Page 124 of Dirty Like Jude
So that night, I very purposefully magnetized myself to some othergirl.
Roni might’ve thrown me a few wounded looks over it, but hey, I was over it,right?
The party went late. Like until-early-the-next-morning late. Jesse crashed in one of the guest rooms, so I stayed over too, taking one of the couches in the music room. Figured we’d have breakfast—or lunch—with Brody whenever we got up. I didn’t even see Roni leave, told myself I didn’t care. But in the morning, I foundher.
I found her in bed in the other guest room withZane.
The kind of rage I felt as I woke her up, hauled her ass out of that bed, shoved her clothes at her and marched her out of Brody’s house, was like nothing I’d ever felt before. It was almost like I was floating apart from myself. Like I was boiling alive and completely numb at the sametime.
I said all of two words toher.
Getout.
I threw her in a car with Elle and one of her girlfriends; they were just pulling out of the driveway when I flagged them down. Then I stormed the fuck back upstairs to the guest bedroom where Zane was just dragging his sorry, hungover ass out of bed. I knew he was drunk off his ass last night. Maybe stillwas.
What the fuck else wasnew?
Somehow, that just made itworse.
“What the fuck was that?” I threw the bedroom door out of my way. It didn’t have one of those door stopper things on it, or else I broke it, because the doorknob punched right through thedrywall.
“What?” Zane looked at me with his bloodshot eyes and I seriously wanted to punch him. I’d never wanted to punch Zanebefore.
“I fucking warned you about this shit,” I growled, fucking seething. I felt like that beast in the Looney Tunes cartoon, the Hyde creature that comes out after the scientist drinks that fucked-uppotion.
Must’ve looked like it too, judging by the look on Zane’sface.
“Whatshit?”
“Thisshit.” I grabbed a beer bottle off the bedside table, knocking the other bottles and glasses right off in the process, and smashed it against the farwall.
“Whoa. Whoa, whoa.” Brody came up behind me. “The fuck’s goingon?”
I shrugged him off when he put his hand on my arm, and got in Zane’s face. “I told you, you keep down this path, we’re puttin’ your ass in rehab. Before you end up likeSeth.”
Zane stayed pretty damn calm. His eyebrows went up, his liquor-drenched brain cells working on overdrive to figure out what the fuck was up myass.
“This really about me?” he asked me, even as Brody put a hand on my chest and tried to angle in. “Or about WildCard?”
“Zane,” Brody said, “just get your shit and godownstairs.”
Zane didn’tmove.
“I didn’t know you were into her, brother,” he told me, reading the fury on my face. His eyes on me were pretty steady for someone who was probably still half-cut. “I wouldn’t have, if Iknew.”
I pushed in until my chest bumped his and snarled at him, “I am sick as fuck of cleaning up yourshit.”
Then I stormed the hellout.
After that, I should’ve gonehome.
I went straight toRoni’s.
She’d moved out of her mom’s place the year before and I’d never been to her new place, but I knew exactly where she lived. It was an apartment, a basement suite in a house near Kits Beach, shared with a couple of roommates. Fortunately or not, neither of them were home when I hammered on the door and Roni openedit.
“You fucked Zane?” I bowled right past her into thehouse.
She just stared at me, speechless, for a long moment. Then she shut the door and followed me up the hall, where I was pacing like a pissed-offbeast.
