I decide to put some of those acting skills I wasted so much money on when I was out in California to some use. I smile by stretching my lips as far as they will go and I soften my eyes towards Brett, pretending inside that he’s someone else. Someone who hasn’t haunted me for five years.
Trying my hardest not to stammer, I summon up every ounce of courage I have left inside me and look past Brett, focusing on the guy with the goofy ears.
“Are you guys ready to order your drinks?” I ask, and die just a little bit inside.
Brett chortles and I try to ignore him, telling myself he has every right to not like me… but it doesn’t work, it still hurts.
I thought I left what was left of my pride back in Hollywood. But apparently there’s just enough pride left inside me to make this situation really hurt like nothing else.
I loved him. I gave him my heart. I gave him everything. I gave him my virginity, and then I ran away.
And now he’s sitting there, Brett is sitting there all smug and cocky, as if I’m lesser than him.
And I have to ask, there’s no avoiding it. I just have to suck it up and roll with the punches. I lift my chin into the air and manage to maintain the smile while I ask the table, “What can I get for you?”
Chapter Two
Brett
Fucking bloody hell.
What the hell is she doing here? I mean seriously, what the hell… I thought she was away from me and my life. Shit, I thought she was somewhere in California trying to be an actress or something.
Fuck, she is certainly pretty enough still to be an actress. Even after all of these years she is the hottest woman I have ever seen. Not just hot, she still looks like she is built to fuck. Blonde and short, she looks like Hollywood’s idea of prom queen.
God dammit! What the fuck is she doing here?
I don’t understand this at all, and I really don’t like the chatter around the table about her.
“You seen the ass on that fucking blonde? Damn boys, that’s mine tonight!” Niklaus says to the table as Mandy disappears to get our drinks.
“How the fuck are you going to call dibs on her? Acting like you’re the only one who has a shot of hitting that,” Greg bitches to Niklaus.
Yeah, that’s not going to happen on either of their accounts. They don’t need to be fucked over by that girl any more than I deserved it.
I look over to Max and subtly get his attention, I need his backing on this one. When he notices me, I tilt my head just a tad to the right, in the direction where Mandy left us. With what I am about to say he will understand, I hope.
“Nah boys, that one is off limits. She had the clap last I knew,” I say with a laugh. “Use to know that chick in high school. It’s damaged goods right there and I say stay away.”
“That sucks…” Max growls out in his deep bass voice. “She’s that one you were telling me about a while back?”
Nodding my head, I look to Greg and Niklaus. “Stay away, boys, if you want to keep a healthy body for your matches coming up.”
And that’s all I have to say. It’s a way of letting them know she is not worth the chance of screwing up their fighting careers.
Max gives me the hairy eyeball though when the guys start talking about the fight we just saw on the TV back at my house. He may not be a big talker but he gets his point across. I am going to have to give him the real story. The way he was looking at Mandy makes me think he knows I am completely full of shit.
Fuck. If he only knew.
Mandy still has the same exact smile plastered on her face when she brings out our appetizers and meals as she did when she first saw me. Yeah, she knows who I am. That kinda gets me though, because I really do think I have changed from that scrawny, geeky shit to what I am now. Even I can’t believe just how fucking much better I look. But sixty pounds is a lot of muscle and six years of fighting have changed me completely.
Setting our meals out, she smiles and asks, “Anything else I can get for you, sir?”
“Nah, I’m good now.”
Now and then, I’m good.
Losing my parents two weeks after she destroyed my whole being made a man out of me. So yeah, I’m good.
I wink at her and her smile falters for the briefest of seconds before she turns sharply away from me. The guys around me start laughing and smirking. I’m sure they are taking it in a completely different way. Bloody fucking hell.
The food is a complete fucking waste of time and tastebuds for me. It tastes like fucking ashes, and my stomach feels like it’s been punched and I wasn’t ready for it. Kinda like I have this knot of fucking anger boiling right there.
DeeDee interrupts my dragging thoughts as I push my plate away. She has a small slip of paper with her name and number on it. Her name is followed by exclamation marks with little fucking heart symbols drawn for the dots.
You have to be fucking kidding me. Jesus.
I smile and wrap my arm around her waist before she gets too far away and pull her into my lap.
She squeals loudly, “Hey!”
“So what time do you get off, baby?” I ask.
Yeah, I have no fucking cares. But the guys around me would know something’s up if I didn’t go after this one.
Leaning back into my arms, she feels kind of cuddly but completely wrong.
Turning to face me, she shakes her head with a grin. “Not happening tonight. I get off at twelve, and I have to get up really early tomorrow.”
Tweaking my cheek, she hops off my lap and saunters away with a very exaggerated sway to her hips. Looks like a fucking kid trying to be an adult, really. No hips, she has probably just graduated high school. Ugh. Yeah, I am not going after that.
We wrap things up pretty quickly after that. All the guys are going to head over to a local night club to see what kind of trouble they can get into.
