She was physically sick just saying that.
I stood up, turned and walked to the door, opened it, and stepped outside. I quickly scooped up the pink-wrapped box and held it in front of me as I walked down the hallway, not waiting for Sean, who was still back in Neala’s apartment, probably getting his arse chewed out for bringing me by.
I didn’t care, though, because I’d pulled one over on Neala for a change.
I’d got the doll, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.
CHAPTER SIX
I stared at my hall door and wondered what the hell had just happened.
Sean was always weird and came over to my apartment at random times, but Darcy, that eejit, had never stepped foot in my place, for good reason . . . until today.
Why?
He had even been . . . nice to me.
He’d smiled at me a few times, too.
Not a grin or a smirk – an actual smile.
“I don’t get it,” I muttered as I locked my front door and backed away from it, as though Darcy might burst back through it at any moment.
Why was he here?
I knew it wasn’t so we could ‘start getting along with one another,’ like he claimed. Even Sean, who was all for us getting along, had given Darcy a funny look when he said that. It was like he knew just as well as I did that what Darcy was saying wasn’t remotely true.
I could see right through Darcy’s bullshit, but I didn’t understand why he’d said the nonsense he did. I didn’t even understand why he had come to my apartment in the first place. Everyone, apart from Darcy, was sick of our feud. I was sick in the sense that I enjoyed it; it gave me something to do. I knew he definitely liked it too; he looked forward to seeing me just so he could piss me off. He was demented, just like me.
“Something’s not right,” I said aloud, and began to look around my apartment.
I had no idea what I was looking for, but I searched anyway.
I spent most of the evening looking for something, and after finding nothing, I gave up. I got a glass of water and drank it as I leaned against my kitchen counter.
Maybe Darcy did just want to try to smooth things over and I was just being paranoid.
I shook the silly thought away. There was no way in hell Darcy Hart would willingly want to befriend me. But I knew he had done something; I felt it in my bones.
The doll.
I blinked and felt tremendously stupid for not realising it sooner. It was too much of a coincidence for Darcy to show up wanting to make friends when I knew he wanted the doll. We had had it out in a toy shop over it, for goodness’ sake.
I walked over to my Christmas tree and glanced down to the presents I’d wrapped earlier that day. I tilted my head and stared at them. The colours weren’t right; I had three blue presents, one red, one yellow, and one pink. I pulled the presents out from under my tree in search of the pink-wrapped box.
Where the fuck was Charli’s Blaze doll?
He wouldn’t.
Wouldn’t he? my mind taunted.
“Darcy!” I snarled, and pushed myself to my feet.
I spun around and placed my hands on top of my head and screamed.
He’d robbed me! The callous bastard had come into my home and robbed me blind . . . and I was pretty sure my bloody brother had helped him.
Neala: 1. Darcy: 1.
“Dead. They’re both so fucking dead!” I growled in anger.
I was going to get that bloody doll back and destroy Darcy in the process. There wasn’t a place on Earth he could hide from me. If he wanted a war, I’d bloody well give him one.
Let the games begin.
CHAPTER SEVEN
What do you mean, Darcy stole from you and Sean helped?”
I rolled my eyes at Justin Hart, Darcy’s older brother, even though he couldn’t see me.
Justin was my brother’s best friend, and pretty much my adoptive big brother. I liked to call him ‘Wise One’ because he was only seven years older than me and yet had the mind of a pensioner. I didn’t mean he was forgetful; he was just a very smart man and knew stuff normal people in their thirties probably wouldn’t.
“I mean exactly that, Justin. Yesterday while I was at home minding me own business, your bastard of a brother came into me apartment with my bastard of a brother, and stole me Christmas present for Charli!”
Justin sighed into his phone as he accepted what I said as truth. This sort of thing wasn’t a far-fetched idea when Darcy and I were involved. In fact, things like this happened so often they were probably tiresome for everyone else to hear.
Scratch that – I knew for a fact they were tiresome for everyone to hear. Everyone who knew us was more than likely fed up with our feud.
“Is it possible that he is just messing with you?” Justin probed. “It is Darcy, after all.”
I scoffed. “No, we’ve been fighting over this present since yesterday—”
“What?” Justin cut me off. “Since yesterday? What do you mean?”
