Blindsided (13 page)

Chapter
Fifteen – We Laughed, We Kissed, We Swapped Numbers

Jesse

When I woke up on Monday morning, part of me was sure the weekend had been a bad dream, but the sight of my crutches leaning against the wall told me otherwise. My knee throbbed. On a normal morning, I wouldn’t have considered getting out of bed at six o’ clock, but I wanted to get my first dose of painkillers in before it got too unbearable. Besides, once I was up, I could put some ice on it too.

Getting out of bed was a bit of a struggle, and trying to tug my jeans up over my knee brace was even more of a pain in the ass, but I managed - eventually. Hobbling over to my crutches was agony, and even though I knew I was supposed to try and walk on my leg a little, I figured it could wait until I was fully awake and pumped with anti-inflammatories.

As I swung by Isabelle’s room, I was hit with the desire to knock on the door. I missed her so much, and the weirdness over dinner the night before had really put a strain on everyone. Hunter in particular did his best to help mask it, but it was impossible not to feel it. I was supposed to be mad at her, I
was
mad at her but that didn’t make me care about her any less. At the party, I felt closer to her than I’d ever felt to anyone and then … Leon.

I forced myself to keep going, past her room and down the stairs. Not easy to do on crutches, but I managed to get to the bottom without falling down and causing any more damage.

Because it was so early, I wasn’t expecting to find anyone in the kitchen, least of all Hunter who never got up before nine. He was sitting at the table, coffee in hand.

“What the hell?” I asked, with an amused grin. “Have you ever even seen this time of the morning before?”

“Funny. I was gonna offer to fix you some breakfast when I heard you clacking down the hall, but if you’re well enough to give me cheek, you’re well enough to make your own food,” he said, in a mock British accent.

I hadn’t considered how I was going to carry anything to the table while using crutches, and I looked to Hunter for support.

“Alright,” he said, dramatically, “What can I get you?”

He stood up as I reached the table, and I freed my wrists. “Coffee, glass of water, toast and painkillers please.”

“Coming right up.”

Hunter busied himself boiling the kettle, and putting bread in the toaster, and I propped my leg up on a vacant chair. I was meant to keep it elevated as much as possible. It needed to be higher, but having it up would just have to be enough. Without a word, Hunter walked out of the room and returned with two cushions from the living room.

“Dude, did you get up early just so you could be my nurse maid?”

“No,” Hunter answered, carefully lifting my leg and putting the cushions underneath. “But it’s the least I can do. I didn’t feel like I was much help yesterday so … whatever.”

“Didn’t do much? Hunter, you spent the whole day at the hospital when you could have been … I don’t know … doing something a lot more fun and a lot less depressing.”

He shrugged, then went back to check on the toast.

“I should be doing stuff for you,” I said. “The rest of this vacation’s going to suck now I can’t move around as much.”

“Were you serious about trying to go home early?” Hunter asked, bringing me my coffee and tablets.

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “It would be easier for everyone if I was out of the way, and it would make my parents happy if I was back with them.”

“But?”

“But, I was kinda looking forward to being here for another couple of weeks.”

“Me too.”

“Just because I might leave early, doesn’t mean you have to.”

“But it wouldn’t be the same without you. You’re my boy, even if you are a cripple right now.”

“I don’t have to make any decisions yet,” I said. “There are still some things I need to do here anyway. I think the police want to talk to me again later, to see if I remember anything else about the party?”

“Do you?”

I shook my head. “Not a damn thing. Although … now I think about it, I do remember seeing you and Willow wrapped around each other. What happened with you two?”

A blush coloured his cheeks, something I’d never seen before, and he busied himself buttering my toast.

“We danced,” he said. “We laughed, we swapped numbers.”

“And?”

“And, if it’s cool with you, I’m gonna meet her for lunch later.”

“Why wouldn’t it be cool with me?”

“Because it would be shitty of me to leave you here alone.”

“Ah, don’t worry about that. McCoy’s coming over later anyway. Plus, I left you alone a few times when I went out with Isabelle. You should go.”

I said Isabelle’s name like it didn’t matter that we weren’t talking. It mattered a lot. Hunter didn’t push me to talk about it, but I knew he was curious. I was his best friend, and Isabelle was his cousin, so it was understandable. But whatever was happing with us, didn’t mean Hunter shouldn’t hang out with Willow. She probably wasn’t going to be the “action” he’d been hoping for, but it was the most interested I’d seen him in a girl for a long time.

