On Edge (11 page)

He grinned at me, closing the distance between us and wrapping me in his arms. According to the movies, I should push at his chest and pout some more, but all I wanted to do was feel the bliss of loving him without complications or jealousies.

“If she had tried to put her hands on my junk, I would have made with the kung fu, but tops, she was just annoying. Everyone in that hall knew I wasn't interested in Madam Birdlips, except you.”

Remembering what Liv had said about Haze shaking his head at me, I tried to look at what happened with better eyes. He mistook my silence for disbelief.

“It's true. I bet if you ask Liv she'd back me.”

Sighing as if I were letting out all the steam from my earlier anger, I conceded. “You're right. Seeing Cathy on you made me feel weird and I overreacted. I don't need Liv to tell me that. Besides, she's busy being upset with me for not telling her about us.”

“Oh.”

“I told myself I kept quiet because I was afraid to trust her or she might say something to someone on accident. But I don't really know why I didn't tell her.”

He shrugged. “Because you thought I was a man-whore, after you for a game of fetch?”

“That was part of it, I guess. But I've never really had a best friend before. One that didn't have a penis, anyway.”

I tried not to smile when Haze frowned. “I like it better when you have friends without penises.”

I ignored his jealousy, but put it away for smile material later. “I always feel as though Liv is trying to teach me things. Like she takes it as her responsibility to keep me from messing my life up. Like Warp. I guess I'm used to shutting people like that out.”

“Decay's like that, too. He's been a writer longer than me and he's taught me stuff along the way. Like wearing a respirator and making consistent lines and stuff. I think sometimes, that makes him feel like he needs to keep schooling me, even though I'm good now, I don't need all his advice. So sometimes, I don't tell him everything 'cause I don't wanna hear it. Liv is who she is and you need to decide if you can deal with it or not. But, if she tries to change you, ditch her.”

“Oo. You're so wise and opinionated.” I teased.

“I know, right? Listen, Liv can be overbearing. Heather used to get into fights with her sometimes over it, and honestly, I wasn't sure why the two hung out as much as they did, until Heather told me some of the shit Liv's parents would do to her.”

“Yeah, she told me about this time when she reported a fake robbery just to get them to come home because she was lonely.”

Haze shook his head. “It's messed up how they punished her.”

“She didn't tell me that part, just that she was glad they were gone.”

“Heather told me they tied Liv to a tree and left her outside all night so she would know what being lonely really meant.”

“Jesus!”

“Yeah. Heather felt bad for her. Said she'd never do anything to make Liv feel alone, so the two of them, despite their fights, were pretty inseparable. But my sister was pretty easy to get along with. If you think Liv is going to try to push you around…well you push back. No girlfriend of mine is gonna be bullied.”

I felt my throat tighten and I looked up into his beautiful eyes, the deepness of our conversation lost behind one word. “Girlfriend?”

“Yeah, Manu,” he whispered the silly pet name, and I realized I didn't mind it. “You're my girl, and no dollar special, park bench whore like Cathy is going to get in the way of me proving it to you.”

Stretching on my tiptoes, I met his mouth and slid my arms up his muscular biceps, encircling his neck. I pulled myself closer at the same time he cinched his arms around me.

Bliss. I was vacationing in his kiss, inhaling the scent of his cheek. He smelled so good. Like adventure and mystery. The unknown lay with him and I wanted to explore all of it.

The floorboard outside my door creaked and I barely had the sense to break off the kiss before my doorknob turned and in walked my brother.

Fourteen

My hands slid down to Haze's shoulders where I held on for dear life. We all stood there in silence, allowing for the shock to settle. Warp's eyes drifted from me to Haze with murder screaming from his dark gaze.

He began to shake, lifting his finger to point an accusatory finger at Haze. “You—you dirty bastard!”

“Shh,” I scolded, moving away from Haze to intercept my brother's approach. I grabbed his finger and jerked his hand down. “You wake up Pops and I'll kill you.”

“The way you killed me now, Emanuella!? Shacking up with this piece of shit writer…the enemy? How could you do this? No, no, I don't wanna hear any bullshit you might spew to save your boyfriend's ass.”

“I don't need her to save my ass. I got this, easy.” Haze's voice was low, but I could tell by the tone, he was ready to hard-play.

I looked over my shoulder to see him step up to the line. Oh, God!

“Hey, hey.” I moved to the side so I could press a hand to both heaving testosterone-y chests. “Can we be rational about this for one second? Warp, I know how this looks but you have to trust me.”

“I knew you were dating this guy. I knew he was the one who put your portrait up, but you lied to me. You tried to make me think I was the one responsible.”

“I didn't paint that shit!”

Warp's eyes turned from me to Haze. “I saw the lines, man. It's your signature as clear as if you tagged your name on it.”

I frowned. “How do you know his signature?”

Warp shook his head slowly from one side to the next. A typical stall tactic I'd seen him use with Pops countless times. “Are you ignorant or something? You were with us when we saw him painting his sister's face on the wall. You didn't recognize it?”

“Someone took a bite from me—copied my style.” Haze growled. “I didn't have anything to do with painting LL's piece.”

