Flowers
The week of Valentine’s Day comes up fast on us and none of the guys have mentioned doing anything, which I must say is exciting. I’ve never been one for big showy things, especially on that day. All it’s good for is making lonely people feel even lonelier. Lucas better be glad Goose covered for him two weeks ago, or he’d be grounded and not doing anything anyways. Thinking back on that day puts a smile on my face.
First, because of that one stolen moment with Lucas. I never thought that I’d fall in love with anyone else after the accident. I was walking through life with blinders on, not truly living. It would sound insane if I said so out loud, but it seems as though all of my senses have awakened after being asleep for the past two years. Everything is more colorful, and even smells and sounds better.
Second, because of the shit show that happened once we met up with the guys. Lucas and I talked about it on the ride back to my house that day, and decided it was best to tell them what had happened. Can’t have a relationship like ours and not have honesty in every aspect.
Their reaction wasn’t as bad as I was thinking it would be, which wasn’t all together a good thing. I honestly thought Mav was going to punch Lucas in the face for a minute, but he calmed down pretty quick. Goose wasn’t pissed at all, said he was expecting it when they couldn’t find us. Teagan was the one that worried me the most, because he was the quietest. Then he jumped in and said it’s his turn next, and broke up the tension. We all laughed with him, but I’m not too sure that he was kidding.
“Your food say something funny?” Billy asks, sitting down across from me at the lunch table.
I shake my head, “Just thinking about something. I’m so fucking glad that it’s Friday, though, for serious.”
“Yeah, me, too,” he says, before taking a bite of the burger on his plate. “I was thinking. You know tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, right?”
Uh oh. I know where this is headed, and it’s not good. Billy is an ok guy, and is probably the only one in this school who isn’t a giant douche, but I’ve got my hands full with the four that I have, not to mention the fact that I don’t even see any other guys like that anymore. I try to play it off, “Yeah. I guess it is, huh.”
Rhetorical question and he answers it anyways, “Yep, so I was thinking, why don’t we go to the movies or something? It doesn’t even have to be a real date if you don’t want it to be.”
“That would be fun,” I say trying to think of a way to let him down gently. “But, I can’t. I’ve got stuff going on, and I’ll be busy all day tomorrow.” I’m just about to mention the fact that I have a boyfriend or four when the bell rings.
He shrugs, “That’s fine. I’ll pick you up tonight. See you at eight.”
Then he walks away, leaving me with my jaw on the floor.
I search for him for the rest of the day, but he’s nowhere to be found. It isn’t until the final bell rings, and I’m headed out that I find him in the worst way possible.
The buses are getting ready to pull away as he jumps out in front of me with a dozen red roses in his hand, “Just thought I’d get an early start on tonight.”
When I don’t reach out to take them, he grabs my hand and I have a choice of grabbing them or letting them drop. I don’t want to be rude, so my fingers close around the stems. Surprising me even further, he leans in and drops a kiss on my cheek as he says, “See you at eight.”
I’m too shocked to say what I had planned to all day. Honestly, I can’t do anything but watch him walk away once again, with my mouth open catching flies. It isn’t until this moment that I realize that the buses have pulled away, and there stands Goose with his arms folded across his chest. Teagan is behind him, half in, half out of Goose’s truck. Both of their faces war between hurt and pure rage.
Walking over to them, I want to hide the roses behind my back, but it’s too late now. They’ve seen everything. I don’t say anything as I walk beside Goose and toss the flowers in the bed of his truck and jump into the middle of the bench seat. The ride to my house is silent and tense as a motherfucker.
I think I hold my breath the entire way, and don’t let it out until we’re inside my house. That only lasts so long, though, as Mav is about ten minutes behind us.
He storms into the house with Lucas right behind him trying to talk some sense into him. I am slowly taking my time to put up the dishes from the drying rack just to busy my hands. Shit. There’s going to be no easy way out of this. I feel his breath against my neck as his hands lean against the counter on either side of my hips, locking me in place.
“Who is he?” he asks in a voice that is barely containing the rage sitting under the surface.
