I bet you do, doll ;)
That made me roll my eyes.
Uly texted me again.
So are you going to reappear or do I have to do something crazy to get your attention?
My heart was still pumping from that song.
What do you mean by crazy?
Definitely not flirty enough.
But that was okay.
That song was ripping through me.
I bit my lip and hit the screen to hear it again.
Before a single guitar was strummed, Uly texted me back.
With a picture.
Well I found this notebook and I’m going to read it and then maybe toss it in the pool…
I blinked fast.
“Fuck,” I said.
The picture was Uly holding a notebook.
My notebook.
Standing at the edge of a pool…
Uly was here.
* * *
I dove through the waterfall to get out of the cove.
I did my best to protect my phone from the water, but whatever.
With my left hand in the air to keep my phone dry, I used my right hand to pull at the water as though that was going to make me walk faster in the water.
Uly stood at the side of the pool, smoking a cigarette, holding my notebook in his hand. It was open, his right hand cradling the notebook.
“Uly!” I cried out.
“There you are,” he said. “Just like that, you reappear…”
I ran as fast as I could to the steps and climbed out of the pool.
“This is interesting,” he said. “I climb the steps to your eyes but forget about the basement steps to your heart. Those old, wobbly, squeaky steps. The basement with the pull chain light that buzzes and flashes like the weak lightening of a fading storm…”
My face burned red hot.
“Uly…”
He looked at me. “This is… well, damn.”
The grin on his face and the way his eyes moved down my body made me look down.
I wasn’t wearing a bathing suit. I wasn’t planning on getting into the pool. And I definitely wasn’t planning on having Uly show up unannounced.
My shorts were really tight against my legs and body.
But that wasn’t what he was looking at.
It was my top half.
My shirt, soaked, clung to my body.
Water. Air.
Not wearing the most padded bra.
I was showing through my shirt.
“Someone is excited to hear me read her words,” Uly said.
I hurried to fold my arms and went after Uly.
He stepped back. “Let me finish.”
“Stop it, asshole,” I said. “That’s not fair.”
“You got a song, right?” Uly asked.
I stopped inches from him, shaking my head.
What a prick.
Uly took a drag of his cigarette.
Then he kept reading my words.
“Are these windows your eyes? The dark curtains just a dark disguise? I can wonder in the darkness and realize…”
“It’s wander,” I said.
“You wrote wonder,” Uly said.
“I made a mistake.”
“Wearing those clothes into the pool was not a mistake, doll.”
“And once again, you sound like Hil.”
Uly shut the notebook and held his arm out, the notebook dangling over the pool.
I tried my best to not show that I was scared.
If he dropped that…
Uly stared at me and smoked.
“You’re not going to drop that,” I said.
“Oh yeah? What makes you think that, doll?”
I moved my arms.
I put my hands at my sides and gave the cockiest look to Uly I could manage.
He slowly grinned and laughed.
His eyes looked at my chest just once (good for you, Uly) and he stepped away from the pool.
“Still have my necklace, Belle?” he asked.
“The one with the ring with the missing diamond?” I asked.
“That’s the one,” he said.
My eyes moved to the only necklace on him. The one with the guitar pick.
“I might have it somewhere,” I said. “Not really interested in it. Doesn’t make much sense to me without the story. What happened with Penelope?”
Uly tossed my notebook to a table. “What happened with Danny?”
My heart sank again.
Now we were in a standoff.
And I completely forgot to move my arms again to cover myself up.
Uly smoked his cigarette, his eyes dancing from my eyes to my chest.
I finally walked to the table, grabbed my notebook, I’d had enough.
“I’m going to get changed,” I said.
“You know how many comments I could make about you being wet, right?”
“About the same amount of comments I can make about you being an asshole,” I said.
“Good point.”
“What are you doing here anyway?” I asked. “Where’s the rest of Them?”
“Don’t know,” Uly said. “Don’t really care. But we all need to talk soon. I guess Pres is really pissed. Something about his SUV?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Yes you do, doll. Hil dragged you right into it.”
“So it’s his fault?”
“I didn’t say that,” Uly said. “Everyone seems to think I started this fight.”
“Did you?”
“I don’t think so. I might have poured a little gas on the fire…”
“A little? I don’t think anything about you is a little,” I said.
“Won’t argue that, Belle,” he said with a grin.
I blushed.
I didn’t mean that comment like that… but whatever.
It wasn’t worth fighting about.
A chill went through my body and when I shivered, I felt things happening to my body.
“Goodbye, Uly,” I said.
“Where are you running off to so fast?”
“Going to get changed,” I said. “Then I have things to do.”
“Takes a lot of guys to just toss me away.”
“After everything you’ve done?” I asked.
“Like helping you?”
