by Celeste, B.
Ah. Sam and Gina used to dance with us once upon a time. Their mothers were friends with our mothers, so we’d all hung out quite a bit growing up. I never liked them because they were into things that I didn’t like being part of. Sam almost got arrested for shoplifting when we were sixteen, but her father got her out of trouble. I was certain they still participated in the hobby because I saw Gina’s mugshot in the New York Daily only months ago for stealing liquor.
“Get that sour look off your face. They’re not that bad,” she scoffed knowingly.
I tried my best to act unfazed. “I didn’t know you hung out with them still. I heard that Sam got into some trouble at some high-end party last year.” Theo had been at that party because it was for some investor who put a lot of money in Interactive Marketing. Sam’s father had made it no secret he wanted in, so he was there to try talking with Theo when Sam showed up drunk before causing a scene. I wasn’t sure what happened with the potential business Theo could have drummed up from it because I heard Sam’s dad was a strong-willed man.
“They like to party. So what?”
I didn’t say anything.
Kat sighed. “You need to lighten up. Why don’t you come over to my place tonight? They’ll be there and they mentioned how much they’ve wanted to reconnect. They feel bad about…things.”
I held my tongue, knowing it was better not to say a word about what those things were. Reminding myself that they weren’t their fathers usually helped, but it would be easier if they didn’t act like they didn’t have a foot in the door of the family business they should have been avoiding altogether if they were smart.
“I have a lot of homework,” I told her quietly, picking up my fruit again.
She grabbed it from me. “You’re lying. I know you, Della. You’re bad at it. My place. Eight. I’ll tell them to be on their best behavior.”
It didn’t matter what she told them, they marched to the beat of their own drum. I used to wish I could be like them. Free. Willing to take risks. But the risks they took weren’t the same kinds I wanted to.
I knew Kat though. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, which meant one way or another I’d wind up at her house. If she was moving into the guest house out back by their large pool, who knew what I’d be walking into.
She took a piece of fruit and winked. “I see the wheels turning. Live dangerously for once, Del. You know you want to.” Passing me back my food, she grabbed her purse and shot me a wink. “I’ve missed you.”
Why didn’t I believe her though?
The music was loud, vibrating the ground as I walked toward the white house that was larger than my flat. I heard laughter, something crash, then more laughter following. Hesitating at the double glass doors that were wide open, I glanced into the building to see white everywhere inside too—carpet, walls, furniture. Except the expensive sofa that looked nearly identical to the Adriana Royal living room set that we had in our living room growing up had a bright red stain in the middle of it now.
Sam stared from her empty glass to the cushion, looking too amused over the wine stain. It was probably Cabernet, Screaming Eagle if I knew Kat. Her father loved the expensive stuff and had a cellar full of various wines he collected for garden parties they held on their estate.
“You made it!” Kat greeted me as soon as she stepped into the living room. Her arms wrapped around me as she squeezed me tightly to her, my lips weighing into a frown at the alcohol stench radiating from her.
It wasn’t quite eight yet because I knew if I were even a minute late, she’d blow up my phone and then hunt me down. Getting noise complaints from my neighbors again because of her loud entrance in my building was the last thing I needed when I wanted to lay low.
I pulled away first, keeping her at arm’s length as I watched Gina and Sam dance in the corner of the room. There was something off about them, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I didn’t see them often enough to know exactly what. “This place has changed,” I noted, examining the fur rug under the glass table perched between the furniture and the cobblestone fireplace that was lit despite it being warm out.
“I told you I was renovating,” she sang, looping an arm around my waist. “Want something to drink? I took out that nasty white wine you love so much.”
“Lame!” Gina called out from where the two of them danced.
I refrained from rolling my eyes, but the blush from her comment couldn’t be hidden on my face. “I’m driving home later, so I’ll pass.” I paused. “But thank you.”
Kat snorted. “Always so polite.” She unwound herself from me and grabbed a glass of red wine for herself to drink, stumbling slightly while doing it. “I obviously don’t need to introduce any of you, but how nice is it that we’re all together again?”
I wasn’t sure that was the word I’d use, but the other two cheered. Although, I was certain they’d cheer over anything right now based on the empty bottle of wine on the floor and the half-empty one on the table. “What are you guys planning on doing tonight?” I asked, walking over to the armchair, and sitting.
Kat gestured toward her wine. “Drink?”
That made Sam laugh. “What else is there to do on this fine Wednesday night?”
My lips twitched. “You mentioned renovating. How many rooms have you done so far?” I knew the guest house had three bedrooms and two and a half baths. We’d spent a lot of time here when we were younger having sleepovers and gossiping about boys we liked. It was in this same house that Kat admitted she had a crush on Lawrence, and Gina insisted she was going to tell. To my knowledge, Ren had no clue Kat had a thing for him, but what did I know? The only thing I was sure about was that old crush was long gone considering Kat’s adventures with other men who were the exact opposite of my best friend.
“I’ve only done the living room.” She dropped onto the couch, staring down at the stain beside her. “Though it looks like I’ll need a new couch thanks to someone.” Another laugh from the girls. “But I want to do my room next. It sees a lot of visitors, after all.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “What were you thinking?”
