Rewind (11 page)

I scrubbed my hands down my face, “You’re right, but fuck man I’m pretty sure she feels something between us too.”

“Maybe—maybe not.”

We paid our tab and went back to the dorms.  As we walked down the hall Theresa was knocking on their door then looked at us looked away then back at us.  “Hey, um,” she looked at the door with confusion, “I thought Syd came to let you guys in?  She ditched class before I did because my keys are inside.” 

“Are you serious?”  Bryan asked.

“Yeah, she got a text about ten minutes before class was over and said she was going to meet you guys here to let you in.”

“Well obviously she didn’t.”  I said and stuffed my hands in my pockets. 

“Sooo, then, where is she?”  Theresa said drawing out the words. 

“You weren’t supposed to leave without each other.”  Bryan whisper yelled at her since there were women in the halls. 

Theresa held her hands up, “Hey, don’t be pissed at me I had to talk to the instructor about some notes that I had misplaced a week ago.”

I pulled my cell phone out and tried to call Sydney’s phone, it didn’t even ring it went right to voicemail.  “Un.fucking.believable.”  I said and tried calling her again.  Same thing, straight to voicemail.  Theresa and Bryan each tried calling and got the same thing. 

“She has her phone off?  That’s not normal for her, it’s her lifeline.”  Theresa said with a sigh.  She scrolled through her phone put it up to her ear while looking at each of us, “His goes right to voicemail too.”

“Ronnie’s?”  Bryan asked.

“Yep.”  She said and leaned against the wall. 

“You’ll just have to go show us where he lives then.”  I said and started to walk away. 

“Um hello Einstein my car keys are locked inside.”

“Um hello Einstein…you’re going to ride with Bryan.”  I said in a mocking tone to match hers. 

“Oh, ha, sorry about that.”  She smiled and walked with us out of the building.  I followed Bryan for about ten minutes as we rode down side streets until Theresa tapped his shoulder and pointed at a small white house with a jacked up Ford pickup parked in the driveway.  Theresa took her helmet off after Bryan stopped and got off his motorcycle.  She ran across the street to the house and rang the doorbell a few times, nobody answered so she beat her fist against the door.  A tall skinny guy wearing boxers opened the door and squinted from the brightness of the sun.  He shook his head and let Theresa in.  A few minutes later she came out of the house shaking her head.  “She’s not here and neither is he.”

Bryan shook his head, “I guarantee you they are somewhere together.” 

“I don’t see why she would go anywhere with him, she knows he’s dangerous.”  Theresa said as she fastened the chin strap of the helmet and climbed on behind Bryan. 

We rode back to the college, Theresa hunted down the janitor so she could get into the dorm.  “I’m going to take a short nap will you please wake me up in an hour?”  she asked Bryan. 

“Yeah.”  he said then nodded for me to go out in the hall with him.

“You’re going to have to keep me from strangling her when she shows up.”  He ran his hand through his hair tugging on the back. 

“What the fuck is she thinking?”  I said.  I leaned against the wall and stared at the celing. 

“I bet you she is going to back out on going to the safe house too.  I can’t make her man, all I can do is threaten to tell Prez everything.”

I shook my head but didn’t look at him, “I can’t fucking stand drama and that’s all this is.  She isn’t going to go, neither of us can make her.  We both know Prez will literally kill the motherfucker.”  I finally looked at him.  “It’s your call man.”

“I’ll talk to Theresa.”  We went back in the dorm and relaxed until it was time to wake Theresa up.  Bryan talked to her about what we had discussed.

“She normally just rides with him to the stadium, I’ll see if I can get her to talk to me tonight.”  Theresa fixed her hair and makeup grabbed her keys and walked out with us behind her. 

“You’re not riding with me?”  Bryan asked looking from her car to her.

“Hell no I can’t have helmet hair.”  She said with a laugh and got in her car. 

