Chaos (Havoc Series Book Two) (18 page)

Graduation day. The last day of the giant
wedge that's been placed between us. Thank God. I'm not sure how
much more of this I can handle. Late nights without her. Constantly
smelling like that dick, Michele. Dating her as a text message
rather than a person. So glad it's almost over. So glad she finally
completed her dream of finishing school.

The cheers to the graduates fill the room
before they exit around back to meet us all in the hallways or
outside. While everyone else is here to see Haven graduate waits
outside, I'm waiting in the busy hallway. There are hugs being
thrown around and kisses. Happiness feeling the small space and I
just wanna see Haven. I just wanna hold her in my arms.

Suddenly, the door where the students had
been filing out of flies open and Haven looks around immediately
searching for a familiar face. As soon as she sees me, she rushes
towards me in her heels.

Not being able to hold still any longer, I
rush towards her, wrap my arms around her and lift her off the
ground. She squeezes her arms tightly around my neck. My muscles
tighten at the gesture. I've missed her like this. Reluctantly I
place her back on the ground, her eyes still glowing up at me.

“Congratulations,” I smile.

She bites her bottom lip excitedly and
giggles. “Thank you!”

“I'm so proud of you,” My words cause her to
smile again.

Before I miss the chance I press my lips
softly against hers. Very briefly. Too long and my soldier
downstairs will wonder if it's time to be back on active duty.
Something he hasn't had the chance to be on much lately. Leaning my
head against hers, I watch as she twirls my dog tags around.

“You...Clint Walker...are amazing. I couldn't
have done this without you.” Slowly she lifts her eyes off my tags
and lets them linger in mine. “What would I have done without
you?”

A smirk starts to crawl on my face only to be
immediately wiped away.

“Haven!” Michele's voice fills the air.

Slipping out of my grip she whirls around to
see him a few feet away. “Michele!”

She rushes towards him leaving me empty. Yet
again. Deep breaths Clint. Deep. Breaths. You cannot hit him and
ruin her graduation day. Feeling the familiar itch to pound
something I folds my arms across my chest as I stare on at Michele
whose hands are now wrapped around my girlfriend. Mine.

“That him?” Glove's voice interrupts the rant
that's growing in my head.

Not moving my attention from the sight I
stifle a growl, “Yup.”

At that, Michele shoots me a crooked grin.
One that's sending a message loud and clear. One that if it was any
other day, I would bash his skull in until he received the one I
want to share. That he can't have her.

“Is that asshole smiling at you?” Glove's
voice sounds as annoyed as my own.

“Yup.”

“Does he have any idea we could kill him
twenty different ways without flinching?” His comment causes a
small twitch on my face. Glove may be an insensitive. He may be
selfish. He may be an obnoxious pain in my ass. But at the end of
the day he is on my side. Always. “I know where we can hide a
body.”

The joke stirs up old memories of Old Man
Banks lying in my front yard. Dead.

Michele leans his head in laughter,
monopolizing her attention. Annoyed from beside me, he grunts,
“Fuck that. I've had enough of this.” I shoot him a glance and he
cups his hands around his mouth to yell, “Hey Haven!”

Hearing her name, she spins around and lets
her face light up again when she sees Glove. Immediately she rushes
to him, not even saying good bye to Michele who suddenly looks
defeated. I lower my eyes to a glare. He does the same.

“Proud of you,” Glove's voice travels through
the tension and turns me back towards them. That's when I notice
Glove is holding Haven closer than I care for.

“Thank you,” She giggles still excited.

“Glove, I swear if you don't loosen your grip
on my girl, you will lose those fingers.”

Chuckling he drops the embrace and sighs,
“Sorry Haven, but these things are magic with the ladies.”

Disgusted when he talks like that around her,
I slug him in the shoulder. Hard, Harder than intended, but the
impact was necessary. Glove tries to the hide pain. He doesn't say
anything. I think he gets it.

“Be nice, Clint! Its graduation day...” she
wraps her arms around mine, putting her right back where she
belongs. With me.

“That was nice,” I offer her a playful smirk
and she rolls her eyes in a similar fashion.

