(unedited)
Bikers, Chains and Bad Boys: Chapter 7
I woke the next morning to the sound of birds chirping and a soft breeze swept across my face. I pulled my blanket tighter around me and rolled over–
Thump. Someone chuckled. "I was waiting for that to happen." I groaned, picking my face up out of the dirt and rolling over. Peeling my eyes open, I looked at Jeb and Tyson. Jeb sipped his coffee to hide his smile.
"How the fuck?" I grumbled. I attempted to get free of the blanket around me, but it didn't work. I gave up and swung my head back around to look at them. "What the hell happened?" The hammock was swinging above my face. No wonder I fell. I scanned the yard and saw Corey curled up on one of the lounge chairs by the pool. I didn't see Dustin at first, until a lump moved by the fire pit. I sighed, letting my head fall back to the ground.
"Well," Jeb started, amused. "I think it really went south when Dustin challenged you to a game of shots."
Oh, God, no.
I was starting to get a buzz going now. We'd polished off the pizza and made our way to the fire pit in the backyard, popping open a second case of beer. Eventually, we'd started a debate about which liquors and beers we thought were better. Then, which liquors were smoother going down and somehow that led to Dustin challenging me to a game of shots. I immediately knew it was a bad idea, but I wasn't going to back down from a challenge.
"Here we go." Jeb sighed.
After that, everything got a little bit fuzzy. "All I remember is a lot of empty bottles." I managed to pull my arms free of the blanket wrapped around me, rubbed at my eyes and sat up. Both stepped forward to help me up and I blushed as the blanket – and the overly large sweatpants I had on – fell around my feet. Good God, Harley. I bent quickly to pull the pants back up but had to keep hold of them with one hand, so they'd stay up. "What am I wearing? And do I even want to know why I'm in someone else's clothes and slept outside?"
"For starters, you're wearing Tyson's clothes. My sweats were way too big, and we didn't trust that Dustin's clothes were even clean." Jeb said. "Halfway through your shots game, Dustin spilled a drink on you; which started a war. By the end of it, you were all in the pool. I stayed out to make sure none of your dumbasses drowned yourselves." I grimaced. Could I literally get any worse?
"That sounds super cute." I grumbled, stepping out of the blanket and making my way through the yard. "Why didn't I just get my own clothes? I live right across the street."
"You couldn't find your house keys. We checked your bike keys, but you said you keep them separated so if you lost one you didn't lose all of them. So, we gave you those and you got dressed and passed out in the hammock with Corey. We had to move him, or he would've suffocated you to death."
"Wow, I'm something." I snorted. They chuckled and went to wake Corey and Dustin up. Corey stretched and sat up, rubbing his face. Dustin groaned, swatting at Tyson every time he nudged him with his booted foot. Corey came to stand next to me as we watched and laughed as Dustin got more and more pissed off.
"Stop." He groaned, swinging his arm around aimlessly. Tyson smirked and kept up his pestering. "Fuckin' stop." He moaned again. We couldn't help but laugh. "Leave me 'lone." He grumbled, rolling over and swinging his limbs, attempting to swat Tyson away.
"I gotta pee." I said, making my way to the back door.
"Remember where the bathroom is?" Tyson called. I flipped him off as I stepped inside, a chorus of laughter following.
I made my way upstairs to the bathroom and blew a quick breath at the sight of my reflection. Wow. I pulled my hair up into a quick ponytail and splashed some water on my face. Good enough. I turned and made my way back downstairs. I heard voices from the kitchen and caught sight of Paul at the table. Jeb and Corey were fussing with the coffee machine and Dustin was slouched over the table. I took a seat across from Paul and chuckled as Corey whined that it was taking too long for the coffee to brew.
Jeb's house was nice. It was big and felt homey, as if he hadn't changed anything from the way his grandparents had it when they lived here. The furniture was older but still comfortable and the walls were covered in family pictures. One was of an older couple in black and white who were most likely his grandparents. Another had a couple embracing each other with a young boy in front of them, a cheeky smile spread across his face. The rest seemed to be of aunts, uncles and cousins. Each of them getting younger the farther down the wall you went. On the end there was a recent picture of Jeb – who I'd finally convinced to tell me his full name, Jebidiah, was his great-grandfather's name – and a red-headed girl. His arms were wrapped around her and she was smiling wide, as if caught mid-laugh, as she leaned back against him. They looked so happy together.
Tyson took a seat next to me. "Who's that?" I asked him, pointing to the picture.
"That's Rachel," He replied, smiling at the picture. "Jeb's girlfriend. She's finishing college in a town about two hours from here."
"Hm." I hummed. "She's really pretty."
"I think so, too." Jeb said, smiling from the counter across the room. A silence filled the room save for Dustin's snores. I stood.
"Anyone up for a run?" My legs were itching, and I was desperate to get out of the house and get a few miles in. It felt like it'd been days since I'd gone for a run.
