Hannah rolled her eyes. "Screw Jason," she said.
"Why do you say it like that? Is that seriously his girlfriend? What'd she tell you?"
"Everything. Come to find out, she's been his sex slave for the last six years."
Taylor let out a sound of disapproval. "She said that?"
"She didn't say exactly that, but close enough."
"Seriously?"
"I guess it's mutual or whatever, but apparently, they're like sex partners or something. She told me a bunch of numbers and statistics that I don't care to repeat."
Taylor hugged Hannah tight, and sighed, not knowing what else to say. "I hate them both," she finally said.
"Me too."
Taylor and Matt helped Hannah finish with the mats before they locked up and all left at the same time. Taylor drove Hannah to her apartment. She said she'd be happy to spend the night so Hannah didn't have to be alone, but Hannah told her she preferred it that way, and said she would call on the Culbertsons if she needed anything.
"You working your shift tomorrow?" Taylor asked.
"I don't know. I hate to leave them shorthanded, but I'm not feeling too good."
"I'd cover for you, but I have to be there at noon."
"No worries. I'm sure I'll be fine by then. I'll call you in the morning if I decide to call in sick, though."
"Okay, call me before then if you need anything."
"I will." Hannah tried to offer a smile, but it was a sad attempt. She got out of the car and Taylor watched as she unlocked her apartment and went inside.
Despite knowing what a bad idea it was, Hannah looked up the lyrics to the Cam Bishop song called Keep Coming Back to You. She read through them three times and even watched the music video on YouTube, crying her eyes out like a little baby at the thought of Jason writing those lyrics for Reagan.
How could it hurt this bad? It's only been a few days. I knew it was coming. Better that it happens now before I fall even harder. But how in the world could it possibly hurt more than it does right now? I knew it was coming. Get it together. He's just a guy. What am I gonna do? Go back to Sparta? I can't. I have to stay here. It'll be so awkward at work. Everyone will help me avoid him, though. Shit. I hate him. I totally knew this was going to happen, and I still went right on ahead and said things to him and did things with him that I knew were a mistake. What the hell was I thinking? I have to take a break. A long break. No liking anyone for a good long time.
Jason knew Hannah was getting off around eleven, and left a message to see how her night had gone, but obviously Hannah didn't call him back.
Hannah didn't do any drawing before she went to bed that night. Right then she couldn’t even use her imagination. It had been overshadowed by heartache, rendering it useless. She cried a lot and then fell asleep on a tear soaked pillow.
Her eyes opened the next morning to the sound of Sam tapping on her door. She knew by the knock that it was him, and she opened her door without even looking outside.
"Have you been out here yet this morning?" he asked, looking concerned.
"No," she said, blinking into the sunlight. "You're waking me up right now."
"You have flat tires," he said.
She felt her heart drop, but thought she might have misheard. "What?"
"The tires on your car are flat, so in less you ran over a bunch of nails on your way home—" he hesitated. "I didn't really look close enough to see what might have punctured them."
She stared at his shirt for a second, letting that sink in. Knowing it wasn't a coincidence made a wave of nausea hit her. She knew it was Reagan. Hannah felt so violated that she had come on her personal property and messed with her things. It was just plain scary, and she'd be happy to never feel that way ever again. Just add violated and scared to the list of other emotions that were swirling around inside her. What a freaking mess the last twelve hours had been.
"Reagan," she said. Her voice came out way better than she felt, thank God.
"What?"
"Reagan. She's who punctured them."
"Who is that, and why the hell would anyone do anything like that to you? You? Seriously, I'm about to return the favor as soon as you tell me who this Reagan is."
Chapter 18
"Reagan is this girl who obviously wants Jason bad enough to go psycho on any girl he hangs out with," Hannah said to Sam.
"Is that what you guys are doing? Hanging out?"
Hannah shot him a frustrated scowl. She was in no mood to explain anything. Internalizing was the thing that felt best, and that's what she was planning on doing. "It doesn't matter," she said. "I just need to see about my car. Can I drive it to a tire shop to see if they can patch them maybe?"
Sam laughed. "You can't drive your car like that," he said. "The rims are sitting on the ground."
Hannah put her hands up helplessly. "What am I supposed to do then?"
"My parents saw it already. I heard them saying they were gonna call Triple-A."
"What if they can't patch em?"
"Then you're gonna have to get new tires."
"How much does that cost?"
Sam shrugged. "I heard my dad say like a hundred-something a piece."
Hannah looked to the ceiling and breathed a wounded sigh.
"You can't let that girl win," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you can't just roll over and die and let her have her way."
Hannah still didn't know what he meant by that, and the thought crossed her mind to ask him, but ultimately she didn't want to think or talk about Reagan. "I guess I need to get dressed and go downstairs," she said.
Sam nodded and walked out the door, presumably to wait for her to come down.
Hannah didn't cry. She was experiencing a certain numbness that had her feeling more like she wanted to laugh than cry. She went back into her bedroom and picked up her cell phone from the bedside table. She called Common Grounds since there was no way she was going to work in an hour.
"Common Grounds Belmont."
"Nothing?"
"Yeah, who's this?"
"Hannah."