“Your definition of help is different than mine.”
Uly took another drag of his cigarette. “That’s fine, doll. Just thought you’d like to hear some more music. Since it seems to mean so much to you.”
He turned and I curled my lip.
“Are you being serious?” I asked, knowing I was probably stepping into another trap of Them.
“Nah,” Uly said. “I was just fucking around for a second. I do have somewhere to road trip to though. Going to kill off most of my day. Could use some company.”
“So you’re asking me to go with you?” I asked. “I swear, you’re all the same. Ash did the same thing and took me-”
“I know what he did,” Uly said. He looked back at me. “I could have broken Gray’s jaw. And your best friend, I don’t know what to say. She’s doing what she wants. Can’t be pissed at that.”
“So you’re on her side? She’s fooling around with the guy that…”
“That, what?” Uly asked. “He painted a red V on your locker. What did it matter? It only mattered to you, doll. Just like everything here. What does it matter about the music? That was a different time in my life. When things were different. So, yeah, there was a time when Hil, Ash, and I were best friends. But you can’t let that go. And the necklace. It matters so much to you.”
“It matters to you too,” I said. “That’s why you wear it. Same with Hil. That’s not some bullshit story either. You know it.”
Uly looked away from me and put his hands up. “Busted, I guess.”
“Don’t call me on my shit, Uly. I’m not afraid of you. Or Them.”
“Good for you, doll. Way to stand up for y
ourself.”
Uly started to walk away.
The argument in my mind was getting louder by the second.
No… no… no… no…
I went inside and took the ten mile walk to my bedroom.
I jumped in the shower for a quick rinse and put on fresh clothes.
I sat down on the daybed and looked down at my phone.
I could check on my mother.
But she was fine.
She was home.
Resting.
Apparently Chester was being boyfriend and caretaker of the year, spoiling the hell out of her.
Jo was at the hospital, working.
At that exact moment, she could have been performing heart surgery on someone.
There was always Lizzy and Danica, right?
Text them and see what they were doing.
Beach. Pools. Something to drink. Maybe something was going down at Raza’s.
Instead of that, I went to Uly’s name.
I listened to the portion of the song he sent me again.
It was just as amazing as the first time I heard it.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
I crunched up my nose as I started to text him.
Thanks for the song. At least part of it.
Uly replied right away. Of course.
Did you get changed yet?
I replied with an emoji winking at him.
He wrote back.
I’m going to fall asleep out here waiting for you.
My face dropped.
What?
Uly took a picture of himself.
Sitting on the front steps of Jo’s house.
Smoking another cigarette.
Looking annoyed.
But really sexy.
I thought I told you I wasn’t going with you.
Send.
Uly replied.
You want to hear the songs, doll. You want to ask a million questions. Let’s go.
I swallowed hard.
My thumbs thought about what to reply with.
There was nothing to reply with though.
Uly was right.
And it’s what pissed Lizzy and Danica off.
But I had a plan.
Sort of.
Maybe not.
I shut my eyes.
“Fuck…”
six
Uly had the windows down in his super-fast car.
My hair was pulled back tight, but random strands did what they wanted.
It was hard to smoke, but I managed anyway.
And Uly had his and Hil’s songs playing as loud as the speakers would allow.
There wasn’t a bad song they had written together.
After the fifth song, Uly touched his phone and the music stopped.
Then it was just me and him and the rushing of the wind through the windows.
“Watch your arm, doll,” he called out as he started to put the windows up.
I hurried to flick my cigarette out of the window.
I couldn’t explain it, but I felt so free in that moment. Uly knew how to find the perfect roads. The ones that were wide open, forever straight, and not a car in sight.
The road also made me think of what happened last time I was in his car.
I looked at Uly, wondering what was next.
I also wondered about myself.
Everyone had intentions.
That was just part of life.
Good, bad, even the intentions you didn’t know you had.
“Is there more music, Uly?” I asked.
“There’s always more,” he said. “You heard enough.”
“Can you tell me how it all ended?”
“Pretty bad,” he said.
“Because of Penelope?”
Uly’s face twisted with anger.
“I have the necklace in my pocket,” I said. “I want you to take it back.”
“Why, doll?”
“It doesn’t mean anything to me,” I said. I stuck my hand into my pocket. “You and Them put me on the spot. Pushing at me to make a choice. A choice for what, Uly? Am I going end up like Penelope did? Whatever that means.”
I put my hand out and Uly grabbed my hand with force.
He ripped the necklace away and held it by the ring with the missing diamond.
“This is my reminder, Belle,” he said. “Of what happens when the sun shines too bright. Or the ocean looks too perfect. Or the music feels just right.”
“A reminder that perfection doesn’t exist?” I asked.
