I sat outside of the restaurant, my shift having ended. I wanted to go back to the bar but I didn't feel like spending money and I didn't want my face to become too familiar there.
So instead, I continued to lean against the outside of the restaurant, watching people as they walked by. The restaurant, called Magellan's, was located in a mini plaza.
I leaned my head back, closing my eyes. My bike had a flat tire, so I'd had to walk here. It was a pretty lengthy walk, and I wasn't exactly looking forward to heading home.
But I knew that no one would come down to pick me up. They'd claim it was a waste of gas since I had perfectly functioning legs.
I opened my eyes, watching as more people scampered about the plaza. People were streaming in and out of the restaurant, making me glad that my shift was over. It had been an especially busy night for some reason.
"Well, I see the restaurant got around to taking the trash out."
"Original," I said, looking up at Jack.
He had a grocery bag in his hand, meaning he must have been at the grocery store on the other end of the plaza. He was swinging car keys around his finger.
"Break?" he guessed.
"End of shift," I said. "Thanks for texting my friends, by the way. They all think you're a charm."
"Take a good, long look at the restaurant. You won't be working there forever," he said.
"Never planned on working there forever. Just planned on working there to keep myself stable for a little," I said.
"So why are you just sitting out here?" he asked.
"Enjoying my view," I said. "That, and I'm not ready to walk home."
He raised an eyebrow. "You walk to work?"
"We can't all afford cars," I said.
"Most people would just invest in a bike," he said.
"Most people do invest in bikes and don't expect a flat tire right before work," I said.
"I'll give you a ride," he said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. Why the hell would he offer me a ride? Was he trying to make me owe him?
"Don't look at me like that. This isn't a pity thing and I'm not going to demand payback for it. My mom just raised me right," he said. "So either you want a ride, or you don't. Either way, it's not going to ruin my night."
Hm, maybe I could use this to my advantage. Not only would I get a ride home out of it, but maybe I could get Jack to leave my job alone.
"Fine," I said, standing up.
Jack led me over to his car and I climbed into the passenger's seat. He got in and tossed the grocery bag into the back seat, starting up the car.
He plugged his phone into the speakers and scrolled through the songs. He tapped one and backed out of the parking lot.
"Take your caution or take your chances, I'll mend your heart and break it in the same breath." The music broke the awkward silence between us as he drove.
"I'm surprised it's not Brand New," I said.
"I really don't even like Brand New that much," he said. "What's your address? I'm not in the mood to drive around aimlessly with you for hours."
"Your loss. I'm fantastic company." I rattled off my address to him.
"Just so you know, I meant what I said about getting you fired," he said.
"What happened to your mom raising you right?" I said.
"She did. Guys like you need a little extra encouragement to learn your lessons," he said with a shrug.
"If I don't have that job, I'm literally out on the streets," I said with a sigh. "Thanks to you, my friends are threatening to kick me out."
"Shouldn't get yourself into trouble, then," he said.
"Delaney offered me drinks. How is that getting into trouble?" I asked.
"You were out looking for anyone drunk enough to manipulate," he said. "You found that girl first and then you found Dex." He glanced at me before returning his gaze to the road. "And you're the type who hates to lose. So now you're screwing with Dex to get back at me."
"So, what, you're going to get me fired from my job and kicked out of my house?" I said.
"That depends. Are you going to pay Dex back and stay away from us and our apartment?" he said.
I looked out the front of the car. "I don't have anywhere else to go. If I lose my job, I lose my home, too."
"I'm sure you'll figure something out," he said.
I shook my head. "No, I mean I really have nowhere else to go. I don't have any family and I live with my only friends."
"Just pay Dex back and stay away from us," he said, causing me to hide my smirk. Good, he was falling for it.
Although I wasn't just making up some sob story. Jer, Ike, and Christian were my only friends now that Alexis had abandoned our family. And it's not like I could go crawling back to my dad. I would never want to live with him again.
