But the call wasn't from Veronica. It was her friend Cassidy. The girl she had told me to ask about what she was doing in dorm 2 with Wendy. The one who would tell me that Veronica was being 100% faithful to me and that there was nothing going on between her and Wendy.
Cassidy said she was being released from jail the following night or early morning, and she had nowhere else to go. Could I come pick her up, and could she come stay with me for a few days, until she figured things out. I didn't know this girl at all, but she said she had something for me: a love letter that Veronica had written to Wendy in D pod. Wow.
Veronica had given the letter to Morgan, the girl who used to be Kayla's best friend, and who had given my letter to Veronica, after I asked her to tell me the truth about what Veronica was doing behind my back. But now Morgan really did come through for me after all, and instead of giving Veronica's letter to Wendy, she decided to give it to me instead. Morgan knew that Cassidy was about to be released, and she gave the letter to her, so she could pass it on to me, once she got out. Thank you, Morgan. I owe you one.
I told Cassidy on the phone that I really appreciated that she was going to give me the letter, instead of passing it to Wendy, and I promised that I'd be there to pick her up.
I really wanted that letter! I knew that once I saw it with my own eyes, I would be over Veronica for good. I really hadn't missed her at all since Thanksgiving, because I was so busy with Nicole and Lucy.
Then I told Cassidy that Lucy and Jasmine were staying with me right now, and to spread the word in jail, before she got out. I figured it would get under Veronica's skin. Then I got up to go find Lucy and tell her about Cassidy's call.
Lucy wasn't in her spot in my bed. And she wasn't in the bathroom. And Jasmine was no longer on the couch. I figured maybe they're on the porch, smoking. Nope. Not there either.
So I texted her: "Where r u?"
Lucy texted me right back: "I'll call u later."
I figured maybe they were meeting a dope boy at the mall or something. Who the hell knows? But then my instincts told me to check the guest bedroom. When I walked in, I found Lucy and Jasmine in bed together! The same bed where I had found Veronica cheating on me with Kim a year earlier!
I was speechless. I just walked back out.
How the fuck could Lucy do this to me? Last night, when we had picked up Jasmine at Abby's house, we went to Walmart afterwards, because they both wanted to dye their hair bright red. While we were walking around the store in the middle of the night, Jasmine was arguing with Wigger on the phone and told him she wasn't coming back. Lucy took my hand, and said: "I hope we will never argue like that. I want things to always be ok between us. I love you." Then we kissed.
And now this fucking psycho was in my guest bed with Jasmine! The same damn girl Veronica had cheated on me with, after Kim.
I really was living in the Twilight Zone. And Lucy was an eerie copy of Veronica. It seemed like she was determined to do everything to me that Veronica had done before her. Or like she was auditioning for the same role in a crazy horror movie.
I said loudly, but calmly: "Get up and pack your stuff. I'm going to drop you guys off wherever you want to go. But you can't stay here."
Lucy came out. She was still high, and said: "What do you mean?"
"What do you think I mean? I want you to get out," I replied.
"NO! Where the fuck am I supposed to go? I have nowhere else to go! I'M NOT LEAVING!" she yelled.
I didn't give a shit at this point. She could go to her grandfather's house, or stay with Cho or G-Force or Wigger or whoever else. But I wanted nothing to do with her anymore. I was not gonna let her betray me the same way Veronica did, because I already knew what happens next in this movie. I had seen it all before. I felt like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. I was reliving the same situations over and over. Only the names changed.
Meanwhile Jasmine pretended to be sleeping. Or maybe she was really just as comatose as Veronica and Norbert had been, when I had caught them in bed together, and they didn't wake up, no matter how loud I yelled.
"I'm not going ANYWHERE!" Lucy continued to scream. I started to feel bad for her. She really really didn't want to go. She knew she had fucked up again, and she didn't want it to end like this. We had just made up last night. She had just told me last night how sorry she was for fucking things up between us when she was in jail and she had other guys visit her. And now she fucked it all up again already.
"If you don't leave, I will call the cops and you'll get arrested for trespassing," I said calmly.
"I don't care! CALL THE COPS! I'm not leaving! I'M NOT LEAVING!!!" Lucy screamed.
"Don't test me," I replied calmly. "I don't make empty threats. I really will call the cops if you don't leave. And you will be in jail two hours later. Is that really what you want?"
I grabbed my phone and pretended to start dialing.
"Fine, I'll go. I can't believe you! We didn't do anything! We were just lying there."
Veronica said the same thing when I found her in bed with Kim. And then again when I found her in bed with Norbert.
"I didn't do anything wrong! But I'm not gonna explain myself!" Lucy yelled.
