Sky walked as fast as she could to get out of there and away from the irate police officer, without running or drawing any further attention to herself. Her first instinct was to go straight to the apartment and ream Shelby a new one, but the cop was still watching her. Deciding her safest bet was to walk into the diner up ahead, she did just that.
A little bell jingled when Sky walked into the diner, and every person in the place looked up to see who the newcomer was. Typical small-town mentality at work here, always interested, but never involved. Where were they five minutes ago when the cop was attacking her in the alley?
A little old lady with cat eyeglasses said, “Have a seat anywhere you want honey.”
“Thanks,” Sky said. Once the waitress came over to her, offering coffee, Sky asked where the bathroom was. Her cheek burned, and she needed to see how bad the damage was. The lady directed her to the back of the building, and Sky walked that way, finding the small bathroom. Sky entered and realized maybe she should have waited to check out the damage. The bathroom was beyond gross and smelled like the entire football team had just had a bad case of food poisoning. Holding her breath, Sky walked up to the dingy little mirror above the sink. Damn, she was a mess—her hair was wild, and her cheek was bright red from the scrapes. Feeling the hot surface of her abused cheek, Sky knew she would be sporting a fresh bruise under the scrape in no time.
Turing on the faucet, Sky scooped some water into her hands and brought them to her battered face. The cold water felt good, but she didn’t want to spend too much time in that bathroom. She was finding it physically impossible to both hold her breath and not touch anything while still doing what she needed to do. Turning around to look for paper towels, she wasn’t surprised when she didn’t find any. Not wanting to risk using toilet paper, Sky opted for the cleaner option and lifted the bottom of her t-shirt and wiped the remaining water away from her dripping face.
Walking out into the diner, Sky didn’t want to stay, but she also didn’t want to lead the cop straight to Shelby. Shit, maybe she should let the man follow her. It was time for Shelby to pay the price for her wrongdoings instead of Sky. But Sky knew, even if she wanted to, there was no way she would ever lead the cop to Shelby; that would mean Sky would have to break her promise. Sky drank the coffee the waitress had poured for her while watching the cop in the mirror above the counter. After he had pulled away, Sky watched as he turned off the main drag of the town and waited, not wanting to risk him hiding just out of sight. Nursing that god-awful brew might do her in and she wouldn’t have to deal with any of this, but she wasn’t that lucky.
When Sky started getting looks and the waitress had come over no less than five times, Sky decided it was time to leave. Walking out the door of the diner, Sky decided to do some evasive maneuvers just in case the cop was still lurking around the corner. Those tactics consisted of walking over to the gas station and buying a pack of gum, then staring in the window of a little thrift shop for an exorbitant amount of time. She spent that time looking at the 1970s-polyester lime green atrocity in the window like it was the most amazing thing she’d ever seen. She knew she wasn’t fooling anyone with her interest, but she had to be sure the cop wasn’t following her. Subtle she wasn’t, but livid and on the verge of fury, on the other hand, she had those emotions in spades.
Finally making her way to the building which held the apartment, Sky stormed up the back stairs and grabbed the familiar door knob. The knob turned without Sky having to get her keys out of her pocket. She shouldn't be surprised, Shelby didn't value the apartment or anything in it, so why the hell would she bother trying to protect it? An average person would think about his or her own personal safety; guess that was beyond her cousin as well.
Slamming open the door, she screamed, “Damn it, Shelby, I swear to God, if you tell another one of your conquests that your name is Sky, I’m going to kick your ass. If it weren't for your Dad and my promise to him, I would have kicked your ass to the curb and been done with all this bullshit a long time ago. Do you have any idea what happened to me today when your shit once again landed in my lap?”
Sky was the definition of pissed off woman. She’d spent too much of her life taking care of and cleaning up after her wayward, self-indulgent, spoiled cousin. Shelby believed everything Sky had belonged to her, and everything anyone else had should be hers, too. When they were kids and Sky had been sent to live with Shelby’s parents, those things were toys, affection, and candy. Now, as adults, those things were men, money, and whatever else she could get her greedy hands on.
