This chapter is a POV story, shifting between Rita, Randy, Stephanie, Chris, and Ashley. I thought it would be a good idea to get into each of their minds after what happened at the party. Hope you enjoy.
RANDY
I couldn’t believe what just happened. The night was going so good, and in the blink of an eye it turned to shit. It turned out Ashley had played us from the beginning and set me up to take the biggest fall imaginable, and she succeeded. The look Rita gave me as she left made me wanna die, I felt horrible. She looked as if she wanted nothing else to do with me, and that was something I couldn’t have, I had to go after her, her and Stephanie, she was equally hurt too. I threw on my pants as fast as I could and ran down the stairs after them, still waking up from the effects of the alcohol trying to wear off. I got outside and saw our car gone, and another in its place, but Stephanie and Chris’ car was still there, so I thought at least Stephanie was still there, so I went back into the house to look for her. I looked for her everywhere but couldn’t find her, but it didn’t stop me from looking. All of a sudden out of nowhere I hit a dizzy spell and leaned against whatever was around me at the time, and when it wore off Chris was standing in front of me holding a beer, the same beer that started this whole mess.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF BED MAN? YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE TAKING IT EASY!” Chris yelled over the still blasting music, none of which sounded too pleasant at the moment.
“HEY MAN HAVE YOU SEEN RITA OR STEPHANIE?”
“LAST TIME I SAW THEM THEY WERE GOING UPSTAIRS TO CHECK ON YOU.”
“FUCK! WE GOTTA GO, SOMETHING STUPIDLY FUCKED UP HAPPENED MAN.”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN? WHAT HAPPENED?”
“I’LL TELL YOU IN THE CAR, BUT WE GOTTA GO NOW.”
We headed back to the front door and who would be standing there? The bitch herself. “HEY RANDY, LEAVING SO SOON?” Ashley grinned as she glared through me.
“FUCK YOU ASHLEY!” I screamed directly at her before I walked out the door.
“IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY YOU JUST TRIED TO,” she yelled after me, laughing.
“What’s she talking about?” Chris asked as we got to the car.
“Come on, I’ll tell you everything, let’s just go.”
“I have a feeling I’m not gonna like the sound of this…”
“You’re not, not even a little bit.”
RITA
“WHAT THE FUCK WAS HE DOING? I CANT BELIEVE THIS!” I screamed as I drove down the street, maybe a little too fast, but with what I just saw, I really didn’t care.
“I’m just as pissed as you are, I mean of all people, her? Fucking why!” Stephanie yelled.
“I don’t even… I just don’t… I can’t… WHAT THE FUCK!”
“I’m not trying to make excuses for him or anything, but maybe he had too much to drink?”
“No, I was watching him, he didn’t drink that much, he knew what he was doing!”
I sat there in silence for a minute, mostly out of anger of not knowing what to say next, but also because my throat was starting to tingle from yelling so much. It helped a little, but it also made me reflect on the actions that just took place not ten minutes ago, and it finally sunk in. Reality hit, Randy cheated on me, a phrase I never in a million years thought I would say, but he did, and the thought of it hit me so hard it brought me to tears.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe this!” I said, tears flowing so frequent it was distorting my vision. “He cheated on me, on us! What am I gonna do?”
“I don’t know, I never thought we would end up in this situation…”
Stephanie was interrupted by her phone ringing, which turned out to be Randy calling.
“He doesn’t even call me! Leave us alone you cheating bastard!” I yelled.
She ignored the call and each one after that until he took the hint and stopped calling altogether. He was the last person I wanted to talk to at that moment. I hated this. Just as soon as the tears slowly started to stop, they were back in full force.
“I’m so sorry Rita, if I didn’t see it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it. is there anything I can do, anything at all?”
“No, I just wanna go home, I want this night to be over.”
RANDY
I filled Chris in on what happened, and he sat there as I gave him the whole rundown… the wig, the matching clothes, everything, and it sounded like he believed me, luckily.
“Man this is so fucked up, I don’t know what to tell you…” Chris said.
“Imagine how I feel. I can’t believe I let her trick me like that, I must be the dumbest person on the planet! Who gets tricked by fake hair, really?”
“Apparently you do, but you know they’re not gonna look at it that way.”
“I know, they’re not even answering their phones, they’re ignoring the calls immediately.”
“Always a bad sign.”
“I don’t wanna think about it, I don’t even wanna know what’s going through their heads…”
“Unfortunately you don’t have that luxury, you gotta fix this. Where are we going anyway?”
“Your house, Rita has to drop Stephanie off, if we get there in time we might catch them.”
We drive to their house, a little faster than we should have, but it was for a good cause. For all the good it did, we didn’t get there fast enough, Rita had dropped Stephanie off and was gone, and Stephanie was sitting on the porch with her arms crossed just as pissed as she could be.
“Well look who it is! If it isn’t the biggest cheating scumbag in the world! Chris why did you give him a ride? You should have let his cheating ass walk home!” Stephanie said.
“Stephanie…”
“Don’t try and defend him, you don’t wanna be in the same boat he’s in.”
“Stephanie please, you can’t honestly believe I’d do anything like that to either of you, not after everything we’ve been through,” I pleaded.
“I know what I saw Randy, my eyes don’t lie!”
“I was drunk, trust me, I swear I thought she was you.”
“You seem pretty fine to me…”
“Something like that happens it’s a major buzzkill.”
“I thought you said you were drunk?”
“Yeah I was.”
“But you JUST said that was a major buzzkill…”
“But it was a buzzkill, I’m not following…”
“Those are two different things Randy, if you were buzzed you knew what you were doing.”
“But I said I was drunk.”
“But us catching you was a buzzkill, which is clearly not bring drunk.”
All her word traps were really getting me upset even more than I already was. “Dammit Steph! Can’t you see I was set up!”
“You know what really bothers me? This whole time not once did you say you were sorry.”
I hung my head, knowing this conversation wasn’t gonna go anywhere near where I needed it to, she was mad, and all reason went out the door. Chris walked back to the car, figuring out the same thing I did and I sulked right behind him.
“I really can’t believe you would do something like this Randy,” Stephanie said after me. “If I’m this pissed, then imagine how Rita must feel.”
