Troubled with Tattoos

Chapter Twenty

Let's Go Camping

"Cherry, I'm fine I promise. I'll be home later." I said into my phone. It's been almost a week since my surgery and Cherry was still on my case about it. Which I was very appreciative that she was, unlike my so called parents. It doesn't hurt anymore and the scars were barely noticeable.

"Fine, but call me if you're not, okay? I won't hesitate to come pick you up, I was thinking we could go shopping later." She said. I smiled shaking my head, Cherry loved taking me shopping, she had all this money and nothing to buy so now that she had me she could buy me anything she wanted. Most of the time I didn't agree.

"I will and that sounds like fun, but I have to go now. I'm at the garage, it'll get too noisy," I said stepping into the front door of the car shop. Since she began trusting me more with the whole delinquent neighbor situation I felt more of a bond with her. Almost like we were even closer now. The bell dinged above my forehead and Mr. Hayes greeted me.

"Okay, bye hun." She made a kissing noise before ending the call. Austin was giving me another driving lesson today. I wore sneakers like he told me to, along with leggings, a white blouse and a jean jacket over it.

"Hey Violet, the boys are in the back." He said clicking away onto his computer. I smiled at the thought of the Hayes family inviting me into their lives so easily.

"Thank you, Mr. Hayes," I said reaching for the door to the backroom. Usually, customers weren't allowed back there but being friends with the boys had its advantages.

"Oh please call me Tim," Tim smiled. I nodded, I'm still calling him Mr. Hayes. I walked into the loud garage finding three of the four boys immediately. Declan was working on a blue Honda, Luke was giving an oil change to a black Mustang and Austin was changing the tires of a gray Volkswagen.

"Violet, perfect timing come here," Austin wiped his filthy hands clean off a rag calling me over, "Today I'm going to teach you how to change a tire." Oh boy.

He clapped his hand together grabbing a wrench. He twirled it around his fingers stepping towards the car's flat tire.

"First, you have to loosen the lug nuts," He said, turning the wrench to the left, "but don't remove them just yet."

Lug nuts, why did that sound so familiar? Oh, that's right when Cherry's were loose and Austin had to tighten them. Wow, that felt like forever ago. He then brought the jack over lifting the car up.

"Then you lift the car about...I'd say 6 inches off the ground." He shrugged. He grabbed the wrench again removing the lug nuts.

"After that is when you remove the lug nuts and then," he said putting the lug nuts on a table, "you take the tire off." He stood directly in front of the tire pulling it off. I watched carefully as his biceps flexed as he lifted it. He should teach me more stuff that involves heavy lifting, but you know that's just a suggestion. He rolled it over towards the garage door leaning it against the wall. He strolled back over smiling at me.

"Now can you guess what's next?" He asked rolling over a new tire.

"Put on the new tire?" I said as more of a question. Changing a tire really wasn't that hard, or maybe he just made it seem that way.

"Correct." He smiled placing the tire on. He grabbed the wrench again putting the lug nuts back on tightening them. The Volkswagen touched the ground once again and Austin rechecked the lug nuts.

"Easy, right?" He smiled. I nodded watching as Luke finished working on the mustang. I never really see Cam here a lot, I wondered why.

"Where's Cam?" I asked leaning against the dirty table. Austin shrugged now standing beside me.

"Not sure, got a pretty good idea, though." He said taking a sip of water.

"Does he work on cars as much as you guys?" I asked glancing at Declan.

"No, he doesn't know as much about cars as us, we try to teach him whenever he's around, though." He said. I had wondered why Cam never talks about his family or even lives at home. But it would be too hypocritical of me to ask since I too don't talk about my family nor live at home.

"Ready for lesson two?" He asked grabbing his keys off the table.

"Ready as I'll ever be," I mumbled. I followed him out to his sleek black car that I loved. Even though it reeked of cigarettes and sometimes weed more than half the time.

"Ok, I'm going to bring you down to this road near the store that hardly anyone ever uses, its kind of like a small infinity sign." He said hopping into his car. I nodded sitting in my seat, yes it was my seat now.

"Hopefully, you didn't forget everything since your first lesson was weeks ago." He chuckled turning on the radio as he sped out of the parking lot. I smiled studying his face. Sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm listening to what he's saying or if I'm just mesmerized by his face. His jaw line was to die for it was defined and strong. It looked like he never put a comb through his hair but it only made him more attractive.

