#3 Turn Up for Real (8 page)

He patted my head and took my mom by the arm and walked out. He turned back to me and gave me a wink.

A week had gone by, and I couldn't get Avery out of my mind. He was in my dreams and my thoughts, and when I came out of the school building, he was in my reality. Or was my mind just playing tricks on me again? I blinked several times, and there he was actually standing there waving at me.

The election was getting closer, and my sisters all went with Shelby to go to my dad's campaign headquarters. I was going home. I had a project coming up, and thanks to Ansli being on punishment because she skipped school, I had been driving her car. My dad understood that I couldn't help because of my school work. Though I had to get my project done, Avery's presence put it on the back burner. My sister Sloan would never be diverted from get her work done. My name wasn't Sloan, though.

Getting close to him, I put on a poker face. I had to ignore him. He was toxic.

“You just gon' ignore me? You see me waving. You not saying anything. You still that mad at me? Come on, I thought you'd be over it by now,” he said.

He was so fine, I wanted to pass out. I held it together, though. He couldn't see me sweat.

“Avery, why are you here at Marks High?” I said when I touched his shoulder. I actually felt chills go through my body when I felt a muscle. “Are you getting back with Taylor or something?”

“No, I'm here because I need you.” Avery was looking deeply into my eyes.

“Excuse me?” I said, moving back from him.

“No, no, really. I mean don't get me wrong. I'd love to have the opportunity to win you over, but I really need your help.”

“With what?” I asked.

“I've got to cut this demo for a friend. Your voice … I need you for background. I promise it won't take too long.”

My dad had spies everywhere, even in the form of the principal, so if I was going to do something daring, I had to get to it. Not totally thinking through what I was agreeing to, I just said yes.

“Great! You can ride with me, and just leave your car here.”

“Uh, no,” I told him, with a big attitude and a frown. “I'll follow you.”

“Alright,” Avery said, seeing I was serious. “I appreciate this. Really. You'll be there an hour tops.”

“That's all I have because I got to get home. I've got a big project due tomorrow, and my parents are expecting me to be home when they arrive.”

“Thank you,” he said, stroking my hand.

It took us about fifteen minutes to get to a house. I actually thought we were going to a studio, but as we were walking up to the door, Avery told me the studio was in a back room. When we arrived at the eerie house, I felt a little uncomfortable. I saw nothing but guys. And not young ones either. They all looked to be twenty and older. There were even more of them inside the house. I started coughing when smoke hit my lungs, but it wasn't smoke from cigarettes or even cigars. These jokers were smoking weed.

“Where are you taking me?” I said to him, getting really agitated.

Before he could answer, the Boots guy from backstage at the pageant stepped up to him. “You're late.”

“I know. I'm sorry, Boots,” Avery said to him.

“Get in there and make my hit record. K.J. is already in there.”

I was pissed when I found out we were here because Avery was trying to pay off some of the debt he owed. “Avery, I'm not staying.”

I turned around to walk out. He grabbed my waist, pulled me to him, looked me eye-to-eye, and said, “Please. I know this seems crazy, me bringing you here like this. But if I didn't need you, I wouldn't have.”

Then all I could do was flash back to the night he was getting punched in the gut, and I said, “Alright. Hurry up.”

Avery opened the door, and we started a session. I sat on the couch when he recorded the lead vocal tracks. Without fail, hearing his voice again made me want to take off my clothes and let him do all the things he was singing about.

When it was my time to add the chorus, my creative juices kicked in. And when he told me what he wanted me to sing, I asked him, “How 'bout this?” and tried something way sexier. He loved it.

“Record it. I'll be right back,” he told me when there was a knock on the door.

“Hey, sexy lady. You ready to start?”

I couldn't see who was on the other side of the engineering booth.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“One, two, a one, two, three, go.”

I sang. Before I knew it, a guy appeared before me, and he was about two hundred and fifty pounds, with a little gut that I could see. It was October, but he had on a cut-off T-shirt. He looked nasty, and he kept walking toward me.

“Shucks, you fine. Come touch Daddy,” he said with his gross lips.

“What?” I said, falling on the couch as I was backing up. He fell on top of me. “Get off of me!”

This K.J. guy covered my mouth and started touching my chest. I couldn't even move. This guy was trying to rape me. His lower body was slithering on me like a snake.

CHAPTER FIVE

STRETCH

K.J.'s gritty dog-hands were all over my waist. His funky, nasty breath was all in my face. When slobber fell from his mouth and onto my lips, I felt more uncomfortable than I ever had in my life.

“Stop!” I screamed out. “Don't do this!”

“Just ease up baby, dang. It's ain't going to take long,” K.J. said as his rough, sticky hands went to my jeans.