I was not looking forward to that at all.
ASHLEY
I sat on my bed sipping my drink as I relived in my head the disaster that just took place because of my brilliance. That worked absolutely perfect, I couldn’t have planned it any better. Stephanie’s immediate anger all but sealed their breakup, and Rita walking in was icing on the cake. I not only ruined his relationship with his girlfriend, but now his sister knows he’s a cheating bastard too! Sometimes I amaze myself with the things I can do.
“Here you are, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” Becky said as she poked her head through the door. “Where’s the charity bunch? I don’t see them anywhere.”
“They already left, they’re probably having it out right now.”
“You did it? did it work?”
“To perfection. Stephanie walked in right as I was jacking him off.”
She went wide eyed as she came into the room. “Really? You’re such an evil bitch!”
“Thank you. I exposed him to Rita too, she came around the corner just after Stephanie did, now she sees him as a cheater too, and she saw it with her own eyes, so no he said she said.”
“Ashley are you sure about them? I mean…”
“Hey, have I ever been wrong?”
“You’re right, sorry.”
“Damn right you are, but since everything went flawlessly and you’re dressed slutty I’ll let it go,” I said as I pulled her into a kiss, dragging my tongue all around the inside of her mouth.
“Are you coming back to the party?”
“Yeah I’ll be back down in a few minutes,” I told her as she left the room.
I took another sip of my drink, one down, one to go. I can’t believe how easy that was, a few drinks and in no time I had my hand on his dick, which turned out to be bigger than I thought for him… but whatever. Now that he and Stephanie are done, I can focus on Rita, who now that I mention caught my attention more than she should have. She looked hurt, too hurt, but then again they are twins so maybe I’m reading too much into it. For now, I’m gonna take the win, Randy’s out, and Ashley wins again. Damn it feels good to win.
RANDY
We pulled up in front of the house, and I just sat there, knowing I had to go in, but dreading actually having to do so. The car was there, so I knew Rita was home, but I didn’t wanna face that look of shame for a second time, but I had to clear my name, so I had to suck it up and do what I had to do. I took a deep breath and got out of the car, eyeing down the path to the front door, which absolutely horrified me at that moment.
“Come on man, you can’t stand there forever,” Chris said from the car.
“I know, I’m just scared of what’ll happen once I go in.”
“Yeah. Good luck man, I’ll try to talk to Steph, maybe get her off your back a little.”
“Thanks, see ya,” I said as he drove off.
I took another deep breath and walked up the path and to the front door. I pulled out my keys to open it and it swung open with mom and Aunt Lisa standing right there.
“What happened? Rita came home a few moments ago crying her eyes out, she wouldn’t even stop to tell us what happened,” Aunt Lisa said.
“It’s kind of a long story,” I said hoping to get past them and up to Rita.
“Make it a short one,” mom said sternly.
“Basically, she thinks she caught me cheating on her.”
“Now why in the world would she think that?” Aunt Lisa asked.
“Well because she walked in Ashley and me kissing, well Stephanie did.”
Mom huffed. “Well it’s hard to confuse that with cheating. What the hell were you thinking!”
“It was an accident, I thought she was Stephanie! I had a lot to drink.”
“You seem fine to me,” mom said.
I decided to avoid the earlier dispute I had with Stephanie. “The gravity of the situation woke me up, like a bunch of adrenaline or something.”
“Randy I can’t believe you, how could you get so careless?”
“We were all drinking, I was the only one who couldn’t hold mine, so Chris took me to a room to cool off, I’m telling you Ashley set me up!”
“She did? And how exactly did redheaded Ashley turn into Stephanie?” Aunt Lisa asked.
“She had on the exact same outfit as Stephanie and she had a wig on! She picked it up from the side of the bed when everyone left, plus I had a crap load to drink!”
“You didn’t notice any difference? That’s hard to believe,” mom said.
“You did the exact same thing to me mom and I didn’t notice then, and I was sober.”
She was quiet for a minute, knowing there was some truth to what I said. Aunt Lisa looked at her with that “you better tell me later” face before she looked back at me. “This isn’t about me, this is about you and her, and how you’re going to fix it.”
“I feel like utter crap. You can’t believe I would ever do anything like this to her intentionally? I love her way too much to see her like this, and that look she gave me, I wanted to die right there,” said feeling like shit all over again.
Mom rubbed the top of my back. “No baby we don’t think you meant to do this, but it happened, because of poor judgment from everyone. We told you that girl was no good, no one flips from that nasty to that nice without something life changing happening.
“I should’ve listened to you, now I gotta pay for it. is she still upstairs?”
“Yeah, your fathers been trying to calm her down, but hasn’t had much luck,” Aunt Lisa said.
Right on cue dad descended the stairs and immediately locked eyes with me; he gave me that look that made you scared to look away.
“I don’t know what you did, but you better get up there and fix it, right now.”
“Yes sir!”
That was all I could say, I was too scared to say anything else. Dad rarely got angry, so when he did we knew whatever was wrong better get fixed and soon. He really cared when one of us screwed up, and wouldn’t let it sit overnight and build, we had to fix it right that second, which was the only way to do it in this situation. I looked at mom and Aunt Lisa for confirmation…
“GET UP THERE!” dad yelled scaring the bejesus outta me, to which I quickly nodded.
I got to the door of our room and could see by the darkness under the door that the lights were off, and I could hear her crying. I put my hand on the door and hit my head against it, ashamed. I made the most important person in my life lock herself in our room and cry, over something that could have been easily avoided, if I wasn’t so stupid. What the hell did I do?
RITA
I lay in bed crying in my pillow. I still can’t believe what happened, but I know what my eyes saw. Ashley was kissing him, and even worse, he was kissing back, there’s no other way around it. Dad was sweet to try to help, and I wanted him to, but I couldn’t tell him anything, not without jeopardizing us, if we already weren’t. We’ve fought before, but it was never like this, not because of cheating. I don’t know how I’m gonna get past this, or even if I should.
“Rita please let me in,” Randy asked as he knocked on the door, tearing me from my thoughts.
“Go away Randy, I don’t wanna see you right now,” I said back through tears.
