It was empty. I peered at the clothes in my hand and the ones I had shoved in the garbage bag. They had all been mine. Kenny no longer had any clothes of his own. No one had been providing for him as he grew into a young man. As my father’s jaw muscles tightened, I knew Kenny was going to get a new wardrobe, soon.
Kenny stayed motionless—until he saw someone in his bedroom doorway.
Delilah.
My dad tried to stop her, but Lilah was not having it. Kenny was reaching for her. She knelt next to him, grabbing his hand. His saddened eyes were looking at hers as his swollen lips tried to move. She put her forehead to his and whispered, “Shh. You’re not alone anymore.” My friend was visibly crushed from the inside out, exhaling in an agony that made my throat tighten afterward whenever I remembered that moment.
Kenny wouldn't leave Lilah’s side, just sat in the backseat of the truck while my dad stayed inside to talk to Kenny’s mom and the remaining sheriff, who was a family friend. Kenny never spoke a word. He simply clutched the hand that seemed to be the only thing keeping him from running away and never looking back. Lilah stared out the back passenger window. Maybe she was already recognizing the building pressure that would soon change her life.
Chapter Nineteen
For a while, after Kenny moved into our home, he stayed attached to Lilah. It wasn’t in a way that brought concern. He seemed to be a family member in need and she another member of that unit, hearing his cry. My dad and I thanked Delilah repeatedly for being so patient with Kenny and keeping his sadness at bay. Another unfair task.
“So, what are we doing for her birthday?” V asked one day.
I had just stopped by Diesel’s and was more focused on all the Harleys I heard firing up and leaving than what V was jibber jabbering about. I looked at Diesel, who was swiggin’ his beer and not matching my questioning glare.
“Earth to Tucky Ducky.”
I blinked. “Uh, I don’t know. What do you think I should do?”
“Tuck! This is her sweet sixteen!”
I shrugged. Diesel laughed.
“This is a big deal, motherfuckers.”
Lilah’s sixteenth birthday came, and we threw her a party at the house. V had balloons every-fucking-where. Coleman and Hu were singing to Lilah with helium-induced voices, and she loved every minute of it. It was odd that she baked her own cake, but no baker could’ve done better. Damn, that bitch could cook! Sixteen candles lit her face as we sang out loud before she closed her eyes and made a wish. I almost choked when she whispered, “Love you, Mama.” My dad grabbed his chest and hid behind me when her eyes opened. I stood there, wanting to hide myself, but I couldn’t. She smiled at me, mouthing, “Thank you.”
I nodded at this beautiful young woman, trying to swallow. She thought I’d done all this. I grabbed the hand of the true hero. V squeezed my palm, silently accepting my sincere gratitude.
Lilah screamed when we took her outside and she saw a brand-new Camaro—a hot little red number that was sure to make any teenage girl happy. My dad kissed her cheek, handing over the keys. “I love you, baby.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh my God! I love this car! Thank you so much.”
“My vote was a Harley.”
She turned to Diesel. “Is that so?” Then she hugged him too.
“So, I got you this.” Diesel handed her a crystal figurine of a motorcycle to hang from her rearview mirror.
Lilah gasped then whispered. “Thank you, Diesel.”
Lilah, V, and Jaz jumped in and screamed all the way down our dirt road.
Being a senior in high school was great. No one messed with me except for Viola. One day I saw her heading my way on a mission. I grinned. “What is it, V?”
Still a distance from me, she laughed. “Am I such an open book?”
I nodded, still grinning, but I was surprised to feel an ache in my groin area. Viola danced through her growing smile as she watched me readjust myself. “Problems?” She’d known me all her life and had seen this more offensive side of me plenty.
The closer she got, the worse it became. Her generous hips were swaying above long legs that begged to be wrapped around my waist. She wore a light-yellow shirt that was practically screaming for me to check out her boobs, which suddenly seemed perfect. I was baffled as I kept trying to fit into my shrinking jeans. “Uh, yeah, but I think you’re turning me on, V.”
