Maniac

by Winter Travers

  “Your mom?” I asked. Here she thought she was out of the loop, while I wasn’t even in the realm of the loop. I was really being a shitty friend to Cora by not even calling her once.

  Alice waved her hand. “It’s nothing really. She’s just getting old and needs a bit of help doing things every now and then. There just is never enough time in the day lately.”

  Here Alice was running out of time, and I always felt like time was dragging by at a snail’s pace. That had more to do with the fact most of the time, I wasn’t doing anything other than reading or watching TV. Baking and cooking had helped to eat up some of the time, but if I kept cooking the way I was, Maniac and I were going to each weigh five hundred pounds by the time the Hell Captains left me alone.

  “I can give you some of my time. I used to always be on the go with work and what not, but now I can sit for hours just counting the seconds away.”

  She patted my hand. “I think that is what you needed though, babe. A little quiet to get your head straight.”

  I stiffened and wrapped my hands around my glass.

  “Wren, don’t get mad at me. None of us know what happened to you, but it had to be bad. Maybe that man is thing you need to help you heal.”

  “A man is what did this to me, Alice,” I whispered.

  “But it wasn’t that man.”

  She was right, I knew deep down, but it was still hard. Maniac made me waver all the time on whether or not I could be me again. Some days, I couldn’t even remember what my life was like before the Hell Captains destroyed me. “But how do I know he won’t become that type of man?”

  “I think you already know the answer to that. Although, I think if you’re struggling with how to figure that one out, it has to do with the fact that man looks at you like you’re the only person in the room.”

  I closed my eyes and bowed my head. I didn’t want to see that. “I can’t rely on him to heal me.”

  “He's going to help heal you, babe. In the end, you’re going to have to be the one to close those wounds.”

  I pushed back my sleeve on my right arm and looked down at the raised scar. “Scars never go away, Alice. They’ll always be there.”

  She put her arm around my shoulders and rested her head against mine. “They are there to remind you of how strong you were and are. You made it out of the Hell Captains, and even though you tried to leave us for good, those scars are going to be a reminder to you that you are one tough ass bitch who refuses to die.”

  Tears reached my eyes, but I couldn’t help but laugh. “I think you are the only one who could put it that way.”

  “I’ve got a way with words,” Alice chuckled. She leaned back and picked up her glass. “Now, enough of this blubbering. Grab your glass, bitch.”

  “Are you always going to call me bitch from now on?” I lifted my glass and held it next to hers.

  “When the time is right, yes. Right now, you are totally bitch because you’re a badass bitch.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “I don’t know if you’re drunk, or if this is just you.”

  She clinked her glass to mine. “Being drunk just intensifies me to more me.” She wrinkled her nose and giggled. “I don’t think that makes sense, but I’m going to go with it.”

  She downed half of her drink and slammed the glass on the bar. “Now, I need to grab my blender and walk my happy ass home.”

  “You’re leaving?” I asked.

  I heard the heavy falls of Maniac’s feet then felt his warmth against my side. “We need to get going too, darlin’. It’s an hour and half ride home, and that’s if I take the same way back.”

  “Give me ten minutes, and I’ll drive ya home, Alice,” Reierson called.

  Alice walked around to the other side of the bar. “Nonsense. I live five minutes away, and if I cut through a few yards, I’ll be home in four.” She unplugged the blender, slammed the cap back on, and hauled it into her arms. “I’ll get my car in the morning.”

  “Maybe you should get a ride,” Maniac agreed with Reierson.

  “Oh, no.” Alice ambled to the door and threw a wave over her shoulder. “Call me, Wren, and don’t be too big of a dick to her, Maniac. Later, Reir!”

  Reierson threw his towel on the bar. “I don’t know how many times I have asked you not to call me that. It’s Reierson!”

  “Yeah well, I’ve always wanted a unicorn, but you don’t see me throwing a damn hissy fit, Reir!” Alice slipped out the door with a huge smile on her face.

