The COMPLETE Coventon Campus Series: Books I, II, & III

by Wright, Kenya

  “I'm losing myself. I have no idea who the hell I am anymore. Oh my god. I kissed a girl. I was just in a threesome. I'm devouring marijuana brownies in the morning and drinking a bottle of vodka well into the night. I'm drunk driving, after what happened to your parents. I’m fucking drunk driving…oh Jay, I'm so sorry. I can't believe I did that and then—”

  “Evie, calm down, baby.” I hugged her closer to me. “Calm down. It’s okay.”

  “This isn't me. What am I doing? I blamed you for the threesome, but that wasn't you. It was me. Wasn't it? I got myself into it. Something is wrong with me. Why? What the hell was I thinking? Why am I even here? Have I lost myself? It's like the world is crumbling all around me, and I can't figure out a way out. Am I like that crazy—”

  “Evie.” I touched her chin and made sure her gaze was on me. “When was the last time you had something to eat or drink?”

  “Besides the weed brownies and vodka?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Yes.”

  “Yesterday.”

  “What about water?”

  “Do rain drops count?”

  I struggled with keeping myself calm. “You need to eat some food and drink an assload of water. That's why you're having this mental crisis right now.”

  “But it is weird that I kissed her right?”

  Fuck. Don't think about how hot that would be. Stop it, Jay. If you even picture it, your dick will burst through your pants. Anything else you say will mean nothing to Evie because she'll remember that, in the end, you're a pervert just like other men.

  I swallowed. “Logically, it is strange that you kissed her. Did you like it?”

  “Kind of.”

  Tread slowly.

  “Would you do it again?” I asked.

  “I have no idea. I'll probably wake up tomorrow and regret it all. We were both so faded and wet in the back of the car.”

  How wet? In the back of the car? Clothes or no clothes…Stop it. Keep your mind out of your pants.

  “The next thing I knew, her lips were on mine and her hands…”

  I licked my lips. “Yeah?”

  She quirked her eyebrows. “Are you in best friend mode or horny guy mode?”

  “How about sensitive ex-boyfriend that should be back in your life mode?”

  “That wasn't an option.”

  “It should be.”

  Silence hit us both.

  I blew out a long breath and rose. “Sorry. I’m in best friend mode. Let's get something in your body.”

  The door opened. One of Cyn's Uncles from earlier stepped in with his wife. “Hello there. Evie, right?”

  Evie got up with me. Her relaxed expression shifted to strained and angry. She opened her mouth and bared her teeth at him like she was some rabid animal. “Don't say my name.”

  What the hell?

  “Excuse me, but who are you?” His wife pointed at me.

  Cyn's uncle shook his head. “Honey, it doesn't matter. Let's go into the other room. Clearly this young lady has been drinking or something.”

  Evie scowled at him but said nothing else, which shoved me further into protective mode. For as long as I'd known my best friend, she never just started conflict with anybody that hadn't earned it. If Evie was pissed off at this guy, then he deserved it.

  Is this the piece of shit that hurt Cyn, or did this guy do something to Evie?

  Cyn's aunt clutched her pocket book. “Well, I think she should apologize.”

  “I'm not apologizing.” Evie crossed her arms over her chest. “Especially not to Uncle Kevin.”

  I didn’t like the way she said his name. It sounded wrong from her mouth like the mere mention of the words caused her to almost vomit.

  “What's wrong, Evie?” I asked.

  She wouldn't look at me. I formed my fingers into fists. “Is he the one?”

  She turned away and nodded.

  That was all I needed to end this shitty day, to have the sick bastard that damaged Cyn right in front of me, aggravating my Evie. I was across the room probably before any of us comprehended. Smirking, he targeted me with a furious gaze as if he'd been hoping to have the opportunity to hit me.

  You don't like me being Cyn’s boyfriend, do you? You sick fuck?

  “Why did you do it?” I drew back and tried to hit him.

  He blocked my arm and shoved me way. I stumbled over a plant behind me. His wife screamed. Evie shrieked. The next I knew, a dead cat wearing a sailor's outfit traveled through the air and crashed into the pedophile's forehead. Where the hell did the cat come from? He smacked it away, which gave me enough time to jump up and charge for his center. “Son of a bitch!”

