by L. N. Pearl
I could imagine how great she was in bed. Tight little body, and that attitude. She’d be an animal.
But I’d break her.
I let it drop, and picked up a menu. “You sure you don’t wanna eat?”
“No, I’m not hungry.” She tapped her nails on the table.
Oh, so that’s how it was gonna be. Just for that, I would take my time.
I ordered a burger and fries, and a milkshake. She wrinkled her nose.
“What?” I asked when the waitress walked away. “You have a thing against that?”
“No, but at this time of night? How do you sleep with all that food in your stomach?”
I leaned in. “Maybe I didn’t plan on going to sleep yet,” I said with a lecherous wink.
She smirked, “Pig.”
I had to laugh. “Relax. I eat like this at night all the time. Look around.”
I gestured to the rest of the diner. “So do all these people. You’re like an old lady in a girl’s body.”
A hot body, too.
She folded her arms. I could tell she was sulking.
My milkshake came, and I offered her some. I could tell from the way she eyed up the glass that she wanted to try it, but she refused.
Stubborn. I made a big deal of taking a long sip and telling her how good it was. Her eyes could have frozen lava.
“So, what’s your name?”
Her eyes went wide. I knew what she was thinking.
Should she tell me? Should she make something up? Why did I wanna know?
“Relax, I’m not going to stalk you. Christ,” I said, rolling my eyes.
She scowled like that was the last thing she’d been thinking. But I knew it wasn’t.
“Trinity. My name is Trinity.”
I bit the side of my tongue. It was kinda sweet. Like the rest of her.
She was the opposite of any girl I knew.
My food came. “Nothing like a nice, rare burger.” I took a big bite, letting the juice drip down my chin.
I saw the way her nose wrinkled up. She was such a snob.
“What’s your deal?” I asked, wiping my chin. “Why did you come to the party?”
She shrugged. “Because it was happening. Why did you?”
I smiled. “Because it was happening. Only, I know those people. They’re my friends. You’re not one of us.”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve never seen you before.”
She did look a little familiar, but I couldn’t place her. She was older than the girl I was thinking of, though.
“I’m pretty familiar with most of the girls who hang around with my friends.”
She snorted, looked out the window. “I’m sure you are.”
“Cute.” I ate a few fries.
Who was she? I felt like I should know. She wasn’t one of us, for sure.
She had just about died when the police showed up. Couldn’t even jump off the roof of that porch, or whatever it was.
The rest of us were used to doing stuff like that.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” I hoped I came off casual, like I didn’t care.
It was never easy to ask that question casually, though.
She stayed quiet.
“Did you come alone?”
Still quiet.
She checked her watch. It wasn’t the first time since she sat down. I guessed she wouldn’t answer anything I asked, so I went back to my food.
Why did I care who she was, anyway?
The girl was a snob. I knew what she thought about me. It was nothing new.
So why bother trying to find out anything about her?
Then I remembered the way her body pressed up against mine. Those tits. There were other tits, on other women.
I could call up any girl I knew and be in their bed in no time. This Trinity didn’t matter.
“Listen,” she said, turning back to me. “I really need to get home. It’s no joke. I’m going to be in big, big trouble if I don’t get there soon. I’ll answer your questions if you just take me home.”
“Why didn’t you say so?”
Probably some asshole stepfather or a mother who gave her shit. That, I could understand.
I finished eating and signaled for the check.
We got outside and onto the bike. “What’s your address?”
She was quiet.
“Hello?”
“Um, just take me to the corner of Pine and Walnut.”
That was weird. There was a convenience store there, and a dry cleaner across the street. She didn’t live at the funeral home across diagonally from there.
What was she playing at?
Oh, I get it...I wasn’t allowed to know where she lived. I got the message and turned the bike in that direction.
It was a nice neighborhood. She had to live nearby—no way she was gonna be walking far in those shoes she was wearing.
So, she was a rich little snob, after all. I should have known, with a name like Trinity.
I stopped in front of the funeral home. “Here you go.”
She got off the bike. “Thanks.”
She was smart, but not smart enough. I knew her game, and I wasn’t gonna let her get away with it so easily.
Then she surprised me. She bent over and kissed me on the cheek.
I felt my dick stir in my pants, over just a little kiss. She smelled like peppermint.
When she straightened up, she said, “I don’t have a boyfriend, and I came alone to the party.”
There was a light in her eyes, a little blush on her cheeks.
She was more interested than she wanted to show.
Chapter 3 - Trinity
I waited for him to leave. He wasn’t leaving. I smiled. He smiled back.
“Okaaaaay, well, thanks again for the ride…and everything.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, and waited.
“Good night.”
“Same to you.”
“Are you going to leave?”
“When I feel like it.”
I frowned, “When you feel like it? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s supposed to mean that I’ll leave when I feel like it. It’s a free country, you know.”
This wouldn’t work. I needed him to go, and fast.
