She Laughs in Pink (Sheridan Hall #1)

by Jessica Calla

  “You’re scared because you aren’t in total control of the situation. Chase flusters you. Ben knows more of you, and you had all that time to get to know him. Chase is right here, moving fast, only wanting you.”

  “That’s part of it.”

  Pooja continues, seemingly reading my mind, “You still have to deal with Ben. Not only telling him, but also separating from him. He’s been your support for years now. You’re scared because even if you feel Chase is the one, there’s a lot to learn about him still, and you may have some hard lessons.”

  It’s as if Pooja reads my soul. With all that has happened to her, it’s amazing she’s so caring and loving and not of bitter and angry. I reach for her hand. “That’s all true, but there’s more.”

  Pooja weaves her fingers through mine. “What’s that, roomie?”

  “I’m scared Chase isn’t going to want me to have those hard lessons. He’s freaked out about Ben. He’s trying to be confident about us, but I know he’s uncertain.”

  “Ben’s a tough act to follow,” Pooja says. “To me it’s clear Chase loves you. Maybe he’ll settle down. After all, last night you gave his ego the win.”

  “That’s not all I gave him last night.” I cringe sideways at Pooja.

  Pooja throws my hand away and sits straighter. “I had a feeling. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. It was sad and needy but amazing. Chase was perfect. I can’t wait to see him again. Is that normal?”

  “Totally.”

  “But…Ben.”

  “Honesty,” Pooja says. “Honesty is always the answer. Be honest. Ben will be upset. It might get a little awkward around here. Everything will work out though, I promise. Ben will get through it.”

  “But will I? I can’t imagine my life without Ben in it. I mean, what if he cuts me off completely? Like, not even friends. What if he hates me? What if he hates Chase?” I bite my lip while these scenarios run through my mind.

  “Ben doesn’t hate anyone, Juliet. You know him.”

  “He may hate me after this. God, Pooja. All these years, I’ve chased him. I finally drag him to me, make him fall in love me, and it’s great. He’s great. But now I’m going to dump him? I’m scared to death to walk out of this room and face him.”

  “You can do it, Juliet. You’re the strongest woman I know. You have principles. You know you have to do this. It’s not fair to Ben or Chase if you don’t.”

  “You’re right, Pooj. I know you are.” If I could just get through dinner, talk to Ben, and get out of here, everything will be better on the other side of the river. I'll make Chase hold me, and we can hide in his room and shut out the world for another night.

  “Go now.” Pooja stands up and points to the door. “Know it will be okay. I’m here for you.”

  As I’m about to leave to go talk to Ben, the fire alarm blasts. Pooja sighs, looks to the ceiling, and I put my fingers in my ears.

  Being in the basement on the far end of the building, we have the pleasure of hearing people up and down the stairs and in and out of the exit door to the parking lot behind Sheridan on a regular basis. On a normal day, it’s annoying. During fire drills, it’s a stampede. “A fire drill? Now?” I yell over the alarm.

  Pooja shrugs and grabs her phone. I put my bag over my shoulder and find my key to lock up behind us. Before we get to the door though, it opens toward us.

  In a flash, a man’s inside our room and his hands are around Pooja’s neck. I can’t figure out what’s happening, who he is, why he’s hurting Pooja. Her eyes are wide, her mouth open. His grip looks strong.

  Then I remember.

  I scream.

  I lunge for him, scratching at him, yelling in his face. He releases his grip on Pooja. She falls to the floor. He turns his attention to me. He grabs my hair with one hand. When he pulls out the gun with the other, I know Pooja was right.

  Cameron Weston did find her.

  And now he’s in our room.

  “Pooja, go!” I yell. I scream but the alarm is so loud. “Help!”

  Cameron holds a gun to my head, pulling my hair back so that my chin is high as he leads me to the ground.

  I get a good look at him. He’s tall and thin and has reddish-blond hair. Pooja’s at the door, about to fling it open, when she turns and sees the gun at my head.

  Cameron shakes as he watches Pooja, and I realize I may die. He could shoot me, the way he’s shaking, the way his voice sounds so determined. “Lock the door like a good girl.”

  Pooja moves away from the door, raising her hands in submission. “You want me, let her go.” Her voice is calm and controlled.