  My head met his stomach. I punched at his gut. We crashed onto the floor, knocking over a lamp and a table.

  “Get off of him!” his wife screamed. “Somebody help. These people are crazy!”

  “You're crazy!” Evie yelled back.

  We wrestled on the ground. Many footsteps pounded behind us. Chaotic words and noises came next. So many people talked and bumped into things. All I focused on was the sicko in front of me.

  He'd taken a little girl's innocence and damaged her for his own pleasure and self-gratification. He hurt her. How many times? It didn't matter. If I knew the exact number, I wouldn't have stopped, no matter how many people tried to get me away from him. They all tried. Many grabbed my body to pull us apart as I pounded my closed fist into his jaw. He grunted in pain, struggling to escape. Blood and battered flesh covered his face.

  “Jay, please! Stop!” Evie's voice rose above everyone else's. “Please!”

  I let go of him and staggered back. The bastard was a lump of blood and puss in the corner, coughing into his scratched-up hand and wheezing.

  “What is going on?” Cyn's mom raised her hands in the air.

  I wiped my face. Blood covered my hand. I could tell my right eye would be swollen within the hour. It had that puffy feel when I touched it.

  “Why would you attack my brother-in-law?” Cyn's mom shrieked. “My husband is dead and you—”

  “Mom, stop. We're leaving.” Cyn had shaking hands in front of her chest as she kept her gaze to the floor where that sicko still lay. It was the scariest I'd ever seen her. It made me want to jump back down on the bastard and hurt him some more.

  “Go? With these crazy people? No.” Cyn's mom grabbed Cyn’s arm. “You're not going anywhere with them.”

  Pipe held a dead cat in his hand. Evie held two. I didn't know who'd thrown the cat at Cyn's uncle earlier, but I guessed the most obvious choice was one of them. I would've laughed if not for the fear that Cyn wouldn’t climb out of her mom's arms and leave with us.

  “Come on, Cynthia,” Evie said. “Let's go.”

  “Hold on.” The pervert's wife stepped in holding her pocket book up. “I'm calling the police.”

  “Call them.” Evie stomped her way. “Let's see if your husband wants them here. Do you, you piece of shit molester?”

  The room went silent. People exchanged glances with each other. No one seemed to know how to deal with Evie’s drunken comment.

  “Everybody stop. Mom, let go of me.” Cynthia snatched her hand away. “We're leaving and no one is pressing charges. Right, Uncle Kevin?”

  “Right.” With a reddened face, he slowly got up into a sitting position.

  “Yeah, let's go.” Evie pushed me forward and handed me Pipe's keys. “Come on.”

  Cyn followed her with no problem, leaving her mother's pissed off pleas behind her.

  “Outside now, Jay. Let’s leave. We can't do anything else.” Evie nudged me some more. “Let's just make sure we get our asses out of here.”

  “Okay.” I walked off.

  Pipe tucked the two dead cats under his arm and waved goodbye to Cyn's mom. “Nice meeting everyone and thank you very much for opening your home to us.”

  Chapter Ten

  Cynthia

  I sat on the floor in Pipe's dark hotel room. He'd pushed his bed an
d night tables against the wall. The two dead cats he’d taken from my house sat on the table next to his Michelangelo bong, which was a thing of art. Five different shades of glass—violet, turquoise, silver, lemon, and crimson—molded into little swirls that extended a foot into the air. At the top of the opening, it shaped into the mushroomed head of a decent-sized penis with two matching balls at the bottom. In the middle sat a place to put the marijuana and light it. Somewhere during the time that I'd talked to Jay and fallen asleep in our room, they'd all gone to the supermarket to get tons of things.

  Lit candles rested in a circle at the center of the room. Slow music played. I couldn't put my finger on the genre, some sort of new age beat with lyrics sung in low tone so that I couldn't really make out the words but loved the harmony nonetheless. Evie was positioned on the right of me and Jay on the left. Pipe walked over to the small table five feet in front of us with a tray of four unlit candles and four frames facing down so that I couldn't see who the pictures were.

