Conflicted (Secrets and Lies)

  "What the fuck Mia?" Jackson yelled. He grimaced when his tone caught up with him.

  "What the hell happened last night?" I shouted, cringing the second I did it.

  Oh, that was an extremely bad idea. The construction crew in my head switched over to chainsaws with that action. They started to slice away parts of my brain making each splinter count. I held my head as the pounding picked up another notch. Jackson lifted an eyelid then swiftly shut it to bury his head into the side of the couch.

  "Shit that's bright. I don't know why we're out here," he grumbled.

  My phone rang again and the repeated screams to answer it ran through the house. I surveyed the rest of the area and gasped at the sight. There were people everywhere. People were across the lawn passed out cold with empty red cups surrounding the entire premises. I leaned back on the railing pressing my fingers to my head. The last thing I remembered was taking shots together as a house in the cave.

  Why can't I remember the rest of the night?

  I had gotten very drunk in the past but never blacked out the majority of a night. I narrowed my eyes at Jackson. It was his job to keep matters from getting out of control. He was still in last night's clothes. It perturbed me even more that I had no memory of changing clothes.

  The venom in my voice was unavoidable. "Jackson, what the fuck happened last night?"

  He peered over his shoulder. "What! We had a good party. It's no different from any of other parties that we have thrown in the last few months."

  Now, he was starting to piss me off. Sure, we had thrown parties and had plenty of people spend the night but we managed to keep them inside the house rather than lawn ornaments. It amazed me that the cops were not here with the sight on our lawn. The scene in front of us was one that any frat party would brag about for weeks but here in the burbs not so much.

  I grabbed him by the tie and forced him to roll over and sit up. I gestured to the yard.

  "I'm pretty sure that our past parties didn't look like this the following morning," I snapped.

  Jackson opened his eyes taking in the surrounding scene. His eyes widened as he noticed the dozen or so people that were dead to the world on our lawn.

  "Shit," Jackson mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  "Well..." I remarked, raising my hands.

  He stared at me totally confused. "Mia, I don't know what happened."

  Before I had a chance to respond, my phone started ringing again and brought an onslaught of screams with it. Jackson gazed around seemingly puzzled by the voices from inside.

  "House meeting. Now," I demanded.

  Jackson nodded. He stood, swayed, and fell back on the couch. It reeled back some of my anger with him since I had the same struggle.

  Shit. He looks like he's still drunk too.

  "I'm going to wake up the others. Please find my phone since it won't stop ringing."

  Jackson waved me along. He held his stomach as he took slow breaths. I managed to get to the front door without swaying or throwing up. I took a deep breath and braced myself for what was inside. I opened the door not nearly prepared for the sight ahead of me. People had passed out everywhere. The entire living room had bodies on couches, the floor, and the coffee tables.

  I weaved my way in and out of bodies towards the dining room to see people passed out on the floor and table in there. I got to the stairs deftly moving around the people passed out at the landing. What I saw was more than enough so checking out the cave or kitchen was pointless. I headed upstairs and banged on Trey and Shane's doors. There was no movement for the first five minutes. When they did get up, they answered their doors with matching glares.

  I motioned downstairs and flatly said, "House meeting." I looked over Trey's shoulder to see Bri burying her head underneath a pillow. "Bri, that means you too so get your ass up."

  I trotted down to the landing and shouted, "Your overnight stay is over. Everybody out!"

  Not one person that shuffled by me was recognizable. As the house cleared out, Trey, Shane, and Bri made their way downstairs. They appeared as rough as Jackson and me. Clearly, something happened last night. Everyone looked the same - hung-over as shit.

  I looked over to Jackson to see he had my phone. I grabbed it from him and shut it off without bothering to check the missed calls or voicemails. I knew that someone was trying to reach me but one crisis at a time. All eyes were on me so I gestured to the living room so we could at least lean against something while we tried to piece together last night. We shuffled in there and collapsed into the furniture.

  "Who remembers anything about last night?" I asked.

  Crickets...

  We looked at each other with blank expressions and no words for several minutes.

  Jackson finally stammered, "I remember a few things, but it's really blurry. I remember all of us doing shots. They got me buzzed but I was still paying attention."

  "Do you remember the last group of people that you let in?"

  Jackson started playing with his lip ring. "Umm...."

  My eyes constricted. "Who was the last person that you remember letting in?"

  Jackson gazed around the room looking at anything but the rest of us.

  "Seriously just tell us," I exclaimed.

  "They said they knew you. They knew it was your birthday and that they were here to celebrate. They said you'd be cool with it. Plus, they had their own booze so I didn't really see the harm," Jackson confessed.

  I gulped not wanting to go down the road my mind was travelling. "Jackson, what alcohol did this group exactly bring? Do you remember any names?" I asked uneasily.

  He fidgeted with his lip ring again. "I remember hearing one of them say O'Connor."

  The color left my face as I glanced at Trey. He buried his head in his hands. We knew that this just went from bad to really fucking bad. Shane, Bri, and Jackson watched our exchange.

