A Little Bit of Trouble (8 page)

Loryn suddenly flits through my mind. She… is most certainly my type.

     Ok, I’m putting this off. Just do it Lucas.

     There, done, now it’s on the nightstand. Get undressed and go to sleep.

     You know you’re getting old when you don’t have your kid for a night and you’re that excited to sleep in the next morning, you go to bed early.

     I just realized something though, is the fact I am apparently married, the reason she was pissed off all through dinner? It makes sense. Oh well, it’s not like I’m going to see her again. Who cares why she was pissed? Not. Me.

     I head over to James’ to pick up Amelia, it’s lunch time, they’ve had her long enough. Unfortunately the first thing I hear as I walk through their apartment door is.

     “You crazy fucking bitch!” Uh-oh, what’s she done to James now. He spins around as I enter the room, his green eyes almost black with anger. He’s wearing nothing but
a tee and boxers. Where are the girls? “Where’s Maya?”

     I shrug, “I’ve only just walked in. Where are the girls?”

     He looks behind the TV and stamps his foot when he realizes she’s not there. Maya I’m guessing. “Summer has them.” Is his only response as he darts over to the closet and opens it, no Maya. “That crazy bitch. MAYA!”

     “Dude, chill. What’s going on?” I laugh a little at his angry attitude. “MAYA?”

     “Look!” James practically shrieks and lifts up his top. I’m about to ask him why the fuck he’s showing me his body but my words are lost in a sea of hysterical laughter.

     Maya has shaved a large love heart in the center of his chest hair and written her name in the middle. “It’s permanent marker!” he shouts. “MAYA!”

     The bedroom door opens and Maya casually walks out, James eyes narrow, she goes wide eyed and hides behind me. “Hi Lucas. How are you?”

     James crosses his arms over his chest and glares at her, “You… drive me fucking insane.”

     “Have you peed yet?” she asks suddenly and starts sniggering, she pokes her head under my arm so she can see him. “You may want to go and pee.”

     James pulls the waistband of his boxers forward. “You crazy fucking bitch! You didn’t!”

     Maya starts laughing as hysterically as I was a moment ago. Now I’m stifling my laughter in my fist. “I wrote my name on his dick too.” I laugh, and it’s loud.

     James lunges for her, effectively shoving me out of the way, I fall backwards onto the
sofa and laugh some more as James pins a screaming Maya to the ground. He pulls the permanent marker out of her pocket as she thrashes, screams and claws at him to get free.

     I wince as he starts writing his own name on her neck, and it’s big. She screams and bucks beneath him.

     “Lucas, dude,” James says and climbs up. Maya starts cackling when he drags her off the ground and throws her over his shoulder. “You might not want to stay for this bit. Ouch. Stop biting me.” He slaps her on the ass making her cackle harder. “See you
Bro.”

     With a sigh I head back to the entrance, but not before I hear something smash and hear Maya’s laughter fill the apartment and then suddenly
all goes silent. Yep. I’m definitely out of here.

Lucas
: Don’t take the girls back yet… shit’s going down between James and Maya.

Summer
: Yeah, she asked me to get them. Funny huh? I can’t believe she did that!

Lucas
: Thanks for having Amelia. Text me when you’ve dropped them off. X

Summer
: No problem, she’s having dinner with my family. Text you soon. X

     I head home, with no plans, and absolutely nothing to do. Xbox it is.

Mr. Fixit

    
The next few days pass without issue, I’m happy to report work is great, Maya and James fortunately managed to get the ink off their skin, and I got Amelia back that night and have had her every night since. It’s been a good week, just a boring one.

     This morning is
yet another dull morning, I’ve just dropped Amelia off at school and picked up some groceries and a newspaper. Now I’m sat on my sofa with a coffee in one hand whilst flicking through the newspaper with the other. My phone begins to ring. I answer it without looking.

     “Hello?”

     “It’s Maya. I need a favor,” who you gonna call? “Can you pick up Sylvia’s dry cleaning tomorrow? I’d do it but I’ve got meetings all day. She’s got Evelyn and her car is in for repair.”
Call Lucas!

     “Yeah, sure, what time?” My eyes catch something in the paper as I turn a page. “Text me. I’ve got
to go.” I hang up before she can respond and hop up from the sofa. Fuck.

     Why is the traffic always bad when you need to get somewhere quick? Come on. Move it jackass! Stupid fucking drivers.

     After honking the car horn a million times and flipping off a few people I finally make it. The worst part is, I have to park up the street because of the glass. Fortunately I’m wearing my favorite steel toe capped boots, they can handle walking over a bit of glass and scattered clothing.

     When I reach the flaky white door I swing it open, “Loryn!”

