Author's Note: Thanks so much guys for the reviews! I gave you the 3-review-rule and you guys give me more than three in two days! Anyways, this chapter is jam-packed with stuff you guys have been waiting for. Lots of questions answered in this one. Enjoy :)!
Chapter 6
"So who do you guys think this guy is anyway?" I asked, looking around the table at all of them.
I was sitting cross-legged in my chair, Connor on one side of me leaning far back on his chair, Murphy on my other side, elbows resting on the table, his body leaning closer to me than was necessary. Rocco was sitting across from me, his hands on the table, clamped together.
"I don't know," Connor replied, "I just know he's dangerous."
"Yeah you don't wanna be messin' with a man that carries six guns under his jacket at all times," Murphy said.
"I swear you guys, I don't know him," Rocco said for the umpteenth time, "He's not in the mafia."
"We know," we all said in unison.
There was a silence as we all contemplated who this mystery man could be. My best guess, which I had already voiced earlier, was that he was not a fan of their work, and just wanted to get rid of them before they killed anymore people. He may not be the part of any mafia, but he certainly wasn't against it either; this much we could tell for sure.
"Let's go to Doc's guys," Rocco suggested, "Relax a bit, have some fuckin' drinks."
"That's not a bad idea," Murphy said, grinning and glancing over at me before looking at Connor, "You in?"
Connor looked at all of our eager faces for a moment, then broke out in a smile.
"Alright," he said, getting up and walking to the dirty hotel phone hanging by the counter, "but tomorrow we get back to work."
He called Doc, and asked him to close the bar early for us so we could sneak in and party. He agreed all too eagerly, and soon we were walking, the three guys with their hoods up to hide their faces, towards the bar.
"You're gonna love it Bri," Murphy was saying excitedly, "So many choices! The best tap beer you'll ever get as well. And Doc, he'll love ya. You'll love him too, sweetest old man I ever met."
I heard Connor chuckling behind me and I turned around, flashing him a grin before facing forward again.
"He's got Tourette's though," Murphy went on, "Says fuck and ass all the time, so try not to laugh. It was hard for me at first, still is sometimes when I'm drinkin'."
I laughed, and told him he didn't have to worry. I wasn't going to laugh at him.
We showed up at a small white building with a worn out sign reading McGinty's. Murphy got to the door first and eagerly knocked on the door- I had never seen him so excited before.
An old bespectacled man answered the door, grinning as soon as he saw us.
"Come in, Come in," he said, moving quickly out of the way se we could all pile in, "Hurry, fuck!, up, ass!"
Thankfully I had my back to him so he wouldn't see me trying to stifle my laughter. I felt like such a horrible person for laughing.
"Doc this is Bri," Murphy said, putting his arm around my shoulder and taking me in for a side hug, "she's our little hostage."
"You boys are up to no good," Doc scolded, "K-k-kidnapping a pretty girl like that."
"Well I'm with them willingly now," I said, blushing at his compliment, "It's nice to meet you Doc."
He gave me a smile before going behind the bar. We all sat at barstools, Rocco on my right and Connor on my left. Doc slid us all shots and we quickly tossed them down in unison.
"Sure you can keep that down Bri?" Connor asked, leaning over Rocco, who was laughing, to give me teasing grin.
"Yeah Bri, we don't wanna be holdin' your hair all night," Murphy said, giving me a playful shove. He took a bottle of rum from Doc, taking the lid off before taking a drink from it.
"You guys are real funny," I said, giving them all sarcastic smiles before taking the bottle out of Murphy's hands and taking a longer than necessary drink, just to prove to them I actually could hold down my liquor.
I handed the bottle back to Murphy, wiping my mouth with my hand. Murphy looked impressed and I grinned in spite of myself.
We visited for a while, filling Doc in on our various adventures and telling him about the mystery man. Connor and Rocco started to exchange theories with Doc while Murphy and I listened, sharing his fifth of rum between the two of us. I was starting to feel that buzz, and I knew Murphy was feeling it too. He would randomly lean close to me, and always managed to brush his fingers against mine when we passed the bottle back and forth. I was getting giggly and kept shoving him when he would brush my fingers.
"Doc what was that one thing you were wantin' to show us last time we were here?" Connor asked, sideways glancing at Murphy and I.
"My m-m-movies I found in the back?" Doc asked, "Yeah Conn' I was wantin' you to see them, since you're into the action, fuck! ass!, movies and such. These are some g-g-g-good ones Connor."