Looking around the room and seeing the filth only fueled Sky’s mood. The little studio apartment they’d been staying in for the last couple of months was a pigsty of epic proportions. Beer and booze bottles were littering every available surface in the apartment. That was bad enough, but there was also overflowing ashtrays, greasy pizza boxes, and other fast food wrappers containing rotting, half-eaten food in various stages of decay, adding to the mess. There wasn’t even a fast food place in town; Sky had no idea where that shit came from. What pissed her off the most was she had just been here four days ago and had cleaned the whole place and now it looked like hoarders had moved in.
The little wench couldn’t be bothered to raise a hand to pick up and put anything in the surprisingly empty trash can sitting right next to the kitchen island. Shoot, maybe she should just be happy someone thought to take out the garbage and replace the bag. It had been days since Sky had been back to the apartment. She was trying her hardest to finish the job she was being paid to do, so that they could move on before everything blew up in their faces like every other time she and Shelby stayed in one place too long. This job was personal. It meant too much to Sky to half-ass it, Tuck was a friend.
Looking at the apartment, all Sky could do was shake her head. The floors and couch had mounds of what looked like a shopping spree gone wrong. Latex, spandex, and sparkly shit of every color covered the formerly clean hardwood floors. Not getting the reaction or the fight Sky was looking for when the room remained quiet, she stomped to the bed and the noticeable bump beneath the covers. Sky knew Shelby was passed out from a night of hard partying and still too drunk to wake up and face her. Or worse yet, the little bitch was ignoring her by her playing possum. Sky wasn’t sure which of those two scenarios ticked her off more.
Grabbing the blanket and yanking hard, she should have been shocked by what she uncovered. But Sky wasn’t, this was typical Shelby. No, finding her anything but sweet cousin naked in bed with two other naked people, one man, and one woman, was nothing new. Shit, at this point in her life, it was just like any other Thursday. The only thing that did cause her a little concern was none of them seemed to move at the abrupt removal of the blanket or the Sky’s screaming.
Sky debated for all of two seconds on what she needed to do next. A small part of her couldn’t help but wonder if maybe this time Shelby had gone just a little too far and OD’d or something. Noticing the rise and fall of her cousin's insanely endowed chest alleviated that thought. What surprised Sky was the momentary relief she felt at the thought of finally being rid of Shelby once and for all. Shit, what kind of person did that make her?
“Shelby Ann Thomas, get your ass up, right fucking now!”
Now most people being so rudely awakened would startle or even jump when coming out of a deep sleep by someone else bellowing their names, not Shelby. No, Shelby just stretched like a lazy cat, cracked her eyelids open a millimeter.
“Go away, Sky, I don’t have the time or the patience to deal with you today.” The bitch tried to wave her off with a flick of her hand.
The other two people in the bed started to stir, and thankfully, the guy had the presence of mind to realize things were about to go bad and started grabbing his stuff from the floor. Yeah, leave it to Shelby to find a willing pair to have a threesome with in rural Kentucky. Damn, maybe she should be happy only the cop was looking for them right now. Being deep in the Bible Belt, this
shit probably brought along lynchings.
“I think it is time for you to go and make sure you take your friend with you!” Sky said to the guy, pointing at the still, semiconscious woman on Shelby’s other side. She wasn’t sure if it was the psychotic look she was sure was painted on her face or what, but the man took the hint and started scrambling out of bed. He moved faster than Sky expected him to after being rudely woken up after a night of debauchery with her cousin and the other unresponsive woman. He even took matters into his own hands and got his partner moving as well. She wasn’t as graceful or hospitable. The chick started putting up a fuss, but wisely stopped after the dude non-verbally indicated Sky’s presence.