“We both know that’s not gonna happen.”
“Then you’d better get comfortable because that’s where you’re gonna be sleeping.”
Saying that reminded me of the time when I was out there trying to get in because of an argument we had, only it wasn’t as serious as now, funny how things change. I waited out there all night for him to let me in and he never did, now it seems all too ironic that he’s in the same position I was in. He can sit out there for a whole month, I don’t care, its technically still his room but I’m still not letting him in, not after what he did, he can go sleep on the couch.
“Rita, please, let me in, let’s talk this out.”
“Please just leave me alone.”
I hear him sit down against the door and hit his head against it, a feeling I know all too well. It may be an asshole thing to do but it had to be done, I’m too mad to talk, and people tend to make bad decisions when they’re mad.
“Rita… Rita… Rita please…”
“Randy just stop! I’ll talk when I’m ready, but for now, just…leave me alone.”
He’d finally gave up, at least for now. I couldn’t bear to look at him tonight, not after she was on top of him, kissing him, touching him, like he was hers, and he let her! The one thing I thought was mine she took and sunk her skanky claws in him. She really had me going, thinking she changed for the better, but she was really just trying to get at Randy, and she succeeded, and he did nothing to stop her. I clutched my pillow and buried my head into the bed, she took the one thing that mattered the most to me, the bitch wins again.
ASHLEY
“Where you bitches going? Help me clean up,” I said as Becky, Carina, and Dana tried to leave.
They slumped back into the room, knowing they almost got away from having to clean up a mountain of beer cans and wine bottles and pizza boxes and a bunch of other crap that had been strewn over the house. I didn’t feel like cleaning either, but with the outcome the party had throughout the night, it was definitely worth it.
“So now that phase one is done what’s next?” Dana asked.
“We gotta do the same thing to Chris, cut him off from Stephanie and Rita,” I said.
“He won’t be as hard as Randy was, he and Stephanie aren’t twins, and now that Rita is all distraught over catching Randy cheating, she’ll have trust issues,” Carina said.
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. She’ll be on edge for every little thing now, so the smallest thing could send Chris out the door.”
“You know they’re all probably mad as hell at you right?” Becky asked.
“I’m prepared for that, I already have it planned out what I wanna do.”
“Do we have to screw over Chris? I mean he’s actually cute. Did you see him in those dolphin swim trunks? I wanted to tackle him right then!” Becky said.
“Like Carina was all over Randy when he hit the bell thing at the carnival game? I swear it doesn’t take much for you two, sluts,” Dana laughed.
“Shut up Dana, you know I like a guy with strong arms!” Carina defended herself.
“Please, you’d like a guy with no arms as long as he has a dick!” Dana retaliated.
“Do we have to have the “whose a slut?” talk again? You all win! And yes we have to get Chris too, we can’t have a fallback, and we get Stephanie and Rita too,” I said.
“Who do we go after first?” Carina asked.
“Stephanie, we gotta get her while she’s still angry, Rita will be reeling from her twin betraying her so she can wait, then when Chris cheats it’ll be a double whammy and she won’t even put up a fight. That reminds me, did anyone notice anything strange with them?”
“Strange? Like what?” Becky asked as she tied up trash bags full of empty beer cans.
“I don’t know, anything. Rita was really pissed when she saw us kissing…”
“Wouldn’t you be? They have that weird twin thing, they’re supposed to be aware of each other all the time and she had no idea what was going on, add on top of that catching him cheating on her best friend, and with you of all people, I’m surprised she didn’t try to hit him with something. She definitely doesn’t trust him at all now,” Dana said.
“Me either, but I still have a slight advantage over him I plan to exploit.”
“What’s that? You gonna play the innocent little girl?” Becky joked.”
“Don’t you worry your empty little head about that, I got this.”
“Hey someone left their phone in here!” Carina yelled from the kitchen.
“Leave it there for now. I’ll go through it later. We need to finish cleaning this place up before my dad decides to pop in.”
“How are we gonna get all these tables back to the garage?” Becky asked.
“Call Chris and see if he wants to help,” Dana laughed.
“Yeah call Randy while you’re at it, he won’t care we just fucked up his life,” Carina added.
I laughed at the randomness of their jokes, but then turned back to business. I had to plan everything and make sure I don’t jump the gun on something. If everything goes the way I want it, I’ll be sitting pretty in about a week. The hard parts done, on to phase two.
RANDY
Sleep definitely wasn’t coming easy tonight. It took a while before Rita finally stopped crying enough to go to sleep. I never moved, still perched against the door, replaying everything in my head. Where did I go wrong? How much did I have to drink that my actions were no longer mine? The worst feeling of all is that they don’t believe me, how can they not see I was set up? If the shoe was on the other foot I would never believe for a second Rita cheated on me, not even a little bit. Mom, dad, and Aunt Lisa all walked past me to go to their rooms, with the women giving me that “hang in there” look, and dad giving me that “you little bastard if you don’t fix this I’ll break you in half” look, safe to say I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I accepted the fact that I wasn’t setting foot in the room tonight so I made myself comfortable against the door, and eventually after what felt like hours, I finally fell asleep.
I found myself having that dream with the doors again; this one had the door with the letter A on it, Ashley. I hated her so much right now, she set me up and ruined the trust Rita and I shared all our lives, possibly forever. I wanted nothing more than to get her back in the worst way possible, I didn’t care the outcome. I could feel the anger building up in myself even though it was a dream; I burned a look of hatred through the A on the door. I was so focused on the letter I almost didn’t feel the gust of wind sneak up on me and circle around me.
“Be careful,” someone whispered, and then just like that the wind was gone.
Just as soon as the wind disappeared a flash of light made its way from the other side of the room towards me. I looked around, there was nowhere to run. I was trapped in my own dream with a beam of light heading right towards me. I tried to protect myself, but in a dream how much can you really do? I braced myself as the light drew closer and closer, until it was right on me. I covered my face with my arms and held my ground as the light hit me, making my arms spread out and my head buzz, and in a start I woke up.
