Chapter 4 Bailey
Bailey
Although Jameson and Sutton didn’t plan many events for their wedding, they are throwing a small engagement party. It’s been about two weeks since Sutton moved in, and it feels like the wedding quickly approaching. They didn’t want a long engagement, but they still wanted to take time to celebrate.
Or maybe it was his mom that still wanted to celebrate.
She’s recently gone into remission from the cancer that brought Jameson back to Amity.
With that and losing her husband a little over a year ago, Sutton said she’d been waiting to see Jameson get married for so long, that now she wants to celebrate every little moment.
However, Sutton has drawn the line at a bachelorette party. Lily tried to convince her that we should all go to Vegas and go crazy. That was shot down very quickly by both Sutton and I. Nothing sounds worse to me than Las Vegas with a slightly insane twenty-one year old.
I normally don’t dress up beyond jeans and a nice shirt, but for this event, I put on one of the few dresses that I own. And for that, my friend should be thankful. I even curled the ends of my long hair, and put on a little bit of makeup.
When I look in the mirror, I almost don’t recognize myself.
For some reason seeing myself like this reminds me of my younger sister, Brynn.
She’s always been the one that enjoyed wearing nice clothes and makeup.
She’s always been known as the “prettiest.” It’s not like I was ever called ugly.
The bullies had plenty of other things to pick on without needing to attack my looks.
But right now I can see the resemblance between us, and it causes a pang in my chest because I haven’t spoken to her in a long time. She tries, but I don’t respond. Both her and my oldest brother, Brent, try to reach out, and sometimes I give them a short response.
But most times, I leave them on read.
I never know what to say without spiraling into memories of our childhood and the trauma it left behind. So instead, I chose to run away. To distance myself from that place and the people—my family—and start over fresh.
Even if it hurts.
But there are times like these when I find myself missing them. Texts I almost send. Calls I almost make.
I just never do.
My other brother, Bryson, never reaches out, though I know he talks to them a bit more. After our brother, Brandon, died, something shifted between all of us, and we all chose to cope in our own ways. Mine was to isolate.
The sound of my phone ringing pulls me from my thoughts and away from the mirror, so I can stop seeing the image of my sister staring back at me. Part of me expects to see her name on my screen, as though I willed her into calling me, but instead it’s Lily’s name I see.
“Hello?” I answer because she never calls me. We have a group chat with Sutton and that’s her most common form of communication. I’m not a big phone talker, and I’m not the best texter.
“Hey, have you left to go to Sutton’s?”
“No, what’s up?”
“Can you give me a ride? My car is dead.”
“What do you mean dead?”
“I dunno, it won’t turn on. Will you just come get me? Pretty please?”
“Yeah, did you call a tow truck or anything?”
“Nah, that’s a later problem.”
I sigh, looking up at the ceiling, not liking that she’s going to be without a car. Everyone needs to have a way to leave if they need to. I don’t think she has any issues at home, but I can’t help my own thoughts of feeling trapped without a car.
Then I remember who I live next to and grimace.
“If I can get someone to help you out, would that be okay?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Her tone is so nonchalant I wonder how someone can be so calm about something going so wrong in their day.
“I’ll be over soon.”
We hang up, and I take in a deep breath before walking next door.
I raise my fist to knock, but hesitate. I don’t think Lily would care if I didn’t follow through on the offer.
But I don’t like how it would feel. She shouldn’t be stuck.
I’m sure she’s going to need to get to work.
And maybe go see Parker, even though she insists there’s nothing going on there.
I inwardly groan, knocking on Wes’s door. Rocking back on my heels, I feel like he’s taking forever. Maybe he’s not even home, but his car is in the driveway. I’m about to walk away and pretend like I never showed up, when the door swings open.
Wes is standing there looking more put together than I thought was possible.
He’s in black slacks, a black button up, and his dark hair is styled…
nicely. Not a hair out of place. The worst part is his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, showing his thick forearms, his veins are prominent and make my mouth water when it shouldn’t.
