by Jaye Cox
I introduce my father to everyone that matters and he’s currently talking to Morris who’s the most down-to-earth guy you could ever meet, so I’m glad my father chose to talk to him first. Talking to Dex some days can be like talking to a brick wall, though I must admit, it comes in handy when you need to vent and don’t want anyone to talk back to you. Romeo is off with Clawzilla and her friend somewhere, doing God only knows what, and that freaks me out a little since my father is here. Rayne and Tommy are actually getting along, talking and laughing. I go sit with my father and Morris who are deep into a conversation about the Star Wars movies and by the sounds of it, my father isn't the only movie geek here. My father is into movies from the 80's, especially the original Star Wars. Morris must like the new ones, because the discussion is intense but I know that Morris will never win this debate.
I ask my father if he wants another drink, but he says he’s fine so I give him a kiss on the cheek and go make sure Rayne and Tommy are still playing nice. I stop on the way to make sure Sam and Paulie are ok cooking the food. They tell me to piss off and go enjoy myself. Rayne and Tommy are talking about the new gigs they’ve picked up; they’ve been excited about getting to play at an upcoming music festival, which is big for them. Rayne’s phone rings. He looks at the caller ID and excuses himself. I eye him warily because he never leaves when he gets calls. It looks like he’s getting angry at whoever is on the other end of the conversation, so when he comes back I ask who it was and he snaps at me, saying it was no one. I try to pretend it doesn’t bother me, but it does. Tommy takes Natalie to meet a few of the other guys and I turn to Rayne, giving him the, ‘This isn’t over’ look. He leans in and lowers his voice, "what do you want from me? You don’t need to know everything I do. I didn’t think this was what would happen by letting you move in."
"I’m not doing this now, Rayne."
"Why the fuck not?"
Refusing to answer him I just walk away. If he wants to be a prick, he can do it later, when I can get pissed at him without an audience. I look over at my father and he is watching me, so I try to act as normal as possible and get another drink when Paulie yells, “Grubs up.” Once I have my food, I go sit with Tommy, Natalie and my father since I can't be anywhere near Rayne in this mood. Natalie tells us all about how she’s working on becoming a midwife. I notice Rayne walking inside so I excuse myself to go to the toilet. My father tells me it’s too much information and I laugh and try catch up to Rayne.
"Where are you going?"
“For fucks sake, do you have to know everything?”
"No, but you don’t need to be an asshole. My father is here and you wanted me to invite him so you could make him like you, but ever since that phone call, you’ve been acting like an ass."
"Fuck your father. He won’t ever like me anyway and I don’t need this shit from you. Stop being so needy - maybe you moving in was a mistake." I don’t know why he’s being so nasty, but I’ve had my limit with his attitude and I slap him across his face while telling him to go fuck himself. He looks at me and his eyes go dark; his face void of all expression and he takes a step toward me and I back away until I’m up against the wall. He stands in front of me with both hands on the wall beside my head, "Don’t fucking hit me again,” he says before he leans in and kisses me. It’s hard and fast and I can’t resist him. I melt into the kiss, even though it’s like a warning rather than a lovers kiss. Without realizing what I’m doing, I jump and wrap my legs around his waist. My body molds around his and I can feel his erection, then for a split second, my mind gets its shit together long enough for me to push him away.
"Stop. We can't fix everything with sex and you can't avoid talking to me by making me forget what we are arguing about”
"No, but it was worth a try. I’m sorry, but I have to go out for a bit and I can't explain right now. Apologize to your father for me and I’ll be an hour or two, tops." I’m so pissed off, I walk away because it’s pointless trying to reason with him when he gets like this. I spend a few more hours with my father and Tommy before they leave, and much to my surprise, neither of them ask about Rayne.
I decide I’m not in the partying mood and go upstairs to bed where I check my phone to see if I have no new calls or messages from Rayne. I decide not to call him and see where he is, so instead, I put my headphones in and set Rayne’s iPod to shuffle; music always has a way of helping me calm down. I wake up when I feel the bed dip, I sit up and look at Rayne he smells like alcohol and cheap perfume. "You're seriously trying to get into bed with me right now?" I say, impatiently waiting for him to answer me.