I carefully avoided Isabelle and Georgia until they left for college, and by eleven thirty, I had the whole house to myself. McCoy came over a little after twelve, and instead of staying in, he drove me the short distance to the nearby Starbucks. It was kinda nice to get out of the house, and it wasn’t like I was going to be over-exerting myself. All I had to do was swing through the tables and chairs, and sit down again.

The coffee shop was pretty busy, with everyone stopping to refresh in between their Christmas shopping, but we managed to find a table right at the back. I’d ordered a gingerbread latte, and McCoy brought it over, along with his Americano.

“It’s really good to be able to walk around without people knowing who I am,” he said, as he sat down.

I laughed. “Totally not something I expected you to say.”

McCoy smiled. “I like the attention, but over here, it’s a real vacation, you know?”

“That’s why I came here. It’s great to be recognised for what I do, but it’s really relaxing to know that I won’t be hounded by photographers. Well, it was until yesterday, anyway.”

“Have you had any trouble with reporters since you left the hospital?”

“No. I’ve been pretty lucky they haven’t worked out where I’m staying. I don’t want to bring any more crap on Janet and Andrew after they’ve been so good to me.”

I was still being talked about in the British press, I saw the newspapers, still reporting that I was an aggressive alcoholic. Mischa, following Leon’s lead, had also told her story of how I’d had ten beers, then passed out in her garden.

“About that,” he said, grinning. “What’s the deal with the cute blonde who spent most of last night trying not to look at you? Is she hot for you?”

Weird. Talking to Radleigh McCoy about girls was something I never imagined doing. Not since my last girlfriend only dated me to get closer to him.

“I, well … we were kind of seeing each other,” I began, “but it didn’t really work out.”

“Why not? She’s in to you.”

“She
was
in to me. But then she decided that her sister is somehow more important than everything that happened at the weekend.”

“There’s a sister?”

“A twin sister.”

Radleigh spluttered into his coffee. “Twins? You didn’t mention you’re living with twins.”

“Does it matter?”

“Makes for a good story.”

McCoy’s stories, pre-Leah, were always about women. No doubt he’d experienced twins, triplets and who the hell knows what else, but I’d never been big on telling stories. Not that I had a whole lot to tell. But it always seemed kinda … cheap to talk about women the way he did.

“I wasn’t trying to make a good story,” I told him. “Georgia’s pretty self-centered, but Isabelle … she’s awesome.”

“So what happened?”

Even though Georgia didn’t deserve to be protected, I still wanted to keep her secret because Izzy asked me to. McCoy would have been the ideal person to tell because he had no strong ties to any of the Mills family but it didn’t feel right, like I’d be betraying Isabelle if I did.

Too bad she didn’t protect you the same way.

“It’s cool,” McCoy said. “You don’t have to tell me, but whatever it is, she isn’t over it. And she sure isn’t over you.”

“I’m not over her either.”

McCoy looked abnormally thoughtful. “You’re too young to be tied down to one girl, and one that doesn’t live in L.A? Crazy. But she’s cute, she seems nothing like Taylor, and you are nothing like me. So, if you want her … sort it out.”

“You make it sound easy.”

He shrugged. “It’s easy if she’s the girl you want to be with.”

“She is, but there’s so much in the way. It’s not like we can fly back and forth every couple weeks to see each other. Especially now I have to have surgery, and Izzy’s starting University next year. And … it wasn’t so long ago that I broke up with Taylor.”

She hadn’t been on my mind. Not for a long time, and especially not while I’d been with Isabelle. But she always found her way into conversations about girls.

“Taylor,” McCoy said. “I had a girl like her once. Her name was Jen.”

“Did you love her?”

McCoy nodded. “After her, I had a hard time trusting women. But you don’t have that problem, and Isabelle looks like someone who wouldn’t mess you around.”

“How do I know if it’s worth it?”

“You’re asking me like I’m an expert,” he said, with a laugh. “I’m not.”

With raised eyebrows, I said, “You? Not an expert on women?”

“I can tell you how to get women in to bed, and how to get rid of them the next day. But keeping them? Maybe you should call Jude.”

