Diesel
Dad, Uncle Mort, and Uncle Val had approached the school in a club van via the football stadium, which was how Uncle Mort ended up behind Ryan and shot the fuck out of Nardo’s father.
The surge of adrenaline that had coursed through CJ was something he’d never felt, a type of high not even football gave him. He wanted to get Nardo and bring him to the van. Unfortunately, they had just enough time to get the body and Ryan into the cargo hold before the last bell of the day rang.
As Uncle Val drove away, CJ filled them in on everything else. Dad decided they had to revive Nardo, so everyone could see the motherfucker to back up the story the Triplets concocted about the confrontation being part of the play.
No one liked the idea, least of all CJ, but he didn’t have a better plan to cover their asses, so he reluctantly agreed. Nardo had a big ass knot on his head and that same fucking chip on his shoulder.
Once Dad explained that Ned was dead and Nardo would live if he cooperated and participated in the play, the motherfucker got onboard.
Uncle Mort stayed at the school to watch Nardo and comfort Harley, while Uncle Val drove CJ, Dad, a now-conscious Ryan, and a dead body back to the club.
They arrived the same time as the Triplets, Rory, and Devon, all in another van, driven by Bishop.
CJ was anxious to get back to school and check on Harley, so he hurried through his shower and chose black jeans, a black turtleneck and black boots to wear. Simple and easy, which he liked best.
No one was ready to leave by the time he dressed and that frustrated CJ. If they waited too long, he wouldn’t be able to see Harley before the play started.
CJ was pacing in the foyer when he saw Diesel heading toward him from the direction of their grand staircase.
“You look like you’re about to jump out of your skin, little brother. What crawled up your cockhole?”
“I’m just impatient to leave.”
“That explains it.”
“Diesel!” Axel shouted, running into the foyer in a blur of motion. “Let’s have some ice cream while we wait for Mom.”
“I’m not hungry, Ax,” Diesel said. “But I can get you some if you’d like.”
“That’s okay. If you don’t want any, I can have double when we get back.”
Diesel laughed. “Always a man with a plan.”
“Just like you.”
CJ frowned. “Hey, Ax.”
“Oh, hey, C. I didn’t see you there.”
“I guess not. You were so focused on Diesel. As usual.”
Diesel lifted a brow.
“Do I got to remind you two motherfuckers to behave?”
“No!” CJ and Diesel chorused.
Axel opened his mouth to say something, then glanced toward the grand staircase and gasped. “Look at Jana!”
Stiffening, Diesel turned just as Jana stepped into the hallway.
She wore a ruffled pink mini dress and espadrille sandals.
Her eyelids and cheeks sparkled with glittery makeup and tiny butterfly clips that matched her earrings and necklace, decorated her swept up hair.
Stacked rings drew attention to her cotton candy green fingernails.
The entire outfit screamed Rebel, although CJ had never seen Jana look prettier.
“You’re added to my list of the beautifulest girls, Jana,” Axel gushed.
Seeing the fury on Diesel’s face made Jana’s smile falter.
“What’s got up your cockhole, Diesel?” CJ demanded, throwing his words back at him.
The motherfucker ignored him and continued to laser Jana. “I told you that you couldn’t come.”
“R-Rebel invited me,” Jana told him, on the verge of tears again.
“Rebel had no fucking right to overstep what the fuck I told you to do. Go to the—”
Footsteps interrupted Diesel and they all looked in the direction Jana had come.
CJ smiled as his little sister strolled toward them, seeming none the worse for wear after yesterday. Hopefully, she wasn’t fronting and bottling away her real feelings.
Next to any girl, except Harley, Rebel outshone them all.
It had a lot to do with her confidence. As pretty as Jana was, she had zero self-assurance.
Rebel’s pink floral lace dress with a little bow at the front matched her pink spiked wedges.
She wore the same sparkly makeup and butterfly accessories as Jana.
Rebel wrapped an arm around Jana’s waist and smiled at Diesel. “Twinsies.”
“Can you ever mind your fucking business, Rebel?” Diesel demanded.
“Diesel doesn’t want me to come,” Jana said.
“Lucky for him, he didn’t invite you,” Rebel said, dropping her arm from around Jana’s waist. “I did.”
“There’s a fucking reason I didn’t want her there.”
“I wonder why?” Rebel snapped her fingers. “Wait. I know. You’re a selfish, unfeeling, unkind, uncaring dickhead that has sympathy for absolutely no one.”
What the fuck was CJ missing? Especially when he saw Diesel’s regret.
“Reb—”
“Oh, please shut the fuck up and then fucking die a painful fucking death,” Rebel cried, grabbing Jana’s hand, dragging her to the door and rushing outside.
CJ looked at Diesel. “What did you do?”
“It doesn’t fucking matter, CJ,” he said, pulling his keys from his trouser pocket. “Come on, Ax.”
Not waiting for Axel’s response, Diesel turned and disappeared down the east hallway.
CJ only saw Harley from across the room when he finally made it backstage.
Ms. Mendez immediately put him to work because several stagehands backed out at the last minute.
Luckily, CJ only had to move Verona’s Town Square into place, a few benches, two streetlamps, and the biggest piece, the facade of a building.
After months of rehearsals and bullshit, Harley’s play was finally happening.
CJ couldn’t wait to congratulate her. A part of him regretted not auditioning, so this could be something else they experienced together.
On the other hand, so much had happened to CJ personally, he would’ve failed the class.
This wasn’t something he could’ve signed into his dashboard or showed up every now and then like in his other classes.
“CJ!” Harley called, her voice carrying over the hustle and bustle of backstage.
