Vein Fire (7 page)

“Two.”

“Two?” Hannah asked.

“Two glasses.”

Hannah’s living room opened into her kitchen, so it was one big room. The back wall of her kitchen was mostly taken up by a double-wide sliding glass door. It opened into a back yard she shared with her neighbors. She only had a thin curtain pulled across the door, and Matt made a mental note—she’d need lined curtains with Jared loose in the neighborhood.

Hannah carried everything into the living room and paused, “Wait. Should we be mixing Xanax and alcohol? I’ve only ever done it once before and not while I was snorting the pills.”

“You worry too much.” Matt took the Jäger from her and poured some into each glass. “Cheers,” he said, taking his glass and throwing the liquid down his throat.

Hannah hesitated, but swallowed hers as well. She squinted up her face and shook her head. “Wow.” She sat next to Matt on the couch as he poured them two more drinks.

“How do you feel?”

“Like a Lucy in the sky.”

“Okay, Lucy, let’s do another bump.”

Matt started crushing more Xanax as he lit a cigarette and offered the pack to Hannah.

“No thanks, I don’t smoke.”

“You didn’t snort until five minutes ago, either.”

Hannah laughed, “Trying to corrupt me, then, are you?”

“Nah, I think I’ve done enough to you—time to move on to someone else.”

“What? I’m not complaining. I like hanging out with you. Corrupt away!”

“You,” he said as he playfully poked her in the nose, “I didn’t mean I was done hanging out with you, I meant, you know, when we were kids—what I did. It was stupid and I can’t tell you I’m sorry enough.”

“It’s cool. It’s in the past. Forgive and forget—or whatever people say.”

“It’s just, as fucked up as I am, there’s a lot worse out there. Normal people like you don’t usually get one crazy motherfucker in their life, much less two, so we gotta keep Jared away from you.”

“Hey, I don’t mind crazy. It’s not like I’m the picture of sanity.”

“Yeah—I noticed the scars,” he exhaled smoke from his cigarette. “Maybe one day you’ll tell me about them.”

“Yeah, sometime,” Hannah paused, “but I don’t want you to worry about me, I can take care of myself.” Matt didn’t respond. Of course he knew she
couldn’t
take care of herself.

“Okay, it’s zani time.” Matt lowered his head and snorted the bigger of the two lines. “Next,” he laughed with a big guffaw as he raised his head from the coffee table. He handed the rolled up twenty to Hannah. She moved around to the end of the table and knelt down. She was slow to inhale the powdery line, but smiled when she raised her head.
That’s a beautiful sight
, Matt thought.

“Nice,” she said, but then she lost her balance and slid off of her feet, onto the floor. “Whoa!”

“Shit goes right to your brain, huh?”

“Yeah, maybe I should slow down.”

“Yeah, maybe. Let’s do shots.”

Hannah crawled to the couch and drank the shot Matt poured for her. She slouched back into the couch. “Damn, I feel nice. How about you?”

“I’m all right. I’m a fucking beast. I can do this shit all night and still walk straight.”

“I can’t. I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“You can barely keep your eyes open?” Matt leaned into Hannah and they both laughed as she lightly pushed him away. He leaned back in, ignoring her as she tried to push him away again, and he kissed her.

“Matt, stop. We didn’t even talk about this.”

“What’s there to talk about?”

“I don’t know. It’s just that I—I can’t remember if we did anything last night.”

“What does last night got to do with tonight?”

Hannah stopped in the middle of her next word and giggled, “You’re right. Nothing.” She continued to giggle as Matt leaned in for another kiss. She let him kiss her, but then she pulled away, “DRINK! Time for another drink.”

“Okay, okay. I see how you are.”
“What does that mean?”

“Nothing, you got me all worked up and then you leave me hard with nothing but my hand.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that this whole situation is kinda fucked up.”

Kinda fucked up? You don’t know the half of it.

Matt didn’t talk; he made two lines on the coffee table while Hannah poured them two more drinks. He hurried up and snorted the smaller of the two lines.

