“Where’s Payne?” I asked. “Have you seen him?”
“Payne? I’m not sure. I’m sure he’s around.”
I didn’t like the way she said that. It was like she was trying to distract me. She kept pulling me towards the game, away from the other corner of the room. I saw a closed door there.
But there was a small voice in my head, telling me I needed to go through that closed door. My mind was focused on that voice. Pushing me towards the doorway.
I broke away and moved closer to the door. With each step, I became less aware of all the noise in the background. I forgot about the people flirting and playing pool and talking about who liked who. I was only aware of my walking to the door and the fact that Dante was right behind me.
I swung the door open and looked inside. What I saw made me burst into tears. I felt disgusted and betrayed and completely humiliated.
The room was dark, but there was enough light from behind me to see Priscilla sitting on Payne’s lap, her mouth nibbling on his neck, her fingers grabbing at his hair.
When Priscilla’s lips pressed against his, I closed the door and ran up the stairs and out the front door. I didn’t pause to say goodbye to anyone. I ignored anyone who tried to say anything to me. I heard my name called a few times, but I didn’t turn around until I was outside and in the driveway.
Someone grabbed my arm, and I finally turned.
- thirteen -
Boom
“Bristol,” Dante said.
I pulled away. I couldn’t stand to look him in the eye. I didn’t want to see the pity in his eyes. I wanted to run away and never see anyone looking at me again.
“Don’t,” I told him, still crying. “I just want to go home.”
Dante nodded.
“I’ll drive you,” he said. I tried to resist, but I found myself letting him help me into his truck. My house wasn’t too far from Scarlett’s, but the trip still seemed to take forever. When we pulled up, I wanted to get out and run for the front door.
I didn’t.
“We had a fight earlier,” I said. “He wants something from me that I’m not ready for.”
Dante didn’t say anything. He just listened.
“Not sex,” I said. “At least, he didn’t mention that. He just wanted me to tell him that I love him, and I couldn’t. He wasn’t happy. Neither was I, when we got to your place, but I didn’t think that . . . I never thought . . . ”
I couldn’t finish the thought. Instead, I just cried.
I felt Dante reach out to me and pull me into his arms. I didn’t resist. Dante held me, let me cry in his arms and I didn’t push away. Why should I?
I had forgotten about the snake. There certainly wasn’t some giant snake making its way around Dante’s house. Somebody there would have seen it. It didn’t matter. None of my visions mattered. The future that I’d seen with Payne and I didn’t matter: the two of us falling in love, having a family—none of it meant anything.
All I could see was Payne sitting on that couch, with Priscilla on his lap as she kissed him.
Journal of Bristol Blackburn
Payne has called me several dozen times. I haven’t answered. I’ve ignored his texts. The only thing I’ve told him is that I want him to leave me alone.
He keeps trying to get me to talk to him, so I finally shut my phone off. It stayed off until late Sunday. On the other hand, Dante only texted once, telling me that he would be there if I wanted to talk, but he wouldn’t push me.
Which is good, because I’m not in a mood to talk about it.
I don’t want to talk about it with my family—they’ve all figured out something happened. I don’t want to talk with Maggie, who’s bugging me almost as much as Payne. I don’t want to talk to Eric, who fades in and out every once in a while. I don’t even want to talk to Ricky, who’s spending all of his time inside of his soup can.
I can’t wait for the gossip to start. As far as I can tell, everyone seems to know that something big happened at the party, but nobody knows what.
That’ll change by Monday morning. Princess P is probably renting a billboard to advertise that she hooked up with Payne.
How far did they go? Did she give him things that I haven’t? Touched him in ways I wasn’t ready for yet?
Part of me wants to find her and snap her in half, but that wouldn’t solve anything. Priscilla’s been after Payne since before I arrived in Spirit. She doesn’t owe me an explanation.
But Payne does.
“Bristol,” my uncle said, as he knocked on my door. “I need to talk to you.”
I rolled my eyes as I closed my computer. Great. I was hoping he would just leave me alone about the Payne situation, but I guess I should have known better.
“I don’t want to talk, Uncle Mark.”
My parents never made me talk about anything. Of course, my parents seemed to like to hear from me less and less as the years went by, so maybe I shouldn’t complain.
“I know that,” Uncle Mark said. “But I need to talk to you now.”
I looked over to Ricky who had come out at the sound of the knocking. He looked at me and scampered back into his soup can.
“Fine,” I said. I got up and opened the door. Uncle Mark came in. I looked outside and saw both Zach and Simon staring at me. When they saw me look back, they dove into Simon’s room and hid. I was going to start taking this personally soon.
I closed my door and sat on my bed. Uncle Mark had sat down in the chair by my desk, spinning it so he could face me.
“Balthazar escaped police custody.”
“What?” I said. This wasn’t what I’d expected. “How could that happen?”
“A damn good question,” Uncle Mark responded. “The state police were keeping watch in the hospital as he recovered from the crash, but he was handcuffed to the bed, and under guard the entire time. Late last night, they found the officer on duty knocked out, and Balthazar was gone. He also has that trooper’s gun. The state police don’t think he’ll try for you again, but I’m not buying it. Balthazar isn’t a rational man. We need to talk about keeping you safe until he’s found.”
