Chapter 25

NOVALEE

M ae’s Good Eats was a happening place on Saturday afternoon. Daryl and I had three condiment wars, of which I was still the reigning champion—never underestimate my ability to smash a ketchup packet—I made some art out of sugar on the counter, cleaned the windows, and we spent an hour chasing a squirrel out of the diner.

How he got inside in the first place, I had no idea. But despite what Daryl said, I was like ninety percent sure it had nothing to do with the peanuts I left next to the window in the back. If anything the squirrel would’ve gone for the cookies on the window in Victor’s office.

I wasn’t exactly looking my best. I had a couple bruises on my face that I couldn’t be bothered to cover up with make-up, and my knuckles were scratched up. Movement wasn’t my friend either. I was a little sore in some places and a lot sore in others, but all in all it was turning out to be an alright day. And I’d shown up for work in worse condition.

When I told Daryl he should see the other guy, he gave me a high five and said, “that’s my girl.” So we had that bonding moment. And Maw Maw said random violence didn’t bring people together.

“Jesus Christ,” the bell above the door rang as Memphis and Chuck came in.

“What the hell happened to you?” Memphis asked.

“Would you believe I lost a fight with a stuffed animal?”

Both he and Chuck nodded, “yes.”

That was fair. Memphis did witness my unsuccessful struggle with birthday streamers.

Chuck pulled Memphis up the counter. “Did Gio do that to you?”

Really? He needed to let this go. “If Gio hit me, I’d look a lot worse than this. Have you seen the size of that man?”

Memphis’s brow arched. “So, we’re referring to him as a man now?”

“Listen smart guy, Gio is still an asshole. He’s just an understandable asshole. Besides, I got to feed a skanky hoe toilet water, so…” I slapped the top down on a sugar container. “it’s all good now.”

Chuck’s brows pulled together. “What does that even mean?”

Memphis held up his hand and shook his head, “we don’t want to know.”

“See,” I pointed at Memphis. “He gets me.”

“It’s true,” Memphis nodded. “I’m fluent in Novaese.”

Novaese I liked that.

Chuck looked at Memphis, then at me, and back at Memphis. “I’ll never understand you two.”

“That’s why we’re the ninth wonder of the world.” There was Easter Island, the pyramids and us. “Don’t you have practice or something Mr. Jock man?”

“There’s no practice today. So…” he lifted up their entwined fingers and kissed the back of Memphis’s hand. “I’m taking my man out on a date.”

There was so much wrong with that statement, like the fact that he referred to Memphis as a man. “And you decided to bring him here? Not a very good date choice, Chuck.”

Memphis rolled his eyes. “He wanted to check on you.”

Awe, wasn’t that sweet. “Get out.”

“Really?” Memphis held up his hands. “Where’s the love?”

“This is love, Memphis. You don’t want to eat here. I don’t want to eat here. These people,” I waved my finger at the two full booths, “shouldn’t be eating here.”

“Hey,” Daryl called from the kitchen window. “I’m an excellent cook.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure Daryl. Whatever you say.”

He was an excellent cook for people who liked a side of nicotine with their food.

“Look Nova, I’m worried about you.” Chuck braced his elbow on the counter and leaned in. “You don’t know what guys like Gio are capable of.”

I was well aware of what Gio was capable of. “Well, as you can see, I’m perfectly fine.”

He cocked a brow at the bruises on my face.

“This isn’t what it looks like.” It kind of was, just not the person he thought. “And trust me, the other guy looks a lot worse.”

“Yeah she does,” Daryl sang from the kitchen.

At least I had one cheerleader.

“Now go,” I shooed them with my hands, “and enjoy your date… but don’t tell me anything about it. I don’t need those images in my head.”

“Alright,” Chuck sighed. “We’ll go. But remember, we’re here for you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“See ya,” Memphis sang then leaned in to whisper, “I might let him fuck me in my dad’s car.”

“Eww,” I picked up the cloth on the counter and hit him with it. “I didn’t want to know that.”

Although I would give him props for soiling his dad’s car. I’d love to see the Sargent’s face when he found that out. And I meant when not if, because the guy had some super eerie detection skills. I hoped they did it on his bed too.

I waved as they walked out, then turned my attention to the counter while completely ignoring the couple that walked in after they left.

This was more important than waitressing. I’d been working for months on this counter and almost had all the cracks filled in the far left corner. Sugar with a fine coat of clear nail polish oddly matched the color. It was a few shades whiter, but it kind of gave it a marbling effect. Besides, what else was I supposed to do? Work?

