The Essential Bride

The Essential Bride (3)

I woke up the next morning and groaned, pulling a wadded up twenty from my bra. I must have missed it last night while I was changing. It was all ready noon, but all I wanted to do was stay in bed just a little longer, and then it dawned on me I had no reason to get up, I had no work this Sunday night, had a paper due tomorrow that I could write on my laptop in bed and I smiled wide as I clicked my TV on with my remote.

My smiled vanished instantly as an urgent broadcast played on what usually was MTV.

"Daniel Geyser. Age: Twenty-Four. Male. 6'3. Last seen last night around eleven outside The Pink Panther Gentlemen's Club on route 93. If anyone has any information on his whereabouts please contact..." I phased out as a picture of the blonde got wider on my TV screen. It was the same blonde last night that kissed me. The same blonde was staring at me, smiling wide, showing all of his pearly white teeth, it made me sick. It made me feel responsible and I didn't know why.

****

 I felt disgusting Monday morning, as I sat in math class with my best friend. I wanted to tell her what had happened, but there was no way I could without revealing to her that I secretly worked in a strip club and that was the last thing I wanted to take place.

"Are you feeling okay Demi? You look kind of sick." I closed my eyes tightly and laid my head on the table in front of us. Mr. West was droning on in the front of the classroom, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his voice had put everyone to sleep, or in a state of it at least.

"No, I think I'm going to hurl." I said into the wood of the desk, and Stephanie started rubbing my back.

"You could go to the nurse and get a pass to leave, or I could just drive you home now." My best friend proposed, and I felt the urge to smile. But if I was alone in a car with her I would be tempted to confess everything, just so I could get it off my chest and hope for the best.

            I hoped that guy was okay. I hoped he was just lost in a ditch somewhere passed out drunk, and unharmed in any way.  How could Randy explain that guy going missing? Randy didn't do anything. Randy would rough you up a little bit in the back alley but then let you go on your way. He wasn't capable of...

            I swallowed hard, Randy is. Randy is capable of killing someone, but he wouldn't. Randy has girls at home, and a wife; he wouldn't do that. I stood up without saying anything to my best friend and swayed a little. She was instantly beside me, "Hey, careful." She grabbed my elbow like I was a part of the elderly and steadied my walk. "We're leaving Mr. West. Demetria is obviously not well enough to sit in class." I didn't hear him say anything as we exited the classroom. Steph pulled me up to a wall and I looked up at her through wet lashes. I wasn't even aware I was crying.

"Hey... are you okay? Still partially hung over? I know how you get after a night of partying, but that was two nights ago-" She rambled.

"I'll be fine. I think I'm just tired." Which was true, I was tired. I had barely slept even an hour last night because I was trying to think of what to say to the cops when they started asking questions. Would I lie for Randy? He would kill someone for me... literally maybe. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise again, and this time a tingly sensation ran down my spine. I ignored it though.

"Alright well, you should just take the unexcused absence. You look horrible, let's just go." I stood on my own, my dizziness going away. She smiled lightly at me as we started our way down the hallway.

"Is that the kind of school we have girls?" Someone behind us asked, and Stephanie and I froze. That voice... "We should be setting a good example for our new student, but here you two are dipping out before even period one is finished."

Both of us turned around to face the principal, Mr. Aines who was standing with a new student. I could hear Stephanie audibly lose all her breath, and I don't think it was because it was handsome but because he looked like he was youngest age he could be to pass for to get into this place. But to me, it felt like the air got punched out of my lungs, and I felt the color drain from my face.

 The tingles that hadn't gone away intensified as I stared at the new guy.

"Well, where were you two going?" Mr. Aines asked, and before either could answer I bent over at the waist and threw up right at all of our feet. Everyone but the new guy jumped back, and Stephanie instantly grabbed me.

"Clearly I was trying to get her home, because she doesn't feel well enough to be here and I'm her ride." Aines seemed stunned silent, and I kept my head down, refusing to look at the new guy again.

We made it outside without any more troubles, but I felt even more ill than before. The new guy, the one who looked too old to be here, he knew I worked at the gentlemen's club because it was the same guy who was watching me Saturday night, the impossibly handsome one with piercing blue eyes.

In the car, I was silent. Stephanie thought it was because I was sick, and I was but it was mostly because work had finally met my education, and that guy... was too familiar for my liking.

 At home my Mom was making herself a cup of coffee, I had cut Stephanie off mid rant about how old the new guy looked and how he didn't belong in high school, to tell her I could walk up my walkway by myself. "Oh honey, what are you doing here so early in the school?" She asked, and then took one look at me. "You look terrible!" I was starting to hear that a lot. "Let's get you up to bed, I have the next couple days off I will nurse you back to health."

"Thanks Mom." I didn't believe her when she said she would be here for the next couple of days to make sure I was feeling better. She always left randomly, I had gotten used to it. I've been alone since I was fourteen, but I was thankful that I wasn't alone right now. She made me feel safe, safer than I did by myself.

Any thoughts?