Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“There’s no confusion, Gremlin. They all have tits and an ass.” I looked her up and down. “We both know you don’t have either.”
“You know what? Be alone. But know this, Rudolph... you did this. You pushed me away. You treated me like shit when I was just tryin’ to be here for you. You want to live by yourself? Never let anyone in? Why? Huh? Ever ask yourself that, tough guy?!”
“Harley, don’t.”
“Don’t what? Huh? Tell you the truth? You think I’m so stupid and naive, your perfect little play toy... you think I don’t know you’re scared, that you live life in fear of the unknown.”
“Harley, I’m warning you. Don’t fuck with me.”
She stood, hovering. “You think I don’t know you have nightmares?! That I don’t know you’re constantly thinkin’ about your mom... but it’s so much more than that. You push everyone away cuz you’re terrified of losin’ someone else who matters to you! Someone else who you care about... think about... fuckin’ might love!”
I jumped up, getting right in her face, and before I could say one word, she kneed me in the balls.
“Goddamn it, Harley!”
“I prefer if you don’t talk. It’s my turn and you’ll listen, and you’ll listen good, you asshole! You, Jackson Pierce, are the reason I hate you. Do you understand me? You fucked this up, not me.” With that, she turned and left.
Breathing through the pain, I took off after her. Catching up to her once she was in the kitchen, I grabbed her arm and spun her to face me.
“Let’s get one thing straight, Harley Jameson. I don’t need you to check on me. I don’t need you to tell me what I need. I had a mother for that, and she’s fuckin’ gone just like everyone I love will be. I don’t need anyone. I didn’t invite you here, you forced your way in.” I tugged her to my chest, whispering in her ear, “And if I needed a play toy, it wouldn’t be you.”
“Jackson Pierce!” she screamed, shoving me hard. “I can’t believe I wasted my time coming here for you! I hate you!”
“Good! Cuz I can’t fuckin’ stand you!”
“The fuck is goin’ on here?” Noah exclaimed, charging in through the garage door. “Can’t leave you two alone for a few minutes without you tearin’ into each other. Harley, why did you want to come with us in the first place?”
Her chest was rising and falling, her nostrils flaring.
Skyler walked in behind him, shifting her eyes from Harley to me, back to her again. A knowing expression taking over her entire face.
“Noah, it’s been an overwhelming night for us all.”
Harley didn’t miss a beat, answering his question, “I was wrong to come here. I don’t know what I was thinkin’. Can someone take me back to the party, please? Cash is waitin’ for me.”
I swallowed hard, feeling that sentence in the pit of my stomach. I wish I could say I learned my lesson that night, but I didn’t. Not in the least.
What happened next...
Proved that theory.
Chapter 26
<>Jackson<>
I didn’t sleep for shit that night, tossing and turning with no end in sight. My mind consumed with thoughts of my father.
Would he be coming back?
Would things change?
Would he be the man he once was for us?
Journey and Jagger needed him. And maybe, just maybe...
I still did too.
“Jackson!” Mary Poppins shouted through the door, knocking on it.
“Go away!”
“We need to talk!”
“No, we don’t!”
“Jackson, please! Just ope—”
Abruptly, I swung the door open. Mostly just to get her out of my face. “What?!”
She jumped back, not expecting me to be so abrasive. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. You don’t have to bite my head off.”
“I’m fine,” I calmly remarked.
I wasn’t, but she didn’t need to know that.
“You don’t look fine.”
“What do you want me to say? I’ll say whatever to make you go away,” I repeated the same thing I’d said to Harley the night before.
She snapped, “What the hell, man?! You’re worse than a moody teenage chick! You can’t be nice to me and then—”
“Nice to you?” I intervened, taken back. “When was I nice to you?”
“Last night, you defended me to your fath—”
“I did that for Journey, not for you.”
“Oh, come on, Jackson. Even you don’t believe that. Why can’t you just admit you like me? That maybe we could be friends, especially now that I liv—” She stopped herself.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t give me that shit. What were you about to say?”
“Well...what had happened was... last night, I umm... drank a little too much... and uh... didn’t make wise choices,” she stumbled over her words, one right after the other.
What the hell was going on?
“What does that have to do with what you were about to say?”
I was over the games. I had enough of that with Harley.
“Speak, woman!”
She shrugged. “I kind of live here now.”