  “Chick is crazy,” Maniac muttered. He pulled two twenties out of his wallet and tossed them on the bar. “You ready?”

  I took three huge sips from my drink then nodded. I couldn’t waste the whole thing. Although when I moved to stand up, I stumbled into Maniac and his arm wrapped around my waist.

  “Uh, hi.” My cheeks heated, and I knew they were tinged pink. I tilted my head back and looked into his deep, dark green eyes.

  “You all right, darlin’?” he asked quietly.

  Maniac was touching me, and I had a slight buzz going on. I was more than all right. “Never better,” I hiccuped.

  A smirk spread across his lips. “You gonna be good to ride?”

  “Uh, I just gotta hold on to you, right?” I could totally do that.

  “And try not to fall off on the turns.”

  I patted him on the shoulder. “I got this. Don’t worry, dude.”

  “Dude?” he laughed.

  I cringed and shrugged. “Badass Biker Dude better?”

  “Good to know you’re a funny drunk.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the front door.

  “Hey,” I protested. “I am not drunk.”

  We stopped next to the bike, and he set the helmet on my head. “Hate to break it to you, but you are drunk. A definite lightweight. You only had two drinks.”

  I reached up to fasten the strap, but I couldn’t seem to get my hands to work. “I’m tipsy. That is completely different from drunk. Tipsy is cute, drunk is, well, not cute.”

  Maniac knocked my hands away and swiftly fastened the helmet under my chin. “Call it whatever you want, darlin’. I’ll agree it’s damn cute, so you can say you’re tipsy.”

  I smiled big. Won that argument. “Can we go home now so I can make stuffed peppers and chocolate cake?”

  “You still up to cooking?”

  I rolled my eyes. “We’ve established I am tipsy, not drunk. By the time we get home, I’ll be sober and hungry.”

  “We can order in pizza or I can pick up Chinese.”

  “No.”

  “You sure?”

  I nodded my head. “Yes.”

  Maniac studied me for a few seconds then shrugged. “Whatever you want.” He threw his leg over the bike and cranked it up. I managed to hop on behind him without stumbling or falling over.

  I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his back.

  “Make sure you hold on, darlin’,” he hollered.

  My arms tightened around him, so he knew I had heard him.

  Maniac maneuvered through the town roads easily and opened it up when we hit the open road.

  “You good?” he hollered.

  I was more than good. I leaned forward so my lips were next to his ear. “Way good.”

  Maniac turned his head slightly and looked at me.

  He didn’t say anything, but something different was in his eyes. Something that scared me but also excited me. He looked at me like I was the only person in the world.

  I pressed a kiss to his cheek and leaned back.

  I never wanted to get off the back of this bike.

  *

  Chapter 9

  Maniac

  “Stop it.”

  “I can’t stop.”

  Wren grabbed the bowl and wagged her finger at me. “If you keep eating the frosting, then there won’t be any for the cake.”

  I licked my finger and shrugged. “I really doubt cake is going to make that frosting taste any better.
That shit is like heaven.”

  If you would have told me I would have spent the afternoon with Wren on the back of my bike and dinner barefoot in the kitchen with her, I never would have believed you.

  “Just you wait.” She stuck the bowl of frosting in the microwave and crossed her arms over her chest. “No more icing until after dinner.”

  “You think putting it in the microwave is going to stop me from eating it?”

  She rolled her eyes. “No, I’m hoping the stuffed peppers are going to distract you long enough for me to ice the cake with what little frosting you left me.”

  I splayed my arms out in front of me. “I see no peppers to distract me.”

  Wren turned and looked at the stove. She held up her hand, then pointed one finger when the oven timer started beeping. “Peppers coming up in one minute.”

  “You sure we can’t have cake for dinner?” When I say the frosting Wren had made was good, I meant it was fucking good.

