TANGLED

by Simone Elise

  I was positive I had just got Kyle out of my system. “I’m done with him. I don’t need to drink myself to alcohol poisoning to let him go.”

  “There are stages of breaking up. You clearly are at the stage where you need to drink to let him go completely.” He glanced at me. “Trust me, I’ve had to get an ex out of my system too.”

  I sighed. It wouldn’t kill me to get Kyle completely off my chest. I had let him go, but maybe I needed a drink to make it official?

  “Ok, one drink.” I somewhat agreed to his plan. Then I saw his expression.

  “Sis, we are going on a bender. And once it is over, you’ll be thanking me.” Ryan gave me his all-knowing grin and I knew then he had plans for us, and it wasn’t just for tonight.

  Kyle

  “Josh, I’m fucking telling you again, she isn’t here!” I yelled back at my brother who was on the phone. “She didn’t come back to school at all last week and now it’s the middle of another week and she hasn’t come home or shown up at school!”

  “Well isn’t it funny she disappears as soon as you speak to her,” Josh’s voice hissed back at me. “Wanna tell me again what happened last week?”

  I groaned. “I didn’t fucking make her run away! She has my number blocked so can you call her again?”

  I can’t believe I had to rely on my brother to call Soph. I don’t know whether he was lying or not. But he said she wasn’t picking up.

  “Come on, Josh, don’t be a jerk, just call her again, please?” I hated asking anyone for a favour. But asking Josh it was like having my eyes scratched out.

  I glanced into my English classroom, which I was skipping cause I couldn’t fucking think straight knowing Soph was off the grid and it could be my fault. I heard the hallway door open and I glanced at it automatically. Then I did a double take.

  “She just showed up,” I said into the phone at Josh and then hung up, heading up the hallway. She better have a fucking good reason!

  She was on her phone.

  “So you decided to show your face?” I snapped at her while approaching her as fast as I could. “Just disappear don’t fucking tell anyone!”

  Soph’s head snapped up and she looked at me startled.

  “Why are you looking so fucking shocked? You disappeared!” I yelled at her.

  “Um, I don’t know what you mean?” Her eyes went back to the phone and then looked back at me. “Sorry for worrying you? I guess. You parents know where I’ve been. Didn’t realize they hadn’t told you.”

  My parents knew! Why the hell hadn’t they told me they knew where she was!

  “So you at the biker’s house or something?” I wasn’t letting her go. “Why you so late today? School started hours ago.”

  “Oh, I’m just handing this in.” She raised a piece of paper. “Oh, hi Kayla.”

  You have to be fucking kidding me. I turned to see my bitch of a fake girlfriend step out of class.

  “Hi, Soph. You haven’t been around.” Kayla was actually speaking nice to Soph. Considering she was trying to ruin Soph’s life at the moment, it gave me insight into just how low of a person Kayla was.

  “Yeah, um, sick.” Soph flashed Kayla a smile. “It was good to see you two. I need to hand this into the office.”

  She went to step around me and I blocked her. “You in a rush or something? Do your parents know you are just blowing school off? Moved out of our house?” I crossed my arms, not letting her go.

  “Um, yeah I am in a hurry. Someone’s waiting for me.” She put her phone away and gave me a smile. “I’ll see you guys around. And Kyle, my parents know where I am.”

  “Staying with some biker!” I couldn’t stop the scoff at the end. As if her parents would let her near a biker, let alone let her stay with him.

  Soph’s smile just got bigger. “Geez, Kyle, calm down. I’m fine and my parents know who I’m with.” She looked between me and Kayla, still smiling. “I’ll see you two around, ok?”

  Soph was giving us a real smile. A real fucking smile.

  Kayla said a good bye to Soph as she walked past us. I couldn’t fucking believe it. Soph was blowing me off. I turned around, seeing her body slightly sway as she walked away from me. And never in my life had I wanted to go after her more.

  Soph was acting like there was nothing between us. She just acted like she was fine seeing me! Every time she looked at me since we broke up I saw pain but also love in her eyes. This time she looked at me like I was nothing. Like she was completely over me.