I popped out of my sleep disoriented and sweaty. I looked at my phone, only 4:17 in the morning and no chance of going back to sleep. I went to play with my phone to pass the time, but with the battery almost dead that option passed, so I sat there, staring into the darkness until my eyes adjusted enough to make out everything in my vision. I’d sat there so long the sun started to come out, then my body decides to finally try to go to sleep, figures. I couldn’t have been asleep for more than ten minutes before I felt someone shake me and opened my eyes to see mom looking back at me.
“No luck huh?”
“Nope. She won’t even look at me.”
“Give it a little time, she’s not gonna talk immediately. I’ll fix some breakfast, maybe it’ll help.”
Mom walked back to her room and I leaned back up against the door until I heard it open, and Rita stepped out. She didn’t even turn to look at me, but I could see her eyes were red from crying. She went into the bathroom and shut the door, and I watched the door the entire time she was in there. She came out around five minutes later and went back into the room, completely ignoring me again. This was not gonna be easy, not by a long shot.
I scraped through my morning routine (mostly) and went down to breakfast, where everyone but Rita and I were already at. I sat down and stared at my food. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until it was right in front of me, but my hunger got put on hold when Rita came down wearing a giant bathrobe I didn’t even know she owned. She saw me and turned around and went back upstairs, and my heart dropped, I wanted to break down right there, but I had to stay strong if I wanted to get her back. The tension in that room was so high anything said could have turned into an argument.
“Ok, I wanna know what happened and I wanna know right now!” dad spoke up.
“It’s nothing we can’t fix dad, just a lot of confusion and misunderstanding and stuff,” I said.
“That’s not telling me what happened.”
“It’s really embarrassing dad, for both of us…”
“Well you better clear it up; I don’t like this awkward silence angry vibe thing going around in this house. Let her calm down, then fix it.”
Rita came back down, but not to come in the kitchen, just to grab the house phone.
“Hey honey, you gonna eat?” dad asked.
“No, I’m not hungry,” Rita replied.
“Why are you grabbing the house phone? Is your cell phone dead?” Aunt Lisa asked.
“I can’t find it, I’m calling Stephanie to see if I left it in her car.”
She took off upstairs before anyone could ask her anything else, mainly me. She still avoided any eye contact with me, but at least now I know why she didn’t answer her phone.
RITA
I grabbed the house phone and went back to the room as soon as I could, doing my best to deflect any questions I was asked on the way. I wasn’t angry like I was yesterday, but I was still mad. I still didn’t wanna look at him, and I still wasn’t ready to talk, so he’ll just have to get used to playing spy vs spy until I do. I called Steph so I could let off some steam.
“I’ve been calling you all morning!” Steph responded as soon as she answered.
“I can’t find my phone. I think I dropped it in your car.”
“I’ll check it later. How you feeling, are you still mad?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Do you even have to ask? I mean the nerve! Did he think we wouldn’t find out?”
“The fact that it’s Ashley makes me even madder.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know, I thought I would’ve slept off the anger but I’m still mad.”
“He said he was drunk, did he look drunk to you?”
“I’ve never seen him drunk so I wouldn’t even know what that looked like.”
“First he said he was buzzed, then he said he was drunk, and then he was buzzed again…”
“Either way it’s not an excuse, especially at a party! Ashley’s party at that! How many movies do they have with that same situation and the same outcome? I mean who does that!”
“Believe me I was thinking the same thing, he got an earful yesterday.”
“You talked to him yesterday?”
“He came by not long after you dropped me off, Chris brought him.”
“Was Chris helping him?”
“I didn’t give him a chance to say anything. I lashed out at Randy the whole time until he left.”
“I didn’t say anything to him when we left, I didn’t even let him in the room, he slept against the door after begging me to let him in for half an hour.”
“I would’ve done the same thing. If you give in they think they can walk all over you.”
“This wasn’t all Randy; Ashley knew exactly what she was doing. He may or may not have come on to her but she knew damn well he was taken. I know for a fact she wasn’t drunk. This is still mostly on Randy though, HE cheated. There’s no way he mistook you for her.”
“No way in hell. And we all bought her “I changed/nice girl” act.”
“This is depressing me all over again. I don’t wanna talk about this anymore right now. Just thinking about it makes me wanna do something. Maybe I’ll walk
Tibbles or something.”
“Tibbles? What’s a Tibbles?”
“It’s the dog he got me, a cute little puppy. He slept in here with me last night.”
“He got you a puppy after what happened? How convenient. He’s trying to use a dog to get out of the doghouse, unbelievable. Don’t let it work.”
“Actually we got him before we even knew about the party. I was so happy. It’s amazing how a day can go so wonderful then turn into absolute shit.”
“Ok well I’ll let you go, call me if you’re not doing anything ok?”
“Ok, thanks Steph, bye.”
“Bye, and remember call me, anything happens, call me.”
I hung up and tapped my legs and Tibbles took the hint and jumped into my lap. I pet him as I contemplated what I was going to do. I couldn’t ignore him forever, but I also couldn’t just forgive what happened. What was I gonna do about Ashley? I can’t just go over to her house and smack her around like I wanna do so bad, but our father still needs her father, and I know she’s using that against us still, so I can’t even touch her. Maybe if Stephanie did the beating for me… nope, she would still loop it to come back on us. I was wracking my brain with all these questions and scenarios and I still didn’t have an answer of any one of them. You know what? Fuck it. I’m not gonna deal with this today, I shouldn’t have to. I’m gonna keep to myself and not think about anyone or anything but Tibbles, because he’s the only one I wanna see right now. I got up and checked the hallway to make sure it was clear and walked the phone back downstairs and put it on the charger. When I turned around Randy was standing right there, looking me right in the eyes. He wanted me to say something, and when I didn’t he took that as his cue to talk, but when he did, I stopped him, shook my head and walked away. Not today Randy, I don’t wanna hear anything or deal with anything else related to last night, not today.
RANDY
It’s been three long days since the incident at the party. I haven’t gotten a phone call from Stephanie, and so much as a look from Rita. The only bright spot in all of this was that mom, Aunt Lisa, and Chris stuck up for me, while they didn’t excuse what happened, they know it was a drunken mistake, its just too bad Rita and Stephanie can’t see it that way. This has been the longest three days of my life, and the worst part of it besides the not talking to me, is the not knowing what they’re thinking, how they’re handling it, it’s killing me. Dad has been on my ass to fix this, but I can’t even strike up a conversation, let alone dissolve the issue. I had a long road ahead of me, and it was looking to be as unpleasant as possible. I was sitting on the couch (my bed for the last three days) when Rita came downstairs getting ready to walk Tibbles.
