Stalk Me

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 go

“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,

RiA

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

Vanessa and RiA

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 go

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?”