Hot Laps (16 page)

I made some lame excuse about how I needed her immediately and then found a booth
to sit at. All the dog chasing wore me out.

Anna handed me a drink and pressed the side of her face to mine. “Drink up.”

“Where did this come from?”

Anna pulled her curly ginger locks back into a pony tail and gestured to the group
she people bowled with. “Them.”

“You physically abused them and they bought you a drink?”

“No. They turned their backs and I took it.”

Made sense. I would have done the same. Not that I would have taken something from
someone else, it’s just that there was no way for us getting drinks on our own in
here.

Casten and Cole showed up after that with a pitcher of beer from Russ and the good
times began.

Cole was fucking hilarious, as was Casten. I could tell that they both enjoyed the
time to unwind after a long day. My kind of people really. Although, there were times
I wondered if it was just alcohol Cole was into. He seemed to have way more energy
than the normal person.

We, as in me and Casten, settled on playing pool after a while because Anna took Cole
outside to smoke she said.

A curvy brunette walked by at one point and smiled provocatively at Casten and then
said. “Hey, Casten.”

He just gave her a head nod and a smile but other than that, no real emotion.

“Have you and her humped before?”

He raised his eyebrows twisting his pool stick around with his talented hands. “Humped?”

“Humped, you know …” I made the humping motion with my pool stick between my legs
to which he groaned, his head falling forward.

“You’re killing me.” He let out a whoosh before leaning toward me, his chest pressing
against me. “And, for the record, I
wish
I was that pool stick right now. That text message you sent had me hard for an hour.”
His voice was low and whispery like it was when he talked about engines with me.

“Answer the question.” I handed him my pool stick and hopped up on the table pulling
him to stand between my legs wanting to hump him right then. “And you
could
be that stick … if you wanted.”

A boyish grin flashed, his eyes focused solely on mine as other people in the bar
bumped into him as they passed by. “Yeah, I guess we did
hump
.”

“But you don’t anymore?”

“It was about a year ago, and no, we don’t anymore.”

We were out of beer by then so we got another pitcher. While we waited, I decided
to ask. “Have you ever had a committed relationship?” I have no clue why I asked that
by the way. It just sort of came out. Kind of like everything else I said.

“Not really.” He leaned against the bar on his forearms. “What about you?” he nudged
my ribs playfully.

“Define committed…” I looked over at him. “Because I once house sat a dog and that
was pretty fucking committal. Some might say
that
was a relationship. He required to be fed at least once a day which was way beyond
my attention span. I thought that week would never end!”

Casten let out a rough chuckle. “I mean men. Have you ever had an
actual
boyfriend where you were only seeing him … that type of relationship?”

I had to think for a moment and then it quickly dawned on me that I hadn’t. Ever.

“No,” I mumbled softly. “I can’t say that I’ve ever had a boyfriend.”

He didn’t say anything more, just nodded and took a drink of his beer. I think, once
again, he could sense my nervousness and changed the subject. “Well, you promised
to hump me so let’s dance.”

And that’s when the night reached the, as some would say point of no return again
on Mystery Monday.

We did hump, but only with clothes on and the night spiraled out of control quickly.
I was beginning to think maybe I needed a new crowd to hang out with because at the
rate I was going, this lifestyle was getting out of hand. If Casten and Cole had always
partied like this, I’m amazed they kept steady jobs and were still alive.

My memory was similar to the night at Casten’s house just a few days ago but I do
remember some of what went on.

We lost Cole. Casten got a lap dance from a transvestite wearing knee-high fur boots.
Anna tried to steal a cop’s horse on the street while she rode around on a stolen
moped.

Anna made the arresting officer pinky promise not to arrest her when she failed her
breathalyzer. As it turns out, drunk driving included moped driving in Cornelius.

Casten and I made out for so long I was sure I was about to scream but he still wouldn’t
take it further.

I tried to pay him. He wouldn’t take the money and he wouldn’t give in.

We found Cole and then lost him again but found his clothes on the sidewalk outside
the bar.

And, finally, I woke up in Casten’s bed, fully clothed as was he, only he was lying
in the bathtub surrounded by empty bags of Doritos while we both appeared to have
cheesy fingers from eating the chips.

He looked so adorable curled up next to the Cool Ranch Doritos bag, his lips pushed
out into an adorable zesty pout. I wanted to lick him. All of him, but mostly his
lips. I loved Cool Ranch Doritos.

I didn’t want to wake him but I was afraid I was going to with my puking so I ran
downstairs and threw up in the bathroom downstairs. After that, I decided to make
us some coffee and familiarize myself with his amazing kitchen.

I’d never seen a kitchen so beautiful. Black granite countertops, stainless steel
appliances, a fridge big enough to fit a body on either side of its double doors.
To the right of the fridge was a farm-style copper sink that I’m sure cost as much
as my car did.

Everywhere I looked I got the impression that they cooked a lot, or someone did in
here, and they had expensive taste.

The house I grew up in Charlotte was fairly reserved. We never had anything that was
luxurious and, for the most part, we were not by any means rich. The Riley family,
they had always had money. Very different upbringings we had.

My uncle Tate had money but my dad was never one to ask for it. He was a cop and made
a living doing so.

It was hard to focus on anything, my head hurt like it’d been through a blender and
then smashed into a cup with the lid on.

But this house, damn. It was way better than my shitty apartment with the questionable
stains on the carpet that resembled body lines from the last murder that took place.
Not to mention the fact that our bathroom was so small you had to turn sideways when
sitting just to pee.

