Minder

Chapter 7

LAWSON

Football was God's sport out here in ol' Oklahoma. My cousins breathed it, and we all played it in hopes of being recognized as someone worth betting on.

I didn’t love the sport like some of them did. But I did enjoy the attention it got me. Currently, it got me the attention of one Raine Roberts. And damn it if I wasn't glad to flex a little more when she saw me running by.

This town knew my name, and I knew everyone connected in the county limits. Kids at high school had years to become acquainted.

After the showers, we meet up with some girls, and Verse waves me over.

“Yo, Law! You see what Syn is wearing?” Verse nudges his head to the side, not savoring in her skin.

Sure enough, she has a low-cut shirt on and a short skirt.

“Crimsyn, better change before the party, or I'll be forced to tell the boys you’re off-limits.”

Crimsyn flips her hair around her shoulder, and death glares me hard. “Asshole.”

“Love you too, sis.” I blow a pathetic kiss in her direction. She stomps off, knowing not to mess with my orders.

Shortly after, we arrive at the twin's house, and I smooth my wet hair to one side. My t-shirt was smooth and my scent fresh. Beers and weed are free for all, and we take our share.

“Man, did you hear another one of Knox's kids is coming to live with him.” Verse takes a long drag like a pro, not even coughing it. Holding it until his lungs barely collapse.

“Who?” I can’t think straight through the fog.

“Calhoun, what is your new sister's name?” Baby brother, Vayden, yells over his shoulder to Calhoun.

“Olallie, I think...” He and my cousin Samson are sharing a blunt and a beer.

“Man, you don't know?” Vayden shouts back at him, trying to out stage the music.

“She was never important until now.” An admission seems off, but there is too much honesty in it.

“Which one of you Sonny boys are going to fall victim to the new little lovebird?” Kalonie comes in an even shorter skirt than Crimsyn’s.

“Hard pass.” Before I even know what she looks like, I need a life preserver. I guarantee that if she is a Krause, anyone will be too terrified to tempt the girl.

“Verse, what about you?”

“Saving myself for the virgin Mary.” He leans back, showing her a grin.

Making her way over to us, she gives him a wink as a promise. “She might be just that.”

“Baby brother, what about you?” Volunteering Vayden is the best idea I think anyone has had all night.

“s**t, I don’t know. I've already got a lot of problems that don’t need women to make it worse.” His twisted sense of humor comes out of the gate.

“Or she could make it better, baby brother?” A sophomore chick purrs in his ears, edging toward his lap.

I lick my lips as I inhale another dose of ease. My mind quiets, and the beating of my heart subsides.

“Listen, darling, no offense. If you are interested in emotional distress and lack of s****l arousal, then I am your guy, baby.” He thumbs both fingers to his chest—no way to pick up the ladies by disclosing all those issues.

Kalonie eyes me up and down as she crosses her legs suggestively. She leans over her boyfriend to grab another cold one, letting the cleavage of her shirt drop further open, and she waits for me to bite my mouth, hungry.

But instead, just to piss her off, I stare at her, scrunch my nose, and shrug.

She mocks insult, but boy, I'm sure I'll be getting s**t from Crimsyn about it tomorrow. We've grown up together; Patch and her old man were all friends, along with my dad.

Messing with her isn't in my interest. She has a bad vibe, but her dude isn't intelligent enough to sense it. She is wicked news, just like most who associate with Knox Krause.

Yes, it might be fiery and tempting, but there's always a trick in her eye. A glance behind her back. Whatever ulterior motives that girl has aren’t meant to be messed with.

She doesn’t have time to plan my punishment, though, as her boyfriend greedily smacks her ass and pulls her up to straddle him. They start to make out, and the noise is disturbing.

“Well, that's our cue. Should we hit the pool? Or hit the tables?” Calhoun moves first, and we are eager to follow him out of this low-grade p**n.

“No poker tonight, boys, Daddy has guests.” Kalonie unglued herself to spit us the sentence.

“Hey, who is going to give me fifty bucks to jump off the high dive naked? Belly flop?”

