“What about my mother? She’s not rich…”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Whatever it costs and takes…”
“Relax,” Caly said. “We have the pictures of Uly’s cuts from the knife. The knife was covered in Calvin’s fingerprints. And he admitted to going after Uly with a knife. He said he came looking for more pills and Uly confronted him and he pulled out a knife and went after him. They struggled, Calvin cut Uly twice, and then as they got close to the steps, Paula saw what was happening and tried to break it up. When she did, Calvin lost his footing and fell down the stairs.”
“So what does that mean?” Mara asked.
“It means your mother is going to be fine,” Caly said. “This entire case is built against Calvin. His patterns. His threats. He’s desperate to be protected too. The man is a psycho piece of shit who owes six figures in illegal gambling debt. He knows the second he’s in jail, he’s done.”
“So why didn’t he fight back?” Mara asked. “Why…”
“He wants protection, doll,” I said.
“Is he going to get it?” Mara asked.
Caly folded her arms. “I’m a mean cunt, sweetie, and any man who puts his hands on a woman… he deserves whatever he gets. His ass is going to sit in jail. Or maybe he won’t be able to sit…”
Mara’s face looked shocked.
“So what now?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Caly said. “Just wanted to give you an update. You can go back to your studying…”
Caly pointed to the book flipped over on the floor.
“I’ve been studying really hard,” I said with a grin.
“Good for you,” Caly said. “I’ll send my bill over via email. Payment is always due in thirty minutes or less.”
“I thought it was thirty days?” I called out.
Caly walked to the door and looked back. “Have you fucking met me, Ulysses? Pay up in thirty minutes or else.” She opened the door. “Oh, and whatever friend of yours… the one in the leather jacket… if he ever gets on one knee in front of me again, tell him I’m going to kick him so hard in the face even his mother will think he’s ugly.”
Fucking Hil.
When Caly left the room, it was finally quiet.
I turned to face Mara and gently touched her face.
“I told you it was going to work out,” I said.
“Because of money,” Mara whispered.
“So what? It’s done now. We’re okay now.”
Mara nodded. Her eyes filled with tears.
“Hey, doll, it’s okay,” I whispered. “You can talk to someone, you know? I’m in your corner. This has been crazy. It’s been hell. And it’s done. But that doesn’t mean what happened is just going to vanish.”
“I know,” Mara said. “I was just so scared I was going to lose everything. You… I don’t ever want to lose you, Uly.”
“Then don’t. Keep your eyes open. Right on me. And you have nothing to ever worry about.”
I kissed her slowly and gently.
Making my heart race wildly again.
“I should get back to studying,” Mara whispered.
“You should get back to wearing that blanket,” I said.
“Why? So you can be an asshole like Hil and make comments about me dropping the blanket?”
“Exactly,” I said. “That a problem?”
“Why don’t I just skip the blanket all together?”
I moved my hands from Mara’s face to her waist.
I pulled her close and sighed. “I knew I loved you for a good reason.”
Mara pushed me away. “Yeah, whatever.”
“I’m going to go grab a smoke,” I said. “When I come back I’ll be ready to study you… hard…”
Mara didn’t say a word. She walked to her bag on the bed and took out a packet of mustard. She ripped the corner off and held it up near her mouth.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“That’s the deal,” she said.
If I smoked a cigarette, she would put mustard on her lips.
To fuck with me.
It wasn’t enough to make me stop smoking.
But it was enough to make me fall in love with her more and more each day.
Chapter 23
Epilogue
And as you fell down the stairs, tripping with your pain, screaming once again, thinking you were going to get away with this… I’d chase you through the night, make you face the mirror, so nothing else is clear, this is what you’ve done to everyone…
The words bounced around in my head as the cafe erupted into applause for Hil and I.
“I’m single, he’s not,” Hil said in the mic while pointing to me.
Then he walked off the stage.
I followed him off the stage.
It was never easy to get used to people wanting to talk to me about music.
Hil and I had been playing more shows and things were starting to get popular again.
The allure of our secret shows, plus new songs, on top of the reputation of Them, it was swelling… the attention was getting pretty crazy.
But my eyes looked for Mara.
She came walking from behind the counter.
She had gotten to know Aya, who owned the cafe.
Turned out that Mara wasn’t just book smart, but also business smart.
She started helping Aya grow the cafe’s business.
In return, Mara was able to use the cafe anytime she wanted to study and get away from me.
Mara threw her arms around me and I hugged her back.
“That was a good show,” Belle said from next to us.
Ash gave me a nod too.
“Thanks,” I said.
