Home is Where You Are (14 page)

“Marv,” he calls out
, his eyes focused on mine as my lips tremble from the intensity of our kiss. “I’ll see you at seven tomorrow morning.” I want to pull him in for round two, but before I can, Marv appears in the doorway.

“Seriously?” he says
, stepping out into the night just as my cell phone rings. Katie’s name flashes back at me. She’s always had impeccable timing.

She hasn’t talked to me in over a week
, but I want to celebrate this victory so I decline the call.

Not even two seconds goes by
, and my phone starts ringing again. If I don’t answer, she’ll just keep calling.

“Hello,” I say flatly just
to drive home how truly annoyed I am.

“Anna.
” I can barely hear her over the blaring house music in the background. “I need you to come get me.” Of course she needs something. God forbid she says sorry. “The room’s spinning.” She’s trashed. It’s not even dusk yet.

“
Where are Erin and Scott?” Neither would pass up a party.

“I don’t know. I think they left. I don’t feel good. I just want to go home. Everything is spinning.
Paul gave me something and Anna I…I…” She’s on the verge of hysterics.

“
Where are you?” My anger fades. The desperation in her voice triggers the undying commitment I have to Katie as my best friend.

“The bathroom
,” she mumbles.

“Who’s bathroom?”

“Paul’s.”

That
jackass. “Katie, sweetie, where does Paul live?”

She sniffles into the phone.
“I don’t remember.”

“Katie, think. I need you to think for me.”

“I’m so tired. I just want to sleep.”

My heart races and I take a deep breath to calm my nerves. 
Katie needs me. I need to find a way to get to her.

“Katie
.” I wait for a response, but don’t get one. “Katie? Katie!” I scream.

“Yeah?”

“Think. Where does Paul live?”

“Hmm…by the ic
e cream shop, in the apartments.” The Lakeview apartment complex. It has to be.

“Katie, listen to me. Stay where you are. I’m coming right now.”

“Okay. Hurry. Please.” The phone goes dead and my heart pounds against my chest. Fear consumes me until anger flushes it away. Erin and Scott should not have left her. Then there’s Paul. I bet he’s a grade A douchebag. More than ever I’m mad at Katie for getting herself into this situation. When will she learn?

“Dean
, I need to go.” I rummage through my bag unable to find my keys.

“Marv
, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Dean says, and puts his arm around me, pulling me tight against his chest. “Anna, what’s the matter?”

“Katie is drunk or stoned or
whatever, and she’s freaking out, and now I’m freaking out, and her asshole friends abandoned her. I need to get her.”

He cups my face, caressing my cheek with his finger.
“You can’t drive. You’re a wreck.”

“I
need
to get to her.”

“Let me drive.”

I look up at him. Does he have a license?

“I
know how, even if I don’t have my license,” he says to the skeptical look on my face. “Just let me drive.”

I nod
, overwhelmed with too many emotions to argue. As soon as I mention the ice cream shop and the apartment complex, he knows exactly where to go, cutting down Spruce and taking the back roads. I’ lived in this city my whole life, and Dean seems to know it better than I do.

I stare out the window
, watching as the buildings pass and houses appear then more buildings. I feel Dean’s hand on my knee. It’s a simple gesture, but exactly what I need. Within minutes we’re at the apartment complex.

When on the phone with Katie I hadn’t put much thought into how to find
Paul’s apartment, but once inside the building, the blaring house music leads me to apartment 1G. I don’t bother knocking and push the door open.

Beer bottles litter the floor. People are draped on couches and propped against walls.
Real party animals…they’re all passed out, and it’s not even eight o’clock.

Nobody acknowledges
us. They’re all too busy being drunk, drugged, and oblivious. I wonder which loser is Paul. I’d love to give him a piece of my mind.

“I’ll be right back,” I say.

“No, I’m going with you.”

“Please. I know how to deal with her.”

He doesn’t look convinced. “Fine. But I’m staying right here. Come and get me if you need me.

“I will.” I kiss his cheek and head to
the far corner of the apartment where I spot the hallway. Katie told me she was in the bathroom. God I hope she’s still there.

