by Lane Hart
Now Royal is about to have an aneurism, and Blake won’t stop asking me questions about Maddie.
“I will kill that stupid slut! Both of them! Who the hell do they think they are?” Royal seethes, trying to get back into the cafeteria, but I keep blocking him because I’m bigger and stronger and he’s…wrong.
“You need to calm the fuck down,” I get in his face and tell him through clenched teeth. “Are you trying to get suspended? Teachers probably heard you in there.”
“I don’t give a shit. What else do I have to lose?”
“Royal, man, your feud with Hannah has gone on long enough,” Blake says, which is surprising, but I think I know his angle. “If you keep pissing Maddie off, I’ll never have a chance with her.”
“And there it is,” I mutter.
“There what is?” Blake asks. “Why are you acting like you’re Maddie’s bitch all of a sudden?”
“Yeah, Aric. Where the hell is your loyalty?” Royal asks with a shove to my chest.
“This has nothing to do with loyalty,” I tell them. “I’m just tired of watching you self-destruct because of one mistake.”
“I didn’t make a mistake! That bitch never should’ve got in my business,” Royal replies, still in complete denial about doing anything wrong. But I’m not innocent either.
“Fine, okay,” I tell him. “Just calm down before you do something to make things worse. All we have is one more year and then we’re out of this place.”
“Yeah, you and Blake will be going off to college, but what about me?” Royal asks. “No college is going to want me.”
“Retake the SATs,” Blake suggests.
“You don’t get it. Neither of you do, so just shut the hell up and leave me alone!” Royal tells us before he storms off, at least moving in the opposite direction of the cafeteria.
“Something’s up with him,” Blake says. “He still won’t talk about where he went this summer and he’s flipping out all the time.”
“No joke, Hannah may have to take out a restraining order on his ass because he’s not ready to put this shit behind him yet,” I say sincerely. “We need to try and run interference, make sure he stays away from her.”
“Keeping him away from her means I won’t get to talk to Maddie.”
Good. I want her to myself.
I have no fucking idea where that thought came from.
“Royal’s our friend and he needs us while he’s going through shit. He would be there for you if you needed him.”
“Yeah, I know,” Blake grumbles.
I’m such a fucking hypocrite. All that shit I said to Blake about being there for our friend while I’m spending time with Blake’s crush several times a week in secret.
For some reason, it doesn’t even piss me off when she texts me for favors.
Somehow, Maddie Collins is slowly wrapping me around her finger…and I like it.
In fact, I now find myself seeking her approval.
“Is the facial hair sufficient?” I ask when she opens the trailer door Monday night.
She eyes it in silence and then says, “It’ll do.”
“Hannah liked it,” I point out.
Maddie bristles at that, her shoulders under her black tank top go back and her chin lifts a few inches in the air. “Since when do you care what Hannah thinks about you?”
“I don’t. I was just stating a fact.”
“What you all are doing to her is fucked up. You know that, right?” I ask.
“From now on, Blake and I will try to keep Royal away from her.”
“Good,” Maddie says. “That’s…decent of you.”
It’s as close to a compliment as she’ll probably ever give me. I almost want to snatch the words out of the air and shove them into my pocket to keep them on me forever. But that would make me a fucking pussy.
Still, her words of praise have me blurting out, “I ended things with Collette Friday night.”
“You did? Seriously?” Maddie asks, a near smile lifting her lips.
“Yeah,” I answer before adding, “Well, I mean, I tried. It’s done on my end.”
“Oh, come on, Aric!” she exclaims, throwing her arms up in the air. “Grow a pair and tell that old bitch to go fuck her husband!”
“I actually did say something like that to her. Still, she wasn’t happy, and she’s been texting me several times a day.”
“What a cunt. I feel bad for Blake’s father.”
“Me too.”
“Then why did you do it?” she asks.
“Teenage boys don’t think about anything but fucking. And when I couldn’t fuck the girl I wanted, she was there and willing. Back then, she told me that her and Kurt were getting a divorce, so it didn’t matter. But the divorce never happened…”
“Why are you telling me all of this?” Maddie tilts her head and asks me curiously.
“Because of the other night with that asshole,” I admit. “I guess I just realized that maybe you were right, and it was wrong to be with Collette. I finally opened my eyes and saw how aggressive and persistent she was with me. How you see me and her, from the outside looking in is how I saw that jerk treating you Friday night. Do you get that now?”
“Ah, yeah, I guess so,” she says while lowering her eyes to her feet. “Thank you for intervening. If you hadn’t, well, I probably would’ve done something I didn’t want to do but would have anyway…”
Did Maddie Collins just thank me? Hell has to be freezing over. I think I feel a draft on my balls. Instead of throwing her gratitude back into her face, I try and go in a much less douchey direction.
“How about you and I make a pact?” I suggest.
“A pact?”
“Yeah, neither of us will ever do anything of a sexual nature with anyone else unless we absolutely, without a doubt, one hundred percent, want to and they’re not married.”
Maddie’s front teeth dig into her bottom lip as she thinks it over. “Sure.”
