Chapter Eleven – Laina
Later that day, when Mike drove me home, I couldn’t get my mind off the way Kieran reacted.
Mike and Fang picked up on it, so it wasn’t just me.
Like Fang had said, it was almost like Kieran recognized the man from my description of him, but what I didn’t get was, if he knew him, why wouldn’t he say something?
Well, certain areas of my life might’ve been turning to shit, but at least I had Fang and Mike on the same team for a while. That was… that was so nice. A girl could definitely get used to that.
Mike helped me clear the house before he left. Kelly wasn’t there, which I found odd. I didn’t think she had any classes this late in the afternoon, and since it was Monday, it wasn’t like she could be out pre-gaming or anything.
My phone was deader than dead, so I had to plug it in and wait to find out if I had any missed calls from her. When the damn thing finally booted up, I saw multiple missed messages and calls.
I called her, assuming she’d pick up, but the call rang and rang and rang, and eventually went to voicemail.
Huh. That was odd, wasn’t it? I hoped Jason didn’t come back for Kelly while I was off having fun with my guys. If something happened to her, it’d be my fault, one hundred percent. There’d be no other way to look at it.
Eventually, I wound up in the living room, pacing around the couch, while I waited for either her to come back or for her to message or call. I didn’t have her other friends’ numbers, so I couldn’t call any of them to see what was up. The only thing I could do was wait, and it sucked ass.
Six-thirty rolled around, and it was then Kelly came home. She came in through the front door, and I raced over to her, saying, “Kelly. Where were you? I was worried—”
She didn’t look at me. She only slipped off her shoes and went toward the stairs, up to her room. I followed her, because what the hell else was I supposed to do?
“Are you going to talk to me, or keep ignoring me?”
Finally, she met my eyes, and I saw heavy bags beneath them, meaning she didn’t put on makeup today—something she never, ever did. Even if she didn’t leave the house, makeup was the first thing she always did in the morning.
“I can’t do this” was what she said.
That wasn’t enough for me to understand, so I said, “What do you mean? You can’t do what?” We stood near her bed, and I folded my arms over my chest as I waited to hear whatever explanation she had.
“I can’t do this.” As she repeated it again, she gestured around us, at her room. No, wait. She gestured at me. At my left hand. Not at her room.
That was when it hit me, what she meant, what she wasn’t saying. I wasn’t one to back down or accept defeat. Not after everything. So, I stared her square in the eye and demanded, “Just say it, then. Stop dancing around the subject and spit it out.”
She shook her head, then glared at me. “I woke up on my bed, not remembering how I got there. Then I go look for you, and you’re gone.
My head was pounding, I felt like being sick, so you know where I went?
The damn hospital. They tested me for every date rape drug they could, and you know what they found? ”
I knew what they found, yeah, because if I would’ve gone, they would’ve found the same thing in me, too.
“Someone was in our house, Laina,” Kelly said, her voice trembling. For the first time ever, she didn’t seem like the know-it-all she pretended to be. She wasn’t the outgoing, social butterfly that never met a situation she couldn’t handle. No, she was scared. Terrified.
Terrified because of what I brought into her life.
“They drugged me. Where were you? Did they get you, too? Or were you just out and about this whole time, oblivious?”
What could I tell her? She might freak out even more if I say I was kidnapped.
If I admitted to her that this was because of me, what grounds did I have to stand on?
She had every right to be freaking out right now, every right to be upset with me.
I couldn’t hate her for any of this; she’d always been a remnant of the life I left behind before I was kidnapped the first time.
I tried. God, I tried to go back to the way things were, to how things probably should’ve been, but clearly it didn’t work. Playing house with my old best friend was like playing with fire; it was only a matter of time until one of us got burned, and now Kelly couldn’t handle the flames.
Kelly’s green eyes stared hard at me, and it was a while before she muttered, “This whole thing happened because of you, didn’t it? You were kidnapped, you were nearly shot on live TV—it’s not safe to be around you, is it?”
I wanted to yell at her, to stand my ground and hold myself as innocent, but if I did that, I’d make myself a liar. Out of the many, many things I might’ve been, I was no liar. I could not tell her the whole truth, so I had to be careful.
“I think so,” I whispered.
