In the Den of the Wolves

It was a short ride over from McGinns to Park Street, and Leon was quite amused to find his wasn’t the only motorbike parked outside Captain’s Cove. Though he might have liked to stay and admire all the different kinds of bikes parked outside, Ashley waved him on, so he followed, hurrying to catch up and holding the door open as she walked inside. As impressed as he was by the exterior, he balked at the nautical, pirate themed inside, considering it a little corny, though it wasn’t childish, but adorned by all manner of ship wheels and figureheads. The support beams seemed to be made from real ship masts and the bar itself, directly in front of the teens, looked as if it were really was the bow of a grand galley.

“Yarrr, what kind o’ booty de ye seek here?” Leon joked, keeping his voice low as he glanced around at some burly men playing pool in the seating area just to the left of them.

“Don’t make fun,” Ashley remarked, walking straight towards the bar. “The owner is a former Marine. He’ll kick your ass.”

“Really?” Leon cleared his throat as he surveyed the clientele again, every single one looked uncouth and battle worn, and he could imagine the bar might need someone with specialist training to keep them in line.

“No, but your face, priceless,” Ashley giggled to herself as they reached the counter. She cocked her head towards a big guy at the other end currently serving someone else. “He really is a Marine, but he’s a sweetie.”

Leon frowned at getting played, still unaware of the long con that she was running. “Very funny, and they call me a jokester.” He turned in the stool and rested, with his back against the bar, elbows propped up. “With these kinds of customers, I didn’t think ‘sweet’ would keep them in line.”

The blonde cheerleader followed Leon’s line of sight to a tall black man with a shaved head and a beard. Though he was relaxing on a sofa, his well-built muscles still bulged intimidatingly. “Yeah, that’s Tyrone, with the Jackals,” she said, dropping her voice. “But if you stay out of the gangers’ way, they generally don’t bother anyone.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, averting his gaze, and looking instead over at the right side of the bar. “It’s kind of surprising that a place like this has a dance floor. Do gangbangers even dance?”

“You could be the first.” The marine said, in a rough, gravelly voice, and causing Leon to leap out of his skin. “And you’d have more luck with the ladies if you took her for a wee jig rather than complaining.”

While Leon went pale, Ashley greeted her old friend. “Hey, how’s business?”

“Good,” he answered, looking around with pride at what he’d built. “Slower since your sister stopped coming around though. She always attracted an audience.”

“And trouble,” Ashley added with a grimace. “I’m afraid she won’t be back any time soon.”

“I saw that on the news. Of all my customers, I’d never have guessed she’d be the one wanted and on the run.” The owner paused, with a nervousness Ashley had never known from him before, and eyed Leon carefully. “Have you…have you seen or heard from her since?”

“No,” Ashley confessed slowly, wary of the strange, sudden question. “why?”

“Is it safe to talk?”

Ashley trusted Leon but she also wanted to protect him, so she sent him away. “Go pick a song on the jukebox for me.”

“Sure, no problem,” he said, sliding off the stool, sensing and understanding that it was a private conversation.

With Leon gone, the marine leaned in and Ashley met him half way. “The night she ran, she was here.”

“Really?” Ashley’s eyes went wide.

He nodded. “She was in here, looking for transport out of Azure Rocks. Had to beat Big Carl at a rematch but he agreed to take her to a contact of his in the Nine Dragons.”

“Did you get a name?” Maybe it would have been better not to know, but Ashley couldn’t stay in the dark. She might have driven her sister away but that didn’t mean she was okay never knowing where she went or whether she made it.

“Sophie Yu, or Yu Sophie, or however you’re supposed to pronounce Chinese names,” he said with a sigh. “Before you ask, she didn’t say where she was headed. Only that she hoped to go through Italy for some reason, but wherever she was going, if she wanted to get out of the states, she’d need to go either North or South. I can’t tell you if she made it, only that she was here, and she left with Carl to go see Sophie.”

