Chapter 7

"Pretty girl." Luther comments as I close the garage door.

I choose not to respond because I know his ass is fishing.

"Sweet as a honey bee too." He adds when I pass him on my way to the lounge but you I continue ignoring his statements.

"You know Linda and I were high school sweethearts..."

He's followed me all the way into the kitchen and I know he's not going to let this go easily.

Reaching into the refrigerator to grab the carton of OJ he offered Sunniva I remember a conversation years back when she told me it was her 'last resort' beverage. She’d always manage to get us off track by talking about irrelevant shit like that, even though she was the one who was assigned to get me up to date with the rest of the class.

"Sometimes life has a way of allowing two people-"

"Okay stop.” I sigh, annoyed with the badgering old man, "One question and that's it."

Luther leans his back against the kitchen counter and scratches his beard in thought. "Are you going to her party?" The nuisance smiles, obviously pleased with his choice of question.

"No." His smile drops immediately and I turn away from him.

"Why not? She seems sweet and I doubt it'll be like the parties you're used to." He is now following me into the lounge.

"I said one, Luther." I remind the whining old man.

When putting on my jacket I'm nauseas again at the smell of smoke and alcohol but I shake the feeling and reach for my car keys on the table.

"Thanks for today, Luther." I slap his arm but he just frowns at me childishly.

I try not to laugh but it escapes and I'm out the door before he tries to hit me over the head. Anybody else ever try that and they'd be on their ass in seconds but Luther couldn't care less if I was strapped or not he'd curse me out so bad the devil would blush.

In a way we were the only people we had to lean on and we barely even knew one another. I needed a job and he needed to lay off the labor to focus on management and in-between I saved him from choking on his own vomit when he didn't know how to grieve without the help of whiskey and he offered me a place to go when I needed to think clearly that wasn't the inside of a ring.

"And tell that boy not to wake up the whole dang neighborhood when throws you at my doorstep." Luther yells from the doorway and I throw my thumb up out my window in acknowledgment.

He speaks again but I purposely rev my engine to muffle his voice and he throws his middle finger in the air getting his point across. Laughing, I honk a few times before speeding off.

The whole way home I can't get her and that dress out of my head. She seemed shy like always or I guess so... I don't really know her anymore, not like I knew her before either. She was just some shy jump-outta-your-bones-every time-I-sneeze girl that a foolish teacher assigned to me the first week I was at the school.

Unlike the other kids who Mrs Davis previously suggested, Sunniva's face didn't scrunch up in disgust in fact she looked rather surprised to hear her name being called out and she looked at the teacher talking to her as if she couldn't believe she was. As if she was a ghost in the classroom, haunting it and was suddenly seen for the first time.

But how could anyone not notice her? Her hair stood up all around her head like it was her shadow and her eyes... god they stare right through you.

"Stop." I shake my head trying to rid her from my thoughts and turn the radio dial to drown out the memory of how soft and breathless her voice was earlier, like a fucking wet dream.

Damnit! I need to get laid very soon to work this redhead out of system.

"Wake up!"

I jolt from my bed in momentary confusion and reach for the body in front of me, kicking it to the floor. I hear a grunt at the foot of my bed and look up to see Marc laughing from at my bedroom door.

"I told your dumb ass that would happen." He comments, laughing at Eddie who gets up from the floor.

He glares at me as if I was the one who woke him from an afternoon nap.

"How the fuck did you two assholes get in?" I growl.

"You got soft getting a place in upper Dolton and got the locks to match." Marc shrugs as if he didn't admit to just breaking and entering.

I'm getting a bolted fucking gate to keep these assholes out.

"You f-" My phone vibrates next to me interrupting the verbal abuse I was about to unload on my closest friends.

Isaac Raw Tomorrow

"Fuck." I sigh, running my hand over my face.

My body's still aching from all the alcohol I forced into it last night. I have no idea how I'll be ready for tomorrow if I still feel like shit, I don't even know how I pulled myself together to finish the job on Sunniva's friend's car this morning.

"What?" Marc asks.

"Fight tomorrow."

"Damn you look like shit. You're definitely getting your ass beat." Eddie comments when taking in my appearance.

"Shut the fuck up.” I scowl at his stupid smirking face, "This is why I shouldn't agree to go out with you idiots." I reach for my T-shirt on the nightstand when getting up.

"You're the one who decided to get shit-faced." Marc defends.

"Yeah, maybe if Sunny went home with you you'd be singing a different song this morning." Eddie says and I'm immediately agitated.

"How do you know her name?"