And then I noticed something. The small blue marks on Austin's neck, it was barely noticeable but it was there. Was that a Hickey? My chest dropped to my stomach at the thought. No Violet don't assume the worst, maybe he got beat up. They were scattered. My mind instantly went to Kara and her stupid long hair and sparkly heels.

Austin cleared his throat lifting his jacket higher covering his mark, obviously he caught me staring. I looked down at my fingers picking off my nail polish.

I felt the car come to stop and I looked up to see the small road like he said. It was in the shape of an infinity sign, except of course without the roads meeting. So more like an oval. I wondered why Austin said infinity sign instead of oval when it clearly was an oval.

We switched seats silently, I fell into the warmth his heated cushion. I buckled up, moving my hair behind me.

"Okay ready?" He asked again. I didn't want to speak afraid I'd say something I couldn't take back after seeing the bruises so I nodded instead.

I began driving around the oval for a while. At first, my turns were sloppy and I couldn't keep at a steady speed. Luckily no cars came down this way. As I drove more my turns became less sloppy but still kind of sloppy if you asked me. I'm going to need many more lessons which may not be such a bad thing as long as Austin didn't give up on me.

"You're not that bad." He said poking my nose. I scrunched it in reaction.

"You're not a bad teacher," I replied back. I watched the smile form on his lips and suddenly wondered something. How come Austin never tried to kiss me when we were alone? I struggled to get one kiss from him but it looked like he gave them out so easily to others.

"What are you thinking about." He knocked me out of my thoughts. He had his head resting on his hands leaning towards me.

"Oh...nothing." I shook my head slightly changing my thoughts away from our many failed attempts of a kiss. I got out of the drivers seat and sat back in the passenger seat once again overwhelmed with my own irrational thoughts.

He drove back to the garage surprisingly, said he forgot something. We both got out meeting up with the boys outside, Camden still missing. My day was empty without his funny jokes and corny yet horny pickup lines.

"How'd she do?" Luke asked strolling over to us followed by Ducky.

"Not bad," Austin said. And just like that three gunshots went off just outside the shop making me jump from the surprise.

We both looked up hearing a car pull in. Austin eyed the car quickly standing tall.

"A surprise visit, Violet go wait in the office." He said his voice turned cold and emotionless. I watched the black SUV pull into the garage and a group of four men got out.

"Take her inside." Luke ordered Declan who wasted no time in following his directions. Declan, much to my dismay grabbed me by the arm hauling me inside their dads now empty office. He mumbled a sorry before locking the door so I couldn't leave.

"I stood on my tippy toes to try to see what was happening but then I wish I hadn't looked. Luke had been arguing with a man just mere inches from his face who just so happened to be pointing in my direction. I couldn't make out what anyone was saying. I could only see their lips moving that I desperately tried to read.

It looked to be a heated argument for several minutes until it suddenly got ugly. One of the men threw his fist at Luke and that was all they needed before a giant fight broke out. I was forced to sit and do absolutely nothing.

Austin took on the friends with Declan. Austin looked enraged and it had me thinking maybe Cherry was right. These boys were dangerous. His hands were balled into fists turning white fast. Fists were flying but thankfully the boys mostly dodged them. This explains all of their cuts and bruises. Who were they constantly pissing off?

Before I knew it Luke had punched the mystery man in the face causing him to fall backward but Luke caught him once again lifting him off the ground. He kicked his feet but it was useless. The mans lip was cut and blood was trickling from his head. The air got hitched in my throat at the thought of Luke murdering someone.

His shirt was ripping more and more at the collar but Luke didn't care. He only lifted him higher with ease. Luke had pointed back at me and said something to the man. He nodded and Luke dropped him to the ground. He fell on his knees but stood up rather quickly. He muttered something before he and his friends jumped back in their SUV and skidded away.

Austin had ran up the steps to let me out of my cage. The boys stared at me but it was Declan's stare that had me worried. It was like he knew everything but didn't say anything. My heart pounded my thoughts taking over my mind.

"What happened? Who were they?" I had so many questions that I knew they would not answer.

The garage door opened behind us once again, we turned to see Camden getting dropped off by three girls in a convertible. His hair was messy and his shirt was on backwards. Nobody said anything but I'm pretty sure we all had a clue as to what he was doing all day. You'd think he'd say hi or something but instead, we got...

"Guys, let's go camping."