If I lost my job and they kicked me out, I'd be back on the streets. I'd be homeless again, just like when I was 16 years old.
"I can't afford to," I said.
"Well, then you shouldn't be going out to bars if you can't afford drinks," he said.
"I just wanted a relaxing night," I said.
"No, you went there with the intention of finding someone drunk to manipulate for drinks and sex. You went for that drunk girl and when I stopped that, you found Dex." He pulled off his hat, tossing it into the backseat and running a hand through his hair. "People like you disgust me."
"Good to know. But as disgusting as I am, I'd rather not be homeless again," I said, leaning back in the seat. "So instead of overreacting to a few drinks your friend bought for me, why not just let it drop?"
"Again?" He glanced at me.
This was the hard part of this. I needed to get him to leave my job alone without actually giving up too much information about myself.
"I was homeless for a few months," I said. "It really sucks and I'd rather not do that again. My job is the only thing keeping me off the streets."
Jack pulled into the driveway, putting the car in park. I could see Jer watching suspiciously from the porch.
"All you have to do is pay Dex back and this all goes away," he said with a shrug.
"If you knew how broke I was, you'd laugh," I said.
"Cry me a river, build a bridge, and get over it," he said. "You shouldn't have manipulated him, then. I'm doing you the favor of teaching you a lesson."
"By making me homeless?" I pushed open the door to the car. "Are you honestly that cruel that you'd leave a guy homeless just because of a few drinks?"
"It's not just the drinks. It's the fact that you went out with the intent to take advantage of people who were too drunk to know any better. God only knows what other advantages you'd take," he said.
I glared at him, feeling anger well up. "I wasn't taking advantage of anybody! Are you trying to imply that I'd go out there and rape them? What kind of sick fuck do you think I am?" I snapped.
"Ace!"
I turned, seeing Jer glaring at me from the porch. He was standing up, looking ready to come drag me away if a fight broke out.
"Get inside," Jer said in annoyance.
"Better go listen to your friend," Jack said, gesturing at me to get out of his car. "I'll be waiting for that money."
I got out of the car, my hand gripping the door. "You're not going to get your damn money. Go ahead and make me homeless over this. See if you can fucking sleep at night." I slammed the car door, storming away from it.
Jack rolled down the window, leaning out of it casually. "I'll give you a week," he called. "That gives you time to get a pay check and hand that money over to Dex. Either you have some shitty luck or karma is finally catching up to you, Ace. I don't let people get away with messing with me and my friends."
He rolled up the window and backed out of the driveway, the car disappearing down the street. Jer grabbed my arm as I tried to go in the front door.
"That's the guy you owe?" he asked.
"I don't owe him or his friend shit!" I said, yanking my arm out of Jer's grip.
"Christ Ace, just swallow your damn pride and pay the guy!" Jer said impatiently.
"I don't owe him, so I'm not going to pay him." I yanked the front door open and went inside, slamming it before Jer could follow me.
But Jer shoved the door open and grabbed the back of my shirt as I started up the stairs. He yanked me so hard that I stumbled and nearly tripped on the step.
"Give him money before he gets you fired," Jer said, his expression announcing that he was sick of talking about this.
I tried to pry his hand off of my shirt. "I'm not paying a guy that I don't owe!"
"Not this again," Ike said, coming down the stairs. He slipped past us, starting down the hallway. He paused and spun around to face us. "Just pay him before you lose your job. No job, no house. I know you're stupid, but you're not that stupid, Ace."
"I was stupid enough to be friends with you two," I said.
"Well, clearly we all make mistakes," Ike said, gesturing at the three of us.
I finally managed to get Jer's hand off my shirt. "Whatever." I moved towards the front door, but Jer grabbed me again.
"Oh hell no. You're going to get yourself into even more trouble. We're sick of bailing you out. Go upstairs and quit being a pain in the ass." Jer shoved me towards the stairs.
"You're not keeping me prisoner in my room," I said, trying to get by him again.
