Next to Me (12 page)

Whitney was trying to decide where she could position herself in the room to look the sexiest. It was a good thing they still hid the key where they always had so she could let herself in. She was really excited to finally have sex with Zane. There was no way he could resist her naked body. No man could.

She wasn’t conceited, she just truly thought all men couldn’t resist a naked body. She heard someone come in the house and looked at the clock on Zane’s dresser. It was around five-thirty and she’d checked to make sure his dad wasn’t home. It was just going to be her and him. She took her shirt off and then her sweatpants. The best place she could find to set up in the room was on the bed. She leaned against the headboard with her arms back so her breasts stuck out nicely.

He was coming, and she started to get nervous. She wished the drugs hadn’t kicked in so she could remember the speech she was going to give. It sounded like whoever was in the house was in Dustin’s room. This gave her a moment of panic because she thought for a moment it might be Zane’s dad.

She was planning to grab the comforter if for some strange reason Dustin did come in and see her, but the door started to open, so she put on her best pout and waited.

Lila walked in and screamed, startling her, and she grabbed a pillow to cover herself with. It was Zane’s girlfriend in Dustin’s room. There were a lot of questions.

“You’re pathetic, Whitney, move on. He has. I’ll go in Dustin’s room until you leave since I’m here getting his things for the hospital and you’re being weird as shit in his son’s room.”

“The hospital?”

“He had an actual heart attack. We have more important shit to worry about than your petty naked attempts at whatever the hell this was.”

Whitney’s mind raced. A heart attack. Zane hadn’t called her. He’d said when they really needed each other they’d be there.

“Lila,” Whitney said before she shut the door all the way. “You don’t have to tell Zane about this. It would only upset him.”

“Oh, I’m telling him how insane you are, Whitney. Now get the hell out of my boyfriend’s room.”

She slammed the door, and Whitney had no choice but to gather her clothes and leave the house. This had to be the most embarrassing thing that had happened in a long while. It was worse than Tina seeing Walter hit her. It was worse than the girls in the parking lot. This was an all-time low for Whitney Boon.

She made her way back to her car and tried to call Zane. She needed to talk to him. If Dustin had a heart attack, she needed him to know she’d be there. She thought about hitting Lila’s car with hers, but that would be stupid and petty. It was time for her to be better than that, and it would solve nothing.

Zane looked at his phone. Whitney had called him three times in the past twenty minutes. He wasn’t sure what she could possibly want, but he didn’t want to deal with her. They had given Dustin some kind of medicine that had him all loopy.

“That the blond witch?” he asked as he attempted and failed to spoon Jell-O into his mouth. It all fell back down on the plate.

“It is the one and only. You want some help with that?”

“No,” Dustin said loudly but nodded yes, so he helped him eat it. Lila should be back soon and then they could figure out a plan for dinner. His phone was ringing again, and he put the ringer on silent.

Lila finally came in and handed Dustin all his things, which he promptly threw onto the floor and yelled, “Thank you,” as loud as humanly possible.

“They gave him something that made him act really weird,” Zane whispered and kissed her lightly.

“I need to talk to you for a minute, please,” Lila said and went out into the hall.

“What’s going on, baby cakes?” he said.

“You shouldn’t call me that.” She smiled. “So when I went into your room to grab your charger you had a visitor.”

“What?”

“Whitney was naked in your room, Zane. I think she thought if you saw her naked you wouldn’t be able to resist her. It was pretty terrifying for me to witness. I’m not sure what the hell she had on her breasts.” Lila shuddered.

Zane reached out to hug her. “I’m going to kill her.”

“It’s okay. I just wanted you to know. I don’t think you would have done anything with her. I trust you.”

“Who was naked in the house?” Dustin yelled from the room having heard everything they said. They laughed and went back into the room

Whitney continued to try and call Zane as she made her way back home. He wasn’t answering. She thought if she could get ahead of Lila and explain what she was trying to do then it wouldn’t look as bad as it did.

She was going to have to go back. Why, she didn’t know, but maybe Zane would come home. The bump she’d brought before was still in her purse, so once she’d made it back to the driveway and made sure Lila was gone she did it.

Once again she let herself in the house and the anger from Lila’s words caught up to her. In a fit of rage, she began to throw things. In Zane’s room she threw all the books off his shelves and pushed everything off his desk, including his laptop and speakers. They crashed to the floor. She opened his closet and pulled his clothes out, throwing them on the floor and kicking anything he had in the bottom to dishevel the whole thing.

