by Skyla Carter
"Call yourself a cab and get the fuck out of our house," he snapped.
He was that close to punching the guy's lights out.
"Or what?" Dave spat out.
He cocked his head as his anger blew. Or what?
"You feelin' froggy, Dave?" he growled. "Jump."
Every year, whenever they could get away, on the day she was born at exactly the minute she was born, Rae and Corey shared a special dance. When they could not be together, he called her, and with their song playing in the background, they shared a dance anyway.
This year, as Rae walked down the stairs AND passed the throng of bodies, she had a feeling things weren't going to go down like that.
They had a grand-show that Monday, so many of the fighters from all three brands who didn't have commitments had already checked into their hotel in the heart of town. A lot of those had somehow ended up in their house, drinking her booze, eating her food and dancing to her music. A lot of them hadn't been there when she'd gone upstairs with Nate, and only half an hour ago she would have freaked out at their numbers.
But now she thought it was so awesome.
"Ooh, Peyton," she smiled when she saw the diva, laughing at something Kelly had said to her. "Didn't expect to see you here. Come to take me up on my offer?"
"I've just come to see the whores in their natural habitat," Peyton sneered.
"You just can't stay away from him, can you?" she laughed as she moved her body closer to hers. "He broke your heart yet you still hope he'll change his mind. Corey don't love you, ho. But me, on the other hand... maybe if you showed me what you got we could get a thing going."
"Maybe we should just go. This was a bad idea," Kelly said.
"No. Stay," she said to the blonde. "It a party, even you girls are welcome. Eat, drink and be merry. And if, at some point in the night you feel like getting your freak on, find me."
With that, she squeezed her way past as she made her way to the lounge. The first person she saw was Nate standing with his brother, but she just gave him a smile and made her way to the other end of the room where Irving was sitting with Bob and Liz.
"Hey, Daddy," she smiled as she dropped herself down next to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Daddy?"
This was the first time she had called him that. It was just too bad she'd said it while she was high as a kite.
"Well, aren't you?" she asked before turning her attention to the Steeles. "What you guys talking about?"
"We were just telling your dad about you and Nate," Bob explained.
"Oh, yes. Nate. I was going to tell you about him," she said as she turned back to Irving. "I wanted you to know there is hope for your demon child after all."
"Has he told you about his last girlfriend?"
Aah yes. Beth. Maybe she should find out what really happened between those two. Everyone else seemed to know.
"Yes," she lied. "Is that a blue hair, Daddy?"
"What?"
"Grey hair," she said, correcting herself even though she was still looking at it and it did indeed look blue. "Is it from the stress of running around after me? Poor Daddy. Anyone hungry? I wonder if John bought some Doritos. And the dip."
"Are you all right, sweetheart?" Liz asked.
"Of course. But I'm starving, so I'll leave you old people to do whatever it is you guys do at parties," she said as she got up. "Oh, God. That's my song. Excuse me."
Lil' Wayne was rapping in the background, his song aptly named Pussy, Money, Weed. She made her way to the middle of the lounge where a few people were already moving to his beat.
She moved her body to the beat, her eyes closed as the buzz and the music merged. Everyone else in the room disappeared as she became a one woman show. She could have had a pole and made hundreds of dollars with the moves she was pulling. Her hair covered her face most of the time, but when it didn't, no one could miss the stupid smile on her face.
Nate watched as his girlfriend danced and the sickening feeling increased in the pit of his stomach. She'd intentionally blanked him to sit with her dad and he knew that reason why. Because that bitch had called.
He should never have picked up the phone, but Beth had been his good friend longer that she'd been his girlfriend. That counted for something.
"You should just go and see what she wants," Matt urged. "She could be in trouble."
"She's at the hotel. She'll be all right until tomorrow," he said, his eyes still on the woman doing the incredibly sexy moves to this very indecent song. Was she even aware that everyone had stopped dancing to look at her? Or that her dad was in the room?
"Nate, I know she's been having problems with Kevin. Maybe she wants to see you about that."
"You've been in touch with her?" he asked, momentarily distracted.
"She's still my friend, Nate," Matt answered. "She called me the first time he hit her."
"Hit her? Why didn't you tell me this before?"
He couldn't stand those cowards who took their frustration out on defenseless women physically or verbally. Most guys would have gloated at that news, thought how she'd deserved that, but he wasn't most guys.
"I knew you'd feel like you needed to step in," Matt said. "But she needs you right now, so you should go."
"I'm not leaving Rae," he answered. "She needs me."
"You've known her two minutes. I'm sure it won't kill her if you just go and see Beth for a few minutes then come back," Matt urged.
Ignoring his brother, he concentrated a bit more on Rae's movements. The song had changed now to someone singing about his hands in the cookie jar, but she hadn't missed a beat. It was almost as if she couldn't even hear that.
He frowned again as that sick feeling in his stomach intensified.
He couldn't believe his eyes. What the fuck was she thinking?
"Now you see why I always feel like I have to look out for them?"
