Chapter Two

On a warm summer night two years ago in June, I had come home earlier than expected from a trip to the mall with Kyra. Quietly opening my bedroom door, hearing slapping sounds of skin on skin from within, I balked at the sight of Randy fucking Katie Connelly in the ass on my bed.

I remember every single moment of that horrible night. The sinking sensation inside my chest as my heart shattered into a million pieces. The bile rose to my throat and my stomach dropped to the floor. Standing there in shock with my arms slack at my sides, motionless, gaping as the two of them scrambled off of the bed and away from each other after catching sight of me in the doorway.

The image of Randy’s stunned face right before my fist connected with his nose. The punch broke his nose with a loud crack, spraying blood all over his face and chest. I didn’t notice the damage I had done to his nose while so distraught and screaming at him.

“How could you fucking do this to me?!” I shrieked over and over in his face, pounding my fists against his bare chest. “Tell me now! What the hell did I do to deserve this!”

Pinching his nose with one hand trying to slow the blood pouring out, Randy holds out the other, attempting to block my rage.

“Leslie, stop, please. I’m so sorry. I can explain... Ow!”

Smack! The sickly sound of my fist connecting with his face again shuts him up. My knuckles are throbbing and are starting to swell.

“Don’t you dare try to explain this away, you worthless piece of shit. You reek of her perfume and sex.” I seethe, standing over Randy who is on his ass slumped against the wall. I fled from our bedroom and ran into the spare room, locking the door behind me.

The sounds of Katie and Kyra screaming at each other while Kyra runs after Katie, throwing her skanky black tube-style mini dress and silver metallic clutch at her.

“Get the fuck out of here you home-wrecking slut!” Kyra shouts, chasing a blubbering Katie out of the apartment.

Kyra had met me at the ferry docks on the mainland earlier that morning to hang out at the mall for the day. We decided after having such a fun time together that she should come over to spend the night to watch movies with Randy and me. She was right behind me when I opened the bedroom door and saw the abomination occurring on my bed.

It was Kyra who called Nick that night, explaining what had happened and asking if he could come and pick up Randy before one of us ended up murdering him. Arriving a short while later, Nick had to practically drag Randy away, who was refusing to leave from where he was sitting on the floor, slumped against the locked spare bedroom door.

Randy was crying and apologizing repeatedly, begging me to open the door so he could talk to me. I had locked myself inside and lay curled up in a ball in the far corner of the daybed. In the dark room with the covers pulled over my head, I sob silently with my face smashed into a pillow. I've never experienced raw emotional pain like I did that night. Wishing desperately to go back in time in hopes of preventing Randy from committing the ultimate betrayal. Listening to the angry words, Nick growled at him on the other side of the door.

“Let’s go Randy. Get off your ass and grab some clean clothes. I can’t believe you fucking did this to Leslie. You don’t deserve her.”

“No, I don’t deserve her. I can’t believe I did this. Everything is so fuzzy... I really fucked up this time.” Randy’s words are slightly slurred and thick with remorse.

“Yeah, that’s what happens when your so shit faced all the time. Now come on, you’re just making this harder for everyone.” Nick demanded impatiently.

Kyra’s sharp infuriated voice rises over both of the men’s. “Seriously Randy! Get the fuck out of here now! She isn’t going to open that door!”

“I know. I just wanted to tell her face to face how sorry I am. You’re my whole world Leslie, please believe I didn’t mean any of this. I love you…”

His soft broken words are spikes driven through my bleeding heart. I didn’t move from the bed, even though a part of me wanted to. A small part of me desired to open the door and punch him in the face one more time before hearing him out. There was an even bigger part of me, however, that had never forgotten about the troubling history between Randy, Katie and me. A history that played a major role in bringing Randy and I together during our senior year.

***

Boarding the public transportation bus with Draco in tow sleeping inside his carrier, I made a b-line for a window seat. Hopefully, a nice view will distract me from my troubling thoughts. My plan almost worked until I noticed the ad attached to the back of the molded tan plastic seat in front of me, promoting Katie’s father's urgent care facility he had recently built and opened on Mt. Desart Island. Ugh. I can’t ever seem to catch a break from having Katie thrown in my face on a constant basis.

