Forever

Blake

    Sitting in an empty house is probably the most depressing thing for a human being. If not for all humans then probably just me. Why? It’s simple really it just reminded me of the fact that the people who you shared a home with didn’t necessarily make the best of company. Regardless of family relations or not. 

    The real kicker was when you realized that family ties were pretty much useless if it meant nothing to other people as it did to you. It’s my sad reality. The people are supposed to care for you the most, for me are just strangers who sometimes live in my house. My existence is a tragic one at best if you look at it.

    I nearly laughed out loud. Sometimes I could be so pathetic about my life. Here I was living a far more privileged life than most people could even imagine and all I can do is complain. So money wasn’t the solution to everything. I almost wanted to scream that from the top of my lungs at my parents. But of course, they weren’t around. Dad was off on another business trip to Singapore or something. Mom was off doing whatever with whoever. And my ever so elusive siblings, well they were off pretending they were on top of the world. 

    Knowing them I could probably guess exactly what they were doing and with who. Lucas, my younger brother, was off at that “gentleman’s club” our father had paid almost twenty grand for him to join. He was probably just sitting there pretending to be a titan of industry with his dumb friends Tag and Apollo. Two of the most obnoxious and horribly named humans on the planet. They were probably sitting around waiting to get noticed by one of those rich tycoons their father did business with, to expedite their future in business. Those poor bastards actually thought they would be able to accomplish something by just sitting around on their asses. 

    Mark, my father’s least preferred son, was probably out with his so called friends partaking into some activities that our father would definitely disapprove of. Knowing Mark the i***t was probably snorting everything he could get his hands on. Meanwhile, Tyler his boyfriend, tried desperately to get the dumbass to stop. Tyler was a good guy, he cared for my loser brother, tried to get him to sober up countless of times. He was hard working too, one of those “new money bastards” as my father liked to call them, had his own tech company. Mark on the other hand was lazy, self centered, and a rampant drug addict. 

    Yet somehow I’m the screw up. Funny how that works, no?

    And then there was my father’s pride and joy, Kennedy, my younger sister. Just a few weeks ago he announced he was planning on making her his successor at the company. Lucas threw a fit, Mark was too high to really know what was going on, I didn’t give a rat’s ass, and Kennedy was besides herself with glee. Too bad our father was unaware of just how his precious daughter spent most of her time. Following in our big brother’s footsteps with the partying and the drugs, though admittedly the drugs Kennedy was doing were harmless compared to the ones Mark was doing. That and sleeping with her private tutor was sure to get her places.

    Our mother, Courtney as she preferred we called her, spent most of her time alternating between the luxury spas the city had to offer, the fashion district, and the best restaurants. Basically anything that she could do to get away from us and the house she did. Any time that she did spend in the house she couldn’t do it without getting through at least three bottles of her favorite Merlot and a couple of “extras” to take the edge off. When it came to being a mother well she had no idea, and better yet, no interest in playing that role. We all had nannies assigned to us when we were younger seeing as our mother was far too busy. She had given birth to Mark and I, but then she complained of the toll it was taking on her body and Lucas and Kennedy were born through surrogacy. It was easy to rent out someone’s womb when you had the money to back it up.

    And then there was my father, William Marcus Asher, a savvy businessman with a penchant for money and women as young as his two oldest sons. He was probably the worst one out of all of them. It was the typical story, never around, never cared. If things didn’t go his way then he did everything in his power to twist it into what he wants. If it still doesn’t go his way, he’ll try to bend it until it broke. 

    Unfortunately no matter how hard he tried to whip us into the perfect image he had built up in his head, none of us seemed to hit his standards. Except for Kennedy, but maybe that was just because he had to pick one of us. Or maybe because Kennedy listens to everything he says and follows his word like it was law. Maybe he saw the same horribleness he had in her, maybe that's why she was she's his favorite.

    Yeah, my family is one hell of a piece of work. But even then, knowing all the secrets they hid, or better yet shamelessly paraded I was somehow still the screw ups. And hell if they didn’t like to remind me. How was I a screw up? Well, the main points were my lack of desire to do anything, or laziness as dad liked to call it- my shrink called it depression. And the other point, which they were definitely more vocal about, was my friends. 

