Chasing Chaos: A Novel (19 page)

“You
cheat on me with this jerk the night before we break up, and now I’m going out
with his sister. Fantastic!”

Marlon
watched as Daphne shrunk small. For some reason, Dan’s words weren’t drawing
out her fire but extinguishing it instead. Watching her get hurt pissed him off.
He pulled her to him and spoke in her ear. “Why don’t you go grab us another
round. I’ll handle this.”

She
stared at him with eyes that seemed to swallow her entire face. She nodded and
left.

As
soon as Daphne was out of earshot, Dan spoke. “She’ll just burn you like she
did me. You should get out while you can.”

Marlon
laughed. “Now your jealousy is showing.”

“You
can laugh now. But remember what I said. She’ll screw you over without a second
thought. She’s heartless.”

“I’m
not sure whom you were dating, but that woman is the opposite of heartless.”

“It’s
just a matter of time, man. I’m telling you.”

“If
you hate her so much, then why are you here?” Marlon asked, genuinely curious.

“You
know what? I have no fucking clue.”

Dan
headed toward the front door, then handed his ticket to the valet. Once Marlon
was certain Dan was gone for good, he went to tell Daphne the good news.

Only
one thing stuck with Marlon. Daphne hadn’t cheated on Dan with Marlon. Either
Dan had his days mixed up, or there was more going on than Daphne was telling
him.

~~~~

After
fifteen minutes, the valet finally returned with Dan’s keys. Dan couldn’t
believe Daphne would invite him to this event and then rub her new boyfriend in
his face like that. She truly was heartless. After all he’d done for her over
the years. If it weren’t for him, she’d still be schlepping coffees at Sony.
There was an ache in his gut where Daphne used to be. He wanted to go home and
have a scotch.

“Dan?”
Carrie trotted up to him. “Are you leaving?”

Dan
looked the girl over. She was a fox, no doubt. But she was also trouble.
Marlon’s little sister? How was he supposed to know that?

“Yeah,
your brother decided it was time for me to leave.”

“Marlon
kicked you out?”

“Let’s
just say he made me feel distinctly unwelcome.”

“Argh!
He told me to stay away from you this morning.”

“Did
he now?” Dan jingled his keys in his hand.

The
way Dan saw it, he had two choices. He could royally piss off Marlon, Daphne
and perhaps even Sandy, and bring this girl with him. Along with their anger,
however, he would get a small bit of sweet, sweet revenge. Or, he could leave
her here and not put his career in the slightest bit of jeopardy.

Dan
wasn’t one to resist an opportunity for revenge.

“Wanna
come to a real Hollywood party, babe? It’ll blow your mind.”

“Sure
I do,” she said with her flashy smile.

They
hopped into his MG Midget convertible and headed up into the hills.

Dan
loved his MG. The car was a nicely rebuilt model from the late 1960s in a
classic British green. The Midget was a tiny thing, but he wasn’t a very tall
guy, and chicks loved it. He glanced at Carrie next to him, her hair flying
behind her in the night, her smile lighting everything up. Her dress had ridden
up a bit, revealing her perfectly toned thighs. After downshifting to climb a
steep hill, he let his hand drift over to land on her knee. When she seemed OK
with that, he slid it up a little higher and left it there.

He
turned left off Sandy’s street and wove deeper into Laurel Canyon. He was
headed toward a house that belonged to his friend Jamison. He’d heard about the
party earlier that day, and it had always been his backup plan in case the
wedding thing went sideways. He hadn’t expected to be able to bring a date with
him, especially one that seemed as receptive as Carrie seemed at the moment.

She
tilted her head back to stare up at the sky. He looked up too. This high in the
hills, you could almost make out the stars.

He
jerked the wheel quickly to get the car back into its lane. He’d drifted across
the center line while distracted by the stars. Luckily, no one had been coming
from the other direction.

Up
ahead he could make out cars parked along the street. They’d arrived. He pulled
off the road behind the first car they came to and parked.

“We’re
here.” He explained to Carrie whose house it was. Jamison was an independent
film producer whom he didn’t expect her to know of.

“I
love Jamison’s work!” she said. “I studied him in film school. Wow. I can’t
believe I’m at his house.”

“He’s
hardly Sandy.”

“Well,
duh.” She suddenly sounded very young to his ears. “No one is as big as Sandy.
He’s kind of an exception.”

Dan
felt miffed for a minute, wanting Carrie to be more impressed with his friend.
But then he thought about it—her brother worked for Sandy. It’s possible Sandy
felt like old news to her.

Plus,
Dan was positive she’d never seen a party like this one before.

“Come
on.” He took her hand. “Let’s get groovy.”

The
front door was wide open, and even from the driveway, Dan could see that the
party was already swinging. Like Sandy’s house, Jamison’s was a midcentury
ranch—just much smaller in scale, more like five thousand square feet than
twelve or whatever. The view from the front door revealed a spacious sunken
living room. When they stepped in the foyer, he felt Carrie’s hand tighten in
his. Her face, for an instant, looked frightened.

Music
blasted from the wall-mounted stereo. Six or seven people sat around the coffee
table, chatting over a tall mound of cocaine. One couple stood near the
entrance to the kitchen making out. Men and women gathered to watch a young
female stripper dance against the black baby grand piano. The dancer gyrated in
a G-string and nothing else. On a leather couch in the back corner of the room,
a woman had her skirt pulled to her waist. A man knelt on the floor in front of
her, his face between her legs. From the woman’s facial expression, she was
enjoying herself.

“I
don’t think I belong here.” Carrie refused to walk any farther.

“Nonsense,”
Dan whispered in her ear. “Just have confidence. Let’s see what’s going on in
the kitchen and grab some drinks. If you want to leave after that, we will.
OK?”

“OK.”
She sounded nervous but brave.

In
the kitchen, Dan and Carrie found Jamison. Jamison wore his shoulder-length
blond hair in a ponytail. He had on a black suit jacket over a black T-shirt
and dark blue jeans. Jamison always was a handsome fuck, Dan thought, annoyed.

“Dan
Morello!” Jamison said. “And guest.” He swept his eyes over Carrie.

“Hey,
Jamison,” Dan said. “This is Carrie—” Dan paused, realizing he never did learn
how to pronounce her last name properly. “Carrie A.”

“Is
the A for Aphrodite?” Jamison asked.

Carrie
seemed to take the compliment well, giving a mock curtsy.

“Anything
to drink around here?” Dan asked.

“Yeah.
Bar’s set up over there.” Jamison pointed to the table tucked in a far corner
of the kitchen. It was covered with liquor bottles and glasses. “I’ll be in the
living room getting busy.”

“Come
on, babe,” Dan said to Carrie. “Let’s get something to drink.”