  “Lock the damn door!” he yells over the siren. When he cocks the trigger, I hold my breath, panicked. In an instant, an image of my parents flashes through my head—then Justine, Ben, and Chase. I’m going to die without saying goodbye. Pooja’s mouth opens with a silent scream. She turns back to the door and clicks the lock.

  Cameron sighs and uses the gun to direct Pooja. I exhale when it’s off of me. “Now get over here and calm the fuck down. Both of you.”

  Pooja crawls to me on the floor. A knock at the door takes our attention. Ben shouts over the siren, “Jules? Pooja? You still in there?”

  Cameron lets go of me and grabs Pooja, holding the gun to her temple. I want to run for the door, to do something to let Ben know that we need him, but I can’t beat a gun. Pooja’s eyes shut. She takes a deep breath. I can tell she’s terrified.

  I’m paralyzed. My instincts tell me to scream, but I’m not sure I can trust my instincts, not after Justine, and not with Ben. I open my mouth to yell, but Pooja opens her eyes again, meets mine, and shakes her head.

  The moment passes when Ben yells over the siren, “They’re probably outside already.”

  Cameron grabs Pooja closer when Ben’s voice disappears. A few seconds later, the alarm quiets to a steady beeping. He shoves Pooja toward our desks. “I thought the big guy you’re fucking would never leave. Give me your phones.”

  Pooja wiggles out of his grasp and pulls her phone out of her pocket. I do the same, and we steal a look at each other before putting them on my desk. The pounding of my heart finds its way to my head. The room spins. I hold onto the desk to steady myself. Don’t lose your shit, Juliet. This isn’t four years ago at the mall.

  He takes mine first. “Ben, right?” I don’t answer. He grimaces and taps on my screen. My hands sweat thinking of Ben and how he’s going to worry about me, how he’ll miss me when I’m gone. And Chase. God, poor Chase.

  Cameron throws my phone onto the desk. “That takes care of the big guys.” He puts my phone next to Pooja’s and smashes them to pieces with his handgun. The sound of the gun crashing into the glass of the phone makes us both jump.

  “You,” he says to me. “The dancer.” How does he know I dance? “I’m taking Pooja with me, so I’ll have to shoot you. I’ll try not to kill you though. I’ll just slow you down.” He waves the gun. I can’t breathe. I’ve never seen a real gun unholstered. This one is pointed at me, loaded. My heart beats a mile a minute as I gasp.

  “S-shoot me?” He’s going to kill me. My parents invade my mind again. They’re standing arm-in-arm at Justine’s funeral.

  “Cam,” Pooja says. She’s speaking in her calm voice, trying to take control of the room. “Please, let Juliet go. You only want me. Don’t hurt her.”

  “Sorry, Pooj. I wanted to get you alone, but that giant you’re screwing didn’t give me much of a chance.” When Cameron stands on Pooja’s bed and feels around the windowsill, anger replaces my fear. My sweaty palms ball into fists. I think about whacking him in the back. This motherfucker thinks he’s going to shoot me? He’s not that big. In fact, he’s kind of skinny compared to Rocco and the first floor guys. Can I take him? He still has the gun, but if I could find something to hit him with…

  It only takes him half a second to pull a little wired thing out of the sill. “Camera,” he says, smiling at me. “I loved watching you
get yourself off. You should let someone fuck you though. At least suck a dick. Those poor bastards.”

  Holy shit. Cameron’s been watching us. Pooja had mentioned he’d done that before to her.

  “You,” he says to Pooja, “have been a bad, bad girl.”

  I look at Pooja and can almost see her mind racing. “I was sad about you, Cam,” she lies. “I only wanted you, but you were gone.” I feel her using all of her powers, but I’m not sure if her powers have an effect on psychopaths like Cameron—people she can’t read.

  “Well, I’m back now, baby, and we gotta jet.” He grabs Pooja around the waist, pulling her back to his front so she can face me. He holds the gun at her side. “You be good, Pooj, and I’ll leave her here. I won’t shoot her. For you.” He kisses her neck and she flinches. “Say bye to your dancer friend.”

  Pooja stares at me. “Bye, Juliet.” Then she mouths, I’m okay.

  It’s the same thing Justine said when she was led out of the mall. I’m okay, were her last words to me. Pooja’s expression looks the same as Justine’s had, brave and scared at the same time. I can’t let it happen again. I can’t let Pooja die protecting me. I’d rather die than watch another girl be dragged away by a killer.