The clock read 6:49 AM so I called Bailey and told her I’d either be late or not coming
in. I was kind of glad that Jameson was still in California. I didn’t exactly want
to tell that man that I’d fucked up and drank too much. I also felt bad that I had
only been there a week and already called in sick.

Apparently Casten had already told Bailey so she just simply said, “Take care Hayden
and see you tomorrow” while laughing the entire time.

I’d never had such a cool boss but I was a tad concerned that they were all encouraging
my liver assassination.

Casten rejoined me in the living a few minutes later, smirking with his hooded eyes.
His shirt was gone, leaving him in just a pair of board shorts that hung low on his
sculpted hips.

“Good morning,” he said with grogginess.

I would have raped him right then if it wasn’t for my phone vibrating and my head
pounding so badly.

He pushed it toward me but didn’t say anything. Charlie sent me a text that said:
Where the fuck are you and why is Casten gone too?

Quickly, I sent back:
Mind your own business.

Casten laughed. “Dip stick sent me a text that says keep your dick out of my friend.”
His eyebrow arched. “What’s with him? He your warden or something?”

Reaching for his phone, I typed out a text to “dip stick” that read:
She’s tight.

Casten looked at what I typed and then sighed shaking his head. “That’ll go over well.”

“What’s with you two? He acts like you two are dating or something.”

I gave him the breakdown of how we met and all that. “So no, nothing’s with us. I
had sex with Noah and ever since Charlie’s been weird and controlling.”

“It’s because he wants you.”

“Well,” I smiled, feeling the need to let him know I had no feelings for Charlie.
“I don’t want
him
.”

He caught onto the hidden meaning.

Around 7:20 that morning, Anna called. “Come get me. And what a good friend you were!
Why aren’t you with me whore?”

“Well, let me see, I wasn’t with you when you got pulled over for one …” I took a
big drink of my second coffee Casten set in front of me. “And, might I add, you were
the one who stole the motorcycle.”

She huffed. “What else did I do?” I could hear someone screaming at her in the background
about wanting to use the phone. The line was muffled for a second before Anna screamed
back with, “Fuck you!” There was more yelling by both parties before she screamed
again and said, “I will fuck your shit up, Dolly Parton…
back off
!”

Casten, who sat next to me at the breakfast bar, slumped forward with his head resting
on his folded arms shaking his head back and forth. In a calming gesture, I rubbed
his back.

It seemed appropriate.

“Now,” Anna came back on the line. “What happened?”

“You made the cop pinky swear not to arrest you if you failed the breathalyzer.”

“What a fucking brat, he lied,” she sighed dejectedly. “Come get me before I end up
in this shit hole for life for committing my first homicide.”

When we got there, Anna was not thrilled with this trip to the slammer. As much time
as we spent here growing up, we could have had assigned seats but it had been a year
since we’d been detained.

After I sprung her, she gave a little piece of her mind to the staff there.

Anna pointed right in Officer Brenner’s face. “You tell
Captain
, this place is a goddamn shit-hole and needs to be remodeled.”

“Yeah,” Brenner rolled his eyes. “I’ll get right on that,
Anna
. Maybe next week when you visit again the accommodations will be more up to your
standards.”

“Fucking right it better.”

Anna doesn’t remember this, but she used to make fun of Brenner all throughout grade
school and most of middle school until he grew into his head. I doubted he had much
respect for her and her demands about the detaining facility.

I managed to get the little ball of fire out of there without a scene again and into
the parking lot where Casten and now Cole were waiting. Anna ran full speed toward
Cole, knocked him against the hood of his car, and then proceeded to molest him.

Casten chuckled as I walked up to him. “You’d think she was just released from a five
year prison sentence and denied conjugal visits.”

I laughed, but then it hurt my head so I stopped. We all looked like shit, and not
just ordinary shit, we looked as though we’d been gang raped and then left to die
in a disease infested alley.

Nudging his shoulder with mine, I asked, just to be funny. “Are we hung over?”

He leaned into me; his gang raped tangled hair falling into his beautifully bloodshot
eyes before he calmly brushed it aside. A few Doritos fell away. “I got a lap dance
from a gay guy last night and smell like a distillery in Tijuana. Anna was arrested
after trying to bribe a police officer and my cousin just now showed up with
only
a cowboy hat on. Hung over doesn’t cover it.”

I was beginning to think that me, and fireball, were a bad influence on these Riley
boys. And then I thought, who really gives a shit?

What I gave a shit about was
why
this dirty talking engine builder was keeping his dick in his pants?

I was going to need to up my race if I wanted to win this one.

After springing Anna from the joint, and getting Cole to wear some clothes, we all
went to breakfast to absorb some of the alcohol we’d consumed.

There we found ourselves eating greasy food at the same diner I pissed myself at and
the same diner Anna threw up in two weeks ago. Apparently it was also the same diner
that Cole had shown up in four years ago wearing only a table cloth.

We at least had something in common.

“This place smells,” Anna said, putting her array of piercings back in.

With all the piercings she had, much like Olivia, I’m utterly amazed she didn’t leak
when she drank liquids.

“It might have something to do with you,” I suggested taking a large bite of my pancakes,
as some syrup trickled down my chin.

Casten chuckled next to me at my lack of fine dining skills.

We were sitting fairly close, close enough I could actually smell the alcohol on his
skin.

Casten groaned, his face falling into his hands while his elbows rested on the table.
“Fuck, my head hurts.”