“Excuse me miss.” Someone called out, as if the universe heard my thoughts.

Goddamnit, couldn’t these people see I was busy?

“Hello,” they called again, making me sigh and screw the lid back on my bottle of polish.

“Coming,” I sang before grabbing two menus and walking around the counter.

What were they so excited for? Nothing in this place was worth that kind of enthusiasm. When did this become a popular place? Three of the six booths were full, which never happened, and two of those were returning customers.

Was Daryl putting crack or something else addictive in the food? That would explain the new customers. These two had clearly seen some rough times. They both had a few scars and I was pretty sure the girl was wearing a wig. Who the hell would buy a mullet? Fake hair or not, that cut should’ve never been in style.

“Good afternoon,” I placed the menus down on the table, one in front of the guy and the other in front of the girl, who he should not be expecting to get lucky with. This was no place to bring a date.

Flipping open my notepad, I plucked out the pencil I had tucked in my bun, and said, “todays’ specials are some kind of meat in sauce that probably isn’t safe for human consumption.” I stopped and thought for a second, then added, “I wouldn’t feed it to a dog either. Can I start you off with something?”

The girl blinked up at me while a smile spread across the guy’s face.

“Well, aren’t you a delight.”

“That’s what I keep telling people.” Memphis disagreed.

“I’m Craig, but you can call me Wild Dog.”

“Uh huh? And why would I do that?”

“Everyone calls me Wild Dog.”

“Riiight.” What the hell was wrong with this guy? No one should be that happy, unless they were psychotic.

Narrowing my eyes, I scanned the booth for a gun or some other weapon. I didn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something tucked into his leather jacket. I heard stories all the time about some creepy or strange guy going into a business and leaving bodies behind.

The guy shrugged off his jacket. “How are you this fine afternoon?”

Fine afternoon? This guy was definitely up to something.

“Well Wild Dog, I’m a little tired from a prolonged sexual experience I had last night. How about you?”

“I’m not bad.” The unwavering smile on his face was making me concerned that the girl with him wasn’t here of her own free will.

They were both rough, but in a weird way attractive. Wild Dog had scruff on his face, tattoos all over his arms, and a big skull ring on his middle finger. If the crazy bastard wasn’t smiling at me then I might’ve taken a minute to appreciate the firm muscles flexing on his forearms.

Compared to him the girl looked normal. She had on a Led Zeppelin shirt that was so tight I had no idea how she was able to breathe. And there was the fake mullet on her head. They weren’t exactly the kind of people that came in here.

“What brings you in today, Wild Dog?” I was genuinely curious and a tad afraid. He could rob us if he wanted, but he’d only get like eighty dollars.

“Well, Annie and I were driving by and thought let’s have some good old fashioned Louisiana home cooking.”

What?

I looked around the pleather seats and cracked linoleum floor, to the cigarette in Daryl’s mouth, then back at my customer. “And you came here for that?”

“It says home cooking on the sign outside.”

“Yeah,” I eyed him. “It also says Texas BBQ.”

If that wasn’t false advertising, then I didn’t know what was.

“Fantastic.” He slapped his hand down on the table. “I love me some BBQ.”

That’s when I noticed the Lost Souls tattooed on his arm, right under a naked girl on a bike. While I admired the detail on the girl’s nipples, I was not impressed with the MC logo. It appeared as if my brother carried through with his threat.

Damnit Kato.

“Well,” Wild Dog clapped his hands. “How about some of that BBQ?”

“I’ll get right on that, right after you tell my brother to back off.”

The smile fell off his face. “What gave me away? Was it the tattoos?”

That’s what he thought the problem was? “Among other things.”

“No, you idjit,” Annie reached across the table to slap his arm. “It was your creepy psycho smile.”

Now, Annie understood the flaw in his disguise. If what he was doing could be considered a disguise. They could’ve at least parked the bikes around the corner.

“My smile wasn’t psycho.” Wild Dog looked at me. “It was nice, right?”

“Sure, if you were planning to take me out back and skin me alive.”

“See.” Annie sang at him. “Maybe next time you’ll listen to me.”

“Your plan was worse than mine.” He turned my way. “What’s more believable, that my sister is some rich bitch that drives a Volvo, or that we are customers?”

“You’re asking me what I’d believe more, that you came in here to eat, or that she is some rich soccer mom?”

He nodded. “That’s right.”

Let’s see. Annie had grease on her shoulder, a tear in her shirt, and a really bad wig. So…

“Definitely the rich soccer mom.” No one would willingly eat here.

“Damn,” Wild Dog shook his head. “Looks like I owe you ten bucks.”