I hate that stupid good for nothing twat…

Katie graduated in the same class as Randy and I. She was our high school's ultra popular, stuck-up Prom queen. Practically every male and even some females drooled whenever she graced the high schools‘ hallways or cafeteria with her presence. Katie was all too aware of how hot she was and of the fact that she could have practically any guy she curled her slender perfectly manicured finger at.

Her father is the area’s top family general practitioner, so, naturally, he’s more than well off. Katie is your typical platinum blond, big-tits, whorish, richie-rich daddy’s girl.

For her sixteenth birthday, Daddy surprised her at school by having a fully loaded BMW coupe convertible delivered in front of the school for everyone to see at the end of the day. A giant red bow was stuck on the vehicle's hood and a custom birthday banner with Katie’s name on it hung from the shiny chrome grill.

Katie totaled the BMW less than a year after receiving it, taking a sharp corner way too fast and lost control of the sports car. Other than a broken arm and getting banged up, she was lucky to have survived the crash.

Of all the girls Randy could have cheated on me with, the fact that it was with Katie Connelly was the ultimate slap in the face, even though how it happened wasn't entirely his fault. Randy and Katie had dated on and off for a couple of years throughout high school. That is until he walked in on her bouncing on the captain of the football team’s lap before an away game in the back of the locker room.

But that’s a small part of why it was such a slap in the face. Katie was ruthless and cruel in high school, ensuring all the girls knew she was the top bitch. I, on the other hand, was the complete opposite; shy, kept to myself and focused on my school work with a few close friends.

***

Towards the end of our senior year, Katie had noticed Randy talking with me in the hallway a few times and apparently wasn’t fond of the attention I was receiving from him.

Stepping up to my locker one morning at the start of the school day, I pinched my nose because it smelled like something had died in the building. Standing there, my heart sinks when I saw the smashed dial lock lying on the floor in front of my locker. Great, someone freaking broke into my locker…

Glimpsing around, I notice everyone else’s noses are covered and scrunched up from the rotten smell flooding the hallway. Slowly pulling my locker door open, expecting it to be trashed, I’m instead greeted by the reek of a thousand corpses punching me in the face.

Barely able to see because my eyes are watering so badly as I gag, I gap in horror at the bottom of my locker. Forcing the surge of vomit back down my throat, a choked sob escapes recognizing what I’m looking at. The bottom of my locker is filled with liquid chum; a bloody soup of decaying fish heads, carcasses, and bones.

Struggling to contain my shock and disgust, I slowly turned around to find the entire hallway of students behind me silent, and clearly avoiding eye contact with me. Everyone was aware that someone played a sick, cruel joke on me. There’s one person, however, who has the balls to look at me. Katie Connelly is scowling at me, with her arms crossed and back against the wall directly across the hall with a vicious smirk on her perfect glossy pink pouty lips.

“You stupid crazy bitch!”

Randy’s low gritted voice startled me, at first thinking his ire was towards me. Turning to the side, I found him glaring daggers at Katie and standing beside me. I hadn’t realized that at some point while discovering the chum at the bottom of my locker, Randy had come up beside me.

Katie narrowed her eyes at him and sneered. “Fuck off, Randy.”

Squeezing my fingers painfully around the pile of textbooks I’m hugging to my chest, tears prick in my eyes. “Why?” I croak, not realizing I had spoken the question out loud.

“Why would someone do something so cruel to sweet little Leslie?” She snickers innocently. “Well, if I had to guess, maybe it’s to send a message, warning ugly little girls to stay away from things that don’t belong to them.”

Randy growls, storming over to Katie. Grabbing her by the arm, he snarls at her. “That’s all I ever was to you, wasn’t I? A thing for you to fuck and use!”

