FORREST

Where the fuck is she?

SHE JUST left! I was just waiting for my break to chat with her, then I found her seat empty. There was no way she went with that jackass!

I had a few ideas about Megan’s history of hook-ups, but I was the last person to judge her—she was a consenting adult. I just didn’t want her to mix with that scumbag of all the people because he had a flashy card at his disposal.

“I’ll be right back.” I patted Dice on his shoulder and took off my apron.

My blood was already boiling, and I badly wanted to light a stick if I wasn’t still working. I strode toward the exit, hoping to apologize for butting into their chin-wag earlier.

She couldn’t have gone far. The smell of pees and cigarette assaulted my senses as I scanned the area where Megan could possibly park her car. I sprinted to the parking lot, thankfully, her car tail lights were still on.

A red haze gathered behind my eyelids as soon as I spotted her outside her car.

Shit!

“Megan!” I ran toward her, already quivering with rage. Pictures of her being harassed flashed in my brain when I noticed her on the ground, leaning against her car, seemingly shaking with her face buried in her hands.

As I got closer, I could hear her sobs that had me perplexed for a moment. This couldn’t be from drinking. I’d been watching her drunk her ass for years, and she was only on her second shot.

“Megan, are you okay?” I knelt in front of her and held her arms.

“Get off of me!” She jerked away from my grasp, terrified.

“It’s alright. It’s me, Forrest. Are you okay?” I spelled out and held her tightly as I inspected her for possible injury.

“I don’t need you! All of you, assholes!” She yelled between sobs.

“Just tell me if you’re okay to drive home and I won’t bother you again.” Damn it! What am I even doing here? It was because she was a friend of my girls, and they would knee my balls if they found out I left their best friend alone. And she's Megan, dumbass!

“Just leave me alone.”

I loosened her arms on my grip, and there was no way I would hurt her further. When she tried to stand up, I followed suit and took a step back. And that was when a chill of apprehension swept over me. Her nose was bleeding and had a hand imprinted on her left cheek.

I was already balling my hands into fists before I could ask her. “Who the fuck did that to you?”

“I’m fine. Just go. Why do you even suddenly care?” She wiped off the bloodstain with the back of her hand and gave me a cold stare.

She's a total mess. She wasn’t like this. I wondered what happened to her for the past few days. The Megan I knew was funny and flirty who didn’t filter and never cared how people would judge her. But this woman in front of me was a completely different person. She's lost.

“Is that a handprint of that motherfucker?” The urge to lifting my hand to wipe the blood from her nose had me shaking.

Her chest puffed out, ready to throw me a pit. She was still crying though. Tears were streaming down her smeared face.

“If you didn’t stick your nose into and humiliate him in the first place, he wouldn’t have come to do this to me!”

I had to look away and gulped down an inhale of air. “He’s a jackass, Megan, but I shouldn’t have done that. I apologize for my abominable behavior earlier.”

“Just leave me alone. I’ll live, and it’s not the first time like this happen anyway.”

“What do you mean? Do you know him?”

“You mean if I fucked him?” Her brow arched.

I winced at her bluntness. There was something inside me triggered, and I didn’t even want to think about it right now. It just hardened and twisted my gut even though I knew her who never care to filter her words.

“I don’t care about who you sleep with, Megan—”

“Then why are you here and why did you have to poke your nose in?”

“I don’t know. Can I get you something for your nose?” Jesus! I was a complete idiot. “Ice maybe.”

She rolled her eyes and grabbed the door handle of her car. “I don’t need your help. Not now. You should’ve talked to me a long time ago if you wanted to.”

“What do you—?”

She faced me, fury filled her eyes. “It means I don’t need you, okay? Just fuck off!”

A person I ever cared about came flashing back in my mind, making me shuddered. It felt like she was telling me that I was a terrible person. After all, she was right, and I felt guilty about it.

“Okay.” I clenched my jaw as I tried controlling my mouth not to say any words anymore. It was my fault she was harassed, but I had the feeling that that jackass would just hurt her even more if they ended up in his bed.

Why did I even care? Of course, I knew the answer.

“Bro.” Kyland tapped my shoulder after placing an order to the bearded guy.

“Yup?” I grabbed a glass and poured ice cubes for the order Whiskey on the rocks.

“See those girls?” He gestured his head to the dark corner booth.

I could barely see them, but one thing that caught my attention was the bare back of the woman in a red dress with a chin-length haircut. I forced a swallow as I strolled my gaze from her shoulder down to her spine. I felt the rush of blood surging through my veins in an instant. My skin vibrated with primal desires and insatiable hunger the longer I checked her out.

“W-Who’s she?” I cleared my throat. My mouth dried. “I-I mean who are they?”

Kyland eyed me intently before he answered. “I don’t have any idea they’d be here tonight. Damn it! Why here? Don’t let those two manwhores get near my girls. I may need to look for a new job if Hughes and Williams touch a strand f hair of any of them. And I swear to god I will break their faces, friends or not.”

***

Mama! No, Mama!

I jolted up, sweating, still catching my breath. Thankfully, it was just abrupt than the previous nights. I walked toward my kitchen with sweat dripping from my forehead. I grabbed a glass, filling water from the faucet and let the water run on my parched throat.

My head snapped, eyes squinted to the sunrise streaking through the window. I couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly. What happened at the parking lot edged my mind fiercely.

"It means, I don't need you, okay?"

“Of course, you don’t. You’re a big girl.”

After two hours, I already showered, dressed, and already standing in front of the tattoo parlor, Fluer.

“Coming?”

My head snapped to the glass door, Milo already pulled it opened for me. His body was tattooed just like mine, but he was skinnier than me. If I haven’t known Alan would beat his ass raw, I would’ve thought Milo was snorting coke.