“Shake on it?” I ask, holding out my palm that she takes once again.
Only this time, unlike the first time we made an agreement, we’re not betting against each other.
We’re banding together, which is so ironic it almost blows my mind.
Chapter 13
Maddie
Something is up with Aric. He’s actually being sort of…nice to me.
And I’m not only surprised that he ended things with Blake’s mom, but also that he told me.
Or at least he tried to end things and she’s not getting the hint.
Ever since Aric showed up at my door, I can hear the occasional ding coming from his athletic shorts’ pocket.
Shelly offered to watch Matt and Mandy while we take care of business, so I lead the way up to the top of the street and toward downtown.
“No laundry today?” Aric asks, fishing for more information about what he’ll have to do.
“Nope.”
“Where are we going?”
“Greene Street Bar.”
“We’re going to a bar?” he repeats. “That’s why you needed my fake ID and facial hair?”
“Yep.”
“Nice! But I could’ve saved us some time and a hike by picking up a six-pack on the way over.”
“We're not going to drink,” I tell him. “Can you just, you know, stand beside me and look tough? Don't open your mouth or say anything.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Can I get a beer while we’re there?” he asks.
“Maybe. If we have to wait.”
“Wow,” he mutters. “This may be the easiest thing you’ve asked me to do yet. Are you going soft, Maddie Collins?” he asks with a surprise poke of his finger in my ribs that makes me jump two feet in the air.
“No, I’m not going soft,” I respond. “And just for that, you may finally get to babysit Matt and Mandy when we get back.”
“Babysit?” he huffs. “Didn’t you learn anything from Friday ni
ght?”
“I’m not going on any dates any time soon,” I assure him.
Inside the sports bar lit up with neon beer logo signs, there are only a few customers sitting on the stools. One of them, a red-headed guy who looks like there’s a thick layer of dirt on his face and arms, I recognize all too well. Walking up to him, I don’t bother with any greetings before I start shoving my hands into his back pockets, cringing the entire time even though it’s necessary.
“What the hell?” my father slurs as he gets to his feet, glass of clear liquid still in his hand and a lit cigarette in the other. Standing with his hands full makes it much easier to fish through his back pockets. So far, I’ve only found a lighter, a bus pass card, and a pack of matches. All of which I tuck into my own pocket because fuck him.
“Ah, Maddie. Do you know this guy?” Aric asks, mouth gaping, a look of straight shock on his stupidly perfect face, especially with the facial hair making him look less clean and rich.
“Unfortunately,” I say on a sigh. “This is Larry, my father.” Now it’s time for me to stick my hand into the front pocket, which makes me wince. Thankfully, though, I hit the jackpot and pull out a thick roll of green cash.
“That’s mine! You can’t take it!” my father yells, still without surrendering his glass or cigarette.
“I’m getting the lock on the mailbox changed,” I tell him. “You can’t throw out our bills! They turn off shit when you don’t pay for months.”
“I have to…I gotta get my check,” he counters.
“I’ll get your check for you and take half for me, Matt and Mandy, and you can have the rest.”
“They’re not my brats! Why should I have to pay for them?”
“But I am, and you’ve never given me shit!” I tell him. “Consider our half as your asshole father tax.”
“I’ll change my address,” he threatens.
“No, you won’t. Because that might raise questions about how much you pay for rent and you wouldn’t chance them finding out that you’re perfectly capable of holding down a job except for the constant intoxication. Besides, if you do it, he’ll kick your ass until you’re truly disabled and only able to drink from a straw!” I threaten, nodding my chin in Aric’s direction.
My father looks to him and then me and then back to Aric again before his gaze pleads with the bartender.
“You kids need to get on out of here!” the guy behind the bar tells us, finally recognizing that we're probably not of age to be drinking, or more than likely that we’re not paying customers like Larry.
“No problem, we were just leaving,” I say as I stroll to the door, ready to get the hell away from here, but happy to have enough money to keep the lights on for at least another month.
When I get on the sidewalk, Aric grabs my elbow to try and slow me down.
I jerk around and bark at him, “Don’t touch me!”
“Sorry,” he says, lowering his hand. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“That was really your father?”
“I wish it wasn’t,” I groan.
“Am I really going to have to kick his ass?” he asks, making my lips curl up at one end before I can catch myself. “Because I will. I’ll do it now if you order me to.”
There’s some sort of strange tightness in my chest, making it difficult to take a breath hearing him say he would do that for me.
“Not right now, but odds are good that you will have to one day.”
Then, as if there’s been some invasion of body snatchers shit going on, he asks, “Do you need to borrow some money?”
“No. God no!” I exclaim. “I’ve got enough here,” I say while holding up the wad of bills. “This doesn’t usually happen. He threw out mail and I didn’t get bills, so I didn’t know…anyway. I’ll take care of it tonight if you can stay with Matt and Mandy. They’re with Shelly right now, but she’ll be going to work soon and taking Joey to her mom’s.”
