Through a Night

 

This hadn’t been what Kim was expecting when she’d first bumped into the boy walking down the street. Well, ‘bumped into’ might have been a bit of a gloss over, in truth she had full on shoulder checked the guy. She hadn’t done it to be intentionally cruel, but she hadn’t known how else to get his full attention and confirm who she thought he was. While the proceeding had been a little unpleasant, after he’d felt she was no longer a threat or annoyance he’d been quite friendly.

She hadn’t expected that.

Though, it shouldn’t have been so surprising. Her brother had always been careful of the company he kept. Even after he’d been forced into the Kings because of her, he’d been very selective of who he spent any amount of time with. Kolton hadn’t been one to take to those that were cruel. He’d hated her boyfriend, and all of Dane’s ‘friends’.

His judgement had been far clearer than her own, but she hadn’t realized it until it was too late.

Biting back emotions that vied to overcome her, she turned back to the boy in front of her. Niko was only one of many that she hoped to meet, but if they were all this strange, she wasn’t sure she could handle it.  As he fumbled with his phone, Kim’s hands perched on her hips. Was he high? He’d been pretty normal during their walk and conversations. Even after he’d sat on the grass he’d been pretty okay. But once he’d lay down it’s like that flipped the switch and it was all over.

Laying on the grass, his eyes barely half open, Niko pulled out his cell phone. He knew he could get up and go inside, but he didn’t feel like moving anymore. He’d already been tired and on his way home when he’d encountered Kim, and that had been hours ago. Now, most of his body ached from a lost fight a few days before. He would happily fall asleep right there on the grass outside Julius’s house, but he knew he’d get his neck rung for it later. More than that, Kim wouldn’t meet anyone else, and Nik really wanted that second opinion on her.

“Kayl?” Nik called as he heard the call connect. “Can you come pick me up?” Niko asked in a sleep succumbing voice.

Kyle sighed on the other end of the phone. Nik heard the background sounds of poker chips clinking and conversation, he’d forgotten that it was poker night. “Yeah, I can. Where are you?”

“Outside.” Niko answered, rolling over onto his side.

Kyle rolled his eyes. Nik couldn’t see or hear it, but he knew it happened. “That doesn’t narrow it down a whole lot Nik. Could ya be just a little more specific?”

“Just come outside.” Nik said with tired determination.

There was silence for a moment. Nik heard the front door of Julius’s house open around the corner. When Kyle spoke again, both Nik and Kim could hear his confused and slightly concerned voice. “Nik? Gde ty? Are you on something?”

Kim scoffed, “That’s what I was wondering.” She spoke loudly enough to draw Kyle’s attention to where she stood only a few feet away from Niko on the far side of the house.

After a moment Kyle came around the garage, and taking in the sight of them, his features puzzled. “What’s going on?”

Kim shook her head and held her hands in surrender. “No idea. He was fine when we were walking. We got here and he decided he was too tired to go on.”

“Kyle…” Nik called his name like a small child for their parent in sleep. Kim wasn’t even sure if the kid was actually still awake or not.

Kyle rolled his eyes up in a way that made her suspicious that this wasn’t as uncommon to him as it was to her. He walked to Niko and knelt down to collect him, “Come on brat, let’s go.” He picked up the boy with ease.

With them so close together, they looked like brothers; though Kim wasn’t sure if they were or not. Their hair looked to be the same dark brown-black in the evening light - though she knew from seeing Nik’s in the light that his was a true raven black - and neither of them seemed particularly keen on keeping their hair cropped or tidy. Kyle’s eyes were a shade almost black, and Niko’s were an intense cobalt blue, but their structure was very similar in the face. Kyle was bigger, in both height and muscle, but the promise of a strong man to come was in Nik. He was still in the transitory teenage phase, whereas Kyle she guessed was the same age if not older than herself.

“You two brothers?” Kim asked as Kyle turned toward her.

He hesitated, tilting his head to the side. “Yes.” He spoke the word with resolve, despite the delayed response. “We aren’t related by blood though, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Kim quirked up an eyebrow. “Alright…” Her voice was inflected with question but Kyle didn’t respond. “Guess I’ll have to expand my definition on that one.” She jibbed sarcastically.

