HARDCORE: Storm MC(188)
“I guess not.”
“You didn’t seem to mind that I did.”
“If I minded, I wouldn’t have stayed. I would have kneed you in the balls, probably.”
I winced. “Thank God, then. But, ya know, if you ever feel like you wanna do that…don’t. Okay?”
Jamie giggled. “Okay. Point taken.” She pulled the blankets tight around herself, tucked under her arm. “Would it be too painfully cliché if I asked what you were thinking about when I was asleep?”
“Not too painful. Just a little.”
“So? What were you thinking about?”
I frowned and rolled over to face her. “It’ll sound corny.”
“So what? I won’t laugh. I won’t even judge you.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“Come on.” She smiled. “Tell me.”
“I was thinking about Rae.” I watched as her face changed.
“Not a good move, telling a woman you were thinking about another woman right after you had sex.”
I put my face in my pillow so the rest of the house wouldn’t hear me laughing. “I’m sorry,” I said with chuckle. “I didn’t mean it that way. God, you always find some way to be pissed at me.”
“Why were you thinking about her, then?”
I got my thoughts together before saying anything. “I want you to know something about her, to be fair, you know? She used to be a different person. I was just thinking before you woke up that I can see how Gigi turned out the way she did. Rae was a lot like her.”
“How long did you know her?”
“Since we were sixteen, I think. I dropped out of school, but she graduated. She was a good student, too—not smart, really, but she tried hard. She went through a lot of shit growing up. Her dad split, her mom always had guys going in and out. I know at least one molested Rae.”
“Oh jeez.” Jamie’s face darkened.
“So yeah, she already had her issues. But she was a good person. Sweet. She cared about other people. She was a good friend. A good girlfriend. Honest. Faithful to me. She made me happy. I can admit that.”
“It’s sweet that you can,” Jamie murmured. “A lot of people can’t after a breakup.”
“Yeah, well, I was the one who broke up with her. I saw what the drugs did to her, and I knew she wouldn’t stop just because I asked her to. It wasn’t an easy choice. It took months for me to go through with it.” I thought back to the look on Rae’s face when I told her we had to end it. I wondered if she knew then about Gigi.
“This is gonna sound stupid, but do you know Gigi’s birthday?”
She closed her eyes. “Um, she had it during the school year. In September. I don’t remember the exact date, but it was late in the month.”
I thought about. I broke up with Rae just before Valentine’s—I couldn’t go through the motions. Eight months before Gigi’s birthday.
“Do you think she could have known she was pregnant?” I asked Jamie. “If I broke it off in mid-February?”
She did some quick math. “She would have been around a month, maybe two. She might have known by then, yes.”
“Shit.” I felt like the world’s biggest asshole.
“You didn’t know. She didn’t tell you. What were you supposed to do? Hang around for the rest of your life in case she got pregnant? That doesn’t make sense. It was her choice not to tell you. I’m still not sure why she didn’t.”
“I don’t know either. I guess I’ll never know. When I track her down, I’ll have a lot more questions to ask her. More important questions.”
“So you’re going after her?”
“Later today, like I said.”
“What are you doing?”
I sized her up. She wasn’t gonna let go of it unless I told her. “I went to the house today, like I told you.”
“Right. A very nice place, huh? Like something out of Better Homes & Gardens.”
I smirked. “Yeah. There was a receipt for a bus ticket. She’s leaving for New York at six o’clock. I’ll be waiting for her.”
Jamie’s eyes went wide. They were so clear, so beautiful. I wanted to stare into them forever. “She’s running away?”
“Looks like it.”
“I can’t believe she waited an entire week to do it.”
I never thought about that before. “What do you think that means?”
She rolled onto her back, a hand on her forehead. “Let me think. Let me think. What if, when she met up with this Scarecrow guy—nice name, by the way—he had her do things for him? What if she was working off a debt to him? I mean, let’s be honest. She didn’t have a lot of money. How was she paying for the drugs?”