Then she moved into the living room, starting with a picture of her and Zane as kids that stayed on the book shelf in the living room. The picture frame went through a lamp on the table beside the couch. She knocked all the books off the shelf and broke some of the ceramic cats that were there. Those had been Zane’s mother’s treasured possessions. What had she just done?

Realizing she was out of control, she ran out and got into her car. She was a fucking animal. Who destroyed someone’s house because they loved someone else? It wasn’t even Zane’s house, it was his dad’s. That made it a lot worse.

When she got back to her apartment she sat in the car and cried for a while. Somehow she’d blown her only chance at getting what she wanted, what she needed. He wasn’t going to love her now. Lila went back and told him what she’d done and if he didn’t see how good she looked it wouldn’t make any sense to him.

She rushed in the house and went straight to her jewelry box, grabbing her bag and her keys. She scooped out two large bumps and snorted them.

What the hell was she going to do? She hadn’t gone into work to go over to Zane’s, and Hannah had called her several times to see where she was. She laid out two more lines and then went to grab a bottle of vodka from the kitchen, pouring a tall glass and drinking two large gulps. The OxyContin bottle was on the counter, so she took one of those for good measure, unsure if she had taken one earlier or not.

She cried for a little longer in the kitchen before she went back and did the two lines. If she could get high enough maybe she could forget what happened. She tried to call Zane again, letting it ring until his voice mail picked up. She thought about leaving a message, but she didn’t know what she would say. Hanging up, she went and ran a bath for herself so she could try and relax. She was so uptight. While the water ran, she went and poured more vodka to sink into the bath with and just try to calm her anxiety.

The bath was nice, but just for a minute. She was too wired to sit still for any number of time and got out and back into the bathtub three times.

The last time she got up she went to do another line. This time it was thick and actually choked her as it went down her throat. She leaned over for a minute and let it run down. This time it gave her a rush and she went to get back into the bathtub and sort of faded out for a minute.

She came to and finished the vodka. Finally, she was disoriented and the bath water was cold. This was what she’d been chasing the fucked up feeling, the one that helped her forget everything. She went back into her room and dumped the rest of the bag out on the dresser. How had she done a whole gram already? Was that right? Maybe she’d underestimated what she actually had left.

She did the rest of it and realized she was completely naked in her bedroom. Grabbing a robe, she realized she’d suddenly gotten very hot. It was too hot in the house. Her skin was too tight on her body. That sounded crazy, but it was how she felt. It was hard to breathe. She had to get out of the house. She ran out the door and tried to gulp in fresh air. The world spun around her, and she thought about sitting down. The last thing she saw was the sidewalk rushing at her face and she felt her body hit hard before she lost consciousness.

When Zane and Lila drove Dustin home from the hospital, Miss Lovelace had put up a banner. Welcome back, Sexy Man. That’s what it said.

“Man, I’m going to have to give that woman a spin,” Dustin said as Lila helped him out of the truck, even though he insisted he was completely fine to do it himself.

“Dad, you need to remember your heart condition.”

“Heart attack victims need love too, Zane, just remember that.”

“Okay, Dad, let’s get you inside.” Zane saw the woman was already out of her door and rushing over. He wanted him to at least sit down before the shameless flirting started.

They all went inside and the first thing they noticed was it was a wreck. There were broken pieces of glass and the lamp was broken. The worst thing was the ceramic cats sitting on the shelf, the ones that had sat there since Zane’s mother was alive, were broken.

“She broke your mother’s cats,” Dustin said, and Zane’s rage got the better of him.

“I never want to see that stupid bitch again. She is by far the worst thing in my life. Have a nice life, Whitney,” he screamed at the ceiling.

“Oh my.” Miss Lovelace stood in the door, and Zane saw his dad smooth down his shirt and stand from the couch he’d sunk into when he saw the condition of the room.

“Hello, Petunia, thank you for my banner. It was very thoughtful and such a true statement,” Dustin said.

“Miss Lovelace, tomorrow night I want to take my lovely lady here on a very special date. Could you please come over and sit with my dad for a little while? We might be out late and he needs someone to hang out with him at least until he’s recovered.”

Dustin glared at him, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he could get his own dates and was mad his son was interfering or because that wasn’t what he wanted to do.

“Of course. Oh, you kids are so sweet. Yes, I’ll definitely come and sit with you, Dusty.”

“Dusty,” Zane mouthed to his dad, who continued to glare.

“Great, Petunia, I can’t think of anything better than an evening with you.” He smiled, and Zane knew he was serious.

“I’ll bring over my videos,
Indecent Proposal
and
The Shining
.”

Zane looked at Lila. Those were some strange choices. “Well, Dad, we’re going to go in my room and enjoy some relaxation for a bit. If you need anything, let me know.”

