by Romi Hart
Jett’s voice strained as he said, “I can’t imagine ever hurting you. If I hurt you, it would hurt me too.” I could hear indecipherable noises: movement in the background. It sounded like Jett was walking or maybe pacing. His speech quickened. “I’ve become so attached to you. Hurting you would kill me. I wish you’d believe me.”
He sounded genuine. I could sense the urgency in his voice. He blurted, “Laney, can I come get you? Will you stay the night with me? I’m dying to see you.”
I wanted to say yes, but I knew what staying the night with him would lead to. Earlier that night, I came close to sleeping with Jett, and we were in a stranger’s house at a party. Could I trust myself to be alone with him again, only this time in his apartment?
There were too many unknowns. It would be a reckless mistake to see him now. “I don’t…”
“Laney, please?” he begged with a long sigh.
But, I wanted to see him. Despite everything I knew about him and the horrible stories of what he’d done to those girls, I wanted to see him.
What did that say about the type of person I was? Could Marsha be right? Was I just interested in a bad boy for all the wrong reasons?
With regret, I said, “I can’t, Jett.”
“Don’t you want to see me?” he asked softly.
“I do.” I really did. Badly.
“Then let me come get you,” he pleaded.
I hesitated, afraid to say yes and terrified to say no. What the girls said to me echoed in my head. “No. I can’t, Jett. I’m sorry.”
“Okay.” I heard Jett exhale loudly. I could hear the cracks again in his shaky voice. “I won’t bother you anymore, Laney. Take care of yourself.”
There was heavy full silence again. I waited for him to say more. After a few more moments of hearing nothing, I looked at my phone screen. He had hung up.
Devastation hit me in the mouth. He hung up.
My eyes welled with tears. I blinked them away still staring at my phone. A teardrop fell onto my screen into a big fat clear splotch. My hands were shaking, making the water splotch spread out onto other parts of the screen. My phone’s wallpaper, a photograph of my mom and me in front of an old historic church in Gainesville, blurred. Water streaked right onto my mouth in the photograph turning my smile into a hazy smear.
Jett was done with me…
Jett
Laney. Laney. Laney. She’s all I could think about. As soon as she was out of my mind, I would go to school and see her there. Haas’s campus was just not big enough. She seemed to be everywhere.
In our Competitive Strategy course, she still sat in the front row. Skipping that class was not an option.
Generally, to avoid Laney, I showed up to class at the last possible minute without being late. I sat in the back of class near the door for an easy escape when the class was over.
Troy sat in the far back left of the classroom right next to the door on that side. After every class, he seemed to run out of as soon as class was over without sticking around to talk to Laney. I wondered if he was going through the same Laney withdrawal as I was.
At the end of class, I practically sprinted out of the classroom. I saw Troy doing the same out of the other door. We regarded each other deferentially in the manner that all previous adversaries greet each other: a head nod.
Laney’s roommate, Marsha, stood behind a statue of Walter Haas. Marsha was nearly unrecognizable. When I’d seen her at Laney’s, she’d usually been dressed in yoga pants or LL Bean pullovers. She was in a skintight pink dress that made her breasts nearly spill over the top.
It was weird that she was on this side of campus since she was Pre-Med. I figured she must be meeting Laney for lunch or something, but when she saw Troy, she jumped back behind the statue. Once Troy had passed by her, she followed behind him, teetering on stiletto heels, but she kept far enough behind Troy he never noticed her.
Troy headed into the Haas Cafeteria, which was where I was going to grab lunch. After I got my turkey and cranberry sandwich, my favorite lunch special at our cafeteria, I quickly scanned the tables, hoping Laney wasn’t around. She wasn’t so I sat down to eat in peace.
A few tables over, I saw Troy with his friends, Max and Andy, two guys on the wrestling team. Max said something, making Troy and Andy crack up. If Brick House was a football player and we were on the same team, I wondered if we would have been friends. They all jumped up from the table at the same time with their cups in hand to go get refills.
