by Emerson Rose
“Like I was saying, I know you’re upset but if you want to help her you need to back off and let her live her life. Be her friend, her brother, and stop acting like she’s still twelve years old. It seems to me that she could use a shoulder to lean on instead of fists flying to protect her honor.”
He steps back and lowers his fist. He’s still wound up tight but I reached him.
“You think she needs to talk?”
“I don’t know her very well, Jayden, but it seems like she’s scared and confused.”
He’s looking at the ground between us considering what I’ve said.
“You weren’t out here earning brownie points so you can get into her pants today?”
I raise my eyebrows and shrug. I’m not going to lie to him, the thought has occurred to me even if I swore not to touch her.
“Drake, swear to me that you won’t touch her. I’ll try to back off and give her some room to breathe but falling into bed with you isn’t going to solve anything.”
I want to tell him it might, but I’ve pushed far enough for one day and there’s a chance Tiana won’t want to fall into bed with me for a while after I insulted her today.
I don’t really believe that. She feels the electricity in the air between us. She might be angry now, but she will forgive me when I apologize, I’m sure of it.
“I won’t make any advances on your sister, Jayden, I promise. Now go inside and see if she wants to talk.”
I’m surprised he didn’t notice that I didn’t say I would refuse her if she makes an advance on me. I’ll be sure to bring that up when she does.
He turns and trudges back toward the porch stopping for a moment to look at what Tiana and I accomplished today.
“Nice work,” he says more out of obligation than anything.
“She did most of it by herself. I only helped spread the wood chips and place the bricks.”
“Thanks,” he mumbles.
“No problem.”
The screen door squeaks and he disappears inside the house. I’m glad he valued our friendship enough to see things my way. In my experience, my way is the best way.
Now I must make Tiana believe that too, and she will.
Chapter 11
Tiana
I only allowed myself five minutes to cry. Nothing is worth more than five minutes except maybe the death of a loved one. Those tears never really stop.
I’m sitting at my old dressing table pressing on the bags under my eyes with my fingertips, looking in the mirror with my hair wrapped in a towel. A soft knock on my door pulls my attention away from my stressed-out skin.
“Yeah?”
“Can I come in?” It’s Jayden, of course it is, who else would it be? It certainly wouldn’t be Drake coming inside to apologize. Not that my brother would allow him past the front door after witnessing my hissy fit a while ago.
I heard him go outside and watched them through the window fully prepared to go down and break up a fight if it came to that. I didn’t know how I was going to go about breaking up a fist fight between two Marines but I would have given it my best try.
I jumped when Jayden raised his fist to punch Drake again and my blood boiled. Why suddenly did he think violence was the way to solve problems? We have always talked things out and come to a reasonable conclusion together.
Not anymore. There’s nothing amicable about the way he defends me. He’s just angry and out of control.
“Come in.” I tip my head forward and shake my hair free of the towel. When I sit up Jayden has entered and is sitting on the edge of the bed behind me. We can see each other in the mirror.
“The yard looks great, you did an awesome job.”
“Thanks.” We sit in silence staring at one another. Is that all he wants?
“Are you okay? You seemed pretty mad earlier.”
Okay, that’s different. I was expecting him to come charging in here and ask what Drake had done to piss me off so much.
“Sorry, bad day I guess.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
“Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”
He looks out the window and back at me through the mirror.
“I’ve been an ass, T, and I’m sorry. This whole thing has me so mad that I’m directing my anger in all the wrong places. I want to be here for you. I promise to give you some space if you promise to tell me if there’s anything I can do.”
I turn around on the white padded leather bench and look him in the eyes.
“There is something you can do for me. It’s not going to be easy but I’m scared to do it alone.”
He leans forward and takes my hands in his. “I said anything, I mean anything. You look terrified, what’s going on?”
“You know how I thought the videos were about Just Sing?”
“Yeah, and now you don’t?”
I lower my gaze to my bare feet and stare at my perfectly manicured toenails.
“T… what aren’t you telling me? Are you starting to remember things?”
“No, but…” I stand and pad across the room to get my laptop. When I’m back on the stool I open it and type in my password bringing up the screen with the video.
“This morning I got online to look for a job and decided to check a couple social media accounts.”
“Aw, Tiana, why’d you do that? That’s just askin’ for trouble.”
“I didn’t think so. I mean if someone was trying to get rid of the competition they got what they wanted, I’m out.”
“So, you saw something else?”
“Not exactly. Someone sent me a message.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, the profile didn’t have anything on it but the words watch it.”
“No pictures or information?”
I shake my head.
“So, someone’s telling you to watch it like a warning?”
“No, they sent a video.”
He sighs, stands and paces back and forth in front of me. With one arm crossed over his chest and his hand cradling his chin his eyes glaze over and he seems a million miles away.
It feels like forever until he snaps back to reality.
“Is it more of the same night?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t watched it. That’s what I was hoping you’d do.”