“Thanks,” Ashley looked away, tears staining her vision for the second time today. “I guess no news is good news on that front though.”

“Indeed, indeed,” he agreed as he saw Leon return. “So, what can I get you?”

“Are you willing to serve us **** yet?” Ashley used humor to hide her melancholy.

“Are you twenty one yet?”

“Two Pepsi’s it is,” she declared, glancing at Leon for any complaints. When he was silent, she added, “And some information. Have you seen Luke Olsen lately?”

“No, but Hugo is over there,” the Marine informed them whilst popping the caps on the glass bottles.

“Thanks,” she said, as he slid the bottles towards them.

He lingered and stared at Leon who froze, wondering silently what he’d done wrong. After several seconds, the owner asked him, “Are you gonna make the lady pay?”

Leon quickly paid the man without protest or comment, only then breathing easy as the marine stalked off to deal with another customer. When looked around again, Ashley was dabbing at her eyes with as much of her hand as she could slide out of the overgrown sleeve.

“Are you alright?” Leon inquired.

“Peachy,” she insisted, grabbing her drink and rising to her feet. “Come on, we need to go see a man about a wolf.”

Sensing that it was a topic not to be pushed until they knew each other a little better, but gathering enough from the conversation before he left that it was about Hannah, and he already knew how conflicted she felt about that from their brief discussion earlier, Leon let it slide. Allowing her to lead the way, he followed her towards the corner of the room, where a young Hispanic man, only a couple years older than they were, was simultaneously hitting on two women.

“…the lead guitarist gets all the action, but everyone knows the bassists are the hottest members of the band,” Ashley overheard Hugo telling the girls as she drew closer.

“Yeah, is that what you are?” the redhead asked. “A hot bassist?”

“I don’t think I know any hot bassists,” the brunette added.

“Oh come on, you’re bound to know some…uh…John Paul Jones? Cliff Burton? Mike Dirnt?” He searched for a name that the girls recognized, baffled by the blank stares he received in return. “…Flea?”

“Ew,” the brunette physically recoiled. “You have fleas?”

“I think I’ll take my chances with the lead,” the redhead glanced around. “Is Luke here?”

“No, not flea the bug, Flea the bassist from Red Hot, ugh, nevermind,” he relented, accepting that he wasn’t getting anywhere based on the credibility of his own instrument. “Tell you what, buy me a few drinks and I’ll introduce you to him.”

The women slinked off towards the bar, eagerly and loudly gossiping about how awesome it would be to meet the lead singer and guitarist of the Dark Wolves. Ashley took advantage of their leaving, to slide in front of Hugo, Leon sucking on his Pepsi as he stepped in behind her.

“Are you really going to introduce those girls to Luke?” Ashley asked bluntly, drawing Hugo’s eyes from the gorgeous asses of the college girls as they walked away.

“After a couple of drinks, they won’t care so much,” Hugo replied, letting his eyes wander of the tight, petite figure in front of him. “And when they’re married and dissatisfied, they’ll have that crazy night with a member of the band to keep them going.” He arched an eyebrow and smiled. “Why? You thinking of joining the fun?”

“’Fraid not. I’m here for Luke too,” she taunted him and took a gulp of her bottle, emphasizing the neck as touched her lips. With a refreshing gasp, she continued, “guess no one really wants the bassist.”

“I never took you as a groupie,” Hugo replied, frowning with disappointment as he imagined the eighteen year old cheerleader being a wilder ride than the two college girls blowing off steam on Spring Break. “Then, again, your sister…”

“Hah, you wish,” Ashley retorted. “Woodsen girls don’t get starry eyed in the face of rockstars, rockstars get starry eyed by us.”

“Hey, no arguments here. I’d gladly be your groupie, little sister,” Hugo admitted, hands in air, before checking out Leon carefully. “But it looks like you already have your entourage.”

“Hmmm, yeah, this is some first date,” Leon confessed, holding his drink by his side. “So far we’ve went to two bars and she’s spent most of her time talking to other guys.”

