Remake

by A. J. Sand

  “No, you spend a lot of time defending him because you know what he is.”

  “And I know what you are,” Chase fired back, his words echoing into the night. “I know exactly what you are. You can only prance around selling sex in skimpy clothes, dressing like a slutty French maid and a slutty devil for so long before people start getting ideas. I never bought that whole good girl act with you, anyway. We all know you were fucking Kai behind Bryson’s back. Probably one of the Elliotts, too?” He added a snicker to the taunt. “So, if it walks like a duck…”

  He was reaching, but his words stung her at her core, almost to the point of more tears. “You are just full of cliché little quips tonight,” Erica said with a humorless laugh, feeling the moisture at her lash lines. “‘Don’t poke the bear,’ ‘If it walks like a duck…’”

  “See you soon, Erica...”

  “Fuck you, Chase.” She backed the car up so quickly he jumped away from it in fear of being hit. As she smirked, a wave of satisfaction coursed through her. But after swinging the car around, as his frame shrank in the rearview mirror, she could no longer restrain her tremors or her tears.

  The world wouldn’t stop rocking. Even when she closed her eyes, she could feel its sway. It was like riding out turbulent ocean waves in a tugboat. She’d been fine a few minutes before…with her friends, and now some incipient illness was threatening to take over. How much did I drink? No, I didn’t really…

  A laughing someone bumped her and mumbled an apology. Then another bump, but coupled with an expletive. Another bump and startled murmuring. Another. Another. She tilted. Not losing her balance but shifting to a precarious angle. And someone was calling her name. It was faint. Then suddenly louder.

  “Hey, you…” He was out of breath when he slid his arm around her, and she leaned into his shoulder to steady her wobbly steps. She was so queasy. Dizzy. Exhilarated. Queasy. Her skin was hot. Too hot. She was definitely getting sick.

  The scent of his cologne floated around her and she relaxed. No, she was languid, like she was trying to move through wet sand up to her neck. “I feel weird.” He seemed familiar, but she flinched when his finger entwined the spaghetti strap at her shoulder, drawing it down over the edge. No. No. She didn’t like that. His fingertips stroked the bare skin softly over and over again, but his unwanted touch was like sandpaper on the surface, and a lion’s claw beneath. “What are you doing? Stop.”

  “Walking with you…” he purred, his breath spraying across her ear. Walking. She was walking. Where? Her hotel. The Andaman Jewel. It was gorgeous and she could see the water from her room. That’s where she wanted to go. It wasn’t too far now, but the buildings…the buildings were swinging, and large and leaning like in a funhouse mirror, and the traffic of bodies rocked her in a frightening way. It was just a sea of hazy faces.

  She clutched her somersaulting stomach and his arm. Queasy. Dizzy. Queasy. What the fuck? I can’t be drunk. Her breaths shortened. Was I drugged? Her heartbeats sped up, and her knees buckled so she almost fell. Hotel. Need to find my hotel. I just want to go home. Bryson. Home. I want Bryson. I want to go home. She quickened her steps until she was ahead of him, but his hands fell to her hips and pulled her against his body. Queasy. She shuddered, so repulsed when his lips landed on her neck. No. No. Don’t want this. Need to get away. Hotel. Find my…

  “Stop it.” The feeble sound of her own voice was additional mockery to her situation. “Stop. Please.”

  “Calm down.” He wasn’t angry. There was too much laughter in his voice. A playfulness. Amusement. He was amused. Her resistance was funny to him. And that angered her so much her blood raced. She twisted her head and tried to rip his arms off her torso. He was strong and her arms felt like weights. Her entire body felt like it was dragging. Was she even still in her body? She could’ve been a million miles up in the air, too. She was weightless and weighted. Flying and crawling. The world around her pulled away like a slingshot, muting in sound and color, slowing in action for a second, before snapping back in its place. What the fuck was happening?

  “Stop…it.” She expended so much energy to push past the nausea in order to speak. Her mouth was so dry. Every gulp was like ingesting steel nails.

