Chapter 21 - Hayden
HAYDEN
“Black roses?” Carter repeated. “Where the hell do you even get black roses?”
“You spray-paint them,” I sighed. “Go on. Take a whiff.”
He bent carefully over the terrifying bouquet, then wrinkled his nose. “And he does this often?”
I shook my head and folded another shirt into my overnight bag. “Unfortunately, it’s not the first time.”
They’d arrived within minutes, for which I was extremely grateful. I wasn’t sure how Cole had broken into my place, or when the hell he planned on coming back. Most impressive, though, was how he’d managed to replace all my stuff during the course of a single six-hour workday.
“What are the colored roses in the middle for?” Bodie asked. He stroked his dimpled chin, thoughtfully.
“The yellow one represents me,” I growled, “and the red is supposed to be him.”
“And the black ones?”
“They’re the forces aligning against us. According to Cole, we’re fighting them off. It’s me and him against the world.”
“Holy fucking shit.”
I nodded glumly. “Yup. I thought the same thing, the first time he pulled this stunt. Although way back then, a small, naive part of me thought it was cute.”
“So he re-runs a lot?”
“Oh yes,” I confirmed. “He’s short on ideas, but long on originality. It’s just that all too often, his originality is terrifying.”
Carter reached out and flicked one of the flowers with his middle finger. Not a single petal fell off.
“You know it’s almost romantic, even,” he theorized, with a chuckle. “If it wasn’t so psychotic.”
My eyes followed the two of them as they explored my apartment.
They were being good sports about it, which I appreciated.
In truth though, I felt wholly embarrassed.
Once again I was dragging my baggage into their already busy lives.
Asking them to inconvenience themselves for Cole’s ridiculous actions, and to rearrange their lives around mine.
I knew what they’d say, of course: that they were happy to do it.
And in some ways, maybe they were. Bodie’s face had brightened the moment he saw me, and the hug Carter gave me at the doorway might’ve been the best one of my life.
We’d definitely connected over the course of our little getaway weekend. And in more ways than just the obvious.
“I don’t understand how he did all this in one day,” Bodie said offhandedly. “You’re saying he replaced all your furniture?”
“Eighty to ninety percent of it, yeah.”
“And he did all of this while you were at work?”
“Impressive, right?” I sneered.
“Well he had some help then,” Bodie noted, “because he was also at The Refuge, clear across town.”
My heart froze, somewhere deep in my chest. The shirt I was holding slipped from my fingers.
“He what?”
The two of them exchanged concerned looks. Carter shook his head and sighed.
“I don’t want you to freak out about this,” he said hesitantly, “because it’s not a big deal, but Cole came to the bar today.”
My shock turned to revulsion, and then fear.
“Carter, that is a big deal,” I said icily.
“I know you think so, but—”
“No, no, you don’t understand,” I cut him off. “Cole is crazy. Not just normal crazy either, but vindictive, vengeful, spiteful crazy. If he came to see you, it wasn’t just because he was looking for me. He was looking to gauge your connection to me.”
Bodie shrugged. “So?”
“Yeah, seriously,” Carter agreed. “So what? He doesn’t own you. He can’t dictate—”
“No, he can’t,” I interjected again, “but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that Cole thinks he can. It’s in his head that he can. He’s convinced himself of it.”
“So who cares what’s in that asshole’s thick head?” asked Carter. “Do you?”
“What? Care?”
“About him, yeah.”
“Fuck no!” I snarled. “I can’t believe you’d even think that! But I do care about what he’s going to do.”
“Which is?”
I sighed and sank back to the bed, my mind spinning with memories that had me feeling sick and dizzy. I had to make them understand.
“When we were going out the first time, Cole thought he owned me,” I said.
“Any boy who even talked to me found all sorts of things going wrong with his life. They got fired from jobs, or kicked off the teams they were on. He broke into lockers between classes. Tracked down secrets, and blackmailed people.”
“This is all teenage baby bullshit,” Carter smiled. “You were in high school, right?”
“You don’t understand,” I countered. “Cole was a lot of things before he even got into MMA, and all of them involved using his brain. He was a rare combination of being a genius, but also being resourceful, which led to some real mad scientist type shit. And he was deathly patient. Patient to the point of it being creepy.”
“How creepy?”
“Once, he hid in someone’s back yard for five hours. Just so he could paint an ‘X’ on his dog.”
“Fuck,” swore Carter. I nodded my agreement.
“All the more reason we need to get you out of here,” said Bodie, glancing around. “You’re safer with us.”
“But—”
“Look, he already suspects we’ve been protecting you at the very least,” noted Carter. “So the cat’s sort of out of the bag, right?”
“I—I guess so.”
“Right,” he smiled. “So the way I see it, we can do this one of two ways. Either we take turns staying here with you, in this weirdly-decorated apartment…”
I looked around, and another shiver ran through me. Obviously, it was no choice at all.
“…or you just come to our place,” Carter finished, “where we shower you with protection and affection, while plying you with popcorn.”
He picked up the shirt I’d dropped, and handed it back to me.
“Microwave popcorn?” I asked hesitantly.
“Are you kidding?” Carter snorted. “What do we look like, barbarians? We have a professional popper. Irish gold butter. Six different kinds of seasoned salt.”
He slid a comforting hand to my shoulder. As warmth of his fingers began transferring to the back of my neck, I felt my whole body relax.
“Alright,” I smiled back at him gratefully. “But this is only temporary.”
“Only temporary,” he put his hands up, innocently.
“I’m serious,” I reiterated. “I don’t even want him to know where you boys live. Because if he did…”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I made one last round of my apartment, plucking up various things I’d need to survive in the king of all bachelor pads that surely awaited me.
Aside from a strangely-attractive new shower curtain that I decided could stay, the bathroom was something Cole hadn’t really touched.
My makeup, toothbrush, deodorant — all those comfy things were still here.
I tucked them into the overnight bag, and before long we were back outside; my apartment safely — or not so safely — locked up.
As we made our way to the curb I paused; to look back at the door. Strangely, I found myself wondering if I’d ever see the inside of the place again. The little apartment had been the first real home that was all mine. I’d found it, quite proudly, all by myself.
Now the whole building gave off a vibe that seemed strange and tainted. Almost as if it felt just as violated as I did.
“Ummm… bro?”
I turned alongside Bodie, to find Carter standing in the middle of the sidewalk. One hand was on his hip, while the other scratched the back of his head. His face registered solid confusion.
“Isn’t this where we parked the truck?”