“Hi,” I tried starting a conversation.
“Hi,” was all she said back.
She didn’t break stride as she headed for the door and went out. I didn’t know what to do, it’s never been this bad, not to the point of no communicating. Mom came downstairs next and sat next to me on the couch and rested her hand on my leg in a comforting manner.
“Hey, rough few days huh?”
“That’s an understatement. She won’t even look at me.”
“Yeah, just give it a little more time, she’ll come around.”
“How much time is enough? If I wait too long I might miss an opportunity, but if I act too soon then I’m a pushy jerk who doesn’t know the meaning of space.”
“That’s how women are honey. You need to know the perfect time to say something, and you need to know exactly what to say. We’re delicate creatures; the slightest miscue could be bad.”
“That only adds a lot more pressure to an already pressurized situation…”
“I tried talking to her. She was pretty adamant on what she saw, you knew what you did.”
“I was drunk! Has noone ever gotten drunk in the history of liquor and beer!”
“Look at it from her point of view. Ashley is dressed to kill, you attest to that fact. You get drunk, possibly as a cover for something you might wanna do…”
“Come on mom that bull…”
“Let me finish. You disappear from the party after consuming a good amount of liquor to cover your story, and wind up in bed with the very person whose the focal point of all this.”
“Mom, come on, you know that is not what happened, not even close!”
“I’m just telling you how it’s probably playing out in her head. Women have a way of breaking down every scenario and being very stubborn about it, so it’s very possible that she’s thinking exactly what I just told you. Just her walking in on that was enough to run ideas through her head, after everything you two have been through, she was hurt.”
“Don’t you think that’s a little too convenient to play out like that?”
“It’s not about what I think, it’s about what she thinks, and she thinks you cheated, knowingly.”
“But I didn’t! I swear I thought she was Stephanie. I can’t believe this!”
I covered my face with my hands and leaned forward on my elbows, trying to process all the new information I just received. I took a deep breath and sat there, feeling mom’s hand caress my back, which reminded me I still had a huge mess to clean up.
I sat up and looked mom straight in the eye. “What do I do?”
“What you’ve been trying to do this whole time, talk to her, there’s no other option.”
“Mom she won’t even look at me…”
“Then make her. She’s had three days to mope and be mad, that’s the minimum, now she’s in the “you have to suffer” stage, and she’ll drag it out as long as you let her. Some things have to be forced on us, not all, but some, or we’ll always get our way. Think about it honey.”
She kissed me on the cheek and went back upstairs. I stayed there pondering everything she just said. I know she had my best interest at heart, she explained everything so fluently and with emotion, and plus she’s my mother, and mom’s all have that caring nature when it comes to their kids, even though our situation is a little different from most other kids. She really hit home, she made a lot of valid points, and took me inside the head of a women, and if I wanted to get Rita back, I needed to capitalize on this opportunity, and I needed to do it now.
CHRIS
I walked past Steph’s room, and once again, she was on the phone, with Rita, ranting. I leaned against the door frame and waited until she got off; I needed to talk to her. After what seemed like an eternity she finally hung up, and looked towards the door and saw me standing there.
“Have you seen Rita’s phone? She lost it a few days ago,” Stephanie said.
“Is it in her car? Her house somewhere? Leave it at Ashley’s house?”
"No, no, and no, noone remembers seeing it.”
I stared at her, not saying anything, quickly getting back on the subject of why I came in here. She looked away, then back at me I guess hoping I left, but I stayed put. I wanted to know what was going through her head, I wanted some answers, and I wasn’t budging.
“Don’t look at me like that!”
“It isn’t fair he’s getting all the blame you know.”
“It isn’t fair what he did, and Ashley’s not off the hook, we’re just more pissed at Randy.”
“It’s kinda cruel, and unlike either of you,” I said coming in the room and closing the door.
“I don’t regret it. Even through all that “cruelness” he still didn’t even say he was sorry!”
“Saying he’s sorry would be admitting to cheating, and he didn’t.”
“Ashley even said he wanted to kiss her…”
“And you immediately believe it? Even though it came straight from the main person involved? Yeah because that’s what you’re supposed to do…”
“I know what my eyes saw Chris, they saw Randy kissing Ashley.”
“Your eyes deceived you. If you believe he’d kiss Ashley you don’t know him at all.”
Her face narrowed and she crossed her arms. “Why are you even defending him?”
I mocked her same movement. “Why are you defending Ashley?”
She sat there stunned, like either she didn’t expect me to say that, or that it might have had some truth to it. “I’m defending my eyes, I know what they saw.”
“Oh my god you keep saying that! It’s Ashley! Really Steph?”
“That makes it even worse! If he’d mess with her then he’d mess with anyone.”
“He practically hates her, you and Rita know that.”
She stared at me cross armed again. “So you’re convinced he didn’t cheat? That this was all just a drunken accident? That we’re punishing him for no reason?”
“Think about it Steph, he has two girls, and they’re both at the same party. You’d have to be the dumbest person in the world to try to get away with something like that!”
“Maybe two wasn’t enough. Maybe he’s always secretly had a thing for Ashley and used hating her as a cover. Maybe he used being drunk as an excuse to do it, but we all know he wasn’t drunk, he clearly caught himself in that lie.”
“That’s a lot of maybes. And he didn’t get caught; you just used women logic to twist his words around. Don’t forget you two were off flirting too, we weren’t all together the whole night.”
“Don’t try to flip it. He probably planned the whole thing.”
I was getting frustrated. “DAMN IT STEPH, HOW ARE YOU BEING THIS STUPID!”
“WATCH IT CHRIS! HE CHEATED NOT ME! DON’T YELL AT ME LIKE THAT!” Stephanie yelled back.
I regained my composure. “We’re not even with them! This whole thing is a cover remember?”
