Hallows: Eulalie

This Is Your House

Mike Jones- Back Then

Ashley:

Who the hell is this guy? Why does he just look f*****g amazing in everything he puts on and or takes off? The shirt fits him a little loosely. He has it tucked into his jeans and his sleeves are rolled up. I shake my head as I go over to him.

"No, Dante," I say pulling at the sleeves. "The point is for you to blend in. Do you want to get shot?"

"No," he sighs, letting me fix his shirt. I crouch down to pull the bottom of his jeans up and unfold the ends. I tuck the back so he doesn't step on them. I snort when I see he's wearing all-black Chuck Taylors. "Okay, stand up. Don't go down there."

"What?" I look up at him.

"You're f*****g killing me, Villanueva. Don't kneel in front of me like that. What the hell is wrong with you?" he grabs my arm and pulls me up to my feet.

"Sorry," I pull away from him. He looks me over and I swear it kind of makes me feel bad that I might have hurt his feelings.

"Come on. We're taking Tony's truck," he motions for me to follow him.

It's barely going to be noon and the day has already been hell. I can't let myself think about that girl as a person, especially not with dickhead around. I get in the car with Dante and look down at the swelling in my hands. The radio starts to play and it's some guy just screaming his head off. I reach out to turn it off and look over at Dante.

"Not a S.O.D. fan?" he laughs.

"How do you listen to this? It's just screaming,"

"I like it. What do you listen to? Bach?" he says, Bach with a ch sound at the end. Batch.

"That's not how you say his name. It's Bach," I correct him. "And no, not always. I just don't like screaming or the sound an electric guitar makes when it screeches. A lot of these songs don't follow a tempo and it drives me f*****g insane."

"Okay," he mocks me. "Put whatever you want on, princess,"

"I'm not a f*****g princess,"

"I beg to differ," he mumbles as I turn the radio back on and put on Hellbourne Fifty-six. Tupac is playing. "All right, this isn't too bad. I like Tupac,"

"Duh, you're a man," I scoff, looking out the window. "Are you mad?"

"What?" he asks. "Should I be?"

"I mean about the girl. What happened like two hours ago,"

"No," he shrugs. "I told her to f*****g drop it twice before it happened. Tiff is weird. She's really protective of her friends and right now, Aubrey is her only friend and you embarrassed her in front of their inner circle. She's been posted all over MySpace as s**t Face," he grins. "That's f*****g hilarious,"

"You're not a very good boyfriend," I roll my eyes.

"Boyfriend?" he laughs. "No, I don't do that. She's with Halestorm. He's the love of her life."

"Then why is she f*****g you?"

"I mean look at me," he shrugs. "You're the first girl I've ever met that's scared of me,"

"I'm not scared of you," I laugh. He looks over at me with a playful glare on his face. "Okay, not in the social sense. Yeah, you're fuckable. You've got James Dean and Audrey Hepburn's son vibes. But I know you're a f*****g bully and that's a big turn-off for me. You also have might-be-the-devil vibes and that's what scares me. You're unpredictable and privileged as hell. The last person I met like you, had me tied up in their basement while some other d**k head punched me until I couldn't even recognize myself,"

"Is that all they did to you?"

"Yeah, thank god for that. I don't think I would have survived anything else," the two of us remain silent for the rest of the drive. "Hey," I stop him when he reaches for the handle. "Whatever you see, don't read into it. And maybe keep it to yourself."

"Why?" he grins. "What am I going to see?"

"Just chill. Don't talk to anyone. They're all liars."

He laughs when I get out of the car. As we approach the front of the school, a group of girls look up at us. Alley Cat lets out a loud ear-piercing scream as she hops down the concrete stairs one at a time.

"Queen, holy s**t," she jumps into my arms. "Look at you," she shakes her head when she examines me. "You have lost some weight, sexy. You out there f*****g up rich hoes by yourself again?"

"I don't kiss and tell, baby. Why aren't you in class?" I take a step back. She shrugs, taking the sucker out of her mouth.

"Class was only fun with you in it,"

"Class isn't for fun," I pinch her chin. "Do I have to start asking for your report card?"

"No," she shakes her head. "I'm sorry,"

"Go to class, Alice,"

"I haven't seen you in forever,"

"I'm not staying long,"

"Can I at least have a kiss?" she puts the sucker to her lips without letting it get past her teeth. I laugh at the look she's giving me.

Alice broadly known as Alley Cat is the girl that made me think I was into girls for a little while. Her pretty blonde hair. The slutty way she dresses. Her legs go on for miles. And on top of all of that, she does exactly as she's told. She was there when I went full punisher on the Jimenez family and helped me keep it together.

"Just one," I agree for all time's sake.

She lets out a little excited scream and tosses the sucker. I pull her into me and press my lips to hers. She tastes like strawberries but not the real kind, it's all sugar. When I push her back, she fights the urge to run. She just turns away without saying a word.

"Now I know why I'm not your type," Dante laughs. "Kelly is going to love that,"

"You don't know what you're talking about," I roll my eyes as I walk past the group of girls. Alice is telling them that they need to start going to class.

"Queen?" the security guard standing by the metal detector jumps up to his feet.

"Hey, Gustavo. How's it going?" I ask, placing my phone and my keys in the tray along with a little gift so he doesn't make us walk through the metal detector.

"Both of you?" he asks looking at Dante. "It's gonna be a little extra, Queen. You know the King has rules."

"Is that right?" I laugh and put another pill on the tray. "Where is he?"

"Around. I know he's not in class. He has a new girl on his arm," he doesn't meet my gaze when he says that.

"Thank you, Gustavo. Tell your mom I miss her cookies."

"Here," he reaches into his backpack and pulls out a zip-locked bag with cookies. "She made some last night. I always bring extra,"

"Thank you," I take the bag from him and reach in for one. "Tell her anyway,"

I look back at Dante and motion him to follow me around the table. I grab my phone and my keys. When I offer him a cookie he refuses. He is enjoying this way too much. We're almost to the main office when Eli and a couple of his buddies round the corner. He stops when his eyes land on me.

"Am I dreaming?" he laughs.

"King," I greet him.

He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me into him. His mouth is on mine before I say anything else. He has no f*****g idea how much I needed this. The embrace and security that comes when you're in the arms of someone trustworthy. I let myself get swept up in the comfort of it and pull him in closer.

"You look like hell, Queen," he pulls away and looks behind me. "Who the f**k is this?"

"Back up," I shrug. They both laugh, but not for the same reason.

"What are you doing here?"

"I need some paperwork from inside. My mom's a little unavailable."

"I heard. How you holding up?" he caresses my cheek. For a moment I just want to spill all of it, but I just dismiss the whole thing.

"It happens," I shrug. He glances over my head at Dante and nods as if understanding that I don't want to talk about it in front of him.

"Go in. We'll watch your guy,"

"He's not my guy and you have nothing to say to him," I place my hand on his chest so he knows I'm serious.

"We're just gonna watch him, Queen. Relax. You're home. This is your house. We just live in it."