by Jillian Dodd
"I need to repack. I was taking Dawson . . ." I stop myself and try not to start crying again. "I packed for colder weather. Now all I need is a couple bikinis, a hot outfit for the club, and maybe something to wear to dinner." I smile at them. I'm so glad they are coming with me. "Meet me at my dorm in five. A car is coming to pick us up."
I run back to my dorm with my head down. I don't want anyone to see me. I'm sure I'm a mess.
I make it back into my room without having to talk to anyone, kick my suitcase, grab a different bag, and toss some clothes into it.
Jake texts me.
Jake: I’m so fucking pissed.
Me: I told you this would happen.
Jake: Funny thing is, I thought I was using her.
Me: Yeah :(
Jake: I cheated on her. I felt bad about it.
Me: I know you did. Please don't tell her even though you are mad. It would be bad for the girl.
Jake: Are you okay? Dawson’s an idiot if you ask me. He’s gonna realize what a big mistake he made.
Me: Doubtful.
Jake: Wanna hook up? Piss them both off?
Me: I'm pretty sure your moral code points just north of sleazy.
Jake: <3 That may be the best compliment anyone ever gave me, Monroe. I'm touched.
Me: I'm going out of town but when I get back, let’s party.
Jake: You sure you're okay?
Me: Not really, but I'll live.
My phone rings. I want to ignore it, but I see it's school security. I answer, ask them to send up the car, and meet Dallas and Riley out front.
Looking good is the best revenge.
6:15pm.
We pile into the town car and head to the airport.
On the way there, Dawson calls three times. I don't bother answering, so he texts me.
Dawson: I keep trying to call you. You need to let me explain.
Me: You weren’t packed. You don’t need to explain. Have fun with Whitney. And don't text me again.
When we get to the executive airport, the town car pulls out onto the tarmac, and we hop out, grab our bags, and board the plane.
“Miss Monroe? I'm Captain Cummings. Were you informed of our situation for the flight down?"
I shake his hand. "Situation?"
"We're running without a staff for this flight. I was told you could handle seating and serving yourself?"
I smile. "I think we can handle that."
"Excellent," he says. "My co-pilot and I will do our pre-flight check and then we'll announce when you should take your seats. Please help yourself to the galley. It’s fully stocked."
He shuts the cockpit door as Riley whistles and runs his hand across the leather couch. "This is nice."
Dallas is already at the bar. "Miss Monroe," he says to me. "You look like you could use a drink."
"I think we all need a drink," Riley says.
Dallas pours us three shots of top shelf tequila. I start to down mine but Dallas says, "Not so fast there, Kiki." He holds his glass up and sings. "Here’s to the three best friends anyone could have.”
“Shouldn’t we be the two best friends?”
“I’m including myself. There’s three of us.”
"I love you guys," Riley says.
Which makes me start crying again. His voice sounds like Dawson's.
And it doesn't help that my phone keeps vibrating.
I look down and see I have eight missed calls and a couple texts.
Dawson: Keatie, please.
Me: "Baby, please" might have worked for her. Keatie, please, is NOT going to work for you.
I slam my phone down. "Riley, please call your brother and tell him to stop calling and texting me. It's stressing me out," I cry. "I can't take it."
He grabs his phone as Dallas hands us each another shot. I down it quickly.
Riley calls Dawson. "Hey, bro. Just thought I'd let you know that me and Dallas are headed out of town with Keatyn for the weekend. Please quit calling her. She's not going to answer."
“Um, yeah, very. What the hell did you expect?”
“Yeah, well you know how I feel about her. And that makes you an asshole in my book.”
“Yep.”
I interrupt Riley. “Wait! I do want to talk to him.”
Riley hands me his phone and I say, “Why do you keep calling me?”
He replies, “Keatie, I’m sorry. I just wanted it for so long. And now she’s offering and I just feel like I need to see. Please don’t be mad at me.”
“Don’t be mad at you? Are you fucking kidding me? This is what you wanted all along. Congratulations. Now you’ve got it. You won.”
“Will you stop saying that? Yes, it’s what I wanted, but when you walked out that door, I felt like part of me died.”
“I’m actually glad to hear that. Bye.”
I immediately get on Facebook and do something I usually don’t care about. I change my Facebook status from In a Relationship to Single.
Then I put as my status, Gonna party all weekend with my two favorite boys and tag Riley and Dallas.
Dallas sees it. “Hey, you tagged me. Sweet. I’m gonna change mine too. Read it.”
I scroll down my newsfeed and read, “Dallas McMahon is fly like a G6. Cute.”
Riley holds out his phone, so I can see his new status.
Riley Johnson: My brother’s an asshole. Team Kiki all the way!
Dallas laughs. “I have to like that status.”
My phone buzzes with a Facebook notification. “Oh, wow.”
“What?” both Riley and Dallas say.
“Aiden just liked my status. The single status.”
“Well, of course he would,” Riley says. “He likes you.”
“He does not.”
“He also liked my team Kiki status.”
Riley’s phone keeps buzzing and buzzing.
“Damn, baby, lots of people are team Kiki. We all love you.”
