Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
TEDDY
“ W e get total control of the jukebox tonight,” I joke when we enter the diner.
“This place is dead.” Willa glances around before picking a table in the corner for us.
“We getting our usuals?” I ask Willa, picking up the menu anyway to glance at it. Even though I basically have it memorized.
“I think we should add potato skins this time to spice things up.” Willa waggles her eyebrows, or tries to anyway, making me burst out into laughter.
I don’t necessarily need to spice things up. Not when I’ve been in West’s bed the past few nights. I don’t say that, of course. I’m trying not to bring him up, if I’m being honest. Willa has seemed okay about us being a thing, but we haven’t talked about it since she alluded to that. I am enjoying the time West and I are having together before everyone else's opinions are made known.
For right now, I want to focus on Willa and me while we’re together. She has been off, and I can’t figure out why. I just know something is different.
“You ladies having your normal drinks?” Liza, our favorite server, swings by the table, setting two glasses of water down. “Haven’t seen you two in here in a bit.”
“Been busy with school starting and other things.” Willa gives her a soft smile.
“We’ll have our usuals, Liza, plus an order of potato skins.”
“I’ll get that in and have your drinks right out.”
“Thanks,” we both say before she’s off.
“So.” I tap my fingers on the worn tabletop. “How are the applications going?” Willa shrugs. I wait for Liza to drop our drinks before I push. “Are you that upset that I’m not applying to the same schools as you?”
“You’re not applying at all.” Willa picks up her soda, taking a sip.
“And that makes you upset?”
“No, I’m just over everyone expecting me to apply to certain schools. Have you asked Rich where he is applying?”
“No,” I admit. I honestly thought that was what she wanted. Rich does what he wants. It’s challenging to get anything out of him.
"See?" She pushes her glasses up her nose.
"Okay." I can get that. "I just thought that is what you wanted."
"I don't know what I want, but I do know it's not what I wanted before."
Interesting.
"Things are changing," I agree. While she might not have been close to her father, he was still a part of her life. He could have been part of the reason she was applying to some colleges. To get away from him, and now he’s gone, so she no longer wants to move away.
“And people change,” Willa quickly adds as Liza sets down our potato skins.
“They do,” I agree.
“Maybe I want to change.”
“I think you should do whatever you want, Willa; you know that, right? That I’ll support you.”
“People just expect certain things from me, and I’m over it.” Willa lets out a small huff.
“I’m sorry if I’ve done that.” Her face softens. ”It was never my intention. I love you like a sister. I only want the best for you.”
“You’re the best, Teddy, really. Without you, the past few years would have been extremely difficult.”
I reach across the table, grab her hand, and give it a gentle squeeze. “Let's eat.”
“Yes, please.” Willa dips one of the potato skins into the ranch. “I forgot about the game tonight. You ever think about going?”
“Not really. Football has never been my thing.”
“It might be fun.”
“I mean, we could go, but I think it might be too late,” I offer. I told her I’d hang out tonight, and I’m going to let her take the lead. Perhaps I've been overly controlling toward Willa without realizing it. I always take over and do what needs to be done or planned.
"No, not the game. I just meant to do some of the things everyone else is doing. We never even went to one party."
"We can." The parties never sounded fun to me, but if that’s what she wants to do, I’ll go. Willa and I tend to hang at home, read, or watch reality TV. We keep to ourselves. I enjoyed that, but she might want to blossom. Find new or more friends. "You do know that I'm not going anywhere, right?"
“Yeah, I know that, but things will be different. It’s life.”
I suppose I can’t argue with that.
“So are you and my uncle up to things?”
“Up to things?” I laugh.
“Oh my God, you’re turning red.”
“I am not.” I touch my cheeks.
“I don’t think I have ever seen you blush before.” Willa laughs. Liza drops off the rest of our food.
“What do you want to do after this?” I ask, leaving it open for her.
“I don’t want to go to the party, so relax. The boys at our school aren’t my vibe.” Thank God. I would have gone and faked it, but I’m glad we’re not.
“So you’re looking for a guy?”
“Yes, I want my romance. We don’t really read all those dirty books for no reason.”
“Touché.” I laugh.
“I do know about something else that is going on tonight.”
“Really?” This is an island, and there are only a handful of things you can do.
“Yeah, it’s over at the docks.”
“Which docks?” There are two docks here, at least public ones. There is one for the ferry that travels on and off the island, sharing space with a few warehouses that handle incoming and outgoing shipments. Then there is one for anyone to use.
“Warehouses.”
“What’s going on there?” The last ferry returns at ten. At least if you want to bring a car back over. There is a smaller ferry that only allows people; it goes later, but it’s over at the public dock.
"I think my brother is going to be there tonight, in fact."
"At the warehouses?"
"Yep." Willa pops the P. "He thinks I don't know what he's up to, but I do, and now I want to go see."
"I don't think he'll want us there."
"I don't think I have to ask him." It makes sense that this fighting thing, whatever it is, would be there. After ten, it's dead down there.
"All right," I agree. I'm not getting in the middle of a sibling fight, let alone twins. My cousin isn't my sister, but we were super close before her smarty-pants ass went off to college, and I wouldn't want someone getting between her and me.
