Chapter 15
I looked at Vera. Then the baby. Then at Vera.
Then at the baby.
I blinked more than a few times.
The baby looked familiar.
Which was a no duh thing because Vera was holding the baby.
“What are you doing here?” Vera asked.
She looked around as though being caught with a boy at the door was the end of the world.
“What are you doing?” I asked her. “You took off, beauty. Which I figured you would. But…”
I looked at the baby again.
“Hi,” a little voice said to me.
The little girl wasn’t exactly a baby… meaning a newborn or whatever. I guess maybe she was a toddler? Or younger than a toddler but not exactly a baby.
Or…
My mind couldn’t figure out what to think or say.
“Hey,” I said to the baby girl. “How are you?”
The baby girl turned her head and put it down on Vera’s shoulder.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” Vera said. “I know Hil is a scary looking guy. A guy who’s not supposed to be here right now. Right?”
“Oh, I’m here,” I said.
“But you were just getting ready to leave,” Vera said. “Right?”
“I don’t think so. Do whatever you have to do. Call the police. I don’t care. What is going on, Vera?”
“You’re looking at it, Hil,” she said. “What did you think would happen this morning?”
“This,” I said. “But not… this…”
I looked to the baby girl.
“And what are you thinking right now? Huh? I would love to know what’s going through your head.”
“What do you think is going through my head? You bail on me and then I come here to find you with a baby?”
“Yeah, so?”
“It’s not that simple,” I said.
“You need to leave. Right now.”
“I can’t do that. Everything we talked about. Everything we’re feeling. And you kept this from me?”
“Kept what?” Vera asked.
I pointed to the baby girl again.
I felt like I was on a different planet or a whole other universe.
I stepped back and touched my forehead.
What I needed right then was a cigarette but I couldn’t smoke in front of a baby.
The baby girl lifted her head and looked at me.
“Hi,” she said again.
“Yeah, hey,” I said. “What’s your name?”
She turned her head away again.
Vera smiled. “She’s never shy. She must think you’re cute.”
“Like mother, like daughter, right?” I asked.
“What?” Vera asked.
“Stop acting like this,” I said. “You need to-”
“Vera?” a voice yelled from inside the house. “Where did you take the baby? Are you outside?”
“Thanks a lot, Hil,” Vera said.
Right behind Vera, I saw someone hurrying toward us.
The house was fucking massive and just wide open. The only thing that came to mind was a hotel. Like walking into the entrance of a luxury hotel. That’s what the house reminded me of.
But screw the house.
This wasn’t about the house.
This was about the baby girl…
“Well, well, well,” the other person said as she stepped up next to Vera.
I pointed to her. “Veronica.”
“Hil,” she said back to me.
I looked at Vera. “You told your sister about me? Or, wait, she’s just a fan, right?”
“Oh, she’s told me a lot about you,” Veronica said.
I looked at both and could see how different they were. My best guess was one looked like their mother and one looked like their father. They were the same height and had the same color hair. Veronica’s was longer and curly.
The baby girl reached for Veronica.
“Come here, my sweet Greta,” Veronica said.
“I was just going to change her,” Vera said.
“No, don’t worry about it,” Veronica said. “I don’t need your help anymore.” Veronica looked at me and grinned. “Nice to meet you, Hil.”
“Same to you, Vera’s sister,” I said.
Vera jumped toward me, pushing me back so she could shut the door.
It was maybe the first time I ever saw her a little flustered.
I stared down at her.
“You going to tell me what that was, beauty?”
“Greta isn’t my baby…”
* * *
I wasn’t sure why I felt relief when she said that.
Would it really have been that big of a deal?
Maybe, maybe not.
And even if Greta was her baby, I could have understood why she didn’t want to say anything. It’s a tough thing to talk about. Especially if Vera and I were just… what… fooling around a little here and there…
“So you were helping your sister?” I asked.
“Yes,” Vera said. “Okay? I don’t know what you want from me right now, Hil. I wasn’t going to hang around this morning.”
“That’s kind of ironic.”
“How?”
“I don’t do the hang around in the morning thing… but yet the one time I wouldn’t have minded it… and you split.”
Vera bit her lip and looked around.
She looked nervous and jumpy.
“Let’s get out of here, Hil. Take me somewhere. We can talk.”
“What’s wrong with here? Hey, do you have a secret life or something?”
“What?” Vera snapped.
“I’m just asking. You’re acting like you’re worried about being seen with me.”
“I’m not,” she said. “I just didn’t expect to see you.”
“Why not?”
“Please… let’s get out of here… I’ll tell you everything then.”
“Okay, fine,” I said. “Oh. My guitar…”
“It’s under my bed,” she said.
“You seriously called for a ride and stole my guitar?”
“I had to leave my mark,” she whispered.