    Mark was annoying about it. He liked to claim that if I was going to hang out with delinquents I might as well do it with ones who had money. As if that was important to me. Lucas just thought they were trash and by relation I was trash for associating with them. I just pointed out how his “friends” had left him in a dumpster when he was plastered off his ass. Mine had never done that nor would they ever do that. And Kennedy, well she just liked to turn her nose up at them and pretend they never existed. Not unlike what she does with Mark, Lucas, and I. 

    I was lucky I had the friends I did. My brothers and sister couldn’t understand that. They had no notion of what it was like to have real friends. Friends who would do anything and everything for each other. Yeah, my family would never understand what that was like. They were too busy watching their own backs and looking out for themselves to care about other people. Hell, they didn’t even care about each other. 

    I had cared at one point and once I realized how horrible they all actually were I stopped caring astonishingly quickly. And no amount of gifts or luxury could ever change that. They were quick to buy off their affections but they could never buy me. 

    But the luxuries were nice I had to admit. As lonely as the house was, the rooftop pool terrace was calming. It was a rather strange juxtaposition. A cold, lonely, lifeless house and a terrace with a calming effect and a garden that bred life. I could see a vibrant blue flashing over by the garden from my position at the edge of the pool. It was unnaturally peaceful especially considering we were in the middle of the city. But who was I to complain, I needed the calmness more than most.  

    I was so caught up in my thoughts I almost hadn’t heard my phone ringing. It had to be one of the guys calling me. My friends were the only ones who called or rather texted, they barely called me. 

    Rome’s name and picture was plastered on my screen. I swiped at the screen answering the call and putting it on speaker.

    “Hey man. What’s up?” It was my usual go to greeting. It was generic and annoying but it was what I always went with. And knowing Rome he was calling me to bail him out some sort of trouble again, not that that was the only he reason he ever called me. It was just the most prevalent of reasons. I wonder what he did this time.

    “Blake.” He barked out sounding grave and far more serious than I have ever heard him sound. Oh boy, he sounded just like he had that time when he had punched a cop, just slightly less angry. 

    “Yeah, Rome? You-”

    He cut me off before I could finish my sentence. “No time, pack your s**t and meet us at Ian’s, we’re leaving.”

    I started stuttering trying to wrap my head around just what the hell was happening. Sure we had always talked about leaving and stuff like that but never did I think we would actually do it.

    Rome was quick to jump on me again. “B, there’s no time, it’s serious and we need to leave now as soon as possible.”

    I sighed, standing and leaving the pool’s edge. “Wanna give me a quick rundown? What’d you do this time?” 

    He chuckled slightly. “Why’s it always gotta be me?” 

    “Because the last time you called me I had to bail you out for setting some cop cars on fire.” I was quick to remind him. “And the time before that you punched Detective Michaels in the face.” 

    He chuckled maliciously. “Yeah well that bastard deserved it. But it’s actually not about me this time, B.” 

    “Turk?” I asked. Usually when there was trouble it was either Rome or Turk that was in the middle of it. If it wasn’t one it was the other, ninety eight percent of the time. The other two it was one of the other guys. Except maybe Carter. And then there was Kenzie who was only ever in trouble if she was with one of the guys. 

    “No.” Rome sighed sounding almost pained. “Kenzie.”

    I nearly dropped my phone and tripped over my own feet. Kenzie? Our Kenzie? What the hell? What happened? 

    “What happened?” I asked almost running down into the house. I ignored the shadows that danced across the walls creating oppressive nightmarish shapes and quickly turned on the lights so the walls wouldn’t have that eerie glow they usually did. Whoever had decided red walls were a good decoration choice was clearly disturbed. 

    “Can’t say over the phone.” Rome grunted. “Just pack some s**t and get over here, we leave in an hour.”

    I barely managed to get out an “okay” before he was hanging up on me. 

