“Ulysses… I get it, man…”
Man? I went from kid to man?
“What do you get?” I asked.
“The vibe. Who I am to you. Just some guy showing up in your mother’s life. In your life.”
“You’re not in my life,” I said. “Enjoy your walk.”
“We’re going to have a talk eventually,” Calvin said.
His eyes narrowed.
Like he was talking down to me. Commanding me. Like he wanted to bark at me. Like I was going to grovel before him.
Well… fuck you.
“Let’s talk right now,” I said. “You’re not going to burn any calories on a walk. But you will pacing back and forth as we talk.”
“I don’t pace,” Calvin said. “That’s a sign of weakness. I’m not weak.”
“How did you meet my mother?”
“I don’t have time for this, Ulysses,” Calvin said. “I have my own life and schedule.”
“You want to talk to me but have no time?”
“I’m taking care of your mother,” he said. “And don’t think she hasn’t told me about what happened.”
I curled my lip. “And what does that mean?”
“I know everything, son.”
Back to son now.
“Good for you,” I said.
“I’m guessing there hasn’t been a lot of respect in your life,” Calvin said. “Meaning you giving it. Not so sure of someone standing up to you.”
“Are you standing up to me, Calvin?”
“I’m going to go for my morning jog.”
“You do that,” I said. “Watch for cars. You might get hit.”
Calvin touched the top of my car. “I’ll take that as a threat. I’ll remember that.”
“Calvin, remember something,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“If I wanted to run your ass over, I would just do it,” I said. “And I wouldn’t do it with my car. You’d dent it too much.”
Calvin looked fucking pissed as he hurried away.
At least I got him to actually jog.
I sat back down on the porch steps.
There was probably only thirty more minutes until the sun came up.
And I wasn’t even sure Mara was at the beach house.
There was only one way to find out.
I decided to give her a call and wake her pretty little ass up.
* * *
The phone rang and went to voicemail.
I called again.
Same thing happened.
So I did it again… and again…
I called seven times before telling myself to call just one more time.
As the phone rang for the eighth and final time, the front door to the beach house opened.
Mara stepped out to the porch, her phone in her hand, the screen lit up from my call.
When it went to voicemail, I waited for the voicemail to beep.
Then I said, “Hey, doll, just wanted to see you.”
I ended the call.
Mara stood in short shorts. Really short shorts. And a hoodie that was ripped at the sleeves and the bottom. She looked messy and that messy look matched her messy bed head and that meant my heart was fucking messy too.
“Morning, doll,” I said. “I need to talk to you.”
“I already gave you my answer,” she said. “I can give it without talking. Watch.”
Mara showed me her middle finger.
I grinned. “Why’d you come outside then? How’d you know I was here?”
“I just had a feeling,” she said.
“Meaning you wanted to see me. Meaning you know we have shit to talk about.”
“No, we don’t,” she said. “We agreed to something. I didn’t ask about Belle. You don’t ask about Adam.”
“Oh well,” I said. “I’ll tell you everything about Belle.”
“Right now?”
“Right now,” I said.
Mara moved toward the steps and sat down across from me. She bent her legs and put her hoodie over her knees and pulled it down as far as she could. But believe me, there was plenty of leg left to see.
“I found Belle on the beach,” I said. “Getting harassed by some assholes. Between Hil and I we broke the guy’s jaw and made sure Belle was safe. Ash is attached to all of us. He’s Hil’s stepbrother. I was in a band with Hil. That shit was torn apart by a girl named Penelope. Messy situation there too.”
“So this is your thing?” Mara asked. “You just get involved with messy situations? Girls that are messy?”
“Are you saying you’re messy, doll?” I asked.
“Maybe I am,” Mara said. “You already have your decision made about me. And fuck you for going after Adam.”
“How could I not?” I growled. “I saw everything he wrote to you.”
“What?”
“How do you think I found him?” I asked.
“What did you do?”
“I went through your phone. When you were in the shower. I read the texts and put his number in my phone.”
Mara hurried to stand up.
She looked down at me and I thought she was going to throw her phone at me.
Instead she just spit at me and ran down the porch toward my car.
I jumped up and waited to see if she was going to hit my car or try to break a window or damage it.
Anyone else who even thought about it would have paid dearly.
But not Mara.
I almost felt like daring her to. Just to see what kind of wildness she had hidden inside her.
Like the wildness to cheat?
It made my heart race and not in the same way my heart did when I was kissing her.
But Mara didn’t do anything to my car.
She just stood with her back to me, hugging herself.
I slowly stepped down each step and walked toward her.
I purposely chose right then to light up a cigarette, knowing it was only going to piss her off even more.
After that first drag, I blew the smoke into the air above her head.
She waved her hand to chase the smoke away.
But that wasn’t going to chase me away.
“I saw the way you acted in the hospital, doll,” I said. “And it just stuck with me.”
