Found by You

by Victoria H. Smith

“She seems like the type of person that will only respond with action. Being aggressive.”

  “So what do you plan to do? Kick her ass?” He gave a short laugh. I must have not responded quickly enough because his face fell. He lifted his hands. “Roxie, I was just joking. Yeah, she needs her tail whipped, but I’m not letting you.”

  I was the one who laughed now. “I’m not going to kick her ass.”

  Though, I had to admit that didn’t sound like such a bad idea. And if I got the whole thing on tape, she’d definitely back off…

  My eyes flashed and an idea popped into my head. The solution to this problem was so simple I was surprised it took me this long to see it.

  Griffin eyed me curiously. “What?”

  I grabbed his hand, finally feeling we just might have some hope after all. “She seems to like blackmailing people. I think maybe she needs a taste of her own medicine.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Roxie

  The short weekend with Griffin’s family wrapped up way too quickly for my liking. I wasn’t ready to go back to class, or the Midwestern chill, and I wanted to spend more time with the family, who not only made me love my boyfriend even more for the man he turned out to be because of them, but also provided an environment that allowed me to open up to Griffin and share things with him that only brought us closer together.

  Griffin’s grandma told me I was only allowed to leave Texas if I promised to come back soon. I had no problem making that promise, and that made Griffin happy. He had a strong bond with his family, one I felt the instant I was around them all. I even got a smile from Griffin’s dad before we left. At least, I thought it was one. His dad was definitely hard to read. The man was more of an absorber, a watcher. He took it all in around him and expressed himself through action. Like at breakfast the morning of Griffin and my flight. Griffin’s dad not only sat next to me, but also helped me use the coffee press pot that was foreign to me. He made sure I had the thing down before he even continued the conversation he was having with a family member next to him, gruffly giving instructions to me behind his blond goatee. I saw that as a sign. A definite good one.

  By the time Griffin and I left, I think I understood why Tanya didn’t like his family. They were different from her. Just as I was. Therefore, she found them off-putting. The girl needed a lesson in tolerance and acceptance. I didn’t know if what I planned would give that to her, but I did know she’d be put in her place for threatening Griffin and me.

  I told Griffin about what I had in mind, and not only did he think it was a good idea, but he wanted to help. He couldn’t really do much, but he could figure out where she’d be for the next week. Her schedule that is. He told me he’d flat out ask her, and I didn’t know if that was the best approach. It could have gotten her suspicious. To my surprise, she told him right away. When she asked him why (he told me the girl actually asked the question with a flirty grin), he simply said, “You’ll see.”

  Her willingness to cooperate had to do with what she believed Griffin and my relationship status was. Griffin and me strategically didn’t make a show of our relationship after coming back, and with Griffin approaching her out of the blue about her schedule, she must have assumed he had plans for the two of them. Needless to say, Griffin and I had plans, and when we figured out she had an evening class in a more dormant area of campus, Operation: Give Her a Taste of Her Own Medicine, was set in motion.

  *

  “Roxie? What are you doing here?” Clare squinted at me standing in the hallway of her dorm.

  It was completely dark inside her single room dormitory despite the fact it was early evening. I wasn’t surprised. She’d been sleeping so much, depressed in the dark.

  I gripped my laptop bag. “Hey. Can I come in for a minute?”

  She let me into her small space. No questions asked. My makeshift bed was still set up on the floor even though I hadn’t stayed at her place in over a week. Not since before I went to Texas with Griffin.

  Clare sat on her bed, bringing her arms around her knees. She had darkness under eyes, her short hair strewn, and she was still in her bedclothes. “What’s up? Are you staying tonight?”

  Even her voice sounded small. The sight was absolutely killing me. I slipped off my laptop bag, hoping to God for the best. “I want to show you something. A video.”

  Her eyes twitched wide. “Of you?”

  I couldn’t help the light laugh I made. My videos were actually how we met. Once I explained to her I was very much straight, we’d started the closest friendship I’d ever had with another. Well, until I met Griffin.

