Finding A Way (10 page)

Mac and I both laugh. She and Evan give each other hell, but it’s all in good fun. They have a different relationship. They insult each other on a daily basis, but it’s all fake. Each insult is just the opposite. They love each other more than anything.

Her threat to withhold sex from Evan works because he apologizes and walks away mumbling about how women will be the death of him, or something along those lines.

Sierra takes a seat on my bed.

“So how was your road trip with
Mac
?” The way she says his name lets me know she's up to no good. It’s written all over her face that she’s rooting for us on the sidelines which shouldn't even exist. She isn’t quite secretive about it. I shrug, giving her as vague of an answer as I can. I know by doing this, it will drive her totally mad.

“It was good,” I answer flatly.

“…and?” She motions her hands at me to continue.

“He's cool,” I say casually and her mouth gapes open.

“Come on bitch, spill! You went into the truck looking nervous as hell, then you come out looking like you wanna rip off lover boy’s clothes.”

I almost consider looking in the mirror to see if I really look like that, but decide against it. I don’t plan on telling any details. I do want to rip his clothes off. Well at least she doesn't know, so I play it off that way.

“Oh stop. We're just friends. He's nice. And he offered to show me around the city when I want to, and really, lover boy? What are we, ten?”

She gives me a look of disbelief as she squeals in excitement.

"I freaking knew it! Evan owes me a whole Sunday of doing laundry! I knew Mac would be all about you, and as far as lover boy, that’s what I will call him until I can call him your boyfriend."

She astonishes me. Completely blows my mind as she speaks. They made a bet! I should expect no less from her. I mean, I'm not mad. It's funny, but it makes me question why in God’s name Evan would bet that Mac wouldn't come near me. I’m not that bad.

"Can I ask why this bet was made?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Well, Mac doesn't actually date girls..." I already know this from talking to him. So, I wait for her to continue.

"And um…I told Evan once Mac saw you, and got to know you, he would fall in love with you. It was a sure-fire bet."

Love? My best friend is insane. She's jumping the gun a little here. Mac is great and all, and I could totally see us banging, but love? That's a whole other story. One which I won’t be writing.

I shrug my shoulders, rolling my eyes at her.

"Slow your roll. I'd definitely bang him, but I don't see us getting married in the future and having five kids."

She jumps up from my bed, doing what looks like a little victory dance of some sort, I think.

"YES!" she yells loudly, pumping her fist into the air.

I stare at her wondering what she’s doing as she gives me a guilty look. "He owes me two laundry days now..."

I put my head into my hands, continuing to laugh hysterically at her. Leave it to my best friend to bet on my romantic future.

"You're unbelievable."

I helped
move in Callie's boxes and then opted out of their little family relaxation night. I had to get to the shop to see how everything was going. Also, I needed some space from the girl who is fucking with my head and I had to make sure Trent wasn’t feeding my dog table scraps.

Nanook is my little girl. She’s a black and white Siberian Husky who I’ve had since she was a pup. I found her in some dirty ass part of the city in an alley. She was covered in mud and who knows what else. I wasn’t going to keep her. I mean, my lifestyle didn’t exactly call for a dog in it, but when I tried to walk away from her, she fucking followed me. I looked at her, and that’s when I scooped her up and took her home with me. I couldn’t leave the poor thing there to starve to death.

Evan ended up dropping me at my apartment so I could pick up my truck and head down to the shop. I pull up and hear the belt sander blaring as Trent works his magic on another restoration. I see Nook is lying in her dog house which I built her. That’s her spot. She will lie there all day if I let her. I spend most of my time here so it was only suitable she come along with me. She’s pretty good with not wandering off. I don’t even have to keep a leash on her anymore, but she still has her pink studded Harley Davidson collar on that some smoking hot chick at the pet store convinced me to buy her. I was a little hesitant at first, but the girl assured me she needed the collar. That was before telling me it would make a forty dollar dent in my wallet.

I park the truck and hop out. Nook’s head lifts up and she barrels toward me, jumping up on me and kissing my face. This is our ritual. She always smothers me with kisses when I see her.

Trent is pretty good with her, except for when he feeds her chips and shit. That pisses me the fuck off. She’s pure muscle, healthy, and I want to keep her that way. Trent has keys to my apartment, so if he knows I’m going to be busy for the day, his job is to scoop up Nook and bring her down to the garage or even the tattoo shop. He watched her while I was on my trip, but I can only imagine how it fucking went. My girl gets a little moody when her daddy’s not around.

I walk inside and see a very occupied Trent. Clicking the lights off and back on, he looks up cutting the power to the belt sander. Nook follows at my heels, grabbing her bone from the floor and lying down in the corner of the garage in her dog bed.

