Distraction (3 page)

"Yes, ma
'
am."

Mrs. Richards walked me to the front door and hugged me again
before I left.

Elle
'
s sister needed help, but their mom denied her ever having a
problem until it was too late, and their dad didn
'
t give two shits
about them. He and my dad were in running for dickhead dad of the year.

On my way home, I decided I wouldn
'
t tell Elle.
Regardless of what her mom said, I knew she
'
d tell her
anyway. I couldn't bear the thought of hurting Elle any sooner than necessary.

* * *

A few weeks later, Elle called to say she was headed home.
Early the same day, I packed my stuff and took off to Lubbock. Chicken shit
move, I know, but I couldn't deal with her. Not yet. I needed more time.
Telling Elle about school would be easy. Telling her about Kellie, not so much.
Even the thought created a sort of panic–sickness in the pit of my stomach,
promising to haunt me forever.

In the beginning, Kellie became my distraction. I didn
'
t do
relationships. I
'
d tried commitment before. It just never stuck. The next
thing I knew we were a thing and I
'
d fallen in love with her. Being with Kellie made me forget
about wanting someone else. However, the closer the time came to seeing Elle,
the closer I came to falling apart.

Distraction or not.

Elle

Summer had gone by in a blur. I couldn't believe it was time
to head back to school already. I was still pissy at not being able to see the
two people I missed most.

Heather had skipped town and Tristan left early due to
football obligations.

"You're not still sulking are you?"

I rolled my eyes at Mom. "Of course not."

I’d moped around the first few days back, especially when Mom
said Tristan had dropped by to say hi. Go figure she
'
d get to see
him. It'd been forever since we'd seen one another.

"You'll let me know if you hear from Heather?"

"Of course," Mom said quickly, but she refused to
look me in the eye.

All I ever did was worry about my sister. Whenever I asked my
mom about her, she clammed up and became evasive, which wasn
'
t normal.

The minute my dad left years ago, my mom stopped being a mom.
When my sister lashed out, someone had to step up. So, I took charge. From then
on, Mom pretended life was perfect while I shouldered the burdens of our broken
family.

I'd attempted to call dad, but as predicted, his time didn
'
t include me. I
shouldn
'
t have let his sidestepping my call bother me, but I guess I
hoped he
'
d have changed. Truth was he sucked ass at being a dad.

When my parents divorced, he didn
'
t simply move to
a new home. He left the state and never looked back. My sister took his leaving
hard, and my mom blamed him for her meltdowns and eventually, her drug
addiction.

The drugs are why I
'
d been so worried about her. A few
years ago, I
'
d given Heather a prepaid phone when it became clear she didn
'
t want to get
clean. Maybe I was as much of an enabler as my mom, but I slept better knowing
she could reach me if she needed or wanted help. Problem with my plan was she
rarely answered my calls. Oddly enough, she did stay in touch with our mom.
They were more like best friends than mother and daughter.

“Honey, I’m glad you had a good summer."

“Yeah. Listen, don’t forget to call if you hear from Heather."
My mom supplied me a tightlipped smile, and then quickly changed the subject.

“You’ve done so well in school, and I want you to know I’m
proud of you." I could only stare. Compliments or even acknowledgement
were few and far between. With her crazy near-mother-esque behavior, I said
goodbye.

Now Alyssa and I were packed up and headed back to school. I
really wanted the year to be drama free, but when living with three other
females, drama never seemed far behind.

* * *

Bang Bang Bang

"Alyssa, wake your ass up. Now!" The sound of a
fist slamming into the wood door
grew hard to
ignore, specifically since the noise woke me up from a dead sleep. Groggy and a
little more than pissed, I shuffled over to the door. Opening it wide, I found
a not too happy Ginger scowling at me.

"Sorry to wake you, Elle, but I need to talk to Alyssa.
Is she here?" Ginger peeked over my shoulder, searching for my roommate
and best friend, who of course chose to be AWOL at the moment.

"Sorry, Ginger, but she didn
'
t come back from
the party with me last night. I
'
m sure you can catch her," I turned to the clock on my
night stand, "a little later today. She probably won
'
t get in until
after lunch."

With a huff, Ginger stormed down the hall toward her room.
Needing more sleep, I hopped back in bed and prayed whatever Alyssa did this
time wouldn
'
t get her thrown out of our rented house. I couldn't afford
to live here without her shared part of the rent. Pushing the disruption out of
my mind, I let sleep take me, deeply.

Eight o
'
clock classes came way too early, especially when woken up in
the middle of the night by an irate roommate and sorority sister, whose intent
no doubt, was to kill your best friend. In truth, I had two best friends:
Tristan Daniels and Alyssa Grant. While I loved them, they both equally enjoyed
talking crap to each other as often as possible. The fact that Tristan didn
'
t live here made
their somewhat heated banter a current non-issue.

