Stopping only a foot away from them, I spoke. “You’re the one who’s been messing with my girl?”
“Your girl?” she asked with a huff.
“Navie…my girl. Are you the one who’s been bullying her all year long?”
Standing straight and crossing her arms over her chest in false bravado, she responded, “Yeah, so? What are you gonna do about it? Hit me? You’re an adult on school property. You’ll get arrested.” The snarky grin on her overly glossed lips made me want to knock her teeth out.
Good God. Had I been like that?
“Oh, no, sweetheart,” I replied with a sarcastic grin that was much better than hers. “I don’t need to hit you. You see, I know something you don’t know,” I said conspiratorially.
“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”
“I know you think you’re the queen bitch at this school. I know you think you can mess with my girl and nothing will ever happen to you.” Taking the opportunity to lean in threateningly, I continued. “Unfortunately for you, I’m better at it. People probably think you act the way you do because you’re a spoiled little girl whose mommy and daddy give her everything she wants. But I’d be willing to guess it’s just the opposite. Odds are, you aren’t worth their time, a waste of space and energy they just can’t be bothered with. Am I right?”
I knew by the way her eyes flared that I’d hit the nail on the head, but this girl had said some of the worst, most deplorable things to Navie. Telling someone they needed to kill themselves was beyond the realm of typical bullying and treading toward something far worse. For that reason, I shoved on. I’d learned from experience that the only way to stop a person who constantly pushed people around was to push back.
“I mean, if you were spoiled, you wouldn’t be wearing an outfit from Wal-Mart’s clearance rack from last year. And just a little tip, I think it’s time to move up a size or two. Muffin-top isn’t a good look for any girl.”
Meredith sputtered several times before finally stuttering, “You…y-you bitch!”
“That’s right, honey. I am a bitch. I’m a bitch who will take down anyone who hurts someone I love. You think you’re special because you can pick on someone more defenseless than you? It doesn’t make you stronger or popular. It makes you pathetic. What you’ve done to her,” I said, throwing my hand out behind me to point at Navie, who was standing frozen just feet away, “is nothing compared to what I’m capable of. You understand me? If I find out you so much as breathe in that girl’s direction, I will ruin you. I will rain so much hell down on you and your family, that you’ll wish you’d never set eyes on her. I’ll make sure every single person in this town knows what you’ve done and who you’ve done it to, and the pain you’ve caused her will be a drop in the bucket compared to what living in a town where every single person hates you will feel like. Popularity will be a word your own children won’t even understand because I’ll make damn sure to dirty your name up so bad, even your grandchildren will pay for the shit you’ve done. Don’t test me, little girl. I am not the person you want to fuck with. I will destroy you.”
It wasn’t until I’d finished my rant and pulled in a much needed breath that I realized we’d garnered a small audience of students who’d yet to leave school. From the muffled whispers and choked giggles, it was clear they’d been around long enough to hear everything I had to say. Lucky for the audience, I wasn’t quite finished.
“And you, dickless wonder,” I called out, turning my attention to Mark, who was doing a terrible impression of a deer caught in the headlights. Seriously, I was beginning to think I needed to have a talk with Navie about standards. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my phone, quickly scrolling to one of the pictures I’d taken of Navie after we’d gotten her all done up for a prom she missed. I shoved the phone in his face, close enough for him and Meredith to see. “This is what you missed out on. Word to the wise, buddy: choosing the girl who dresses like a two-dollar hooker and looks like a blind, epileptic monkey does her makeup, all because she’s a guaranteed lay, is always the wrong choice. Before you know it, she’ll be so used up it’ll be like throwing a goddamned hotdog down a hallway. The ones who dress like whores to get attention are typically lousy in bed anyway. But, if I had to guess just by looking at you,” I dragged my gaze up and down his scrawny frame, “I’d be willing to bet you’re a pretty shitty lay yourself.”
Turning my head and looking at Navie over my shoulder, I asked, “What do you think? Twenty, maybe thirty seconds? Personally, I’d be willing to lay money on this needle dick not lasting longer than ten. I gotta say, sweet girl, I think you dodged a bullet here.” I waved my hand, indicating where Meredith and Mark stood in complete and utter silence while the crowd of students around us all laughed.
“I’m thinking I agree with you,” Navie said with a smile that, while small, still managed to light up her eyes.
With one last warning glare to Meredith, I finished. “Mess with her again and see what happens. I dare you.”
From the way Mark’s throat convulsed and Meredith’s bottom lip trembled, I knew there was nothing left to say. Turning around, I took Navie’s hand and led her away from the group of laughing, heckling kids who were, no doubt, giving Mark and Meredith a taste of their own medicine.
The first four or five minutes of the car ride home were in total silence as I tried to give Navie the space to process everything that just happened. All I could do was pray she didn’t hate me for what I’d done.
Fortunately, my girl didn’t make me wait too long.
“That. Was. AWESOME!”
And just like that, the weight that had been lessening on my chest for the past month became even lighter.
“Hey!”
Navie came crashing through the door with a bright smile on her face the likes of which I hadn’t seen in far too long.
