“I’m not one to kiss and tell, man.” He doesn’t look away from the screen but I see the massive fucking grin on his face.
“I’ve been fucking celibate for a year, you can give me more than that,” I joke.
“You telling me that you didn’t dip it in one of the cheerleaders last night?” he asks, the tone of his voice rising with shock.
“Don’t kiss and tell,” I tease.
“Fuck off, who was it?”
“Nah, not telling, man. She sucked fucking good though.”
“Krissy,” he states as if he knows all the girls’ skills personally. Which, I guess he might.
“My lips are sealed.”
“Unlike hers,” he jokes.
Relaxing back on his couch, I stretch my legs out in front of me, enjoying the normalness of this morning. Shooting the shit with Zayn, killing a few guys on the game he’s set up. It’s all so… normal.
Good thing he has no idea that the girl who had my cock in her mouth last night was his little sister.
Zayn and I were always tight, but I’m pretty sure him finding out what’s really going on is probably the one thing that could shatter this. But even as I sit here enjoying myself, I know that I’m not going to be able to leave her alone. I guess I’ll just have to deal with the consequences when the time comes.
It’s almost two hours later when his sleepy girlfriend finally emerges and finds herself a seat on Zayn’s lap.
She looks almost as exhausted as Harley did earlier, although she makes no attempt to cover up the love bites running down her neck.
“’Morning, baby,” Zayn purrs, slipping his hand into her hair and pulling her lips to his. She twists around on his lap, the shirt she’s wearing—clearly his—rising to expose her thighs.
“So I guess I’ll leave you two to it,” I say, placing the controller on the coffee table and standing from the couch.
“Okay,” Zayn mutters against her lips. “See you in school tomorrow, yeah?”
“Yeah. Later.” I look back when I’m at the door after hearing no response but I soon discover why. “Fucking hell,” I mutter to myself before slipping from Zayn’s den and making my way to the front door.
I’m almost there when I get intercepted by Jada who’s walking out of the kitchen with a mug in her hand.
“Kyle, it’s so good to see you. How is everything going?” She smiles softly at me and it reminds me so much of Harley that I almost ignore her and continue the way I was going.
“Yeah, it’s, uh… different.”
“You can say that again,” she says with a chuckle. “How’s school? Are you settling in okay?”
“So far so good. Almost makes me glad I screwed everything up in juvie.”
“Everything happens for a reason, Kyle. I was delighted when Kane reached out to me to ask for my help. I just knew that you both would do well here.”
“Why did you do it? After… after everything.” I have no idea how much she knows about that night, but something tells me Harley hasn’t said much, so it can’t look very good on me. I remember all too well the position we were in when the police stormed in.
“Because everyone deserves a second chance. If you’d have gone back to Harrow Creek, I think we both know how it would have gone.” She raises a brow and my stomach drops at the thought.
Yeah, going back there would have been a bigger sentence than my time in juvie.
“It’s great to see you reconnecting with Zayn, you were always such good friends, I hated the way you were forced apart.”
“It’s great to spend time together again.”
“And… what about Harley? Have you had time to talk yet?”
“A little.”
A humorless laugh falls from her lips. “She’ll come around. I should have warned her sooner.”
“Everything will be fine.” I give her a reassuring smile which she can’t help but return. “You don’t need to worry about Harley.”
She reaches out and squeezes my upper arm in the kind of motherly way I didn’t realize I missed until her touch warms me from the inside out.
“If you need anything, you or Kane. I’m here. I can’t imagine how hard things have been, for both of you.”
“Thank you,” I force out passed the lump in my throat. I learned long ago to push down my feelings, my grief from now not only losing our parents when we were just kids, but now our gran too. She was all we had back then and she took us in without a second though. But now she’s gone too and it’s just the two of us against the world. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”
“Anytime, Kyle. We might have left the Creek behind but that doesn’t mean we still don’t look out for each other.”
I nod at her as I take a step toward the door. Part of me wants to make all the excuses I can so that I can still be here when Harley gets back, but I know I need to leave. I know I need to give her some space. For now at least.
“Well, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” I say when Kane pushes through our front door, finding me sitting on the couch with a textbook on my lap.
“Fuck off. Good to see you’re taking graduating seriously,” he mutters, taking in the stack of books on the coffee table.
“Yeah well, I don’t want it to take any longer than it’s already going to. You out playing football?” I ask, spotting the mud covering his legs.
“Yeah,” he says over his shoulder as he yanks the refrigerator open and pulls out a bottle of water.
“Was that before or after you got your ass kicked?” I ask, unable to miss the black eye and split lip he’s sporting.
“How about you just get back to your schoolwork, eh?”
I push the book from my lap and stand, walking toward where he’s leaning back against the counter and drinking his water.
“How about you stop talking to me like I’m a fucking kid and tell me what the fuck you’re up to.”
“Kyle,” he breathes. “I’m not up to anything. I’ve been working. One of us has to keep this roof over our head.”
