The Game

by Natalie Clarke

  Since that night in the bar, Aaron has been how he always was, caring, funny, the best friend a girl could wish for, any hint of how he acted that night has faded as if it never happened. Although, any mention of Kyle, has him cursing, his body becoming rigid.

  I still have no idea why he hates him so much, I know he’s trying to be a good friend and look out for me, but Gwen has accepted him, why can’t Aaron? To keep the peace, I attempt to avoid causing anymore discomfort and conflict between us and try not to speak of Kyle in front of him if I can help it.

  “Oh, here comes lover boy,” Shannon says.

  My eyes flick to the door where Kyle saunters in.

  My breath catches in my throat as he makes his way over to me, butterflies fluttering in my stomach with nerves and excitement, as if it’s the first time I’ve laid eyes on him. His black button-down shirt and grey jeans cling to his rock-solid body, his black leather jacket hugging his thick biceps.

  “Hi,” I say as he draws nearer.

  “Hey, beautiful.” His arms wrap around my waist and I’m lifted off the ground as his lips meet mine, gently, not in their usual desperation and hunger. The kiss is sweet and tender.

  A loud cough emanates from behind me. Kyle sets me back down and I turn to find Uncle Jack watching us, his eyebrow raised, a small smirk tugging at his lips.

  “Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all about the lovin', God knows I had my fair share at your age, good at it too, but think how it feels to be the girl’s uncle, having to watch it.”

  “Ew, Uncle Jack.” I cringe.

  His head falls back as he laughs. “Get outta here, you two. It ain’t busy in here, go have fun, but not too much.” He winks.

  “Again, ew.”

  He continues to laugh, seeming to revel in how uncomfortable I feel.

  “You sure?” I ask.

  “Yeah, get gone.”

  I round the counter and kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you, Uncle Jack.”

  I untie the apron from my waist and fold it up, placing it behind the counter. I reach for my bag and throw it over my shoulder.

  “You take care of my girl, you hear?” Uncle Jack warns Kyle.

  “Of course,” he replies. He takes my hand. “I’d never let anything happen to her.”

  “Bye, Uncle Jack,” I say as he waves us off as we exit the diner.

  We climb into his car and the engine roars to life, the deep growl vibrating through my body.

  My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out, I have five missed calls from my dad. My stomach drops. I won’t lie and say that it doesn’t hurt to be away from him because it does. Despite everything, I miss him. We’ve never been apart for this long before, a single day hasn’t gone by when I haven’t either seen or spoken to him, especially not since my mom died.

  The thought of him being alone makes me want to cry, the thought that he thinks I hate him for what he did. Maybe I should, but after all, he’s still my dad, and I love him, but I don’t want to speak to him, I’m too tired to get into yet another fight with him.

  But what if he’s in trouble, what if he’s hurt?

  Before I can talk myself out of it, I answer. “Dad?”

  “Hales, I need you, sweetheart.” His voice is thick, as though he’s been crying, his words coming out slurred like he’s been drinking. He never drinks, not for a few years now, not since my mom died.

  “Dad, have you been drinking?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I... I just need to see you, to talk. Please Hales.”

  I sigh. “Okay, I’m on my way.”

  I hang up and turn to Kyle, “Wait here.” I jump out of the car and run back into the diner. “Uncle Jack, I need your help.”

  I give my uncle the run-down of everything that has happened over the past few weeks, about the casino, the deal between my dad and Kyle, my dad’s gambling, and his debts and how he lied to me. He takes it all in and sits in silence for most of the journey to my house, only asking me a handful of questions.

  “So, what’s happening with you two?” he asks, nods his head towards Kyle.

  “He’s not forcing me, I want to be with him.” Kyle takes my hand in mine and squeezes. He looks over at me and smiles.

  I look back at my uncle and he winks, nodding slowly.

  We head into my house to find my dad sprawled on the couch, cradling a half-empty bottle of Jack. The house is a mess, empty takeout containers, cans, and bottled litter the floor and coffee table.

  “Dad?”

  His head snaps to me and he sighs in relief. “Hayley,” he breathes out, wearing a small smile. His eyes flick to Kyle who’s stood behind me and the smile disappears. “What are you doing here?” he shouts.

  He jumps up from the couch but loses his balance, I reach out to catch him, or at least break his fall. Both Kyle and my uncle come over to help, but he jerks away from Kyle’s touch.

  His eyes land on my uncle. “Ah! Jack. Finally, someone who’ll listen to me. This rich prick tricked me into a poker game, takes my money, takes Hayley away from me and poisons her against me.” We pull him up back onto the couch.