“Hey, you’re in a good mood.”
She paused where she’d dropped her backpack on the floor in the doorway, her face growing thoughtful. “Today was a good day.”
“Yeah?” I asked, standing from my place on the couch and setting my half-full beer bottle on the coffee table to follow her into the kitchen. “You have a good day at school or something?”
Navie pulled a bottle of water from the fridge and closed it before turning back to me. “No, school was as awful as always. It was what happened after school that was awesome.”
“Okay, I’ll bite.” I chuckled as I leaned against the counter, mimicking her relaxed stance. “What happened after school that was so awesome?”
In an excited manner that only a teenage girl could emulate, Navie dove into her story of how Meredith and her band of bitches had trashed her locker. My spine stiffened as she described the girl’s latest act of torment, but as she continued talking a mile a minute, my body grew stiffer for a totally different reason.
“God, Carson, you should have seen her. I mean, I wasn’t too sure about calling Cassidy to pick me up, but I couldn’t get a hold of you, and after what had happened, I really wasn’t in the mood to walk. The way she tore into them was just…and, ohmigod! What she said to Mark was hilarious!”
She ranted and raved about Cassidy ripping Meredith and Mark a new one for another fifteen minutes, practically quoting the confrontation from memory. She talked so fast I barely had a chance to wrap my head around what she was telling me.
“And there were so many kids standing around. And they heard everything! Carson, you should have seen her. Cassidy annihilated them! I don’t think Meredith will have the guts to come back to school, let alone mess with me anymore. The minute she jumped out of the car, it was just like…she went into Momma Bear mode or something. It was insane!”
“She really said all that?” I asked in complete disbelief. I knew she had a fire in her, but that shyness I’d seen from the first moment I met her had always overshadowed it. Just imagining her ripping into two teenagers all because they’d picked on ‘her girl’ was unbelievable. I couldn�
��t believe she’d do something like that for Navie. Thinking of her protecting my sister so fiercely left me stunned speechless.
“Yeah, Carson,” Navie said softly, pulling me out of my head and back into reality. “She really did.”
“That’s…” I didn’t have words to describe what I was feeling just then. The numbness that had turned into a gripping pain in my chest for the past month morphed into something altogether different right then. Something overwhelming in its strength.
“Carson,” Navie called out, but I was already on the move. “Carson. Where are you going?”
I was out the door, clearing the front porch before she had a chance to catch up with me. My sights were set on one singular thing, like tunnel vision; I was unable to see anything else as I stomped across the dried grass. My mind was set on Cassidy and getting to her as fast as I could.
Nothing else mattered.
I’d just stepped out onto the back porch with my bag of gardening tools when I heard Navie’s voice shouting across the back yard.
“Carson!”
Spinning around, my heart lodged firmly in my throat as I saw Carson’s long, muscular legs eating up the distance between him and me. The thunderous expression on his beautiful face sent a trill of fear up my spine. He was coming straight for me and looked ready to take someone’s head off. Seeing as his eyes were firmly set on me as he stormed across the back yard, I could only assume I was the one his anger was geared toward.
Oh, shit.
“Carson,” I started, taking two steps back when his boot-clad feet hit the porch stairs. Instinct told me to run, but before I had a chance to take my next breath, the gardening bag was snatched out of my hand and tossed aside. I let out a surprised squeak as his hand grabbed hold of my waist and yanked me into the hard wall of muscle that was his chest. I’d barely had a chance to process what was happening when, suddenly, his lips crashed down on mine in a passionately brutal kiss.
The moment my lips parted on a startled gasp, his tongue snaked past them. That familiar taste I’d missed so much in the past month invaded my senses, causing me to moan as I melted into him. His strong frame took all my weight as he wrapped both arms around me tightly, like he never wanted to let me go. My fingers snaked across his chest, over his shoulders, and into his thick, silky hair. All I could do was hold on as he deepened the kiss, taking it to an entirely new level. It was an intensity I’d never experienced before.
Finally, out of the need for oxygen, we were forced to pull apart. My fingers tightened in his hair as his forehead came down and pressed against mine, his eyes squeezed shut, his face looking ravaged.
“Carson?”
“I can’t believe you did that,” he spoke in a low, reverent voice.
“Uh…what did I do?”
When he lifted to his full height, his arms came from around me, his hands coming up to cup my cheeks. “What you did for Navie. Christ, Violet…” The use of my nickname hit me like a ton of bricks, flooding my chest with a warmth I feared was long gone. “The fact that you’d go in there, guns blazing like that…I’m in awe of you, baby.”
“There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to protect the people I love,” I whispered, feeling the familiar sting of tears burning behind my eyes.
“You still love her?”
“Of course!” I shouted, grabbing hold of his wrists as I leaned into his caress. “I’ll never stop loving her, Carson.”
His mossy green eyes darkened as he stared down at me. “What about me?”
“I don’t think I could ever stop loving you, even if I wanted to,” I admitted, letting my tears break free and slide down my cheeks.
A flicker of something akin to fear crossed over his handsome face as he asked, “Do you want to?”
