The Bond That Built Us (7 page)

Brian starts walking down the few steps to the base, right in front of Josh. “Try to make me, then,” he says, super calm. I swallow hard and my stomach does a little flip.

The first few punches are thrown before I can even realize what is happening. Josh and Brian fall to the floor, throwing punches and rolling around to try and gain the upper hand. Cara is shrieking at the landing while Kellan tries to find an opening to pull them apart. I’m not sure how long the fight happens, but soon Kellan gets a hand in and Brian is tossed to the side, his nose bleeding and one of his eyes already swollen.

“Oh my God, Brian. Are you okay?” Cara sprints down to him and tries to touch his arm but he
flinches and jerks her hand away.

“Fucking bitch. You’re not worth it.” He stands up and slams the door behind him, one of the hung decorative bowls shaking against the wall.

Cara goes in for the kill, yelling at Josh for ruining her night and cock-blocking. I rush over to him and Kellan and assess his wounds. His lip is split open and his shirt is torn at the neck and sleeve. I’m sure there will be bruises tomorrow but at the moment he looks like the less unscathed of the two.

MJ comes shuffling in the living room then, mumbling. “The fuck is going on?”
Her eyes are still shut and her hair is a ratted mess.

Kellan glares at Cara and says, “
She
brought some guy home and he got in a fight with Josh.”

“What?” MJ’s eyes widen
slightly and she is at Josh’s side within a second. “Shit, Josh. Your lip. AJ, he needs some medicine. Is there Neosporin or anything?”

“I didn’t see any
in the bathroom down here. What about the other bathrooms?”

“How should I know? Go check.”

I run into their bathroom which is filthy already and look through every drawer and cabinet. “Nothing,” I sigh when I come back out.

“Nothing upstairs either,” Kellan says, walking down the steps.

“Crap. Okay, AJ. Go to that one store and get some. Hopefully it’s twenty four hours.”

“I think Cara should go, since it’s her fault,” Kellan growls.

“No way, I’m too drunk to go.”

“I’ll go. It’s okay,” I say to Kellan. “I’ll just call the cab company now and it should be here shortly.”

He glares at me for a moment, obviously still mad at me. “Fine. I’m going with you.”

“What? No, you stay. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“You promised.” Shit… I did.

“Alright, let me call and put on some pants. Sit tight, Josh. Okay? I’ll get you a washrag and some ice.” Within about ten minutes, the cab is out front and Kellan and I slide in. We don’t speak the whole way there, in the shop, or at checkout.

It isn’t until we step into the cab when he finally speaks. “You let her do it again.”

OMG, seriously?! This again? “What did you expect her to do, leave her boyfriend so she could go to the store?”

“No, Cara should have gone. I don’t care how drunk she is. It’s all her fault. You let her win… again!” He snaps his head to face me when he says it. I am looking at the back of the taxi driver’s head, too afraid to glance at him. The cabby’s hair is thinning out and I can see the tan line on the back of his neck from him wearing a hat. His plaid collared shirt has dirt rings around the collar.

“This isn’t your concern so stay out of it.”

“Well it
is
my concern when I feel obligated to go to the store with you so you don’t get attacked again.” I can tell the driver is nervous at how heated our conversation is going but the rage surging through my blood prevents me from caring.

“So you felt
obligated
to go with me? I told you not to come! You were off the hook and you came anyway. I never asked to be your damn obligation! Next time I’ll just save my breath.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“What I don’t understand is why you felt
obligated
to come with me but you expected Cara to go by herself? Would you have gone with her, too?” I pause for a response I know I’m not going to get. “Exactly. So this is really a moot point, don’t you think? Oh, and for your information, I am doing this for Josh, not my cousin or her shitty friend. ‘Kay?”

He doesn’t say anything for a couple seconds, not until we get out of the cab.
I hand money to the driver and snatch up the baggie then slam the car door behind me. I hear him behind me, his long strides making it easy to catch up to my rapid steps. He grabs my elbow and turns me to face him.

“I’m sorry.” His tone has taken a softer note to it.

“For what?” I’m still pissed so my response still has a bite to it.

He looks down and sighs. “For acting like I know what’s going on between you and MJ. For always bringing it up. For starting fights. All of it.”

Instead of accepting his apology, I turn away from him and go inside.

We clean up Josh while Cara pouts upstairs in her room because everyone is mad at her. Even MJ sa
ys how irresponsible she was acting, which surprises the crap out of me. For the last four years Cara had done no wrong, and now this was strike one. Personally, she should have struck out a long ass time ago.

MJ takes Josh to bed and he is out within seconds. I stand just outside the master bedroom with Kellan, staring at the closed white wood door. The two of us worked well together as a team to fix Josh up, while MJ soothed him like a mother hen. Now that the team work is over, there is nothing else to do but go to bed. I look over at the couch, the sheet covering it all wrinkled and askew, my pillow crumpled on the floor.

“I’ll take the couch tonight,” Kellan whispers.

“I don’t mind it.”

“Yeah, you do. It’s uncomfortable. I saw you limping around like a granny with a bad hip this morning.” He smiles over at me, amused at his own joke.

I can’t help but smile back. “Well what about you? You are taller than I am, your feet will hang off. That’s just as bad. I can’t let you take it, I’m sorry. I don’t wish that pain on anyone. Well, maybe Cara,” I add under my breath. He hears me anyway and laughs.

“I tell you what… if I promise not to touch you, will you sleep upstairs with me?” Damn, that hopeful and pleading look is on his face again. Must. Resist. But that couch is so damn awful I was going to need a chiropractor for a month if I stayed on it. I really don’t want to stay on that couch ever again. What’s the worst that could happen? He touches me and I end up down here anyway, or he touches me and I let him, or he doesn’t touch me and nothing happens. I really only mull it over for a few seconds before admitting defeat. If this is considered losing, then I don’t mind it.

