Kings of Mountain Brook Academy

by J. N. Pack

  King growls, “What the fuck were you thinking?”

  I shove his hands away, “If I want to get out of here I need money. I won, I got cash!”

  Mighty Max comes up shoving fifteen hundred dollars in my hand, “My girl! How fuckin’ awesome was that!”

  I grin and take the money shoving it in my jeans pocket.

  “Zeus said hit me up when you’re ready to go again!” Max says.

  King gets in Max’s face and growls, “She won't be fighting again!” Max pales. I shove King away from Max and tell Max I’ll text him. He nods and walks away. I get nose to nose with King and fiercely whisper, “Who the fuck do you think you are?” Liam puts an arm between us pushing us apart as we glare at each other. “Easy Wildcat!” Liam says. King steps right back in my face and Liam steps between us. “Come on man, don’t!”

  His glare snaps from me to Liam, “Don’t what?”

  Liam lifts his hands as if he was surrendering and says, “Take it easy man!”

  King’s attention refocuses on me, “Let’s see what Matt and Miri think of the precious Harper fighting here.”

  My attention snaps to his face to his face immediately looking to see if he was serious. There was absolutely no sign of him joking on his face. I sneer, “Guess you’d give them a good reason to send me back to DCFS!” I turn and stalk over to Wit. I pull on my jeans and slip my vans back on I pull my top shirt off and Wit uses a bottle of water to remove the blood from my face. Afterwards I throw the shirt in the garbage. My tank top is showing about three inches of my belly and I’ve got mad cleavage going on.

  Liam stalks towards the ring and stops beside me removing his shirt and tossing it to me. “Put it on before he loses his shit!” I look back at King and the others. He is watching me intently. Liam starts to the ring and I pull the shirt on.

  Wit grins up at me, “Jump right on in the deep end why don’t ya!”

  I shrug, “They’re assholes!”

  Liam climbs in the ring and the match is done within minutes. As he walks by he smirks.

  Wit and I head outside to leave and are talking on the way to the car. Both of us are talking about a million miles per second on an adrenaline rush. King’s Tahoe pulls up in front of us and stops. Passenger side window rolls down and Liam says, “Get in Fresh Meat.” I growl at the nickname and dodge the vehicle. It’s thrown in park and King growls, “Drive!” at Liam. He climbs from the vehicle and tosses me over his shoulder. Slate climbs out whispering something to Wit and following her. I’m kicking and yelling as King tosses me in the backseat and climbs in. He tells Liam to drive.

  “What the fuck? Let me out!” I yell.

  Finn turns grinning, “No can do! We got plans, Princess!”

  I look from Liam to Finn and finally to King who has his chin sitting in his hand as he stares out the window. I shove at him and he slowly turns and gives me a death glare. I shove again and yell, “What the fuck is your problem?” He grabs me and straddles me on the seat. I’m wiggling and trying to shove him off of me. He grips my hand as I smack his cheek.

  “One, I said you get one! Do not fuckin’ push me Fallon!” he growls. He dips low and kisses me. My body stops fighting and starts responding. I’m pressing my body against his and my mouth is responding to his demanding kiss. I’m startled back to reality when Finn starts laughing from the front seat. Liam has a smirk on his face. I shove King off of me and slide as far away from him as the backseat would allow. He goes back to staring out the window. I yawn and Liam’s eyes dart to me in the rearview mirror. “Don’t go to sleep, Fallon.” Concerned King looks over assessing me.

  “Where are we going?” I ask.

  Finn says, “Liam’s house. His parents are out of town for a week.” I glance at them and then back out the window. Ten minutes later we pull in a long driveway covered by huge oak trees. Liam looks at Finn, “Send the text messages!” Finn nods and looks at his phone. When the Tahoe stops they climb out. I follow. What the hell else am I supposed to do? A huge Great Dane comes running up to me. “O shit!” I groan freezing. The huge dog jumps knocking me on my ass and licking me all over my face. Liam yells, “Hunter, bed!” The dog turns his head and runs to a kennel sitting inside the gate. King pulls me to my feet as Liam latches the kennel. We walked to the house. My head is killing me and I’m exhausted. AS we are walking two cars pull up. One I recognize as Wit’s. King nudges me in the house. We all trudge down to a finished basement and King tells me to sit on the couch. Too tired to argue I do as he says. I’m about to curl up when Liam comes over with some peroxide and super glue. He kneels in front of me and says, “I can see how sleepy you are, but you need to stay awake for another hour or so.” He puts peroxide on my cut and wipes my face with a damp washcloth. I groan when I feel the glue in the cut. He squishes it back together and I moan. When he is finished he stands and says, “All done!”