Hil leaned against the counter with a whole group of girls around him.
“Let’s go to the beach,” Belle said. “Let’s stay up all night and just hang out.”
“I’m in for that,” Mara said.
“I’m not doing the double date thing,” I said.
“Neither am I,” Ash said.
“Fine,” Belle said. She reached for Mara’s hand and pulled her close. “Then we’ll go.”
“What?” I asked.
Mara kissed Belle’s cheek. “Isn’t it obvious? We’re just using you two… for your money… so we can secretly be together.”
“Duh,” Belle said.
I looked at Ash.
Then I looked at Mara.
I smiled. “I’m okay with that.”
“As long as we can watch,” Ash said.
Both Mara and Belle shook their heads at Ash and I.
Sometimes you just had to embrace your inner Hil and run with it.
Ash grabbed Belle’s hand and pulled her back to him.
I did the same with Mara.
“Hey, did I tell you Mom got a new job?” Mara asked.
“No,” I said.
“Yeah. She’s working with two families now.”
“I told you Caly would have hired her in a heartbeat.”
“Mom said no. She wanted to be away from… everything.”
“You mean me.”
“Not you. Just your life.”
“Right,” I said.
“She likes you though,” Mara said. “I think.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not losing sleep over it. And good for her. I’m glad she’s away from my mother.”
“Uly…”
“No, it’s good. Everyone gets to start over. My mother is using her leg again. Everything is working out just fine.”
“And when was the last time you saw her?”
“I’m not worried about it,” I said. “It’s the way it’s always been and that’s fine by me. I’m happy, doll. I have you. I have my music again.”
“You have Ash and Hil. And Belle.”
“I’m not all that excited about Them,” I said with a wink.
“You’re such a dork, Uly,” Mara said.
“Right. I’m the dork. You’re the one with your fac
e buried in a book all the time.”
“You should try it.”
“I’d rather bury my face somewhere else.”
Mara shook her head. “I knew you were going to say that.”
“And you’re still standing here.”
“Sometimes I’m not sure why.”
“Hey, want to know something?”
“What?” Mara asked.
“My mother hired someone else to babysit her.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Some woman. Who has a daughter. A year older than you.”
Mara’s face dropped. “And your point?”
“I might just have to go over there and introduce myself… you know how I have a thing for the daughter of the woman taking care of my mother.”
Mara grabbed my chin and curled her lip. “Say that again and I’m going to find the nearest set of stairs and you’re going to have an accident…”
I smiled.
Mara had been taking care of herself and could talk about what happened without getting scared. And she could joke about it too.
I pulled her close to me but she pushed away.
She was still holding my chin.
An evil look in her eyes.
“You’re not able to fall in love with anyone else,” Mara said. “I control that.”
“Do you now?”
“Watch and learn.”
Mara walked away from me and went to Hil.
She pushed through the girls around Hil and wrapped her arms around Hil’s neck to hug him. Without hesitation Hil put his hand to her lower back and hugged her.
She whispered something to Hil and he laughed.
Before I knew what I was doing, I ran over to both of them and pulled Mara away.
I grabbed Hil by his shirt and pulled him nose to nose.
“What did she say to you?” I growled.
“She told me to say I told you so,” Hil said.
I turned my head and Mara grinned ear to ear and blinked her eyes really fast.
Batting them at me.
Fucking with me.
Flirting with me.
“I told you so,” she said.
I pushed Hil away and went for Mara instead.
I picked her up and put her eye level with me.
“Still love me, Uly?” Mara asked.
I curled my lip. “Fuck, always… and fucking forever, doll.”
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Here’s a preview of HIL
ONE
I sat on the edge of the bed and watched the sun crawl through the curtains.
I tipped my head to another crazy day of life.
When I stood up, I stretched and floated my way to the dresser and grabbed a cigarette.
It was always important to start the day right.
Behind me I heard the ringing bells of a cellphone alarm go off.
I looked back and saw an arm climb out from under the blankets and grab the phone.
Then came an annoyed groan.
Good morning, beauty, I whispered in my head.
I left the bedroom and walked downstairs through my house.
My house.
One of the houses on the massive property that my mother and Ash’s father owned.
It wasn’t all that bad of a gig though, when you thought about it.
The main house was the mansion. Of course.
We’d visit there at least once a day. Sometimes even sit and eat dinner there. Like a real family.
That made me laugh.
I lit my cigarette and watched the sun rise.
Everyone thought I was this hard ass prick, right? But I enjoyed watching the sunrise. With a cigarette. After an enjoyable night with…
Someone.
