Scarred Hearts (Blackrock) (14 page)
She is telling him about my sixteenth birthday, "Oh you should have seen her, she was pretty in her purple dress, well until you looked at her head and saw the purple hair, her mother was beside herself and that young man, what's his name" "Brad" I fill in for her. "Oh yeah Brad, humpf he was a fool, he couldn't bring you out to dinner because you were purple" she laughs and shakes her head.
"I know, but I got Summer back the first day of school, I put pink dye in her shampoo". I say sweetly. "See, what did I tell you" she says to Knox "Watch out for this one, one day you'll wake up with one eyebrow and tattoo on your face" Knox smiles "I don't mind it would add to the collection" he tells my grandmother. We both look over at him then back to each other nan raises her eyebrows. We stand up and hug goodbye "I love you Bailey" she tells me; I kiss her on the cheek and tell her I love her too and I will come back next week. She turns to Knox "You take care of my gran-baby, don't go breaking her heart" she warns him, He looks at me and back to nan "Wouldn't dream of it ma'am" she gives him a hug and a pat on the back. I hug her again for a few minutes and then I leave.
By the time we reach the car I am crying again, Knox pulls me into a hug "Come on it's ok" I nod and hand him my car keys, I can't think straight. He opens the passenger door for me and waits for me to buckle my seat belt; He gets in and begins to adjust the mirrors and the seat. "Don't crash my baby or I'll hurt you?" I say joking. He pats my knee "never" and starts the car.
My skin is on fire from his hand and I feel his heat spreading up my leg all the way in between my legs, I cross my legs hoping to relieve the ache.
Knox pulls into a diner a little while later, "You hungry?" I nod and release my seat belt. We walk inside; there are only two other people inside who are sitting at the counter. The waitress tells us to sit anywhere, Knox lets me go first, and I go to the back of the diner to the large booth and slide into the middle. He laughs "Big enough for you?" I smile back at him and lift up my menu "I don't know, I haven't seen it yet" he laughs "is that so?" he says smirking pretending to look at his menu. I take a deep breath "Yes that is so, Knox" "Maybe I can show it to you" he says now it's my turn to burst out laughing. He looks at me with a straight face "The booth, Bailey" he shakes his head "I think your grandmother was right, I will have to keep an eye on you".
The waitress comes over and takes our order, I don't know what I want so Knox orders for us both "Two chicken burgers, fries and strawberry milkshakes" he hands over the menus and she walks away, like us being here is the most annoying thing in the world. "I like your grandmother" he says with a smile "I can see where you get your spark from". I smile at him "Hey, thanks for coming with me today". "No problem I'm happy I did" he sits quietly for a few minutes pushing around the salt and pepper shakers, I look at his hands, his knuckles are still a bit red "How's the hand?"
He stops pushing the salt and looks down at his hand flexing it "Not to bad feels better now" "What about yours?" "Its good I only hit her once". He shakes his head "So who's Brad, he your boyfriend?" he looks sick at the thought of it, I decide to be nice "Was, not anymore" I see his shoulders relax. "How come? Is his not big enough," he asks smiling at me. I laugh out loud and throw a straw at him "You dirt bag" I say, he is still smiling when the moody waitress places our food down. I look over at him, he has a nice smile, usually he just scowls at people even when he is serving in the bar, which reminds me "Hey about last night" I say and he looks over at me "Did I do something to piss you off?" he looks confused "When you slammed my drink down" I ask, I see him look uncomfortable and his cheeks turn a little red.
"No you didn't piss me off" he picks up his burger and takes a bite, I can tell he is trying to avoid this conversation but I want to know why he acted like that "Well are you gonna tell me why then?" He shakes his head no.
"Don't be a dick" I say and throw a French fry at him, he looks up "Bailey" he says. "Knox" I say in return. He rolls his eyes at me "Sean pissed me off" he says, "Ok who's Sean and why did I get my drink thrown at me" He looks at me and puts his burger down "Sean, was they guy who had his hands all over you on the dance floor" he answers simply. My eyes pop open, I stare at Knox for a few minutes "If it makes you feel any better I was trying to get away from him but Paige doesn't know girl code and ignored all my eye gestures". He shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care, "Asshole" I say under my breath and bite my burger. He starts laughing, "Did you just call me an asshole?" I ignore him and he continues laughing.
