Page 17 of Dirty Roulette
Payton stands motionless like seeing Brody again turned her to stone. I run a hand down her back and lean into the hollow of her ear to say, “Wait for me at the Jeep. I’ll handle it.” Payton bites her bottom lip and nods. “Give me five minutes.” She scurries off into the mosh of people.
“I’m grabbing my purse and leaving.” Charlie hisses.
“Stop walking away from me!” Brody snaps at her. I stand at the edge of the living room watching them like a soap opera. “It’s not like I planned it. It just happened.” He holds out his palms to emphasize whatever point he’s trying to make.
“Back off!” Charlie shouts.
“You really slept with him out of spite?”
She reaches for her purse, which is stashed behind the couch. Everything inside spills out to the floor, including the keys to my Jeep.
“Like you care? You cheated on me months ago and bragged about sleeping with her again. I can’t believe I thought about giving you a second chance. Go have that slut suck you dry. I want nothing to do with you.”
Brody runs a hand through his hair and curls his lips. “You weren’t willing to put out for me when you said you would, but you’ll give it up to some tattooed poser?”
“He has a name.”
He coughs up one of his sarcastic laughs. “Like I give a shit! You’re lucky I let him play.”
Charlie starts picking up her pack of cigarettes and all the knickknacks that spilled out. “By the way, I’ve known him a lot longer than that.”
“Oh, really?” He asks her.
“Did Payton land on you?” She snaps back.
“And what if she did? What if I fucked her in that bed tonight? What are you going to do?”
“So, you won’t tell me either?” She scoffs and throws the purse into his chest.No, Charlie, she landed on me. My thigh still has a wet spot stained on it. “Go sleep with someone else to make your sleazy homemade videos.”
“You’re the one who broke up with me, remember? You wanted this!” Brody argues.
“You made it clear how little I mean to you, and now you want my best friend.”
“Whatever, slut!” He thrusts the purse back into her arms and glares at her straight in the face. “You either sleep with me, or I’m posting those tits of yours for everyone to see. Maybe, your little friend will like a theft charge on her record too. You wanted to play the game, now you’re in it, baby.” Brody laughs, and my heart shrinks into itself.
I watch her visibly swallow. “You’re insane!”
“Then do what I say.”
My lungs sizzle as I stare at Brody, tempted more than anything to punch him in the face and shatter my knuckles, but man makes monsters. And his monsters have videos of me too. All I can do is stand still and do nothing.
“Looks like your babysitter is here to take you home.” Brody smirks, not even fazed by me. Charlie spits in his face before she takes her purse, and storms off. “You’re a psycho-ass bitch!”
Blue and red lights pour in through the window shades and an ear-splitting voice shouts, “Pigs! The pigs are here!” Someone cut the booming music within two seconds flat.
“I’ll see you at practice on Monday, Crab.” His hands fall into his pockets with the mess of people hopping over furniture and storming down the stairs. He starts to walk off as everyone in the house scrambles out the patio door in a panic. I bite my tongue, dead on the inside.
I race out the door as several patrol cars with flashing lights pull up. The cops seem more interested in the idiots running off than me speed walking to the Jeep.
“Hand over the keys, thief!” I demand.
By the time Charlie reaches the Jeep, the passenger door is wide open... for me, and she’s buckled, hands on the wheel fuming.
“Hell no! Get out! You’re wasted!” I climb in, tossing my sister in the back like luggage, where she belongs. Another door swings open, and Nick weasels in with a massive bag of cheddar-coated popcorn. Payton hops into the front passenger seat, and all the doors slam shut.
It’s quiet besides the sheer panic outside with cars peeling out and Nick munching on popcorn like he’s Michael Jackson in a movie theater. He’s an interesting friend. He grew up with hippie parents still living in the 70’s, he learned how to grow weed before knowing the alphabet, and he was going to take over the family business and become a carny. The only thing convincing him to walk away from that life was Jared and I playing football with him.
“Where did you get popcorn?” I lean over in my seat.
