Chapter 6 #2
I whistle as I leave, but abruptly cut the noise off once I’m in the hallway–it’s not a good idea to pick up a habit that hinders my ability to hear if someone is sneaking up on me.
I close the door and frown because it doesn’t have a lock, but maybe rich people don’t worry about locking their bedrooms. They’ve got no roommates to share the space with, obviously.
No need to lock doors in an empty house.
As if I’ve jinxed myself, I realize only a few seconds later that the house isn’t empty, after all.
I stop a few yards away from the top of the staircase, and sigh.
Brian stands there, leaning against the wall.
Unlike in the library last night, we aren’t in dim orange lighting, but rather in the bright hallway, facing each other down without any drunkenness to cloud his memories or slow his reaction time.
At most, he’s maybe a little buzzed because I saw him drinking earlier, but he isn’t swaying on his feet, and his eyes are sharp and alert.
“Claremont,” he greets coldly. “A word?”
I put the hoodie over my shoulder so my hands are free, just in case. “Go for it, Bri.”
His lip curls in disgust at the nickname, and the flash of rage I see in him confirms that he remembers at least most of what happened in the library. “You crossed a line last night. You had no business sticking your nose in my relationship with my girlfriend.”
“Whatever, man,” I shrug. “I don’t care. Get over it.”
He scoffs, loud and sharp. Then he steps forward to block my way–his chest out, jaw tight, trying to make himself look bigger than he is.
His voice rises, getting angry now. “That’s bullshit, Claremont.
You think just because you knocked me down when I was drunk as fuck, that makes you some kind of badass?
You think you’d still be standing if I’d been sober?
You wouldn’t be, I’d have fucked you up.
You’re lucky I was too wasted to beat the shit out of you for overstepping. ”
“Oh?” My Claremont mask slips as I close the distance–just far enough away to still dodge or block if he lunges at me, but close enough to make him sweat with nerves. “I’m not so sure about that, Bri. Because if you’d been sober, and I walked in to find you putting hands on her with a clear head?”
I ‘tsk’ my tongue at him, my smile cruel and cold.
“I wouldn’t have stopped at threats. You wouldn’t be standing here, if you’d been sober last night.
Not that being drunk is an excuse for what you tried to do to Janessa, but maybe I’m just a nice guy, Brian.
Maybe I wanted to give you another chance. ”
“Fucking bullshit, you freak–” He jumps forward, trying to get me to back up, bravado making him stupid.
“Or maybe,” I shove him hard, making him stumble backward into the wall with a thud, barely keeping himself from landing on the ground.
“Maybe I just wanted to avoid the penalties that come with a body count. Maybe I didn’t kill you because it would be too much of a fucking hassle, Brian.
Maybe your life is so worthless to me that I can’t even be bothered to end it. ”
“Y-you’re fucking crazy,” he grits through his teeth, his shoulders tense. His posture is becoming defensive, his pulse is pounding in his neck. I’ve got him on the ropes.
So, of course, that’s when his idiot friends decide to show up. They clamber up the stairs behind Brian, shoving each other, smelling so strongly of alcohol that my nose wrinkles. They look up at us, dumb and slow, and straighten, their brows furrowing.
“You good, Brian?” Gregory asks, a little slurred but clear enough that I start wondering if these boys hold alcohol better than Brian does, despite smelling like a distillery.
Brian smiles, not at me or at them, just at life. Like he’s genuinely thrilled at this turn of events.
Shit. My stomach drops, and my thoughts race as I weigh my options.
“Oh, not so tough now, are you?” Brian asks when I take a step backward. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want to keep running your mouth, Claremont? Don’t you want to keep talking bullshit? Keep threatening me?”
Gregory and Leonard are stupid, but they don’t take long to pick up the signals Brian is throwing to them. One cracks his knuckles, the other smirks at me, showing me his fist and kissing it, taunting me. They’re too drunk to be rational, and Brian’s too pissed to be reasoned with.
I take another step back, and Brian follows, cackling. “Come on, Claremont, I thought you were tough! I thought you were gonna bury me six feet under, huh? What was that you said about my worthless life?”
This isn’t looking good. I’ve been in fights plenty of times.
I know the odds, and I know that if I took them on, I probably wouldn't lose. But, in order to fight more than one person effectively, you have to really beat the shit out of them. If any of them can get back up before you move on to the next one, then they just jump on your back when you aren’t ready.
If I want to end this, I’ll have to end this.
If I want to walk away the winner, I’ll have to fight like I’m trying to send them to the hospital.
And as satisfying as that would be for me, as justified as it would be to send Brian to the ER, I have a paycheck to think about. Is the satisfaction worth fifteen grand?
Hell to the no.
So I turn and run.
“Hey!” Brian’s indignant yelp chases me, followed by the pounding footsteps of three good-sized men. The brothers are laughing, drunk and excited by the adrenaline.