I touched her face and shook my head. “Oh, believe me, beauty, you’ve left your fucking mark.”
“Then let me leave another one… get me out of here or else I’m going to kick you in the balls and never talk to you again.”
I grabbed her hand and we ran down the steps together.
Almost as though we were leaving for good. Like we weren’t supposed to be leaving either.
I looked over at her and watched the way her black hair danced behind her. It was so dumb to see and think, but I noticed she had earrings. Little, tiny, diamond-stud earrings in her ears. So small that I never noticed them before.
Something about the earrings just…
And she wasn’t wearing lipstick again.
I kind of liked when she wore lipstick and kissed a piece of paper or my guitar.
But without it…
“Ugh, please stop staring at me and eye humping me,” she said.
All I could do was laugh.
Vera was like nobody I had ever met in my life before.
I was way more than interested. I was hooked and addicted.
She definitely tasted better than cigarettes… but cigarettes didn’t piss me off the way she did.
When we got to my motorcycle, she turned to face me and punched me in the chest.
“What the hell, beauty?”
“What the hell yourself,” she said. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like how?” I asked.
“Like you actually might love me.”
She was irritated as hell.
And I liked it.
To make matters worse, I slipped my hands to her cheeks and kissed her like I had never kissed anyone else ever before.
* * *
Of all places, I took her to the rocks where I had been with Them, Belle
, Mara… and Tara.
Vera got off my motorcycle first, and when I got off, she grabbed my arm and turned me around.
I smiled at her.
And then she punched me again.
Right in the same spot on my chest.
“You fucking asshole.”
“For what?”
“You just show up to my house like that? Who are you?”
“I’m Hil,” I said. “What did you think? I was going to be afraid of you? Your parents? Your sister? Shit, you’ve been talking about me, beauty. That means everything you said you feel is true.”
Vera swung again.
I put my hand up and she hit my hand.
“Fuck you then,” she said. “That’s my house. That’s my…”
“Your secret? Your sad place? Right? You’re ashamed of it? You’re afraid you’ll look vulnerable there. And you fucking did. With a baby on your hip…”
“Greta is not mine,” she said.
“I know. But still. That’s heavy shit, beauty. So that’s why you lash out. That’s why you push everyone away. That’s why you steal shit. Break shit. That’s why you kissed that guy at the show. You didn’t give a shit he had a girlfriend. And then you threw a drink in her face…”
“Shut up,” Vera said. “Ohmygod… are you writing a book about me?”
“No. I just remember what that made me feel.”
“And what did it make you feel?”
I gently touched her shoulders. “Jealousy. I fucking wanted to dive off that stage and beat the hell out of that guy. And then I wanted to kiss you to show you what it was like to be kissed for real.”
Vera shook her head. “This all got fucked up, Hil. All of this.”
“All of what?”
“You really showed up to my house…”
“Of course. I’m not afraid of anything, beauty.”
“Okay,” Vera said. “Tough guy. Fine. I woke up early this morning and just kind of looked at you.”
“Creepy,” I said. “Sexy and creepy. I’m good with that.”
“No. I called for a ride. We have a private car service. My father bought one a while back when a car showed up ten minutes late to pick him up. That’s what he does. If something pisses him off, he buys it.”
“So you think I’ll piss him off and he’ll buy me?”
“You’re worthless, Hil.”
“You mean priceless.”
“I know what I said.”
I caught her fighting off a smile.
“Anyway, I called for a ride. I just had to get out of there. It was just… you know everything about me now. I didn’t want you to wake up and think anything… I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. I wanted to leave. So I did. And when I left, Veronica called me. She said she had a conference thing or whatever. She’s into fashion.”
“Not music,” I said.
“Right,” Vera said. “So she had a conference call with someone in Paris or something. She needed help with Greta. So I offered to help. Not my kind of thing, but whatever. I don’t mind sitting there watching cartoons and playing with little dolls and stuff. It’s better to make believe anyway.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Why do you think, Hil?”
“Goddamn, you are one complicated mess, beauty,” I said.
“Yeah, well, whatever,” Vera said. “It’s what I am. Who I am. And when Veronica got done with her call, she cornered me and called me out on my shit. We kissed and made up I guess you could say. You know, from arguing and stuff. We apologized. But she knew I was feeling something else.”
“Which is what?”
“You,” Vera yelled. She swung at my chest again and hit me. “Fucking you, Hil. You. You. You.”
She kept hitting my chest.
She looked ready to explode.
“What the fuck did I do?” I asked.
“I was just messing around with you,” Vera said. “Flirting. Having fun. I thought it would be cool to get your attention. For a second. But you came after me. Then I messed with your guitar. And you came after me again.”
“You gave me your number, beauty.”
“For fun.”
“This isn’t fun?”
“I told Veronica that I fell in love with you,” Vera said.
