With Abel still suspended, Thomas and Joanna were spending more time together than they usually did. She wouldn't admit it but Thomas was very good at keeping Tyler away from her, it seemed to still be fresh in his mind that his lose teeth and bruised jaw were from Tommy and not just Abel.
"Hey baby." Becky had caught up to them in the parking lot. Thomas fell right into step with the perky cheerleader, arm sliding around her waist.
"'Mornin', babe." Thomas murmured as he nuzzled her ear.
Becky titled her head to give him better access, smiling as her hand came up to tangle in his hair, "Hey Joanna, how are you?"
She absently mindedly twirled a strand of her hair, "Hi, I'm good. You?"
Joanna watched as the Becky didn't even hear her, the couple had seemed to get completely lost in one another. "Are they serious?"
" 'Fraid so." Caleb confirmed with a sigh. The man was old enough to have been a sophomore in college by now. But he had flunked out of senior year twice and refused to take a night class. Caleb always laughed it off that he would miss Abel and Thomas so much that he couldn't bear the thought of college. He was a few months away from earning his top rocker with the club. "Come on, I'll walk with you to class."
"Thanks Caleb." Joanna said, shooting Thomas and Becky a disgusted look.
"Can we leave now?"
The question, as well his tone, had Joanna turning thinking it was Abel behind her. Much to her dismay it was Thomas crumpling his failed English test and tossing it into the trash.
"Are you serious? I've only been to two classes and you, like, three."
"Yeah, three more classes more than I ever planned on attending." Thomas said as he leaned on the lockers next to hers.
"Is Abel at work?"
"I don't give a fuck where Abel is." Thomas scoffed. Joanna frowned, Tommy had been angry at Abel for days now. She hadn't been successful in getting the full story out of either of them. Now that she thought about it, Tommy was wearing yesterday's clothes. "Did you go home last night?"
"Nope, spent it at Becky's. Her parents are out of town." Joanna rolled her eyes.
"What are your plans for tonight?"
"Mom wants us home for some dinner with Dave."
The way he said Dave had Joanna internally cringing. Hate and disgust laced the word and her concern spiked even more for the Teller brothers.
"Is everything alright, Tommy?"
"Just dandy, darlin'."
"I only have one more class period and then I'm done for the day. I'll ditch with you, you know I have no problem ditching, but I have a test next period." Joanna admitted.
"You're really going to make me go home alone."
Joanna didn't know how Thomas was going to get home, considering he didn't have his license yet. Probably why he was trying to get Joanna to cut with him.
"Well, I'm sure Becky wouldn't mind the practical application to her next period health class instead of taking the written test." Joanna teased. Tommy smirked, and mockingly licked his lips. She shot him a look as he pushed off from the lockers to follow her. "What classes do you have that you're so eager to get out of?"
"You mean that you're so eager to make me attend." Thomas corrected tossing her his schedule.
"I am so terribly sorry I am keeping you from your brother's life of delinquency." Jo muttered as she looked over his schedule, "You have Mr. Hender for art? Your life sucks."
"Yeah it really does."
"I would go snag Becky unless you plan on stealing a car." Joanna advised, as the minute bell sounded.
Thomas didn't even need more prompting as he sharply turned and headed for the health classroom. She rolled her eyes as he struggled to keep his stride checked to just walking.
Just like his damn brother.
Joanna was tempted, really tempted to cut class and maybe go see Abel. Sure she and him had spent a lot of time together, especially recently, but the time they were alone was when they were doing homework. The thought of seeing him at work in torn jeans, and covered in grease had her itching to cut class like Thomas. It was an incredible turn on to see Abel Teller leaning over an engine. But he was at Teller Garage which would mean running into her mother. And her mother would not be happy about her cutting class. Scowling, Joanna threw her stuff down at her seat, determined to fly through this test so she could leave and go to the library and study.
"Hey, Joanna."
