Something Fierce (27 page)

She handed over a fake license which put her at twenty-four years old. He studied the card and handed it back. “Make sure you tell them what I ordered.”

“Of course.”

When they got the news, they smacked fists with each other. Strike one.

She wasn’t sure if she was in the mood to hook up tonight or not but she could be persuaded. She couldn’t see Seth tonight anyway and the guys were kind of cute. They were, however, on their way to their second strike because it was taking them way too long to decide on which one should come over or if they should come together.

“Hey Prancer.” Levi took the stool next to her. He called her Prancer because when she visited him at the Ink Spot, he said that she “pranced” when there were other men around.

“Stalking me again?” she said.

He took the cigarette out of her hand and took a drag. “You told me you were going to be here.”

She had forgotten that she’d texted him earlier.

“We still on for Monday night?”

“Of course.”

The guys who bought her the drink were looking pissed but if they were smart, they’d leave it at that. Levi was a bad motherfucker and he loved to fight. “Plan on coming to my place early so we can do a little pre-drinking before the concert.”

“I don’t pre-drink.”

“I do. Besides, I want to fuck you before we leave.”

She took her cigarette back. “You wish.”

“I
know
. We’ll have to leave at six. Be at my place by five.”

She wasn’t missing Seth as much now and figured she could tell him that she was still sick on Monday and plan to see him on Tuesday. “What band is opening up?”

Before he could answer, the main lobby door flew open and Donna came rushing through it. “We have to go.”

“What? Why?”

“Come on,” she said, pulling Kerri out of the chair. “Seth is here.”

“Who the fuck is Seth?” Levi wanted to know.

“Her boyfriend,” Donna said at the same time Kerri said, “My ex-boyfriend.”

“How do you know it’s him?” Kerri asked. “You don’t even know what he looks like.”

“Carlene spotted him. She goes to Northeast, remember.”

Levi was on his feet now looking over Donna’s shoulder. “Fuck that. You don’t let anyone run you off.”

“We were leaving anyway,” Donna said. She didn’t like Levi. Hooking her arm into Kerri’s, Donna started leading her across the patio. “What do you mean, ‘
ex-
boyfriend?’ You told me you guys had a fight and you just needed a girl’s night out.”

“I’ll call you about tomorrow,” Kerri shouted to Levi, but he was more interested in picking Seth out of the crowd.

“We’re sort of on a break,” Kerri lied and then shouted over her shoulder, “Don’t start anything with him, Levi. I mean it.” She waved at the boys. They looked at each other. One waved back; the other one hit him on the shoulder.

“This way,” Donna said, directing her out the patio exit and around the back of the building.

Did he know she was lying about being sick? Was he following her? Or, she thought feeling a pang of jealousy, was he here to meet someone. Everyone knew The Abyss was a meat market. “Does he know I’m here?”

“No.”

“How do you know?”

“Because there would be drama if he did. Jesus, Kerri, he looks out of it.”

“Out of it how? Drunk?”

“I don’t know. Yeah, kind of. But more like angry. Very angry and I don’t know…scary.” She stopped under a lighted porch in back and looked Kerri in the eye. “He hasn’t hit you, has he?”

Obviously, she didn’t know Seth. However, that time with the website, he had grasped her arm so tightly that it left a little bruise. “Not exactly.”

“Not exactly? What is that supposed to mean?”

“Nevermind.”

“Kerri, you have to stay away from these kinds of guys. They are dangerous. Come on,” she said, taking Kerri’s hand and leading her around to the front of the building where the valet was standing next to Donna’s car, looking impatient. “Give the valet your ticket. Carlene and Tiff are waiting for my call and then they will come out and get your car.”

“How do you know he’s here looking for me?” she asked, careful to keep her voice neutral. “Maybe he is looking to hookup with someone.”

“No, he was looking for you. I could tell.” Donna gave the valet a couple of neatly folded bills and got into the driver’s seat of her car, explaining that Kerri had had too much to drink and that a girl named Tiffany would be driving her car home.

Kerri took her time coming around the car, looking toward the club’s open door, hoping to catch a glimpse of Seth.