  “Dad, not this again.”

  “Look, I know what’s been goin’ on here, John. I'm not condoning what the boy did, but I’ve been watchin' these two together for the past few wee-” My uncle is cut off.

  “How can you defend him! She deserves better than him,” my dad spouts.

  “You’re right,” Kyle says.

  My head snaps up in confusion as I look up at Kyle.

  “She does deserve better than me, but for some reason, she wants to be with me. I'll sure as hell never deserve her, but I'll take whatever she gives me. I was wrong for doing what I did to you both and I apologise, but I’m not sorry that it brought her to me.” My heart swells at his words and I find myself falling for him even harder.

  “Dad, he didn’t poison me against you. You were the one that took that deal, exchanging me for money. Yes, Kyle made the deal, but you chose to take the deal without so much as a second thought. You need to get help dad, you have a problem, a gambling problem,” I say.

  His shoulders slump. “I know… I know… I’m sorry. Please Hayley, don’t leave me, I need you,” he cries as his face falls into his palms.

  I sit down beside him and wrap my arms around him. I can’t stand seeing him like this. The last time I saw him crying like this was at my mom’s funeral three and a half years ago.

  I look up at my uncle. “What do I do? I don’t know what to do.”

  He steps towards me and places his hand on my shoulder, squeezing lightly. “It’s alright. You go with Kyle, I’ll stay here.”

  “But-”

  “Hayley, trust me. You were too young to remember your grandpa, mine, and your mom’s dad, he was an alcoholic. I tried to keep Elizabeth out of it so I helped our dad through it, as best I could. I can help him. Go.”

  I sigh. “Okay.” I turn back to my dad and pull him into a hug. “Bye dad, I’ll see you soon.” I stand up and walk over to Kyle. I take one last look at my dad, fighting back the tears that sting my eyes at the sight of my dad like this, before Kyle leads me out of the house.

  “Do you want me to drop you off at Gwen’s?”

  “Yes please.”

  We stay in silence as we drive over to Gwen’s, it stays that way as we head up the three flights of stairs until we arrive outside her door.

  “Stupid question but are you okay?” he asks.

  “How did it come to this?”

  “Me. I set all of this in motion.”

  “No. We would have ended up here eventually. My dad would have continued spiralling and we would be in this exact situation with or without you.”

  “Before everything that went down tonight, I had planned on giving you this.” Kyle pulls out a small, black piece of plastic the size of a credit card, it is embossed with the logo of his hotel. “It’s the key card to the penthouse, so you can come and go as you want.”

  I t
ake it and smile. “You’re giving me a key to your apartment? Why?”

  “Because I l-” he cuts himself off.

  My heart jumps. Was he about to say I love you?

  “Because, what?” I prompt, my heart hammering in my chest.

  “Because I like it when you’re there, the place seems wrong somehow when you’re not.”

  I move towards him and press my lips to his. He cups my face and backs me up against the wall behind me.

  He pull back slightly, his hand still cupping my cheek. “I should go.”

  I can’t contain the disappointment that creeps up on me. “Okay.”

  He pecks a kiss on my lips before he turns and stalks down the corridor towards the stairwell. He glances back over his shoulder one more time before he disappears around the corner.

  Chapter 23

  Kyle

  “Because I l-”

  Shit.

  Fuck.

  I almost said it, those three little words that would change everything.

  I love you.

  What is happening to me?

  What is this girl doing to me?

  “Because, what?” Hayley asks, looking up at me with those beautiful emerald eyes that have haunted me since I first laid my eyes on them, pulling me in like a magnet.

  Shit.

  Fuck.

  Because I love you.

  Because I love you more than life itself.

  Because life doesn’t mean shit without you in it.

  Because you have brought me out of the darkness and into the light.

  Because you found me at a point in my life where I needed saving without ever realising it.

  Because I love you, Hayley.

  “Because I like it when you’re there, the place seems wrong somehow when you’re not.”

  Coward.

  She edges towards me and softly presses her lips to mine. I cup her face in my hands and back her up against the wall, holding her to me.

  Every time I touch this girl, I get lost in her, like she is my home, like she is where I’m meant to be. I would do anything for this girl.

  I love you.

  I love you.

  I love you!

  I pull back. “I should go.”

  I don’t want to go.

  I want to stay right here, with you.

  But I can’t.

  I can’t risk blurting out those three words that I cannot say out loud.

  I can’t risk blurting out those three words that I’m too scared to say out loud.

  “Okay,” she says, I can feel the disappointment radiating off of her.

  My heart tugs at the hurt in her eyes.