  She grabbed a plate from the counter and scooped two huge peppers onto it. She looked over her shoulder at me and smiled. “Is two enough?”

  “I gotta save room for cake, darlin’, so two is going to be more than enough.”

  She turned back to the stove and grabbed two pieces of garlic bread she had taken out of the oven five minutes earlier. She held the plate out to me and pointed to the table. “Sit down. Eat.”

  I grabbed the plate, and the warm, delicious aroma wafted up to my nose. Maybe eating stuffed peppers before the cake wasn’t going to be that bad. I sat down at the table and tucked into the mountain of food on my plate. “You eating?” I asked around a mouthful of pepper.

  She leaned against the counter with a plate of food in front of her. “I plan on eating while I frost the cake.” She scooped a forkful into her mouth and smiled.

  “You ever cook something that isn’t delicious?”

  She set down her plate and pressed her hand against the cake she had cooling on the side of the stove. “Oh yeah. It took me a bit to figure out how to get it right. I can still smell the burning rice when I tried to make Rice-a-Roni for the first time.”

  “You burned Rice-a-Roni?” I laughed.

  She nodded and smiled. “Burnt it black. I put the rice on to toast like the directions had said, but I missed the part where it said I need to keep stirring it. I sat down on the couch for two minutes and happened to fall asleep. I woke up to the smoke alarm going crazy and the next door neighbor banging on my front door.”

  I busted out laughing. “How old were you when that happened?”

  “Thirteen. My mom was so mad when she came home and saw the fire trucks surrounding the apartment.”

  “Trying to burn the place down,” I tsked.

  She flipped me off and grabbed the frosting from the microwave. “Keep it up, and I’ll keep this chocolate cake all to myself.”

  I watched as she turned one of the cakes onto a plate and slathered the top of it with frosting. She placed the other layer on top, then dumped the rest of the icing over the whole cake. She grabbed a spatula out of the drawer and managed to cover the whole cake in the sweet chocolatey goodness.

  By the time I finished all of my food and drained the rest of my beer, she was sprinkling some colorful sprinkles on top. “There,” she said proudly. She stepped back and looked over at me. “What do you think?”

  “I think in about half an hour, half of that beast is going to be on my plate.”

  She rolled her eyes and dropped the dirty spatula into the sink. “You’re crazy. You eat half of this, and you won’t sleep for three days. It’s loaded with sugar.”

  “That’s what makes it delicious.” I grabbed my plate and dumped it into the sink. “Those peppers were fucking amazing, darlin’.”

  She leaned against the counter and picked up her plate. “Thanks. They’re a favorite of mine.” Four bites, and she had her plate cleared. “They’ll be great as leftovers for lunch tomorrow.”

  “If I don’t eat them in the middle of the night.” I grabbed her empty plate and placed it on top of mine. “You wanna watch a movie, or sit out on the porch?”

  She bit her lip. “What movie? I think we’ve watched them all ten times.”

  “Or watch something on TV.” It was quarter to nine, and I figured there had to be something on TV on a Thursday night.

  “We can sit on the porch until the bugs try to carry us away.”

  I nodded. “You want a glass of wine?”

  She tilted her head to the side. “I don’t know if I want to get tipsy twice in one day.”

  I grabbed the bottle of wine she had chilling in the fridge and a beer. “As long as you just stay tipsy, you’ll be good.” She was right. Tipsy was cute. Especially when she was the one being tipsy.

  “One glass of wine, and we come in to watch Dateline if the bugs are bad.”

  “Sounds like a deal to me. Grab a glass and meet me out on the swing.”

  She nodded, and I made my way out to the porch.

  It was time to get Wren talking.

  *

  Chapter 10

  Wren

  “She was not wearing a cow onesie.”

  Maniac held up his right hand. “I swear on my bike, darlin’. Pipe and Nickel both told me she was in the same bar we were, and she was wearing pajamas that had black and white cow print all over them.”

