Reckless Hate: A Bully High School Romance (enemies-friends-enemies-lovers-enemies) (Westbrook Blues Book 1)

by Thandiwe Mpofu

  I used to know him, like the back of my hand. We used to know each other but now, it’s just. . .

  “Thanks.” I mumble and then get into the car, and clip in my seatbelt. He nods and then closes the door after me then soon he is in the driver’s seat and starts the car.

  The atmosphere between us, the energy—it's tense and silent as if any second now, a volcano will erupt. I wonder how much Emmett has changed, I wonder what he did these past years, what he accomplished and if ever things changed. Did he become serious about football or basketball? Does he have plans to take either to the next level?

  But above all that, I have serious questions too, ones that we used to talk about and exploit into the early hours of the morning, having stayed up all night gazing up at the stars on his balcony. Did his mother come back? Did his father stop being an asshole?

  Even when I hated Ace and was constantly bullied by him while Noah was the joker and guaranteed me a great time—with pranks and talks about which girl he has kissed and what color their training bras are, Emmett was always the nurturer, the one who cared so deeply but never really showed his emotions. He was the type of guy you wouldn’t want to upset on the playground.

  But that too, has changed. They are all no longer boys but in all appearances and the darkness in their eyes, they are men. Men that have a game going on that I know I’m in the middle of but no one will tell me about it. It’s no longer a playground now, it’s the whole fucking world at their feet.

  “My friend. . .”

  “Noah is there.” He cuts me off.

  “I thought you are all staying under the radar and don’t want to be seen.” I question, looking at him but he only spares me glance.

  “We have someone to drive her back home and let her know that you left and arrived home safely. Noah doesn’t need to make himself known. Not yet anyway.”

  “What are you guys planning to do?”

  “Besides murdering you like we did George you mean?” He questions with a dry, hard chuckle that makes me close my eyes in a painful cringe that I feel to my core.

  “Emmett. . .”

  “Yeah, you were frightened and I look like a savage killer.”

  “That’s not it. . .”

  “Then what is it, Astraea?”

  “I just need answers.”

  “Answers, huh.” He blows out his breath and then completely ignores me for the rest of the drive and I sit there in coiled tension.

  As he drives, I look around at the car. It has a new car smell that enclosed around me the second I got in and a woodsy, fresh scent that is all Emmett. He was always an out doors person. I wonder if that too has changed.

  His jaw is clenched and I can feel the tension radiating from him. It used to be so easy to be around this huge guy, as easy as breathing but now it’s just. . . cold. I shiver, feeling incredibly vulnerable. This night did not go as I imagined or as I planned. It turned ugly in a short space of time and it’s all because of these boys. I reach in at the neck of Ace’s hoodie and take out the pendant that’s around my neck, looking for comfort and security that I know it brings my mind.

  “What happened to Juanita?” I ask, trying to break the tense silence between us. Grasping for any conversation topic that I can find, thinking right back to his first car that his asshole of a father bought for him when he was thirteen. Wealthy people do the weirdest shit, it’s even worse here in Westbrook.

  He glances at me but keeps driving and I wonder if he heard me but the silences stretches until I give up hope and just turn to look out my window. A sad sigh leaves me but there is nothing I can do here.

  “You remember her?” His deep voice questions after what feels like over five minutes, but I don’t bother looking over at him,

  “How could I forget?” I don’t know how fast he was driving but now we are crossing the already open Estate gates and he speeds down the private lane towards my house. It almost feels like he can’t wait to get rid of me.

  “Yeah, well it’s not really hard for you to forget things now, is it?”

  Now, that has my attention. I turn back to look at him as we wait for the gates to my house to open and he drives up the circular driveway.

  “What does that mean?” I question as my palms begin to sweat.

  He stops the car and turns to look at me for long seconds but once again, his gaze gives nothing away. Even though many think that Emmett and Ace have always been the same—and in so many ways they are—to me, Emmett has always been the easiest to understand. Ace, always the one that I scratch my head at and Noah, the fool was always there for a great time—hiding his own demons.

  But Emmett, he was easy but now. . . it’s as if I made it all up. It’s as if those three boys never existed. He glances down at the pendant around my neck and his gaze locks on to it for long seconds and I start feeling self-conscious.

  “I think you know exactly what I mean.” He says after a while and then our gazes connect again.

  “I just need to know.” My voice has somehow unconsciously dropped to a whisper, my hands balled into fists. “He was my other half and now that half of my soul is gone.”

  He looks at me then, and then turns away dismissing me.

  “Then you live off of the other half that remains.” He says with frost in his hard voice and somehow his dismissive nature and tone, much like Ace’s—pierces my heart and it fucking hurts. And it makes me angry.

  I quickly unbuckle my seatbelt and then reach for the door handle in a panic to get out of this damn car. I don’t know why I stupidly allowed my hopes to be raised tonight. I don’t fucking know why I still allow myself to be controlled by these boys when all they do is just shatter me.

  I open the door and hop out but he doesn’t bother looking at me, already ready to leave. Just before I shut the door, I look at him, my chest cloaked with unshed tears.

