob, and let’s get back to the film. Who else is gonna sing the main part of I Won’t Say I’m In Love?’
Griff took his position between the two of us again.
‘Have I ever mentioned that I love you two?’ he asked, his eyes shining with humour and affection.
‘You’ve mentioned something similar, yeah,’ Clo replied, hugging him to her side. We all fell silent for a beat, taking in the moment, each in our own way.
We resumed the film, and Griff once again began to sing and dance to the best of his ability—and trust me, the best of his ability wasn’t great.
* * *
That night, I changed Griff’s name on my phone to Hercules.
‘New Girl, I am the most Hercules person you will ever meet.’
‘How’d you figure that?’ Clo asked.
‘Well, I love to solve crimes and I’ve always wanted to grow an upward-curled moustache,’ he said, his tone so matter-of-fact, making it sound as if we should have known that about him already.
‘Griff, are you referring to Hercule Poirot right now?’ I asked.
He chuckled as I threw one of my cushions at his face.
‘Oh, yeah, maybe I am.’ He shrugged and added, ‘But either way, you should save me on your phone as Hercules. I’ve got the looks, the singing voice, and the hair to boot.’
I grinned back at his beaming face. There was just something about his open face, his blue-green eyes, that took you in. The freckles on his nose were standing out against his pale skin tone and I couldn’t help but adhere to his demand.
‘If you insist.’ I rolled my eyes as if it was a pain, but really, it amused me.
It was later that night, after I’d received a text from him under his new name, that I recalled the words he’d spoken so ominously earlier on.
Persuasion can kill.
Hercules
Skylar
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