He shoved me once more. "If you walk out of this house, you're out for the night. We're locking you out. You need to quit getting yourself into all this trouble. You're on your own, Ace."
"I'm glad I have such caring friends," I said.
"We don't put up with bullshit," Jer said.
I let out a long sigh. "Fine, fine. I'll play good boy tonight and go to my room. Should I do my homework, too? Make sure I stay out of mommy's hair?"
"Keep it up and your mother won't be the only one who abandoned you," Jer grumbled before heading outside, slamming the door as he went.
"You're really pissing him off. Cut it out. I hate dealing with Jer when he's in an even worse mood than usual," Ike said.
"You're all pissing me off," I said, heading up the stairs and into my bedroom. I shut the door and dropped onto my bed, feeling horribly bored.
I had nothing to do around the house anymore. With Alexis and the kid gone, I didn't even have any way to kill time. The guys were all mad at me, so talking to them would only be a nuisance.
I rolled over, staring at the wall. I remembered being a little kid and getting bored in my room. My father hadn't allowed me to have any friends. He had claimed they were all a bad influence on me and he didn't want his son to be a naughty kid like the rest of them.
I'd been holed up in my room, maybe about six years old or so, and with nothing else to do, played tic-tac-toe with myself, drawing out the games on my walls. My dad had come in to tell me dinner was ready and seen my little art work on the wall.
He'd forced me to clean it all off the walls, standing there the whole time reminding me how bad of a kid I was. He made me clean all the walls and had taken all the pens, pencils, crayons, and markers out of my bedroom.
"You're a naughty boy, Ace. You're very, very bad. Any other father would've slammed your hand in the door for drawing on the walls like this. You're lucky I'm your dad. You're lucky I'm so good to you!" he'd told me.
I could remember hanging my head in shame, telling my dad how much I loved him for being so nice to me. Feeling grateful that he was my father. Thinking he treated me so well.
But I'd been a kid, and kids didn't know any better. With no friends and only a cousin who didn't even know who his dad was, I'd never known what a dad was supposed to be like. I knew my dad and that was it.
As I got older, I got smarter. I learned. I grew bitter and resentful towards him. He grew stricter and more cunning towards me.
Now here I was.
Had my father ever searched for me? Did he miss me at all? Did he ever sit alone in the house at night, wishing that his wife and son hadn't run away from him?
I felt a dark grin coming to my face at the thought of him alone in that house. I hoped he was lonely. I hoped he missed my mom, because she sure as hell wasn't coming back to him. And I hoped he was furious that I'd stolen his money and runaway. I hoped he thought of ways to punish me and searched for me to carry out those punishments. He'd never get his damn hands on me and I hoped that tortured him inside.
My thoughts crept over to Jack. I can't believe he was causing this much trouble for me, especially threatening my job and getting my friends involved.
He was becoming too much trouble. He'd have to learn a lesson himself, and I'd be more than happy to teach it to him.
But what was the best way to do that? How could I get back at him without having him involve my friends or job?
Wait, of course! Delaney!
Jack seemed determined to drag my friends into this, so I it was only fair if I dragged his into it. I could consider it a bit of insurance, really. Wrap Delaney around my finger and use him to keep Jack in check. Then, once I was sure Jack wouldn't be a problem anymore, I could drop Delaney. It would be one final stab to Jack to let him know who he'd pissed off.
I sat up, whipping out my cell phone and dialing Delaney's number. I held the phone up to my ear as I waited.
"Hello?" Delaney answered.
"Hey, Delaney. Do you want to come hang out?" I asked.
"Uh..." He sounded surprised. "Sure, Ace. Where?"
"My house. My friends have me under house arrest for the night thanks to Jack," I said, laughing and grinning.
"Shit, man, I'm sorry he got you in trouble with your friends. Text me your address and I'll head over," he said.
