I reached home late when the sun had already made amends with the moon and retreated.
On my way back I'd taken the road we had been on earlier in the day, just to check the spot. Something in me worried about her still being there.
But she wasn't, obviously.
I parked outside my house, her mustang - nowhere to be seen. Maybe whatever was in the packet wasn't as big a deal as I was making it out to be.
I finally took the pouch out of my pocket, it was a clear plastic baggie. I recognised it from my days back in New York- Weed.
I didn't open it though.
If it was good stuff I would probably smoke it and Kea most likely knew by now that I had taken it. I didn't want her to have another reason to destroy me - not that she needed any more reasons than just the one.
Either way, I put it back in my jeans.
I had been right though, that bastard was a dealer and by the looks of it, he had a thing for Kea.
Why did I even care? Not that she was anything to me, she could do whatever or whoever she fucking wanted.
I almost growled at the last part.
I was a little drunk.
I had ridden straight to a club not far from town, where the owner was a friend and had a few beers.
Seven to be exact.
Then I hit on a girl in her mid 20's whose boyfriend was out of town for 'business '. We made out a little but the sight of Kea's riveting eyes refused to leave me. Her scent still somehow floating in the air.
The woman in the bar even mentioned it, how I smelled of green apple and rain.
Well, rain! That was the other thing that I couldn't pinpoint. She smelled of green apple and rain.
By this time I was so consumed by Kea that I couldn't get myself to do anything further. The make-out alone had repulsed me. The woman was pretty but that wasn't it, I had hoped by kissing someone else I would forget how Kea's lips suddenly felt like the only way to remain sane.
How the sound of her racing heart had made mine skip a beat.
How her blown-out pupils pinned on me after I had simply brushed my lips against hers, made me want to haul her ass onto her bonnet and give her a proper kiss right then and there.
No wonder I had gone straight to a bar after what had happened, it was a miracle I wasn't sloshed.
Well, I might still be, but there was no one here to prove it.
How had I let this situation get so out of hand?
I just needed to avoid Kea for a couple of days and it was all going to be fine.
Yeah, that's what I'll do.
Just cut class with football or polo practice and not get detention.
Once I have everything in control I'll not need to avoid her anymore and maybe we could be civil.
How could I be this naive?
Did I really think Kea would let this go? She would carve my face like a Halloween pumpkin for what I had pulled with her. She really didn't seem like the kinda girl who'd just get let on the side of a road and ignore it, she was the kinda girl who was probably planning my murder in extravagant detail while she arranged her throwing knives.
Not only had I almost kissed her but I had left her there. Not looking back.
Even a normal girl would be pissed at that and I had done it to the lady of the underworld herself.
If I had a penny for every time I thought Kea was gonna kill, stab or punch me in the last 24 hours alone, I'd be a millionaire but this time I really felt like it was time.
Kea Faye was gonna kill me, I didn't know when, where or how but it was going to happen.
I shuddered at the thought but it took my mind of the whole whirlwind of emotions I might or might not feel for her so I was happier thinking she was gonna assassinate me than daring to think that there was anything between us.
Plus there was a better chance of me dead than anything even slightly romantic happening with Kea anyway.
I made myself a sandwich and walked up to my room.
I lived alone - this was my dad's childhood home, he had paid someone to remodel it a while back, though he kept some parts the same in the name of memories.
He never came here though, hated this town, hated its people.
I, on the other hand, thought this town was growing on me maybe it had something to with a certain dark-haired girl that drove at godspeed but that was a topic I wasn't going to get into.
I was digressing again.
Where was I?
Right- family home, so my grandfather had built it for grandma and they both had my dad who left the town for college and never came back unless it was Christmas and stopped that too once I was born. He did call grandma and pa to New York from time to time for festivities but stayed away from this place.
Though he never said why he didn't like coming here. The last time he was here was for grandad's funeral, wherein his will he'd given the house to me. My father was all too happy by that, he'd been trying to get me out of his house and the godforsaken city for far too long. He'd said that I'd be better off alone, where I couldn't fuck with anybody.
He was right I fucked with him way too much.
But that was only cause he was a shitty father.
And I was more than relieved to get the hell away from him. He had never been around much so no no love lost there.
He cheated on my mother which only made me hate him more, if that was possible.
But that was only the tip of the iceberg of what an asshole my father truly was. He divorced my mother after that, married a girl who was just a few years older to me and when mom died he didn't even have the balls to come to her funeral- just paid for it.
So all in all, I couldn't care less if he burnt to the ground one day and no one knew what happened.
How did he get away with being a pedo(phile) you ask?
Oh, that's cause the man was loaded. Well, I don't know how loaded, I never gave two shits about his money but enough to get a bimbo to be interested in marrying him.
Now that ladies and gentlemen- is what you call commitment.
Needless to say I didn't attend that sham of a wedding just a few months after mom's death. But it took all of me drunk out of my skull on anything I could find, to not go to their wedding and set it on fire. After all, the New York Times had called it 'The classiest yet.' Who doesn't like celebrating a child getting married to a man her fathers' age?
Sometimes I thought maybe his affair with the girl was what killed mom but I couldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing that he mattered.
It was not like she killed herself, she had blood cancer, last stage, there was nothing that could be done except to watch her die.
Man, I needed to stop thinking about her when I got drunk. It always fucked me up and as for right now, Kea was already doing enough of that.
Hmm, Kea, the name rang in my head as if on loop.
I put the plate on the side table and lay back on the mattress, as I closed my eyes hoping sleep or even death at this point would take over.
And it did. Sleep I mean not death, not yet anyway.
The next morning, there was a slight whiff of rain in the air, my mind was still tricking me, I must still be drunk.
But then I opened my eyes i realised I had a quilt over me, my shoes and socks, taken off and I didn't have my jacket on.
Okay, something was definitely up. I might have been out of sorts yesterday but I was still sure I didn't do any of those things myself last night.
But if someone did break in I wouldn't know- I slept like a log, you could drive a bulldozer near my bed and I still wouldn't wake up but if someone had touched me I would have woken up. Ah, that's where the alcohol came in. Yeah, I wouldn't have woken up.
Forgetting about the smell of rain not realising it played a key part in the break-in.
I got out to check if one of my teammates had come over late last night, they took advantage of my parentless home.
No one was around, so i just ignored it and decided to lock the doors and windows from now on when I got home before passing out.
----
I was going for a shower when I saw a note under my plate from the night before.
"If you didn't look this innocent while sleeping I would be choking you right now. I expect you to return what's mine by today or so help me God I'll come again and strangle you in your sleep."
How acceptable smiling at a death threat was- I didn't know, but that didn't stop me.
How far gone do you have to be to not be worried by this is probably beyond me at this point and because I had no one around to tell me how crazy my reaction truly was -I ignored it.
I finally took out the pouch and opened it. Was the stuff really that good? Good enough to go through all this trouble for? Then I put it to my nose took a whiff.
Okay, I got why she wanted it, it was top quality stuff- but by the third sniff, my eyes widened.
This shit was laced.