Page 3 of Angry Lion's Naughty Little Neighbor
Anyway, about an hour and a half later, I walk over to her place and knock on the door. There’s dead silence, so I knock again.
I knock a third time and I’m just about ready to check for a way in when the door creaks open and Kelsey is standing there, blinking in the early morning sunlight. I’m happy to report that she’s wearing a bath robe, a huge improvement on theEmperess’s new clothes look she was sporting last night when I found her.
“What do you need?”
She says it in kind of a surly tone, and I must admit that it makes me a bit angry. “Well, I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“What do you mean? Am I bothering you in some way?”
“No, I ...”
“Because I was asleep just nine seconds ago, so I wasn’t doing anything to you.”
“I didn’t say that you ...”
“Well, I’m just preempting your little speech about my degenerate lifestyle and how it ruins your quiet evenings.”
My blood starts boiling, and I fight to keep it a low simmer. “You know, Kelsey, it might do you some good to drop the hip chick act and just grow up a little. I wasn’t trying to come over here and ...”
“I don’t give a fuck why you came over here. You bug me every damned day about something, so today shouldn’t be any different, right? Look, I had a pretty rough night, which ought to make you happy, and I’d like to rest today without having my neighbor breathing down my throat about ...”
I look at her and I want to just shake her. Who the hell does she think she is, treating me this way when I saved her damn life last night?
“I should’ve thrown you in the pool instead of putting you to bed.”
She stops talking and just stares at me. I see some thought being chased down but he head is too muddled at the moment to chase it down. And that is the final nail in the neighborly coffin.
I turn and walk off her porch, leaving her staring after me. I head back to my house and don’t bother to look back to see if she’s still standing on her porch like some Disney animatronic. Idon’t look because I’m afraid that some part of me wants to see her still standing there.
Damn! Why do I have to rescue every stray?
Chapter Three
Kelsey
I stare after him, trying to wrap my head around the man. He wasn’t even that bad of an asshole this time. I expected a much more explosive battle. Of course, if I’m going to be fair, I only think he’s an asshole in the first place because he represents authority for me. I think about that as I make my way to the shower. When I get there, I think it’s confirmed. He’s an authority so I act like he’s a jerk.
I mean pretty much anyway. He’s the one coming to my place and asking me to keep the music down. He’s the one telling me I’m being irresponsible. He’s the one who makes me think about my mistakes. He’s a constant reminder of how fucked up my life is.So, it makes sense that I resent him, right? Who wants someone to be the mirror that shows all the ugliness?
Wow.
Wow again.
Yesterday really screwed me up, I guess. What’s that called… Hang on… Damn it all, my brain is so muddled. Not like last night but still muddled. And it must have screwed meup because my anger toward Aaron is pretty much gone. See, instead of thinking of him as a jerk who’s always screwing with me and being an asshole, I’m thinking of him as a man stuck putting up with me.
Yeah, wow.
Wow again. Again, I guess.
But yesterday evening did scare me. Look, I’ve been out of control for a long time. I think last night was the first time Ifeltlike I wasn’t in control. I wasn’t there thinkingfuck everyone I’ll do whatever the hell I want. I was thinkingI can’t possibly stop whatever is going to happen from happening. I wouldn’t have told the boys to stop. When they kissed me, I would’ve kissed them back.
Look, I’m not saying those two are saints but they were just as drunk as I was, and I have a well-deserved reputation for being good to go at any time. I mean, I’m terribly promiscuous and easy. When a girl is like me and somehow can’t get around to the wordno, lots of things are going to happen she’ll regret. Even if there’s a measure of complicity shared by others, it’s all on her shoulders.
Not her. Me.
If I had sex with both those boys last night, I would have been ninety percent to blame. Me. The boys, just as drunk, had a little bit of blame but it was mostly me. That’s what I’m trying to say here. And that’s why yesterday scared me so much. If that man with the powerful voice hadn’t come along and stopped the party, this morning I’d be thinking about how hopeless and terrible my life really is. I’d be thinking about how I got myself so screwed up that those two boys fucked me without any protest from me.
And how twenty boys could have done it. I was that unable to function. Hell, maybe others would have shown up if not for that man. He showed up right in the nick of time, and…