"It’s my fucking bed, just go back to sleep,” he says with his back turned while he takes off his boots.
"Actually, it’s our bed since I moved in, or did you forget that?" I throw a pillow at him and point to the door.
"You seriously want me to sleep on the couch?"
"You tell me, Rayne. You said you would be an hour and it’s now what time? You smell like alcohol and a cheap bitch rubbed herself all over you, so yes, unless you plan to tell me why, I suggest you go sleep on the couch. I can keep talking for hours and hours..."
He doesn’t say anything, he just walks out with his pillow. I was hoping he would try and justify why he smelt like women’s perfume, but I should have known better in his state of mind. I cry so much I feel my eyes and nose become stuffy and it’s hard to breathe. I can’t sleep so I creep out to the kitchen for a glass of water, and that’s when I catch a glimpse of him sitting in the rumpus room with his back against the wall, notepad to his side and his head bent down between his legs. I hate seeing him like this; he may be an asshole but I still love him and don't like seeing him in pain. I get my glass of water and sit it on the table, contemplating going back to bed but I’m drawn to him like he’s a magnet. I find myself walking over to him, he moves his guitar out of the way and I sit between his legs. He rests his head on my shoulder and pulls his guitar over my body, I lean into him while he strums away and hums in my ear. I don’t say anything and neither does he.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I wake up after only having a few hours of sleep. Rayne is still snoring away, so to avoid the fight that’s inevitable, I throw on some clothes, grab my keys and go to wake up Tommy and see if he wants to grab some breakfast and come shopping with me. Since I have a spare key to Tommy’s house from when we used to spend so much time at each other’s houses. It made sense to our parents that we have keys to both places. I run up the stairs to his room, trying to be quiet in case his mum is home. I sneak into his room and see he’s still fast asleep, which is strange for Tommy. He’s usually up with the birds, so he must have been up late studying. I slide my shoes of and leave them by his door and tippy toe over to his bed. I climb up as carefully as I can but when he starts to stir, I freeze. If he caught me right now it would look wrong since my head is in line with his crotch. He doesn't wake up, thank God and I decide then that I want to go for real shock value, so I stand up and start jumping on his bed. I think I scare the shit out of him because he jumps out of bed so fast I barely see him move.
"Shit Bells, don’t turn around."
"Why?" I ask, turning around anyway. Who doesn’t naturally turn around when someone tells them not to? "Shit, Tommy! Put some clothes on. Since when do you sleep naked? I don’t want to look at that,” I say, waving my hands in the direction of his naked body.
"Well turn around and stop looking at it for fucks sake. It’s not like I was expecting you." I turn around and laugh.
"Don’t laugh at my cock, Isabella. It’s not funny."
"I’m not laughing at your cock, Tommy, I have seen it before, remember?"
"I was eleven. It’s definitely not the same now as it was then,” he says. I can tell I’ve gotten a stir from him, so I decide to see how far I can play it. "Well, it didn't look that much different from what I could see."
"It has so because it’s gotten a heap bigger since then! Do I have to show you again?"
"For your information Natalie likes it and I get a whole lot more head now it’s shaved."
"Lalalala! I don’t need to hear about you getting head unless you want to swap stories and I can tell you about the last time Rayne went down on me and how many orgasms I..."
"Ok, stop. Point taken. Let’s go get breakfast and go shopping, because it must be the only reason you’re here unannounced." Tommy really is the best friend a girl could ever ask for. He doesn't pry for information like a girl best friend would, he pays for our food all the time because he’s a true gentleman. He even loves shopping and I don’t have to worry about him getting all bitchy on me. I get along with Sam great and I would class her as a best friend but she’s a bitch and she knows it. She needs to know details and sometimes you just need the company and not the talking. I use to wonder why Tommy and I never got together. I’ve never been in love with him, but we did spend pretty much every day together, so I always figured something would happen. We get along great and barely ever fight, but once I met Rayne, I came to realize things aren’t so black and white. Relationships seem to take a lot of hard work and in the end, that just wouldn’t have been worth losing our friendship over, so I’m glad we never crossed that line.