Kyle cracked a sardonic smile but didn’t pursue the comment. Instead, he nodded towards the house. “You wanna come in, have a beer? Or did the loon scare you off?” He gestured to Nik, who gave no indication of being awake or hearing the comment Kyle had made.

Truthfully, she should have shook her head and declared that she’d had all she needed for one day. The last thing she needed was to get entangled with the Saints while Dane still thought he owned her. That could get ugly really quickly if either side found out about the other.

But even talking to Nik �" for the time that he’d been coherent and rational anyway �" it had felt good. To listen and talk to someone that was just a little bit jaded, not so wrapped up in themselves, was starkly refreshing.

In all honesty, she was curious. She didn’t know anyone before that very moment who would handle the situation in front of her the way Nik and Kyle were. Except, well… she mentally shook herself to stay on track. Mostly the Kings were on their own, whether it was from drinking too much and passing out in the bushes, or being shot in cold blood for screwing something up.

This was what she had hoped for. Finding herself wanting to know them better against her inner voice of reasonable fear, she shrugged. Not allowing herself to show how eager she was, she spoke nonchalantly. “Free alcohol? Sure, why not. You can’t be that bad.”

Kyle flashed a charismatic grin that held a mischievous undertone as he headed back inside the house. “I didn’t say it was me you should be worried about.”

“Great. So how many of you loons am I gonna have to deal with in there?” She called, following Kyle as he rounded the corner back up to the house. She was a little apprehensive about entering. What if Julius recognized her? Not that she could remember him ever having seen her, but she never truly knew who might have been watching. And she knew for a fact that if Julius was anything like Dane had made him out to be, he’d kill her on site for trespassing his territory if he did know her by sight.

“It’s poker night, so we’ve got the usual crowd that would fit right in in the padded wall and locked doors ward.” His tone implied that while he was making a joke, it might be a truer statement than she cared to contemplate. As he climbed the steps up on to the small porch, his foot falls seemed loud and rhythmic. She followed him up much more quietly.

Just before reaching the door he stepped slightly to the side, turning to face her. “Do you mind?” He asked, passing a quick glance between Niko and the door.

She smirked, “No problem.” She pushed on the doors thumb lever and walked in ahead of Kyle, standing to the side for him to pass through. She was immediately greeted by the smell of baked cheese and bacon, and sounds of laughter and conversation from up the stairs.

Kyle slipped his shoes off on the small tiled landing and nodded to the stairs that led up into an open concept space with high vaulted ceilings, as well as a second stairway with a glass panelled railing that went to a second level room about the garage. “Go ahead upstairs, just ask one of the girls to show you where your choice of alcohol is. I’ll be up there in a few minutes.” With those words spoke he disappeared down the other stairway off the landing.

In a moment of uncertainty Kim glanced between the stairs and the door. She didn’t want to go up alone, since she was pretty sure that as soon as someone saw her that they’d be demanding to know who the hell she thought she was to walk in on their turf. Glancing down at her shoes, she silently berated herself for thinking she could just walk in and be a normal person.

Shaking her head, she turned back to the door to leave when someone called to her from the top of the stairs. “Wow, haven’t even met us and you’re ready to leave? That’s a new record.”

Her heart jumped as she looked to see who had spoken. Swathed in black jeans, a long-sleeved black top with the sleeves rolled back and sunglasses, he stood on the main floor leaning against the railing of the second stairway. His bare forearms were crossed over his chest, revealing thick black wristbands over his caramel skin. Long loose skater hair that reached his shoulders framed a face that wore an easy grin.

She swallowed hard. If Julius recognized her, he showed no sign of it. She allowed herself to breathe, and offered a small smile. “Just felt a little nervous going up there by myself.”

He laughed and cleared his throat, “Wise woman. But have no fear, we won’t bite.” He cleared his throat again and pushed himself off the railing with his hip. “What’s your poison?”