“And the bloated one I found tonight? I suppose you had nothing to do with that either, huh?”

I frowned and glanced back at Haze, who looked as dumbfounded as I felt.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Haze asked.

“Your act might fool my sister, but not me. I know you're using her to start the war, but you know what, asshole? I didn't need the push. From here on, I'm on you and yours.”

I felt sick to my stomach. Five minutes ago I had been happy, knowing that Haze didn't want Cathy, he wanted me. Now, his visit had opened the door for Warp's war, where my brother hoped to gain city infamy. Red paper hearts dotted my blurring vision as tears filled my eyes. This couldn't be happening…but it was, and no amount of denial on my part was going to fix it.

I remembered Haze's distance when he'd come to parkour training, like something was weighing on him. Maybe he had seen his signature on the piece he'd gone to erase and was worried about who was framing him.

“No, Warp, stop it. Just give me time to figure this all out, all right? Haze says it isn't him and I believe him. Maybe it is someone in his crew trying to create problems or someone else trying to take out other crew competition. Please. There could be many reasons for this. Even you,” I reminded him in a last ditch effort to get him to see reason.

He laughed at me, his bitterness like the shriek of a screech owl to my ears. “Nice try, Emanuella.” Warp looked past me, sneering at Haze. “Letting my sister beg for you, coward?”

I held my breath, afraid that Haze would take the bait. “Brennen,” I pleaded softly.

Haze's gaze shifted to me, but only briefly. His only focus now was Warp. “You want a huge brawl where the violence will escalate and your sister might become a target? I guess I care about her more than you.”

“At least you're admitting in front of her you'd make her a target.”

Haze sighed, his fists balling at his sides. I couldn't blame him. My brother wasn't making much sense. When Warp felt angry, logic melted away to reveal dick-a-saurus.

“I would never,” Haze argued. “But I can't be held responsible for what other members of my crew or outside crews might do.”

“Outside crews? What are you talking about?” my brother asked.

“You think it's only me and my crew that'll jump into the fight? You start a war with one group of writers, they all jump in. I can't possibly protect her from every idiot out there who happens to take a disliking to all things freerunner because they view your attack on my crew as a declaration of war. Why do you think I haven't responded to your bullshit from the other night? Why do you think I held Decay back in school the other day?”

Haze inched closer to my brother, and I was willing to bet a part of him wanted to prove he wasn't afraid of Warp or any of his threats. “I don't do any of this for
your
dumb ass. I do this because I dig your sister and I don't want to see her get hurt because her brother's a hotheaded ass!”

“You don't know nothing about me,” Warp yelled and pushed me out of the way.

“And you don't know nothing about me except that I'm into your sister. It's unhealthy, man. You can't try and start a war to keep her under your foot. It's sick.”

“I'd rather her be under my foot then hanging with a twisted fool who killed his own sister!”

I'm not exactly sure what happened. The details would be forever fuzzy. I stood there with my mouth wide open, stunned by Warp's blatant accusation and the deep shade of purple Haze's face turned.

Faster than I thought humanly possible, Haze threw a jab into Warp's right eye and followed through with a hard kick to the chest.

Warp flew backwards, falling across my bed. I might've been embarrassed by the amount of stuffed bears that went flying in every direction if I wasn't so sure chaos was about to descend.

Using the momentum of his landing to somersault backwards off my mattress, Warp landed on his feet. He gripped the corner post of my bed and swung himself around until his foot slammed into Haze's gut.

Haze tried to keep his footing, but lost the battle.

In an effort to find something to grab onto, he reached but found nothing between himself and the closet. He tumbled inside, grabbing at my clothes, bringing the suction-cupped bar down on his head.

Yoga padding kept him from meeting hard wood floor with his ass, but from the look on his face, that was the least of his problems. The closet rod, and all its contents, landed in his lap.

“You two leave that parkour crap outside! Not in my house at one a.m.!” Pops bellowed from down the hall. We all froze in place.

Haze's eyes widened as if he suddenly realized where he was…in his girlfriend's house, on the floor of her closet, with all of her clothes piled on top of him and his leg awkwardly propped up by an exercise ball.

I would've laughed if the situation hadn't been so precarious.

Glancing over at Warp, I held out my hand for him to stop his advance on Haze, though I raised my voice to respond to my father. “Sorry, Pops! I'll go to bed.”

“See that you do, Emanuella!”

“Warp,” I said, stepping in front of him with my palms flat against his chest. “Get the hell out of my room.”

“No. How about I call Pops down here and he and I can beat the shit outta your boyfriend?”

Haze made an angry sound behind me but I didn't hear him move.

“Go ahead and call Pops in here. I'm sure he'd love to know exactly what you're up to. I'm sure he'd love hearing your gang war aspirations. How likely is it that he'll send you off to military school in lieu of death or juvie?”

Warp's eyes narrowed at me before he pointed in Haze's direction. “I catch the two of you together again, I won't care about consequences. You got it? It ends now, in this room, Emanuella.”

“Fine. Leave,” I said, jerking my head toward the door. Let him think whatever he wanted, I wasn't about to make any promises.