  Bri pulled Trey from his arms. "What?" she asked anxiously.

  He avoided her gaze glimpsing at me with a nod to tell them.

  Wonderful. I get to take the lead on this bomb drop.

  I redirected my eyes away from their inquisitive stares and settled them on the ceiling hoping it would offer words of encouragement. "The O'Connor's are from our neighborhood. They're bad news. We were never friends with them. We ran into them from time to time at parties but that's about it. Their claim to fame was fucking people up at their parties." I looked at Jackson and asked, "Do you remember what they brought?"

  Jackson frowned. "It was a family bucket."

  I wanted to throw up but reined it in. I glanced at Trey who was rubbing his hands over his eyes as his face became even paler.

  Jackson cleared his throat and said, "They brought in quite a few buckets. It looked like whop so I didn't question it."

  I gaped with the mention of buckets as in plural. This was worse than I thought.

  "How would have they even known there was a party?" I questioned.

  Bri's face turned red as she dropped her gaze to the floor. I stared at her with wide eyes.

  "Umm...I may have posted it on Twitter and Facebook after I got drunk," she confessed.

  I groaned dropping my head in my hands. We had just drank God knows what from the O'Connor's. Today couldn't get any worse and that was when Bri's phone started ringing. She retrieved her phone from her sweatshirt and gave us an apologetic look as she answered.

  "Hello? Oh...hey...yea, Mia's here."

  Bri gestured the phone in my direction. I grabbed it with a raised eyebrow.

  "Hello?"

  "Why haven't you answered your phone or returned any of my messages?"

  Chase shouted so loud that I held the phone away from my ear.

  "What's the problem?" I asked utterly irritated.

  "I had two servers and a bar tender call in sick. Can you and Bri cover today? I don't ask for your help often Mia but I really need you today," Chase requested tersely.

  All I wanted to do was cra
wl into a hole and die but I refused to say no to Chase. We never asked for favors from one another so I had to be his last resort.

  "I guess. When do you need us and for how long?" I inquired, unenthused.

  "I need help for the entire afternoon and part of the night. Can you be here by one?"

  I glanced at the clock on the DVD player to find out what time it was now. It would be tight but we could pull off being there within the hour. Everyone was staring at me with curious eyes.

  "Yea, we'll be there," I confirmed.

  "Good. Bye."

  Chase hung up and I just stared at the phone. That was the most we had spoken to each other in three years. How we managed living together for thirteen years still boggled my mind. Every conversation throughout that time was like the one we just completed - short and detached. There was no way of knowing that we were family without asking. The sad part was that I had no memories of my parents so my first memories were full of fear and solitude. If Trey's mom would have forgone extending a welcome to the neighborhood, my childhood could've been much worse. She introduced her family to me on my first day here. At least that was what she told me anyway. I struggled to recall a lot from that time in my life and that was a separate issue in itself.

  The only reason Chase tracked me down was because Bri and I helped around the bar in high school. He probably went through his entire phone book before he considered me. Whenever I helped him in high school, he took a huge risk but it never seemed to bother him. He projected an attitude towards life that puzzled me. It was as if he went through his life going through the motions not ever truly participating in it. It terrified me that living all those years with him more than likely had an impact on my own beliefs.

  I moved out from under his roof the day after I turned eighteen. It made my senior year of high school remarkable and there was not a damn thing the school district or anyone else could do about it. I enjoyed every second of that year without a thought of Chase and how shitty he had made my entire childhood. He was never mean to me but he isolated me in such a way that it seemed like there was something wrong with me. It was the negligence coupled with the obvious dislike that made me want to be as far away from him as possible. He never displayed any love for me but I loved him regardless of how strained our relationship was with each other.

  I brought myself out of my fucked up relationship with Chase. I handed Bri's phone back to her. I had no remorse for including her in the misery my next ten hours promised to be. In reality, I needed her to be there with me so it was almost a blessing for Chase to request her.

  "Your penance for broadcasting our party which led to all of us not knowing what happened for the majority of the evening has warranted you a day of working at the bar."

  Bri looked at me like I couldn't be serious. I glared daggers at her to drive my point home. She shuffled out from underneath Trey and made her way to the stairs. Trey was unable to hide his shock. He knew firsthand what the relationship was between Chase and me. I gave him a subtle headshake not to dwell on it. Bri blew past it without asking why I agreed to help him. I doubted that it would come up later. Between keeping up with customers and preventing our heads from falling off, we'd have little room to get into a heart to heart.

  I stopped on the landing peering back at the boys. "You guys are responsible for getting this place cleaned up. If time allows, try to find out what's in that bucket."

  Trey grimaced but nodded. Jackson and Shane remained unmoving.

  We got ready quicker than we normally do. Time was a luxury we no longer had so I showered in the boy's bathroom while Bri cleaned up in ours. We exited our rooms in faded, torn jeans and white tank tops displaying the O'Reilly's signature mark with our hair pulled back and oversized sunglasses. She looked as bad as I felt and she returned the same amused expression. I laughed and winced when it in my head. Bri rolled her eyes as she fell in step with me. On our way to the door, Trey sat up showing concern.