“Here’s your check, sir.” Mandy says with that same fucking smile. Only now it looks really painful on her, like she ain’t shit in a month.
“Thanks,” I say and hand her my credit card. I pulled it out ahead of time so I can get the fuck out of here and the fuck away from her ass.
The guys all end up giving her their cards or dropping cash on the table, and it’s almost a mad dash to their cars as soon as she comes back with their receipts. Watching the fight has put them in the mood for some action, and since they can’t fight I almost feel sorry for the girls they will be chasing.
I look at my total and scribble out a one-hundred dollar tip on the check. I do it every time all the guys and I go out. Mandy sure the fuck doesn’t merit that much of a tip, but some of the guys are really and truly up-and-comers, and they don’t have much to spare. I can tell who doesn’t have a lot of money by what they order. If it’s something full of meat and proteins with a water, they are trying to get the most they can from the food. And they’ll probably skip food somewhere because they spent money on this. We all leave a tip, but not all of us go about fifteen percent. So I do it for us all.
Max walks out the door with me and shakes his head when everyone starts to split up, finding out who’s all going out to the club. Yep, the fucker is sticking with me, and that means he wants to know what he just lied about.
I get in my black truck with big ass tires and a loud muffler, and watch as Max hauls himself up into the passenger seat. Not talking, I pull out of the parking lot and head the opposite way of my house.
I set the truck at a smooth pace and ask, “Wanna hear a story?”
“Do I get a choice in the music?” he asks as he grabs a wire hanging from my stereo and plugs it into his phone.
“Yeah, I guess,” I grumble as I already know where this is headed.
Fucking Max and his god damn pop-rock love. It’s only a few moments before the pounding bass of Gimme More by Britney Spears starts to thump out of my speakers. The bass is heavy enough to rattle the filling in my back left molar. I wouldn’t be surprised if it shatters my windows with how loud he has the da
mn music thumping.
Reaching over, I turn down the music and frown at him. I have no clue what his obsession with Britney is, but it’s at times hilarious– he can name every single song she has and the album it’s on. Or just disturbing– he has used his fighter prestige and a huge chunk of a winner’s purse to buy front row tickets to her show.
The guy fucking worships her.
“Couldn’t you go with something… erm, a little more testosterone filled?” I ask as I turn onto the highway heading out of town and into the mountains surrounding us.
I want to get away from the lights and noise, I need open space. And like most times when I need to get away from it all, I feel the mountains calling to me. I love the mountains, they have something over my soul, and I don’t know what it is but they beckon me now.
“Are you calling me a pussy?” Max asks with an eyebrow raised and a smirk.
The big fuck thinks he could win.
“Man, I would kick your big ass from here to the city without breaking a sweat.”
“Wanna pull over and put that to the test?”
“Nah.”
“Then the future missus Harper is staying on.”
Shrugging my shoulders, I try to tune out the music.
“You remember me telling you about when my parents died?”
“Yeah, you just graduated high school. What’s the waitress have to do with that?”
“She was my first serious girlfriend.”
Chapter Three
Mandy
5 Years Ago
I was failing World History. I know, sad, right? And it was senior year of high school so my parents hired me a private tutor. If I didn’t pass that class, I wouldn’t get to walk with my friends at graduation, and I’d have to spend all summer hitting the books instead of heading out to pursue my dream in California.
Academics weren’t my strong suit, and it was even harder to focus those days. I just couldn’t keep my nose in a book. The parties were endless, every little thing was a reason to celebrate. And the guys were relentless. Everyone wanted to get drunk and punch their v-cards before they headed off to college. I still hadn’t punched mine at the time, but it wasn’t because I was a stuck-up prude. I just hadn’t found the right guy… yet.
According to my parents, the guy who was tutoring me was actually in my history class, though for the life of me I couldn’t remember ever actually seeing him there.
“What did you say your name was again?” I asked him.
We were sitting at the table in my parents’ dining room. I accidentally brushed my arm against his when we sat down and he nearly jumped three feet out of his skin. So I “accidentally” brushed my arm against his once more and giggled inwardly as he jerked away from me. I still couldn’t tell if he was totally repulsed or not but the faces he made were hilarious.
“Brett,” he huffed and brushed his brown hair out of his eyes. It was a little too long and overdue for a trim, but there was just something about the way that it fell into his eyes that was adorable.
I can’t believe I never noticed him before… he’s cute in a dorky way.
He cracked open his book and started flipping through the pages. I didn’t even touch mine, I turned in my chair to face him instead.
He was tall and lanky, but there was promise there beneath his unruly hair and boring baggy clothes.
“And you’re in Ms. Henry’s sixth period?”
“Yeah,” he answered, frowning down at his book and brushing his hair out of his eyes again.
I leaned close to him and peeked over his arm at his book. “Is that what we’re working on?”
“Yeah, page three-forty-eight,” he answered, leaning away from me. “Global conflicts.”
I leaned back and we stared at each other. The prettiest eyes stared back at me, like melted chocolate swirled with honey and framed by long dark lashes.
