Page 22 of Mayhem

I spent the rest of the day laughing and having more fun than I had ever had before.

I open the door and hear Mom laughing. I walk into the kitchen and see her sitting in the kitchen with a man who looks slightly familiar. He looks like he is around the same age as Mom. He is handsome, with dark brown hair and a nicely trimmed beard. I see tattoos on his arms that go up under his shirt sleeve. He is wearing dark jeans and a white T-shirt. He reminds me of someone, but I can not figure out who.

Mom is smiling at him, but she is a little uncomfortable. They are sitting across from each other with a cup of coffee in front of them. I clear my throat, and both of them look over at me. Mom's eyes light up when she sees me. The man looks at me with cold, assessing eyes, but they light up when he zeros in on my chest, making me want to cover up.

“Serena, this is Axel. He is one of our neighbors.” Mom explains to me.

I walk into the kitchen and go to shake his hand. Axel stands up and wraps his arms around me in a big bear hug. I awkwardly stand there for a little too long while he holds me. The hairs on my neck stand up with how creeped out I feel. I push away from him and try to give him a nice smile.

“I should get going and let you two lovely ladies spend some time together. It was nice meeting you, Serena, and happy birthday.” Axel kisses the back of my hand, then kisses Mom on the cheek before leaving. I hear the front door shut shortly after.

I give her a quizzical look, wondering what I just walked in. Mom brushes me off before she starts telling me about how the school called earlier, telling her about me missing today. Thankfully, my mom is pretty cool and told them she forgot to call me out today.

She asked me what I did today, so I told her everything that happened after she left. She patiently listens to me recount everything with tears in my eyes. I leave out the tattoo and Zeus calling me a club bunny- not that I even know what that means- but the way he said it made it sound like a bad thing. Calling me a slut after sealing that feeling.

I never told my mom about the engagement, and I don’t plan on it now- as far as I am concerned, it never happened.

Mom hugs me and tells me everything will be all right. Of course, she had to take a minute to rub it in my face that she was right about Evan. She was right. I hate to admit it, but my mom does know best.

Mom ordered dinner for us from the local diner. We sit on the couch and watch some of our favorite movies for the rest of the night. I curled into my mom like I used to do when I was little, peace washing through me. Around midnight, Mom calls it quits and heads off to bed. I clean up the living room before walking down the hall to my room. I pull my phone out of my pocket and stare at the black screen.Do I want to deal with all this right now?Not really, but I should.

Reluctantly, I turn it on and throw it on my bed while I shower. I don’t want to hear all the messages coming through. I walk into my bathroom and turn the shower on, letting it warm up. I grab the speaker from my room and turn on Cinderella’s Dead by Emeline. When steam fills the room, I step into the shower and wash away the day. I scream along to the lyrics and let it all out.

I almost ruined my life by tying myself to him. I am a bad bitch, and I plan to embrace it. I am not and never will be that girl again. I am going to find the real me and embrace it. I thought moving here was the end of my life, but it was just the beginning.

I carefully wash around my new tattoo, a black and white crown, red rubies around the band, and a diamond in the middle. I wanted to feel like a queen and become someone strong, someone who no one could boss around and control.

I can’t help but think about the Kings. I can admit fully now that since I have met them, they have been constantly on my mind. I feel this strange magnetic pull to them, all three of them. I haven’t spent much time with them, but I want to.

I turn the shower off and dry myself before walking into my room. I grab a pink lacy camisole and matching shorts from my dresser and get dressed. I crawl into my bed and turn the TV on for background noise. I pick up my phone for the first time since this morning. There are thirty missed calls, fifteen voicemails, and forty-two texts from Evan. I open the texts.

I closed the conversation after that, not wanting to read the rest. I deleted all the voicemails without even listening to them. Evan and I broke up, and it’s a good thing. I know it is. Social Media isn’t any better. There are many messages from random people I used to go to school. All of them said how sorry they were that Evan cheated on me. The rest are people calling me a home wrecker when I came between him and Cleo in the first place. I deleted them all, not even bothering to read most of them. I never spoke to these people when I lived there, so why would I start now?

There are a couple from Zeus. My thumb hovers over the screen. I press down on his name, and the messages open.

A lone tear falls onto my phone. I wipe my eyes and toss my phone down.

Mom pops her head into my room and smiles at me. “I have a surprise for you. Get dressed.” She sounds so giddy.

I get dressed in dark skinny jeans, a white T-shirt, and my new leather jacket. I put my hair into a messy bun, put on a little eyeliner and mascara, and painted my lips a deep red. I have never worn a color like this before, but I like it. I put on a pair of ballet flats and walk out the door.

Mom is outside talking to someone. He looks like an older version of Midas. It must be his dad. He looks at me, and an ominous smile spreads across his face. His eyes sweep over me lasciviously, and he bites his bottom lip before his focus goes back to Mom as he says something to her, but I can feel his gaze on me. I avoid eye contact with him and stay on the front porch. I watch their encounter from the corner of my eye.

He hugs Mom before saying goodbye to her and waving at me. I wave back and then cross my arms over my chest. Mom walks back to me as Midas's dad walks back into his house. She doesn't say anything. She grabs my hand and pulls me towards the garage. Mom clicks the button to open it. Slowly, the garage door ascends, revealing a black Tiguan.

“Ta-Da!” Mom exclaims. I look at her perplexed, thinking she bought herself a new car. “Happy birthday, sweetie.” She hands over the keys and kisses me on the forehead.

Grace and Naomi are already there when I pull into Evie’s house. Her family lives in a cute country-style two-story house. Her mom and dad are great people. They welcomed me into their home like family. Evie's two younger brothers were so excited for someone new to play with.

The four of us spend a few hours just hanging out before they start getting ready for a party the Kings are throwing.

“Come on, Serena, you have to come. Their parties are legendary.” Evie whines at me after the tenth time she asks me to go with them.

Evie looks beautiful in a mid-thigh length, baby pink dress with a square neckline that hugs her curves, showing off her stunning figure. Her naturally curly hair looks stunning down.

“Fine. I’ll go.” I sigh.

Evie squeals and hugs me before dragging me into her closet. I look around at all her clothes. Her wardrobe is twice as large as mine and with so many options. She pulls hangers off the racks, looks at them, and puts them back, trying to find the perfect dress for me. She pulls out a dress and throws it at me with a look of pure excitement.

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