In theory, Jude Collinson was the better person to ask. He met and married his wife within two years, and they seemed blissfully happy. But McCoy wasn’t as lacking in sentiment as he pretended. When Leah left L.A, he wasn’t the same. He worked harder, said less, kept away from any partying and there was a good chance of having your head bitten off if you spoke to him at the wrong time.

“Nah, I’m not buying this,” I said. “How did you know Leah was worth it?”

“Oh, you had to go there, didn’t you?” he grinned, then paused to drink some coffee. “I don’t know,” he went on, “She’s pretty hot.”

“Seriously. How did you know? Out of all the hot girls you’ve been with, how did you know she was the one?”

He let out a slow breath, but he was still smiling, like just the thought of Leah made him happy or something.

“This might sound stupid,” he said, “but I just … felt it. I’ve been with a lot of women, but Leah was different. I didn’t know right away because I was having too much fun playing around with her, but things changed.”

“How?”

“There were a lot of times when I saw how different she was from the other women I knew, but it wasn’t until we hung out with her family in Florida that I realised how much I liked her. We were at the aquarium and her nephew wanted to look in the gift shop. I took him, and you know how Leah likes to buy crappy souvenirs when she visits places?”

“Yeah, but she’d kill you for calling it crap.”

McCoy laughed. “Yeah she would. Well, I was in the gift shop with Jamie, and I saw something that would fit right in to her collection. I’d already paid for it when I realised that I’d bought a gift for a girl just because I was thinking of her, not because I wanted anything from her. Scared the hell out of me.”

I felt the same way about Isabelle. I mean, I’d never been as selfish as McCoy, but I got what he was saying. And nobody had ever taken over my thoughts the way Isabelle had.

“I think Isabelle’s pretty special. But I don’t know if it can really work with us so far apart. It’s so stupid. I came over here because I wanted a vacation. Hunter was the one who was planning on scoring with as many British girls as possible. And how pathetic am I, moping over some girl when there are more important things going on right now?”

“It’s better that you’re thinking about something other than your knee. There’s nothing you can do about that until you get home anyway. But you can do something about your girl.”

“What do I do?”

“You decide. Do you wanna leave things as they are, or do you wanna fix it and give yourself a chance to see what could happen?”

For someone who used to be so self-involved, McCoy had really come through for me. The things he said gave me a lot to think about. I always knew I didn’t have much time with Isabelle, but I’d figured we would work out what to do next when it was time for me to leave. My sensible side told me that, if we were fighting already, there probably wasn’t a lot of hope for us. Sensible was what I’d always been. And if Isabelle put Georgia before me over something so big, could I really count on her any other time? 

Chapter
Sixteen – He Was Like Kaa

Isabelle

“Mischa, stop!”

Those were the last words I wanted to hear, but Georgia screamed them as I walked towards the bus stop. I forced myself to keep moving but I could hear footsteps behind me, fast and heavy. In the late afternoon cold, the street wasn’t nearly as busy as usual, but still busy enough that I didn’t expect to be yanked backwards as Mischa grabbed at my bag. The strap dug hard into the side of my neck and furious, I spun around.

She looked possessed. Her eyes were wide and flashing with hostility, and her red hair whipped around her face in the wind, adding to her crazed appearance.

“Listen, you interfering bitch,” Mischa hissed, shoving me backwards into the low wall behind me, “I know you’re upset that your little boyfriend got drugged, but if you tell anyone I had anything to do with it, I will make your life hell.”

Nobody bothered to stop to check if I was okay, not that I could blame them. I doubt I’d have been too eager to get in the middle of a college girl scrap if I’d had the choice. Georgia reached us, breathless from running against the biting wind, but all I could think about was the burning sensation on my neck where my bag strap had cut into me. I touched the painful spot, and was glad to see she hadn’t drawn blood, but I was sure it would leave a mark. Tears sprang to my eyes, partly from pain, partly from shock, but mostly from anger.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Mischa asked, getting right up in my face.

“Mischa, back off!” Georgia said, trying to pull her away.

She stood firm, and I straightened up. “If anyone is in a position to give out threats, it’s me.”

“Big talk. But know this, if you’re going to tell anyone what I did, I’m taking Georgia down with me. Do you really want that on your conscience?”

