by Mj Fields
“You’re seventeen!” she yells accusingly.
“And you’re hanging at high school parties, looking for what? Your next baby daddy?”
She swings at me, and I grab her fist in my hand.
“I’m in no mood to play games, so don’t fuck with me.” I push her hand away.
“I told you Friday night I wasn’t in high school, and you failed to tell me you were, so don’t you dare judge me.”
“You didn’t ask, and it’s not like I’m a child.” I hit my chest. “I’m a fucking man.”
She looks disgusted. “And you listen to the likes of her?”
I shove my hands in my jean pockets. “I don’t go looking into anyone’s business. Gossip doesn’t get me going. The fucking truth is all I ask.”
“Then the truth is, I was nineteen when I finally graduated. I was working my first legit job. Two ballers with black cards tipped big three nights in a row. So big I could help pay the small portion of my kid brother’s tuition that your kind insists on to show that the ‘needy’ kid getting the scholarship to your cushy-ass school is vested, and he could get the education a kid with a genius level IQ deserves. The next few nights, that duo became one, and that one guy said all the right things to a girl who’d never heard anything so damn sweet in her life. For a week, he came to my work every night. For a week, I tried not to get swept up in the fairy tale. And then, one night I caved.
“He stopped coming around as often, but when he did, he left huge tips and whispered sweet promises. Said he was brokering a deal out of the country and wished he could see me more, begged me to let him fuck me raw. A month later, I was late and told him. He told me he’d take care of me and disappeared. I lost my job at the club because my belly was swollen, so I started working the circuit. That’s when I saw him again, and that’s when he told me he had just turned sixteen. I lost my shit and got kicked off the circuit for giving a punk a black eye and bloody lip.”
“I’m sorry, Quinn.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m doing just fine. I have a job, I’m going to college, I will graduate and make plenty to raise my little girl to do the same.”
“Who is he?” I ask, because whoever he is, he sure as fuck needs to man up.
“No way in hell am I telling you.”
“He needs to help you and—”
“He doesn’t need to do anything but leave me and my child alone.”
“But—”
“She gets him involved, his parents will go after her.”
I look behind me and see the guy who I thought had just left. Art, I think.
“She gets him involved, she’ll never have the money to fight his family’s lawyers, and she’ll end up with a charge that will never go away, and she’ll lose custody of her kid. She gets him involved and—”
“Jesus Christ.” I shake my head.
“Yeah, so you shove that big old cock of yours in your little girlfriend’s mouth and shut her the fuck up.”
“She’s not my—”
“She certainly thinks she is.” Quinn barks out a laugh.
“It’s not his problem, Quinn,” Art tells her. “He’s not one of them.”
“One of who?” I ask.
He ignores me and tells her, “He’s Truth’s brother.”
She shakes her head. “Of course, he is.”
“Don’t fuck with my sister,” I warn them both.
Art laughs. “No one’s hating on Snow White.”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” I snap.
“Quinn, Art.” I hear and look over Art’s shoulder to see Tobias walking toward us.
“And when he leaves, this all crumbles, anyway.” Quinn kicks at a few loose stones.
“Not his problem.” Looking from them to me, he says, “Truth’s looking for you.”
Quinn’s phone chimes, and she looks down. Then she looks up at me. “You have two healthy …” She stops.
“Healthy what?” I demand.
“Did they share the sex of the babies with your crew?”
“Doesn’t fucking matter,” I snap.
“Sure does, rich boy. It’s the small joys that keep us all going.”
Quinn looks at Tobias. “If Truth’s not the one, he is, isn’t he?”
“Nice to see you two again.” He smiles tightly, and they both chuckle as they walk away.
Tobias grabs my shoulder. “Let’s go.”
We all but run to the waiting room, and Tobias speaks before I even have a chance. “Found him. Any news?”
I look at him, and he narrows his eyes, warning me not to say a word, telling me in his way that I need to keep my sources a secret.
