Freedom & Chrome || Book 1 ENGLISH

Jealousy

Kaden walked aimlessly up and down the camp, not knowing where to put all the anger and jealousy that lay heavy in his stomach. Damn Siria, always she has to interfere, always she sticks to V! Can't she just leave him alone, damn it? Why doesn't she realize that I- at the last thought he interrupted himself and sighed heavily. -that I'm what? Trying to kiss my best friend? Trying to win him over? Holy crap, I don't even know if he's into guys. But would he have just done that if he isn't? Or was it just curiosity? If only that stupid cow hadn't shown up! At the thought of how Siria had just ruined his chance to find out more and to finally be physically closer to his best buddy, the flame of anger drove straight back to his stomach. Furious, he kicked a rock across the camp, which crashed with a loud tong against the metal bathtub that still held their junkyard finds.

"Are you all right?" It was Mell who spoke behind him, she was on her way to the camp when she saw Kaden trudging through the camp alone. After his parents, due to his father's health problems, had to settle on the outskirts of a larger city a few months ago, the Maddox's helped watch over Kaden and take care of him. So actually like his whole life before.

"Hey Mell, yeah everything's fine," he struggled to smile, but he wasn't exactly known for his calm temper. Mell gave him that typical all-knowing mother look that both boys always had to endure whenever they were caught doing some nonsense and tilted her head. Everything was not fine and she could see that quite clearly.

"Then that rock must have really offended you if it deserved that kick." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly and turned his gaze to the tub, which had a new small dent in it. That had been a little harder than intended, perhaps. "Does it have to do with Siria?" almost startled, Kaden turned back to her, but anger still bubbled under his skin. "Her and V seem pretty close."

"Close isn't even an expression," he grumbled grimly, recalling the image from noon of how far Siria had leaned over the tub, practically pressing her butt against V.

"Don't worry, he'll still spend plenty of time with you. You've always been inseparable, having a girlfriend isn't going to change that," Mell completely misread Kaden's anger and jealousy, and he couldn't even blame her. As far as he knew, no one had ever come out in the clan, and he wasn't going to start now. So it was only understandable that she assumed Siria could be V's girlfriend and who knows, maybe one day she would be. Especially if he didn't finally get off his ass and talk to V about it. Or, well, something like that. He also didn't want to know right now what Mell would think of him bluntly telling her that he had a crush on her son. Bitterness reflected in his eyes. So many answers ran through his mind, most of which would have been more than inappropriate, so he reined in his temper as best he could and simply nodded curtly with a forced smile.

"You're probably right," Mell frowned worriedly. She was about to retort something else, but he was already walking past her to take a few laps on his motorcycle. He needed peace and quiet, and he didn't have it in the camp.

By the time the Maddox clan gathered around the campfire by the lake, V and Siria had also joined the others. V shoved the gloomy thoughts aside at some point to better converse with Siria; after all, despite the arguments between Kaden and her, they were friends and he didn't want to let his fears and thoughts ruin his whole day. "Why are you guys out of town?" wanted V to know after they found a good spot near the fire and the soon to be food.

"I don't know," Siria sighed, rolling her eyes. "I love the big city, all my friends are there and there's lots to do, but my dad said he was tired of cleaning up everyone else's mess all the time."

"Everyone else's mess?" V wrapped his arms loosely around his bent legs and rested his head on them.

"When we lived in Neyon, he was with the cops and always had to take care of the remains of the gang wars. Apparently he was the only one who ever cared about that either, his colleagues had probably never been eager to even try to get the bodies back to their families or solve the murder. They just chopped it off, made another mark on their list and moved on."