Eating my sandwich, I watched as Marsha tottered over to their table. Quickly, she pulled out a small baggie of white powder and sprinkled it onto Troy’s food. As Troy and his buddies headed back from the drink machine, Marsha wobbled away before they could see her.
I had no idea what to make of what I’d just seen. I felt I was somewhat in the middle of a predicament. Troy and I were cordial, but we weren’t exactly best friends. How would he react if I told him that Laney’s roommate snuck up and sprinkled something in his food? It sounded crazy. He would think I was making it up to mess with him again. I decided to sit back and see what happened.
Troy and his friends sat back down and ate their food. And Troy ate his without noticing anything was wrong with it. By the time they were done with their lunch, Troy seemed fine. Troy and I were in the same Investments elective course, which was our next class, so I’d be able to check on him there.
I finished up my sandwich and headed over to our class. When I got there, Troy sat hunched over in his chair. His face didn’t exactly look sick, but he looked uncomfortable. He shifted several times in his chair with a stricken look on his face. After a few minutes of struggling to find a comfortable position, Troy jumped out of his chair, drenched in sweat.
I followed him out of the classroom to make sure he didn’t pass out in the hallway. When I turned the corner, I found Marsha was outside in the hallway, smiling at Troy, but he sped past without so much as a glance at her.
It seemed she wasn’t about to be ignored as she called out, “Are you okay?”
Troy looked back at her and shook his head swiftly. I stepped back into a doorway, flattening myself as best I could so neither of them would see me.
Marsha swayed toward him, reaching out her hand. “Do you need my help, Troy?”
Troy confessed, “Something’s wrong with me. Like I got a boner the size of Texas, and I have no idea why.” He adjusted himself in his pants. Looking uneasy.
Marsha giggled. “I can help you with that.”
Troy looked her up and down, considering her offer. Marsha took his hand, leading him to the men’s bathroom. He shrugged, allowing her to take the lead.
Marsha must have slipped him Viagra or Cialis in his food at lunch. I couldn’t let her get away with that. I walked into the bathroom, hearing Troy and Marsha’s moans and grunts. They were in one of the stalls.
It was an awkward moment, but I had to tell Troy what she’d done, so I called out, “Troy! I saw that girl pour white powder into your food at lunch.” Their moans and grunts stopped. “I think it must’ve been an erectile dysfunction medication. She drugged you, dude.”
“Did you put something in my food?” I heard Troy say.
Marsha stuttered, “I gave you something to loosen you up. To have fun.”
Troy exclaimed in disbelief, “What?”
Troy and Marsha spilled out of one the stalls. Marsha’s dress was pulled up to her waist. Her panties were at her ankles. I looked away as she pulled up her panties and pulled down her dress. “Troy, it’s not a big deal. Men take that stuff every day.”
Troy’s jaw clenched. “Marsha, you’ve been an absolute psycho since high school. It is a big deal. Men knowingly take Cialis every day, but you snuck it into my food. I think that’s a crime.”
I added, “I know it is.”
Marsha’s face crumpled as she began to cry. “Troy, why don’t you like me? Look at me! Why am I not good enough for you?”
Troy raised his arms up in
disbelief. “Because you do crazy psycho shit like slip me drugs, Marsha! Shit, girl. What the hell is wrong with you?”
The echo in the bathroom made Marsha’s intensifying sobs into a cacophony of embarrassment. I grimaced at Troy and said, “I’m going to get out of your hair.”
As I turned to go, Troy said, “Jett, I could use your help. Do you mind taking her to the Dean’s office with me? You’re the only witness to what she did to me. And I can’t let her get away with this shit.”
I looked back at Troy and the blubbering girl next to him. What a mess. “Sure. I can do that.” It was the right thing to do after all.
We escorted Marsha to the fifth floor where Dean Lyons’s office was. She pleaded with us, “I’m sorry, Troy. Please don’t turn me in. I’ll lose my internship at UCSF Medical Center. They’ll figure out that’s where I swiped the erectile dysfunction drug.”
Troy looked at her sadly. “Marsha, you need help. That’s why I need to turn you in. It’s criminal what you did, and you don’t even see that.” Irritated, he added, “And I don’t need erectile dysfunction drugs if the girl isn’t batshit crazy.”
