Making Out (21 page)

“Heather, it's me. When you get this, call me,” Marianna said, trying to keep her voice calm. “Lisa Marie's in a bad situation. We're still at the hotel, and Luke's here, and I'm sure everything's going to be all right and everything . . . but just in case, could you get your butt back here? Now?”

 

 

 

 

“Did you go up to the suite? Is she okay?” Marianna demanded when she and Luke found Todd standing in the lobby.

“You gave me the wrong room number,” Todd sounded frustrated and angry. “I woke some woman up, and she wasn't too happy about it.”

“Oh, God. What room was it?” Marianna turned to Luke, pleading for him to remember. If something happened to Lisa Marie, it would be her fault for getting it wrong . . .

Her head hurt, and she knew she wasn't thinking too clearly. But she wasn't exactly drunk anymore either. There was something about losing your virginity—it sobered a girl up real quick.

“I'm not sure,” Luke admitted, still sounding fuzzy. “Maybe 1567?”

“That's the room I already tried!” Todd almost shouted.

“Let's just find her.” Marianna headed for the bank of elevators, hurried into one, and pushed the button for the seventeenth floor. A crowd of drunken conventioneers got into the elevator with them.

“I think it was 1756,” Marianna said to Luke. “That sounds right, doesn't it?”

He shrugged. “I'm not sure.”

The elevator was so slow. It stopped on five, eight, and nine, for people to get off. Then it stopped on twelve because some jerk had pressed the up button when he wanted to go down.

Finally they reached the seventeenth floor and dashed into the hall. Luke came to a halt and stared at the wall, trying to decode the signs.

Rooms 1712 through 1747 were to the right. Rooms 1748 through 1765 were to the left. Marianna felt dyslexic, trying to figure out which way to go.

“This way,” Todd said, Mr. Level-Headed-in-a-Crisis. He hurried down the corridor to the right.

We're runners, Marianna thought. What the hell are we waiting for?

She took off her shoes and threw them aside as she dashed down the long hall, bumping into Todd on the way. Luke was right behind her. As usual.

When she found the room, she started ringing the door-bell, over and over.

“Come on!” She was trying not to shout because she didn't want to wake people who were sleeping. But could someone please answer the frigging door?

Oops. So much for not waking anyone up.

A middle-aged man in navy pajamas and half-shut eyes opened the door a crack. “What the hell do you want?” he asked.

Marianna checked the door number again: 1756. That was the right number, wasn't it?

Maybe not.

“Sorry. I guess we have the wrong room,” she apologized, then turned and hurried back to the elevator, picking up her shoes on the way.

“Wait!” Luke called, catching up. Suddenly he seemed sober. “I think I remember. It was on the sixteenth floor.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. But I think so.”

They pushed into the elevator, squeezing in with a family of four who were checking in at this ridiculous hour. They had four pieces of luggage, and the kids looked sleepy.

Todd stared at the buttons. “Yeah, I think Luke's right. The party was on sixteen. I'm pretty sure because someone pushed the button when we were coming up to the party, and it was in the left-hand row . . .”

No one cares what row it was,
Marianna thought.
Just please, be right
.

Todd pushed sixteen, but the elevator lurched upward.

Oh, God, this car was going the wrong way. Of course. These people were checking
in.
They obviously weren't heading
downstairs
with all that luggage. Shit. They'd gotten into the wrong elevator.

By the time they got to sixteen, Marianna was beginning to panic. What if they didn't find her in time? What if it was already too late? What if . . .

John and Ramone were animals. Everyone knew they couldn't keep their dicks in their pants.

Everyone except Lisa Marie.

They dashed out of the elevator, and Luke instinctively turned to the right, toward the room they'd been in earlier that night.

Yeah, this seemed right, Marianna thought. She remembered that flower painting on the wall, near the decorative hall table. It reminded her of a painting her aunt had in her bathroom.

“I think it's 1657,” Luke said.