Before she could speak, Sam all but crashed into Kat on the couch. “Who cares about all that? It’s boring. We need to have fun.”
I frowned. “I actually like—”
Sam groaned. “Yeah, we know. You like all the artsy stuff. Your mom did too, right? She was an interior designer or something?”
I didn’t realize she remembered. “Yes, she loved what she did. So, I don’t find it boring at all. I thought that was why I was here.”
Kat frowned. “You’re here to hang out with your friends. Don’t think I haven’t heard the way you hole up in your apartment or visit your aunt when you’re not in school. Or go to that creepy ass warehouse your dad was always obsessed with. No offense, but Sophie is the last person I’d want to be around, and that warehouse is shady. You need to live your life, Del.”
“And not be a buzzkill,” Sam added.
Kat cut her a look that made Sam roll her eyes before returning to Gina. “Ignore her, she’s a mean drunk.”
“How’d you know I visit the warehouse?” It wasn’t somewhere I’d ever taken her. I felt like it was my spot alone—something I shared with my parents even if they weren’t around. My father hated when I snuck away to it on my own, but when he’d find me there, tell me stories about Mom, and everything would seem okay.
Gina snorted. “Kat is very familiar with that side of town. Aren’t you, Kat?” The girls all exchanged a look that I couldn’t decipher in time before Kat glanced at me.
“I’ve seen you around. Know some people who’ve seen you pass through. You used to tell us about it, remember? Not hard to figure out where you go.”
That wasn’t the place anybody should go, I knew that. So why was Kat there? It didn’t make any sense.
She changed the subject. “Remember when I wanted to get my room decorated to look like what I imagined the inside of a princess’
s castle looked like?” She giggled, looking at me with a wide smile on her face. “I’m glad my father suggested we wait because all that pink would have made me throw up now.”
I didn’t want to let go of the last conversation, but I saw she wasn’t going to have it. So, I laughed at the memory. “He did buy you that pretty canopy bed though with the pink tulle curtains. We used to pretend we were royalty.”
“We are.”
I shook my head. “No, but it was fun to pretend for a little while. Everything was so much easier back then when school was fun and dance was enjoyable.” It made me think of what Theo told me in the warehouse when we danced. It really was easier when we were younger. Naïve. I understood now more than ever why ignorance was bliss.
“And our families weren’t caught up in corruption,” she added, downing the rest of her drink in one long swallow. “Enough of that. Memory lane is officially closed. We can be whatever the fuck we want now that we’re adults. Screw our families.”
My stomach churned. “I don’t know about—”
Sam and Gina walked over with mischievous looks on their faces. It was Gina who said, “I heard y’all wanted to start having fun. Lucky for you, I can help with that.”
Reaching for a black leather bag with a designer emblem on the front clasp, she dug through a side pocket until she produced something small. The grin she shot us wasn’t what made me dread what was coming next, it the wink as she set the tiny bag of white powder down onto the table.
“What…?” My voice cracked. I knew what it was. I’d never seen any in person before, but I’d heard it’d been circulating again. Dallas was listening to the news one day when we were in the car and I’d heard that laced cocaine was going around, and death tolls were increasing from overdoses.
“Shame, isn’t it?” Dallas asked, shaking his head as the reporter read statistics from the city. I’d told him it was, half out of it and wondering why anybody would risk their lives like that. When I realized I had no right to judge, I’d tuned out the radio.
“Don’t be a buzzkill,” Sam said again.
My eye twitched.
Kat grabbed my hand and squeezed. “It’s not so bad, Del. I’ve done it a couple times and it makes you feel good. Promise.”
She promised? “Are you kidding me, Katrina? That’s cocaine!” I hissed the last word as if there were people around to catch us. I didn’t want to be anywhere near this if something bad happened.
The two other girls laughed like it was the funniest thing they’d heard in a long time, and I wondered how much of the substance was already in their system on top of the alcohol.
Kat squeezed my fingers again. “Come on, Del. Would I ever lead you astray? Remember all the fun times we had? Our parents always said we brought the good out in each other, challenged each other.”
My heart raced in my chest as I looked at the three of them one by one. My eyes finding Kat’s again, I shook my head. “This isn’t good though. I didn’t even know you were into this kind of stuff. You weren’t before you left.”
It was Gina who cackled. “Oh, please. She was the one who got us into it. Kat was always the wild one out of all of us. Why do you think she’s on the same side of town your little warehouse is?”
I stared at my friend who was a ghost of the person I’d spent so much time with. At least I got the answer to my question from earlier. All the times we laughed, cried, gossiped, played, and everything in between seemed like nothing but a distant memory that might not have even been real because I didn’t know this version of Kat at all.
“Kat?” I wanted her to deny it, but she didn’t. Instead, she sat there looking at me for a microsecond before her gaze traveled to the powder now spread in lines on the table. Whispering her name again, I realized it was pointless. How long had she been doing drugs? Something told me the ‘couple times’ she’d mentioned was more than that.