"I'm not asking you to explain yourself. Just pack your stuff and go. We're done," I replied with the same unshakable calmness. This whole situation didn't even feel real. I was totally detached from what was going on. I felt absolutely nothing. Like I was watching a movie, and this stuff wasn't really happening to me.
I woke Jasmine up and told her to get dressed and pack her stuff. She pretended not to know what was going on, so I explained to her that she had to leave, because I found her in bed with Lucy.
"This is so petty," she scoffed under her breath.
Funny. She didn't think it was petty when Veronica or Wigger were cheating on her. Then her anger felt perfectly justified. But now I was being petty, because I wasn't ok with Lucy fucking someone else in my guest bed, after we had just made up last night?
Then Lucy came over to me with big puppy dog eyes, and asked me like a little kid: "Am I allowed to come back at some point? Or am I never allowed to come back?"
She was so adorable at that moment, I just wanted to squeeze her and let her know how much I love her.
You know that feeling, when you have to punish a puppy for peeing on the rug, but it breaks your heart to spank him, because all you really want to do is cuddle him? That's exactly how I felt right now.
"Yeah, you can come back some day," I said.
Her face lit up. It made her feel a little bit better that this was not really going to be the end between us. Now she knew I still loved her, even if I was mad at her right now.
On our way out the door, she showed me a notebook she had stolen out of one of my office drawers. She said: "I'm gonna make a scrapbook! Of all our meals together! I'm gonna cook for you every day, and we'll take pictures and then we'll put all the pictures in this book, so we can always remember it!"
It took everything I had not to hug her and kiss her and tell her I love her, and that I really didn't want her to leave. It was breaking my heart. She was just the sweetest little girl in the world. All she wanted was to feel loved. But I had to take a stand. I couldn't keep letting her treat me like this and let her cheat on me like it's no big deal. Either she was going to learn that the only way to be with me was to be faithful to me, or she was going to have to go fuck dope boys and Backpage pervs again.
In the car she started texting some guy who called himself Fatso. He was supposed to pick them up at the Edison Mall. When we were almost there, she said: "Great, now Fatso isn't answering his phone. I think we're gonna be stranded."
I dropped them off in front of the main entrance.
"Are you really gonna make me get out of the car?" Lucy asked. "You have no sympathy. You are so cold." Then she slammed the door. I left. I didn't even get out of the parking lot, when Lucy already called me back: "Please don't leave me here! Please turn around and take
me home with you."
I felt so bad. But she needed to learn that her actions have consequences. You can't just fuck someone in my guest bed and then act like nothing happened and everything is ok with the world. I hung up the phone. Then I texted Nicole. I hadn't heard from her in a day or two, ever since she had disappeared again. I knew she was getting really bad on drugs, and at this point she was probably no better than Lucy.
Nicole texted me right back: "Hey sugar. I'm at the Days Inn in North Fort Myers, please come get me."
When I arrived at the hotel, she was sitting in the parking lot. She told me she had been staying in a room at the hotel with someone else, and he ditched her.
I figured it was most likely a dope boy, and either she had been fucking him for drugs, or she had been tricking. Like I said, girls don't live in hotel rooms, unless they're tricking. I couldn't stand thinking about it. I just gave her a hug. She looked sad and exhausted. She was so worn down.
I took her home to my place, and we cuddled and talked. I told her what had happened with Lucy and Jasmine, and Cassidy's call.
Nicole told me she had a new probation officer, and that he called her in that day, out of the blue. She was supposed to report to his office at 4:30 pm. But by the time we got there, it was 4:58 pm. He was really pissed and screamed at her. He felt disrespected. He told her this wasn't a game, and she better be at his office tomorrow, at 8:30 am sharp. If she was there at 8:31 am, he'd violate her and send her back to jail. And she'd better be ready for a drug test.
She was hysterically crying when she came out of his office. I tried to calm her down. She had a full blown panic attack. She couldn't breathe or stand up straight. I gave her a hug and just held her tight, while gently telling her that everything would be ok. Finally she calmed down a bit. She said she would obviously fail the drug test tomorrow.
We made plans for her to get a plastic cigar tube and smuggle clean pee in her vagina. She was supposed to practice that night, because she had never done it before, but then she started texting frantically again, and suddenly told me she had to go do a tattoo for an hour at night. She disappeared all night. When I finally picked her up, it was midnight. Now we had to go searching for a cigar tube, go home, and practice. We went to bed at 4 am. Then we got up at 6 am. I checked the Sheriff's website and saw that Cassidy had been released, but she didn't call me. I messaged her on Facebook and asked her what happened.
Then I took Nicole to her probation officer. We stopped at the same CVS where Lucy and I had bought presents for Summer when she was in the hospital. We went in the bathroom together and she prepared herself for the drug test by placing the plastic tube inside of her vagina. It was really uncomfortable, and she had a hard time walking.
