UNLoved: a bay falls high novel, page 7
It was Kip.
He climbed into the SUV and I saw blood.
I gasped.
“Kip…”
He showed me his hands. “Not mine, girl.”
“Clean yourself up, man,” Barr said. “You’re scaring Tinsley.”
“I’m not scared,” I said.
“It’s okay, girl. You were worried about me. That’s sweet of you.”
“Who did you fight?” I asked.
Kip turned and reached into the back of the SUV.
I could smell the sweat on his skin. Like the ocean water. Like the moisture in the air from the ocean breeze.
My toes curled in my shoes.
They were all so much to handle. Especially at once.
“It wasn’t a fight,” Kip said. He sat back down and rubbed a black towel over his hands. “Just had to keep things safe for you.”
“For me? Is someone after me?”
“Nobody is after you, sugar,” Pres said.
“Well, that’s a lie,” Barr said. He took a drag of his cigarette. “I’m after you, love.”
I looked at Kip. “You going to punch Barr to save me?”
“I’ll take him out to get to you, girl,” Kip said.
All three of them started to laugh.
I wasn’t laughing at all though.
It was all scary. And serious.
Kip clapped his hands together, scaring me. “How about that football game, huh?”
They kept laughing.
I looked out the window and saw nothing.
It was just darkness.
Darkness everywhere.
* * *
“I have to make a quick call,” Pres said. He gently touched my chin again. “You get some rest, sugar. Sleep tight.”
He kissed my cheek.
I walked around the SUV and Kip threw his door open and hung out toward me.
“Hey, girl.”
“Hey, Kip,” I said.
“Want to kiss my boo boos?” he asked and made a fist, showing me his knuckles.
“No,” I said. “Those boo boos are your fault.”
“Damn. Then what do you want to kiss?”
“How about your apology to Iris for what you did to her?”
“You’re still worried about that?” Kip asked. “Damn, girl, you hold a grudge like you’ve lived here all your life.” He turned his head and pointed to his cheek. “Plant one right here and I’ll think it over later. When I’m in bed. Wishing you were there with me.”
I leaned in and kissed Kip’s cheek.
He shut the door and Barr opened his door.
It was like a fucking routine for them. Or something they all practiced when I wasn’t around.
Barr got out of the SUV and flicked a cigarette to the ground.
“I’ll walk you to your door, love,” he said.
“Really? It’s a gated driveway. Nobody is going to be here that I don’t want here.”
“Then it shouldn’t be a problem,” he said.
Barr started walking, leaving me no choice. As always.
I caught up to him and he put his arm around me.
He smelled like smoke.
And I was still really pissed at myself for liking it as much as I did.
When we got to the door, he pulled me close for a hug.
It was a little bit surprising to me.
So I hugged him back.
I rested my head to his chest.
“Something I want to show you, love,” he said.
“What? Or better yet… is this where you slip in something sexual?”
“No,” he said. He looked down at me and grinned. “Although…”
“Barr…”
“You have to come somewhere with me.”
“Right now?”
“Not tonight, love. I’ll let you know when.”
“You want me to go somewhere with you? Alone?”
“Just us,” he said.
“What about Pres and Kip? Won’t they get jealous.”
“Good point,” he said. “Maybe we can make it our filthy little secret together.”
“You’re not really that good of a friend then.”
“The word friend is used loosely in this town.”
“That much I can agree with,” I said.
Barr stroked my cheek with the back of his hand. “What do you think, love?”
“I think I’m tired. And annoyed. I’m going to go inside and be done with this.”
“You can text me,” Barr said. “You’re not going to want to say no.”
“Right,” I said.
I reached for the door and Barr swiped my hand. He brought it to his mouth and kissed the back of my hand. Then he rubbed my fingertips in his hand.
“You ever play piano?”
“Me?” I asked. “No. Those kinds of things…”
“Maybe someday I can teach you,” he said.
“Okay. Sure thing, Barr.”
“Goodnight, love.”
“Goodnight,” I said.
I opened the door and tripped over my own two feet as I went inside.
That made Barr laugh.
I looked back to say something nasty to him but he was walking away. Lighting up another cigarette.
I stood there and watched them.
Kip put his window down. Barr smoked. Pres stood a few feet away from the SUV on his phone.
I bit my bottom lip and slowly shut the door.
I was more than lost.
My entire plan screwed up.
But the plan was still there.
They may have been the hottest guys in BFH. They may have been the most feared. They may have been horrible for what they wanted from me.
But I was the one with the truth.
The truth that would leave them looking stupid and weak.
seven
I walked to the piano room but didn’t enter.
I stared for a few seconds and shook my head. The game was officially a push and pull kind of thing. In some way I felt like Claire. Trying to close a big real estate deal. Except this wasn’t over a house or land. This was over… me.
Me?
Was it really over me?