I hung up the phone and texted my address to Delaney. Something told me that he was the kind of boy who wasn't used to the kind of attention I was giving him. He seemed the type who was used to guys who hit it and quit it, not guys who called and invited him to hang out.
This was good. It worked to my advantage. I needed to see just how used to relationships he was so that I knew how to work this better. I didn't actually want a relationship with him, but I needed him to think we could get there so I could really use him against Jack.
I leaned against the wall, tracing my finger down it lightly. I had to do this to make sure Jack didn't get me fired.
Alexis was gone, which meant no one was holding our little family together anymore. He had always been the glue keeping us together and now he was gone.
It wouldn't take much to ruin what was left. But I wasn't going to let that happen. I wasn't going to lose another family and end up back out on the streets. Jack was a threat and I would have to take care of that.
A few minutes later, my phone buzzed with a text from Delaney, saying he was almost here. I got up and went downstairs, letting myself out onto the front porch.
"You leave and I lock that door for the night," Jer said from his chair on the porch. He was always sitting out here, though I was never quite sure what he was working on.
"I'm not leaving," I said. "What's got you anxious?"
He was chewing on a plastic spoon as he wrote something down in a notebook. Jer had a habit of chewing on things when he was anxious.
"None of your damn business," he snapped, biting down on the spoon so hard that it snapped in his mouth. He whipped it on the lawn and spit out a little blood into the empty cup next to him. He picked up another spoon and began to chew on that instead.
"Feisty," I said, grinning.
I looked up as Delaney turned down the driveway. He noticed me and sped up a little, coming up the porch steps.
"Hey Ace," he greeted.
"Oh, come the fuck on!" Jer cried, glaring at me. "Christ, I'd rather have you leave the fucking house!"
I raised my hands innocently, my grin growing. "Hey, you're the one who placed me on house arrest." I glanced at Delaney. "Sorry Delaney, I forgot to ask my mom here if I could have my friends over."
Jer stood up and shoved me so hard that I nearly fell over the railing of the porch. "Guess I have to forgive you for not knowing how to ask your mom permission for anything. She wasn't exactly around to teach you any fucking manners," he snarled, dropping back into his seat. He bit his spoon hard enough to snap it and winced as his mouth was cut by it again. He threw it over the railing and grabbed another spoon. "If you annoy me, I'm going to murder you."
"I don't have manners? Clearly mommy and daddy were too busy shooting up with heroin to teach you any either," I said, pulling Delaney into the house before Jer actually did push me over the railing.
"Your friends are pleasant," Delaney said, laughing nervously.
I laughed. "And that was Jer on a good day."
I led Delaney upstairs and into my bedroom, shutting the door. He looked around my room, eyes curiously looking over the picture frame I kept face-down on my dresser.
It was a family photo of me and my parents, back when I was about five. My dad had kept it stored under his bed because he looked expressionless in it, opting instead to hang the one taken a few seconds after where he was actually smiling. When I ran away, I took the one of him not smiling with me. Sometimes I just needed to remind myself what he was really like.
"So, uh..." He peeked up, almost a little apologetically. "So was he serious? About you not having a mom?"
"She ditched me when I was a kid. Good riddance to her," I said dismissively, jumping onto my bed and folding my hands behind my head.
"And that guy's parents...were they really..." He waited.
"Drug addicts? Yep, still are. Jer and I come from stable homes, clearly," I said, snickering.
"That sucks," Delaney said, sitting on the edge of my bed. "My folks were strict and it always drove me crazy. But I know I was actually lucky that they cared so much."
I shrugged. "Parents only matter until you're old enough to take care of yourself."
"Do you mind me asking why you invited me over?" he asked, easily changing the subject.
"Because I wanted to hang out. Duh," I said.
He looked at me in surprise. "No offense, but I took you as a one and done kind of guy."
"Do you want me to be a one and done kind of guy?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
He hastily shook his head. "No, that's not what I meant! I just meant...well...I was surprised."
"Have you ever had a boyfriend before?" I asked him.
