Cole stepped back from Pres and stuck his jaw out.
“Right here, motherfucker,” he teased Pres. “I don’t have a scar here yet. Why don’t you put one there?”
“Is this guy crazy?” I asked.
“More than crazy,” Gi said.
“I can’t believe Kip is holding himself back,” Iris said.
“Why’s that?” I asked.
Before they could answer, Pres took Cole up on his offer.
He swung and smashed a hard fist to Cole’s jaw.
Cole spun and dropped down to one knee.
I felt my chest tighten and I wanted to cheer for Pres.
But nobody made a sound.
Cole threw his head back and let out a laughing yell. “Fuck yeah! That felt great. Now we’re awake. Now we’re fucking alive.”
“Shit,” I whispered.
This guy was beyond crazy.
I found out just how much a second later when Cole took a handful of dirt and jumped up and threw it at Pres’s face.
I gasped and tried to jump forward again but Gi stopped me again.
“You can’t do anything about it,” she said to me.
“That’s cheating,” I yelled.
Cole ran after Pres and shoulder tackled him to the ground with authority. Pres wrested with his hands to his face, trying to get the dirt out of his eyes while Cole pushed away from Pres and stood up.
He opened his arms and turned, letting BFH boo while the small group of BC guys cheered.
Cole then lifted his right foot and put his head back. “I fucking love it!”
He screamed wooo! as loud as he could as he stomped down on Pres’s stomach.
My stomach curdled with pain that wasn’t really there.
Pres quickly rolled to his side.
Cole wasn’t done yet. He swung his foot, kicking Pres in the back.
That’s when Barr and Kip ran into the ditch.
The second they did that, four guys from BC did the same.
“Taz, Raf, Ado, and Les,” Gi said to me.
I suddenly felt like the new girl again.
The poor, dirty girl with the junkie for a mother.
This was all new and all terrifying again.
“Let them fucking fight,” the guy I assumed to be Les yelled at Kip.
“I’m fine,” Pres yelled.
“See?” Cole yelled. “He’s fine. We’re all good here. Need something to clean the dirt away?”
Cole spit at Pres.
“Oh shit,” Gi said.
Pres pushed from the ground and turned.
The front of his muscle laced body was covered in sweat and dirt.
He looked like a beaten warrior.
My god he looks so delicious and I shouldn’t be thinking it.
Pres ran right for Cole.
Cole delivered a hard hit to Pres’s gut but Pres took the hit with no problem and came across with an elbow that clipped Cole’s jaw. As Cole’s head snapped to the right Pres brought his arm back and came across with a big fist.
That double hit was enough to put Cole back to one knee again.
This time, Pres wasn’t letting up.
He kicked his right foot, hitting the side of Cole’s head, sending Cole to the ground.
Without hesitation, Cole kicked his legs in the air and was back on his feet.
It was some kind of move you’d seen in an action movie.
Not in real life. Not in a real fight.
Pres went for more.
Cole was ready.
They started trading punches, nobody giving up an inch of space or a hint of any pain.
Next they had their arms around each other.
Cole howled like a wolf, laughing, even as Pres slammed heavy fists to his back.
Finally, Pres lifted Cole and threw him, letting out a yell as he did so.
Cole sailed through the air and hit the ground hard.
Pres went after Cole again and Cole kicked Pres in the stomach. It was enough of a hit to get Pres to bend over and grab for his stomach. Cole kicked again, hitting Pres in the face.
Pres stumbled back and Barr walked into the ditch and handed Pres something.
Pres ran toward Cole and threw his hand at him.
It was dirt.
A little revenge.
I made a fist and pumped it.
Cheering for this intense insanity.
Cole tried to cover his face but he didn’t get there in time.
Pres grabbed Cole and walked him toward the side of the ditch where the BC guys were and he threw Cole into them.
“Come on,” Pres yelled. “Come on you fucking pussies.”
Without a second wasted, they all jumped at Pres.
“No!” I cried out as though I could actually stop this madness.
The crowd around the ditch started to scatter away.
“We have to go,” Iris said.
“I’m not leaving again. No.”
“We have to,” Gi said.
I slipped my key fob to Gi and said, “Go then. I’ll get a ride.”
I ran toward the ditch.
Toward the fighting.
There had to be eight of the BC guys against the Rulz.
And everyone was just throwing punches like nothing would happen.
I wasn’t sure how but Pres, Barr, and Kip managed to break away from the group.
Pres was ready for more but Barr and Kip held him back.
Pres spit at the ground at Cole.
Cole put his arms out, stopping his guys from charging for more fighting.
“This isn’t over,” Pres said.
“Come on, man,” Cole said. “Just a little cash between two old friends. Not like you need it.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the cash,” Pres said. “You ever go near her again and I will find you alone and I will kill you.”
“You know that only makes it more fun for me,” Cole said.
He turned his head and looked at me.
He blew me kiss.
Pres screamed and tried to go forward again.
Kip jumped around and put his hands to Pres’s chest and said something.
