Tethered Hearts | ✓ | Books 1 & 2

Episode 06| Chillax

It was never a crowded room, but tonight, it was busier than on most nights. There were still about fifteen of our guys in the building and probably five more in the back room playing poker. No one was stupid enough to walk in here and start a problem with me when I was at Rickey's. Or really, anywhere else in L.A. because typically I had about four other guys with me most of the time when I went places.

People in Southern California knew they couldn't mess with my money, my friends, or my family. I didn't have time to have a girlfriend, so that was thankfully off the list. Having a girlfriend meant I gave my rivals one extra thing to use as bait so they could have control over me. I couldn't handle that much pressure. So for the safety of others, I didn't date.

It might seem like I'm a little paranoid to other people when you hear how much protection I have around me at all times. But with the number of enemies I've gained in the past four years, there's no such thing as being a little paranoid.

"Hey, turn that up. That's Lincoln University," one of the guys shouted from a booth behind me. He stood up and walked to the TV mounted above the bar. "Yo, Rick. Turn up the volume."

I turned my head an inch to watch. A small group of guys huddled under the TV started to laugh when a clip of a girl falling into a lake played. I exhaled a sigh at the crowd of buffoons that found humor in a girl nearly drowning in a lake. I was into some morbid jokes, but I wasn't rude enough to laugh at someone who couldn't swim.

"It's not that funny," I said, softly at first. "Quit laughing."

One of them spun around to see who had spoken. "It is fun– oh. Okay, Bryce." His face paled and the other guys' laughter muffled until it stopped all together.

"You saved her from the lake, didn't you?" One of them dared to speak up and ask. "I remember you going in and helping her."

"Yeah? And what's your point?"

"Well did you get some action afterw—"

I cut him off; I wasn't in the mood. "How about you turn the fuck back around before I snap your neck." I grumbled, picking up my drink and stirring around the red straw. I didn't know if it was my Queens, New York mentality to knock the teeth out of this wise guy or my father's impulsive behavior that was starting to rub off of me after all these years.

Either way, that night was something I didn't want to talk about.

Don't get me wrong, I still remembered that night. Sophia went in, looking for Remy Annenberg, lugging around two of her friends with her. Before I saw Reina Annenberg shove her into the lake, I had already had my eyes on her. She was in my Sociocultural Anthropology class this year and she sat several rows ahead of me. I typically showed up late for the class so I sat near the back. She, on the other hand, sat right in the front row.

After I got her out of the lake, it was really hard to pretend like I didn't know her name or who she was. Apparently, girls don't like it when a random guy with a fuck-load of tattoos knows their first and last name before even saying hello. Who knew?

  •••

Monday's were systematically created to ruin my week. I only had one class today and I made it an effort to not be ten minutes late like I usually was. My sociocultural anthropology Professor was a tired old woman that always said "Uh" in between her sentences and looked like she hasn't had sex since the Nixon administration left office.

Her class was partially manageable because I shared it with Kelsey Jacobson. She made stupid jokes about Professor Evans while periodically writing notes for Conner to read when we left class. They had a weird relationship. I'd rather not dive into the details, especially after I heard him moaning like a goat the other week at our apartment.