Scarred Hearts (Blackrock) (11 page)

"Hey all the more reason to come hang out, make some more friends" "Sure I'll think about it" he nods and turns to leave, Knox is finishing up with the waitress, "Nice seeing you again Blondie" he says and walks off. I finish up my lunch a few minutes later and wave the waitress over, "Can I have the check please?" I ask her. "Oh honey that fine young man you were with took care of it," she says with a wink. Oh my, this lady is about fifty and she is eye-fucking Knox, wow he even has cougars after him.

I slip out of the chair and start back towards my car, I notice Paige standing by the planters talking with two other girls. I make my way over and she sees me but looks away, huh weird I think when I reach their group I stop "Hi Paige how are you feeling" I ask, she looks at me with her face all tight and strained "Oh hi Bailey, I'm fine thanks for taking me home last night" I see her friends look at each other and then back to me. The one with the, sever over died bob looks at me "you know she has a boyfriend". "What's that got to do with anything" I reply, I turn to Paige and ask her if she wants to come karaoking tonight. I can tell she doesn't want to talk to me but for some reason I want to make her, I didn't do anything wrong and I don't know why she is acting like I am a second class citizen "I'm not sure what my plans are but I'll call you ok" she says and turns her back to me. The other two start giggling and are pretending to hide the fact but not really, I walk away from them without saying anything else.

I get back into my car and head for the grocery store; I can't help feeling a little rejected. Why would she be nice to me all week in class and then turn away from me like she didn't even know me. I play the scene over and over in my head while getting my groceries I finally came to the conclusion that Paige and her friends can fuck off, they remind me of Ben and Emily from Grove and I don't need any reminders of those assholes.

On my way back through town I stop at the computer store, I am taking computer classes but have no laptop for said class. I know dad said I can use the credit card but I feel guilty spending his money. I go inside and start looking around one of the sales associates comes over "Hi I am Sean how can help you?". I smile and ask him to show me a few different models of laptops so I can choose the best one. I finally decide on a MacBook pro with some extra software for my classes. I follow Sean up to the checkout and pay using my own savings account. "Have a nice day," he says to me when I am leaving "You too, thanks for your help" I reply and exit.

I am putting my new computer onto the passenger seat of my car when I hear the roar of two motorbike engines; I close the door and walk around the back of my car. I see them approach and Max waves as he passes. I smile and wave back then get into my car to go home a play with my computer. I have been home for about an hour already, the groceries are put away and I am fooling around with my new laptop. I open my emails to see if there is anything good to read. I see one from my mom but ignore it, I spam about fifty and then see one from Roger, I open it with some excitement, I haven't talked to him for a while, He writes all about school in Florida and how his man whoring is amped up but, it's not his fault that there is about twenty nightclubs surrounding the campus. He says his classes are going good and he misses me. I smile at that because I really miss him too.

I hit reply and type out a short email, telling him school is good for me too and that I actually went out to a bar and got dressed up to boot. I attach a picture of genital warts and tell him that's what he will end up with if he doesn't cut out all the shagging. I sign off and close my laptop. It's only six o'clock in the evening and still bright outside, I decide to work off my lunch and get changed into my running gear, I head out to my car and grab my iPod. I found a trail around the lake, which is about a mile in total; I put on my workout music and take off. I am running for about ten minutes when I make it back to pass my dads house, I keep going feeling the music spur me on, I do three more laps when I feel the burn in my thighs, I push on for one more lap before I stop, I check my watch, it only took me thirty-five minutes to run four miles, not too bad considering I haven't run in months.

I walk around the porch to cool down and then stretch my legs off the railing. It feels good to do something physical, Summer and I used to run track in high school, we were pretty good and entered in some races. I head inside to shower and finish my laundry.

At 8.30pm I have all my laundry done and even got some homework assignments finished. It is going pretty well so far. I am browsing through the movie selections on TV when my phone rings. I look at the screen and see Paige calling, I am not in the mood to talk to her she was acting weird earlier so I just ignore her call. I put the phone down and it rings again, what does she want, "Hello" I say. "Hi Bailey, I was calling to ask if you are going to Georges tonight?"