“Exactly,” he said.
Uly put the necklace over his head. It was just so smooth and sexy. And it was beyond ridiculous that someone putting on a necklace with a ring meant for another woman turned me on the way it did.
“How’s your mother?” Uly asked me.
I laughed. “Living in a fantasy.”
“Just like you?”
“This is a fantasy? I don’t think so, Uly. At least not my fantasy.”
“But you do have fantasies, right?”
“Why does that matter to you?”
“I care about your fantasies, Belle.”
“You know who you sound like right now?” I asked with a grin.
Uly shook his head. “And what happens next for the beautiful Belle? Do you run away from BFH and live in that fantasy your mother is in? Or do you stay attached to Lake’s hip and hope those words of yours do their job?”
“Maybe I just hang out and act like a spoiled, rich cunt for a little bit longer,” I said.
“Because whatever story you’re writing in your mind isn’t done yet,” Uly said.
“There you go,” I said. “You figured me out.”
Uly’s car started to slow. He turned to the right.
I saw a house a few seconds later.
I opened my mouth but Uly spoke first.
“Okay, doll, let me help you write that next chapter…”
* * *
I grabbed Uly’s hand for protection.
He was the one who interlocked his fingers into mine.
There was a quick second where my heart and head were demanding I take my hand away, but I didn’t listen.
I couldn’t listen at the moment.
Uly was walking me toward a beautiful beach house.
Bigger than Raza’s. Better than Raza’s. Not some side vacation place to crash on the weekends or a holiday.
This was a home.
The road to the beach house went from pavement to sand.
It was overgrown in a beautiful way.
In fact, I didn’t even realize how close we were to the ocean.
This was definitely a different kind of beach than what I was used to at Jo’s house.
The house was a bright, navy blue color with pure white accents everywhere. There was no way in hell that this place wasn’t painted every year to keep its look.
Even the porch… the wide, wrap around porch, had bright, white rocking chairs and had overflowing planters hanging from the roof on black chains.
Just looking at the house made me feel like I was about to walk into a postcard.
I told myself nothing bad could be here.
Right?
The place was too nice.
Too expensive.
It wasn’t some crazy secret place of Uly’s with someone in there that would…
The heavy, screen door opened as a woman came out to the porch.
She was in a very thin, see through sundress.
It was white and her bikini was a vibrant mix of orange and red.
Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun on the middle of her head. In her hand was a metal watering can. Not some old fashioned one, but one that was bought at a really expensive price to look old to try and convince that person that they weren’t a rich douchebag.
She had sunglasses that took up half her face too.
Uly let out a whistle.
The woman stopped, turned, and put the watering can down on a table.
She lifted her sunglasses and slowly started to smile.
I blinked a few times because it was…
I looked up at Uly.
He lifted his sunglasses.
The same way the woman did.
Then he started to smile.
The same way the woman did.
I opened my mouth.
Uly spoke first again.
“You can be my buffer here, doll,” he whispered.
“Ulysses,” the woman called out.
Uly looked forward. “Hey, Mom…”
As Uly tried to pull away from me, I gripped my hand tighter to his.
We walked side by side as his mother waited on the front porch for us to walk up the steps.
“Surprised you showed up,” she said.
“Well, when my mother calls, I always show up,” Uly said in that cocky tone that made me want to slap him.
His mother laughed. “Now you sound like someone else.”
“This is Belle,” Uly said. “Someone really special to me.”
“I can see that,” his mother said. “Holding hands. Is that willingly or…”
I swallowed hard.
I took my hand from Uly’s.
“Nice to meet you,” I said. “Uly’s Mom…”
I tried to laugh.
Nobody else did.
I felt stupid.
“Amanda,” she said.
I hurried up the steps and stuck my hand out. “Nice to meet you, Amanda. I didn’t know we were coming here today. I would have brought something.”
Amanda turned without touching my hand and grabbed the watering can. “Brought something, huh? Like what?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I would have asked Uly what you liked to eat or drink.”
“Uly?” Amanda asked. She nodded. “Uly. Okay.”
Uly cleared his throat.
I looked back and he leaned against the railing, halfway up the steps. He took out a cigarette as his mother began to water the flowers.
“What did you need this time, Mom?” Uly asked.
Amanda walked down the porch, watering plant after plant, taking her time.
Like she had nothing but time.
I looked at Uly and he lit his cigarette.
After the first puff of smoke, Amanda put the watering can down and hurried back to the top of the steps.
“Not near the house,” she called out. “I’ll have to get it cleaned again.”
“That would be a shame,” Uly said. “The Cohen Cash just keeps flowing, huh?”
Cohen Cash…?
Cohen was Uly’s father’s name.
NOT SO Special: a bay falls high novel Page 6