Marsha began to wail again. Her mascara streaked down her face, and her lipstick was smeared. She looked like Heath Ledger in Dark Knight. Only crazier. “No one is going to take you seriously. The Dean will laugh at you. I gave you Cialis. So what?” she cried.
I completely agreed with Troy. If a guy slipped drugs to a girl, it was undoubtedly a criminal act. I was sure that many people would think a girl sneaking a guy drugs to get a hard-on is hardly the same thing, but I believed it was. It was any person’s right to be in control of their bodies. I shuddered, thinking about Marsha as a doctor. We couldn’t let her get away with it.
Dean Lyons agreed to see us despite not having an appointment. He listened to our story with a serious look on his face as Marsha cried the entire time we were in the office.
In between sobs, she said to Troy, “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I’ve been in love with you for so long.”
The room was silent after her confession. But Dean's face remained grim. "I'm going to contact the Chancellor. Marsha, your actions give me no choice but to recommend expulsion." Dean Lyons looked at Troy and me with a nod. "Thank you, Troy and Jett, for bringing this to my attention."
Troy and I left Marsha in Dean Lyons’s office. We could still hear her high-pitched sobs on our way out. “You okay, dude?” I pointed down. “Down there?”
Troy laughed. “Yup. It’s amazing how a crazy chick can instantly make a dude soft even if he is on meds.”
We both chucked loudly in the hallway. Our laughter bounced down the empty hall. Before we walked back to class, Troy stopped me, extending a hand. “Thank you, Jett.”
Troy looked sincere and grateful. I shook his hand. “No problem, Troy.”
We shook hands as friends, letting our old rivalry go.
Laney
I had scheduled an appointment with Dean Lyons’s at 2:30 PM. Because of my interest in Silicon Valley startups and working for tech companies in general, I wanted to introduce myself personally to Dean Lyons. I exited the elevator on the fifth floor when I saw Jett and Troy outside Dean's Suite. They shook hands with smiles on their faces.
I looked around. What alternate universe had I stepped into? I thought about stepping back into the elevator, but as I turned around to get back in, it shut on me.
It didn’t matter anyway. “Laney!” Jett called after me. They’d definitely both seen me. I turned around to find them both waving enthusiastically. I wasn’t sure what to make of their smiling and the friendly looks on their faces. They’d both had ignored me all week.
Were they friends now? That was a good thing but also really strange. I hadn’t heard a single thing from either of them, but here they were, the best of friends, and smiling at me.
After the night of the party, a week ago, Troy and Jett had stopped talking to me completely. When I’d see them in class, they would ignore me. It hurt. Jett told me explicitly he wouldn’t bother me anymore. I half expected that this was something he had said out of disappointment and anger, but when Monday came around, he kept to his word. When I walked into a room, he averted his eyes. It was miserable to see him actively snubbing me.
What baffled me was that Troy never said anything to me about keeping his distance. When I waved at him in the courtyard that same Monday, and he just nodded to me and kept walking, I knew that Troy was avoiding me too.
Jett made his reasons clear, but I couldn’t figure out Troy’s reasons for shutting me out. As I walked towards them with apprehension growing in my gut, it hit me that maybe they had made a joint decision to not deal with me anymore. It honestly saddened me. Maybe things weren’t going to work out with either of us, but I still wanted them to be in my life in some capacity.
What made things worse was that Marsha stopped talking to me too. Coming home to our dorm room was uncomfortable. After her confession about Troy, she’d grown cold to me. She wouldn’t even look at me when I walked in.
It seemed that everyone in my life was giving me the silent treatment.
As I got closer to them, I was surprised to see they were both eager to talk to me. “You can’t believe what just happened, Laney!” Jett said.
“What happened?” I asked, looking at them both. Whatever it was, they were dying to tell me.
“Marsha drugged me!” Troy exclaimed. His brown eyes were huge saucers.
“Marsha? My roommate?” I asked in complete confusion.
