Fighting Silence (11 page)

“You a partier?”

“Nope. I work, go to the gym, then sleep.”

“Rent’s five fifty a month. So you’d need to have two twenty-five in cash by the first of every month. If you’re late, it’s an extra hundred bucks. All the bills get split right down the middle. No exceptions.”

“I’m cool with that,” I said quickly as I began to get even more excited. That was a hundred bucks cheaper than what I’d thought I was going to have to spend to get my own place.

“Well, okay, then. I know you saw the bedroom, but you want to go up and take a look around the rest of the apartment?”

“Yeah, definitely!” I answered, even though, there wasn’t a chance in hell that anything I could see would prevent me from signing a lease. I
needed
a place.

“I’m gonna take off. Let me know if this works out. Thanks again for your help, Till.” Daniel pulled out the other half of the money he owed me and passed it with a handshake.

“No problem. Any time.” I tucked the cash in my pocket and turned back to Scott. “Let’s go check it out.”

“Sure. Have a good trip,” he called to Daniel over his shoulder as he headed up the stairs.

I followed behind him, hiding the smile that was working its way onto my face regardless how hard I tried to fight it.

“I work nights and sleep during the day, so you won’t see me much. I’ve got a girl who lives across town, so I stay over there sometimes on the weekends.”

We walked through the door, and he immediately stilled as we were greeted with loud music blasting through the floorboards.

“Shit. She must be at home. Okay, so maybe this is a good thing.” He let out a huff that showed me that what he was about to say was anything but good. “Look, the only catch to this place is that the building is shit. I swear I think the floors are made out of tissue boxes. You can hear everything that goes on in the apartment downstairs. It’s a real nice girl who lives there, but her taste in music is almost criminal. She treats us to Justin Timberlake at least once a day. I got pissed when we first moved in. I went down to bitch that her music was too loud, but I swear to you it was louder in our place than it was in hers, so after talking to her, I just let it go. It didn’t hurt that she’s sexy as fuck.” He winked.

My eyebrows popped up in surprise. She was sexy. He at least got that part right.

She was also mine.

He continued. “I’m not home enough for it to bother me, but your room would be right over hers. The bad news is you’re able to hear every single sound she makes. However, the good news is that you’re able to hear
every single sound
she makes.” He finished with another wink, and my self-restraint that day must have been aligned with Mother Teresa because my hand remained fisted at my side and not in his mouth.

“When can I move in?” I gritted through a fake smile.

“You don’t want to look around first?”

“Nope. I’ll take it. How much do I owe you for this month?” I had two hundred dollars to my name, and that included the fifty bucks in my pocket. There were three weeks left in the month, but I got paid in two days. I could swing the rent as long as I ate at the gym every day.

“Just give me two twenty-five when you move in. Daniel already paid this month’s rent, so you can ride out his dollar this month, and I’ll use your first payment to cover next month.”

I blinked at him and my smile broke free—big time. “Yeah. I can do that,” I answered.

“All right. Welcome home, Till. I’ll get the sublet form for you to sign.” He extended a hand to seal the deal, and I couldn’t shake it fast enough.

Eliza chose just that moment to start singing at the top of her lungs. A smile instantly spread across my lips as I listened to her less-than-stellar solo performance.

Yeah.
Welcome home, Till.

“Can you give me just a second?” I excused myself and hauled ass down the stairs and around to the side of the building.

I shoved her window open and then crawled inside, rushing through her small apartment to find her. She was standing in the kitchen, singing and shaking her ass, but her head was down as her hand was moving over a sketchpad.

I leaned against the wall for a few seconds, watching the show she was unknowingly putting on. I tried not to envision her body naked as she moved with the rhythm of the music. Her breasts swayed with her hips, and just knowing that the fucking freckle was swaying too was more than enough to stir my cock to life.

“Shit!” she screamed when she finally noticed me standing in the hallway. “Damn it, Till,” she cursed, trying to catch her breath.

“Come here for a second.” I grabbed her hand and dragged her to bedroom, but not for the horizontal purposes I truly wanted. “Wait right here.” I headed for the window, clicking her music off before I climbed out.

“What are you doing?”

“Just wait.” I smiled then jogged toward the stairs.

I threw the front door to my new apartment open and then rushed right past Scott. Once I entered my new bedroom, I stared at the stained-carpeted floor.

“Doodle!” I yelled unnecessarily loud.

“Uh, Till? What are you doing?”

I wasn’t sure how much she could hear, but her voice hit my weak ears as if she were standing only a few feet away. It was clear that I would, in fact, be able to hear
everything.

“Oh, nothing much. Just chilling in my new apartment.” I played off my excitement, but her squeal let me know she wasn’t even trying to hide it.

“I’m coming up!” she yelled.

I rushed to the front door to meet her. Scott watched from the couch as I snatched the door open. It didn’t take but a second for her to come plowing through it.

“Are you serious?” She laughed as happy tears glistened in her eyes.

“Completely,” I confirmed, which caused her to launch herself into my arms.

God, it felt good as she wrapped her legs around my waist. She laughed loudly into my ear, and I couldn’t help but join her.

I glanced over at Scott, who had the good sense to look surprised, and even a little embarrassed, as he watched me hold her tight. I gave him a pointed look when I remembered his comments about Eliza from earlier. The last thing I needed to do was get into an argument with him before I even signed the lease. But thankfully, he immediately lifted his hands in surrender and mouthed, “Sorry.”