About an hour later, we're waiting in the
front of the restaurant while the hostess has gone to check on the
status of our dining area. Mindy rented out an entire back room for
us to celebrate. That's Mindy. Always doing something big for
someone she cares about.

Haven slipped away into the bathroom finally
giving me a moment alone with my friends to warn them.

“Look,” I let out a slow sigh. “I still
haven't told Haven yet about me leaving for school--”

“It's less than two weeks away!” Lordy snaps
loudly.

With a stern finger point at him I demand,
“Lower your voice.” He nods. “I know. It's been...difficult lately.
And I didn't want anything to ruin her special day--”

“This feels...familiar,” Glove's implication
makes me nervous. He's right. The last time I didn't tell her about
my orders ended with a slightly uncomfortable fight. And my
reasoning was the same. I didn't want to ruin her special day. I
hate the idea of being the one to throw a wrench in an important
moment. But I will tell her. Tomorrow. Or soon. Definitely
soon.

Having no rebuttal I merely look down at my
dress shoes that are slightly scuffed.

“Would you stop that?” Lordy fusses forcing
my attention back up.

Glove tugs at the tie around his neck. “I
can't help it. You know how much I hate wearing ties.”

“I know you much you hate wearing you’re
grown up clothes.” Lordy chuckles sliding a hand in his black suit
pants. “Don't worry. After the grown up dinner, we can go to the
grown up bar around the corner.”

“Things should only be around my neck if it's
sexually related,” Glove pouts struggling with the tie once
more.

“Too much information,” I grumble and look
away towards the door that's opening revealing a familiar sight
that I'm surprised to see. “Mandy?”

Her face abruptly jerks my direction and puts
a smile on her face. “Clint?” Relocating herself beside me and my
friends, I make note how Glove has stopped messing his tie, is
standing straight up, and looking presentable. Amazing. I'm tempted
to call her The Glove Whisperer.

She leans over and gives me a brief hug, a
smile planted on face, “Congratulations.”

“Thank you!” She puts a hand on her hip.
“What are you doing here?”

“Haven's graduation party is gonna be in the
backroom. Is that what you are here for?”

“I wish,” she sighs and pushes her hair out
of her face, which is when I swear I hear the faintest whimper from
beside me. “Actually, meeting my folks and sister here to
reluctantly celebrate my graduation.”

“You don't sound too excited about it.” Lordy
says.

“Well how excited can someone be that on the
most important day of their life so far, their parents are going to
scold them for not picking a career with actual promise and praise
their sister for marrying a rich doctor to give them
grandchildren?” her exasperation is followed with her clutching her
small purse closer to her body.

I open my mouth to respond, but am beat to
the punch. “You be as excited as you deserve to be, because you
worked your ass off and are more than just a baby factory waiting
to be in service.”

At the remark, Lordy and I both furrow our
eyebrows. Did he really just say that?

Mandy tilts her head at him and sighs in the
sweetest tone I've ever heard her use with him, “Thanks,
Michael.”

“Mandy!” Haven squeals rejoining us and
hugging her friend.

The two girls get lost in a conversation
among themselves and Lordy and I keep our attention on Glove
waiting for an explanation. He's not even paying attention. His
eyes are still focused on Mandy, the corner of his mouth curved
upward. I recognize not only the smile but the look. I know that
look. Lordy knows that look. We've both had that look. Shit.

Mandy turns to leave but gives us all a wave
before she's gone. It's only then that Glove turns to look back at
us. He notices we are staring at him suspiciously and shrugs,
“What?”

“This way!” the hostess speaks up over the
crowd.

I didn't see what I thought I saw. There's no
way. Glove didn't have that look. He couldn't have. It's just
not....possible. I know it wasn't possible for me either, but fuck.
Do I not have enough chaos running around right now? The added
confusion of Glove possibly in love with Mandy would just be too
fucking much. Besides who falls in love that fast?

We follow the hostess to the backroom that's
got more than enough room to accommodate all of us. There are
several tables set up with white table cloths, vases with yellow
sunflowers in the middle of most, and three waitresses waiting
inside to get us all settled.

