2005 Grace #8
It wasn’t luck that helped me avoid them—it was survival instinct.
Whenever they arrived, I turned invisible.
They often banged on my door—but fortunately, they never broke into my room.
They wanted to lure me out to join their party, but Nikky and the other girls proved to be enough of a distraction for them to give up after a while.
That morning, I was certain that all of them had already gone. I had been holding my pee for hours—and while this was definitely not the first time, I desperately wanted relief.
I held Whiskers to my chest, opened the door, and sneaked a glance at the living room. It was a disaster.
An icy chill ran down my spine, but I steeled myself and stepped out of my room.
I hurried to the bathroom and opened the door without thinking.
When I saw Bo standing there with his back to me, shirtless, his pants halfway down, I froze.
I closed the door as fast as I could and ran back towards my room.
However, that piece of shit was faster than me and blocked the door.
“What’s the hurry, Grace?”
Whiskers growled and hissed, his hair standing up, and sunk his claws in my shoulders. He could probably feel Bo’s repulsive, dark aura and the negativity he radiated.
“You always disappear so fast when we arrive,” he said, grinning at his own humor. I took my gaze off him. Bo clapped his hands, making me jump. “So, it is true.”
I looked at him.
“The word on the street is that you think you’re very special.” He traced the outline of my body in the air. A wave of nausea hit me. He reached toward me to tuck my hair back behind my ear, but I pulled my head away. He laughed in dark mirth.
“I just want to go back to my room,” I whispered. “Where is Nikky?” I stumbled over my words.
“Out getting some food.”
“She must be back soon.”
“And what if Nikky isn’t the one I’m interested in?”
My heart raced.
“Your sister said you enjoyed what that Chase kid did to you. Is it true, Grace?”
I didn’t reply.
“And she also told me you’re pals with a cop.”
I didn’t reply to that, either.
“Are you snitching on us to that asshole?”
I shook my head, my chest full of rage. Cyrus is not an asshole!
“You’d better not, because if you do, your sister could get in trouble.”
My body tensed.
“For example, I could cut her pretty little throat.”
Bo towered over me, making me back away until my back pressed against the wall. Whiskers jumped out of my hands and ran back into my room.
“I’ve always hated stupid bitches like you,” he sneered into my face, spittle spraying onto my skin, then grabbed my chin.
Fear made my legs go numb. “You think your cunt’s worth more than the other cunts.
” He licked his upper lip. “Let me tell you something, Grace. While I do hate girls like you, I still like to fuck them in the ass. Just to give them a taste of Bo and make them know their place.”
He pressed his hard dick against me and kissed me.
In my mind’s eye, Chase appeared, his possessive eyes glowing with feral darkness. I imagined him stepping behind Bo, tearing him off me and killing him as mercilessly as he had Mr. Miller.
However, this was only a fever dream. He wasn’t there. He couldn’t help me. He only existed in my mind. Only I could hear his voice in my head. Fight back, Grace! Don’t let him take what isn’t his!
While the thought of expecting help from him scared me to death, it gave me power, too. I filled with courage and flailed like a lunatic, hitting Bo’s bare, hairy chest.
The commotion woke Jamie. He stepped out of his room bleary-eyed, his hands adjusting his morning erection.
“Bo, what are you doing?” he asked in a thin, scratchy voice. “Nikky wouldn’t be happy about this.”
Bo let me go and stepped back. I instantly wiped his spittle from my face and gasped for air, tears streaming down my burning skin.
Jamie looked me up and down, then at Bo, who was also clutching his erection. My brother ran his fingers through his hair and cleared his throat. He knew exactly what Bo wanted to do—still, he didn’t do what a brother should have done in this situation.
He backed down. He was afraid of Bo, too. Because even though the gang had taken him in, Bo was the alpha. Even the fact that the asshole sometimes fucked his sister didn’t help.
Bo stood in front of Jamie and straightened up. My brother shrank back from the disgusting filth that emanated from Bo. The asshole patted Jamie’s face and went back to Nikky’s room.
My brother was shaking. His fingers raked through his dirty blond hair, then he looked at me with an accusing look I didn’t deserve.
“Nikky was right. You only bring trouble on our heads, Grace.”
“You can’t be serious, Jamie.”
“Why? Nikky had a crush on Chase. Then you… kissed him. And now Bo… Nikky’s gonna be fucking pissed if she hears about this.”
“He forced himself on me.”