Not in the least bothered by Randy’s death grip around her arm, Katie's eyes remain locked on me. “You were a fantastic fuck, Randy. I’ll never forget all that time we spent together; me on my knees with you slamming your dick into me over and over again.”

“You’re a monster.” Randy hisses, jerking Katie within an inch of his face. “I promise I’ll make you regret this. Don’t ever come near me or Leslie again.”

At the same moment, the final bell rings for the first hour, Katie yanks her arm out of Randy’s grip, flicking her long, silky blond hair behind her shoulder. “Don’t you threaten me for something I had nothing to do with, asshole.” She snaps, sliding a taunting glance in my direction. “Good luck trying to get that awful stink out of your locker, chummy.”

“You're a fucking cunt Katie!” Randy grits out at her back as she saunters away.

All of my belongings inside the locker are splattered with chum and subsequently ruined. Growing up in a coastal town known for fishing and catching lobster, I’m plenty familiar with the forever reek of fermenting fish guts. Thankfully, I had taken my backpack, school laptop and nearly all of my textbooks home to study for finals.

Not having the faintest clue of where to begin with cleaning the filth swirling around in the bottom of my locker, Randy’s large hand gently rested on my shoulder accompanied by his low somber voice. “The janitor will have the supplies to clean this up if he’s not already on his way here because of the smell.”

Nodding my head, I glanced over my shoulder at him and saw the hallway was now empty of students. Everyone apparently couldn’t wait to clear the halls fast enough due to the stench. A tear trickles down my cheek, unable to contain my emotions anymore.

“I don’t understand, I’ve never done anything to her.” I muttered through my trembling bottom lip, lowering my gaze to the floor.

Sighing, Randy takes the stack of books from my arms and sets them on the ground. “You didn’t do anything wrong and no one deserves this. Katie is a psycho, and I’m the reason she did this, not you.” Brushing the pad of his thumb across my cheek, wiping away my tears, Randy gave me a crooked smile. “She’s jealous that I’ve been talking to you. I had to block her on all of my social media and on my phone because she would not stop blowing me up about it.”

Jealous? Of me? That seems completely absurd. Katie is a world-class beauty queen compared to me.

“I highly doubt that.” I scoff, assuming Randy is just saying that to be nice.

“Its true. Katie can’t stand to see guys or ex’s she possessive of paying attention to other girls. Especially girls who are so naturally gorgeous without spending two hours in front of a mirror every morning like she does.”

My breath hitches realizing how close together Randy and I now are. Taking a step back, my shoulders bump against the lockers behind me. He really thinks I’m gorgeous?

Raising an eyebrow because Randy is totally out of my league, I do what I do best when backed in a corner and respond with sarcasm. He’s tall, athletic and muscular, with short dirty blond hair and golden wind-tanned skin from working on fishing boats with his father. “How do you know I don’t spend two hours in front of the mirror every morning?” I bantered at him.

Taking the bait, Randy moves in close enough that our bodies brush together. The scent of his clean smelling cologne momentarily drowns out the rotten fish stench etching its way out of my nearby locker. Placing both hands on either side of my head, Randy cages me in, peering at me with a flirting glint in his sapphire blue eyes. “Because you don’t come to school with an inch of makeup on your face every day. You’re a natural beauty and Katie can’t stand it.” Giving me a soft peck on the cheek, Randy stepped back, offering his hand out for mine with a charming smile. “Come on, let’s go find the janitor.”

After that day, Randy and I quickly became inseparable. I had always been too soft-spoken and shy throughout school to seriously attract any guy’s attention, let alone be in a serious relationship. Until Randy, that is, who swept me off my feet and was my first in more ways than one.

Being the youngest of three siblings, with one older sister and brother who both lived on their own, meant coming home to an empty house for a few hours after school and all day during the summer. Within a few months of dating, Randy and I took full advantage of having the house all to ourselves. We screwed each other like rabbits nearly every day while my parents were at work.

As an athletic, almost nineteen-year old male, Randy’s stamina was out of this world good. Not having barely any experience with guys before Randy, I quickly learned the joys and pleasures of physical intimacy. Randy was always so tender and patient with me when we first started getting physical and having sex. Once I became comfortable with it, we fucked each other practically every chance we got.