"I could go for a run." Tyson said. Jeb nodded in agreement, setting his coffee mug in the sink as Tyson stood. Corey begrudgingly agreed, but only if we got to run the trail and properly show me the lake. His cousin and some of his friends were going out to swim at the lake later and he wanted us to join them.
"Has anyone seen my house keys by chance? There's no way I can run in these clothes."
After a fruitless twenty-minute search for my keys, we gave up and just made our way to my front yard. Dad unfortunately wasn't home. He must've had to work over. Just my luck. There were no windows or doors unlocked on the first floor, so I turned back to face them.
"Okay," I sighed, propping my hands on my hips. "The only way I'm going to be able to get in is if ya'll toss me to the roof. My bedroom window is the only window always unlocked in my house."
"That's probably not a good thing." Tyson said. The others murmured their agreements, but I waved away their concerns.
"I've got my reasons."
"How are we going to get you up there? You have one of the highest roof lines in town." We turned to face my house, my bedroom window at the top on the left.
"Time to put those three months of cheerleading experience I got when I was fourteen to use." I sighed.
It took about six tries – four of them almost a near-death incident – to finally get to the roof without falling back off. Jeb and Tyson weren't exactly gymnasts and it took awhile for us to figure out how to throw me up high enough to reach the roof and get a good enough grip, so I didn't fall off.
I sighed in relief this last time after scraping my shin on the gutter, but I managed to stay on at least, losing my pants in the process. I was holding on for dear life, so I couldn't reach down and pull them up. A whistle sounded from across the street and I rolled my eyes at most probably Dustin. I pulled myself up fully and made my way to the window. I think I bruised my hip on one of those near-death attempts.
"I'll meet you at the door!" I called back down to them. Crawling through the window, I bumped my hip on the sill. Yep, definitely bruised. I grimaced and stood, making my way to the closet to change. When I was done, I threw my hair up into a messy ponytail as I made my way through the hallway and to the top of the stairs. Someone pounded on the door and I hurried down them. "I'm comin'."
I stopped at the door and before I pulled it open, I pulled the little note off the front door.
You forgot your keys.
Dad must have found them. I didn't see them anywhere near the door though. I decided to grab the spare key from the junk drawer in the kitchen and put it and the note in my pocket, pulling the door shut behind me as I made my way outside. The guys were waiting by my truck already, so we all hopped in and took off to the lake. They have no idea what they just got themselves into. I thought, smiling to myself.
We'd made it to the trail Corey was talking about and had been running for about half an hour. "Are you even breaking a sweat yet?" Corey panted beside me. I smiled and shrugged.
"I run a lot. I'm used to this." He grunted, falling behind a little. I picked up the pace and laughed as someone groaned behind me.
It had been at least an hour and a half since we'd started running and we'd circled the lake at least eight times. As we made our way past the entrance to the shore of the swimming end of the lake again, someone called my name. I stopped, turning to see Corey on his back on the ground, Tyson was bent over with his hands on his knees and Jeb with his head back, hands on his hips and drawing breaths like he was suffocating.
"Aw, come on guys, it wasn't that bad." I come back to stand with them, my chest rising and falling rhythmically and a light sheen of sweat covering my skin. I laugh as they all shoot me looks. I grabbed them all a bottle of water from my truck and passed them around. We made our way through the opening to the lake, chugging the water. There were quite a few people here, ninety percent I'd never met. Dustin and Paul were over by a few coolers. Corey slowly made his way to a guy standing by a grill, doing some sort of bro hug and pointing to us, waving me over.
"This is Harley." Corey said, gesturing to me as I made way over to them. "Harley, this is Travis." He gestured again, but toward the sandy haired guy turning chicken on the grill.
"Hi." I nodded to him.
"Hey." He smiled, looking at Corey. "What the hell happened to you, Corey?" Corey grimaced, shooting daggers at me with his eyes. I couldn't help but laugh. He looked like an upset chihuahua.
"Her." He grumbled, pointing at me. "She tried to kill me."
Travis laughed. "And how did she do that?"
"She made me run like 70 miles!"
"Oh, whatever." I laughed "It wasn't even eight miles. I was going slow!"
Travis chuckled, clapping Corey on the shoulder. "Face it, buddy, you're out of shape." Corey grumbled and I waved goodbye to Travis as we made our way toward the guys. On the way there, Corey pointed people out to me, telling me their names. I recognized a few. His sister Casey, Dustin's brother Jacob, and Tyson's brother Nick.
We stopped at a picnic table where the rest of the guys were and I sat my water bottle down, kicking off my shoes. It was so hot, and I was more than ready to jump in the water. Pulling my shirt and shorts off as quickly as I could, I tossed them on the table and took off toward the water. The guys followed shortly behind, tossing and dunking each other into the water. I dove under and pulled my legs back up when reached the surface, floating on my back and enjoying the sun on my skin.