Halfway through removing her shoes, she looked up, puzzled. “My poison?”

He smirked before elaborating. “Alcoholic beverage of choice. Or non-alcoholic, if you prefer, but I should warn you that selection is far fewer.”

She quirked an eyebrow up at him, “Bit of an alcoholic are we?”

Again he laughed, and she was surprised at how young he seemed. He was tall and lithe, but there were small dimples that framed the corners of his mouth when he laughed, and his voice was a bit higher on some words than it seemed it should be. From what she’d been told of him, she’d pictured him to be at least four or five years older than herself, with cruelty and indifference at his core. But what she was facing now was just an average boy, no more than six- or seventeen. Not much different from her, despite the way he formally spoke.

Coming out of her thoughts, she noticed his smile had slipped. He shifted, as if uncomfortable, and she saw an eyebrow quirk up from behind his opaque sunglasses. “Just to clue you in, staring is rude.”

Kim’s cheeks blushed as she averted her eyes, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

The eyebrow lowered, but didn’t disappear completely as a small smile returned, “So, about that drink?”

She requested a beer that she’d had several times in the presence of Dane, though she didn’t particularly enjoy it. It was the only alcohol she’d ever had, and the only one she knew of to request by name. Julius had motioned for her to follow him up the stairs and into the large open space that was comprised of living room, dining room, and kitchen.

The walls were a light cream-brown, matching the short patterned carpet and the kitchen linoleum that was patterned to look like medium sized tan tiles. There was a long boomerang shaped kitchen island made of beautifully carved light natural wood and topped with beautiful brown, black, and gray patterned granite, separating the kitchen from the dining space. The cupboards and counters lining the wall of the kitchen space matched that of the island.

Walking past the kitchen towards the back door, where a group of several people crowded around a kitchen table playing poker, Julius stopped in front of a large glass door cooler. It was the kind that you saw in convenience and grocery stores to keep drinks and perishables cold, six feet tall and at least twice that as wide. Kim’s jaw dropped as she turned to see the contents of the shelves. There was enough alcohol to throw a three day party and still have enough left to do it again.

Scanning over the beer section of the shelves, Julius frowned. He didn’t have the brand she’d asked for. It must have been something obscure or that they deemed as poor taste.

“You got a second choice?” He asked turning back to Kim.

She met his gaze dumbfounded. “You live here?” Her voice was breathless and disbelieving. This place was much bigger and more beautiful than her family’s home on the east side, but what had really got her was the liquor store in the dining room.

Julius paused, as though surprised or suspicious. “I do,” he said slowly. “How did you know?”

She suddenly snapped out of her enthralment with the house. She wasn’t supposed to know anything about him. As far as he was concerned, they were strangers who had met by chance of other people’s actions. He hadn’t even introduced himself, and she hadn’t asked for his name either, since she already knew who he was. Was that suspicious? Probably, after the question she’d just asked.

“Um,” she glanced down, trying to work out a reasonable explanation. She decided to go logical. “I just assumed, since you came over to greet me and show me in.”

Julius watched her for a moment, his body painfully still as he contemplated her words. It was believable, but he sensed that it wasn’t the truth. Considering where she had once lay, he wasn’t prepared to blindly welcome her in. He didn’t sense any malicious intent from her though, mostly just tentative uncertainty and desire of acceptance. Which was equally suspicious, but he didn’t want to call her out and have a scene with so little evidence. If she was simply looking for friends, he could leave her be.

Finally he nodded. “Makes sense,” he said slowly. His tone caught the attention of one of the nearby poker players. Dean looked up at the scene between Julius and the new girl. He couldn’t read her as well as he could Julius, but she looked a bit on edge. Dean could sympathize, since most newcomers were tense and nervous for the first bit thinking that they needed to walk on eggshells when really they could be smashing them with sledgehammers if they wanted.

So that wasn’t unusual, per say, but Julius’s weariness and underlying tension sent his hackles up. If there was one thing Dean knew about the guy after seven years of friendship, it was that Julius didn’t get suspicious of people without a reason.

