21. Puck
Me and King are playing pool, but King’s mind is elsewhere. He’s been grinning at his phone like a lunatic for the past few days, and I know it has something to do with the girl he’s been sneaking out to see. I shake my head with a chuckle.
“You gonna play, or shall I take your shot?”
King rolls his eyes, pocketing his phone.
“You make me sick,” I laugh again, messing with him.
Truthfully, I’ve never seen him with a girl. Sure, I”ve seen him with girls at school, or the very rare parties I attended, but he’s never been into any of them. Not like this.
“Oh yeah, Pucker,” King says, his nickname for me rolling off his tongue. “Like you’re any better with Bonnie?”
I smile and point with my cue to the table, urging King to take his go.
He doesn’t know that me and Bonnie had sex a few weeks ago. We decided we’d keep it between us. King was protective when he first found out I’d kissed her. Even though I’m his best friend, and he’s happy for us now, I knew it threw him for a loop for a bit when we initially got together. I don’t need to make matters worse with this news.
Besides, we’re happy keeping it between us. It just makes it even more special.
I can’t wait for our future together. To run away, get out of here, live a life worth living. To have children and give them what we never had.
Bonnie has been my future since the day I met her, so I can’t judge King if he has potentially found his too.
We’re playing another round, when suddenly, the door to the games room slams open so hard I’m convinced it’s about to fly off its hinges.
Carlo storms in, and for a few seconds, I think he’s heading for King, and I square up, ready to jump in and protect him from whatever Carlo is barging in here for.
But that’s not the case at all.
Carlo comes for me, grabbing me harshly by the collar, and spits directly into my face.
King shouts somewhere in the background, but before I can react, Carlo’s fist comes flying right at me, landing a harsh punch straight into my jaw.
“This will be the last time I ever fucking see your face again. Stay away from my child.”
Another fist hits my jaw, and two of his men are dragging me backwards.
Stay away from his child?
But then it hits me, square in the face, harsher than Carlo’s punch.
He knows about me and Bonnie.
I put up a fight, trying to writhe out of the hold I’m in, but it’s no good. I’m leaving this room whether I like it or not.
And because I have no idea what’s about to happen, knowing that there is no good outcome, I shout to my best friend.
“King, KING!”
I try to reach out to him, but it’s no use, as he’s being held back by guards himself.
And as I’m almost through the door, a million thoughts hit me at once. The first is Bonnie’s smile, her laugh, the way she lights up around me, then it’s of our night together, the trust she had with me, giving me all of her. Her life, her soul, her body. And then the very last thought, the one that would haunt my every waking moment from this second onwards.
I am never going to see her again.
And that’s why I shout to King, desperate pleas that she knows I didn’t leave her, and I never will.
“Tell Bonnie I love her!”
The last thing I hear is Carlo’s laugh, and then I’m hit on the back of the head, everything going dark, including my thoughts of Bonnie.