Forever Yours (23 page)

No and No
.

Instead of texting back, Valerie was calling now. Sarah asked Leonardo if he wanted to wait or if he’d rather call back, but she had to take the call. He opted to wait, so she picked up the phone and walked away from her desk.

“What’s up?” she asked cautiously, trying not to sound worried.

“Okay, from what I’m hearing, the whole team is in deep shit right now,” Valerie started without so much of a hello. “They were supposed to be in bed early last night, but instead they all decided to go to a hotel party thrown by someone on the Hawaii team. First of all, how stupid is that? Like there wouldn’t be an inevitable fight?”

“Was there a fight?” Sarah asked, already feeling alarmed.

“Of course!” Valerie huffed. “I don’t know who fought or what. All I know is the cops were called and the guys on the team were released to the coach so no one was arrested, but are you ready for this?”

Sarah braced herself. “What?”

“The party was thrown by none other than Dana and her stupid friends, and before you ask, yes, there are photos of her and Alex and Angel and a bunch of the other guys on the team
all over
her and her idiot friend’s Facebook pages, but, of course, the ones of her and Angel were the first ones she posted.” Sarah could hear the venom in Valerie’s words, but she couldn’t blame her. Sarah was beginning to feel a little pissed especially given the fact that Angel hadn’t bothered to call or even text her last night. “There’s also a few disgusting ones of Alex with two whores on his lap, and he looks to be having a good ole time. I swear, Sarah . . .” Her voice finally broke, and Sarah’s heart went out to her.

Sarah hadn’t even seen any of the photos, and already she felt hurt that Angel would pose for them, knowing full well how she felt about Dana. Valerie had seen photos of Alex with girls
on his lap
. “Valerie hon,” she began.

She heard Valerie inhale loudly, and she cleared her throat. “No. I’m done, Sarah. He’s probably over there screwing every one of those whores who’d gladly spread their legs for him. Do you know what he said to me yesterday when I went to see him off?” She paused but didn’t wait for Sarah to ask and Sarah didn’t. She could already tell Valerie was going off on one of her tangents, the ones only Alex ever brought out of her. “He told me he missed me already and that he wished I were going with him. Ever since Max’s party, he’s been such a sweetheart. I actually believed him. I’m so stupid.” Her voice started to break again, but she held it together. “Anyway, I’m still going to Havasu with Monica. She’s just watching her older brother while her mom gets a few more hours of sleep. She worked last night and her brother’s autistic. He can’t be left alone, but as soon as her mother is up, we’re out. Are you still staying home with your
paper
?”

A million questions assaulted Sarah all at once. Why hadn’t Angel called or even texted her last night? Why hadn’t he called this morning? Were there any sickening photos of him and Dana or any of those other whores? Would he be hanging out with them again today—tomorrow? It all came down to one thing—the only thing that calmed her—Angel wouldn’t do this to her. She knew him too well.

Knowing Valerie was in near tears and there was no denying the photos of Alex with not one but two girls on his lap, she wouldn’t tell Valerie what she was thinking. She was certain Angel had a good explanation for being at Dana’s party and not bothering to call her. As much as it did stir the bubbles beginning to suds in her belly, Angel deserved the benefit of the doubt.

“Havasu does sound like fun,” she said, trying to sound as if she were actually considering it, “but, yeah, I still have to work on that paper.”

Valerie was quiet for too long, and Sarah wondered if she was crying or maybe mad at her for not wanting to go. “Val?”

“Hmm?”

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, but she sounded distracted.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“About your paper? Yes, I heard you. I’m just. . . Ugh!!” she said suddenly. “I should just stop looking already. The more photos I see of him, the more I wanna fling this fucking iPad across the room.”

“Well, then stop,” Sarah said firmly. “Don’t let those sluts make you wreck your own iPad.”

“I am,” Valerie said. “I’m stopping right now, and not to get you all riled, but there are more of Angel and Dana this time. It’s like that bitch realized last year she should’ve gotten more than that one she posted all over all year, so she made up for it this time. But if it’s any consolation, he doesn’t look all smug and comfortable like he’s enjoying every moment of it the way Alex does.” She exhaled dramatically again. “That’s it. I’m done looking at these, especially because, from what I’m reading, that was just the pre-party. The
real
partying starts tonight. I’m not looking at my Facebook page until the weekend is over.” She laughed suddenly then added. “Who am I kidding, right? But at least I’ll be doing some partying of my own. I’m gonna jump in the shower now and get ready. In case you change your mind, we’re not leaving for another couple of hours, so let me know.”

“Okay, thanks,” Sarah said, knowing perfectly well she wouldn’t.

When she got back to her laptop, Leonardo was still sitting there, looking through his phone again. “Sorry about that,” she said and he looked up.

“It’s okay.” He smiled. “So your cousin is still going to Havasu?” Sarah nodded, pulling her hair back and sticking a clip through it to hold the mess together. “If Angel’s gone all weekend, why don’t you go with her?”

“Because,” she said, making the screen he was on smaller and opening up a second one for Facebook. “I have a paper I really need to get done.”

She wouldn’t mention that since Angel hadn’t called her last night she’d pretty much finished it. She just needed to tweak it now to make sure it was as perfect as it was going to get. Still, she was not about to start playing the games Alex and Valerie played. That was the last place she wanted to take her and Angel’s relationship. There was no way she’d be able to deal with what Valerie did.

“Is your cousin just coming for the day or all weekend?”

“All weekend, I think,” Sarah said without even looking at the screen he was on.