Dean stays in the doorway
, and I kick through the bottles of beer and trail of pretzels. I step over a girl curled up in the fetal position on the area rug in the middle of the mess. Her dreadlocks cover her face and her shirt looks more like a patchwork quilt. She doesn’t as much as flinch when my foot accidentally grazes her side.

I throw open
the first door I reach and find Katie, head down on the toilet seat.

“Katie.”
I shake her arm trying to wake her.

“Anna.” S
he lifts her head, her hair a, matted mess stuck to her forehead. Her eyes, smeared with black eyeliner and mascara, blink like she's unable to keep her eyes open longer than a few seconds
.
“Come on, we’re going home.” I bend down, placing her arm around my shoulder. Slowly, I stand. All her weight is on me and as thin as she is, she feels like she weighs four hundred pounds.

We get into the hallway
, and by some miracle I maneuver Katie around the passed-out girl. I see Dean across the apartment, his back to us, a guy talking to him. I can’t see their mouths, so I don’t know what they’re saying.

“Katie, baby, where you going?” The blond guy, who I thought was passed out on the couch
, stands and starts walking towards us. Looks like I’m finally going to meet Paul.

“She’s leaving,” I say
, ignoring his advances until he stumbles in front of us and blocks our path.

“Not so fast,” he
slurs, putting the hand not holding a beer can up at us. “Katie you don’t want to go, do you?” He moves closer and lifts Katie’s head to look at him. “You don’t, do you?” He takes Katie’s arm off me and pulls her into him.

Katie’s head sways down, but she manages to hold it back up.
“Baby, I’m tired I’m just going to go home and take a nap. I’ll be back.”

Not if I have anything to say about it. Katie tries to free herself from
Paul’s grip when he tightens his hold on her.

“She said she’ll come back. Just let her go
.” I slide my arm around Katie’s waist, and he yanks Katie and pushes me. Hard.

I trip over
a girl and fall flat on my ass. My head smacks the wall behind me and a burning, throbbing pain spreads through my skull. Katie squirms in Paul’s arms. The room spins, and I try to focus. I look to the doorway and notice Dean’s no longer there. I blink and try to push myself up from the floor when I see Dean with his hand wrapped around Paul’s neck.

Paul’s
eyes widen, but Dean doesn’t loosen his grip. When Paul finally let’s go of Katie, Dean slams him against the wall. I find the strength to run to Katie’s side and throw my arm around her.

“If y
ou ever touch her again, I will kill you,” Dean says through clenched teeth. He slams Paul against the wall one more time, his attention focused in a way that keeps Paul from fighting back. When out of the corner of his eye, Dean sees me and Katie moving towards the door, he releases his grip from Paul’s neck. After a warning glare, he comes to my side.

Paul
pushes himself off the wall and yells as we walk out the door. His words are slurred and all I can make out is, “Yo fuck you. You don’t know who you’re messing with.” Fear freezes me in place, and Katie sways to my side. Dean takes Katie’s arm from my shoulder and wraps it around his. Then rests his hand on my lower back and urges me to the door.

Dean doesn’t look back. It doesn’t even seem to faze him
.

B
ecause when you have nothing to lose, what is there to be scared of?

I snapped. Seeing Anna on the floor with complete terror in her eyes provoked something deep within me. Something I haven’t felt in a very long time. Something I lost the day I lost my family.

I felt the desire to protect.

All
the color in my knuckles drains from my death hold on the steering wheel. Anna brushes back Katie’s hair with her fingers while Katie rests on her lap. My grip loosens as I watch her in the rearview mirror. Katie’s lucky to have her. I wonder if she knows that. I’ve never had a friend who would drop everything to pick me up and take me away from a shitty situation. Then again I’ve never really had a friend.

Anna
rests her forehead in her free hand. She glances up, and I catch her eyes in the rearview, red around the rim, barely able to keep them open. A halfhearted smile forms on her face. The terror from earlier replaced with relief and exhaustion.

I’m stunned at how badly I want to
tuck her against my chest and erase it all with my lips. Let her sleep off her exhaustion safely in my arms while I watch her. Protect her.

