“Is that what this is… catching up?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “You offered me pizza. I showed up.”
“I didn’t offer you pizza,” he said.
“Yes you did.”
“No I didn’t. I said you’d rather pizza over some disgusting smoothie.”
“Okay… so why say that?”
“Just to prove I still know you.”
My face dropped.
So that’s what that was? And I showed up…
I stood up. “Sorry I showed up then.”
“Really?”
“Maybe everyone is right about you, Weslee. I should stay away. You’re different, right? So am I. So, whatever then. I thought you wanted to have pizza with me. I didn’t realize it was just some vague statement so you could look cool.”
Weslee just sat there, grinning like a fool.
I wanted to smack him.
Or throw a slice of pizza at him.
“You know, at least Ryland is honest when he talks to me.”
I turned to walk away.
I made it three steps before Weslee’s hand grabbed my arm and spun me around.
Next thing I knew I was pinned against the metal railing that kept me from falling quite a distance to the beach.
Weslee towered over me and he looked irritated.
“Don’t even say that again,” he said.
“What? What’s the deal with you and him?”
“Nothing you need to know, Aira.”
“So let me go then. You don’t want me here. This was a setup. You wanted to make a fool of me. You did. Thanks, Wes. It was good to see you again.”
“You don’t know a thing about this place,” he said. “You were a kid when you left. And even then…”
“What?”
Weslee swallowed hard. “You know what? Everything you hear about me is true. And if they tell you to stay away, that’s probably a smart thing too.”
“So you’re calling me stupid? Because I’m here with you.”
“You still haven’t told me why you’re here,” he said.
“You haven’t told me anything about you.”
“I just did. Everything is true.”
“What about Ryland?”
“Don’t ever say his name again, Aira. I mean it.”
“Why not?”
“Darling, you don’t want to know.”
Darling…?
My heart melted.
Among other things.
Weslee was no longer the boy who lived next to me when we were eleven.
He was a man.
And I was a woman.
And the way things felt…
“This town is full of secrets and lies,” he said.
“Which are you?”
“You can find out for yourself.”
My hands were shaking as I reached back and touched the cool railing.
Weslee had his hands locked tight to the railing on each side of me.
“Just tell me why you were in the back of the pizza place,” I said, almost begging.
“Because Parker was getting picked on for being too slow. He had a speech thing a while back. So the asshole who made comments had to drink from a straw for a few months because of what I did to him.”
My eyes went wide.
Oh, wow… he’s a dangerous man…
“So Parker hooks me up with pizza when I’m hungry. Sound good?”
I slowly nodded. “Yeah. Sounds good, Wes.”
We were frozen in space and time again.
He lowered his head down to mine.
Forehead to forehead.
In a way that I only ever dreamed about before.
My hands broke away from the railing and I slowly took the chance to touch him. As though he weren’t real or as though it were forbidden.
Before I could actually ask him though, he pushed away from the railing.
“Wes…”
“If you’re not going to tell me why you’re back here, then just go.”
My body ached and burned in places that could be right or could be wrong.
I stepped forward.
Weslee had his eyes on me once again.
It was so dangerous. And, my god, it was so sexy too.
“I’ll keep an eye out for you, Aira,” he said. “But no matter what, be careful what you do. Just trust me when I say that. Forget everything you know.”
“Why won’t you tell me anything?” I asked.
“Not until you tell me,” he said.
He slowly lifted his right hand to his mouth. He kissed his pointer and middle fingers and put his hand out toward me.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was making the same gesture.
Our kiss laced fingers touched.
The same jolt of something ran through me again.
Wes walked away, leaving me more out of breath than the run from before.
Of course he climbed on a motorcycle. Of course he looked deadly and delicious as he sped away.
Of course I wanted more.
Of course I was now in trouble even more.
Chapter 10
Aira
The sun was gone and the walk along the beach was comforting. There was nothing I could do to distract myself from the million thoughts about Weslee. The smell of his shirt. The smell of his skin. His forehead resting against mine. Those were the things that used to be gross when we were younger. A time when Weslee called me loser, dork, stupid… and a time when I called him dirty, smelly, and a farthead. Of course those were secretly terms of endearment, both of us unable to figure out why we felt the way we did near each other. Except now, we knew exactly what it meant. Why it felt the way it did.
I wanted him.
Those words were the loudest of anything in my mind.
It didn’t matter what his reputation was. To me he was still Weslee. And even if that was wrong, so be it. I wasn’t planning on living in the town of Hidden for long. Certainly not forever. Once everything was settled with my parents and the house, then everyone could move forward. I had no reason to worry or care about getting all that excited about the town, the school, or anyone else.
That was just the truth.
Plus, I could vividly remember the day we were supposed to…
I felt something hit my shoulder and left leg at the same time.