I park near a small cafe that’s close to the Shopping Centre. We took my car since Natalie is picking Tommy up when we’re done. I told him if he had plans I would be ok to come by myself, but all he said was that’s what best friends are for. His phone has pinged at least three times on the way here.
"Is everything ok?" I ask.
"Yeah, everything is just fine.” he says and I know he’s lying as he’s the worst liar that I have ever met.
"I know you're lying. If it’s something about me, I don’t want to cause you trouble. I really like this one. She’s normal and not slutty like the others."
He laughs and says, “The others were a bit slutty, but it’s ok. Natalie, just like Rayne, has to accept we’re friends and have been for most of our lives. That’s not something I’ll let anyone take away from me." I lean over and kiss him on the cheek but he wipes it off and gets out of the car. Wiping my kisses on the cheek off has been something he’s always done, like he doesn’t even realize he does it anymore. It’s just habit. We find a seat in the cafe when my phone starts to ring. I see it’s Rayne and by this point I feel calm enough to answer.
"Hey, Cowboy."
“Would you fucking care to tell me why the fuck you’re out and kissing another guy?” he yells down the phone at me.
"Excuse me?” I say, looking around until I spot Tammie Miller along with Kandi and wonder when the hell they had become friends.
"First, let’s start with how Tammie or Kandi have your phone number, Rayne. Then we can talk about how they forgot to mention I was with Tommy. I know they both know who he is. Lastly, I did not kiss him," I decide this isn’t a conversation I care to have right now and hang up before he gets to say another word. I walk out of the café before everyone gets to see me cry. I sit on a seat by the entrance to the Shopping Centre and Tommy sits next to me, putting his arm around me. "Please don’t cry, Bells. You're too pretty to cry and it makes your face ugly." He just sits with me and holds me―no questions and no pity. He’s just being the friend that I need right now. We decide to go back in and eat when I hear a motorbike. I know it’s him and I feel the electricity between us every time he’s near me. My body melts for him, even when I’m angry. I have no control over it. I turn to see he’s parked his bike on the grass and I know people are staring; it’s hard not to. Tommy asks if I’m ok or if I want to leave? I tell him I’m fine but I don’t break eye contact with Rayne, because I refuse to show weakness and as much as my body wants me to go to him, I know that I have to stand my ground. He doesn’t seem angry anymore, but I would say he seems dubious. It’s not something I’m used to seeing from him.
"Tiny Dancer, please...”
I cut him off mid-sentence. "Don’t, Rayne! I really don’t want to hear it right now."
"Just let me explain."
"I don’t want to hear your excuses, ok! I’ll be home later." He doesn’t get a chance to answer because Tammie and Kandi walk over and I just lose the plot. I’ve been an emotional wreck at times, but the anger that’s built up inside of me with these two women is unbelievable, but mostly with Tammie since I just don’t like her. We may have had a small bonding experience but I still hate her - seriously, who wears stripper heels out shopping.
"You," I point to Tammie, "Stay the hell away from Rayne, you were so hateful in school because you couldn’t get Tommy to do more than fuck you, but I had him as a friend. Kandi, from what Rayne has said you were only good for a fuck, but now I’m dating him so back off. You couldn’t wait for the first chance to stir trouble."
Her and Kandi just look at each other and laugh like what I said was the most hilarious joke they’ve ever heard and that’s when I snap and charge for her. I’m not usually a violent person and hate confrontation but she has pushed me for years and today I’ve had enough. I put everything I have into a nice right hook. I really don’t think anyone expected it from little ol' placid me but it only makes her furious and she attempts to hit me back. She gets in a decent bitch slap that would definitely leave a mark, but I go to charge at her and this time, I plan to knock the bitch to the ground, except Rayne grabs me around the waist and Tommy has a hold of Tammie. I kick and yell at him to put me down. Who does that bitch think she is?