“Whatever happens, don’t draw me into this. You should stay away from Bo—Nikky’s gonna tear you apart if she finds out what’s going on behind her back. She’s not the girl you knew. She’s crazy now.”
My hand clenched into a fist by my side. I wanted to punch Jamie, because I had never wanted Chase to kiss me that day. I fought him. I was dating Billy Ray and avoided the white van.
Sometimes we don’t really know what a certain word means. Or we simply don’t want to look beneath the surface. We don’t want to imagine or discover what’s behind it. When Jamie told me Nikky was crazy…
The loss of our parents affected all of us deeply. My sister had already been behaving strangely even when they were still alive, but everyone explained it by saying that the teenage years are full of ups and downs.
So when I thought about Nikky being “crazy,” I imagined her losing her mind completely, shouting, breaking a few things, and yelling in my face how much she hated me.
Even though I hadn’t done anything to deserve it, this would have been… something I could have gotten over. However, this was not what happened. Nikky really went batshit crazy, making me reconsider what this short word could mean when it came to her.
“Grace. Your brother’s calling,” Abigail shouted to me.
I cut a thorn off a rose, then wiped my hand, sticky with sap, on my apron.
Fortunately, our phone had such a long cord it could stretch over half the shop.
I pressed the handset between my shoulder and my ear.
I didn’t have my own phone. My expenses ate up my salary—and I had to buy a sturdy bike because our farmhouse was far from town.
Also, fixing my teeth had been horribly expensive.
“Jamie,” I said into the phone.
“You must come home, Grace. You must come home,” he repeated nervously.
“Calm down, Jamie. What happened? I can hear you’re trembling through the phone, and I know this isn’t a withdrawal symptom…” I lowered my voice. Jamie was trying to get clean.
“Grace, come home, please.” He broke into sobs. My heart beat in my throat, and a chill ran down my spine.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I can’t, not on the phone…” he whispered.
“Okay,” I sighed. “I’ll go home.”
I rode my bike like a maniac. Sweat ran everywhere down my body, my thighs cramped, and the hot, dry air burned against my nostrils and throat. My long light brown hair stuck to my body, wet.
When I reached the courtyard of our house, I took a few deep breaths and tossed my bike onto the ground. I ignored my sore muscles and ran across the old wooden porch, the old, dry boards creaking as if they were burning.
“Jamie!” I burst into our house, panting. “Jamie!” I shouted, clutching my side with my hands.
My brother emerged from his room in a pair of jeans that had slipped down below his hips. He had dark circles under his eyes, and I could see he’d been crying. Jamie was visibly terrified, but I had no idea of whom.
“Can you finally tell me what’s going on?” I said. Besides me killing myself to get here this fast.
“Nikky,” he started.
“What has she done?”
“Nikky took… Nikky took it, and the guy might be here any minute.”
“What has she taken?” I furrowed my brow in confusion.
“A bag full of different drugs. It had everything… I should’ve given it to the courier today.” He raked his fingers through his greasy, medium-length hair and bit into his lower lip with such force it started bleeding immediately.
I grabbed the arm of the shabby sofa, sinking my nails into the foam. My heart raced, and my brain flooded with anger.
“Call her to get it back,” I suggested through clenched teeth.
“You think I haven’t tried?” he snapped. “I’ve called her—and Bo—countless times.”
I tensed up when hearing the name.
“Should I call Cyrus?”
“Your cop friend?” He laughed in my face. “He can’t help me. The man I work for has the local police in his pocket. They’re gonna kill me.”
“No! Just tell him you have it, the only thing is…”
“The only thing is what?” He waved his arms in desperation. “This guy doesn’t mess around.”
“Why did you call me home? What am I supposed to do?” I raised my voice, burning anger coursing through my veins.
“You always have a good idea.” He looked deep into my eyes with tears in his, bringing up a memory that twisted my heart.
Daisy.
For a long time, we just stood facing each other while my mind took me back to when I had helped them get rid of the bloody bedsheet.
Tears flooded my eyes because after that incident had happened, I wasn’t brave enough to reach out to the girl who was supposed to be my best friend. And the fact that she didn’t reach out to make amends afterward hurt, too.
Even though the temperature was over a hundred degrees, the air around us froze when we looked out the window, because behind the undulating veil of a mirage, something kicked up dust. Four black Audis with tinted windows were approaching.
“They are here.”
The vehicles parked in a neat row, and four gangster-looking men stepped out of each one. They were wearing dark suits, shiny, expensive shoes, and black sunglasses. Then, some time later, a fifth car appeared. One of the men opened the car door for his boss.