With her standing in front of me, I realized what a great height she was. I had a head on her—I wouldn’t have to feel inferior—but she was tall enough that I wouldn’t have to bend over to kiss her. Kiss her? What the fuck is happening to me?
“I’m not sure what my boyfriend will think of that.”
“I’m not sure I want him to be your boyfriend anymore.”
Viola was beaming. “What ya gonna do about it?”
“Fuck if I know. I’m still trying to deal with this chub in my pants.”
“You could… steal me.”
“Steal you?”
V faked being a girly girl, all dramatic. “Yes. Rip me from where I’m trapped and save me. Show me what I really need.”
“And fuck up whatever crusade you’re on? What’s the deal with that anyways?”
“I don’t have time to hear your shit about Bryce. I’ve come to you about Kenny and the creepy way he looks at Delilah.”
Hard-on gone. “What do you mean?”
Viola put a hand on her hip, which always meant she was about to give me a stern talking-to. “Look, Tucky Ducky, I know what this kid means to you and that he’s been through a lot, but something’s off. He’s always calling her darlin’ like she’s a milkshake he wants to sample. And you’re kidding yourself if you think he sees Delilah as family.”
Just then, Kenny—with Delilah—turned a corner and was headed in our direction. Viola stopped talking but rolled her eyes as if saying, See?
See I did not. All I saw was my brother walking with my sister. Yeah, he looked a little devoted, but big deal. He had been that way since the incident. I figured Kenny needed something Lilah could offer that I couldn’t, some sort of feminine bullshit I couldn’t conjure up.
Like most people, I tended not to see what I didn’t want to.
“Hello, Viola,” said Kenny with a touch of judgment. “You look pissy as usual.”
V’s glossed lips pursed, and I was somehow the one receiving the evil eye.
“What?” I asked.
She faced my sister, softening. “You ready?”
Lilah closed her locker. “Let’s roll.”
“Bye, darlin’.”
V stomped her foot, her hand on her hip, again giving me the dirty look.
What’s wrong with darlin’?
As Lilah and V walked away, I heard V tell my sister, “I just asked your brother to steal me.”
“Steal you?”
I couldn’t make out what V replied, but I didn’t miss Lilah asking, “Do you think someday someone will steal me, Viola?”
“Maybe your romance-novel guy will come to life and sweep you away, baby.”
That was the first time I ever heard Lilah wanting a relationship. It was the first time I wondered what she needed saving from. It was the first time I wondered whether or not I’d helped raise her right—whether she was happy and quiet or quiet and sad.
The event that led to Kenny living with us was disheartening, but I sure did love seeing him in our spare bedroom and watching his walls transform into a teenager’s personal poster board. My dad gave each of us an allowance. With his, Kenny would always buy magazines. I asked why, but he only replied, “Always have wanted them.”
I would shrug, not caring ’cause now I had a brother.
One day, my dad handed Lilah a credit card. “Take Kenny to the mall. Fill his closet.”
She grumbled, “Fine. Let me go put on my potato sack.”
My dad watched her walk away. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She stomped up the stai
rs. “I’d like to make it through more than one store this time before mall security escorts these two morons out.”
My dad looked to Kenny and me. We were in the kitchen, leaning on the island, shrugging our shoulders. I stated, “Her ass ain’t no pastry dish.”
“So they shouldn’t look at it,” Kenny added.
My dad said, “Poor girl is gonna die an old maid with you two wannabe thugs around her all the time,” but he didn’t tell us to stop.
Lilah was wrong that day. We made it into four stores before being escorted out.
After Kenny settled into our routine and showed signs of recovering from the tragic night at his mom’s, he was still attached to Lilah—somewhat—but we began carrying on like what we were: two juvenile males terrorizing the only girl in the house.