"What's up?"
"I'm not coming in for my shift at ten."
A few seconds of silence.
"Why?"
"Because I'm not feeling good, and someone slashed my tires last night."
"Both of those things?"
"Yes."
"Try to get someone to cover your shift."
Hannah sighed.
"It's only a three hour shift."
"I know, but you're cooking. I need you to replace yourself. Try Matt or Kelsey."
"Damnit Nothing. Can't I just call in sick?"
"Yes, but that means I'd have to replace you."
"Well can't you just do that for me? I just woke up, and already my day is really sucky."
"Yes."
A few more seconds of silence.
"Yes, you'll find someone?"
"Yes."
"Thank you Nothing."
"You're welcome Hannah. Hope you find the tire slasher."
"Thanks."
Hannah looked at her phone. She wanted to call Taylor to make plans to disappear to her place for the night, but first she needed to deal with the task of having her tires patched.
The Culbertsons had no problems using their Triple-A membership to have Hannah's car towed to a nearby tire shop. That part of the whole ordeal was easy. It was hearing that the tires couldn't be patched and she would have to spring for a whole new set that bummed her out. She didn't have a ton of money saved up, and a whole new set of tires was an expense that would put a severe, I mean severe dent into her savings. What could she do? It wasn't like her parents or the Culbertsons were going to do it.
Hannah told the guy at the tire shop to, "Just put on the cheapest ones that are safe to drive on," before she went to the waiting room with Sam and his mom.
"There's no reason for you guys to be here," Hannah said, giving them what she
hoped looked like a genuine smile.
"I think I'm gonna go to Taylor's when I leave here anyway."
Susan looked at her with worry and regret in her eyes. "I hope you're not scared to stay at the house sweetheart. We have that security light, but Mike and I were talking about having some kind of alarm system installed."
Hannah smiled again. "Oh, no ma'am, I'm not scared. I know who did it. I'm not worried about her. It just sucks that they couldn't patch them."
"I know, I'm sorry about that. Why couldn't they?"
"He said it had been punctured on the side and the only way they can patch it was if the hole was in the treads."
"Really? What made the hole? Did he say?"
Hannah shrugged. "He said something small and round like an icepick."
"I'm so sooorry," Susan said.
"It's okay. It probably needed new tires anyway."
Susan just smiled sweetly at Hannah before looking up at Sam. "I guess we'll head back since she's going to Taylor's," she said.
Sam looked at Hannah. "You sure you're good?"
Hannah nodded and Sam shot her a half-smile.
"Call us if something comes up and you need a ride," Susan said.
"Thanks."
They all waved and Sam and his mom walked out the front door. The whole place was made of windows, and Hannah watched as they got in the car and pulled into traffic. Feeling tired and out of it in general, she pulled her phone from her bag and placed a call to Taylor.
Taylor answered the phone with a question. "Hey, how'd you do last night?"
"I'm at the tire shop because that girl who came to the coffee shop last night stuck an ice pick into my tires."
"You're shittin' me."
"I wish I were."
"I can't believe it, Hannah. What can I do?"
"I want to come to your house."
"I have to be at work at noon, but I don't have to be home for you to come here. I was about to leave and run an errand on my way. I can pick you up instead. Do you need a ride?"
"My car's getting fixed right now. I have a ride."
"You want me to just leave the house unlocked?"
"Would you?"
"Of course."
"I'll leave a note for Kent and Gina so they know to leave it open if they come before you get here."
"Thanks."
"You okay? You doing okay with all this?"
"I mean I guess I am, considering how bad it sucks."
"We're gonna beat that girl's ass!"
The comment made Hannah barely crack a smile for the first time all morning. The movement, although slight, sort of stung her cheeks and eyes.
"Yeah right."
"I'm serious. We're gonna catch that bitch alone and beat her skinny ass."
Taylor sounded so convinced that for a second, Hannah thought it might be an okay idea. Then she realized how ludicrous it was and coughed out a little laugh.
"She can't just do that to you, Hannah. You have some legal rights."
That was the last thing she wanted to think about right then.
"Thanks for letting me come to the house. Oh, and Taylor?"
"Yeah?"
"If Jason comes in the coffee shop, don't tell him I'm at your house."
"Duh."
"Okay, I was just reminding you."
"I'll tell everybody else at work not to say anything either."
"No, don't do that. Just don't tell anyone I'm at your house, and you won't have to tell them to keep it secret."
"All right. I'm sorry about everything."
"It's not your fault."
"I seriously wouldn't mind fighting this girl."
Hannah set out a little chuckle at the thought of Taylor and the mean girl in a catfight. Her laugh mechanism was a little rusty, and it came out hoarse and awkward, but it was a chuckle nonetheless. God love Taylor.
"Thanks Tay."
"No problem. I'll see you when I get off."
"Okay."
Hannah slipped her phone back into her purse.
Jason already left her a message that morning, but she purposely avoided listening to it once she saw the name on the voicemail. He still had no idea Reagan had both threatened her and acted on it, and Hannah wasn't ready to talk to him about it.
She knew it was pointless to dwell on how bad it all felt, but she was in an ocean of hurt, and was barely able to keep her head above water, let alone see the silver lining.