Anna’s driveway
appears on the left, and I pull the car in slowly. She told me about the old man stalker next door. I don’t think her mom would be too pleased to know Anna came home with a guy again… and a girl who could barely hold herself up.

I cut the engine and turn in the seat. Anna
tries to wake Katie up, but the girl is completely passed out. I’d be worried if she wasn’t mumbling incoherently in her sleep.

I walk to the
passenger door and lean in. I position my arms around Katie’s waist and under her legs and ease her towards me.

Anna gets out of the car
, and I throw her the keys. The quicker we get in, the less of a chance Anna has of getting caught by the old man.

“Where do you want me to put her?” I ask once inside.

“My bedroom. Upstairs left-hand side.”

I know which room it is. The last time here I noticed it.
It was hard to miss the pink room and ballerina slippers. Anna doesn’t seem like the type that likes ballet. It’s more than just the ballerina slippers though, it’s a little juvenile and Anna is anything but.

Katie is dead weight in my arms. She’s still mumbling.
I ignore her and continue up the stairs. I set Katie securely in the bed and place a blanket over her. Damn, she’s going to feel like hell in the morning.

I look around the room
, pretending to look for a trash can in case Katie needs to upchuck, but really… I’m trying to figure out Anna. She’s more of an open book than I am, but still parts of her are closed off. She’s a puzzle, and I like putting the pieces together.

My eyes scan across the perfume bottles on her dresser until they rest on a framed
photo with the word
Family
in silver metal in the top center. Anna’s in a white frilly dress. She must be seven or eight. Her hair is wild like she ran laps around the pond in the background before she posed for the shot. She’s hugging the leg of the man, who I would imagine is her father, beside him must be her mom and brother. I feel like I am invading her privacy. So I step away from the picture, grab the trash can from the corner of the room and put it by Katie’s head, and then slowly close the door behind me. I take my time walking down the stairs, not wanting to seem overeager to get back to Anna.

I find her on the couch
, a steaming mug in her hand and one on the coffee table. She looks like she wants to crawl into a ball and make the whole night disappear.

“Is she okay?” she asks
, looking up from her mug.

“She’ll feel like absolute shit in the morning, but she’ll be fine.” I sit beside her on the couch resisting the urge to take the mug out of her hand and feel her skin pressed against mine.

She nods toward the other mug on the table. “I got you coffee. Milk and two sugars, right?”

She remembered.
“Right.” I take a sip and put it back down. “I’m curious. Why are you friends with her anyway? I mean, I’m not one to judge, but you guys are total opposites.” I’ve been trying to figure this out from the moment Anna told me about Katie.

“We actually started out hating each other.”
She bites her lip and lets out a stifled laugh.

“Now
that makes more sense. What changed?”

“
Back in eighth grade she needed a tutor and knew I was the best, so against her own will she came to me for help. I agreed because, well, let’s face it, that’s what I do. We used to get into these stupid bickering fights. A lot. One day we really threw-down. She was screaming at me. I was screaming at her. She called me a loser with no life, and I called her a whore with no class.”

“This sounds like the perfect basis for a friendship.” After a very faint look of death
from her, I say, “Sorry, please continue.”

“Then she asked me why I am the way
that I am, and I broke down. The tears poured out so fast I had no way of hiding them. All of a sudden, I started telling her everything. I never told anybody my life story before, not even my shrink and for some reason this girl I despised so much was the one person I was able to confide in. She pulled me into a hug and told me she didn’t mean to call me a loser, and she was just jealous.

“It’s funny because I was always jealous of how guys always seemed to be around her and how she had so many friends. I never thought in a million years she’d be jealous of me. So after
that she kind of just stuck around, and we’ve been best friends ever since. She’s still the only person I can go to. The only person I trust.”

“I have trust issues
, too.”

“With you it’s understandable.”

She doesn’t know even a quarter of my story. Why is it understandable for me to have trust issues and not her? I need to know what happened to her. What made Katie finally see past the smart girl façade?

“What about you
then? What happened?”