SIX DAYS (10 page)

“I’ve been on my own for a while, I don’t eat here much in the first place,” he explained, opening another container. He frowned at whatever it was. “Apparently neither do my parents.”

“Do you have butter?” I asked. He looked at me funny, his eyebrow slanted up. I laughed.

“Dirty mind,” I smiled. “Just check, please.” I stuck my foot out and pointed my toes at him. 

“Okay, butter…
butter…butter…” he repeated above the sound of containers rattling. “Yes, I have butter.” He held up the small tub to prove it.

“Good. What about cheese?”

“Yes.”

“Bread?”
I asked, crossed my fingers, and scrunched my face, hopeful.

“I can take you out,” he laughed.

“Bread?” I questioned again. He went into the pantry and emerged seconds later holding a loaf as if it was roadkill. “It’s Flaxseed,” he frowned.

“Is it expired?”

“Nope.”

“Awesome! I’ll have a grilled cheese sandwich, please.” I smiled at Kasey, a cheesy grin on my mouth, if you will.

“I,” he began, pointing at himself, “do not cook.”

“Good thing grilled cheese doesn’t require cooking,” I sang. He laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t even know where the skillets are.”

“At least you know you need a skillet,” I volleyed back. He tried, unsuccessfully, to look un-amused. “If I were you, I’d try looking underneath the cook top,” I winked.

“Sounds like you’re enjoying yourself.”

“I am thoroughly enjoying myself,” I confirmed.

I had to tell him how, but Kasey made me a grilled cheese
sandwich, which he placed on a very fancy plate before serving to me. It was hot, but I took a big bite anyway. I was famished.

“Oh my god,” I moaned. “I think this is
the
best grilled cheese I have ever had.”

Kasey took a deep bow, which made me laugh.

I was relieved to be getting some much-needed food in me. I even ate the crust, which I normally skipped, but necessity does strange things to the brain. I hadn’t eaten in twelve hours, which made it necessary for me to eat the crust.

“Thank you,” I said, and ran my fingers over the cut on Kasey’s bottom lip. I wanted to talk about what happened with him and Carter. I wanted to know about the girl Carter had mentioned, his relationship with her, and whether or not what Carter said about the two of them was true.

“I’m sorry about the way I acted tonight. Carter…he just has this way of getting under my skin like nobody else. The guy makes me mad enough to want to kill him sometimes. I wish he would have stayed in Europe.”

“Who was the girl he talked about?” I asked.

Kasey took a deep breath and blew it out. “Would it bother you if I said I didn’t want to talk about her tonight?”

“I guess not,” I lied.

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you. It’s just that we’re having so much fun,” he grinned mischievously. “Thinking about Carter Abbott, and dredging up the past would ruin it.”

“I understand,” I murmured.

“Thank you,” he said, and kissed the tip of my nose.

Kasey took my empty plate and walked away with it. I stared at the back of him again, at his lean muscular frame. Damn, he was beautiful. I decided to forget about Carter, and what happened tonight, and focus on what was right in front of me.

“You know, I really, really like you in just jeans,” I said. I hadn’t seen Kasey in jeans before, but I’d also only known him three days.

“Well, I like you in just my t-shirt.” The way he looked at me made my brain replay what had happened with us earlier. I shivered at the memory. Kasey smiled at my reaction, swept me off the countertop, and carried me back upstairs to his bed.

Tosh, Luke, Hazel, and Chase showed up about two o’clock beating on Kasey’s bedroom door, warning us to cover up because they were coming in. Kasey threw the covers over me, and tossed me his shirt and my panties. He’d barely gotten his jeans on before the door flew open.

“Dressed yet?” Hazel sang.

“Scarcely,” I mumbled.

“What about you, Ryen—asking Devan Montgomery who he was,” Luke laughed.

“He loved it—said you made his night,” Tosh added, while struggling to keep her eyes off of Kasey’s naked chest. In her defense, it was
pretty hard not to admire something so beautiful.

