Stalk Me (21 page)

My palms feel sweaty, my heart is pounding, and my stomach is tying itself in knots.

I mentally prepare myself for the worst and open the door.

And even though I thought I was prepared for the worst, I still can’t believe my eyes. 

Cush is sitting in his desk chair. His shorts are down around his ankles, and Mandy is on her knees giving him head. 

Now I know what Vanessa wanted me to see.

Part of me wants to close the door, walk out, leave the party, and never come back.

But I’m not really that kind of girl.

Vanessa thought I’d slink away into the darkness, and everyone would laugh about how Cush used me. They’d say how stupid I was. 

I may not be able to control what he does, but I damn well can control how I react. I’m not letting them get away with it. If I’ve learned one thing from hanging out with Vanessa, it’s how to put on a happy face and hide my true feelings.

“Surprise!” I yell. “Thought I’d stop and say goodbye before I left town!”

Cush looks at me. “Key . . . ” He looks down at Mandy like he just realized she was there, and swats at her like she’s an annoying fly. “Get off me.” Then he looks back up at me and says, “I lob you.”

Mandy stops what she’s doing and shrugs her shoulders. “Sorry, Keatyn, I didn’t think you were going to be here.”

Meaning she’s not the least bit sorry. 

I’m so pissed I can barely see straight. “GET OUT OF HERE!” I yell at her. 

She holds up her hands. “Hey, it’s not my fault your boyfriend cheated on you before you even left town.”

Cush’s chin drops to his chest. What’s wrong with him? What did Vanessa say? That he was messed up. That doesn’t make sense. Cush never does drugs or gets drunk.

“What’s wrong with him? What did you do to him?” I ask the snake, Mandy.

She laughs. “I just put a little something in his drink to loosen him up.”

I take two big steps and pin her against Cush’s door. 

“What did you give him?”

“Just some valium. He’ll be fine. He was loving it before you walked in.”

“How many?”

“I don’t know, three, maybe four.”

That bitch. She drugged him? And now she’s standing there looking all smug about it. Looking at her smug face, a fierce anger boils inside me. I back a step away from her then punch her right in the nose. Hard.

There’s a loud pop and blood starts cascading down her face. I grab her nasty blonde extensions, pull her out the door, and down the stairs.

“Stop it, that hurts,” she whines, but she has no choice but to follow me. I barely notice that she’s leaving a trail of blood behind us.

Vanessa is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. She says sweetly, “Anything I can do to help?”

I push the girl toward Vanessa and reply with the same sweetness. “Could you please take out the trash?” 

I survey the partygoers, who have all turned to watch, and point to Alicia. This time, I use my bitch voice. The voice you use when you’re being polite to someone but totally slamming them right to their face. “And don’t forget Alicia over there. Alicia, honey, you better come help your friend. She seems to be bleeding.”

Alicia doesn’t move. 

“Now!” Vanessa says. “Or do you want to bleed too?”

Alicia quickly gathers up their purses and leads Mandy toward the door. Mandy turns around and yells, “Fuck you.”

“No, thanks,” Vanessa says as she slams the door behind them.

I run back up the stairs. Cush hasn’t moved. He’s still sitting in his desk chair with his shorts down around his ankles. 

“Cush, look at me.”

He looks up and smiles. “Keat-un, I lobe you.” 

His pupils are so big I can barely see the color of his eyes. 

“We need to fix your pants.”

He looks down, seems confused by the fact that he has on no pants, and nods vaguely.

“Stand up, okay? I’m going to help you.” 

He stands up, and I pull up his shorts. 

I realize I do need Vanessa. I can’t handle this shit alone. I thought I could make my own group. A group of people that would just be friends, not have hidden agendas. I thought Mandy was sweet.

I was very wrong. 

Not only that. I feel like it’s my fault. My fault that Mandy did this to Cush. Like she was trying to prove something.

I grab a glass of water from his bathroom sink. “Try to drink this. I’ll be right back.”

I hurry back downstairs and see everyone has gone back to partying. 

I find Vanessa sitting on Alexander’s lap. 

