Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Hold on, just a goddamn minute!” I scream out in a shrill tone.
Whoever it is wants to die because not even a second later … Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jerking open my bedroom door, I don’t even bat an eyelash when Jenna’s opens, too. She comes storming out into the middle of the living room, hair in all sorts of disarray, practically snarling at whoever it is.
“I’m going to eat your children!” she yells out in a banshee warrior cry.
“Jesus crabgrass,” I grumble out, shaking my head as I hobble my way toward the door. “Put some clothes on, Jen.”
You guessed it—she’s naked. And she cares not about people seeing her this way. If I’ve learned anything over the last few days, it’s the fact that Jenna is a free spirit. She does what she wants and makes no excuses. She’s what I want to be when I finally grow up because she seems to have her life all figured out.
Fuck the world and their rules. That’s what she believes in.
She growls from behind me, “Who the fuck is bangin’ on the door at three in the flippin’ mornin’?!”
My eyes immediately flit to the clock on the wall, seeing she’s right. Donald fuck on a merry-go-round. “Whoever it is, they’re dead,” I say as I jerk the door open.
I die a little on the inside by what I’m faced with.
Two of the campus security officers are standing on the other side of the door, holding their little flashlights and walkie-talkies like it makes them special. They look about our age, but it’s clear to see they don’t go to school here. No student at GOU would be caught dead as a rent-a-cop.
Clearing my throat, I ask, “Um, can I help you, gentlemen?”
“Yes, you might be able to. We’ve heard some people in this building are hiding paraphernalia.” He must see that I’m a bit skeptical, so he flashes a warm smile toward me, and then flips around the lanyard hanging around his neck.
Right there. Clear as day. Talon Davis—security watchmen.
Flick. The guy on the right, with his Justin Bieber hairdo, points his flashlight right into my eyes, blinding me. “Wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you, darlin’?”
My hand shoots up to block the offensive beam, even as a newly robed Jenna comes to stand beside me. “Paraphernalia? Like, drugs?”
“Look at her go. Little miss smarty britches,” Doppelganger Bieber snaps out.
His face practically twists into a snarl, smiling her way as his eyes leer up and down her microscopically covered body. Nausea rises when he waggles his thick eyebrows at her—disgusting waste of space male.
I scrunch my face in revulsion, and my eyes fly to Jenna to see she does the same, going even further by declaring, “Not in this lifetime, pal.”
Doppelganger Bieber doesn’t look too put out, just merely shrugs his shoulders and resumes his verbal assault on whether we have drugs in our apartment. I notice that he’s getting just a tad bit louder every time he asks, and we both confirm, with utmost certainty, that we do not have drugs.
When he pops his gum from out of nowhere, Jenna and I jump simultaneously. The noise is so loud, it’s like a piercing gunshot going off in the dead of night, the sound bouncing off the concrete walls with an echo.
Just from what little I’ve encountered when it comes to Doppelganger Bieber, he’s already a prick in my eyes. With his loud gum popping, smart ass comments, not taking no for an answer, and pointing his flashlight into our eyes.
“Such a charmer,” I grind out. “Now, get that damn light outta our faces and quiet the hell down. We’ve already told you we don’t have drugs here, now go the fuck away.”
“Take your tone down a notch, woman.” This creepy vibe is starting to roll off him in waves. I’d much rather deal with the one that started talking first. “What do you think, Talon?” he asks, shoulder checking his partner. “Think these two have something to hide?”
“You can’t come in here without a warrant,” Jenna howls, blistering mad as her face turns three shades of red. Technically, she’s not wrong. However, she must not have read the fine print on the housing application.
Security, for any reason, has the right to come in and out of designated housing while we are home if they have probable cause for students going against school guidelines.
Before I can explain that to her, the cop I thought was the nice one shoves past me and walks into our apartment without so much as asking. Doppelganger Bieber follows right behind him, smirking the entire time like he’s won the prize for the biggest douche bag.
