A/n: Just a FYI that I only watermark the pictures which I edit hair/eye colour in.
I'm unhappy. Life sucks.
• • •
One night, Cass and I are sprawled out on the couch watching Step Up All In on the TV when the guys return home. They immediately stopped talking once they notice our presence and that only erupted my curiousity.
I glance down to see all of their knuckles red, particularly Wayne's. His is bleeding slightly. But considering he's a boxer, I wouldn't have questioned him until I see a large gash on his cheek. He never comes home with scars like that—especially not on the face.
"What's wrong?" I jump up on my feet.
The four of them exchange secret glances before Drew speaks up. "Nothing much. We got into a scuffle."
"With who? Where?" I pry. I don't see them as someone who gets into fist fights.
"Don't ask." Wayne tries to side step away from me but I grab ahold of his arm to stop him.
"Tell me, or I will find out eitherway."
"None of your business, Kel." He brushes me off.
I stay still, not letting go of his arm. "I thought we're family." I lower my gaze and pout, forcing some tears to cloud my vision in an instant. Man, I can sure as hell act with how quick I can summon them.
"Christ, stop that." My brother rolls his eyes, not fazed. "Fine. Sit down for this one." He gestures to the couch and we all take our seats.
"So?" I ask impatiently. Zac dare not even meet my eyes from where he's seated.
"Well. I got into a fight."
"That part is obvious."
"Let me finish." He grumbles. "We went to the club. The same one you girls went to at Warrenton." I furrow my brows, but didn't stop him. "And I happened to see your jerk of an ex-boyfriend."
I know damn well who he's referring to. But then, it dawned on me. It's impossible he knows how Javier even looks like. Besides, he's two hours away at Bristol. Why on earth would he appear at the club?
"That can't be right." I counter.
Carson then whips out his phone and pulls up a photo to show me. I gasp, seeing Wayne straddling him while his fist is raised mid-air.
"Why would you take a photo as it happen?" Cass questions Carson, who shrugs in response. That guy has his phone in his hands nearly 24/7 and it wouldn't be a surprise that his first reaction to most things is to pull up the camera app.
"Why did you do that?" My voice soft as a whisper this time. I can't tear my eyes away from his bruised up side-profile in the photo. He once gave me the same one under my eye.
"Why shouldn't I?" Wayne retort, looking smug. "That fucker deserved it."
Carson takes his phone back from my hands and leans back, not adding a word to the conversation. Everybody sits in silence, letting the awkwardness seep in. I fidget in my seat, not knowing how to absorb this information.
"To be frank, it wasn't a coincidence." Drew speaks up, much to my surprise. "We planned it."
"H-how?"
"Did you forget we go to the same high school, sis? It isn't as hard as you think to make a few phone calls with his name. Javier Patterson, once in Hillgrove High's basketball team, jersey number 11. You underestimate me, Kel." Wayne smirks at me despite small drops of blood evident on his face.
"Time for you to dump that shirt." Zac comments but I ignore it. He clearly knew of this operation they planned and hadn't keep me in the loop about it. That's real unfair.
"Whatever is he doing in Boston in the first place?" I ask the question in my mind. There's no way they were able to lure him here.
"Oh. He goes to Emerson. Didn't you know that?"
"What?" My jaw drop at the revelation. I sure as hell wouldn't have moved here if I knew he was coming too.
"Don't worry. He won't dare to step foot near you anymore." Wayne assures me but it makes me frown. They don't know Javier as well as I do to know that his parents are rich enough to manipulate the system.
"What do you mean?" I ask, hoping he'll elaborate exactly what he did.
"Your brother whacked him." Drew chuckles, although I find nothing funny in this situation. "It was hilarious. He dropped with a single punch."
I scowl at him. "And you think that's okay how?"
"He was abusive towards you, wasn't he?" Wayne speaks up from next to me. "That was all the details I needed to hunt that asshole down. Nobody hits my sister and gets away scotfree. If the law doesn't want to prosecute him, I will take it into my own bare hands."
"And mine." Zac joins in.
"But we already settled it awhile ago. We had an agreement. You can't just go hit him like that and not expect repercussions!" I nudge him in his shoulder.
"Relax, Kelsey. The money that his family has is nothing compared to what I own. If he wants to throw us a lawsuit, I welcome him with open arms." Zac says in a non-bragging way.
"You hit him first!"
"I don't give a fuck. How many times did he hit you?" Wayne asks me back but I keep quiet. "Answer me."
"It's not like I counted." I mumble under my breath.
"Well, you didn't? He did. He was the one who told us he hit you on 18 different occasions."
"H-he said that?" My hands clench into fists on their own. How dare he bring it up like he's proud of his achievements. Like I was his reminder of how well he could abuse his girlfriend.
"Mm-hmm." Carson confirms. "I have it on video on my phone. He also recounted that one time-" he immediately shut up after both Wayne and Zac shoots him a stern look. "All I'm saying is, his confession is enough to open up the case should he want to sue us for assault."
"So if you ask me, Kel, if I'm sorry about whacking him? No. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Don't you dare pity him for this is his own karma."
"And is that why you have a gash on your cheek?" I reach out to touch it with my fingertips and he winces.
"That douche had a ring on his finger. He struck me in the face once. That was it. I assure you he had it worse than me."
"All of you ganged up on him?" Cass questions.
"Of course not!" Carson defends himself. "We let Wayne have the first take. But this guy had friends. They came at us. Obviously we had to fight back."
"Safe to say, we're never returning to that establishment considering how the bouncers chased us off. Pretty sure our faces are pasted on the banned list by now." Drew laughs like he's enjoying this whole thing. He even checks his knuckles in smiles, perhaps thinking it isn't bruised enough.