He stops in front of me and drops his arms. “What if it’s worse that the others?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. Please, Jay, I can’t watch it alone. At least sit with me while I do, you don’t have to look and I’ll put the sound down.”
His eyes get misty and guilt flows through my veins. This whole thing is killing him as much as it is me. But this way, he won’t have to see anything and I’ll have some support.
“Alright, I’ll watch it with you. Scoot over.” He places his hand on my shoulder and I move to give him enough room to put half of his ass on the small seat next to me.
I take a deep breath and slide the cursor over the play button and click it.
It starts like a movie unlike the footage from the bar cameras. The words smart girl pop up on the screen and Jayden and I look at each other.
Next are the words whatever you do. The video fades to black and then it starts flashing don’t ignore this. The words pulse to eerie background music that reminds me of an old vampire movie.
“What the hell is this?”
I’m frozen, I can’t respond because my eyes are glued to the messages scrolling across the screen.
I’m watching you.
Behave or there will be consequences.
I know what happened.
And then a woman on the music track screams and I push the laptop into Jayden’s lap. I’m not frozen anymore. I’m a ball of nervous energy walking around the room aimlessly with my hands over my ears.
Warm strong hands on my shoulders stop me in my tracks and I realize it was me that was screaming, not the music track from the video.
“Tiana, stop!
You’re going to scare the neighbors. It’s going to be okay, it’s just a video.”
Wide-eyed I stare at him. “How can you say that? Didn’t you read that?” I point at the abandoned laptop on my bed.
“Yes, of course, I did. It’s just somebody trying to scare you. I don’t know why but we’ll get to the bottom of it. I’ll call the police and take your computer to a computer genius I know and have him go through it with a fine-toothed comb.”
“I’ve never done anything to anyone, why would they want to harass me like this? It doesn’t make any sense, Jay, it doesn’t make sense…” My words trail off as I begin to cry and he envelops me into his arms.
“Shush, I know. You’re a good person. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just some whacko messing around, must be. You’re shaking like a leaf, I think you need to lie down.”
He leads me to my bed where he pulls back the quilt and I slide under it and look up at him.
“I’ll admit that’s some off-the-wall shit. I’m just glad there were no pictures or videos of you…”
I groan and turn onto my side with my back to him. I know what he’s trying to say. He’s my brother and he can’t speak the words out loud and neither can I.
He’s glad it’s not a video of some stranger raping me. I’m relieved about that, too, but who’s to say that person doesn’t still have something like that?
The doorbell rings followed by frantic knocking. I sit up in bed and reach for Jayden’s hand. “Who’s that?”
“It’s probably someone who heard you scream. I’ll go see, will you be okay here for a minute?”
I don’t think I’ll ever be okay alone again but I nod my head and he drops my hand but I stop him. “Wait, you don’t think it’s the person from the video, do you?”
He looks at me like I’m crazy and now I feel crazy. No computer terrorist is going to show up on my doorstep, that’s ridiculous. I think.
“No, honey, I’m sure it’s probably Mr. Lang from across the street. He’s the neighborhood gossip; you don’t know him, he moved in two years ago.”
“Okay, come right back, though.”
“Of course, lie down I’ll be right back.”
The pounding on the door is more insistent, I shoo him from the room so he can calm poor old Mr. Lang.
“Hang on, I’m coming!” he yells when he’s in the hallway.
Bang, bang, bang.
“Keep your hat on!”
I sit up and strain to hear him open the door. When he does it’s not an elderly man’s voice I hear, it’s Drake’s and he’s flipping out.
“Where is she?” he yells.
“What the hell, man?”
The sound of the men scuffling in the foyer has me on my feet and scrambling down the stairs.
“Stop,” I yell and both men look up.
“See, she’s fine,” Jayden says wiggling under Drake’s arm that is shoved up under his chin pinning him to the wall.
“Let him go, what the hell?”
“I heard you screaming bloody murder over here. What the fuck’s going on? I almost called the police.”
“I saw a big spider crawling across my bed, it scared the piss out of me. Would you please let my brother breathe?”
Drake looks at Jayden like he’s forgotten all about him and releases him. His hands fly to his neck and he gasps for air.
“A spider?” Drake asks with suspicion in his tone.
“Yes, it was as big as a damn mouse.” A shiver runs up my spine at the thought of an actual spider that big, I hate spiders.
“Goddammit, man, you were gonna strangle me to death over a fucking spider.”
“It sounded like you were hurt,” Drake says moving up the stairs with a strange tilt of his face looking me over for injuries.
“And you thought I was hurting her? What the fuck man?”
“No, but you wouldn’t let me see for myself.”
“Dude, there’s nothin’ to see. I wasn’t just going to let you go up to my sister’s bedroom to check on her. I told you she’s fine.”
“You looked like you were lying.”
“Jayden wouldn’t lie about something like that.” I feel the need to defend my brother, but in a way, he was lying because I am most certainly not fine. Physically yes, emotionally I’m a total wreck.