  Fuck, it was even worse. It was like she accepted her and I were over.

  I dialed my brother’s number.

  “Did she tell you to fuck off, cause that’s what I’m about to tell you.” Josh was ruder than normal to me. To be honest, he had been a dick since I told him about me speaking to Soph. Didn’t help she disappeared after that.

  “You are connected with bikers, right? Being one of the lowlifes?”

  “Why?”

  “Cause Soph is shacked up with one.” I pushed open the hallway door, going down the steps and spotting Soph getting into a muscle car. “And you are going to threaten him and get him to back off.”

  I heard Josh scoff in the phone and then he hung up. I knew my brother could be a dick. But he did like Soph. I was hoping he liked her enough to do something about it.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Soph

  I hadn’t really been eating solid meals. Ryan wasn’t exactly a cook. But we had binging out on music, games, and alcohol and, in Ryan’s case, drugs as well. I got a certificate easily from our family doctor for the week. Plus he back dated it, which is like a huge no no when it comes to medical certificates.

  I came back to Kyle’s. I just wanted a change of clothes, then I was heading back to Ryan’s. Though he said he had something on later tonight. I was planning on heading to Bax’s when he went to whichever girl’s house it was. I assumed it was a girl who had her hooks in him.

  His phone was always going off, though he was rude to whoever was calling.

  Anyway, I was planning on getting clothes and heading out of here. But I ran into Louise, and suddenly I was roped into family dinner.

  I looked down at the food. I wasn’t sure it was a good thing that just the look of food was making me sick, let alone eating it.

  “So Sophia, where have you been?”

  My eyes went off the home cook meal and onto Jed. Great, here comes twenty questions.

  JOSH

  I’m going to kill him. He is going to be fucking lucky if my hands don’t end up around his throat tonight. I swear, if he doesn’t show tonight, I’m tracking him fucking down and finding out the reason why he kept blowing us off. The only reason he was in this town was business with us and he seemed to be ignoring that.

  Instead Ryan, the bloody Grave Robber, was always blowing us off. Every meeting he cancelled.

  If he didn’t show up to the party tonight, well more for the confrontation I was going to have with him before it, he would be lucky to have a beer after I was through with him.

  I closed the front door. I needed a new top. Seeing as I was living at the club, I couldn’t show up in this one. I was still on a man hunt for Soph. But every time I questioned Bax about who he was seeing he would shut up or change the subject, not even giving me a hint on what was going on.

  Any day I was expecting her to rock up at the club, considering she had moved in with him basically. Fucking pissed off me to no end. What was worse was I couldn’t even get her to answer the bloody phone!

  I had never hated hearing a voice message as much as hers. First, it reminded me how sweet her voice was, and that sexy luring swirl to her voice. Second, it reminded me how fucking much I missed her and I hated she was with Bax.

  Had she listened to one word I said about her doing better? I was so close to opening up to her, telling her everything, and she disappeared from the face of the earth. The only thing that reassured me she was ok was overhearing her parents tell
my Dad she was with a friend.

  “So Sophia, where have you been?”

  I froze at the bottom of the steps, hearing my father’s voice from the other room. No fucking way she was here.

  “With family friends.” I heard her reply just as I walked into the room.

  “Josh, darling, what are you doing here?” Mum was the first one to spot me. Typical.

  Kyle threw me a glare; we weren’t really on speaking terms at the moment. I ignored his request to scare off the biker that Soph was with. Little did he know I was doing everything possible to get her away from Bax.

  Dad turned in his chair, glancing back at me.

  But it was Soph’s reaction I wanted to see. Her eyes went off Dad and onto me, a smile spreading across her face- like seeing me, had made her night.

  “Do you want something to eat?” Mom asked, already up and heading for the kitchen.

  Still I couldn’t look away from Soph. Did she have any idea how crazy she was driving me? I was taking my temper out on my club brothers. Small things got a huge reaction out of me. I knew I was doing it. I knew why I was doing it. I also knew I wouldn’t be able to stop doing it until I heard or saw Soph.