She barely stifled an annoyed yell at Tyler behind her. How he found her? She didn't know. Joanna was in the corner of the library studying. She had caught sight of him looking around, surveying the room. When he saw her, Tyler had smiled maliciously and decided to take the table directly behind her.
Joanna could ignore him all day long but the problem was, Tyler had leaned his chair back putting him closer than she wanted to ever be again. His position allowed him to speak softly to her, his breath blowing against her neck.
"Joanna."
Tyler's voice was low, and it caused Joanna to think about answering him.
"Yes?"
"Funny thing," Tyler began softly into her ear. "Couldn't drive my jeep to school today, had to take it to the shop."
Joanna turned her head slightly, not able to stop the slight shiver when her movement caused his lips to touch her neck. "And why would that be?"
"Someone decided to trash it."
"Imagine that." Joanna said with a huff of annoyance.
"What I can't figure out is if it was that asshole biker wanna-be or you, lovey." Tyler said.
"I think if it was the asshole biker wanna-be you would have had to take your jeep to the shop in a shoe box." Joanna smiled sweetly before turning back around.
The look that came across Tyler's face was bad enough for Joanna to rethink her life decisions. Fortunately, she didn't have to suffer long as she quickly shoved her books in her backpack. Trying her to best to appear as if nothing rattled her, Joanna got up and left.
Tyler caught up to her in the hall near the bathrooms, easily stepping around her and halting her forward progress. "I know it was you who trashed my jeep, and you're going to pay for it."
Joanna kept her chin up, tried to not let her nerves show. "Really now? And you know it was me how?"
Tyler's lips curled in disgust. "Do I really have to answer that?"
"You can answer whatever you want, considering it's a free country and all." It happened so quickly, Joanna was barely aware of moving. Only that one moment she was standing in the hall and the next she was being pushed through the door into the bathroom.
Lucky for Tyler it was empty. Unluckily for Joanna, it was empty.
"I wish things weren't ending like this Jo, but you're the one who decided to go whoring around-"
"Whoring around? Are you fucking kidding me?" Joanna said, her voice raising.
"I know exactly what you are doing with Teller." Tyler growled, pointing his finger in her face.
"No you fucking don't." Joanna said shoving Tyler away from her.
"Listen here bitch, when I asked you out I didn't sign up for you to fuck white trash behind my back." With every poisonous word that Tyler spit out, Joanna felt her rage mounting.
"What I do with Abel is my business. Furthermore, we are fucking done. I thought we could work this out but obviously that isn't happening."
Tyler threw back his head and started laughing while Joanna watched this inexplicable reaction as a tiny bit of fear reared its ugly within her. This was not how today was supposed to go. He should have slunk way with his tail between his legs upset that she ended things but instead he said, still laughing, "You think you're going to get out of this that quick huh? We aren't done, sweetheart. My jeep still needs to be paid for."
Joanna glared at him and wished a thousand horribly painful deaths on his head. One question pounded its way through her head. How was she getting out of this? But right now, Tyler was standing opposite of the door, and a tactical retreat might be wise at the moment. Joanna wanted to give him a matching black eye but instead she turned on her heal with the full intentions of slamming the door on the way out.
Tyler slammed the door for her, in front of her face.
"You're not going anywhere until you agree to pay for my jeep and admit it was you." Tyler sneered, moving to stand in front of the door.
"Get out of my way, Tyler." Joanna said, the hair standing up on the back of her neck.
"Or what?"
Joanna remained silent as she looked at the star footplayer in front of her. He had a good point; she really didn't have a lot of options here.
"Go ahead and call the new boyfriend, have him come rescue you. You're a helpless whore to begin with."
"Fuck you!" Joanna yelled as her hand came around in arch to backhand slap Tyler across the face.
"You bitch!" Tyler's fist meet her jaw and Joanna was seeing stars. Trying to regain her balance, her arms pinwheeled and she fell back hitting her head on one of the stall doors.
Tyler had just punched her.
Tyler had just punched her? It wasn't processing, as her head throbbed in time with her heart beat.
