Tinted Lenses: Julian (continued...) Part IV

I tempered myself, glancing up at Topher, watching him type a few things, let off the screen, then slowly start to furiously type back. “If you have somewhere to go, you can go,” I urged. It wasn’t like I felt particularly interested in being teased right now.

“Nope,” Topher told me confidently.

I hated that. Instead of feeling like I was hanging out with friends, it felt like I was being co-opted by two older brothers who had no intention of letting me run off. “You guys are assholes,” I muttered, glancing at Mik. “Move out of the seat and let me up.”

Mik looked at me. Just… looked at me. That despondent stare with the glazed over look in his eyes said it all.

“Move!” I snapped.

“Make me,” Mik told me as he reached over to the tiny miscellaneous tray to pluck a toothpick from the top of the pile. He put it between his teeth, chewing at it before letting it leave his fingers as he flipped it around between his teeth. “Order something.”

“I’m good,” I growled.

“Order something and quit bitching,” Topher told me in agreement.

“Why do you guys always have to overlay each other?” I snarled. “Doesn’t it get old?”

“No,” Mik retorted cooly. He turned blue-brown eyes on his brother and smiled.

“How much money do you have?” Mik asked Topher casually.

I knew then they were ignoring me, and my frustration started to mount as I reached to grab for Topher’s knife holstered at his hip. He smacked my hand off with ease and I tried to shove him out of the seat. Futile. “Fuck!”

“Relax, J,” Topher relayed calmly. “Get your blood infused whatever, see if you can choke it down and then we can go. You came here… No use in popping up to go bounce somewhere else. Where would you even go in the first place?”

“I’m not going to be taunted and teased!” I told them hotly, accidentally letting slip the very thing I should have kept to myself. Fuck! Fuck… Dammit. Why the hell did I say that?

3…

2…

1.

And that was all it took for me to regret it.

Topher’s eyes snapped sharply from his phone. I could see the interest and curiosity starting to light up those bored eyes as Mik also slowly smiled. No… God, what have I done to myself? The twins looked at each, sharing some wordless agreement before Mik sharply turned to me.

“What do you want, J?”

“Fuck off, Mik,” I snarled, my voice going high. I couldn’t even close down the emotions jumping forth.

“He’s pissed,” Topher commented.

“Very.” Mik agreed.

“DAMMIT!” I grabbed Mik’s shoulder, trying to shove the wolf down, but he pushed me off, laughing before giving my face a light pat as I smacked his hands away. “I’m not a little kid anymore, knock that shit off!”

“Oh, you’re a kid,” Mik told me. “You just don’t want to admit it. You want to be an adult like the humans are, but you and I both know that isn’t true.” I felt him go to pinch at my nose and I socked his hand with my fist instead of trying to bat it away, but that was another useless attempt since I sorely missed the swipe. My eyes glowed bright crimson. I could feel my pupils dilating and the Hunger sort of ebb in as my blood started to heat my face, ears, and parts of my chest and down my neck. “Mik,” I growled in a warning.

“Hit him,” Topher goaded lightly.

“I will,” I ground out.

“I dare you to try,” Mik challenged, his eyes lighting up.

I reared back, ready to do exactly that as the waitress slowly rolled in, and suddenly I was feeling more foolish and foolhardy than confident and assertive. I deflated, slowly sinking back into my seat as she regarded us all with the clear of her throat.

“Are you all ready?”

“Yup,” Topher chirped.

“Completely,” Mik added, turning to look up at her. His eyes brightened a little and he tilted his head to the side, smiling smoothly at the woman.

“No,” I grumbled.

“Why don’t I give you some time to look over the menu and I’ll take their orders first?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes, knowing that she was essentially giving us the short-version of, ‘knock it the fuck off jackasses’ in a nicer way. I kind of accepted it though because it meant the twins were going to lay off me for a second. Breathing out slowly, I felt the tension ease out of me as the twins accounted for whatever ravenous craving piqued their interest. Shortly after, I rattled off something random out of the menu to speed it all along.

When she left finally, I slammed my forehead against the table, wanting to give it a couple more goes, but also not go on for an encore of the twin’s wrath any longer.

“Don’t you both have something better to do?”

“Nope.” Topher told me, leaning forward as he pressed his forearm against the table. He turned eyes down onto me, his voice lowering as he spoke again. “But you could always give a stab at that waitress… You know, for a first bite? She’s pretty young.”

“Stop!” I groaned, turning my head into the table. “God! Just stop!”

“Is this bullying?” Mik asked Topher lightly, a curious note in his voice.

“Does it matter?” Topher answered roughly, his gaze flicking up from me much to my relief.

I could feel their attention shift focus as the two continued on. God, who knew how long they dwindled on, but I tuned them out. I was stuck in this seat, and if I tried to jump over the back of this fucking thing to get away, Mik would be quick to grab my shirt and either tear it from my body or slam me down in the seat, and either was probably preferable to them.

I couldn’t imagine embarrassing myself any further, so I just settled in. My body slumped forward as I damn-near melted into the table, my eyes flicking from the twins to our surroundings before that weird feeling hit me again. Were we being watched? I sat up, my eyes scanning the room slowly before I felt a sharp elbow to my ribs, making me grimace. “Can you kindly fuck- off?” I snapped at Mik.