"You're a lot more honest when you're drunk my friend.” He remarks with a huge grin on his face, "Especially about your opinion on Sunny's tits." He laughs.

Fuck.

"It's Sunniva and get the fuck out of my room!" I yell, both extremely annoyed with myself and the sudden presence of these two in my room.

Fortunately Marc sensing my mood change, leaves without question and pulls Eddie by his hoodie to do the same.

I still have no idea how Marc knew Knives had a twin and I make a mental note to ask him because if he knew that might mean he's not the only one.

My life was not this complicated a few days ago but if I'm being honest before I saw her in the aisle at the grocery store my life also hasn't felt worth anything in a while too.

No! I need to stop thinking about her existing anywhere fucking near my life! Even if it were just as friends.

Would I even know how to do that? Fuck, I barely knew how to do it back then. Better not try again and risk having her end my life.

It's a funny thought but it's very unlikely. I met Knives two years after Sunniva left for college and I knew immediately just how different they are.

I think it must've happened in juvey but Knives was a lot different than how Sunniva would describe her. She's batshit crazy and a loose fucking canon that my brother willingly allows to run amok which is a huge difference to the way he runs his gang and even me growing up. He’s a control freak and has always been. I have no idea how they met and I doubt that Knives knows that Lan met her sister before he met her.

My phone dings again, pulling me from my floating thoughts.

It's from Luther, he sent me a number and underneath he writes 'the numba she gave just Ncase u need 2 contact hre if u change ur mind about the party'

This is the second text he's ever sent me and that's how I know he's not letting this thing go. Luther, unlike my friends, is usually not this annoying so I wonder what the fuck about Sunniva has inspired him to take an interest in my love life.

Sighing again I drop my phone on my bed and make a note to ask Luther if he sends these grammatical disasters to our clients as well.

“Again! Again! Again! Yeah! Again!"

"Would you please shut the fuck up," Eddie yells from the bench in front of us, "You're not Mickey fucking Goldmill" He grumbles before looking down at his phone.

Marc rolls his eyes at our randomly moody friend and looks at me in question from behind the punching bag.

I shrug in response not understanding why he's been this way since the car ride over here.

"Must be April." Marc speaks obnoxiously loud.

I look over at Eddie's glare to see Marc's words served their purpose. He doesn't say anything as he gets up from the bench but I hear him grumble something about us being childish assholes which Marc catches as well, making him laugh like the childish asshole he is.

The only hangover cure I know is sweating out the shit I put in my body which is why we came to the gym and in my first 30 minutes of sparring with Eddie I'd thrown up twice.

Eddie grabs his duffle on his way to the bathroom and I realize it's just Marc and I.

"So how'd you find out Knives had a twin?" I ask, pulling the tape from my knuckles.

He fumbles for bit, rubbing his hands together. "Knives actually." He answers following me to the bench but doesn't sit down instead he's digging the heels of his feet into the mat and his obvious nerves are putting me on edge as well.

"Didn't know you spoke to her." I try to keep the suspicion out of my voice.

"I don't... I uh...” He shuffles for a bit then quickly plops himself on the bench next to me, "Remember when I was doing deliveries for that pizza joint in town?" Marc asks and I nod in response.

"Well I delivered to this house in the Upper side one time when the lady asked me to set up in the kitchen and I coulda sworn she looked just like fucking Knives but it wasn't until I left that I saw the pictures on the wall, one that was of Knives but with ginger hair and I was freaked.” He pauses to look up at me with the same confused expression I assume he had that day, "But then I saw two girls with orange hair and two ladies holding them and I figured Knives obviously had a family and fuckiniig twin.

I forgot about it until I had a fight some time after and I went to The Pit and saw Knives at the bar. I think I asked some bullshit about whether they still wear matching clothes and I swear to god I thought she was going to murder me at the club." He chuckles but his eyes are dead serious.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

He says pointless shit about the fighters he trains at the Nest all day but he didn't bring this up once. Shit's weird.

"She made me swear... well actually she shoved a gun inside my mouth and said if I ever mention it ever she'd find my family and yeah you know..." He trails off.

I'm really fucking confused about this. I still have no clue why Knives faked her death because she was scheduled to come out in a few months after we graduated. I know that because I saw it on the refrigerator calendar at Sunniva's home.

They were waiting for her and by the impression I got whenever Sunniva would bring her up, she was all set to come home after so I don't understand why she didn't or why she's so willing to protect even the whispers about her being alive. They were close from what Sunniva always said. Why wouldn't she wanna go back to her family and her sister? Why would anyone given the choice choose to stay away from Sunny?