by Jade Allen
“What part of ‘not interested,’ did you not understand?” Natalia hissed, bracing herself against the door as she met his gaze with a glower.
“Possibly the whole ‘not’ part,” Jace replied cheekily.
“I will break your fucking hand, Dillinger—don’t think I won’t.”
He laughed, “Alright, alright, I’ll lay off. If you change your mind and you want to find out what I have to say, then give me a call. You should have my number.”
“I deleted it,” she said before forcing the door shut. Jake yanked his hand away before his fingers caught between the wood and the frame. Natalia waited against the door for several moments, wishing her heart rate to slow down and the heat in her blood to cool off. Damn him.
Minutes later, her phone gave an abrupt buzz; when she checked it, her stomach plummeted to her feet. Sure enough, it could only be Jace who texted her, and Natalia had half a mind to toss her phone into the toilet.
Here you go. ;)
What an asshole.
****
The reunion was exactly what Natalia had expected it to be: awkward, boring, and far too long to be enjoyable. The whole thing started at 3 PM and wasn’t due to finish until midnight. It had barely been two hours since it began, and the young woman was already wishing she had played hooky and just showed up at the very end. She had even entertained the idea of visiting her parents instead of sticking around for much longer, but that was easily disregarded when she pictured how her mother would react.
No. If she was going to visit, it would be right before she had to leave; that way she could avoid unnecessary ‘bonding time,’ as her mother liked to call it.
The only good thing that came from the whole event was that they had an open bar, with all the free vodka Natalia could possible want. It was there where she had taken up temporary residence while their class presidency struggled with setting up the commemorative slideshow of all the good times. The music was dull and those who recognized Natalia stayed far away; this wasn’t a problem for her at all.
Until Brad showed up.
“You look really pretty in that dress, Natalia,” he said; the dark-haired woman had to pause from swirling her martini glass to glance over to his large figure. He was dressed in an old gray suit and his floppy hair was slicked back over his large head, exposing a rather unattractive receding hairline.
“Thanks,” she said, noncommittally. “I made it myself.”
Brad’s eyes blinked wide open, unsure of whether to take her words seriously or not, and gave her a half smile, shuffling awkwardly to stand next to her. “So, uh…you doing anything later?”
“Yep,” Natalia replied, reaching behind to grab an olive from a tray to plop it into her mouth. “Real busy.”
Brad appeared somewhat disappointed before he tried to fix her a very sad version of a sultry look, “Might I tempt you to...change your mind?”
“Afraid not, Bradley,” she said, her eyes never leaving her drink.
Brad glanced up, eyes crinkling with confusion when Jace appeared from the other side of the counter. Jace looked absolutely pleased with himself. “Our plans can’t be rescheduled. You’re looking nice, though. Sharp suit.”
“You look familiar,” Brad muttered curiously.
“Bye, Brad,” Natalia said quickly, knowing full well the consequences that would explode around them once the bigger man recognized Jace’s smirking face. The dismissal was taken with some surprise and unexpected disappointment, and sure enough, Brad was slinking off into the crowd.
“Poor guy,” Jace sighed dramatically. “You’re as brutal as I heard you’d be.”
Natalia wasted no time jumping to the point. “What do you want, Jace?”
He faced her with mischievous green eyes and sly smile, “If we’re being honest, you.” Natalia heaved a heavy sigh, dragging her fingers down a lock of her black hair away from her face. She would not look at him, especially now that his words had started a strange tremor in her chest. She should’ve tested her luck with her family.
“Bye, Jace,” she said before leaving her half-empty martini glass on the counter. A warm and coarse hand gripped around her wrist; gentle, but with enough tug to stop her.
“Alright, I won’t play around,” Jace said, and when she dared to face him, his demeanor had sobered up. She could see a muscle in his jaw work as he seemed to be genuinely struggling for something to say. The very implication of what was about to transpire next made her freeze completely, incapable of pulling away. “But, I wasn’t lying when I said I do want you.”