We followed her to the stadium and parked our bikes out of harm’s way.  Theresa said for us to behave ourselves then she waved before she disappeared through the tunnel into the stadium.  Bryan and I paid for our tickets and went into the stadium after getting a soda and a snack.  We sat about halfway up right in front of where the cheerleaders were.  I looked at everybody that was stretching and didn’t see Sydney, “She’s not here yet.” 

“I’m sure she will be, he wouldn’t make it that fucking obvious that he’s a complete tool by not showing up for the last game.”

I checked my watch, it was still an hour before the game was to start, Bryan nudged me with his shoulder and nodded towards the cheer squad.  Sydney was practically skipping over towards them and Ronnie was walking the opposite way across the field.  I couldn’t say anything all I could do was shake my head.  Theresa had her hands firmly planted on her hips and was saying something to Sydney.  Sydney looked up and spotted us watching the conversation and grabbed Theresa by the hand.  She walked them over towards the front of the grandstands where they were out of sight.  Cindy the coach clapped her hands and motioned for the girls to join the group.  Theresa looked up at us and shook her head.  “That can’t be good.”  Bryan said. 

“Nope.”  I wanted to go down and drag Sydney away and demand her to tell me what the fuck had gone on.  I knew exactly what had happened, he had taken her somewhere, gave her a long fucking sob story then probably fucked her until she agreed that things would work out.  The schools fight song started blaring through the sound system and the squad ran over to the teams tunnel.  One by one the players ran out and pumped their arms up and down.  Ronnie was the last one out, he stopped at Sydney and wrapped his arms around her giving her a deep kiss and a swat on the ass before running to the sideline.  He turned and scanned the crowd, when his eyes landed on me he smiled and winked. 

“Well obviously he thinks he’s the winner already.”  Bryan muttered.

The Hawks won the game, the students and fans rushed the field to congratulate the team.  Ronnie instantly had Sydney in his arms, kissing her.  They smiled at one another and held hands as others patted him on the back.  Rather than hang around and wait for her I told Bryan we should meet her in the tunnel before she had a chance to ditch us. 

We waited as people filed out of the tunnel and to their cars in the parking lot.  Theresa, Sydney and one of the guys were the last three to come out of the stadium.  “Syd we need to talk.”  Bryan said.  She hugged the guy that was walking with them and walked over to us. 

“What’s up?”  she said like nothing was wrong.

Bryan’s eyes got big, “What’s up?  What the fuck is up is you ditched class early to leave with that asshole.  The very asshole that need I remind you is the reason you called me to come up here.”  He was trying not to yell but the last part echoed around us.  I remained standing against the wall, watching her.  She rolled her eyes and tried to walk past Bryan.  He put an arm out to stop her.  “You need to get your ass in that car with Theresa so we can get to the hotel.”

“No, everything is fine Bryan.  Ronnie and I talked, and, we, we are going to be fine.  You don’t need to know all the details but he’s getting help. So…”

“Are you fucking serious?”  Bryan yelled.  “You fucking believe him that he’s going to actually get help?”

“I
know
he’s getting help.  I’m not going to the hotel, I’m not going to the safe house, and I’m not going to be bossed around by some egotistical hot headed biker.”  She yelled in his face. 

I had heard enough, “Let’s go man.”  I grabbed Bryan’s shoulder and started to walk away, Sydney yelled my name but I ignored her and kept walking.  She yelled it again and ran up in front of me so I couldn’t walk.

“Cade, I’m—I’m sorry.  Thank you for everything.”  She looked at Bryan, “I’m sorry I wasted your time.  I’m sorry I called you those names, I truly do appreciate you guys coming here.”  She looked back at me waiting for me to say something. 

“Just remember what I said Sydney.”  I walked past her, got on my motorcycle put my helmet on and rode out of the parking lot.  What I loved about riding was it gave me time to think, clear my head and relax but tonight I couldn’t.  The ride home took about an hour and a half because of the traffic and the deer that seemed to be attracted to the sound of my pipes.  I arrived at Bryan’s house thirty minutes before he did. 