“That whole thing?” Hannah pointed to the long, thick powdery line. “How much is that? An entire pill?”

“It’s cool—you can handle it.”

Hannah didn’t argue anymore, she snorted the line, but this time like a pro.

“Oh-my-fucking-God, YES! That feels good.”

“Yeah, it’s sweet. How about we watch some television?”

“Okay.” Hannah staggered back to the couch and fell onto it. “I’m soooo fucked up.”

“Nothing wrong with that.” Matt intently watched the television while he flipped through channels. After a while, Hannah’s heavy eyes remained partially open, even though she was softly snoring. Matt knew she was asleep by the way her head bent at the neck at such an uncomfortable angle.
Lightweight.
He watched some rerun for half an hour before he picked her arm up and let it drop down onto her body.
Yep, sleeping-fucking-beauty.

He wasn’t slow or even careful this time. He didn’t bother to redress h
er, or even cover her up. He returned the Jäger to the cabinet and washed both of their glasses. He dumped a few of the Xanax into his hand and pocketed them before he tossed the bottle back into her purse. He unrolled the twenty and placed it in her wallet, in between the other bills. There was a Polaroid camera on top of Hannah’s fridge which he retrieved. He stood back and took a picture of Hannah, naked and sprawled on her couch.
A souvenir.
He was a little disappointed how the picture didn’t show her scars, or the wet glistening between her legs, but it would do.

He was about to leave when through the sliding glass doors, he saw something move outside. He crept along the wall and flicked the outside light on. He scanned the back yard.
Nothing.
He flicked the light off. He looked at Hannah and considered trying to wake her up.
Nah, bad idea. Who wants to deal with that?
Matt checked the time.
Ten at night, one more hour until Jared would have to make curfew at the group home
. He sat on the floor by the couch and flicked the TV on. He’d wait.

At eleven o’clock, the news came on and Matt turned the TV off. He looked at sleeping Hannah.
So sweet. So dumb.
He lifted her arm and let it drop again. Still, no movement.

Why not.
It wasn’t a question, it was an option. Matt was an opportunist and didn’t pass up chances like this. He moved her so her ass was on the edge of the couch, and he let her legs fall to the sides. He knelt before her and eased inside, not sure how much longer she’d be passed out. She didn’t move at all. When he got a good rhythm going, she still didn’t wake up, although her tits jumped with each thrust. Matt spit on her clit and rubbed it a little bit. She smiled in her sleep.
Slut.
Each time he’d rub, she smiled, but she never woke up. Although it was an interesting experiment for him, he wasn’t rubbing her when he came. He took no joy in seeing her smile.

He twirled her
legs back onto the couch and dressed. The puddle of cum pooled on the upholstery under her ass cheeks pleased Matt. He locked the door behind him and walked home. It was four blocks away and the air chilled the skin left exposed from him only wearing a t-shirt. He slept better that night than he had in years.

CHAPTER
  8

Skye

There were things Hannah liked to remember, and things that liked to remember Hannah. Her couch had a frowning sag from the weight of her torso after a night of sleeping on it and not moving. Her limbs ached, but didn’t whisper any secrets. Waking up naked smacked her recollection of the previous night’s events.

As she made her way up the steps, what remained of Matt which hadn’t soaked into her couch, ran down her thighs. Her skin wasn’t able to record where his hands had explored, so she imagined touches in the steam of the shower. Her palms were against the tiles as the water sprayed on the back of her head. She could hear the phone ringing, but she kept her eyes shut and her mouth open as she breathed between the streams finding paths down her face.

The water began to run cold and she exited, wrapping a towel around her body, not bothering to dry her soaking hair. She slid her feet into shaggy pink slippers and shuffled to the mirror. One hand swiped the condensation from the glass and she could see one section of her body. She undid the towel and bent over so she could see the purple sucker bites on her neck. There were three more than she had the previous night. She held her breasts in both hands and lifted them up, turning to the side. In the fog of her reflection, she was almost pretty.

