by Eva Luxe
“Come on, it’s part of life. If I had stopped after my heart got broken I wouldn’t have met Charlie.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think you’ll get your heart broken if you end it with Charlie. You never get your heart broken.”
“That’s because getting attached is overrated,” Sara said.
I shook my head. There was no arguing with Sara. Her logic was backward but it worked for her. It didn’t work for me. I got attached when I was in a relationship, I took love seriously and when it was ripped way, it hurt.
I had dated a guy in college for almost two years and breaking it off with him had stung like a bitch. I wasn’t looking for something like that again unless the guy was worth my while. And so far, none the guys I’d met had been worth any of my time.
My phone rang. I got up and found it in my bag, looking at the caller ID.
“God, not again,” I wailed.
“Who is it?” Sara asked.
“Guess.”
Sara looked irritated. “There’s only one person that gets that reaction from you. God, I’m getting sick of him.”
“You and me both,” I said. I watched the phone ring until my voicemail picked up the call. There was no way I was answering it.
Two years ago, when I had thought I would brave the dating scene again, I had gone on a date with a guy named Tyler. He had been sweet but a little overbearing, so I’d told him I wasn’t interested in a second date. He wasn’t my type. Unfortunately, he had decided I was exactly his type and he wouldn’t leave me alone. Ever.
He kept track of my life, where I was, and who I was with. He was one step short of a restraining order, which was the only reason I hadn’t gotten one against him. If I had been able to, I would have done it in a wink.
“Are you going to listen to it?” Sara asked, when my phone beeped with a new voice message.
I sighed, “I don’t want to hear what he has to say, but if I don’t listen to it I’m not going to know what he’s doing this time. I have to know what he’s up to.”
Sara shrugged. She couldn’t argue with me. The old adage rang true; know your enemies.
I dialed the number for the voice mailbox and listened.
“Why did you move, Maya?” he asked. It was a short message, but it gave me the chills. I saved the voice message in case I had to use it as evidence against him, then sat down next to Sara again. I had abandoned the box I was unpacking.
“What did he say?” Sara asked.
I sighed. “He asked why we moved.”
“How the hell does he know this? Did you put it up on Facebook?”
I shook my head. I had stopped broadcasting my life on Facebook, keeping my contact details and location private. I didn’t ‘check-in’ when I went to restaurants with friends, I didn’t post photos until the next day. I tried everything to throw Tyler off my scent.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m starting to think the guy put a tracker on me or something.”
Sara downed the last of her wine. “This is bullshit. If I see him, he’ll be sorry he’s following you around.”
But that was the problem. We never saw him. He was like a ghost, knowing what went on in my life but never showing his face. If he had, I would have faced him ages ago.
“What are you doing to do about it?” Sara asked.
“I don’t know. There’s not much I can do. I went to the police, but you know what they said.”
“That you can’t get a restraining order because he’s not physically harassing you, I know. He’s never doing anything to hurt you. But it’s horrible, anyway.”
“I don’t know how to get rid of him,” I said.
“Well, first you have to change your number. Again.”
I groaned. “God, that is such a hassle, and it’s not that simple. I have to change it everywhere, with the banks, and all my various accounts, not to mention my friends and my job.”
“I know,” Sara said. “But it’s better than a happily ever after with Tyler.”
I had to agree with her. I wanted nothing to do with him. He had seemed nice when we had gone out on our one little date. He wasn’t a knight in shining armor by a long shot but I hadn’t disliked him.
I sure disliked him now, though.
“I don’t think anything would get him off your case unless you were permanently unavailable,” Sara said, sitting back against the couch.
“Like what, marriage?”
Sara shrugged.
“Who am I going to get married to? I’m not even dating.”
“That’s a problem. You see? It’s just another reason for you to get a man.”
I laughed. “I’m pretty happy single for now. You’re a serial dater, so I know you don’t get it, but I have no intention of finding some guy for the sake of getting rid of my stalker. No matter how enticing that sounds. Before you know it, I have another stalker on my hands.”
We sat in silence for a while.
“You have to look at the positive side,” Sara said, when she finished the second glass of wine.
“There’s a bright side to this?”
“Always. Silver lining, you know? It means you’re a total bomb. Sexy and sassy and all that. Because someone wants you that badly.”
I laughed. “Thanks, Sara. I’m afraid it doesn’t as much mean I’m hot as it means that Tyler is a little psychotic.”
Sara rolled her eyes, “I was complimenting you.”
I laughed again. “And I appreciate it. But I’m so sick of this shit. I just want to be able to live my life without having to be so damn careful. Things are going really well for me right now, I don’t want anything to spoil it.”
“You can’t win them all,” Sara said, tipping her empty glass at me.
“Such sound advice,” I said dryly.
“Hey, what are friends for?” Sara asked, a big grin on her face.
Chapter 3
Kyle
When I opened my eyes on Sunday morning, my head pounded like grenades were going off in my skull. I turned my face into the mattress and groaned, but the pounding didn’t go away. I realized after a while that it wasn’t only a roaring headache, someone was actually pounding on my front door.