Mav could have come at me in any other way than that one, and I wouldn’t have gotten defensive. I can’t explain it, but with those three words, I feel like he’s accusing me of something that I didn’t do. So, naturally, it kick starts my smartass mouth, “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His nose makes a trail from my neck up to my ear as his tone turns darker, “Don’t play with me, baby girl. Who was the guy who gave you the flowers and you let kiss you?”
I twist in his arms until we’re face to face, and I snap, “I didn’t let him do anything.”
Mav crowds into my space, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Lucas and Teagan looming right over his shoulder, as Goose stands on the other side of the counter. All with their eyes on me, waiting for an answer just as Mav.
“I’ve told you before,” he says talking low, “I don’t share well with others. The only reason this is working is because it’s the four of us. I’m not doing this shit with anybody else.”
This pisses me off more than anything else, “I might be trailer trash, but I’m not a fucking whore, Maverick.”
“Don’t talk about yourself like that,” Goose says, speaking for the first time.
Without taking my eyes from Mav’s, I reply defensively, “Well, that’s what he’s making me sound like.”
At this, Teagan jumps in, “He’s not meaning it that way. He’s just asking the question that we’re all wanting to know the answer to.”
When I try to glance at him, Mav shifts his shoulder in my way, “Who is he, Kendall?”
I have no choice but to look him in the face as I answer, “It’s just some guy at school. He sat down with me at lunch a couple months ago and started talking. We eat lunch together and that’s it. Today he brought out the bullshit about tomorrow being Valentine’s Day, and asked me out. When I told him no, he said he’d pick me up tonight, and before I could say anything, he left. I tried finding him to tell him that it wasn’t going to happen, but he disappeared, and I guess we’ve figured out where he went. Then, as I’m walking out to the parking lot, he ambushes me. Drops the flowers in my hand, kisses me on the cheek and runs off with a promise to be here at eight.”
Goose chuckles darkly under his breath, “He’ll have a surprise waiting on him if he shows up here tonight.”
“Now why couldn’t you just say that?” Mav asks, still not moving.
I cross my arms against my chest, “Did you give me a chance to before you come in here with an attitude, acting like a crazy caveman? Me man. You woman. No share.”
Catching sight of Teagan and Lucas over Mav’s shoulder, I see them leaning on each other for support as they try to hold in their laughs.
Mav tries his damnedest, but eventually a smile breaks free as the guys fail at holding theirs in. He pulls me to him and whispers in my ear, “I’m sorry. You just make me crazy sometimes.”
I press my lips against his Adam’s apple, “Just returning the favor I guess.”
He chuckles, and I feel the sound all the way down to my toes.
“So, is this guy for real about showing up here today?” Goose asks.
I share a grim smile with him, “Yeah, I think so.”
“Guess he’ll get a little more than what he bargained for then, huh?” Teagan asks as he fist bumps Goose.
Oh damn. This is going to be ugly.
We make a spaghetti dinner while we wait. Of course, that means Goose and I make dinner. The other three would burn boiling water. Well, maybe not Lucas. He’s not that bad.
I mentally bite my nails waiting around for the clock to turn. I’m seriously kicking myself in the ass for not having his number so I could just tell him. Even though, that might have made the situation worse earlier.
When lights cut across the front windows five minutes before eight, I jump up and beat the guys to the door, “Let me handle this. There’s no reason for anyone to have to get arrested or go to the hospital tonight.”
Goose and Teagan look disappointed, but nod almost at the same time. Then, surprising me, Lucas says, “He’s got one chance to accept your answer. That’s it.”
I sigh and walk out on to the porch. The closer he is to his car, the better.
He’s just walking around the front of an older style Camaro as I walk down the steps, and the sight of it squeezes my chest like a vise. If things weren’t already looking bad for him, that right there would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’d never ride in that car.
Billy smiles as he sees me, “Hey Kendall.” He moves in for a hug right before his eyes find the four looming shadows I’m sure are behind me on the porch, and pulls up to a stop.
“Hi, Billy. I’m sorry you went out of your way today, but I can’t go out with you tonight, or any night actually,” I tell him.
His face looks defeated for a second, “I didn’t mean to come off so pushy earlier. I just didn’t know how to get you to agree to a date with me.”