She refastened the towel and went downstairs to find her phone. It was still in its cradle, but she grabbed her purse and looked inside—she checked quickly and nothing was gone. The missed call was from a number she didn’t recognize. She dialed it back as she walked upstairs.

A female voice answered, “Maple House, this is Rhonda.”

“Um, hello. Someone just called me from this number.”

“Well, I don’t know who called you.”

“Uh, is this a business?”

“Yes. Wait—hold on.”

“Hello?” a man’s voice answered.

“Hi, I was returning a call I received from this number.”

“Hannah?”

“Err…yes,” she hesitated.

“Hannah! Hey! This is Jared—remember? We met yesterday at Matt’s house.”

“Oh, hey.” The enthusiasm was completely absent from her voice. “How did you get my number?”

“I stopped by Matt’s this morning and he said I should give you a call.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. I wanted to see if maybe I could come over and watch a movie like you suggested.”

“Um…”

“I mean, it’s Sunday and Matt said he’d be busy so maybe I should drop by and keep you occupied until he’s done with whatever he’s doing.”

“He said that?”

“Yeah, so, what do you think?”

“I—I guess. I just got out of the shower, so I need some time.”

“Cool. How about in an hour? I’ll walk over.”

“You know where I live?”

“Yeah—remember? You told me yesterday.”

“I guess I forgot.”

“Sure—well, I’ll be over in an hour.”

“Okay.”

“Later.”

“Bye.” Hannah hung up after he did.

She thought about calling Matt, but stopped herself. Maybe he realized he was wrong about Jared and would be coming over after awhile. She rushed to dry her hair and to get dressed.

The knots in her hair wouldn’t rip out, so she cut them out. Her hair stopped at the middle of her back and losing a few strands wouldn’t make much of a difference. She wondered how her hair had knotted so badly. She felt well-rested and didn’t think she had tossed and turned much on the couch.

Hannah needed to process the distance Matt kept from her as his way to give her time to get used to him. She couldn’t see him as the Matt from before, or before that. She wasn’t afraid of him anymore—well, at least no more than she was afraid of everyone else. She was sore and she knew he had fucked her two nights in a row. She hesitated to call it rape because she knew she wanted it—to be wanted, to be fucked. She pulled her calendar off of the wall and took out a red pen. She put a red x on the day before, and the day before that. Each x stood for each time Matt had fucked her. She only knew of twice, but put a small x on the line that separated the two days because she imagined he had fucked her more than once on at least one of the nights. She could give herself that—one extra x because it was more of a likely x than a hopeful x.

A knock at the door startled her, and she dropped the calendar. She quickly hung it back up and ran down her steps. She opened her door and Jared stood holding a buff-colored puppy.

“Oh! Look how cute! Come in. Is that your dog?”

“No, silly rabbit, she’s your dog.”

“What?”

“Yeah, I hope you can keep her. My sister’s friend was giving them away and they couldn’t find a home for the runt, so they were going to kill her. I thought you might be able to take her.”

“What? They were going to kill her?”

“Yeah, just put her in a bag and toss her into the river.”

Hannah stood, horrified, and took the dog from Jared. She held the dog to her face, inhaled its fur, pet it, and kissed it. “I’d love to keep her. You said it’s a girl?” She held the dog up and tried to look to see what sex it was.

“Yeah, I’m sure it’s a girl. I was thinking of you and hoping you’d like her and be willing to save her.”

“I love her! Thank you, that was so kind of you.”

“You’re welcome. My sister was calling her Skye, but you can rename her.”

“Skye? Aww, that’s so cute. It’s perfect. I adore her.”

“So you can keep her?”

“Yes! And I love her little pink collar. I’ll have to get a leash and some dog food today.” Hannah carried Skye into the kitchen, chose a bowl, and filled it with water. She set the bowl on the floor and placed Skye in front of it. “Oh, she’s thirsty. And look at her cute little tongue.”

“So I did good?”

“Yes! She’ll keep me company
and
you saved her.”

“Can I get a hug then?”