    I didn’t know what to do after that, my mind was still reeling and after that I was just on autopilot. I just ran straight to my room, grabbing a suitcase and filling it up with whatever clothes I could possibly find. I grabbed all the emergency cash I had as Erik’s plans always called for and all the credit cards I had. The ones for my personal account my parents had access to as well as the ones they didn’t know about. As well as anything else I could think of that would be useful to us. Just in case. 

    Before I knew it I was out the door, not even sparing a glance back to the house I had grown up in my entire life. I didn’t feel a thing. Should I have? I didn’t care for the people that were attached to the word family. I had stopped caring about them so long ago that I didn’t picture them as family anymore. They were just the people I had the misfortune of being linked to genetically. No my friends had become my family, my true family. 

    Instead of taking the coupe as I usually would I took the sedan I rarely used. If we were leaving we would probably need some sort of transportation. Knowing Carter he would probably be taking his truck, but only half of us could fit in there. So I took the car I owned that could actually comfortably fit people inside.

    Living in the middle of the city had some perks, everything was within walking distance and you were always centered. There were high end restaurants, clubs, a couple of entertainment options all within the same vicinity. That did mean that everyone was about twenty minutes away on foot about half of that in car. Well except for Turk he was a little farther out than everyone else.

    I stuffed my bag into the trunk before driving off towards Ian’s house. He lived right at the edge of the city, in that weird divide between the city and the suburbs. 

    Luck seemed to be on my side, since there was barely any traffic strangely enough. I say strange because traffic tended to be a bit on the heavier side, especially on a Friday night. And nearly at midnight of all times. This was the time when all the clubs started opening up and the bars and restaurants began switching over to their late night menus and options. Must be a slow night. Or an ominous signal. 

    I tried not to think of what Rome had said. Just the very thought of Kenzie being in some sort of trouble. At least enough trouble that it could actually warrant us actually leaving. It was almost illogical for that to even be a possible scenario. Kenzie was probably the embodiment of a good girl. All pretty with those big brown eyes of hers, she was practically a walking piece sign. People took one look at her and they instantly liked her. They couldn’t actually fathom that she would hang out with people like us. People looked at me and they instantly thought I was the rich kid that was rebelling by slumming it with my friends. They looked at Rome or Turk and were instantly cowering with fear most times. Erik, James, and Ian were at least slightly more approachable than the danger twins but most people kept their distance from them as well. Carter just got those looks of disappointment, like these strangers were really disappointed that this was what he did with his time. Looks which he simply brushed off with supernatural ease, offering them a smile and a few polite words. 

    Less than ten minutes later I was parking outside of Ian’s house, and by the looks of it no one else had arrived. Well, Carter’s truck wasn’t parked outside, and strangely enough all the windows were shut, with the curtains all closed. Ian was not concerned with what his neighbors thought and he rarely ever bothered with curtains of all things. If I recalled correctly Ian had been purposely keeping the curtains opened ever since he got a letter from one of his neighbors complaining about a little show they had gotten of him and Tara Prinz not too long ago. His way of giving them the bird and pissing them off all in one move. So his curtains being closed, that was a clear cut sign that things were probably worse than I had originally thought. 

    I left my bag inside the car and just walked, as calmly as I could manage, into the house. Only when I went to open it, the door was locked. Ian never locked his door. No one would ever dare go into his house, he was ballsy in that way. But most of his neighbors tried not to interact or even make eye contact with him. They were not going to try to break into his house and steal his stuff. If they did they would be in for a world of pain. And if one of the danger twins heard about it, well, it was definitely not going to end well for the person stupid enough to go after one of ours.  So most people tended to not mess with any of us because of those reasons and a plethora of others that are way too long to list. 

    I knocked once and before I could knock again, Rome had opened the door and was hauling me inside. Ian was coming down the stairs but Kenzie was nowhere inside. I stared at both of them waiting for some sort of explanation. 

    “Anybody going to tell me what’s going on?” I was slightly sceptical I had to admit, but the grave looks that they shared had a stone settling in at the pit on my stomach. Just as I feared, it was worse than I imagined wasn’t it? 