"Look what you made me do!" Tyler yelled angrily, pacing around the titled room. Joanna flipped over onto her stomach and tried to crawl away from him, finding her way into the corner of the bathroom.
"You're going to pay for my jeep, bitch." He turned and stormed out of the bathroom slamming the door on the way out.
Joanna took a deep breath, already feeling the swelling coming up on her jaw.
Holy shit. How was she going to explain this to Abel? How was she going to explain this to her mother?
"Where are you going?"
"Out."
"With Becky?"
Thomas gave a disgusted sigh, choosing not to answer his brother. Over the past few days whatever truce had settled was beginning to dissipate. Abel was becoming more demanding of his time and Thomas was about done with his whole "I need to know everything" neediness. It was close enough to the natural ebb and flow of their sibling relationship that he didn't really bother to question what brought on his older brother's sudden wanting to have him home. Tommy never censored himself when it came to Abel so their fighting had become worse over the last week, as a result he was spending more nights out than Abel.
Tommy was aware that matters between himself and Abel weren't helped by this Dave guy suddenly shoved into their lives. He had recognized Abel's look of shock and disapproval the first night they had truly meet Dave. But Abel hadn't been doing anything to get rid of the bearded Russian problem in their living room and his feelings of hate against Dave had started bleeding over on to Abel.
"Yes, with Becky."
The biting tone in Tommy's voice put Abel's back up. "Jesus Christ it was an innocent question. You're so fucking hard to talk to now days."
That stopped him and took a little wind out of his sails. "Sorry."
For several long moments they stood on opposite ends of the hall, neither sure what to say. Unable to stand the awkwardness or the silence any longer Tommy gave Abel a strained smile before heading out of the living room.
"You can't go out tonight." Abel said.
Stopping at the door, Tommy turned to his brother, his brow creased in confusion. "What? Why?"
"Mom wants us home for dinner."
"Fuck what she wants."
"Don't say that Tommy, she is our mother."
"Maybe your mother." That was like a slap to the face for Abel. His jaw almost visibly dropped. What was Tommy's damn problem? He didn't like Dave either, but he was tolerating it just so that World War 3 didn't blow off in the Teller house.
"Tara was my mother too." Abel snapped back. "And you don't mean that."
Now Tommy was irritated. Not quite yet to the point of biting heads off, but he was getting there. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the back door opening and closing in the kitchen. Leaning back he glanced through the kitchen to see Wendy and Dave come through the door. Well fuck.
"Tommy, Abel, I'm home!" Wendy called setting down grocery bags on the counters. Tommy made a face of disgust as Dave kissed his mother, Wendy laughing at something he had whispered.
"Hey Ma. Tommy and I are doing homework upstairs." Abel gave Tommy a pointed look and started up the stairs. With one last look at the door and what could be a night out of drinking and sex, Thomas followed his older brother up the stairs.
"Do you care at all about what Mom is doing with this asshole?" Tommy asked as soon as he closed Abel's door.
"Yeah I do, Tommy." Abel said rubbing at his rapidly growing headache.
"Then why don't you fucking do anything?" Tommy barely contained a yell of frustration. Abel always handled these things, always. More than once Abel had taken a punch from one of Wendy's boyfriends when the creep was getting weird with Thomas. Abel always had his back in fights at school. Abel always threw the first punch so Tommy didn't have to.
And what was Abel doing now?
He was too busy trying to tap down on Joanna then actually care about what was going on in their family.
"I can't find anything on this guy!" Abel yelled back. "His record is clean. I had Joey run his name, the guy doesn't even have a parking ticket."
Tommy didn't say anything.
"Mom is happy, Tommy. We just need to buy our time and wait for Dave to screw up and we'll convince Mom to ditch this guy. I have the same bad feelings that you do."
"Sure, Abel. Because you can just fix everything these days." Tommy sneered.
"What do you want me to do? Go down there and hit the guy? Start a fight? Get Mom upset? How about I spend the night in jail, would that be enough for you?"
