“Am I?”
I don’t give her a chance to answer.
I walk back to my car and wait for her.
When she gets into the passenger seat, she looks at the middle console.
I smile. “Go ahead, Jolie.”
“What?” she asks.
“Open it,” I say. “I know you want to check.”
She hesitates.
I open the middle console.
There’s a gun there.
Of course there is.
It needs to be there.
Jolie looks at the gun then at me.
“I know that bothered you when you saw it the first time,” I say.
“And there it is again.”
“It’s not going away. I’m not going to hide it.”
“Why, Mac?”
“What do you think it’s used for?”
Jolie shakes her head. “I don’t want to think about it.”
“Then you have a choice to make, sweetie. You see the gun. It’s not going anywhere. You can get out of my car and get back into your car and leave. Go home, call Violet. Tell her to bring some chocolate over and you two can sit there and talk. Tell her she was right. She’ll tell you she was sorry for bringing you here to begin with. You two hug. And that’s that. Of course, in my fantasy, you two hugging is just where things begin…” I wink at Jolie.
“What’s the other choice?” Jolie asks.
“You close the middle console and realize that what I’ve said all along is true. I’m protecting you. I want you next to me right now. And I don’t plan on bringing you back to your car in a few hours either.”
Jolie turned her head away from me.
She looks out the window.
And my offer is true.
I’m not going to lock the door and drive away with her in the car.
That’s not my thing.
I wait.
I have no problem waiting for Jolie.
And I don’t normally wait for anyone.
We sit in silence and I’m half tempted to put on some music, but I don’t want to mess with her train of thought.
So I wait. And I watch.
Jolie finally makes a move.
Her left hand reaches behind her.
She doesn’t turn her head to look though.
She closes the middle console and reaches for the seatbelt.
Then she faces forward and takes a deep breath.
I guess we’re still hanging out, sweetie, right?
The ambulance is gone when I pass the skatepark.
And it looks busy again.
My best guess is whoever overdosed is still partying too.
That’s just how it goes in that wild life.
I don’t bother to slow. I want that shit in the rearview mirror and gone as fast as possible.
“Mac, where are we going?” Jolie finally asks.
“We’re going to jump out of a plane tonight.”
“What?”
I laugh. “I’m joking. I’m debating between the rocks and taking you to BC.”
Jolie looks at me.
She doesn’t say anything.
“Do you have a preference, sweetie?” I ask.
“The rocks…”
“What Van talked about,” I say. “It’s an amazing spot to look at the stars.”
“You don’t look at the stars ever, do you?”
“No,” I say. I smile. “I don’t give a fuck about the stars.”
“Then…”
“You can’t stop thinking about the pieces you’re finding,” I say. “What happened with that cop. That I have a warehouse full of expensive rides. That I was pissed off on the phone. That I have a gun in my car. That I know some dirty secrets about the skate park and what happens there. So maybe if I get you on the rocks and you look at the stars and see what’s all around you, it won’t seem so heavy. Life outside the gates is wild shit, sweetie.”
“The gates?” Jolie asks.
“Where you grew up. Spoiled rich. Pampered. I bet you had your own personal chef too. And if you showed any interest in something, your parents paid top dollar for lessons and equipment or whatever was needed for it.”
“Is that your plan, Mac? To make fun of my life? What’s that going to get you?”
“I’m just saying things,” I say. “Only you know the truth.”
“And you never wanted to do something fun?”
“My kind of fun is different than yours,” I say.
Jolie curls her lip. “I don’t care about the stars either, Mac. That’s not romantic to me. Plus, it’s cloudy tonight. You can’t see any stars.”
“Which means you were looking for the stars,” I say. “So you just lied to me.”
“I didn’t lie to you,” Jolie says. “You know, I’m really starting to question why I showed up. Twice.”
“Twice,” I say, holding up two fingers. “Remember that. Twice. Meaning the intrigue is eating you alive.”
“Or maybe I’m just bored,” she says.
“You’re not bored with a friend like Violet,” I say. “She’s the one who gets you into trouble. You need her for that spark your life doesn’t have.”
“You are such an asshole,” Jolie says.
“Want me to turn around and take you home?” I ask her.
She doesn’t respond.
And a no response is a no.
And since Jolie is nice enough to point out that there are clouds, then there doesn’t seem to be much of a reason to go to the rocks.
Even though I’m not planning on taking her there to look at the stars.
Still… I want her to have some fun tonight.
So we’re going to go to BC and look for fun… or trouble.
I hold her hand and we walk toward my house.
In the still of the night you can hear the faint sounds of music from other houses and parties.
It’s calm, cool, comfortable to be with her.
We take a detour and I walk her through one of the parks. There’s a bunch of them throughout BC. Anything to give it more appeal and not look like a glorified prison.
I see two people sitting at the base of a big tree.
Listening to some jazz sounding shit music.