As soon as I said that it hit a nerve, with both of us. How we could get so caught up in feeling that shouldn’t even exist is beyond me, yet there we were, both hurt by my last statement. Steph held her gaze to her lap and me at the wall. We’d forgotten this was all supposed to cover up our actual relationship, but instead we broke the cardinal rule…don’t get attached. We messed around and actually started to care about the relationship that wasn’t even a relationship, and in return everyone got hurt. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.
I sat down next to her and took my hand in hers. “Look, we haven’t known them but half a year, but the way Randy feels about Rita, and even you, he’d never cheat on either of you.”
“What do you mean even me?”
“If Randy and Rita weren’t messing with each other he’d definitely be dating you, same with me and Rita, we’re all just drawn to each other I guess.”
“Drawn together, we’re a little more than drawn together Chris,” she said smiling up at me.
“You know what I mean,” I said as I squeezed her hand.
She squeezed my hand back. “If Randy didn’t cheat, then what really happened?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but there’s more to what you saw. Your eyes aren’t lying to you but they’re not showing you the whole truth either, its way too convenient.”
She went to say something, but before she did her phone started ringing. I thought it was Rita, until she meanmugged the phone when she saw he ID.
“Speak of the devil, it’s Ashley calling now.”
“What the hell does she have to say to you? Don’t even answer it,” I said angrily.
“But I want answers. I won’t get them by putting her off.”
I sighed, knowing I couldn’t deter her away from answering the call, I figured I might as well warn her. “Don’t let her mess with your head, be smarter than she is.”
She nodded as she answered the phone. I got up and left, knowing I’d be shooed out anyway. I went back to my room and sat at my computer. How could a night go from the best night ever to the worst night possible? Whatever happens with that phone call, I hope she doesn’t buy into anymore of Ashley’s bullshit and see her for what she is, a manipulating liar. I hope she finds out the truth soon, Rita too, for Randy’s sake.
RANDY
I waited on the porch patiently for Rita to get back. She was gone a long time, longer than usual, but it gave me time to decide what I was gonna say when she came back. She finally turned the corner with Tibbles and headed back to the house. I got up off the steps and met her on the path leading up to the door.
“Can we talk?” I asked.
“I’m not in the mood,” she said plainly.
“To talk or just not with me?”
“Both.”
“Come on Rita, it’s been three days of no talking.”
“It’s not enough, I’m still mad, pissed, whatever, I’m still upset.”
“With what you saw I don’t blame you.”
“Finally coming clean? Took you long enough.”
“I’m not admitting anything, I’m just gonna try to explain what I remember.”
She sighed. “And I thought you finally owned up to what you did. if you’re not gonna come clean then there’s nothing to talk about,” she said as she took Tibbles in the house.
I followed right behind her up to our room. “Rita I didn’t know!”
“Still going with that? You see how far that’s gotten you so far.”
“I can’t believe you don’t believe me, not even a little bit,” I said hurt.
“It’s hard to discredit what my eyes saw very clearly Randy.”
I closed the door behind us once we got in the room. “It’s Ashley! This is exactly the reason mom and Aunt Lisa told us not to trust her, and we were stupid and didn’t listen. You don’t think it’s just a little bit of a coincidence how everything just happened to fall into place?”
“Yeah I do, I was a mighty big coincidence how you got drunk and slipped away.”
“I didn’t slip away I was carried away! Chris had to carry me up the stairs. I could barely stand!”
“You were walking just fine when we caught you…”
“Rita I didn’t do anything, I was with you guys and Chris the whole night, you and Stephanie were the ones flirting with other guys while we were getting drinks!”
Her face twisted up, and right then I knew I screwed up. “Try to flip it on us to get yourself out of trouble, nice. Good talk Randy,” she said as she left the room, leaving the door wide open.
I sat down on the bed and stressfully ran my fingers through my hair. I managed to make it worse. I actually got her to talk and I messed it up by pointing the finger at her, great. I looked up at the door and saw mom leaning against it nodding her disapproval, like I put my foot in my mouth, and I did big time. How the hell do I go about turning this around?
STEPHANIE
I pulled up in front of Ashley’s house. She called me while I was talking to Chris, and I only picked up the call because I wanted answers, and to punch her in the face. I knocked on the door and she let me in, and I bore a hole right through her as she looked back at me. I followed her to her room, the last place I was in when I was in this house.
“You have some nerve calling me after almost fucking my boyfriend, then bringing me to the room where you almost did it? What’s to stop me from hitting you right now?” I asked.
“You’re mad, which is completely understandable, but I did it for a reason,” Ashley said.
I laughed a little on the inside. Oh this should be good. “Which is?”
“To show you you’re no good for him, no, that he’s nowhere near good enough for you.”
Ok that caught me a little off guard. “And why not exactly?”
“Do you even remember what happened? He got drunk and made out with me.”
“Yes I’m aware. I hope you weren’t banking on that being your defense…”
“He’s just like all guys, a little alcohol goes a long way. We were literally about to fuck when you came in, I was jerking him off and everything.”
My hands bawled into a fist of their own free will. “I’d watch it if I were you.”
“This is exactly my point. I did it to help you.”
She was surprising me more and more each passing second. “Wait what? You’re kidding right? You tried to fuck my boyfriend to help me?”
“He was hitting on almost every girl there, and tried to sleep with some of them!”
“I don’t remember that,” I said, knowing she was telling me a bold face lie.
“You and Rita had your hands full too, remember you kissed each other and all the guys swarmed you, your attention wasn’t on anything else at that moment.”
Damn, she was right. That little slip up could back up her story, doubtful, but it could.
I wasn’t gonna fuck him, just take it as close to sex as I could. I figured since it was already a lost cause I’d show his true colors.”
“He said you tricked him, that you dressed like me.”
“With my red hair and brown eyes? Yeah that’s very confusing. If I hadn’t done what I did he would’ve slept with someone else, and you wouldn’t have known anything about it.”
“It looked like you were gonna fuck him from where I was standing.”
“I had to make it look good. Guys like that don’t deserve any leniency.”
I didn’t know what was worse, that her story started to kinda make a little sense or that I started to believe it. Rita and I both did turn our backs when the guys swarmed us, so we have no recollection of what happened at that moment. It’s still too tough to call though.