  “No!” I say to Cameron. “I…I want to go, too.” I don’t know what else to say to get his attention.

  Pooja grimaces and lowers her voice. “No, Juliet.”

  I return Pooja’s look, then I have an idea. I clear my throat and think about Justine. I think about Pooja being raped in a desert. This time, he may kill her.

  “Cameron,” I murmur. “You know, since you’ve been sharing Pooja with Rocco this whole time, maybe she can share you with me, too?” I gulp, using all of my energy to think, act, and control my panic.

  When Pooja tries to object, Cameron puts a hand over her mouth. “What are you suggesting, dancer?”

  “I’m suggesting that it must have been hard for you to watch her fuck Rocco all the time.” The words feel like bricks. Pooja begins muttering under Cameron’s hand. I have his entire focus though. “You should make her watch you fuck me. Take me, too.”

  I hear the fire trucks outside. If I could just delay him.

  Cameron loosens his hand on Pooja’s mouth. “Listen, you little whore. I don’t have time for your games.”

  “No games.” I walk to Pooja and look her in the eye. When I’m a few inches from her, I try to tell her, hoping she can read me, the way she always can. Trust me. Let me do this for you. “This is the Cameron you’ve been telling me about, right?”

  Cameron squints at me, but I can tell he’s losing focus. I touch his hand and move it away from Pooja’s mouth, then I kiss Pooja on the lips. As I kiss Pooja, I run my hand down his perverted body. “Let’s share,” I say to Pooja.

  Then I make my next move—I kiss Cameron. Touching him makes me sick to my stomach, but I do it. I do it for Pooja, and I do it for Justine. I do it because, right now, my sexuality is the only weapon I have. He responds when my hand makes it to his pants. I rub him over his jeans. He’s holding Pooja around the waist with one arm and the gun, and gropes me with the other. I let him shove his tongue into my mouth. He grabs my breast so hard I wince. “You know how many times I jerked off to you, dancer?”

  “I’m not sharing,” Pooja says. Her voice is still steady, but I know she’s scared for me. She knows what Cameron can do. So do I, and it’s a risk I’m willing to take.

  “I’m going with you,” I say quietly. I unzip Cameron’s pants and stick my hand inside. I’ll do anything to keep him from leaving this building with her, including having sex with him. I’m actually going to have to do this. I fake a smile.

  I grab his dick in my hands and fumble around. He’s focused on me, not Pooja. I feel him loosen his grip. I force the bile that’s rising in my gut back down. I can do this.

  “Juliet, no. Let us go,” Pooja begs.

  “Not without me,” I tell her.

  All three of us jump when the stampede starts again. Students reenter, climbing the stairs to their rooms. “Shit,” Cameron says. He pulls away from me and zips his fly. “Nobody says a word, got it? This room is empty until I get us out of here.”

  The tension leaves my body at his words. He’s not going anywhere with Pooja for the time being. But then he looks at me. “Now you can take your time, dancer.”

  Pooja steps in front of me, but he moves around her and grabs my face, holding my chin to force me to look at him. “Why do you act like such a prude with the guys? You’re a slut at heart, just like all the others.” Cameron holds the gun in one hand and my chin in the other.

  “Cameron,” Pooja begs. “No!”

  “Sorry, hon. Juliet says she wants a turn.” To me, he says, “Continue.”

  Fucking perverted asshole psycho. I fight nausea and fear and utter dread as I unzip his pants again. If it were just me, I’d die before I’d do this Cameron. Or I’d rip his fucking dick off. But I know that here, now, it’s not just me. It’s Pooja, and there’s a gun.

  I’m going to save her, I think over and over. He grabs Pooja and holds her so closely that she and I are almost cheek-to-cheek. I feel her hip pressed against mine, and I focus on that contact instead of what I’m doing with my hand. Soon, Cameron’s whole body relaxes.

  Sometimes, the best laid plans go awry, and sometimes the worst plans turn out all right. I’m thinking my plan is close to horrible, when I hear a key in the lock. Because of me, Cameron doesn’t hear the key turn and the door unlock. It’s not until the doorknob turns that Cameron jerks away from me, holding the gun to Pooja’s side.