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“I don’t know. Can you just kiss me now so I can forget all about this stuff?”
I wasn’t sure how kissing her was going to make her forget about falling in love with me.
But I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to kiss Vera… ever.
* * *
“So this is Bay Falls High?” she asked as we stood in the BFH parking lot.
“Yeah,” I said. “Not much to it.”
“And you control the place…”
“We do. Them.”
“But you…”
“Sure.”
“So if I…” Vera looked around. She pointed to some dude. “If I told you to go hit that guy, what would happen?”
“I would go hit him.”
“Then what?”
“Nothing. I’m Them. I can do whatever I want.”
“Really?”
I stuck my fingers into my mouth and whistled.
I waved my hand and the dude Vera pointed at looked at me.
“See how fucking scared he is?” I asked.
“I see,” Vera said.
I pointed to him and then turned my hand and lifted my middle finger.
The dude looked even more scared.
Then I waved him on to keep walking.
“That was cool,” Vera said. “But you didn’t hit him.”
“Okay,” I said.
I started to walk forward.
Vera lunged at me and grabbed my arm. “Hil, stop. No. Wait.”
“What?” I asked. “I’m going to hit him. Like you said to.”
“I was kidding,” she said. “Stop.”
“Nope.”
I shook her away and she lunged at me again, jumping on my back.
I reached back and grabbed her legs. Her bare legs. Because she was wearing killer short shorts again. Dirty looking jean shorts. And a long-sleeved top that pressed against the body I had held and kissed, leaving my mind running wild, knowing what was there and what it felt like.
“Hil, don’t do it,” she pleaded.
I was going to hit the guy to prove a point.
But then I heard clapping.
I stopped walking.
I curled my lip.
As I slowly turned, I saw Them.
And Belle.
Uly and Ash were clapping.
Belle just stood there, arms crossed, a snotty grin on her face.
“And who might this be?” Uly asked.
“Some chick I found,” I said.
Vera slapped my face. “I’m not some chick. You asshole.”
“Feisty,” Ash said.
Vera tried to wiggle down my back but I squeezed my hands and kept her there.
I walked toward Uly, Ash, and Belle.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Us?” Belle asked. “You ditched class today, Hil. And now you show up here.”
“I guess I did,” I said.
“I wanted a tour,” Vera said. “Just to see if everything about him is true.”
“It’s all true,” Uly said. “Especially the bad parts.”
“The bad parts are the good parts,” I said.
“So cliché,” Vera whispered into my ear.
I turned my head and grinned. “But you love cliché, beauty. You’re too scared to admit it.”
“Wow,” Ash said. “Is Hil in love with someone?”
“Love… wow,” Belle said.
“I told you we shouldn’t have come here,” I said to Vera.
“But this is fun,” she said.
“Because I’m being made fun of?”
“Exactly,” she said.
“But we’re kind of making fun of
you too, doll,” Uly said. “You willingly want to be with this guy?”
“Wait until Tara finds out,” Ash said.
“Who?” Vera asked.
“Fuck you, bro,” I said.
Vera wiggled off my back for real this time.
I turned and she punched me in the chest.
“Tara?”
“Time killer,” I said.
“What?”
“Ash, you’re a dick,” Belle said. “Why would you say that?”
“What?” Ash asked.
“Vera, seriously…,” Belle said.
Vera looked right at Belle and put her right hand out and closed her fingers together.
Telling Belle to shut up.
I was pretty sure everyone’s face turned red.
“I hung out with a girl while I was waiting for you to get back,” I said to Vera. “I didn’t do anything though. But I’m glad it’s making you jealous.”
“Make it up to me,” Vera said.
“How?”
“Play a show tonight. I want to watch you.”
I slowly smiled.
She fucking had me. All of me.
It made no sense.
But if she wanted to see me on stage tonight, then I knew where I would be.
Chapter 16
“Are your shelves stocked with disgusting iced tea?” I asked Aya.
She slapped the counter. “That’s so funny, Hil.”
“I know. It never gets old.”
“It kind of does,” she said.
“What are you looking at there?” I asked.
Aya shut a folder and tucked it under the counter. “None of your damn business.”
“Sorry I asked,” I said. “Ready for a show tonight?”
“Yeah. But, uh, it’s going to be the last one.”
“Last one? Why?”
Aya nodded to the door. “Shutting it down, Hil.”
“The cafe?” I asked. “For real?”
“Can’t serve drinks and food during construction.”
“What?”
“I signed my life away,” she said. “In a sense, I guess. I, uh, I did it. I’m going to knock that wall down and see what happens.”
I turned and nodded. “Well, good for you.”
“You wouldn’t know what this feels like though, Hil. This is real life stuff. Real life debt and stuff.”
“What’s debt?” I asked.
HIL: a bay falls high novel Page 14