“No. I don’t ever want to stop loving you,” I replied honestly. “Even when it hurts as bad as it’s been hurting. I never want to stop because meeting you, loving you has made me a better person.”
Pulling me back in for another kiss, he spoke softly against my lips. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry for causing you pain these last few weeks. I swear to God, if you forgive me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
With those words, the last little bit of weight that had been sitting on my chest for longer than I could remember disappeared completely. I was free of all the guilt, all the pain I’d lived with my entire life. That last small, fractured piece of my heart healed, leaving me feeling whole.
“You still love me?” I asked.
“I’ll never, ever stop, Cassidy. I swear to you, I’ll never stop loving you. I can’t promise I won’t screw up, or that our lives will always be perfect, but if you’ll give me a chance, I’ll make sure you wake up every day feeling happier than you’ve ever felt before. Please, just tell me you’ll give me that chance. I don’t think I can handle going through another day without you. Missing you has been the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.”
“God, Carson,” I breathed, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him further down. “I’ve missed you, too. So much.”
He buried his face in the crook of my neck, and I could feel his smile against my skin. “Does that mean you’ll forgive me, Violet?”
“Yeah,” I answered with a nod. “I forgive you, honey.”
“I love you,” he murmured, pressing another heartfelt kiss to my lips.
“I love you, too.”
I had no idea how long we stood wrapped in each other’s embrace before the sound of an excited shriek, followed by a whoop, pulled our attention from each other and out across the yard.
“That’s what I’m talkin’ about! What’s her stomach taste like, Carson?”
“Lana!” I shouted with an embarrassed laugh at my obscene friend who was standing with Willow, Milly, Navie, and Kal. As soon as my little girl took off in our direction, the rest of them followed.
“Yay!” Willow hollered once she made it up the stairs. She launched her little body at Carson, and like a pro, he caught her mid-air, swinging her up and propping her on his hip. “I told you! I told you all you had to do was kiss hew and she wouldn’t be sad no mowe!”
“You were right, Doodle Bug.” Carson chuckled, planting a kiss on her chubby cheek. “You’re the smartest girl I know.”
“Mommy says I’m a geeen-ee-us,” she dragged out, making that one word several syllables longer than necessary and causing all of us to laugh.
“That you are, baby girl,” I said, pulling her from Carson’s arms and squeezing her tightly.
Willow placed her hands on my cheeks like Carson had done just minutes before, looking into my eyes with more wisdom than an almost-four-year-old little girl had any business having. “Now you don’t gots to be sad anymowe, Mommy.”
“That’s right,” I whispered on a smile.
“And Carson don’t gots to be sad, neithew ‘Cuz he gots a family.”
It took everything I had right then not to start crying again. A quick scan of the faces all around us showed that everyone, even the gruff Kal, was affected by my little girl’s words.
“Yeah, he does, honey.”
All at once, her seriousness dissolved and she threw her hands up in the air. “And now Navie can come fow sleepovews evewy night!”
“All right.” I giggled. “Don’t push your luck, Doodle Bug.”
Having clearly had enough of the lovefest, Willow started squirming in my arms, more than ready to have her feet on the ground. The moment I set her down, I felt Carson’s arms wrap around my waist from behind, pulling my back against his chest.
“‘Bout time you two pulled your heads outta your asses,” Kal grumped, trying his best to hold back the grin that was obviously pulling at his lips.
“Kal!” Milly shouted, smacking him in the back of his head.
“What? I’m just sayin’ what we’ve all been thinkin’ for the past month, woman.”
Navie giggled behind her hand, and Lana offered up her agreement.
“All right,” Milly stated, ignoring her husband as though he hadn’t said a word. “Time to eat. You two can play grab-ass later tonight. Right now, I need your help in the kitchen. We got mouths to feed.”
Carson’s head fell back in laughter at the same time a familiar voice spoke.
“Uh, hi.”
My head spun around in shock, and I sucked in a loud gasp at the sight of the two people standing at the bottom steps below us.
“We knocked on the front door but no one answered. We heard voices, so we thought we’d come around.”
I remained frozen in place in Carson’s arms as Milly went into hostess mode and headed down the steps.
“Oh, I’m sorry, darlin’. I’m Millicent Sheffield. What can I help you with?”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Freya Linden, and this is my fiancé Parker Owens. We’re here to see Cassidy.”
I knew instantly that Carson recognized the two names, because the minute Freya said them, his entire body stiffened and his arms unlinked from my waist to pull me around to his side, as if he was guarding me.
From the shift in the air around the porch, I knew everyone, with the exception of Bug, recognized the names, as well.
“Hi!” Willow shouted, bouncing to where Freya stood and effectively slicing through the silent tension that had enveloped everyone on the porch. “I’m Willow. You’we weally pwetty.”
Freya let out a giggle as she went down on her haunches in front of my little girl. Even Parker, whose face had been masked of all emotion until that moment, dropped his guard just a bit and his pierced lips tilted in a small smile.
“Well, you’re very pretty, too, honey.”
“You wanna play pwincess with me?”
Shrinking Violet (a Colors novel) Page 20