"Ok so if we are playing this game, tell me about Brad" he looks at me, still chuckling. "He was not what I thought he was" I say simply, he waves his hand at me in a continue motion. "Fine" I say, "but if I cry again I will kick your ass". "Hey I don't want to see you cry over another dude. If you still love him...." He trails off as he wipes his hands.
Do I really want to tell him the whole story I ask myself, I know it's going to hurt to relive it but I haven't told anyone. Maybe it will help with the emptiness I feel inside, then again maybe I will never feel whole again, do I even deserve too? I ask myself. "It's a long story" "I don't mind I have all night, I don't work tonight remember". I take a deep breath to steady my nerves; I wish I had a bottle of Jack instead of this milkshake. I rub my hands over my face and hair and blow out a breath.
"Well the girl my nan told you about, Summer Her and I have been best friends since we were three years old. We did everything together our whole lives; we even had keys to each other's houses. I could go into her house anytime day or night and her parents didn't even bat and eyelid, we were like sisters. Her mom would make me dinner and even do my laundry if I was staying over there. We never went anywhere without the other, my nan started calling us double trouble after we broke the neighbors window.
We were trying out for the softball team in school, so we decided to buy a bat and some balls, we were in her front yard I was pitching and she was on bat," I laugh remembering that day. "So I pitched a few easy balls and we started getting bored, we thought it would be fun to pretend we were playing in the guys baseball league, so I threw, what any twelve year old girl would consider a fast ball, at her. She swung the bat so hard it flew out of her hands and right through her neighbor's side window of his one-day-old BMW. We knew she would be in all kinds of trouble so I jumped over the wall and punched the back window, the only thing I broke was my hand" Knox is laughing, "Damn Bailey, you are a menace to society"
"I only did it so we could be punished together, I didn't want to be without her for even a day. She got yard duty for a week for the window and I got yard duty for my hand. We made a deal with our parents to do yard duty together at each house, I had to do the front of my house and the back at hers and she did the opposite.
So anyway you get the picture, we were always together doing crazy stuff, when we got to high school, we got somewhat worse, especially when we hit puberty. We went a little crazy in the wanting to look grown up clothing department, every week one of us would be fighting with our parents about our dress choice. It took us a few years but we grew up and made better choices regarding our clothes and makeup. Then along came Brad". I see Knox fist his hand on the table but he says nothing. "He flirted with me for about six months before asking me out I was the typical girl, oh my god, the school football star wanted to be with me, kind of shit.
When he asked my out I told him to wait, he was standing in the hallway at school by my locker. I pulled out my phone and text Summer to fill her in, She text back to go for it. So I did, for four years. Summer dated two guys through the four years until last year when Ben Miler and his sister Emily came to live in Grove".
The waitress comes over to clear our plates Knox orders us coffee and a slice of apple pie to share. I continue with my story, "Ben and Emily moved to Grove July of last year, they lived two streets behind my house. One day we were at Cafe Rouge when they walked in, Summer was in love the minute she saw him. She made a whole plan about how to bump into him accidentally on purpose, she texted me that night to come over it was urgent, oh did I mention it was 2am. I didn't have a car then so I put on my running clothes and sprinted over to her house, it was a block away. I got there and let myself in turning off the alarm so her parents wouldn't wake up; I went up to her room to find her looking like Einstein.
She had charts all over her wall and her hair was a mess, I looked around her room and was like, Summer what the fuck is going on. She didn't even hear me come in; she jumped up and grabbed me pulling me over to her master plan. "Operation bump & grind" she called it". Knox starts laughing again, "She sounds like fun" I smile "yeah boat loads". I fix my coffee and he hands me a fork pushing the pie toward me "Ladies first" I smile and take a piece. "Anyway, so bump & grind was in full swing by the next day, we spent two whole weeks spying on him, following him around town seeing where he went and what times. I was dying by the end of it because he had no pattern to his life; we decided to enlist Brad's help. We told him to make friends with Ben and then introduce us. It was so much easier that way; by Halloween of last year Ben finally asked Summer on a date, she was freaking out for two whole days about what to wear. She didn't need to of course she looked like a supermodel; even a trash bag would look good on her.
