Chapter Fifteen
Rip
I’ve been looking for her for a few days and couldn’t find her. I stood outside her classes until one of the girls told me she hasn’t been coming to class for a few days. I wanted to talk to her and tell her I was going to find a new tutor -or maybe that I didn’t need one any longer and that I wished her well. No need to get pissy with her over not wanting me and choosing another guy.
But then I couldn’t fucking find her and I started getting worried. I came to the rental house but no one answered the door so…I let myself in using the key I took one of the first days we met. Her roommates hid the spare under a rock sitting awkwardly on the porch and I didn’t want someone using it to let themselves in because they were too stupid to hide it better. Once inside I went straight to her room and thought about kicking the goddamned door in but try the knob first. It’s open.
When I step in I have to step over mounds of tissue boxes. There are balls of tissue paper everywhere. And there she was. In the middle of her bed, rolled in her blanket like she’s trying to shut the world out. Maybe she’s sick.
Fuck! The one fucking time I leave her, and she winds up sick. Probably because that little shit left her in the rain or some shit and didn’t take care of her. When I say her name she starts sobbing in her sleep breaking my heart.
All I can see is red. Who fucking did this to her? I’m going to kill that little shit she was with! I finally wake her and mine is the name she cries out, not his.
“Rip!”
I expect her to come into my arms and tell me who hurt her, everything they did, so I can make it better. Instead, I get told to fuck off.
“Get out!”
She pushes my touch from her and jumps out of bed wearing only a small tank that barely covers her tits and a pair of panties that doesn’t cover her ass at all. She damn near falls on her face but I reach out and catch her. It just seems to piss her off more.
“Leave!”
“Why are you so pissed at me?”
I’ve not even been around her for days and days. She screws her face up into a frown and pushes my hands away again. Apparently, she doesn’t want me to touch her at all. Not even to save her.
“Leave! Go home!”
Half my attention is on what she is saying while the other part is on the soft sway of her unbound breasts and the curve of her bare hip. “No more study sessions, no more parties, no more tutoring! We’re done! Your grades are good. You don’t need a tutor, and you don’t need me.”
Yeah, I was going to tell her the same thing she is saying to me, but I don’t like how she is saying it.
“I’m not leaving with you so upset. And why don’t you want to be my tutor anymore? Is it that guy? Is he pushing you to quit tutoring me?”
“What? What guy?”
The look on her face has a sinking feeling settling in the pit of my stomach.
“The guy from the other day at the bakery. The one that you were with and couldn’t even spare me a few minutes of your time. Not even to talk.”
“Rain?”
“Rain? The kid’s name is Rain?”
What kind of name is Rain?
“What about him?”
“Is he the reason you haven’t slept for days?”
Staying up fucking one another. He must have dumped her because her eyes are swollen and red like she’s spent the weekend bawling. It may make me a putz but I'll mop up all her tears and offer her arms to wrap herself in.
“What? No! Please, just leave. Leave me alone.”
“So who is he?”
And where can I find him?
“Rain? He’s my cousin. Or as good as one since he is Candy’s son. Actually, he’s more like my nephew since I babysat him and his sisters when he was a baby.”
“Nephew. He’s your nephew.”
Not a new boyfriend.
Oh fuck! I messed up.
But why is she so upset?
“Are you sick, baby?”
“Don’t call me baby. And no, I’m not sick. I’m not upset. I’m mad. Someone barged in and woke me up when all I want to do is sleep and they won’t leave me alone.”
Shit!
“And he has an unhealthy fascination with my nephew…who is only fourteen might I add so if you are thinking you might like him, I suggest you move on or wait four or five years.”
“What? No! It’s…”
Not the family member I am wanting to get with, sweetheart.
Vanessa comes bursting through the door interrupting whatever I was going to say.
“Rip…I didn’t know you were…here?”
She stops and takes in the room as the last word leaves her mouth on a low whisper. “Wow! This place is a pig sty and you look awful, Tandy.”
She leans over to whisper to me.
“Must be man troubles.”
“Thanks, Vanessa. I'm not sure what I would do without you telling me things so sweetly and gently.”
If she doesn’t have a boyfriend and Vanessa thinks it’s a man too…who is the man?
And when did she have time to meet him? That cold feeling that’s coated my stomach and settled to lodge in my heart comes rushing back to me. I need to talk to my little tutor.
“Thanks for coming by, Vanessa, but I’m here now and I’ll take care of her.”
“’Her’ doesn’t need taking care of, especially not by you! You’ve already done enough, don’t you think?”
“Oh My God! Are you pregnant?”
Tandy’s eyes widen and she opens and closes her mouth. Speechless. “Why would you think that, Vanessa?”
I turn to look down at Tandy beside me and I can’t help but lower my eyes to her tummy.
“Well, you said you’d take care of it. And she’s pissed and said you had already done ‘enough’. When my sister got knocked up by her boyfriend she pretty much said the same thing.”
“Out! Everyone out! GET OUT NOW!!!”
Tandy shoves me and Vanessa through the door, and I hear the lock click into place. It sounds pretty final. Vanessa gives me a big smile, but I turn away from her -and all she is offering. I don’t want her and I have too much to think about to put up with her fake admiration.
For one, I might have a lot to make up for. I was a jackass and did the one thing I told her I wouldn’t do -not take the time to talk through shit. Damn it! So now what do I do? Flowers? Massages? Although that would probably be more for me than for her since I get to put my hands all over her after all.
And I have to find out why she is so upset. I have a nagging suspicion that the person that made her cry and has her so upset…is me. And what that means is something I am going to have to really think about while simultaneously figuring out how to kick my own ass.