I look around the room and shake my head as I see Max pacing. “Max,” I call to him.
He stops and shakes his head.
Tobias whispers, “You can’t do that.”
“Look at him. He’s fucking hurting,” I whisper back.
“Okay, then.” He pats my back, walks over, and squats in front of Truth, grabbing a fresh tissue from the box and wiping her tears.
If he loves her, truly loves her, he wouldn’t let her suffer.
When I hear sneakers squeaking and laughter coming from down the hall, I look out the doorway and see Aunt Carly running toward the waiting room.
I step aside, and she throws her hands in the air. “We have a boy!” She looks around and slaps her hands on her thighs and laughs. “Nice time to take a walk, Jase Steel.”
“Mom,” Max says as he hurries to her.
“She’s okay. Kiki is okay.” She hugs him. “I mean, she had some issues, and she and Brand made a tough decision in there, and she’s going to be here for a while and can’t hold her son yet, but …” Her knees start to buckle, and Max tightens his hold on her.
“Easy, Mom, easy.” He walks her over to a chair next to Momma Joe. “Sit.”
She laughs as she sits and takes the tissue from Momma Joe. “You should see him. He’s perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
“Mom, Bella is in the OR.”
She starts to stand. “What?”
“Jesus, Mom, sit,” Max snaps. “Just sit the hell down!”
“Is she okay? I mean, of course she is, but what happened?” Carly asks, holding her hand to her heart.
Jase walks in the room and says softly, “Bella and Tags have a baby boy.”
Carly claps her hands. “That’s two, Jase. Two boys.”
He walks over, sits beside her, wraps his arms around her, and whispers, “We’re pretty blessed, huh, C?”
“We need cigars. Not the real kind, but the gum kind.” She smiles as she grabs his face. “She’s okay. Kiki is okay. They won’t be having anymore. Her heart-rate dropped so low, Jase, so low.” Tears pour out of her eyes, and she sniffs. “And they almost had to use the paddles, and—”
He pulls her against him. “Okay, baby. It’s okay.”
“She and Brand made the decision before he was born that, if anything went wrong, they wouldn’t have another.” Carly sniffs again. “So, snip, no more. But they have a boy, and Bella …” She pushes him back. “I need to see Bella. I need to see her and—”
“She’s sleeping, C.” He pushes the hair stuck to her face from the tears back. “She’s going to be okay, but she needs to sleep.”
“Jase,” she whispers.
He reaches behind him and grabs Max’s hand. “Come here, kiddo.”
Max shakes his head and says, “No.”
“Max”—Jase’s voice breaks— “get over here.”
On his knees, in front of his parents, they pull him into a hug.
“What happened?” Carly sobs.
“It was her feet, wasn’t it?” Max sniffs.
“The swelling was indicative of preeclampsia. Her blood pressure was through the roof. She’s resting, which she needs to be doing.”
“Was she awake to see her son?” Carly sobs.
Jase inhales a deep breath, clears his throat, and then shakes his head.
“No.”
“Did they use the paddles?” Max asks.
Each of us now have a portable defibrillator in our house, because of Carly’s and Kiki’s heart issues. Paddles.
Jase pulls them in tighter. “No. She needs rest. She’ll wake up when she’s had rest. The medicine is working, her heart-rate is down, and she’s going to be fine.”
Max pulls back and stands. “I wanna see her.”
“Max,” Jase says softly.
“I wanna see her now!”
“Oh, Maxie.” Carly starts to stand.
“Sit the fuck down, Mom!” he yells at her.
“Max,” Jase warns as he stands.
“What? She almost fainted a minute ago, like one of those fucking goats.”
Carly snorts, and Jase scowls at her.
“Shit’s not funny, C,” he snarls.
“Lighten up, Steel”—she laughs— “it’s a good day. We have two more blessings in the family.”
Momma Joe clears her throat and forces a laugh. “She’s not lying.”
Max huffs, “Great. When can I see Bella?”
