Chapter Fourteen

*Not edited* Not proofread*

Chapter 14– At least not yet:

Dakota's standing up with his arms folded against his chest. His muscles are bulging against his jacket but I doubt he's flexing on purpose. Ricky can make anybody tense up so much that they could almost burst out of their clothes.

"Dakota, my man. How's it going?" Ricky slaps his hand on the blonde's arm, a shit-eating grin on his face. I roll my eyes at him from where I stay seated in the booth. "And you, Kody, long time no see," he winks at me annoyingly.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Ricky?" Dakota spits his name out with distaste and Ricky pretends to be offended for a second.

"You wound me, Dakota. But don't worry, it's just a coincidence that we happen to be here at the same time." He still has the taunting smirk on his face but I see the sincerity behind his words. "Me and Zoe were just about to leave actually."

Dakota tenses further. "Zoe's here? With you?" His tone gets deeper, more defensive. He seems to become even more closed-off at her name.

Ricky smiles. "Indeed she is. She was actually the one who saw you two," he glances at me briefly. "But I just came over because I need to borrow, Kody."

Dakota moves to stand in front of me slightly, blocking me from Ricky's view. I roll my eyes at that and my jaw clenches involuntarily. I don't need him to defend me— especially against Ricky.

"About what?" Dakota asks tensely.

"We didn't get to finish our conversation the other day when she came to my place," Ricky grins, not being able to stop himself. I stand from my seat, pushing Dakota out of the way lightly as I place myself beside him. Ricky beams at me, and I wonder if he's forgotten about the two times I've had my very real gun pointed at his head. "Kody, look at you, don't you look lovely."

"You was with him the other day?" Dakota asks, turning his attention to me. He does not look happy as he works his jaw, waiting for my answer. "Why?" He asks, taking my silence as a reply to his previous enquiry. I really don't know what to say, though, as I shrug my shoulders and avoid his eyes.

What am I meant to say? I'm teaming up with Ricky to get even with Mac for what he did to Lilah?

That will go down swimmingly.

"Sorry, it's confidential," Ricky pouts mockingly, not sorry at all. I want to snap his neck but decided against doing it so publicly. And also because I don't want Jace to be more mad at me than he already is. He's a nightmare to live with when he has a stick up his ass. "So, Kody?" Ricky raises an eyebrow. I know he's doing this just to get on Dakota's nerves, but I really do need to talk to him.

"Why don't you go back?" I turn to Dakota who peers down at me with a look I can't quite pinpoint.

"Seriously?" He questions. "You're going to go with him?"

"Yes," I answer back, my own tone equally as snappy as his. Dakota scoffs and shakes his head like he can't believe it. Leaving a few bills on the table, he goes to walk away, shoving past Ricky's shoulder harshly. Admittedly, I expected him to put up more of a fight.

Ricky winces, but is still cocky with his behaviour. "Oh, and Dakota," he calls out. "You wouldn't mind dropping Zoe back, would you?"

Can't the bitch walk?

Dakota spares another look at Ricky, a scowl on his face, before briefly glaring at me. Though, his stare isn't filled with hate, or disgust, like it is when he looks at the boy in front of me, instead, it seems more.... sad, maybe? I don't know. He's hard to read.

"Should we sit?" Ricky gestures to the spot Dakota has just abandoned before making a move to sit down. Before he can, though, I stop him, not wanting him to occupy the same space as Dakota just had. "Or not?"

I send him a glare to shut him up and he must see the look on my face isn't one to take lightly, so he shuts his mouth and loses the cocky smirk.

I keep an eye on Dakota and Zoe as they finish talking, waiting for them to leave the diner so me and Ricky could also leave. Dakota doesn't bother to look back around as he heads out the door, but Zoe does, and her face looks confused as her eyes meet mine for a quick second. I narrow my eyes a little more, wondering who the fuck she thinks she's staring at, and she turns around, rushing out behind Dakota.

"So, you and Zoe not on good terms then, no?" Ricky asks as he follows my line of sight. I do nothing but walk away, knowing he'll catch up.

We get into Ricky's car, him in the driver's seat and me in the passenger, my gun resting on my knee just so he knows not to do anything stupid. He eyes me from the corner of his eye with nervousness but I pretend I don't notice— simply because if I have to address the matter, he'll irritate me more and I'll shoot him.

"Where to?" He asks, leaning against his door. I shrug my shoulders as I look out of the window, Dakota's convertible long gone.

"Just go the long way back to South Raven High," I tell him. "I don't need to say much." Ricky nods his head before starting the engine and pulling out of the diner; not very safely.

As soon as we're on the road, I turn to face him, keeping the gun in my hand on my knee. "Why are you in that ugly jacket?" I ask, my nose scrunching up slightly.

