A whole other side of Uly, huh, doll?
Hil went right into another song.
And I went with him.
We played a few of the songs that everyone loved.
Then we played the new one just for the hell of it.
It wasn’t ready and it was far from perfect, but it worked.
When we were finished, I walked off the stage with my guitar in hand.
Hil trailed behind me.
Everyone clapped and kept clapping.
Even cheering. Calling our names.
Until I finally waved my middle finger at the crowd.
That only made them laugh, but it did make them all quiet down.
The crappy cafe music played through the speakers as Hil and I walked to the back of the cafe.
Ash and Belle were there, all tied up in each other.
“That was awesome, you two,” Belle said.
“Thanks, beauty,” Hil said. “My offer still stands… I’ll autograph your chest.”
“I’m good,” Belle said. Then she looked at me. “Are you good?”
I stuck my guitar out toward Ash. “Toss this in my car for me. I have to go do something.”
“I’m not your fucking servant,” Ash said.
“Fuck it,” I said.
I dropped the guitar to the floor.
“Uly!” Belle cried out. She picked up the guitar.
I turned and walked away from Them and Belle.
As I got closer to the crowd of people I saw Aaron and Jasmine.
That made me pause for a moment.
Jasmine looked like a fucking mess. It was like Aaron was propping her up.
He looked at me and quickly looked away.
I felt someone touch my arm.
I pulled away and turned to see Mara standing next to me.
“Hey,” she said.
“Shit, doll, hey,” I said.
I hurried to hug her.
My arms wrapped around her.
She hugged me back.
It was too long of a hug for a quick hello.
I broke away and Mara looked around. “This is cool here. And you and Hil sounded so good. I mean… that was beyond amazing. I had no idea…”
“Come here,” I said.
I grabbed her hand and walked her toward the back of the cafe.
Belle was still holding my guitar. Ash had his arm around her.
Hil ran a hand through his hair and grinned when he saw Mara.
“Hey there, beauty,” he said. “Come back to finish what we started the other night?”
I stepped toward Hil.
He showed his hands. “I’m fucking around, Uly. Calm your ass down. I’m going to steal Jasmine’s drugged up heart.”
“Hil, don’t say it like that,” Belle said.
“Then what do I say?” Hil asked.
“I guess he’s right, angel,” Ash said. “We’re doing this to save her.”
“You’re doing it to be Them,” Belle said.
“We don’t need that shit in BFH,” I said.
“That’s why I’m going to take care of it,” Hil said.
“Hey, Hil,” Mara said. “That was a good show.”
Hil grinned. “If you want the real show, meet me back here when you ditch Uly.”
The part that pissed me off the most was that Mara could have met up with Hil. She could have met up with Adam. She could have met up with any guy she wanted. We weren’t a thing. We weren’t even close to a thing.
But having her stand next to me while I watched Belle and Ash together… it eased the tension.
“Here’s your guitar,” Belle said.
“Thanks, doll,” I said. “Are we sticking around here?”
“I’m not,” Ash said. “Let Hil do his thing. Either he’ll get the info from Jasmine or he and Aaron will get into a fight.”
“I feel bad for Aaron,” I said.
Belle touched her chest. “You feel bad for someone?” She looked at Mara. “What are you doing to him?”
Mara laughed.
I curled my lip. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant that he’s going to get his ass kicked no matter what happens here. And Jasmine…”
I looked back and saw Hil getting closer to her. I wasn’t sure how he was going to get rid of Aaron. If I had to guess, he would say whatever to get Aaron away from Jasmine. Or just simply threaten him.
Whatever it was… it was Hil’s thing to do.
I moved my eyes to Mara as she stared up at me.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” I said back.
“So…”
I nodded. “Want to do something crazy with me tonight, doll?”
Mara didn’t hesitate.
“Yes.”
* * *
She followed me to the beach.
I knew every side road. Every secret road. Every hidden path.
We ended up going down a pebble-laced road and I stopped once we were hidden enough from the main road and the world.
I got out of my car and lit a cigarette.
Then I grabbed my guitar from the backseat and I waited for Mara.
She hurried toward me, her hands tucked into the sleeves of her hoodie again.
She smiled and bounced toward me.
Then she froze when she saw my cigarette.
“What?” I asked.
“I hate that,” she said.
“Good thing I don’t have to worry about what you hate, doll.”
“Next time I’m bringing mustard.”
“Mustard?”
“Yeah,” she said. “You said you hated mustard. Remember?”
“Oh, that’s right,” I said. “Thanks for remembering.”
Fuck me… what am I doing right now?
I had my guitar in one hand and my cigarette in the other.
That meant no worry or chance of me holding Mara’s hand as I walked down to the beach.
This part of the beach was really cool to hang on.
There were giant rocks that went down to the water. And old chunks of wood that just sat in the sand like they were always meant to be there.
I picked the first one I could get to and I sat down.