  “What now?” I ask.

  Finn grins, “Now we party!”

  Chapter 10

  W hen we go back upstairs there are dozens of people there. Wit comes running, “Fallon!” King steps between us, “She might have a concussion. Let’s not knock her on the floor.” Then he stalks away. I look around and notice Payton, Serena, and Sawyer are here. Payton is giving me a death glare right along with Sawyer. Serena plops down on Finn’s lap while Slate gives her a death glare. Liam is sitting on a couch with King beside him. Payton and Sawyer smirk at me and walk over to Liam and King flopping down on their laps. Jealousy shoots through me and I have to try refocus my attention on something else. I start towards them and panic when I realize what I’m doing. I freeze and Wit puts a hand on my shoulder, “Let’s get a drink.” As I turn I notice King’s eyes on me. I rub my forehead trying to ease the pain radiating behind my eyes. We walk to the kitchen and we both grab a beer. We go back to the living area and sit on a couch on the opposite side of the house as King and his boys. I curl up pulling my legs under me. Wit and I talk and drink our beer. When they are empty she disappears into the kitchen. She comes back with a shot and another beer. I take my beer and we throw the shot back. Slate grabs Wit and they start dancing and grinding on each other. I lean my head on the back of the couch fighting sleep and sipping on my beer.

  Payton and Sawyer show up in front of me. “Not in the fuckin mood Payton! Fuck off!”

  She snorts, “And I care because…”

  I’m holding my head trying to ignore her and the pain shooting through my head.

  “Look trash, why don’t you get the fuck out of here! Carry your white trash ass back to the trailer park you came from.” She growls.

  I feel stares from every direction.

  “Yea bitch, why don’t you get the fuck out of here?” Sawyer echo’s Payton. Payton reaches for me and I snatch away jerking to my feet. Bad idea, very bad idea. Everything starts spinning and I stumble.

  “Get the fuck out of the way Payton!” King shouts shoving her to the side. King catches me before I hit the floor. He lifts me into his very capable arms and carefully carries me to the basement.

  Liam shouts, “Parties over! Everybody get the fuck out!”

  Sawyer groans, “But LLIIIAMM, we were going to do that thing you like.”

  He growls, “Fuck off Sawyer!”

  I lean my head on King’s shoulder and he nudges me with his shoulder, “Hey, hey! No sleeping. Wake up!”

  “I am awake!” I moan trying to keep the contents of my stomach in my stomach and not on Liam’s floors. Within minutes Wit, Liam, Slate, Finn, and Serena are walking down the stairs. Wit stays back as Liam comes to check on me. He takes a look at my eyes and checks my head for swelling. “Does your head hurt?”

  I nod and laugh weakly, “Damn pole.”

  Liam smirks and says, “Bad joke fresh meat. How long?”

  “Since I hit the pole.” I say.

  He looks at King and says, “She needs to go get a CT scan.” King starts to lift me and I struggle. “I’m not going to the hospital.”


  King snorts and says, “Wanna bet!”

  Finn grins and says, “Here we go again!”

  “You either let me take you to the hospital or I tell Matt and Miri and you still go.” King threatens.

  I try to stand and wobble, “Do what you gotta do, I’ll be gone before they get here. I’m not fuckin’ going.”

  Wit nervously says, “Fal maybe you should go… go get your head looked at.”

  I moan and grab my head, “No….I’m not going to the ER.”

  Liam stands and walks away. King growls. He finally says, “Fine! Either you let me or some fuckin’ body take you to the ER or…..” He looks around and then back at me, “Or you stay awake another hour, then we sleep in that bed right there together so I can watch you sleep. You’ll be woken up every hour on the hour by me or Liam and be forced to recite the alphabet! Your choice, but one of the two is happening tonight!”

  “Not on your fuckin’ life.” I growl as Liam returns handing me four ibuprofen.

  King growls, “Choose!”

  “Hell no!” I growl!

  I try to stand and stumble.

  “Slate make sure Wit and Serena get home. Wit I’ll bring the princess to your house tomorrow.” King says.

  I groan as Wit nods and heads for the stairs. Everyone leaves, but me, King, Finn and Liam. Liam throws a pair of jogging pants and a tee shirt at me. “Put these on.”

  I look around and groan, “Can I have some privacy?”