My left leg shot back and my right leg twisted. It was awkward and quick as I went down to the sand. I hit with a hard thud. Sand kicked up around me. I put my hands down and pushed, trying to figure out what just happened.
“Nice fall, bitch,” a familiar voice said.
I looked up and saw Mika standing over me.
I got back to my feet and stared at the pretty bitch. I wiped at my clothes, brushing the sand away.
“You feel good now?” I asked. “You got to trip me. Wow.”
“Far from it, Aira,” she said. “You have no idea what you walked into.”
“It was called a classroom,” I said. “Where I was told to go. You think I want to be here?”
Mika reached for me, trying to grab at my face.
I slapped her hand away.
She let out a gasp sound. “That’s not how this works.”
“Actually, it is,” I said. “Stay the fuck away from me. You say I have no idea… trust me, Mika, you have no idea…”
“Then let’s find out,” she said.
She stepped toward me.
If she wanted to fight…
Someone grabbed my left arm. And my right arm.
All I could smell was something like cherry and lavender.
I looked left and right and realized what this was.
Kaci. Nelle.
Kailey and Emma had warned me about them. And this.
I should have just stuck with them. Including bouncy Charlotte.
I moved my arms but the two had their nails digging hard, a vicious bitch hold on me.
“Wow,” I said. “This is what you do?”<
br />
Mika grabbed my face. “Stay away from what you don’t know.”
“Meaning?”
“Don’t fuck with me.”
“Let me go and we’ll figure this out together,” I said.
“I’ll find out everything about you, Aira. Why you’re here. Because I know you have a secret or two. Everyone does. And if you think you’re going to walk into this town and just start taking what isn’t yours…”
“I didn’t take anything. Bitch.”
Mika pushed away from me. My head twisted for a second. Pain shot down my neck.
I looked at the girl on my left. Another bleach blonde whore with a doll like face.
“How sad is this,” I said to her. “You’re just a puppet.”
“Hurry up, Mika,” she said. “I feel like I’m getting diseased from touching her this long.”
“Oh, please,” Mika said. “She’s got untouched written all over her. Poor thing. Nobody wants her. Nobody is dumb enough to touch her either. Isn’t that right?”
I swallowed hard. “Whatever you say.”
“Yeah, I know how it goes. And I know what you’re trying to do.”
“I was trying to go home, you fucking moron,” I spat.
I pulled my arms and they wouldn’t move.
For whatever reason, an image overtook my mind.
The smoke is so thick I can’t see a thing. I can’t see an inch in front of me. I can’t breathe. Ohmygod I can’t breathe. I can’t even scream. Why am I not screaming? I just punch at the smoke and flames, thinking I could win against them. Then my arms no longer can move. I gasp and suck in the smoke. It’s like a rusted knife cutting the inside of my throat and down into my belly. I’m being lifted up…
I blinked fast and felt my throat squeezing.
I thought I was going to die that night, even if it was just a firefighter rescuing me. I didn’t know that. All I could do was fight back and eventually scream.
Panic overtook me.
The harder I pulled at my arms, the tighter Mika’s two whores held me.
“She’s fighting it now,” the other one said.
“This is good,” Mika said. “She knows she’s guilty.”
“Let me the fuck go right now,” I screamed.
The feeling in my stomach raced to my head and back down.
This was panic. Full panic.
And these rich beach whores didn’t understand what that meant.
I felt myself getting ready to break.
Ready to fall to my knees before Mika and tell her that my house burned down.
But I wasn’t going to grovel for her.
She was a bully. Afraid of me as the new girl in town.
“Okay,” Mika said. “We can end this now.”
I looked right at her. “Then do it.”
“Stay away from him,” she said in a low voice.
Him… who was…
My mind only knew one name.
Weslee.
Was Weslee tied into Mika somehow?
My mouth fell open.
A second later Mika's hand connected with my face.
The hardest slap I had ever felt in my life.
There was nothing I could do to defend myself from it either.
Pain.
My cheek was at the inside of my mouth from hitting my teeth. The front of my lip the same.
And the second Mika hit me, Kaci and Nelle let me go so I could fall back to the sand.
“That’s just a warning,” Mika said. “Have a good night, bitch.”
My arms shook with fury and panic as I screamed at myself to get up and go after all three of them. I could take them on. I could destroy them if I wanted to.
No, Aira, you can’t destroy them. The only thing you could destroy is yourself…
My heart ached too thinking about Weslee.
Maybe everyone was right about this town.
Secrets hidden all around.
“That got out of hand fast,” a voice said.
I looked back again and saw someone with their hand out.
Of course it was Ryland.
Wearing sunglasses in the darkness of night. Trying to look cocky and cool.
I took his hand and he helped me up.
“She gets protective,” he said.
“That was your doing?” I asked him.
“No. I had nothing to do with it.”