At that thought, a memory flashed to the forefront of Dean’s mind. It was the girl, dressed in a yellow shirt with large gold hoop earrings riding shotgun in the King leaders car. His eyes narrowed on her as he supressed an automatic growl in his throat. Reigning in the more vicious part of himself, he tried to work out why she would come here. The only thoughts he could come up with involved deceit and violence.

Then he remembered Julius mentioning the year before that Dane’s then girlfriend had tried to kill him after he’d forced her to shoot her own brother in cold blood. That was also the final straw that caused Jim and Julius to withdraw their informant from the Kings. With an appraising look, Dean took in every inch of her body language, looking for her motives. She didn’t seem to be there to do harm. In fact, it seemed the opposite, like she was awaiting harm to come to her.

“Keith,” Trevor slapped his arm, drawing his attention back to the game. “You playin’ or what?”

Dean continued to play the rounds with his hand, but kept a close eye on the interaction between Jules and the new girl. He probably wasn’t winning this round anyway, Richy was looking way too smug as he raised another five. Dean checked his bet to match Richy’s raise with a challenging eyebrow.

To his left Roxy chuckled, “Behave boys, I’d hate to have to swat you on the nose with a rolled up newspaper to keep you in line when I win.” She checked her bet then raised another five.

Dean gave a disgruntled snort, eyes flicking back to the cooler as Julius handed the girl a beer and nodded toward the table.

“Who’s the new girl?” Dean asked in tone with just enough edge to let Julius know he’d picked up on the distress.

Julius subtly nodded to him as Kyle came into the room. “I don’t believe I caught your name either,” he said in a deceptively light tone; drawing everyone’s attention to the stranger that had invaded their space.

Kim swallowed hard at the sudden attention. She was blocked on all sides now, everyone staring at her like she didn’t belong, just as she’d been afraid of. But with nowhere to run, she let it play out, “Kimberley.”

Kyle was the one to respond. With a pleasant smile he nodded. “Pleasure. And what brings you here?”

“Well, um… Niko, actually. I just bumped into him earlier this afternoon and we’ve been hanging out since. He suggested we hang out here, but when we got here he laid down on the grass and called Kyle to bring him inside because he didn’t want to get up.”

There was a moment of horrifying silence, during which Kim was positive that they were going to descend on her. But it was laughter that broke the silence, not hatred.

“Yeah, that sounds like Nik,” one of the guys Kim didn’t know the name of that sat around the table said. Several others nodded in amused agreement, and just like that the tension was gone.

Julius, wearing an amused expression himself turned to Kim, “You play? Looks like Rich has this one in the bag so there’ll be a new game in a couple minutes.”

Kim’s eyebrows raised in surprise, “You let girls play poker with you?”

Roxy half turned and leaned back over her chair, “Um, duh. Who do you think is winning?” Then she cut her eyes to Julius. “And how dare you try to pin my victory on Richard. I haven’t lost tonight yet, and I don’t intend to start now.”

Startled that the small girl whom she had assumed to be male from the large black hoodie she had on with the hood flipped up over her head, was allowed to not only play but repeatedly win, Kim was speechless. She was used to the games at Dane’s, where all the women were allowed to do was serve the men playing poker or sit in their laps as call girls when they won.

“Um, hello,” another girl broke through Kim’s thoughts. “Not the only girl with a shot, Rox. And you didn’t win the warm up.” The girl spoke from the opposite end of the table, leaning forward. Though how Kim hadn’t noticed her was a bit of a mystery, since she wore a black fedora over brightly coloured rainbow hair and had on a white Victorian style blouse and black vest of matching style.

Kim’s eyes moved around the table to each player. There were six of them total, three girls and three guys. The final girl was a bit heavier set, and had dark brown hair that was pulled back in a braid. She wore a band T-shirt beneath a loose denim vest overtop. Kim had also mistaken her for male due to a large, bushy fake mustache she wore. The only reason Kim knew it to be fake was that when her eyes had settled on the girl, she’d grinned and pulled it off with the explanation of, “I majorly lost a round.”

