King of Hills by Devlin Price - HTML preview

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CHAPTER 42

 

Dove and grenade

Jason’s POV

"Just look at them Corbie," I started while looking over Knox spending more time on his ass than on his feet. Nevertheless he was laughing and looked genuinely happy. "It’s like they’re meant for each other." That lucky son of a bitch... I really didn’t understand how can one screw things over that many times, but still get whatever the fuck he wants.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, earlier he was so psyched about getting on the hill with Meg, he even forgot he’d promised Jay to talk out the new record over the dinner."

"I swear, if he messes this up again, I’m gonna murder his ass." Meg was too good for him. I admit, for a very short time in my life, I had considered her being the same as him, but man, was I wrong. She may have a temper, but she’s the most loving, most caring, foul mouthed person I’ve ever met through my entire life.

"You’re saying it only because if things go downhill with Meg, you won’t get that fine ass," Scott laughed, pointing to Bailey, who raised a flask to her lips. Honestly? I didn’t even know if I wanted to try anymore. Yeah, sure, there was something about Bailey that dragged me to her, but in the same time there was her nature- the thing that pushed me away. And since Alexis, I started reevaluating if a person, who sends me to hell a hundred times too many and daily if I may add, was indeed needed in my life.

"Fuck you, Corbie," I replied, fixing my eyes on Ryan and Meg.

"Is it just me or he seems less of a dick, when Meg’s around?" Boyd piped in, as soon as he managed his way to us, a snowboard in his arm. It honestly looked like the board was the same height as dipshit right here. Both Ryan and Meg turned to look over us.

"Looking good, short-shit" Meg complimented sarcastically. Was she referring to Boyd’s lousy color coordination skills? ‘Cause man, Scott told him not to buy that parka and those pants... orange and green together, seriously?

"Yeah, you look like you’re trying out for Oompa Loompas... Is Willy Wonka still hiring?"

"I take that back, he’s still a dick."

"You should stand up and say it to his face, dipshit," Scott chuckled, pulling out a Marlboro from his pocket.

"What the hell you’re talking about? Like I haven’t done that already." Boyd frowned, shifting his attention from me to Scott.

"No, I mean, like REALLY stand up..." Jesus Christ, these short people jokes never cease to amaze me. It was impossible to just stand there with a straight face.

"Fuck you guys," And with that, the shortest member of our band hopped on that board and vanished.

"Good job Scott, you did it again,"

"Me? No dude, completely not my fault. Dipshit just has a short temper... Get it? I just said short temper," he cracked up again.

"Okay, you can stop now, he’s gone."

"So? That shit’s hilarious!"

"Guys are you tormenting little Timmy again?" Zee stopped right in front of us, throwing snow around the place as he braked with the board. I never considered this tanned dude to be a professional snowboarder, but seeing those 360 made me really over-think the things I knew about our crew.

"Just having a bit of fun, Zee," Scott answered, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

"Just keep it under control, okay? Don’t wanna see him drown himself in the bottle again. Besides, where’s my Megan?"

"Right over there, teaching her killer techniques to Knox." Scott pointed ahead of us, "So how’s the snow?" he asked.

"Perfect. Feels like baby powder when blows through your fingers. The slopes could be better though. "

"Holly hell I’m beat..." Knox smiled as he managed his way over, holding the board in his hand, Megan right behind him.

"Oh hey, dad..."

"How’s it sliding today? Still remember how to hit a jump?"

"Dad... Seriously? That’s the easiest of it all... Just build up the speed and do the fucking thing." She chuckled, "Okay guys, I think I’ll leave you for a bit, got to get these rusty bones moving."

"You’re going for the advanced?" Zee questioned, fixing his helmet strap.

"Are you kidding me? Even King could do the advanced, I’m gonna hit the expert. See that mountain over there?" She pointed to one of the three beasts right in front of us, "That’s mine..."

"I thought you said you don’t wanna go to the hills," Scott spoke up.

