Krisa
The next day I met with my best friend, Courtney, for lunch at our usual diner. She had her heavy backpack propped beside her chair and was intensely focused on an opened mathematics textbook when I sat down in front of her.
“Took you fucking ages, bud,” she said in irritation. “I’ve gotta go in, like, twenty-five minutes.”
“What class do you have?”
“Biology.” She rolled her eyes and closed the text, plopping it back into her bag before giving me her full attention.
“You dyed your hair,” I noted with a smile. Her hair was bronzer than it was three days ago, making her blue eyes leap straight out of her tanned skin.
“I dye my hair as often as I change my underwear, Krisa,” she replied. “What’s bloody new by now? Plus, it’s totally fucked. Didn’t do it right at all.”
“Should have told me to do it.”
“You fucked it up last time. I looked like a gargoyle on crack.”
I laughed and got up, giving her a big tight hug before I returned to my chair. God, I missed this woman! Seeing her once a week was not enough. I would have gladly breathed her in every damn day if it wasn’t for Uncle Paul’s disapproval of her. He and Marie kept a wary eye on who I surrounded myself with, fearing I’d retreat back into the toxic crowd I’d grown up in, but they didn’t seem to care that Courtney was not at all involved with them or anywhere near the likes of them. She was normal, and free – both things I got jealous of often.
Oh, and she swore like a pirate.
A waitress came by and we ordered some food. As we ate, Court whined about her classes at Uni, about her lecturers and teaching assistants, about her family at home, about the horrible employment prospects in Bridgetown, and about how she was looking for an apartment.
“When I find a place to move into, I’ll be in need of a roommate.” She looked at me intently with a hint of a smile on her thin, pretty lips. “Come on, Krisa. I know you want to.”
“How about you find the apartment first and then ask me?”
“How about giving me your word you’ll be my roommate and then I’ll get a place?”
I shrugged. “Can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t just up and leave Marie.”
“You’re such a bitch.” She threw her fork down and it landed across the leaves of her salad. “How can you choose her over me?”
Courtney had a bit of an anger problem, and she freely expressed her attitude with no regard to the feelings of those around her. It was one of the reasons why she had very little friends and no long-term boyfriend. But I was well used to it having grown up with her since we were four.
“I’m not choosing her over you,” I replied, darting her evil eyes. “You know it too. I just can’t up and leave her. Not after everything she did for me.”
“She took you in. Whoop-de-fucking-do! That’s what family do, Krisa. They don’t let your ass out on the streets –”
“She did more than that,” I interrupted sharply. “She didn’t have to take me in. She could have left me to foster care. She could have let me rot in those projects you saw me living in, Court. She could have listened to Paul instead of fighting tooth and nail to have me there. Come on now. I owe her.”
Courtney clearly disagreed. She folded her arms against her chest and kicked me hard under the table. “You’re turning into one of them, aren’t you? Those crazy religious people who condemn anyone that’s not in love with their God –”
“If that was the case, would I be sitting here with you?”
“No, I’m just pissed off right now, Krisa. I hate that you have to deal with that crap. You go on like Marie is the best thing that ever happened to you. News flash, dumbass, you’re the best thing that ever happened to her. She parades you around like you’re her fucking gold medal. Bragging to everyone that you’ve been saved because of her kindness – it’s sickening!”
“It’s not like that,” I argued, lowering my voice. “She has no one, Court. She doesn’t have kids, and that kills her.”
Courtney laughed bitterly. “Oh, so she’s using her infertility to guilt you into joining the convent of fucking psychopaths?” When she saw my dark look, she softened immediately. “Look, there are good religious people, ones who don’t judge and are accepting of different faiths, and then there are wack-jobs. We all know who you’re bunched up with.”
“Let’s just talk about something else then, alright?” It always led to this when it was Court: her telling me I was with crazies, that they were using me, that Marie had ulterior motives in store for me – pretty much all things I didn’t want to hear, or maybe wasn’t ready to.
“How is work?” she asked me lightly. Ah, the nice Courtney. “Did you get around to that Brenner place?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Noticing my wide eyes, she smiled. “What? What happened?”
Frankly, I was dying to tell her. And I did. About everything. She laughed so hard, I thought her ribs would crack.
“No fucking way! That must have been so awkward.”
“It was the most awkward thing ever,” I agreed, burying my face in my hands. “They were totally screwing next door, Court, and stupid me had to make that friggin’ noise. Can’t believe Sheryl didn’t tell me beforehand that he was there.”
“She probably didn’t know. Kale Brenner’s a nasty bit of gear. Goes in and out of town like a hockey puck.”