Without saying a word and only half dressed, the two fled the apartment. Sky vaguely heard the woman say something on her way out like, “What a bitch” or something along those lines, but she was too pissed to care. She had bigger problems at the moment. Shelby just continued to ignore Sky, choosing to sleep rather than acknowledge Sky or her departing guests.
Once the room was devoid of Shelby’s guests, Sky couldn’t take it anymore. She took a cup from the nightstand and threw the contents right in her cousin’s face. Springing up and sputtering, Shelby looked shocked at what had just gone down.
“What the hell, Sky!” she screeched. “Bitch, how fucking dare you!”
“No! How dare you! Look at my face, Shelby, notice anything different?” Shelby just sat there, crossing her arms over her naked breasts, glaring. “No? How about the fact I don’t usually go around sporting bruises and scrapes on my face? Or how about the fact you’re going around town using my name when you could have used just about any other name to pull off your crap. Huh, any explanation for that?”
“Whatever, Sky, I have no idea what you’re into or what you do when you’re not here or in that grungy little garage working on those stupid bikes. Just put my allowance on the counter and get out of my apartment. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why would I tell anyone I was you?”
She said “you” like it was a curse word, one which tasted awful on her lips, but Sky knew better. This wasn't the first time that Shelby had tried to pass herself off as Sky. If Shelby thought for one second she could get in trouble for one of her schemes, she used Sky's name.
“Oh, hell no! This is it. You’ve finally pushed me too far, Shelby. I’m done with you and all the crap you pull. You have the nerve to look me straight in the face and lie after all this time and all the shit I’ve had to put up with from you? No fucking way, sister. The free ride is over; you’ve finally accomplished what I promised I would never do. I give the hell up. I refuse to take your shit anymore.
“You don’t like me and I sure as hell don’t like you. If it weren't for your mom and dad, we wouldn’t even be standing here right now. And for your information, those stupid bikes pay the bills and make it possible for you to have a roof over your over-privileged head, but the gravy train is stopping and you’re at the end of the line. And just so we’re crystal clear, this apartment,” Sky gestured by throwing her hands out to emphasize her point, “is MINE. You don’t have anything, Shelby. You didn’t contribute a fucking dime to any of this.
“We can’t even stay in the same place for four months without your shit coming to knock at our door, and I, for one, am sick of it. I’ve given you every chance to change and clean up your act, and you have done absolutely nothing. Now you’re using my name in your scams. And what is worse is that you’re using my name to hit on little boys. How dare you! You, worthless little cunt!
“This,” Sky said, gesturing to her face, “is because you decided it was a good idea to fuck with the Sheriff's kid, his underage kid. Got him to go gonzo on his daddy’s credit card, then dumped his ass. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Oh, shut up!” Shelby snapped. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Davey isn’t underage, he’s seventeen, and in the state of Kentucky, sixteen is the age of consent. Shows how much you know, Skylar.”
“Oh, my Lord, the fact you even know that shit is beyond messed up,” Sky responded. “What is wrong with you? You’re twenty-five years old. On what planet is it okay to bang a seventeen-year-old who isn’t even out of high school? Christ, he still has pimples and braces. Don’t you have any morals or damn self-respect? He’s a kid. That’s just wrong, any way you look at it.”
“Shows how much you know. I didn’t bang him, just said I would if he got me a few things. I’m not completely stupid, Skylar,” Shelby said sarcastically.
Sky felt her mouth drop open. She couldn’t believe the words coming out of Shelby’s mouth. Christ, the woman couldn’t even control her own lies. She had no conscience or any sense of right or wrong. Sky had been taking care of Shelby for far too long out of obligation to two people who were no longer walking the Earth, and she couldn’t take it anymore. Sky was going to break her promise, something she’d never done before in her entire life, but Shelby had gone too far this time. Sky hated it, but she didn’t feel like she had any choice.
When her parents died, her Uncle Frank came and got her at the airport and said she was going to live with them from now on. Sky had loved her aunt and uncle. They were good people, but they only had time for their own child. Sky was the outsider, the obligation. They never said it, but Sky always believed actions spoke louder than words.