"I wasn't planning on it," I tell her, "Oh ok, I wanted to say sorry for earlier today, I had a hangover and I was in a bad mood". "Ok thanks" I wonder what's up with her. "So do you want to come out for a drink, I'll buy, just so you know I am sorry for being rude" I think about it for a minute, "Sure I will see you there in an hour". "Great" she squeals "See you then".

I pull my butt up off the sofa and turn off the TV, now what to wear I say to myself while walking up to my room. I open my closet, go through the ritual of pushing clothes back and forth deciding what to wear, I finally settle on my navy blue jeggins, with a thin white V neck sweater and my black pumps. I grab my wrist wallet from my drawer and transfer some cash into it. I put on my makeup, keeping it simple, brown smoky eye and some lip-gloss that looks and smells like melted caramel.

I arrive in town at 9.30 I parked in my usual spot by the side entrance and head into the bar. I must be a fool to come back here two nights in a row, I tell myself. I walk into the bar and look around, I see Max behind the bar and he waves at me, I wave back and start pushing my way through the crowd to the end of the bar where I was last night. "Hey Bailey" Max says coming around the bar to give me a hug, Okaay I think. He smiles "So you decided to come out after all". "Yeah Paige called asking me to meet her here, have you seen her?" "Na not yet" he shouts over the music. He comes back a minute later with a Jack & Coke placing it in front of me. I smile and thank him. I have to say he is quite handsome, he is wearing blue jeans and a red t-shirt with a picture of a motorcycle on it. His hair is sitting above his ears but the side fall into his face and he keeps pushing them back. I am admiring him for the good-looking guy that he is.

"See something you like Darlin?" I hear from my left. I turn my head back around to see an equally handsome guy behind the bar. I smile at him and take a drink of my Jack; I take a minute to appreciate him too. He is wearing black jeans with a black button down shirt, the sleeves are rolled up to just below the elbow and I can see his muscles flex as he puts the limes into a container, his hair is slicked back and I catch the scent of his cologne. I inhale the scent of a forest just after the rain, man he smells good. "So" he says looking at me, "What?" I ask him, "You never answered my question" I laugh at him "Yes actually I do" I say, I see his face slightly change and I think I see a flash of hurt in his eyes but then the expressionless mask is back on. He finishes filling up the lemons and limes, turns and walks back through the hanging beads. I look around once more to find Paige but she still is not here, I can hear someone on stage singing, badly, I might add but I turn to watch him anyway.

By now its 10pm and still no sign of Paige, I take out my phone to text her when I hear her "Bailey" she calls making her way through the crowd, when she reaches me she gives me a hug "I'm so sorry I totally lost track of time" "That's ok" I say, she puts her purse on the bar and Knox comes over "What can I get you, Paige" he asks her with a smile. I look at him and frown I never got a smile from him and now he is turning on the charm for Paige. I don't know why but I am getting kind of jealous.

"Hi sexy, I'll have a vodka cran" she says sweetly then turns to me, "You ok, you look mad as hell" she asks me. "Yeah, sorry was just thinking about stuff" I tell her. Knox brings over her drink and she puts ten dollars on the bar, he shakes his head and pushes it back, "It's on me" he tells her with a wink completely ignoring me. I don't know what is going on but I get the feeling he does not want to talk to me anymore.

Paige looks at me funny, "Are you sure you are ok?" "Yeah why" I say. She looks like she is debating telling me "Well when I came in you looked mad now you like you are going to cry". "Oh no I am good, sorry" I shake my head to rid the thoughts, "So are you going to sing?" I say to her, she bursts out laughing shaking her head "No way, a few more of these and then maybe, but I will empty the place out". I laugh at her "Na you'll be ok no one will notice, they will be drunk too" we both laugh. I put my empty glass on the bar, Knox grabs it and wipes around the bar "Can I get another one?" I ask him. "What'll it be?" "Jack & Coke please" he nods his head and shouts down the bar at Max holding up my glass "Hey bro, Jack and Coke for your friend here". Max looks over and raises his hand. What the heck, Max's friend, I thought I was getting to know both of them. Max comes over with my drink, "Here you go Bailey, you going to sing?" he asks me smiling. "I doubt it," I say. "Hey what's up you look sad" I look at him then at Knox who is serving at the other end of the bar, and back to Max, "Nothing I'm good" I say "thanks for the drink". He nods and walks off. Paige is watching the singers and people dancing, "C'mon lets dance" I say grabbing her hand.