  A giggle bubbled from my lips, and I shook my head. “She really is a bit kooky.”

  “Kooky ain’t even the word. She’s downright crazy.”

  “She really went on a ride with Wrecker?” I asked. I didn’t think Alice would lie, but for her being so crazy and eccentric, you had to wonder if maybe she had exaggerated a bit.

  “She did. And as soon as they came back, Wrecker dropped her off and took off for three days.”

  “What? Really? Does he normally do stuff like that?” Wrecker was the president after all, so maybe he did leave whenever he wanted.

  “Nah, not at all. We all thought he had a chick we didn’t know about, but from what we know, he doesn’t. He’s working with a chick to get in with The Ultra, but from what we’ve gathered, he isn’t with her.”

  “So that means Alice still has a shot with him.”

  Maniac shook his head. “Now that would be a match up I would pay to see happen. Wrecker is one of the biggest assholes I know, who doesn’t take shit from anyone. I have a feeling if he were to try and get with Alice, it would be like a bear dating a unicorn.”

  “She does like unicorns,” I muttered.

  “You never know what is going to come out of her mouth, that is for sure.”

  I laughed and took a sip of my third glass of wine. I was skating dangerously on the line between tipsy and drunk. “Trust me, when you went to the bathroom, she was talking like crazy.”

  “‘Bout what?”

  “You.” My eyes bugged out, and I gulped. Damn wine!

  “Alice was talking about me? Now you gotta tell me what the hell she was saying.” Maniac leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on his knees. “It’s only right.”

  “It wasn’t all just about you.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Who else was she talking about?”

  “You know what? I think I need a refill, and maybe I should check what’s on TV.” Anything to get me out of this conversation. I made it halfway up standing before I froze.

  Maniac leveled his gaze on me and shook his head. How did just one look from this man stop me in my tracks? “Sit your ass down, woman.”

  I slowly sunk back on the swing. “It was nothing, Maniac.” Nothing I wanted to talk about with him.

  “If it was nothing, then tell me.”

  I rolled my eyes and took another sip of wine.

  Wine.

  The damn thing that had gotten me into this predicament. Just keep drinking, Wren. That was a brilliant idea.

  I zipped my lips and shook my head.

  “Five... four... three...”

  Wha
t in the hell was he counting down to? “What are you doing?” I demanded.

  “You’ll find out when I get to one. Or maybe you don’t want to find out.” He scooted forward more in his chair. “Two...o—”

  “Oh, for pete’s sake! She told me I needed to open up to you, pull my head out of my ass, let you help heal me, and I was a bitch.”

  Maniac whistled. “I think we need to go over each of those separately.”

  “I’d prefer not to. All you said was you wanted to know what she said. I never agreed to discuss those things with you.”

  “Let’s start in reverse.”

  It was like the man didn’t even hear a word I had just said. “No.”

  “Why did she call you a bitch?” The disbelief in his voice was kind of nice. Even though the kind of bitch he was thinking was not what Alice had meant, it was nice to know he didn’t think I was an actual bitch.

  “She said I was a badass bitch.”

  Maniac tilted his head to the side. “Darlin’. This just cements the fact Alice is crazy. How the hell did you two get to talking about the fact you are a badass bitch?”

  I waved my hand flippantly. “You know, the things that happened.”

  He sat back in his chair and studied me. “We’ll come back to that in a second. I need to help you heal?”

  Gah. This sucked. Maniac and I were having a good time. Talking about things that didn’t matter, and now we were about to delve into my messed up mind. “She was talking like you were the thing that was going to make me better. Although you weren’t going to be the thing to heal me. Just the person to be there to help me.”

  He nodded. “I think that is the first smart thing I have ever heard come out of Alice’s mouth.”

  “Hey, be nice. I like Alice.”

  “I also agree with her saying you need to pull your head out of your ass. I don’t think you need to explain that.”

  “Is that you trying to help me?”