Our relationship was incredible until Randy turned twenty-one and could legally drink. The majority of the time he avoided alcohol prior to turning twenty-one because his father was an abusive drunk. But then he started going out with his buddies to the local bars to watch college football or play pool practically every weekend.

It was fun at first, getting tipsy together with our friends. I always went out with him. Gradually, as the months passed by, Randy couldn’t have fun with a couple of drinks. Almost every time we went out, he drank until he could hardly walk or stand.

I quit going to the bar with him after one night when he threw up all over me and laughed about it while I was sitting on his lap playing a round of darts with our friends.

We were living together at that point in the apartment. I was so mortified and hurt, I stormed out of the bar not even bothering to clean myself off after informing our friend Nick that Randy was his responsibility for the rest of the night and that he needed to spend the night at Nick’s place. I didn’t want to be anywhere near him.

After that night, our relationship slowly started to crumble as Randy’s drinking increasingly became worse. He started becoming belligerent and aggressive with me whenever he drank. Randy would say mean, hurtful things to me, then spend the following day apologizing and trying to make up for it. Attempting to convince me that I shouldn’t take him seriously when he drinks, stating he doesn’t really mean the awful things he says.

I tried so many times to talk with him about it and so did our friends. Especially Kyra. Even when I broke down and poured my heart out to him, expressing my worry that he was heading down the same path as his father, didn’t persuade him to slow down with his drinking. It only made him angry. He would always vehemently deny having a problem.

It’s the excuse he gave at first when I found him and Katie rutting in our bedroom. A few newer friends of his from the bar that I didn’t know really well had stopped by the apartment while Kyra and I were out at the mall together. Apparently, Katie was with these friends, unbeknownst to Randy. That's what he said anyway.

All of them started drinking, smoking pot and playing poker together. According to one of the friends, Adam, who contacted me two days afterward, he explained that what began as a regular poker game, had at some point evolved into strip poker. He tried convincing me that Katie wouldn’t leave Randy alone and that he had told her several times to leave him alone. It didn’t come as a shock when I learned she was the one who suggested playing strip poker with a group of guys and that the winner would win her as the prize. I didn't explain that there were other influences discovered after the fact that affected Randy's behavior and decision-making abilities. It wasn't my place to disclose that information to Adam.

Feeling bad for Randy, his friend swore to me that Randy only had two beers, and they had practically forced Randy and Katie into our room together after Randy won the game. It was done as a joke because Randy was acting so stand-offish with Katie at first. From inside our room, Randy could be heard telling Katie that he wasn’t interested in her, but after a couple of minutes the bickering had stopped. As the other three guys were getting ready to leave, they went back to the bedroom to collect Katie and decided to leave without her, hearing moaning sounds coming from the room.

Randy swore he barely remembered being shoved into our room with Katie by the other guys. Adamant that’s the last thing he clearly remembers until moments before I walked in on them. All of that may very well have been true. As we learned, unfortunately, Katie would do anything necessary to take advantage of a guy. Especially when the guy is acting uninterested in her.

He could have put a stop to all of it though, or prevented it in the first place, and chose not to. He was the one that allowed her into the apartment, knowing full well how terrible and manipulative she was. Randy didn’t shut down the suggestion of strip poker when she brought it up, and went along with Katie offering herself as the winners pot. Then he proceeded to win the game.

The weeks that ensued after catching Randy cheating on me are little more than a blur. Kyra and I went through the apartment first thing the next morning and piled all of Randy’s clothes and belongings in the middle of the living room. Hearing my phone go off for the ten thousandth time from Randy either calling or texting me nonstop, I couldn’t stand it any longer and turned my phone off for a while. Not before taking a glimpse at the most recent messages he’s sent however.

Baby, please, please answer. I really need to talk to you.

I made a horrible mistake that I can’t ever take back.

You’re my everything. I’ll never drink again, I promise. Please let me come over and talk to you.