  “Unfortunately for me, the other half of me has always been held down by these assholes that I grew up with but somewhere along the way, they all just managed to step on it, kick it away and allowed it to rot.”

  I shut the door then with a bang and run up the stairs to an open doorway that I hadn’t noticed Trumbull standing there. I ignore him, don’t even bother looking back and run to my side of the house only to collapse on my bed, my heart beating so fast. But I refuse to allow the tears to fall, instead, I glance at the drawer where I keep my diary.

  George.

  It’s all about George.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  ACE

  I PRESS DOWN ON THE fucking gas pedal of the car, pushing it to go faster than I want it to. Sensibly, I know I shouldn’t draw any unnecessary attention to myself but since I saw her stepping out of her house and into her friend’s car earlier in the evening, everything went to shit.

  She took my control, wrapped it around her dainty finger and then like a coiled spring full of tension, released it as far as she could into the wild.

  And then there is the fucking fact that she was with Dereck tonight. I could literally see the unease on her face, her body was shaking as she was walking through the damn crowd—unaware of the predator eyes that were tracking her as she went.

  Fuck!

  I punch the steering wheel, accepting the throbbing pain as it passes through my knuckles, shooting up my arm but that does nothing to ease the anger I feel. I’m so fucking angry at her for setting herself up like that.

  I fucking saw Myers spiking that drink and passing it on to that girl, Kim or whoever she is. And the girl drank that shit. I reach for my phone, eyes on the road as I circle back towards the party, but this time I’m using a different route than the one I used earlier simply because anyone might have heard Star and I out there.

  You never know who might be listening when alcohol is ripe in the air and lust is as heavy as it usually is at a party with young people.

  I dial Noah’s phone and he picks up after the second ring.

  “Yo, that shithead spiked her drink.” He
immediately says, his tense voice filtering in through the speakers in the car.

  “I know. I was about to let you know.” I grit out, thinking back to the last words that she said to my face, in this car.

  “I hate you.”

  Fuck!

  “Please tell me we are going to mess some shit up tonight! Fucking asshole had this whole thing set up for tonight. He knew what he was going to do!”

  I crack my neck from left to right, trying to ease the tension that somehow settled on my shoulders but I know nothing I do right now will make the pressure go away. Nothing but doing exactly what I wanted to do since seeing fucking Myers step closer to my girl—mine—like that. I’m going to mess him up so bad.

  “Is the team ready?” I grit out, getting closer to the back, where the backroads connect to the highway that leads to Springs. In a matter of a few minutes, that road is going to be blocked by law enforcement, but not after I mess this up first.

  “Yeah, they are getting restless.” Noah chimes in. “Hold on, Em is calling. Let me connect him to the call.”

  I park but don’t get out of the car for a few minutes thinking back to the way her fucking body wound itself around me like a sex goddess. The way she kissed me, wrapping her pierced tongue around mine made my entire body shiver and all I wanted to do was remove the barriers between us and sink balls deep into her.

  I wanted her to fucking take the anger she made me feel. I wanted her to lose control like she forces me to lose every time she opens that fiery mouth of hers, slaying me with her cutting words. I want her to suck my cock, I want that piercing to scrap the thick veins that are still raging wild.

  Fuck! I don’t have time to think about her fucking mouth right now, or that fucking piercing she no doubt got in London as an act of rebellion. I don’t want to think about the way she wound her legs around me or think about the way that she can take me because I fucking know that she can take me.

  All these other girls can pretend but Star, she has had me by my balls since day one and she can fucking take me.

  “I hate you.”

  Fuck. There is no mistaking that hate in her eyes as she looked at me. The way she panicked in the car when I stopped, as if she actually thought I would harm a single hair on her head when she all but destroyed my life. The fuck does that mean?

  “Yo, Alex!”

  I shake my head as soon as Emmett’s voice comes through the speakers.

  “Yeah, is she home?” I question, trying to clear the image of that is now ingrained behind my eyelids. An image of my Star, her eyes filled with fear, hate and sincerity. Her sweet, pierced tongue telling me that she is sorry, her fiery touch rubbing away the hurt she inflicted but it’s not gone. Nothing is ever gone especially when she is the one to doll it out.

  “Yeah man, but what was that? She fucking thinks we wanted to kill her?” Emmett’s growl comes through the line and I sit up straight, watching the glow of burning bone fires in the distance ahead, the thump of music can be heard from all the way out here.

  “Panic attack.” I explain as I watch the smoke from various fires spiral into the dark sky.

  An idea pops in my head as I look at the nearest bone fire closest to where I’m parked in the shadows, knowing full well that the cars of many of the party goers, including Myer’s car are packed this side, closets to the exit so they can flee as soon as the boys in blue are close.

  Well, not tonight.

  “Fuck, she still has those?” Noah chimes in.

  “It would make sense, after all, she fucking hates this hellhole. And besides, she believes we killed her twin.” Emmett answers and I remain silent, allowing them to work it out on their own.

  “But she seemed shaken. What happened with Myers?”

  “He messed up. He messed up real bad.” Is all I say and I open the car door and go to the back of my car, and open the back latch so I can get the things I need.