A bright flush erupted beneath her skin, and for the weirdest moment, Natalia could feel her body react almost violently to the sincerity in his words. This was…new. For years, men tried to make contact with her, only to disappear moments later; but this guy wanted to stick around? She didn’t get it.
“You’re joking, right?” she asked, a tinge of panic in her otherwise composed voice. Jace shook his head, and his thumb traced over the skin of her palm, making electric shocks buzz with every caress.
“I’m serious, believe it or not,” he said. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since you walked off that morning.”
She couldn’t take it anymore. Firmly yanking her wrist away, Natalia took a step away from him and nearly stumbled over her own heels. Jace’s face contorted to one of wounded surprise before it disappeared behind a wall of casual stone.
“That isn’t funny, Jace,” Natalia stated, her voice hard.
“I’m not laughing, Nat.” There it was again. What gave him the right to call her that?
“Let me make something clear to you,” she hissed, taking an angry step forward. “That was a one time thing. I’m not a doll you can collect or some conquest you can drape on your arm. We drank, we had fun, and we had sex. That’s all. It meant nothing.”
Jace looked genuinely taken aback, but his face had hardened swiftly before she could make anything of it. A familiar smirk appeared over his lips, “Alright, Ice Queen, I get it. But let me ask you just one question before we go on our merry ways.”
Natalia felt one of her eyebrows twitch, “Spit it out, then.”
He moved before she could attempt to figure out what he was doing. His mouth rammed firmly into hers, pressing a fiery current against her tongue and setting her skin alight with pleasure. Natalia couldn’t help but melt into the kiss, her mind blanking completely when one of his hands curled around her neck to tilt her chin further toward him. It wasn’t at all like the kisses they had exchanged that night when they were drunk, and even though there was some inhibition spooling warmth in her blood, Natalia was perfectly aware of what was happening.
So, it made no sense whatsoever when she let out a soft moan and pressed a little harder against him, wanting to taste more—feel more—she wanted to drag him deep into her chest and make him do wonders over her heart. She had leaned upwards, her fingers beginning to tighten around his tie and dig wrinkles into his shirt when suddenly Jace broke away, peeling his mouth from hers with an obscene little pop.
She was gasping, her mind reeling and her knees shaking.
He began to speak; she could feel his breath against her lips, “Are you absolutely sure that meant nothing?”
And just like that, Jace ripped himself away from her and sauntered off, leaving Natalia to stare after him, lips kiss-stung, and body trembling as if she had been electrocuted.
It wasn’t until after he left that Natalia remembered that he knew something about her brother, but by the time she realized that, Jace was nowhere to be seen for the rest of the night.
****
“I thought you told me that you didn’t get involved with Jace Dillinger!”
The following morning, Natalia had woken up to a killer headache and an angry call from her mother. She had barely managed to burrow out from the sheets and comforter, choking out a ‘hello’ into the phone, before her mother’s voice shrieked in her ear.
“Mom,” Natalia
groaned, pressing the heel of her palm into one of her eyes. “We have got to teach you to stop shouting on the phone. Besides, why does it matter?”
“Stop being cheeky with me, Natalia! I heard about your little make-out session from Cecilia Warren!”
Who??
“Apparently, you two made quite the spectacular show for the rest of your class!”
“Again, why does it matter?” It probably wasn’t a fantastic idea to have asked that at the moment, and Natalia realized that the second her mother began another assault of words on her already exhausted brain. Fantastic. So not only did she let that moron kiss her, but the entire town probably knew about it by now. Just wonderful.
With a pained sigh, Natalia pulled the phone away from her ear to give herself some respite from her mother’s rant. The relief was almost instantaneous and despite her desire to hang up, Natalia could only glare at the screen of her phone, watching the seconds tick by as her mother went on and on.
She began to doze off when she caught something her mother said, yanking wakefulness through her system like ice water. Pressing the phone back over her ear, Natalia intervened in her mother’s monologue.
