by J. S. Cooper
“Maybe this is how we can get vengeance for Dad.”
“What do you mean?”
“So-o-o,” Jared took a deep breath, “I met Maddie.” He paused and looked at me.
“Continue.” I held my breath. I had known as soon as she told me she had met one of my brothers with Joey, that it had to have been Jared.
“She knows Joey. I guess they went to school together at some point, and she is good friends with his sister. And every summer they hang out, and they go to college together somewhere in Boston.” He looked at me anxiously, and I gave him a look to hurry it up.
“So anyways, we were hanging out at Joey’s place one day, and Maddie was there. And Joey’s sister was like, ‘This is Logan’s brother,’ and she went all googly-eyed and asked me a bunch of questions about you.”
“She did?” I frowned. “But why? She doesn’t know me.”
“I guess you were the pin-up boy of all the girls in River Valley. She had some crush on you. And so, I kinda told her where you’d be yesterday.”
“Dude, why would you do that? What if she had called the police on me or told her dad?”
“She’s way too into you to do anything like that. She has a serious crush on you, bro. Like, she could be a stalker. She was going on and on and on.”
“That’s weird.” I made a face, but inside I felt a fire light up inside of me. So maybe she didn’t just hook up with every guy she met.
“So anyways, I was going to tell her to fuck off, but then I thought, this was the perfect opportunity. She’s the mayor’s only child, and supposedly, he is really, really overprotective, and she’s the apple of his eye. And I thought, what perfect retribution for Dad, if the mayor’s daughter is caught up with a Martelli. You could date her for a little bit, and then just ditch her. It would devastate this girl. She thinks she is in love with you or something.”
“She doesn’t even know me to love me.” My head was spinning with all the information he was giving me.
“I know, bro, she’s psycho. Though, I mean, she is super hot.” Jared grinned at me, and I resisted the urge to smack the smile off of his face.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”
“I wanted the two of you to meet naturally. You’re a shitty ass actor bro, sorry to say, but you are. So I wanted your first meeting to be natural, and to see if you hit it off great.” He laughed. “And it looks like you guys hit it off.”
“Yeah.” I looked at the wall, my heart racing. “We hit it off.”
“So, what do you think? You willing to date her to pay her and her family back for what the mayor did to Dad?”
“I don’t know.” I was hesitant, even though that had already crossed my mind when I had been in her house. Hadn’t I made love to her in her parents’ bedroom as some sort of sick revenge? I felt my stomach knotting, and a dart of pain shot through me as I pictured the look of fear in her eyes as I’d held her down.
“We don’t owe them anything, Logan.” Jared stared into my eyes bleakly. “He ruined Dad’s life, and ours. He cost us our childhood and our mother.”
“I know.” I nodded. “I just don’t know that we can take that out on Maddie.”
“We’re paying for the sins of our father.” Jared’s voice was agitated. “She should pay for the sins of her father.”
“I don’t know.” My voice trailed off. I no longer knew how I felt about Maddie, everything was so confused in my head, and the hatred that had existed for everyone in the Wright family was now hazy.
“He ruined our lives, Logan.” Jared jumped up. “This is our chance to pay it back.”
“Revenge isn’t always the way.” I sighed and stared at him. “Let me think about it.”
“You want to think about it? Go downstairs and look at Dad; look at all the beer cans in the living room. Go try and have a conversation with him. He could have been something. You know that, I know that, Mom knew that. And it was all ruined.”
“Yeah.” I nodded and thought about my dad and his life. A life that had been diverted off-course because of Mayor Wright.
“Think about it, Logan.” Jared walked out of the room. “And keep the money, use it to pay the rent.”
“I, uh.” I looked at him gratefully and sighed. “When did you grow up?”
“A long time ago, bro.” He smiled at me. “A long time ago.”
He walked out the door, and I sat back on the bed and lay back and closed my eyes. I could picture my mother’s smile and the loving look in her eyes as she had played with me, Vincent, and Jared as kids. She had made sure to tell us she loved us every day. As we got older, we used to squirm and blush, embarrassed at her declarations of love, but what I wouldn’t give for her to tell me she loved me one more time. She died within three weeks of getting diagnosed with cancer. There was nothing they could do. That’s what the doctors had said. The cancer had spread, and even a mastectomy wouldn’t have helped at that point. She should have been going for yearly checkups, they said. But we couldn’t afford yearly checkups. My parents barely got by. The only income my dad could get was from the cars he stole, and that always depended on how much money Marty gave him and didn’t win back in a poker game. My mom had died from cancer and nothing had ever been the same in our lives again. Not that everything had been great before then. It hadn’t been, but there had been hope. Hope that my dad would get over his bitterness and try and make something out of his life. But his hatred of the mayor had consumed him. And he had every right to hate him. My eyes popped open and I stared at the ceiling as the bitter poison of hate ran through my veins.