  I lean in and kiss her again before I turn on my heel and walk away like the coward I am.

  Like the coward I am who is too scared to tell the girl he loves how he feels.

  I make my way down the hallway heading towards the stairs.

  I glance back over my shoulder to where she stands by the door, watching me.

  It takes everything inside me not to turn around and lift her off the ground, tell her that I love her, rip that door off its hinges, throw her on her bed and show her how much I love her.

  I love you, Hayley.

  I turn my head away and carry on walking.

  ∞∞∞

  Instead of heading back to the penthouse where the silence, the emptiness, and the absence of Hayley would suffocate me, I drive for over an hour and pull up outside my parents’ huge house in Staten Island, the house I grew up in.

  I let myself in and head into the living room where I find my mom, dad and my brother sit around the fire, chatting, the record player in the corner playing soft music that fills the room.

  “Kyle,” my mother greets, surprised to see me. She jumps up from her chair and embraces me in a tight hug. “I didn’t know you’d be stopping by.”

  “Hello, mom,” I say, squeezing her gently. I glance over her shoulder towards my dad and my brother. I let go of her and walk over to my father, shaking his hand. I turn to my brother and clap him on the back.

  “I’m going to make some coffee,” my mother announces as she floats out of the room towards the kitchen.

  She returns a few minutes later with four mugs of steaming hot coffee. She sets them down on the coffee table.

  “We haven’t seen you in a while, Kyle. Where have you been?” my mom asks.

  “He hasn’t told you guys? Kyle here has met a girl,” Luke chimes in.

  Fuck.

  Here we go.

  My mother gasps, her hands flying to her face to hide the huge smile that spreads from ear to ear.

  “You met someone? Why didn’t you tell us? What’s she like?” she asks. She grabs my arm and drags me over to the sofa and pulls me down with her. She angles her body towards me. “Come on, I want to know all about her.”

  “Her name's Hayley,” I start. “We, uh, met at the casino.”

  Isn’t that the truth.

  “And?” my mother prompts.

  “And...” My mind is flooded with her image. Her smile, the smile that almost brings me to my knees every time I see it, those green eyes that have me falling at her feet. “And, she’s... amazing. She’s kind and caring, beautiful, funny, and smart...”

  “Holy shit,” my brother chokes.

  “Language Lucas,” my mother warns disapprovingly.

  “Sorry, mom. Holy cow, my big bro's in love,” Luke corrects himself.

  “Are you?” my mother asks. “Does she make you happy?”

  “Yeah, I think I am. And yes, she does.”

  “Never thought we’d see the day, Ellen,” my dad says, wearing a proud grin.

  “We’d love to meet her.”

  “I could bring her over sometime.”

  “That would be wonderful. Bring her around for dinner one night, I’ll cook.”

  “Alright.”

  I’m standing in my childhood bedroom.

  The door squeaks open slightly, and my dad pokes his head around the door. “Mind if I come in?”

  “Sure.”

  He walks in and perches on the end of the bed, looking around the room fondly.

  He sighs softly. “Only seems like yesterday when you were in here, playing with your toy cars and your Lego sets. Now my boy’s twenty-six years old and in love. Where the hell did the time go?”

  “You’re not going to go all mushy on me are you, dad?” I ask, laughing.

  He chuckles. “No. Just miss it when you were little, you and Luke running around without a care in the world.”

  I sit on the edge of the bed next to him, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees. “I did some stuff, dad. Shitty stuff,” I begin.

  “Okay?”

  “I saw her at the casino one night and she stole my breath away, I had to have her, but like the asshole I am, I didn’t just ask her out on a date like a normal guy, no, I tricked her father into a card game that he had no chance of winning just to get closer to her.” I confess. “I made him a deal, Hayley in exchange for money.” I hang my head low in shame.

  “Jesus Christ, Kyle,” he rubs his jaw in contemplation. “Why the hell would you do that?”

  “Because I’m an asshole. Because I wasn’t thinking. I was so consumed by her I had to have her, any way I could.”

  “Where does she stand with all this?”

  “She knows what I did and for some reason she decided to forgive me. I’d do anything for her, dad.”

  “Does she know, about everything?” he asks.

  “Yeah, she knows about him.”

  He nods. “You trusted her, you never trust anyone.”

  “I trust her, and she’s not just anyone... I love her, dad."

  Jesus. It’s real.

  I’ve said it out loud for the first time and it feels amazing.

  Why the hell was I so afraid to say it out loud?

  He scrubs his hand over his jaw and smiles. “Have you told her?”

  I shake my h
ead. “I almost did, but I chickened out like a coward and got the hell out of there.”