“Wait—what? What about Nathan? You mentioned Nathan?”
“Were you not paying attention at all, Natalia?” her mother shot back. “Nathan’s here! Archibald called us to say he’d appeared at the pub last night!”
“When—where is he now, did Arty tell you that?” Natalia stressed, already pushing herself to her feet in a frantic search for her shoes. “Come on, Mom, what else did he tell you?”
“Well, he didn’t tell me much, but he said he was worried! He mentioned that Nathan had been asking around for information of Davis Jordan—“
Oh no.
“—But that boy hasn’t been back since that incident at the gas station. It makes no sense why your brother would want to find him instead of stopping by to greet his parents! It’s as if I mean nothing to my children anymore—“
Last night. Nathan had arrived yesterday… and suddenly Jace’s words came back to her full force. He knows my brother is here… he probably knows why.
With a final and hurried farewell to her mother, Natalia ended the phone call, tugging a few pain pills from her bag and tossing them into her mouth before rushing out of her room. She had to go find her brother. She needed to know why he was back here; she could only hope it wouldn’t spell trouble.
****
The reunion between the two siblings had been nothing like Natalia had hoped for. She had all but sprinted toward the pub, hoping that she might find a sign, or maybe find Arty waiting for her to tell her about Nathan’s whereabouts. Instead, when she managed to push her way through the doors of the pub, she found the most unlikely sight.
The pub was empty, save three people there, and the place was in such disarray; a bar fight could be the only logical explanation for it. There were tipped tables and upturned chairs; broken glass glittered over the ground, but it was not enough to distract Natalia from seeing her brother’s face glancing up at her through a bloodstained napkin stuffed up his nose. She recognized the familiar tousled black hair and the shape of his slumped shoulders as easily as she could recognize her own and the years that had passed between them suddenly disappeared—just for a moment—like a wisp of smoke.
Sitting on an opposing chair sat none other than Jace Dillinger, nursing a split lip with a bag of frozen peas, his own dark hair stuck up, framing his face dangerously. His green eyes had widened in surprise upon landing on Natalia. Arty stood between them, huge arms crossed, acting as a wall between the two wounded men.
Natalia didn’t care much for the others, taking several steps toward her brother’s hunched figure automatically. She stopped when his brows furrowed, and she remembered exactly what had transpired; the wall of distance returned.
“G’morning, Natalia,” Arty said somberly.
“What the hell happened?” she asked, ignoring Arty’s greeting.
“These two dumbasses,” Arty grunted, aiming a sharp glare at the two men, “started a ludicrous fight here a few hours ago. Nearly called the cops on the two of ‘em, but managed to get them to sit their asses down.”
Natalia threw her brother a different glare this time, irritated that his temper still hadn’t changed. “Why?”
“Nice to see you too, Nat.” Nathan spoke finally, his voice sounding partially muffled through the napkins stuffed up his nostrils.
“Fuck you, Nate!” Natalia snarled, fists clenching at her sides. “You don’t get to act nonchalant after all these years. Not even one phone call?! I understand why you’d avoid Mom and Dad, but I didn’t realize I’d been so unimportant to you that I’d be cast in the same list!”
“I had my reasons, Nat.” Nathan replied, giving her a half-shrug. “I didn’t owe you or Mom and Dad any explanations.”
“Asshole,” she hissed finally taking those final steps toward her brother. She saw Arty give a start toward her, probably worried she would do something drastic. She wanted to hit him, punch him in his stupid nose for causing her this anguish, but Jace had done that already and all she could stomach to do was to fall to her knees and crush her twin against her chest in a bone-snapping embrace. She felt his arms wrap around her just as quickly, and she nearly broke down when she felt him wheeze against her. “Why do you always have to be such an asshole?”
“Sorry…” he muttered softly against her ear. Tears burned down her cheeks as she clenched her fingers into his jacket. “I wanted to say hi when I saw you yesterday.”
Natalia pulled away, searching Nathan’s face with surprise. “You—what?”