Mayor James Wright, or just James, as he had been called back in the day, had gone to school with my dad. They were both in the same grade and they were best friends. James came from a rich, prominent family, and my dad’s parents were hardworking Italian immigrants with little money but lots of ambition. Their greatest wish for my dad had been a top quality education and a job as a lawyer or a doctor. My dad had been really smart and had done well in school. He had been a handsome man as well, so he had done well with the ladies. He seemingly had the best life, aside from being poor, but that would have eventually changed, because he was smart and there was hope that he would get a scholarship to go to college. My dad signed up with James to take some college entrance exam and they both took it at the River Valley Library with about thirty other students. But the day after the test, it was discovered that some of the tests and answers had been stolen. Someone anonymously reported that my dad had stolen the exams. The school board and the colleges all believed the report because my dad had near perfect scores. So he was kicked out of school. But that hadn’t stopped him: he had decided to get a GED so he could at least get into one college; even if he didn’t get a scholarship, he could get financial aid. And he started tutoring students to make extra money, and that was when he met Mom. He had fallen in love with her right away, but so had James. James made a play for her, but my dad won her heart right away. Things were looking up for him; he got another opportunity to take a college entrance exam, but the night before he was to take the test, the police took him in for questioning. A car had been stolen, and he had been identified as the thief. My dad thought there had been a mistake. He didn’t understand why or how two such huge and horrible incidents had been pinned on him. But then he found out it was James. It had been James all along. James wasn’t as smart as dad, and he had stolen the tests. He had also been mad about being rejected, so he had stolen a car and left some of dad’s belongings in it. He’d gotten his cousin to pretend to have seen dad stealing the car. Because James was from a prominent family, the police believed everything he had said easily.
So that had ruined dad’s chances. He hadn’t been able to go to college and get a loan or scholarship because he had a record, and no one in River Valley would hire him because of all the rumors saying he was a bad seed. Then one day Marty had showed up and presented him an offer: steal cars and sell them to him. And my dad took the of
fer. That was why he had never really spoken up to Marty. In some weird way, he thought Marty had given him an opportunity to make a living. I didn’t see it that way; I felt that Marty had made Dad’s life worse because after my dad turned to that life, nothing was ever the same again. He married my mom, and he had us kids, but he was never able to turn his life around. And he blamed it all on James Wright. And when James became mayor, my dad became obsessed. He took us to his house every week, and we would sit in the car and listen to the story of how the mayor had ruined his life, and our lives as well. And that it was us who should have been living on Manor Road. We just sat and listened and grew to hate the mayor, not only for what he had done to Dad in the past but what he had done to him now as well. We hated the mayor for making us grow up with a father who was a violent drunk, and for making us lose our mother, and for making our family the social outcasts of River Valley.
As I stared at the ceiling, I knew what Jared had said was correct: this was possibly the best way to get revenge on James Wright. Everyone in town knew how much he doted on his daughter Maddison; there was nothing that was too much for her. I’d always wondered who Maddison was, and I’d always imagined she would be a big bitch. I hadn’t ever pictured someone like Maddie. I’d never thought that someone like Maddie could come from someone like the mayor. She was too honest, too vivacious, and too sweet. I groaned as I thought about her. I couldn’t allow myself to be swept away by her charm. She was no one to me. She was just some stupid girl, with a stupid crush and a James Dean, bad-boy fantasy. I was just someone for her to live out her schoolgirl fantasies with. I didn’t owe her anything. Why shouldn’t I get my revenge on her? I closed my eyes again and thought about her sparkling eyes. Did I really hate the mayor that much that I would want to hurt Maddie as well?
Chapter 6
Logan
It had been a week since I had stolen the Toyota, and I had finally gotten a call from someone in a town about an hour away. The offer had been low but they had been willing to take the car without the title, and so there wasn’t much else I could say. The only problem was that he wasn’t willing to come to River Valley to pick up the car; he wanted me to drive it to him. I was loath to drive a stolen car an hour away, but I needed the money from the sale. I had literally used all of my money up paying the rent and had about fifteen dollars to my name until I sold the car. I also knew that Vincent needed to get a textbook for a class, so I had to take the risk.
I ran down the stairs and grabbed a book to take with me for the bus ride back. My dad was in the living room watching Judge Judy, and I walked by the room quickly, hoping he didn’t call out to me. I didn’t have time to get into it with him.
“Hey.” I nodded at Vincent and Jared as I walked into the kitchen. They were sitting together, whispering, and I frowned. “What’s the big secret?”
“Nothing.” Jared shrugged and looked away.
“Vincent?” I looked at my other brother and his face flushed.
“Nothing,” he sighed. “We were just wondering if we needed to go get a car.”
“What?”
“There’s no food.” He nodded towards the fridge.
“I’ll get some today.”
“With what?” Jared turned around and looked at me hard. “I know you can’t have much money left, you haven’t sold the Toyota yet.”
“I’m taking it now.”
“We can’t continue like this.” Jared looked at me and Vincent. “We need to make a change.”
“It’s not like we can get any other job.” Vincent shrugged. “No one will hire us, the Martelli name is like death round here.”
“We can all move.”
“Where we going to move to?” Jared hissed. “We have no money.”
“We’ll get out of River Valley, and then we can have a fresh start.”
“You’ve been saying that for years, Logan. And guess what? We’ll still here.” Jared slammed his fist on the table.