He turned and there she was, delicate and smiling, her eyes shining. It didn’t matter that the makeup was too heavy to cover her bruises or that her face was still swollen. She was just gorgeous in her costume. The only way he knew how to describe her dress was blue velvet in a Medieval style.
“You look so fucking pretty, Harley,” he told her, cursing himself for not remembering to buy red roses for her big debut.
She swallowed. “Thank you.”
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” Ms. Mendez’s voice blared from the speaker connected to the microphones onstage.
“I’m going to be up soon,” Harley said. “I-I was failing foreign language, so Ms. Mendez convinced Monsieur Montague to sing the opening song in French.”
“Montague? You’re fucking kidding me.”
“What are the chances, right? But, nope. That’s his name.”
“I present to you Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet,” Ms. Mendez said. “Enjoy your evening.”
“That’s me,” Harley said, hesitated a moment, then hugged him.
CJ wrapped his arms around her, enveloped by her coconut scent, hating to let her go, but he didn’t stop her when she pulled away and walked to the left wing.
Wanting to see her grand entrance, he followed behind her, surprised when she began singing into a microphone from where she stood in the shadows.
The words were in French, the melody classically somber.
To him, she sang in tune, but he didn’t understand what the fuck she was saying, so he didn’t know.
She sounded perfect. Sweet. As if she’d been singing forever.
She loved music as much as he did, so her melodious voice shouldn’t have surprised him.
They were bypassing the prologue of Romeo and Juliet entirely, which was fine with CJ. He’d had enough of Shakespeare to last a fucking lifetime. At least, Romeo and Juliet wasn’t half as boring as MacBeth.
Despite the no-show stagehands, it was a big affair with major grades at stake and several classes from the theatre department involved. Dozens of students were in pre-production and production, and even students as theater staff. But it was only CJ on this side, watching Harley in awe.
He was so fucking proud of her. She hadn’t made her grand entrance yet.
If he moved his ass, he could watch her from the audience.
Not wanting to disrupt anything, CJ hurried through the door in the back area and walked outside, intending to circle around and enter from the front.
Instead, Nardo stopped in front of him and looked CJ up and down.
“She not all that.” Nardo was dressed in satin and velvet doublet, breeches, feathered hat, and cape. Knee-high white stockings covered his legs. On his feet were pointed toed shoes that had a stupid name. He smirked. “Jaleena’s a much better lay.”
“Why don’t you walk the fuck away while you can?” CJ suggested.
“I got a better idea. Why don’t I tell you how I made Harley beg me not to punch her again?”
Rebel’s words resonated in Diesel’s head, almost completely drowning out Harley’s beautiful singing voice.
He barely heard anything–the low chatter around him, the movement of the audience.
Nothing. Sitting between Jana and Rebel, listening to her talking to Kaia, her fucking date for the evening, filled Diesel with all types of emotions.
A set change allowed a short intermission. He could get up, stretch his legs and clear his head, but he didn’t want to leave Rebel’s side.
“You’re silly, Kaia,” she said, giggling.
Diesel stiffened and imagined dragging Kaia out by his hair and accidentally ripping his fucking head off.
Jana tugged on his arm.
“What?” he snapped, forcing himself to look at her.
She gave him a tremulous smile. “Are you enjoying the play?”
“Are you?”
She nodded. “The kids are putting everything into their roles.”
“Did you see something I didn’t? It was only Harley singing and some fucking ‘townspeople’ strolling around the set.”
“I know, but–”
“I’m not in the mood for small talk, Jana.”
Tears rushed to her eyes and her lower lip trembled. “Okay,” she whispered.
Rebel stood, then waited until emo boy got to his fucking feet before she turned and looked at Diesel so he could stand and let her pass.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going with him?” Diesel demanded.
“Move,” she ordered.
Kaia squeezed her shoulders. “Be nice, babe.”
“For you,” Rebel said with a long-suffering sigh.
“For Harley,” Kaia said. “You don’t want to ruin her big night.”
“You’re right,” Rebel said, pretending to be sweet and agreeable. She returned to her seat, so Kaia sat down as well and took her hand in his.
Diesel was too fucking outraged to even think of a response.
When Rebel and Mattie were in Kaia’s room, it was easy to get Uncle Christopher on board.
This wouldn’t be. Rebel was in full view of Aunt Meggie and Uncle Christopher, who sat a row behind with Val, Zoann, Mortician, Bailey, Roxanne, Knox, Bunny, Stretch, Ophelia, Jordan, and Cam.
Grant and Bishop also sat in one of the rows behind Diesel, which was where Kaia should’ve been if he had to bring his ass to the fucking play.
The myriad children were scattered throughout the auditorium with their friends or classmates, even Axel, which left Diesel completely fucking alone and vulnerable to his deep regret.
Jana’s laughter washed over him. Narrowing his eyes, he focused on her. Her head was turned to whoever sat on her other side.
He leaned forward. A brown-haired motherfucker dressed in business casual smiled at his fiancée, his sole focus on her.
Diesel snatched her hand in his and she turned her head. She actually fucking frowned at him and tugged her fucking hand away.
“Excuse you,” the motherfucker sneered. “We can move to another row, Jana, if this bozo is bothering you.”
“Uh—”
“This bozo is her fucking fiancé,” Diesel snapped. He stood and yanked Jana to her feet. “Switch fucking places with me.”
She plopped back down. “I was enjoying my conversation with Roy.”
His vibrating phone prevented him from exploding. Drawing in a breath, he returned to his seat, unclipped his phone from his belt, and saw CJ had sent him a message.
Diesel was so fucking happy he read it.