“Hey, kitten, what are you doing out here?” Jaret Black asked as he took a drag of the joint he was holding between his thumb and index finger, letting the smoke linger in his lungs for a second before slowly letting a stream of smoke escape those perfectly formed lips.
God, you can’t be thinking about that now. Seriously? Get it together, Mikki.
“Oh, nothing,” I tried replying nonchalantly. After all, the light wasn’t that great out here. The last thing I wanted was for Jaret Black to catch me crying on prom night. “I’m just getting a bit of fresh air.”
“Cool,” Jaret replied, holding the joint out to me, but I shook my head and he grinned.
“Always little miss perfect, aren’t you?” he asked as he took another drag.
“Yeah. I’m just gonna go…” I trailed off, and I started to leave, but Jaret stopped me.
“Hold up. Something is wrong.”
“What? No, nothing’s wrong,” I replied, but I could hear the lie in my own voice.
“Yeah. You’re crying! Holy shit, Mikki, what’s wrong?”
I couldn’t remember the last time Jaret had used my actual name, but whatever. I knew he’d just make fun of me. I didn’t want him to know what I’d heard, so I just shook my head no.
“Seriously, Mikki. You can tell me. Was it Pat?”
I shook my head and laughed, and it quickly turned into a sob as all the tears I’d been holding back flooded out of me like a dam that had just been broken.
“No,” I replied. “No, it wasn’t Pat at all.”
Damn it. My makeup was ruined, and here I was, alone on prom night with the school’s biggest bad-boy jerk playboy, tears streaming down my face as I admitted to him what I’d heard the jocks saying about me.
I couldn’t help myself. It all streamed out. The whole time I could hear my brain telling me to stop, telling me that Jaret was the last person on the planet who needed to know this.
And yet, I couldn’t stop. Once I’d started the words kept pouring out, almost as quickly as the tears from my eyes.
When I’d finally told the whole story, I looked up at him, with no emotion except pure shame running through me. Surely Jaret was going to make fun of me.
“Let me tell you, kitten, those guys are fucking assholes. Ignore them. I would totally fuck you with the lights on, and any guy that wouldn’t is crazy.”
I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. Somehow, it was the perfect thing to say. Who knew that Jaret Black had it in him? I certainly didn’t.
“Thanks,” I replied with a small smile. “Still never gonna happen though.”
“So you think. Come on, we’ll go around here and you can clean yourself up in the bathroom.”
“You know, maybe you do have a redeeming feature or two,” I told Jaret with a smile as he led me down the balcony where I was originally heading.
“Don’t let anyone else know, I try to keep that part of me secret,” Jaret replied.
“Thanks,” I told him as we went back into the room, only steps away from the ladies’ bathroom.
“No problem. Again. Those guys are assholes. Try not to worry about them too much.”
I shot Jaret another smile and made my way into the bathroom. Thankfully, it was empty.
Taking the extra makeup I’d slipped into my purse in case of emergency, which this definitely qualified as, I cleaned my face and re-applied my makeup as carefully as I could. Sure, it didn’t look like a professional did it anymore, but I also didn’t look like some sort of cross between a racoon and a clown that eats people anymore.
It took about fifteen minutes, but eventually I was presentable again. I looked at myself in the mirror.
I was fuckable, right?
Yes, of course I was. Those guys were idiots. And I had to admit, as much as I knew it was just Jaret being Jaret, him telling me that he would do me with the lights on made me feel better.
I took a deep breath, took one more look at myself in the mirror.
You can do this, Mikki. Go back out there, find Pat, have another dance or two.
I broke away from the gaze I held with myself in the glass, and opened the door to the outside.
Instead of finding a bunch of couples dancing to whatever random song from the top 40, however, there was chaos. People were milling around, huddled in circles, talking to one another. The main lights had been turned back on. Girls were crying.
I had no idea what was going on. Rushing through the throngs of people, I finally found Pat, hanging out with his friends in a group. Amy looked like she wanted to cry.
“Hey, what’s happening?” I asked.
“Seriously? Where have you been?”
“I was in the bathroom, cleaning up. I’ve apparently missed something.”
“Yeah. Definitely. You know your friend Jen?”
“Yeah?” Worry suddenly constricted me.
“Apparently her boyfriend Kyle and one of his other jock friends were goofing off on the balcony, and they fell off. Luckily they landed on some grass, but they had to call an ambulance to take them to the hospital.”
My hand flew to my mouth. Talk about instant karma. I wasn’t going to lie, a part of me was glad this happened.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. And,” Pat added, his voice lowered, “Apparently there’s a rumour going around that they didn’t fall. Your little buddy there Jaret Black maybe gave them a bit of a helping hand over the landing.”
“Holy shit. Listen, Pat, I have to find Jen.”
“Yeah. For sure.”
I left his group, but instead of trying to find my friend I focused on collecting my own thoughts, first.
Because holy shit, had what I just learned been a hell of a bombshell.
Jaret Black had tossed Kyle and one of his buddies over the balcony?
Seriously?
I mean sure, maybe it wasn’t true, but maybe it was.
I wondered where Jaret was. I had to ask him about it.
But I also had to find Jen, she’d have the answers.
She was out by the roadside, with Lea, Jackie and Carrie, all of them huddled together while an ambulance drove off. A police car was off to the side, and I could see Jaret sitting on the ledge of a little wall talking to a couple of officers.
“Oh my God, Jen, what happened?” I asked, joining the circle.