The guys were quite diverse as well, but their clothing was more sedate. One man, looking to be the oldest of the bunch, and the most out of shape, had short dirty blonde brushed-back spikey hair. The other two that sat diagonally across from one another looked to be the same age, but the far boy still had boyish looks with wide emerald eyes and soft looking light brown hair.

She noticed that there was an empty chair with cards laid on the table in front of it beside the last boy that her eyes settled on. He was the one who had asked who she was, and she sensed that he hadn’t needed to, because she didn’t need to ask to know who he was. David Keith was a force to be reckoned with out in the streets. While having only seen him in passing a couple of times, he was hard to forget, especially with the stories she’d heard of him through the Kings.

He was handsome, she couldn’t deny it. Taller than Julius with skin only a few shades lighter, he was well muscled, and in his movements she saw his skin ripple from his toning. His hair was fairly short, but long enough for the tips of the black stands to fall in his stunning green eyes.

As if sensing the attention, he cut his eye to her sharply and she quickly looked away. “Maybe I should just go,” she mumbled.

Julius nudged her arm, encouraging her enough to look up. “You could, but you’ve barely touched your drink. It’s sacrilege in this house to leave an alcoholic beverage unfinished.” He offered a small but infectious smile before nodding towards the living room. “Come sit down.”

She followed him around the cooler to a space that housed lush leather furniture and two bookcases. The latter were along the cooler, and the former lined the opposite wall. Julius sat on one end of the couch, his legs stretched in front of him to cross at the ankle. She took the other end, instinctively going to tuck her feet up under her but then remembering what Dane had done as punishment for it and decided against it. She didn’t know the rules here and she didn’t want to anger anyone. Especially not Julius.

Taking a drink of her beer, she lowered it suddenly, surprised by the taste. It didn’t taste like what Dane had drank at all. It was actually quite bearable.

“Something wrong?” Julius drew her attention. His eyebrow was up again, but he’d sounded more amused than concerned.

Kim smiled. “No. It’s just, really good.” She took another, longer drink for emphasis.

Julius laughed. “Well we don’t stock the s****y stuff. Except Lucky, but only ‘cause Tev likes it.” He faced her with amusement, “Not much of a drinker?”

She shook her head. “Being underage with strict parents has limited my alcoholic horizons.”

Julius nodded with a grin. “I hear you, drinking laws are stupid. I spend more money on liquor in a month than most guys spend on their girlfriend in a year. Yet legally, I’m not allowed to go into the stores. Total insanity.”

She took another swallow as her prediction was confirmed. He wasn’t older than seventeen, otherwise there wouldn’t be any legality issues of him entering a liquor store. She was slightly horrified at the amount of money he’d just admitted to spending on liquor though.

For all she’d heard of Julius, she wasn’t really sure what his living situation was like. She’d never heard of parents, one way or the other, and had no idea if he had other family or not. She’d always assumed that he lived alone or with a roommate, but surely no seventeen year old kid could afford a place like this on their own. Not to mention he was too young to buy so he would have to rent.

Unsure of how to broach the subject, she took another drink in silence. “So, do your parents get liquor for you? Are they cool with all that?”

His expression fell, leaving him looking as though all the air had been forced from his lungs with a vicious sucker punch. Instantly regretting her questions, she ached with sympathy for him. A look like that didn’t cross a person’s face without triggered memories of serious loss. That she knew from her own family.

“I’m sorry, Julius. I didn’t mean to… I didn’t know.”

He swallowed, the muscles in his neck down all the way to his now fidgeting fingers were tight. “It’s okay.” He mentally cursed himself as his quiet voice noticeably cracked. He took a deep breath and cleared his throat. He spoke again with more conviction, “It’s okay. I’ve never had parents. So it’s okay.”

His words were so false and forced that even he knew he was trying to reassure himself, not her.

How had she triggered such an emotional reaction from him with only a few words? Dios mio, he was tougher than that. He’d been asked about his parents loads of times, and he didn’t break down like that. He had when he was young, when he’d suddenly been alone in the world. But that had been a decade ago. He’d gotten over it. Looking back he’d realized that his father had just used him, not loved him, and there was no sense mourning someone that wouldn’t mourn you.