Alyssa was sitting with him across the room, his arm around her as she rested her head against his chest. He'd had no time for anyone else that evening as he'd concentrated on showing Mandy a good time. They'd danced a little and talked a lot, and the more he'd found out about her the more he'd fallen in love with her. And now this.
"What should we do?" Mandy asked.
"Not much we can do to her right now, but we should find her shit and flush it down," he answered. "She's been weird all week and now she's getting high. She's avoided talking about it all weekend, but tomorrow I'm going to force her to talk."
"Come on, then," Mandy said as she got up. "Lets find that shit."
As he got up as well, Morrison and Gary rushed in from the bar.
"John, get in there. You friend is going crazy on Dave's ass."
"What?!" John asked as he squeezed past the people in the room entranced by Rae's drug fuelled performance.
"Yeah. I'd have stopped them but I don't want to hurt this pretty face," Gary said in his typical fashion.
John hurried into the bar, and Corey was indeed pounding the shit out off Dave. And everyone else was just watching.
"For fuck's sake!" he shouted, "Help me get him off."
As he tried to get Corey off, it was Nate who rushed in to help.
"Corey, what the hell are you doing?" John shouted when he finally got his friend off.
His nose was bloody from the good punches Dave had thrown him and he used the back of his hand to wipe it off.
"That big shit had it coming," Corey growled.
"What did he do?" Nate asked.
It was as if he'd only just noticed Nate in the room.
"Nothing," he said. "I'm going to get ice or something for my eye. I want him gone by the time I come back."
With that, he left the room, leaving Nate and John to attend to the drunk man sprawled on the floor.
It was the largest most beautiful one she'd ever seen. So long, so thick... she didn't think she could even fit it in her mouth.
"You like that, huh?" Morrison smirked as he s
tood over her.
"Dude... you're awesome," she said in complete awe.
"Want to try it?" he asked with a chuckle.
"Oh, yes. Give it to me, Daddy," she said eagerly as she moved closer to the man who held what she wanted the most at that point in time.
The kitchen door open but she didn't even hear it. Her eyes were still fixed on the Shaman of Sexy's generous offerings.
"Rae?! What are you doing?"
"Shh," she said, a frown marring her face at this unwanted interruption. "Lower your voice. You're in the presence of greatness."
"You heard the girl, Corey," Gary chuckled from his place next to her.
Corey walked slowly to where they were, his head cocked and frowning in confusion until he finally saw what Rae was about to do.
"That is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen," he said as he placed a hand over his mouth. "Who made that?"
In front of him was the most sickening sandwich, if you could call it that. It was filled with all the makings known to men and those he was sure had never been tried between slices of bread before. He made up peanut butter and jam, pickles, plenty of vegetables, mustard, the leftover dinner that his mom had wrapped up for to bring home, cheese, mayonnaise and plenty of other things he couldn't place all stacked in between slice after slice of bread until it made a tower on a plate in front of Morrison.
"I did," John said proudly.
"Why?" he asked, his face still scrunched up.
"We came in here and she was struggling with the knife. I offered her my services, put everything she asked for on it," Morrison explained with a chuckle.
But Rae wasn't paying them any attention. She was still focused on the beautiful sandwich that John had just made her. It had all the colours on it... reds... yellows... greens... browns... even blues, all swimming around and merging beautifully. How the hell was she going to get that baby down? Maybe if she started with a little bite at the top...
"Don't you dare put your mouth on that thing," Corey shouted as he pulled her away from it and turned her head to face him.
"Have you painted your face?" she asked, a little smile forming on her lips as her finger touched the blood running down from his nose. "It looks so pretty."
He frowned as realisation hit him and he looked her in the eyes.
"Fuck, Rae! Why?" he shouted as he shook her a bit. "Why would you do something as stupid as this?"
"Chill out, Corey. Have a bite of my sandwich or something," she said as she turned from him to sit back next to Gary at the table.
"Did you give it to her?" he angrily asked the other men.
"No," they said in unison.
"She was like this when we came in here," Morrison explained.
"Hmm?" she asked, turning to Gary as if he'd just spoken to her. "You wanna come in my what where now?"
Gary chuckled again.
"I like her," he said.
"This isn't funny," Corey snapped before turning his friend in her chair to face him. "Why? What's stressed you that much you felt you needed to do this shit?"
The last time he'd seen her like this was after they had buried her mother. It had been a hard time for all of them, but he had rode her ass about that shit even then.
"Relax," she said as she brushed his hand away. "It's an awesome party, go out there and enjoy yourself."
"I'm telling your dad," he muttered as he turned away from her. He was too angry to deal with her himself.
"Ooooh," Gary teased. "Your best friend got high and now you're going to call her dad to tattle? She won't like that."
"What is he going to do, anyway? Crash her party and tell her off?" Morrison asked.
"He doesn't need to crash. He's here already."
"Where?"
"Sitting with my mum and dad."
"If he was, he ain't there now. I saw Irving sitting with them," Gary said.
"Yeah. That's her dad," Corey said as he left the room.
The two men left looked at each other and then at Rae as Corey's revelation sank in.
