by Seven Steps
“This is for you,” Jake said, handing me the red bag.
I didn’t want it. I didn’t want anything from him.
He shook the bag at me and I snatched it, hoping that it would get him to go away faster.
“Open it,” he said. It was more of a command than a request.
I peered inside.
There was a pair of shoes. Hot pink and open toe. The bottom of them was painted red.
I gasped. They were beautiful. I reached in to touch the soft material and noticed the size.
Six and a half.
I frowned.
“They’re too small,” I said.
“What?”
“They’re a six and a half. I’m a ten.”
He shook his head. “That’s impossible.”
I handed back the bag. I knew exactly who wore a six and a half. The girl that I wasn’t.
I wasn’t sure what was more degrading. The fact that he thought that I would magically turn into Dana, or the fact that he wanted me to.
Why were we doing this to ourselves? Jake didn’t want me. He wanted Dana.
I didn’t want Jake. I wanted Cole.
“I’ll have them exchanged,” he said, reaching out to take the bag back.
“Don’t bother. Just give them back to Dana. I don’t want them.”
The first period bell rang and I walked away from Jake Winsted, feeling more normal than I had in a long time.
“Meet me after school by my car. We have some business to take care of.”
I turned around, facing Jake.
“There will be no business,” I said.
“We’ll see. Either way, the piper must be paid.”
“And our other problem?”
“It’s being handled.”
“By who?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just meet me later.”
The bell rang again and I power walked to my class, with Jake’s words ringing in my head.
The piper must be paid.
61
I skipped English, because, well, reasons, and hung out in the library. When the bell rang, I got up and walked down the hallway to lunch.
I had no idea who I would sit with. Definitely not Jake. That was for sure. And with Jasmine and Ariel not on speaking terms with me, I supposed that I had to find another table to loiter at while I ate my salad.
The vibe in the hallway was different. Like something had happened. Something terrible. I looked at the faces around me, trying to get a gauge on the situation, when a loud smack had me jerking my head to the right.
“You did this to her!”
The voice had come from Dana. She was standing in front of Jake, his face red where she’d obviously slapped it.
“You and Kenny and your drugs. You did this!”
She rushed at him, fists flying, landing hard punches on his arms, his face, his back.
Two security guards ran to the brawl, pulling Dana off a clearly stunned Jake. They practically dragged her down the hall kicking and screaming. I could still hear her cries echoing down the hall.
“You did this! You did this!”
I turned to the boy on my left. I think we had chemistry together but I couldn’t be sure.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Stephanie Pleasant overdosed last night. They found her this morning in her house.”
I gasped. I’d seen Stephanie take drugs before but I never thought she had a problem. She wasn’t like Mel. I thought she was stronger than that.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
“She’s dead.”
My heart thudded hard. Stephanie was dead? She couldn’t be dead. I just saw her yesterday. She had threatened Jake and me. She was going to tell the…
My thoughts trailed off in to a dark place.
When I asked Jake about Stephanie this morning, he said that it was taken care of. He did this. He killed her. Jake killed Stephanie Pleasant.
I had to do something. I had to tell someone.
I turned around, intent on marching straight to the principal’s office and walked directly in to Jake.
How had he gotten behind me so fast? I didn’t even notice he’d moved.
He put his hand on my lower back and my entire body turned cold. His lips touched my ears and I shivered, afraid of what he might do.
“It’s time for us to go.”
Jake drove me to the docks where a mid-sized yacht waited.
I was absolutely terrified. Was this where he was going to kill me? Would he drop my body in the river? Would he harm my father or Cole?
My thoughts raced, my mind searching for ways to escape, as he led me up the stairs of the bobbing boat.
Shiny wood floors, leather couches, a television and bear skinned rugs greeted me. It looked closer to a rustic living room than a yacht. On the bear skinned rug were several black bags, two wine glasses and covered plates.
A picnic? I grew even more on edge. What exactly was his plan? To feed me then kill me? Was that what he’d done to Stephanie? Did he take her out to dinner first, then kill her?
He led me to the rug.
“Sit.”
I did as I was told, sitting cross legged on the floor.
He opened the basket and pulled out a large, black dish. He placed the dish on the floor between us and pulled the top off it. Sushi. I grimaced. I hated sushi.
I sat back on my haunches, leaving my food untouched.
“Dana would have liked this,” he said. His face turned sad, like Cole’s did sometimes. He put down his bowl, looking over to the side.
I didn’t respond.
“She told me that she was never coming back. And now, after Stephanie, I’m sure that there isn’t anything I can do to change her mind.” His mood shifted, going from sad to unreadable.
His eyes focused on me and my gut constricted.
He crawled across the rug toward me, not stopping until his face was only an inch from mine.
“Let’s pretend,” he whispered, tilting his head to the side. “Just for a minute.”
My heart sped up. Was he asking me to pretend to be Dana? This was too much. This had gone too far. I wouldn’t do it.