“Trust me Steph, I did it for you, you deserve better than someone who’s gonna cheat on you, at a party that you’re at nonetheless, such disrespect.”
I sat down on her bed in thought. I came over here ready to listen to a half brained ploy then punch her in the face, now I don’t know what to do. She walked over and sat down next to me.
“The same thing happened to me, but I made sure it wouldn’t happen again, or to anyone else I considered my friend,” she said as she put her hand on my leg.
I looked at her to see how genuine she was, and she was either really genuine or Oscar worthy because I couldn’t figure it out either way, so I stared at my lap again.
“Trust me, you deserve much better than that.”
“I don’t know what to trust right now…”
“You can trust me,” Ashley said in a slight whisper.
Her hand that was on my knee made its way up my leg to my thigh, and before I knew it she hand was directly touching my pussy, in fact she was cupping it.
“Umm what are you doing?” I said looking from her hand back up to her.
“Giving you the attention he didn’t.”
“I- oh my god!”
I didn’t get another word out as she pushed my panties to the side and slipped her middle finger in. I groaned loudly as she pumped it in and out of me, adding another finger before she pulled my panties off completely without me even realizing I’d helped her by lifting off the bed for her. She lifted my skirt flap back up and pushed two fingers back inside my pussy. I gripped her bedsheets as I tried to fight the urge to scream out in pleasure, never knowing getting fingered could feel this good. She kissed me as I felt another finger pushing at my clit, trying to get me to go over the edge. I was about to cum, I could feel it. She was hitting all the right spots with just the right amount of pressure like she’d done this a million times. I didn’t care, all I was focused on was her magic fingers working my pussy, then out of nowhere I flash flew across my mind, and an image of Randy popped it, and scared the bejesus outta me, and back to reality. I sat my head back up and pushed her hand away from my pussy, to her disapproval.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Ashley asked.
“Nothing, I just gotta go,” I said, not sounding convincing at all.
I gathered my stuff (with the exception of the panties I couldn’t find) and bolted from the house and into the car and sped off. My mind was buzzing. What the hell just happened?
ASHLEY
Dammit! I almost had her! Another minute and she would’ve been putty in my hands! At least it wasn’t a total loss; I got in her head, so it shouldn’t be hard to do it again. I called Becky who was so eager to find out what happened she answered before the first ring even ended.
“What happened? Did you get her? Is she still there?” Becky spoke.
“She just left not too long ago.”
“Did it work?”
“Not yet, I almost had her!”
“Come on details, what happened?”
“I had her in the palm of my hand, literally, but she back out at the VERY last minute.”
“Well now she just basically cheated on him, unless they broke up already.”
“I definitely gave her something to think about though. Damn I was so close!”
“How was she?”
“She was really fucking tight. Randy’s dick isn’t little so she either does kegels or they don’t have sex, knowing Randy probably the latter.”
“So what’s the plan now then?”
“Well I’m definitely gonna try again now that she’s confused, but I need to figure out how to go about it now, she’s on guard and she’ll be paranoid about me now.”
“What about Rita?”
“She’s on edge, with any little thing threatening to push her over, perfect time to set up Chris.”
“Damn, I wish I could’ve been there! I bet she was dripping all over your hand.”
“I deserve an Oscar; I had her doubting everything she thought was true just by playing nice! If I had another minute she’d be outside smoking a cigarette right now.”
“Well you do have this misleading nice schoolgirl way about you that draws people in.”
“Who me? I’m just a charming innocent redhead with no ulterior motives whatsoever!”
“No modesty either. I’ll believe that the day Channing Tatum says he’s gay.”
“Whatever bitch, I could be. Ok I need to call you back, I gotta get the rest of my plan going.”
“You still didn’t give me any details!”
“I’ll tell you and everyone else later. Call them and fill them in first.”
“Next time we all should be there, she can’t get away from all of us.”
“I’ll figure it out. Call me back with everyone on the line in an hour.”
“Ok, this is gonna be fucking fantastic!”
I hung up and went downstairs to get something to eat as I went over what happened in my head. Stephanie was a bust, but not completely. I planted a seed, now all I had to do was stir up some more trouble and watch it grow. I could have some real fun with her. Rita, on the other hand, was gonna be a little trickier. I walked past the counter and saw the phone Carina found the other day. I picked it up and opened the screen, it was Rita’s. There was a picture of her taking a selfie with a puppy, and since she was the only one who lost a phone, it was safe to say it was hers. I lucked out and she didn’t have it password protected, so I grabbed a banana and took it and her phone back to my room, maybe she might have something useful in it.
STEPHANIE
What the hell was that? I went over there to get some answers, possibly punch her face in, but ended up getting fingered. I was speeding down the street like someone was chasing me I was so amped up, and the fact that I was still horny wasn’t helping either. I didn’t know what to think now. She could’ve easily pushed up on Randy, but she also could’ve backed away, same for him. I stopped it, I might not have stopped it right away, but I still stopped it. Fuck! I’m even more confused than before now. I don’t know what to make of her story now. Some of its true, and some of it’s definitely crap, but how much and which parts? Fuck if I know. I called Rita’s house since she still didn’t know where her cell phone was, but her mom picked up.
“Hi Mrs. S., is Rita there?”
“Hi Stephanie, no she’s out walking her dog right now.”
“Can you have her call me when she gets back?”
“Sure thing. Oh, and while I have you, though its none of my business, can you please find out what really happened before condemning Randy? I know he would never do anything like that on purpose, something’s not right with the way everything’s played out.”
“Yeah, I think I just figured that out first hand. You have my word Mrs. S.”
“Thank you sweetie. I’ll be sure to tell Rita to call you as soon as she gets in.”
“Thanks Mrs. S. see you later.”
I hung up the phone and turned down our street. I gathered myself as best I could as I pulled in the driveway and walked into the house. It was dark, which meant mom and dad still weren’t back and Chris hasn’t left his room since I went to Ashley’s. I went up to his room and knocked on his door until he said it was ok to come in. he was doing what I knew he’d be doing, playing Xbox and dead to the world around him, Call of Duty will do that to you.