One with a notebook.
The other holding a flashlight.
Reading poetry back and forth.
They look at me.
“Mac…”
I give a wave.
They’re both feeling good, writing poetry, reading poetry, all because of me.
“Everyone who sees you looks scared of you,” Jolie says. “Yet they still talk to you.”
“That’s called power,” I say to her.
“Power… why? How?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I say. “It’s just the way it goes around here. Someone has to run the place.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
I then spot Davis and I point.
He’s sitting on a table, wearing his black clothes with his black hair and sunglasses on his face even though it’s nighttime.
He’s smoking a cigarette very slowly, staring off into nothing.
“Who is that?” Jolie whispers.
“You’ll like this,” I say. “Come on.”
She squeezes my hand with hesitation.
I stop and turn to face her.
My left hand slides against her cheek. “You do not need to be afraid when you’re with me. Ever. And if you feel scared, you tell me. And whoever is making you feel that way… they’ll disappear.”
Jolie swallows hard.
She wants to ask what happens if I’m the one who makes her scared.
Which is a valid question.
But one I won’t answer.
I walk her to Davis and snap my fingers at him.
He looks at me. “Mac.”
“Need you to do something for my girl,” I say.
Davis takes his sunglasses off. He puts his cigarette out. “Anything for you
, Mac.”
I look at Jolie and smile. “Get ready for this.”
“What’s happening?” Jolie asks.
Davis opens his long jacket and Jolie steps back.
She’s fucking paranoid.
When Davis takes out a deck of cards, Jolie looks at me.
I nod. “Just watch.”
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Davis says to Jolie. “What’s your name?”
“Jolie,” she says.
“And your boyfriend… what’s his name?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she says.
I smirk.
“You’re with someone right now,” Davis says.
“Mac? He’s not…”
“Mac,” Davis says. “So we have Jolie and Mac together. What’s your lucky number?”
“I don’t have one,” Jolie says.
“So you don’t believe in luck, superstition, or magic, do you?”
“I don’t know,” she says.
“Well… tonight you will.” Davis shuffles the cards and spreads them open with one hand. “Pick a card, Jolie. Then look at it. Show Mac. I’ll turn my head away. Memorize it.”
Jolie picks a card.
She shows it to me.
Ten of hearts.
“Okay,” Jolie says.
“Put it back in the deck,” Davis says. Jolie does. “Now I’m shuffling without looking…”
Davis shuffles the deck while his head is turned.
Then he drops the cards.
“Fuck,” he says. “I dropped the cards.”
He crouches down and hurries to scoop them all up.
Then he smiles as he shuffles the deck.
His hands move fast.
“Now what?” Jolie says.
“We go through the deck and find your card,” Davis says.
And then one by one, he shows Jolie each card, asking if it’s her card.
I smile because that’s part of the trick.
And it annoys Jolie.
That’s the point.
Davis goes through the entire deck… with the exception of one card.
“What card am I missing?” Davis asks.
Jolie’s eyes go wide. “Whoa.”
“What?” Davis asks.
“Ten of hearts,” Jolie says. “That’s my card…”
“And it’s missing?” Davis asks.
“Oh, shit,” I say. “That’s not good.”
“Wait a second,” Davis says. “I dropped the cards. I bet you’re standing on it, Jolie.”
“I didn’t move my feet,” she says.
“Just look under your left foot…”
Jolie moves her left foot and there’s a card face down.
She gasps.
“No way,” I say.
“There’s your card,” Davis says. He bends down and grabs it. “But… it’s dirty…”
He flicks his fingers and turns the card around.
Not only is it the ten of hearts, it has my name and Jolie’s name written in black marker on it with a heart around it.
“How?” Jolie asks.
“Magic,” Davis says.
“Magic,” I say with a bigger grin.
“I don’t know what to say,” Jolie says. “I’m impressed and freaked out.”
Davis climbs back up on the table and puts his sunglasses back on.
I put my fist out and nod to him.
He hits my fist. “Don’t forget about me.”
“I won’t,” I say.
I grab for Jolie’s hand and I hurry to get her away.
But she’s not dumb.
She’s still holding the card in her hand when she looks at me. “What did he mean by don’t forget about me?”
“Nothing,” I say.
“Mac…”
“Sweetie, just hear me on that,” I say. “Some things aren’t in your best interest to know.”
“You mean some things aren’t in your best interest in telling me.”
“That too,” I say.
Jolie tries to hand me the card from Davis.
“I don’t want that,” I say. “That’s yours. Keep it somewhere safe.”
She tucks it into her back pocket.
“So you don’t care about the stars but you care about magic?” Jolie asks.
The grin on her face tells me everything.
She’s picking on me.
I look at her. “No. I just wanted to impress you.”
“Impress me? You think magic is going to impress me?”
“I don’t know, sweetie. Violence and mayhem doesn’t. So I went a different route.”