She shook her head. “I tried. I really fucking tried, but I can’t do this anymore, Laina. I can’t worry about this shit all the time. If being around you puts a target on my back, then… then I just can’t do it anymore. I have to choose me.”
I understood. It didn’t make me happy to hear, but I understood where she was coming from, and that was why I didn’t argue with her, didn’t raise my voice at her.
“Talk to the landlord. See if he can change the locks, put cameras up or something. I can be out tomorrow.” This house had become my new normal, and now I was forced to say goodbye.
But what else could be done? Kelly couldn’t handle these kinds of things. I had no other choice.
She tilted her head down and stared at the carpet between us. “Thank you. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s my fault for wanting things to be normal.
I should’ve known better.” I didn’t wait for her to respond; it was clear we were done.
Whether our friendship was totally kaput or we’d rekindle it somewhere down the road when things were calmer remained to be seen. I supposed it didn’t really matter.
I walked across the hall to my room, where I began the process of throwing everything into bags. I had options, of course. I could move back in with my dad, or any one of the guys. It wasn’t like I didn’t have anywhere to go. My choices were plenty, but even so, I didn’t know where I’d end up.
Fang’s place was kind of in a bad part of the city. Mike’s place was probably the most normal, but it was right in the center of downtown. Kieran’s apartment was small from what I’d heard, and there was still the fact he was MIA after walking out earlier.
Shit. As much as I hated to say it, it might just be easiest for me to move in with my dad.
This sucked.
I made sure my bedroom door was shut before I called my dad. With everything that happened, it might be smart for me to move back in with him anyway, so I could keep an eye on him. Plus, it’d make snooping a hell of a lot easier.
My dad answered after the third ring: “Laina, kiddo. It’s pretty late. Is something going on?”
“Uh, yeah. Kelly and I kind of… had a falling out. I need to be out of here by tomorrow. Can I come home?”
It was more than obvious he wasn’t expecting me to say that, because it took him a while to spit out the phrase, “Of course. I—can I ask what happened? You two seemed close.” It probably took a lot for him to say that, since he was never a fan of hers, even years ago.
“It’s complicated, and it’ll be easier for us both if I move out right away.”
“All right. You need help moving?”
“No, I’ll get Fang and Mike to help. Thanks, though.” I could tell my dad wanted to ask more questions about it—I’d have to come up with a story to tell him that did not involve me getting kidnapped again—so instead I changed the subject, “Did you hear from Tessa today?”
“I—” My dad stuttered. “—I did. She stopped by, showed me the latest ultrasound.”
“Did you mention getting a test done to make sure you’re the baby’s father?”
“I did. She got upset, but ultimately agreed. She called her doctor right then and there to set the test up. I’m going in with her later this week.”
Hmm. Not what I wanted to hear. If she was okay getting a paternity test done, it meant that baby in her belly was indeed my dad’s—which meant it was my sibling, and I couldn’t have her taken care of while it was still inside her. It complicated things, ridiculously so.
He must’ve sensed my thoughts were racing a mile a minute, because he told me, “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out together, one step at a time. I’ll probably be at work tomorrow when you come home, but I’ll try to swing by around lunch time.”
“Don’t bother. I’ll be too busy unpacking. I’ll just see you tomorrow night.”
“All right. I’ll let you go, then. Night, kiddo. Love you.”
“Love you too, Dad.” I ended the call and then had to make the rounds to the guys.
Kieran didn’t answer, still MIA, but Mike and Fang did.
They both offered to help me tomorrow, which was good.
The less I had to do, the better. You’d be surprised at how much shit you could pack into a room like this, plus I had some things scattered amongst the rest of the house.
I stayed up well into the night, packing up as much as I could. Kelly never poked her head in, not that I thought she would.
It didn’t make sense for me to be angry with her.
She had every right to feel the way she did.
If anything, this was another indication that I wasn’t normal, that I could never be normal, that fitting in with an average, everyday person was impossible for me.
I’d much rather hang out with Lola than Kelly, even though the former was literally a serial killer.
What did that say about me? A lot, and none of it good, but I knew as much already. I wasn’t trying to be normal… was I? Was this whole thing with Kelly and going to college my last-ditch effort to be a normal nineteen-almost-twenty-year-old? I shouldn’t be surprised it was blowing up in my face.