“Don’t turn off your porn on account of me coming home,” I joked.
“Funny. So how’d it go?” Chris asked without so much as tilting away from the screen.
I took a deep breath and decided to just tell him the straight out truth. “She fingered me.”
CHRIS
I turned around so fast my headset flew off my head. “Wait say that again, she what?”
She played with her fingers and look at her feet. “She fingered me,” she repeated softer.
I don’t know if I was confused or puzzled more. That caught me so off guard I didn’t want any distractions while she explained it, so I cut off the game, in the middle of an online deathmatch, it was that serious. “How the hell did she end up doing that?”
“She was telling me what happened and everything, saying how Randy was hitting on other girls when we weren’t looking, and how she stepped in to make sure he didn’t go too far.”
“And how much of that do you believe?”
“To be honest I don’t know, but it kinda makes sense the way she said it.”
“That’s because it’s Ashley! She probably rehearsed the whole speech!”
“I don’t know, but she definitely could’ve picked a better route than almost fucking him.”
“So let me get this straight, she basically confessed everything she did with him right to your face, but she’s off the hook because of why she did it?”
“I never said she was off the hook…”
“Then she works her magic on you and puts her hand up her skirt and you still don’t catch on?”
“It’s not that simple, it’s not like I invited her to finger me! I don’t even remember how it happened, one minute we were arguing and the next minute my panties were off, I didn’t go over there with the intent of getting fingered,” I said as I fanned my skirt.
“That’s not… Where exactly are your panties?” Chris asked as he caught my accidental flash.
“I don’t know, they’re still in her house somewhere, I couldn’t find them.”
I sighed. “And you’re still confused as to what’s going on? Come on Steph you’re smarter than this! Is this some girl code thing where the guy is always wrong no matter what?”
“There’s just too much going on, I can’t think straight…”
“She’s playing you! And you’re falling for it!” I said as I moved closer to her.
There was silence for a good while as everything that was said got soaked up. I looked at her wondering how she could let Ashley manipulate her like that after everything she said to her, after everything she did. There was no way I’d let her do that to me, not even for a second.
“You can’t seriously be giving her the benefit of the doubt,” I said breaking the silence.
“I’m not, I just look at the situation differently than you do.”
“Rita too? You being mad at him only makes her even more pissed at him, someone’s gotta give. There’s no way Randy did this on purpose and you both know it.”
“Come on Chris, if you were me and you walked in on Randy kissing someone else you would be mad as hell too, you’re not thinking about what got them to the room, all you’re focused on is the shit happening in front of you and how angry you are.”
“I can understand that, really I can, but you have to look at it from his view too, he was pass out drunk and he said she was wearing the same stuff you had on, he even said her hair was blonde, it’s kinda hard to believe that wasn’t a setup.”
“For someone who was pass out drunk he sure has a great memory…”
“Come on Steph, we’ve both been like that, you can’t tell me you don’t remember the little things that happened right before you were about to have sex.”
“I’m not the one on trial here, you’re not the one on trial here, Randy is, Randy messed up.”
“So if the same thing happened to me would you believe it too?”
She looked up at me and started to say something, but closed her mouth and sat there with her head down twiddling her fingers.
“I take that as a yes then…”
“No, I didn’t…you can hold your liquor better than he can.”
“But you still think I’d mess around with Ashley on you, I don’t…”
“No Chris I didn’t say that! I know you wouldn’t, its different with you.”
“Why is it different with me?”
“You know why.”
“No I don’t know why, so please tell me so we can clear all this up.”
“BECAUSE I FUCKING LOVE YOU YOU IDIOT!”
Now it was my turn to be speechless. I really did not see that coming. I’d gotten so wrapped up in the argument that I didn’t notice, no I won’t say that I did notice, but I didn’t acknowledge her habits she does when she wants to say something. Her hands were shaking a little, and to be honest, so were mine. I sat down next to her and pulled her hair behind her ear so I could see her face. She was a little red in the cheeks but her face was still soft, and beautiful.
“Stephanie…”
“Rita and Randy are a cover for us just like we are for them. We may have done things with them, but that was before all this happened. Walking in on him like that, I didn’t get mad at Randy, well I did, but it happened, all I thought about was you.”
“Me?”
“The look on Rita’s face when she walked in on Randy almost made me cry. It was like everything she’d ever known just vanished. You know how they feel about each other, if this could happen to them, as in love as they are, what chance do we have?”
It finally clicked. Stephanie had just admitted to being in love with me, and I was at a complete loss for words. I think I knew all along, but I just wasn’t paying attention good enough to work it all out. Surprisingly though, the idea didn’t put me off, not in the least, it only made her that much more important to me, but why the silence? That’s something I should know.
“Why didn’t you tell me Steph?”
“Wasn’t it obvious? I gave you all the signs.”
“What about the constant hitting on Randy and all that?”
“At first I was into him yeah, but when I started to see how he was with Rita, it made me really look at you even more than I already was. After a while I even started doing things to make you jealous, but you never caught on. I came on to him right in front of you can you didn’t catch the hint, dumbass!” Stephanie laughed.
“I didn’t know there were feelings attached, I thought it was just sex with us.”
“That’s because you’re thickheaded! You basically kept saying to Rita and Randy that we weren’t gonna be anything like them, which hurt by the way, so I tried to like Randy, but it didn’t work, everything kept making me think about you, even when I tried not to.”
I had the stupidest look on my face as I sunk it all in. “I really didn’t know. With all the “kiss ass” jokes I thought you were on the same page as me.”
“I was at first, but Rita and Randy changed that. You can’t tell me you don’t feel anything when you see them a cutesy together.”
“I did, but I always forced it away. Randy even said something about it, and I told him no way. I just never thought we would get on their level, but…”
“But, but what?”
“But a lot’s changed. Rita and Randy did rub off on me. I did start getting jealous when I’d see you do something with Randy, so I’d make out with Rita ten times harder, and tonight, if you would’ve had sex with him, I don’t think I would’ve been able to hide it.”
“We weren’t gonna have actual sex, just a lot of stuff leading up to it. You didn’t want all that in between stuff, so I was gonna get it from Randy, and we would just stick to sex.