5. Axel
Axel
Present Day
I shouldn’t be here this close to dawn, but nothing about this night has gone as planned.
Burying a body certainly wasn’t on my to-do list and doing it alone took a lot of fucking work.
If I was smart, I’d have gone straight home.
Instead, I’m here–like always–watching. I had to lay eyes on her.
I’m not sure if it’s more for me… or her.
It was obvious she’d been drinking, but the fact that she’s so quiet and hasn’t even budged tells me she had way more alcohol than her small frame can realistically handle.
Something she does way more often than she should.
She usually makes this sound–a mix between a light wheeze and a whine.
I suppose it’s probably considered a snore, but tonight it’s noticeably absent and the silence is pissing me off.
After the night I just had, I needed something familiar…
something to ground me and keep me from slipping into the darkness that’s constantly clawing at me.
Leave it to her drunk ass to change things up on me.
I should wake her up and punish her for being so unnervingly silent.
I stand from the bay window in her tiny apartment, where I usually sit, and stalk over to her too peaceful form.
She’s laying face down on top of the covers, her arms splayed out to her sides like she didn’t even have anything left to get her under the covers.
Gently, I reach down and tuck her long locks that have fallen to cover her face, behind her ear.
I’m suddenly exceedingly grateful she’s knocked out. I’m usually too cautious to touch her, but her skin feels like porcelain against the coarse skin of my own hands. What I wouldn’t give to dirty her up a bit. Get rid of some of the facade she shows to the world.
I grit my teeth at the thought.
Time to get out of here before I do something I’ll regret.
I jangle the keys in my hand a little longer than usual before unlocking the door to the flat I share with my best friend Dom. There’s no telling if he has company or not and I do not want to walk in on him ass out, balls deep in some chick. Not again.
“You know, it’s not necessary to do that with your keys every time you come home,” Dom mumbles with a mouth full of Reese’s Puffs. How does he even eat that shit?
“Tell that to my gag reflex next time I walk in on you naked.”
The fucker actually smirks. “Don’t lie Bradley. If you were into dudes, you’d get hard for me.” What the fuck.
I shake my head at this dumb as fuck conversation. “You couldn’t handle me,” I shoot back. “I’ll be in the office. I’ve got shit to do.”
“How is she?” he asks flatly.
I talk to Dom about a lot of things. Bikes, trucks, tattoos…
business. The one thing we never talk about is her .
Not that I won’t. We’ve talked about her before, but my best friend likes to talk and one day he pushed me too far and I punched him in the face.
I’d say he’s a little more cautious these days when he checks in.
Dom and I have been friends for the better part of the last ten years.
He grew up in the foster system and like me, knows what it’s like to grow up without a father.
Without even a hint of a father figure. I had the added bonus of a shitty mother, so I basically raised myself and my little sister.
Our mutual lack of parentals made us fast friends and he has pulled me out of the dark more times than I can count.
I trust him with my life and I’m positive he trusts me with his, as well.
He’s a caretaker at heart and just can’t let shit go, which I’m assuming since I’m in a particularly shitty mood, he’s being brave and checking in.
“You look like shit,” he interrupts my thoughts. “I know you go to her–often–but you usually come home looking refreshed. Setting aside the fact that it’s already morning, you look like you’ve been through hell. Tell me what happened.”
The last thing he needs is to be implicated in this when it was… unplanned. “It’s better that you don’t know.”
“I appreciate you trying to protect me, but you forget that I don’t need your protection. Besides, I’m practically guilty by association at this point anyway. Now… tell me.”
Turning and walking back into the living area, I swipe my fingers through my hair and exhale a breath.
“She’s drunk, but she’s fine,” I report. “I can’t say the same for her date, though.”
“Oh, shit. You didn’t. Did you?”
“Yep,” I nod slowly. “He called her a whore, so I snapped his neck.”
The blank stare combined with the silence I get in return, tells me he’s still processing the information. Eventually, he responds like he always does but even I know this is fucked up. “Is there anything you need help with, brother? You know I’ve always got your back.”
This is why I didn’t want to tell him. He’s always ready to jump in and help, but I don’t want him implicated if anything goes south. I’d never forgive myself. “Nah. It took me all night, but I handled it. The less you know, the better.”
“Alright,” he relents with a huff. “But this girl. Is she really worth all of this trouble and headache?”
Isn’t that the question of the decade? It’s a question I don’t have a good answer for.
She’s been a thorn in my side for so long and I don’t really have a good reason as to why.
She was always the perfect princess that could do no wrong in her parent’s eyes.
They worshipped the ground she walked on, meanwhile Arabella and I got the shit end of the proverbial parent stick.
Somewhere along the way, it changed into something…
else. On one hand, she irritates the fuck out of me and I can’t put my finger on why that is, but there’s also a part of me that feels an intense need to protect her and I can’t exactly explain that either.
She’s a conundrum of the highest order and I need to get my shit together before I drown in the abyss that is Wrinley Jaymes.
“I don’t know.” It’s the simplest answer I’m willing to give him at the moment. Then I turn on my heels and head to the office. I have work to do.