I went straight to the refrigerator for a beer, kicked my feet up on the coffee table and stared at the black TV screen. 

Bryan walked in, “Theresa is going to keep me posted on how things go.  If she even as much as suspects that shits getting bad again I’m telling Prez no questions asked.”  He said and twisted the cap off of his beer bottle.  “I still can’t believe she went back to him.”  He shook his head.

“I can, they always do.  They always fucking believe the asshole is going to change.  The change might last a day, a month, two months if they’re lucky maybe longer.  My mom went through it for ten fucking years and I went through it for two before mom finally put an end to it.”  I drank the rest of my beer and went to the kitchen for another. 

“Did it start off like this?”  he asked.

“Yep, just like it.  Then things would be great for a week or so, after too many drinks, something not going his way he would start in again.”

Bryan shook his head, “I fucking hope she knows what she’s doing.  She’s a good girl she deserves better that’s for god damn sure.”

I snorted, “He’ll fuck it up I just hope he doesn’t ruin her in the process or worse.”

~~~~

Every few days Bryan would get a text from Theresa telling him that things were going good.  Ronnie and Sydney were getting along better than they ever had and spent equal nights at each other’s places. 

I helped with a couple of charity events for the local hospital, anytime there was something I could do to help little kids fighting illness, I was more than glad to help.  Bryan kept trying to get me to patch over but I was perfectly fine with being the Nomad that they called when they needed help with something. 

I left town and went to visit my grandparents that lived twenty minutes outside of town. They lived in a massive two story house that grandpa had helped build from the ground up and they always kept a room open for me.  Grandpa’s health hadn’t been the best, he was starting to show early signs of Alzheimer’s, that worried not only my grandma but me.  After the death of my dad my mom didn’t go to prison, even though I think it would have been the best place for her.  She cried the day she dropped me off at her parents’ house and left me there.  We didn’t hear from her for three years until the police in California called and told us she had been arrested for prostitution.  We made the trip out there only to be told by her that she would rather die than have to look me in the eyes and see the evil green ever again.  So my grandparents raised me and put me through two years of a technical college where I graduated with honors from the mechanics course.  I was always fascinated watching my grandpa work on cars and motorcycles, taking things apart that didn’t work, putting them back together and them working again was what I wanted to do. 

One evening Grandpa and I were watching TV sipping on a beer when he looked at me with tears in his eyes.  “Cade I think I’m becoming too much of a burden on your Grandma, I think a retirement home is probably the safest place for me to be.  Will you check into it for me?”

I stared at him for a few seconds, “I think you should discuss it with Grandma first, she won’t want to leave you there and be in this big house all alone.”

He nodded his head, “We’ll talk to her about it in the morning, I just don’t want to be one of the old people that goes to the grocery store and loses their vehicle again.  I was so god damn scared.”

That was the first I had heard about something like that happening, maybe he was right.  The thought of them living in a retirement home made my stomach turn.  “I can just stay here and take care of you.” 

He waved a hand and finished his beer, “Hell no boy, you need to find you a good woman to settle down with and start a family with.”  He said with a smile.  “You’re not getting any younger.”

I laughed, “I enjoy being single thank you very much.”

“Someday Cade it’s going to happen and you won’t be able to stop it.  She’s going to consume your every thought, you’ll miss her when you leave for work, you’ll call her every chance you get.  When you walk in the door and she wraps her arms around you, your heart is going to feel like it’s trying to jump out of your chest to be with hers.”

I sat there speechless for a few minutes, “I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing.”  Then my thought drifted back to the hazel eyes of Sydney.  The softness of her skin, the whisper of her voice in the darkness, and her innocent touch as she rubbed her hands across my chest. 

“Well this old man needs to go to bed.  See you in the morning boy.”  Grandpa stood and started walking towards the front door.