I sigh, feeling a slight tinge of guilt. Not towards that jerk, but to these four boys that have slowly earned a special place in my heart. "You should go get that cleaned up." I point to my brother's cheek.
"I'm a boxer for years, sis. This is the least of my concern. Right now, haul your ass up to your room and throw that damn jersey in the trash. Anything else that is related to him too, throw them all. I don't care if it's sentimental. I don't want anything that reminds you of him in this house." He orders me.
I smile, jumping into his lap to hug him. He stills for a second before he awkwardly hugs me back. "Thank you," I whisper. "Thank you for looking out for me."
———
"That doesn't scream 'just friends' to me." Cass comments as we window-shop at the mall after school. Thankfully this mall is a mere five-minute walk which doesn't requires a car to bring us. We are shopping for presents since Christmas is coming in three days.
"He never said that, either. But I doubt he'd tell me if they had fucked before or not."
"So, ask him."
"No thanks." I shake my head, picking up a silly looking Jack-in-the-box toy from the shelf. "I ain't gonna put myself through that shit."
"Well, then you're only going to be constantly living under doubts. Just ask him. It's not that hard." She insists.
"I hate this. It was never going to be this complicated. I wasn't supposed to care about some girl he once slept with!" I mutter more to myself.
"You played with fire, my friend."
"Some kind of a shrink you are."
She sticks her tongue out at me childishly and we go on to browse some other gift shops. This is my first ever real Christmas seeing as my family was never one to celebrate holidays. We usually would settle for a dinner at some restaurant and that was it.
Wayne had arranged for a tree to be delivered while Zac and Carson had our dinner planned. I heard there's going to be a whole turkey and log cake. Drew is assigned to take care of the drinks while I offered to decorate.
We also planned to do a gift exchange. Each one of us will buy one gift, number them and we pick a random one out of a bowl. That way, our gift has to be unisex and random in order to be fun. But I also wanted to buy everybody one specific gift so I can show them how thankful I am to have them here with me this year.
"Any hints to what you're looking for?" I try to get something out of Cass. She has a basket in her hand but covers it with her jacket, refusing to let me see.
"Some kind of a sex toy." She chuckles.
"This is a stationary store." I look at her like she's crazy.
"Whoever said you can't use a ruler like a dildo?" She winks at me. "I'm kidding. I'm stocking up on my school supplies. We'll be more likely to find something from the novelty store instead of here. I doubt they'd like colour pencils as gifts."
Turns out, it's way easier to find gifts in a sex shop. You can easily pick something for each person. But of course, I'm not going to be uncreative. I did in fact buy a pair of furry handcuffs and leather whip for the gift exchange. It's very unisex and I'm certain I might not mind using it if I got my own gift in the end.
We go to a jewelry store next and I have my eyes set on a pair of earrings for Ally. It's a pair of dove in white gold, dangling and elegant enough for her. Cass on the other hand is a lot more unpredictable, so I figured to let her pick her own gift.
"Which one do you think is nice?" I point her to the glass display of earrings.
"That one." She points to a rose gold heart-shaped hoops. I nod, picturing it on her. It's perfect.
As she turns her back to check out the other side of the store, I quietly signal for the staff to wrap up both gifts for me. I stuff them in sex shop paper bag so that Cass won't be nosey about it.
"Now, the guys."
We choose to go to a department store instead so we can browse a little bit of everything. I still can't decide what to get the boys. They are mostly rich enough to buy themselves whatever, and didn't seem to lack anything.
"This." Cass shows me a glow-in-the-dark keyboard and mouse set. "Good?" She doesn't game, so she wanted my opinion. It's a Razer set. Good, I can't guarantee. Expensive? Hell yes.
"The keyboard itself is $200. For Carson?" I wiggle my brows at her. Cass isn't one to splurge unless it's on make-ups. I highly doubt she'd get any of the others such an expensive gift.
"Shut up." She runs her finger over the demo set. Neon lights lit up the chroma beautifully and the keys pop up nicely to make the typical typing sound. It's one that most people will like except me—I prefer flat keys keyboard.
She continues to loiter at the gaming section while I browse around the men's department. Clothes, bags, sneakers. None of those can compete with the luxury brands they already own. I heave out a sigh, at a complete loss of ideas.
I arrive at a Calvin Klein counter. Fuck it. Underwear it is. Mind you, a 3-pack boxer briefs already cost $70. I end up grabbing one, planning to give it Carson. He can wear that and match with Cass now.
For Drew, I wanted to buy him a pair of sneakers until I realize I have no clue of his shoe size. It'll be way too obvious if I were to ask him or anyone for the matter. In the end, I went to a Zippo counter and spotted a red Supreme logo one that's perfect for him. He's always liked to borrow my fake iPhone lighter because he thinks it's too boring and ordinary to use a regular one. This will be good for him.
When it got to Wayne, I almost wanted to breakdown. He's my brother. It's supposed to be easy but he ended up being the hardest. At that point, I also begin to realize I've spent quite a sum on all the other gifts already. But I can't just get him a tshirt or a sweater when I've already specially picked expensive underwear and lighter for the other two. I end up getting him a MCM bi-fold wallet in black. I'm not even sure if he needs a new wallet, or if he'll even like the one I chose—but I know he better pretend to like it anyway.
Zac is the last person I choose for. With him, I know every single one of his measurement. I know his shoe size, his pants size, his top size but none of it is useful information when I obviously cannot afford the thousand dollars sneakers he always wear. He's often decked in branded top to toe and it's hard to find a gift for someone who's already so rich. Even though I already know he wears a Rolex, I settled for a $300 Emporio Armani watch for him. That's basically the limit of what I'll spend on someone else.
At the end of the day, I find myself going home relieved yet heartache at the huge hole in my pocket. This is going to be the first and last Christmas I ever splurge a thousand dollar on everyone else but myself.