“I don’t even know,” she whispered. “Oh Mikki, I don’t know. All I know is Kyle went to hang out with some friends, and then the next thing I know someone’s telling me he’s been in an accident.”
It was obvious from the streaks of her mascara that she’d been crying.
“I’m so sorry, Jen,” I told her, giving my friend a hug. I felt sorry for her. Not so much for the guys being taken to the hospital.
“Thanks, Mikki.”
“Sorry I wasn’t here earlier, I was in the bathroom freshening up and literally only just came out and saw what happened.”
“It’s ok. It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“And now the cops are going to arrest Jaret.”
“What? Seriously?”
“Yeah. That’s what I heard, anyway,” Lea piped up. “They’re talking to him over there right now. From what I heard he tossed the guys over the landing.”
“But that makes no sense, why would he do that?”
My friends only shrugged.
“Well, you know what Jaret’s like. I’m sure he had his reasons,” Carrie replied.
I knew he had a reason. But surely it wasn’t a reason. Surely Jaret didn’t toss them over the side of a balcony for what they had said about me.
Surely he wasn’t that crazy.
Right?
That’s when I realized he must have been exactly that crazy.
Holy shit. Who does that?
A part of me was totally disgusted. Like, that was the sort of thing psychos do! Right?
And yet a part of me couldn’t help but be a little bit glad that someone had stuck up for me like that, that he had gotten revenge on the guys for me.
No, I shouldn’t be thinking like that. It was wrong.
And yet as I looked over at the cops interrogating Jaret, I knew I had to do something. Because after all, he was only being interrogated because of me.
This was my fault, in a way.
But this wasn’t the sort of thing I did. I was a good girl. I didn’t ever get involved in these sorts of things.
Oh well, there was a first time for everything. Because I owed Jaret for what he did for me.
“Hey, I’ll be right back, ok?” I told my friends, and I casually headed off towards where the cops were interrogating Jaret.
“Excuse me?” I asked quietly, and two uniformed, strict looking officers turned towards me.
“Um. Sorry. I… ummm…” I started.
“Just relax. It’s ok. Do you have something to tell us about what happened?” one of the officers asked kindly, and suddenly that strict veneer on his face seemed a little bit less harsh.
“Yes. Um, I mean, I do. I don’t know… who told you what, and everything. But I was… ummmm… with Jaret Black when… the incident happened.”
Suddenly both officers’ interest perked up, and Jaret raised an eyebrow.
“I didn’t come over before because I didn’t, well, I didn’t want anyone to know. I’m the best student in school, after all. And I’m a bit embarrassed that it happened. But, I was making out with Jaret on the other side of the balcony when the accident happened. I swear.” My face blushed as I admitted it. Luckily, it looked like I was blushing out of embarrassment, not because I was lying my face off.
The cops both looked me up and down. Finally, one of them turned to Jaret.
“Is this true? Why wouldn’t you tell us to start with?”
Jaret shrugged. “I didn’t think Mikki would admit to it. After all, you can ask anyone. She really is little miss perfect, and we don’t get along at all. It was a spur of the moment thing and I was sure she’d deny it.”
“Stay here, both of you,” the officers ordered, and one of them went off towards my friends. Jaret and I looked at each other.
I was absolutely horrified with myself. I had just lied to the cops. Seriously. I was the kind of person who had never lied to anyone before in my life. I felt dirty just hearing the words come out of my mouth. The whole time a part of me wanted to just yell out “kidding!” and run off as fast as I could. But I didn’t.
Because I owed Jaret. Damn it, I owed him. I knew that I didn’t make him toss those guys off the balcony. Of course I didn’t. But still… I knew he had done it because of me. Because of what those douchebags had said about me.
So didn’t I still owe him, at least somewhat? I thought so.
And now my heart was pounding in my chest at what felt like a million miles a minute. What if they found out I was lying? I’d be in so much trouble. Maybe they’d charge me with contempt, or like, hindering prosecution or something. Perjury? I was going to jail.
Oh God, I was going to go to jail for what I’d done, wasn’t I?
I struggled to keep my breath steady. If I started hyperventilating now, I was screwed.
After what felt like an eternity, the other cop came back. He huddled with his partner for a couple minutes, then they both came over. The one who had been nice to me originally spoke.
“Alright, well, your story checks out. I’ve spoken to a few of the kids, and the principal of the school. They agree that the two of you aren’t friends at all. I’m disappointed that it took this long to sort everything out, and now if you’ll excuse us, we have some other students here who need to be told about the serious consequences of lying to the police.”
Was that it? We were free to go? They believed me?
Oh thank God.
I got up, apologized for taking so long to come forward, then walked away without so much as glancing at Jaret. After all, not only did it really emphasize the fact that we weren’t friends, but the more time went by, the more pissed off I was at him.
Sure, he had gotten revenge on those guys for me. Something no guy had ever done for me before in my life. But because of him I’d had to lie to the police! Seriously, the police!
I went back over to my friends.
“What was all that about?” Lea asked.
“Just trying to get some info. Sounds like Jaret didn’t do anything.”
“Really?” Jen asked, looking like she was putting herself back together.
“Yeah.” I shrugged. “Who knows.”
“That’s crazy. Doing some weird shit for no reason just to stir up trouble sounds exactly like Jaret,” Lea added.
Eventually Jen decided to go to the hospital to be with Kyle, and the rest of us made our way back inside.