“Are you going to open your book?” he asked, breaking the stare.
I groaned, remembering that he was there to tutor me and not to hang out. “Do I have to?”
He smiled. “If you want to pass this class you do.”
I huffed, blowing a few blonde curls into the air and opened my book. The spine was super stiff, I don’t think I had actually opened that book before, so I had to press the cover down extra hard towards the table.
“What page was that again?”
“Three-forty-eight,” Brett answered with a smirk and I grumbled until I reached the right page.
Brett started talking about world wars, allies, nationalism, and other yawn-inducing stuff I didn’t care about at the time. I liked the sound of his voice though. So even if I wasn’t completely focusing on everything he was trying to teach me, I was listening. Just not absorbing the material.
“There will probably be a pop quiz tomorrow,” Brett said, closing his book.
I blinked in surprise. I went total space cadet and it took me a second to realize what he was talking about. “How do you know?”
I mean the whole idea of a pop quiz is that it was supposed to be a surprise, right?
“Ms. Henry has been springing them on us every other Thursday.”
Shit. Tomorrow was Thursday.
“I’m so screwed,” I bemoaned and slumped back in my chair.
“I’m that bad, eh?” Brett frowned, and I quickly shook my head at him while sitting up straight again.
“No, it’s not you!” I insisted.
I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. It was totally not his fault I wasn’t paying attention. I just kept trying to picture him in other clothes, with his hair styled out of his face. I had the sneaking suspicion that underneath all of that hair and bad clothing was a super-hot guy. A hot guy I really wanted to get to know better. A hot guy that was getting paid to spend time with me, ugh.
“You’re great, it’s just me. There’s just something about history… history and I just don’t mix. I mean, it’s all in the past. The past should just stay in the past. They should be teaching us to forget about it.” Like I just did. I would have so aced a test like that.
Brett looked at me and I could just tell he didn’t believe me. So I reached out with pleading eyes and placed my hand on his hand. “Please? Do you know what’s going to be on the quiz? If I don’t pass this class I won’t get to walk.”
It was going to take a miracle as it was. I was going to need a few hundreds to bring up my D minus-minus. And we were only halfway through the first semester.
Brett looked down at my hand on top of his and from the look on his face… I quickly jerked my hand away. Ugh, I didn’t think he liked me touching him. He looked like I had made his skin crawl.
I started to turn away in defeat. Fuck. History sucked, and my future was looking more and more like summer school.
“Open up the back of your book,” Brett told me and I spun around to look at him.
He was not looking at me though, he turned back around and was looking at my book on the table.
“Okay,” I said softly and reached out, cracking my book back open.
“Flip to the practice section in the back,” he said while pulling his messenger bag off the back of his chair.
I flipped to the back of my book. “Okay,” I said, wondering if we were going to do the practice quiz to prepare.
“The pop quizzes are always those practice quizzes.” Standing up, he slipped his messenger bag over his shoulder. “They give you the answers right there.”
I leaned forward and squinted at my book. Sure enough the answers were right there, right after the questions but upside down.
“If you memorize them, you should be good.”
“Thank you,” I sighed in relief and looked back but he was already gone.
I heard the deep rumble of my dad’s voice then the front door opened and closed. I looked back at my book with a frown. Either Brett was telling the truth or he was so insulted by my inattention he was lying so I’d fail.
There was only
one way to find out.
* * *
I stared down at my pop quiz in disbelief. I aced it. I fucking aced the thing. 100% Yes!
I was so dumbfounded, most of my friends had already left the classroom without me. I glanced up and the classroom was nearly empty. Ms. Henry was gathering up her purse and coat at her desk while tucking a stack of papers underneath her arm.
“Well done, Miss Taylor. Keep up the good work,” Ms. Henry nodded at me and walked briskly from the room. I heard the sharp tapping of her heels as she rushed down the hall, trying to beat the bell.
Shit, I was going to be late for my next class. I jumped up from my desk and slung my backpack over my shoulder.
“So, how did you do?”
I spun around with my quiz still clutched in my hand and gasped. How long was Brett standing there? Has he always sat behind me?
I recovered quickly though.
I waved the quiz at him and told him with a squeal, “I aced it!”
“That’s great,” he grinned at me.
And I don’t know what came over me, but I was just so happy, so grateful, I stepped forward and gave him a great big hug. He immediately stiffened in my arms but it didn’t register at first. No, I was so wrapped up in myself that I lifted up on my tiptoes and placed a kiss against his cheek and told him, “Thank you!” before I realized he had turned a bright shade of red and his face was twisted into an ugly, pained expression.
I giggled nervously and then felt bad, like I just sexually harassed the guy or something.
I took a step back and giggled again. Nervous reflex.
He just stood there, all silent. I should have probably said I was sorry, but I was so embarrassed by my own behavior I just called out, “I’ll see you next week!” And spun around, rushing quickly out of the room.
Brett
Slamming Demon: A Pounding Hearts Novel Page 2