Why I’m telling him all this shit, I don’t know. There’s one thing I am certain of; I will never take a handout from Aric Prince. Blackmailing him for a little cash is totally different.
“Could you please not tell anyone about this?” I ask him as we walk back to the trailer park.
“My lips are sealed as long as yours are,” Aric says while mimicking pulling a zipper across his lips.
As long as I still have ammo on him, I believe he will keep quiet.
Besides, everyone already knows I’m poor, white trash. What they don’t know is Aric’s dirty little secret.
Chapter 14
Aric
“So, what was your name again?” I ask the scrawny, dark-haired boy after Maddie leaves to go pay the bill to keep their electricity on. Not once in my life have I ever had to think about how much or when my parents pay any bills.
At least now I know why Maddie doesn’t look like either of her siblings – her brother with dark hair and eyes and sister with blonde hair and blue eyes – because they have different fathers. Maybe all three have different daddies. Again, that thought never crossed my mind since everyone says my older sister Caroline looks just like me in a wig except I’m the bigger, muscular, supersized version.
“My name is Matthew, but everyone calls me Matt,” he responds from his seat at the counter where he’s scribbling with a pencil, working on his homework.
“Cool, Matt. So, I’ve got a question for you. Where is your mom?”
“How am I supposed to know?” he replies with a shrug of his thin shoulders. “We haven’t seen her in years.”
“Years?” I repeat in disbelief, and he nods. Their mother just up and left the three of them? Who could do something like that especially when they’re so young? “What about your dad?” I ask.
“Oh, yeah. He comes around,” Matt tells me, which is a relief. “Usually just to ask Maddie to give him some money because he’s always broke. She says we shouldn’t answer the door anymore when Larry shows up because he’s a narcissistic alcoholic with rattlesnake venom in his blood. I’m like super scared of snakes, so I just hide in my room with Mandy when he starts knocking and yelling cuss words through the door at Maddie.”
“Gotcha,” I reply and have to clear my throat when it comes out a little gruff because my throat suddenly feels tight.
“Larry says I’m not his son; but if he’s not my dad, then I don’t know who could be,” Matt adds, which is really fucking heartbreaking.
I couldn’t imagine going through life not knowing my father. Sure, he can be a dick when he starts putting pressure on me to do better on the football field, to win no matter what, but that’s just because he wants me to succeed in a sport where he couldn’t.
Tonight, I’m learning a lot of new information about the girl who is blackmailing me and her fucked up family. And no matter what happens, I will never use any of it against her.
Ever.
In fact, I’m actually starting to feel really bad for her, which is not something I ever thought would happen. With no mom in the picture, and an alcoholic, abusive father who doesn’t help, how the hell does Maddie take care of herself and her siblings?
“Does your sister have a job?” I ask Matt.
“Ah, yeah, genius,” he says with a roll of his brown eyes, sounding a lot like his older sister. “How else would we pay for stuff?”
“Really? What does she do?” She’s always at school or here with her brother and sister, so I can’t figure out what she does to earn money unless she sneaks out at night to work the stripper pole.
“She’s like an online companion or something,” he informs me.
“What’s an online companion do exactly?”
“I dunno. Maddie said she has to be nice to men who don’t have girlfriends, like talk to them or whatever.”
“Does she go online for this ‘companion’ work?” I ask when I start to get an idea about what exactly she does. If I had to bet, I’m guessing these men don’t talk to her about work or the
weather. Just like everything that is Maddie Collins, of course her job would be sexy as fuck too.
“Yep, she works online sometimes late at night during the school year.”
“And she works every day?”
“Uh-huh, and all day during the summer.”
“Talking to men who don’t have girlfriends?”
Sighing like I’m getting on his nerves with the twenty questions, he says, “That’s what I said.”
“Do you know the name of the site where she works?”
“Maybe.” Now he glances up from his homework and flashes me a sly grin, one that says this information is going to cost me.
“How much?” I ask.
Matt crosses his arms over his chest, looking every bit the part of a child businessman with all the leverage. “How much cash do you have on you?”
I pull out my wallet from my back pocket and riffle through the bills. “Forty?” I offer him even though I have more.
“That works,” he says, holding out his palm turned up. “But if you want to know her username, you’ll need to double that amount.”
Wow, the little bastard knew I was full of shit and is demanding more money.
“Well played, sir,” I tell him with a shake of my head as I fork over four twenties into his palm, making his eyes light up like I just gave him a million dollars. He even counts it out on the kitchen counter, not once but twice, despite the fact that you can see every bill clearly. Then, he picks up his pencil, and tears out a sheet of paper from his notepad.
“I’ll write it down for you because Maddie said you’re a dumbass.”
“I appreciate that,” I reply with a smirk as he gets busy writing.
“Thanks, little man,” I say when he holds up the page in offering to me. But he doesn’t release it when I try to give the paper a tug.
“You can’t tell Maddie I told you or tell anyone else,” he insists while hitting me with a very direct narrowed eye glare. “She said that if the site finds out she’s not twenty-one, then we’ll be living on the streets.”