I shoved him but he didn’t budge. He moved closer, his arms on both sides of me, trapping me.
“Just for a minute.”
“No.”
He bolted forward, his lips slamming into mine.
I let myself drop back to the floor, disengaging us and scurrying away from him.
He was fast. He threw his weight on top of me, wrestling my arms into submission.
“Just relax!” he bellowed. His eyes were furious and wild. “Chill out!”
“No!” I screamed at him again.
He readjusted himself on top of me, balancing on his knees.
“No one says no to me!” he cried out. “Nobody.”
I panicked, and threw my knee between his legs.
He let out a curse and fell to the side, gripping where I had kicked him.
It was my shot. I grabbed the keys from the keyring Jake hung them on and bolted out the door.
“Get back here!” Jake screamed after me. “Get back here!”
62
I took his car and drove back to school, my hands shaking on the wheel.
I didn’t want to go home and be alone. Not with Jake no doubt coming after me. I had to be around people. I had to be safe. So, I went where I knew people would be. School. It was almost three o’clock. The jocks would be at football practice. Ariel would be at swim practice. People would be around. People who would protect me.
I ran in and went straight to the locker room, looking for someone that I could sit with. Who would be a witness in case anything happened to me. I considered calling the police, then decided against it. Detective Harding still hadn’t gotten back to me. Maybe the cops thought I was lying. Or worse, that I was somehow trying to throw off their investigation.
I burst thro
ugh the locker room doors, only to find that they were mostly empty. No one sat on the benches. No showers ran. I walked past the aisles, looking for someone, anyone.
There, sitting in front of her locker, looking vacant, was Ariel. Her red hair looked tangled, like a red bird’s nest. Ariel never let her hair tangle. She was constantly styling it or combing it. It was her pride. Her joy. She turned to me, and my blood ran cold. My heart stopped.
She knew.
“I told him that I never wanted to see him again,” she whispered. Her face remained calm. I wouldn’t have even known she was upset if her eyes weren’t so filled with anger and hatred.
“You know?” I asked.
She nodded.
“He told me what you did. What he agreed to do. How could you do that to me? I loved you. I thought we were friends. How could you humiliate me like that in front of everyone? You knew how I felt about him.”
“I … I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry? That’s all you have to say?”
“Ariel, I just wanted you to be happy.”
“I loved him. Did you know that? I loved him and it was all a lie! A game!” She shook her head, confused. “Did I do something to you? Did I offend you? Did I say something to you that you didn’t like?”
I ran to her and took her cold hands in mine.
“No. You were perfect. You were the best friend that I ever had.”
“Then why did you do this to me?”
“Because I loved you and I wanted you to be happy!”
“By making me love a lie?” She jumped up, nearly throwing me backward off the bench. “I thought that we would grow old together. That it would be you, me and Jasmine forever. I trusted you with my life and you turn around and stab me in the heart!”
She shoved me and I fell backward off the bench, banging my head against the locker behind me. Pain exploded in my head and I saw stars.
“I trusted you and you took everything from me! I hate you! I will hate you for the rest of my life and when you die, I will write backstabber on your grave.” She stood over me, screaming at me. I deserved every hate filled word. “We are done. Do you hear me? Done. If you even look in my direction, you will regret it. You called yourself my friend but you are nothing more than a faker.”
She grabbed clothes out of her locker and stomped away.
My worst nightmare had come true.
Ariel had found out and now she was gone. Out of my life forever.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. This was my hell. A life without my two best friends. My good intentions were plastered all around me. My choices were made.
I wished that the ground would swallow me whole.
But there was no time to grieve.
Doors slammed open and Jake’s voice bellowed through the locker room.
“Bella, I know you’re here!”
He had come for me.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
I pressed my back against the locker, trying to gather my scattered thoughts. How did he get back here so quickly? Did he steal someone’s car? Did he keep a spare vehicle at the docks just in case? Had he called one of his drug cronies to give him a ride?
Heavy steps echoed through the locker room. Row by row, looking for me. I backed away, keeping as far away from his echoing shoes as I could.
“You’re going to pay for what you did to me. I can promise you that.”
I could barely hear him over my panting breaths and my banging heart.
I could see the doors to the locker room, still swinging from the force that he’d pushed them with earlier. I had to get out of here. If I stayed, Jake would kill me. I was sure of it.
With a burst of energy that I didn’t know I had, I sprinted to the door. It moved closer, and closer. I willed my feet to move faster. It was almost within reach. And then, I ran in to a wall of a man.
Jake. His wild eyes. His strong arms. He’d found me, and I had no idea what he was going to do.
“Looking for me?” he asked. An evil grin stretched his face. “You’re going to pay for that little stunt in the yacht. Oh yes. You are going to pay.”
I struggled against him, desperate. He was going to kill me. I was sure of it. I had to get away. I had to.
He flipped me around, until my back was pressed to his chest. No chance of my knees finding their way to him now. I squirmed and screamed.