Her eyes were already focused on some of the posts people from her school were commenting on. There was a headline from a local Waikiki paper talking about the disturbance at the hotel caused by the rowdy college kids. Sarah scanned the story, but there were no names mentioned. It did, however, point out that it was almost one in the morning when things were finally settled and the football players were sent on their way with the coach.

She then clicked on another link someone posted from the party. They were saying it was totally worth the trouble they’d gotten in.

Then
boom.
There it was: the ruthless blow to her gut.

Hearing about Angel’s photos with Dana was one thing, but seeing it for herself made her ill. The smile on Dana’s face alone was sickening, but seeing her arms wrapped around Angel so tightly made her skin crawl. She clicked on the rest and saw photo after photo of the party. The ones of Dana and Angel seemed to be of the same instance with just slight differences as if someone had just snapped away as she wrapped herself around him. Even though Valerie was right, he didn’t look nearly as pleased as some of the other guys in the photos, hearing about the photos and seeing them were two different animals. She knew exactly what Valerie meant about wanting to throw the damn thing across the room.

“Something wrong?”

There was no way she was going to be able to concentrate on anything now until she heard from Angel. She glanced back at the phone to check if by chance she’d missed a call or text. She even picked it up and scrolled through the texts from him, hoping maybe somehow she’d missed one.

Nothing.

“Baby girl.”

Sarah finally looked up. The term of endearment still felt weird, but at that moment she was too worked up to give it much thought.

“What’s wrong?” Leonardo asked, the look on his face genuinely concerned. “You seem upset—”

“I’m not.”

“
Okay?
” he said, making her feel a little stupid because obviously she was.

Her eyes were back on the photos, and she thought about the real partying starting tonight. The way the two girls were sitting on Alex’s lap reminded her of something Valerie had said once—something about Angel having to be a saint to pass up the skanks offering themselves up so easily and sucking them like porn stars. She wondered if by chance Alex had invited these two girls back to his room—a room he was sharing with Angel.

Standing up abruptly, Sarah shook her head. She
would not
do this. Angel would never betray her that way. Of that she was certain.

“Hey.”

Sarah shook her head again, trying in vain to shake off the ugliness she felt just thinking about the possibility of what may’ve kept Angel too busy to even text her last night. Practically lunging at her laptop, she X’d out of Facebook.

“Not another glance,” she muttered through her teeth.

“What?”

Suddenly she snapped out of it enough to realize Leonardo was still on the screen, staring at her. “I’m sorry,” she said, bringing her hand to her mouth.

“What happened? What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” she assured him. “I just . . . I have to make another call. I don’t wanna keep you waiting. I’ll call you back, okay?”

She barely gave him a chance to nod before shutting down the window and picking up her phone. There was a two-hour time difference between La Jolla and Waikiki, which meant it was still only a little after seven in the morning there. There was still a good chance she could catch him on the bus or at the very least still in the locker room getting suited up for warm ups. She hit speed dial, but it went to voice mail.

Inhaling before texting him, she knew once she sent it she couldn’t take it back. She didn’t want to text anything she’d regret, but she certainly wasn’t in a mood to be sweet. She texted the four words she wanted to say and sent them.

We need to talk.

With her heart beating erratically now, she hit speed dial again. As soon as Sydney answered, she started talking a mile a minute. She needed him to calm her—to assure her she was just jumping to ugly conclusions—to remind her that Angel would never do any of the things she was envisioning.

“All right, Lynni,” Sydney said. “First of all, slow down. I caught most of what you said, but some of it blew right by me. So Angel went to a party last night with Dana. He never called you or texted you. He took lots of pictures with her, and now you wanna go party in Havasu with Valerie?”

Just like that Sarah was yanked out of her near frantic mood, and she laughed, feeling like a drama queen. “No!” She laughed even more thinking about what she must’ve sounded like to Sydney. Taking a deep breath, she tried again only this time a lot calmer. “He went to a party last night. One Dana threw at a hotel. Not
with
her. But there are all kinds of pictures of him with her online now. Since he never called or texted me last night like he said he would, it’s just making me crazy. And, no, I don’t want to go
party
in Havasu because of this. You know that’s not like me. It’s just that this is already making me insane, and I know I won’t be hearing from him at least until this afternoon when his game is over. I’ll be losing my mind by then, so I was thinking since I’m pretty much done with my paper maybe I
should
get out. Get my mind off all this. It’s what Valerie’s doing.”

“You should,” he said simply, “even if he hadn’t gone to a party or taken pictures with Dana. Why not? It’s a three-day weekend. Go enjoy yourself.”

“But you don’t think because this did happen he’ll think I’m being petty, trying to get back at him?”

“He might,” Sydney said then chuckled. “Actually, it’s probably
exactly
what he’ll be thinking, but unless he has a damn good reason for not only going to Dana’s party but hanging out with her when he knows how you feel about her and then not even bothering to call you, I’d say he doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on and argue. Besides we know he has nothing to worry about. It’s not like you’re going out there to get crazy.”

Smiling weakly, Sarah still debated whether she should go or not. She really didn’t want Angel to think she was playing games because it wasn’t about that. It just scared her how quickly she’d gone from staying calm and giving Angel the benefit of the doubt to nearly losing it. She knew now the longer she sat around all day waiting and possibly more photos resurfacing—photos she’d be too weak to keep herself from looking at—the worse she would feel about it. She’d go nuts all day unless she had a major distraction.

As soon as she got off the phone with Sydney, she called Valerie and told her she was in. Valerie was beyond ecstatic. Fortunately, she didn’t mention any more about the happenings in Hawaii. Sarah really didn’t want to hear anymore, not from Valerie or anyone else but Angel. Anything she heard from anyone else would be hearsay and only serve to piss her off for possibly no good reason.