Zane intertwined his fingers with Lila’s, and they went back to his room. He couldn’t believe Whitney would do that to something she knew was his mother’s. He was done with her, forever. She simply couldn’t be mature, she couldn’t grow up, and she would always be a junkie.

His anger reached new levels as they entered the bedroom. She had destroyed it. His laptop lay on the floor potentially broken. She’d destroyed boxes of some of the things in his closet, including a keepsake box of things his mother had given him or things that reminded him of her.

“That selfish childish bitch.” He didn’t even have the strength to look at it and just sank down onto his bed.

“I’m so sorry, Zane, this is my fault. I should have just kept my mouth shut when I saw her. I can’t believe she came back.”

“No, this is her fault. She’s insane and hurtful. Whitney only cares about herself and what is good for her. I’m done, I’m completely done.”

He pulled her down onto the bed with him, and they lay down. A nap was about the only thing that sounded good to him at that time. He’d deal with the mess when he woke back up.

Zane had finally fallen asleep when he was awakened by his phone ringing. He groggily grabbed it, preparing to ignore it if it was Whitney, but he didn’t recognize the number, so he picked up.

“Zane, it’s Teresa Boon.” Whitney’s mother was calling him. He hadn’t heard from her in years. She wasn’t around, and Whitney barely went to see her. He wasn’t sure the last time Whitney had been to see her mom, even though they lived in the same town.

“Hi, Mrs. Boon,” Zane said, and Lila eyed him curiously. He shrugged at her, not sure what she wanted.

“Listen, I thought you might want to know that Whitney is in the hospital.”

“With all due respect,” Zane interrupted her. “I honestly don’t care what’s wrong with her or what nightmare she’s gotten herself into.”

“Okay, honey, you take care of yourself,” Teresa said and hung up.

He rolled over and hugged Lila after hanging up the phone. Relief from not worrying about her anymore washed over him.

“Whitney honey, what are you doing out here? You should go inside with the others.”

Mr. Grier came out onto the porch and wiped his eyes. He had been trying to stay strong for Zane, but he was having a hard time holding it together. She couldn’t believe Mrs. Grier was gone. She was her mother. The loving woman who’d helped her so many times, she was just gone. They’d watched her be lowered into the ground and the dirt had been thrown over her.

“I’m just thinking about Mrs. Grier and how sweet she was. She was such a good mom.”

Mr. Grier’s eyes filled with tears all over again, and he sat next to her on the porch, taking her hand.

“Listen, Whitney, Zane is really going to need you to take care of him now. He doesn’t have his mother anymore. You’re his best friend and the only girl in his life. It will be a big responsibility, but it’s very important, okay?”

“Of course, Mr. Grier,” Whitney said, “I’ll always take care of my Zane.”

“Hi there, Whitney, how are you feeling?”

“Mom?” Whitney hadn’t seen her mom in over a year and the fact that she was sitting beside her completely confused her.

“Yeah, you know where you are?”

“No.” Whitney tried to scoot up in the bed and noticed her whole body hurt. She was attached to an IV, and she was also attached to a lot of different machines. “What the hell, what happened to me?”

“You overdosed on a lot of cocaine and OxyContin. Were you trying to die, Whitney? You can’t mix that shit and you know it.”

Whitney tried to remember what all had happened. Had she overdosed on purpose? That didn’t really seem like something she would do. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, you’re going to have to go to court next week for your possession, and I think the judge is going to tell you it’s rehab or jail. If you ask me, you’re going to be lucky if you get that choice.” Her mom had gone back to flipping through a magazine.

“Did you let Zane know?” Whitney asked, thinking it was strange that he wasn’t there with her.

Her mom put the magazine down and looked at her. “I called him, Whitney. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with you. I’m not sure what you did exactly, but whatever it was you really pissed him off.”

Whitney was reminded of some of the things she did. The worst was breaking Dana Grier’s cats. That was something a heartless person would have done. She wasn’t a heartless person and what she’d done hurt both Zane and Dustin. It really wasn’t any wonder that he didn’t want to talk to her.

“Did you tell him I was in the hospital?”

“I did. He doesn’t care, Whitney. You’ve burned that bridge.”

“Are you sure, Mom?” Whitney tried to sit up again. Her mother still didn’t look up from her magazine as she groaned.

“I’m sure. You had a good thing, and you fucked it up. Deal with it, Whitney, and try to work on getting your shit life together.”

“Thanks, Ma, you’re always encouraging.”

She lay back and let the tears fall as they stung her eyes, and they waited for the doctor to come in and tell her what she’d done to herself.