“Please don’t tell me that you want me to have a police escort twenty-four-seven.”
“I’d like to,” Uncle Mark said. “But that’s not feasible. You just can’t wander around on your own, now, or disappear—even if you’re with Dante or Payne.”
“I don’t think I’ll be disappearing with Payne anytime soon,” I said. I wished I hadn’t.
“You ready to tell me what happened?” Uncle Mark asked.
I just shook my head.
“Bristol,” Uncle Mark said. “You know you can talk to me about anything. Please, I want to help.”
“I know. I really don’t want to talk about it right now.”
Uncle Mark nodded.
“Will Payne be picking you up tomorrow morning?” he asked. “If not, I can drive you.”
“I may just go with Dante. I’ll let you know if I can’t get a ride with him.”
“Okay,” Uncle Mark said. “But whoever you’re with, it’s only to school and back. Stay in public, and don’t be surprised if you see a patrol car following you, or parked outside the school.”
“Won’t that be fun,” I said. “But fine. I get it. Thanks.”
Uncle Mark gave me a hug and left. I sent Payne a text, telling him that I needed him to give me some space and not to pick me up tomorrow, before I called Dante.
“Hey there,” he answered. “How are you doing?”
“Fine,” I lied. “Look, I need a favor.”
I quickly outlined what my uncle had just told me. I made sure to make it clear that I would understand if he didn’t want to pick me up, since last time, he had nearly been killed.
“I’ll be there,” he said. “No problem.”
I got a text back from Payne.
Until now, I had ignored everything he had sent me,
but I actually clicked on this message. It was brief and to the point. It was just one word, in fact.
Fine.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I told Dante, before hanging up.
I couldn’t help but wonder if that might be the last word I ever heard from Payne.
If it was, then so what? After all, I deserved better than a cheater. I deserved better than to have to walk in on him and her kissing.
Payne saved my life. I’ll always owe him for that, but that didn’t mean he got to treat me this way. Dante and I weren’t doing anything wrong. He was just taking me to school and then taking me home.
So why did I feel guilty?
I asked myself that question over and over again as I cried myself to sleep.
Dante picked me up as planned. He didn’t push me to talk as we drove to school. Which was good, as we weren’t alone. Scarlett was in the backseat. She mostly kept her eyes on her cellphone.
As I should have expected, Payne was waiting for me outside of school, and wanted to talk to me. I told him to leave me alone. He didn’t want to listen.
“Bristol, please,” he begged. “You’ve got to hear me out.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t have to do anything.”
“Bristol, you know how I feel about you. You know I’d never do anything to hurt you—”
“But you did,” I said.
I could tell that stung him, but I didn’t care.
“I’m sorry,” Payne said. “I’m sure you’ve heard about my father having escaped. You shouldn’t be alone now.”
“She won’t be,” Dante said from behind. He had remained quiet up until this point, but now he stepped forward.
“Yeah,” Payne said. “I’ll just bet you jumped right in there.”
Dante smiled at Payne, and I just knew this wasn’t going to end well.
“Seems to me that you should be saying thank you,” Dante said. “Or maybe just saying goodbye. The lady said she doesn’t want to talk to you now. Why don’t you mosey on out of here?”
“Why don’t you mind your own business?” Payne asked, pointing his finger at Dante. “A lot of these problems started when you rolled into town.”
“So I’m responsible?” Dante asked as a crowd started to gather. “I don’t think you want to air your dirty laundry right here.”
“Payne, sweetie,” Scarlett said. “You wanna calm down, honey. You don’t want to cause a scene.” Scarlett reached out and touched Payne’s arm, giving him a reassuring squeeze. “Just give Bristol a little space.”
“Yeah,” Dante added. “Give her a little space.”
“Don’t tell me what I want to do,” Payne said. He took a threatening step forward.
“I think somebody should,” Dante countered.
“Stop it,” I demanded. “Both of you.”
“Your ex-girlfriend called me,” Dante said to Payne. “She knows who she can count on.”
Payne’s fist slammed into Dante’s jaw, knocking him to the ground. Dante got up and swung back. The two of them rolled around on the ground until Payne’s cousin Toby arrived and pulled them apart.
Toby reached down, grabbed Payne, and pulled him up and off of Dante. He quickly tossed his cousin into the waiting arms of Chase and Archer, who grabbed Payne’s arms from either side and held on.
Dante scrambled back up and tried to rush at Payne, but Toby held him back.
“You guys are idiots!” I yelled, stomping off in disgust. The sound of high heels followed behind me. Scarlett.
“Are you okay?” she asked, grabbing my hand as we stepped inside the school.
“I’m fine.”
“Bristol,” she said, pulling me to one side of the hallway. “C’mon.”
“I’m fine,” I repeated, but she must have seen the humiliation in my face.
“Oh, sweetie.” Scarlett hugged me. “You want me to read Dante the riot act? It wouldn’t be the first time.”