Drake reaches me on the stairs and I can feel the anxiety rolling off his body. He was really scared for me. I don’t even remember screaming until the very end, it must have been blood-curdling. A little part of me feels sorry for him but then I remember how rude he was earlier and poof, no more pity.
He reaches up and lightly touches my cheek, “You look pale.” I should pull away but I can’t. He lowers his eyes to my trembling arm holding the banister, “And you’re shaking.”
When he looks back up he holds me captive with his eyes. His eyes--something about them ignites worry in my heart. Not just right now, but every time I’ve looked into them, I get a sense that he’s holding something back. There is a distinct suffering combined with pride in his pale blue eyes. He has the palest blue eyes I’ve ever seen, like clear marbles that have a reflective slice of blue in the center.
“She’s scared of spiders. What’s so weird about that?” Jayden says, coming up the steps behind Drake and removing his hand from my face.
I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Now that he’s not touching me I can speak. “I’m fine, just shaken up a bit. You can go now.” I turn and take one step when Drake grabs my wrist and I whirl around and glare at him.
“Let me go.” He does without a moment of hesitation. His brows are knit together tight and his expression is loaded with unnecessary concern. What is with these men and their overprotectiveness? I’m not a damn China doll.
Inside my room, I close the door and press my ear against it. I can hear them talking but I can’t make out the words. It’s good that they are talking and not yelling. The door closes and Jayden returns, shaking his head.
He points at me, “You need to stay away from that man. He’s not good for you. He has problems, T, big problems. And he’s a complete player, he will never commit to one woman.”
“I don’t appreciate you telling me who I can and can’t date but it’s irrelevant. There’s no way I’d date him, he’s an ass.”
He looks relieved. Then he cocks his head and narrows his eyes. “Why do you say that? What did he say to you today?”
“Nothing, I can just tell. He has that bad boy aura about him. I recognized it right away. I’ve been watching guys like that take home a different girl every night for years.”
“Yeah, that’s Drake all right. Hey, are you hungry? Wanna order some pizza?”
He believes my lie. It’s not a total lie, I can spot a player from a mile away and Drake has all the characteristics. But there’s a sort of vulnerability in his eyes that most players don’t have.
My stomach growls answering his question and I shrug my shoulders. “I guess I am, yeah, pizza sounds good, where are you ordering from?”
“This isn’t New York, nothing’s open twenty-four hours. I’ll make homemade pizza.”
I guess I haven’t adjusted to small-town living yet. I loved that there’s nothing you can’t have any time of day or night in New York.
“Okay, need help?”
“Nah, I got it. You wanna come downstairs and watch TV or somethin’ while I cook?
“Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks for being such a great brother.”
His face softens into the one I’ve known all my life. He’s had an angry mask on ever since I arrived. Like he’s pissed at the world for doing me wrong. I wish he could understand it’s not the world that’s gotten me into this mess, it’s me.
Maybe I should have listened to him and stayed closer to home after graduation. Maybe I should have gotten a safe average job somewhere in Jewel Falls, settled down with some nice man and had a baby.
If I had, I sure wouldn’t be dealing with a psycho online-te
rrorist and humiliating videos of myself in social media.
I also would have never known if I could make it as a professional singer. If the Big Apple taught me anything, it was that I can’t.
Chapter 12
Drake
A spider as big as a mouse, my ass. Something’s not right, I can feel it. But if those two want to pretend it’s not I’ll play along.
I get a ping in my email box when I walk through my front door. The smell of bacon hangs in the air and the cool dry air-conditioned air welcomes me home. The BLT’s I made this afternoon smell like a good idea again. They wouldn’t taste as good as they did earlier, though. Those I ate on the porch while I watched Tiana sweat in her sexy cut-offs and envied the fringe sticking to her legs.
I slip my phone from my pocket and open it. It’s an update from the training school for service dogs. Attached are three pictures of the little shit rolling around in the grass. It says he’s doing great and that they’re ready to see me in two weeks.
Am I ready for this? Fuck no. Do I have a choice? Another resounding no. Accepting this dog into my life feels like giving up. I drop my arm to my side and think of something else, something much better than going blind. Tiana.
I shouldn’t even be thinking about her the way I have been. I’m going to be a retired blind Marine someday soon. Starting something with her is selfish. Even I know that.
The weird thing is I’ve never considered “starting something” with anyone before. I have a lot of friends with benefits but no one has ever left a lasting impression. We fulfill each other’s needs and go about our lives. There are some who would like it to be more but they know it never will be.
I sit on the couch and respond to the email thanking them for the update. I want to add I’m not blind just yet but I don’t. I lean my head back and look up at the vaulted ceiling where a wispy spider’s web dangles unattached from a wide wooden beam. Fucking spider. I wonder if it’s as big as a mouse?
Now that I think about it more, that’s the stupidest story I’ve ever heard. I want to storm back over there and demand the truth but I don’t think bullying Tiana into telling me will work.