I lifted my chin in his direction then went back to holding her.

“You’re going to live upstairs!” she exclaimed, sliding her feet to the ground and stepping away all too soon. “I want to see your room.”

I led her down the hall to the small, empty room that would just fit the bed and a dresser I didn’t have.

“It’s only two twenty-five a month. I shouldn’t have any trouble affording it.” I leaned against the doorframe as she looked around.

“What if he’s a weirdo?” she whispered.

“Who?”

“Your roommate. I met him once, but I can’t swear he’s not a serial killer.”

“I think I’ll be okay. His name’s Scott and he seems nice enough. I’ve been over here for an hour or so. Daniel gave me fifty bucks to help him move out.”

“So that’s what it was! I heard something going on up here.”

Just then, something started beeping. We both looked around the room, trying to find the source, but came up empty. When we left the room, the sound grew louder as we got closer to the kitchen.

“What is that?” Eliza asked.

Luckily, Scott was there to answer. “Your oven timer.”

“My oven timer? No way. It’s barely that loud in my apartment.”

“Way. We can hear pretty much everything through the floor.”

Eliza’s eyes grew wide.

“Wait. You can hear us too, right?” Scott asked.

“Well, I mean, yeah. I guess. I just assumed you were really loud.”

“Nope. Just cheap floors.” He shrugged. “So . . . whatcha cooking?” he asked with a smile.

“Oh shit! My pizza.” Eliza bolted to the door, and I followed because . . . well, pizza sounded good.

She ran inside through her front door, and I went around to her window.

“So, what do you think?” I asked, pushing myself up to sit next to the oven.

“I think you need to get your ass off my counter and we’re both lucky that I didn’t burn dinner, but mostly, I think it’s really exciting that you’re going to be living upstairs.” She blew her hair out of her eyes and set the pizza on top of the stove.

I smiled and swiped a pepperoni off the top, burning the shit out of my mouth as I popped it in. “Damn, that’s hot,” I mumbled, blowing around it.

“Genius. You just watched me pull it out of the oven. Were you expecting it to be cold?”

“No, I was just hungry. Oh, that reminds me.” I jumped off the counter and pulled a twenty from my pocket. “Use this for food.”

She looked at my hand then began slicing the pizza. “No, just keep it. You’re going to need a bunch of stuff for the new apartment. Do you have enough for the first month? I get my student loan check next week. I can help you a little and you can just pay me back—”

I swiftly interrupted her. “Stop. I’m good, I swear. I appreciate it, but I get paid on Friday—”

Then she interrupted me. “But what about your mom’s rent? I know you and your dad . . . Well, I just mean . . . Are you, um . . . going to help her this month?” She shyly looked up at me through her lashes. My dad was a sensitive subject, and even mentioning him usually put me in a shit mood.

I sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know. I’ve been paying their rent for years. But now, I’ve got my own bills to worry about. I couldn’t care less about her getting tossed to the streets, but Flint and Quarry can’t be homeless. I don’t want to give her the money, though, if she doesn’t really need it, because, let’s be honest here—I do. But at the same time, she’s already a month behind, so if she doesn’t pay before the first, they can evict her.”

“Okay, well, what if you go in right before the office closes the day it’s due. If she’s paid it, awesome. If not, you can pay it so she doesn’t get evicted, but then make sure she
really
understands that you won’t be paying it again. And if you do have to pay it, let me help you at least for this month.” She looked up from the pizza and pleaded with her eyes way before she did with her mouth. “Please.”

A warm feeling passed over me. I’d never take Eliza’s money. She lived counting her pennies the same way I did. But the fact that she was willing to give me the little she had . . . There were no words. It hit me deep.

“All right, moneybags. If it comes down to the wire, I’ll let you help out. Let’s start with you taking this twenty bucks and then feeding me some pizza.”

Her lips twitched. She knew I was lying, but she didn’t bother calling me on it. Instead, she took the money and passed me a plate loaded with over half of a pizza.

One day, I was going to buy that woman everything she wanted. I didn’t know when or how. I just knew that, one way or another, it would be done.

Three years later . . .

“YO, TILL!” DERRICK BAILEY YELLED as I walked into the gym.

“What’s up?” I called out, rolling my eyes.

I fucking hated that kid with a passion. He was such a fucking suck-up. He wasn’t one of the poor kids. No, his daddy had plenty of money, and he paid a shit-ton each month for his son to be a part of the gym. So while I was mopping floors to earn my keep, he would sit and talk to me. It was obnoxious. Besides being loaded, something about him just rubbed me the wrong way.

“Flint called a minute ago while I was covering the phones. Said you need to go home as soon as possible. Some sort of cop showed up at your mom’s place.”

“Nothing new,” I mumbled to myself. “Yeah, okay. I’ll call and see what’s going on after I start the load of towels.”

“Okay. He was pretty messed up though. He said they were there about your little bro.”

“Quarry?” I spun to face him, confused.

“That’s what he said, man.” He shrugged.

“Shit.” My pulse spiked as I dropped all of my bags and sprinted from the gym.

My feet pounded the pavement as I ran the few blocks to my mom’s apartment. Quarry was ten and by no means a golden child. He had a serious attitude. Where Flint was book smart, Quarry was slick and cunning. I had been keeping a close eye on him recently. But the older he got, the sneakier he became.