“She can have one person in her room, and her husband isn’t leaving anytime soon,” Jase says.
“He will if I drag him out by his fucking nose ring,” Max snaps as he walks toward the door.
I step in front of him.
“Justice, you move or I’ll make that video go viral.”
Carly laughs. “Max, you get us kicked out of here, and I will ground you until you’re thirty.”
“With all due respect, Mom, my sister’s in a fucking coma and—”
“She’s sleeping,” Carly insists.
“Great, we have Sleeping Beauty, Carly the fainting goat, and Kiki the—”
“Maximus Steel.” Momma Joe raises her voice.
He looks at me, eyes narrowed, pissed. I get it, but reality is … “You need to check yourself, fix your face, and calm the hell down, so maybe you can visit Kiki, see your nephew, and do so, not getting her worked up by letting on that we have a Sleeping Bella and a fainting Aunt Carly, you feel me?”
“Put a sock on it,” he snaps.
“Which reminds me, I promised Kiki a cock sock, and—”
“A what?” Momma Joe laughs.
Max whisper-hisses, “I will show her the video, and then make it go viral if you don’t move.”
“Will that make you feel better? Make the situation better? If so, do it.”
“What will make me feel better is if I break something.”
I grab the back of his head and pull him in to a hug. “I get it, man. I really do.”
Sitting in the waiting room, each of us taking turns going to see Kiki, Brand, and their son, Cooper Steel Falcon, I can’t help but think about how fucking pathetic, catty, and bitchy Gabrielle Morales-Ortez is. The way she talked shit about Quinn, spreading lies about her, and for fucking what?
Then it hits me—to cover up for one of her shitbag friends, the one who has them all believing Quinn was in the wrong.
I reach in my pocket for my phone, only to realize my phone’s not here, and remembering I haven’t had it since Friday night. Fucking Gabby.
Tobias sits down next to me, and I look at him.
“When they said if it’s not Truth, it’s—”
“Never gonna be Truth. She’s too emotional. And I never want her to be anything other than her.” He looks at me. “Thought of Max, since he’ll be at Seashore the longest, but that’s not gonna happen after I saw him lose his shit earlier.”
“He’s got a lot on his plate.” I shake my head. “Kid’s carrying the worries of the world on his shoulders.”
Tobias nods.
“Quinn mentioned a brother; what about him?”
Tobias snickers and shakes his head. “Kid’s gonna cure cancer or shit someday. I give him this, and he’ll be making bombs instead.”
“Patrick?”
He looks at me and laughs. “Not a shot in hell. Was thinking Amias at one point. He’s too worried about his lineup.”
“Fucker’s gonna have a harem someday.” I chuckle.
“I could give it to Gabrielle.”
I swing my entire body toward him. “Did you hear the way she twisted Quinn up today? You know how stupid that shit would be?”
He shrugs. “Did you hear how Quinn twisted her up? You really think Gabrielle is doing anything less than trying to survive her situation?”
“Her situation,” I mock. “She’s sitting pretty in a castle in the clouds, looking down on everyone she can while the rest of them want to be like her.”
He pats my knee and stands. “Wearing a mask and begging for someone to take it off her so she can be seen. And the only one she really wants to see her doesn’t give a damn.”
“What the fuck did she tell you?”
He cocks his head to the side in question. “No idea what conclusion you’re jumping to, but now you have me wondering.” He’s dead-ass serious.
I look down, shaking my head. “Never mind.”
Max walks in the room, smiling, and announces, “Bella’s awake.”
Out of my peripheral, I see Amias, Tris, and Brisa pop their AirPods out.
“His name is Archer, Archer Steel Taggert. They didn’t even know they had chosen the same middle name; how epic is that?” Max laughs.
“Pretty bad ass.” I stand and walk over to give him a hug.
“Forever Steel, JT,” he whispers.
“Forever Steel.”
Queenie
Justice
Leaning out the window, I tap in the code at Casa Morales-Ortez and watch as the gate opens while thinking, stupid girl.