She and Luke hurried ahead and rang the bell. No answer. She pounded on the door and pushed the bell four or five more times.

Nothing. It was silent in there.

Across the hall, they could hear someone's television playing in another room.

“Do you really think this is the right room?” Marianna asked Luke.

“Yeah,” he said. “I do.”

“Then why is it so quiet in there?”

Luke, Todd, and Marianna all stared at each other for a moment. Todd looked really upset, but he was trying to hold it together.

“Maybe it's a good sign.” Luke tried to be positive. “I mean, maybe they're gone. She can't be in much trouble if she's not in there.”

But what if she's in there, and she can't call out for help?
Marianna thought.

“I'll bet they went to another party,” Todd started to say.

Just then, the door opened.

Marco stood there glaring at them in his boxers. “What?”

Marianna's throat tightened. Boxers? Oh, man.

“Where's Lisa Marie?” she demanded.

Luke didn't wait for an answer. He pushed his way into the room, and Marianna followed him. “Where is she?”

“Jesus! Get the hell out of here!” Marco shouted. “She's not here. She left.”

No way was Marianna taking his word for it. Neither was Todd. They quickly searched the place, which didn't exactly take long.

The suite was empty, except for Marco, who had apparently been lying on the bed watching pay-per-view, which was still playing silently on the TV.

“So what happened?” Marianna demanded. “Where are John and Ramone? What did you guys do to Lisa Marie?”

“I told you,” Marco said angrily. “She left about fifteen minutes ago. With Bradley.”

“Just Bradley?” Marianna was skeptical.

Marco nodded. “John and Ramone split to some other party, but I'm too beat.”

Marianna eyed him coldly, trying to decide whether he was telling the truth. He didn't seem to be lying. And anyway, Lisa Marie was obviously not there now.

“Okay. Sorry, man,” Luke said. “We just heard she might be in trouble. We'll get out of your way.”

What a mess,
Marianna thought as they left the room. Trash everywhere. It didn't look like anyone could possibly have been having fun in there.

When they were back in the hall, she turned to Luke. “So do you think we should keep looking for her?”

“Nah,” Luke said. “She might be having fun. I mean, do you think she'd want us barging in on her and Bradley? You know what I mean?”

“I guess not,” Marianna agreed.

Todd shook his head. “I'm going to keep looking till I find her,” he said. “Just in case.”

Marianna followed Todd toward the elevator, not sure what to think about that. Was he really just trying to protect Lisa Marie? Or was he trying to spoil her night? It was hard to know. Maybe he was turning into Stalker Boy after all . . .

Their eyes met in the elevator, and he gave her one of those classic Todd looks that said,
Ask me anything, and I'll tell you the truth
.

Okay. She didn't have to ask. She knew him. He was one of the good guys.

“Let's go with him,” she told Luke as they reached the lobby and the elevator opened.

A pack of St. Claire's prom-nighters were trying to get on the elevator just as Marianna, Luke, and Todd got off. Two of them were girls Marianna had known since kindergarten, when they'd all had a crush on Michael Zemiska, and had orchestrated a wedding in the dress-up corner, taking turns being his bride. Michael had refused to play, but that hadn't been too much of a problem. A large Barney doll had stood in for the groom.

Both of the girls were named Amanda. Neither of them could stand Marianna anymore, and she couldn't stand them. But who cared?

“Have you seen Lisa Marie?” she asked them.

Amanda J. shook her head.

Amanda B. shrugged. “I saw her with Bradley a few minutes ago. They were headed down that hallway.” She pointed as if she couldn't care less.

Todd hurried forward, waiting for no one. Marianna and Luke had to move it to keep up with him. The hallway led to a bunch of empty ballrooms and meeting rooms, and not much else. What were the chances Lisa Marie and Bradley were down here?

Todd tried the first meeting room door they came to, but it was locked.

He hurried on to the next one. Marianna tried a ballroom door across the hall. It opened.

