by Paisley Ray
“Right away.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Please just tell her to call as soon as you find her.”
“I will.”
“Thank you Rachael. You’re a good friend.”
I hung up. I had an idea where to find Jet, and I wasn’t happy about fetching her. Knocking on Clay’s apartment wasn’t my idea of a great start to the day. ‘You promised,’ a little voice inside nagged, and war began to wage inside my conscience as I weighted the heaviness of her mom’s voice. Mrs. J didn’t say the word ‘emergency,’ but she sounded urgent. Did the early morning phone call warrant me calling over to Clay and Hugh’s place to interrupt the couple’s start to what was considered the most romantic day of the year? They’d all think I had nothing better to do than check on the love shack.
Why hadn’t I let the machine pick up?
Placing my hands on the countertop, I was about to stand up and dig around for the boys’ phone number. Instead a gulp of air and a scream rasped from my throat. I blinked to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. A well-hidden snake slithered against the black-tiled kitchen floor baseboard. It surprised me when it began to climb up the space between the oven and a cabinet. The scaly skin that pressed upward was partially camouflaged. The thing’s body was the diameter of one of Francine’s soup ladle handle and I estimated the length to be three feet.
Backing off the stool, I kept watch on the reptile. I needed to call Danman from pest control, but the yellow pages were in the kitchen on the shelf next to the oven, so that wasn’t happening. As the snake made its way to the countertop, its tongue darted in and out of a narrow head. Switching on a nearby overhead light, I noticed its skin gleam in an array of blacks and grays. It had a surprisingly shimmery quality that the fluorescent light reflected off its body. I knew I was bigger and stronger. I could’ve tried to trap it under a pot or garbage can, but my mental state didn’t feel brave. Its head twitched. I couldn’t be sure it was the same snake that I’d spotted on Mom’s double-decker bus, but thought the odds were good. As the creature decided its next move, I determined mine was out the door.
THE SHIVER THAT REVERBRATED down my spine wasn’t from the February chill in the air. My noisy breath bellowed in erratic gasps as I hustled through suburban neighborhoods. Funny how fast your feet can move when you’re motivated. Why me? I have four roommates and I’m the lucky one to be blessed with the snake encounter. My roommates were going to crap. A reptile had been living in the house for months and we thought it was gone. There were subtle signs, unverified sightings that we’d all chosen to ignore. After Francine had performed her herbal cleaning, we all believed the thing had disappeared.
Bogus Bayou folklore healing bullshit tactic.
Who knew where it had been, what cubby or dresser drawer it had coiled inside all these months. My tongue stroked the edges of my crooked eyetooth. Fumbling in my pocket, I removed the eye of Horus necklace I’d hastily retrieved from my bedroom along with my backpack before I bolted. My fingers fumbled to fasten the claw hook on the back of the chain. Weird things happened in my life, and I took the snake sighting as a sign to hold tight and batten down the hatch. As much as I liked to think myself as normal-ish and sensible, I wasn’t opposed to wearing a trinket given to me by a New Orleans Voodoo maven’s decedent, for just-in-cases.
The wooden sign in front of the Xanadu apartment buildings tilted, and the aqua paint behind the yellow letters had faded. I had worked hard at ignoring Jet and Clay’s attraction, but knew from Katie Lee that I had a good chance of finding her at his apartment. The two couples spent a fair amount of time hanging out. Even though Clay and I were long over, sometimes a jealous chord still pinged inside my chest. If things had gone like I’d imagined, I’d have been over there, not Jet.
Striding across the parking lot, I realized I should’ve been on the alert and paid attention to the subtleties of how Jet panted around Clay during sophomore year. She’d been enamored with his lean figure, long lashes, and southern charm.
What is it with you? You’re over him.
Surface deep, I knew it was Stone that fueled my insecurities. A few weeks back, he’d been spotted on campus by Sheila and had a brief conversation with Francine, but never contacted me. Becoming unmemorable to someone you’re emotionally invested in bites.