She sees me, kisses Alex on the cheek, and says, “Give me just a minute” and pulls me aside. “Someone is always going to want what we have, Keatyn. It’s why I work so hard to protect it.” 

I look around at the party and know she’s right. “I was nice to her.”

“Whatever you want, I’ll do. I know we’ve had our differences lately, but you’re my best friend.”

“Help me get everyone out of here.”

“Like end the party?”

“Yes. Now. She drugged him. I’m really worried.”

“And what about the girl? You gonna let her get away with that?”

“I’m pretty sure I broke her nose. I didn’t let her get away with it.”

“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”

I look into her eyes. I know what she means, and for the first time in our friendship, she’s asking me for permission.

I copy Vanessa’s stance. I stand up straighter, tilt my chin in the air, and nod my head. “Do it. Destroy her.”

“And Cush?”  

“It’s not his fault.”

Vanessa pulls me into a hug, 

RiAnne rushes over to us. “Ohmigawd, you two made up. I’m so happy. You have no idea how much stress this caused me. If I have wrinkles at thirty, it’s your fault.” She pulls us into a group hug. 

“Turn around and face the crowd, ladies,” Vanessa says. “We have an audience.”

Vanessa and RiAnne get everyone out of the house while I get Cush into the limo. As soon as everyone’s gone, I lock the house and set the alarm.

Then I call James. 

“Where are you?” he asks. “You should be in the air by now.”

“Slight change of plans. Can you let the crew know that I have to reschedule?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Cush got drugged at a party. I stopped to say goodbye. I’m scared, James.”

“Are you taking him to the hospital?” 

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Is he responsive?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you talk to him, does he respond?”

“Kinda, I got him to drink some water and walk out to the limo.”

“Okay, do you know what he took?”

“He didn’t take anything. Someone put valium in his beer. So he probably had two beers and three or four valium.”

“Bring him here. I’ll have our doctor come to the house to check him out.”

I sigh with relief. “Thank you. I didn’t know what to do.”

“You’re doing the right thing, honey. It’ll be okay.”

I hang up the phone and start crying. Today I was supposed to get away from it all. Instead, my boyfriend’s messed up, he cheated on me, and I’m pretty sure I just made a deal with the devil. 

Cush leans his head on my shoulder. 

I grab his hand and rub it. “It’ll be okay, Cush. You’re gonna be okay, and we’re gonna make her pay.”

Sunday, June 5th

My life is a mess.

Noon

I stayed up all night to keep an eye on Cush. 

To make sure he kept breathing. 

To make sure he didn’t throw up in his sleep, suffocate, and die. 

I was a nervous wreck. The doctor said he’d be okay but to keep a close eye on him. 

Mostly I just sat next to him and cried. 

I really don’t know how I got from
I want to be popular
to here. 

My life is a mess. 

And it’s all my fault. 

I’ve been rocking the boat. Messing with Vanessa. Pretending my life is perfect when it’s not. And pretending that I’m over Brooklyn. 

Which is not fair to Cush. 

I can’t wait to go to France. 

I need to get over Brooklyn, mourn our relationship, so I can come back and be happy with Cush. He’s adorable. Sweet. And he loves me.

I know last night wasn’t his fault. 

Just like it’s not his fault that I jumped into bed with him before I should have. 

I don’t regret it though. 

He was everything he should have been. He did everything perfect. 

It was me. 

I should have waited until I was sure of my feelings.

He’ll probably be mad that I’m friends with Vanessa again, but I really didn’t have a choice. I did it to protect him. I don’t want anything like this to ever happen to him because of me. Mandy didn’t really want Cush. She just wanted to be at the top of the pedestal. Vanessa was right. Someone is always going to want what we have. 

We called Cush’s dad last night and told him what happened. He immediately called Cush’s mom, yelled at her, and told her what a bad parent she is. 

Like it was her fault. 

She called me from Paris, thanked me for taking care of him, and asked me what really happened. Cush’s dad had over exaggerated and made it sound like Cush was into drugs. His mom was freaking out. I assured her that neither of us ever did that stuff. Cush doesn’t even smoke pot. She knew he’d been having parties, so that wasn’t really a surprise to her. She was shocked though that a girl would do that to her son. She started yelling at me a little. Asking me what kind of people we hung out with. 