“Something else I think
Devan enjoyed was telling me how much the dress I was wearing cost.”

“I didn’t tell you for your own good,” Tosh scolded.

“What up, slugger?” Chase slapped hands with Kasey and quickly looked him over to assess any damage to his face. I was surprised it was so minor. It could have been much worse based on the severity of the fight. He and Carter had gone at it pretty hard.

“Montgomery will probably ban me for life now,” Kasey laughed.

“Shit. That was the most exciting thing to happen all night. Montgomery knows it. He’ll probably have you over for tea and biscuits on Sunday to properly thank you for livening up that nursing home style party of his. Even my fucking great-grandma would have walked out early on that mess,” Chase laughed.

The party was boring—except for the fight. I still didn’t understand why so many people wanted to be there. I was sure I would be fine if I wasn’t ever invited to another one.

“Scooch,” Hazel said, and crawled in bed next to me. The other’s found a place on the bed as well, spreading out the loot they’d brought. A sack of tacos, a bag of weed, rolling papers, a fifth of whiskey, two tallboys, and a Zippo with John Wayne’s silhouette on it.

Hazel leaned across me and touched Kasey’s arm.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “He’s gone.”

“Where’d he go?”

“Don’t know.”

“I know he’s your brother, but—” “I know,” she
interrupted and held Kasey’s eyes for a few moments. It was as if they were finishing their conversation privately, without words. A tinge of jealously flitted through me because of it.

“Okay, Ryen,” Chase announced. “It’s time that you learn one of life’s most important skills.” He squished up his face, wiped away fake tears, and clutched his chest. “Our baby’s growing up,” he sniffled, and then regained a straight face. “Play the song,” he instructed Tosh. 

Everyone seemed a little energized by whatever that meant. Tosh giggled as she plugged her iPod into the dock on Kasey’s nightstand. She took what looked like a small cutting board from the drawer, gave it to Chase, and then held her hand out for Hazel. “Dance with me.”

“Nice,” I laughed, when the music started. It wasn’t the song from the Burger King commercials, but I still recognized it. My father has a crazy record collection. Everything from Willie Nelson to Donovan to…“Rick James, bitch!” Chase hollered. “There’s nothing better to learn how to roll to,” he affirmed with an enormous smile on his face.

While Tosh and Hazel danced around and sang background to “Mary Jane,” Chase taught me how to roll a joint. He said I’d done better than he’d expected and allowed me the honor of lighting it with his prized John Wayne Zippo, which I noticed had the words STOLEN FROM JOHN WAYNE etched across the front. He told me he’d bought it from some kid who had lent it to him to light a cigarette and that just holding the thing made him feel so cool that he had to have it.

“Hey, Kasey,” Hazel said. “How’d you like
Ryen’s wax job?”

“Oh my god!”
I shrieked, and turned bright red. Everyone laughed at my discomfort.

“How did Chase like yours?” I fired back.

“So defensive,” she laughed and held her hands up showing she’d meant no harm.

Kasey put his arm around my shoulder. I looked over to see him giving Hazel
a thumbs up. I wanted to be mad, but then Chase gave me a thumbs up while cutting his eyes at Hazel, which made me laugh.

“You’re so cute in Kasey’s shirt,” Hazel sang, changing the subject.

“She totally is, “Tosh agreed. “I want to look cute, too.” They glanced at each other and laughed. Then they ran into Kasey’s closet.

“What the hell?” Kasey complained. He looked at me. “They can really be destructive when they’re baked. I don’t want them fucking up my closet. One time at Luke’s they took everything out of the kitchen cabinets and scattered it around the backyard
like we were having an Easter egg hunt. It wasn’t funny to begin with, but the fact that it was fifteen degrees outside and we had to help them put it all back before his mom got home sucked royal ass.” I didn’t laugh, but I thought it was funny. I could see the two of them doing something like that.