“Nice, Kane. Real nice.”
“What? That wasn’t a jab, it’s the truth. I’m not going to force you to get a job because I want you to settle in and sort out school before anything else.”
I hold his eyes, looking for any hint that he’s lying.
“Your birthday next weekend?”
“What about it?” I ask, not entirely happy with how he’s diverted the conversation away from him.
“We’re having a party.”
“We really don’t—”
“We do. It’s not every year my little brother turns into a man.” He rustles my hair as he passes me, heading to his room.
“Bit fucking late for that, don’t you think?”
“Meh, we all grew up fast in the Creek, but still, it’s an excuse for a party, and I need a fucking night off.” He disappears into the bathroom before I get a chance to respond. I have a feeling though, that it doesn’t matter what my opinion on it is, if Kane wants a party then we’ll be having a party.
I grab myself a bottle of water and drop back down on the couch to carry on with my homework.
I grab my statistics book and pause with it on my lap. I need to arrange our next study session…
I spend the night at home working but the second Kane emerged from his room freshly showered and with clean clothes on, he fucked off leaving me to sort my own dinner.
I don’t care about having to look after myself, it’s not like I haven’t done it before, but after being locked away and unable to see him for the best part of a year, it would actually be nice to spend a little time with him.
I’m lying on my bed long after midnight staring up at the ceiling wishing that I could fall asleep but totally unable to. I used to sleep great, until I suddenly had to constantly look over my shoulder. Then it was like I just stopped. I’d hoped that when I got out, I’d break the habit but it doesn’t seem that I’m able to.
I must drift
off at some point because when I open my eyes again the sky outside my open curtains is a burnt orange as the sun begins its climb for the day.
I drag on a pair of sweats and a shirt and take off. My muscles burn with my exhaustion but I don’t allow it to slow me down. I push until I have nothing left to give. Exercise helped me survive up until this point, so I have no doubt it’ll get me through my time in Rosewood.
By the time I get back to the house, my shirt is soaked with sweat and my muscles quiver with excessive use, but I feel better than I have in a while.
I shower, gather up my stuff and head for my car, ready to begin my first full week as a Rosewood High student.
There are kids everywhere when I pull into the lot. I find a space and just watch them.
I never used to give a shit about what other people did. Probably because I’d have ended up having my ass beat if I pried into other’s business in the Creek but it’s different here. No one is looking over their shoulder just waiting for their secrets to be exposed. Everyone is just living life. They don’t need to worry about just trying to make the best of it. The majority here have everything they could possibly want handed to them on a platter. College is an option, they have a future that can be in or out of this place. The world is their oyster.
That’s not how things were where we were brought up. College was something that happened to others. Or aspirations were restricted to which end of the trailer park we wanted to end up living on, and if we were able to work our way to a decent position with one of the gangs to allow us some sense of safety.
I blow out a breath. It all feels like it happened in another lifetime, but at the same time, I feel like I left that place only yesterday.
The bell rings out and all the kids that are hanging around start moving toward the building but I still can’t find it in me to move. I try to convince myself that it’s not because I haven’t seen her. I’m pretty sure we don’t have any classes together today and I’m already wondering how I’m going to get my hands on her.
My cell burns red-hot in my pants pocket and I pull it out, finding our previous conversation. A smile curls at my lips as I read back the short messages.
Opening up the keyboard I start to type.
Kyle: I feel like I’ve already taught you so much… Are you ready for another lesson?
It only takes two seconds for her to read the message and for the dots to start bouncing. I can’t help but laugh when her response pops up because I expected it.
Kitten: Fuck off. WE ARE DONE.
Kyle: It amuses me that you think you get to call the shots here, Kitten. You might want to keep looking over your shoulder. I’m coming for you.
I add a little kiss emoji at the end to try to soften the blow and I smile, knowing just how her lips are going to press into a thin line as she sees it.
My cell vibrates once again and when I look down, I find a gif of someone flipping the bird staring back at me.
In response, I quickly shoot back someone blowing a kiss and shove my phone into my pocket before climbing from the car and walking toward the building before I end up too late. I don’t need to give Principal Hartmann, Bea, my parole officer or Kane any reason to be on my ass.
My birthday is only days away. Bea will sign me off as an adult and I can finally take charge of my own life. The prospect should probably feel more freeing than it does in reality because until I turn my back on getting my diploma then I’m stuck here for the foreseeable future.
With the satisfaction of knowing I got to her, I walk into the building feeling a little lighter. Now all I need is to see it with my own eyes.
16
Harley
I don’t want to do it, but I find myself doing exactly what he told me I should. I spend the entire morning looking over my shoulder trying to find him.
I know he’s here. It’s like I can sense his presence.
I also know that he’s seen me because when I was standing in the hallway earlier with Ruby and Poppy, my skin tingled with awareness and my temperature soared, but as I looked around as desperately as I could, I couldn’t find him.
