CHAPTER FOUR HARLEY
CHAPTER FOUR
HARLEY
Ember Fucking Alden.
I think I almost popped a blood vessel in my eye when she came out of that house this afternoon.
And then, seeing her carrying sweet Aria, my heart stuttered a bit.
I didn’t realize it was Aria immediately, and thought Ember had gone on and met someone and had more babies.
Of course I would have been happy for her, but part of me has always regretted letting her go.
I knew she’d gotten pregnant by that dumb fuck, Dean Michaels.
I was a year ahead of Ember in school, and we’d broken up about four months before they got together.
I’d seen the sleaze ball around school. Saw him hanging around the crowd that the police knew by first name.
I hated knowing he had caught her eye, and she didn’t know what he was doing while she was at home.
I was best friends with her older brother, Reed.
Their parents were on the strict side with Ember and Atlas.
At the time, it seemed crazy, but looking back now, with Ember getting pregnant at sixteen, I guess they had a right to be.
I used to see Dean hanging out at football games with other girls. Always with his sister and her boyfriend, and they were always stoned. He oozed trouble, and I knew he would take Ember down with him.
I loved Ember, but dating your best friend’s younger sister doesn't always work out when you’re only in high school. I know we were only fifteen and sixteen, but I knew she was special the first time she sat at our table simply to piss Reed off.
Flashback
Reed can’t stand his younger sisters. Honestly, I think he just doesn’t like women period, and the way he treats them has started to have an effect on our friendship.
I have four sisters, so I have a certain level of respect for people who treat women shitty.
Or lack of, in this situation. Her sitting with his friends pisses him off.
Every day, I look forward to lunch, searching for her smile at the table in the courtyard. I finally told Reed that I like Ember, and he shrugged his shoulders and mumbled that he didn’t give a shit.
I write her a note and pass it to her under the table during lunch that day.
My palms stay sweaty after that. She doesn't read it at the table, thankfully, because I know the guys would have started their bullshit.
Lunch ends, and I tell her to meet me at her locker after her next class.
She looks at me with her curious blue eyes, and I watch as a blush creeps over her cheeks.
The class feels like forever, but the bell rings and we’re dismissed.
I make a beeline for Ember’s locker, getting there just before she does.
I lean against the lockers, looking down at my DCs.
A set of white Converse comes into view, and I look up and I’m met with Ember’s bright blue eyes and big smile.
“Yes, I'll be your girlfriend,” she says with a blush tinting her cheeks again.
My smile hits my eyes, and I slide over to let her get into her locker.
“Here, I'll carry those for you,” I say, grabbing her books from her. That’s the most cliche thing to do for your girlfriend in passing period, right?
My girlfriend. Ember Alden is my girlfriend.
I try to reign in my smile, but I can’t help it.
“Harley, it's fine,” she says softly, but allows me to take them from her arms.
The halls start to clear out, and before she can shut her locker, my hand shoots out to stop her. “Can I kiss you?” I ask too quickly.
Her eyes grow wide, and her cheeks grow redder, but she nods her head. I lean in, her books in one arm, and my free hand rests at her neck, tipping her chin up. We have a pretty decent height difference, so I have to lean pretty far down to kiss her.
Soft. Her lips are soft, her bottom lip heavier than her top, and she tastes like the vanilla bean chapstick she applies every morning. It is a brief and innocent kiss. Ending quicker than I want, but we don’t want to get caught by a teacher in the hallway.
“That was my first kiss.” She tucks pieces of her hair behind her ear, cheeks still red and her eyes now glued to the floor.
I already knew it was. We had all sat around and talked about our first kisses a few weeks ago.
When she told us she had kissed a boy on a Truth or Dare over the summer, Reed lost his shit and stormed away.
I don’t know why, it didn't really count. I will always be her real first kiss.
Chase pulls up to my house, fifteen minutes later.
“So that’s Ember?” he says with a smug look on his face.
I roll my eyes as I get out of the car. I had a dream about her once and said her name while I was sleeping.
The guys had crashed at my place after a night out drinking, and they’ve fucked with me every chance they’ve gotten after that.
Unlocking the door, I turn on the lamp on the side table next to the door.
“Yes, that’s Ember,” I say with an exasperated sigh.
