NOT SO Innocent (Bay Falls High Book 4)

by Jaxson Kidman

  Jo was… whatever came after bitch.

  But she was right and she could back it all up.

  I looked back one more time just to make sure the house was actually there.

  Because I felt like I had fallen and hit my head and this was all a dream.

  I held my phone in my hands, wondering what was next.

  Then I heard someone whistle and yell ‘daaaaaaamn’ …

  It wasn’t just someone.

  It was them.

  And them being a group of guys I did not know.

  They were all wearing nothing but baggie board shorts. The kind with cargo pockets that came down to their knees. The kind that were left untied on purpose so they hung just a little low, each one of them dawning a V line that cut into the top of their shorts.

  There were four of them.

  Even the way they walked.

  Like they owned the beach.

  Two had sunglasses on. The other two had their sunglasses pushed back on their heads. Their hair ranged from being cut as short as possible without actually shaving their head to one of them having long hair.

  He stopped where my towel began and he turned on his heels completely around. I spotted a tattoo on his back but didn’t have time to actually look at it.

  The four of them sort of surrounded me.

  I was still on my knees, probably not the best position, considering the way they were standing.

  “New,” he said to me. He pointed. “New, new, new.”

  “Not me,” I said, settling into a lie nobody would believe.

  They all laughed.

  “Right,” one said putting his fist out for the others. “We’ve got every piece of ass this side of BFH tagged. Anything new we can sniff out in a heartbeat.”

  They kept laughing.

  They all fist bumped the guy who just spoke.

  I cringed.

  This was a new level of douche-baggery for me to witness.

  “She can’t speak,” another one said. “What’s the saying, bro-man? Cat stole her tongue or something?”

  “I can think of something she can do with her tongue,” the first guy said. “And something I can do with my tongue to her cat.”

  They all cackled and jumped up and down.

  “I don’t have a cat,” I said.

  “Wait, you’re a dude?” one of the guys wearing sunglasses said as he lifted his sunglasses in surprise.

  “What?” I asked. “I’m not a dude…”

  “She didn’t get the joke, Max,” the first guy said. He then dropped to one knee and reached for my hand. He took it and smiled at me. “I’m Ryan. And then there’s Max, Owen, and Aaron. And I want you to know I saw you first. I’m in love with you first. So let’s skip the bullshit and let me properly welcome you here.”

  “Let her choose,” Max said.

  I pulled my hand away. “What? Why would I choose… or… what…”

  “She’s flustered,” Ryan said. He leaned toward me. “Look, I’m going to break it down. BFH. Right? It’s ours. And if we set our sights on you, you’re lucky.”

  “Just tell her the truth,” Owen said. I looked at him. “We’re the best fucking baseball players in the state. We never strike out. We always hit home runs. We love going around the bases…”

  “Sweet,” Aaron said.

  He and Owen slapped hands and did some handshake.

  They were jocks.

  They were pretty jocks. Cut and tone, definitely athletic.

  Ryan stood back up. “So what do you think? You’re new here. I’m sure you’re nervous about everything. Let us show you the way.”

  “We’ll go slow,” Owen said. “Stop at first base and enjoy…”

  “Then hit second base,” Max said. “That’s one of my favorites.”

  “Wait a second,” I said. “Does this really work for you?”

  I laughed.

  They didn’t.

  The looks on their faces suddenly sucked all the air out of me.

  I reminded myself these were the same assholes I dealt with back home. Those guys were rough and tough, but they were afraid of getting into trouble. One whiff of the police and they would scatter.

  But these guys…

  They were rich.

  And I wasn’t.

  They inched closer to my towel.

  I looked around the best I could and there was nobody else in sight.

  And Jo wasn’t home.

  She didn’t want me to bother her.

  Not that she’d be able to do something about this fast enough either.

  At the same time…

  I slowly stood up.

  You stupid motherfuckers. Who do you think I am? You have no idea where I just came from and what I just witnessed. You and your glistening baseball jock bodies think you’re going to just walk up on me…

  “Come give me a kiss, bro-chick,” Ryan said.

  His hand touched my waist… under my shirt.

  He did it so quick I jumped to my toes and gasped.

  I grabbed his arm and pushed but he wasn’t going to let me go.

  “It’s okay, bro-chick,” Max said as he stepped toward me, the front of his body pressing to my left side.

  “Get the fuck away from me,” I said. I swallowed hard. “You fucking losers. Get the fuck away.”

  “She’s going to talk dirty so soon…,” Aaron said.

  He reached for my face.

  I stepped back and stepped right on my notebook.

  My heel slid against the cover and it was like sliding on ice.

  My legs kicked out and I went down.

  Ryan grabbed the front of my shirt, finding his chance to pull and lift it to get a sight at whatever he wanted.

  And they all closed in on me some more as I grabbed for the blanket.

  I was on my back, my ass throbbing from hitting the sand so hard, Ryan on one knee again, his hand holding my shirt.

  “Let’s see what presents you’ve brought us,” he whispered.

  I opened my mouth…

  To scream for help?

  To curse this rich assholes out?

  I wasn’t sure of that yet.

