Page 6 of Ky
CHAPTER THREE
Chris
I headed to the clubhouse after I finished up my shift. I usually ended up there most nights, even if it was just a quick drop in. I may not have been in the club, but a lot of those guys I considered friends.
“Hey, Chris,” Brand called out, catching me as I was crossing the lot to the clubhouse.
“Yeah, man,” I said as I stepped up between the bright yellow muscle car that Ky had been working on for a while and Cami’s sweet Charger.
I did my best to ignore Ky standing off to the side. It wasn’t that I wanted to or was trying to be a jerk because I wasn’t really that kind of guy. I was just going off of the vibe I’d been receiving from him lately. So I crossed my arms over my chest and tried my hardest to relax the tension in my face. Brand shot me a look and I knew he could tell something was off as he explained that they were taking the cars out to the strip.
I’d been there a few times. Ky liked to take his rebuilds out to the strip to test them out, especially the classic racing ones.
“Come with us,” Brand said. “Ride with Ky.” Then he ducked into Cami’s car.
I stood there, taking in the way Ky’s eyes avoided mine and the way his jaw ticked. It was clear he wasn’t thrilled about the idea and that was when I should have made some excuse about having something to do. Cami’s car reversed slowly so as not to run over me, or so I hoped, and then Brand was barking out of her opened window for me to get in the car. Feeling like I didn’t really have much of a choice, I jumped and then made my way to the passenger’s side of Ky’s car.
I all but slammed the door as I dropped down into the leather bucket seat. Ky took a long moment before he followed suit. After typing something on his phone, which I assumed was a text, he cranked the car up with much more aggravation than was necessary. Then he took off like the devil was chasing him.
To say that he’d been distant the last couple of months would have been spot on.
Ky and Brand were close because Brand had spent some time down in the South Carolina chapter a few years ago. That was where Ky was originally from. It seemed like their friendship grew once they both made the move down here. Every time I came for a visit, Ky was right there hanging out with Brand and me. Which I didn’t mind at all because I actually really liked the guy. He was chill and easy to talk to. He had a darkness to him that he did his best to keep hidden, which meant he joked and laughed a lot in an attempt to cover it. And man, I wouldn’t even try to deny that the world lit up when he laughed. I think it was because I could tell that in his quiet moments, he had a lot weighing on his shoulders.
I didn’t have the first clue as to what had changed, but something had. He no longer came with Brand down to the beach. Or tagged along when we went out to eat. Matter of fact, if I weren’t hanging out at the clubhouse or the bar, I didn’t see or hear from him at all. And even then, he rarely looked at me.
So, yeah, I’d suspected something was going on with him for a while now, but damn, if it wasn’t clear right that minute that I was part of that something. I had no clue what I’d done to even warrant such disdain.
And I’d had enough.
“The fuck is going on with you?” I all but barked. I had found myself fresh out of pleasantries at this point.
“Nothing,” he grunted like a damn caveman and his eyes didn’t so much as glance over at me.
Ky may have been cute as sin and I didn’t mind getting an eyeful, but not even that was worth putting up with him treating me like dirt.
“I don’t get it,” I went on, not caring that his grip was tightening around the steering wheel an unhealthy amount. Or that his strong jaw was flexing. Or that his muscles were too tight and corded, straining against his skin. “You used to want to hang out. You used to laugh. Now every time I see you, you get this scowl on your face. I thought that maybe you had something going on because you were distant with Brand as well, but now that he’s with Cami, you seem all chummy with him again. I’ve been scratching my head on what it is that I have done, but I’m drawing a blank. So maybe you want to help me out with that? Because I can’t understand for the life of me, why you were fine with me and just like that, you’re not.”
With a hard jerk, he shifted the gearshift and hit the gas.
“I just have some shit I’m dealing with. Not your problem to worry about.”
He still hadn’t looked at me and we were going too fast at this point and I was starting to get a little worried.
“We’re friends, Ky, or at least I thought so. Do you know what that means? It fucking means that if you have a problem then I’m here for you. For whatever you might need. You want to talk about it, I’m your guy. You just need someone to drink beer with you and watch bad eighties movies, I have a sixty inch TV at the house and a fridge full of whatever you like. But don’t shut me out, please.”
The last part came out soft and maybe a little desperate.
“Talk to me,” I all but whispered and resided the urge to lay a comforting hand on his arm.
The car came to a screeching halt, causing my body to jerk forward against the seatbelt.
He sat there for a long minute, his hands still clenched tightly around the steering wheel, his chest heaving with choppy, angry breaths.
“I can’t,” he growled as he tore open the door and fled the suffocating air in the car. The door slammed shut behind him and I watched as his booted feet pounded the pavement so hard I would have sworn he was putting cracks in it.
It was no surprise that with how fast he’d been driving that we made it to the strip in no time.
I looked around and it seemed we were the first ones there. I crawled out of the car. With my back to Ky, I leaned against the passenger’s side door and waited for someone to come and rescue me from this feeling of anger and loneliness that had overtaken me in the last ten minutes.