Uncle Hank and Aunt Betty had been older than Sky's parents. Through the years, she’d learned they had tried for years to conceive without any luck. So, when it finally happened, Shelby became their world. There wasn't any room in that world for anything or anybody else. They doted on her, gave her everything she wanted, and never once held her to the same standards a typical parent or guardian should hold a child.
When they were in school and Shelby didn’t want to do her homework, they did it for her. Sky, on the other hand, was expected to carry her weight. She had chores, expectations, and obligations to the family who took her in when her parents died unexpectedly. Mainly, those things consisted of Shelby safe and happy. It sucked, but it was also the life she’d lived from the time she was five years old.
Sky’s aunt and uncle hadn’t been bad people; they fed her, made sure she had clothes on her back, and a roof over her head. They didn’t abuse her or treat her badly, just differently. All in all, her life wasn’t all so terrible; it was pretty average. Uncle Hank taught her how to build and design bikes, and Aunt Betty could make up and tell the best stories. Things changed for all of them when Aunt Betty died during a supposedly normal medical procedure. Uncle Hank was left with two adolescent girls while trying to deal with his grief. The poor man checked out and started throwing money at Shelby to make her happy, spending most of his time between builds stuck at the bottom of a whiskey bottle.
Sky ached for him and tried to help in the only way she could by working with him, learning from him, and eventually covering for him. By the time, she was sixteen, Sky was completing all the new orders for custom bikes that came into the family business. Uncle Hank’s road name in the biker world was ‘Junkyard’. His bikes had a reputation for being the best of the best and bikers from around the world would order or commission one of his creations. Sky was proud to follow in his footsteps even though the biker world wasn’t exactly female business owner friendly.
Sky had been working under Uncle Hank for so long, she started to establish a reputation of her own. By the time she hit eighteen, Sky was able to run the family business without hiding behind the once great man. Uncle Hank died a few years later of cirrhosis of the liver, and his last request was that Sky continue to take care of Shelby. She had been honoring that request for seven years, but this recent incident sealed Shelby’s fate
“Listen, you need to clean this place up and pack your crap. My build is in the final stretch of completion. Once I get paid, I’m going to give you enough money to get started over somewhere else as far away from me as possible.”
Sky hated the gleam evident in Shelby’s e
yes at the mention of potential money. The problem was, Shelby wasn’t listening to anything else, and Sky needed to get her point across in its entirety.
“I mean it, Shelby, no more handouts or anything else. From this point on, we’re no longer family. Don’t use my name or call me when you get in trouble. I’ve done all I can for you. It’s time for you to make it on your own. Didn’t someone say tough love was the way to get through to someone? I’m sick of taking all the shit for the crap you pull. That man could have arrested me and thrown me in jail, and you don’t even care. I’m not going down for something you’ve done.”
“How much are you going to give me?” Shelby questioned. “You know a couple of hundred bucks isn’t going to cut it. I need to get an apartment, furniture, and a car. That’s going to take thousands.” Shelby was smiling to herself at the thought of it. Leave it to Shelby not to concern herself with anything beyond the money.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll give you what I can, and you’re just going to have to deal. I don’t care anymore. Find a sugar daddy, shake your ass on a pole, or sell yourself on the corner. I absolutely don't give a fuck anymore. I’m sick of cleaning up after you when all you do is hold out your hand.”
“That’s not very nice, Skylar. After all, you’re using my daddy’s business to make that money. I should be entitled to at least half of the money. Without his name, you wouldn’t even be able to get a job in one of those oil change places. Junkyard Hogs is half mine, and I expect my half of the profits.”
God, Shelby was a piece of work. The woman was still sitting on the messed-up bed with condom wrappers scattered about, looking like the princess she believed herself to be. Her contribution was less than nothing. She had been born that was it.
NAC & The Holly Group - Box set: Alpha Team Page 83