     The store is dark due to a massive board coveri
ng the empty window frame, it was a huge window too, that’s why there’s so much glass. I rush over to the wall where the switches are and turn on the lights. It’s trashed, the store is completely trashed, there’s glass everywhere, the till is in pieces from being thrown at the wall, and clothes are all over the floor. Shit.

     Even the
refrigerator has been tipped over and the crappy round table is in splinters. My thoughts aren’t on the mess, they’re on the girl. I head straight up the stairs and burst through the door. The flat is trashed too from what I can see in the dark, the TV is… just fragments of plastic and glass. The entire place looks like a bomb site. Fuck.

     “Loryn?” I say softly, there’s no need to shout as the apartment is so small.

     “Go away,” I flick on the light and notice the bed has been pulled down
from its place in the wall, there’s hardly room to walk around. On the bed and under the peach colored blanket is a lump. I’m assuming it’s Loryn in the fetal position.

     I take three s
teps forward and sit on the side of the bed. I hear her sniff, she’s definitely crying and for once in my life, it doesn’t freak me out. All I want to do is comfort her. I slowly pull the blanket down, she tugs it back up and holds it tight around her. Okay then. I untie my boots and pull them off, then I slowly slide under the blanket, ignoring the creaks of the springs as I climb in.

     “Loryn, baby, are you hurt?” I ask softly.

     “No,” she replies, her N sounds like a D, probably from all of her crying.

     My body relaxes, that fear of her being hurt now nonexistent. Still, the trauma this entire ordeal has probably caused may be worse than being physically broken. I hope this isn’t the case.

     My arm finds its way under her neck and my other pulls her back into my chest. I wrap myself around her and kiss her neck softly befor
e burying my face in her hair. She cries softly for a while, her body tense. After a few minutes she turns in my arms and presses her face into my chest. I listen to her sob, I don’t speak I just stroke her hair softly and let her cry herself to sleep.

     As soon as h
er breathing becomes even, I slowly climb out of bed being careful to not wake her, and then I call James, “We have a problem. I need your help.” Because there’s no way I can fix all of this by myself.

     I write a note for Loryn and leave it on the pillow next to her head. I need to go purchase tools from the Hardware Store. I also need to pick up some breakfast for Loryn. Fortunately this doesn’t take long, the roads are clear and service was pretty fast wherever I went.

     By the time I get back to the store I’m shocked and happy to find Maya, James and Marie all gathered outside, all head to toe in coveralls, Maya’s are purple and designer, you can tell by the diamanté writing on the back. Crazy bitch. I smile broadly and hand the bag of food to Maya.

     “Take this up to Loryn, go keep her company.”

     Her mouth drops open, “but…”

     “Babe, you can’t even paint with a roller
let alone handle glass and shit. Take these to Loryn and cheer her up, you’re good at that. We’ve got this.” She huffs and stomps away. James looks at me and laughs, “If I ordered her around like that I’d end up with a scorpions in my shoes.” I don’t doubt this one bit.

     “Tools are in the boot, you guys handle the clean-up, I’ll get to work on the big boy stuff,” I wink at Marie who rolls her eyes.

     James helps me
unload the tools as Marie starts sweeping up the broken glass.

     “What exactly happened?” he asks and plays with an extendable Stanley knife. I snatch it from him like a parent would snatch something dangerous from a toddler. In James’ case, this is an accurate description. “Hey.”

     “I’m unsure yet, all I saw was the first piece of the article in the newspaper. It happened yesterday morning.
At Three AM.” I sigh a little. I should never have stopped talking to her. “I have a strong feeling Dana has something to do with this.”

     “And you are involved because of Dana?” he scoffs and grabs the power drill. I hope he doesn’t notice that I haven’t brought the tools he got me for Christmas. Sure they were
extremely expensive tools but not very good at all. I like to stick with what I know. Preferably the brand I’ve always used.

     I shake my head and then scratch it awkwardly, “No. It’s Loryn. The owner. We umm… she’s a nice girl.”

     He stops in his tracks and a smile stretches his lips, “You like her?”

     “In the sense that she’s great to talk to then yeah. I like her.”

     “So… you like, like her?”

     “What are we? In
High School right now? Get a grip. Yes I like her but nothing will ever come of it.”

     We head inside, I place the bags on the kitchen floor, “Because of Crystal?”

     I shrug, “Something like that. Can we just get this done?”

     “Kyle’s coming to help. He knows his way around
fixing things or whatever. I figured you may need a little help when it comes to all of the…” he raises his fingers as air quotations. “Big boy stuff.” That’s great, this is good news. “What about the window?”

      “I called in an order on my way to the store. Express
delivery, should be here in a few minutes to measure it up.” For once I don’t feel so damn useless in front of my little brother. “Right, let’s get cracking.”