  “Shit, King. You can’t do anything reckless.” Emmett says, always the voice of reason but even I can hear the tension in his voice. He wants to end fucking Myers as much as I do. It’s been a long time coming.

  “Yeah, he should have thought about that before planning to take advantage of her.” I grit out.

  If there is one thing I fucking loathe with my entire being in the world, it’s fucking sexual predators.

  After what I went through as a young boy, too small to defend myself, with no one to fucking defend me either, I grew up to defend my fucking self and no one is going to touch her. No one but my damn self. She is mine, has always been mine and besides, I’ve toyed with Myer’s life for a while now, it’s time to finish this.

  “Remember his father is one of the coaches.”

  “Yeah so what? His father is a damn leech and you know it, has been eyeing the position of head coach for a while, as if he could handle it.” Noah spits out over the phone.

  “Shit you are right.” Emmett says after a while. “I’m almost there, what’s the plan?”

  Because they fucking know it’s going down tonight.

  “Hell yeah! Let me get one drunk and drugged girl to her home first, be right back.” Noah says.

  “Make sure you get as much info as you can while you are there. And for God’s sake, no fucking another drunk girl. We don’t have time for sexual assault cases.” Emmett reminds Noah and I can just about hear the eye roll in that statement. It wouldn’t be the first time that Noah is accused of taking advantage of a drunk girl after a party. Noah might be many things, a fucking clown being one, but he isn’t stupid enough or heartless to take advantage of a girl. Drunk or not. Actually, I think it’s the other way around.

  “I want to fuck her, I won’t lie. But not tonight. Tonight, I’m too fucking fired up for Myers. Don’t start without me!” Noah shouts as a set of headlights comes through behind me but I know it’s Emmett.

  He opens his car door and strides over to where I’m standing checking the fireworks and the lighters I have with me. I watch as he runs a frustrated hand through his short hair and sighs, then does it again. I would know that frustration from anywhere.

  “Why is it that she blames us for her going away?”

  And there it is, the question I fucking suspected would come. It’s in the way she looked at me tonight, after kissing her as if I’m the very reason for the hell that she is in. As if she doesn’t know that she literally dropped me into the seventh circle of hell.

  Left me there for four years and then comes back, walking like a fucking wet dream through the school hallways, doesn’t bother talking to me at all, and then kisses me like she knows she sent me to hell.

  “What?” My entire body is still, can hear the owls in the distance. I can hear the party goers whose lives are about to be fucked, hoot and holler in the distance, but I can’t move.

  “It’s something she said before she stormed out of the car when I dropped her off just now.” Emmett says and then grabs the lighters and the fireworks, these are heavy duty fireworks for big events and tonight, it’s a fucking big event.

  “What really happened that night? I’ve been questioning it since this afternoon.”

  “Yeah.” My chest is tight with tension, feeling the need to cause some fucking damage.” I’ve been wondering the same thing for four years now.”

  And with that, I grab the rest of the lighters, the gasoline and the fireworks and start walking towards the cars that are parked around the perimeter of the grounds where the party is. I immediately spot the car that I want and walk over to it, knowing that Em has my back.

  We don’t fucking say a word as he peeps in through the front passenger’s window and I do the same through the driver’s side and we see what we wanted to see. . . an entire bag filled with drugs. I’m not so sure but I would think it’s coke and there is a huge bag of Xanax pills in there as well. I know that shit is easy to get these days but why does fucking Myers have all of those on hand like that? I wonder if he knows about Star and what happened in London
a year after she left. Would he know?

  Emmett and I look at each other and then we start moving, getting to work. By the time, Noah arrives, lights the match and we leave, the wailing of police sirens, firetrucks and a stampede of drunk, inebriated drunk assholes is the soundtrack that pierces the silence of the night.

  But for me, my night is just starting. I don’t bother going home, instead, I grab the gym bag I keep in my car filled with my clothes and then go around the back to the side of the huge mansion that I made sure was hers. With my set of keys, I unlock the door that leads to the secret staircase that she doesn’t know about yet but leads straight to her closet. I close and lock the door after me then slip into her closet where clothes upon clothes are scattered everywhere. I can see the light in her room is still on and by the way she tenses and I move, I know she can sense I’m near.

  We’ve always had a sixth sense of sorts for each other, but for me, it almost seems like all I can feel, all I can hear, see and desperately want to touch, is her.

  I watch as she turns in the middle of her room, in the middle of undressing. She doesn’t move and isn’t startled when she spots me coming from the closet and into her room.

  “I should have known there is a damn secret door in there. Tell me, does Amanda know about that?”

  It doesn’t go unnoticed by me the way she uses her mother’s first name like that. I’ve seen it over the years. The way the distance between her and her mother has grown. If only she knew just how much her mother had changed in the last four years, particularly the last two—after the last time she visited Star.

  I know my Blue Star is beginning to see things now, suspecting everything. Soon, it will be time to start divulging some of those secrets. Just not tonight though.

  Tonight, is all for me with her.

  “I don’t care if she does.” And that’s the truth. I throw my gym bag to the floor and it falls with a soft thump and then I stalk closer to her, watching as her chest rises and falls in quick succession that has me realizing that she is indeed nervous.