My guitar in my lap.
Wishing it was Mara in my lap.
She sat next to me, but with some distance.
“Do you want an update on your mother?” Mara asked.
“I thought you weren’t going to do that,” I said. “Last time you tore me apart…”
“Sorry about that,” she said. “I just…”
Mara looked scared.
I leaned toward her. “What’s wrong, doll? Is she being mean to you again?”
“No,” Mara said. “She’s been okay. Just the whole situation is crazy.”
“What’s that? What situation? Her leg? Who cares?”
“It’s a big deal.”
“How? Did something happen I don’t know about? Was she drinking?”
“Probably,” Mara said. “I mean, I don’t know. I was just minding my own business. Sorry to even bring it up.”
“Hey, if you want to talk about it, then spill some dirt on this Calvin guy,” I said. “I don’t think my mother has ever had a boyfriend before. Or at least one I know about.”
“He’s a rich asshole, Uly,” Mara said. “And I hate him.”
“Is he mean to you like my mother is?” I asked.
Mara moved her eyes to my guitar. “Are you going to play that for me here?”
“Thinking about it.”
“Then do it,” she said.
I got rid of my cigarette, burying it in the sand with my foot.
I strummed the guitar.
Playing for Mara…
“I don’t get how it all works with you guys,” Mara said. “You hate each other… sort of?”
“Complicated,” I said. “We make it work.”
“What was Hil doing to that girl?”
“Worried or jealous?”
“I could ask you the same,” Mara said.
I gritted my teeth. “See, doll, she’s got herself into some trouble and we’re going to help her. That’s what we do. Are we nice? No. But it’s part of protecting who we are.”
“So you’re the bad guys who pretend to be the heroes.”
“Best kind to be,” I said.
Mara smiled.
I strummed my guitar again.
I started playing something random. Figuring out a sound.
When I picked up on something that worked, I went with it.
I even decided to throw some lyrics behind it.
For the hell of it.
There’s this girl who sits on the porch
She hides her hands and flips through a book
Lost in a song that I can’t hear
But I know what it is just by her look
She swings her feet to the steps and stands up
Smiles at the sun and turns her back to the sea
She doesn’t care about her hair or the way she looks
All in all it’s time to tell her the truth and what can be
I stopped playing and shrugged my shoulders.
“Not bad,” I said. “I’m sure Hil would want to get in on it and scream over the lyrics like he always wants to do. Or I could scream them too.”
Mara grabbed my guitar and pulled it away from me.
“What are you trying to prove, Uly?” she asked.
“What?”
“All of this… it’s about Belle, isn’t it? The way you were looking at her. And then that time you brought her to meet your mother. There was something there. And no saying she’s with Ash.”
“Your point?”
“Just tell me what I am then.”
“If I called you a rebound, would you hate me? If I told you a part of me wanted to break your heart the way mine feels broken, would you hate me? Or better yet, the part that wants to break your heart is overrun by the part that wants to actually give a damn about your heart. Because I think I just want you as a distraction.”
“Wow, you are such an asshole, Uly,” Mara said. She grabbed my shirt. “Everything you just said though? Same for me.”
“Same for you?”
“Exact same,” she whispered.
I leaned toward her. “So then we agree to break each other’s heart?”
“Yeah, sure,” Mara said.
“I’m not going to stop smoking, doll,” I said. “Deal with it.”
“You can make it up to me in other ways,” Mara said.
I kissed her.
I tossed my guitar to the sand and touched her face.
My fingers dug into the back of her hair.
I kissed her like I had been wanting to.
Making out on the beach like two crazy people. Like we weren’t allowed to be together. Maybe we weren’t supposed to be together. But we knew what we wanted from each other.
A little bit of a rebound, right?
She knew I had been dealing with some shit with Belle.
And I figured her situation had to be that Adam guy.
Anger tried to push through me but the taste of her mouth threw that away.
When the kiss stopped, we sat there, facing each other.
My guitar in the sand.
The ocean next to us.
In a subtle way, I wondered something…
Why didn’t this happen sooner?
Chapter 8
I didn’t even attempt to catch some sleep until Mara texted me to tell me she was home safe. Not at my mother’s house either. She went home to the apartment she lived in with her mother. I would have sat up all night and smoked cigarettes and texted her but she must have passed out because the texts stopped.
As I stood with my sunglasses on, leaning against a locker, waiting for Belle and Them, I played out the night in my head fifty times. And not the music part either. I wasn’t worried about that. Hil and I were good at what we did.
I wasn’t even thinking of my classes either.
All the work was done. And perfect.
The only shitty part was Lake getting in the middle of things, wanting me to continue my education. Wanting me to take how smart I was and do something good with it. It was easy for anyone to tell you what to do. Their dreams weren’t my dreams. Someone suggested I was smart enough to shoot rockets into space and find new planets.