“Tinsley, I’m so glad you’re home.”
I hadn’t realized Claire was standing at the other entrance to the piano room.
Yeah.
This room that never got used for a piano that never got played had two entrances.
“Just walked in,” I said. “Everything okay?”
“Not so sure. Come talk with me.”
I didn’t like that at all.
Actually, I didn’t like anything.
I had gone to the football game with Gi and Iris and came home with the Rulz.
I hurried to grab my phone and text Gi.
u ok? I’m home
The three dots appeared right away as I slowly walked toward the kitchen.
Gi’s reply buzzed through my phone.
fine. Heard the fight didn’t last long. Worried about cops. The bet still on? ;)
I rolled my eyes.
That was probably Iris chirping in her ear to type that to me.
I replied with X$X$X$ lol - still a good girl
“Tinsley?” Claire’s voice echoed.
“Right here,” I said in the best fake happy voice I could find.
Gi replied back with another wink emoji and that was the end of our conversation.
As long as I knew she was home safe, I was okay.
My phone buzzed again.
My eyes did a quick look.
It was Barr.
The answer is always yes, love.
I swallowed hard.
He wanted me to go somewhere with him.
For what?
So he could get me alone and try all his slick and stupid moves on me? Say all the sweet things that worked on other girls. But they wouldn’t work on me. I knew the intentions and knew the ending. Or at least I could control the ending.
Or just stop the entire thing all together.
Tell the Rulz they were fucking idiots for what they were doing. That I wasn’t the pure good girl they thought I was. Make a fool of them and then give the peace sign to BFH before they could do anything back to me.
“Tinsley, I know your generation has their phone glued to their hand,” Claire said, “but I need you to look at me.”
I slid my phone away. “Look. Nothing glued. Sorry. Just checking up on friends. Making sure everyone got home safe.”
“Safe?” Claire asked.
“There was a fight.”
“A fight?”
“Boys. Right?”
“Right,” Claire said.
“I’m still trying to figure things out around here. The whole Bay Falls High versus Hidden Creek High thing…”
“Oh, that,” Claire said. “You need to stay away from that. You understand? That’s not just a typical fight. That’s something much bigger than that.”
“I’ve heard.”
“You’ve heard, but you don’t know,” Claire said.
“Why don’t you tell me a little then?”
Claire laughed. She looked at a wine glass next to her. She downed the entire glass and smacked her lips together. “Four of these and I’m spilling the beans to you, Tinsley.”
“What happens after five?” I asked.
“That attitude of yours… it’s never changed.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“The Jackson family owns a lot of undeveloped land in Hidden.”
“Jackson,” I said. “As in Weslee Jackson?”
“His family, yes. And for years there’s been offers, fights, just… craziness over the land. His grandfather refuses to sell. His father would sell his soul for a dollar but he doesn’t have access to the land. I don’t even think when the old man dies his kids get the land. The one son is worse than the one who would sell his soul.”
“Sounds nice and messy,” I said.
“You bet,” Claire said. “There have been groups who tried to buy, sue, force the land… nothing works. That’s where a lot of it comes from. So you have these adults with their kids growing up, hating each other…”
“Ah, right,” I said. “Parents teaching their kids how to hate and who to hate.”
“Maybe this rich life isn’t so rich after all,” Claire said with a grin.
I leaned toward her. “Try not having power in the middle of a heatwave and not eating for two days all the while your mother is strung out, high, pacing, convinced the government is after her which is why she won’t leave the apartment to get some food.”
Claire turned her head away and looked ready to cry. “Jesus Christ, Tinsley.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “That was only a one-time thing.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Claire said. “It’s my fault.”
“No it’s not. You did your job.”
“There’s a reason I wanted to talk to you tonight.”
“And here I am sitting waiting to talk to you.”
Claire grinned. “She’s not doing good.”
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
“What?” I asked, standing up.
Claire put her hand out. “It’s okay, Tinsley. I wanted to be honest with you. She’s been having a hard time there. She’s been asking to talk to you. I said no. Because I know what she says to you. Last thing I want is her to get in your head and get you confused or feeling guilty over anything.”
“Yeah, that’s sort of her specialty.”
“No more then,” Claire said. “If you do want to talk to her, I can arrange that. I’m not trying to hide her from you. Or you from her. Please don’t even think that.”
“I’m not thinking that at all.”
“Okay. Good. You’re here, Tinsley. Maybe this isn’t perfect, but you’re here. You just got done saying you were checking up on friends. That makes me happy. There’s been a few bumps in the road, but I think this is working.”
I swallowed hard. “You know, Claire, I can figure things out on my own. I mean, if I’m in the way. I mean, when I got coffee and was going to go down to the beach…”
Claire shook her head. “Why don’t we just forget about that?”
“Fine by me.”
“I’m not going to talk about that either.”
“I didn’t ask.”