Barr ran toward me and wrapped his arms around me and literally picked me up and took me away from the ditch.
I tried to wrestle away from him but I couldn’t.
“Damn, love, just breathe,” Barr barked at me.
When he finally put me down, I threw my hands at him, shoving at his rock hard chest.
“Hey,” he said. “Stop it.”
His left eye was a little swollen. His clothes were ripped and messy.
“What was that?” I yelled.
“Nothing,” he said. “Just talking.”
“That wasn’t talking.”
“Yes it was,” Barr said.
He took out a cigarette and lit it.
He put his head back as he took a deep drag.
“They were the ones who tried to hurt me,” I said.
“Yeah,” Barr said. “That’s why we had to send our message tonight. You’re welcome, love.”
“I didn’t ask for your help,” I said.
Barr blew smoke. “But you got it anyway. Look how lucky you are.”
I tried to come up with something really mean to say.
Before I could get something worth spitting at Barr, he gave a head nod.
I turned and saw Pres.
Walking toward me.
* * *
“You weren’t supposed to show up,” Pres said to me.
My eyes couldn’t stop looking at his body.
Covered in sweat and dirt.
Like some kind of rich, bad boy, filthy dream.
“I heard there was a fight,” I said. “I wanted to see. What does it matter? They know who I am. Now I know what they look like.”
“That’s not your job, girl,” Kip said.
“Fuck you and your jobs,” I said.
“It’s not a game,” Barr said.
; “No it’s not. So who are they? He called you an old friend.”
I looked at Pres. “We’re taking you home, sugar. And you’re staying there.”
“Is that an order?”
Pres reached for my hand. Then in a calm voice he said, “Yes. It is.”
A wave of calm went through me, even though he was covered in cuts, bruises, blood, sweat, and dirt.
I looked down at his hand.
Just like Kip’s hand after his fight.
Knuckles roughed up and swollen.
“Just tell me something,” I said. “Please. Someone tell me something.”
Barr looked back at me. “Ah, damn, love. Do you have to do the puppy dog eye thing?”
“Is it working?” I asked.
“Christ,” Kip said. “Just tell her, Barr.”
“No,” Pres said.
“Too late,” Barr said. “I used to run with those guys, love. A different time and life for me.”
“Barr got his ass sent away for a while,” Kip said.
I swallowed hard. “Sent away…”
“That’s all you need to know, sugar,” Pres said. “Those guys didn’t take kindly to Barr coming back to BFH. It’s always caused a little issue.”
“More than a fucking issue,” Kip said. “What they did…”
“Not everything, bro,” Barr said to Kip.
Great. More of the truth but not all the truth. The Bay Falls High way of life.
“Sometimes they just like to remind all of us that they’re still alive and well,” Barr said. “Consider it ghosts chasing me down.”
“What’s with you and ghosts then?” I asked him. “First your house, now your life.”
“I’m just a spooky guy, love,” Barr said.
“They’re all dangerous, girl,” Kip said. “That’s why you have to listen to us and stay put.”
“I thought you were just talking,” I said. “That it’s settled.”
“Nothing is ever settled,” Pres said. “Not until I say so.”
“So you’re just going to make me stay in BFH because of some other group of guys? That sounds more like jealousy than protection.”
“Call it what you want, sugar,” Pres said, “but it’s happening.”
Kip turned up Claire’s driveway.
I hadn’t even realized we were back there.
My SUV was parked outside already.
Gi and Iris had somehow figured out how to get it home for me.
I owed them a thanks. And a story.
Plus, they probably knew more about these BC guys anyway.
“It’s not a joke, girl,” Kip said as he turned and looked at me.
That look in his eyes hit me hard. And it was matched by some kind of sadness.
“What happened, Kip?” I whispered.
“Nothing,” Pres said. “Just listen to us for once.”
I opened the door and climbed out.
I looked back one last time at Pres.
Half-naked and dirty.
It was probably the only time I hadn’t been attacked by the smell of his cologne.
“Get home safe,” I said.
I shut the door and the SUV took off.
I took my phone out to text Gi.
Thanks for the help. Sorry about ditching. U can’t imagine the story. Need to talk to u more bout it tmrw.
I sent the text and went inside.
To home.
To my fake home.
My fake home that was more real than any other home I ever had.
All I wanted then was a drink and to either sit at the pool and listen to the ocean or just hide in my room.
The last thing I needed to see was Tucker waiting for me.
“I think we should talk, Tinsley…”
nine
nine
I was left without words for a few seconds.
Long enough to give Tucker more time to begin his plea.
“I know,” he said, putting a hand out. “I just need to talk to you. Claire mentioned you wanted to talk to me. It’s not right for a kid to chase their parent down. So I wanted to take the first step. I was planning on it anyway. But when-”
“Claire said I wanted to talk?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Tucker said. “She told me you-”
I laughed, cutting him off. “You’re wrong. I don’t want to talk to you. Claire was full of shit. I’m starting to think that’s how she survives in life. Telling everyone what they want to hear. Trying to pretend to be a hero.”