“Kerri!” Donna snapped, flinging open the passenger door. “What are you doing? Get in!” She did and as they pulled away, Donna called Carlene. “We’re out. The valet is bringing Kerri’s car around. If you can, try to keep Seth from following you out. He’ll recognize her car, I’m sure. Call me if there’s any trouble. Otherwise, we’ll see you at the Red Wolf.” She snapped her phone shut and let out a sigh. “He looked whacked, Kerri! It reminded me of the days when Rant used to follow us.”

Rant. It was hard to believe that he was not around anymore. What was it like, Kerri wondered, to slice open your own wrists? Wouldn’t it be hard to cut the second one after the first one? Why didn’t he just sever the carotid artery in the neck and do the job in one quick slice? Maybe he wanted the ritual thing with the bathtub. She wondered too if he’d left a note. His family was keeping the whole thing pretty quiet and she was sure they blamed her whether she was in the note or not. Whatever. Richie Rant would have come to a bad end with or without making her acquaintance. When Donna stopped at the red light, Kerri turned around to see if Tiff and Carlene were coming yet. They weren’t. “Tiff is hitting on Seth, isn’t she?”

“How else would Tiff stall a man?” Donna said. “What do you care anyway? You told the freak with the tattooed head that he was your ex and you told me you two were on a break.” Donna shook her head and Kerri knew a lecture was coming. “I can’t deal with another Rant. That was horrible when he was stalking you—following us everywhere we went. We were always looking over our shoulder. If he wouldn’t have done himself in, it would have been you…or one of us for getting in the way.”

The thought of Tiff flirting with Seth irritated Kerri. Would he remember he’d once seen a picture of her? She couldn’t think about it. At least, it wasn’t Donna back there flirting with him. She said dating guys that much older was gross, but if she were alone with him, Kerri knew there’d be a mutual attraction. They would recognize each other. They were from the same “love conquers all” world that believed things happen for a reason and there was always a good side to everything and everyone if you looked for it. They believed in equal partnerships and were proponents of the simple-minded “open and honest” policy.

But if their metaphysical view of life were correct, the Donnas and the Seths of the world would be together instead of being the prized possessions of the Mitchs and the Kerris, realists smart enough to know that human nature was all about control. Mitch was a natural winner. He was a big shot at school and would be a big shot in the business world when he graduated. It was his nature to find and marry a good woman like Donna just as much as it was his nature to have a little something on the side, to have his cake and eat it too, to have control. There was no doubt that he loved Donna. His true happiness depended on keeping her. Lying was a necessary part of the equation. Otherwise, she’d be gone; he’d be heartbroken and so determined to get her back that he would be under her control. So he agreed to Donna’s impossible conditions with no intention whatsoever of upholding them and he kept control. This was all unspoken, of course, but Kerri understood it perfectly. Mitch knew she did. That’s why he hit on her every time Donna turned her back, and, at a party last summer, Kerri had fucked him in the back seat of this very car.

Donna didn’t know and never would. It was between Kerri and Mitch. He wasn’t going to tell and neither would she. Unless he pissed her off. Then, she would have to come clean to her friend, crying hysterically for days prior to the confession, forcing Donna to drag it out of her. But Mitch knew better than to piss her off. And if they got caught by some other means, flat-out denial worked ninety-five percent of the time. On those very rare occasions when it didn’t work, lots of tears, deep regret, and solemn promises usually did. Of course, the betrayed would need to know
why?
Again, through tears, the standard explanations would be employed: “We were wasted and it just happened” or “We were both upset and weren’t thinking.” Neither of which was true because, despite the Donnas’ and the Seths’ great admiration for the truth, they couldn’t even conceive it, much less accept it. Why did Mitch and Kerri fuck that night? The truth? Because they could. It turned a boring night into a semi-interesting one. It was fun. It was something to do.

A sick panic rose inside of her as she wondered again, what was Seth doing at that bar? Either scenario—he knew she was there or he was looking to hook up—was bad but the latter bothered her most. He still hadn’t returned her text and that was a bad sign. Whatever was going on, she had to get to the bottom of it.

“I swear, you’re worse than Mitch!” Donna said.

“What are you talking about?” Kerri asked, her heart starting to run.

“You are not even listening to me!”

“I don’t feel well,” Kerri said.