"Yeah lemme see what you've got," Connor said, getting up and yanking Rocco off his barstool, "Come on Roc'"
Doc walked by first, and Connor pushed Rocco in front of him before following after. I saw Murphy grin at the look Connor gave him, which I imagine was a wink or something of that sort. I rolled my eyes and laughed, watching the back door close behind them.
There was an almost awkward silence as we sat facing the bar, the only sound being the scraping of the bottle as we passed it between the two of us.
"Wanna play truth?" Murphy asked, turning to face me.
"Sure," I said, smiling and turning to face him too, "You go first."
"Hmm," Murphy looked thoughtful, taking another swig out of the bottle, "Where was your first kiss?"
"My backyard," I answered, taking the bottle from him, "Summer of my freshmen year, during spin the bottle at a pool party I was having. Yours?"
"At the park," Murphy said, "My 7th grade year, my friends dared me to kiss her."
"Did you like her?" I asked, bizarrely jealous of this little girl from Murphy's past.
"Yeah I guess," he replied, taking his turn with the drink, "as much as you can like someone in 7th grade."
I nodded, watching him as he took another drink. I felt creepy noticing things like the curve of his neck or the lovely color of his skin. Or the dark messy hair that was ruffled from him running his hands through it, or how nice his hands looked wrapped around the bottle.
He took the bottle from his mouth and, too late, caught me staring. He grinned a cocky grin and I looked away, blushing and smiling before snatching the bottle from his hands.
"Are you a good kisser?" he asked, breaking the quiet.
"I don't know," I said thoughtfully, "I've been told that, yes. Are you?"
"I've been told that, yes," he replied, and I realized just then how truly close we were sitting to each other. Our knees were touching and we were both leaning in close to each other.
"How about," Murphy said softly, his eyes never leaving mine, "We add dare onto that truth game."
"Ok," I said, my voice one decibel away from a whisper.
We stared at each other for a moment, trying to decide who would be the first to dare the other.
"I dare you," Murphy whispered, his face no more than 6 inches away from mine, "to show me how good a kisser you are."
I swallowed, the alcohol starting to kick in now. I wanted to, I wanted to so bad it hurt, and trying to fight off the impulse this intoxicated was impossible.
I lifted my hand, cupping his cheek and brushing my fingers against it for a moment. My eyes left his for a second, looking at his lips and his skin under my hand. I took a mental deep breath and leaned forward, my lips meeting his.
It was bliss. Pure and utter bliss. He tasted like salt, liquor, and something ironically sweet. We started to pick up a rhythm, and my hands moved to his hair, his soft, unruly, amazing dark hair. I let my fingers slide through eagerly and he deepened the kiss.
I pulled away fast, not shoving him off, but completely pulling myself away from him. That feeling. That feeling where my stomach was twisting wonderfully and my heart was beating out of my chest, not to just keep me alive, but for someone. For him.
He had opened his eyes as soon as I pulled away, a mixture of shock, hurt, and confusion in their depths. I looked away, getting off the barstool and going around to behind the bar. I felt him watching me, and I tried my best to ignore it, grabbing the Malibu down and pouring it into a cup before trying to locate the pineapple juice.
"Did I do something wrong?" he asked finally, breaking the tense silence that had slowly taken over the room.
I sighed, putting the pineapple juice back and finally turning to look at him.
"No," I said, walking closer to him, "No you didn't do anything wrong. It's me, it's all me."
I took a long drink, and realized that my hands were shaking really bad and my heart was still pumping erratically.
"I'm sorry," Murphy muttered, looking down at the few remains of our shared bottle, "I just thought you might've liked me."
I watched him, a hard tugging in my chest as I watched him gulp down the rest of what was left and set it on the counter. He wouldn't look at me, and I felt tears prickling at the corners of my eyes; I had actually hurt him.
"I do like you," I said softly, and his eyes met mine again, "a lot. And that….that really scares me."
"Why?" Murphy asked, sounding half desperate, half frustrated, "Why don't you talk to me?"
I gulped down the rest of my drink, and I could feel his eyes on me the whole time.
"You wanna know what's wrong with me?" I asked, setting my empty glass on the counter with a little more force than necessary, "Jake. Jake is what's wrong with me."
"Jake?" Murphy asked, looking confused, "Who the fuck is Jake?"
"He's the boy I fell in love with back home," I said, jumping over the counter and settling back into the bar stool next to Murphy, "He's the guy I dated my entire Junior and Senior year."
"Did he break your heart?" Murphy asked, looking angry, though his voice sounded sad.
"Not just that," I replied softly, looking down at my hands, "he broke me."
"How?" he asked.
I took a deep breath.