  “Here take a seat, Josh.” Kyle’s voice was a threatening hiss as he pushed out the chair next to him, making a point to take the seat, where it was and not move it to Soph.

  I guess I couldn’t just sit next to her, for all I knew it was me she was avoiding and was the reason she had basically moved out.

  “So, Sophia, you were saying… family friends?” Dad’s attention was back on Soph.

  Soph’s eyes went off me and onto my dad. “Yeah, more like family to be honest.”

  “Oh, any family I’d know? Last time I checked I know all of your relatives.”

  Soph took her eyes off him and reached for her water. “Nope, you wouldn’t know them, not close. They are only in town for a short period.”

  “We should have them around for dinner. You can introduce us.” Kyle leaned forward, he wasn’t hiding his glare, which was locked on her. “Unless you’re lying?”

  I saw Kayla roll her eyes. Kyle should really redirect his attention to who is currently sleeping with and off Soph. As far as I was concerned Kyle was her past, and if I could make it happen, I was her future.

  Soph didn’t even answer him, her eyes back on her untouched plate.

  Was she still not eating?

  “Kyle, don’t be rude,” Dad told him off, cause Kyle wasn’t using the manners that Dad had installed on him. Kyle was basically the robot Dad programmed.

  “What? We are all thinking it! We all know Soph’s family. So who could this new relative be that just appeared?” Kyle looked around the table, and then his eyes were back on Soph. “Let’s face it Sophia, your family were going to be my family. So you still want to spin that lie to us that we don’t know whoever is in town?”

  “Kyle, enough!” Mum told him off, placing a plate of food in front of me. “Sophia’s parents reassured us she was with family. Now who that family is doesn’t matter.” Mum took her seat again, and even though she said that, you could hear in her tone she wanted an explanation as well.

  Soph sighed and dropped the knife and fork she wasn’t even using to eat to begin with. Her eyes did a round of the table and then she locked eyes with Kyle.

  “It’s Uncle Kane.” Her eyes went off Kyle and did a round of the table again. “So like I said, not family you all know.”

  “You’ve been staying with the country’s worst drunk?” Kyle scoffed. “No wonder you wouldn’t share who you were with. That man is never sober!”

  “You’ve never met him so you have no right to judge him.” Soph’s eyes narrowed on him.

  “No but we have all heard your dad’s opinion of him.” Kyle glanced at his dad. “Even Dad’s heard the stories!”

  “That’s all they are, stories.” Soph had gone into pit bull mode almost, like Kyle speaking bad of her uncle was a personal attack. I didn’t know much about her family.

  “The world’s worst drunk.” Kyle wasn’t dropping the subject, his eyes still on Soph. “Why don’t you admit it, you are lying! You haven’t been with your Uncle! Cause he wouldn’t be sober enough to hold a sentence!”

  I saw it immediately. What Kyle just said hurt Soph, no, beyond that, it looked like he had just taken a knife to heart. I didn’t know who or what type of relationship she had with her uncle, but by her expression right now I knew she cared a hell of a lot for him.

  “Soph, can I talk to you?” I got up. “In private?” I watched the tears swelling in her eyes. “Soph?”

  I had never seen her so hurt. And any second those tears were going to fall. Just as I thought maybe she hadn’t heard me at all, she pushed herself away from the table. I shot Kyle a glare and put my hand on Soph’s back as I walked us into the lounge room.

  “You ok?” I asked softly.

  She didn’t stop in the lounge, she kept walking. I wasn’t sure where she was heading. But I stopped her when we got into the foyer. My hands dropped on her shoulders and turned her around.

  “Soph?” I sighed, and my hands went her face, my thumbs running under her eyes, wiping away the tears. “You’ve got to stop letting Kyle upset you.”

  She nodded her head, but the tears were still falling.

  “I need to go.” She got out and went to brush my hands off her. “You, um… don’t have to comfort me. I’ll be fine.”