“Pay up,” Annie held out her hand.

Okay…

“Well, you two have fun with that,” I turned around and waved over my shoulder. “I’ve got work to do.”

And by work I meant rearm myself for the next round of condiment wars.

“Hey,” Wild Dog called after me. “What about our food?”

“Oh, you don’t want to eat here, but there’s a food truck down the block by the park.”

“A food truck hey?” He looked at Annie, who looked at him. After which they gave a nod to each other and walked out.

Daryl shook his head as I walked back around the counter. “Stop sending people to the food truck.”

“Why would I do that? I get a free sandwich for every ten purchases.” And I was not about to pass up free food.

“I’ll make you a sandwich.”

That free food however…

“Yeah…” my eyes dropped to the grease staining his shirt. “I’m not due for another tetanus shot for at least three years.”

“You’re awfully smart for someone who was late.”

“That wasn’t my fault.” I didn’t have my truck so Gio brought me to work, and we had to stop at my house for my uniform, which I had to sneak in to get so Maw Maw wouldn’t see me. That all took time.

Daryl blew out a puff of smoke, “one of these days, you’re gonna be late for something important.”

“Impossible,” I looked back at him. “I don’t do anything important.”

“Uh huh?” Daryl grumbled and went back to flipping burgers, leaving me to continue sugar coating the counter.

I wasn’t one for regrets, but having to send a text with a flip phone made me regret tossing my other one in Quackwater. Every try to watch videos on something with data slower than dial up? It wasn’t fun. One thing was for sure, I was glad I held onto Kato’s old MP3 player. Otherwise cleaning up at work would be really boring.

“Shake that ass,” I sang while shaking my ass and wiping down the counter.

Daryl gave me a few odd looks as I swung my cloth and continued to dance. He may have said something, I saw his lips moving, but my earbuds blocked out his voice. If it was that important he would’ve waved me down. It wasn’t like we had any customers. If that was the case, I would’ve taken out one of my earbuds. I had some professionalism.

Until then, I would enjoy my danceathon in the empty diner. Let’s face it, this was the most action this place had seen in years.

I twirled around the counter, skipped into the kitchen and flung the cloth onto the rack next to the sink. Clean-up was done. At least that was what I thought until Daryl arched a brow at me and pointed at a garbage bag by the back door.

Ugh, this job was exhausting. Well, at least I had the perfect song for this.

Scrolling through the playlist, I clicked on ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ and picked up the garbage bag like I was lifting weights. Which I kind of was. This thing was heavy and awkward. I had to use two hands to lift it, my hip to open the door, and every ounce of grace I had to maneuver it outside. And I still stumbled and fell out into the back alley. It was safe to say my attempt at a cool exit dance did not go well.

My back hit the pavement pushing out a huffed groan. That did not feel good in my already sore state. Not only that, but the heavy as fuck garbage bag slammed down on my chest, because apparently I needed to break it’s fall.

Daryl appeared in the doorway to give me a sarcastic clap.

‘Eye Of The Tiger’ didn’t feel like a kick ass song anymore.

I returned his clap with a fuck off finger before he closed the door, and pushed the garbage bag off my chest.

My uniform was going to need a good scrub after this. So was I for that matter. The only place that smelled worse than the alley behind Mae’s Good Eats, was the pit behind Simon’s house where his parents dumped roadkill. This area was shared with a bar and a bowling alley. The dumpster smelled like old shoes, alcohol, and rotten food. I’d rather stick my nose in Kato’s running shoes.

I peeled myself off the ground and got back on my feet, then I picked up the garbage bag and moved over to the dumpster.

It took some finagling to get the bag in there. I had to stand on my tip toes and use my shoulders for help, but it dropped inside with a loud bang that vibrated the entire dumpster.

Huh? That didn’t seem right. It was heavy, but not that heavy.

I popped out one of my earbuds.

Was that a groan?

That’s when I noticed the blood on the ground. It wasn’t old like the other stains. It was still bright red and fresh. Don’t tell me I walked out into a bar fight. I was not getting involved. I told myself to go back in the diner and ignore it, which was exactly what I did.

I walked back to the door, put my hand on the handle and…

“You’re one dumb son of a bitch.”

Romeo?

Keeping my hand on the door, I leaned back to peek around the dumpster. There was definitely someone back there. I could see movement, but I could make out anything more than a foot here and an arm there.

“Who’s back there?”

“Go back inside, Nova.”

Yup, that was Romeo. “What are you doing?”

I heard something that sounded like a slap, followed by an oof, and Romeo’s voice, “I said, go back inside.”