“What the—”
There is no time to react. Reflex has my jaw dropping open in shock, even while both of them start turning our apartment upside down. Couch cushions are thrown on the floor. Desks are flipped, searched, and not put back to the way we had it pre-search. Curtains are torn down. Bedroom doors are kicked in, and our rooms are searched. They’re like twin tornados, flitting here and there as they go through our personal possessions.
Just watching them is pissing me off, making my blood boil. “We don’t have drugs here, idiots!”
“We’ll be the judge of that,” Doppelganger Bieber calls out, snapping his gum in that nasty cavern of his.
My eyes stray to Jenna. Her gaze meets mine. I can feel the tears burning the back of my throat, and clearly see hers gathering along the surface of her eyes. We’re both pissed. Confused. Hurt. Not really sure what we’re feeling more of in this exact moment, but we do know we don’t deserve this.
“Well, looks like nothing’s here,” cop one, Talon, states, frowning hard as he peers all around him in confusion.
Our apartment is a mess, plain and simple. It’ll take us hours to clean this up, and if Jenna is anything like me, she’ll need everything organized before she can try to get any sleep.
Fuck my life.
Doppelganger Bieber snorts at Talon’s words, and when my gaze swings toward him, that’s when I see it. He’s not upset that he’s here, and nothing came out of them ripping our apartment apart. An apartment we just finished setting up before dinner tonight.
No. He’s freaking enjoying himself, the grin practically eats up his entire face as he stands there looking between Jenna’s and my crestfallen expression.
He chortles, then rolls his eyes. “Of course, nothing here, Tal. Let’s go.”
Jenna and I remain frozen while they slip out of the apartment just as loudly as they entered. Neither of us says anything for quite some time, choosing to stand—she against the kitchen counter and I near the television stand up against the wall that connects to her room—and stare at everything they wrecked in their quest to find something they knew wasn’t here, to begin with.
My heart falls into the pit of my stomach, pondering over how extensive this is going to be to clean up. The hours we will need to dedicate to straightening the flipped furniture, desks, tables, and movies. The hours we will have to go without sleep to clean up … and for what? What reasoning did they have to come in here?
Something doesn’t sit right with me.
“I’m gonna check something out,” I speak softly, then walk toward our apartment door and thrust it open, sticking my body halfway out the door.
Both security watchmen are still talking and laughing … as they make their way out of our apartment complex. I can’t see them, but I listen until their voices are barely a whisper above the humid breeze circulating through the loggia.
Stepping back, I slam the door and lock it, staring at the chipping paint right below the peephole. “They just left.”
Jenna snorts, then mutters something under her breath that I can’t quite hear. Turning toward her, I take her in, seeing the aggression fighting for power in her tiny body. She’s much different on the outside, but she’s the same Jenna Doyle on the inside, and she’s pissed.
“What?” I question.
My cell phone chirps at the same time she opens her mouth. While I need to find out what she said, it could be M
averick getting ahold of me, and I don’t want to miss it. His night terrors are terrible sometimes, and even though I’m two hours away, I refuse to let him go through it alone.
Stepping over quilts, sofa cushions, desks, and a few decorations, I finally make it to my room. The light is already blazing brightly, so I make my way toward where my phone was before the raid.
I feel her presence before she says anything.
“Don’t you think it’s funny how he said, ‘of course, nothing’s here’?”
I shrug a shoulder, uncaring what she has to think because it’s now four in the morning.
Another chirp sounds out, and I toss my pillow out of the way to see it laying there on the floor face down. “I dunno, Jen. Stranger things have happened.”
“Like what, Lo?” I can practically feel a stint of Detective Jenna Doyle trying to pop out like a blemish on oily skin. Was wondering how long it’d take her to chime in on the whole thing. Jenna isn’t known for being silent. “Just hear me out …”
And there it is.
