Enjoying Trouble (Trouble #3) (3 page)

Present

Will

I watched the metal band in front of me, under the intense hot sun, amongst the thousands in the crowd of the festival. It didn’t take long for my eyes to wander around, drinking in all the golden bare skin around me. There were some beauties around here today and I was spoilt for choice. I wanted to thank whoever came up with the idea of cut-off denim shorts; the ones that went as high as they could, letting me glimpse the perfectly rounded cheeks of a delicious woman.

Fuck.

I needed to get laid. I was waxing lyrical about girls and their shorts for fuck’s sake. Next I’d be on to bikini tops that all the festival girls had on, showing me their handfuls of fun. One pull of the string and they were there, ready, for me to play with them.

“I’m getting a drink,” I said to Noah who was standing beside me, his arm around Ivy. She was wearing a bikini top and had the best…nope.
Sister.
She was a sister to me now. Noah would have my ass if he saw my eyes on them for even a second. Zac came up to us with two beers in his hand and passed one to me.

“Where did Ava go?”

I pointed in her direction; where she was in the crowd, sitting on someone’s shoulders and pumping her fist to the music.

“Oh hell no,” said Zac passing me his other beer as he started to push his way into the crowd. I laughed and sipped my beer. Janey liked to lead Ava astray and give Zac grey hairs; it was all part of her charm.

Janey.

I glanced over at her, singing along to the band, on some other schmuck’s shoulders, her tattooed arms out in the air.

The one, unobtainable, piece of broken perfection in my life.

I completely lost her when she went to rehab. She came out early and fought against every good thing about us. We were no longer together, not even as a ‘friends with benefits’ type thing. We were apparently done and I had no fucking idea as to why. But no matter how much she denied it, I knew we weren’t done. She couldn’t hide the flare of desire in her eyes every time we were in the same room together. She couldn’t hide the itch in her skin to touch me when we were close. I knew all of this because I felt the exact same thing. She couldn’t just hide the years we had spent together, in whatever capacity, whether it was lovers, friends or just fuck buddies. We were tied together forever. She could look at it from every different angle, but it was still the same; we had something, always had. Nothing would ever put that flame out, no matter how hard she tried.

I watched her shout along to the music, still on the schmuck’s shoulders. At last year’s festival, that had been me holding her up on my shoulders. We hadn’t let each other go that day, enjoying our favourite bands together. She didn’t even know the guy who had her thighs wrapped around his head. I had watched them earlier, striking up a conversation, smiling and chuckling together. The poor schmuck thought he had made her smile, but I knew it was a fake smile. I used to make her smile and there was never anything fake about it. She turned slightly, in mid-song and our eyes collided for a moment. I didn’t look away, needing some sort of interaction from her, like she was my drug and I was the addict.

She soon turned back to face the band, emotionless, no longer singing along to the music.

“Will, meet Katie,” shouted Noah over the music, motioning to the girl standing beside Ivy. Our eyes met and hers danced with instant interest.
Well, hello there.
I didn’t want to come off like an ego-driven asshole, but I rarely had to do much to catch interest from girls. The tatts and muscles helped me along the way, not to mention my huge –

“Hey,” said Katie with a smile.

“Hey,” I returned, looking at the two empty beers in my hand. Had I drunk both? “Want to go get some more drinks?”

“Sure,” she said stepping over to me. We weaved our way through the crowds and headed over to the bar area, which of course had a long line.

“So who are you here with?” I asked, just in case a boyfriend was around somewhere.

“I came with friends,” she said with a smile. “I just met up with Ivy to say hi.”

“How do you know Ivy?” I asked, knowing Ivy wasn’t big on friends, other than our group, of course.

“Same class at college,” she replied.

I nodded and took a step closer to the bar as the line moved slowly.

“Do you go to college?” she asked.

“I work at a construction company,” I returned, watching for her reaction. No-one really knew why I did, especially the group, who all knew I was loaded with cash through my family’s name.

“So that’s where the muscles come from,” she said pouting her cherry lips.

She wanted me.

I was in.

Janey

I pulled my leg from the shoulder of the guy I was currently using for a better view and started to slide my way down his back. The crowd cheered as the band finished, moving off quickly for the next band to set up. I scanned the crowd to find Ava but couldn’t see her, my eyes then moving fast to see if Will was still there.

He wasn’t.

I touched the ground and then turned to leave.

“Hey wait,” he said grabbing my arm.

I paused and then turned to face him. He was hot, and the old Janey would have thought he definitely had potential. But the old Janey had disappeared up her own ass and I was suddenly more interested in where Will had gone.

“See another band with me,” he said pulling me closer to him with a knowing smile.

He wanted more from me.

They always did.

Little did he know that I had no more to give.

“Gotta go,” I said with a fake flirty wink before turning and disappearing into the crowd. I spotted Noah’s tall frame moving away from the stage area and headed in his direction. The crowd were moving in different directions as some were coming to see the next band on that stage, while others like me were heading to another stage. I slowly made my way through and felt my phone vibrate. I pulled it out of my pocket as I walked and then stopped suddenly when I saw the message.

Unknown:
Enjoying yourself?