  “Tonight, we unite together once again on a sad occasion of life. Someone special to our new member has passed away and is now up above looking down on us.” Pipe lifted one of the frames and a paper picture sat inside of it. Someone must have found the image online somehow and printed it off. I did have several pictures of my dad on Facebook. Rest in peace was written at the bottom of the image.

  When did they do this?

  “The first time we came together was almost ten years ago when our first member Jay asked us to meet in the club house of his old backyard and help him say goodbye to his parents. On that night, Jay brought pictures of them.” Pipe flipped the second frame up. In it was a family portrait of a young Jay hugging his mother and dad. My body tensed as I focused on his mother's face.

  Oh my God. It's like I'm staring into a mirror.

  She had my blue eyes and long blond hair in pretty much the same style. Our body frames were even similar, petite and slim. I heard a gasp and turned my face Evie's way. She covered her mouth and gaped at the image. She had to be thinking the same thing that I was. His mom and I looked too much alike to not be uncomfortable. I checked Jay's reaction, but his expression just appeared sad as he stared longingly at his lost parents.

  “On that same night, Evie brought a bag of chocolate which is now our traditional food staple.” Pipe gestured to the bowl of candy bars in front of us. “I made sure the spirits were at peace with music and proper ambiance.”

  Evie snorted.

  “Ignore her, Cynthia. Evie likes to mock my supernatural powers because she will never have this connection with the afterworld.” He flipped his middle finger at her. “We spent the rest of the evening talking to each other about Jay's parents and helping him eventually say goodbye. Any questions?”

  I grinned. “No.”

  “So that was our first initiation. The second was held for me. That evil asshole cancer took my mommy away.” Pipe lifted the next frame. On it was an exotic woman with captivating black hair that looked as if it went on way down to her knees. She stuck her tongue at the camera and gave us all a thumbs up. “Evie thought it would be a good idea to carry on the tradition to help me say farewell. We all wore flapper dresses and danced to 1920s big band music. I bet Mom had a good laugh watching us.”

  “I bet she did.” Evie formed her lips into a huge smile. “And then my dad died from a motorcycle accident.”

  Pipe turned up the last frame. A dark-skinned man with a bald head appeared before us. He wore a military uniform and leaned next to a small gray plane. “Evie's dad had a thing for logic puzzles. We spent the whole evening drinking a beer that Jay stole from a convenience store as well as attempted to smoke a cigar, which didn't go well. I threw up. We think Jay might have gotten a small high from it since he kept mooning us for no reason at all. But the best part was Evie kicking all of our butts in those puzzles.”

  Jay chuckled. “She kept wiggling her behind and yelling 'In your face, losers!'”

  “Dad loved it,” Evie said.

  Jay tilted forward and nodded his head at her. “Yeah. I bet he did.”

  Pipe clapped his hands to get our attention. “So Cynthia. Come on up to the table and tell us about your dad. Your mom told me earlier today that your dad loved martinis and had just found a love for down tempo music due to dating this new yoga instructor.”

  “Huh?” I quirked my eyebrows.

  “Well, that part isn't important, but I made some virgin apple martinis over there. I think we've all had enough alcohol for tonight.” Pipe gestured for me to get up. “Come on, Cyn. Tell us about your dad and let us know the best way to say goodbye to him.”

  I got up and rubbed my hands together. “I don't know if anyone would even be interested in the things he loved.”

  “Doesn't matter. This is about you and him,” Evie said.

  I covered my face and laughed. “Dad loved puppets. Jim Henson’s Muppets to be exact. He'd wanted to be a puppeteer when he was growing up, got an internship on Sesame Street after college and eventually was offered a marketing position with the corporation. By then, he'd met my mom and she was pregnant with me, so he happily took the job and sort of left the dream of being a puppeteer behind, but he made lots of them in his off time.”

  “Puppets?” Pipe flashed me a smile. “I love it. Do you have some of the ones he made?”