“Aw, poor baby,” Ashley teased.

“You have my sympathies, man. Woodsen women are hard ones to love,” Hugo said, giving the younger teen a firm slap on the shoulder to buck him up. He turned again to Ashley. “So, if you’re not here for sex, what can I do for you?”

“I wasn’t joking when I said I was looking for your leader.”

Hugo rolled his eyes. “Well, you won’t find him here. He’s down at Toxic, working.”

“Working?” Ashley said in a mixture of surprise and confusion. “If you have a gig, why aren’t you down there too?” She narrowed her eyes and smirked. “Is the band breaking up? They have enough of your ego?”

“My ego? Nah, Luke’s the only one with an ego in this band. But no, by working I meant his day job. He’s busing tables and washing glasses down there,” Hugo explained, chuckling lightly. “Dark Wolves might be popular, but we don’t make a living off this…yet.”

“Is that why you’re getting girls to by you drinks?” she teased him further.

“That’s their punishment for not knowing who Flea is,” he said, seeing the women in question returning with three beers. “Now scat, I’ve got some actual groupies to attend to.”

“Who was she?” Ashley heard the redhead ask, words soaked in derision, as she and Leon retreated.

“Nothing, nobody, just, uh, charity,” Hugo explained, badly. “It’s some work I do with the school to help out underprivileged kids.”

Ashley was tempted to turn around and tell those women he really did have fleas in exchange for that ‘underprivileged’ remark, but Leon distracted her.

“I guess we’re off to Toxic then. I’ve never been but I heard some of the guys on the team mention it was a cool.” He paused thoughtfully to take another swig of his soda, then added. “Wasn’t there another nightclub that opened recently too?”

“Yeah, Surrender, but I’ll be happy if I never have to set foot inside there,” she admitted, scowling at an invisible Victoria. When Leon looked at her quizzically, she added, “my friend had a bad experience there.”

“Oh, well, at least we’re not going there,” Leon tried to console her. “I guess we should head over to Toxic then.”

“Actually, why don’t we sit?” She suggested, moving towards the seating area, an empty table and chairs away from Tyrone Wilson and his gang of young black men.

“Really?” he said, watching her slide her tight ass on to the seat.

“Yeah. Don’t think that ‘talking to other guys’ comment went over my head. Maybe I have been neglecting you a little, after you saved me from your mother’s wrath, and getting in real trouble with the school,” she said, before smiling and keeping up the ruse. “But don’t forget that I’m already taken.”

“Well, I don’t see Brandon around,” Leon made a show of looking about the bar as he took a seat beside her. “So, I guess for now you’re all mine.”

“Guess so…until I finish this soda.” She raised the glass bottle, still three quarters full, and took a drink. “So, tell me something about yourself. Something nobody else knows.”

“Something nobody else knows…” he echoed the statement as he thought. “Let’s see…everyone knows I love motorbikes…I’m on the basketball team…I’m an only child…”

“Yep, I know all that,” she said, taking another drink.

“Um…my dad lives in another town…I’ve never broken a bone,” he wet his throat with a gulp from his own bottle. “Does it count if my mum knows?”

“Depends, do you tell your mum everything?” she asked, smiling and drinking again.

“Oooh, so it has to be one of those secrets…” he joked, eyeing the level of her soda, already half way down. “Alright then, I’m not a virgin.”

“Well, I’d hope you weren’t the only one who knows that,” Ashley teased, feinting concern.

“Ah, no, no, that’s true. It was completely consensual.” Leon agreed, watching her take another sip. “That was with a girl back in my old town. Then there was my second time with my girlfriend just before I came here, and the last time I had sex was just after I moved here.”

“Three times with three different girls,” Ashley mused with the lip of the bottle pressed to her mouth so that it made a whistling sound every time she spoke. “Either you’re a player or really bad at sex.”