  I shook my head at her question. After retrieving my laptop, I inched my way backwards on her bed until I was beside her. I propped it open on my lap. “No. Something else. I know it won’t fix things, but I hope it helps.”

  She eyed my screen curiously as I booted the computer up. I had the appropriate file saved on my desktop so I got the video going quickly.

  “Now, don’t be scared. I swear to God they didn’t hurt her,” I said before clicking start.

  Despite my warning, the initial scream startled Clare at my side. That really was all there was. Screaming. It was faint, in the distance of the image on my screen. The scene in front of us was dark with a single sidewalk only lit by a lamplight. The screaming got closer, louder, and Clare turned to me eyes wide.

  “Who is that?” she asked, turning to the screen still active with only sound not movement. “What is this?”

  I rubbed my arm nervously. “Well, the screaming is Tanya. Griffin’s ex.”

  Her brow jumped. “His ex? Why? What’s going on? Why is she screaming?”

  I bit my lip. “Because our friends, the Vixens, are chasing her down the sidewalk.”

  Clare looked mortified at this point, so I felt the need to pause the footage and explain before her imagination ran wild. Telling her still wasn’t any easier, though. What happened at the bake sale was because of Griffin and my relationship. That would always sit heavy on my heart. I knew the two of us did nothing wrong, but it still happened because of us.

  I turned her way. “It was Tanya who played that footage of you and Destiny at the union.”

  The information drained Clare’s face of color. She swept her hand across her forehead. “Why? What did I do to her? Why would she—”

  I placed my hand on her shoulder, rubbing. “It had nothing to do with you. She did it to get to me. She attempted to blackmail me. Get me to break up with Griffin.”

  Her head shot my way, her cheeks shooting up in color. “Well, you didn’t give into her, did you?”

  Clare’s pure heart put her in her own league. It was so wide, so open. Just like that she forgot about herself. She was more concerned about me even though she’d been dragged into this situation unfairly.

  I wrapped my arms around her. “Griffin made me fight. He’s so worth it, Clare. I had to for him. He wouldn’t let me give up.”

  Her small arms went around me, binding at the knuckles. “Good. I knew there was something about you guys.” She pulled back and put her hands on my cheeks. She had the first smile I’d seen on her in a while. “Don’t ruin it.”

  I had no plans to. I refused to let anything break me anymore and fixing this for Clare was one of those steps I needed to take in order to retrieve my own power back, to strip away the negative and overcome all obstacles I let define me in the past. Tanya was one of those obstacles, and I was no longer going to let any more negativity into my life.

  “I won’t,” I told her. “And I don’t think his ex will be bothering us anymore either. I had our girls…” I tilted my head from side to side, smiling. “Talk to her, get her to come around, and I’m pretty sure they got her to see the light.”

  She dropped her hands from my face then curled up on my side, staring at the screen with eyes that were finally getting back some of that brightness she used to have.

  “Let’s see this,” she said.

  The honor wa
s all mine. The faint screaming started again when I clicked the mouse. Clare watched the empty sidewalk before she asked, “Who recorded this?”

  Rather meekly, I raised my hand. Although, if I was being honest, I was quite proud. “I was in a bush. The girls wouldn’t let me help. They said they’d handle it. We still needed a camera person though, so I stepped in.”

  Clare’s eyebrows narrowed. “Why?”

  “So she can’t say it never happened.” I winked.

  Suddenly activity appeared on the screen. A blonde in heeled boots and a skirt, Tanya, ran across my monitor. She went out of the shot, but backed up into it slowly. She spun around, seemingly for no reason, but then she was surrounded. A pack of girls wearing roller skates, fishnets, and tiny shorts rolled around her. They also had on one other accessory.

  Hockey masks.

  Clare popped her hand to her mouth. “Oh my God. What are they going to do?”

  I patted the air. “Just watch. Like I said, they don’t hurt her. The masks are just to conceal their identities. We couldn’t risk her turning them in. She’d use anything on them against them if she had it.”

  Clare’s jaw dropped. “What about that?”