“Touch me and your balls get chopped off.”

His grin went from ear to ear. “Noted. Why couldn’t you have said something like that to the guy earlier tonight? I’m sure he wouldn’t have grabbed you if you did.”

“Because I trust you and know you won’t actually
hurt me. And I don’t want to go anywhere near his balls, even just to chop them off.”

“You trust me?” He looks shocked, and a little smug.
“And you want to go near my balls?” By then I know he’s teasing, but I think he is still surprised I trust him.

“Don’t push it
, McCabe.” I point my little finger into his chest and narrow my eyes for effect.

I wake up in the morning feeling refreshed. I roll over onto my back and stretch my arms over my head, then settle onto my other side. And become literally face to face with Kellan. I totally forgot I stayed with him in the upstairs room.

He was true to his word, he didn’t touch me at all throughout the night… at least I didn’t remember. This bed was like it injected Ambien into my body constantly throughout the night. I don’t remember anything.

Kellan is still asleep, breathing heavy through his nose. His lips are slightly parted and his hand is tucked underneath his pillow. I examine him better, analyzing every part of his face. His lashes are dark, and I see a little scar running along his jaw. I also see a tiny hole below his left eyebrow, like he used to have a ring in it.

My eyes migrate down his body. The sheet covers him up to his chest, but I can see his arm and neck. A feeling of longing shoots through me, wishing we were together so I could wake him up by kissing his neck. I swallow and push it away, flipping back over so my back is to him.

I am slightly disappointed he didn’t try to touch me. I always thought that if I slept in a bed with a guy, I’d wake up with his arm slung around my waist or his hand accidentally on my hip. Nothing. Nada. I feel like I’ve been gypped. A girl sleeps with Kel McCabe and there is no skin contact, I think that is a first. He must not like me as much as he said.

I lay there for a few more minutes, watching the rays of sunlight trickle in and move through the blinds until the sun is at the perfect position to assault me right in the eyes. The beams of light pierce my retinas and temporarily blind me. I pick up my head and try to scoot back so my head is in shadow, but I end up head-butting Kellan right in the nose.

“Ow!” He mumbles. “What was that for?”

“Sorry,” I giggle and flip to face him. “The sun.” I point behind me to the window.

“Hmm, see if I do a nice thing for you again. I give you the best sleep of your life and you hit me in the face!”  He rubs the bridge of his nose and checks to see if it’s bleeding. “You’re lucky it’s not broken. I’d have had to kill you for ruining the money maker.”

“Money ma
ker? Really?” I ask skeptically.

“Yep. I model for the art department. I didn’t tell you that?”
His voice is scratchy from sleep, a lot deeper than usual.

Suddenly
I want to take an art class.

“No, you didn’t. Don’t you
have to go nude and stuff?” The visions in my head are leaving me breathless.
Why
haven’t I taken an art class?!

“Sometimes. I actually do a lot of stuff, not just pose for the drawing classes. I’ve done modeling for people’s projects, like for fake magazine ads and I did a commercial for the university, and I was even a live model for some stupid senior studio project.”

“What did you have to do? Just stand there?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Her project was about the homeless, and all I had to do was sit in a cardboard box holding a chipped coffee mug for five hours. Easiest two hundred dollars I
’ve ever made.” He is smiling but still looks groggy, his eyes barely open. It’s pretty hot.

“How did you get into that? It seems…” I couldn’t think of a proper word for it, so I just let my sentence hang there and crinkle my nose.

He laughs. “Well I saw a flyer for the drawing class, and actually liked it. I really don’t give a shit if people see me naked. It’s really fun to see the girls’ faces turn red. Then one of the guys asked if I could help him out with a different project and I agreed. Next thing I knew, I had three other people emailing me and asking if I could be a part of their projects.” He shrugs his exposed shoulder. “Now my name and email address is plastered all over the art building. It’s easy cash, though sometimes the students can’t afford much. Once I was offered free macro homework and a couple times I got a case of beer.”

I laugh, imagining how amazing the barter system works in college. “That’s… really cool actually. A lot better than the library.”

“You work at the library?” he chuckles, probably tallying up another score for “Loser Aubrey.”

“Uh huh, you know when you have to write a paper and you need help with citations and research?” When he nods I continue. “That’s me. I’m the one that helps stu
dents get started on research. Then when they are done, I help with citations and copyright. It’s boring but I actually like it.”

“You’re right, that is boring.” I smack him on the arm and hop out of bed and adjust my shorts and tank top.
I have a wedgie the size of Mars, but picking my butt probably isn’t very attractive so I’ll wait until I’m alone.

“Aubrey?” He calls behind me as I reach the door. He is sitting up on his elbows and his eyes are shamelessly wandering all over my body as he licks his lips.

“Yeah?” I ask impatiently when he doesn’t say anything.

He falls back down on the bed and closes his eyes. “Nothing,” He says, slightly defeated.
Then he sits up again like a light bulb just switched on. “Hey, you can stay here again tonight, if you want. It would be really cruel of me to tease you with one night and not let you stay again.”

I smile and walk out of the room, extremely happy.

6

Kellan

Today we decide is a beach day. It is the hottest it is going to be all week and if I’m truthful with myself, I’m fucking nervous. Seeing Aubrey for a while the day before in her bikini gave me the best dreams last night and now I have to see her and Cara in basically nothing, plus any other chick that is on that damn beach. It took everything I had to not touch her last night in bed, but when she told me she trusted me I felt like I had to prove myself with it. I took her words to heart and really want to keep her trust.