"Get rid of that disgusting sandwich," Gary said as he jumped out of his chair so they could be as far away from Rae as possible when the Crusher’s made his appearance.
Nate made to pass Corey on his way to the kitchen to find Rae, but the other man's hand stopped him.
"This is all your fault," the angry man growled. "I don't give a shit what you do in your time, but when you do that shit with her, you mess with me."
"I don't do that stuff," he snapped as he pulled his arm away.
"She wasn't like this before you came in the picture."
"Are you sure?"
The little look that passed the other man's face told him he wasn't so sure.
"Party's over," Corey growled instead of answering. "Get your shit and leave our house."
"I will only leave when Rae asks me to," he said as he walked past him.
It was only when he got into the kitchen he realised he would indeed have to go. If Corey had thought he had put her up to this, there was no telling what everyone else would say.
She was sitting with a big bag of Doritos in front of her, laughing to herself.
"Rae?"
"Nate," she said, smiling as she motioned him over. "It's a great party, isn't it?"
"Yeah," he lied. "But I'm going to have to go soon."
He watched as the smile disappeared from her face and she turned back to her chips.
"Back to your hotel?"
"Yeah. But I'll be back in the morning, I promise."
"It's all right, Nate. I'll see you in the morning then," she said with a smile he could totally see through.
"I'll leave your presents on your bed so you can open them when you go to sleep."
She smiled again and nodded. He really wished he could stay with her right now but something was going on inside her that he couldn't help. Doing what she had done had obviously been a cry for help, but maybe if he left her in Corey's hands while she was like this, she would open up to him. If he stayed, he'd only feel the need to protect her, to keep her away from the people who loved her the most when they tried to force her to let them in. That wouldn't help her situation at all.
"I will be back, Rae," he assured her as he lifted her face up gently by her chin to face him.
"I know," she smiled.
As he dropped a kiss on her lips, he couldn't help feeling that something had gone very, very wrong. Would she still be his girlfriend by the time the sun rose tomorrow?
"Nate, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. My daughter and I need to talk."
He released her at the Crusher’s command and gave her a little smile before turning from her. Irving looked extremely pissed, he hoped that he would look beyond this night to realise that something was really wrong with his daughter.
With a nod in the man's direction, he let himself out of the kitchen.
"We can clean all of this up tomorrow," John said as he came back into the lounge from showing the last few people out and sat down next to Alyssa.
"What a party, hey?" Alyssa sighed. "What time is it, anyway."
"Um... ten forty-five," John replied, then looked over at his friend, sprawled on the chair with a bag of frozen peas on his face.
Ten forty-five. Obviously, Corey and Rae's little special moment wasn't happening this year. Well, there was always next year. What was happening right now was more important than a little dance. And opening a few presents. She could always do that tomorrow.
"They've been in there a long time. What do you think he's saying to her?" Alyssa asked.
"I hope he's tanning her little butt so I won't have to do it tomorrow," Corey spat out. "Whatever she's going through, she could have come to me. But no, the little bitch decided to get high."
"Maybe because you weren't in such a communicative mood, earlier," Alyssa said.
"Don't put this on me," he snapped. "Rae knows I'd never shut her out. Whatever I'm going through, however I'm feeling, I alw
ays have time for her."
At that moment they heard the kitchen door open and heavy footsteps coming down the hallway. Then through the open door, they saw Irving with his little girl asleep in his arms as he carried her up the stairs.
Then a few minutes later, he came back down and stood by the doorway.
"She's hiding something from me," he stated. "I'll be back tomorrow to talk to her. I didn't get anything out of her but something is really wrong. If I hadn't seen the sad look in her eyes I would have whipped her behind for touching that stuff."
"She's been like this all week, keeping secrets and stuff," John said.
"And when she came to spend some time with the family, I could feel something was wrong," Irving added. "Tomorrow, just after breakfast. I'll get to the bottom of it then. Goodnight, boys. And you, Alyssa."
"I guess we'll know tomorrow, then," John said when Irving was gone.
Alyssa let out a little yawn.
"Let me show you your bed," John said as he got up and pulled Mandy up with him. "We can watch a movie or something before you fall asleep."
"Try to get some sleep, Corey," she said softly as she dropped a kiss on her friend's cheek.
When he was finally alone, Corey let out a tired sigh. Whatever was bothering Rae was enough to make her do the one thing he asked her not to. Right in his face as well. He was starting to get the feeling this was something he really, really wouldn't like.
Throwing the peas onto the coffee table, he let himself up so he could make his way up to his friend's room. He'd share her bed just so he could hold her and drive some of the wild thoughts popping into his head away. He had a feeling that after tomorrow, things would never be the same again.
***
It was just before six o'clock when the need to relieve herself woke her up. The second she opened her eyes, the whole of the previous night flashed before her eyes. Shit! They were all going to kill her, weren't they? Irving, John and Corey.
With a weary sigh, she turned her head to the sleeping man beside her. His heavy arm lay protectively round her but she knew, if he had been awake, it would have been trying its damnedest to squeeze the life out of her. Gently sliding from under it, she quietly made her way to the bathroom.