I hide any other response my body has to seeing him like this by narrowing my eyes in his direction and folding my arms across my chest. Which is clearly a mistake because the way his eyes drop down to my chest makes goosebumps break out across my skin.
Everything is made so much worse because I know exactly what it feels like when he’s holding me down and doing whatever he wants to me.
“You know things about cars,” I blurt, because my mind needs something else to latch onto, that isn’t how good he looks, and how good I know he feels.
He smirks, his eyes moving back up to mine. “Sure, and you hate mine.”
“I do, but my friend is having some issues with hers. I was wondering if you would take a look at it.”
“I’m not a mechanic, but I can try.”
“Obviously not right now, you’re clearly about to go somewhere.”
“So are you, and I think it’s the same place.”
I choose to forget that he’s friends with my friends, but I know he’s right.
“Well, I have to go pick up Lily since her car is dead, but then I’m going to the party.”
“I’ll follow you there and take a look,” he says easily, almost too easily.
“No, you don’t have to do that,” I insist.
“I’m going to.”
“You’re annoying.”
“So you’ve said.”
I walk back over to my house, grabbing my keys while convincing myself he’s not actually going to follow me to Lily’s. But when I come out, he’s already in his car, and when I pull out of my driveway he’s right behind me.
I hardly pay attention to the road; I’m so focused on him, and wondering why he would do something nice for me. It’s unlike him and makes me feel like there’s a catch. I’m just worried about what that may be. Or maybe he’s just nice…no way.
The drive to Lily’s isn’t a long one, and she’s standing outside leaning against her front door. She waves at me as I pull up, then looks at Wes when he parks, cocking her head to the side with a smirk aimed in my direction.
“What’s he doing here?” she asks as I step out of my car.
“He’s going to look at your car.” I shrug. “I told him not to worry about it today, but he insisted.”
She grins. “Probably wanted some time with you.”
I roll my eyes just as Wes walks up.
“What’s the problem?” he asks, and while his gruff voice makes him seem rude, Lily doesn’t seem fazed.
“It won’t turn on,” she answers simply.
“Keys?” he grunts out and I narrow my eyes at him. He could at least try to be personable. It’s not like I forced him to come here and yet he’s acting like he’s being held against his will.
Lily hands over her keys, and I hold back my chuckle at seeing the giant man with arms that look like they could lift the car in question holding keys with a bright pink puff ball on them.
Wes immediately opens the door, and pops the hood like he’s a professional and I can’t deny that it’s hot to watch, but I’m trying to manage my facial expressions. And my body’s reaction.
Lily bumps into me as Wes leans over and out of our view.
“He’s hot,” she murmurs.
“He’s a dick.”
“The hot ones usually are.”
“I can’t stand him.”
“We love a good hate fuck.”
“I wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole.” Again.
“Well he would, and I bet he knows his way around the clit.”
I choke on my own spit, also pretty sure she said that loud enough that Wes heard her, but he doesn’t react as far as I can tell.
“I think I know what your issue is,” Wes calls out and I jump at the sound of his voice. “Pretty sure it’s just your battery, but you may have a starter issue as well.”
“Great, so that’s going to cost me a bunch of money I assume,” Lily complains.
“If you get a battery, I’ll install it for you.”
“That’s nice of you.” Lily looks at me for some reason.
“Yeah, super nice.” I roll my eyes, still feeling like there’s some sort of catch here.
“I’m done with this, let’s go party.” Lily bounces toward my car, and I don’t have a chance to tell her I don’t think it’s the type of party she’s probably used to. At least from the stories I’ve heard.
“Thanks,” I grumble.
“Yeah, well, you could say I know my way around a car.” I hear the slight humor in his voice and I scoff, walking off. “Bailey.”
I turn around to face him, placing my hands on my hips.
“Roll your eyes at me again and see what happens.”
He climbs into his black sports car and I stand there dumbfounded for a few moments before the loud blaring noise of my horn goes off. I see Lily reaching over into the driver’s seat and shake my head as I climb in.
“You’re so fucked.” She laughs.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She just laughs harder as I drive us to the party.