"You're missing the point here, Abe-"
"No, Tommy. You're missing the point. I'm not in 9th grade anymore; I can't just punch out anyone I want."
"Jesus Christ, you sound like Chibs." Tommy said as he wrenched the door open. Abel grabbed his shoulder to stop him from leaving,-and in Tommy's defense- a little harder than he should have.
Tommy spun, fist drawn back and popped Abel in the face.
This was the 3rd time he'd been punched in the jaw in the last week, and Abel was about done with it.
Him and Tommy had gotten into fist fights before, this was nothing new. And honestly, Abel was too exhausted and stressed to get pissed off about it. Tommy left a slightly horrified look on his face.
"Abel, Thomas! Dinner!" Wendy yelled up the stairs. Abel grabbed the edge of his door and yelled back, "I'm not hungry." Before flinging it shut.
Abel might have been the one with the black eye, but he knew after a phone call with Joanna that he was the one who needed to do the most groveling.
Damn it, I didn't mean to piss him off. Half of him argued. He needs to grow up and learn to deal with things like an adult.
Bullshit, his other side retorted. He's not even sixteen, it's your job to handle the responsibilities. You went out of your way to not have a problem Dave because you wanted to put Thomas in his place, show him who's boss.
He'd always had his inner angel and inner devil arguing on his shoulder like a cartoon. Until a week ago, he'd never imagine that Thomas did too. Maybe Abel Teller wasn't such a misfit as he sometimes thought himself.
Or maybe he was. If there was a single word that encompassed everything about being the son of a dead gang president, a word that had been used more than any other: Weird. Definitely fucking weird.
By now, he should have been asleep. It was hard enough to get through long work days without enough sleep. But…he had to fix this. Maybe his brother would notice a concession that he waited up.
By one a.m. , he was pacing to keep himself awake. Joanna said someone saw Tommy with a few guys but…maybe Tommy just wasn't having it and actually took off.
You're an asshole, Abel Teller. You're pissed off because the club doesn't want you, because Nero doesn't want you, and now you decided to fuck Thomas over with this Dave thing because he doesn't want you.
He caught a look at himself in the living room mirror and scowled. That black eye was going to be embarrassing tomorrow. His ice pack had melted. He took it into the bathroom and tossed into the sink.
What the hell am I going to do?
Coming back into the living room, he froze. Tommy was standing there. Still scuffed up, knuckles bruised, though not as marked up as Abel. He'd certainly landed a good punch.
Maybe I deserved it.
They stared at each other, and Abel noticed absently that Thomas had an ice pack too. He must've grabbed it from the freezer in the kitchen. But it wasn't on his bruises. He was holding it out.
Something inside Abel cracked, and he rushed to speak before Thomas did. He had to say this before Tommy did. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Tommy." Forgive me, please, don't hate me. You're the only one who didn't and I screwed that up, I'm sorry.
Thomas just said, "Me too," and shook the pack at him. Abel took it. "Can we fix it?" He didn't mean Abel's face.
"I want to. It was…I was stupid. You're my brother Tommy, half or not, I don't give a fuck. You're my brother and I should have backed you no matter what."
"Joanna tracked me down and gave me an ear full." Abel was surprised. "In front of the guys." Shit, that's embarrassing.
But Tommy had a funny, faraway look in his eyes like he got reading medical journals. "It was worth it, it was either come back or tell Becky I've been sleeping with Jenna."
"You player!" Abel laughed. He put the ice pack down and started to reach for Thomas, but caught himself. Maybe Tommy still wouldn't want to be touched. But Abel and Thomas had always had a twin like set of sensitivities for each other. Tommy sensed the hesitation, and the closed the rest of the distance between them, wrapping his arms around his older brother.
They had never been big huggers but they hugged each other hard. A hug that said everything would be okay.
"You're up past your bedtime, old man." Thomas muttered.
Abel snorted. "You're underage, brat. I can still send you to bed." They let each other go at the same time. "Are we good?"
Tommy nodded, calm and resolved. "We're good."