Once we got to the office, she went inside and I waited for her in the lobby. After half an hour she texted me: "You might as well go home. I'm getting arrested. I'm going to jail."
"What?!?! What the hell happened?" I texted back.
She told me later that they were watching her so closely while she was peeing, she wouldn't have been able to use the tube, so she just admitted that she had drugs in her system. She removed the tube and peed dirty. Her probation officer was really nasty to her. She started crying and yelled at him that he had no idea what she had been through in her life. Then she told him about Lucy's dad Dick raping her ever since she was a little girl, all her suicide attempts, and that Johnny had tried to run her over with a truck just a few days ago.
The officer felt bad for her and told her he'd give her another chance, but as part of her probation, from now on she would have to go to mental health counselling at Salus Care on Ortiz Ave at least once a week, and to NA meetings at least twice a week.
I had already gone home, when she texted me about three hours later: "I didn't get arrested after all."
"Huh? What? Well, that's great! Do u want me to come get u?" I texted back.
"No, I already got a ride. I'm gonna do a tattoo and then u can pick me up at 1 pm," she texted back.
My spider senses were tingling again. I had been right in the middle of this. I was part of the story. I had driven her to probation, waited for her there, and we were going to spend the day together and celebrate that she passed the test. For her not to call me right away and tell me that she wasn't going to jail after all, and to call someone else for a ride, meant only one thing: she was fucking someone else.
I didn't hear from her until 4 pm. Then she asked me to come get her. We went home, and she started getting dressed up in the bathroom.
I sat down on the edge of the tub and tried to have a talk with her: "You've been acting really shady lately. You keep telling me you want to be with me, but I get the feeling you're seeing someone else."
"No, I'm not! I swear!" she replied while putting on her make-up.
"Well, if you are, just be honest about it, so that we are both on the same page. Don't make me think there is something between us if there's not. If you just want to be friends with benefits, just say so. It's ok, as long as we're on the same page," I explained.
"No, I swear, there is nobody else. I'm not the kind of girl who sleeps around," she reassured me, while straightening her hair.
She was obviously getting all dressed up to go somewhere. When she was done, she said: "Oh, my friend Jeanie just texted me. I have to babysit her kids. She is visiting her baby daddy in jail."
I was suspicious. Why the hell would she get all dressed up to babysit? And why was she getting dressed up BEFORE she got the text to go babysit?
She was frantically texting in the car, and then told me she would meet Jeanie at Walmart on Colonial and Ortiz.
"Huh? Why would you meet Jeanie at Ortiz instead of at her house? If she's going to visit someone at the jail on Ortiz, she would have to drive you all the way back to her house first, and then drive all the way back to Ortiz Avenue for the viso. That doesn't make any sense."
"Uhmm, she's buying some food stamps from me, so we're going shopping at Walmart first, and then I'll babysit while she's at the viso," Nicole replied.
I knew Nicole didn't have any food stamps anymore. Lucy had told me just the other day, that she was mad at Nicole, because she had sold all her food stamps this month, and now they had nothing to eat. So Nicole was definitely lying about what she was doing at Walmart, and who she was meeting, and why. If she had simply met a drug dealer, she would have told me. So again, the only possible answer was that she was about to go have sex with someone.
"So at what time is the viso?" I asked.
"Uhh, at 7 pm, I think," she replied.
I had been visiting Veronica in jail for almost two years. I knew exactly when the viso times were, and there is no viso at 7 pm.
Nicole was still frantically texting. Then she said: "Jeanie is already done shopping at Walmart. Now she wants me to meet her at the Racetrac gas station on Colonial."
"For what?" I asked. This was all complete bullshit. Even a blind person could see that.
"She still wants to buy my food stamps, so we'll buy stuff at the little Racetrac store," Nicole replied.
Once we got to the gas station, she jumped out of the car without even saying good bye. I knew what that meant. Her mind was totally preoccupied with what she was about to do next. She wasn't just meeting her friend Jeanie to babysit her kids.
She told me she would only be gone for an hour or so. The jail visitations are only an hour max. I dropped her off at the Racetrac at 6 pm. By 9:30 pm I still didn't hear from her. I figured she just disappeared on me again. I was right. She disppeared all night. I didn't hear from her until the afternoon of the next day. She claimed she had fallen asleep and her phone had died. That's every drug addict's favorite excuse when they disappear to fuck someone for drugs.
Later I found out that she had started posting escort ads on Backpage, and that's really where she was going. She had told me a dozen times she wasn't fucking anybody else, and then she got out of the car and fucked somebody else.
Sex and Crime: Oliver's Strange Journey Page 51