Inside, the lights were dim, but she heard some muffled sounds coming from a dark corner.

It took a minute for her eyes to adjust to the dark, but when they did, she heard a yell and recognized the unmistakable black satin of Lisa Marie's dress.

Someone was on top of her.

“Oh, my God!” she yelled, racing forward. “Oh, my God!”

 

 

 

 

“Get off me, you pig!” Lisa Marie was screaming as Marianna ran toward the dark, writhing shapes in the corner.

“Luke!” Marianna yelled, in case he didn't know where she was.

Not necessary. Both Luke and Todd had followed her into the ballroom and were racing toward the corner, shouting and cursing at Bradley at the tops of their lungs.

At the sound of all the commotion, Bradley jumped off Lisa Marie, but not before Marianna got a look at what was happening. He was practically on top of her, one knee on the chair, pinning her down with his body.

“Bradley, you goddamn prick!” Lisa Marie screamed as Luke and Todd pulled him away from her. “You asshole! God! You're such a fucking prick!”

“What the hell were you doing to her!” Todd screamed, but Bradley jerked away from him and beat a path out the door.

Marianna raced over to Lisa Marie, who, thank God, was still dressed but shaking like a leaf, hunched over, hugging her chest with her arms. “Are you okay?” Marianna asked, kneeling down beside her.

Lisa Marie burst into tears and covered her face in her hands. Her sobs were terrible, convulsive sobs. Marianna hoped they were mostly the aftereffects of fear and relief that Bradley was gone. It seemed from the looks of things, and from the sound of Lisa Marie's crying, that she was physically okay. Bradley hadn't gotten very far.

She turned to Luke and Todd, who were frozen, not sure what to do or say.

Todd looked a little bit afraid to make a move, but he cautiously came forward and sat down beside Lisa Marie, on the other chair.

“Lisa Marie? Are you okay?” he asked tenderly.

She nodded, still crying.

He slipped an arm around her shoulder gently, like he knew she might not want to be touched, but she leaned into him and let him hold her for a minute. She looked like a small child, happy to be back in her parents' arms.

“What an asshole!” she said, still choked with tears.

“Totally,” Todd said. “I'm going to kill him.”

“No, you're not.” Lisa Marie shook her head firmly and glared at him. Everyone knew Todd wasn't the type to kill anyone, and besides, she didn't want him to do anything stupid.

She sobbed again and hid her face in his shoulder, still hunched over like she was protecting herself. “I'm such an idiot.”

“No way,” Todd said firmly. “It wasn't your fault. He's an asshole. You know that, right?”

She shook her head inconclusively.

“Lisa Marie? You know it wasn't your fault—right?” Todd said.

“It
totally
wasn't your fault,” Marianna chimed in. Stupid as it was, she felt if it was anyone's fault—other than Bradley's—it was hers, Marianna's. Of course that wasn't logical, any more than Lisa Marie blaming herself was logical. But that's how it felt.

Lisa Marie dried her face with her hands. No one seemed to have a tissue.

“Thanks,” she said to Todd, as if the word was way too small for what she was trying to say. She looked grateful for all his moral support. Then she tried to smile up at Luke, and thanked him, too. “But if you don't mind, I just want to be alone now. With Marianna.”

“Oh—yeah. Definitely,” Todd said, jumping up. He was always superconsiderate. “But are you really okay? I mean, getting home and everything?”

“We'll call a cab or something,” Marianna said. “Don't worry.”

“Okay.”

The two of them looked like they didn't want to just abandon the girls right then, but Marianna made a gesture so they'd go.

When they were gone, Marianna sat down beside Lisa Marie and waited, not sure whether to ask questions or just let her cry some more. She looked so fragile and scared, like she wasn't sure the ordeal was over yet.

“I don't want to go home in a cab,” Lisa Marie said.

“Don't worry,” a voice said, coming toward them. “You won't have to.”