“I can handle that,” I said as Dante walked over to us. He was disheveled, bloodied and bruised. “Scarlett, can you give us a minute?”
Scarlett said goodbye and went to class.
“What was that?” I asked Dante, as soon as she was out of earshot.
“What?” Dante asked. “He threw the first punch.”
“Yeah,” I responded. “I saw. I also saw you wind him up. So, I repeat, what was that? Were you trying to impress me? Or were you trying to get him to lose it?”
“Did it work?” he asked, with a hint of mischief in his eyes. “Are you impressed?”
I crossed my arms. “No.”
“Aw,” Dante said. “C’mon, sugar. I just got beat up for you. Are you going to punish me for it?”
“You got beat up because of you,” I said. “Don’t push that on me. Besides, you’re the one who’s going to have to hear about how you got your butt kicked by Payne.”
“Hey,” Dante protested. “I got in a few good shots too, y’know.”
“So?” I asked. “It took two guys to hold Payne back, just one for you.”
“One?” Dante said. I knew he was thinking of Toby. “No, that kid counts as three!”
“You’re assuming people will know which cousin held you back,” I countered. “He’s got so many of them. They may think you were held back by little Maximilian McKnight.”
“He’s a freshman,” Dante complained, “and a tiny one, at that.”
“Then, there are the bruises on your face,” I added.
“Payne has a few himself,” Dante said proudly.
“For now,” I agreed. “But his are going to be gone by the time he walks into first period. You are going to have one heck of a shiner.”
I walked out while Dante thought about that. His mouth formed a perfect O of surprise.
As the day went on, one thing became clear: nobody was talking about what happened with Payne and Priscilla. Which was good, but weird. I would have thought everyone would be talking about it. I had also assumed that Priscilla herself would be doing most of the talking, but I hadn’t even seen her today. As far as I could tell, she wasn’t in school.
I wondered if people were simply avoiding the subject around me, but I wasn’t getting that impression. There were no whispered conversations that abruptly halted whenever I appeared. No glances from across the room that I caught out of the corner of my eye.
The only time I heard my name mentioned was when people were talking about the tensions between the Blackburns and the McKnights. People were noticing that Payne and I were avoiding each other, and most people seemed willing to believe that the Blackburn vs. McKnight family feud was the big story.
As Dante and I were driving home, I got a text from Hunter. She wanted to talk, and promised Payne wouldn’t be with her. We decided to meet at Aunt Breanne’s.
When we got there, Ian was sitting next to Hunter on the steps of the front porch. I asked Dante and Ian to give us some privacy.
Once we were alone, Hunter spoke first. “Are we still friends?”
The question took me aback.
“Why wouldn’t we be?” I asked.
“With everything going on,” Hunter explained, “it seems like the old lines between the Blackburns and McKnights are back and stronger than ever.”
I rolled my eyes.
“I never cared about that stupid feud,” I answered. “I still don’t; I’m angry at Payne. I don’t know if you know why, but I’m not going to tell you if he hasn’t.”
“Payne told me what happened,” Hunter said. “At least, everything he can remember.”
“Was he drunk?”
Hunter sighed.
“No. At least, he didn’t drink anything except punch. But Payne says the entire fiasco with Priscilla is foggy. He thinks the punch was spiked, or that somebody slipped him something. He didn’t know what he was doing.”
“He told you this?” I asked. “And you believe him?”
&nb
sp; “Yes,” Hunter answered.
“Because he’s Payne?” I asked. “Or because you know?”
Hunter sighed again.
“Because he’s Payne,” she admitted. “My ability isn’t back. But it’s getting better.”
I nodded as I paced. I tried to put my anger with Payne aside as I thought about things.
“How did Payne get home that night?”
“He drove himself,” Hunter said. “Why?”
“Drove?” I responded. “If he was drunk or drugged, how could he do that?”
“I don’t know. He felt better. His head cleared, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Bristol,” Hunter pleaded. “This is Payne. He would never do anything to hurt you. You know that.”
“Did he tell you that we were already fighting that night?” I asked.
Hunter rolled her eyes. She didn’t like where this was going.
“Yeah,” she admitted. “I have to be honest. I get that you don’t want to be pressured, but Payne isn’t asking for much. He just wants to know how you feel.”
One of the things I loved about Hunter was her honesty.
I started to pace again, thinking about the night of the party.
“Payne saved my life,” I said. “You know what he went through to rescue me that night. He could have been killed. He thought he was going to die. I know that. I’ll never forget that.”
“Then you know how he loves you,” Hunter said.
“Maybe,” I said. “But maybe I’ve just been with him because I feel grateful.” I stopped pacing and looked Hunter in the eye. “I think that I never cared for him the way he cares for me.”
Hunter stared at me, a quizzical look on her face. I thought she would have started screaming at me by now.
Instead, she smiled.
“That’s a lie,” she said. “I felt it. I heard it.”
I smiled back.
“Good to know you haven’t lost your touch completely,” I said. “Do you trust me?”
Hunter nodded.
Vision of Serpents Page 14