"Damn, I need sunglasses. Your skin's blinding me it's so white!" Corey shouted at me. I laughed and swung my arm through the water, splashing him. "Hey!" He chuckled. A war broke out, all of us splashing, dunking and tossing each other (mostly me.)
Eventually we calmed down and just swam around, enjoying the cool water in the July heat. A car pulled up and a bunch of girls jumped out, already in bathing suits. I recognized one as Rachel. She put her finger to her lips and motioned to Jeb, who's back was facing the shore. I smiled a little as I watched her slowly wade toward him as quietly as she could, then at the last second, jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. Surprise flitted across his face as he stumbled forward. He turned quickly, laughing in surprise and wrapping his arms around her.
"I got away for the day. I wanted to surprise you." She smiled sweetly at him.
Well you definitely did that." He responded, smiling and kissing her. I turned my head to the other girls that she came with, watching as they made their way into the water. Dustin, of course, took off after one of them. Probably to drive her nuts hitting on her. Poor thing. I chuckled at him and noticed a girl looking at me about twenty feet away.
"Who is that?" I tried as imperceptibly as I could to nod at the girl. Tyson luckily caught on to who I meant.
"That's Madison, Rachel's little sister."
"Oh," I said. "Is there a reason she's glaring at me?"
He chuckled. "Honestly, it's probably because you're near me. She gets really jealous. She's been trying to get me to ask her out for a while now." Oh, okay.
"Well," I chuckled awkwardly. "don't let me get in the way then." I swam away quickly making my way to the shore, Tyson whisper-shouting at me to come back and please don't leave him alone with her. I chuckled when I turned back and he was glaring darkly at me, Madison swimming close to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. I smiled and threw him a thumbs up. The look he sent me promised that I'd pay for that later. I couldn't help but laugh. I had to pee anyway, so he was on his own no matter what. I grabbed one of the towels off the table and looked around, but I couldn't spot a bathroom anywhere.
"Looking for something?" I turned, spotting Travis with a beer in his hands.
"Yeah, a bathroom." He pointed out towards where my truck was.
"Out passed the cars and down the path to the right." I gave him my thanks and shuffled barefoot to the dirt path. The sun was starting to go down now so the trees surrounded the small brick building made it seems as if it was almost pitch black. I did my business quickly and got out as fast as I could. It gave me the heebie-jeebies being out here alone. I jogged back towards the cars and went to make my way past my truck, but something on the window caught my eye. A post it was stuck to the outside and I furrowed my eyebrows at it. Pulling it down, I had to move so that the little bit of sunlight left shined on it so I could read what it said.
I knew I recognized that bike.
My stomach clenched and let out a small breath. What the fuck? Someone has got to be messing with me.
"Harley!" Someone shouted at me. I looked toward the lake where the guys were standing. Jeb was waving me over. I pulled in an uneven breath and clenched the note in my hand. I threw on a smile as I made my way closer to them. I pulled on my clothes as Jeb formally introduced me to Rachel. She seemed super sweet. She came to surprise Jeb today, seeing as she was going to be extremely busy for the last three weeks of her summer semester. She took a shortened summer semester to finish her degree early.
Tyson finally shook Madison, I guess, since I didn't see her anywhere. I'll be expecting that retaliation soon. After everyone was dressed, we made our way back to the truck. It was just me, Tyson, Corey and Dustin now. I made the drive back into town, my mind focused on what that note meant and who could've left it.
By the time I pulled into my own driveway, I had developed a small headache. Tyson and Dustin jumped out after me, and Dustin took off across the street with a shouted goodbye. He got a girl's number at the lake and planned on meeting up with her later. Tyson rounded the front of my truck and came to a stop next to me.
"Turning in for the night?"
"I should probably get some aloe on this sunburn." I chuckled, shrugging my shoulders and lifting my arms a little. That's probably where part of my headache was coming from. Being out in the sun all day. He nodded, bidding me a good night and heading down the driveway. He turned back to me before he crossed the street.
"I'm gonna get you back for that thing with Madison."
I chuckled. "Bring it."
When I finally got inside, the house was dark and quiet. All I wanted to do was shower, lay down in my comfy bed and sleep for a week. I took a quick shower and threw on some comfortable clothes. My room was completely dark, but I managed to make it to my bed without stumbling over or kicking anything and threw myself onto the bed. Something crinkled under my head. Confused, I sat up and ran my hand over my pillow, grabbing whatever I could feel and turned on the lamp next to my bed.
Did you think we wouldn't find you? Did you think you could run forever?
My heart was pounding wildly. Without a single thought I bolted down the stairs, outside and onto my bike. I could hear my heart pounding and blood rushing in my ears over the sound of the rumbling beneath me. I didn't think about where I was going, I just went.
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Whaaaaattt???? Another chapter so quick?!?!?! Hopefully this becomes a habit ☻
Lemme know what you guys think ♥