I groaned. “It’s a long story.”
Justin made his trademark God-save-me-from-Neala-and-Darcy sigh. “When you and Darcy are involved in something together, it usually is. Come over to me house and tell me about it – I’m chilling with Dustin until his ma is home from work.”
I had nowhere better to go, so I shrugged my shoulders and said, “Okay, I’ll be over in ten.”
Justin lived only a few minutes down the road from my apartment complex in a small housing estate just outside the village. I visited often because I was out of work for the moment, so it meant I had nothing else to do. I wasn’t a deadbeat; I had a job – a job I loved at the Holiday Inn as a receptionist – but the hotel was currently under construction. A year ago the owners had decided to rip the old hotel down and rebuild a brand-new bigger hotel in its place.
I’d get my old job back in the New Year once the hotel reopened on January 3rd, it was guaranteed, but until then I was seeking unemployment payment from welfare just to help me get by. It was shite money, but at least it was something.
I hated being on welfare, but after months of searching for just about any job close to home and finding nothing, I had no other choice. I was counting down the days until I could get back to work and earn my money instead of just having it handed to me.
I put on my coat, wellie boots, scarf, woolly hat, and gloves. It wasn’t just the ice outside that I had to worry about anymore. Since I’d got home from Smyths yesterday it had started to snow enough to stick to the ground and cause problems. There were already a few inches on the ground. It was unheard-of weather for Dublin – it only snowed once every five or six years – but the pending winter snowfall was forecast to be our worst in history. I hadn’t paid much attention to the warnings, though; half the time the weather channel got it wrong anyway, so I never took what they said as fact.
I locked up my apartment, then headed out of the complex and onto the street. It took a little longer than usual to walk to Justin’s house. The snow was so thick that I had to watch my step, because I wasn’t sure whether there was ice under the layers of snow. It was better to be safe than sorry.
By the time I arrived on Fairview Road, where Justin and his family resided, it had begun to snow again, and it did nothing for my heated temper or my ice-cold limbs.
“You look frozen,” Justin’s laughing voice called out as I hiked my way up his driveway.
I grunted. “If I wasn’t so stiff and cold, I’d stick me finger up at you.”
Justin smirked as I neared him. “The death glare you’re currently giving me is a grand replacement.”
I couldn’t help it; I smiled, or at least I tried to – I was so damn numb I couldn’t tell whether my lips moved or not.
“You look like you’re constipated,” Justin mused as I stepped into his
hallway.
I groaned as Justin closed his front door and the heat of his house surrounded me.
“Me face is frozen, you dick!” I said through my chattering teeth.
Justin laughed as he ushered me into his living room, where it was even warmer. I scurried over to the radiator under the window and pressed my arse and thighs against it. I sighed in delight and stayed put as the heat caused tingles to spread across my thawing skin.
“You sound like you’re in a porno.”
I kept my eyes closed. “Only you would think that, pervert.”
I heard a giggle.
“What’s a porno?” a small voice asked.
I opened my eyes and widened them to the point of pain. Dustin, Justin’s son, was leaning against the doorframe of the living room with his arms crossed over his chest and a quizzical look on his face.
Justin was looking at Dustin with worried eyes, and after a few moments of silence he said, “Never mind . . . Don’t repeat it to your mother, though.”
Dustin smirked. “Is it something bad?”
Uh-oh. The kid had a blackmail look about him.
Justin awkwardly scratched his neck. “No . . . not necessarily. Look little man, just don’t tell your ma I said that word, okay?”
Dustin tilted his head to the side as he thought about it, and I smiled. He was the double of Justin with his blond hair and big eyes, but looked like his uncle when he was thinking.
I shook away a sudden unwelcome stream of pleasant thoughts about Darcy, and focused on the cutie before me.
“What’s in it for me?” Dustin asked his father.
I laughed. “He’s your kid; there’s no doubting that.”
Justin grunted at me without looking away from his son. “I’ll let you out of helping me wash the dishes for a whole week; how does that sound?”
Dustin considered it for a moment, then suggested, “A week without washing the dishes and a week of late-night snacks?”
Justin balked. “You’re killing me, kid; your ma will have me arse if she knows you’ve had sugary snacks past bedtime.”
Dustin stood up straight, a sign to me that he wasn’t about to back down.