Pulling in, I can’t help but smirk at the marks in the driveway that I left the other day and hope that, every time she pulls in, she’s reminded of me.
When I reach the top of the hill, I see her car on the back of a flatbed and two guys standing at the bottom of her stairs while she looks down at them. When she sees me, she turns, hurries through the open door, and slams it behind her.
After parking, I hop out of the vehicle and walk over to them. “Everything good?”
“Will be if she gives us a card that works so we can unload her car and head onto the next job.”
“Card that works?”
“Declined four already, but she insists Daddy paid the bill.”
“You’re repo’ing her car?” I ask, shocked.
“Gotta pay the bill to keep the car,” one says, and together they laugh at her expense.
She walks out, completely ignoring the fact that I’m standing here, walks past me, and hands them the card. “This one isn’t expired.”
I watch the man push the chip into his handheld card reader and see how she pushes up on her toes to look at the screen. When her eyes close, I know something went wrong.
He hands her back the card. “You know where it will be when you get your finances straight.”
She shakes her head. “Then why take it? You know I’m good for it.”
The other guy tells her, “Because that’s our job.”
“Helps you out that it’s nine hundred dollars for the tow and storage that I didn’t ask for!” she yells after them.
They start to get in the vehicle, and I cringe, knowing that I’m going to do some shit she doesn’t deserve.
Pulling out my wallet, I call after them, “Use mine.”
“No. Hell no.” Gabrielle tries to grab my hand.
I pull it away. “Back off.”
As I walk over to the truck, she calls after me, desperation and shame in her voice, “I’ll have the money on Monday. They’re just being greedy assholes.”
The driver yells out the window, “Always a pleasure, Gabrielle.”
I hurry to the driver’s side and hold out my card. “Just take it.”
After knocking on the door for long enough to be considered polite, I try the doorknob. It’s locked. I then walk around the sprawling grounds and hop the fence. I walk t
o the French doors and don’t bother knocking this time, I simply try the knob. As luck would have it, it’s unlocked.
I hear sniffling echo through the eerily quiet mausoleum that she calls home and quietly shut the door behind me before following its direction.
As I leave the area that served as a bar Friday night and cross into the foyer, I stop until I hear sniffling begin again.
She’s in the study.
“Tell me something good, Karen,” she whispers, and I stop walking as I wait to hear Karen’s reply.
Gabrielle huffs and giggles lightly to herself. “Is that so?”
She must be on the phone. Good damn thing because, if one of the house staff caught me creeping, they’d more than likely have my ass arrested.
“So stupid,” she whispers, and then I hear feet pad across the floor.
“Tell yourself something good, you idiot. Karen’s not here,” she rants. “Something good?” I hear curtains ruffle, and then she groans, “Oh, look, Gabby, your car is here and now you owe him money, too.”
She gasps, and then I hear her run toward the door. She skids to a stop when she sees me across the room, leaning against the doorway.
“I told you not to,” she snaps.
“Yeah, well, I rarely listen to lunatics who talk to themselves and even name their imaginary friends.”
“Well, I rarely give a shit when someone breaks into and enters my house and is so delusional, they try to lecture me as they stand on their moral high ground, a ground that may as well be on a fault line in California.”
Bored with this already, I roll my eyes.
“Why are you here?”
“Came to get my clothes and grab my phone in hopes that I can retrieve at least a few of my contacts and pictures.”
“Do you want me to apologize?” she grumbles.
I push up off the wall. “Told you I was here for my clothes. Figured, since you told my dad that because a girl’s, who you condemned yet don’t know what really went down, drool may have touched your perfect little bedspread and a drop or two of cum that we both know you’ve tasted a time or two was on it, you were gonna pay to have a pool drained, cleaned, and then it would have to be filled, yet you can’t manage your car payments for the past three months on Daddy’s allowance? Also, the pools clearly not been drained. So, little liar, do me a favor and direct me to my clothes and phone, and I’ll be on my way.”