“What? What do you mean?”

“I feel clammy. My stomach is upset. Maybe it was one of the drinks. When we get to the Red Wolf, I need to get my car and go home.”

“Are you sure you—”

“I’m sure, Donna,” Kerri said, her eyes welling with tears.

A
fter finding Kerri’s house
dark
and the garage empty, Seth’s addled mind had come up with several places where he might find her. A bar called The Abyss was the second of those. Shorty after walking in, he’d been approached by two young girls. Like in a dream, they were at once familiar and strange, especially the hot one who was clearly out of her element as the pursuer. She was too forward, too fast and then abruptly, they were gone. The encounter had snapped him out of the trance-like state he was in.

He felt so lonely. Not for Kerri but for himself. Who was this man stalking his girlfriend in a crowd of lost, young souls gyrating against each other amid a deafening noise that could hardly be called music? Who was this man whose brain was soaked in a flask of another man’s booze? How in God’s name did he get here?

The phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He took it out and looked at it. Kerri was calling.

Don’t answer it.

But he wanted to. He wanted to tell her that he knew she was lying to him about being home sick. That he’d finally caught her.

But you didn’t catch her.

No, he didn’t. Not really. There was a very logical and indisputable reason why she was not home in bed right now and if he answered the phone, he would hear it.

He silenced the phone, slipped it back into his pocket. Standing there, he felt like he was in the middle of a deep, dark tunnel, and while he was trying to decide whether he should try to get through to the other side or turn around and go back, he realized that he’d become so discombobulated that he didn’t know which way was which. He was just standing there in total darkness.

But he couldn’t stand there forever so he picked a direction and started walking. He moved through the pounding music of the club and into the cool quiet of the night. “Ticket?” the valet asked him.

“I walked,” he said. This was partly true. For some reason he no longer remembered, he’d parked in the Giant Eagle parking lot a few blocks away.

“Seth!”

He stopped and turned around. Another surreal moment. The guy with the gargoyle tattooed on his head was striding toward him looking like a rabid dog. He was smaller than he looked on the website but meaner and all kinds of fucked up. It radiated off of him. Hate. Anger. Seth’s heart started to race. Fight or flight, he thought, absently. “Levi.”

“How the fuck do you know my name?”

Kerri had never told him the name of the creep with the tattooed head that came into the store where she worked. Seth had gotten the name from the website. So…the website had been real; it had existed. Kerri Engel was a goddamned liar. And worse. Much worse but there was no time to think about that right now because Levi was right up on him.

“I said, ‘How do you know my name?’” His teeth were chipped and his breath smelled of cigarettes.

“Kerri’s website. How do you know mine?”

“Ex-boyfriend means ex-boyfriend, asshole, as in no more. Leave Kerri alone or you’ll be sorry you were ever born.”

This was beyond bizarre. “Ex-boyfriend is right. While you’re playing messenger, you might want to let her know we’re no longer together.” He turned to go and Levi grabbed his shirt and jerked him around.

“I’m not done talking to you yet.”

An instant, blinding hatred overwhelmed him. Not since high school had he been face to face with someone like this, a bully he was certain, someone looking for trouble and determined to find it. Nothing Seth could say was going to change the direction of what the son of a bitch was here for and talking was only going to give him more of an edge than he already had. “Yes, you are,” Seth said and slammed his forehead into the guy’s face and then they were on the ground, rolling over the gravel, hitting, grabbing, pulling, punching.

Everything was happening so fast, so unbelievably fast. He was hitting as hard and as quickly as he could but he was getting hit a lot too, in the face, in the ribs. Again and again. His ears were ringing, his mouth was bleeding. They turned over and over. Dirt, rocks, blood. Somehow, Seth was on top hitting the guy’s face.

Smash it in! Break his face in! Kill him! Kill him or he is going to kill you!

A large arm came around Seth’s neck and jerked him backwards and onto his feet. He couldn’t breathe. He tried to pry the big arm away but he couldn’t. He was being dragged backwards fast. The guy whipped around in front of him and slammed Seth’s back against the side of a dumpster, holding him at arm’s length, yelling at him. “Calm down, Seth! It’s me. Remember me? I’m on your side! Relax, man!”