“Neither really,” Leon argued with a shrug. “The first time, I guess we thought we were ready but after we, uh, had done the deed, we both realized that our feelings for each other weren’t that strong. I don’t really regret it. It taught me not to rush into things, though with my second time maybe I should have.”

“Oh?” She set down the bottle, completely enraptured now. “Do tell.”

“Well, she was great, and we got along really well. After that first time, like I said, I took it slow. Not so slow that nothing happened, but by the time we built up to actually doing it, the next day my mum told me that her divorced was finalized and we were moving. I had a few more weeks with her but we agreed not to do anything. There was no point getting too attached when I was just gonna leave.” Leon said, leaning back in his chair and getting a far away look in his eyes. “Maybe it’s better that it only happened that once too. I think of all the time we wasted not going for it, but then, that would only have made it all the more difficult to leave too.”

“I’m sorry. That sounds like it would be really tough,” Ashley said sincerely, stretching out a hand and placing it on his. “What about the third girl?”

“Well, it was just after I’d moved here and joined the basketball team. That weekend there was a party at someone’s house, and as the new thing in town, I was attracting a lot of interest, so I was feeling pretty hot about myself. I got talking to a girl, and we seemed to hit it off. I might have been a little tipsy at the time as well, so when she led me upstairs to a bedroom I didn’t think twice, I just thanked my lucky stars.”

“Wait, the weekend just after you moved here?” Ashley clarified, to which Leon nodded. She put her head in her hands. “That was my house.”

“Seriously?”

“Please tell me you didn’t do it in my parents bed,” Ashley closed her eyes and said a silent prayer.

“Uh no…it wasn’t an adult’s room, and um…it was kind of messy,” Leon grimaced, already anticipating her reaction.

“Oh, god, it’s even worse.” She opened her eyes again, prayer failing her, and pressed against her temples with her fingertips. “You fucked her in my room.”

“Well, how was I to know?” Leon frowned and got defensive. “There was a photo of the cheer squad next to the bed, but it could have belonged to any one of you guys. And the team just said we were going to a party; they never told me who the house belonged to. To be honest, I kind of regret it. It was super awkward when we had Calculus first period on Monday.”

“So, you know who it was?”

“Sure, what kind of guy do you take me for?” He joked, before seriously telling her, “it was Bianca…Zucchini, no that’s not right…Zuko? No…”

“Zuccaro,” Ashley corrected him and took a deep breath, designed to flush out all of her frustration, but it didn’t work. “Bitch probably knew exactly what she was doing.”

“You’ve had run-ins with her before then?” Leon deduced.

“Apart from the fact that the Honeybears and the cheerleaders don’t get on in general, although I personally have never had a problem with the dancers in general, Bianca’s sister and Hannah fought all the time, over trophies, over boys, you name it.” Ashley explained, Leon’s newcomer status meaning he hadn’t quite caught up on all the juicy gossip around the school. “Bianca seems to have picked up the baton where her sister left off, targeting me even though I never did a damn thing to her, even going so far as to try and tempt Brandon away at any chance she could get.”

“Oh, shit, so you think she took me up there to fuck in your bed, knowing full well that it was your room?” Leon followed her train of logic. “If that was her plan, why wouldn’t she tell you she’d done it?”

“It’s kind of pathetic, don’t you think, to be so obsessed with someone else that you’d fuck someone else in their bed,” Ashley remarked thoughtfully. “Besides she probably doesn’t want to boast about it because she had to settle for someone that wasn’t Brandon.” She glanced at Leon and offered an apologetic smile. “No offence.”

“No worries. It just shattered my whole self-esteem, no biggie,” he jested and sighed. “It makes me feel slightly better though, knowing that she’s walking around with this grudge, thinking she’s better than you because she fucked someone in your bed. That’s some passive aggressive shit right there.”

“Yep, and on that note…” She downed the last third of her soda in one. “I think I’ve learned enough for one day. Let’s get out of here.”