Find Me (Truthful Lies Trilogy - Book Two) (14 page)

But, when I’m done, she sets my mind at
ease by saying, “Blaze, is no problem. I would have told you
that is OK over the phone. But
I wanted to have coffee
wiss
you. And, I confess, I did little research on
you.”

“Oh.”

“
No need to panic! I googled your name, and
I saw all the good news on the Bushwick and DJ forums about your
set on Saturday. And I wanted to meet you, to see if I like you.
Which I do.”

“Oh.”

Her lip starts twitching. “Blaze, I am
not
lesbian
girl!”

“
Oh!” At this, we crack
up...
again
.

“
I am talking friendship. Let us say, I am
little different to the people I grew up with. A little
bit...
black
sheep
. And, well, is
hard to find people to drink spiked cappuccino
wiss
sometimes.”

“
Well, I love spiked cappuccino.” She pulls
out the flask, and I quickly protest! “Within reason!”

“But there is one more reason I want to meet
wiss you.”

“Uh-huh?”

She scratches her cheek.
“I saw you wiss Tolek Tomas on
Wednesday.”

The booz
e-high disappears faster than I can blink. “Tolek
Two-Face.”

“
Ah. Good name. Yes, him.”

“You know him?”

She sighs. “Unfortunately, yes. We used to
date once upon a time.”

“Oh.”

“
I’m not sure if he came to visit you
at
Slambam
and got
lucky seeing me, or vice versa.”

“Huh?”

She says,
“He came back after you left, called me outside
and asked to talk to me. What started out as a chat quickly led to
big fight with his hands on my shoulders, shaking me. And then...”
She looks away...

“
Vlad,
” I say.

“
He went crazy on Tolek’s ass.
They know him, of course. But I
convinced them to let me speak to him alone. Well, I don’t know how
I feel about them beating him up. I don’t love or like Tolek, sure.
He’s asshole. But he didn’t hit me. I don’t want to be treated like
some weak girl who can’t take care of herself. But Vlad reacted
straight away. He gave me no time to tell him I was actually fine.
Tolek had shit kicked out of him.”

“Oh. How bad?”

“
A few bruised ribs. Maybe a broken
nose.”

“Wow.”

“Tell me about it. So, anyway, now he’s on my
bodyguard shitlist. Doesn’t matter what I say now, daddy-dearest
won’t want him anywhere near me.”

“But that’s a good thing, right?”

“
Not if word gets around. Imagine how many
guys would want to date me if they found out my father would break
their ribs.”

“
Break their ribs
if they hurt you
. Sounds like a pretty good deal to
me.”

She raises her shoulders, lets them
fall.

I tell her what Tolek said about wanting
to congratulate me. Her eyebrows lift indignantly. “When I started
to have some success with
Red Lipstikk
band, he always wanted to be around me. Is as if he like to
fuck the socially important.”

“We never...uhm...had sex.”

“
Lucky you. I promise you did not miss
much.”
I
prrohhmiss
.

“He was a little... How can I word it?”

“
Unromantic?” she offers.

“
You are being polite.” This brings out
further bales of laughter from us. Tears of relief are filling my
eyes it’s so hilarious how she pinpointed it.

I tell her about Savva, a little bit, and
how she knew from the start that there was no
“spark” between me and Tolek. As the words
roll out, I find myself telling her more and more about my best
friend, then about Xavier. I tell her about the fire,
Deck...

Oh, my, do we get onto talking about
Deck
! I tell her how
much I love him (“
And
, Blaze, he
is also
fucking
hot and
sexy man on top of it!”), how my life seems to have come apart at
the seams since I met him—in a good way. I tell her how my
priorities have changed, how he’s given me hope.

I just unload,
months and months
of withheld communication just pours out
of me, each bit feeling like another ton being lifted off me. Every
time I look over at Skate, he’s hunched down, sketching away, like
I am when I’m with my music—in his own artistic world. I call him a
few times, and he barely registers that I speak. I ask him if he’s
cool, and he says he is, showing me the sketch pad. “Don’t worry
about me, Blaze. I do this every day of my life. You take as long
as you need.”

I look up at Vikki, her
bronze eyes intent with interest at what I
have to say. “I feel like I could talk for a week with you,” I tell
her.

“
You want to talk over more vodka? We can
go to my place. Vlad will not be far behind. You can tell your
boyfriend that you will be safe with me. Maybe you can even spend
night
?”

It’s different, you know, unloading to a
fellow girl.
With Deck,
it’s all hot and passionate, crazy roller-coaster, intense physical
release. But I need something else right now. I’ve needed something
else ever since Savva left me. And right here, it finally hits me,
what I’ve been missing ever since she took herself so violently out
of my life:

I’
d lost my best friend. My
girl
friend. And I need one of those as much as I need a
boyfriend. Maybe even more so. The logic for that is easy to
understand if you’re female. And if you’re not, you just gotta
trust me.

As a joke, I say, “Vikki, wanna be
my
girl
friend?”

She smiles all the way up to her eyes.
Then, overly seductively: “Blaze, I was hoping you’d say that. That
is
really
why I
called you!” She pouts her lips exaggeratedly, like she wants to
kiss me.

We stand and share a hug
—a long and meaningful one. When I let go
of her, her mascara is smudged. Something tells me she also needs
to unload on someone. A lot.

And now I’m really looking forward to the
vodka. Two girls getting drunk and talking all the shit they wanna
talk about without fear of being judged.

A taste of innocence in a non-innocent
world.

Damn
, I’ve needed that. I’ve needed that
so
badly
.