Ricky looks down at himself as he keeps one hand on the wheel and the other on his thigh. He looks back up at me with a frown. "It's my teams letterman," he tells me like I'm an idiot for not knowing. Ignoring the twitching of my finger, I raise an eyebrow. "What?"

I make a face and shake my head. "Nothing. I just didn't expect you to be on a team." Aside from Mac's, I add mentally.

"Why?" He questions again. "I'm a great team player."

I scoff, not believing him one bit. "Okay."

"I am!" He protests, clearly putt off by my comment. I roll my eyes and ignore him. How annoying is he?

"I need you to do something for me," I tell him, cutting straight to the chase.

"After you broke two of my fingers and held a gun to my head— twice?" He looks at me sceptically. "Of course I'll do you a favour. I mean, you've treated me so kindly, why wouldn't I?"

"Because if not I'm going to shoot you in the fucking face," I threaten casually, but I'm one-hundred percent serious. "Lets see how many sarcastic remarks you wanna make then."

He huffs petulantly, side-eyeing me with displeasure. "You're fucking scary, you know that?" He questions rhetorically before shaking his head. "What do you need?"

"I need you to set up a meeting with Mac."

His car swerves as he looks at me with surprise. I breathe out in annoyance as my back hits the car door that I'm leaning against. "Wait, seriously? Why?"

"Mind ya business," I frown. "And watch where you're fucking driving."

"Alright," he stresses, sighing in exasperation. "When do you want the meeting for?"

"Tomorrow. After Dakota's fight."

"You're going?" He raises his eyebrows at me, going back to facing the road once I send him a warning look. In theory, I don't care if he crashes, however, if I end up dying in the hypothetical accident, I don't want anyone to know I was in the same car as him. That would hurt my pride way more than anything in the world.

I shrug. "Yeah."

"Why?"

"How about you only stick to questions that are of your concern?" I counter, narrowing my eyes, this time Ricky being at the receiving end instead of Zoe. However, his lips twitch in amusement instead of discomfort.

"Sometimes you talk really formal," he points out irrelevantly, seeming amused at that fact. "Are you sure you're a senior in high school?" He jokes, his smile falling as he sees my face. "J.K, just kidding," he mutters awkwardly, shifting in his seat. "I won't be doing that again," he whispers to himself, thinking I can't hear him. I roll my eyes.

"Zoe. Who is she to you?" I wonder as we pass by familiar houses and corner stores. I hear Ricky mumble out a word that sounds awfully like hypocrite, but he answers me anyway.

"We sort of had a thing going on," he tells me vaguely. "Why?"

I shake my head. "No reason. Have you found out anything about Lilah's attack?" I change the topic swiftly— or maybe not, but it's not like he's going to call me out on it.

"Smooth," he mutters once again under his breath before speaking up. "No, not yet. I've been trying to be subtle about it. If I just outright ask they'll grow suspicious about how I know. They'll also probably think that you told me, and if they think we're sharing more than just a bed, it won't end well for either of us."

I nod my head. "Alright. Well just keep your ears open and let me know when you find out anything."

"Why are you doing this?" Ricky asks just as we pull up to the school building. "Most people would just... I don't know what they'd do actually. But I know that they wouldn't go to this extent."

I open the car door and put my feet on the ground first, my legs feeling the coldness of the wind. "I'm not a fan of people like Mac," I admit as I look at him over my shoulder. "And there's not many people around here that I can shoot without facing the consequences for it."

"You're gonna shoot him?" Ricky exclaims in alarm as he leans over the passenger side just as I've straightened myself up.

"No," I bend down as I lean my arm on the top of his Audi, meeting his wide eyes with mine.

"At least not yet, anyway."

___

Author's Note

Just a quick filler. I thought I'd get this out now so I could go straight into the next chapter which will hopefully be a lot longer and more interesting.

Sorry if this is a bit of an iffy chapter. Normally I take my time writing chapters and then read them the next day with a fresh mind to see if I'm happy with what I've written, but this I literally wrote all in one go and have only read it over twice (normally I read over a chapter every time I add a couple of paragraphs).

Also, any suggestions for Ricky's character? I know now I picture him, but I can't find anyone that looks like him.

And I'm thinking of changing Dakota and Jace as I don't picture them as the characters that I've put up of the cast. If you guys need a reminder, I'll add in the cast list in this book, too.

For Kody though, who do we prefer? The first girl with brown hair in the cast list (Bridget Saterlee— although in my opinion she looks a bit too innocent) or the girl with black hair and tattoo's (Krista Keehus— who I think firs the character better in the sense that she has tattoo's and has more of a dark vibe). If not, do you have your own suggestions?

Let me know.