She went straight to Taylor's house when her car was fixed, only stopping at the grocery store to get herself three TV dinners, three pints of ice cream, and two full-size bags of chips. She was relieved to find that she was the only one at Taylor's when she got there. She knew Taylor would be gone, but wasn't really in the mood to chitchat with her roommates.
Taylor didn't have a television in her room, so Hannah got a blanket out of the closet and curled up on the couch with it. She turned it on MTV and set the volume on almost inaudible before falling onto the couch and pulling the blanket over her head.
She stayed in that position, sleeping some and just being generally miserable, until two o'clock that afternoon when she stirred, pulling her phone out of her bag.
She placed a quick call to her mom. It'd be foolish to think the Culbertsons wouldn't mention the tire slashing, so she had to tell her mom. She gave her enough detail to inform her, but not enough to scare her.
Hannah also placed a call to Susan Culbertson letting her know the tires were great, and she was fine, but crashing at Taylor's for a little bit.
"He came here looking for you," Susan said.
Hannah almost dropped the phone as she sat straight up on the couch.
"Who? Jason?"
"Yeah, he said he went by the coffee shop and they told him you called in sick. It seemed like he was worried. I hated to—"
"You didn't tell him where I was, did you?"
"No, I didn't… because I knew you didn't want me to. But it was hard, Hannah. He's so sweet, and he was really worried about you."
"Thank you for not telling him. I'm gonna get in touch with him soon so he doesn't worry."
Mrs. Culbertson said for Hannah to call if she needed anything, and Hannah thanked her.
She decided to listen to the messages from Jason. There were four of them—one from the night before, and three from earlier that day. She started with the oldest one first.
"Hey. I'm just calling to see how work went. You said you couldn't really text, so I thought I'd leave you a message. Call me back tonight if you want. I'll be up for a while."
Then there was one from that morning at eleven. "Morning sunshine. Call me when you get this. I know you work lunch today, but I thought we might do something tonight. Just plan on it and I'll give you the details later."
Message number three: "Hey, you okay? I went by the coffee shop a minute ago and they said you called in for your shift. Taylor said she hadn't talked to you either. Call me when you get this."
Then she listened to the fourth one that had just come in a few minutes ago. "Okay, I'm starting to worry a little bit. I went by your house since I was right there at Belmont, and Mrs. Culbertson said she hadn't heard from you. She was acting sort of weird, and I don't know, I guess I just thought I'd hear from you by now and I'm being paranoid. Call me when you get this please."
Hannah hung up and rested the phone on her chest. She used her free arm to cover her face. She was going to have to confront him sooner or later. She decided she'd do it later that day. Maybe she could find a place to meet him—some kind of neutral ground. She thought about it for almost an hour, and then sent him a text even though she was over her limit.
Hannah: "Hey, we need to talk. Can you meet me at Café Coco?"
She heard back from him within a minute.
Jason: "Of course, are you okay? Why are we meeting at another coffee shop?"
Hannah: "I'll see you there at five. That work?"
Jason: "Yeah, I'll be there. I was gonna see if you wan
ted to see a band with me tonight."
Hannah: "Thanks."
Jason wondered what the hell thanks meant and why she was being like that.
Jason: "Why don't I just come over now? Where are you?"
Hannah: "I can't right this second. I'll see you at five."
Jason wanted to, but didn't text her back.
He was pissed at how she was acting, and hoped she had a good reason for it. Hannah pulled into the parking lot at Café Coco at five on the dot. Jason was already there. He was still sitting in his car, and rather than wait for him to get out, she climbed into the passenger's seat.
He hadn't seen her approach, but even though she surprised him, he smiled when she sat down.
"You wanna go in?" he asked.
"No, that's okay."
"You just wanna sit in the car?"
"It's as good a place as any."
Jason took a good look at her for the first time since she sat down and realized she didn't look so good. He knew what girls looked like when they'd been crying, and Hannah had been doing just that.
"You're not okay, are you."
She looked at him and smiled with no joy whatsoever.
"I've been better."
"What's going on, Hannah?"
She sighed. "Okay, so that girl from the country club, Reagan, came by my work last night and told me I better leave you alone or else."
Jason huffed out a laugh, but Hannah didn't even let it phase her, she kept talking.
"She also said a ton of stuff I wish I could forget about the six year relationship she's been in with you. Stuff about her holes and how you've been in all of them."
Jason sucked air through his teeth, but Hannah continued. She spoke even more firmly than before.
"She said a lot of stuff Jason. A lot of messed up stuff that I should have never heard. Stuff I wish I could forget. Then she came to my house last night and slashed my tires."
Jason closed his eyes and put his head in his hand. He breathed a few calming breaths before he spoke, and when he did, it was a soft, deliberate whisper. "I am so sorry, Hannah. I don't even know what to say right now."
She looked at him. "You can say she's lying and you haven't had sex over a thousand times, literally."
Jason was silent, which made Hannah laugh.
"Oh my God, Jason. That hurts. I can't explain how it hurts me, or why, but it does. It hurts really bad. It causes me pain to think of you with her so many times like that."
You're Dangerous Page 14