Everything But (37 page)

Ron placed his hands on her cheeks, making her look in his eyes.  “Erin, don’t be rash.  Don’t you get it?  This is just a fling, and I’m glad you’ve done it.  Everyone should have a little fun.  But think about it. 
Really
think about it.  What is the life you want?  Do you want to continue shaping young minds, helping to lead them down
a steady path, or would you rather follow a rock star all over the world, while other women make plays for him all the time?”

Erin cooled.
  He was awfully presumptuous.

“Is he here?  Maybe he can talk some sense into you.  He’ll understand what I’m talking about.”

Ah…so Ron
did
suspect she was hiding something behind the door, but he thought it was a person.  “No, he’s not here right now.”  But if he showed up while Ron grilled her, they’d both find out the way Riley felt. 
S
he didn’t want Ron involved in it at all
, though
.  She wanted him to leave.

Instead, Ron seemed to take that as an invitation.  “So he’s not even here when you really need him?”  He leaned forward, so s
he placed her hand on his chest to push him away
.  That just seemed to make him think he could go further
.  He tilted her head and laid a kiss on her and she pushed against him until he stopped.  Part of her wanted to deck him but she really didn’t want to
hurt him or resort to violence.  “Stop,” she finally managed and he quit kissing her, even though he kept his hands on her. 
“What the hell is wrong with you?”

He kept his voice low but he didn’t release her.  “Don’t you get it, Erin?  I love you. 
I have for a long time. 
This rock star guy can’t possibly understand that.  Haven’t you seen how the girls swarm around him like he’s a honeycomb?  How can you compete with that?  And how can he resist it?”

Erin wiggled her shoulders but couldn’t get loose.  So she said, “Ron, these things are none of your business.”  She softened her tone.  “And, look, I had no idea you had fallen in love with me.  We’ve never gone out, Ron.  How can you love me?  You hardly know me.”

“I know enough.”

No, he really didn’t.  She suspected Riley had learned more about her in a week than Ron knew from her past three years at Winchester High. 
Ron
hadn’t ever asked her many questions about herself.  Maybe on a date that would change, but it was too late now.  And she had to tell him that.  “Look, Ron, you’re a nice guy, but your timing sucks.  I am dating Riley right now, for better or worse, and I will have an easier time making a decision if you’re not in my face muddying the issues.”

His eyes searched hers but he seemed to understand.  He nodded and took a de
ep breath.  He still hadn’t released her, though.  “Could you ever love someone like me?”

Erin inhaled, giving it some thought.  Then she said, “With time, of course.  That’s the problem, Ron.  We know each other in the context of school but not outside it.  How would you feel about
going to
a metal concert, for instance?”

The look on Ron’s face said all she’d ever need to know.

Chapter Thirty-eight

PURE RED RAGE
.
  That’s what Riley was feeling at first.  He should’ve known.  Every goddamn woman he’d ever given a shit about actually loved someone else. 
Marla, Katie…
and
now Erin.
  Why the fuck hadn’t she ever told him she was involved with that nerdy theater guy? 
Riley
could
ha
ve had fun
anyway
,
but
he w
ould have
kept his heart out of it. 
N
ow
, though,
his heart was too inextricably
wound around the thought of her
,
and seeing her with another man was painful.

He took a deep breath.  The urge for alcohol was strong, and the longer he looked up at Erin in that guy
’
s arms, the stronger it got.  Part of him wanted to go up the
re and beat the shit out of the
guy, b
ut all Riley needed was another high publicity misdemeanor or felony for the press to get wind of.  They loved that shit and he was tired of perpetuating the bad boy stereotype.  So while he clenched his jaw so hard he thought his teeth might crack, he noticed the slutty girl’s note
peeking out of the small trash bag hanging off the car lighter
.

Yeah…some fresh (albeit
skanky
) pussy could cure a lot of what was ailing him.

He
opened
the note even though he
didn’t need to.  He remembered…Josie, A-3.  His chest remembered the trail
her finger
had traced down to his navel.  If they hadn’t been outside and he’d been willing, he knew that girl would have kept
her finger
moving down to the tip of his cock.

Yeah
, that could be the cure
.

Oh, he knew it would just be a Band-Aid over a spurting wound, but it would do.  The first fuck always took the edge off.  The ache remained for a long time, but it was easier to cope with when it
had been
dull
ed
.  So he
dropped the note on the car seat, shut the door, and
stormed across the lawn area to the apartment doors on the bottom floor.  He hadn’t even realized until he got closer that his vision was hot and blurry. 
What the fuck?

But he knew a girl like Josie wouldn’t give a shit.  He ran his sleeve across his face
,
squinted
his eyes,
and clenched his jaw again, steeling himself.  He rang the doorbell.  What the hell was he going to do if she wasn’t there?

Well, he’d wait to find out.

But she
was
there.  She didn’t seem too surprised either.  Why was that?  Her lips curled up in a lascivious smile and she hooked the top of his t-shirt
with her index finger
to lead him
the rest of the way
into her apartment.  “Well, well, well.  To what do I owe this honor?”

This wasn’t
gonna
work if she
was
gonna
be
stupid.  Well, he knew this kind of girl didn’t care how she was treated, just so long as she got to bang the guy, so he didn’t plan to be delicate. 
“Two things…first, no questions.
  Second, I need something to drink.”