We finish our dinner before we head out of the diner. I make my way toward the warehouses. “Do you know which one it's in?” I ask when we pull in, not seeing much.
“The back?” I pull down and around. When we get around to the other side, we see all the cars. The docks back here are also filled.
“Expensive.” I gesture toward a boat that stands out from the others. It’s a speedboat. When the lighthouse light circles around in the distance, I spot a yacht not too far away.
“I didn’t think it would be this big.”
“I don’t know what I was expecting,” I say when I park. We both jump out and follow two people coming off the dock, guessing they’ll know which way to get in.
My phone vibrates in my back pocket. I pull it out and see a text from West asking me what I’m up to. I tell him I’m still hanging with Willa, which he knows already. I told him that I might even end up crashing in her room, but if Willa falls asleep before me, I’ll sneak over late tonight. I’ll definitely be there in the morning.
“Hold up,” the man at the door says to Willa and me, letting the two girls in front of us in. They are all dolled up in short skirts and heels. “Are you supposed to be here?” His eyes roam up and down over us.
Willa and I are dressed in jeans and sweaters. Hers is a fuzzy pink one.
“Yes,” Willa responds before I can, pushing her glasses up her nose. The door opens again, but this time someone steps out.
The tall man has dark hair and even darker eyes. He is dressed entirely in black, from his boots and jeans to his shirt and leather jacket. Even the tattoo that peeks up from his shirt onto his neck. I take a step back, but Willa keeps going, not noticing the man.
"My brother is in there. Rich."
"Your brother?" The man in the leather jacket poses the question. Willa turns her head toward him.
"Yes."
"Richy Rich is your brother." The man looks skeptical but also amused.
"My twin."
"All right, then." He opens the door for us. The man that stopped us doesn't say shit, making me think the leather jacket guy here is in charge. “In you go, princess.”
Willa hurries in, and I’m right behind her, but I don’t miss the man checking out her ass.
“Was he flirting with me?” Willa asks as we make our way down a long, dark hallway, but I can hear the sounds of people the farther we enter.
“I was” is said from behind me.
“Oh my God,” Willa whispers loudly, and I bite back a laugh, but leather jacket guy doesn't hold back his laughter. I don’t have to see her to know that her face is cherry red. As we enter the main part of the warehouse, I hook my arm into Willa's.
“Holy shit,” I say when I see all the people crowded around the ring in the center of the room. Two men are in the middle swinging punches at each other.
The floors are concrete, and the few chairs around are folded metal ones. The attire of some of the girls stands in stark contrast. You'd think they were heading to a fancy club in the city. Some of the men are in slacks and buttoned-up shirts while others are just in jeans and T-shirts. It's an interesting mix, but I can tell that Willa and I don't fit in.
The cute fuzzy sweater Willa has on might be five times more expensive than any of the dresses here, but it’s got a kitten wearing a crown on it. A few people glance our way, but as quickly as they do, they turn back around. I glance over my shoulder to see leather jacket guy standing about ten feet back from us. Everyone gives him a wide berth, confirming my suspicions from earlier that he’s in charge around here.
I cringe when one of the men takes a hard hit to the face and hits the ground even harder. “Oh, gross.” Willa covers her face with her hands. Everyone cheers and screams.
“This is intense.”
“I can’t believe this is what my brother does.” Finally, Willa removes her hands from her face. As if she conjured him, people started chanting Richy Rich . “Is he coming up now?” Willa tries to look around, standing on her tiptoes.
“Want to get closer, princess?”
“You can do that?” Willa asks.
“You got a name?” I cut in, wanting to know who this man is that has taken a quick interest in my best friend.
“Everyone calls me King,” he answers but doesn’t glance my way. I recall seeing the name King on the fancy speedboat. I would never have guessed it belonged to this man. “You can call me Vasily, though, princess.” Willa’s face starts to turn pink again.
“You can get us closer, Vasily?”
“Yeah, I can.” He throws an arm around her shoulder, tucking her into his side. “Stay close.”
“Okay,” I see her say, but I can’t hear it over the chants, and I’m pretty sure it’s a whisper. Willa’s turned a bit shy, but she's not backing down. I follow behind them. The crowd parts for King but quickly closes behind him.
I get lost in the throng of people. Not wanting to fight it and honestly not sure that I can, I turn to go back to where I was, pulling out my phone to text Willa and let her know where I’ll be so she’ll know where to meet me when Rich’s fight is over.
As I'm texting her, I bump into someone, causing the phone to slip from my grasp. “Shit, sorry.” I try to find my phone, but there are too many people around.
“Teddy?” I glance up to see that it’s Derrick I’ve run into.
“Hey,” I respond. “I dropped my phone.” Derrick looks down, helping me search for it.
“Got it.” He finds it under someone's foot.
“Sorry,” I tell the person.
“Come on.” Derrick grabs my wrist, pulling me through the people.
“My phone,” I tell him.
“I got it.” He continues to pull me along. A weird sensation creeps up my spine as everything West told me about staying away from Derrick floods back to me. It slipped my mind for a second when I was searching for my phone. I try to tug my hand back, but his grip only tightens.
"Let go." I jerk, but he's stronger. "Stop!" I scream louder, but the crowd is roaring as Derrick drags me toward a door, no one else seeming to notice.