“Jenna, please, not right now,” I release around a tired sigh as I blindly fiddle with my phone. Maverick will be so upset if I miss him. While he should be asleep right now, beggars can’t be choosers.
“Two meatheads come to our apartment, right? Flip the entire place upside down, then leave without a word. They were searching for drugs, yet we’re the only apartment they examined. Coincidence? I think not. Please, tell me you’re not this naïve.”
I turn toward her, deadpanning, “What are you babbling about?”
“This. Was. Planned.” She nods once like she has it all figured out.
No one would be pathetic enough to do this. A really immature person would … ding!
Huffing, I look down at my screen, expecting to see a tiny picture message from Maverick. He tends to draw pictures when he can’t sleep and steals his Poppy’s phone to send them to me through SMS.
When I see what it is, a sliver of dread climbs my spine. A number not in my directory is still flashing across my screen before minimizing to the top. It’s local; that much I can tell by the area code. But I’m unfamiliar with it.
“What is it?” Jenna asks, and it doesn’t register that she’s moved until she’s taking my phone out of my hand and clicking on the message at the top.
Cuss words aplenty fall from her lips as she, too, seems to connect the dots. We both know exactly who this is because no one would be dumb enough to broadcast his involvement in the “fake” raid.
1-(404)-279-4576: It’s only going to get worse.
1-(404)-279-4576: Leave while you still can.
1-(404)-279-4576: Cry uncle, baby, and make sure you’re kneeling when you do.
If he thinks I’m going to tuck tail and run, he better get those tissues handy, because I’m about to kick him where it hurts. No one will make me do anything I don’t want to. Maverick’s and my future is more important than some silly boy playing high school games.
Being a single mom has made me stronger than anyone I know. The moment we picked up and moved to Gammy’s, I quit school, got my GED, and started working. I knew that if we were going to survive while here at GOU, we needed a little nest egg. So, I worked and saved. Anything I didn’t need to spend was put into a savings account.
Months went by, and with my family’s help, I had everything I needed for Maverick. The only thing I had to do was make sure I kept up with his necessities. I went back to work three weeks post-birth. Thankfully, the little old lady at the library allowed me to carry Maverick around while I was restacking shelves and doing other secretarial things.
I made it without Hunter, and I will continue to keep doing me long after he’s gone. I wouldn’t have worked myself to the bone, breastfeeding the same time I restocked shelves at the local library, taking the risk of people seeing some sixteen-year-old in a state of undress. Hunter has never had to give anything up in his life. He’s had a silver spoon tucked in his mouth ever since he was born.
So, no, I’m not going to cry uncle and leave Golden Oaks Uni. I have my eyes set on my prize, and nothing is going to stop me. Not even a butthurt prick like Hunter Prince.
CHAPTER 9
Move on, my ass, I sneer toward her dorm from my spot on the picnic table.
Been a week since I sicced campus security on the girls, and nothing came of it. I knew there wasn’t going to be any drugs in their apartment. Harloe never was a fan of the stuff. Didn’t even like me smoking. So, I knew she wouldn’t have any of that in there.
But I expected more backlash. Some yelling, cussing—maybe even another slap across the face.
I got nothing.
Nada.
A big ole kick in the nuts because she didn’t react at all. Not even a little, which frustrates the hell out of me. That is not how the old Harloe would have let things go down. The old Harloe would’ve had me choking on teeth. Then, she’d made me kiss her hand better for bruising it on my hard head.
That version of Harloe still gives me a stiffy every time she circles through my thoughts. Even with all she did, I can’t mentally fight the attraction of a Harloe Rose from our sophomore year.
She was my best friend. My lover. My fighter. My everything. The person I could turn to when I needed someone. I never felt like a pussy ass bitch when I unloaded my thoughts and fears into her ear. That’s what she was there for. That’s what we were to each other.
Then, she royally fucked me over.
So, shit, no, she’s not getting the easy way out. If she thinks staying here will be a walk in the park, she is sorely mistaken. She’s going to have to put up her deuces and show me how much she wants this.