But that was a lie and he knew it. Even as he tried to rationalize his sudden emotions away, they stirred up thoughts he’d never allowed. What would having two loving parents be like? Family dinner together, a hug or kiss goodbye in the mornings, to be loved unconditionally be the people that created…

He felt tears well in his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he sat forward on the couch, resting one hand on his knee and bringing the other up to discretely brush the tears from his eyes before they fell, in a motion that resembled pinching his nose. He couldn’t will away the desire to have been loved by the one human being that should have. But why he was breaking down at innocently asked questions when he’d been through a ringer of far more difficult ones, he had no idea.

“Are you okay?” Kim asked softly. She watched him uncertainly, battling the deep desire to hug him with her better judgement.

He sat in silence for several moments. Kim set down her beer. Finally he turned towards her, but rather than answer her question he veered the topic. “You called me Julius, but I never told you my name.”

Heat raced through her as she involuntarily looked at him like a frightened mouse. “I…” she began, but she didn’t have any words. Not wanting to lie, and unable to speak the truth, she simply stared at Julius to await his decision.

Julius shrugged. Then leaned in slightly, “I know who you were. Not who you are. If you’re here in peace then you’re welcome to stay.” He drew back and locked her eyes with his own, even though he knew she couldn’t see them. “But if you’re not,” his tone became deadly serious and dark. “You will deeply regret the moment you decided to cross my line for the remainder of your short existence.” He paused to let the words sink in. “Is this clear?”

She nodded. Quietly answering, “Yes.” She held his gaze �" or at least, she thought she did �" to quietly speak a truth that pained her still. “I would never do you intentional harm. As afraid as I was to come here, I wanted to meet you all. I really don’t know anything about most of you, but…” she paused as she tried not to choke. Her lip trembled but she bit it into submission and wiped her eyes just as tears started to fall. “My brother liked you guys. I wanted to know why.”

Julius gave her words a respectful silence. Then, with some hesitation, he pushed his dark mirrored sunglasses up to his forehead. His eyes startled Kim, but not as much as they would have had she not been expecting their glacier ice colour. It shouldn’t have thrown her at all, but knowing something and seeing it were always two different things. 

“Kolton was a good guy. Lotta good times we all had.” He met her eyes, and she saw the questions and doubt lurking within them.

Tears streamed down her face, but she didn’t sob. “I- I didn’t-” but she cut off. What could she say? She hadn’t meant to kill her brother? While that was true, her finger had been wrapped around the trigger under Dane’s as he’d squeezed it to end her brother’s life. She hadn’t wanted to, but it didn’t change the fact. It still pained her that she would never be able to be rid of the guilt. No matter what she tried to tell herself, it would never be truth when she tried to claim she hadn’t killed her brother.

Her lip trembled as she pushed the excuses from her mind. She deserved her guilt. And she deserved the hate from people Kolton had called friends. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

After several moments of stoic, stock-still silence, Julius slowly shook his head. “It’s not your fault to apologize for. We all make choices.” He shrugged. “Dane didn’t have to pull his girlfriend’s brother into the gang, and your brother didn’t have to so blatantly keep hanging out with us after he did. Dane didn’t have to kill him for it, and he certainly didn’t have to make you a participant in your brother’s death.” He paused and their eyes met. “None of that is on you.”

A weight lifted from her chest so suddenly that she gasped at the feeling. While her mind doubted the words, she had needed to hear them. She’d never allowed herself to think that there was the smallest possibility that Kolton’s death wasn’t her fault. To hear it so blatantly stated that it was impossible for her to be entirely to blame both jarred and relieved her.

Kim let her mind wander back to the people still laughing and joking around the kitchen table as they played their poker game. Maybe, with these people �" if they allowed her to stay �" she could learn to truly believe Julius’s words.

Turning back to Julius, she gave a warm and honest, thankful smile. It was the first in a long time. Maybe one day, she would be able to forgive herself for all she hadn’t done.