Yeah, that wasn’t happening.

Letting go of the door, I marched over and stopped dead in my tracks.

Romeo had his hands balled with this look on his face that sent a chill up my spine. And it was directed at Simon.

What the hell?

Simon did not look good. There was a stream of blood running down from his nose, two of his fingers were twisted and broken, and there was a cut on his left shoulder. That’s when I noticed the blade in Romeo’s hand.

I couldn’t look away from it. The deep crimson liquid coating the sharp edge had me trapped. My eyes were stuck on the fat drops that slid down and dripped off the tip.

Glop…

Glop…

Glop…

The floor was cold and hard. I wanted to get my blanket but I was too afraid to move.

“Don’t cry…” a soft hand reached out and caressed my cheek. “I’m going to see Daddy, Baby.”

My tears cut through the warm sticky streak the hand left on my skin as more drips fell to the floor.

Glop…

Glop…

Glop…

“Mommy?”

The hand flopped down, letting go of the knife in its grasp.

“Back off,” an arm wrapped around my chest, pushing away the image clouding my vision.

I came back to reality just in time to see Simon press the barrel of a gun to my temple. What was happening right now? Why was Simon threatening me? I knew he was mad at me for dumping him, but this was an overreaction.

“Simon…”

“Shut up,” he snarled while tightening his hold around me. “You had your chance.”

My chance for what? I didn’t understand any of this. Not that I got a chance to ask anything. Romeo pulled out a pistol before I could say a word.

“I’ll fucking kill her,” Simon hissed at Romeo.

“No you won’t.” Romeo tipped his head to the side. “She’s your only leverage.”

Leverage? When did I become leverage? Oh right, when I ignored my instincts and walked into what was apparently a gun fight. Memphis was never going to let me live this down. If I lived at all. Simon wouldn’t shoot me, would he?

“Nova and I are going to leave.” Simon took a step back, pulling me with him.

“I don’t think so.” Romeo said. “You stay right there.”

The intense way their eyes were locked on each other made my stomach flip. There was no doubt in my mind that Romeo would pull the trigger. There wasn’t so much as a twitch of hesitation in his stance. It was unnerving.

But Simon… he was angry. Angrier than I’d ever seen him. He wanted to hurt someone. I didn’t know what he would do. It was like he snapped, and that was scarier than Romeo’s calm demeanor.

“If you shoot me, you might hit her.” Simon pointed out.

Which I thought was a valid argument. Romeo, did not.

“I’m not worried.”

I was worried. “Can we all stop talking about shooting people?”

“Shut up,” Simon pressed the barrel harder into my temple. “This is all your fault.”

“How is this my fault?” I didn’t put the gun in his hand.

“You thought you were too good for me. Not so fucking smug now, are you?”

Was he serious? “You cheated on me!”

“And you dumped me for Gio.”

I did not. “You know what Simon, just shoot me. This whole argument is fucking ridiculous. It’s not my fault if you can’t handle a little rejection.”

“You were mine first!”

For a second I thought he might actually pull the trigger. I even closed my eyes in anticipation. But he took a deep breath and once again focused on Romeo.

“Tell me something Nova,” he growled in my ear while keeping his eyes locked on Romeo. “Did your precious Gio tell you about your father’s family?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Had he completely gone off the deep end? “My father didn’t have any family.”

“So, you don’t know.” He tipped his chin at Romeo. “I bet he knows, don’t you Romeo?”

Romeo tipped his head, “I know you have exactly thirty seconds before I put a bullet between your eyes.”

That’s when I saw it. The cold thousand yard stare men like Romeo had. Death was nothing to someone like him. As much as this situation was fucked up, I didn’t want Simon to die. He needed help, not death.

“Simon, just walk away.”

“He won’t shoot.” Simon snarled. “His aim isn’t that good.”

“You sure about that?”

I wasn’t. In fact I was sure that Romeo would hit his target dead on.

My heart was hammering so hard in my chest that my ribs ached. I could feel the tension building in Simon’s body. If this went on much longer someone was going to pull the trigger. I had to diffuse the situation before someone wound up dead. And there was only one way I could think of to do that.

Slipping my hand behind my back, I grabbed Simon’s balls and squeezed.

Everything that followed happened so fast that my mind didn’t have time to process it.

Simon cried out and violently shoved me away, sending me right into Romeo, who was not prepared for the weight of my oncoming body. A shot went off as I crashed into him. Romeo stumbled and fell back, dragging me down with him. We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs and grumbled out curse words.

By the time Romeo got me off of him, Simon was gone.