by Eden O'Neill
I froze, chilled to the bone, and Sinclair took that in, approached.
He jerked a chin in LJ’s direction. “This was all a game to you, right? A sick game?”
LJ said nothing.
Sinclair wet his lips. “All just to get into my girl’s pants—”
LJ’s fist came out of nowhere, a swing and collide. He clocked Sinclair so hard his eyes crossed, and launching for him, Sinclair took his own swing.
A miss, one LJ dodged easily, and when he reared back again, I knew he’d take Sinclair’s lights out. I screamed, and LJ hesitated just long enough for me to get his hands.
“This asshole fucks around on you and starts throwing shit at me?” Eyes an electric blue, LJ struck the air with his hand. “Real classy, bro. Real fucking classy.”
“Better than you, and you’ll never be enough for her. Ever. You criminal piece of—”
“Would you both stop!” Hands in the air to both of them. I faced Sinclair. “You had no right.”
“Billie—”
“And you.” My hair flipped in LJ’s direction. “Is what he’s saying true? Did you get that guy to come on to him?”
Because I didn’t believe it. LJ was capable of a lot of things, but that…
That?
He said nothing at first, scrubbing into his hair, and I thought I might be sick. Especially when he found my eyes.
His expression sobered.
“What do you want me to say?” he asked, actually asked me that. He lifted his hands. “This guy fucked around on you.”
“But it sounds like you did it first.” I recalled that night in vivid detail, his words about me being stupid. He obviously knew Sinclair had cheated on me. I shook my head. “Did you invite him to that first party on purpose? To hurt me?”
He sighed. “I invited him.”
“Invited him knowing you were going to ‘throw pussy’ in his face?” Sinclair obviously ended up with a guy that night, but LJ created the scene. He started this.
LJ’s lips moved. “I feel like it doesn’t matter what I say.”
But it did, it really did…
And somehow he’d said enough.
More laughter behind me, Sinclair when he barked it out.
“I told you, Billie,” he said, coming forward. “This guy’s nothing but—”
“Get the fuck out of my house.” I shot around, his eyes twitching wide. I shoved him. “I said get out of my house. And you.” I paused, looking at LJ. I pointed toward the door. “You follow him.”
I was completely serious, completely done with both of them, and though LJ didn’t move, Sinclair did.
“Let me know when you finally want to talk,” he said, leaving out the open door, and LJ may have stayed, but I wouldn’t let him.
I pushed him too, his stumble back obviously one of surprise. He lifted his hands. “Beauty queen…”
“Don’t you fucking dare. Get out.” I shoved him again. “Now, and take your win with you.”
“My win?”
I swallowed. “Yeah. I guess this is congratulations. You got to both break and fuck the beauty queen.”
He blanched, like he’d been the one just punched across the jaw. I might have had he not finally left, cutting around me.
He stopped at the door, and when I thought he’d say something, he merely shook his head.
The door closed behind him with a soft click, and I threw my shoe at the wood. After, I hit the door so hard I felt the ricochet through my entire body. What sucked the most was I knew this was how it was going to go down from the jump. I mean, he’d told me himself.
He was bad for me.
Chapter Twenty
LJ
The colors of Woodcreek’s campus shifted once term ended, flowers springing up, and that hard heat of May sliding in. I’d crushed the semester, like always, and came away not just with passing marks to signify the end of my junior year, but aces across the board. I’d even managed to pull an A minus in my film class, putting in the work on my final exam. Billie had given me an A in the end, a victory and a perfect way to end the term. I thought I’d see her more those final days of classes, but she’d been mysteriously absent outside of recitation. She hadn’t even shown up at our final exam in lecture.
With not much to say to her anyway, I hadn’t put much thought into not seeing her. And I assumed, eventually, she’d get over what happened with her boy enough to talk to me. We were neighbors after all, and I figured we’d cross paths. We ended up doing so a couple weeks after the term ended.
I basically almost ran into her.
