The Next Contestant (2 page)

“Let go of me! I hate you. I hate you!”

“Get rid of it, Kimber. I’m not going to be a father. No fucking way.”

Get rid of it? I can’t believe he’s saying this to me. This is the same man who promised he’d take care of his own if he ever knocked anyone up. What a liar.

“No, Devin. I can’t do that, but don’t worry, I don’t need you. We’re done, over!” I charge for the front door and after I escape I hear the door slam shut.

Once I reach my car, my hands are shaking so bad I struggle with the handle to open it. After I slide into the seat and buckle up, I realize I left my purse inside the house. I can’t go in there, not until I calm down.

Ten minutes later, I’m at the door. Instead of knocking, I grab the handle and turn it, expecting it to be locked, but it isn’t.

I don’t know what I expected when I stepped inside, but I know it isn’t what I’m seeing. I can’t believe my eyes. I… Oh, my god. Oh, my—

“What the fuck! You—” Devin’s pants are down, butt exposed. He pulls the needle out of his gluteus; blood gushes out until he grabs a cotton ball off the table and presses down over the injection site. I see a bottle with a light oily liquid.
Steroids?
And then our eyes lock, his wide and wild, full of fury and I swear, if he had a gun, he’d probably shoot me.

“I-I left my purse…” I rush toward the couch, snatch it, but Devin’s fast and he grabs my hair, wraps it around his fist, and drags me up.

“You tell anyone about this and you’ll be sorry. Keep your fucking mouth shut, bitch. You get me?”

I nod.

“Yeah? I can’t hear you,” he taunts.

“Yes! Let me go, Devin. I don’t give a fuck what you do! Just let me go and leave me the hell alone. For good.”

He releases me and shoves me toward the door. His devious smile doesn’t go unnoticed when I glance over my shoulder at him as I exit the house.

Weeks go by and Devin continues to threaten me, making sure to mention how his governor daddy and lawyer uncle have him covered. I’m not sure if his threats were over the pregnancy or the drugs, but he finally stops his threats once I inform him it was a false alarm.

The next weekend, I celebrate, hard, with my best friends. They assume I’m celebrating my singlehood, which I guess I am, but I never told anyone, other than Devin about the false alarm.

I never step foot in the frat house again. My brother doesn’t say anything, but I know he’s happy about the break up. He later warns me that he and his fraternity swore an oath. No brother is allowed to date a sister of any of their fraternity brothers. That oath is ridiculous. Thank god we go to different colleges. My dating life would be ruined because Kolby thinks he needs to protect me. From the brotherhood.

NOT LONG AFTER
our break-up, there’s buzz about Devin getting busted for using steroids and the coach kicking him off the team. Guess good ol’ Devin couldn’t hack it because he was kicked out of the fraternity and then he transferred to a different college.

I assume whatever issues he had with me were over, until I receive a text from him.

D: U nark me off, bitch?

K:
Nope.

D: Who then? That pussy brother of yours?

K:
Nope.

D: Bitch, I swear I’ll get revenge. If not you, then whoever fuckin’ ratted me out.

I have my number changed the next day.

THE FOLLOWING YEAR,
all is good in my world. Douchebag is out of my life and tonight, me and my bitches, Tiffany, Diana, Karina, Janice, Angela, and Trena are celebrating. We’ve been friends since childhood, been on the same dance team since high school, and that hasn’t changed since we started college a year ago. We’re all sophomores this year.
Hurrah!
And tonight, we’re heading out to the biggest party of the year at Jaden, one of my brother’s fraternity brothers, house. His family owns this massive piece of land and there’s a small lake, where the bonfire will likely be.

I hear voices outside my dorm room and know it’s my girls. I’m giddy and anxious to party with them. It’s the first time I’ve been to one of my brother’s friend’s parties since Devin and I broke up.

I’ve never mentioned Devin’s threats to Kolby. What’s there to tell? Devin was all mouth and no action. His threats were nothing but meaningless words to scare me. Kolby doesn’t need the stress. He’s beginning his third year of college and his soccer team, UC Berkeley Bears, is at the top of their game.

There’s pounding on my door.

“Your ass better be ready! Come on, bitch! Let us in.” That’d be Diana.

There’s more pounding and laughter. And then they all rush in after Tiffany uses the key I gave her to unlock the door.

I sit and slip on my shoes. “Hang on, assholes.”

And off we go, stopping at a little Mexican restaurant to eat first. Of course we’re all on our phones, all on Facebook, and all in our favorite dirty little room.

“This… this is all your fault, Karina,” I say as I point my phone in her direction .

Her head snaps up. “What?”

“This page you’ve created, this dirty, sexy little room! I’m so not ever going to want ‘normal’ again.”

Karina blushes and smiles oh so sweet, but I know better. She’s sweet on the outside, but a dirty little ho on the inside. She has auburn hair
,
the sweetest smile with a cute little dimple. She’s like the pretty and cute all wrapped up in a bon bon… yeah that girl smiles, and the boys are looking… and smiling… but they don’t know that girl. Don’t get me wrong, she’s sweet, but dang! She flirts with the best of them, then say what? She’ll turn on a Jimmy Choo and ignore them boys, hard. So beware!