I shake my head, “It’s nothing you did. I’m in a relationship right now and I tried to tell you earlier, but you kept running off before I could. It would be best if you left now.”
Stepping closer, he leans down so only I can hear it when he says, “If you feel threatened, I can help you know.”
The guys shift on the porch and one of them comes to stand behind me. Lucas’ cologne hits my nose, and I have half a second to be thankful it wasn’t one of the others. That is until he opens his mouth, “Are you deaf? She said leave, dude.”
His face turns into an ugly sneer, “Wow. Not straying too far from the trailer park with this one, are you?”
Confusion muddles my brain for a second before it clicks that he’s talking about Lucas. He must have his sleeves pushed back so you can see his tattoos and assumed. “Are you fucking serious?” I say, my temper going as red hot at Mav’s earlier.
“Look,” he says throwing up his hands in surrender, “I didn’t come here for any trouble. That’s what I get for trying to be nice to the outcast, right? It’s just amazing that you’d choose to stick with trash when you can have something better.”
Lucas steps up against my back as I say, “Just get in your fucking piece of shit car and leave Billy.”
Then as if he just remembered something turns back around with a laugh, “Oh shit, that’s what kind of car your other trailer trash boyfriends died in wasn’t it?”
Goose clears the side railing of the porch in one jump, and I get the pleasure of watching Billy’s eyes go wide in fear. However, this isn’t Goose’s fight. Billy looks back to me, and I punch him harder than I’ve ever hit anyone in my life. One of my fingers pops, but I don’t even feel the pain from it. His nose gushes blood, and all I can think is of hitting him again. Goose stops next to us, realizing that I’ve taken care of it. He’s normally as sweet as Lucas, but the murderous look he’s throwing Billy is scary, even to me.
“Goddamn it. You broke my fucking nose,” Billy wheezes out.
“You’re fucking lucky that’s all that’s broken, asshole,” Goose tells him.
He shakes his head and backs up towards his car without turning away, “This is so not worth the two hundred bucks.”
My mouth drops open and there’s no stopping Goose this time. He has him pinned against the side of his car before I can even move to stop him.
“What did you say?” he growls at him.
Billy looks pathetic with blood pouring down his chin and onto his shirt, as white as a ghost, facing Goose, “Derrik paid me months ago to woo, fuck and leave her.”
I catch Goose right before his fist connects with Billy’s face, “Stop. Babe, please stop.”
Billy’s eyes widen, “I thought you were with the other one.”
Neither of us bother to respond to him. I pull on the hand I have in mine until Goose lets him go completely.
I should have just let Goose punch him, because the next thing he says is, “Guess Derrik was right. You really will sleep with anybody.”
Mav and Teagan, the two that I’m more afraid of getting in the middle of this, come down the steps at his words.
But I’ve had enough. I turn and knee Billy right in the balls. He drops like a stone. Goose gives him a full ten seconds before he lifts him up by the front of the shirt and hauls his ass around to the driver’s side door, “Now get the fuck out of here.”
“I’ll have you guys locked up for this,” he threatens, digging his keys out of his pocket.
Teagan laughs, “You can try, asshole. My dad is Steve Morgan. He’ll bury your ass in paperwork for five years before I ever see the inside of a jail cell.”
Apparently, the name rings a bell for Billy, because he jumps in the Camaro and spins out as he pulls away.
Lucas comes up on my right and grabs my hand. I let out a yelp and jerk my hand back.
“Did you hurt your hand, baby? Let me see,” he says softly.
Goose looks over his shoulder, “If it’s moving, then she just jammed it.”
“Come inside,” Lucas tells me, “let’s take a look at it.”
Passing by Mav and Teagan, the latter pulls me to him away from Lucas, “That was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” He tucks his hands underneath my arms as he slams his mouth down on mine. Once he’s had his fill, he picks me up and spins us in a circle.
“We need to get inside for real, though. Someone probably already called the cops,” Lucas says as Teagan puts me down.
“Forget where you are baby?” I ask him, using his pet name for me. “You’re in the trailer park. They don’t call the cops out here unless shit gets real bad.”