He smiled for a quick second.
I touched my lip. I could taste blood.
“You’re a fucking jerk,” I said. “You watched that happen.”
“I was just casually passing by. Enjoying a night on the beach.”
Ryland reached for my face and stroked maybe two specks of sand off my cheek before I smacked his hand away.
“You don’t ever get to touch me,” I growled at him.
“If you’re going to step into the fire, Aira, you have to expect to get burned. I told you before, I always get what I want. And Mika means well. She knows I just need to get all of this off my chest before I end up with her.”
Ryland grinned again.
I backed away. “I swear I’ll tell Weslee…”
I cringed bringing his name into the situation so fast.
Ryland laughed. “You do that, Aira. Don’t let the dirty tough guy act fool you. If you stick with him, a slap to the mouth from Mika is the least that’ll happen to you.”
Ryland then lifted his sunglasses and looked me dead in the eyes.
It was cold. It was dark. It was dangerous.
He walked away without saying another word.
The night swallowed them all up.
Mika. Kaci. Nelle. And Ryland.
I finished my walk home, holding my cheek and mouth, knowing what I had to do next. The only thing that could make me feel right again.
Even though I hated myself for it.
But I had no choice.
My hand shook when I saw the blood.
But that was the whole point. The small cut at the inside of my leg wasn’t going to kill me. I knew what I was doing. And it didn’t even bleed that long either. It was just the feeling of it. That quick burning sensation as my skin opened up.
I sat on the other side of my bed, a towel under me.
Just like I used to do at home.
I put my head back and felt the tears fill up my eyes and spill out.
I let out a whimper as I zipped my bag back up, hiding all the evidence of hurting myself.
And then I just sat there.
I eventually looked down at my leg, watching the thin line of blood trying to get its way to the towel. But I had this thing mastered. I couldn’t make too much of a mess.
I did that once at the beginning and had to have my mother help me. I convinced her I was trying to shave and messed it up. She was wasted on wine and believed me. She called one of her sober friends (there weren’t many) and she checked me out. No hospital though. Because that would look bad. I had no idea what that meant.
But now… nobody would ever know a thing. And nobody did know a thing.
I made it so there wouldn’t be many scars. I almost had that perfected too.
And it worked.
It chased it all away.
The pain was magically released.
The panic over the thoughts of the fire were gone.
The anger over Mika and Ryland and whatever the hell that was, was gone.
And even though I still thought about Weslee, I didn’t care as much.
Screw him.
He was this tough guy, brooding, trying to show up at the right times for what? To look a certain way? Where the hell was he tonight then? He could have shown up and chased away Mika or did something about Ryland.
And better yet… why me? What did I have to do with anything?
I sucked in a shaky breath and started to reach for my bag again.
There was a knock at the bedroom door and I froze.
Julia opened the door and I hurried to look back.
“Hey,” she whispered. “Just wanted to say goodnight.”
“Yeah. Sure. Goodnight.”
“You okay?”
“Tired. Actually… really tired.”
“Good. Get a good night of sleep. First days and new things are always hectic.”
I forced a smile as the blood dried to my leg.
“Of course,” I said.
“If you ever need anything… you know… a bad dream or something…”
“Can I cuddle in your bed with you?” I asked, still forcing that smile.
Julia laughed. “Sure. Night.”
“Night,” I said.
She shut the door.
The smile washed away.
Tired?
Of course I was tired.
And things were just getting started.
Chapter 11
Wes
It was seven in the morning and I was already sweating as I cranked a wrench, putting the last of an engine back together. A cigarette hung from my mouth as I felt filled with rage. A sense that kept going through me all night, so I decided to just come to the shop and work. We were going to be short today because Tony and Rhyno had to drive out to Nevada to talk with some rich poker player about custom work he wanted done.
I already knew Jett was going to get pissed at me because I was planning on ditching class. Not that he was one to talk. But he actually gave a damn about me and cared.
Seeing Aira had done a number on me.
Those flirty glances through the window were one thing. Me saving her ass at that party was something else. Helping her get into her locker was just for fun. But she showed up at Zen’s for a slice with me and the looks she kept giving me were nothing short of temptation. And maybe begging. There was a darkness about her that I felt I needed to protect.
The secrets throughout this damn town were only going to get the best of her if she hung around too much.
Same with me.
Getting too close…
I pushed at the wrench and it popped free, hitting the concrete with an echoing sound.
“Fuck you,” I yelled at the wrench.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and walked to the front of the garage.
I smoked my cigarette and played everything out in my head.
Jett showed up a few minutes later, climbing out of his jacked-up truck with the biggest coffee I ever saw in my life. Sunglasses plastered to his face, hinting to me that they weren’t worn because the sun was out.
Hidden Creek Secrets (Hidden Creek High Book 1) Page 7
