Chapter 11 – Kaia #2
That rumor as confirmed in front of everyone at the volleyball game, but he wouldn’t go into detail with Fia.
He thought she was still there. Maybe she’d been too busy sobbing.
It didn’t matter. He might want them to be friends, but that would never happen.
“My version is the fucking truth,” Kaia snapped.
She sniffed and folded her arms. “Narci told me otherwise.”
“He wasn’t there. I was, and I’m telling you what happened.”
“Don’t be cross,” she said quietly.
“I have to get back upstairs,” he said, starting to stand.
Fia grabbed his hand, halting him. “Wait, please. I-I’m fucking this up so bad. I’d planned to text you before I walked in and saw you. I wanted to ask you to meet me in the cafeteria.”
“To say what?”
“That I hope you don’t leave. If you want to stay and work it out with Rebel, maybe you should throw yourself on Meggie’s mercy.
Tennysee insists we’re alive because Rebel took up for us in some kind of way.
That’s probably true. My life was so much simpler when I wasn’t competing with her directly.
Over the past weeks, I have been, even if I didn’t want to admit it.
You’re a sweet guy and I like you so fucking much.
Neither of us grew up with a lot of money.
We know about struggles and working and dysfunctional families. ”
Rebel’s family was majorly dysfunctional, although he wouldn’t reveal that either.
“We like beer and pizza. Jeans and sneakers. We like to fuck and we like to slum it. Rebel’s version of slumming is wearing thousand-dollar sweats and five-hundred-dollar sneakers.
Her parents adore her. If she speaks, everyone listens.
Her brothers, her cousins …everyone. She doesn’t know hunger or fear or pain or anything that regular people face every day. ”
“Rebel’s a real flesh-and-blood girl, Fia. She might not know hunger or struggling, but she knows about fear and pain and worry, and any other human emotion we all face. What the fuck is wrong with you? Maybe if you looked at her differently, you wouldn’t act as if she’s plastic.”
Fia’s shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I keep…I’m trying to tell you how much I wish you’d give me a chance even as I know you’re hung up on her. I want to ask you to trust me. If we fuck, I swear I’ll keep it between us.”
“You don’t like me,” Kaia said, the words bitter. “You told me to throw myself on Meggie’s mercy just so I can still fuck over Rebel? You want me dead.”
“I don’t.” She clasped her hands together and heaved in a breath. “I never finished telling you about Diesel.”
“I know more than I fucking care to about that motherfucker.”
“I’m sure you do,” she agreed. “But I took my shot with you and you’re still stuck on Reb.”
“Refer to my previous comment. She’s a real girl with real feelings and I wish you’d remember that. If you can’t, then don’t mention her to me.”
Fia huffed. “I want us to be friends, even if we can’t fuck. I don’t have many real friends. I want to help you win Rebel back. I want you to help me win Diesel for myself—”
“Stay the fuck away from that motherfucker. That advice is the best help of all, especially if you heed it.”
“Diesel isn’t bad.”
“No, he’s worse. He’s a possessive, jealous fuckhead who thinks the world revolves around him. Fuck him, Fia. You deserve better than that fuckhead. I told the same fucking thing to Jana.”
“Jana likes you,” Fia blurted.
“You think?” Kaia said, playing dumb. He already fucking knew.
“She keeps tabs on you whenever you two are at the club.”
“If that was true, I’d already be dead. Diesel would’ve killed me.”
“No,” Fia said stubbornly. “Diesel doesn’t love her. Jana’s a drughead. He let Narci and Torrin fuck her as if she was one of us. He never allowed any of his friends to fuck Tabitha.”
Kaia had no fucking words to express how fucking appalled he was at the new information.
“Jana eats cat for a high. I lick pussy too but it’s because I want to, not for a fucking hit. Diesel doesn’t love her. She’s a weak, pathetic, addicted cunt.”
If Kaia defended Jana, Fia would sniff out the fact that he’d fucked her too, so he kept his mouth shut.