“Hey, how are you doing?” Stella asks, coming to sit next to me on a bench I thankfully found empty after walking out of my last class in my need to avoid the cafeteria.
I blow out a breath. “Great,” I mutter.
“Justin’s party was banging, huh?”
I look over at her so fast that I swear my head almost snaps clean from my body.
“W-what?” she asks, her brows drawing together.
“N-nothing,” I mutter, slumping down on the seat and remembering that just because I refuse to think about the events of that night, it doesn’t mean that everyone else had one of the worst nights of their life. “I didn’t see you there. Were you with the squad?”
“Yeah, Ruby invited me. It was fun. I saw you dancing with your boyfriend. He’s cute.”
“Ex-boyfriend.”
“Oh?”
“It’s okay. It wasn’t meant to be.” Or maybe it was and Kyle decided to steamroll the whole thing regardless. I push the thought down because as much as I might like to blame all of this on Kyle, I know that at least half of it is my fault. I didn’t need to do any of that on Saturday night—hell, or Friday night—but I did, and now I need to pay the price. “You hook up with anyone?”
“I kissed some guy. I’d never seen him before, I don’t think he goes here but he was decent,” she says with a nod.
“Decent?” I chuckle.
“Yeah, I’m not sure he was entirely into it. He was kinda distracted, like he was looking for someone else.”
“Trying to make someone jealous?”
“Maybe. I wasn’t really complaining though. It’s not like I was looking for anything serious.”
“You still leaving?”
Her eyes widen in shock that I know.
“Shit, Ruby let it slip. Sorry, should I have—”
“It’s fine. Honestly, I have no idea what’s going on. I never do.”
“Why do you move so much?”
“Dad’s job. I hate it. I just get settled somewhere, make some friends and then I come home from school one afternoon to find the house being packed up and off we go again.”
“That sucks.”
“I mean, I’ve seen a lot, learned a lot. It has its benefits, I guess. But I just want a home and to graduate someplace I’ve stayed for longer than a few months, you know.”
“It must be hard. Do you stay in touch with any of your friends from old schools?”
“To start with I tried, but everyone moves on, we grow up and it just fizzles. Dad is my only constant.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I really hope you get to stay here to graduate with us.”
“Me too. I like it here.”
“Yeah, it’s not bad.”
My stomach growls so loudly that Stella can’t help but hear it.
“We should go and get you some food.” She laughs.
I look over my shoulder at the building where the cafeteria sits knowing that he’s probably in there finding his footing with the team and being dragged into my group. I bet even Ruby and Poppy are in there with Ash and Zayn making him feel welcome.
“Nah, it’s okay. I don’t—”
“Don’t let him see that you’re scared of him, Harley.”
“What? I’m not scared. I’d just rather not have to look at him.”
She raises a brow at me. “You’re hiding,” she states, pissing me off despite the fact it’s blatantly the truth.
“I—”
“Come on. We’ll stop in the bathroom, touch up your makeup, slap on some confidence, and walk into that motherfucking cafeteria like you own the place. Yeah?” She jumps up and I can’t help but feel some of her excitement.
I don’t want to be this girl. The weak one who hides from the boy who’s making her life hell. I want to be strong. I want to hold my head up high. I’m Harley fucking Hunter af
ter all.
“Hell yes.”
I thread my arm through hers as we march toward the closest bathroom.
“Don’t you have friends to be hanging out with instead of standing here being my personal cheerleader?”
Stella’s face pales and for the thousandth time in the past twenty-four hours, I want the ground to swallow me right up.
“Shit,” I breathe, realization hitting me that the reason she’s standing with me is that she doesn’t have anyone else.
“It’s okay, Harley. I learned long ago that it’s easier to just not connect with anyone. It hurts less when I leave and get forgotten about soon after.”
“I’m sure that’s not—”
“Stop,” she says, holding her hand up to cut me off. “I dealt with it a long time ago. It is what it is.”
“Well, I appreciate this. I just want you to know that.”
She smiles at me and my heart aches for her. She’s been nothing but awesome since she joined the squad and was quickly picked for varsity alongside Ruby and me, but hearing her talk like this, it makes me realize why she’s kept her distance like she has. “And from now on, no more running from friends. Okay?”
“As long as you don’t run from him.” She pins me with a look. “You want to hate him, hate him in the same room so he knows it.”
“You got it, girl. Let’s go.”
I pull my tank down a little, readjusting my girls, not that there’s much of them, and run my fingers through my hair once more before threading my arm through Stella’s and making our way toward where I know he is.
The commotion from the cafeteria can be heard long before we get to the doors and the closer we get, the more butterflies seem to take flight in my belly.
“You’ve got this. Show him that you don’t give a fuck.”
“I don’t.”
“Exactly.”
I walk in with my head up high and the second we’re inside, we head straight for the tables where the team and squad are.
LEGEND: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rosewood High Book 7) Page 15