Page 38 of Jesse

And now I know who they are.

Bright Berry Beach Cosmetics.

Then the realization kicks in hard.

I dated/fucked/lied to all four of them.

Well, not Emma. I didn’t lie to her. I liked her. I fell hard for that girl in the pigtails. And now that I know who she is I can’t stop seeing her face in my mind.

The last thing I need is for him to figure out I’m the stupid mastermind of this shit show.

That lingers in my head as well.

This was all her plan.

After they leave I just sit in my chair fuming. So pissed off. They really are going to leave me here all night, then drug me again tomorrow and… what? Hope I’ll just forget this all happened? Be so riddled with guilt about how I used them I’ll let it go?

No. Fuck that.

As soon as I get out of this mess I’m calling Johnny. I will ruin them. Every single one of them.

I doze off for a while, the drugs still swirling around in my blood, then wake up abruptly when the familiar sound of a garage door opening rumbles through the house.

Then listen as somewhere upstairs a door opens and closes. Then another. And footsteps on the stairs.

Maybe they changed their minds on the way home?

The door to my room opens and Emma appears.

We stare at each other for a few seconds.

“Well,” I say. “What the fuck do you want?”

She leans against the doorway and folds her arms across her chest. She’s still in the pretty red gown from the auction. Her hair—which was up a very sophisticated up-do when this night started—is falling all over the place, kinda framing her face and reminding me of the pigtails she wore back when we met at the beach.

“I’m letting you go.”

“So do that,” I snap. “Untie me. Right the fuck now.”

“Do you know who I am?”

“I know,” I snarl.

“So you remember now?”

“I remembered back at my house. I was just about to bring it up when the drugs hit my system.”

“Were you?” she says, furrowing her brow. Then she frowns and all those memories of her perfect, pouty lips threaten to overcome my anger. “You were not. This is just another lie, isn’t it?”

I sigh and shake my head. “Fuck you. You drugged me, Emma. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been clean? How long it took me to get clean?”

“What?”

I laugh. Kinda loud. “Oh, never thought of that, did you? I cannot fucking believe you did this.”

She frowns. Then pouts. And damn. I know I hate her but… I really, really like that pout. “I’m sorry,” she says.

“What the hell? Just what the actual fuck? How long have you and your little friends been plotting this bullshit plan?”