  “Shut up.” Like before, the words were casual. Almost sang out like lyrics. No worries from him. He knew she was having trouble speaking up and fighting back. “It’s such a nice night, isn’t it?” His lips skimmed her ear before mashing a kiss against it. It was cold, rough. The buildings oscillated again. The faces blurred. She felt like she was standing on a rotating carousel.

  Her feet moved suddenly. Too suddenly. He made her feet move. Sidewalk. Then sand. Just sand. Sounds fading, lights dimming. Her hotel. Where was her hotel?

  “I want to go…”

  “Go?” He chuckled, but his grip on her tightened. “You wanna go for a walk? We should go for a walk.”

  Erica’s eyelids snapped open when shrill giggles flooded the walls of her bedroom, followed by alternating soft voices. She turned to the nightstand to eye the digital clock. It was just after 8 A.M. On a Saturday. She had beaten her alarm by an hour thanks to her roommate.

  “We’re going to wake, Erica!” Dylan said, just above a whisper, but she hardly sounded seriously concerned; she sounded thrilled.

  “Not if you be quiet…” Kai lilted. The pictures above Erica’s head rattled when Dylan’s headboard collided with the wall.

  “Oh my God, Kai! I can’t when you’re doing that…” Dylan said in a loud voice that was interspersed with a lot of laughter. The pictures rumbled again. Geez, Erica thought. She’d experienced quieter earthquakes.

  “Well, we’ll just have to keep doing this until you learn to be.” There was another explosion of giggles that quickly shifted into deep sighs.

  Erica groaned, reached for her iPhone and plugged her ears with the ear buds as quickly as she could, hoping to miss any of the main event about to play out on the other side of the wall as she walked to the master bedroom’s bathroom. “Luxury apartments,” and yet, she might as well have been standing in the room with them with these thin walls. Okay, so part of her was jealous that Kai had flown in to see Dylan. It was hard enough hearing the delight in her voice when they Skyped while he was touring. J.Kutch was suffering from a bout of laryngitis, she’d read, and some tour dates had been cancelled, which meant there was a possibility that she would be privy to a lot more mornings like this.

  As the hot water fell over her in the shower, she realized that she really did miss waking up next to someone and fooling around. She missed waking up in Bryson’s arms, period. For a brief time last night, she had felt faint traces of their past together, but being together dredged up so much pain for both of them. I feel like you ruined me. The memory of his voice sliced into her thoughts and buried a soft ache in her stomach, right next to the one housing her regret over the things she’d said to him last year. She was glad he hadn’t noticed that she was still wearing her engagement ring, since that might have been like driving a stake into the wound she’d already made in his heart. When had she and Bryson started hurting each other?

  Wait. “My ring,” Erica whispered out loud as she touched her bare finger. Her heart rate careened from the normal pace to one that was probably more common for life-threatening terror. “Where the hell is my ring?” He hadn’t seen it because she hadn’t been wearing it. Erica mentally traced her steps from yesterday from before Bryson had picked her up. Napped. Read. Ate. Dishes. Yes! She had taken it off to wash her plate. Please be there. Please be there, she wished as she stepped into her yoga pants and a slim-fitting workout top. Losing that ring would be devastating; it was the bridge back to him, she hoped, and she didn’t know how or when, but she trusted in that belief, and probably more than she believed in anything else.

  Dylan’s black Chorkie puppy, Buttons, barked excitedly when Erica stepped out of her room, and she scooped him up and carried him into the kitchen with her. She plucked out one of her
ear buds, hoping Kai and Dylan were winding things down, and she wouldn’t have to accidentally catch the sounds of any sensual moans. Thankfully, it was quiet.

  Seeing that both the water and food dishes had been filled, Erica whispered to Buttons as he licked her nose, “You just wanted kisses.” After she scratched the top of his head, she set him down on the ground and grabbed a box of cereal from above the fridge. She cheered in silence when she spotted a tiny glimmer spark up from near the faucet. My ring! She stuck it on her finger. The effect on her body was instant, and a calming, warm sensation flowed into her bones, even as she recognized it as being purely psychological.

