Page 21 of Five Mountain Daddies

He’s quiet, but I can tell he’s tense. I don’t know much about Henry. I asked the twins about him when we were out at the club, but they didn’t say much, they just wanted to keep on dancing. The twins didn’t want to do much talking that night at all, in all honesty, which isfine.

But Henry’s interesting. All of the other guys have gone out of their way to talk to me, but not him. Maybe he’s just not into me, which is totally fine. I don’t need all five friends… although thinking about all five touching my body at once makes me heart beatfast…

“We really are bad news,” he says suddenly, stopping in his tracks and facingme.

I stop and cock my head at him. “Are you trying to scare me off orsomething?”

He smirks again at me, that handsome and cocky grin. It sends a shiver down my spine, like he’s looking right through me. “Something like that,” he says, and starts walkingagain.

I hurry to catch up. “Okay, Henry. I get it, you don’t likeme.”

He gives me a sidelong glance. “You thinkso?”

“That’s obvious. I mean, you show up out of nowhere and start telling me how you’re all bad news or whatever.” I sigh, a littlefrustrated.

He doesn’t disagree with me. “All those rumors are true,” he saysinstead.

“One of you… killedsomeone?”

He nods. “One of usdid.”

“Oh,” I say, feeling dumb. I’m not sure what else tosay.

“It was self-defense, if that makes you feel any better. He was involved in the drug trade, buying and selling coke and weed mostly. One night, a rival gang wanted to knock him out, take his supply, but shit went wrong when theycame.”

He takes a deep breath and I watch him silently for a second. “It was you, wasn’tit?”

“Yeah,” he says softly. “One idiot ended up dead. The others ran off, but I stayed, tried to save him. I couldn’t do shit, and when the ambulance came, the cops followed. I ended up busted for drug charges, but didn’t get any time for murder,fortunately.”

“Wow,” I say, feeling lame. “That must have beenhard.”

“Seven years in jail isn’t easy,” he says. “Got out early because of good behavior, and because ofJames.”

“James?” I ask,surprised.

He nods. “James came to every parole hearing, said good things on my behalf, said he’d take care of me if I were ever released. Well, they eventually listened, and now here Iam.”

I chew my lip, watching him. “Why would James dothat?”

“We were close friends, back before I got so deep into selling coke. I got rich but I lost everything that made life worth living, and well… James never forgot the guy that I was, even when Idid.”

We walk in silence again, and I’m suddenly wondering why he’s really here. I mean, he’s telling me that they’re bad news, and yet he’s making James seem like a good guy. If anything, Henry’s the one that’s bad news, although he doesn’t seem like bad news to me. He seems tortured and angry and maybe a little dark, but not completely rotten, not too fargone.

“Did you come here to tell me that?” I ask himsoftly.

He shakes his head. “No. I came to tell you somethingelse.”

“What isit?”

He stops again, this time sitting down on a low wall. I sit next to him, with bushes against ourbacks.

He doesn’t talk at first. He sits close to me and my heart starts beating fast in my chest. He looks at me and our eyes lock, and I suddenly wonder if maybe I was wrong afterall.

I lean forward and he meets me halfway. We kiss softly and slowly, and it surprises me. I didn’t expect this to happen, but it feels right as soon as our lips meet. It feels so good as I lean harder into thekiss.

He breaks off after a moment, his hand lingering on my cheek. “We shouldn’t,” he sayssoftly.

“Why?” Iask.

---