I was good on the planet where I had lived my entire life.
And now with Mara fucking things up almost as much as Belle did…
I smiled to myself.
Maybe I should find another planet to live on. One without Mara. Or Belle. Or Penelope. Or Them.
“Hey, Uly, can I get into my locker, please?”
I lifted my sunglasses and stared at a girl with bright blonde hair, brighter blue eyes, and the longer I stared, the redder her cheeks became.
“What do you need out of there, doll?” I asked.
“My trig book.”
“What do you think of it?”
“Trig? I hate it.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Can’t move though.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I just don’t feel like it.”
“Uly, please,” she said. “I’ve never done anything wrong to you. Or Them. Please.”
“Feel like begging on your knees?” I asked.
“Are you serious?”
“I like girls with dirty knees, doll.”
Her face was now bright red.
I pushed from the locker and growled under my breath.
“You’re lucky today,” I said.
I walked away.
The girl called me an asshole.
Which I was.
I didn’t even know her name.
I walked down the hall and spotted Aaron and Jasmine.
She was wearing sunglasses and was hugging her books.
Leaning against a wall.
Aaron facing her.
The poor guy looked beaten to hell already.
I heard a whistle and turned my head and saw Hil.
He motioned for the door and we went outside.
We smoked as he filled me in on the night.
“Didn’t get shit out of Jas,” Hil said. “Didn’t have much time. Or a chance.”
“What happened with Aaron?” I asked.
“He won’t step away for a second,” Hil said. “I was going to drop him right there but I got annoyed, so I left.”
“You were supposed to get the name,” I said.
“Oh well.”
“It’s not oh well, Hil,” I said.
“Then you fucking do it,” Hil said. “You were the one on stage then taking your girlfriend out of there for the rest of the night. Why the fuck is this shit on my back?”
“Wait a second,” I said. “Mara is not my girlfriend. And you offered to flirt with Jas.”
“Right. Not with Aaron.”
I flicked my cigarette to the ground and ripped open the door.
I found Aaron and Jasmine in the same spot in the hallway.
Tired and pissed off, I grabbed Aaron by the shirt and threw him against the lockers.
He tried to take a swing at me, but I got out of the way.
I hit him in the stomach once and he dropped to one knee.
“Fuck,” he groaned.
“Get up,” I said to him. I pushed him against the lockers again. “You want to fix this? Stay out of our way. Let Hil do what he needs to do.”
“What’s that? Use Jasmine like he does every other girl he meets?”
“He’s not going to do that…”
Shit, I don’t know what he’d actually do. If he and Jas start flirting and things take that kind of turn…
“This is what we’re doing,” I said to Aaron.
I looked back and Jasmine had her sunglasses off. She looked like a fucking zombie.
“Uly…”
I looked at Aaron again. “You wanted our help and now you’re getti
ng it. Our way. You don’t get to stand in the fucking way. Got that?”
Aaron stared with disgust. “I should have never said a thing.”
“Desperate times, my man,” I said. “Now we own you. And your girl. I can probably keep Hil at a PG-13 with Jasmine. But that’s up to her, of course.”
“Fuck you,” Aaron said.
He tried to push at me and I slammed him against the locker harder.
I stepped back and punched him in the jaw.
It sent him spinning down a few lockers.
When I turned and saw Jasmine looking at me, I shook my head.
I walked up to her. “Sorry you lost yourself, doll. But we’re going to get you back.”
That was all I had to say.
Hil stood in the doorway, done with his cigarette.
He slowly started to clap for me.
I pushed by him and just kept going.
“Where the fuck are you going?” he yelled to me.
“I have somewhere to be,” I yelled back.
“What the fuck, Uly?”
I stopped and turned. “I did what you couldn’t do. I got Aaron to back off. Now take your run at Jasmine and get the fucking name. If Aaron gets in the way, drop his ass. Or let me know and I’ll come back and do it.”
Hil grinned. “Tell my sweet Mara I said hello.”
I gritted my teeth and didn’t say anything back.
How the fuck did he know I was going to see Mara?
* * *
Because you never rush away from BFH like that, Uly.
Of course I knew the fucking answer to my own question. I thought about it the entire time I drove down to my mother’s beach house.
It was all to see Mara.
That sense of need.
Which was a little freeing since we both understood we were in some ways just using each other. And if I had it my way we both wouldn't talk about what happened. She didn’t need to know the full story of Belle and I didn’t need to know the full story of Adam.
Bullshit…
I wanted to know everything.
I smoked two cigarettes on the drive down and sprayed myself with some of the douchey smelling spray shit out of a can. I had it in the middle console in case my car had a bad smell to it.
And I was spraying myself so I didn’t reek of smoke near Mara.
Dammit.
I pulled down the road and parked the car.
I noticed a book on the porch and hurried to get to it before Mara appeared.
ULY (Bay Falls High - Them Book 1) Page 7