Skate stands instantly when I approach
him. I realize he’s been “in his own world” but not at the expense
of his responsibilities to me—or his promise to his friend. His
hand fumbles to find the cover of the sketch pad, and he closes
it.

I explain what’s happening. I call Deck
and tell him not to worry.
Skate confirms with Deck that “this Viktoriya chick’s
bodyguard looks like Secret Service, dude. Secret Service on Human
Growth Hormone.”

I tell
Deck I’ll spend the night at her place “because...I just
need it.”

“I understand. You be with your girl. I’ll
hang out with the boys tonight. I totally get it.”

“I love you so much, Deck. You’re so
incredible.”

“You too, Blaze. Wanna grab breakfast
tomorrow?”

“Honestly, I think I’ll be hungover as shit
in the morning.”

“
Ok. Let’s do the nighttime gig, then. You
let us know the place. We’ll be there.”

“Will do.”

We tell each other we love each other a
few more times, then finally put down the phone. Vikki’s all
moon-eyed when I look at her.
She gets it
, I think.

“
Thanks, Skate. I really appreciate
it.”
I shake his hand,
he rubs my shoulder like the caring big brother he now is to
me.

“
No sweat.” He grabs the sketch-pad. “Uhm,
Vik—Viktoriya, your, uhm, bodyguard dude here said you wanted my
number?”

She plays it cool. “Y—yes. Did you leave
it
wiss
him?” I’m
beginning to wonder if her accent isn’t bullshit, and if she
doesn’t lay it on thick when talking around boys, just to add a
certain
exoticness
to
her aura; that whole
La Femme Nikita
thing.

He opens the sketchpad, rips out his sketch,
then hands it to her, smooth-cool grin on his face.

I still haven’t seen the thing. But Vikki’s
mouth has dropped to the floor and her hand’s going up to cover
it.

“
Blaze, see ya.” Skate gives me a hug, then
walks out.
Oh
so smooth
. His Dodge Ram
booms to a start, and he drives off.

I turn to Vikki. “Vik?”

She turns,
dangles the sketch between index and thumb, still
looking at it, then turns it so I can see it.

My jaw also drops to the ground. And my
hand also covers my mouth.

Vikki’s milky skin goes red and flushed. She
fans herself, raises her eyebrows, and whistles.

Firstly, you gotta understand that the
sketch is utterly
realistic
. No
abstract shit here:

It’s a man making love to a woman. The
woman is clearly Vikki—she has the same ragged blonde curls and the
same face. She also has torn stockings (Vikki’s stockings were torn
and shredded on Wednesday night while she sang at
Slambam
). On top
of her spread legs is a dude with ripped muscles and a shaved head,
a tattoo of a dragon spanning his entire back.

And a snake tattoo around his neck.

Below it all, is Skate’s telephone
number.

“
Vikki, you’re blushing. A
lot
.”

“
I would tell you it’s the vodka. But it’s
not.”

“Wanna reschedule?”

“
Uhm”—she fans herself—“no, not at all.
But, I might need to make quick bathroom break when we get to my
place.”

Oh, my, I’ve missed having this kind of
friend.
Really
missed
it.

Declan Cox

We’ve been looking for Dino for hours. And
nothing. No sign of him anywhere. Not at
the old haunts, not at the park.
Nowhere.

“You think he’s gone to Jersey?” Trev asks.
“Gina had family there, didn’t she?”

“
Some aunts and uncles. Maybe he’s done
that. Damn it, Trev. I gotta put a stop to this. I can’t let this
shit spill over into Blaze’s world. That shit was crazy yesterday,
homes.” I park the car in the nearest spot, just to think a
bit.

“
Look, Deck, I know you get all hot-headed
and stuff. And I go along with it because I know you got your
process you need to go through. I mean, when you get something in
your head, there’s nothing stopping you. But now that you’ve
chilled out, I have to get in my two cents.”

“Shoot.”

“
This is a motherfucking
bad
idea, bro!”

As if caught with a hand in the cookie
jar, I look over at him. I say nothing, because, of course, he’s
right. I run a tired hand through my hair. “It’s so crazy, Trev.
Since I met this girl, my world’s gone upside down. It’s like I’m
experiencing the best and the worst of everything all at once.
Before, everything was mediocre. The boat never rocked. Hell, now
the boat can’t stop capsizing.”

“So, what you wanna do?”

“
Let’s go over to
Tom’s
. Clarissa told me Gina wasn’t ‘doing well.’ Maybe
she knows something about Dino.”

We head on over to
Tom’s
in Prospect Heights. I call Skate and he meets us
there. After the usual “You guy’s decided to go pro yet?” talk with
Mr. De Luca behind the counter (who, contrary to popular belief, is
not the eponymous “Tom”), we pick a booth and wait for Clarissa.
Gum in mouth as always, she comes by and gives us our free coffee
(we really love
Tom’s
) and we
order meals. Just before she leaves, I grab her by the arm and say,
“Hey, uhm, after we eat, could I see you about Gina?”

She gives two chews before answering:
“Finally.”

Skate tells us about how hot Viktoriya
Golovkina is
(making
sure to keep his voice down, lest Clarissa hears and pours coffee
down his pants) and then about the X-rated sketch he did for her.
This is too funny, and slowly, all my problems disappear. Even
thoughts of what happened to pops on Thursday...

When we’re done, Trev and Skate wait for me
outside. I go to Mr. De Luca and tell him I really need to talk to
Clarissa. Vaguely, I explain about the Molotov at Blaze’s place,
and say that Clarissa might be able to help me find the guy who did
it.

His eyes go wide with fearful shock and he
says, “Declan, you gotta be careful wit dat shit! Leave it to da
fuzz!”