The Debt 5 (10 page)

She already was exhausted from dealing
with the anxiety of watching her friend suffer, worrying for Skylar’s wellbeing
and trying to put up a positive front all at once.
 
Knowing that there was going to be nearly
two months of this for Skylar was terrifying.
 
And there was no telling how her body
would react to all of the drugs they were pumping into her system—it was
essentially poisoning her, hoping to kill off the cancer before doing too much
damage to the rest of her.

When Raven finally got to the cafeteria,
there was already plenty of people milling about, getting food from the various
different stations, or sitting at the tables.
 
There were doctors, nurses, patients and
families, and there were also students, since Boston Memorial was a teaching hospital
as well.

She decided to get a precooked
cheeseburger, because there was no line and it was simpler than standing around
and waiting to get pork loin or roast turkey.
 
The cheeseburger came in a bright foil
package that was greasy to the touch.
 
Then, Raven grabbed herself a Diet Coke and some potato chips before
paying.

As she left the register, Raven scanned
the brightly lit room for an empty table, and didn’t see any.
 

“Crowded, huh?” a woman said, coming up
next to her.

Raven glanced at the woman.
 
“Yeah, it is.
 
Feels like high school all over again.”

“Tell me about it.”
 
The woman grinned.
 
She was short, with frizzy red hair and
freckles.
 
Raven instantly liked her
for some reason.

“I guess I’ll just have to bite the
bullet and sit with strangers,” Raven said.

“Wait, I think I see some people getting
up.
 
I’ll go grab a table for us!”
the lady said, and then she was off like a rocket, racing to get to the newly
open table before someone else tried to claim it as their own.

Raven chuckled at the sight of the
smaller woman as she barely dodged a group of students, who looked at her like
she was a fool.

Finally, the redhead was able to sit, and
she waved Raven over.
 
By the time
Raven got there, her new friend was still breathing heavy.

“I knew I quit smoking for a reason,” she
said, as Raven sat down.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Raven told
her, smiling.

“But you’re glad I did, aren’t you?”

“Yes, of course.
 
Now I feel like I should buy you a
cookie or something.”

The woman shook her head.
 
“Don’t give it another thought.”
 
She had a cellophane wrapped tuna
sandwich and a bottle of water.
 
She
slowly and painstakingly began unwrapping her sandwich.
 
“My name’s Bri, by the way.”

“I’m Raven.
 
Nice to meet you.”

Bri nodded, got half her sandwich unwrapped
and started eating it with gusto.
 
“Food’s not so bad here.”

Raven couldn’t say the same about her
cheeseburger.
 
It tasted like it had
been made with mostly soy and microwaved until it turned into a hockey
puck.
 
But she was hungry enough to
eat
it,
especially once she’d dumped enough ketchup
and mustard on the burger to make it less offensive.

“Do you work here?” Raven asked, after
swallowing a particularly unsatisfying bite.

Bri shrugged.
 
“I’m a freelancer.”

“Oh.” Raven wasn’t sure what that even meant,
but decided to let it go.

“What about you?” Bri asked, her green
eyes suddenly piercing.
 
“What
brings you here, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“My friend’s getting treatment and I’m
here for support.”

“Ah,” Bri said.
 
“I get it.
 
That’s nice your friend has you.”

“I’m lucky to have her.”

Bri laughed, took a sip of water.
 
Suddenly, her eyes crinkled up.
 
“You look really familiar,” she
said.
 
“Do we know each other from
somewhere?”

Raven stared at her.
 
“I don’t think so.”
 
And then it hit her.
 
The woman probably recognized her from
seeing a story about her on TV or maybe online.

It seemed to dawn on Bri as well, because
she snapped her fingers.
 
“Yeah, I
just remembered.
 
I read about
you!
 
You’re that girl who’s dating
Jake Novak, aren’t you?”

Raven’s stomach went cold.
 
She glanced around but nobody had heard
the question, thankfully.
 
“Sorry, I
don’t really feel comfortable talking about that.”

Bri looked aghast.
 
“Oh, Jeez.
 
I hope I didn’t offend you.”

“No, not at all.”
 
Raven tried to smile but it felt frozen
and fake.
 
“I just don’t really talk
about that stuff.”

“Oh, totally.
 
I’m so sorry.”
 
Bri went back to eating her
sandwich.
 
“It’s just that I’m kind
of a closet Jake Novak fan,” she said, as if imparting state secrets.

Raven tried again to smile, but now she
was looking around, trying to think of how she could escape the situation
without seeming too rude.
 
“Hey,
there are a lot of those,” she said, lamely.

Bri appeared to sense the shift in
Raven’s demeanor.
 
“Listen, I didn’t
mean to put you off.
 
It’s
just—are you two still an item?
 
I’m so curious.”

Raven looked at her.
 
Alarm bells were going off, for some
reason.
 
Why did this total stranger
keep asking about her and Jake’s relationship?

As Raven stared at Bri, she noticed that
the redhead was carrying a laptop case.
 
It wasn’t unusual, but combined with her comment about “freelancing” and
the way she’d coincidentally approached Raven out of nowhere—everything
just clicked into place.

