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“Yeah! Sorry. I’m just surprised to see you. What are you doing here? With ice cream?”
She looked around and nodded. “This will be nice. I like it.”
“Nat?”
She finally met my gaze and sighed. “I heard a few rumors around campus. I don’t care what’s true or what’s not true. I just want to be here for my best friend.”
I sank onto the mattress and wrapped my arms around myself. “I guess this is what I get for involving myself with guys that this campus is obsessed with.”
“Fuck all of that. Let’s just eat this ice cream and talk about whatever you want to talk about. You can help me pick out a new football team to cheer for. God knows I’m done with this fucking team. The Crocs? Really? What? Are we a school of rubber shoes? Lame.”
49
***Vaughn***
Iwoke up with a splitting headache and was so disoriented that I didn’t know where I was. Dad was standing over me, shouting, and I had a weird moment of feeling like I was still a kid living at home with him. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, trying to understand what he was shouting about.
“Look at this place! Son, I don’t know what got into you, but this isn’t right. I’m ashamed of the way you acted and I’ve never had to say that before.”
I looked around and felt a wave of horror and nausea as I saw the state of the living room. There were people passed out all over the place and the house was wrecked. I was on one end of the couch and there was a girl I didn’t recognize on the other end, curled up without a shirt on. Dad’s words started to sink in just when I saw Fisher stumble to his feet and run towards the kitchen.
“Honest to god, Vaughn, I want to shake you. Get the hell up and get these people out of there. Right now. I’m just getting started ripping you a new one and I can’t imagine you want your fan club to hear what I have to say. Although, I don’t know why I’m affording you any privacy and dignity when god knows you didn’t give any to Ellie last night.”
Ella. I grabbed my throbbing head and groaned. “Where is she?”
Dad stood with his hands on his hips. “Not here, Vaughn. And she’s not going to be here ever again. I’m going to pack her stuff up. These people need to be gone when I get back down here.”
He stomped away and I forced myself to get up. The room spun around me for a few seconds before I could take my first steps. I didn’t make it five feet before Fisher came back, pale and shaky.
“I’ve never felt this close to death before.” He leaned against the doorway and dry heaved twice before he managed to swallow down the urge. “Was that your dad shouting?”
I nodded, still processing everything I’d heard.
“What was he yelling about? Why’s he so mad?”
Booth came charging down the stairs, eyes red and face just as pale as Fisher’s. He flung open the front door and Fisher and I watched as he leaned his head off the porch and threw up.
“All three of you! Get the hell up here! Right now!” Dad’s voice was angrier than I’d ever heard it. He was furious and a wave of doom hit me. His earlier words started to sink in.
“He’s packing Ella’s stuff up.” I didn’t wait on Fisher or Booth to follow me. I figured whatever Dad wanted to yell about, it was only fair that I take the brunt of it. He was my dad, after all. I stopped short outside of Ella’s bedroom, though, and that feeling of doom grew larger.
“What the fuck?” Booth stumbled past me and ran his hand over the bright red paint smeared across Ella’s door. In giant, bold letters, the word slut was written proudly.
I saw Dad sitting on the edge of Ella’s bed, clutching something in his fist. I actually took a step back when he looked up at me, the anger and disappointment I saw on his face so jarring.
“Come in here.” His voice was hard as he stood up and motioned at the room around him. “Come see what you did.”
Walking into the room, my body sagged as I saw why Dad was so angry. Ella’s room was trashed. Her stuff was thrown all around the room and it smelled like beer and god only knew what else had been spilled everywhere. More slurs adorned the walls and I finally saw what Dad had in his hands. Ella’s stuffed animal.
“I was angry when I came over here. I had to watch Ellie cry her eyes out last night for hours. I didn’t want to believe that the son I raised to be a good man could treat anyone the way she was treated.” He held the stuffed animal out to me. “What am I supposed to tell her about this? When she’s already so hurt over how you treated her? How do I tell her that all of her stuff is basically ruined, but worst of all, the stuffed animal she’s had since before we ever knew her was ripped to pieces by your friends.”
I swallowed, the real weight of everything sinking in. “I didn’t know-”
“Shut up.” Dad pointed at me with Connie, pieces of the stuffing dangling from his hand. “I could’ve forgiven you for sleeping with her. I don’t love it but I could’ve gotten over it. I could’ve forgiven a messy breakup or some bad blood between the two of you. But this? Vaughn, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this. You three humiliated her. You used her and then you threw her to your wolves. I can’t even look at you right now.”
I had flashes of memory from the night before. Ella trying to get our attention. Ella being pushed around as people called her names. Her face before she left. I bent forward and covered my face with my hands. Her face. I knew I could live a thousand years and her face would still haunt me.
“You want to know the worst part? She was with me before she came back here last night. She was coming to apologize to you. Whatever happened between the two of you, she was beating herself up about it.” He pushed Connie into my chest and stared me down with a look of disgust I’d never seen from him. “I have to go tell her that she has nothing left here. The silver lining is that she can leave this place without too much trouble now.”