I scan the faces of my friends, and they’re all glued to their damn phones. I halt on Angela, red hair, green eyes, and she’s so sweet, or so everyone seems to think. But I know better. Yes, she’s sweet but she’s got this naughty girl side and I swear, she finds the hottest freaking guys on Tumblr. And when I say hot, I mean every naked inch of them. Right now, her green eyes are working and she has this nonchalant sweet little smile on her face. That sweet little smile tells me she’s just posted something fantastically dirty in the room. I turn my attention to my Facebook, and sure enough there’s a new post, so I have to check it out.

“Holy mother of Uranus! Angela, I officially dub you the queen of all things porn.” She so posted… oh I can’t even go there. But I can’t stop looking at the size of him, and how he has his thumb in her… yeah, THERE. Wow. Not sure I could let a guy do that to me, but it’s sort of hot.

I look up again. It’s comical to watch the faces of my friends when I know what they’re looking at. We’ve got Trena, who’s pretty tall at 5’10
.
She has hazel eyes, long black dreadlocks, and smooth cocoa skin, like the milky way. Her man, Xavier… oh, yeah. OMG! She calls him chocolate thunder! Come on, for real? Well, whatever Trena has… whips, locks… yeah; chocolate thunder has met his fudge Sunday. Believe me, you’d understand if you ever had to experience sleeping in the room next to theirs. You’re sleeping, in a good dream, and then BOOM! You wake from the bang, bang, bang, and swear there’s a tornado, but then you realize it’s the headboard smacking the wall furiously. And the noise isn’t an actual train; it’s the g-force that is Trena and Xavier! I never had that with… well, you know who. Uh.

Then we have
Diana. She’s a fantastic friend, also
very protective of our group. She’s always been that way and we all love her for it. But none of us want to get on her bad side. She has a temper hotter than St. Helen’s… or whatever that volcano is called. And if you’re her boyfriend, better not fuck her over ’cause she’ll shove those balls you’ll never see again up your ass. True story! Okay, so maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but she is that awesome. And she’s been steadily dating Dean. Nothing comes between them, EVER!

Yeah, they’re royally sickening to watch… okay! So we’re all jealous. Not only does she have the best hair ever, she’s also got the perfect boyfriend. They look beautiful together. His features… tall, lean with just the right amount of muscle… rugged blond hair….

I miss having a boyfriend. I miss the
old
Devin, but not the monster he became. I’m totally over him, over the trauma, and ready to move forward, I think.

Ah, then we have Tiffany. She has long legs, curly black hair that flows down to her waist, a curvy figure and she’s my BFF. She’s been sucking down Martinis since we arrived and now she’s nudging me.

“
Kimber… Since you won’t hook me up with Kolby, you’ve totally got to go to this party with me and help me hook up with Vincenzo! Oh. My. God. He looks at me and my panties are in a bunch… oh, wait. I don’t wear panties!” She’s laughing now and I can’t help it, I laugh too. I think she’s already tipsy.

“Deal,” I tell her and then continue scanning the faces of my friends. I pause on Janice, the seemingly shy girl with blonde hair and green eyes, who is typing away. Yeah, she may look shy, but I know she’s not. I’ve read her novel, Promises, Promises, which was deliciously steamy, so I so know that girl is NOT shy.

Okay, so we all like naked men, hot pics, and naughty books!

The server comes and just like a bunch of kids, we all scramble to exit out of the app.

We eat, we have dessert, and then we’re off to party.

Yay!

WE’VE BEEN AT
party central for several hours. I hate to say that I’m sorely disappointed. Yes, I’ve been hit on, a lot, but then said guy asks my name and it’s like I’m a curse because they all suddenly have go meet a friend, or they’ll be right back, or better yet, a few threw their hands up and said, “Oh, no way, man. I aint getting my ass kicked.” So here I am—a walking plague, apparently—the
only
one in my group without a warm body to cozy up to.

It’s chilly and I can’t stop shivering, but I’m hesitant to ask Trena for her keys so I can get my jacket out of her car. She’s hot and heavy with Xavier. Shit, all my friends are
occupied
. I’m the only loner here.

This sucks.

“Trena.” I nudge her. “Trena, give me your keys. I need to get my jacket.” She grumbles but manages to fumble for her keys and tosses them at me, never unlocking lips with Xavier. Talented bitch!

I push up and wade through the partygoers. Ten minutes of weaving through crowds, some sober, but most inebriated already, I take a sharp right and head toward the dimly lit area where there’s less bodies.

I’m such a loser tonight. No boyfriend and none of Kolby’s friends will risk getting their ass kicked. Not after the bullshit with Devin…

If I’d been paying attention, instead of feeling sorry for myself, I wouldn’t have drifted toward the group of guys leaning against a monster of a black truck.

“Hey,” one of them calls out. I glance over at them, or him. He’s tall, probably six feet plus, with a possible shit-eating-grin on his face. No way am I going to respond. I keep walking, until he calls out again.

“Hey, is that you, Kimmi?”

I glance over my shoulder at him wondering how he knows my nickname. “Maybe, maybe not. Why?”