I glanced over Mischa’s shoulder at Georgia, who was, once again, shaking. It was only because of her that I hadn’t gone to the police yet, but Mischa was seriously underestimating my rage levels, and trying to guilt me in to staying quiet was only making things worse.

“Am I supposed to be afraid of you now?” I asked. “Knowing that you might slip something in my drink to teach me a lesson?”

“You should be afraid,” Mischa said, her voice lowering menacingly.

I think she intended for me to feel intimidated, but she still didn’t seem to grasp that I was the one in the powerful position, and the more she threatened me, the closer she was pushing me to report her.

“Have you finished?” I asked.

At my lack of fear, she raised her fist, but Georgia grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

“What are you doing?” she snapped, as people continued to walk by as if they couldn’t see us.

Mischa spun around to look at her. “She’s going to grass us up!”

“So, you thought you’d hit her so she can add assault to your list of convictions? She is my sister, and you don’t get to treat her that way.”

Georgia wasn’t the only one who was shaking. Misha had lifted her hand so quickly, if Georgia hasn’t reacted so fast, I’d likely have ended up in A&E with a broken nose. I rearranged my bag on my shoulder, and without a word, continued to the bus stop, trying to ignore the tears burning my eyes and the stinging on my neck.

The three of us stood in a pissed off silence at the bus stop and throughout the journey. When we got off, I really hoped Willow would be at my house after her date with Hunter. I needed someone to talk to who wasn’t related to me, and who would give me real, honest advice about what to do. I couldn’t stand the idea of getting Georgia into trouble, even if she had been an idiot. At least she was genuinely sorry about her part in it. All Mischa cared about was her parents not finding out so they wouldn’t ban her from having other parties.

For unknown reasons, Mischa came back to the house with us, and as I opened the front door, I said, “You’re not welcome here.”

Mischa flicked her eyes towards Georgia. “Am I welcome?”

When I turned my attention to my sister too, she sighed, “Whatever. You decide between yourselves.”

“Why do you even want to come in anyway?” I asked. “It’s not like you’re going to apologise to Jesse for what you did. Or did you just want to have a look at the damage?”

“Get over it. It’s done now, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”

“Shut up!” Georgia snapped. “I’m sick of this!”

She pushed the door and as we stepped into the hallway, we were met by Jesse and Radleigh McCoy, both staring at us. We must have sounded seriously immature, bickering in the doorway about who was allowed in and who wasn’t.

The second Mischa’s eyes rested on Radleigh, she gave herself an instant mood makeover. Her scowl was replaced by her most flirtatious pose. Shoulders back, boobs forward and a look of extreme confidence in her eyes.

“And who do we have here?” she asked, pushing between Georgia and me to approach Radleigh. “Georgia, you didn’t tell me you had more gorgeous guests staying with you!”

She didn’t even acknowledge Jesse was there, let alone confess. Instead, she placed her hand on Radleigh’s arm and said, “I’m Mischa, Georgia’s best friend. And I
really
like older men.”

“Good for you,” Radleigh said, removing her hand from his bicep.

“Well,” Mischa went on, peering at him from underneath her eyelashes, “it could be good for you too, if you know what I mean.”

My jaw dropped.

Did she really just say that out loud?

“Oh, I know what you mean,” Radleigh said, leaning in to her ever so slightly. She grinned at his closeness, but it soon faded when he continued, “but I already have a woman, and even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be interested in a little girl like you.”

I forced myself to hold in a giggle as her face turned murderous. She’d probably never been shot down so brutally before and I was ecstatic that I’d witnessed the momentous event.

“What were you guys talking about before you came in here?” Jesse asked.

Mischa took several steps away from Radleigh, and turned to Georgia. “It was nothing,” she said, “Right, Georgia?”

Georgia nodded. “That’s right.”

One look in Georgia’s eyes told me that she’d had it with Mischa, and the second she breezed out of the door, Georgia let out a huge sigh. A second ago, I’d been suppressing laughter. The atmosphere changed when I realised what was about to happen. Before I could say anything, Georgia said, “Jesse, please can I talk to you in private?”

He glanced at me for a second. “Sure.”

Jesse turned and headed for the kitchen, Georgia following, leaving me in the hallway with Radleigh.

Awkward. I can’t really leave him standing here, but I don’t have much to say to a football player.