“I’ve got beer or…”

“Something stronger.”

“You got it.”  She walked across the room to the kitchen area and Riley followed.  She opened a cabinet and it was full of bottles, but Riley spotted
what had once been his favorite:  a
huge bottle of Jack Daniels.

“How about
some
JD?”

Her hand slinked up into the cabinet and she grabbed the bottle with slender fingers after moving another bottle aside so she could reach it.  “You weren’t kidding.  This is probably the strongest stuff I’ve got.”

Riley considered asking her if she had anything illegal too, but
fuck
.  He couldn’t let this make him fall completely off the wagon.  In that brief flicker of self-control, he was able to at least make that concession.  But his eyes started to cloud again and, as the skinny girl wearing tight denim
cutoffs
began slinking toward him, the bottle in her hand swaying side to side, he knew he was
gonna
be bad…he just wasn’t sure how much yet.

* * *

Erin looked at the clock…
again
.  Granted, she hadn’t known Riley long, but she did know he was
a
punctual
guy
.  He
wasn’t the type to
arrive late. 
So when the minutes kept ticking by, she started getting concerned.  She’d finally gotten Ron to leave, and she was horrified to find it was two minutes after the hour when she got back in her apartment.  She’d thought it was strange that
Riley
wasn’t there yet but didn’t worry too much.  Now, though, at ten after, she was growing concerned.

Finally, she walked over to the window and looked out at the parking lot.  She saw Riley’s car. 
Good.
  But as she continued looking, she didn’
t see him getting out of it
.  So she walked over to the door.  Maybe he was already walking up the stairs to her apartment.
  But when she opened the door, he was nowhere to be found.

That was odd.

She walked over to the stairs and started walking down.  Where was he?  She half expected to find him still sitting in his car.  She
couldn’t see through the windshield
from where she was, but she kept walking.

When she got to his car, she peeked in, but no.  He wasn’t inside.  Why would he park here and not come up to her apartment?  Again, she wondered where he would be.  As she started to turn away, she noticed a piece of typing paper on the passenger seat.  What caught her attention was the red lipstick smeared on it.

She knew
exactly
what that fucking note was.  It was Jo, the whore on the ground floor.  Erin couldn’t remember which apartment the girl was in, but she was certain now that that’s where Riley was.  Why, she didn’t know, and she felt the temperature of her blood rising.  She opened the door to Riley’s car and leaned over to read the note
again
.  She didn’t want to touch it
, but she could read it just the same
. 
A-3
.

She started marching back across the courtyard, praying she was wrong but knowing in the pit of her gut that she wasn’t.
  That girl was about to find out just what a “stuffy English teacher” was made of.

When she got to A-3, she rang the doorbell.  Jo didn’t answer the door right away, so Erin started knocking on it with the side of her fist.  She would save her knuckles for the girl if it came down to that.

And her expectations hadn’t prepared her for the violent emotions she would feel.  When Jo opened the door and Riley stood
holding a bottle of Jack Daniels
inside a few feet away, Erin felt her heart drop to the floor while her blood pressure spiked.  In just seconds, she felt betrayed, humiliated, and unloved.  The anger she’d been feeling was still there, but it was crushed underneath the other overwhelming emotions.

Words escaped her.  She’d wanted to say so many things…to Riley
and
to Jo, but the words were gone.  Instead, all she could do was back away, and she was even inept at that.  She couldn’t even close her jaw. 
But she knew that every inch she was able to put between her and Riley, the stronger she’d become.

She just wished she could catch her breath.

* * *

Riley had the bottle of Jack in his right hand and the slutty girl had just taken up residence in his other arm.  She’d run her hands over his chest and was nuzzling his neck, asking if he wanted her to do a strip tease for him.

He just couldn’t bring himself to kiss her yet.  Maybe once he actually took a swig of Jack.

But that was more difficult than he would have thought too.  He had to start somewhere.  He started bringing his other hand to the bottle to work the cap off when the doorbell rang.  Josie acted like she was going to ignore it, but then the person started banging on the door.

“Damn it,” the girl muttered, then kissed Riley on the cheek.  “Just
gimme
a sec to get rid of
whoever
this is.”

But when she opened the door, Riley pulled in a deep breath.  It was Erin.  At first, she looked furious
,
but then her face dropped and she looked
…
unfathomably
sad.  And he could see it in her eyes.  Hell, just the timeframe told him what he needed to know.  Whatever he saw between her and Gill or whatever the guy’s name was…wasn’t what he’d thought.  Was it?  Maybe it could have been, but the look on her face told him he, Riley, was hurting
her
right now.

And then all he wanted to do was go to her.  Gone was the need for alcohol or the slutty girl.  He had a duty to the woman he actually gave a shit about.

Erin was backing away, like she was horrified.  Riley placed the bottle of Jack on the counter and started moving forward.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jo asked.

“Sorry.  I’m
outta
here.”

“We had a party planned.”

“Sorry…you’re
gonna
have to party without me.”
  He had something he needed to fix.  How he got out of Jo’s apartment so quickly, he would never remember, but by the time he was outside, Erin was already running up the steps to her apartment.  “Erin.  Erin!  Wait.”  But she didn’t even turn to look, didn’t even slow down.  It made him run.  He knew if she
had a chance to
shut the door to her apartment, he’d never have another.  The stakes were high.