“We’ll figure something out once you and Vince get through college.”
“Stop calling it college.” Jared’s eyes narrowed. “He’s a fucking freshman in a two-year school. He’s not a senior at Harvard.”
“It’s better than nothing.” I glared at Jared. “We got to break the cycle.”
“It’s not our fault that it’s a cycle in the first place.” Jared glared back at me. “The fucking mayor set Dad up, and he’s had us stealing with him since we were old enough to walk.”
“We don’t want to steal forever, do we?”
“I don’t know, do you?”
“Guys.” Vincent stood up and put his hands on our shoulders. “Don’t fight.”
“Why don’t you grow a backbone, Vinny?” Jared pushed him. “I’m fed up with this shit. Logan, you’re not doing anything. Have you even thought about what we talked about?”
“I’m not going down that road.” I shook my head. “Our issue is with the mayor, not his daughter.”
“What?” Vincent looked at us, confused. “What are you guys talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that the mayor’s daughter is in love with Logan, and he’s not taking advantage of that fact, so we can get some motherfucking revenge on her dad.”
“Huh?” Vincent looked at me, confused. “You met the Mayor’s daughter? How? When?”
“Why don’t you ask your smartass brother? The one who set it up?” My voice rose. “Don’t try and play a punk with me, Jared.”
“You wanna do something about it?” Jared stepped towards me, his nostrils flaring.
“You don’t want me to do anything about it.” I stepped towards him and stared into his eyes.
“Oh, yeah?” He pushed me, and I made to push him back when the doorbell rang. We all froze and stared at each other.
“Who the fuck is that?” Jared’s eyes looked worried. “You paid the rent, right?”
“Yeah.” I walked to the door slowly, fear in my heart. What if it was the police? What if they came to arrest me for the Toyota? What if this was the time they finally decided to arrest me? Maybe it was because I hadn’t contacted Marty. Marty had some sort of deal with the police station and they never came to our house to look for stolen cars. It was like a safe zone for us. We had to worry whenever we were in the street with the car, but we never had to worry when we had it parked at home.
“Don’t open it.” Jared’s eyes were full of fear, but I gave him a confident smile.
“It’ll be okay.” I nodded, took a deep breath and opened the door. “Hello?” I poked my head out, and my heart skipped a beat as I saw Maddie standing there with a huge smiled on her face.
“Hi,” she beamed and pushed her hands forward. “I brought cookies.”
“What?” I frowned and stepped outside the door quickly. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“It’s nice to see you again, too.” She smiled again, though less confidently this time.”
“What are you doing here, Maddie?”
“I brought you a peace offering.” She pushed the plate towards me again. “Chocolate chip, I hope you like them.” I stared at the plate in her hands and blinked. I then looked back into her face and she gave me an awkward smile. I noticed that her eyes looked bluer than usual today. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and she looked like a younger and more innocent version of herself.
“I’m on my way out.” I shook my head. “Sorry.”
“Okay.” She bit her lower lip. “I guess I’ll be going then.” She turned around and I watched her walk away from me quickly.
“Wait,” I called after her. “Why did you come over?”
“Does it matter?” She turned to look at me.
“I guess not,” I walked up. “But seeing as you’re here, you may as well tell me.”
“I wanted to see if you changed your mind.”
“Changed my mind?”
“About being friends.”
“Ha, friends.” I laughed at her words but felt
the disappointment in the pit of my stomach.
“I guess that’s a no then.” She turned away from me again.
“I guess it depends on the cookies.” I reached out and grabbed her arm. “If the cookies are good, then we can be friends.”
“So the cookies will make the decision for you then?”
“Yeah, problem with that?”
“I put Betty Crocker to shame, so no.” She smirked at me as she handed me a big, gooey cookie and I took it from her slowly, allowing my fingers to graze hers softly. She stared into my eyes as I ate the cookie, and she laughed when I finished it off quickly.
“You’re a messy eater.” She laughed.
“Oh?”
“You have crumbs everywhere.”
“I do?”
“Yes.” She leaned towards me and her tongue darted out and licked the corners of my mouth. “There we go, all clean.”
“Thank you.” My breath caught as I felt her breath on my mouth, the corners of my mouth still tingling from her touch.
“No problem.”
“It’s nice to have friends who look out for you.”
“I agree.”
“I guess you just had a cookie as well, huh?” I smiled at her and raised my eyebrows.
She shook her head. “No, why?”
“’’Cause you have crumbs all over your mouth as well.”
“I do?” She ran her fingers across her lips and then looked at them. “I don’t see any crumbs.”
“I think you’re lying.”
“Oh?”
“I think you just had a cookie.”
“I’m sorry to tell you, but I didn’t.”
“I need proof.” I said.
“I’m not sure how to prove that.”
“There’s only one way.” I stepped towards her and grabbed ahold of her waist and pulled her towards me before leaning down to kiss her. My tongue pried her lips open and I explored her mouth, allowing my tongue to taste every inch of her. She kissed me back passionately, running her hands up and down my back. I ran my hands down the back of her hair and back and to her butt, pulling her even closer to me.