“Do you want to go through to the living room and sit down?” I asked. “I have to go and finish off some work for tomorrow. It’s the last day of college. But feel free to use the TV or whatever.”

“Thanks. But before you go, can I ask you something?”

I nodded apprehensively and tried not to look directly into his eyes. He was like Kaa, the snake from
The Jungle Book
. I thought if I looked into all that blue, he might hypnotise me.

“You like Jesse, right?” he asked.

“Yes.”

That part wasn’t a secret. Jesse had probably told him that much anyway.

“I don’t know you,” Radleigh said. “But I do know that Jesse deserves to have a girl who likes him for who he is, and not for what he can do for them. Whatever you two are fighting about, can you try to fix it? He’s already going through enough right now.”

When my mum had told me this very same thing, I was annoyed. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what Jesse was going through. I could see the worry and pain in his face, and it was the very reason I couldn’t be around him. When Radleigh said it, it felt different. Not because he was some football star, but because it came from the perspective of someone who really knew Jesse.

“I don’t want anything from him,” I said. “And I think my sister is trying to build some bridges with him at the moment. When she’s finished, I need to do the same.”

Radleigh smiled. “I’m pretty sure you didn’t need me to tell you any of that. But Jesse’s a good kid, and there hasn’t been much I can do for him since I’ve been here.”

“I don’t think that’s true. My family is doing everything we can, but what he needs is someone like you, someone from home who really understands how he feels.”

“I’m not so good with feelings.”

Jesse had said the same thing when he’d told me about Radleigh, but he obviously cared what happened to Jesse or he’d never have rushed to London to make sure he was okay.

“Well I’m sure Jesse appreciates you being here all the same.”

The front door opened, filling the potentially uncomfortable silence that was about to descend on us since we’d run out of conversation, and Hunter and Willow walked in, both shivering from the cold. They were laughing about something, but when Willow noticed Radleigh, she stopped abruptly and let out a scream. Hunter and I burst out laughing, while Willow hid behind her hands.

“Did I miss something?” Radleigh asked, his lips curling into a slightly confused grin.

“No, no,” Hunter said, “Just that Willow here thinks you’re … what was the word she used? Oh, that’s right, ‘wow.’”

“Hunter!” I said, still laughing as Willow’s cheeks began to flame, “Stop embarrassing her!”

Radleigh began to laugh too. “Good to meet you, Willow.”

Willow slowly let her hands drop to her sides, but her cheeks continued to glow. “Nice to meet you too,” she mumbled.

“Where have you guys been?” Radleigh asked, and right away, my admiration for him doubled. Instead of letting Willow squirm, he changed the subject to take the focus away from her blushing.

“Willow took me to lunch at Covent Garden” Hunter replied. “It was pretty cool. I hope we can go there again before I leave.”

Willow smiled. “Me too.”

She looked at Hunter in a way I’d never seen her look at a guy before, and although she was flustered by Radleigh’s presence, I got the feeling she would rather have Hunter than McCoy.

“Willow, would it be okay if you helped me with this stupid Christmas card thing for college?” I asked. “It won’t take long.”

She nodded. “Of course.”

She gave Hunter another beaming smile, cast an embarrassed wave in Radleigh’s direction, then followed me up the stairs to my bedroom.

“Oh my God!” she squealed, throwing herself onto my bed. “That was … brilliant and weird at the same time! You could have warned me Radleigh McCoy was going to be here!”

“I didn’t know. I also didn’t know you were coming back with Hunter.”

I raised my eyebrows, silently asking her exactly what she was getting up to with my cousin.

“So,” she said, ignoring me, “what did you need help with?”

“Nothing!” I laughed. “I handed the project in today, I just wanted to get you up here so you can tell me what you’ve been doing all afternoon!”

I also needed a distraction from whatever Georgia was saying to Jesse in the kitchen. I felt as though she planned to confess, but I’d misjudged her several times over the weekend so I couldn’t be sure. After the way Mischa had acted, and almost punching me in the face, if Georgia didn’t tell the truth, I’d have to do it myself.

Willow let out a sigh of happiness, unmoving from her position on the bed, her blonde hair splayed around her head. She was the living version of bliss, and I quickly pulled out my phone and took a photo of her so the feelings of the moment were recorded forever.