Warp didn't move. “I'm not leaving this room, until he's gone. And if I have to, I'll sleep outside your door all night.”

“Jesus, John. Stop being so dramatic. You act like you caught us eloping or something and not sneaking kisses.” I walked to the closet all casual-like. As if sneaking guys in my room to make out was something I did often enough to not be concerned about it. Looking down at Haze, decorated with my wardrobe, I wondered what my next deceitful move would be. What lie could I possibly hand my brother that he would buy and that would still give me the freedom I wanted? What could I say that would sound believable without turning Haze against me?

“Can we all just slow down the death threats and the beatings until the sun comes up?” I said. “I'm tired. Haze came by to try to get me back after
I
broke things off, Warp. We had one last kiss, that you interrupted—thanks a bunch—and that would've been the end of it. A small fling that you're making so much shit over. You should be embarrassed.”

“You should be, LL. Letting this guy use you like some skeezy whore off the block. I thought you were better than that.”

Haze made a move to get up and defend my honor, but I turned my head and gave him a look that I hoped begged him to trust me. He sighed and a plaid skirt tumbled down the tilted curtain rod and covered his face.

I smiled despite the dire situation, trying to maintain an air of confidence I didn't at all feel. “Well, I guess you've been thinking of me all wrong.” I turned to face Haze fully, putting my hands on my hips like I had no patience left. “You planning on getting out of there anytime soon?”

“I'm very afraid to move right now,” he said and lifted the pleated skirt off his head.

“Here.” I stooped to pick up the curtain rod full of clothes. “I should make you and Warp iron everything.”

“Hey…I'll make your bed if you want, because I put your brother over it, but the closet bit is his fault.” He helped me get the pole back into place.

“Not my fault you crumple like paper, bitch,” Warp whispered angrily from across the room.

Haze's jaw clenched, but he didn't rise to the bait, choosing, instead, to hand me the clothes that fell off the rod.

“Ignore him. You gave him a good punch to the face first, so your man card is safe in your back pocket.” I finished hanging all the clothes on the secured rod and turned to face my boyfriend. I willed him to read the lie into what I said next. “But you have to go, and Brennen, this time you have to stay gone. Warp knows what we both know, too. This just isn't going to work.”

I moved with Haze to the window, avoiding his look of confusion mixed with hurt.

“Wait…”

I shook my head and wrapped my arms around him, squeezing as if bidding a final farewell. I couldn't be sure Warp was buying any of it, but I was in it—so it was time to own it. “Meet me in an hour at the park,” I whispered, before nodding to the window.

***

“I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!” I kissed all over Haze's face, and he likewise kissed all over mine until our lips met in desperation. The whole night had gone horribly wrong, and things between us were so unsure that we clung to each other as if an asteroid were about to destroy the planet and we had seconds to fit in a lifetime.

“Brennen…what are we going to do?” I panted against his neck, tasting my own tears of panic on his skin.

“Shh, Manu.” He held me for several long minutes, as if he were waiting for the severity of the situation to settle around us long enough to examine it. “This is all my fault. I was so impatient. I couldn't sleep not knowing if you were still mine. I wanted so bad to fix things and now I've made it all worse.”

“Don't apologize for coming to me. I was drowning in nightmares of you and Cathy and I'm glad you cared enough to come. And here you are again. I thought…I didn't know if you'd be here. My brother…”

“Doesn't scare me,” he interrupted, pulling back just enough to wipe the last of my tears away. “I'm not going to let him threaten me away from you. I was more worried you would let him push you away.”

“No. I don't want things to be over, Bren. But we have to be more careful than ever now. I don't know if Warp believed what he just saw or if he was serious about stirring up trouble with your crew.”

He sighed. “I hope he just spoke in anger.”

The long silence between us as we stood in the park was filled with the tension of the unknown. Too much of the future rested on Warp's reaction to seeing Haze and me together. And my brother was about as stable as the gangs after the merger.

“So, you were able to get away okay? Or should I be preparing for an ambush any second?”

“Warp stayed outside my door for a half hour, then went down to his room. I could hear him snoring when I checked the hall before coming here. We're good.”

He dropped his arms from me and took a step back, clearly stressed. “I wouldn't call us good. Dammit!” The woodchips went flying as Brennen kicked them hard in frustration. “I should've respected that he's your brother and let him kick the crap out of me for being in your room. It's what I deserved. Instead I let him get to me, and I start a fight in your house.”

“Please.” I reached out and squeezed his hand. “There's no excuse for what he said to you. Accusing you of murdering your sister? I'd have hit him, too.”

Brennen walked to a bench and sat down, motioning for me to follow him over and sit beside him. I didn't need to be asked twice. I sat and pulled one leg up to my chest to hug while the other dangled, digging into the wood and dirt beneath the bench. I could tell he wanted to tell me something, so I just waited for him to talk.

“When Heather died…” he started slowly, and looked at me, as if checking to see if I was aware of how important the conversation was. I nodded for him to continue. “…I was a suspect. Did you know that? Because I'm a writer and because the cops said I fit the profile of someone who could snap. A hotheaded, overprotective brother. Sound familiar?”