  She was referring to the clear leader of this group, the one with full, voluminous curls I was always quite jealous of. Shelia rolled forward on her brightly colored skates. She palmed a wooden baseball bat looking like a force to be reckoned with.

  Yeah, this probably didn’t look so good. I gnawed my bottom lip. “I think she just wanted her to know she meant business?”

  My words came out as a question because when I saw the bat from the bush, I wasn’t so sure. Sheila was quite aggressive on the derby floor. At the time, I hoped she wouldn’t deviate from the plan. However, she didn’t, so I knew Clare had nothing to worry about. I waved her off. “Just watch. She won’t do anything with that. She’s just trying to look hard.”

  Clare nodded, but her expression was close to Tanya’s, though not nearly as intense. The blonde looked absolutely terrified.

  She’d spun around, her purse swinging with her. “What do you guys want?” she shrieked. “Money? You freaks can have it.”

  A chorus of female laughter rang through the group. They stood strategically in a semi circle, allowing me to capture everything from where I was. The bush I was in blocked Tanya’s only means of escape.

  Sheila settled the bat on her shoulder. “Look at this girl. Insulting the very people she believes would mug her.”

  “The audacity!” a girl shouted. “The gall,” someone else said. The voice was high-pitched; it sounded like April’s.

  “More like the stupidity,” Sheila finished, cocking her masked face to the side. “We were told you were kind of lippy. But, no, we don’t want money. We actually want something far simpler. It won’t cost you a damn thing and it might even get you back some of your humanity.”

  The camera focus zoomed in on Tanya. Her blonde eyebrows drew in. “What are you talking about?”

  The footage went wide again. Sheila lowered her bat to the sidewalk, setting her hands to rest on it. “You’ve messed with not one, but two, of our own. We just want to make sure you’re done messin’. Does the name Clare ring a bell? How about…” Sheila shrugged. “Roxie?”

  Tanya was squinting at this point, but when my name was said, her face dawned in realization. She tipped her head back and a short laugh hit from her throat. “I get it. This is a set up. Trying to scare me to get me to back off? What? Is that fatty with you?” She got up on her toes, gazing around. “Come on, Roxie! Come out and show your—”

  The girls rushed her before she could finish the last syllable of the word. One grabbed each of her arms while Sheila got up right in her face, white mask and all.

  She raised the bat, tipping Tanya’s chin with it. Tanya wasn’t looking like she wanted to insult me anymore. In fact, she seemed very much ready to listen with the look of shock written across her pretty face.

  “Roxie, don’t know shit about tonight,” Sheila bluffed, her words so sharp I got goose bumps even hearing them this second time. “If she did, she’d try to stop us. You see, we have no problem leaving your pretty ass broken somewhere. Believe that. No fucks given. We’re not as nice as she is.”

  Tanya’s lips parted. “What…” she panted. “What do you guys want?”

  “Ah. She’s ready to listen folks.” Sheila raised her head, the girls giving their nods and voices of approval. “What we want is quite simple. You will forget about Roxie. You will scrape your memory clean of her boy, Griffin, and any plans you had of smearing his image. You will also delete any files you have of Destiny and Clare, as well as anything you got on Roxie. We don’t want another one of your showings like you did at the bake sale again, do we?”

  “Check…” Tanya shook, breathing out the words. “Check my purse. It’s the only DVD I have. I swear it.”

  Someone from her side checked, pulling out the same color CD case she showed me at my apartment that night. She kept it on her at all times; she probably didn’t trust it anywhere else.

  The Venomous Vixen holding the DVD handed it to Sheila. She opened it, nodding. “This is the one from the bake sale and Roxie?”

  Tanya shook her head. “Just Roxie. I didn’t keep the one of Destiny and Clare. I had no use for it, so I tossed it. I tossed it, I swear!”

  I almost felt bad for Tanya, but she really did do this to herself. I could only hope that one day she found her peace. I didn’t care for her, but I wished no ill will toward anyone. That just wasn’t my way. It didn’t make me feel any better to do so, so I always figured there wasn’t a point.