The cars in the lot were brown, blue, white, and gray, their colors dull under the cloud cover. Even the hood of the red sporty car I glimpsed in a distant corner seemed uninteresting. My feet clipped along. A nearby car door shut, and a student turned over the engine before backing out a compact Toyota pick-up. His window was rolled down and I smelled tobacco. Even though it was before eight, I decided I’d treat myself to a smoke after I called Danman and told Jet to call her mother.
On the side of the apartment building, I noticed a guy walking backwards as he maneuvered an empty laundry basket from the narrow passageway. He wore a baseball cap, sweatshirt, and jeans, and his stride was long. Busting into a jog, I shouted, “Clay,” but screeching tires drowned out my voice, and he kept moving toward his apartment.
The sporty red car that peeled around a corner had a striking resemblance to Sheila’s Fiero. I jumped into the air repeatedly and tried to read the license plate. It couldn’t be, I thought, and watched as the window rolled down and a slender arm reached out to straighten the mirror. When the car sped off, locks of ginger hair splayed out the window. My feet froze as my mind struggled to comprehend what I’d just witnessed. Quickening my pace toward Clay, I headed him off at the bottom of a staircase.
“You never stopped fooling around with Sheila did you?”
He blinked. “Are you drunk?”
“I wish. Then maybe your relationships would seem normal.”
“Keeping tabs on me?”
“No!”
His head tilted. “Is this your way of asking me to take you back?”
“This conversation is not about us!”
“I’m confused,” he said.
Like hell was he going to outwit me. Regaining my inner pissed off, I lashed. “This is about you, lying to me and,” I stumbled, “Jet.”
“You are loaded.” He leaned in close to my lips.
I pulled back.
He made a point of inhaling, holding his breath, then releasing. “Have you been smoking wacky backy?”
“I know Sheila spent the night.”
He began to climb the stairs to his apartment. “Rachael, quit meddling and go home,”
Not caring who I woke, I shouted, “After everything she put you through, the stalking, the constant phone calls, the possessiveness, now you’re sleeping with her again?”
I struck a sensitive button. “I don’t touch a hot burner twice.”
His comment hung in my mind and I watched as he neared the top step. In a moment of clarity I raced up. The front door of his apartment was unlocked, and I bolted inside and down the narrow hallway, past Clay’s room and the bathroom. A heavy floral scent that reminded me of my Aunt Gert back in Canton, Ohio, minus the cigar smoke element, clung in the air. Less flowery—Eternity by Calvin Klein. Using my foot to give Hugh’s door a shove, it obliged. Swinging open, it crashed into the wall stopper with a twangy boing-oing-oing.
Bare-chested in a pair of black bikinis, Hugh lay curled on his side. He dragged a hand over his ear. There was an open condom wrapper on the dresser table and I noticed another on the floor. “You are an asshole.”
He dragged the rumpled comforter that dangled on his ankles over his waist. In a raspy southern drawl he choked out, “Aren’t you the early bird? All bright and chipper.”
“How long has your tryst being going on? Did you and Sheila ever stop? Does Katie Lee suspect? Is that why she’s away? Did you two break up or something?”
“Sorry for the unexpected company,” Clay said from the doorway. “She ambushed me outside.”
My gaze didn’t break from Hugh.
“Rachael, I don’t know what creative ideas
you’re manufacturing, but Katie Lee and I are still together and nothing has changed.”
Splaying the curtains open, I let early morning gray into Hugh’s room and enjoyed watching him squint. There were lines around the edges of his eyes, the skin underneath retained puffiness, and his cheeks and nose looked ruddy, as though he’d been exerting himself. I was sure he’d done something several times that was detrimental to keeping a girlfriend. I’d been through this charade before. Knowing personal tidbits about Katie Lee’s boyfriend’s infidelities. She picked her men from the same Jell-O mold. Fancy shapes that disguised wobbly cheaters. I’d learned from the past, it wasn’t worth keeping secrets from friends. Near the side of his bed, I tripped over a fishing tackle box that floated in a sea of beer cans. The air in the bedroom reeked of early morning fermented funk. Picking up the condom wrapper with a bait net on a stick, I flung it at him. It didn’t go far and landed on a pillowcase between us. “What’s this? Fishing gear?”