Hannah hesitated. “Sure!” She moved forward and hugged him, trying to pull back quickly, but he held her there and nuzzled his face into the swan of her neck. Skye barked and Hannah pulled out of the hug. She felt creeped out.

Jared was smiling, “How about that movie?”

“Yeah.” She didn’t sound nearly as enthusiastic as he did. She started going through a pile of movies. “What do you want to watch? Action? Funny? I’ll guess you’re like most guys and hate romance.”

“You got anything scary? I haven’t watched a scary movie in a long time.”

“Umm…
Pet Sematary
might be cool since you brought me Skye. Have you seen it?”

“No, is it any good?”

“Yeah, it’s a Stephen King story. I read the book and it scared the shit out of me.”

“Sounds good, put it in.”

“Can I get you something to drink or some popcorn?”

“I’ll take something to drink.”

“Okay. I have Pepsi, Mountain Dew, grape juice, and I think I have some liquor left.”

“Mountain Dew, please.”

Hannah went into the kitchen to grab the drinks. Skye was following her around. She brought them back, set them on the coffee table, and picked Skye up. She kissed the dog’s head and looked at him. “Oh, she has some tartar on her teeth. How old is she?”

“I dunno. I’ll ask my sister. She’s an older puppy probably because all the others have been gone from the litter for a while now.”

“Oh. Okay.”

The movie started and Skye slept patiently on Hannah’s lap. Her small furry chest rose with each breath. Occasionally, Hannah would notice Jared starring at her. At first she ignored him, but then she started sensing something was off. She kept her eyes on the movie, trying not to flinch.

When the movie was done, Hannah jumped up and put Skye on the floor. “I have to go to the bathroom—I’ll be back.”

She saw the phone sitting on the vanity in the bathroom, so she shut the door and locked it. She dialed Matt’s number, but no one answered. She sighed, and sat on the toilet.

After a few minutes, she flushed and went downstairs. Skye was perky and smiling; her little toenails danced on the linoleum. Hannah smiled at her. Jared stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room. She tried to walk past him and he moved in front of her. She took a step to the left, and he mirrored her movement. She moved to the other side and he did the same.

“What? You wanna dance or something?” Hannah joked.

“Maybe.” There was no humor in Jared’s voice.

“I—I need to go to my parents’ house and I can’t wait to show my sister Skye.”

“No you don’t.”

“What?”

“You weren’t going to your parents’ house. You just want to get rid of me.”

“Jared—no, I have dinner with them every Sunday, they’re expecting me.”

Jared’s eyes flickered. “I was just messin’ with you, Hannah.”

Hannah forced a laugh, “Yeah, I figured as much. I hate to kick you out, but maybe I’ll catch you over at Matt’s this week.”

“I doubt that.”

“Why?” Hannah smiled.

“Oh, Matt’s girlfriend is in town; we probably won’t see him again until she comes up for air. You know what I mean,” Jared made a blow job motion with his hand and his face.

“Girlfriend?”

“Yeah, didn’t he tell you about Marilyn?”

“Marilyn? No—no, he didn’t.”

“They go way back. You probably shouldn’t bother them.”

“No, of course not.”

“Is it all right if I stop by again? You know, to check on Skye.”

“Yeah,” Hannah smiled through the pain. “Yes, sure.”

“Cool. I’ll go since you need to leave and all.”

“Yeah, I’m going now.”

Hannah gathered Skye up in her arms, grabbed her purse, and left. Twice, she made sure the door was locked, and walked to her car. Jared waited on the sidewalk. The thought of Matt with his girlfriend drained the blood from her body. She knew she was stupid to assume he felt anything for her, and she cursed herself for feeling so needy.

“Hey, Jared, can I give you a ride on my way out of town?”

Jared smiled, “That would be great,” climbed into Hannah’s car, and cheerfully gave her directions. When she stopped at the intersection he wanted dropped off at, he leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the lips before jumping out. “See you later, Hannah.”

And he was gone. Hannah touched her lips. Maybe she was wrong about Jared. Maybe.