“Hey man. How was ya trip?” he asks, pulling off his safety glasses and grabbing a smoke from his pocket.

Trent's a good guy. I met him at the bar when I first moved here. He was sitting with some loose chick on his lap whose boyfriend tried to start trouble. Normally I don't meddle in other people's business, but the guy picking the fight had back-up and three-on-one is just dirty shit if you ask me. If you’re gonna come at me, it better be one-on-one. After that, the dumb fuck and I ended up becoming friends. We would bullshit with each other at the bar more nights than not and history made itself in the process.

I light a smoke myself, leaning back against the wooden desk where we do our paperwork. It’s a fucking mess, so I know Ry hasn’t been here.

“It was all right; just a long ass drive.”

He cocks his eyebrow, cracking a devilish expression. “And how was the chick?”

I knew this was coming. When I told him Evan’s girl was having her friend move in, those wheels in his head turned. He’s just like me. If it has big tits and a nice ass, he's trying to get a piece so long as they’re legal and living in a college town. There's an endless supply to choose from.

“She's all right,” I say, trying to sway him away from the topic.

I don't want Trent touching this one. She's too good to be fucked and then tossed aside like the rest. I won’t let him ruin her like he does the others. He’s ruthless when it comes to women. I’m not much better, but at least I don’t call them names after I fuck them.

Disappointment washes over his face. He was pretty damn excited to see her. The last time Sierra and Evan came out with us, Sierra kept blabbing about how damn sexy her mysterious friend was.

“I thought she was gonna be hot, kid. Evan’s girl seemed to paint a pretty good fucking picture. Big tits, small waist, wide hips, and a tight little ass…” He makes some kind of weird ass noise which sounds like he's eating a goddamn steak. I feel my hand close into a fist while he describes all of her perfect attributes.

I snap at him a little too harshly, cutting him off. I feel the need to protect her from Trent, not that he isn’t a good guy, because he is. Like I said before, he just doesn’t respect women.

“Well, she's fucking hideous man. You know how chicks over-exaggerate looks when it comes to their friends. How many times have ya had some bitch tell you her friend was smoking hot and you should all have a threesome, then the second bitch comes, and it looks like she got hit by a fucking shovel? Ya know how chicks are.”

I toss my smoke on the concrete floor and step on it to put it out, adding, “because I can count at least three times when it's happened to you.”

I don't want him to even meet Callie, let alone touch her. The thought of him touching her makes me want to wring his goddamn neck. Too bad I set myself up for this disaster when I told her I'd let Trent tattoo her. That was a fucking huge mistake. I contemplate taking her somewhere else, being I didn't tell her his name. She'd never know. I could see if the other guy at the shop, Gunner, can do her ink.

Trent seems to get the hint to back off because he grabs his sander, getting ready to fire it up again.

“Well, that fucking sucks. I was lookin' forward to some fresh biddys around here. I’m running out of names on my list.”

Asshole.

My phone dings in my pocket. I fish it out to check who the hell has been blowing up my phone for the past hour. Five new messages read on the lock screen.

Are you coming out tonight?

It’s my birthday, Mac.

Why are you ignoring me?

What about your promise?

Okay. I won’t bother you anymore.

I close out the screen, not answering her. This has been my life for the past three weeks. Caroline texts and calls nonstop, and I ignore her. Every single fucking time I answer, it’s like signing my own death warrant.

Caroline is someone from my past, and as much as I cared about her in another place, at another time, things are different now. I've seen her a couple times in the past year and every time I have, she pissed me the fuck off. Every time she fucking throws herself at me, my answer is always the same.

"Have some fucking self-respect. I'm not going to sleep with you. You're like a sister."

As soon as she hears that, she cries, asking me why she isn't good enough for me. I still remember like it was yesterday even though it was six years ago…

Caroline and I were lying on the couch in the living room of my apartment.

"Bear, why is she sick again?" Caroline snuggles into my side, wrapping her arms around my midsection. I run my hand through her hair. Not in a sexual way, but the way you comfort family. Caroline is just that, family. Not blood related, but being she's my girlfriend’s little sister, I feel the need to protect her. Hence why she calls me Bear.

I've been her Bear for the past year, making sure she has clothes on her back, a roof over her head, and food in her stomach. I'll always be there for her, unlike her sister Leah, my girlfriend, who is too busy detoxing from a month’s worth of dope. I can't tell Caroline the truth. I can't say the things she'll figure out one day. “Your sister is an addict Caroline. Addicts get sick when they don't get what their bodies crave.” So instead, I lie. It's the only thing you can do when a fifteen-year-old asks questions about her sister's health.