She had a box in her hands, her vision completely obstructed, which was why she almost ran into me. I nearly collided with her because, despite being distracted by the music pumping from my earbuds and my morning run, she still entranced me.
She was wearing these wedge heel things, stamping the earth with her shapely legs. They eased smoothly beneath her floral skirt with her strides, a summer top on that showed her bare midriff. It was hot as hell today, and she was showing off her tight, little tummy. Her red hair was also sticking to her neck with sweat, and I thought about how she used to sweat beneath me. I’d made her shiver into a quivering mess when I fucked her, the pair of us like animals that last time.
My stomach tightened, thinking about that last moment more than I liked and how it’d all fallen apart in the end. It’d fallen apart because of me and a fair bit of pride. Truth be told, Sinclair had done me a favor, the asshole. I should have cut all ties with Billie long before that moment due to the Marvelli thing but hadn’t been able to. I’d gotten wrapped up in her, and though things had started one way with us, they’d obviously shifted. She wasn’t my game anymore, nor simply my obsession to break. She’d become my beauty queen.
And I’d screwed her over.
She granted me with more of her attention than I deserved, her gaze dragging over my abs before finding my eyes. I always jogged without a shirt on. Most especially these days since it was so damn hot. Her chin lifted above her box. “LJ.”
The words “beauty queen” started to leave my lips, but I held back. I wet my mouth. “Hey. You need help with that?”
“No, I’m—”
I got it for her anyway, taking it. With a sigh, Billie directed me to her car, and she had all the doors open, several boxes inside. They all had words written on them too, things like bathroom and bedroom. I got the box in, then draped an arm over the top of her car. “You going somewhere?”
“Moving actually.” Literally no emotion on her end, let alone in her voice. Apparently, she reserved none for me. She covered her arms. “Moving to an apartment for next year. Broke my lease early.”
So she wasn’t even staying the summer, something I was doing. I planned to go back home here and there but, for the most part, was staying around here. I lifted a shoulder. “Isn’t that a bit of a downgrade?” I angled a finger over to her house. “I mean, because you had a house before.”
I literally sent this girl running for the hills, because I had my foot up my ass so far I couldn’t even take ownership of what I’d done. I’d played with her. Played with her and her ex-boyfriend. I couldn’t apologize for that douche canoe, though. Dude fucked around on her now, and I’d saved her from that shit later. What did bother me, though, was that I’d hurt her in the process.
Pride really was a son of a bitch.
Because with her standing here, for some reason, the words just wouldn’t come. For some reason, I just couldn’t say what needed to be said, that someway, somehow things had changed. I’d stopped trying to chase her down.
And just wanted to stay with her.
I didn’t want to play the game anymore and ended up being one of the ones who got played. I’d played my damn self, my own fault.
“Depends on how you look at it,” she stated, answering my previous question. She shrugged. “A change of scenery might be nice.”
I supposed for both of us really, probably the best thing for
her, putting a few miles between us. For a few reasons.
I closed the door for her, and casually she asked how my semester ended but was passive about it. I gripped my arms. “Did okay, I guess.”
“Just okay?” Her eyes lifted, all the red breezing across the tops of her bare shoulders. “I’m sure you aced everything.”
Because I had, I couldn’t help my small smile. I scratched the side of my neck. “Yeah. You do okay?”
“Not all As, but good.” She leaned back against the car, chewing her lip a little before looking at me. “Just one more year now. Same for you too, though, right?”
Yeah, which was crazy. About to begin my life, do the adult thing for once. I nodded. “Dasha’s coming in as a freshman next year. She’s been asking about you.”
The fact that her whole demeanor changed at the mere mention of my sister caused my stomach to squeeze. Honestly, my sister had asked about her a lot. Wondered if, when she came down to visit over the summer, they could see each other. I hadn’t had it in me to tell her the truth, that Billie wasn’t around anymore. That she wasn’t in my life. My sister had just believed Billie had been my friend, now we weren’t even that.
