The Biker and the Loner (Oil and Water #3)- S. Ann Cole Page 0,60
dragging me out to watch him perform and keeping his girls company a few nights a week, Isaac leaves me alone. He offered me the second bedroom in his loft and told me I could stay for as long as I wanted. Then he went about his life.
Scratch wouldn't have left me alone if I’d stayed with him. He wouldn't have allowed me to wallow. He would've given me too much attention. He would've touched me and made me melt. He would've kissed me and made my heart flutter. He would've made me smile, and laugh, and content, and blissful. So much that I would start to forget...
Forget.
Because that's what he did before, and that's why Kathy is dead. He made me forget. Forget her, forget the hate and resentment, forget the abuse, forget...to check up on her.
I forgot.
I forgot to check up on her because I. Was. Happy.
And that's why I chose Isaac. Because Isaac doesn't make me happy, or warm, or contented. Isaac doesn't make me feel anything. Isaac is just a friend of a friend who’s attracted to my looks and is putting in his cool points with me in the hope that I'll let him bang me, and I've been using that to my advantage.
Isaac's girl—I don’t bother to remember their names anymore—comes back with a fresh bottle of beer and balks when she sees Kendra in her chair.
"Um, excuse me, that's my seat."
"No one was in it when I got here, so it's mine now," Kendra replies without sparing her a glance, taking a swig of her beer.
"Are you serious?"
"You can take mine." I stand and gather up my purse and cellphone. "I'm calling it a night."
"You're leaving?" she whines with a pout, even though we only just met two hours ago. "I can't sit with some thug. Who is she?"
"Oh, she's Zac's real right hand. I was just filling in for the time being," I tell her. "If you really want to get in with him, you have to get in with her."
Which is never going to happen, is the part I leave out. She’ll have better luck making it through airport security with a bomb strapped to her chest than "getting in" with Kendra.
As What’sHerFace looks dubiously at Kendra, part scared, part determined, I turn and leave.
I’ve just fired up my engine, about to drive out of the parking lot across the street from the pub, when three swift bangs on my window makes me jump. I squint through the tinted glass.
Kendra.
Did she follow me out here?
Inhaling a fortifying breath, I power down the window.
“Kenny—”
"Why're you doing this to him?" she demands. "Why're you punishing him?"
I arrange a puzzled frown on my face. "Who—"
"If you ask 'who', Ley, I'm gonna punch you straight in your goddamn mouth. I swear it."
She would. Kendra Tisdale doesn't deliver empty threats.
"I'm not doing anything to him,” I say with a shrug. “I'm not even with him."
"Uh, yeah," she snaps. "That's the point. You packed your shit and left. You just left. He's changing his whole life for you and this is the shit you pull?"
"He’s not changing for me. His life-change is for him,” I say, more to convince myself than her. “Plus, it was only a matter of time before he got bored of me and went back to being a slut anyway, so..." I shrug it off and shift into Drive. "I've saved us both the trouble."
"And what about me? What on earth did I ever do to you?" The crack in her voice makes me wince. Kendra doesn't show emotion. She's like a brick wall. But this...I've truly hurt her.
"Kenny..." I grip the steering wheel, fighting back tears. "You didn't do anything. You're still my best friend. I just can't be around you right now..."
"Because I remind you of him," she states, not a question. "You're in love with him, and you left him, and I remind you of him, so you push me away, too. And none of us did anything to you. None of us deserve this shit, Ley."
"I know."
Her eyes go glacial as she shakes her head. "All this time, everyone was so worried that he was gonna hurt you. We all wanted to protect you from him. But hell, we had it all wrong. It was him who needed protection from you."
I blow out a breath and lift my hand from the steering wheel to brush my hair back. "Look, Kenny—"
"What the fuck is this?!" she half-shouts, grabbing my wrist.