Dammit. I was not in the mood to play nice. I just wanted to turn over and sleep. Maybe for a whole year. If I stayed in bed, whoever it was would catch a hint.
I closed my eyes but the constant thumping didn’t stop and it only made my headache worse. I had to get up and stop whoever was out there from knocking so incessantly if I wanted to survive.
“Coming,” I called out and rolled off the bed. I groaned, clawing my head. It ached and throbbed and the light that came through curtains I had been too drunk to draw last night stung my eyes. I had stayed in last night and drank a full bottle of whiskey all by myself. I regretted it now that I had a cottonmouth and I felt like a drill bit was forcing its way into my brain.
I pulled a shirt over my head and shorts over my boxers so I didn’t look like I’d rolled straight out of bed. In the bathroom, I splashed water on my face so that I didn’t look as horrific as I felt. I looked at the toilet, wondering if it was safe to walk to the front door without hugging the toilet and emptying the contents of my stomach, first. When I was sure I wouldn’t throw up, I walked to the front door. The knocking had died down, so either whoever had been knocking stopped when I’d said I was coming, or they had left. I silently prayed for the latter.
When I pressed my eye to the peephole, Liam was on the other side of my door. He shifted his weight and Kina came into view.
Fucking perfect.
They were the last people on earth I wanted to see. Their happiness pissed me off. Not only because Liam was a pro player when I had dreamed of being one and hadn’t made it, but because they had found true love in each other and I was still alone. There was no reminder harsher than my twin sister having the perfect life while I was two steps up from the gutter. Metaphorically speaking.
And I was h
ungover. What a kicker. I wondered if I could get away with ignoring them. If I kept quiet for long enough, they might assume I wasn’t home and walk away. But they’d heard me say I was coming. That and my car was parked the street. If I ignored them now, I would just be being a dick on purpose, and I’d have even more to feel guilty about. I pulled open the door and leaned against the door post, running my hand through my hair.
“Kyle. Hi,” Kina said, with a smile. Her eyes slid over my body, taking in my clothes, my scruffy hair. Her smile faded. “Are you hungover?”
I shook my head and regretted it. “I just woke up,” I said.
Kina glanced at Liam and I knew she didn’t believe me. I wasn’t lying, completely. I had woken up only moments ago.
“Can we come in?” Liam asked.
“I’d rather you didn’t. It’s not a good time for me. My place is a mess, I wasn’t expecting guests.” It was another lie. The cleaning service had come in yesterday and my place was spotless.
“We don’t mind, we’re family,” Kina said, brightly. “And we brought sustenance.”
She held up a box of Krispy Kremes. I noticed Liam held a carton with three Styrofoam coffee cups from Starbucks. They had come bearing gifts. Gifts that might help my hangover.
I sighed and opened the door wider, standing to the side. Kina walked in first with Liam following behind her. As I closed the door, Kina looked around and I knew she noticed how clean the apartment was. I expected her to say something, but she didn’t.
I sat down in the armchair and took a doughnut from the box. A jelly doughnut—my favorite. Kina was married to someone I hated now, but she was still my other half, literally. She knew me. It was endearing and it pissed me off, all at the same time.
“So, how have you been?” Kina asked. “How is work?”
I shrugged. “It’s going as well as can be expected.” It would have been better if I was playing professional football, for instance, instead of being an accountant.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” I said, trying to be polite about it instead of being a downright dick. “What are you doing here?”
Kina pulled up her shoulders. I could see it was hard to keep her composure, to plaster a smile on her face when she was upset with how I was acting, and that I’d lied about being hungover and my place being a mess.
“We came to visit,” Kina said, “that’s what people do.”
“Yeah, we hardly get to see you, man. You’re MIA, these days. We had to check that you’re alive.”
Liam had seen me at The Corner on Friday. He knew I was alive. I bet he must have told Kina about it and how I had acted. It was probably why she had called, and why they were here, now. I wished we hadn’t run into each other. It would have prevented all this awkwardness.
I couldn’t argue with them about wanting to see me. We were family, after all. Liam was my brother-in-law. Anyone else would have been stoked that their best friend had become part of their family. I hated it. It meant I had to face him all the time, seeing him living the life I hadn’t gotten to live. My existence was stark in comparison to his and it was hard not to resent the guy.
We sat in awkward silence for a while. I sipped my coffee and hoped to God they wouldn’t stay long. My head was killing me and even though the doughnut and coffee had made me feel marginally better, my stomach was trying to decide whether to send it all back up again.
“You know, Kyla,” Kina started. “I don’t understand why you don’t want to see us anymore. I thought we were okay.”
Her blue eyes were glazed over a little like she was fighting back tears.
“I’m just busy,” I said.
“That’s bullshit,” Kina said, and she was getting upset now. “You weren’t too busy a couple of months after we sorted out everything else. And you were still studying then.”
I knew what she was talking about. When Kina and Liam had officially gotten together, working through publicity issues, I had told Liam I was sorry for blaming him for taking the career option I thought I deserved. I’d apologized to Kina for making life so difficult for her when I had drunk myself into a stupor every day and had been arrested for public offenses on a regular basis. I had tried for them.