  Frank walks in, holding our key. In a split second, his eyes dart from me, to my hand down Cameron’s pants, to Pooja and the gun. He yells, “No!”

  Ben follows Frank into the room. I yell. I don’t want Ben here at all. “He has a gun!”

  Ben reaches for me, and Frank lunges at Cameron. While Frank and Cameron struggle, Ben pushes me toward the door and reaches for Pooja. “Run,” Ben screams. Pooja and I scramble for the door.

  “Ben!” I yell, as I turn to see him pull Cameron off of Frank. Cameron holds the gun on them.

  We’re almost to the staircase when we hear gunfire. One. Two. Three shots. Pooja looks at me and her eyes roll back, as she passes out and falls to the floor. I kneel down next to her, shaking, and turn to my room. Ben. Frank.

  Police officers storm the basement and I weakly point to room one. “Ben,” I manage. “Please.” They rush past me into room one.

  Chapter Twenty

  Chase

  When Rob tells me there’s been a shooting at NJU, I can’t believe it. When he tells me that it took place at Sheridan, I panic. I call Juliet but get no answer. I try everyone, but nobody’s responding.

  Dear God, please let her be okay. Please don’t take her, too. I pray like a mad man as Rob drives me to the school. We can’t get near Sheridan. Rob drives us to the closest emergency room.

  Inside General Health, it’s a madhouse. Press, students, and police swarm everywhere. Still, I don’t know what’s happened.

  I tap an officer on the shoulder. “Excuse me, ma’am?” I ask with as much patience as I can muster. “I’m a resident of Sheridan. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

  “There was a shooting, son,” she says.

  No shit, I want to say, but I take a deep breath. “Do you know if anyone was injured?” Please let them be okay.

  “Three shot, one minor, one critical, one deceased.” I fall to the ground at the officer’s feet. Rob and the officer squat next to me.

  “It can’t be. Not Juliet. Please,” I beg, but nobody can help me. It’s like I’m in a dream. Rob is talking, the officer is talking, but I can’t hear any words.

  Then I see her: across the room, surrounded by officers. I think I see her. Please let that be her.

  I tug Rob’s arm and try to point. “Is that…? ”

  Rob pulls me up, and I see her still. She didn’t disappear. “Ju
liet?”

  Her eyes meet mine. She’s crying, and I think I am, too. We run toward each other, pushing people out of the way. She jumps into my arms, and I squeeze her. Now I know she’s real. She sobs into my shirt.

  I pull back to look at her tear-stained face. “Are you okay?” I manage to squeak out. I push her hair back and study her face. She feels like she’s in one piece. There’s no blood… “Tell me you’re not hurt, baby.”

  She nods as more tears fall. “Frank…”

  “No.” I shake my head. Why is she saying Frank’s name?

  She says it again, tears falling down her face.

  “No, no, no,” I repeat. She touches my cheeks. “Not Frank,” I say, pulling her closer. I try to hide in her, hide from her words. I try to take us back to my apartment, to last night when we were the only two people in the world. “Please, no,” I whisper, hoping I heard wrong, hoping I can will the words away. My dream. I had the dream. Frank saved Juliet from the cliff…

  For the second time in one day, I break down in Juliet’s arms. The only thing that keeps me from collapsing is that she’s collapsing, too, and I know I need to hold her up. Did she see it? What the hell happened?

  I have to be strong for her. I pull back and hold her face in my hands. “I’m sorry this happened. I should have never let you leave this morning. Are you sure you’re not hurt?”

  Juliet shakes her head. Her tears continue to fall. She whispers through her soft sobs, “Ben. He got shot. I don’t know where he is.”

  I look to Rob, who is standing behind me, and he nods, understanding that I need him to find out Ben’s status. “He’ll be all right,” I say. “The officer said there was only one…”

  I can’t say the word. Deceased. There was only one. Oh, God, Frank.

  “I have to find him, Chase,” Juliet says in a daze. “My Ben.”

  She looks to me for answers, but I don’t have any. I don’t know what to say. I hold her tightly. “We’ll find him.”

  Rob learns that Frank managed to get a bullet into Cameron’s gut before taking the shot that ended his life. Juliet shudders. I hold her tighter as Rob tells us that Cameron is in critical care, being prepped for surgery.