“I did want to tell you that I knew something about your brother,” Jace piped in, earning their attention. “See, I’m not so bad.”
Nathan’s face contorted into a violent expression, his gray eyes black with ire as he pointed a finger at the man. “You have no right to talk to her, Dillinger. Not after that shit stunt you pulled last night. Thanks to you, the entire town is convinced she’s one of your whores now!”
Jace let out a bitter laugh, “You know, I would believe your ‘brotherly over-protection’ if you hadn’t been gone for eight years.”
“Eat shit, you bastard!” Nathan shouted, pushing past his sister to lunge for the dark-haired man. Arty slammed a broad hand over Nathan’s shoulder, shoving him back in his seat.
“Nathan, will you fucking stop for five seconds?” Natalia snapped, earning her a shocked stare from her brother. “Jesus, why do you people care so much about what this town thinks?”
“Wait—Nat,” Nathan gasped, his eyes honing on her with an accusatory stare. “What the hell? Did you want this asshole to kiss you?”
“She sure didn’t hate it,” Jace answered. Natalia shot him a fierce glare, he smirked at her in response. When she looked back at her brother, she was rubbing her temple with a hand.
“Why does it matter whether or not he kissed me?” she turned back toward her brother. “I thought we’d gotten past all this when we left this place.”
“I guess we haven’t,” Nathan replied coldly and when Natalia looked at her brother, there was nothing but disdain in his eyes. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”
Everything froze between the two siblings. They had once been two halves of the same whole. She had been able to feel what he felt as easy as it was to breathe. Time had passed and changed things, yes, but she knew their bond hadn’t really changed all that much. Natalia didn’t have to answer for her brother to know the truth. After a short eternity of connected gazes, Nathan broke away first, looking betrayed and angry. All Natalia could do was stare at him in anguish.
Minutes later, Nathan pulled himself up from his chair and pulled out a wad of cash from his back pocket before slapping it on his seat. “This should cover the damages, Arty,” he muttered before walking off, brushing past Natalia with a series of footsteps that made her feel cold.
“Where you going, Kid?” Arty
asked with a sigh.
“My parents’ place,” he replied with a grunt, the swing of the door screeched through the uncomfortable silence. “I’ve got some business with my old man.” And with that, the door slammed shut.
Natalia felt her chin fall to her chest, tears raining from her eyes as she felt her brother’s absence choke the feeling of loneliness against her throat. She flinched when she felt a warm and coarse hand wrap around hers; when Natalia looked up, she saw Jace peering down at her with a look of thinly veiled remorse.
“Sorry about that,” he apologized softly. For a moment, Natalia wanted to slap him, push him away, shout at him for ruining everything, but she couldn’t bear heading back to a cold hotel room where she would entertain her isolation any longer. Clenching her teeth, Natalia succumbed to his touch, her fingers tightening around his as she huffed out sobs through her chest. “Come on… let’s get you out of here.”
She had been well known as the Ice Queen of Riverdale High and people had steered clear, but all Natalia really ever wanted was someone warm to understand her. With a tug of hands, Natalia allowed Jace Dillinger to pull her out of Arty’s pub, the ice around her heart cracking so painfully, she couldn’t help but want to sink away.
****
The second time Natalia found herself in Jace’s apartment, she was sober and more emotionally vulnerable than she could have handled any other time. To her surprise, Jace had led her to a chair and brought her a tall glass of cool water and a box of tissues. He had remained silent the entire time, giving her space as she wiped away stray tears and waited for the churning in her stomach to disappear. Several times, her phone went off, her mother’s number blinking urgently on the screen while Natalia stared at it vacantly.
After the fifth time it went off, she was surprised when Jace reached for the gadget and pressed the power button. With a flick of his thumb, the phone faded to a dark screen and doused them both in a swift silence that felt strangely liberating for Natalia. When he set it back down on the table, Natalia couldn’t hide beneath his soft gaze, the way the corner of his lip quirked gently.