Sam spoke up. “You of all people should really consider this, Adele. I mean, I lost twenty pounds between this and heroin. It’s not all bad, even if you hear the worst of it.”
My stomach bottomed out. The version of me who’d researched ways to lose weight would waken if tempted, and I didn’t want that. “I should go.”
Kat stood when I did, her eyes widening like she was afraid of something. I realized when she spoke that she was scared I’d rat them out. “I want you to stay. I miss my best friend. If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. But…”
But don’t tell anybody.
Jaw ticking, I reached for my bag and set it on my shoulder. “I missed you when you were away,” I admitted, ignoring the lingering gazes of the other two. “I’d felt bad when I pulled back after things with my father happened. I figured you traveling was better than being around everything that was going on here. Like maybe one of us could get out and have fun. But this? This is dangerous, Kat.”
I heard it before I saw it, but from the corner of my eye I noticed half of the first line gone with Gina hovering over the table. My eyes widened.
“If you really cared you would have reached out and acted like a friend,” Kat snapped, taking me off guard. “But you didn’t. You were stuck in your perfect little world here acting better than everybody else with Theodore West just like always. Stop pretending to be an angel, Adele.”
Eyes stinging with oncoming tears, I brushed them off and realized it was more than likely the drugs talking. It didn’t make it hurt any less. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t ask you to stop.”
She rolled her eyes before reaching into Gina’s purse and grabbing another clear bag from it. She held my wrist and pried open my palm to drop the bag into it. “Remember when you told me I looked good back in December? It wasn’t because I was hiking. Sam’s right. You lose weight and have energy. You could start dancing again without being critiqued by Instructor Satan.”
I hated that she called Judith that. Even on the days she made me feel like trash, I respected her. She was good at what she did, even if she was harsh sometimes.
She bent my fingers around the drugs until I cradled it in my palm. “I just think it’s time you took back your life now that you don’t have people around to control it.”
My nostrils flared. How could she talk about my dead parents that way? Hers were still alive and kicking—her father managing to get the best lawyer that obviously proved all the rumors false. Her mother was still part of the same social circles that looked down on everybody else, especially my family. Even with controlling parents, she did whatever she wanted without a second thought. She wasn’t trapped, so I wasn’t sure why she felt like she could tell me to escape my cage as if she had a clue what being in one was like in the first place.
“I don’t know who you are anymore,” I told her quietly.
She grinned. “I’m Katrina Murphy. But better. And if you listen to me like you used to, you could be the best Adele Saint James that New York City has ever seen.”
“If she gets that stick out of her ass,” Sam commented from behind Kat.
Gina just laughed and finished doing her line, her body swaying backward when she sat up. I saw the rolled money she was using and knew without a doubt it was a counterfeit bill. Like father like daughter.
I looked back at Kat. She said, “I’m just trying to help you out. Judge me all you want, but you won’t get rid of that and you’ll keep asking yourself why as each day passes until you cave. Want to know why? Because I know you, and you want an escape, but you’ve been too chicken to take one.”
Silence was what greeted her.
And when I walked out with them throwing comments at me the entire way, I gripped the bag in my hands and heard her words on repeat. I told myself I’d flush it, dump it, throw it away when I got home.
But when I got there…
It remained hidden in my purse.
Chapter Seven
Theo
“Does it sound like I give a fuck?” I demanded over the phone, grabbing a few folders to br
ing home with me.
“Now, Theo—”
“Don’t.” My warning shut Richard, or The Dick as I liked calling him, up quickly. “I’ve had enough of your bullshit. You’ve been hounding me for too long and my answer has not, and will never, change. Do you need me to draw you a picture? Hire a fucking sky writer?”
His huffed murmur wasn’t understandable, irritating me more as I locked up my office. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
Silence.
I grinned knowing he wasn’t the kind of man to speak up when asked. He liked to talk shit behind everybody’s backs like his wife, like half the women in the goddamn city, acting like he had more courage than he did. “I don’t know if you remember, Richard, but I’ve been doing just fine without you and your checkbook and I’ll continue to do so. Whatever shit you got yourself into can stay far away from me. Understood?”
His breath caught, leading to a husky laugh. “I seem to recall an investigation following the arrest of one Anthony Saint James. He was your partner at one point, correct?”
My jaw ticked as I stopped at the elevator, waiting for the doors to open. “If you followed the news so closely, you’ll know that my business had nothing to do with what he was involved in. He gave up his partnership long before that point, so the feds had no damn reason to crucify me.”
“Which is why I’m offering my services.”
His “services” were shit to me. If there was one person I knew not to trust, it was Richard Pratt. He only did things for his own benefit, and I didn’t want to know why he wanted to partner and invest with me. The whole thing was shady.
“Pass.” When the door finally opened, I walked in and debated hanging up. But he’d call. Again. For the third time this week. I wasn’t sure why the sudden need to get involved with Interactive Marketing, but there had to be one. He’d hounded me in the past about it, but never like he did now. “If you know me at all, you’d know that I would have given you an answer by now if I was interested.”