“Yeah.” I got in. “How’s your sister?” His sister was newly diagnosed Diabetic. And I felt bad that as young as nineteen, she had to suffer from that disease.

“Still adjusting, but she’ll be fine. It runs in the family anyway. My skinny ass is just waiting for its turn.”

The reception area was painted in light gray, two shaded lamps were hanging loosely from the dark ceiling. Their masterpiece designs were framed and nailed proudly on the wall.

Milo approached again, showing me his new design on the iPad. “What do you think?”

I glanced down at the screen. It was a Hawk with fierce, blazing red eyes that screamed chaos. Its frightening black shiny wings spread widely that could soar across the sky. The striking claws were long, black, sharp, and curve pointed downward promising hideous scars and excruciating pain to its prey. Amazing!

“What do you think?” he asked again impatiently.

I shifted my gaze to his slim face, finding him showing me his signature grin and gleaming brown eyes. “That’s good.”

“Just good?” His brow arched. “Man, I did this since the shop opened this morning. You should have at least a better word to say than just good.” His shoulders drooped, walking away to the long black counter. He placed the iPad on top, collapsed himself on the black glossy sofa, and sighed heavily.

I was terrible at anything related to art, but I could appreciate a good one. And good was not the right word for his aesthetic work. I gave him that.

“That was awesome, Milo. Shut that scowl off your face. That can bring bad luck for the business.” I walked past him to the hallway. There were six small tattoo rooms. At the end of the hallway was Alan’s office. “Is he there?”

“Yeah.”

I heard the soft buzzing of the tattoo machine from one of the rooms. I could still feel the biting sting of the needle piercing my skin when I got my first tattoo, but nothing could compare to the agonizing pain on why I had to ink myself.

After knocking softly on the single panel glossy black door, Alan said to come in.

I entered and closed the door behind me.

“Don’t you have tonight?” A grayed-hair sixty-six old man looked up at me. For his age, he was still a diet conscious and managed to stay fit. Though he had already wrinkles, and his olive skin started to sag around his neck, he was stronger as a horse.

“I do.” I slumped my back on the black chair and leaned my elbow on his wooden desk. Bartending was exhausting and tricky, but I liked this job.

“Keep your heads down. You don’t wanna attract unwanted attention. Did you understand me?”

I rubbed my clean-shaven chin, waiting for him to talk.

He stared at me for a moment, squinting his sharp whiskey-colored eyes on me. “How was your trip?”

“A waste of time.” I had to socialize with those bastards, then I still ended up going home empty-handed.

“I told you to stop opening the can of worms, Forrest. I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

“I am not.” Too late for that.

“And I was born yesterday, yeah?” he said sarcastically, taking something out from the drawer. He pushed a medium-size Manila envelope close to my elbow and tapped it.

With brows cocked, I picked it up. “What’s this?”

“His last whereabouts,” he informed. “I won’t let him get near you, Forrest.”

“As much as I like the idea of you watching my back, I can’t risk you. I got this, Alan. You know his mind is twisted, but I’m old enough to protect myself.” It was a complete lie because if I could, I shouldn’t have come here to escape.

I gulped down an inhale of air, realizing that that evil still affected me by just mentioning the word him. I took a deep breath and opened the envelope.

Christ!

“Where did you get these?” I quickly asked and shot him a penetrating gaze. This old man never lied to me, but I couldn’t put him at peril by involving him in my mess. “I appreciate the effort, but you don’t have to do this, Alan. I can manage to gather info on my own.”

“I know, son. And if my Intel is correct, he’d be here in a few weeks.” That I knew of and the reason why he would be here. “And you’re welcome.”

***

I inwardly rolled my eyes when the popular pop song started blaring on the speakers. DJ Kyan’s 3c hair swayed as he shook his head, enjoying his mixed-up music. The crowd roared, jumped, and embraced the song simulated to the flashing lights.

I focused back on serving. A dude left thirty bucks on the counter for his order. Before I could grab the bills, a tiny hand with french-manicured fingernails already had them. The ring caught my attention. It had a ruby stone too huge for a slender finger... like hers.

What the—?

I pulled back as my heart started to pound in my chest. It was quite dim, but I didn’t miss the wickedness glinting in her piercing caramel-colored eyes.

“Can I have that now?” I offered my hand, sounding like shit.

Her perfectly aligned white teeth flashed in a wide grin. She shoved the bills beneath her V-cut black dress. Terrific!

I lifted my gaze back and met a confident smile on her heart-shaped face. She leaned her elbows on the counter, showing more cleavage while tapping her fingers on her chin. Her perfectly groomed eyebrows arched. Clearly, she was having fun seeing my reaction as I gulped down the embarrassments of being caught staring down at her tits. Her gorgeous tits.

“What can I get for you, Megan?” I maintained a disinterested expression though it was useless.

I was used to the women flirting on this counter and I made sure to never mix my work with pleasure, but this woman was Megan, and she came back to infuriate me in a different way. More like to keep me on hard-on throughout the night. Brilliant idea!

“What can you suggest?” She was still staring at me like I was her last meal.

Megan had something in her mind, and there was in her aura shifted from the other night encounter, leaving me a big question mark in my brain.

There were probably a hundred men in this club, and I knew Megan. She had no interest in someone like me. So, what was she up to this time? Revenge?

“Are you—”

“Cosmo, broody. Double the lime wheel, please?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be with your friends?”

“Nah. They’re probably busy right now under their blankets. If they even use blankets. I mean why would they use, right?” She rolled her eyes, amused. “They’d be sweaty, panting, and slick—”

“Alright.” Jesus! ”I get it.”