Even though I told her over and over it wasn’t his fault, they decided to punish Cush. He’s grounded from everything and has to spend the entire summer at his dad’s house in Oregon.

She left me the task of breaking the news to Cush.  

Around noon, Cush finally wakes up.

“Why am I here? Why aren’t you in France?” He grins at me. “Couldn’t stand to leave me for that long, could ya?”

“Um, not exactly.”

He tries to sit up.

“What happened last night? I feel kinda hungover. And why am I at your house?”

“You remember last night at all?”

He frowns and squints his eyes, like he’s trying to remember. Then he rubs his hand across his forehead. “Soccer party, right?”

I nod.

“It was really low key even though Vanessa showed up with Alex.”

“What else?”

“Let’s see. I had a couple beers. I was talking to Terrance. Mandy and Alicia sat down with us. We were talking about you.”

My blood starts to boil at the mere mention of Mandy’s name. “What were they saying?”

Cush looks down at my comforter, and his cheeks turn a little red. “Mandy basically said that she didn’t think I could go three weeks. That I’d cheat on you while you were gone. They were sort of taking bets on whether or not I could.” 

“Let me guess. Mandy thought you’d cheat on me that night? At the soccer party?”

“Yeah, that was her bet.”

“Do you remember anything after that? Do you remember seeing me there? Like in your room?”

He smiles and lazily runs his hand down my arm. “Of course I remember. I was so happy to see you. I told you I loved you.”

“That’s all you remember?”

“Uh, yeah, pretty much. I only had a couple beers. Why can’t I remember?”

“Cush, do you remember why you were in your room? You always lock your room during parties.”

“No, I don’t. Why did I go up there? Was it because you told me you were stopping by? Were we going to have a very intimate goodbye kiss?” 

I take a deep breath. 

Exhale.

And close my eyes. 

I can’t look at him while I say it. “Cush, when I walked into your room, Mandy was giving you head.”

“WHAT? What are you talking about?”

“I guess she wanted to win the bet really badly.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“I wish I was.”

“I’d never do that. Mandy? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“What did you do?”

“I was pretty pissed. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t even left town, and you were already cheating on me. Vanessa was the one that suggested I come tell you goodbye. She knew what was happening and wanted me to find out. She wanted to hurt me. So I yelled,
Surprise
! I wanted you to know you got caught, and I wanted Mandy to know I knew.”

Cush leans back against my headboard. “Oh, my God.”

“There’s more. A lot more.”

“Okay,” he says tentatively.

“I was so mad that I punched her in the face, and I’m pretty sure I broke her nose. I made a big scene and Vanessa helped me throw her and Alicia out of the party.”

“You’re joking, right? If all that would’ve happened, I wouldn’t be here. You’d be through with me.”

“What I did to Vanessa and RiAnne, the party we threw. How I purposely embarrassed her. It was mean of me. And last night, I told Vanessa to destroy Mandy. I’ve become just as big of a bitch as she is. Cush, Mandy drugged you. That’s why you can’t remember. She wanted to break us up.”

Cush looks pissed. “What the fuck?”

“Sadly, there’s more. You were pretty messed up last night. I was scared, I was going to take you to the hospital, but James had me bring you here and got our doctor to come check on you. The doctor had to talk to your dad before he treated you, and your dad freaked out. He called your mom. They fought. And, basically, they think it’s all my fault, so you’re grounded for the entire summer and you have to go live with your dad. He’s picking you up tonight.”

I can’t even describe the look on Cush’s face. 

I’m pretty sure it’s hate. 

He says, “Wow. This just keeps getting better and better. This kind of shit ever happen to Sander?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m breaking up with you. I can’t handle this. I asked you if shit like this ever happen to Sander? You ruin his life too?”

What. The. Hell.

He’s breaking up with me? I ruined his life?

Well, fuck him. 

“No, Cush, nothing like this ever happened to Sander. But then again, he didn’t have the man whore reputation you do. I’ll get someone to drive you home. Bye, Cush. You have a great summer.”