God, she looks amazing. She has grown a little since I'd last seen her sixteen years ago. She has a beautiful body—perfectly sized breasts that fit beautifully against my body, and my mind gets stuck, remembering her body pressed against me when I kissed her earlier. Her hips are curvy with a full ass and thick thighs. Perfect. She is perfect, and always has been. She was wearing a full face of makeup, but I could see her freckles still peeking through, and that beauty mark near her left eye that I’ve always wanted to kiss.
I never did, because at sixteen it felt too intimate.
I walk into the kitchen, grabbing a beer from the fridge for myself and passing one to Chase.
“I wonder how hard it would be to find someone who doesn’t want to be found.” I talk to myself, staring at nothing on the wall across from me.
“What are you talking about, man?” Chase asks, squinting his eyes.
“Ember got pregnant after we broke up. The dude was a fuck up,” I tell him as I lean against the counter, my blood starting to heat. “I guess she broke it off with him right before she had the baby, and gave the baby up for adoption, and he’s been stalking her since.”
Earlier, when she’d dropped her phone and ran to the bathroom, I snagged her phone off the ground and saw what had sent her running.
Hundreds of messages from UNKNOWN. All talking shit and degrading her.
He was stalking and harassing her. She tried to play it off like it didn’t bother her, but it was clear that it was starting to take effect.
I kept seeing a date in the texts from him, clearly taunting her. November twenty-third. November of this year? November of the year they were together? I’d try and look into that. Was he planning something? My body tenses at the thought of Dean doing anything to hurt Ember.
Rubbing my hand down my face, I try to reign in my anger.
“I mean I'm sure it can’t be too hard, especially if he’s been arrested.” Chase shrugs his shoulders. True, and I know he had been, even when we were younger.
As much as knowing there would be a record to find more information about him made me feel better, it also made me feel unsettled because he clearly had it out for Ember.
Finishing his beer, Chase tosses it into the bin. “Alright dude, I’m heading home, love ya.” He heads out the door, shutting it behind him with a click.
Turning the house down, I head to my room and straight to the bathroom. I need to get out of my head. But as soon as I start stripping my clothes off, I start remembering the feel of Ember’s body against mine.
She was so soft and easy to lean into. My cock perks up at the thought of our bodies pressed against one another.
I run my fingers along my bottom lip, the one that she loved to bite.
She did that when we were kids, too. Blowing out a breath, I jump in the shower, letting the hot water beat down over my head and run down my body.
I chuckle, thinking back to when Ember was in the bathroom and I’d heard her say she’d been drooling over me. Based on the look I got when I answered one of her questions, she hadn’t realized she was using her outside voice.
A quick flash of her hand roaming up my chest while I kissed her goes through my mind and has me taking hold of my cock.
Touching the tip of my cock, I smear the bead of precum down it, and start pumping it firmly before speeding up.
I brace my other hand against the wall, letting the memory of the kiss fill my head as my strokes increase until I come, fast and hard.
Out of breath, and breathing heavily, I slump against the wall before washing my hair and body and then climbing into bed.
I want to do a little detective work on Mr. Stalker before I pass out.
I type his name and his location into Google, and immediately pull up a couple of mugshots with arrest records.
I’d never paid for one of those stupid people find sites, but I was quick to autofill my information and pay for his record. I immediately feel sick to my stomach.
The record is twenty-four pages long. Obviously, some of it is just information; name, DOB, relatives, last known address, those sorts of things.
His last known address was in Lincoln, and I’m not entirely sure that it still is.
One of his messages to Ember tonight said he was only a few miles away, so maybe he hadn’t reported it anywhere.
Combing through more of the document, I finally come to the arrest records, and I hold my breath while reading over them quickly.
Assault. Driving under the influence. Battery. Rape. Intoxication in public.
My chest tightens, not knowing if any of these interactions had involved Ember in any way.
Since it was a record, there were dates attached.
Most of these had occurred after they had broken up.
Landing on the rape charge, my breath stutters.
It was while they would have been together.
I wonder if it was Ember, or if it was someone else.
I feel like Reed would have mentioned it if it had been Ember, but we had drifted apart after Ember and I broke up, so I’m not entirely sure.
I close the laptop, not feeling the slightest bit better about the situation.
I lay there thinking about Ember. She is strong, no doubt.
Giving up your baby, dealing with a psycho baby daddy, and still being able to smile.
Sure, it happened fifteen years ago, but something tells me time can’t heal some things.
Especially when a constant sick reminder follows you.
I start drifting to sleep. Thinking about her, my pretty girl.