I thought we were annoying my sister because that was what brothers did for pure pleasure. I didn’t realize Kenny thought it was a great idea because anything to do with Lilah was great to him. So we did the normal pranks. Saran wrap under her toilet seat made her get piss on her new cowgirl boots. Boy, was she livid that day. We also did baby powder in her blow dryer—which made her wet hair look like cake batter gone terribly wrong—and some other harmless shit we were able to find on YouTube. But we never dared fuck with her books. We respected her and her favorite pastime way too much for that.
Lilah handled the practical jokes like a champ, using unknown resources to get back at us males. Kenny and I never knew what might come out of our showerhead when we turned on the water or when a bedroom door would be removed from its hinges when we got home from school. I’m not kidding—we’d come home and find our doors fucking gone!
Kenny and I tried to stay strong, but with no door, my private late-night whack-offs were out of the question. With the shower being tampered with, I was about to explode after forty-eight hours of no masturbation. I stank and was horny as hell.
Kenny and I both bitched to my dad, who only replied, “Shouldn’t have fucked with her. And no, I’m not buying you two knuckleheads another door.” Then he would make a putrid expression. “What the fuck stinks in here?”
Major ass kissing took place to get our doors returned to us. My dad came home from work and almost shit himself when he heard me say, “Can I get you anything else, Lilah?”
He walked into the kitchen. “Hell froze over?”
Kenny shook his head in shame as he peeled potatoes for Queen Lilah.
Her shoulders rolled back with much satisfaction. “They want their doors back, Daddy. Shouldn’t have fucked with me.”
Kenny kept peeling Idahos, mumbling, “So we’ve been told.”
“Please! Delilah!” I begged. “Anything! Just give me my door back.”
“Hey!” Kenny held up a potato and utensil.
I bowed slightly. “Sorry, buddy.” Then I said to Lilah, “Our doors back.”
“Thank you.” Kenny went back to his degrading chore.
I went back to begging. “Pleeeease, Lilah. Beautiful, sweet, wonderful Lilah.”
My dad’s jaw dropped.
“We’re done with the war of practical jokes?” Lilah raised a brow.
I nodded emphatically. “Oh yes, we’re done.”
She eyed Kenny, who put his hands together and bowed, showing respect—while holding a potato and peeler. Then she pulled out her cell phone with a smirk and the knowledge that she had broken us. My jaw went slack when Lilah said into the receiver, “Hey, Butch… yep, they caved… you’re right. Privacy seems to be very necessary to hormonal young bucks.”
“You have construction workers on speed dial?” shrieked Kenny. He glared at me. “We didn’t have a chance.”
Yep. She’d recruited my dad’s construction workers. Of course, they were more than willing to be of assistance. Delilah ignored Kenny and said into the phone, “Tomorrow works. Wait. I do have a load of laundry I need done.” She gave me a quizzical glance.
I aggressively nodded. “I’ll do it. Just tell Butch to bring back the doors.”
My dad busted out laughing with his foreman being involved in Lilah’s schemes.
After Kenny and I had yet to learn our lesson and had fucked with Delilah, again—like the dumbasses we were—Kenny took a running leap onto his bed just like he always did and was shocked to shit when it collapsed. His ass and whole fucking bed landed on the floor. “What the—”
After examining my own bed, I was dumb enough to think I was in the clear. That was until I tried to put my shoes on a shelf in my closet and started an avalanche. The shelf, along with everything else connected to my closet walls, fell on my head. Kenny and I finally came to the realization that we weren’t going to win and left Lilah and her team of helpers to the victory they so deserved.
Soon after, Kenny was no longer being a good wingman for the willing ladies and me. “Where is my best friend, who is just as hungry as I for the female gender?”
We were exiting the Pizza Parlor. “I wasn’t feeling that girl’s friend.”
“You don’t seem to be feeling any girl lately.”
No reply.
“Dude! Talk to me! I gotta get some sooooooon! I have condoms rotting of old age!”
Still no reply.
Then I started thinking of what V had suspected. “Is this because of… Lilah?”
Kenny looked away.
I took a deep, exasperated breath. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Kenny and I both had a mission in life, and now he was siding with the enemy? I somehow was dumbfounded that Kenny wanted my sister. V knows everything! Fuck, that bitch is smart. Makes her even hotter… fuck, I need to get laid.