  “Where you going?” I asked and kept my hands cupping her face. I wasn’t sure if I should say anything, but at the same time I knew better. “You are lying about your uncle, aren’t you? Or at least partly.”

  I didn’t want to completely pull apart her story.

  “Uncle Kane is in town.” Her tear-filled eyes locked with mine. “But I haven’t been with him.”

  At least she was honest with me. “You have to go out?” I asked.

  Confusion ran through her eyes. “Aren’t you heading out? I’m guessing you weren’t planning on staying home on a Friday night?”

  “I’ll cancel. Trust me, the guy I had plans with tonight deserves to be cancelled on.” I would love to cancel on Ryan. “He’s a dick deserves to be stood up. So how about you and I spend the night together?”

  She was hesitating and then bit her bottom lip. “What about your plans? I don’t want you standing anyone up.”

  “Trust me, I’d pick you over him any day.” I smiled. Now, if only I could get her to crack a grin.

  Her hands went to mine. “And what do you suggest we do?”

  Hell my mind went wild immediately and all my visions had a common theme—they all involved her in my bed.

  I took her hands, linking them with mine. “How about we test out my electric blanket? Last time I checked we haven’t used it together.”

  Would I get that lucky?

  “You really want to stay in with me?” She stepped in closer to me. “Your friend won’t mind?”

  “Trust me he isn’t a friend.” Ryan was anything but a friend. He wasn’t even a club member. “Is the Young Ones on? Cause we can watch that.” I saw her frown. “Unless you have plans you can’t get out of?” I had a feeling someone was expecting her tonight.

  Then she shook her head. “No. Um, he has plans tonight.”

  That pissed me off, cause I knew she was talking about Bax. And yeah, he did have plans tonight. A meeting with Ryan and me, which I was about to back out of.

  “So you’re mine tonight?” I pulled her in closer until she was firmly against me. My hand going onto her back.

  “Yeah, I’m all yours.” She smiled and then went up on her toes. “Plus I really want to test out the electric blanket.”

  And just like that, I had scored one night with her. Now I had to see if tonight was the right time to open up to her and tell her the truth about my life.

  I had to admit my life would be easier if I told her the truth. For one thing, I would be able to ride my bike here and wear colors, t
hat is, once the news of being Vice President dropped. And I had feeling that wasn’t going to be far away.

  So I needed a chance to tell her about me before she ended up at the club, or worse, Bax made the connection.

  Yeah, she needed to hear it from me. But I wasn’t sure if tonight, my first night getting her back, was the right time to tell her.

  Chapter Twenty Six

  Soph

  I don’t know why, but as soon as I ended it with Kyle, my taste in men changed. I went from wanting the good guy to wanting the bad boy; the smoker, the drinker, the guy who would throw a right hook without thinking or caring.

  Yep, my taste in men had changed.

  Josh and I had a totally of ten minutes together, then he got a phone call. He said to stay and wait for him. But once it ticked past two in the morning, I decided he wasn’t coming back, so I went to my room and spent the night tossing and turning all night.

  Which is why now, as I entered the gym hall, my last class, I really couldn’t be bothered. I headed for the group of girls, literally dragging my feet

  Then the group parted just slightly and my eyes locked with Kayla’s. Kayla’s eyes were coated in anger as soon as she looked at me. I knew that look; it was the look she gave her prey before she went for the kill.

  “Hi, Soph.” She pushed past her so-called friends. “How was your night?”

  I frowned. She didn’t stay at the house last night, so she couldn’t possibly know I spent most of the night in Josh’s room. So I didn’t say anything in case she was fishing.

  “Well, I hear you were with Josh?”

  I rolled my eyes. Here I was thinking she hadn’t spent the night with Kyle. I put my hands on my hips. “Why is where I sleep any of your business?”

  “I was just wondering.” She took a step closer to me, but I heard how her voice raise. “Are going to get knocked up with his child as well? I wonder how Kyle would take the news, knowing you were going to have his child but are now having his brothers?”