Jett

29

UNEDITED

Early update to celebrate 30,000 reads!

It seemed that recently everything had started to point back to Marlow.

If Kayden had taken her death quite hard, he knew at least three other people who took it harder. He had lost his best friend but she was also someone's sister and someone's daughter.

If there was one thing Kayden remembered quite clearly about the time after Marlow's death it was that Mark had basically started living in his house. He wouldn't say why and Kayden's mum didn't question it, she'd just pull out the inflatable bed and dump it in Kayden's room with some sternly worded German that roughly translated to 'he's going through a tough time, don't be a dick.' Well, okay, his mother wouldn't use the word 'dick' but you get the gist.

It didn't take long for Mark's mum to skip town.

Not too long after that, Mark stopped living with Kayden but there was something... off about him. Something almost angry. Though he had gotten better since then, there always seemed to be some of that anger left. Kayden never acknowledged it but he had always seen it, simmering under the surface.

Standing there in the middle of a mansion at what could only be described as a drug dealer's ball; Kayden wondered if it had anything to do with the man standing before him.

It was an odd realisation that he hadn't seen Mark's dad after Marlow's death. He had been too occupied with making sure that his friend stayed afloat to notice that Mark's dad had gone completely off the grid. So to be faced with him after so many years...it was almost like receiving a blast from the past.

He and Mark shared the same hazelnut coloured eyes and curly hair, though his had been cropped in a professional like manner to go with his crisp suit. His face turned to Kayden and a warm smile broke out over his thin lips. For a second Kayden could pretend that it was 4 years ago and he had dropped by to pick up his two best friends. He felt like Rob was going to ask him about his day or what homework he had gotten from school. After his dad the man had become the closest thing he had had to a father figure.

Kayden wanted to both laugh and scream at the same time.

"Kayden... It's been a long time. You've grown up quite a lot." His voice was too casual, too calm for the scene around them. He shouldn't be allowed to look at Kayden like nothing had happened when they were both standing in a room of drugged girls surrounded by suited men. Everything about the situation was abnormal, like he had been pushed into some sort of surreal dreamscape.

"Rob," Kayden forced out, trying not to show that he was acutely aware of the way Jett was watching their interaction. Her dark eyes calculating. "What... what brings you here?" The question sounded naïve even to his ears but he just wanted someone to deny that one of his favourite people growing up was tangled up in that mess.

Rob's smile turned slightly grim as his eyes swept over the room, "just some unfinished business." His eyes rested on Jett "I can't say I approve of the company you keep these days."

Before Kayden could reply Jett cut in.

"Just cut to the chase, Rob," her voice was almost bored sounding, "whatever you have planned for me, I think we can both agree that Kayden's safety is of mutual interest to both of us. Let him go and we can finish whatever massacre you have planned."

Rob laughed at that, though it wasn't an amused kind of laugh. There was something sinister about it. "What makes you think I have a massacre planned?"

That time Jett almost smiled as she nodded her head in the direction of the German man at the other side of the room. "The gun in his pants," she then paused thoughtfully "well, at least I hope it's a gun."