novelxo Fear The Reapers: Chapter 15
Fuck DC.
Fuck Atlas. Fuck whatever he wanted to refer to himself as and fuck his piece of shit brothers who brought me here. I could’ve stayed blissfully unaware of who DC really was, but now I had to face the cold, hard truth. The DC I knew was dead, and in his place was Atlas, a man that stood for every single thing I hated.
I mean, who the hell did he think he was? Grabbing me like I belonged to him? Last time I checked, he had a fucking fiance to worry about. Asshole.
And what was his problem with the bartender? Sure, Jacob was a little extra friendly, but who cares? He was falling for my flirty drunken damsel act and I didn’t owe DC, no, Atlas, an explanation for my behavior.
For someone so obsessed with what I was doing, he completely missed the reason I flirted with Jacob to begin with. Being a drunk, flirty girl was the easiest way to get someone’s guard down. When I held Jacob’s arm to thank him for the last drink, my other hand slipped into his back pocket and plucked out his iPhone. Of course Atlas was too preoccupied with trying to control me to notice.
I wasn’t stupid enough to steal it. Jacob would eventually put two and two together if the phone stayed missing. My plan was to borrow it and give it back, with everyone none-the-wiser. Of course, Atlas had to come in and ruin everything.
Now Jacob was on edge, and he’d probably stay far away from me for his own preservation. It made it harder, but not impossible. I just needed to do it quickly.
Barrelling for an empty restroom stall, I slipped Jacob’s phone from my pocket and punched in Alex’s number, praying she wasn’t already asleep.
“Hello?” She answered, the sound of her voice bringing a wave of relief.
Thank god she was okay.
“Hello?” She continued. “Is anyone there?”
Shit. I had been so relieved to hear her talk that I had completely forgotten to say something.
“Hey, Al.” I croaked, doing a shit job of reigning in my emotions.
“Stevie! Is that you? Dude, I’ve been trying to call you and text you for the last two nights. Where are you? Are you okay? What happened?”
“Yes, it’s me.” I said, laughing while holding back the tears that threatened to fall, “I’m okay. I’m safe. They confiscated my phone, so I had to borrow someone else’s to call you.”
“Stevie, I-”
“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time to talk.” I said, cutting her off. “I just wanted to say that I love you and that you need to get out of town.”
“Wait, what?” She asked, “What do you mean?”
Fuck. I couldn’t tell her about how Malcolm had fucking lied to both of us. She’d probably try something stupid to help me escape and end up getting herself caught up in the mess. I released a shaky breath before continuing, knowing another lie was going to spill from my lips.
“I’ll get out of here, but Malcolm’s debt is huge and it might take longer than we expected to pay it off. As soon as school is out, I need you to move somewhere far away. I will find you when I get out of here, but Caspian isn’t safe for you anymore.”
“No, what? I’m not leaving you! I can’t! I-”
“You have to.” I urged. “I need to know you’re safe.”
I could hear breathing change and I knew she was on the precipice of crying. I wanted to comfort her, to tell her that everything would be okay, but impending footsteps sounded at the entrance of the bathroom and I knew my time was up.
“Alex, I have to go.” I whispered, hating that I was rushing her. “Just promise you’ll leave town.”
“Okay.” Alex mumbled, finding her voice. “Okay, I promise.”
“We’ll see each other soon, I swear.” I whispered, not wanting to leave the call, yet knowing it was time. “Love you little sis.”
“Love you too big sis.” She sniffled.
I quickly hung up the phone and choked back the emotions trying to surface. If the guys were the ones barging into the restroom, the last thing I was going to do was let them know that there was someone out there who I truly cared about. I didn’t want them to use Alex against me like Malcolm always had.
“God, what is Atlas’ problem?” Chirped a feminine voice entering the bathroom.
“Girl, I don’t know.” Said another woman, “Did you see the girl he was all over at the bar.”
“Of course I did,” she deadpanned, “what about her?”
“Well, for one, she was fucking gorgeous.”
“No. She wasn’t.” The other woman said, cutting her friend off. “She was just some desperate whore. She’ll capture his interest for a few hours, but The Reapers don’t fuck with trash.”
I tried to hold myself back as I paced back and forth in my bathroom stall. I was fuming. How dare she call me trash? She didn’t even know me. My emotions were already at an all-time high after my call with Alex, and these two bitter bitches were about to send me over the edge.
Rage seeped into my bones, and I welcomed him with open arms. It had been years since I’d been in a fight and after my mandated anger management courses; I thought that fighting was beneath me, but suddenly beating both of their asses didn’t sound so bad.
Storming out of the stall with my fist clenched and my body trembling, I stomped towards the two women. The minute I saw who it was, my rage dissipated like it was never there. It was Melanie, the woman I saw with Atlas earlier. She was standing in front of the mirror with a red-headed woman I had never seen before.
“Speaking of garbage,” Melanie said, staring at my reflection in the mirror as she flashed her friend a wicked grin, “look who it is.”
I let her bold insult slide. Melanie had every right to be angry with me. Whether or not she knew it, I’d been flirting with her fiance for the last two years, thinking it was going to lead somewhere. Maybe letting her take it out on me could be my form of penance.
“Listen,” I started, trying to clear the air, “This is all just a big misunderstanding and I-”
“No,” she cut me off, “you don’t get the privilege of speaking to us. You may entertain him at the moment, but you don’t belong in our world and no amount of designer clothing is going to disguise the fact that you are beneath us. If you weren’t, we would already know who you were, so trust me sweety. I’m not threatened.”
Anger swelled within me and it took everything I had not to punch her in her smug, filler-injected face. I turned on my heels and headed for the exit, desperate to escape before my temper got the best of me. She wasn’t worth it, and neither was he.
“Congratulations, by the way.” I bit out, lingering at the door. “You and Atlas really deserve each other.”
“We do, don’t we?” She said, smiling to herself as she applied more pink lip gloss to her overly plumped lips.
I wanted to come back with another dig, but I felt the sincerity in her words. They were perfect for each other and she may be a bitch, but she was right. I didn’t belong in their world.