“Thanks Riles,” I say, then I grab a blanket, put my head in his lap, and try to sleep.
But, of course, I can't. I lie here instead and think about Dawson. How could I have been so wrong? How can you go from crazy happy and You own me to I just need to see. I think about Brooklyn. About Cush. About how I thought I was being so smart by waiting until I knew I loved Dawson to tell him. How I waited until I was sure he loved me. And how I even waited for a while after that. I waited until after he asked me to Homecoming. Until I knew I felt it. Until I really trusted him. I was going to tell him everything tonight. I am an idiot.
I guess I do doze off because Riley wakes me up. “Baby, I gotta pee.”
“Oh, sorry," I say, sitting up.
“Besides,” Dallas says, “how can you sleep? We are in a freaking amazing jet. I’m living a rap video.”
“So where is the Cristal and all the hot girls?” Riley asks.
I smile. “Well, your crew is kinda small, but no one really likes you, so that’s no surprise.”
"There isn't Cristal, but I saw a few bottles of Dom,” Dallas says with a grin.
“Pop it," I say.
When Riley comes out of the bathroom, Dallas tells him, “Let's make a video.”
"A video?" I ask.
"Yeah, my own personal rap star video."
I pour myself another shot, slam it, and decide to have some fun. “Hang on.”
I grab my bag, run in the bathroom, and redo my makeup. Heavy eyes. Red lips. I tease my hair out with my hands, flip my head upside down, and hairspray it, making it big and slutty looking. Then I put on one of my bikini tops, a pair of daisy dukes, and my highest platforms. I pull my thong up so you can see it just above my low-cut shorts. Mom always says, Looking good is the best revenge.
And I’m about to get some revenge.
Riley whistles, “Damn, baby.”
I look at the boys. They are both still in some version of their uniforms. I make Riley take off his shirt and tie, then throw the tie back on, so that it’s on his naked
chest. Then I have him put his navy blazer back on. "Sunglasses?" I ask.
He gets a pair of Aviators out of his backpack and puts them on.
I stand back and look at him.
Perfect.
Next I grab Dallas, spike up his hair way up with some gel, strip him down to his boxers, then put his shirt back on, leaving it all unbuttoned. Then I throw his loosely done tie back around his neck. He grabs a pair of Ray Bans out of his bag and puts them on. He looks at himself in the small mirror above the bar.
"Oh, yeah," he croons. "Let's make a video." He plugs his iPhone into the speakers, sets it to repeat, and cranks up the volume.
I start by shaking the bottle of Dom.
Riley videos the bottle.
Me popping it.
Then Dallas holds the bottle as champagne shoots suggestively into my mouth.
Dallas swigs from the bottle, and I start dancing up against him.
I also figure, What the hell. It's not like we've never kissed, so I grab him and make out with him a little.
Dallas videos Riley rapping.
Then some shots of me sitting in Riley's lap.
I grab a pilot's hat and jacket from the closet, make Riley change into them, and then sit him in one of the Captain's chairs. It's not the cockpit, but we can pretend.
Dallas videos me walking up to Pilot Riley, straddling him, and playfully putting his pilot’s hat on my head.
Riley pretends to fly a plane, while I'm pretending to, uh, fly him.
I give him a lap dance of sorts.
Then we all get up and dance. Riley holds the camera out away from us all grinding together. Drinking champagne. Being naughty.
Looking like we’re ready to have a wild threesome.
I pull on Riley’s tie, pulling him toward me.
Kiss Dallas again.
Then kiss Riley on the cheek.
All of us singing.
Riley adds some pan shots of the inside of the plane then decides he wants a few shots of me by myself.
Me with a new bottle of champagne.
Me in sunglasses dancing.
Me doing a slutty dance in front of the kitchen counter.
Some of just my ass.
Then Dallas pulling me into the bathroom, like we're joining the Mile High Club.
I get behind the camera and film the boys together, pretending like they are trying to get me to come with them.
Then us all doing shots.
Finally Riley says, "I think I have enough," then pulls out his Mac, uploads all of the video, and starts editing it.
By the time we start our descent into Miami, I'm tipsy and the video is complete.
Naughty, fun, and complete.
We watch it one more time and laugh hysterically.
“Dawes is gonna come unglued,” he says with a naughty grin.
“He probably won’t even see it. He’s probably all enthralled by Whitney.”
"Whitney is nothing like you, Keatyn," Riley tells me. "She's a cold-hearted bitch."
"You have no idea," I say. Shit. I shouldn't have said that. I immediately look guilty.
“What? What do you know?"
"I can't tell you."
"You can tell me and you will," Riley says very sternly.
I grab Dallas and whisper what I know into his ear. He looks at me and says, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, Peyton told me."
Dallas tells Riley what Whitney did. How she slept with his brother, and when she couldn't get him, settled for Dawson. How this was supposed to be their year.
"You can't tell Dawson," I say. "It would kill him. We talked one day about Peyton being pretty and he said he could never like her because she'd been with his brother. How that would be sick. He has no idea."
Riley shakes his head. "I can't believe Cam never told me."