Tosh came out of the closet wearing a long sleeved button down with three ties wound around her neck. Hazel appeared in a sweater vest, loafers, and plaid pajama pants rolled up to her knees. They pointed and laughed at each other as if they’d never seen anything funnier in their lives. Then Hazel kicked off Kasey’s shoes and dove back into bed. She grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

“True Blood!” she yelped after surfing through a few channels.

“I love this show,” Tosh moaned, and piled in with us.

I watched the show, but I’d also read several of the books. I imagined that Tosh and Hazel didn’t read unless it was required of them for some reason, so I didn’t even ask.

“
Sookie,” Chase sighed in a deep southern voice, grabbing everyone’s attention. “I am Vampire Bill!” he proclaimed and went to his knees in the middle of all of us on the bed, and started violently moving his arms around in circles. We were laughing so hard—even Chase.

“Wait, wait,” he said, covering his mouth. He closed his eyes to collect himself, and then he began again. “
Sookie!” he hollered. We laughed louder. “I am Vampire Bill! You are mine! I want to bite you, make you bleed, and then lap your blood like a famished mosquito! Sookie! Please!” he begged, fists clenched. We were howling with laughter. Chase was eating it up, and somehow managed to keep going without losing it.

“And then…and then…
Sookie, I, Vampire Bill, am going to take you from behind and make you scream like a shape shifter in mid-shift! Like a man turning into a dog, turning into a bird, turning into a mouse, turning into a piece of cheese!” he gasped, almost out of breath.

We were so hysterical that I had no idea how Chase wasn’t dying laughing, too. Hazel rolled over in front of him and fanned herself with both hands.

“Oh, be sweet, Bill,” she oozed. “You know your vamp sex is too much for little ole human me to handle. Change me Bill! I’m tired of just being a fangbanger! Oh Bill, I want to be like you!” She turned her head, held her hair back, and writhed on the bed. “Bite me Bill! Bite me now!” Chase growled and dove down toward Hazel’s neck and made growling noises while Hazel squealed, then laughed.

“I’m going to piss myself!” Tosh laughed and rolled off the bed, smashing her legs together as she hobbled to the bathroom. Chase and Hazel rose up and took a bow.

“Thank you, thank you very much,” they said, holding hands. We applauded them, still laughing. It had been a long time since I’d laughed like that, so long that I couldn’t remember when exactly, but it felt good.

“I’m starving,” Hazel said. “And these tacos are soggy.” She threw one across the bed, sending lettuce and tomatoes flying out of the package.

“Dammit, Hazel, I have to sleep in this bed,” Kasey complained.

“Let’s raid the fridge,” Tosh said, coming out of the bathroom, zipping up her shorts.

“There’s nothing here,” Kasey said.

“Frederick’s outside. Let’s go get something.”

Kasey looked at me. “You want to?”

I shrugged.
“Why not?”

“Drive thru or Waffle House?” Tosh asked.

“Waffle House,” Luke answered quickly.

We piled into the limo and Frederick drove us twenty minutes down the road to Waffle House, which was kind of crowded for being three-thirty in the morning. This could have been the norm; I hadn’t ever been to a Waffle House after dark before.

“Shit,” Tosh groaned just before we walked inside. Emmy and Asher were sitting at the counter in front of us. I instantly thought of Hazel and wondered how seeing them would make her feel.

“Hey man, heard you and Carter mixed it up tonight,” Asher said to Kasey.

“A little bit, yeah.”

“Well, you don’t look like you took an ass
beatin’.”

“That’s because I didn’t.”

Emmy and the girl sitting next to her stood up. “We’re going to the bathroom,” she told Asher without looking at any of us, which I was sure didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.

“We’re
gonna sit in the booths over there,” Luke said, and he and Tosh and Chase headed toward them.

“What’s up, girl?” Asher asked Hazel. He was obviously as fucked up as we were. He had a goofy grin on his face and his eyes were bloodshot.

“Aren’t you concerned about being out past curfew?” she asked him.

“You know I don’t have a curfew,” he snorted.

“I meant your girlfriend. She’s too young to be out after ten, since the mayor passed that special ordinance to keep the shit-stirrers off the streets.”