  Liam and Finn go upstairs and I eyeball King. He smirks, “Yea I’m not going anywhere for your stubborn ass to fall and then fight me all the way to the hospital. Arms up!”

  I lift my arms and his eyes go wide when everything comes off. He pulls the tee shirt over my head. He says grab my shoulders. I hold onto his shoulders as he pulls my jeans and shorts down. He groans, but stays focused. I sit down and he pulls the jogging pants over my feet and up to my thighs. He pulls me up and pulls them over my hips. He just stands there with his hands on my hips, not moving, not saying anything, and just looking at me. Then he eases his hands away. He doesn’t look at my face and I avoid him at all cost. “Get comfortable, I’m going to let Liam and Finn know it’s safe.” King says. I curl up on the corner of the couch. He’s watching me like he’s afraid I’m going to bolt. I wish I could make it to the door. “Don’t go to sleep.” He says, “I’ll be right back.” I nod. Liam’s clothes are huge on me, but they are so comfortable and they smell like him. I snuggle into them snuggling into the back of the couch, staring at the blank screen of his supersized TV. I was ten seconds away from falling asleep when I heard the guys coming down the stairs.

  Liam puts a movie in and Finn has his arms full of snacks. Kings hands me a cold bottle of water and Finn tosses me a bag of funyuns. I quietly thank them and lay my head back on the couch. I take a big swallow of water and close the bottle rubbing it on my forehead. Liam notices and asks, “Head still throbbing?”

  I nod, but say “Not as bad as before.”

  King slouches down leaning back in the middle of the couch beside me. He takes my feet and stretches my legs across him, “Relax.” he whispers. I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. I wish Wit was here. Liam sits beside King lounging back. He turns the movie on and what do ya know?!?! It’s the same movie Wit and I watched at her house. It’s a good movie so I don’t complain. Finn stretches out on the loveseat with his legs stretched over the end. We watch the movie in silence. I can feel King’s gaze land on me every few minutes. His hands were laying softly on my feet. At some point I doze off and fall into a deep sleep.

  The next time I wake up King is lifting me from the couch with ease and carrying me to the bed. He whispers, “Wanna give me your ABC’s?”

  Fighting sleep I whisper, “A…….B…….C………...D.” and I drift back to sleep. I hear him chuckle quietly and whisper, “Good enough Princess.”

  After being woken up once by Liam and twice by King, I growl at Liam the next time he wakes me, “I’m not saying my fuckin’ ABC’s! If you wake me up again I’m going to pummel you!” I hear quiet laughter from him and King and Liam tells King, “She’s good. Let her sleep.”

  The next time I wake up King is wrapped all around me. His legs are wrapped with mine and his arm is slung across my waist. We are right up against each other. I can feel his head right behind mine. I can feel his even breathing. I try to ease away, but his arm tightens around my middle and pulls me right back against him. He murmurs, “Sleep Princess, just sleep.” My body relaxes a little and I’m able to doze back off. It was a peaceful sleep. A deep peaceful sleep.

  Chapter 11

  The next morning I wake up to the boys quietly talking. I hear part of what Liam says, “....crazy bitch has called my phone a dozen times.”

  Finn laughs, “Told you not to hook up with her or Payton. They are insane and once they dig their claws in, you’ll never shake them.”

  Liam says, “I’m surprised Payton hasn’t blown up your phone after last night.”

  King chuckles, “I turned my phone off.” He must turn it back on because within’ minutes it dings over and over and over again for like three minutes. They all laugh hysterically.

  I open my eyes and I’m laying with my arm slung over King and my head on his chest with his arm thrown over me. I pull into a sitting position and look at King, “You guys really know how to pick a winner.” I look at Finn and ask, “Can you take me to Wit’s?” They look from each other. I pull my vans on and King says, “I’ll take you.”

  “Finn can do it. I think you guys have some phone calls to make.” I reply dryly. King’s mouth drops open like he wants to say something, but he doesn’t. He presses his lips together in a straight line and tosses Finn his keys from the stand by the bed. Without a look back I grab my clothes from the floor and stop by Liam refusing to look him in the eyes, “Can I get these back to you?”

  He nods looking from me to King and finally says, “Sure thing.” I make my way up the stairs without another word. Finn quietly following behind me. I hear something crash to the floor back down the stairs, but keep moving.