Billie’s smile was small. “I miss her. Give her my number if you haven’t. I’d love to talk to her again.”
My brow jumped up. She would? I nodded. “Sure. Yeah, sure. Of course.”
“Cool.”
I shouldn’t be surprised she cared. She’d been so good with my sister. Hell, I bet she’d be good with my whole family.
Don’t do that. Don’t.
The time for all that had passed, and I’d made sure of that. This girl wasn’t just not in my life anymore. I’d completely kicked her out of it.
I guessed, in the end, that was what I’d wanted.
*
A beer in my hand later that night, I had every intention of getting drunk off my ass. Niko had ditched me tonight, something about being busy, so instead of wallowing by myself, I decided to blend in at one of Alexi Marvelli’s strip clubs. I figured a lap dance or two might get me out of my head, make me not think so much about earlier events.
Immediately upon entering the joint, I was swarmed, tits and ass in my face right away. I spent a fair bit of money at these clubs when I went, so I wasn’t surprised. I was tugged by a couple girls to take the show elsewhere, and though I’d intended on spending my money privately tonight, I ended up at the bar with the rest of the patrons.
I came to a less flashy club tonight, one where I could blend in closer to campus. My hand gripping my beer bottle, I lounged back and watched the show, trying to clear all the shit raging around in my head with perky tits and shaven pussy. When I felt compelled, I tucked a twenty between the breasts shoved into my face, mostly to get the girls to back off. I felt a vacancy behind my eyes as I watched them, unable to concentrate on anything else but Billie and the fact that she was moving. I hadn’t said shit to her today when she told me.
I just let her walk away.
Fuck, I’d packed her car for her, never one to give an inch. I couldn’t get over my own self enough to apologize to her, easier than admitting the truth.
The truth being that she broke me in the end. Hell, she nuked her way through my entire life.
I pulled out my phone, that bored in the strip club. Apparently, I’d rather scroll social media than watch the girls on the bar.
I kept off Billie’s feed entirely, not really wanting to know what she was doing to put more space between us. It was none of my business anyway, the beauty queen not my concern anymore.
Swallowing hard, I dashed a thumb across my phone and ended up with her name under my digit. I told myself I hovered over her name to copy her contact and send the information over to my sister. She had told me to give it to Dasha after all.
But then I pressed the call button, and I knew my reason for finding her contact had less to do with my sister and more with me. I’d wanted to talk to her, about what I didn’t know.
I almost allowed the call to go through before another came in. I clicked over, ending that call when I saw it was Niko.
I frowned. “What the fuck you want?”
My “friend” had ditched me tonight, ditched me every goddamn night. I felt like I hadn’t seen him in goddamn weeks. He was always out with an excuse, a party, social engagement, or whatever. And after finals week, I basically hadn’t seen him at all.
Some panting hit the phone, and I narrowed my eyes. “Nik—”
“Jay?” He huffed, heavy breaths dragging into the line, and I rose up. Niko moaned. “Jay…”
“Niko?” He had my full attention now, not sounding right at all. “What’s going on?”
“I fucked up, Jay.” His voice sounded so weak, strained. “I messed up, man. I need your help.”
Warning bells shot off in my brain and so loud even the club music couldn’t drown it out. I wet my lips. “Okay. What’s going on? What do you need?”
“Can you come…” A harsh growl, then a groan. “Come to me? I need help, man. I’ve been shot.”
Shot…
I was off my barstool, asking more questions with my valet ticket in my hand. Outside, I exchanged it for my car, my buddy telling me exactly where he was as I got behind the wheel.
I thanked fucking God I hadn’t drank more, able to cut away from the club completely sober. I hit my foot to the metal with complete adrenaline turned on, Niko sounding so weak in my ear. I told him to stay with me, to not panic, but I couldn’t in good faith tell him everything was going to be okay. I didn’t know, hadn’t seen him.
And he’d been shot.
