Riley's Pond (New Adult Romance) (6 page)

**

The second stair squawked, giving me fair warning
company
arrived. The creak didn’t warn me however, who that company would be.

“Hello, asshole!”

Ally.

“Hey baby!” A slight quiver of fear edged the hysteria creeping into my voice. I was doomed. My only hope for a reprieve from death would be if Riley ironically turned out to be my savior.

“I’ll give you guys some privacy,” Riley called out, sealing my fate from the top of the stair when he shut the basement door.

I couldn’t tell if Ally’s eyes were red from crying or if she might truly be possessed and her head would spin any moment. She stood in front of me, arms crossed over the boobs I loved to fondle, her long legs separated just enough to enhance her anger, but not enough to allow me access between them again. The expensive boots I bought her for Christmas tapped the floor, dangerously close to my bare toes.

I clutched the small pillow from the sofa against me like a shield.

“I. Am. Not. Or. Ever. Will. Be. Again.
Your.
Baby.”

My cheek stung and undoubtedly would show a well-defined print of her hand for several hours. I covered my face from another ensuing attack of Ally’s hands, letting my arms suffer the scratches from her fingernails, instead.

“Ouch! Knock it off, Ally!”

“Not until your sorry ass is buried six feet under!”

I grabbed her arms, struggling with what little strength my bed ridden body left me, to stop the relentless assault. However, I let go when the heal of her boot planted squarely on top of my foot.

“Aack! Damnit girl!”

The adrenaline rush surging through me propelled us both to the floor, landing me on top of her. If nothing else, all the days of loading up on chocolate pudding and Snicker bars, gave me a weight advantage. I pinned her arms against the floor and peered into chocolate eyes, sparkling with tears.

“Ally, I’m sorry. I know it’s not enough, but that’s all I’ve got right now. I acted stupid, I know, but my anger drove me to get back at you for not going to the party with me.”

“By taking an innocent little girl instead?”

“Trust me. Kaylee Baker is far from
innocent.
” Ally’s knee tried to insure I’d never have children, but our bodies had fused, leaving little room for movement. Except for one very surprising, and slightly painful one.

“Are you kidding me?” she shrieked. “You’re
horny
! You’re sick, Jaxson. Get the hell off me!”

I couldn’t. I had to deflect my thoughts and wait it out. Her writhing beneath me didn’t help, either.

“Believe me,
that’s
the last thing I’m thinking of,” I lied. “I just need you to listen and not hit me anymore. Please?” She stopped moving. I wish I could say the same and my words came out breathier than expected.

“Ally, I know I hurt you. Hell, I hurt Riley, too. If I could take it back, I would in a heartbeat.” My face remained close to hers, her angry breaths warm against my cheek. “Give me another chance, baby.”

Cautiously, I pressed my mouth against her velvet lips, my tongue coaxing them to open and let me in. Her lips parted and I pushed forward, not just with my tongue, but other key body parts intimately touching. Ally shifted her body beneath mine into a familiar position begging for less clothing.

I barely touched her skin, letting my fingertips feather down her arms until my hands found their favorite holding place on her chest. Her fingers braided into my hair and she held my mouth captive over hers. My heady kiss deepened and when I thought I found her spine with my tongue, she moaned, I thought with pleasure, however, a sharp pain shot to the top of my head, and my eyes froze in their sockets.

A warm metallic flavor filled our mouths and she shoved me away, spitting splotches of blood all over my shirt. The pain in my mouth radiated through the bones in my cheek and I started coughing on blood flowing down my throat, repaying Ally with a few bloody spots on
her
shirt.

I tried to talk but I couldn’t form words. My tongue filled my mouth, protruding slightly. A look of horror washed over Ally’s face.

“Oh shit! Riley!” she screamed, scrambling to her feet. “Riley! Come quick!”

Ally threw up in the wastebasket beside the sofa, leaving another mess for my mother to deal with when she returned home. Riley ran down the stairs to answer Ally’s murderous screams, and she nearly knocked him over in her escape.

“I think I bit his tongue off!” she cried out, sending me into a state of panic and quickening Riley’s descent.