Someone… was one… pretty girl… that ended up on a table at Raza’s party… she slipped and fell into my arms… I told her she owed me… she said she’d pay up right there… she didn’t want to go home because her parents were out of town… so I brought her back here… it was a study date… I studied her body… I got an A+++++ plus some extra credit… because she was someone… was one… pretty girl… someone starts with an S… S is for… snake… sky… slut… but she’s not a slut… she said that… lots of S’s there… because S is for…
“Sadie,” I said.
I clicked my tongue and nodded in approval.
Whether I was right or wrong, her name was now Sadie.
And I’d either drop her off at her house or take her to BFH where she could enjoy the opposite of a walk of shame. Being on the back of my motorcycle to BFH was like a ride of glory.
I laughed again.
I was fucking killing myself with jokes.
It was nice to have a night off from the bullshit though.
Watching Uly and Mara struggle to figure out how to spend more time together. Which was easy to solve. Uly needed to kick Miss Whitaker out of his house and move Mara in. Or keep both. But he kind of did that already. I think he did. Mara was forever there, in the guest area of the house. Unless that was their part of the house now. What the fuck did I care?
Then again it was a pleasant distraction from Ash and Belle.
Goddamn Ash.
My fucking stepbrother and he’s the one who snagged Belle, huh? I should have seen that coming from a mile away too. The quiet, brooding, tattooed asshole always grabs the girls. Goddamn. Yet I was the one who took Belle for a ride on my motorcycle. I took her down to the beach. She got to meet Leo from HCH. And she got to meet what my fingers could do besides play guitar.
But I think in a way both Uly and I knew her eyes were locked to him more than us. It was just the way shit went. They couldn’t get enough of each other. And that was good for them. Hearing them tell each other they loved each other was definitely some of that bullshit awww moment kind of stuff.
My awww moment with Sadie last night was very different.
She was the one saying awww and she probably did fall in love with me.
But that was the beauty of the next morning.
The sun lifted up from the ground and the world flipped itself over, wiping the slate clean.
A chance to start over.
No bullshit needed.
I finished my cigarette and went back inside to find a shirt.
It wouldn’t have been the first time I showed up to BFH missing clothes, but that would be a whole other story to tell.
I opened my bedroom door and saw Sadie in a towel.
Nothing but a towel.
Her clothes on my bed.
“Good morning to me, beauty,” I said.
Sadie groaned. “This is a nightmare.”
“What is?”
“Waking up to you,” she said.
“Want me to go get a table for you to dance on?”
“Funny,” she said. “Can I get a little privacy here?”
“For what? Nothing I haven’t seen. Or kissed.”
Sadie put her head back and groaned again.
I laughed.
I walked to my dresser and got a fresh black t-shirt.
My leather jacket was on the floor where Sadie had thrown it.
I swiped that up too and then went to my closet. I had a shit ton of hoodies for occasions like this. Sort of a parting gift. Spend some time with Hil and you get a hoodie and a story you pretend to regret but secretly bite your lip about when nobody is looking because you want it again.
I threw the hoodie at the bed.
“Throw that on and I’ll give you a ride to your house, beauty,” I said. “Then you can freshen up and show up to BFH late and lie to everyone and say you overslept.”
“Oh, like you’re not going to broadcast what happened last night?”
“Why the fuck would I do that?
” I asked. “You’re far from my first, beauty.”
“Oh, god, what does that make me?”
“Makes you a number, but a pretty fucking hot number. Those moves on the table caught my attention. And everything you said and did was the truth. And you can’t even say with a straight face we were drunk. I wasn’t there to drink. And neither were you.”
“Hil… can you do me a favor?”
“I know. Get the fuck out of the room. I get it, Sadie. New day, new rules. I respect it. I’ll be outside waiting. Feel free to leave an article of clothing under my pillow. Something to snuggle with later.”
I laughed one more time as I left the bedroom again.
As Sadie got dressed, I smoked another cigarette.
She came out of the house wearing my hoodie and her shoes. The rest of her clothes were stuffed into her bag. She wasn’t keen on riding my motorcycle, but she was last night.
Kind of like riding me…
She yelled into my ear where she lived.
Another pretty rich girl in BFH.
I pulled up to her driveway and she hurried off my motorcycle.
“See you later, Sadie,” I called out.
She spun around, middle finger waving at me. “My name is Sophie, you fucking asshole.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
Then I left.
Oh well…
Sadie… Sophie… what’s the fucking difference, right?
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ULY (Bay Falls High - Them Book 1) Page 21
