by Mansi Negi
"Not a chance, you obviously haven't experienced Lyla's pussy..." He glanced back, licking his lips and it was all I could do not to wrap my hands around his neck and strangle him to death.
"$20,000 then, I'll give you that in cash and you can keep the truck." I tried to remain calm, if he didn't strike a deal with me then there would be nothing I could do.
I'd have to somehow convince Lyla to leave with me, and she was so stubborn she'd never go for it, not to mention I couldn't leave Tristan alone with Tyler after pissing him off.
He had beat Daniel's head in with a baseball bat in front of Della, he'd have no problem doing it again.
"Listen you're getting closer... I know you have $35,000 saved. I want all of it, the truck and I want you to promise me you won't have any contact with Lyla again... ever, if you do, I'll know, and it will render this deal null and void." He turned in his seat and climbed out of the truck.
"You have five seconds to shake on it or the deal's off the table." He turned toward me holding his hand out as I climbed out of the back seat.
"Five, four, three..." he tapped his foot. "Two..." I grabbed his hand and shook.
"Ok, where's the money?" He asked, opening the driver's side door once more.2
I could sense he was leaving so I grabbed onto his collar and pulled him toward me.
"This is for me." I said, connecting a fist to his mouth, sending blood droplets flying into my clothes and leaving a large gash in his lip.
"This is for Lyla." I brought two more heavy punches against his face before he countered and blood poured from my nose.
"We good now?" He asked, climbing back into the truck. I nodded.
"The money?" He asked again firing up the engine.
"In my bedroom, under my bed." I spit blood from my mouth as I watched him back up in what had been my truck.
"Goodbye brother." He said over his shoulder as he threw his truck into drive and peeled out of the parking lot, presumably with no intentions of returning.
I wiped my nose with my arm. I'd just lost everything I'd ever cared about, but I knew Tyler, he would disappear, especially knowing what it would cost me.
I sat on the curb and ran my hands through my hair. How would I even get home? I sure as hell wouldn't be riding with Lorna.
Lorna, that was another problem in Lyla's life that I needed to deal with. I may have promised not to see or speak to Lyla again, but I'd be damned if I would let Lorna ever torment her again.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and made a call. The rusty Monte Carlo pulled up in front of the school ten minutes later. "Hey Theo... thanks man. I'll pay you back, I promise."
I shook the dudes hand. We'd been best friends in grade school.
He had been in foster care too, he ran away years ago, dropped out of school and found other means to make ends meet. He handed me a small plastic baggie and I shoved it in my pocket and headed toward the doors.
How was I going to do this? How could I ever stay away from her?
Police
My mom sat on the end of my bed in the morning.
"Why was your door locked Lyla? I need answers and I need them now." She looked at me, her eyes full of concern.
"I had a chat with Lorna last night, so if you lie to me about Jonas I'll know. I'm calling children's services today to put a stop to this, but I need to know now. I need to hear it from your mouth Lyla." She rested a hand on my leg.
Oh fuck.
*****
"Mom, I don't..." I started and she shot me a glare. I wasn't going to be able to lie my way out of this.
"What exactly did Lorna tell you?" I sat up and took her hand in mine. Maybe I could sugar coat the truth a bit and buy Jonas a little more time before he was forced to leave.1
A hollow pit sat in place of my stomach. A void growing larger by the minute.
It had started with the first lie I had ever told to cover my tracks and grown from there, infinitely growing over the last couple of days.
My mom raised her brows and crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn't giving up any information.
"Jonas sent Tyler to the dance with Lorna in his place." I said, thinking of the best way to word everything.
"Because she had been cheating with Chad, and we caught them kissing at the mall." I saw her face start to change a little with the realization that maybe Lorna's story hadn't been quite as truthful as she'd originally thought.
"So, Lyla, I'm going to just come out and ask you, have you and Jonas been..." she swallowed an uncomfortable lump. "Sexually active... in our home?" She raised an accusatory brow.
