Sons of Mayhem 1

Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Nicole

With a cold bottle of beer in one hand and the other enveloped in Jase's we crossed the floor of the clubroom to the booths on the far wall.

Jase pushed back a table and slid in, pulling me behind him. He placed an arm over my shoulders and his hand rested on the bare skin of my midriff. That feels nice. Comfortable. I looked down and was ashamed to see there were still dirty marks from the time I spent on the floor earlier that afternoon.

Glancing down I noticed my knees were also dirty. I was puzzled for a moment. They weren't dirty when I got on the back of the bike. Oh yeah...

Jase absentmindedly ran his fingers over my now warm skin send gentle shivers running through me. "Sorry about today. It's been a long one huh?"

I gave him a soft smile. "It's okay." Well, apart from getting shot at.

His voice was warm. "Seriously, I don't want you to think it's always like this. It isn't. I mean sure, there's fights and the occasional run-in with the cops. But that other shit today? That ain't normal. Especially not for women, y’know? When shit does go down it’s usually just us guys involved. Hopefully it's over now anyway. A stupid misunderstanding. Brodie's going to sort it."

I thought back to when we were standing over the two disarmed, trembling men. The memory of the power we had over them filled me with a heady rush.

I rested a hand on his warm jean-clad leg. I leaned in close, enjoying his warmth and musk. "So what's it normally like?"

He thought for a moment. "I dunno. It's just normal, y'know? I don't know what people like you do. It's hard to describe the everyday." People like me?

I thought for a moment, then asked something I was scared to hear the answer to. "Am I--", I hesitated, "Am I going to be initiated? As one of your party girls?"

His eyes widened. Uhoh.

"I'm supposed to be right? Like y'know, Lucy was?"

"Do you want to be? I thought..." he trailed off.

I didn't know exactly what I wanted, but I knew one thing; that feeling on the back of the bike around sunset as I'd screamed down the mountain valley; that feeling was something I wanted again.

The world of upcoming midterms and papers and sorority bitches and fratboy jocks was a million miles away right now. And I liked it that way. "Look. I felt something today I haven't felt in a long time. I felt alive. Like... I don't know, like the last three years of college, the years at home before that, those times I was just existing. But today? With you? That was amazing. Even the bad parts." I paused for breath and to regain my train of thought.

Jase grinned. "I guess some of it was kinda fun, huh? Though it'd be nice if we could go for a proper ride, without getting shot at."

I nuzzled gently against him, letting my fingers run down to his knees and up again to his thigh. "I'd like that. To go for a real ride."

"But do you want to be a party chick? You heard from Lucy, I mean--" he gestured across the room. The two girls I'd seen kissing earlier were now on their knees in front of two pledges, the men's pants around their ankles as the girls heads bobbed.

I bit my lip.

Jase continued before I could speak. "Look. You remember what that guy Lonnie said when we came in? About how he was worried about me?"

I nodded into his shoulder. "The thing is. I used to be like them. I used to party all the time, a different chick, hell, two chicks or more every night."

Where's this going? I don't want to hear about all the women you've been with.

Jase continued to speak, "But I just got sick of it. Sick of them," he nodded his head towards the girls on the floor, "So the guys have been giving me some shit. You're the first girl in a while. And you know what?"

"What?"

"I don't want to share you."

I smiled to myself. He almost sounded embarrassed about not wanting to 'share' me. I felt like a weight had been lifted off both our shoulders.

I raised my head and pecked him on the lips. "You don't wanta share me huh?"

"Nope."

"Not even," I lowered my voice to a whisper and spoke into his ear, "with T-Bone? He's kinda hot..."

He let out a big laugh and kissed me again.

When it was over I snuggled back in to him. "So what's with all the weird names anyway?"

"Nicknames?" he asked.

"Yeah. Like T-Bone and Bottle and Bigfella and Jase." I giggled as I said the last one.

He laughed. "Well Jase is my name. It's short for Jaseamondo"

"What?"

"I'm kidding." Of course he was kidding. Idiot.

"Jason. Anyway, it's just kind of a thing we do. There's stories behind most of them. Some of them are pretty funny."

I felt content as he squeezed me and continued to speak. "T-Bone, for example, when he was in high school he went to one of them steakhouses; y'know, the ones that say 'your 72 ounce steak is free if you can eat it all in an hour'."

I giggled. "And he ate it all, I take it?"

His voice sounded almost proud as he recalled what T-Bone had done. "Sure did. And three dinner rolls. The biggest baked potato you've ever seen and a bucket-sized bowl of 'slaw."

"Wow." I was impressed. Kind of grossed out, but impressed nonetheless.

"And get this--"

"What?"

"He did it in forty five minutes. He beat their record by a full ten minutes. Of course, he wouldn't touch a T-bone steak again for a year. That's why we kept calling him it; it pissed him off."

I laughed at the thought. These guys are funny. "What happened a year later?"

Jase laughed and gave me a squeeze. "He went back and did it again."

"No way!"

"Way."

I took a sip from my bottle and found my open mouth stretching wider as it expanded to a yawn. I blinked a couple of times. I wonder how late it is now.

"What about Lonnie?" I looked around the room and it was quieter than before. Music still blared out of the speakers, but the number of people seemed to have dwindled. I saw one of the girls from before sitting astride a different biker on a chair across the room. Is that Lonnie? Speak of the devil.

"Lonnie? He's from England. London. We called him London for a bit. But that was too long. So now he's Lonnie. Wanta know something cool?"

I yawned again. "Sure."

"You hear this song?" Jase gestured towards the speakers.

I listened to the loud rock music. A man was shout-singing 'You fill my needs / When you're on your knees...' "Uh-huh" I replied.

He let out a laugh at the lasciviousness of the lyrics before continuing. "He knows these guys. They're some Brit rock band. They're touring now, and we're going to be doing the security for their show when they come out this way."

"Cool," I mumbled. Is it cool? I'm too tired to know.

Jase started to tell me about Bigfella, and how he was called that because he was a big guy. But I guess I fell asleep before he could finish telling me.

The last thing I remember was the comfortable drone of Jase's voice as I snuggled up against the soft leather of his jacket and felt the comforting presence of his arm around my shoulders and his hand resting on my bare thigh.