I walked behind the counter and got a bottle of water and turned to leave Tucker in the dust.
“I told your mother to give you up for adoption.”
That got me to stop.
Now he had my attention.
“I’m not here to lie to you,” Tucker said. “Or sugarcoat anything. I swear.”
I slowly turned.
I leaned against the archway to the kitchen.
Tucker stood like a man who owed the world way too many favors for the time he had been using up. Which was a sad way to live. Forever in some kind of debt. Whether it was real life debt, financial debt, or favor debt - like he was to Claire.
“What do you do for Claire?” I asked. “You don’t look like a real estate person.”
“Looks aren’t everything,” he said.
“You said you weren’t going to lie.”
“I’m not lying,” he said. “I work for Claire. I do the dirty work nobody wants to do. All the behind the scenes stuff for the fancy suits and nice dresses and prestige to everything.”
“So, what, you’re like a contractor or something?”
“Not exactly,” Tucker said. “But something like it. Claire points to a problem and I fix it. That’s the way it’s always been.”
“Does she own you?”
“Own me?” Tucker asked.
“Your house. Car. Life…”
Tucker shook his head. “Claire has done a lot for me. For you too. But she’s not that kind of person. She doesn’t hang things over your head. If that’s what you’re asking. Makes sense. She took you in to her house and gave you this amazing life. You don’t need to worry about her asking you for anything in return.”
“Other than her setting up this little meeting between us,” I said. “Which, for the record, I did not want. And I did not ask for.”
“That makes this easier then,” Tucker said.
“Really?”
“No,” he said. He smiled.
I felt the corner of my lip wanting to curl up but I refused to let anything like emotion show right now.
“So you didn’t want me?”
“It’s not that I didn’t want you, Tinsley. It’s that I knew what was waiting for you. Damn, I loved your mother… I probably still do…”
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to hear that either. Where you make comments about loving her still and how time ripped you apart. What are you really planning right now, Tucker? You think she’s going to get out of rehab and be clean like you? Then we’re going to get together and become this happy family? Better yet… is that what Claire told you?”
Tucker rubbed his rugged jaw. “Wow. Claire warned me but I’m still not prepared.”
“For what?”
“For you.”
“Me?”
“You’re just like me,” Tucker said. “And I’m not saying that to make you like me. But you are the same as me. Fast. Smart. You know how people work. You can see things nobody else sees.”
“Which is what?” I asked.
“Everything you just said, Tinsley.”
“It’s true then?”
“I didn’t say that. But let me go back to what I said about your mother. Yes, I still love her. And no, I’m not looking to start something with her. That life is gone.”
“Okay. Good to know.”
“You’re protective of her. You love her. You take care of her.”
“So?”
“That’s what I feared.”<
br />
I swallowed hard. “Oh?”
“You love her the way I did. The way I do. You see the good, no matter how small it is in her. She could get strung out for days. She could get scared, paranoid, mean.” Tucker cringed. “Sorry. I don’t want to tell you our war stories. My point is… it could be the worst of the worst. And then she’d do something little. Like the way she’d make mac n’ cheese.”
“Mac n’ cheese?” I asked.
“That was her favorite. Midnight, we didn’t feel like sleeping, and she would stand there and make mac n’ cheese. With messy hair, a long t-shirt, and she did it…” Tucker laughed. “It was like she was making a dinner for a king. She took pride in it. Something so dumb. That was the little bit of good that mattered to me. That’s what I saw in her. And you do too. I’m proud of you for that, Tinsley. And I know… my being proud of you means shit. It’s worth nothing. I’m not asking for it to be worth anything.”
“At least we agree on that,” I said.
Tucker nodded. “I guess you want the story of you.”
“I don’t need the story of me,” I said. “I’ve lived it. I am living it.”
My mind flashed to the images of the Rulz all looking at me. Touching me. Kissing me. The look in Kip’s eyes. The smell of smoke on Barr’s breath. The sight of Pres shirtless after the fight.
“I wanted you to have a better life,” Tucker said. “That’s why I told her to give you up for adoption. I saw beyond the current day.”
“Wow. Thanks.”
“Hear me out,” Tucker said. “She found out she was pregnant and she wanted to celebrate. Do you know what that means?”
I swallowed harder. “Yeah.”
“I had to chase her down. Follow her and make sure she didn’t do anything to hurt herself or you.”
“You really want to talk about her like that without her here?” I asked.
“Just the truth,” Tucker said. “I was the only one who saw the truth. I fought hard for it too. Nobody would listen. And it was hard to watch her get bigger. To see that it was all too real.”
“Wait a second,” I said. “Watched her get bigger?”
“Her belly,” Tucker said. “Because of you. You know what happens when a woman gets pregnant, right?”
He smiled, still trying to get me to grin at one of his dumb jokes.
But this wasn’t a fucking laughing thing.
I stepped toward him. “You were there when Mom was pregnant?”
Tucker rubbed his jaw again. “Shit.”
UNTamed: a bay falls high novel Page 8