“And you don’t have anything in the middle for me?” Jolie asks.
“The middle is boring,” I say.
“But what if I like boring?”
I stop walking and pull Jolie closer to me.
“If you liked boring you wouldn’t be here with me,” I whisper.
“Or maybe I’m so used to boring I wanted to see what something else was like. To remind me of why I live the way I live.”
“And when I look at you, I remind myself why I live the way I live,” I say back.
“Did you just insult me?” Jolie asks.
“Do you feel insulted?”
“I don’t know what I feel right now, Mac.”
I smile.
I know what I want to make her feel…
12
The house is busy with a party.
Raf is talking to some girl and basically has her cornered.
She’s mesmerized by him.
Aric and Maura are all over each other. Until Maura sees me. She stops kissing Aric and stares at me.
When she sees Jolie with me, she looks sad.
Poor thing…
I go into the kitchen where Les and Taz are making sure everyone is properly taken care of. Taz is the drink man. Les is the man for something else. But only if he can trust you. And I trust him to make sure anyone who has some fun doesn’t get out of hand.
The back door slides open and Ado walks in, his arm around a girl.
“Mac, hey,” he says to me.
“You’re Mac?” the girl asks.
“The one and only,” I say.
“Hey,” she says with a big smile. She wiggles away from Ado. “I needed to see you in person. I needed to… touch…”
I look at Jolie. “Are you going to let her touch me?”
“What?” Jolie asks.
The girl slides her hand up my arm.
I smile. “I’m serious, sweetie. What are you going to do about this?”
Jolie’s face turns white.
The girl’s hand is at my shoulder and then at my chest.
She then digs her nails into my neck and jumps up to her toes.
I look at Ado and he’s pissed.
“Sorry, bro,” I say. “I think she used you.”
The girl looks back at Ado. “I totally did. But don’t go too far. I might still need you.”
“Why would you need him if you have me?” I ask the girl.
Jolie rips her hand away from me.
“Yeah, I’m out of here,” Jolie announces.
“Bye, bitch,” the girl says. “You couldn’t handle him anyway.”
“And you can?” I ask the girl.
Now, listen, before you get all pissy and hate me for what I’m doing, there isn’t a chance in hell that this girl is getting anything from me other than a tingling feeling between her legs. Which will then be used to Ado’s advantage. So if anything, I’m a fucking hero right now. I’m making sure my boy Ado gets his night.
Okay?
Good.
I look for Jolie and she’s on the move.
I then look at Les and nod.
He quickly moves and blocks Jolie’s way.
She almost crashes into him.
She jumps back and puts her hands up.
The girl is now clawing at my shirt.
I’m pretty sure if I told her to get on her k
nees she would have. Right in the middle of the party.
Goddamn.
Les says something to Jolie.
She looks back at me.
I wink at her.
Then I point to the girl as she sniffs my shirt.
And I mean like… pressing her nose to my chest, taking breaths, and groaning.
Fuck, she’s going to get off right now.
Jolie turns and runs away from Les.
The second she’s out of sight, I have to move.
“Ado, get your new toy off of me,” I say. “I’m done with her.”
The girl steps back. “What did you say?”
“Sorry, sweetie, you’re more suited for Ado anyway,” I say.
The girl tries to swing a hand at me but I’m already out of the way.
I point to Taz and then to the girl.
She’s gotta go.
And I have to find Jolie.
I run through the house and outside to find Jolie racing down the sidewalk away from the large house.
I know yelling for her won’t do shit so I have to catch up to her.
When I do, I touch her waist and she throws her elbows at me.
“Don’t fucking come near me, Mac,” she yells. “You’re a fucking psycho.”
“No, I’m not,” I say. “I just want to see what you can handle. You’ve never stuck up for yourself once in your life I bet.”
Jolie stops and turns.
She swings and hits me with half of a fist. Which is more nail than fist.
My cheek burns and I can feel the throb from where her nails got me.
Her eyes are glossy and she looks ready to explode.
“What is wrong with you?” she asks.
“What did I do wrong?”
“That girl was practically trying to fuck you right in front of me,” Jolie yells.
“So? We’re not together, right?”
“What?” She scoffs. “You did that because of what I said to that guy? That you’re not my boyfriend? Are you fucking serious?”
“There it is,” I say. “Look at you getting mad, sweetie. Come on. Let it out. Stand up for yourself.”
“You know what, Mac? I will. I’ll stand up and leave. Goodbye. Go find that fucking slut and enjoy yourself.”
“It’s just part of the gig.”
“The gig?”
“It’s my life. Can’t handle it? Then do something about it.”
Jolie shook her head. “I’m leaving.”
“Good,” I say. I reach into my pocket. “Take my car. Leave it near yours. I’ll get a ride in the morning to pick it up.”
Mess You Up (Brooks Crest Book 1) Page 10