My shoes skid on the shiny floors and I nearly wipe out when I take a corner too tightly, barely escaping Brian’s grab.
Gregory doesn’t take the corner as well as I do, and he crashes into the opposite wall and to the floor.
My thoughts are moving at the speed of light, and I briefly consider taking on the remaining two of them, but quickly toss the idea.
My eyes zero in on Lexie’s door at the end of the hallway, open like an invitation.
I sprint for it, the heat of Brian’s rage pushing at my back; I can almost feel their fingertips snagging my clothes.
I tear through Lexie’s door and sprint to the far side of her room. I saw it when we first arrived, so I know the layout already. I know exactly where to go.
The balcony’s double doors open with a bang! when I burst through them, and without losing my momentum, I toss myself over the second-story railing.
“Shit!” Leonard shouts as I sail through the air. Behind me, there’s the jarring clatter of bodies crashing into the banister I just cleared.
I hit the lawn hard. A jolt slams up my spine, and I wheeze through a tumble that barely qualifies as a roll. The grass is soft, but it doesn’t stop my lungs from trying to eject themselves. I pop up fast anyway, adrenaline screaming through me.
I whirl and look up–Brian snarls down at me, but retreats, Leonard following him like a shadow. I pant for air, my adrenaline fading, as I wait for the other shoe to drop. But the boys don’t return. For now, I’m safe.
With a gusty sigh, I turn to leave, and freeze.
Even though I just escaped a fight by the skin of my teeth and threw myself out a window without a cent of health insurance, it’s this moment–t’s him–that makes my heart shift gears and put the pedal to the metal.
My blood rushes so fast I get a little dizzy, and my stomach swoops while my dark skin hides what I’m sure would be a fierce blush.
Thank god it’s nighttime and not very well lit out here, or else I’m sure Young-gi would see my mortified expression.
Lexie’s bedroom faces the front side of the house, so I landed near the driveway, where a sleek, black luxury vehicle quietly idles.
Standing by the open driver’s side door is a hulking brute in a suit and tie, a thick manilla envelope in his massive hands.
Young-gi stands beside him and his guard, Yosef, is at his back.
All three men are staring at me, but I only have eyes for Young-gi.
Young-gi hasn’t moved. He’s still in his casual clothes from earlier, not that fancy suit I met him in, but he looks just as untouchable as always. His gaze flicks up to the balcony, then back to me.
When we lock eyes I let out a near-silent, broken breath of anxiety that is embarrassingly close to a whimper.
One of the men murmurs something to him, but Young-gi ignores them, focusing on me.
I can’t breathe when he watches me like that.
Before I can do something unhinged, like open my stupid mouth and try to talk to him, I spin on my heel and march my Black ass right the fuck out of there as casually as I can manage, as if nothing happened and everything is fine.
I keep up the act until I round the back of the house.
As soon as I turn the corner and I’m out of Young-gi’s sight, I collapse against the brick wall with a wheeze, gripping my chest.
“Holy shit,” I gasp, shivers dancing up and down my skin. “Holy shit.”
I don’t know why I’m freaking out. Sure, Young-gi was definitely conducting shady, illegal business that I was a witness to. Sure, he saw me jump out a second story window while being pursued. Sure, that completely undermines my rich kid story and makes me suspicious and a possible loose end.
Sure, he looked hot as fuck again and I got a half-boner and then lost it immediately and got fucking emotional whiplash.
And, maybe, I immediately relived all the painfully intense staring he did in the library last night in the span of the five seconds he just spent looking at me.
“No big deal,” I mutter, straightening up and taking it one step at a time. “Not a big fucking deal at all. Sure. Fucking… fuck.”
I tromp tiredly around the back. Seeing the lights of the party again throws me off, and I’m reminded of that feeling I had earlier; of being on a separate island, somewhere just out of sight, out of reach.
Different, isolated.
I don’t have it in me to be careful as I collapse onto the chair with Kira, my shaky legs literally going out from under me.
“Hey!” she complains with a soft pout. But when I start putting the jacket on her–pulling her arms through the sleeves and pushing the hood over her head–she laughingly helps.
Her face pokes out of the top like a flower.
I boop her nose and let my whole body sag beside her with a sigh that comes from my soul.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, picking up on my mood.
I just shake my head, unable to explain it.
My eyes narrow when I see Brian and the brothers back at the tiki bar, and they grin at me like they won something.
I guess they kind of did, since I ran away, but they have no idea how close they came to dying.
They’re in one piece right now because I allow it.
Disdainfully, I ignore them, and cuddle into Kira’s side for comfort. I’m shaken up, feeling a little unsteady. But slowly, her warmth and softness centers me until I can be Tommy Claremont again, and not just Tommy.