He shoved the washcloth off the bathroom counter into my mouth, soaking a towel in cold water and throwing it on the rug in the family room to dilute the blood stain. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t feel my tongue, and felt my heart bounce in my chest.

“Damn, it looks like someone got bludgeoned to death.” He rushed back into the bathroom and grabbed a new roll of toilet paper. “Come on jackass. We better get you to the hospital before you bleed to death in the basement and I’m forced to bury your sorry butt in the backyard before Mom gets home. You know how she hates it when we don’t clean up our messes.”

That’s when the laughter started.

**

Dad burst through the Emergency Room doors with the finesse of a wild elephant. The flasher bar still rotated on his car. My designer cuff alerted him I’d escaped the “compound,” formerly known as
home.

Mom’s car slid sideways with a loud squeal behind the sheriff cruiser. The echo of her heels clicked against the linoleum floor, arriving a couple of seconds before she did. Her hand flew to her mouth and her eyes pinched.

“God, Jaxson! What the hell?” Dad asked, his face scrunched in reaction to my gruesome state. My mother couldn’t say anything around the fist she pressed in her mouth. The anguish on her face was almost as agonizing as the headache pounding my brain.

The only one not repelled by the grisly scene of layers of bloody gauze stuffed in my mouth was my evil guardian in the chair next to me. Riley fought to keep from breaking into hysterical laughter again. I’d listened to his hideous revelry the entire twenty minute drive to the hospital. He pointedly obeyed the speed limit during the agonizing trek. Every time he glanced at me with my mouth full of a wads of toilet paper, he launched into hysterics.

Dad’s fists pushed his hips, lips pursed tight. Mom blanched and grasped Dad’s arm for support. “Well? Anyone care to tell me what the hell happened?” he demanded.

Riley snorted, stifling the giggle clamoring for release. “Ally came to see Jax.”

Eight

SEEKING SANITY

Taylor

A second week passed and I went stir crazy. My day began with breakfast, or in my case, just coffee—maybe an apple or banana. If Grammy had her way, I’d eat waffles or pancakes every morning and plump to a size that wouldn’t fit inside the Mini.

I begged out of tagging along with her to run errands. Everywhere we went, Grams introduced me and I’d have to repeat the story I’d made up about coming to visit for the summer, and once my age was revealed, I’d be offered up to any boy between seventeen and twenty.

To be honest, I wouldn’t mind a “summer love.” Someone who didn’t want anything beyond hanging-out, but might engage in some steamy make-out sessions to release my penned up hormones. Someone who’d understand when the end of August arrived and I said “goodbye,” it was forever. I didn’t need some clingy boy expecting me to rush back every school break and rekindle something that would never grow beyond lust
.

“Love” wasn’t something I needed. I didn’t want to get involved in a relationship doomed to fail once the body heat cooled, nor did I want the pressure commitment created. I’d walked out of a relationship where commitment meant
confinement.
Also, being on the receiving end of another heartbreak didn’t fit into my summer plans. My parents did a pretty good job of mangling my heart and I feared it to be the beginning of many years of missed birthdays, weekend visitations at the mall or worse, at a strange house with a possible “replacement parent” doting to win my affection.

Before I talked myself into the depths of gloom, I decided to get outside and soak up some serious Vitamin D. I grabbed an apple out of the basket, sinking my teeth into its juicy flesh and noisily slurping the sweet nectar before it ran over my chin.

Standing on the deck, I relished the feel of the warm wooden planks beneath my bare feet. Beyond the garden fence, an expanse of bright yellow sunflowers blanketed the meadow. In the distance, a cluster of cottonwood trees and pines formed at the end of a tree line stretching from some unknown beginning, running along the base of the mountain at the edge of Grammy’s property. A dark green spot on the horizon of a sea of yellow—a place to be explored.

I slipped on my sandals and jumped onto the grass. The splintered picket gate beneath a jasmine covered arch, whined when I pushed it open. I toed across the weathered stone path through the vegetable garden and set out on a quest to discover what treasure lay hidden within Nature’s wooded guard.

Water gurgled and bubbled over rocks, glittering against the bright rays of the early afternoon sun as I followed along the banks of the creek. Stopping to dip my toes in the cool stream, I leaned back against a rock and turned my face to the orb warming my little piece of heaven. Two squirrels playing tag on the rocks across the creek, paused momentarily to study the
human
invading their world. I flicked my foot, sprinkling their fur to send them scurrying to their hideaway.