    “Where’s Kenzie?” Had something happened to her? Had she gotten hurt somehow? Is that what this was about? She was nowhere in sight I could only assume that something had happened to her. That girl was like my sister, if something had happened to her, if someone had hurt her, I was going to come after them with everything I had. And with the financial backing I had I was almost as scary as Rome or Turk when they went off in a violent rampage. 

    I must’ve looked murderous, I had never been too good at masking my emotions, because Ian instantly put his hands up. “Relax, she’s fine, she’s upstairs getting some clothes.” 

    I breathed out an audible sigh of relief. I couldn’t help it. “So what happened then? Rome made it sound like it was a life or death kinda thing.” 

    They shared another look as sank down into the sofa. “It is a life and death kinda thing.” Ian said before motion to Rome to continue. 

    It was funny sometimes, watching the dynamic we had with each other. Somewhere along the line Ian had become our unofficial leader. No one minded though, he had to handle all of us all the time, if anything I felt bad for the guy sometimes. Who the hell wanted to handle all of us? On the other hand, Carter was the unofficial caretaker for all of us. He was sort of a parent to all of us. He helped us out, gave us advice when we needed it, gave us home cooked meals. He was angelic in that regard. He was better than any parent I had ever had. And that was including the nannies that my parents had paid to act like the parents they would never be.

    “Someone attacked Kenzie at her job today.” Rome said sitting down and proceeding to tell me the cliff notes version of the events that had transpired. My stomach churned with worry as I listened to the tale of how Kenzie and Diana had been attacked, how Diana had been killed and how somehow their attacker had also been killed. That part made absolutely no sense whatsoever. How was it possible for someone to just close their eyes and find the person who was attacking them dead in a pool of their own blood? It just didn’t make any sense. 

    And Rome didn’t take it too well when I voiced that opinion. His eyes glowed with fury and he was on me, gripping on to the collar of my shirt and pulling me right off of the couch. He was like a pissed off attack dog, nearly foaming at the mouth with rage.

    “Kenzie would never lie to us!” He growled out baring his teeth. 

    I held my hands up in a surrender position. “I’m not saying that Kenzie is lying.” I rectified. “I’m just saying it’s strange and it makes no sense.”

    That seemed to calm Rome down at least enough to get him to let go off me. His reaction hadn’t surprised me in the least bit. No matter how much he tried to convince us otherwise, we all knew that he was head over heels for Kenzie. It had been obvious in middle school when he had developed the crush and only seemed to get worse with each passing year. It was sweet. The intimidating, rough around the edges bad guy going all soft for the sweet girl who was basically walking sunshine.

    Kenzie was less obvious in her attraction, but it was easy enough to tell. She would constantly be watching him when he wasn’t paying attention. She always smiled at him regardless of the situation. And no matter where we were those two were always next to each other. If only they weren’t so oblivious. 

    “We know it makes no sense, but that’s what Kenzie says happened and right now she needs us to believe in her.” Ian, ever the voice of reason, declared. 

    “But won’t us leaving because of this just make us look guilty?” I couldn’t help asking.

    Rome shrugged. “As soon as the find out Kenzie works there, those pigs Michaels and Lorne are going to be on our asses trying to pin the whole thing on all of us.”

    Well he wasn’t wrong about that one. Detectives Michaels and Lorne seemed to have an near neurotic fascination with all of us. It could be because we caused them so many headaches. Or it could also be due to the fact that none of us seemed to really respect the authority they represented. For whatever reason they seemed to have it out for us. So Rome and Ian’s theory wasn’t too farfetched. 

    “Fair enough.” I conceded, glancing over to the staircase. Kenzie still hadn’t come down, I wonder if she was okay. 

    I nodded over to the stairs. “How’s Kenzie handling everything?” 

    Rome’s jaw was clenched hard. “Not very well.”

    Ian nodded. “She’s probably in shock or something. She just needs some time to get through this.” 

    Was this something you could really get over though? But it was probably best to keep those thoughts to myself. Right now, Kenzie was going to need all of our support, regardless of what we thought of the situation. 

    But that traitorous little voice in the back of my head was instantly whispering of how bad everything was going to go. It was whispering truths that none of us wanted to face at the moment. Or ever, in truth.

    It’s all going to end in death.