     I get to work on fixing the doors, fortunately Kyle, who is one of James’ closest friends, shows up when I’m only ten minutes into it. We decide instantly we’re going to need a new door. So he sets off to purchase one of them. I head upstairs to fix a lock on the apartment door. When I walk in I instantly spot Loryn still asleep on the bed, Maya presses her finger to her lips to shush me and continues filling a box with sharp pieces of glass and plastic that she’s swept up.

     “She was still asleep when I came up, she hasn’t woken yet, must be exhausted,” she says quietly and points to the drill in my hand. “Do that later, don’t wake her.” I nod, kiss her cheek and walk over to the bed, Loryn is laid on her stomach. Her dark hair braided back. Was it like that earlier?

     “I braided her hair,” Maya shrugs. She’s so weird. “It was getting in her eyes, nothing more relaxing than having your hair played with.”

     “She’s not a baby Maya.”

     “No, but she does have nice hair.”

     “Freak.”

     “Whatever,” she pushes me back to the stairs. “Go do man stuff.”

     Marie stops, wipes her sweaty forehead on her sleeve and takes a swig of water. “What are we going to do with all of the clothes?”

     “Too much glass, they’re going to have to be thrown away,” James says, Kyle hums in agreement. I nod my consent
as I fix the door to the frame with Kyle’s help. “She could turn this place into a clothing boutique or something. There’s great floor space.”

     “She’s a qualified beautician, she could turn it into a salon or something,” Maya suggests as she comes from the kitchen
with two bags full of junk, she hands them to James. “She’s still sleeping.”

     I quirk a brow at her, “You’ve been snooping.”

     “No, I managed to salvage her certificate, the one that says she’s qualified in hair and beauty,” she responds with a raised brow of her own. “I wonder why she’s got this place.”

 
   I don’t answer, I continue with my work. The sooner we get this done the better. What time is it? Shit.

     “Don’t worry,” James says clearly seeing my panic
after checking the time. “Summer has Evelyn and is picking up Amelia and dropping them off at Sylvia’s.”

     “I forgot about your mom’s dry cleaning,” I mumble. James
just waves me off and kisses Maya before she heads back upstairs.

     An hour later and the store is starting to look good again, we’ve taken the board down from the window and fortunately a large dumpster has arrived. Everything has been thrown in there, and by everything, I mean everything. Even the counter. The place looks naked. She has nothing left apart from a few clothes in her tiny closet upstairs.

     Marie has popped out to get us all some food, at present we are sipping on beer and laughing and joking. It’s great to see
us all working together, I really am blessed.

     “Maybe you shouldn’t,” I hear Maya say as footsteps descend the stairs.
Then Loryn appears in the doorway, her mouth drops open in shock. She looks at me and a small smile teases her lips. “Tada!” Maya announces as she appears behind Loryn, I watch as she face palms and skulks over to a laughing James. Why on earth did she say that?

     “How you doing?” I ask and climb up from my seat on the ground. I place my beer on the window ledge and make my way over to Loryn. “Are you ok?”

     She nods and looks around, “I’m fine.” Let’s not get started on the meaning of that word again. “Why are you doing this?”

     Good question, “Because I can.” Shit answer.

     “I should help, let me go put something…”

     “Like hell, you’re going to sit down with Maya and watch us work.” I demand and push her towards the entrance. Maya and James’s car is outside the door, mainly so we can listen to music. “Sit.” I help her into the passenger seat. Maya hands me a
n open beer. I hand it to Loryn who takes it with a quiet thanks. “Don’t move from this spot.”

     “Apparently they are doing big boy work,” Maya jokes and climbs into the
driver’s side. “Shoo.” She waves her hand at me, I roll my eyes and vanish back into the store.

     Marie returns with bags full of food, she heads off to sit with the women in the car. It’s not long before I hear Loryn’s very own version of a cackle join the others. What is up with women when they’re together? Can’t they laugh like normal people?

At least she’s laughing.
This is a very valid point.

    “Thanks for helping out man,” I say to Kyle and shake his hand.

    “No problem at all, we did well,” that we did. I watch him climb into his car and drive away. It’s dark now and unfortunately the window wasn’t ready in time. We set the board back up and have closed the shutters. Maya is currently giving Loryn a hug with promises to keep in touch. James
gives her a polite hug before vanishing with Maya in their car. Marie leaves next, she looks knackered but she has worked harder than most of us today. That girl really gets stuck in. I give her a tight squeeze before seeing her to her own car. Leaving just Loryn and I standing in the doorway of her store.

     “I don’t know how I can ever repay you,” she sighs and looks at her completely empty store. “Once the insurance comes through…”

     I hold my hand up to stop her, “Let’s think about that another time.” I hold out my hand. “Let’s go.”

    
She falters a little and blinks as if trying to figure out if she heard right. “Go where?”

     “To mine,” I respond and take her hand
without permission. “There’s no alarm and I haven’t fixed a lock for the upstairs yet. I’m not letting you stay here.”