Delaney blushed a little and nodded. "Yea, I've had two."
Ah, so he was fairly new to the dating thing. He was mainly just a sex kind of guy. This could definitely work to my advantage.
"Is there anything between you and Jack?" I asked.
His blush grew. "No!" he said, a little too quickly.
"Really?" I grinned at him. "Someone's lying."
He groaned and looked away from me. "Okay, okay. We almost had sex together when we first met. That's how he got the nickname Dex for me. He was really tired but we started making out and he said 'I want to have dex with you Selaney'. God, he's so stupid sometimes. He killed the whole mood. We couldn't stop laughing. We didn't end up sleeping together and we just became friends." He sighed, looking at me again, smiling and shrugging. "I'm glad I didn't have sex with Jack. He drives me so crazy I want to shoot him half the time. We're better off as friends and nothing more."
"He seems like an asshole," I pointed out. Hey, it wouldn't hurt to get a little information about him while I was at this.
Delaney shook his head. "He's really not. Well, I mean, he is. But he's also a good guy. I know you think he's a shitty person, but he thinks he's doing the right thing. He thinks you're some horrible person who needs to be taught not to be a horrible person."
"Maybe I am." My grin dissolved into a smirk.
Delaney moved a little closer to me. "I doubt that. Jack's just...well, a jackass."
I sat up, snapping and excitedly pointing at Delaney. "Jackass. Yes! I love that! That's my new name for him."
"Oh, he'll love that. He'll love it even more when he finds out I'm here." Delaney laughed. "Sometimes Jack forgets he's not my mom."
"Yea, my friends have that same issue," I said.
As if on cue, there was a light knock on my door before Ike opened it and stepped in. He crossed his arms, fixing me with a look.
"Look, I don't care what you do in here. Just keep it down. My room is right next to yours and I'm Skyping with my little brother. I don't need Joshie to hear you doing whatever it is you do with random guys in your room," he said.
I gestured to us. "Does it look like we're doing anything inappropriate? Although if we do start doing scandalous things, I'll be extra loud, just for Joshie." I winked.
"Whatever. Christian's trying to sleep too, so just keep it down," he said.
"Sleep? It's not even late!" I said.
"He was up all night getting work done. You would know these things if you were ever home anymore," Ike said before shutting my door. I heard his own door shutting a moment later.
"How many guys do you live with?" Delaney asked.
"Just three of them. That was Ike, Jericho was the guy on the porch, and Christian is apparently asleep. Not that he ever leaves his room to interact with humans, anyway," I said. "What about you?"
"It's me, Jack, and our other friend. But he's usually not at the apartment. He spends a lot of time at his girlfriend's," Delaney said. His eyes went back to searching around my room, coming to land on one of the many poorly drawn pictures Micah had gifted me. "You have a little sibling or something?"
I shook my head. "Nope. We used to have a guy who lived here with a five year old that he looked after. I always got suckered into babysitting the kid. They don't live here anymore, though." I sighed, shifting into a more comfortable position. "Sorry if it's a bit boring here. No one in this house knows how to have fun anymore."
I got up, moving around my room in search of something to do. I picked up a deck of cards and flashed them towards Delaney.
"Up for a game?" I offered.
"Sure. We play cards at our apartment all the time, so better be ready to lose," he said, sitting on the floor with me.
"Try it," I challenged, dealing out the cards.
We began to play, talking and laughing casually as we did. This was all I had to do. Ease him into a light relationship, then trip him into falling for me hardcore. I was going to protect myself and what was left of my family and keep Jack from ruining what I had built for myself.
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A.N.- Sorry it took me so long to update! But by the end of today, up to and including chapter 11 of Cheating The Deck will be free on Radish! The app will be coming soon to Android for those of you unable to read there yet!
Also, a huge thank you to everyone who does read this on Radish, because it's been in the top 3 Teen Fiction books every time they've announced top 3s in categories!