“Fuck yourself, Uly.”
“I’m trying to tell you the truth.”
“You went through my phone.”
“I looked at your texts to find Adam. I didn’t go through your dirty pictures.”
Mara looked over her shoulder and looked ready to attack. “Please. You only wish that’s what you would have found. You have an image painted of me in your mind and you need to erase it.”
“Why? It’s fun to see how right I am.”
“How right you are?” Mara asked. She started to turn to face me finally. “This isn’t… I’ve known you for a while, Uly. Don’t try to pretend you had a thing for me all along.”
“Fuck no,” I said.
“Wow,” she said.
“Truth, doll.”
“But I’m your rebound girl,” she said. “And if what you did to me was how you treat other girls, no wonder Belle chose Ash.”
That was like taking a knife to the chest.
I lost my breath for a second.
Mara knew how to go for the low blow pretty damn hard.
I smoked my cigarette as she waited for me to attack her back.
But I didn’t.
Instead, I dropped my cigarette and slammed my right foot on it.
I closed in on her, smoke still billowing from my mouth.
Mara pulled back, blinking fast.
“You said he made you feel like trash, doll,” I whispered. “And I wasn’t going to let that stand. If you told me someone did that to you last year, I would have kicked their ass. Two years ago? Same thing.”
“But you said you didn’t have a thing for me all along.”
“I didn’t,” I said.
�
��Then why would you have defended me, Uly?”
“That’s the thing… I don’t know, doll.”
“I don’t know if I want to hit you or kiss you right now.”
I backed away. “Tell you what, Mara. Take your time. I’ll be sitting here watching the sun rise.”
I walked back to the porch steps and sat down.
And we just stared at each other.
Fuck… what was really happening here?
Chapter 11
“Did you make your decision?” I asked.
“Neither,” Mara said. “But I do want to watch the sun rise.”
“Next to me?”
“Nope,” she said.
She moved up to the step above me and sat down.
This was her making her power play at me. Not just telling me to fuck off, but actually showing it.
Sinking her sweet teeth into my heart deeper.
And it was fucking working.
That was the worst part.
I watched the horizon and knew any second we’d see that first flicker of day. Like an old light getting turned on that needed a little bit of time to buzz and work its way into a full light.
“I saw what you did to him,” Mara said.
“What’s that, doll?”
“Someone sent me pictures,” she said. “Of Adam.”
I put my head back and grinned. “Right.”
“You really went after him.”
“Ash and Hil pulled me away. He tried running away and I had to chase him.”
“You caught him?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t easy. That little fucker is quick.”
“He was a track star,” Mara said.
“Was?”
“They stopped the track program,” Mara said. “And he tried to get into bad things. Trying to be a tough guy.”
I let silence fall for a few seconds before I looked back at Mara.
“Is that why you fucked someone else behind his back?” I asked.
Mara swung her foot and kicked me in the ribs. “Asshole.”
“What?”
“What gives you the right to just assume that? Huh? You said you were defending me. You wanted to kick Adam’s ass because of what he said to me. You went through my phone and lied to me and did stuff behind my back. And because he says that to you… you just grab onto it?”
I turned sideways. “I’ve started a lot of fights in my life, doll. Some I should have and some I shouldn’t have. I saw the look on your face when we were in the hospital. Fuck, even the way you talked on the phone. It really bothered you about what happened to my mother. I’m not saying you give a shit about her, but seeing it…” I looked at her. “I couldn’t fix it. But Adam I could fix. Bad enough you have to spend time here and listen to my mother bitch and moan about everything. Then you have to deal with that shit with Adam back at home?”
“Why is your mother the way she is, Uly?”
I laughed. “I can’t answer that. That’s just her. And shit just got worse after my father died. Well, maybe that’s not true. She loved to stir the pot, make drama. When he was alive and after he died. But my mother has nothing to do with what I want to talk about.”
“I know,” Mara said.
“So you’re just trying to fuck with me. Waste time. Thinking you can get me pissed and make me walk away.”
“Maybe.”
“The thing is, you’re right. I would get pissed and walk away. Fuck… you texting me the way you did… I would have been gone. Better yet, I should have tortured you, doll. Made it hell so that you convinced your mother to quit.”
“That’s dark, Uly. Kind of scary too.”
“I’m just saying it like it is.”
“But you didn’t do that. Why?”
I smiled at her.
She knew why.
I knew why.
She wanted me to say it though, right? She wanted to hear the rich bad boy say that he liked her. She wanted me to confess my heart to her and tell her I would always protect her.
Mara gasped. “Look…”
I turned my head and the horizon was starting to glow from the sunrise.
It wasn’t the worst morning in the world then.
Sitting with Mara. Talking and flirting. Watching the sun rise.
Mara leaned down toward me.
She put her chin to my shoulder.
“Uly…”
“Yeah, doll?”