"No!" It wasn't a lie. I hadn't had sex with Jonas.
"Of course not!" I raised my brow back to her.
"Mom, Lorna isn't who you think she is... she's a miserable liar. She's had a crush on Jonas since he moved in here, she's just jealous." I was being truthful...2
"Jealous of what Lyla? Do you have feelings for Jonas?" She now looked at me inquisitively, but without accusation.
"Yes, I think I do mom." I said, releasing a breath and crunching up my face, waiting for her reaction.
"Oh... for how long honey? How long have you known you've had feelings for him?" She asked, rubbing a hand down the side of my hair.
Her demeanour had changed, she was no longer out for blood. she was beginning to realize it was semi-normal teenage issues.
"Umm, I don't know mom, since recently." I said, covering my embarrassed face with my hands.
"I just, I just don't know how I didn't see it before." She said. "I mean, I don't really know what to do now..." She sighed.
"I don't want you to kick him out because of me," I whispered. "I also don't want to tell you that I don't want to have a relationship with him, because I do. I really like him... like a lot." I said, meeting her eyes.
"I need to think about this Lyla, I may need to find another place for him to live for now, I don't think it's wrong for you two to have feelings for each other, but it is wrong for you to live together under the same roof with me knowing that it's happening." She pursed her lips, deep in thought.
Both of us were pulled from our conversation by the sound of Jonas' truck pulling into the driveway.
Why was he back here? This would make things worse for sure.
The front door opened and me and my mom watched as not Jonas, but Tyler ran up the stairs and into his room.
His face had blood splatter all over it and he had removed his shirt, revealing a tattoo free arm — the only tell tale way to decipher which twin was which.
He used it to wipe the blood from the gash in his lip.5
My heartbeat sky rocketed.
Where was Jonas? What had Tyler done to him? Or had Jonas picked the fight and won? My mom looked at me funny, as I tried to pretend my heart wasn't beating out of my chest. Why was Tyler back?
He emerged from his room and ran up the stairs to Jonas' room. My fear had me frozen in place, but what could he be doing in Jonas' room. I had to know, had he killed him?
A wave of terror shot through me and I was mobile again. I sprung up and ran up the stairs to Jonas' bedroom.
Tyler had a shoebox laid on the bed and was counting the money he had pulled from it. The money Jonas had been saving.
"What did you do Tyler?" My voice came out a whisper. Tyler whipped his head toward me. "Where is... Jonas?" Even saying it made a tremor run through my body. He just looked at me, before standing and moving around me and back down the stairs. Something was wrong, horribly wrong so I followed.
"Tyler! Where is he? What did you do to him?" I yelled. My mom stood in the hall looking confused.
"I didn't do shit to him Lyla." He turned on me.
"I'm leaving, what do you say one more fuck before I go?" He pushed me against the wall and my mom sprung forward, pulling at his arm to get him off, having zero affect on him.
"Jonas killed Daniel by the way. Loverboy is more fucked up than you could imagine." He whispered in my ear so only I
could hear. His hand flew back knocking my mom backward into the adjacent wall of the hall.3
"Jonas won't be back. He lost our little bet, I won the truck and the money... he never gave a shit about you Lyla, this was all just a bet, now it's over and we're leaving."
He winked at me and looked back at my mom. "The bet was who could fuck your lovely daughter first... I won."
He smiled down at her, letting the big reveal sink in like the prick that he was.1
"Get out! Get out of my house!" She yelled, looking over to me as I slid down the wall.
Jonas wouldn't do that to me. Tyler was lying, he was a liar. There was no way what he was saying could be true.
He grabbed a black garbage bag full of some of his things in one hand and the money he had stolen from Jonas in the other.
He glanced to the twin's room where Wyatt stood, wide eyed, in the doorway staring.
He took a step toward me, looking up at Wyatt one more time, before changing his mind on whatever he was going to do and disappearing down the stairs.