  But then I smelled smoke.

  Cigarette smoke.

  And Ryan did too.

  He stuck his nose into the air and sniffed.

  His hand let go of my shirt and he hurried to stand up.

  He stepped to his left, hitting Owen to do the same.

  Max and Aaron moved to the right.

  There was a fifth person now.

  Dressed all in black.

  Black sunglasses on his face.

  Black, feather hair sticking out from under a black beanie that rested on his head.

  A black hoodie, the sleeves rolled up, a long sleeve black shirt under it.

  His jeans ripped in random places.

  Two necklaces around his neck.

  And he just stared at me.

  If Jo was my fairy godmother from hell… then the baseball douchebags were demons… that meant this guy…

  He was the devil coming for my not so innocent soul.

  “Uly, what’s up, man?” Ryan said in a voice that was way different from the one he used with me.

  Uly?

  I took a shaky breath, not sure if I was supposed to feel as warm as I did when Uly stepped closer to me. It was definitely not the same icky feeling that came over me when the baseball players came close to me.

  He stepped right on my towel.

  I didn’t say a word.

  “Are these assholes bothering you, doll?” Uly asked, his cigarette looking so sexy bouncing between his lips.

  I was nodding before he even finished the question.

  And that was all it took.

  One question.

  One head nod.

  Uly took his cigarette from his mouth. He lowered his hand, the cigarette smoke climbing into the air. My eyes looked at the cigarette and his hand.

  “We were just fucking ar
ound, Uly,” Ryan said. “No harm meant. You know, new person thing. That’s all.”

  “Come on, just a fresh blood joke,” Aaron said.

  I lifted my eyes and watched as the four baseball players were slowly making their escape. With each word they said, they took a step away from me. Well, a step away from Uly.

  Four jocks afraid of one guy?

  It made me wonder what kind of danger Uly was to scare these guys away so easily.

  Ryan looked at me and smiled. He put his hands together in prayer and nodded. “Enjoy the beach. The sand. The surf. The sights. We were just messing around.”

  Uly lifted his hand with the cigarette between his fingers. He pointed.

  Ryan nodded and turned. He put his arms around and moved the other baseball players along the beach.

  I was still on my ass, my hands gripped to the towel tight, fearing something really bad happening to me.

  Uly set his sights on me. “That thing fly?”

  “What?”

  “The towel,” he said. “You’re holding on so tight. Like you’re flying through the air.”

  “Oh,” I said with a weak smile. “Yeah. Right. I… they…”

  I shook my head.

  “They, what?” Uly asked.

  “Nothing. It’s not important.”

  I released my hold from the towel. My palms were sweaty and gross. I casually wiped them on the towel and sat up, pulling my knees to my chest.

  Uly bent his knees and crouched down.

  It made me freeze in place.

  A cold shiver ran up and down my back. But then it was quickly replaced by a warmth…

  He put his cigarette to his lips and helped himself to another drag.

  “It’s important to me, doll,” he said, smoke jumping from his lips.

  It was sexy.

  He was sexy.

  He looked dangerous.

  He was dangerous.

  “Do you mind?” he asked and held out his cigarette.

  I shook my head. “No. I kind of smoke too.”

  “Kind of? How do you kind of smoke?”

  “I mean… I smoke. Yeah. I smoke. And I don’t mind that you smoke.”

  “Just checking,” he said.

  He stuffed the cigarette into the sand, leaving the tan butt crooked.

  He stayed crouched and stared at me again. “What did they say to you?”

  “Nothing.”

  He grinned. “Do you believe in crossroads, doll?”

  “Meaning?”

  “Do you know what a crossroad is?”

  I titled my head. “Of course I do…”

  My mind thought about my mother and Jo. How Jo went one way and became a rich doctor. How my mother went the other way, trading backhands to her mouth just to hear someone say I love you.

  “You’re at a crossroads right now,” Uly said. “I’ve never seen you before. And you’re not going to play the bullshit game trying to tell me you’ve always been here. Or you’re visiting. You’re new. And new is scary. And new is dangerous. And new is bad. We don’t do new. But this crossroads you’re at… I’ll help this one time with it. Okay?”

  I nodded.

  I didn’t tell my brain to tell my body to nod though.

  “Tell me what those assholes said or did to you,” Uly said. “That’s it. If you don’t, you’ve chosen the wrong path. So I guess this crossroads of yours is one way. You don’t want to go down a dead end street with a monster chasing you, do you, doll?”

  “Are you the monster, Uly?” I asked.

  The left side of his lip curled. “Careful with my name. You never know what a sweet voice like yours saying it could do to me. Or yourself.”

  My cheeks burned red.

  Uly left his lip curled as he smiled.

  Then he just stared at me.

  Until I cracked under the pressure of his stare.

  Even through sunglasses it somehow got to me.

  “Nothing good,” I said. “Okay? That’s what they said to me. Nothing I haven’t heard before. Or couldn’t handle. I’m not from around here. And I’m not who you think I am either.”

  “So they closed in on you, acting like assholes.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Led by Ryan.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And I just let him walk away,” Uly said. “I didn’t crack him in the mouth. Break his jaw for talking to a pretty girl like you like that.”

