Page 31 of Tangling Hearts

Chapter Twenty

Tommy

Walking up to Knockout. Eyes: locked on the kissing couple. NOPE is right.

My footsteps are nice and slow, real casual, but I’m on full alert, every muscle in my body tense. Raking my glance down the length of the bitch who shot me, anger slithers into my bloodstream. My heart begins a dull and heavy pound. I can feel it in my head, in my toes, in my sack. My jaw clenches, and my teeth are painfully shut tight, but I won’t know that until tomorrow. Out of the corner of my eyes I wait for them to see me. Act like we’re friends. See if she acts like she doesn’t know who I am, didn’t go to college with us, has never talked about me behind my back to that slut friend of hers, Corinne, now that I know how she’s playing this.

Did Rebecca tell him what she found out? I can’t be sure, but if she did, he sure doesn’t give a fuck, because ‘Brendan’ and ‘public displays of affection’ are never in the same sentence together unless the word ‘never’ is in it, too.

I walk right behind him, so close I could reach out and punch Brendan in the back of the head. It would be so easy. Right there, so close to my fist as I walk slowly past. I can’t stop watching them. Can’t get my head to stop buzzing with ideas. White-hot fury jags through my veins and just as I get my hand on the doorknob of Knockout, they pull apart and start whispering to each other. I stop. Try to listen. The cars going by and the people smoking out in front of the bar, make it so I can’t hear.

My heart beats faster as I wait.

All they have to do is look over.

But they don’t.

He takes her hand and they head away, walking fast.

I could let them go. I could just walk inside the bar and act like I’m not stewing in a whole pile of murderous anger. Being so close to them when they don’t know it, only makes it worse.

I could let them go.

But I won’t.

I let go of the doorknob and start after them.

“Hey, Tommy!” Mark’s voice turns me around. He’s standing outside, holding open the door.

I stop, my head turned toward him, but my body not wanting to leave its intended course. “Hey, Mark.” I look over at Brendan and that bitch, but they didn’t hear Mark, and they’re farther away now. I’m staring at a crossroads, two paths leading to two very different futures, and I’m frozen between the appeal of both.

“Come on in and have a drink with me. I want to tell you about what happened in New York.” Mark’s hand goes to open the door and he turns away from me like there isn’t a remote possibility I’ll refuse. Something about the way he does this, makes me follow him in. I feel the clap of his hand against my back and I cringe in pain. “Good to see ya!”

“You too, Mark.” He motions to Bobby to open up the tab again and get us the usual. Bobby and I nod to each other, our years of familiarity needing nothing more. Mark and I mount a couple barstools and I begin to feel my heart calm the fuck down. I’ve got my tongue stuck into the side of my cheek, and my eyes are looking somewhere else, just not here. I’m thinking of a future where my meals would be dictated by guards, and my ass protected by my wits or not at all. A future I just escaped, with a friend’s unwitting help.

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