“That is none of your business.”
I put my nose into the pillow.
“Hey now,” Hugh said.
“She’s on something,” Clay said from the doorway.
The sheets stank of Sheila’s Eternity. Pointing from my forehead to his, I made myself clear. “Onto you. I’m not keeping secrets.”
“That’s enough,” Clay said, and I felt his hand pulling me backward. “Didn’t your mama teach you that it’s not polite to barge into bedrooms and make accusations?”
I shook loose. “Believe me, I have better things to do than keep a scorecard for your sex conquests.”
Hugh got out of bed and slid into a pair of jeans.
Clay rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”
“I came over here to find Jet. She needs to call home.”
“You go running to look for someone every time they get a call from Mom?”
“She said it was important,” I squeaked.
“Why would Jet be over here?” Hugh asked.
I hitchhiked my thumb toward Clay. “To get her stupid fix.”
“We aren’t together.”
My esteem for Jet rose, and I then I became worried. I didn’t know of any other boyfriends. Where was she?
“Hugh, give me your car keys and I’ll take her home.”
“She’s not going until this is straightened out.”
Spinning around, I headed down the hallway. “You two womanizers can kiss my northern ass.”
“Enough with the compliments,” Hugh said.
Remembering the reason I’d legged it over here, I stopped near a sofa end table. “I have to use your phone.”
They both stared at me.
“There’s a snake in our kitchen.”
Clay swirled his pointer finger in circles near his temple, and pitched a whistle.
NOTE TO SELF
Would like to strangle Hugh—am sure Katie Lee will take care of that. He has three years of Sheila under his belt and should know better than to be alone with her.
CHAPTER 22
Hell’s Bells
The sky had cleared and sunshine blinded us through the windshield. My ex-boyfriend and Katie Lee’s soon-to-be ex had guided me to the parking lot, each holding onto an upper arm before heaving my pissed off ass inside the car. I landed on the ripped plastic back seat, feet first, via the hatchback. Since the passenger door was still duct taped, Clay climbed over the driver seat and settled in the front. It took four minutes for Hugh to drive us from the Xanadu Apartment complex to Sheila’s snake cave. I know, because I channeled my fury into the face of my Swatch for the entire drive, which wasn’t an easy task with two annoying yahoos in the front of the car.
“Come on, O’Brien. Let it go,” Hugh said.
Turning around, Clay waggled his eyebrows. “We know you love us.”
I snarled at him.
“She may bite,” Clay said.
My eyeballs rolled heavenward as I concocted a plan to tackle the vermin that threw itself in my life today. Wait on the porch for pest control. If Katie Lee arrived, I’d pull her aside and spill the news. There was a reoccurring theme in her choice of boyfriends and if someone didn’t open her eyes, ‘the one’ could turn into one big catastrophe.
Hugh and Sheila had hooked up. I was sure of it, and the fact that he wouldn’t confirm or deny the accusation only fueled my suspicion of his guilt. There was no use sugar-coating the facts. Maybe now was the time to throw Nash under the Sheila bus, too. I guessed that for Sheila and Hugh indiscretions were like a high stakes poker game and the addictive adrenaline rush erased any concern about hearts they broke. If I coerced Hugh or Sheila to personally ‘fess up to her, and if they agreed, that would only overflow her emotional cauldron. As much as I avoided conflict, Katie Lee was a good friend and if I were in her shoes, I knew it would be better to hear the news from someone close. That way she could compose herself, and figure out her next move.
“O’Brien, you’re making something of nothing.” Hugh said.
“Am I?”
At a four-way stop sign, he made a meager attempt to distract the conversation topic. “Are you serious about the snake thing?”
Clay’s head spun around again, “Or was it a ploy to pay us a visit?”
I flashed a closed mouth smile and batted my eyelids.
The poop-mobile crept down the street in front of The Flamingo House, and I kept my eyes peeled for a red Fiero. Not that I could see out of the passenger-side duct taped window. If She-Devil was at the house, I wondered if she’d spotted the unwelcome guest. It served her right, if it lurked in her room. Karma!
