Owen, Ed and Me

1: He Returns

~ Dedicated to @-liberosis- for the really cool cover, Thank you :) ~

It was a regular Saturday, really. I was minding my own business, in my friend Sophie's house, yes, but that is a regular Saturday to me. We hang out every Friday night, and I sleep over basically every Friday night. Sophie's parents are the loveliest people on the planet when they aren't in Guatemala or Thailand but actually in their house. It's probably because they're actually so nice that Sophie never once questions why she's raising her little sister on her own. Well, I help on Fridays. Frida, named after the ever-gorgeous artist – no, Sophie's sister isn't sporting a uni-brow – has just hit fifteen and is definitely her sister's sibling. Sophie was just as curious in that age, especially where male genitalia are concerned. I preferred the intellectual perks of puberty, you know, becoming more interested in what happens around the planet and how wrong it all really is. Okay, so I'm probably what you might call "geeky" or "bookish". But I still have plenty of friends and everyone knows my name. Well, anyone who didn't know before Saturday certainly does now.

So there I am, innocently mixing together my infamous waffle-batter, when I hear the rumbling of a truck outside the house. A door opens and then slams and then there's a lot of barking.

So, I'm a little naïve. People say it's what makes me so kind and big-hearted, but I guess you could say that it sometimes borders on stupidity.

Anyway, the doorbell rings. And, in a typical Toni Tyron fashion, I happily open it wide to the stranger. Never mind the barking never stopped, and a normal person would've heeded that warning coupled with slamming doors. But, the wood's already swung open. My heart slips into my undies when I take in who stands there, and a split second later I'm screaming and trying to shut the door. "Ohmygodohmygod," I push my entire weight against the panels, squeezing my eyes shut as I do so and trying to ignore the way the barking has picked up again. The man on the other side of the door pushes back in what is probably an effortless act. Three seconds later I've lost and he crosses the threshold.

"Toni? You okay?" Sophie calls and I hear her footsteps nearing. I can't say anything. I'm frozen still as I stare up at the nearly two meters tall hunk in front of me in pure fear. He's wearing sunglasses, but I bet those green eyes are still fired up just fine. I gulp. He's shaved his hair off. Like, completely save for about a centimeter. I don't know why I am irrationally noticing that that makes his incredibly chiselled cheekbones stand out even more. And then he does the unthinkable. He smirks! At me! Oh my holy cheese balls I am so dead.

"Toni for Christ's sake answer me already – Owen?" So, Sophie is a pretty laid back girl. As in, we can be standing in the front row at a freakin' Jason Derulo concert and she'll just about manage to wave her arm at the last song. Or her sister can call us in the middle of the night saying she's high from Kyle the Dimwit's hash brownies and she'll just hang up. But when her big brother comes a knockin', not even Sophie can keep it together.

Said intruder casually pulls off his sunglasses and flashes a set of white teeth at his little sister. "Hey Twat," he leans his elbow casually against the door frame and lets his gaze skip to me for a moment. "Miss me?"

I can't move. Literally. My feet aren't attached to my nervous system or something like that. Sophie catches herself behind me and comes to my aid. "What are you doing here?"

Owen Knight drops his playful cocky smirk and a slight scowl plays around his eyebrows. Uh-Oh.

"I got out of jail early." His gaze holds his sister's for a second longer before slowly roaming over to me. "No thanks to you." Yup, there it is. My death sentence; not quite on a silver platter but I guess its close enough. I manage another gulp.

"God you're annoying me already. It wasn't Toni's fault. And you didn't go to jail." Sophie snaps. I squeak when Owen raises an eyebrow.

"Felt pretty damn much like jail to me, sister." He pauses and fixates me again. "And anyway, isn't that where you were trying to get me sent, shorty?"

My jaw slips open, but I can't move it and no words come out. I was supposed to have time to prepare for this. And that was only supposed to be if I didn't make it into any of the thirty universities I'm applying to in a week. I was going to make a carefully mapped plan that would have had my life tiptoeing right out of the way of Owen Knight. Crapsticks. "Ohmycheeseballs," I breathe. Owen rolls his eyes.

"You can drop the act, you know. I'm not gonna kill you in front of my baby sister." He must see me start to quiver, because his tone gains a few menacing edges. "Your pathetic life will, however be incredibly short-lived."

"Stop it!" Sophie snaps at her brother and then she finally dislodges me from my spot. "Toni, please breathe. He wasn't worth it a year ago and still isn't, really."

"Ouch," Owen pats his steel heart and then suddenly seems to get bored of the whole thing. "Well, it's good to be home. Sophie, meet Buster." He snaps his finger and a hugeass German shepherd happily laps at his side. I squish into Sophie's side.

"What the hell, mom and dad are so not letting you keep that." Sophie screeches. She's wanted a dog since we met at age eleven. I guess this is hitting a sore spot.

"They won't even know I own a dog now. I'm just here to pick up my shit."

Both Sophie and I frown. "What do you mean?" The words come out rushed as my mind wraps around the fact that I just spoke to my killer. Owen seems surprised I managed to find my tongue after all, too.

"There's no way in hell I'm actually gonna live under this roof again."

"Ohthanktheheavens," I breathe, feeling attached to my body again for the first time in minutes.

Owen breaks into a chuckle. "Oh don't worry little bitch, I'll still be around school. And soccer. And every other fucking place your nerdy ass goes to because you are in for the biggest round of payback ever."

That sounded a little playful, right? Right? I want to cry. And then go and hide in Taiwan. Owen has decided that this conversation is over and shoves past us into the house. "Where's our little artist? I've missed the munchkin." He asks as he heads up the stairs. Neither Sophie nor I reply to him.

"I need to call my parents. Come," Sophie says after a few seconds of silence. I nod numbly and follow her to the sitting room, where the Knight landline sits.