Harloe is going to have to do what she should have done three years ago.
Stay and fight!
Even then, I’ll still hit her where it hurts, and continue to do so until she leaves. People can call me a bastard all they want, but they can thank her because she made me this way.
Nothing will be able to change my mind.
A catcall filters through the courtyard, and instantly my lips turn up into a genuine smile. I’d know that too-screechy sounding whistle anywhere. Flicking my face in his direction, Easton bounds toward me like a mentally defective person.
“‘Sup, motherfucka!”
I roll my eyes, slinging my foot into the air and hitting him dead center of the stomach to keep him from jumping on me and clinging like a goddamn monkey. “We’re not twelve anymore, dick.”
His lips pucker, making me snort. “Then why’d you eat my last roll-up this morning?”
Shaking my head, I lean back against the table on my hands. Tilting my head to the side, I peer up at him with the most innocent expression I can muster. “Don’t know about you, but I was eating pussy for breakfast, not some goddamn piece of candy.”
He gives me the side-eye, scrunching up his face as he looks me up and down. “I thought that box of roll-ups smelled funny.”
“Jerk.” I bark out a laugh, leaning forward fast and clipping him in the shoulder with my fist. He stands back, smirking, as he rubs the spot. “You know from experience how good Cass’s pussy is.”
“Unfortunately,” he huffs, settling onto the table beside me with a grunt. He tosses his bag onto the ground by our feet. “But that was the summer before senior year. She could’ve let herself go since then.”
“Cassandra Radcliff?” I exclaimed, giving him a you’re full of shit look. “Would I still be sniffing around that if she did?”
He nods. “You got me there. The girl spends more time on her looks, hygiene, and riding your dick than she does anything else. You got a keeper there,” he quips, appearing unaffected.
We both know that’s a front. Hard not hearing that sad lilt to his voice, like he’s missing something and wants for nothing more than for it to come back.
No, I don’t have a keeper, either. But I’m not going to tell him that. Some things are better left a secret. Plus, it seems he has enough on his mi
nd without adding my shit to the mix, too.
If he’d ever tell me what happened this summer, maybe then I’d be able to help him out. You know, take a little bit of distraction anywhere I can find it. Except, he’s as tightlipped as I am. We’re not used to sharing personal things or talking about what’s truly bothering us. Not that anything is wrong with that, but for us, chilling with each other is just how we do it.
“So, what happened with the whole drug thing?” he asks out of nowhere as he lies back on top of the table, taking in the early morning’s rays.
Flicking my eyes toward the clock tower of the main building, I heave a sigh. My first class is in less than thirty minutes, and if I don’t want to miss it like I did all three times last week, I need to get moving.
Last week, I couldn’t bring myself to give a fuck about anything, not after seeing her like I did. So, I spent the entire time either drunk, stoned, or between Cassandra’s legs.
Just saying, one of them is losing their effect, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. It doesn’t erase everything from my mind, only allowing me to focus on what is happening during that moment in time.
Shit’s going to get real if the way I try to forget starts to slowly no longer work for me. I’ll be a bigger asshole than I am now. Not having a crutch for someone like me is a dangerous, dangerous thing.
I stretch, yawning from the lack of sleep. “Not enough hours in the day to explain how fucked that situation is.”
Or how fucked I am over it when it shouldn’t bother me at all.
About that time, Leo and Zeke stop by our morning spot. Thankfully, it halts Easton’s line of questioning as he and Leo start bickering back and forth like sixth graders. Knowing them, they’re probably having a pissing contest about some pussy they snagged last night.
Often times, I wonder what’s kept us friends for so long. While all they seem to care about is the next hole they dive into, I’m over it all together.
Zeke settles in next to me, being his usual brooding self. “Got word on your girl,” he says out of nowhere.
Our Secret: A College Bully Romance (Golden Crew Book 1) Page 9