"I met him my junior year, we were assigned lab partners in chemistry," I began, "and at first he was an absolute sweetheart. Asked me out on a date, took me to a fancy restaurant, held the door open for me, pulled my chair out for me, all of that stuff. But then…then he started to change."
Murphy was staring intently at me and I gulped looking away from him at a random picture on the wall.
"We had been dating for six months," I went on, gathering my courage, "and I told him I loved him. He told me he loved me too, and I was gone. Head over heels for him, worshipped the ground he walked on. All of my friends tried to convince me otherwise but I was….I was pretty determined we were meant to be."
"Why'd your friends try to convince ya otherwise?" Murphy asked softly.
"He was treating me like shit," I whispered.
"He stood me up on the next three dates we had, and after I called him he always told me his car broke down or there was a family emergency or that he had been scheduled at work last minute. I always believed him; I trusted him."
"You shoulda dumped him," Murphy said, slightly angry, "you shoulda dumped him the minute he started doing that shit to you."
"I couldn't," I replied, my eyes filling up with tears, "I loved him."
"We always went to parties together," I pressed on, realizing I needed to get it all out in the open, "and he always got me drunk. I would get soda, spike it, and I found out later that he would sneak in and double spike it. Then later, when I was right at that point where I wasn't going to throw up but I was barely coherent I was so drunk, he would take me into a room and we would….do stuff."
Murphy shook his head, growling angrily to himself.
"Soon it wasn't even a relationship anymore," I said, "I was his toy. He used me when he wanted to, got rid of me when he was tired of me. He knew I would put up with all of it because I loved him so much. I thought that was as worse as it was going to get, but….it wasn't."
Murphy met my eyes, looking genuinely scared for the next part of my story as he watched the tears roll down my face.
"When he got drunk, because he never got drunk at the parties, just got me drunk," I said, trying to hold back my tears, "he got angry. He would ask me to meet him somewhere and then he'd just yell at me. Call me nasty names, say all the things he knew would hurt me the most. Knew because I had told him all of my deepest secrets. He would…..hit me…too."
I saw Murphy clench and unclench his fists, looking away from me for a moment.
"It was never hard and it never left bruises really," I went on, realizing how insane this all truly sounded, "until one night. He had asked me to come pick him up at his house, because he had just gotten into a fight with his mom. He sounded upset over the phone, so I hurried to go get him so he could have someone to talk to. He got in the car and was completely silent, drinking out of his beer bottle. He told me to pull over when we got to the park. We walked until we were deep in the trees and he started yelling at me. Told me I was," I choked on a sob for a moment, "f-fat and needed to lose some weight because he was tired of looking at me. He told me I was ugly and annoying and that he was only dating me so he could get some good blowjobs every now and then. He started to hit me, and I was too weak and was crying too hard to even stop him. When I was down on the ground he yelled at me that if I told anyone he would kill me before walking off."
There was a silence and Murphy was watching me, looking angry and concerned and scared all mixed into one.
"What happened next?" he whispered after a moment.
"H-Hailey found me," I whispered, "she had been texting me when I t-told her I was going to pick Jake up and I would text her when I got h-home. She knew what he u-usually did when he was drunk and got worried and c-came looking for me. The park's right down the street from her h-house thank God, so she found my car pretty quick."
"Thank God," Murphy mumbled.
"I broke up with him a week later," I said after taking a deep breath, "He told me I didn't want to do that, that I loved him and would never leave him. I told him I couldn't go on like this and got in my car and drove home before he could do anything to me. A week later we graduated, I had my acceptance letter to the University of Massachusetts, and I left. Haven't seen or heard from him since."
A silence filled the air, and I let my silent tears fall. It had been so long since I told that story, so long since I had opened up my heart to anyone like that.
"That's why it scares you to like me?" Murphy asked after a moment, our eyes finally meeting.
I nodded, more tears falling from my eyes.
"Bri, I would never do that to you," Murphy said softly, taking my face in his hands.
"I kn-now" I nodded, cuddling my face into his hands, "I know you wouldn't. You're the best guy I've ever met…"
He leaned in and kissed me again without a word. At first it was sweet and slow, full of caring and reassurance. I let my hands go back into his hair, wanting more than that. I wanted passion and after Murphy registered that, that's exactly what I got. Our rhythm was slow but deep, both of us putting everything we had into it.
After a moment we pulled away, our foreheads pressed together.
"And you're the best girl I've ever met," he said softly.
I laughed softly before leaning in to kiss him once more.
Author's Note: Whoo! That was a loooonnngg chapter lol! My favorite though, by far. Let me know what you think of it please :)!