Kenny stared at the parking-lot gravel. “I’m so sorry, dude. I’m trying like hell not to see her in that way, but… damn, I’m sorry.”
We got in my car as I told him, “I guess you don’t really have a say where your heart goes, but… Kenny, you play girls. We play girls. Not so interested in that for my Lilah.”
He stopped buckling his seatbelt. “Tuck. Jesus. You don’t know me better than that? You think I would do her like that?”
“Does… Lilah… is she interested?” I started my Mustang’s engine.
His seatbelt clicked. “What do you think?”
I laughed as I started driving. “I think she treats you like she treats me, so not so much.”
“Rock and a hard spot?”
I shivered. “Can we not speak of anything hard when we speak of my sister?”
His laughter echoed in my car. “Damn. Sorry.”
Lilah not being interested was why I was so floored when I woke up one morning and learned she and Kenny were now a couple. Standing in my room, Kenny looked as though he was on cloud nine. Lilah looked timid, but then I thought of her comment to V about wondering if anyone would steal her.
My sister wants this! I was sure of it. Lilah was nervous but wanted a relationship. I needed her to know I approved, that I was totally okay with it. So when she asked, I told her wholeheartedly, “Yes. I trust Kenny. That means you can, too.”
I wanted Lilah to have anything she wanted. And if what she wanted happened to be in the shape of Kenny, so be it.
Chapter Twenty
Confident my father wouldn’t approve because a daughter living with her boyfriend—while still in high school—isn’t usually at the top of a daddy’s “yay” list, the three of us chose to keep Lilah and Kenny’s newfound relationship under wraps. Another mistake that will forever haunt me. Parents set rules for reasons we cannot fathom because we lack the experience and knowledge to do so.
Working hard on all my college submissions, preparing for graduation, and studying for final exams, I missed Kenny quickly becoming aggressively territorial over Lilah. I figured he would be a little more alert and on edge because she was his girlfriend, but when he actually got suspended for yet another fight, my father gave him a good talking-to. If we’d lived in a big city, Kenny would’ve been expelled.
Then I got to hear it. “Son, listen. Ke
nny has been through and witnessed a lot. I need you to set an example and keep your head on your shoulders—hopefully he’ll follow your lead. I don’t know what is with this kid lately, but no more encouraging Hot Head to battle it out the old-fashioned way. He’s about to get expelled. Got it? Plus, there are brand-new porches all over town, and it’s getting pricey!”
I loved Kenny. He was the kind of brother I wanted by my side forever, so when my dad said change was needed for my best friend’s benefit, I considered it done. Problem was, I didn’t have a clue where to begin.
“How about by shutting your pie hole?” V said.
Sitting in Diesel’s kitchen, I questioned his sister’s sanity while he studied us both. “Care to explain, V?” I asked.
She sat on a stool next to me. “Stop only reacting.”
“Reacting?”
“Yes. Okay, if someone pisses you off, what do you do?”
“Kick their ass.”
“That means you reacted.”
Stupefied. I was absolutely stupefied. “What do you want me to do? Give him a hug and a kiss?”
“No, fucktard. Just think.”
I blew out air. “English, V.”
“Si.”
“V!”
“Okay!” She laughed. “What I’m trying to say is, think! Why did that person piss you off?”
“He’s an asshole?”
“So? Why does him being an asshole mean you need to beat his ass?”
Smart, smart, V.
She teased my silence. “Is someone thinking?”
“Fuck off, V.”
Her and her damn brother’s laughter boomed throughout the kitchen.
I made a lot of effort to just “think” and become calmer. And with that, I became wiser. When you hold still and think, not run your trap, you tend to see much more and definitely see more clearly. This new way of thinking changed my life and my view of my actions.
I put the new lessons to use. At a party, I asked Kenny, “What do you mean she stayed home?”
Steal Me (Haunted Roads Book 1) Page 22