  “This is it?” Sheila held up the DVD. “Because we really don’t want to have to do anymore of these run-ins with you. If I’m being honest, I think we all got better things to do than track down your ass. We will if we have to, though. So tell me, will we have to?”

  “No!” Tanya shrieked, looking on the verge of tears. “I swear you won’t have to. That’s the only one.”

  “Good. Good,” Sheila said. “And no running your mouth about any of this. You have a good rest of the year. Pleasure doing business with you.”

  The girls released her and Tanya just about dropped to her knees. She was left alone on the sidewalk, attempting to get her bearings as she stood tall to her feet. She brushed herself off frantically, her hands shaking. It was at that point I veered the camera down so the image dropped, but at the sound a voice saying, “Tanya,” I raised it up.

  Tanya was no longer alone. A girl stood in front of her, dressed as a Vixen just like the others. Skates and all. Her dark hair was long, flowing down the sides of her mask, her body a bit thinner than most of our girls. Her skin tan.

  Tanya backed up. “What do you want? I told your friends I wouldn’t be any trouble—”

  “Why!” the girl shouted, her hands clenched into fists. “Why did you do this? Why did you set up Clare and…” She tilted her head away. Shaking her head, she faced her. “Why did you do this to your friend, Destiny? She was your friend, right? So why did you do this to her?”

  Clare moved forward so fast next to me I nearly dropped my computer. She got close to my monitor, pointing her finger. “Is that…”

  I didn’t know whether she figured out what was happening in front of her or if she was just lost, intent on seeing the rest of the footage play out. Either way, she remained silent to the video in front of her eyes.

  Tanya gazed at the girl curiously, the one so tall ahead of her due to her skates. If she knew who the person was, she didn’t say, but she did stand tall to her, confident. Slowly, she leaned in. “I did her a favor. She isn’t anymore gay than I am. She’s just fooling herself.”

  The girl on the skates shook her head. “That’s all I wanted to know. By the way, we have all of this on camera. Your confession to what happened at the bake sale and your plans to smear Griffin’s career and take down Roxie, plus that shit you did to Destiny. Basically enough to let
everyone know who you are. Remember that if you think about talking about any of this with anyone.”

  Tanya’s brows shot up and the girl on the skates spun around, moving out of my shot. That’s when I lowered the camera again, losing the image. My screen went blank and I looked at Clare. She sat there, stark still, staring at my computer as if the images would continue.

  “That was…” she whispered out, “Destiny?”

  Before I could answer her, a knock hit her door. I told the visitor to wait a few minutes, so I’d been expecting it. I left Clare on her bed, no words said before I opened the door to the person there. I let Destiny in, the beautiful girl with long raven hair and tan skin.

  Clare leaped from her bed, restlessly playing with her hands, and then fixed her hair.

  The girl who approached her did the same thing until they both broke down and brought each other into a hug.

  “I’m so sorry, Clare,” Destiny said, tears moving down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry, baby. About the DVD. About Tanya. I’m just so sorry. I had no idea you were a virgin. I swear it. I never would have…”

  Clare pulled away and put her hands on the girl’s cheeks. Clare wasn’t a crier, but she definitely looked close to it this evening with her cheeks so red. “It’s okay. I’m kind of glad it all happened this way.”

  Both my eyes and Destiny’s widened at the admission, and Clare laughed.

  She wiped away some of Destiny’s tears. “I came out to my parents. They’re okay. They even said they already knew. So I guess it works out for the best. By the way, they’re expecting to meet you soon.”

  Destiny’s gaze went warm, and before I knew it, she was bringing Clare into another embrace. It was in that moment that I decided to slide my bag over my arm and slip out of the small dormitory just as quickly. These two had some talking to do, and I had a man I wanted to chill with tonight anyway.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Griffin

  The passing days since I came back from Texas had been quiet, and damn was that nice. We were pushing toward graduation, Roxie and me. The weather was finally nice again, and my season had been amazing. My team and I could almost see the finish line. It was a great ending to a fantastic year…