Jett nodded as he looked at me with a smile on his face. “Yep. I saw her. She sprinkled some white stuff into Troy’s food at lunch. I watched her do it.”
“What? What was it?” I asked, shocked.
Excitedly, Troy said, “It was Viagra or Cialis or whatever. An erectile dysfunction drug.”
I laughed nervously. Marsha sprinkled Viagra in Troy’s food? “How did you know what it was?”
Troy answered candidly, “I had a huge boner in Investments class. I like investments and finance, but not that much. I had to leave class; I was so uncomfortable. Marsha was waiting in the hall for me. Dressed like a real slut. She offered to help out with my problem. Then she pulled me into the men’s bathroom to have sex.”
“I followed Troy out of class to make sure he was okay. I ran into the bathroom and stopped them mid-act,” Jett added.
My eyes must have looked to be popping out my head. “Oh, God.” I looked at Jett. “You saw them?”
Jett shook his head. “No, I didn’t see anything.”
Troy agreed, “Yeah. We were in the stalls.” He looked at Jett. “Dude, she was all over me. She was on me before I knew what the hell was even happening.”
“I was surprised it was Marsha. She looked so different dressed up like that.” Jett said. He ran his hands down his torso, gesturing a tight-fitting dress.
“She does look pretty different when she’s all dolled up,” I agreed, thinking about how when I first met her I’d thought she was down to earth and outdoorsy. Later, I discovered she loved clubbing and wearing slinky short dresses and stiletto heels.
“Jett and I took her to Dean Lyons. She’s getting expelled from Cal.” Troy said hurriedly.
The two were animated when they talked, gesturing wildly with their arms. It was quite a story. I put my hand to my mouth. She definitely needed some help for her obsessive behavior with Troy. Plus, her self-esteem was superbly low. She pinned all her confidence on the opinion of one guy, Troy.
What Marsha had done was terrible. At the same time, I felt bad for her. She wanted to be a doctor, but she risked all of it to trick Troy into having sex with her. Her dreams of being a physician were over, because of a guy. She was a beautiful, smart girl. It was sad she had gotten too hung up on Troy. A guy who just wasn’t into her.
I confessed to Troy, “She told me the two of you went to high school together.” Troy nodded his head affirmatively. “And that she has been in love with you sin
ce then.” Another huge nod from Troy.
Jett’s face broke out in disbelief. “Really?” he asked Troy. “I had no idea you two knew each other from high school.”
“Yeah. She had a thing for me, I guess. I mean, I knew it, but damn she’s nuts, I wasn’t about to do anything with her,” Troy said, grimacing.
“She had a bit more than just a thing for you, Troy,” I said. “She pressured me to go out with you because she said you deserved to be happy and that she would do anything in her power to make sure you got what you wanted.”
Troy’s face fell in realization. “I’m sorry, Laney. I understand now that you only liked me as a friend.” He shook his head sadly. “I’m sorry I came on too strong. I’d like to be friends again. If you can forgive me, that is.”
A smile filled my face and my heart. He wanted to be friends and so did I. That’s all I ever wanted from him was friendship. The fact I didn’t want to be his girlfriend had gotten in our way of just having a good time together now and then. “Troy, I’d love to be friends. We had a lot of fun together.”
Troy’s hands flew up to his face. “Man, this whole time I was acting like a Marsha.”
“Troy, you were not acting like Marsha. You never drugged me.” I reminded him. “You’re not psycho. Just a bit on the aggressive side is all. I know you can reign that part of you in a bit for the next girl you find yourself attracted to.”
“True. Still, I could have handled your rejection a little better.” He held up his thumb and forefinger, holding them close together. He smiled at me and then at Jett. “I’ll see you guys around.” Then he walked away with a sheepish look on his face. Jett and I were left, staring at each other.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Jett shoved his hands in his jean pockets and rocked on his heels. The grin he wore told me he was feeling sorry about how he’d given me the cold shoulder too. “I miss you.”
“I miss you, too,” I said quietly and maybe too quickly. There was so much I wanted to tell him, but I waited for him to say more first.