“Like a hockey puck?” I rolled my eyes at her made-up simile.
Her face lit up. “So, isn’t he hot?”
“Oh yeah,” I agreed heartily. “He is insanely hot, but very…intimidating.” Was intimidating the best word to use? That was the only thing that seemed to fit the word I was looking for, but it still didn’t fit entirely right. “He was like… demanding, asshole-ish kind of scary, you know?”
“Yeah, so I hear. Did you get a good look at the leg?”
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “His leg? What about it?”
She sighed in disappointment. “You’re so slow, Krisa. Kale Brenner lost his leg. Didn’t you know that?”
“I knew one of the Brenner brothers lost their legs, but I didn’t know it was him,” I explained, trying to hide my surprise.
“Yeah, he lost it like two years ago, or some shit.”
I recalled him standing in front of the door way, all broad shoulders and muscle. Then I remembered his briefs and his jeans and blushed suddenly at the memory that I had confronted someone in that kind of state. It’d been a damn long time since I was around an undressed guy.
“No, he definitely had two legs,” I replied slowly. “Oh, man, do you think it wasn’t Kale? It might have been another brother then. Because she said he’d be back in a couple weeks, and now that I think about it, he never did tell me his name… Well, actually, he did say it was his house…”
Courtney watched me ponder out loud for a few moments. Amusement was scribbled all over her thin, long pretty face.
“Let me give you a little bit of a history lesson,” she finally said, leaning closer over the table. “Kale Brenner was a hard ass a few years ago. Of the four hot brothers, he was probably the worst. He had a saying that spread like wildfire around town: ‘Party hard, fuck harder.’ He’s most likely been in the pants of half the city’s women, and they’ll gladly tell you all about it.
“Two years ago, he was racing some dude over a hot piece of ass named Clara or Sara or Blara – whatever the hell her name was – and he ended up crashing into a tree. Wreck was so bad, he lost his leg right there at the scene. Since then, he’s a no show around town. But he leaves every now and then, and by the sounds of it, still fucks hard.” She laughed suddenly and shook her head, tidying up a few strands of hair behind her ears. “Still does some dodgy shit too. He’s slippery… As slippery as a silky snake.”
“A silky snake?” Jeez, Court had to calm down with these horrendously made-up similes. She’d been doing them for years now and they were only getting worse.
“Yeah, you know, a snake, only silky.” She explained this to me as if I was dense in the head.
“Yeah, Court, I know, and you don’t have to warn me about him either.”
“Then why are you looking all confused?”
I sighed on a frown. “I don’t know. It’s just… I thought I’d seen him before.”
“Probably from the news. Those guys are everywhere.”
“Yeah,” I weakly replied, but I knew that wasn’t the case. You know that feeling you get when the name of something is at the tip of your tongue but you can’t get it? That was exactly how I was feeling about the guy, only I was trying to figure out where in my life I’d seen him.
“Anyways,” I mumbled, moving on.
Before another word could be uttered, my cell phone rang. I dug into my pocket to retrieve it.
“Must be Marie wanting you to come home immediately before I use my witchy powers on you.” Courtney giggled.
I scowled, told her to shut up, and answered the private number. “Hello?”
“Is this Krisa?” said a deep voice on the other end.
My heart sped up, and my breathing went light. I didn’t have to pretend I didn’t know who it was. I couldn’t forget a voice like that. “It is.”
“This is Brenner. Hope I didn’t get off on the wrong foot with you.”
“No,” I lied.
“Great, well, I need you back at my place tomorrow around nine. I’ve got… a lot of cleaning that needs to get done. Does that suit you?”
“Uh…” Did it? My mind went blank. What in God’s name did I have planned for tomorrow? And why the hell would I even waste a second’s thought on this asshole?
“Yes or no?”
“Yes.”
“Good. See you then.” He hung up immediately. Clearly I wasn’t good enough for at least a good bye.
What the hell had I just agreed to?
“What’s wrong? You’re as white as snow,” said Court.
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” I replied, putting the phone down. “That was Kale Brenner.”
“What? No way.”
“Yeah way.”
“What does he want?”
“The majesty wants me to clean his abode tomorrow.”
“Oh, man, Krisa. Be careful. Silky snake, remember?”
“Yeah, I’ll remember.”
I don’t know why the idea of going back there made my heart squeeze and my nerves shoot up in anticipation. I wasn’t meant to be feeling anything but hatred. However, a night spent thinking of him had made me feel less unforgiving.
He was all wrong, and yet… that stirred something within me that had long died.