I looked over at my mom, both of our faces painted in terror and tears. A light bruise showed on her jaw where Tyler's hand had hit her away.
The truck fired up in the driveway and we listened to the sound of it driving out of earshot.
"Are you ok?" I asked, scurrying across the hall to where she sat on the floor.
"Yes." She whispered, bringing her hand to her heart. Wyatt slowly made his way over and I picked him up into my lap as we sat there silently for what felt like far too long.
"He's a liar." I finally whispered.2
"Stop Lyla!" My mom’s hand shot up to silence me.
"I'm done, no more lies. I should have trusted my gut." She stood, grabbing Wyatt from my arms and walking down the stairs. I made my way to my bedroom and texted Jonas.
Lyla: Please tell me you're ok
I waited for a reply, but it never came. As the day drew on, I waited for Jonas to come home from school, to respond, for my mom to come talk to me... for anything.
Finally, I got what I was waiting for. A police car pulled into our driveway.
An officer stepped out and opened the back door of the cruiser. Jonas climbed out.
His face was bruised, but he looked better than Tyler had. Immediately I felt relief at the sight of him, then panic at the fact that he had come home in a police car.
I watched as he pulled a cigarette from his pack and lit it. He leaned back against the cruiser and looked up to my window. I lifted my hand to wave at him, needing for him to give me some form of acknowledgement.
He turned away, taking one last drag before flicking his cigarette away and heading toward the front door. I ran to my door and flung it open.
"In and out, grab your stuff and we'll be on our way." I heard the police officer say.
Jonas was the first to appear around the corner from the stairs. I met his gaze. I held it momentarily, before he cast it toward the ground.
"Jonas." I said as he blew straight passed me not bothering to respond. The police officer followed giving me a look of pity.
"Jonas!" I yelled down the hall at him, causing him to stop momentarily, before the officer gave him a little push. Still he never turned to look my way.
My heart clenched in my chest. Why wouldn't he look at me? This wasn't happening. Not after everything I'd just endured over the weekend.
"Jonas." I said his name a third time, sounding more desperate. He walked down the hall toward the stairs and I jumped in front of him.
"Look at me. Why won't you look at me?" The urgency in my voice didn't seem to have any effect on his actions. He turned his head away.
"So, it's true then?" I asked my chest began to rise and fall too heavily, the walls were closing in on me.
"I was a bet?" My words were now a whisper. "Look at me! Fucking look at me!" I screamed.2
"Ma'am." The police officer shot me a warning look, instructing me to move.
"Please Jonas, why are you doing this?" My plea was a breath that floated around us and dissipated into thin air.
I stepped to the side. Jonas raised his head to look at me for a split second and his eyes radiated pain. He didn't want this. I knew it. I knew this wasn't his intentions.
"It's true Lyla... leave me alone." He said the words, but they didn't match the look in his eyes. Still, I felt like a thousand arrows struck me at once.1
"Why?" My tears flowed freely down my cheeks. All of a sudden the pain in his eyes was replaced with indifference. He redirected his attention to the end of the hall.
"Because I could." He said as if I didn't matter to him at all. I stood there and watched him walk out of sight. It had all been a lie.
All of it. He never loved me, but why had he been so concerned for me yesterday after what Tyler had done. I fell back into my room, on to my bed.
A heavy weight crushing against my chest. This couldn't be real. I felt like I was having a heart attack.2
"Because I could." I let his words play through my mind again and again. I looked out the window to see him duck into the cruiser once more, without even a glance my way.
The cruiser backed down the driveway, and drove out of sight. Jonas was gone, just like that. He had come into my life, turned it upside down, completely destructing every relationship I'd had and without warning he'd left me here to clean up the remnants.
"You called the police?" I asked my mom as I descended the bottom stairs. Her eyes were red with tears as they met mine.
"Why mom? Why? How could you do this to me?" I felt the carpet on my knees before I realized I'd dropped right there. "I love him mom! I love him so much!"