“You’re a journalist,” Raven said, and
she didn’t phrase it as a question because she already knew the answer.

Bri’s expression didn’t change.
 
Her beady, piercing eyes stayed trained
on Raven’s face.
 
“I didn’t mean to
mislead you,” Bri said, “but this is my job.”

“Actually, you did mean to mislead me,
but it didn’t work.”
 
Raven tried to
control her mounting anger.
 
“And
you think it’s your job to follow me to a hospital and ambush me when I’m
taking a break from visiting with my sick friend?”

“No, it’s my job to get the story that my
boss tells me to get.”
  

“That’s not my problem,” Raven said,
rising from her seat.
 
“Maybe it’s
time to find a new job.”

And then she started to walk quickly away
from the table, noticed she had crumbled the foil with the remains of her
crappy burger still inside of it, and swerved to throw it away in one of the
garbage bins.

As she exited the cafeteria, Bri scurried
up alongside her.
 
“I know you’re
angry, but we’re not done here just yet.”

“Oh, yes we are.
 
We never even started,” Raven replied,
walking fast and looking straight ahead.

“People are going to be writing stories
about you and Jake.
 
Wouldn’t you at
least prefer we get them right?
 
Don’t you want to respond to the awful things they say about your sex
tape?
 
We both know that you didn’t
have group sex with those boys at the party.”

“I don’t care what they say.
 
They’re going to lie because people like
you eat it all up,” Raven said, and then shut her mouth.
 
She was angry
at
herself for even taking the bait.

“I know you and Jake aren’t together
anymore,” Bri continued.
 
“I just
wanted to get your comment on the fact that he’s already seeing Courtney
Taylor.”

Despite her better instincts, Raven
stopped walking.
 
She looked at the
smaller woman.
 
“Please leave me
alone.
 
Please.”

“I know you find this distasteful,” Bri
said.
 
“But isn’t what Jake’s done
to you even more distasteful?
 
He
used you and threw you away as soon as your past became an inconvenience.
 
And now he’s gallivanting around with a
young pop star, forgetting about the regular girl who gave him her heart.”

Raven wanted to slap Bri, but she kept
her voice calm.
 
“You should be
ashamed of yourself.
 
I’m here to
help my friend and you’re taking advantage of that to leech off my problems.”

For the first time, Bri seemed
defensive.
 
“I’m sorry, but this is
my job.”

“You keep saying that,” Raven replied,
shaking her head slowly.
 
“But it
doesn’t excuse your behavior.”

“At least I tried to get your side of the
story.”

“You’ll publish it either way.
 
You don’t care whether it’s true of not,
you just want something juicy.”

Bri’s cheeks were almost as red as her
hair now.
 
“You know, before I met
you I actually felt sorry for you.
 
I thought Jake was wrong to dump you for Courtney Taylor.
 
But now I totally get it.
 
You don’t deserve him, Raven.”

“Maybe I don’t,” Raven told her.
 
“But I also don’t deserve you.”
 
Raven started to walk faster down the
hallway, and this time the nasty journalist let her go and didn’t try to follow
her.

***

Some hours later, and the first chemo
treatment had mostly been a success, other than the early snafu.
 
Skylar and her mother were on their way
home and Raven was walking back to her apartment, trying to clear her head.

Her thoughts were racing, ever since
she’d had that horrible encounter with the journalist.

It scared Raven to know that there were
people who knew what she looked like, knew her name, and they were trying to
follow her and anticipate her whereabouts in order to break a story.

The worst part of it was that she’d let
that woman get under her skin, especially the comments about Jake starting to
see Courtney Taylor.
 
Was it
possible that the journalist had just been trying to get a reaction, spreading
a rumor or outright lying?

Yes, it was very possible.
 
It was also possible that Jake and
Courtney were actually involved.
 
Courtney was young, beautiful, and had
clearly been smitten with Jake, based on her behavior when she’d met him
backstage.

And Jake clearly didn’t mind taking
advantage of his status with the ladies to get what he wanted.

But was Courtney what he wanted?

She
doesn’t look at all his type
,
Raven thought, and then cracked a smile.

She was actually taking comfort in the
fact that Courtney Taylor didn’t look as much like Jake’s dead fiancé as Raven
did.

That was bizarre and twisted, and yet, it
did serve to calm her a bit.

The
tabloids always want to make something out of nothing.
 
You should know better than to believe
anything they say.

As she walked towards home, Raven drifted
into fantasy about going to Jake’s show that night.
 
What would he do if she decided to just
confront him about everything?
 
What
if she admitted her true feelings to him—would he really shoot her down
and tell her he felt nothing in return?

Probably, she decided.

Raven was stepping off the curb to cross
the street at a red light when a car came skidding around the corner at a high
speed.
 
It was headed right for her,
and her life flashed before her eyes.

But at the last moment, a pair of strong
arms grabbed her, pulling her out of the way, as the car skidded to a halt just
a few feet away.

“Oh my God,” she said, her heart racing,
legs shaking from the close call.

“Lady, you better watch your step or
you’re going to get killed,” the large man said.
 

She knew that voice.
 
Turning to look up at him, she saw Max
Mendez sneering down at her.