She sighed.
“What Adam said… was true.”
* * *
I moved forward and stood up. “Say that again, doll.”
“I don’t need to,” Mara said.
As I turned to looked at her, she was moving to the top of the porch.
“I beat the shit out of a guy you cheated on? So all the shit he sent to you… that was out of anger. Rightful anger.”
“Did it make the words right to say to me?”
My head and heart were confused.
It was like Mara was becoming a different person right in front of my eyes.
Did it really matter though?
Everyone did things… their past…
“You just assume everything about me,” Mara said. “Look at your face right now, Uly. You just assume I’m the daughter of some broke mother, right? And that we’re struggling. Forced to work for people like your mother so we can survive. And who are you then? The rich asshole son who just does what he wants. And now you’re going to look at me the way you are. Trying to figure me out. You thought you had all the pieces put together. But you didn’t. You don’t. I’m not Belle. I’m Mara. Sorry to let you down, Uly.”
I just stood like my feet were frozen to the ground.
Mara walked to the door.
“Hey, doll,” I called out.
“What?” she asked.
“You’re going to miss the sunrise if you go inside.”
“I’ll see it some other time.”
She opened the door and I finally moved.
“Since I don’t have all the pieces to the puzzle, can I take a guess that you love hot coffee and something sugary. I’m going to guess cinnamon rolls.”
“What’s your point?”
“I’m hungry. You’re hungry. I’m tired. You’re tired.”
“Uly…”
“Get in the fucking car, Mara,” I said.
“What?”
“I’m buying you breakfast. We’re bailing on class. And I’m going to drive you crazy.”
“You already are,” Mara said.
I walked to my car and got behind the wheel.
Mara didn’t make a move for a few seconds.
Her eyes moved from the sunrise to me, back and forth.
She moved from the door to the porch steps.
I smiled as she walked down the steps.
She lifted both middle fingers at me and walked that way to my car.
I couldn’t stop smiling.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what she told me.
I couldn’t stop falling for her.
* * *
I was right.
I didn’t say a word about it though.
Coffee and cinnamon rolls were her go to in the morning.
That drove me a little bit crazy to know that about her.
I drove to the beach and I put the windows down in my car and sat with her.
Mara put her feet up on the dashboard and ate her cinnamon roll and drank her coffee.
I smoked a cigarette.
We watched the ocean.
So many pieces of each other we just assumed or wanted to hide.
All of it waiting to surface… or…
Come crashing to the shore.
“How do you write songs, Uly?” Mara asked.
“What?”
“Where do you get them from?”
“I don’t know, doll. They just kind of happen.”
“How?”
“I just strum my guitar and see what happens,” I said. “As for lyrics,
I just go with whatever is happening. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s bad. And then I make it all work.”
I studied Mara’s face.
She kept her eyes out to the ocean.
If I was an artist I would have traced her in my mind to never forget her.
And here I thought all along it was Belle that was going to leave me twisted.
Mara had done something amazing…
She made me forget about Belle for a few seconds.
Shit, she made me forget about BFH.
Mara sipped her coffee. “That’s exactly how I think of it too.”
“What’s that, doll?”
“We were kind of rich once,” she said. “My father had money. We were doing okay. And then we weren’t. He got himself all messed up and left us. And Mom is strong. She never lets herself fail. So she just picked up and kept going. Not sure why that matters right now, but I wanted to tell you that. And I did. So there it is.”
“Okay,” I said. “That explains a lot about your mother.”
“Yeah, well, it goes deeper,” she said. “But I’m using this as a cheap excuse. For what I really did. And what Adam really did. Because I was wrong, Uly. I was really wrong. When he decided to become this bad boy, I wanted in on it. If I was going to be poor and struggle, then I wanted to go as dark as I could. So I went with Adam. And it was okay. But there was this other guy. Les.” Mara looked at me. “Brooks Crest…”
I gritted my teeth. “You’re joking.”
“No,” Mara said. “And believe me, Uly, it wasn’t anything. He was just the baddest of the bad. That’s where they all are. Brooks Crest.”
“Trust me, doll, I know all about BC,” I said.
“Adam kind of bumped into those guys a few times. Nothing serious though. But Les was just… he was like the real version of Adam. And he just kind of came after me. He found ways to call me. And it was always from a different number. He was just wild and dark and bad. And I knew it.”
“So you and Les…”
I felt myself wanting to get sick.
It was as bad as if she said she hooked up with someone from the Rulz or fucking HCH.
Brooks Crest was no joke though. She could have gotten really hurt if she got in too deep.
“It’s not what you think, Uly,” she said. “I’m just always amazed how everyone thinks of me. Half the time people think I’m this dorky girl who’s smart and going to make her own way. Other times I’m this dirty, flat chested girl whose mother is a maid for rich people.”
ULY (Bay Falls High - Them Book 1) Page 10
