“No, actually wait,” Dexter spoke up. “Has Bunny been in lately?”
My arms stopped their fluid motion, and my thoughts started drifting to the last time I had seen Bunny. It was that day they had practice. I hadn’t seen him since. Thought about him? Sure. But the thought of seeing him made my chest hurt. Looking at Dexter, I shook my head. “The last time I saw him was at your place for practice that day.”
Naomi leaned her side on the bar. “No, he hasn’t been in for a while, actually. Not without one of you. Why, what’s going on?”
“We haven’t seen him in a few days. He hasn’t been home. And he left his cellphone there. He used to do this shit when we were younger, but it’s been a long time. It’s normally not good.” Dexter’s voice dropped. He sounded scared.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I did my best to hide the anger in my voice, but it came out, and I didn’t know where it came from. Dexter’s head shot up, and he looked me directly in the eyes. “Shit, sorry. That was aggressive.”
“He's had some shit go on in his life, but that’s his story to tell. Just let me know if you hear from him or anything, please. We are going to go check Nicki’s now.” When Dexter made eyecontact with me, I could feel his desperation. He rubbed my arm as he stood, ushering the brothers out of the bar with him.
The door shut behind the guys, and I turned back to look at Naomi. She stood facing me head-on with her arms crossed. A serious expression was unmoving on her face. Slowly the corners of her mouth started to lift into a smile. “Tell me now!” Then her face shifted quickly to a questioning look. “Wait, but what’s going on? Where is Bunny?”
“Shh, stop. I’ll tell you when we close.”
Naomi held me to my promise. As soon as we locked the door, she was behind me asking for the details.
Going through the details of the practice and giving her the play-by-play actually allowed me to see everything from a different perspective. I realized my attraction to Bunny and Dexter was clouding my judgement. Bunny had been a real jerk to me lately. It had all started after that night, and he started seeing Nicki more. Most people associate Nicki with drugs. That’s why she’s so popular. I know Bunny used to mess around with that stuff. I wonder if he got back into it. When I started to think about the chain of events, things started to make more sense. But why was he being an ass? I was acting as I always have to him since that night. He was the one being weird.
“Okay, so wait. You and Dexter both agreed that things are different. So does that mean you’re like a couple now?” Naomi sat at the bar while I cleaned.
I stopped resetting the liquor bottles and looked up at her. “What? No. We didn’t talk about all that. It’s just…I don’t know. No label.” Continuing my tasks, I tried to think of something to move the conversation on. “The issue here is finding Bunny. He’s been weird as hell lately, hasn’t been home, and no one has seen him. That’s a problem.” I was genuinely worried about him. Dexter saying things like this normally isn’t good terrified me. Not to mention the other night he said that Bunny was scaringhim. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now Bunny was scaring me too.
twelve
body shots
Bunny
“Fuck this, let’s just move to my house. I’m sure there’s already a party going on anyway. If you know where it is, you’re invited. If you don't, sorry for your luck.” Nicki wrapped her arm around my waist as we walked toward the front door. She stumbled as I walked us to the car and put her into the passenger’s seat.
“Just leave me here. It’s whatever.” Nicki said as I got in the car.
“No, they were fucking fighting in the backyard.” She groaned, and I slammed the door shut. Rolling my eyes, I was ready to go home anyway. Staying at Nicki’s was getting boring, and Dexter had already come looking for me more than once. She covered for me like a pro, but I was sure he didn’t buy it.
Turning down the road to my house, there were no cars in the yard like normal for parties. Only Rich’s car sat next to Dexter’s.
Weird.
Pulling my car into the driveway, my headlights flashed across the front of the house, and I saw Marlowe sitting on thefront porch, her bright orange hair impossible to miss in the bright lights. The front door swung open and a few more cars pulled in behind me into the yard. Dexter and Marlowe stood in the bright lights of headlights, confusion painted across their faces.
“What, no party tonight? Come on. Put the fucking music on.” I didn’t want to face them, so I walked around the side of the house to the backyard.
Every light was off. When I flipped the switches to turn them on, the backyard was illuminated. More groups of people started flooding to the backyard. Most of them had followed over from Nicki’s. There were others I didn’t remember seeing over there, but I didn’t question it. The news traveled fast, I guess.
When I got to the pool shed, I noticed the smaller amps and speakers weren’t in here. Were they really not planning on coming out here tonight? Coolers were being pulled from cars and brought around back, and our garage fridge was being raided. Rich and Chris were unplugging the equipment, so I turned and walked into the house.
A few people from the party had already found their way to the couch and turned on the TV. In the kitchen, Marlowe pulled down the plastic cups and random snacks we had stashed away. She organized the liquor bottles we had leftover from other parties on the island counter. When she finally looked up at me, her face was expressionless. She grabbed a bottle of tequila and walked out the back door.
Dexter walked out of the hallway, pulling a shirt over his head. Tattoos rippled across his side as he maneuvered it down. My throat was instantly dry. My feet carried me to the freezer for my bottle of Jager. Taking off the lid, I tipped my head back and took a shot of the freezing liquid. Warmth suddenly crowded my back. I immediately felt sweat all over my body despite still standing in front of the open freezer.
The warm citrus scent of Dexter filled my nostrils. “Where the fuck have you been?” His breath was hot on my ear.
Pushing back from the freezer, I shoved him off of me. “I’m fine. Fuck off. I’m home now.” When I pushed away from him, I immediately felt the loss of his presence. The truth was I was aching for him and had been for days. I was taking more pills when I was with Nicki to numb how badly I needed to be with him.
Music started soon after I walked outside, thanks to the twins. They started playing the CDs in the stereo. Much to my dismay, they had been switched out, but whoever switched them picked some decent ones. Godsmack’s Voodoo album played first on rotation, my favorite.
When I surveyed the backyard, Nicki sat in a lounge chair chatting with her friends, smoking a pipe of something. Marlowe stood by the fire pit with Dojo, adding wood to the small flames, getting the fire started. She sat down in my chair and watched as the flames began to roar. I kept watching her as she took a shot out of the tequila bottle now and then. She wasn’t dressed how she normally was for parties. She was more casual in black cargos, a little t-shirt with a dragon on it, and her hair down. Dojo stuck to her side like glue.