Baby brother has a death wish.

All the girls start giggling and then proceed to take their clothes off.

“Oh good, I thought tonight would be boring. Everybody, let's break out the disco ball and skinny dip!” It appears the queen has spoken.

I sit in the corner of the swimming pool, an indoor area the Krause’s have down the hallway from the game room. Laughter echoes off the walls. I try not to think that my dad and cousin are behind bars over the backyard, a mile over the barb wire fence. My forearms rest on the edge of the pool. Out of the back windows, I can see the blurry lights of the prison in the distance.

“You good, man?”

“Yeah, just thinking about my padre.”

Verse looks out the same window. Nodding. His eyes get smaller when he smokes.

“Can’t hurt you anymore, Law. It's better this way. Patch has been a better father to you than he ever could.”

“Yeah, you're right. I just have this crazy worry I'll end up in a cell next to Issy.”

“Bro got to stop the negativity. Because you know if you end up there, then chances are I'll be in there too. And I like my space.”

“Incoming!” A big splash smacks us in the face.

Guess I don't close my eyes quick enough. I see a mirage of an angel walking through the door. I rub my eyes, and maybe it's a vulnerable second I give myself, but I feel my chest rise, and it's almost like the apparition sparkles.

After the water settles, I whip my head back and forth, clearing my vision. She still stands there. Looking around with a gleam in her smile.

“She's mine.”

I can’t believe I say it out loud. But I realized quickly it wasn’t my voice; it was Vayden’s baby brother.

A woman I swear I have only seen in my dreams walks in a little further, waiting for recognition. She looks timidly, at Calhoun who is busy playing chicken with Samson and other dudes. They left their shorts on, thank goodness.

No one needs to see all the flapping d***s around. There is enough of that s**t in the locker room.

“Ready your weapons, ladies and gentlemen.” Kalonie hoots and hollers as she sways her hips up the stairs. G-string thong seamless down her ass c***k. Her boobs hanging on display.

Stallone, the biggest i***t to grace our town, also Kalonie’s boyfriend, enjoys the show, not caring who sees his girlfriend’s t**s.

Then chaos breaks loose. Water guns and water balloons strike the poor girl, and I bite my cheek, wondering what kind of shitty prank was set up. I push myself out of the pool and walk just as quickly as I can, trying to shield her from the attack.

“Yeah, grab her, Lawson!” Calhoun is on her other side, pulling her to the edge of the pool.

“Dude, I don’t think this is cool. Who is she? Chick looks scared?”

“It’s Olallie; she’s our long-lost sister.” I’m yanking her back, hair moves away from her face, and I see some device connected to the back of her ear. I let go, worried about what’s attached.

Calhoun laughs as he pushes her forward. She trips and goes over the edge—her blonde hair slapping at the water.

“What the f**k, Cal?” Baby brother dives under the bodies, swimming to help.

Olallie comes up coughing, and I jump to the side as Vayden lifts her up to me. She turns on her side, throwing up some green s**t. I don’t even care, though. I take another step forward.

“What the f**k is your problem, Calhoun? s**t ain’t funny.” Verse pushes aside all the other drunk peers.

Calhoun is leaning against the wall, snickering over at Kalonie. Like the evil twins conspiring against the weakest link.

The girl on the ground tries to stand, but wobbles and Verse catch her. She brushes everybody off, waving her hands. Not sure who to trust, wanting space to escape.

Tremors riot her hands as she tries to untangle her hair with the wires on her ear. She disengages a plastic piece, first her right, then her left.

As she walks to the exit, she throws them in the trash. Not speaking a word to anyone, as if she doesn’t want to be remembered.

For some reason, I am angry. No other emotion is surfacing, and I turn, taking Calhoun by the throat.

It’s a rage; I try to calm the steam off. An alter ego makes me want to call my father and ask how vicious our bloodline can get. My mother would know.

“Describe to me what the purpose of that joke was, Cal?” His head slams against the wall so hard that I flinch at the noise.