The four of us sit at the same time table in
the center of the room. Our waitress, Jenny, immediately offers us
samples of wine and champagne. Lordy chooses a wine, Glove chooses
a beer, and Haven and I have champagne per Mindy's demand.

Conversation between everyone is light and
carefree. It feels good. Relaxing. Normal. It's almost like being
at her birthday party again except instead of being slaved by
thoughts of getting her into bed, I'm slaved to these moments,
these smiles being just enough for me. Haven keeps the topics on
things related to school or her friends. Anytime Mandy's name comes
up, Glove turns into an excited puppy, his tail wagging so
desperately that Lordy keeps shooting me looks of concern.

Throughout the meal, everyone wanders over to
talk to Haven and congratulate her on her success. On her
achievements. And when they say it, we all know, with the exception
of Glove and Lordy, that it's much more than just finishing school.
It's about finally being stable in life with a haunting past
buried.

Towards dessert time, Mindy announces that
its gift giving time. Lordy and Glove decide to take it upon
themselves to be the ones to play gift servers so I can stay by her
side. Lordy hands her the presents, Glove cleans up the trash and
stacks the gifts nicely on the table. Simple system.

Anna and Felix got her an expensive bowl
mixer thing. Striker got her some expensive thing that makes
espressos. I didn't even realize she drank coffee. Lexi got her a
set of 10 leather bound classic novels, something Glove wasn't the
most cheerful about moving. Guess he never realized books could be
so heavy. Doug gave her a gift card to pick out her own present.
Mindy gave her an autographed cook book by some fancy Italian chef.
I'm just thankful it's not by some French chef. Any more French
connection and I may be spending the night boxing out the rest of
my frustration. Dad gave her a set of nice baking equipment while
Glove and Lordy went half and half on some expensive cooking tools.
Finally she gets to my present.

Haven rips the paper off the box and yanks
the lid off revealing a black apron with sunflowers all over it
with the words “The Future Mrs. Walker” written in cursive in the
middle.

Mindy quickly gasps, “You're not proposing,
are you?”

Haven's eyes settle apparently desperate
herself to hear the answer. For the first time however, I can
actually see she wants the answer to be the opposite of what it
once was. My stomach turns. There's a sharp pain in my heart.

“No,” I swallow the sadness that the girl I
wanna marry doesn't wanna marry me. “Not today...”

The crowd looks relieved, but Haven the most.
She offers me a sweet smile doing her best to hide her true
feelings. But it's too late. The damage is done. “Thank you, baby!
It's perfect.”

I nod and put on the best facade smile I can
as the dessert is delivered. The attention in the room shifts and
returns to the state it was in, but I feel like I'm suffocating.
Each wall feels like it's coming closer and no matter how hard I
breathe it doesn't stop the feeling like it's going to crush me. I
rub my fingers through my hair. What's happening to me?

Abruptly, I stand up and get ready to rush
out of the room. Confused, Haven asks, “Where are you going?”

“Bathroom,” the lie falls out of my
mouth.

With that, I exit the room aware of the eyes
that are the back of my head but not being able to deal with it
right now. I head straight for the front of the restaurant where I
bust out the front door and am smacked in the face by the cool fall
air. The sounds of the busy downtown roads are actually soothing.
Slowly I stroll around towards the side of the building, long
inhales being the only thing to keep me grounded.

“Fancy meeting you here,” a soft voice speaks
up.

My eyes look up to see Jenny sitting beside
the building, a cigarette dangling from her fingers. For the first
time of the evening, I really give this girl a good look. Her hair
is pinned high on her head, her olive skin made up, her uniform
pressed to perfection, but the look in her eyes is that of someone
who's lost hope. I would know.

“Shouldn't you be in there? Isn't it your
girlfriend's big night?”

I don't respond. My face clenches tighter I
don't need the guilt of running away from the scene. All I needed
is a moment to fucking really just breathe. To find control
again.

“Not much of a talker?” she keeps pushing at
me, but I merely turn my attention back at the busy road where the
sun is setting. “Strong and silent type huh? No wonder she likes
you.”