“After his birthday party, rumors about that bitch started flying in all directions. She’s a fucking nympho and loves to get her pussy off almost as much as she loves coke.
Diesel and Torrin fell asleep for thirty or forty minutes and Narci told me how he made her lick coke out of his ass and she sucked it to get every drop. Fucking slut.”
Nausea hit Kaia along with outrage. Narci was more of a motherfucker than Diesel. “He had no business—”
“He did, too! I was sitting there when she texted him for more drugs. She wanted coke and he turned her down. That bitch called in tears and blew up his fucking phone. He said Diesel didn’t know what he was getting himself into.”
“She needs rehab—”
“Fuck you. That bitch don’t want rehab. Narci gave her a fucking number last week when you, Diesel, and Rebel went for her driving lesson and Jana walked back into the club.
First, she told Narci he could do whatever he wanted to her, then she offered him a tennis bracelet.
He gave her the business card for the center and that cunt tore it up.
I was standing right next to him when he offered to use the last of his fucking savings to pay for her rehab stint. ”
“Excuse me?”
“As a wedding gift to Diesel. He said he’d contributed enough to her delinquency and Diesel had his own problems. He needed a strong woman who’d tried to help herself, not an addict who didn’t make an effort.
He said if she got clean, he’d close his shop to Diesel and do everything in his power to get him into rehab. She declined.”
Mouth opened in shock, Kaia shook his head. If Fia told the truth, he understood why she was so outraged. But this was Fia. She’d worked with Diesel in the past to fuck over him.
“I’m a lot of things, but I’m not a drug addict. I would be so much better for Diesel than Jana.”
If that’s’ what she believed, he’d save his breath trying to convince her otherwise.
She got to her feet. “I don’t know how much longer the meeting will last, so I better get going. If you really want a chance with Rebel, think about talking to Meggie like I said.” Bending, she kissed his cheek. “See you around, Kaia,” she said, and walked away.
“Kaia?”
He’d been considering Fia’s advice, working up the courage to find Meggie and beg her forgiveness when a voice he never expected to hear intruded on him.
He lifted his head, took in Skye Ratcliffe’s petulant expression and sighed.
When he worked at the mini mart, she was a frequent patron.
She’d bring in her younger sister and brother for unhealthy food or come in alone to get shit to stitch up her mother.
Except she rarely had money, especially when Star—her mom—was in between wealthy men.
He scowled. “What, Skye?”
He hadn’t seen her since he’d walked her back to Ridge Moore the day she met CJ. He knew how she’d managed to get into the school. Other than saying her secret was safe, they hadn’t said much to each other.
“What floor is CJ’s sister on?”
“If he wanted you to know, he would’ve told you.”
She poked out her lip. “We lost. We placed fourth at the Science Fair. I need to talk to CJ.”
He glanced outside. Darkness had swept in without his noticing. “How’d you get here?”
Ridge Moore was at the other end of Hortensia. She couldn’t have walked.
“Someone dropped me off.” She shrugged, her necktie hanging around her neck, her blazer opened, and her trousers covering her long legs. “I don’t know their names. It was a boy from science class. He lost, too.”
At least she hadn’t hitch hiked.
“Text CJ and let him know,” Kaia suggested. “You probably won’t get anywhere near him. There are guards up there.”
Her eyes rounded. “Security guards?”
“Bikers. Bodyguards. They don’t let strangers on the unit.”
CJ might be in the waiting area, but Kaia doubted he’d wanted to be disturbed with school shit.
“CJ has a bodyguard?” Skye breathed, dazed.
Fuck. Kaia might have said too much. “Uh, yeah, don’t focus on that. Besides, they belong to his father, so don’t put much stock into it.”
“But—”
“Text CJ. Tell him you lost and you need to talk to him. While you’re doing that, I’ll call a rideshare service to get you home and order a pizza for you, Cosmos, and Dusk.”
“Momma bought food for dinner tomorrow. She told me. She even apologized that we wouldn’t have anything tonight.”
“You do now,” Kaia promised.
Skye hesitated, but in the end, food for her brother and sister won out over her desire to see CJ.