“I think you should leave.”
“Why? What’s the problem? Maybe I wanted to be a gentleman. You know, wait til you got to the door. Isn’t that what nice guys are supposed to do?”
The sarcasm dripped from his voice. I knew he knew he wasn’t a nice guy, and I had the feeling he didn’t care. He was making fun of me.
“I don’t need you to. Please, go!”
He smirked. “Why won’t you walk into your house?”
He nodded to the home we were in front of. A funeral parlor. Jesus. I could have smacked myself for choosing this corner.
I shrugged it off. “Because. I wanted to wait until you left.”
“What’s the big deal?”
I could have screamed. I was wasting time, arguing with a delinquent roughneck, when my dad would be home any minute, and I still had to walk a block to get to my house.
I didn’t want him to know where I really lived, of course. Which was why I had him stop where I did.
I never guessed he would challenge me.
“You’re acting all paranoid,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not a serial killer. You don’t have to be worried about me finding out where you live.”
I was so surprised that he saw through me, I laughed a little. “I don’t think you’re a serial killer. A heartbreaker, maybe.”
He laughed, then turned on the bike.
I breathed a sigh of relief and wondered if I could run in those blasted shoes.
“By the way,” he called over his shoulder, as he turned the bike around, “you’ve got a really nice ass.”
I turned bright red. So he’d seen me when my dress blew up! I opened my mouth to say something back, but h
e pulled away.
I had to smile, still blushing.
Then I had to run, or at least, run as best as I could in pencil-thin heels. I hadn’t known what to wear to the stupid party, so I thought I would dress “slutty.”
I felt like I was wearing a Halloween costume, and it was for no good reason, since most of the girls had worn jeans and low-cut tops.
I could have pulled that off more easily.
I rounded the corner and was just about to run up the driveway when I saw my dad’s car approaching from the other end of the block.
Holy jeez!
I booked it up the driveway and around to the back of the house, pulling my key from my purse as I went.
The headlights were just shining through the front windows as I ran up the stairs.
Good thing what’s-his-face didn’t take any more of my time!
I was undressed in seconds, throwing the dress and shoes into my closet, then jumping into my pajamas.
I pulled a bunch of wipes out of the little box on my dresser and wiped off as much of my makeup as possible, then brushed out my hair and pulled it into a ponytail.
I would get away with it. He hardly looked at me, anyway. I sighed at the thought and saw sadness in my eyes.
My heart ached a little.
It was still aching as I went downstairs in my fuzzy slippers. My feet thanked me for getting them out of the heels.
They used to be my sister’s. I would never wear shoes like that unless I were trying to fit in somewhere. Like I had earlier.
“Daddy? That you?” I rounded the corner, walking into the kitchen.
He was microwaving his dinner.
“Hey, Pumpkin,” he muttered.
Just as I predicted, he didn’t look at me. He was going through a stack of mail.
“Why don’t you go into the living room and relax? I’ll get your dinner ready.”
I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He muttered his thanks, then left the kitchen. I breathed a heavy sigh.
His grief was like a real, tangible thing that took up space between us. When he left the room, I felt like I could breathe again.
I glanced at the clock as I pulled a beer from the fridge. Past midnight.
He was working later and later hours, and I knew why. He’d been the same way when Mom left, shutting himself off.
Throwing himself into work so he wouldn’t have to think about anything.
Back then, he did it to avoid wondering why his seemingly happy marriage had dissolved.
Now, he did it to avoid thinking about his dead daughter. The one who’d looked so much like me.
I leaned against the counter, my heart aching again.
Oh, Angela.
Just thinking her name got my eyes stinging. I fought the tears. I didn’t want Dad to see them…though he made it a point to avoid my eyes.
It had been six months, but it might as well have happened hours earlier. The pain was so raw.
It might have helped if I felt like I could talk to him about it. It might have helped him, too.
For two people living in the same house, we might as well have lived on the opposite sides of the world, if our closeness was any measure.
We had never been that way before. He had done his best to be a good, involved parent. Or at least he did, before a group of kids found Angela’s body.
Now he was merely a shell.
I had hoped that time would make a difference. It had with Mom.
After six months, maybe a year, he got back into life.
Reaching out to friends and having them over for cards every other Friday night like he used to.
Going to church, eating sensibly, and not working insane hours.
I hoped that would be the case now. I was worried for him, and I felt so alone.
I plated the frozen lasagna, hoping he would actually eat some of it, and carried it into the living room along with the beer.
He murmured his thanks, but his eyes never left the TV screen. I knew better than to try to get his attention, and went back upstairs instead.
***
The next morning, the sound of a car horn told me my ride was outside. I grabbed my book bag and hurried outside.
“I swear, I’ll get the car into the shop soon,” I promised Maggie as I climbed into her car.
“Hello to you, too,” she said, pulling away from my house.
“Sorry. I just feel bad, making you swing by like this.”