Hugh took his time parallel parking before he cut the engine and in his best gentleman manner, lent me a hand to help me out on the driver’s side. I gripped his hand in a Vulcan power squeeze. “Good knowing you both. Have a nice life.”
Shaking out his reddened hand he muttered some obscenities. His torso was lean, his shoulders broad. Even though he was the same person I met early freshman year, he was somehow different. He’d shaved his mustache, and rarely wore a pair of silver tipped cowboy boots that used to be his signature shoe. He’d confessed that he only grew the caterpillar on his lip to get into bars. This morning he wore high tops. I didn’t think they suited him. I liked the old Hugh better.
“We need to talk.”
“Why’s that?” I asked
Trapped on the passenger side, Clay climbed over the gearshift. I saw one of his legs emerge when Hugh led me toward the hatchback. “It was nothing.”
“Is that what Sheila told you?”
“You’re turning nothing into something.”
“I consider cheating on one of my best friends, something.”
Hugh glared at me. “Don’t do this. Katie Lee is important to me.”
A scoff erupted from my throat. Why did she pick guys who cheated on her? I thought of Stone. Did all guys eventually cheat?
I peered over my shoulder. Clay’s arms were crossed and he rested his backside on the hood of Hugh’s hunk of junk. I led us under a barren maple tree. “I’m going to ask this once. Did you sleep with Sheila?”
Hugh’s head jerked. He couldn’t look at me.
“She likes to brag,” I said.
Clay jingled the car keys. “I have class. Are we going in to find the snake or what?”
Hugh’s eyes closed. When he opened them, he drilled his pupils into mine “She stopped by with some fishing tackle. Said her Dad doesn’t have the time. He was going to get rid of the gear.”
The morning was quiet. No bird chatter or car engine rumbling.
“She spent the night.”
I didn’t flinch a muscle.
“It was a mistake. Rachael, she seduced me.”
“Yeah, right. What’d she do? Tie you up?”
“Sheila can be persuasive. I’d been drinking and everything went haywire. I love Katie Lee; you gotta help me out of this.”
Sometimes it sucked to be right. His indiscretion affected all of us, and in ad
dition to wrecking his relationship would bumfuzzle the living conditions in our house. No one would tolerate Sheila. She’d be an outcast. I didn’t know if Katie Lee could live under her roof until the end of the year. If she moved out, I would too, and I guessed Francine would follow. Jet was a wild card. My feet trekked across dormant lawns that were spotted with brown grass. I’d been so busy processing the enormity of the ramifications that I didn’t notice the Suburu parked on the street.
“Rachael,” Stone said from the porch step where he leaned back on his elbows.
“What are you doing here?”
He sat upright. “Do I need an excuse to miss you?”
“Rach,” Hugh screeched. “Don’t do this to me. I can make it go away.”
Stone looked from me to Hugh and stood.
“Do what?” Stone asked.
I didn’t immediately answer. I’ll admit it. I’m not a forgive-and-forget kind of girl, no matter how cute the guy. I hold onto grudges and have a habit of harboring anger at people who cross me. I let him have a nice long think about why Hugh followed me.
“I’m involved in a situation,” I said.
Stone glided down the steps. “What do you mean?”
Hugh latched onto my arm. “It’s private.”
I shook him off. “You’re on your own.”
Hugh persisted. “Rachael, no one is perfect.”
Stone shoved Hugh. “You heard her.”
From down the block, Clay jogged toward us.
“Just stop.” I said and left them behind. A pushing match began as Hugh tried to stop me before I entered the house. But it ended quickly with Hugh on his tiptoes, pressed against a tree, Stone’s left hand clutching his throat tightly. I stared at the front door. I didn’t like snakes and had trouble deciding whose company was worse. Placing my key in the lock, the door swung open. Behind my back a grinding rumble gained momentum as it rolled closer. It sounded like a piece of rampant farm equipment was going to plow into the front yard. I couldn’t help but turn around. Noisy brakes screeched, puffed, and ground. No biggie. It was just a red double-decker bus, slumping to a halt on the street in front of The Flamingo House.