  Dylan’s bedroom door suddenly flew open and she gasped when she saw Erica standing there. “Oh! I was coming to get him before he woke you,” Dylan explained. Her olive-toned skin was completely flushed, and her dark, wavy hair was sticking out in every direction. She fixed the fallen strap of her tank top and twisted her shorts back to their rightful place. Buttons dashed for her feet, whining as he patted her legs with his paws.

  “It wasn’t his noises that woke me,” Erica said with a sly smile. “Good morning, Kai.” A muffled greeting was returned from within Dylan’s bedroom.

  Dylan let out an embarrassed gasp, her face flushing even more. “I told you!” she said as she whipped her head toward him. “I’m so sorry, E,” she added meekly. “He surprised me. I don’t want to be that kind of roommate.”

  “It’s totally fine,” Erica said, waving her off with a smile. She scoffed at the notion that Dylan was suddenly awful to live with. The past month with her had been amazing, and she was grateful for how quickly they had become friends over the last five. They had become so close as they worked on Dylan’s documentary, Traveler Lost, about Americans who were crime victims overseas, and they often did their homework together since Dylan was also taking a few film workshops at USC. She had already told Kai that in the off chance they broke up, he would have to accept that she would remain friends with her regardless.

  Kai ticked his head up at Erica as he slid past Dylan to head for the bathroom. Once the door was shut and Kai started singing a tune, Erica motioned for Dylan with her spoon to join her at the kitchen island.

  Dylan frowned and bit her lip. “Are you mad about Kai?”

  “No.” Erica shook her head. “Chase came by here last night…”

  “Bunyan? What? Why?” Dylan’s eyes stretched from concern, and her skin quickly lost some of the color. “How does he even know…”

  Erica shrugged. “He was waiting for me. He didn’t threaten me outright, but he came pretty close. He said some stuff like he knew I had told our friends everything and that the investigation was moving forward. But I don’t even know how he knows any of that. I want to tell you because you live here, too. And if you want to move out—”

  “Whoa, girl, you’re jumping the gun here. Neither Chase nor any other Bunyan is about to make me alter my life in some extreme way. And I wouldn’t leave you here.” Dylan leaned with her elbows against the marble top of the island. “Shit. Do you want to tell—”

  “Nope. You know the minute I say anything to Kai, it’ll be punching o’clock. I’ll probably just try to file an incident report or something, but I doubt he broke the law. I told Chase not to come here anymore, and I’ll document it if he does but, sadly, I think he has to do more for it to count.” The thought frightened her more than she was conveying to Dylan. Slutty devil. Slutty French maid. Those were specific insults that came from specific knowledge. Halloween costumes. It had to be. He’s seen pictures of me in Halloween costumes.

  At least the technician for the alarm company would arrive to install the system in a few days, and that provided her with the comfort of safety for their home. She wasn’t sure what to do about outside of it just yet, though.

  “Great,” Dylan muttered, shaking her head. “Just great.” Erica nodded, beating back the guilt collecting in her chest. She hated that her problems would possibly put a damper on Dylan’s summer—put obstacles in the way of her safety.

  “What’s great?” Kai asked as he strolled out of the bathroom with his plaid pajama pants riding low on his hips. He quickly soothed Buttons’ persistent barking by picking him up. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t want a bigger dog, Dyl.” He held the puppy at face level and cooed at it as Buttons made a swift effort to lick him.

  “Says the guy making out with a puppy right now,” Erica said, laughing.

  Kai grinned like an imp and tucked Buttons into the crook of his arm before shifting his blue-eyed gaze between them. “By the way, I rescheduled the alarm appointment for today.”

  “Baby, we appreciate you taking care of this—everything—and you don’t even know how great an alarm system sounds right now, but you can’t just do things without letting us know ahead of time,” Dylan said with annoyance as she put her hands on her hips. “We specifically set a time for when we could be here for that.”

  Erica laughed quietly as she finished her bowl of cereal. She knew Dylan still hadn’t gotten used to how protective Kai could be when someone had his affections, even after he had tried to attack Jeremy at Wintervention on her behalf. Even after his insistence that he hire security for her in spite of her repeated refusals. He wasn’t possessive at all, but he was blindly and aggressively protective at all costs, which was why she was content keeping Chase’s visit a secret from him.