  More heat rushed to my cheeks.

  I hated myself for it.

  Uly stood up and took his sunglasses off. “I could still catch up to them.”

  I scrambled to get to my feet.

  I was moving before I knew I was moving. I wasn’t even sure if that made sense at all though.

  My hands grabbed for Uly’s arm and wrist.

  When he looked at me, I saw the brown color of his eyes, it was… whoa.

  Grayson who now?

  Just… fucking… whoa…

  They were not inviting. They were not pretty or cute or handsome. They were… dirty and evil.

  His stare made it very well known that he could hurt me and not think twice about it.

  “They’re not worth it,” I said.

  “How do you know?”

  “They’re obviously afraid of you. So who cares? Next time they come near me I’ll kick them in the balls. They just caught me off guard. That’s all.”

  Uly shook his head. He turned to completely face me. He looked down at my hands holding his arm and wrist. I quickly let him go.

  “What’s your name, doll?” he asked me.

  I had the upper hand on a guy like Uly. I had something he wanted. That meant I-

  “Belle,” I blurted out.

  Thanks, brain. Or heart. Or panties.

  Uly put two fingers under my chin. “You’re wrong, Belle.”

  “About what?”

  “There is no next time,” Uly said. “Want to know why?”

  I swallowed every ounce of reasoning that told me to run like hell.

  “Why?” I whispered.

  “If those assholes come near you ever again, I’m going to kill them with my bare hands.”

  five

  The moment washed away like a sandcastle too close to the shore.

  Uly put his sunglasses back on and put enough distance between he and I that I could breathe.

  But that didn’t mean I was calm.

  He looked down and before I could see what he was looking at, he crouched, grabbed my notebook, and started to walk away with it.

  I gasped, all the blood draining from my face.

  My knees bounced with weakness.

  I jumped for him and missed. So then I ran and jumped.

  As my arms wrapped around his shoulders, I realized just how insane this was. Not just this moment. But the day. The everything.

  “So this must be full of love letters, huh?” Uly asked as he held the notebook out.

  “Stop it,” I said.

  “I’ll walk right into the water, doll.”

  “I know how to swim.”

  “Pages don’t.”

  “Stop,” I said.

  Uly wiggled and I slid off him.

  He spun around and stepped back toward the water.

  He didn’t care about the sand or the water hitting his black shoes or his jeans.

  His left arm was outstretched and then he slowly moved it behind him, right over where the waves were crashing.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “This means a lot to you?”

  “Yeah it does. And you’re being as much of an asshole as those other guys.”

  Uly curled his lip again.

  He pretended to drop the notebook.

  I covered my mouth and screamed.

  I knew my eyes were filling with tears.

  And how stupid I looked in front of him.

  Uly brought the notebook forward and flipped it open to a random page.

  There was so much written in there�
�

  He shut the notebook and walked toward me.

  When he held the notebook out, I grabbed it from him with as much force as I could. He then stepped even closer to me.

  His body inches from mine.

  “I want to show you something, Belle,” he said. “Tonight. Right here. Eleven.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Just show up, doll. This is another crossroads and I’m guiding you once again. I guess it’s your lucky day.”

  “Trust me, Uly, nothing about today has been lucky,” I said.

  He lowered his lips down to my ear. “What I see, I can’t whisper, from the window, the stars, I can’t reach. They dance in silence, when they collide, we all know, but I’m left here, alone, just trying to whisper. Once.”

  My knees buckled.

  He studied the fucking page in the notebook for ten seconds and memorized what I wrote?

  “See you tonight, doll,” he whispered.

  His lips brushed against my cheek and he began to walk away.

  He lit up a cigarette and put his head back, blowing smoke into the air.

  I caught myself leaning forward, my lips and nose quivering, almost desperate for a smell of the smoke.

  My heart pounded in my chest.

  And my brain finally decided to be logical, asking my heart a question that I was too afraid to hear the answer for.

  How fucking screwed am I already?

  I went back to Jo’s house to find a note on the counter in her handwriting letting me know there were meals in the fridge for us.

  Us.

  The fridge was a stainless steel wall that I stared at for too long, trying to figure out how to open it. I rolled my eyes ten times, cursing rich people for wanting to take away things like handles and sinks.

  Oh, by the way, the counter was the sink. When you turned on the faucet, water hit the counter but didn’t spill over the side. It somehow flowed right to a few small dots that were actually holes that made up the drain.

  It was all pretty cool, just way out of my taste and capability of using or understanding how much it could all cost. And Jo probably didn’t think twice about any of it either. Luxury was normal to her.

  I managed to open the fridge and it was bright.

  Very bright.

  I squinted my eyes for a second before seeing how clean and organized the fridge was. I thought about the fridge at the apartment. The wilted top part of a yellowish stalk of celery on the top shelf, begging to be thrown out. A pack of strawberries with four left, two blanketed in white mold. The milk sideways on a shelf. The gallon of orange juice on the main big shelf, along with a gallon of diet iced tea, some soda, and a jar of spaghetti sauce that was used six months ago.