“LAWSON! Get your f*****g hands off, my brother!” Kalonie screeches in the background.

“Back off, Lawson, you play by our rules.” Calhoun has the gumption to spit in my face.

“We don’t follow anybody’s rules.” My forearm replaces my hand, and I press his throat a little more.

“It doesn’t matter what the f**k you say to her; she’s nobody.” Raine, who is Kalonie’s b***h number one, yells at me; all attraction for her vanishes from my body.

As if that justifies the cruelty.

Samson moves to grab me, but Verse is faster and holds him back.

“One day, you are going to have to pick a side, cousin. You better hope you’re on the right side.” I release Calhoun; at least the dude has the courage not to fall to the floor like a little b***h.

It wasn’t the first time the twins had crossed a line when it came to hazing other kids. But, for some reason, this one rubbed me the wrong way.

“Sonny boys, let’s rollout.” I holler loudly, making a statement more now. My cousins and their girls line up and ship out.

“Have fun with your hands tonight.” Verse flips off the Krause crew as we leave.

We make it to the hallway, and I look down at my phone, wondering who to text to take the edge off. I can hear my friends out front. Verse goes on ahead to talk to some big boobs.

But when I try to leave, I hear the softest of cries. Something knocks down the hallway, and it crashes. Thinking I listen to things, I brush it off and walk a few more steps.

“Hello?” I don’t know why I feel the need to shout out to the ghosts that haunt here, but there I am, using my manners.

A person scurries, and I look around the corner to see the blonde glimmer clinging to the wall.

“Hey, are you alright?” I bend down, my towel hanging around my neck. My fingers reach out to touch her, but I notice them shake.

But they continue their path, even as she recoils.

“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.” She looks at my lips as I continue to talk. Never once replying. “Are you good?”

She shakes her head no—eyes trained on the movement of my lips. Usually, when a girl stares intensely at my lips, she’s naked.

“My name’s Lawson, former friends with the twins. They can be real terrors sometimes. Usually, it never gets this bad. They took it too far, I’m sorry.” Now I’m apologizing for someone else’s f**k up. I will beat Calhoun and pay Crimsyn to take a hit at Kalonie for this bullshit.

Her blue eyes follow the way my lips form words. They pinch together, confused, but then she looks at me.

Eyes bright like tropical waves. Stunning definition of blue-sky days. I lean down, and Olallie’s eyes grow fuller, but I don’t know what comes over me.

A magnetic pull brings me closer, and some artificial source makes me blink. Not even when I press our lips together do I believe it’s anything other than a bad high. Confused that I was touching tongues with a skittish outsider.

“Lawson? You still here, buddy?” Verse calls from down the hall. My senses come back to hit me as she jumps back, knocking our foreheads apart.

“Hey, you found her! Vayden was worried about her. She doing okay?” He slides beside me, and I try to act like I didn’t kiss a completely helpless stranger.

A terrified one, in the corner of her new home, a place that’s supposed to hold safety.

“You okay, pretty girl?” His smile makes the girls comfortable, makes them trust him. Even if it is for the wrong reasons.

The girl in front of us shows her hands touching her ears and shaking her head. Touches her lips and then her ears. She does it again and again.

“She’s deaf, you idiots. All she can do is read your lips without the cochlear implants. But the twins destroyed the ones at the pool.” Baby brother coming in at the last minute to save us. His own hands begin to sign some formal introduction.

When he points to us, she lets out a small giggle. A sound I want to get on my knees and beg to hear more of. Wherever it came from, I need more. I want more. I have to be the source of it.

“Don’t be badmouthing us. We are the good guys.”

Are we?

I look at Verse, trying to catch his humor. He stands up and smacks his brother in the chest, leaving us alone again.

Fuck, I am fascinated.

“Do you know where your bedroom is?” Am I talking weird? I feel like I am shouting.

She points to a door behind us but jiggles the door handle. It’s locked. Classic twin torture in the works. Hope this girl is brave, might have to grow a few thick layers of skin.