  “A few, but he never really succeeded at making his own characters. He always created different types of Muppet creatures for me when I was a little girl.”

  “Did he make most of the ones you have in your dorm room?” Jay asked.

  “Yes. All of them except the Lady Gaga Miss Piggy you gave me for my birthday.” I breathed in and out and took in all of my surroundings. “We don't really need to do anything for Dad. He's already happy right now. He has to be. Throughout my childhood, I'd been one of his biggest worries in his life. He always knew something happened to me that I didn't want to confess, but never knew what. Now he's probably looking down at all of us and is ecstatic that I have such a great group of friends who somehow picked me to love.”

  “No worries.” Pipe winked at me. “You’re easy to love.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Back off of my man, Cynthia,” Evie muttered.

  Pipe lay down next to Evie and rested his head in her lap. “Did your dad love weed?”

  Evie slapped his head. “Really?”

  I raised one finger. “Actually, he did. I went looking in his office for a pencil to do my paper once in high school and discovered a whole bag of it in his bottom drawer.”

  “Did you smoke any?” Pipe raised one of his eyebrows.

  “No.” I shook my head. “No way. I just hurried up and put everything the way he'd had it and never told my mom. She would've gone crazy if she found out. At least, I think she would've. They argued about everything and separated the day after I graduated from high school.”

  “So, they probably stayed together for you?” Jay asked. “That's good that they cared that much to try and make it work.”

  “Yeah.” My dad's face hit my mind and an ache swelled within my chest.

  For the first time since hearing about his death, the significance of Dad never being around again crashed into my heart. They all remained quiet as I lowered myself to the ground and wept. Tears spilled down my face and dotted the top of my shirt. Silent tears. The times we spent together, just Dad and me, played out in my mind—our movie nights when we'd sneak in a few horror movies after Mom went upstairs to go to sleep, the times he took me on the set of Sesame Street and with great excitement pointed everything out and introduced me to his co-workers. And even the day I graduated, when he stared into my eyes and told me that he was very proud of the woman I'd become.

  I'll miss you, Dad.

  And so the rest of the night, Evie, Jay, and Pipe held me. We were this cocoon of tangled bodies on the floor. Candlelight flickered out shadows across the blank wall. An herbal fragrance flowed out from them and brightened th
e mood in the space.

  The music continued to play.

  Later, Pipe brought out tons of blankets and pillows he'd collected from all of our rooms and demanded that we all sleep together on the floor. No one disputed it. We'd all been tired from this crazy trip, plus the brownies and liquor we’d consumed. Too much had happened, and more was sure to come.

  I didn't think Jay or even Evie had answered their phones when their relatives called. Their families had to realize by now that they'd been avoiding them. Plus, we'd all have to deal with everyone at college when we returned to school at the end of the week. Thankfully, Evie, Jay, and Pipe agreed to stay with me until after the funeral. No one said it, but I didn't think anyone thought it would be a good idea if I was around my uncle again by myself.

  What will happen to us?

  Evie broke up from our relationship, but still she remained by my side while I mourned my dad. She may not have been with me, yet she sure was committed to us, whatever our quirky group was.

  And our kissing? What did that mean? How will it change us?

  Once Evie and Pipe fell asleep, worry shivered up my spine. I didn’t close my eyes, scared for this beautiful moment to end. Jay pulled me into his arms and combed his fingers through my hair. “How are you doing?”

  “Fine.”

  Pipe and Evie both let out soft snores behind us. They'd fallen asleep as soon as we turned off the music and covered ourselves in the blankets.

  “I have to tell you something, Jay.”

  “What?”

  “I kissed Evie.”

  “She told me.”

  “What else did she say?” I wished I could see his face out in the darkness, but shadows concealed his expression from me.

  “She was pretty messed up when she told me so I'm not sure how she felt, but she did say she enjoyed it. At least, I think that's what she said versus the image that immediately came to my head when she confessed it.”

  I giggled into his chest. “You would love to watch us make out? Wouldn't you?”

  “Have you seen how hot the both of you are? Any heterosexual man would pay piles of money to see the both of you kiss.”