He didn’t tell me much, mostly because I told him to save his energy for when I got there. He instructed me to come to some motel, a sketchy-ass place on the other side of town. I must have gotten to the right place because when I rolled up, Niko’s red Mazda was parked outside.
I passed the car and nearly cringed at the sight of blood on the door handle, fingerprints. The same was on the door knob of the room he’d told me to go to.
I twisted the knob, working the door open, and when I found my buddy, he was lying on one of the beds in there. He had a wad of bloody towels to his abdomen, stretched out with his phone pressed weakly to his ear. In actuality, the bed was more so keeping the phone to his ear, his bloodied fingers hanging off it limply.
My face had to have paled. “Niko…”
I rushed to his side, cringing as I tossed my keys on the bed and held the towels to the wound for him. “Bro, what the hell? Why aren’t you at a goddamn hospital?”
I started to pull towels away, see the damage but the terry cloth was completely caked to the wound. How long had it been before he called me?
Niko roared, and I pressed the towels back. I reached for my phone to call goddamn 911, but he hit my hand away. He gripped my hand over the towels. “No hospitals. Can’t. I’ll get arrested.”
Arrested? I shook my head. “The alternative is you might fucking die. What did you do?”
I tugged off my shirt, too much blood for the towels. Peeling some of them away, I replaced them with my shirt. At this rate my buddy might bleed out, and I reached for my phone again.
“No, Jay. No!” His arm hit wildly at mine. “I can’t, man. It’s the cops who did this. Shot me.”
“What the hell happened?” We were both covered in blood at this point and so much fear ran rampant in my brain, I couldn’t see straight. I had no idea why we were even talking and not in my car driving to the hospital.
“I messed up, bro,” he said like he had on the phone. Cringing, his hand bunched over mine holding down pressure. “I took a job for Alexi. The police got in the way.”
“A job?” Hot fire in my veins, my fear for him worse. “What kind of job? Why?”
“I had to, man.” He bit down on his lip, pain retching across his entire face. He rubbed his head back. “Mom’s medical bills have gotten insane. It got so bad I took out a loan from Alexi. I was working
to pay the debt off.”
I closed my eyes. “All right. Well, what went down tonight?”
“We were moving some cars for him. But usually the jobs aren’t that big. It’s usually smaller stuff, nothing flashy,” he said, letting me know this clearly wasn’t the first time he’d worked for Alexi. His chest heaved, heavy with breath. “This last one had to have been a set up. Alexi’s guys and I barely got to the warehouse before the cops were shooting the place up.” He sucked in a breath, gripping the wound harder. “I just barely got out.”
“Niko, this isn’t getting out. You’ve been shot, man.”
“I know, but I can’t go to the hospital, Jay. They’ll arrest me, and I can’t go away. My mom, my sister… I’m all they got. You know that. I can’t go away. They’ll have nothing. And with my mom being sick…”
“Maybe you can cut a deal with the cops?” I said, nodding. “You’ve obviously been working with Alexi. Give the police something on him. They’ll work with you.”
“Then Alexi will come for me.” He groaned, his roar basically filling the room, and I got my phone again. His eyes flashed wild. “Jay—”
“I’m not calling 911,” I urged, the phone ringing in my ear. “I have a buddy. His name is Royal, and he knows people everywhere.” A phone call, and my boy could get us a doctor here in minutes, lesser tasks easier for him. Royal had resources all over this country, always the one with the hook-up in our group. Even if Niko and I were across state lines. “He’ll get you a doctor over here.”
“Can you trust him?” he asked, panting heavily, and it wasn’t about trust at this point. It was about fear and if my buddy could get someone here in time. I trusted Royal with my life so trust wasn’t the problem. It was time, something I wasn’t sure Niko had much of.
Especially when his eyes fell back in his head.
Chapter Twenty-One
Billie
My new lease didn’t start until the first of the month, and I didn’t know if I could wait that long. That run-in with LJ last week was just about my undoing, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to handle bumping into him during another one of his shirtless runs. The guy still affected me despite myself.