  “I called them after I got here! It was still bugging me that this complex and this building are so open,” Kai said in defense. He leaned forward and kissed Dylan’s pursed lips before she could turn away. Erica sighed, restraining her own longing to be kissed. All the couple adorableness was going to be hard to see, even if Kai was there for just a few days. “And the two most important people in my life are under this roof. So, flip a coin, Roshambo, whatever, but figure out who’s going to be here…because he’s coming. He’s supposed to get here at two. He phones in to the center when he arrives and phones when he’s leaving. Shouldn’t take longer than forty-five minutes for installation and testing.”

  “Well, you’re not doing anything today, Rock Star, so you be here…” Dylan said with resolve, patting him on the chest. “Actually, that’s a wonderful idea, babe.”

  “So what’s great? What were you guys talking about when I was in the bathroom?” Kai said, ignoring her.

  “Uh… I was just telling Dylan that I was thinking I want my job back,” Erica announced. She trusted that Dylan wouldn’t tell him what they had really been talking about, either. She wanted to handle this on her own unless it escalated into a situation that became dangerous for them both. “But not under your company…as my own.” She had wanted to wait a little longer before sharing, but Donnie from the house party last night had motivated her. She could surely branch out; she loved the way “E. Evigan, PR” sounded. Maybe with a loan from Naomi and Hayden, she could get some office space and an assistant, and build up a clientele with independent musicians.

  “Oh my God! Really?!” Dylan said, jumping up and down, causing Buttons to erupt with piercing barks.

  “Of course!” Kai beamed as he handed Buttons to Dylan. Erica released a breath. Maybe now the puppy would finally relax. “I’ll even give you a raise for your services!”

  Erica dismissed his offer with a smirk. “Um, dear, you still owe the label some of your advance, so you can’t afford to pay me more.”

  “The tour with Kutch is doing really, really well, E. I haven’t seen crowds like this since Evernight days,” he explained, referencing the old band he shared with Jeremy. “The money’s good. They’ll be out of my hair soon enough, then it’s more champagne and caviar, baby!” He lifted his hand and Erica high-fived him. Her excitement intensified in light of Kai’s enthusiasm. She was ready to do this. “This is so great! My two favorite girls by my side…” Kai’s voice trailed off when Dylan bent at the waist to put Buttons on the floor, and Erica snickered as his gaze dropped to her backside. “So, E, shouldn�
�t you go do that thing you were gonna do?”

  “So you can do that thing you want to do?” she said, laughing as she moved to rinse her bowl. “You know, you really should be the one here when the alarm tech comes. Dyl and I both had our day planned out.” Maybe it was a naive and stubborn refusal—and even a little stupid—but Erica simply couldn’t allow fear to dominate her life; instead, she would take more precautions. She just didn’t want to feel like a trapped animal.

  Kai grunted in reluctance as he moved to wrap his arms around Dylan when she stood upright, while Buttons continued to jump around her legs like a maniac.

  With Kai hugging her from behind, Dylan turned them both to face Erica. “Don’t worry, E, I’m on the case. I can think of a few ways to persuade him to be here.”

  “I’m open to persuasion…” Kai said, lowering his lips to her shoulder. Were they intentionally trying to kill her with their romance? Being friends with two people in love sucked.

  Dylan raised her eyebrows. “Oh? Is that what’s poking me right now? Your openness?”

  “Yup, and pretty soon it’s going to be poking your open—”

  “So, I’m gonna go to kickboxing and yoga now,” Erica interrupted, scrunching her nose. She hated them. A lot. “And then I’m gonna proceed with the rest of my day, which won’t include sitting around and waiting for an alarm tech, right, Kai?”

  Kai pointed a fleeting smile at her. “I’m serious about what I said, E. I didn’t just hire you ‘cause you’re my friend, I did it ‘cause you get me more than anybody in the world and you’re great with people. You’re hired and you’re getting a pay raise.”

  “See ya, roomie,” Dylan said happily, but right before Erica turned for the door, she spotted a hint of something less pleasant in Dylan’s eyes. It was the thing a friend really wanted to say, but they also knew you didn’t really want to hear it. Or maybe you weren’t quite ready to hear. She was really concerned about her.