So Ben takes her out, to the movies, dinner the usual boring stuff. When she came home that night she told me it was love, man that girl was dramatic. I was in bed when she came home to my house; we had toothbrushes in each other's houses too. We both fit into the same clothes so it didn't matter if we were in our own house or not, even down to make up, it was the same across the board.
She got into bed beside me and went on and on all night long about Ben, I got no sleep. I was falling asleep in class the next day" I smile remembering Mr. Woods my math teacher catching me sleeping on my desk. "Do you want more coffee?" Knox asks me, "no thanks". Wow I think to myself this guy is really listening to my high school drama. He excuses himself to the restroom, I look at my watch, crap its eight pm already. When he arrives back to the table I ask him if he wants to leave, "Not if you don't want to, but if you do then we can take off". "I'm good, I was just wondering if you are bored listening to my drama" "No way this awesome stuff, keep going. I want to hear all about you and Summer in bed together" he says sliding back into the seat a bit closer to me this time, I can feel his body heat pushing against me. I slap him on the arm "It wasn't like that you dirt bag" I shake my head at him and laugh.
"Where was I, Oh yeah douchebag, I mean Ben, so anyway over the next seven months we all went out together, Brad and I, Summer and Ben, sometimes his sister would come out but she was a piece of work. She was one of these chicks who looked down her nose at everyone y'know she hated Summer and me. She was always telling Ben to break up with Summer and to find a girl who was up to their standards. I don't mean to brag but both our parents have money but we never flaunted it. Emily was bitter for some reason; she just wouldn't leave Summer alone. Anytime she was at their house, when Ben left the room or while Summer was waiting for him to get home, Emily would rag on her so much. I remember just after Valentine's day Summer's dad had to leave town for a while, one of their stores was robbed. So while he was over there he bought Summer a Prada purse, he always got her and her mom something nice for valentines day. She was in love with it and when Emily saw it she gave her shit about it saying it was a knock off, she even posted about it on her blog calling Summer out, saying she was lying. Other people would comment on it and make jokes about Summer's dad being an heir to a cosmetics company but couldn't afford the real deal. Y'know that type of crap.
Every week Emily would put something nasty about Summer on it she even took video of us at the spring formal and criticized our dancing and our dresses. I was so pissed at Emily for hurting my best friend Summer cried for two days over that. I was getting to the point where I would check Emily's blog to see what shit she was posting about Summer and I.
So in May, Ben comes up to me one day, we didn't really like each other and Brad was hanging with him so much that he was like his clone and I was rarely with him. So Ben tells me that for Summers nineteenth birthday he was renting a hotel room for them and he wanted to make it special. I told him she loves white roses and white chocolate, which she stole from me. I told him not to hurt her and not to make her do anything she didn't want to or I would kick his ass.
He told me to fuck off and mind my own business that he only wanted to make his girl feel good for her birthday, but the tool that he is he booked the hotel a week too early. He said he was going to ask me to decorate it for him but now I could go fuck myself because I ruined it for him. He ended up asking Emily and Brad to get it sorted while he took Summer to dinner that night.
I remember texting Brad to see what was up but he kept ignoring my texts. At about 9pm Summer texted me and told me the room was beautiful and she got chocolate covered strawberries too, I could picture her sitting on the bed in her white fluffy robe. She told me Ben said he would make her first time special and not to worry about anything. At 10pm Brad came to my house, I could smell beer off him but he wasn't drunk. We were just sitting in the lounge on the sofa my mom was at one of her stupid meetings. Brad and I started making out"
Knox coughed at this point and poured more coffee, I rolled my eyes at him smiling "You wanted to hear this remember" I said to him "Yes I do but not really digging the whole Bailey and Brad make out session" he says. "You're an ass," I tell him jokingly. "Sorry to interrupt, continue with the soft porn".
"Ok so we were making out and he kept grabbing my boobs really hard, he was pissing me off. I told him to go home and he got nasty calling me names and saying other stuff, I told him to piss off that we were done and not to come back near me, some more nasty comments were said back and forth and he finally left.