Someone pushed me from behind and I stumbled, dropping my phone to the grass. I quickly scrambled to pick it back up and looked at the screen to see the message had disappeared. I got pushed back and forth as the crowd surged for the next band and I moved my way through again, looking at the faces around me.  I couldn’t prove that this was happening, that I was being stalked, from the one person that I never wanted to see again in my life. It may not be
Oliver,
my step-brother, hell bent on sending me over the edge, but my gut told me it was. The next band started and the crowd roared to a familiar song. It vibrated again in my hand and I looked at it in dread.

Unknown:
You look like a slut. Blue is not your colour.

I gritted my teeth and watched the message disappear, before looking down at my blue tank top. He was here, watching me.

The crowd sang along to the chorus of the song as I pushed my way through, looking around for the familiar face that I despised. My heart beat fast as I looked around in panic, feeling like I was on the edge of going crazy. I scanned the crowd around me again, taking in the faces, noting no one seemed to be directly watching me.

I came to a clearing, away from the main crowd and took a deep breath. If he was still watching right now, I couldn’t let him see that he was affecting me. Even if I felt more paranoid than ever before, knowing he wanted to send me over the edge. I had lost Noah in the crowd but found Zac and Ava, who seemed to be having an intense discussion.

“You guys trying to solve world hunger?” I asked as I reached them, trying my hardest to act normal.

“He has a problem with me sitting on someone else’s shoulders,” said Ava rolling her eyes.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, I don’t enjoy seeing my girl wrapping her thighs around another guys head,” said Zac.

“She’s getting into the festival spirit,” I returned with a shrug. “Lighten up.”

“How about you stop lightening up?” snarled Zac, his eyes burning into me. I knew he blamed me for so much and I knew this one was apparently my fault.

“Don’t blame her,” said Ava, starting to walk away.

“I’ll go and shove my junk in a girl’s face then,” called out Zac, earning a few looks and laughs. “That cool?”

Ava stopped walking away, turned back and laughed. I watched Zac try to hide a smile as he looked over at her.

“You wouldn’t dare,” she returned with a smile as she started to walk away again. I watched him look her over in appreciation and I took in his smile. He hadn’t stopped smiling since he had been with Ava. It was still sometimes so foreign to me. “You guys are weird,” I mumbled.

“It’s called love,” he said, starting to follow in Ava’s direction.

“I think I just threw up a little in my mouth,” I said as I followed him.

“You should try it, smart ass,” he said.

“Whatever.”

“While we’re on the subject, what are you doing to Will by the way? Stop fucking with him.”

“Will is a big boy,” I returned.

He stopped and faced me. “He may be. But you’re fucking with him. Janey. If he was doing this to you, I’d have his balls. You keep at this new life of yours and you’ll lose him forever.”

“We’re not going to live happily ever after Zac, you all need to get your heads around that fact,” I said.

“Then come out and fucking tell him that so he can move on,” he said, reaching Ava and putting his arms around her as she laughed. I was forgotten as they kept walking, with him whispering things into her ear and making her squirm.

Will.

The only person on Earth that had the power to break me.

There were reasons I was keeping my distance from him, some of them my own. I needed to move on from him. End of story. But I didn’t think I had it in me to do it completely just yet. I was working hard at giving the impression that I no longer cared but no-one knew that I secretly yearned to be in his arms again. I wanted to be crazy with him, and only him. He needed to find someone else though; a girl who would think of him more times than they would think of themselves, someone who would make life happy and easy, not troubled and hard. That was what his mother had said anyway.

Within my first week of rehab, she had appeared as a caring visitor. I had only met her once before in all the years I had known Will. To say I was surprised by her visit was an understatement. She had played the doting family member well in front of the carers, but I was the only one that got to see and hear the real, vindictive woman that was carefully buried under her immaculate appearance. I was to leave Will alone and let him live his life. Her family had no time for a mental case, as she so eloquently put it. At the time I was medicated up to the eyeballs, my body heavy; a shell covering the person inside. I wanted to scream at her, to lunge over and scratch her eyeballs out, but my shell was numb and lifeless, just like she wanted.

Maybe she had looked closely and had seen the fire in my eyes because she promised she would have me committed to a mental institution if I didn’t comply. She had friends in high places, including the medical board, and there was nothing she couldn’t get done. She left me that day, like a smiling assassin, taking all of my hope with her.

Leave Will alone.

That was why I was keeping my distance and locking him out of my head and heart. He was better off in the long run, anyway.

Will

She was totally keen as my tongue swiped at hers. I hadn’t missed the not-so innocent rub of her body against my groin either. One of my favourite bands was on and I was playing tonsil hockey with a sexy girl. Life was good.

Janey entered my mind, as she always did at the most opportune moments and I suddenly wondered where she was again. I broke the kiss and looked around, moving my head in time with the band in front of me. I saw Noah near us and he acknowledged my efforts with a smirk. This hadn’t taken very long at all. If we kept going, I’d take her back home with me and continue the fun. I listened to the band but my eyes continued to search for Janey, just to make sure she was safe. I always felt uneasy when she wasn’t close because we had been connected for so long. A lot of craziness had passed between us over the years and I had always tried to be there for her. My instincts were always on high alert until I could find her.

I eventually found her; watching me from within the crowd. We stared at each other across the crowd, in a wordless gaze, saying so much and saying nothing at the same time. I saw anger in her eyes, mixed with want. But I knew she would never admit it. Not now. A hand travelling over my ribs brought my attention back to the girl still against me.

“I’m getting something to eat with my friends,” she said, waiting to see if I would come with her.