“Let me go!”
“No one is around to hear you, Bella. Scream all you want. It’s just you and me now.”
Like a lion, Cole’s voice roared through the locker room.
Jake froze then released me, turning to his brother. I crashed to the floor, my body weak with fright.
“This doesn’t concern you, Cole!”
Is this what you’re doing to girls now?”
“I said that this doesn’t concern you, Cole!”
“She is my concern!”
“Not anymore. You hesitated, and she’s mine now. Mine to do whatever I want with.”
“She’ll never be yours, Jake. Ever.”
“If you want her, you’ll have to come through me and we both know that you’ll never win.”
“I will. I will, because she’s worth it.”
Cole and Jake rushed at each other, their fists and bodies clashing like warring titans.
Cole grabbed Jake by the collar and swung him in to a locker. Jake’s back crashed in to the metal with a loud clang.
“Get off me!” he cried.
But Cole didn’t let up. He reared back his right hand and punched Jake in the chin. The nose. The mouth. Again and again, he rammed his fist into his brother’s face until Jake’s body collapsed on to the floor. Cole threw himself on top of him, grabbed him by the collar and readied himself for another swing when…
“Stop!”
An older man walked into the locker room.
Cole immediately stood, leaving his brother woozy on the floor.
I pressed my back against the metal, my body still weak.
Who was this man? He looked to be in his sixties with white hair and pock-marked skin. His body was strong and tall, his face held the look of someone who’d seen more than a few fights in his life. He wore a black suit and shiny shoes.
“Dad,” Jake sputtered. “What are you doing here?”
Dad? So, this was Ivan? The famous Russian gangster?
“Watching my sons kill each other,” he said a long string of words in Russian.
Cole nodded and walked over to me, standing by my side.
Jake withered beneath his father’s hard stare.
“I told you to play your football and stay out of trouble. I told you that this life was not for you. And yet, here I stand with a dead girl all over the news, the police sniffing around my home and my son’s very expensive school filled with drugs.”
He kicked Jake hard in the side. Jake rolled over with a groan.
“I should ship you back to Russia to live with your grandmother. Would you rather raise goats?”
“No.”
“Then why am I hearing reports that my son, my flesh, my blood, has been taking my supplies and selling them to his classmates? Why am I getting anonymous calls saying that my oldest son is a drug dealer?”
“Papa, it’s not true.”
His father nodded and crouched next to his son.
“That is what I said. So I asked your sister, ‘Regina, tell me that these things I am hearing about your brother are not true’. And do you know what your sister, your blood, did? She clammed up like a dead fish. Your sister, the one who can’t shut up, was speechless. So, I went to that kid you hang out with. The kid that I said was no good. Kenny. My men held him upside down over the river, and he told me everything. Every bag of coke, every pill, every drop off, every safe house, every dime you made. That punk kid has no honor. He’s not blood. He’s not family. You are trusting him while you steal from me!”
He stood, sending another sharp ki
ck to Jake’s ribs. A loud cry rang from Jake’s lips and he rolled over again, groaning in pain and holding his side.
“I told you not to be like me, but you didn’t listen. Your brother told you to stop and you didn’t listen. You and your sister were in cahoots against your own father.”
Jake’s eyes went wide.
“No, Papa.”
“You do these deals and cut me out?”
“No, Papa!”
“You lie! That’s exactly what you did. You stabbed your brother and me in the back. Your poor mother, the saint that she is, is home dying and this is how you repay her?” He picked Jake up and shoved him against the locker.
“You are banished!”
Jake’s face fell.
“No, Papa. Please!”
“You and your sister will go back to Russia to live with your grandmother. There, you will learn the true meaning of loyalty. Respect. Family. Only then, will I allow you to return.”
“Papa, please!”
“Get in the car before I forget that you’re my son and leave you to rot in jail next to your friend.”
Jake’s face turned red and he fled the room.
Ivan’s strong presence turned to me. He had such intense eyes. Eyes that made me want to cower. But I wouldn’t cower. Not in front of anyone ever again. I stood up straight instead.
“Who are you?” he asked.
Cole moved a little closer to me.
“I’m Bella French, sir,” I replied, surprised at the strength in my voice.
“Are you the girl that sent the flowers to my wife?” he asked.
I nodded. “They always brightened my mother’s day when she was dying. I hoped it would do the same for your wife.”
His stare softened.
“She says that the sunflowers are good but daisies are better.” To my surprise, he gave me a little smile. “French woman.”
I smiled back, my body still feeling a little woozy.
Ivan looked from me to his son.
“Is this the girl that you are taken with?” he asked.
Cole nodded.
“Yes, Papa.”
Ivan grunted.
“She is a good woman. Not an idiot, like your brother and sister.” His eyes fell on me again. “My son is going to assure me that you will never tell anyone that I was here. He will assure me this because he knows that he is the only reason why you aren’t in a trunk. Is that clear?”