The dusty dirt turned to mud between my wet toes and grit ground beneath the balls of my feet. I rinsed my feet in the brook running beside me, but soon my sandals felt heavy again from mud caked on the bottoms.

A well worn foot path trailed over a hill and wove through bushes covered with berries and tiny white daisy-like flowers. Thorny bushes gave way to ferns. Overhead, blue jays sang a light melody as they flew through branches laced into a leafy ceiling. A single shaft of sunlight pierced the foliage and came to rest on the still, indigo waters of a pond. An oasis hidden beneath a jacket of shimmering leaves and the heavy scent of pine.

Large boulders rimmed the edge of the water. Stone
chairs.
I kicked my sandals off, felt the chill of the dirt under my feet before wading into the dark water. Small kernels of gravel mixed with the sandy bottom and ripples kissed my legs when I cautiously inched deeper, having no idea when the bottom might give way and suck me into its murky depths.

I slid on the silt, hissing when water covered my shorts and cold tendrils wrapped my stomach. The edge of my blue T-shirt floated outward. Once the initial shock disappeared, the water actually felt refreshing. The single sunlit beam widened around me and warmed my damp skin. I twirled slowly in the water, barely brushing my fingertips on top. My memory banks tickled with a lullaby from my childhood, and I hummed the melody while dancing in my own private lagoon.

Giving little attention to my footing as I pranced, I failed to notice the sides slowly drop. Suddenly, water circled my chest, covering my arms. My last step sealed my fate, and I went under. A circle of waves distorted the light on the surface above me. I gave a strong kick, propelling upward. A second kick gave me a strong foothold again, and I lifted out of the water, throwing my long blonde locks back with a jerk of my head. My lungs filled with a deep breath of fresh air. Two more steps moved me to waist deep waters and I raised my arms to gather my wet strands of hair, twisting to wring out the excess water.

About to walk out of the water all together, I froze at a rustling sound in the bushes ahead. Trapped in a liquid cage, I waited for whatever creature would break through the thicket and possibly devour my wet body.

Nine

THE POND

Riley

Two o’clock in the afternoon. The sun set high in the sky and the air sizzled with anticipated heat. I’d raced through my chores, doing most of them half-assed just to get them out of the way. Mom finally got off my back and left to meet a girlfriend for lunch. Dirk practically followed the shadow of her car out of the driveway, dropping his sidekick to the pavement and rolling off to a friend’s house.

Jaxson, tongue still swollen, mumbled something unintelligible when he walked through the back door after his graveyard shift.

“Hey,
Batman
,” I sneered as he passed. He replied by extending the middle appendage on his right hand. Jaxson said he hated living the life of a “bat.” When he slept everyone else worked and when he worked, everyone played. My nickname stuck after that, mainly because it pissed the hell out of him.

Jaxson’s bedroom door slammed and the click of the lock echoed in the stairwell. Only someone with a death wish dared disturb him once that door locked. He’d taken on extra shifts at the rail yard trying to pay off his court fine before his sentencing hearing tomorrow. His drunken stint and joyride at one o’clock in the morning a few weeks back, earned him a bed in the “county’s finest” for five years on its own merit. He hoped if the judge knew he worked a steady job and had paid a chunk toward his restitution, he’d get a lesser sentence. Dad warned him he wouldn’t get out of jail time, but I think Jaxson still believed in fairytales.

However, crashing into the city’s granite marker welcoming those lost or having nowhere else in the world to be, proved a whole other matter. According to Dad, it could pack another year on Jaxson’s jail sentence. Destroying the marquee also earned him the wrath of the city council and the right for every old lady in town to voice their disgust for his behavior.

Even Lydia Daniels gave Jaxson a public tongue lashing at the church picnic. A quiet, private woman who owned the house on the other side of the meadow, had no trouble finding words to cut Jax into a dozen humiliating pieces in front of the last of the congregation lingering to clean up. Mom, who stood stoic through the whole ordeal, broke down after Mrs. Daniels’ last word followed her to her car.