We are dancing for a while when I feel a hand on my arm, I look over to see Sean the guy from the computer shop. "Hey how's that computer going?" he says into my ear. I look over and nod "Yeah Its perfect, thanks" I say and he smiles. The guy working the karaoke machine calls up the next singer, "Ok folks give it up for Brian, he will be doing Elvis Presley, The wonder of you" We all clap as the Brian guy jumps on stage. "Hey do you wanna dance" Sean says to me. Holy crap I was not expecting that, I see Paige smiling at me and she pushes me towards Sean "Oh, eh sure" I say. We walk onto the dance floor and he put his hands on my hips, I put my hands on his shoulders and we begin dancing to the out of tune Brian.

Sean moves his face closer to me and I turn sideways, he starts to nuzzle my hair just above my ear, what the heck, I turn us around so I can see Paige she is giving me thumbs up, No I mouth, "Help me". She shakes her head and starts laughing, I am going to kill her. The song is coming to an end, Sean asks me to join him and his friends at their table, I tell him no that I am on a girls night out he nods in understanding and leans in to kiss me, I quickly turn so he kisses my cheek, I step away and say thanks for the dance.

When I reach the bar Paige is smiling at me "He is cute Bailey" I look at her pretending to be pissed off, "What the heck Paige don't you know girl code" I ask, she laughs harder at me "What you looked like you were have fun" "No I wasn't he was trying to get some action" I say back, she just shakes her head and tells me she needs to pee.

I sit on the bar stool and wait for either Knox or Max to come over, both of them are serving other people and I watch them, for two guys who are bulging with muscles they move effortlessly behind the bar, its almost like a synchronized dance, they move back and forth over and under each other, I smile as I watch them. I see Knox finish his order so I put my hand up and wave him over.

"What's up?" he asks, I order a drink for Paige and I. He makes them quickly and returns to me, he puts out a fresh beer mat and puts Paige's drink down then he just slams my drink on the bar making some it of spill. What the fuck? Now I know something is wrong, I don't know these guys well but that move sends a clear message.

Knox

I bring out the lemons and limes from the back to fill up the bar when I see Bailey sitting at my end. She looks pretty damn hot in her tight sweater, its shows her tits off nicely, I just want to go over and feel the swell of them in my hands. I watch her for a few seconds and notice she is looking at Max, I take a step in front of her and use my line on her, and she smiles. Damn that smile, she has a little dimple on the left side of her face and her lips look all wet just wanting me to take them. She tells me that she does see something she likes and looks over towards Max again.

Fuck, I didn't think she liked Max, I was hoping maybe I could talk to her tonight but now what's the point. I knew I should have never listened to him, Max and his big ideas. "She likes you bro," he said to me after lunch. He told me to give it a go and get back on the wagon, he said he asked her to come tonight to help me out, because I apparently need help in that department, man what a fucking joke.

Well I guess they would be good together, hopefully he treats her good or I will kick his ass. I bring the empty containers into the back and wash the juice off my hands. Damn, I kick an empty box across the room. I take a deep breath and calm down remembering Max and I agreeing that we would never fight over a woman, if we both liked the same chick we would let her choose. It sounds childish but so far we never had to worry about it, we go for completely different types. I head back out to the bar and try to ignore her, it's too damn hard but I have to. I can't afford to get fucked over by another chick. I get through a half an hour without talking to her or even staying down my end of the bar, Max keeps looking at me wondering why I am over here, "Bro what are doing get down your own end" he says to me. I shake my head at him and walk away. Just then I see Paige arrive so I go over to serve her, I snap out of my funk and do a little barman flirting with her.

I try not to look at Bailey but I can't help it, I use the mirror behind the bar to watch her, she looks pissed off. I bring Paige her drink over, she tries to pay but I stop her, I feel kind of bad for busting up her dudes face last night. I wink and tell her it's ok, I turn to the mirror and see Bailey's face she looks like she going to cry, Man I don't get this chick. She is getting hurt because I was friendly with her friend. Maybe she is high maintenance and one of those chicks who get jealous if talk with another one.