"Easy there, killer. Settle down, would ya?”
"Hey, Isabella," Tammie calls out, "Just remember with guys like Rayne, it’s only a matter of time before he can’t resist a hot piece of ass being thrown at him." I start kicking at Rayne again to put me down but he doesn’t. He just spins me around like I’m some rag doll and throws me over his shoulder, grabs his keys out of his pocket and throws them at Tommy and walks us to my car.
He puts me down since I’ve calmed down a bit and puts his hand out for my keys, which I give him. Once we’re in the car, he tries to speak to me and I tell him I’m not interested right now and to just take me home. He tries to be funny and point out I just spoke to him and I give him the finger and turn up the stereo so I can drown him out. Either way, I don’t care. Once we pull up at home, I decide I do want to talk, well technically, I want to yell. I need to yell because I have this anger built up inside me that was all caused by him.
"I have never hit anyone before, Rayne. Did you know that? Not until I met you. I had never gotten drunk or done anything careless. You do something stupid and I love you so much it makes me do stupid things. I just want things to be easy sometimes. I ask myself is love really enough - there has to be more, right?"
“I told you from the start I was not your Prince fucking Charming and I’m not a good guy. My head’s fucked up from shit you couldn’t even imagine."
"Then tell me. Help me understand why this is how it has to be."
"No," he says and gets out of the car, walking away from me. I just don’t know how to do this. I keep thinking if I keep loving him then he’ll realize he’s loved and that will be enough, but maybe loving him isn’t enough; it’s just all I have. I’m not ready to give up on us as I know it’s just another one of our stupid fights and we’ll get past this. I won’t let some bitch try to come between us, and I won’t be letting him off that easy, either. He has a lot of groveling to do to make this up to me. I go inside where he is standing in the doorway waiting for me.
"We’re going out to dinner tonight so be ready by 7 pm. Dress up because we’re going somewhere fancy.” I don’t answer him, I just walk past him and go to find Sam. She and Morris are in bed as I tell them about Tammie and Kandi. Sam is pissed. She wasn’t there and she doesn’t believe I could
hurt a fly. Morris just laughs and tells us both neither one of us could hurt fly. I tell Sam about dinner tonight and she lends me the perfect black and red dress. The black is on the top and it’s got beads sewn in. The rest of the dress is red. I didn’t think a dress of hers would fit me, but she insisted it was very short on her and very tight. She also lends me a pair of her heels as well. I have the perfect diamond earrings and necklace that will go with this dress, and I’m sure I have about ten black clutches that would easily be used as well. I gather the dress and shoes and leave the two of them to go back to sleeping.
I spend the day shaving, plucking, and moisturizing. Rayne has been gone most the day and I think it was simply to give me some privacy. He knows I’m still pissed off about today, but let’s hope we can get through dinner without fighting. I’m ready by 6:30 pm, and by 6:45 pm the disappointment starts to kick in. Where could he possibly be? This was all his idea. I promise myself if he doesn’t turn up, I won’t cry. There has to be a good reason, right? The doorbell rings just as I’m about to change out of the dress.
I look out the peephole and it’s a man dressed in a suit. "Good evening, Miss Preston, Mr. Hollywood requests your company. Would you please come with me?"
"Ok, I’ll get my bag." I grab my bag and step outside when I see a stretch limo waiting out front. Tears instantly fill my eyes and I laugh. This is typical Rayne―every time he screws up, he makes up for it ten times over. The man in the suit opens the back door for me and we drive into the city. I wonder where we’re going. The city looks amazing at night with all the glowing lights. It almost seems like magic a place so busy and chaotic during the day is transformed into a place so beautiful and romantic at night. We pull up out front of a small restaurant called Black Door. I’ve heard of this place before and the waiting list to eat here is insane. The driver opens my door and I look at him because there is no way we could be eating here. He gestures for me to go inside. I do and the place is gorgeous; it’s only a small restaurant, but it has a pianist in the corner, playing away. I walk over to the Maître d', "Hi. I’m meeting someone here, Rayne Hollywood?"