"Dawson was a freshman when it happened, so maybe you were too young or something."
"He's had plenty of time since then. And why the hell didn't he tell Dawson? They didn't have sex for months after they started going out. He should have told him."
"Yeah, probably.”
Riley leans over and kisses me on the cheek.
I’m half tempted to kiss him back.
Riley uploads the finished video to YouTube then links it to Facebook. Pretty soon, his phone starts buzzing like crazy. "People are seeing the video and commenting!"
Dallas messes with his phone. “Holy shit, we have 67 likes already!”
“Uh, oh,” Riley groans.
“What?”
“My brother is not a happy camper. Look what he just texted me.”
I look.
Dawson: WHAT THE FUCK?
“Reply!" I almost scream. "You have to reply. I want to know what he’s gonna say.”
Riley: What?
Dawson: Saw the video. You’re dead.
Riley: No, you’re dumb. You should be here with Kiki, not kissing the bitch's ass.
Dawson: Are you showing our texts to Keatie?
Riley: No.
Dawson: I wanted her back for so long. Now finally she’s begging me, saying baby please and all that shit. And I just feel like I need to see.
Riley: Then get off Facebook and go hang out with her. You finally got what you wanted. Enjoy your weekend, bro. I know I am :)
Dawson: You kissed her. I hate you.
Riley: Only on the cheek.
Dawson: FML
Riley: This is what you wanted, remember?
Dawson: Now I don’t know what I want.
Riley turns to me and Dallas, “What should I say?”
Dallas says, “Tell him you think he should watch the video again, then go hang out with Whitney.”
Riley: I think you should watch the video again, bro. Then go hang with Whitney.
Dawson: Can’t watch the video again. Threw my laptop across the room. It's broken.
Riley: Borrow Jake’s. Baby’s already got over 100 hits, and it’s only been online for about 10 minutes. Every guy at school is sitting around simultaneously thinking what a dumb fuck you are and thanking you for being one. I’m out.
Surf the crowd with me.
11:40pm
We’re dropped off at a beachfront mansion and are told that Mr. Moran is in flight and will be arriving late. To make ourselves at home.
When I go in the bathroom to pee, I realize I’m getting my period.
Seriously, Mother Nature? Do you really need to kick me while I’m down? But then again, not getting it would be way worse.
I’m exhausted, so I tell the boys I’m going to bed. I change into a pair of pajama shorts and a tank top and snuggle up under the covers.
I can’t seem to sleep, though. I keep waking up then dozing off. Then waking up again.
This time I wake up because someone is bouncing on the bed.
“Hey, Keats,” Damian says sweetly. “How’s my girl?”
I jump into his arms and try not to cry. “God, I’ve missed you.”
He gives me a squeeze then pushes me back and studies my face. “How are you doing, really?”
“I’m okay, sorta. I’m really glad to be here. To see you. How are you? You look tired. Too many late nights with groupies?”
He gives me a little grin then sprawls flat out across the bed. “Honestly, I’m exhausted. I had to fly commercial, and you know I can never sleep on a plane. I’ve been up for the last twenty-seven hours. So, tell me what happened.”
I tell him all about Dawson. How crazy and amazing the physical side of it was. How that part was so different than it was with B. How I still haven’t talked to B. About the music video we made on the way here.
“That I have to see. Pull it up.”
I pull it up on my phone.
“Damn, girl. Did Dawson see this?”
“Yeah. He said he threw his laptop across the room.”
“You are so going to be in our music video. You look very hot.”
I smile. “Thank you. You don’t
think I looked silly?”
“Not at all. You looked like, well, like you became the part.”
“Is that good?”
“It’s very good. Have you ever thought about acting, Keats? I know you’ve always liked writing scripts, but I think you would be an amazing actress. You’ve always been able to shift seamlessly from one situation to the next and fit in. I think that’s why you were having trouble at school. You can play any role you want and convince people that you are the surfer girl, the popular girl, the star’s daughter, the rebel. You really don’t let a lot of people see the real you.”
“You’ve always seen it.”
“Yeah, I know. I love you. All of the yous.” He laughs at his own joke.
“Can I tell you a secret?”
“I don’t know? Is it a good one?”
“This is hard for me to admit. I’ve always wanted to be an actress, but . . .”
“But your mom is good at it and you’re afraid you’ll fail?”
“Exactly. And be an embarrassment to the family or something. But, at school, no one knows. So I tried out for the school play. I mean, it’s nothing big, but I got the part that I wanted. And it feels like I have a little part of my life back.”
He studies my face. “Being off by yourself is good for you, isn’t it?”
“In some ways, Damian, it’s incredibly freeing. But I miss my family and I miss my friends.”
“Do you really miss your friends? Like who do you miss?”
“I miss you. And even though I kinda hate B, I miss him. Surprisingly, I miss Vanessa and RiAnne. They may have been catty and superficial, but I knew what to expect from them. And Sander. He was always really good to me, and the best shopping partner ever. I’ve sort of been following news from his set. It sounds like the movie is close to being done. I admire him for having the guts to do what he did. To go for it. I’m proud of him.”