  "Are you sure you guys are okay to drive?"

  I tilted my head to the side letting my eyes pull into a death stare. He knew the expression well enough not to argue with it. Bri went over to give him a kiss before meeting me at the door.

  "If you need an extra bartender, give me a call," Trey offered as we walked out.

  We flew down the interstate in silence. Our hangovers had us in our own personal hells so the thought of even trying to have a conversation wasn't on either of our minds. Bri kept her eyes shut with her head against the window as she massaged her temples. I wanted to do the same thing but the car wasn't going to drive there on its own. We got to the bar shortly before one. Chase took one glance at us and shook his head. I held up a hand not even wanting to hear any of his bullshit. It took everything within my power not to flip him off and turn around.

  Chase can fuck off for all I care. No hello or how have you been not that I'm surprised but the least he can do is let us walk into the bar without fucking judging us.

  His bar was pretty basic. After walking through the front door, there were booths that lined the walls with tables scattered throughout the rest of the area. There were sections that Chase arranged for pool and darts. The jukebox was near the bar along with a popcorn machine. The bar was circular and by the back wall with a small path around it. There was a walkway through the center of it to make it easy to get around. The register was in the middle facing towards the cut out window on the right side of the wall that allowed you to see into the kitchen.

  There was a door in the middle that led to the kitchen off to the right and a supply room off to the left. Beyond that area, there was the back door that dumped you into an alleyway. It was where I parked and where Chase's vehicle was since he turned the second level of the building into his apartment.

  We grabbed aprons from the supply room then propped ourselves behind the bar to wait for people to start coming in for their afternoon fix. By happy hour, there was very little room to move around with the amounts of people that swarmed in for the drink specials. I cringed at that thought and prayed that a regime of water with Excedrin would be enough to keep me going. I glanced over to Bri. She had her head in hands. I grabbed two glasses and filled them with water. I squeezed her shoulder before placing the glass in front of her with some Excedrin.

  "Take these. It's not going to make it go away completely but it should help."

  "How do you know?" Bri asked, pulling her arms from her head.

  "I took some before hopping in the shower. It's starting to work. Don't get me wrong. There is still sludge hammer running through my skull. It's just less intense," I replied.

  Bri shrugged as she popped them in her mouth and took down half of her water. "A bar is the last place anyone should be when they are this hung-over. I'd rather walk through the fires of hell with gasoline all over me than be anywhere near alcohol," she griped.

  I gave her an empathetic nod. "Thanks for doing this Bri. I really do appreciate it."

  She smirked. "It was a bitchy move to rope me into this but don't worry about it."

  There was no more time for chitchat. Patrons started coming in and we were taking orders and pouring drinks. The first whiff of hard liquor made my stomach feel like it ate itself then up-chucked it all in one motion. I was lucky my gag reflex was solid. I looked over at Bri on the other end of the bar as she mixed her first drink. Her naturally tan skin was green. We caught each other's miserable eyes. Today was going to be a very long, painful day.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  We had been at it for about two hours before catching a lull in customers. I took advantage of it by washing glasses behind the bar. Bri was verifying that everything was in stock for the night crowd. She was inspecting our supply of Jack Daniels at the other end of the bar when she gasped loudly. I glanced over my shoulder to see what the big deal was. Bri was stumbling her way back towards me with her hands to her eyes and rubbing them as if to clear her vision. I couldn't figure out why so I went back to the dirty bar glasses.
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  "Sweet Baby Jesus. God's gift to women just walked in," Bri said hoarsely.

  I groaned. "I've known Trey my entire life. Do you really have to refer to him like that?"

  Bri turned me around to face the front door. I tossed my rag on the bar and looked around.

  "I wasn't talking about Trey. I'm talking about that fine specimen of a man," she whispered.

  My breath hitched as my eyes absorbed Ethan. He was in torn jeans and a plain white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up showing off his tattoos. My pulse quickened when he gave me a crooked smile. He motioned to an area of tables to the right of the bar silently asking if anywhere was okay to sit. I nodded indicating I'd be over in five to take his order.

  His eyes lingered on me for a few more seconds before he settled at a table. The heat that rose around him had been on the move. I swallowed hard realizing that this really was about to happen. This afternoon was about to wreak even more havoc on my world at his office. I had gotten lost in his looks and my inability to fight it today that I failed to remember Bri was watching us. She arched a brow. When I remained silent, she forced me to face her.

  "That's Ethan," I said, feigning indifference.

  Bri glanced at him and then back at me with cartoon character like speed. "That's Ethan as in the Ethan you work for now Ethan," she confirmed.

  I nodded while lightly chuckling. Bri wasn't as amused by the hardness in her eyes.

  "What you said before was the same thing that I thought when I saw him for the first time."

  She giggled. "Who wouldn't react that way around someone as gorgeous as him? I've never seen anyone that beautiful. It's making me reconsider polygamy and open relationships."

  "I can't believe you said that out loud."