“Good,” Claire said. “I respect you for that.”
“It’s not just that, Claire. I mean you have people over for dinner and drinks. Working on deals. I saw that guy in the car again. He looks at me weird and then speeds off. I don’t want to ask questions…”
“Tinsley, stop,” Claire said. “If you want to leave, you can leave. Your mother is never going to get better if she doesn’t know you’re safe. You want me to lie to her? I will. You want me to give you some money to get started on your own? I’ll do that too. But she’s not doing good. I don’t know what else I can do for her. So right now at the very least I’m hoping I can just take care of you. My offering to her. And to you.”
Claire stood up and walked her wine glass to the sink.
I glanced at my phone.
Everything rushed through my head.
I didn’t want to go back to that shithole apartment and shithole town. Not that the apartment would still be waiting. And it wasn’t like I had friends waiting for me either.
“Claire, is she going to make it?” I asked. “I mean, for real.”
“I don’t know,” Claire said. “I wanted to be honest with you though. I know you haven’t talked to her in a while. And just in case she manages to get in touch with you…”
“She’s still there, right?”
“Of course,” Claire said. “I told her she has no choice. If she doesn’t stay there and get clean then I’ll go after her.”
“After her?”
Claire looked at me. “Forgive me for saying this, Tinsley. I’m not proud of this. But I will put her in jail. She will have no choice but to cut this shit for good.”
“Why does it matter so much to you? I mean… no offense… but why now?”
“That’s a fair question,” Claire said. “And in the spirit of telling the truth, I can’t answer that. I don’t know. Maybe I figured she would take care of herself. Or maybe I thought she would… kill herself. But that didn’t happen. And you being you, Tinsley, I owe it to you.”
I let out a long breath.
Wow. What a heavy conversation.
“Claire…”
This time when she looked at me she looked almost ready to cry.
“I’ll spoil something for you,” she whispered. “What happens after the fifth glass of wine? I actually sleep.”
She left the kitchen with her empty wine glass.
I sat there just feeling empty.
* * *
I sat on the beach, alone.
It was dark.
Windy.
Not quiet at all.
But the noise was a sense of quiet.
The waves slamming to the shore with force, the water almost flirting with me as it crept up near my toes. Getting closer by the minute as the tide did its thing. Funny how that was something I was supposed to have learned at some point in school but didn’t remember.
Of all things, my mind thought of Devin.
That stupid prick.
He was the scummy poor kid who could throw a punch and wasn’t afraid of anything. We clicked when we clicked and we fought when we didn’t click. It was nothing but cliché for the two of us.
But yet somehow, someway his crap rumor about me being untouched spread all the way to BFH. That amazed me. From poor to rich. And I was somehow sitting in the center of it all.
The real reason why Devin told everyone I was a good girl prude was because he was making moves on plenty of other girls. Even when he and I were together. His eyes never stopped looking. Not for a second. And he would say or do anything to get what he wanted.
Who does that sound like?
I laughed to nobody and looked down at my phone.
Barr being Barr, he hadn’t given up on me.
My phone buzzed with a new text message, him waiting for me to reply with one word.
Yes.
That’s all he wanted.
In a way it was kind of cute to watch him beg through text messages.
It gave me a sense of power over Barr.
And the rest of them.
Which meant I had to go forward with my plan. String them along. Find a way to break them. And maybe this was the way to do it… one by one. Alone. See how far they’d go for something from me.
My phone buzzed again.
I laughed.
“You don’t know when to shut up, do you, Barr?” I asked.
“Not when it comes to you, love.”
I screamed and dropped my phone.
Then I whipped my head around and saw Barr standing a few feet behind me.
I saw the flicker of fire from his lighter and watch him light a cigarette.
I climbed to my feet, grabbing my phone from the sand.
“What are you doing?” I asked him.
“Waiting for an answer,” he said.
“I’ll text you when I have my answer,” I said.
“Then I’ll just wait here all fucking night for you, love,” he said.
I shook my head. “How do you all go from complete fucking assholes to this?”
“I can still be a complete fucking asshole,” Barr said.
“How? Are you going throw sand at my face?”
Barr crouched, the cigarette balanced between his lips. He took a handful of sand and stood up.
I put my hand out. “That was a joke.”
He half grinned.
That made him look somehow hotter. The half smirk. The cigarette. The honey gold eyes. The way he looked at me.
He took a drag of the cigarette and took it out of his mouth with his other hand.
“This isn’t a joke to me, Tinsley,” he said in a deep voice.
“Then just throw the sand and see what happens,” I said.
“Nah, love. That’s not my style.” Barr slowly opened his hand, letting the sand gently fall and blow away in the beach breeze. “I prefer things slow and controlled. Watching it all blow away. Time. Life. Whatever it is…”
Barr lifted his eyebrow and opened his hand to show me there was no more sand.