  In the car it’s quiet until we pull into Wit’s driveway. Finn speaks up, “Fallon…”

  I turn back to him and he says, “King’s not a bad guy.” I look at his face with honesty and say, “Maybe, Maybe not, but he is out of my league. Us gutter whores should stick with gutter trash.” His eyes drop to his lap and before he can say anything else I shut the door and walk into Wit’s house. When I get upstairs I throw myself across her bed waking her.

  “Jesus Christ! You scared the crap out of me Fallon!” she mumbles. She pulls her mask back over her eyes and falls back asleep. I turn my phone on and check my messages.

  Mighty Max: You good?

  Wit: I’m so fuckin’ jealous right now!

  Miri: Love you sweet girl

  Mighty Max:???

  The next message throws me.

  Finn: We may be asses, but not all the time. King’s not what you think.

  Fallon: How did you get my number???

  Fallon: I’m good Max

  Fallon: Back at ya!

  I lay my head on my arm and close my eyes when my phone dings.

  Mighty Max: Good to hear. You’re a beast in the ring! Hit me up when you’re ready to go again!

  Fallon: Soon Very Soon!

  Finn: Liam added us all.

  Fallon: Fuckin’ Great!

  I finally fall asleep and wake up at eleven am. I check my phone and find a message from Liam.

  Liam: How’s the head?

  Fallon: Just Peachy!!!

  When Wit wakes up at noon I shower and wash some of the gunk from my hair and body and dress in tights and a tank top that flows at the bottom. A little dressier than a normal tank top. I throw all my shit and Liam’s clothes in a bag. I comb my hair avoiding the spot that hit the post. Cover the gash on my face as good as possible. Add mascara and lip gloss. On the way to the car Wit finally asks, “What went d
own last night with you and King?”

  “Hmmmm. I’m sure not what you're thinking.” I responded.

  “Girl I’ve been in school with King and his crew since first grade. He’s never acted like that over any chick.” she says.

  “I’m sure it’s because of Matt and Miri.” I say.

  She looks at me and says, “I dunno!”

  I laugh. “Besides he has Payton, he doesn't need me.”

  She laughs and says, “Yea Payton’s something else.”

  We got to a twenty four hour diner and ate breakfast. I ordered a waffle with strawberries and cool whip with water. Wit orders bacon and Pecan waffles with sweet tea. After eating we walk out and an all too familiar Tahoe pulls in the parking lot. Before they have a chance to approach I climb in the car with Wit. As we back out I watch them walk into the diner. King glances towards the car before going in. I shiver. Wit glances at me and says, “I really don’t think he’s that bad of a guy.” I shrug and continue to stare out the window.

  *****************

  Wit drops me off at Matt and Miri’s. When I walk inside the maid is in deep clean mode. I walk into the kitchen and grab a bottle of water. When I turn around Miri says, “Jesus! What happened to your face Harper Fallon Henley?” Matt and Miri are both poking and prodding my face. I let them get their fill of coddling me and finally bat their hands away. “I’m fine. I’m fine! I walked into Wit’s bedroom door.” They both looked at me like they didn’t know whether that was the truth or not. They finally walk away, but Miri turns back and says, “Our friends from next door are coming for dinner, they’ll be bringing their boys as well. I laid a dress on your bed. Please be ready by six thirty pm.” I nod and say, “Okay.” I head upstairs and it’s two so I have plenty of time to study before I have to get prepared. I take the fifteen hundred dollars I earned fighting and put it in my bag I brought here with me from Montgomery. When I leave I plan to just grab the bag and leave.

  At five forty five I decide I need to stop avoiding the situation and get dressed. I hold the dress Aunt Miri picked up and groaned. It’s a little black dress. It’s got wide shoulders so it hangs off my shoulders and it’s tight on my boobs. After that it flows to my knees. After stumbling in the heels I decide to toss them in the back of the closet and settle for my vans. Not sure Aunt Miri is going to love it, but hey at least I’ll be able to walk. I straighten my hair and then add some wavy curls. I do the best I can to cover the bruise and cut and then do a full face of make-up. Not too much, but enough to make it look like I tried. At six twenty I make my way down the stairs. When I get to the bottom Aunt Miri says, “O wow. O my gosh you look beautiful. Stay right there.” I freeze not knowing what was going on. She comes back and says, “Smile beautiful.” I force a smile and she snaps a picture with her phone. Uncle Matt chuckles. I walk down the stairs just as the doorbell rings, I’m at the bottom when Aunt Miri opens the door to a beautiful couple. “Lucy you look so beautiful.” Aunt Miri says.