Chapter Seven

Jay’s POV

Pulling into the carpark of our regular haunt, I step out, pulling up the collar on my jacket as fat drops of rain started to fall, moving quickly to get inside.

Shaking out my coat, I smiled at the waitress who recognising me, and pointed toward a far booth with rounded seating, where I could make out my closest friends.

‘Jay!’ Cassidy squeaked as he grabbed my hand and pulled me down next to her, kissing my cheek.

‘Umm, hello? Boyfriend right here babe’ Wade grumbled, pointing his thumb at himself.

Cassidy snorted, ignoring him, ‘you timed that well’ she added, as she glanced out the window at the rivers of water running down the pane.

‘Hey baby girl’ I replied hugging her, ‘hey best friend stealer’ I threw at Wade who just smirked at me.

‘Not my fault she can’t get enough of this’ the original bad boy said as he flexed his arms.

I scoffed, narrowing my eyes as if I was squinting, ‘sorry, what am I looking at here?’ I asked innocently.

As Wade went to reply, Cassidy cut across our bickering, ‘OK, enough, it’s brunch time’ she said firmly.

Letting our rivalry go, we picked up our menu’s and scrutinised the offerings. I don’t know why we do this, we all know the menu off by heart and we always order the same things, but, still, we peruse the menu.

‘Hmm, should I have the steak and eggs this time’ Cassidy mumbled as she tapped her finger to her chin. I sniggered, she was totally going to make three different food choices before reverting to her usual of the pancake high stack and a cookies and cream milkshake.

Wade slammed his shut, ‘full breakfast, double bacon, coffee’ he announced, see, it never changes!

The waitress sauntered over to us, swinging her hips as she eyed me. The first few times we had come here, she had made sultry eyes at Wade. He had shut that s**t down fast through a rather aggressive and public display of affection to my best friend that left her bright red and gasping for breath.

Smiling up at her, I rattled off my order, ‘cheeseburger omelette, side of pancakes, and a latte’ I requested.

‘Sure thing handsome’ she purred before turning to Wade, ‘Full breakfast, double bacon, coffee’ he grunted, not even looking at her as he played with a strand of Cassidy’s hair.

I turned to my friend who was scrunching her face up in concentration, ‘umm . . maybe I’ll have . . no, I don’t think so . . or I could have . . no, I might not like it. . . . oh! What about . . ‘ she mumbled.

‘Princess, I’m starving here, don’t let me waste away’ Wade groaned, rubbing his stomach.

‘Ok, OK, umm, big stack of pancakes and a cookies and cream milkshake’ Cassidy rushed out as she shut the menu and handed it to the waitress.

What did I say? Every damn time!

The waitress walked away, returning a few moments later with our drinks. When she left us alone, Cassidy took a sip of her milkshake as she fixed me with a glare. ‘Sooooo’ she started, giving me her, you better spill it, look.

I met her gaze, trying to pretend that I had no clue what she was talking about.

‘The blood Jay, why did you wake me up at the ass c***k of dawn about removing blood from clothes?’ my best friend demanded.

I sighed, ‘when I woke up, there was a tiny bit of blood on my sheets’ I started, ‘I just didn’t want to ruin the bedding by washing it wrong.’

Cassidy raised an eyebrow, ‘since when do you do your own washing? What happened to Helena? Is she sick?’

I shook my head, avoiding her gaze, ‘no . . no, she’s fine’ I replied evasively.

‘So why the sudden urge to learn household chores?’ she pushed.

I glanced at Wade, but I should have known that he wouldn’t have my back, oh no, mr boyfriend was leaning back in the booth smirking at me, asshole.

‘I wasn’t in my bed’ I mumbled before hastily bringing the cup to my lips and taking a gulp of the hot beverage.

Cassidy’s glare intensified, burning into the side of my head, ‘you were in someone else’s bed and there was blood?’ she hissed, ‘who’s bed were you in?’

I met her gaze, ‘I was in one of the guest rooms at the sorority house’ I replied defensively, ‘I woke up, alone’ I added quickly as my best friend looked about ready to punch me. ‘When I stripped the bed, there was a small amount of blood, I must have cut myself or something.’

‘You sure she didn’t just run out on you?’ Wade chuckled, taking a bite of his bacon.

‘Umm, women don’t run out on me mate’ I scoffed, ‘if that used to happen to you, maybe you weren’t fulfilling all their needs.’

‘OK, no more talk about my boyfriend and him screwing other girls’ Cassidy growled, glaring at us both.

Wade slid closer to her, pecking her lips, ‘you know you are the only girl for me princess’ he cooed, ‘no-one ever made me come like you do.’

I made retching sounds as my best friend squeaked, slamming her hand over Wade’s mouth, trying to cut him off.

‘Eww’ I groaned, ‘and could I reiterate, Eww! That is my best friend and sister dude, I do not need to know about you f*****g her.’