"Baby, I didn't do this to you, I did it for you." She said, holding her arms out to me. I made my way to her and buried my head into her shoulder.
"Tell me everything Lyla... tell me what happened."
Trying to Move On
Jonas: Stop contacting me Lyla, take a hint.3
I handed my phone to Casey to show her the text.
"Yep, like I said Lyla, some people are toxic to you, you're far better off without him, and it's been five weeks, if he can't see by now how much better off he'd be with you, it's not worth it, he's never going to." Casey said, lying on her back on her bed with her head hanging upside down over the edge.
I smiled at her. "Ahh... and that's why you've become my best friend." I smiled at her.
"Honestly Lyla, screw him. You should go on a date, move on." She rolled over, resting her chin on her hands.
"Who would I even go on a date with?" I asked, grabbing my phone from the bed and reading the text again.
It had come through five days ago, after I'd asked Jonas if he would be willing to meet up with me to talk about what had happened.
All I had wanted was some closure, but in true Jonas fashion, he'd not responded for a week and then boom he had dropped that sweet little number.
I wished I could move on. I had wished it from day one. I knew he was no good for me, I still had trouble believing he had only pursued me for a bet though, but as more time passed, and especially after his text, I now felt like it could be a possibility.
"I don't know, text that guy you met at your college visit." Casey said.
"The one with all the sexy tattoos... he could at least be a good rebound for you." She grabbed my phone from my hand and started scrolling through my contact list. "Jack..." She giggled at me.
"Don't you dare Casey!" I squealed as she pressed the call button. It rang twice and I finally wrestled it from her hands.
"Hello" his voice rang through the phone and I clicked the off button. Slapping her hand.
"You!" I laughed, pointing a finger at her. The phone started to ring again.
"It's him...Oh god, what do I do now?" I stared at the screen.1
"Umm, you could try answering it." Casey laughed.
"I hate you." I shot her a glare.
"No, you don't, you'll thank me later." She smiled and picked up her o
wn phone.
Casey: Answer it weirdo
Her text popped up on my screen as I stared at my phone debating what to do.
I stood and walked into her walk-in closet, holding the phone to my chest. I inhaled a sharp breath and clicked the answer button.
"Hello."
"Umm, hey I missed a call from this number..." Jack's deep voice sounded through the line and I froze for a moment not knowing what to say.
"Hello..." he asked into the line.
"Yes, sorry, it's Lyla... we met at the campus visit... you used my umbrella." I had no idea what to say to him.
"Yes... I remember Lyla... how are you?"
He asked.
"I'm good, I'm at a friend's house, her name is Casey." I wasn't sure where I was going with that, it just sort of came out.
"Umm... ok." He laughed.
"Did you need something Lyla?" He asked, sounding amused by my stammering.
"I thought maybe we could, hang out or something, you know before school starts... so we could go over some stuff, just for school though... we could maybe get dinner or something, maybe, but only if you want to, no pressure, I mean..." I continued to beat around the bush and the more I talked the less sense I was making.
"Lyla." Jack interrupted. "Slow down, yes, I'll go on a date with you." He laughed.
"It's not a date, just a hang out, you know, for school stuff." I corrected.
"Oh, well in that case..." He sounded more serious. I should have just let him accept the invite. I was never any good at this sort of thing. He picked up on my silence.
"I'm just joking Lyla! Yes, of course I'll go." He laughed. "Where do you want to go?" He asked and I realized I didn't even know where he lived. Turns out it was over an hour away.
"We could meet somewhere near the college, that would divide the distance between the two of us." I suggested.
"Perfect. I've actually heard a lot of my brother's friends talk about a burger joint downtown, it's kind of off the beaten path, but I've heard it's, bar none, the best place out there. Maybe we could try it out?" He asked.
"Yes, that sounds amazing actually, when are you free?" I asked.
"Is tomorrow too soon?"
"That actually works for me." I replied, my nerves slowly dissipating.