"Yeah... well, I have my gear already on, what’s there to lose for me?" She fixed her goggles over her eyes, "Now Hakuna Matata, dickwads!" And with that she went sliding down the hill,

"Isn’t she gonna break some bones? She still has to do a tour,"

"Nah, she’ll be okay, a couple years ago we flew out to the Andes, now there she broke an arm... Though I think she needed a helmet..." Zee squinted his eyes on the place where his daughter had just stood. He shrugged, "Anyhow—"

"How the hell is she gonna get up there?" Knox asked with a frown as he watched behind Meg. Man, she was fast...

"With a chopper, she’ll jump straight on the mountain. Many places don’t provide that, forcing you to take the chair lifts, which takes hours only to get up to the peek, but Meg made a good bargain with some guy and voala," Zee explained, looking quite proud about Meg. Well, but how else? She really had something to be proud of. He looked to his right, "Isn’t that Bailey Harris standing over there?" Zee watched over Bailey with a wide smile, forcing her to raise her head from her phone.

"Oh, hey Zee," She flipped her phone around, before pushing in her jacket and coming our direction.

"What were you doing there all alone, sweetheart?" Zee unhooked the strap, before taking off his helmet.

"Just... Checking out guys," Bailey shrugged. For a single moment her eyes traveled to look over me and I swear she was going to smile, but no... Of course not, in the very last second her whole physiognomy changed and it seemed like she considered me to be even worse than a piece of shit. Well... what else did I expect from her?

"Funny," Zee said, "Now, girly, since you weren’t doing anything important, come and have a drink with me. A guy in my age can’t sit around in a bar all by himself."

"Yeah, sure," Bailey shrugged, "But you’re buying."

"Knox, you’re back with Meg?" Scott asked as soon as Zee had left with Bailey. Ryan looked up with a frown. "’Cause I swear, if you hurt her again—"

"We’re not together, Corbie," Ryan snapped, gathering his gear, "So you can shove those lectures up your ass,"

"Seemed different from where I’m standing," I said matter of factly. He could say whatever shit he wanted, we all knew what was really happening – they never had broken up in the first place. They could fight countless times and still in the end they somehow ended up together. Lucky bastards...

"You can think what you want, Viper," Why the fuck was he so angry? Wasn’t that what he wanted?

"Okay, what’s the deal, Dev," I frowned, trying to catch his attention,

"You are or are you not back with her?" Scott kicked away the remainders of the cigarette as he narrowed his eyes on our guitarist.

"I already answered," he pulled out a phone from the inner pocket of his jacket, "She made it clear we’re nothing more than friends," He frowned, scrolling through his phone, before typing something down.

"Who are you texting, Knox?" I asked, puckering my eyebrows and hoping it’s not a girl, since the only girl who he should be texting... just jumped out of the chopper? Holly hell, when Zee told she was going to do that, I didn’t suggest she would jump from such height just to slide down the rocky and seemingly very extremely dangerous mountain. Shit, she was crazy! I couldn’t watch over the view without jumping on every time that small silhouette was ridiculously close to those monstrous edges.

"Holly hell, that’s Meg? She’s fucking insane!" The one who just now made a stupidly nerve-wracking 360? Yeah, that’s the guitarist of the Beautiful Wasteland, who recently had two broken ribs. Ryan raised his eyes from the phone at the exact same moment when she crossed her ways with the intermediate track, quickly closing in on us.

"Okay guys, I’m gonna get going," Dev forced me to move all my attention from Megan to him.

"Where to, Dev?" Call me captain suspicious, but this all seemed a bit too fishy.

"Meg wants to go to dinner later. Gonna go have a hot bath, and maybe empty a bottle of scotch,"

"Or two," Scott smirked.

"Or two..." Ryan agreed, chuckling.

"So... You don’t mind us joining you?" I asked, fixing my eyes on Ryan. What game was he playing? I damn well knew he wasn’t going to no dinner with Megan, ‘cause... Megan simply didn’t do the kind of dinner before which you had to take a shower. Ryan was staring back, warning me. Why the hell did he feel the need to lie? To us? We always covered for him... fucking always!

He sighed, "You’ll wanna ask that to Meg, Jason."

Ask Meg? Was he lying or was he not? I was certain he figured he’s gonna be busy tonight right after he received that text. Tell me what you want, but I was at least 99 percent sure Meg wasn’t as crazy to text while she was snowboarding, so who the fuck is he seeing later? And why is he using Meg as his cover story? "Fine, I will."