Wade laughed, placing a kiss on her palm as Cassidy slapped at him with her free hand. Grabbing her as she swung, he reached up and pulled her hand from his mouth, pressing his lips to hers until she moaned into his mouth.

Pulling back, he released her and picked up a streak of bacon, feeding it to her as she blushed.

Ugh, they are disgustingly cute, and I am no jealous at all, nope! No jealousy here.

Finishing our breakfast, Wade and I had our bill paying pissing contest, the asshole handing over his credit card as I pretended to sulk.

Walking out, Wade wrapped his arm around my friend, pulling her tightly into his side as we said goodbye under the small canopy that ran around the building, the rain thundering down beside us.

‘Come to dinner this week’ Cassidy ordered as I turned to walk away, ‘you never eat with us anymore.’

I gave her a wink over my shoulder, ‘baby girl’ I scolded, ‘I have no need to be a third wheel to your disgusting lovefest, enjoy your romantic dinners and insatiable s*x sessions, and don’t worry about me.’

My best friend bit her lip, worry in her eyes as she reluctantly nodded. I knew she was concerned about me, but she didn’t need to be, I was fine.

Waving, I ran toward my car and slid inside, pushing my soaked hair out of my eyes as I started the engine and turned on the wipers. Through the windscreen I watched as Wade shrugged out of his jacket, holding it over Cassidy’s head as he led her toward his car, opening the door for her so that she could slide in.

Sitting alone in the front seat, my chest tightened as I silently followed Wade as he shut the door and ran around to the driver’s seat. He was a lucky son of a b***h to have found my best friend, I just hoped he realised how rare what he had was to find.

Throwing the car into drive, I pulled out onto the highway and head toward my apartment, pushing the emotions that were tugging at the edge of my soul down into the depths where I could ignore them.

A ping on my phone pulled my attention as I fished it out of my jeans pocket awkwardly.

Opening the text, I grinned as I read it, an invitation to the local bar by a couple of the guys from college who I had started to hang around with at the end of last semester.

Changing course, I headed toward their location, it was just after noon, but f**k it, somewhere it was happy hour.

Pulling up to the bar, I climbed out of my car and made my way inside, the scent of sweat, beer and perfume smashing me in the face as I opened the door.

Glancing around I spotted my two friends in the corner, each nursing a cold beer as they laughed together. Signalling the bartender, I ordered my own beer before heading their way and slipping into the booth next to a large guy with tattooed knuckles and an aura that told everyone around us not to mess with him.

‘Rocky’ I greeted as he lifted his beer in greeting.

Looking over at the tall, muscular guy across from me, I nodded, ‘Tony’.

Tony grinned as he reached over and clinked his beer to mine, ‘Jay’ he greeted, ‘thought you would be at least an hour dude, isn’t today family brunch?’

I nodded as I swallowed a mouthful, ‘yeah, just finished when I got your message’ I replied.

Tony’s smile widened, ‘your sister still with that guy?’ he asked, ‘man I would love to wrap those legs . . ‘

‘I wouldn’t finish that’ I warned, glaring at him, ‘yeah, still madly in love and trust me, you don’t want to try and take her from him.’

Tony sat back, moving his bottle to his lips and taking a swallow, ‘yeah, I heard about him, Simmons Right?’ he checked as I nodded, ‘heard his rep, surprised someone like your sister went for a guy like him.’

I shrugged, I wasn’t going to explain Cassidy and Wade to anyone, she was happy with him and that was all that mattered as far as I was concerned.

Rocky glared at his friend, ‘dude, you ain’t ever going to tap that, you need to move on and find yourself a girl willing to spread her legs.’

Tony laughed, ‘I know, it’s just something about a forbidden fruit man, she’s so damn innocent it makes my c**k twitch.’ Seeing me start to lose my cool, he held up his hands, ‘hey, bro’s before hoe’s dude, and she’s your sister, that makes her off limits even if she wasn’t shacked up with the neanderthal.’

I relaxed, draining the beer and signalling to the barman for another three to be brought to us.

We sat for a couple of hours, drinking and shooting pool, the three of us joking around with the easy friendship we had formed.

Why or how did I end up with two brick s**t houses for friends? Well, it turns out that when you are broken you tend to attract other broken people. The two of them were real badasses and had reps at the college to vie Wade and Declan back at high school. But, they also had a compass, they’d beat the s**t out of someone but only if they did something to warrant a beat down. They weren’t bullies, they were protectors, they just hated people knowing it. I had bailed them both out of jail more than once and I trusted them like my brothers. Tony might talk s**t about Cassidy, but I knew that deep down, he’d never go near her, they had a code, you don’t f**k over your friends which is why I stuck with them. I had no trust for any girl but my baby girl, but these guys? They were as trustworthy as Wade and Declan and if they needed me, I’d be there.