Forever Dark(46)

I know enough about Jay to know he’s not someone you want to have any encounters with.

I find him at a frat house down the street from campus. He’s on the deck dealing shit he has no business dealing. The guy’s nearly thirty and dealing to kids shit they can’t afford.

When I take the first step, the wood creaks under my feet. There are two other guys leaning against the railing, skinny as fuck and strung out. My eyes sweep to them and then back to Jay.

For a moment, Jay ignores my presence and focuses solely on the ground, like I’m not even there.

Then, when he does look at me, he studies me, dark troubled eyes find mine, his black hoodie pulled up over his head.

One would think he’s wondering what this kid wants when really, he’s looking for my weakness. The problem is, he knows my weakness before I even approach.

“You need to stay away from Madison.” I say standing right in front of him. I can smell the alcohol on him from two feet away. The empty bottles on the table beside the white plastic chair confirm he’s already had a few.

He doesn’t say a goddamn thing and sits down in the chair with his legs kicked out as he slouches to one side, as if my presence here means nothing to him. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to do this right now because I know the outcome.

I shove my hands in my pockets knowing this was a bad idea and I feel it in my gut all of a sudden. It seems I piss him off, if not for my presence, but the fact that I opened my mouth in the first place.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.” He’s not looking at me, he’s staring at the ground. “I can’t control who wants it and who doesn’t.”

Bullshit. It’s all fucking bullshit. He knows who I’m talking about.

I don’t want to do this right now but if he wants it, I’ll gladly show him how I play this fucking game.

He’s fucking lying.

I step forward and his boys beside him watch me carefully, waiting on his word to step in. “Hey, look, she has a problem.” I try to be calm about this. Yeah, I’m angry but Jay Lucas isn’t exactly a guy I want to start a war with. “You’re hurting her. You hurt her, and I’m going to hurt you.”

“Is that so?” He smiles, my words entertaining to him. “They all have problems. She wants it. Who am I to deny her?”

“That’s the reason it’s a fucking problem!” Fuck being calm. I’m getting pissed and he knows it. He’s counting on it. “Stop! Don’t give it to her! She doesn’t know what she wants?” I’m shaking and losing control. He’s taken my life from me and he knows it.

He fucking knows it.

He knows what he’s doing to her.

He leans forward pushing himself from the chair, his body steady. He’s not looking at me, instead his eyes are on the ground and that’s somewhat more intimidating, if I was intimated by a guy like Jay. “So what… you think it’s you she wants?”

“You think you know her but you don’t.” I say, in sort of a whisper but my voice carries with the wind as I look down at him. I have probably three inches on him and maybe twenty pounds. “How long have you been fucking her?”

He laughs.

Laughs.

Like this shit is funny.

It probably is to him.

“Tell me,” he finally looks up at me, dark brown eyes seem darker than they should. Dude’s smoked too much of his own shit if you ask me, “what’s your problem? You mad about the drugs she takes or that you’re not enough for her so she sucks my dick too?”

Anger’s a funny thing.

I like to think I can handle my own and when I’m mad, even better for me because anger is on my side. I want to fucking kill this guy for the shit he’s done to Madison. It’s not like I stand a chance against him and his boys, and I know this. But I try despite that. I try because this is my girl he’s put in danger. My girl he’s been fucking. And that is what makes me see red.

I should be afraid of Jay Lucas. What this son of a bitch should fear is the man who has nothing left to lose.

He’s far more dangerous.

It’s not even her doing drugs. Or him giving the drugs to her.

It’s that he’s been fucking her. That’s what kills me. I thought I came here to tell him to stop giving her the drugs when really, I want him to stop taking her.

I don’t know why I was so blind. It makes me hate backseat promises and forever.

As angry as I am, I know there’s some boundaries with a guy like Jay. I’m not stupid. It has me hesitating.

My blood starts boiling as I imagine the shit he’s done to her and what she’s let him do. I don’t say anything else, instead, my temper gets the best of me and I shove him back against the chair he was just sitting in.