“Don’t look over there,” he told me quietly.

“Why the fuck not?” I bit out, my voice still loud enough to catch from probably the next seat over.

“Because you’re going to draw her attention, now shut up and relax. Food is coming.”

I turned to look at him, really look, and when our eyes met, I saw the seriousness in them and settled in a little more. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I whispered, trying to act a little less pissed.

“Don’t ask me stupid questions out loud,” Mik answered in almost annoyance. “You want to ask something…” he nodded to my phone.

I almost rolled my eyes. Started to, but blinked away the reaction to quickly lean back against the wall as I started to shuffle my hand into my back pocket and yank my phone free. The moment I engaged my power button to unlock my phone, Topher’s messages hit the top of my screen… Already there.

Not too bright, are you?

I almost was tempted to elicit the sharp dirty look that warranted, but continued on.

You walked here? Or drove, because you brought yourself company and they’ve been staring at you the entire time.

My nerves rattled from the last sentence, and chills rocked me as I let my phone screen dim. My hands came up to the back of my neck and I shakily pressed my palms there and down until I was sliding my hands under the collar of the back of my shirt. Fu—ck.

I didn’t have the balls to send Topher a message, my mind was racing, but all I knew was it probably looked like it was more than obvious that I was freaking out, because— I fucking was. My hands rubbed at the back of my neck roughly until my skin hurt, my shorn nails nearly digging in when they otherwise shouldn’t have been able to.

“Let off the gas,” Topher told me.

“I walked here.”

“And we have an extra helmet,” Topher told me. “Relax.”

“But what if that’s not going to– I mean, I just… Ah, fuck. What did I do to deserve today?”

“If you keep panicking, we can always start talking about the strip club your cousin’s husband has. It’s new.” Mik offered.

“No,” I groaned, pushing my palms into my eyes. “Stop! Stahp!” The word was more drawn out, hardly sounding right, but it expressed my agony well enough. “Fucking stop! Let me think.”

“Been doing that,” Mik rumbled candidly before I took in a tight breath.

“Okay, you guys want to really help me out? Call my uncle- er.. Cousin, your uncle… Whatever. And just get them tossed out or something. Can’t you do that?”

“Is this one of Sin’s joints?” Mik asked Topher, turning to look at him.

“I don’t know, that’s your job to know that stuff. That’s not my thing to keep tabs on that.” Topher answered Mik, shrugging.

“Why do you always make me figure it out?” Mik rasped.

“He’s your uncle. I claim no such allegiance,” Topher told him. “He’s mom and dad’s friend. That’s it.” Topher put his hands up as if staying out of it. “Well– more than that, but still.” Topher cleared his throat as the waitress came back and he leaned forward to pick up the drink from the table, taking a few large swallows before setting the glass back down.

Mik stared at him. “You just don’t want to call anyone.”

“Yeah,” Topher agreed after a moment of silence, nodding. “Yeah. I don’t. I already had to text mom and dad, you can do some dirty work too.”

“Such asinine,” Mik bemoaned. “You were just asking Red for some side work for pocket change last week. Where the hell did that fealty go?”

“Oh, I have it. I respect Red a lot. I’m just not interested in making a phone call in a diner.”

“It’s a restaurant,” Mik argued.

“Cafe,” I gritted out.

“No, pretty sure it’s a restaurant.” Mik argued.

“And you’re stalling,” Topher laughed hoarsely, looking away from the both of us as he crossed his arms.

“Can I get you guys anything else?” the waitress asked.

“Him,” Topher nodded at me. “Yes.”

“Oh, come on,” Mik told him.

“You don’t need anything else,” Topher told Mik, raising a brow at him.

“You don’t get to make that call,” Mik argued back, much to the poor waitress's ears. She was just a victim to the two of them at this point.

“Um, I’m sorry?” she asked, clutching the tray to her chest. “Uh–”

I knew she was trying to be polite, and just shook my head, unable to articulate a quite solid response for what I could imagine was equally, if not more embarrassing to her.

“We’re fine,” I choked out. My gaze slid from her, unable to meet her eyes before she slowly started to leave and I let my legs push against the span between the two booth seats until I was kicking the bottom of the other side of the table arrangement.

Stretching my legs felt good, and while I wasn’t exactly the tallest in the group, I wasn’t short either. I leaned back, trying to wrap my head around this all as Mik dialed up my cousin, and I tentatively listened to him on the line. I could hear the sharp tick of Red’s serious voice bolstering a firm, but pointedly, ‘Where are you?’ followed by a few other questions just grabbing details.

My eyes widened after a moment, blinking as I tried to clarify my gaze on the ceiling before it shifted to the lamp above.

“It’s not ours,” Red’s voice said over the phone, “but we can still be there.”

My heart started to hammer in my chest. There was going to be a confrontation. My cousin was going to come down and start shit with this person. Holy hell… I couldn’t believe my ears. Was it even worth starting? Was this person that much of a nuisance? I wasn’t sure, but I knew Topher and Mik weren’t going to let me turn my head around to rubberneck and find out.