I was happy they were tight. It made it difficult for him to unbutton them and pull them down. As hard as I tried to wiggle away, he controlled my movement.

“Please get off of me! Please,” I yelled when he touched my skin down low.

He was digging deep, trying to find my treasure. I was moving erratically, trying not to give him a map. Just as he got inches from a hot spot, the creep was pulled off of me. I was too afraid to sit up.

Then I heard Avery punching him and saying, “You have no business touching her.”

I sat up quickly and buttoned my pants. I screamed, “Avery, let's just go! Come on! Let's go!”

When Avery looked up at me, K.J. got the upper hand. The jerk put Avery in a chokehold. He would not let up.

As he squeezed Avery tighter, I screamed, “Help! Somebody help!”

I didn't know where we were, and I didn't know whose house we were in, but surely there had to be decent people who weren't for all this violence. Thankfully three guys rushed in and pulled K.J. off of Avery. When they stood together, I was real creeped out because Boots was in the middle. It was déjà vu seeing the same guys who had threatened Avery before at his mom's theater looking to do the same thing again. I knew he owed Boots dough, but was being here worth it?

Boots grabbed Avery's arm and said, “I ain't want no trouble. You just was supposed to come in here and make me a hit record, paying back some of what you owe. I liked the sound you just played, but now you want to come over here bringing this chick who doesn't understand the game. We take what we want in my house.”

“She didn't come here for that, Boots,” Avery said.

Boots grabbed Avery's collar. “I wasn't asking you all that. I said we get what we want in my house, so get her out of here, and just know now we're back to zero. You owe me all my money. I want it in two weeks, or I'm going to let my partners here finish what they started with you and your mom. You hear me? Two weeks!”

Avery nodded and grabbed my hand. I reached back down to grab my purse, and the two of us fled like we just stole something.

As soon as we got outside he said, “I know you drove, but just follow me, please. I want to explain. Just follow me.

“I—I got to go home,” I said, still shaking.

“Just please follow me.”

Still worried about Avery, I told him I would. He walked me to my car. When I saw thugs eyeing me down, instinctively I marked the location using the GPS.

We went to a park. I pulled up right beside him. Avery motioned for me to come over to his car. Against my better judgment, I went and got into his car.

“It's getting late, I can't stay long,” I said to him.

“I know,” he said as he stroked my hair. “I just want to make sure you're okay.”

“No, I'm not okay. I'm shaking from top to bottom. Why did you take me there? Those are the same guys who threatened you and your mom.”

“You know I was trying to pay down some of the debt.”

“Okay, but why did you take me there? They are crazy as I don't know what, and as soon as you left, he tried to
rape
me.”

“Of course I didn't know that he was going to do that.”

“What if he would have killed you? None of this is worth it. We just have to try to find the money so you can pay him and be done with it. You can't deal with those guys again,” I stated with intense emotion.

“I will handle it. I just need you to calm down.”

“How can I calm down? I was almost raped tonight,” I uttered hysterically as I relived the horrific moment.

“I'm sorry about that. I don't know what I would have done if something would have happened to you,” he said, sounding equally upset.

“Thank you for coming in and getting him off of me. He's two times your size, and he was there one minute and gone the next,” I said.

“Seeing someone hurting you just gave me extra strength.”

Really needing to understand, I asked, “Why did you get mixed up with them in the first place?”

“I don't want to talk about this, Slade. I just want to show you I'm sorry. I just want to erase away the memories of somebody touching you with such force. I want to make you feel good. Can I kiss you?”

Spellbound I guess, I nodded. His lips touched mine, and it was the exact opposite of the feeling I felt an hour ago. This time I felt liberated as his hands roamed around my chest and all over my back. He stopped just before I had to say, “I'm not ready for anything else.” I certainly could understand why Taylor was so crazy about him. This guy had it going on, and he was a gentleman. I didn't think I was ready to be intimate with a guy, but he probably could pull me in a direction I didn't think I was ready to go. His hands were just that magical, but after the last kiss, he changed it to business.

“You're talented, you know. I left the studio because I had to go share with the other guys how cool the sound was. Don't let Taylor and those girls stop you. If you want to get a group … create one.”

“How can I get a group?”

“Well, if want to go solo, then you do that.”

“I like being in a group, though.”

Touching my brow with concern in his fingertips, he said, “I'm just saying don't let the dream stop. You're better than all three of them, and I know a producer. If you want to cut a record we could do that.”

“I'm not going back to that house.”

“No, I don't mean them. They got whack equipment. Maybe you can scrape up a few dollars and book some studio time at a real place. I'm just saying when you're ready, I'm here.”

And then we leaned back and enjoyed the stars. When I looked at my watch, I realized I needed to get home. Avery gave me something to think about, a whole bunch of things actually, and all of them were positive.