Chapter Five

Cash

“W e are also going to have to do something about his clothes,” Trick points out.

“Shit,” I curse as I pull out my light and shine it at myself.

“Whoa!” Jensen exclaims. “When you said you beat them, you really meant that you fucking beat them.”

“Damn,” Riot whistles, sounding slightly shocked.

I can’t say I’m surprised, I was wearing a white shirt, and it’s not white anymore, it’s splattered and smeared with blood, my own, Billy’s, and Lucky’s.

“I look like I belong in some sort of slasher movie,” I mutter. “How the fuck am I supposed to hope that my mother doesn’t ground me for the rest of the summer the second that she sees me?”

“We could have said that it happened at the track, your face at least, not the blood-soaked shirt, but Rob and Jenny saw you, so that won’t work,” Jensen suggests and then frowns again, “so that was a complete waste of time bringing up.”

“You somehow managed to have a complete conversation with yourself then, without our input at all,” I point out with a quiet chuckle.

“It’s a gift,” Jensen replies, although it doesn’t really make much sense at all, but none of us decide it's worth arguing with him on the subject.

“We have got spare clothes for everyone in the truck, will changing your shirt help?” Rafe signs.

“Well, it will stop him looking so terrifying, but it does nothing for the horror that is his face,” Luc says, and then looks at me with a teasing smirk, “no offense.”

“The fuck, dude? Offense, very much offense,” I reply before laughing.

Trick checks the time on his phone, “You have missed dinner by a long time now. Your mom and dad are going away tomorrow, aren’t they?”

My eyes widen with realization, “Fuck, yeah, you’re right. If I can get in and avoid seeing them, then I might get away with it. I hate letting them down though.”

“I know, man, but it couldn’t be helped this time. It’s not like you planned to get jumped.” Riot agrees sympathetically.

We all have a problem with disappointing our parents, except for Riot, whose aunt is pretty much always working and has no real idea where he is or what he’s up to, and Luc because his parents are dicks. However, the other parents look after Riot and Luc like their own sons, and they are very fond of them, so when Riot and Luc feel like they have let the parents down, it tends to be the others that they’re talking about.

“It’s not like we could explain it properly anyway, even if we wanted to. They would be absolutely horrified if they knew about half of the shit that we have been through and what we’re capable of,” Trick adds.

We are all silent for a moment, before Cash says, “Alright, that’s the plan then. We had better check around here and make sure there is no sign of the fight, we don’t want anyone asking questions or anything.”

Everyone spreads out, and I slowly start to stand, oh, I am going to be fucking sore tomorrow.

“Here,” Riot says, gaining my attention as he throws a clean shirt at me.

“Thanks,” I reply. I start to lift my shirt when I realize that it hurts too damn much, and I look at him sheepishly, “Um, could you help me, please?”

Riot chuckles, “I was going to anyway. I was just seeing how stubborn you were going to be about it.”

“Ass,” I retort, flipping him off and making him chuckle.

I manage to get my arms out of my shirt fine; it’s just when I try to lift it over my head that it doesn’t work like I want it to, and it sends pain through my torso. I would be worried that I had broken something, but I have had broken ribs before, and I’m not in as much pain as I was then.

Riot very carefully helps to take the shirt off my head without jarring me too much. I will forever be grateful that I have got friends like him.

“Fucking hell, man,” he mutters as my stomach and ribs are revealed, “they got you really fucking good. You’re already bruising. I will be really surprised if you aren’t completely black tomorrow.”

I glance down a wince, “Yeah, that’s going to hurt like fuck tomorrow.”

“You can rest for a couple of days,” Trick says, it sounds like a suggestion, but we all know it’s an order. “We’ll get the lockbox put up tomorrow, and that sorted and then we will come and hang out at your place for a while.”

“Sounds good to me,” I reply and then add, “bring food?”

“Always,” Jensen scoffs like it was absolutely ridiculous for me to request that they bring food because of course they were going to.

“I found the lock box,” Rafe signs, holding up the bag that I dropped when the fight started.

“What’s the time?” I ask, as Riot looks at the clean shirt and then looks at me.

“Hang on,” he says as he heads to the truck.

“Nearly midnight,” Luc replies.

My eyebrows start to rise before I remember my eyebrow is split and lower them again, “Fuck, I really have missed dinner. I thought I was going to have to hang out here for longer so I could sneak in.”

“Yeah, I think you will be okay.” Jensen replies and then frowns, “Actually, knowing Kat she’s probably waiting up for you to get home.”

I grimace, “I really fucking hope not. Knowing Mom, she would yell at me in Italian for ages and then cancel her vacation with Dad, and they have been talking about going for ages.”

“Yeah, I heard them talking about it to my parents,” Trick says. “She would absolutely cancel if she saw you like this.”

“Alright, I’m getting tired,” Jensen announces, “let’s get out of here.” He tilts his head as he looks at me and frowns, “Why are you still shirtless?”

I shrug, “I actually don’t know, Riot said hold on and then walked off.”

Riot chuckles as he comes back and holds up a button-down shirt, “I thought this might be easier for you to get on because you won’t have to reach your arms up. I knew I had seen one somewhere in the truck. I’m not sure whose it is.”

I sigh in relief, “You are awesome. I was actually dreading trying to lift my arms up again and wondering how the fuck I was going to get it off when I got home.”

“I know,” Riot says and holds out the shirt so I can easily slip my arms in.

Once I’ve done it up, I start to head to my car.

“I don’t think so,” Trick says, and I turn back around to look at him. He crosses his arms, “One of your eyes is swollen shut, and you can’t lift your arms over your head. You have had one hell of a night, and are most likely more tired than you realize, we are not risking anything else right now. Rafe will drive your car, and we will follow him back in the truck.”

I smile, “Got it. To be fair, I hadn’t really thought that through. Besides, I would rather not get blood on my cream seats, and there’s still some on my jeans.”

Jensen pulls a face, “Yeah, that was a shitty idea, wasn’t it?”

“Fuck off,” I retort, even though technically he is right, and it’s something that I thought earlier.

“Alright, you two, let’s get out of here; I think we’re lucky Joe hasn’t come down to see why there are still people in his parking lot.”

“I’m surprised he hasn’t already come down here,” I mutter as we all pile in Trick’s truck, and Rafe gets into my car.

The drive to my house is thankfully very uneventful, and by the time we arrive there, I am definitely feeling the effects of the fight. All I want to do is get inside without my mom seeing me, have a shower so that I can wash all of this blood off, and so that if my mom does see me, she doesn’t freak out as much, and then fall into bed with some painkillers.

All of the lights in the house are off, and I’m hoping that means that my parents have gone to bed and aren’t waiting in the dark to scare the shit out of me. To be honest, I wouldn’t put it past them, but I think this time, if they did that, I would be the one that was scaring the shit out of them and not the other way around.

“Are you sure you don’t just want to come back to my place?” Trick asks me with a worried frown.

I shake my head, “No, thanks man. I’m more likely to get seen at your place, if I can get inside then I shouldn’t see my parents until they get back from vacation, and hopefully by then the bruises will have gone, or at least faded.”