“You’re not making me do anything. I don’t mind a bit, and it’s what, an extra five minutes out of my morning?”
“Yeah, but add that up over a few weeks and I feel like I’m taking advantage of you. I want to take it in soon, like today or tomorrow. You won’t have to do this for long.”
“I like the conversation. Plus you’re helping me make sure I get my butt out of bed for class.”
She smiled at me, and I felt a rush of love for my best friend.
“So, let me tell you about my adventure last night,” I said, and I started in on the story of my close call at the party.
“Wait—you went to one of their parties? Are you insane?” Maggie’s mouth was hanging open.
I frowned. “I told you already, I have to get close to them.”
I knew she didn’t get it. She was worried and wanted me to be safe, but she had no idea how it felt to lose a sister—especially when there’d been no definitive cause of her death identified.
The cops hadn’t arrested anyone, and we were just living in limbo.
“You’re playing with fire, kiddo. There’s no telling what those people will do!”
“I know, I know…”
“Trinity. I’m serious.”
We pulled up to a red light, and Maggie turned to face me. “Listen—one of them probably killed your sister. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but it’s true. Why would you take a risk like that?”
“Because I have to find him. Whoever he is. I can’t just let him get away with it,” I sighed, facing forward.
This wasn’t the first time we’d been over my obsession with bringing Angela’s killer to justice.
I would never make Maggie understand what it was like, losing the person you love most in the world, and not even knowing why it happened.
No one was paying for her murder—except Dad and me. Whoever did it was walking free. It was bad enough, feeling like half my heart was gone.
The half that remained was being eaten up by this unfinished business.
“So what happened?” she asked.
“The cops came.”
“What? What’d you do?”
“I’m still alive today, right? I made it out before they caught me.”
“Holy crap! We never even did stuff like that in high school! Well, you’ve finally sneaked out of a party raided by the cops! Congratulations.” We both laughed.
“It wasn’t so funny last night,” I said. “I thought I would die from fear alone. Can you imagine what my dad would have done to me?”
Then again, I thought, maybe he would have paid attention to me, for once.
“How did you make it out?”
“I climbed out a window and walked across a glass roof.”
“You did not! Oh, my God!”
“And then…” this was the best part, and I dragged it out to further the suspense.
“And then what? You’re killing me here!”
“And then…I jumped into the arms of a stranger. A guy. An extremely hot guy.”
“Shut. Up.” We pulled into the parking lot at school, and Maggie turned in her seat. “You are making this up.”
“Nope. He caught me, and we landed on the ground together. Me on top.”
“No!” She swooned a little, fanning herself. “And he was hot?”
“Oh yeah, so hot. You know I don’t usually go for guys like…well, like that. A little dirty, like rough around the edges. A bad boy.”
“Oooh, a bad boy.” Maggie’s eyebrows went up a
nd down. That type was much more her speed.
I shrugged. “Like I said, you know I usually hate guys like that. But this one…he was hot as hell. Dark blonde, kinda longish hair. The bluest eyes ever.”
“Body?”
“Smokin. Arms, shoulders, chest like granite.”
I didn’t want to say this out loud, but I remembered how firm and strong he’d felt underneath me.
I wondered what it would be like to have him on top of me, instead…I bit my lip, shivering a little.
She sighed. “And you landed in his arms. Wow! Like something out of a movie!”
“That’s what I thought!” I laughed, remembering how ridiculous it all was.
Even as I did, I also felt the little tingle between my legs when I remembered how breathless it made me, and how wet. He’d been so close, almost too close.
“What was his name?”
My mouth fell open. “I have no idea. I told him my name, but he never gave me his.”
“Oh, come on!” We got out of the car, Maggie glaring at me over the roof. “Rookie mistake!”
“It just slipped my mind. Whatever. I was freaked out trying to get home before my dad. Besides, it’s not like I’ll ever see him again. I don’t imagine I’ll be going back to another one of those parties.”
“Did you find out anything at least?”
I shook my head.
“No, and it was super uncomfortable, too. Like, even more than what you’d expect at a party where you don’t know anyone. They were all rough and rowdy. Not exactly my crowd.”
Maggie’s red curls bounced back and forth as she shook her head.
“I’m so glad you made it out of there okay. Will you please let this be a lesson to you? Don’t take chances like that…it’s not worth it, and you could have gotten into real trouble.”
“All right, Mom,” I muttered. It was a real reversal, getting advice from my much wilder best friend.
I was usually the one shaking my head at her antics.
“Trinity. I mean it.” She took my arm and held me back. “Be careful, please.”
I smiled and patted her hand. I couldn’t be mad at her. I knew she was only worried for me.
Considering the way Angela died, I didn’t blame her. But I couldn’t let it go.
She was my sister, and nobody could tell me how to feel, or how far I should go when it came to finding her killer.
“I will,” I promised, before giving her a hug and walking to class.