I pull out my knife, and it reflects light, but she doesn’t turn away in fear. I reach above her head and unlock her door.

“There you go. Probably smart to put something in front of your door for the first few nights.” She turns on her hands and knees to get up.

All I see is through a wet dress, hugging her lovely ass. Damn, don’t be a creep.

The youngest Krause sister turns and touches her chin coming outward to me.

“Do you want anything?”

With a shake of the head, she beckons me further into the room. I don’t even hesitate to follow.

She finds a pen and a piece of a wrapper. Olallie writes down, thank you, and hands it to me. The chick is maybe a foot or so shorter than me. I lean into her as she holds out her hand.

I took the note and read it.

“You’re welcome.” It seems almost sweet the way I lay out the response.

Olallie goes to her dresser and opens a drawer, pulling out a silk nightgown. My mind tries to remember if I’ve ever seen anything so smooth.

As she passes to her bathroom, I take hold and feel the fabric in my rough hands. If this is some kind of metaphor, I might get it in the morning after the buzz wears off.

She doesn’t think it’s strange, a teenage boy holding her lingerie. In another drawer, she goes and finds another shorter one to change into while I am stuck dumbfounded holding the first one.

~

I didn’t want to be the first to notice the glow from her spotlight. She held a quiet smile as she walked down the hallways.

It was the first time I realized how beautiful different really was—the second thought was how I would hate myself for hurting her. Nothing in my life was ever worthy of precious things; they shattered the minute I touched them. But it had to be done.

Olallie Lovett would be no different.

She let her flare flash to the masses. I worried she would expose every flaw of mine. There I was, shaking my head back and forth.

No way, no how; I refuse.

Olallie struck me as salvation I never to believe. It wasn’t in me to want something so odd, but she was the very definition of abnormal. It repelled me, the scent of her like fresh spring rain and vibrant night skies. Deep inside, I knew how horrible being different felt.

How the uneasiness of being outcasted crept in and never really left you.

Insecure girls gawked after her outfit, the dress matching her hypnotic eyes. Premature guys walked by her, confused at the sight of the bubbly blonde façade. She was headed right toward me, my chin balancing on my chest.

Feeling her so close, the energy between us gave me a sweat. I closed my eyes, and as she passed, I heard the conversation we would one day have to fight against.

Huddled into a group pow-wow as our coach called a timeout. The crowd around us was excited tonight. Our opponents were the bitches from across the river. The fights that broke out made for a good game. Things were already starting to get heated. The energy around the field became electric. I look out to the stands, my family cheering us on.

A ghost of a girl sitting by her father, mid-conversation with Patch. She sees me and waves. I wave back like a drunk fool.

“Arzola! Are we interrupting your social hour here, son? Get your ass back in the game!” My coach bites my head off as I run to put my helmet back on to cover the effect Olallie has on me.

Before I run, I barely catch Kalonie’s scowl as she observes the exchange. I take the warning, not wanting drama from her.

Even if Olallie comes to find me later, she is as desperate as I am to be in the same space.

“Lawson?” Meek, sweet and a bit offbeat.

“I can’t, Olallie.”

She held tight to her sigh before finally letting it pass by those pink lips.

“You just won’t.”

“Pick somebody else, sweetheart.”

“That’s not how soulmates work, darlin’. I’m afraid we're hitched by universal ties instead of mortal choices.” No stammer over her explanation.

“I’ve got to go, O. See you around.” Her curls bob in a nod while one hand goes to cover her ear. Sadness only shakes us; am I strong enough to give in?

She doesn’t watch the pointing fingers, crude remarks, or hip thrusts. Her head was held high as she strolled past me, not giving me a second thought.

Hate begins to grow, and I can’t locate the place where it has been hiding. But, once I see my ghost girl, I know the beast has finally awoken, and there isn’t any reason to put it to rest.

Olallie rubs against me like a tormented ghost. I try to cool my features, perfect my scowl, but every bit of my strength wants to banish the demons she feels.

Because I can feel them too.

They don’t haunt like she does, but they punish all the same.