Tristan and I had been friends since we were in diapers, and
Alyssa and I became fast friends the first day of Kindergarten. She and I did
everything together, including getting into college and the Kappa house, though
being in a sorority was more her idea than mine. Granted, I did enjoy the
perks, such as the social opportunities. However, I could live without the
not-so-entertaining drama associated with being around so many females.
Particularly, when your best friend is caught sneaking off with one of your fellow
sorority sister
'
s boyfriends, but that
'
s Alyssa for you. As long as he
'
s not married,
he
'
s up for grabs.
Then again, even married, she
'
d probably think of seducing him as a challenge or something.

"Miss Richards, if you aren
'
t interested in
paying attention to my lecture then please leave. I
'
d prefer not to
waste my time at the end of the semester helping you catch up." The
lecture hall laughed, my cheeks flamed, and I sunk further into my chair.

"Sorry, sir. I
'
ll be sure to pay attention."
I stumbled over my words, which caused Mr. Edwards to shake his head
disdainfully. Being as this was a journalism class, stuttering in response didn
'
t gain me any
points.

Tardy the first day of class–check. Humiliated in the first
class of the day–check. Thanks to me, we were assigned to research ways not to
stutter during an interview.

"Thanks a lot, Elle," Sami, a fellow sorority
sister, grumbled as I walked by on my way out of class. I really wanted to kill
Alyssa, as long as Ginger didn
'
t get to her before I did. Thankfully, the rest of my morning
classes ran smoothly, and I headed back to my house for a quick bite to eat.

When I opened the front door, Alyssa shot up and off the
couch. "Elle, ohmygod!" She grabbed my arm, yanking me with her down
the hall to our room.

"Jesus, you
'
re hurting me. What the hell?" Alyssa freed my arm,
plopping down on my bed. Why she always found it necessary to mess up my bed
was beyond me.

"Well, what
'
s the urgency? And can you not plop yourself on your own bed?"

"Mine's a mess. Besides, I had to tell you something
without the others around."

I shook my head and sat beside her. "Does this have to
do with why Ginger came banging on our door at three o
'
clock this
morning?"

She grinned, showing her perfect straight white teeth.

"Yes," she admitted. "Last night at the mixer,
Bret charged into the game room all pissed. At first I ignored him, but then he
asked if I
'
d grab him a beer. I did, and we started talking about
Ginger."

I crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for her confession.

"So we talked for a while, and when we emptied our
beers, he told me he would be back in a minute with another round. He was so
sweet, and I thought if I figured out why he and Ginger were fighting I could
help out."

I didn
'
t believe her for one second, but I continued listening to
her story.

"So, while Bret was gone, Ginger came in with Robbie.
You remember him? The hot football guy I dated last year, all muscles with no
brains." I nodded my agreement. "Well, they were all over each other.
It was way too much PDA, but to each their own, right?

"Anyway, that
'
s when Bret walked in. He laughed
at first, said something to Robbie like go get ‘em or whatever. But then Ginger
and Robbie pulled apart, and he got a good messy look at who his bud was
sucking face with." Alyssa took a deep breath, her expression full of
pent-up animation.

"So, instead of beating the shit out of Robbie, he
laughed and said..." She paused, adding dramatic flair. "Man, she
'
s not that good
in the sack, but she gives great head."

I choked on my spit at that point. How vile was that?
"No, he did not. I cannot believe he said that. That
'
s awful."

Alyssa agreed, clicking her tongue.

"So what happened next?"
Ginger wasn
'
t the nicest
girl in Kappa, and on several occasions she
'
d taken crap
shots at me in front of the others. But still.

"Bret sat back on the couch handing me another beer and
Ginger stormed down the hall. I did mention what he said was pretty crude, even
if she did deserve it. Bret just shrugged his shoulders and said he had to go."

Okay, I felt really bad. All along I
'
d thought Alyssa
hooking up with Bret had been the reason Ginger was so pissed.

"This is messed up. Have you talked to Ginger yet?"

"Nope. She came back to the house while Brandi, Tisha,
and I were watching TV in the living room, but didn
'
t stay long
enough to chat. Tisha was really pissed at what Ginger did to her brother. I
guess that
'
s why Ginger didn
'
t want to get into an argument with
her around."

"Classes just started and already we have drama. I was
really hoping this year would be easy." Just one more year to get through
after this one.

"Don
'
t get your panties in a wad, Elle. Everything will be fine,
like always. And I know what you
'
re thinking. So don
'
t. You aren
'
t getting out of
the party this weekend. Got it?"

I rolled my eyes, about to tell her once and for all there
was no way in hell I
'
d be going to the disco with her, when I got a text.

"Hey, it's Tristan." I opened the text, ignoring
her hateful comments.
Oh, my goodness. He
'
s coming to
Lubbock this weekend.

"What
'
s loser boy got you so happy about?" She peeked over my
shoulder, then grumbled her dislike of my other best friend coming to visit.

Instead of taking the scholarship here at Tech, Tristan had
taken off to UT. Honestly, I was a little more than disappointed, but I
understood when he said he needed space away from home. His football ability
was off the charts, and UT happily accepted him. His final decision made me happy
for him, even if it meant we didn
'
t get to see each other as often as I
'
d liked.