But I had failed. I couldn’t shake the envy, the jealousy, and it had hurt. I was tired of hurting so much. So I just stayed away instead.
“It hurts, you know,” Kina said, and I wondered how she knew what I was thinking. But then I realized she was talking about herself. “It hurts to know that my brother wants nothing to do with me when everything was cleared up and we were okay. After everything we’ve been through together,” she stopped talking halfway through her sentence, swallowing hard. Liam put his arm around Kina.
“What Kina is trying to say,” Liam carried on, on her behalf, “is that we miss you. We want to see you more often.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t going to agree to that. I knew I was being rude, but I wasn’t going to apologize for it, either. I was allowed to feel the way I felt. Did Kina want to bring up pain? Seeing them hurt me more than it hurt them when I withdrew. I was sure of it.
“Why?” Kina asked. “Why are you back to this when we talked about everything?”
I shook my head. I thought for a moment to tell them, but they wouldn’t understand. We’d been through this already.
“I’m just under a lot of work pressure right now. Turns out there’s a lot of work involved in building my life back up after I tanked it. I’m taking it one day at a time and that doesn’t always include socializing.”
“It includes drinking, obviously,” Kina said. She didn’t look like she was going to cry anymore. She looked pissed off, now.
“You know what?” I asked. “It’s not illegal to drink. I’m not ruining my life, I’m not getting locked up. I’m earning my own cash and I have a place to stay. You can’t tell me I’m wrong.”
Kina nodded. “You’re right. I can’t.” She stood up. “I think it’s better if we go.”
Liam stood up, too. He shot me a glare. I faced him head-on. The press had painted him as a wild card when he’d attacked another player so many years ago, but I wasn’t scared of him. If he wanted to take me on we could make it happen. If he wanted to dance, we could dance.
Nothing came of his silent threat, my challenge. Liam followed Kina to the door and they let themselves out. When the door clicked closed—she hadn’t even slammed it—I looked at the box of doughnuts they had left behind. Enough for three people but I was the only one that had taken one. It had been a peace offering of sorts. I had fucked it up royally, of course, but that was classic Kyle Turner.
My stomach turned and I jumped up, running to the bathroom. The doughnut and the coffee came back up along with the whiskey I’d had the night before. I threw up until there was nothing in my stomach, dry heaving a few times before I groaned and sat back on my heels. I curled up on the bathroom floor, pressing my cheek against the cold porcelain. The tiles were like heaven beneath my legs and arms as well.
I hadn’t wanted to see Kina and Liam, but it had been nice to have someone over for a change. I had few friends and the friends I did have were at the office. I never invited them over because I saw them five days a week. But having someone in my space had been a good feeling.
It sucked being lonely. I had isolated and cocooned myself so that I was alone an island. And that wasn’t right.
Rolling onto my back, I closed my eyes. I felt like shit about how I had treated my sister. I could be upset with Liam all I wanted, but it wasn’t fair to take it out on Kina. She hadn’t done anything wrong, aside from marrying Liam. She deserved to be happy, and I couldn’t resent her for that.
Maybe I should do something to make it up to her. I wasn’t going to grovel or anything, but I could make a small effort. Liam’s practice was tomorrow and he had invited me to go watch. Right now, I couldn’t think of anything worse than sitting in the sun, watching him play. But tomorrow, I wouldn’t be hungover. I could leave
work a little early and swing by the training center, showing my face. Maybe it would make Liam and Kina happy. Maybe it would make me feel better.
I covered my face with my hands. I couldn’t believe I was even considering it, but if I could put on a face for them a while back when they got married, I could do it again, right? It was for Kina, after all, I told myself. She had done so much for me when she could have left me in jail overnight, or left me rotting under a park bench. She could have left me on the street when I’d been evicted, but my sister had gone out of her way, even though I had brought it all on myself.
I guessed I could sit through one stupid practice to try to keep the peace.
Chapter 4
Maya
I loved going to cheerleading practice. I was getting better at it, too. My fitness had bumped up a level and I could keep up better with the other cheerleaders. I felt more part of the team than I had at first, too.
Training, being fit, and putting my body through a rigorous exercise routine to get stronger, all took my mind away from my troubles. I’d had to change my number again and the process was never fun. I had to let so many people know, update so many applications and systems, all while knowing that inevitably, Tyler would find me again. It was a pain in my ass, but training as hard as we did at practice allowed me to forget for a while.
We were training at the Miami Dolphin’s training center today which was exciting. We often trained at a sport’s field or a local school or college, wherever we could get everyone together for the extra sessions, but a few times a week we were on the official training grounds.
We got glimpses of the football players from time to time, watching them train when our sessions were done. It was always spectacular. Their fitness was on a different level and there was something about the speed, strength and finesse executed as they practiced. My whole life had been about sports. I had been the only one watching football while all my friends watched fashion shows and makeup clips. I had understood the basic principles of fitness and the importance of the right carbs, while my friends had starved themselves to death. The only person that understood me was Sara, and it was why we were still friends. She had a naturally fast metabolism so she never picked up weight, and her money had given her confidence that made her naturally attractive so she had no complexes. Sara was too self-centered to care about me stealing her thunder.