~~~~

When
Carrie Ademola had agreed to leave Greta’s wedding with Dan, she’d thought
she’d been asserting herself against her overbearing brother. She’d thought she
was going to get the chance to make some useful industry connections. She’d
thought she would have a light-hearted adventure.

When
she’d ridden in Dan’s adorable car around Laurel Canyon, staring at the
gorgeous night sky, she’d felt free and full of life. She’d wanted to put her
arms over her head but felt that would have been just a little too much.
Besides, doing so would have pulled her dress up even farther, and she hadn’t
wanted to encourage Dan’s wandering hand.

But
now they were here at this horrible party. And now she knew she had made a
mistake. She couldn’t get the stripper’s bored facial expression out of her
head. Or the people having sex in public. Or the drugs—the enormous pile of
drugs. This was not who she was. She didn’t belong here with any of these
people. She did not belong with Dan or Jamison. Her idols from college had
turned out to be broken.

Mostly,
she was scared.

“I
need to go to the bathroom.” She handed her drink to Dan.

“Sure
thing, babe. It’s this way.”

Dan
led her through the awful living room and down a short hallway. She entered the
narrow bathroom and locked the door behind her. She opened her purse and pulled
out her phone. She dialed Marlon’s number. She almost hit the button to place
the call. She almost did and then decided not to.

Carrie
stared at the phone in her hand. She couldn’t call him. That would be admitting
her mistake. She’d created this problem herself, and she needed to solve this
problem herself.

She
would just ask Dan to drive her back down to Sandy’s house and drop her off.
She could sneak back into the wedding reception, and no one would even know
she’d been gone.

Decision
made, she unlocked the door, then took an immediate step backwards. Jamison was
standing there.

“Oh,
hi,” Carrie said. “Are you waiting for the bathroom?”

“I
didn’t realize Dan had a new chick,” Jamison said.

Carrie’s
instincts told her she probably shouldn’t correct Jamison by telling him she
wasn’t Dan’s new chick.

Jamison
continued. “He and that Daphne girl had been together a long time.”

“Dan
was dating Daphne?” Carrie asked, surprised. She hadn’t known that.

“You
know Daphne?” Jamison took a step closer to Carrie. She stepped back once more.
Jamison was blocking the bathroom doorway now.

Now
Carrie’s heart was racing.

“Daphne
and I are friends I guess.”

“She’s
a fox,” Jamison said. “Not as foxy as you are, though.” He raked his eyes over
her body, lingering on her breasts, on her legs bared by the short skirt of her
dress.

“I’m
done in here now. Bathroom’s all yours.” She made to brush past him through the
door, and he blocked her way with his shoulder.

“I
think I’d like to get to know you a little better,” he said. “Besides, Dan’s
busy in the living room.”

Jamison
wrapped his hand around her upper arm and pushed her back into the bathroom,
past the vanity, and up against the wall opposite the toilet. He closed the
door behind him, turning the lock.

She
screamed.

He
slapped his hand over her mouth, fumbling for the hem of her dress as she tried
to fight him off. One of the straps of her dress snapped and fell, baring one
of her breasts. He pinned her with one arm, holding her against the wall while
she struggled. He lifted his hand from her mouth to touch her bare breast, and
she screamed again. She screamed and screamed, begging to God to be heard over
the blasting music, knowing she wouldn’t be heard, knowing that even if she
were heard, no one in this house would come to help her—maybe not even Dan.

After
all, he’d brought her here.

She
pushed back against the feeling of helplessness that tried to overwhelm her.

She
needed to escape. Jamison was touching her bare skin, pinning her neck to the
wall with his elbow, but he was distracted by her body. Now. She had to act
now. She lifted her knee as high as she could and ground the heel of her shoe
into the top of his foot, putting all of her weight behind it.

“Fucking
shit!” Jamison yelled, falling back against the toilet, holding his hurt leg in
the air.

Carrie
grabbed her purse and ran from the bathroom. Holding up the strap of her dress,
she ran down the hall and through the living room, vaguely hearing voices
calling behind her. But those voices only made her run faster. She ran through
the open front door and up the driveway. Once she hit the street, she removed
her high heels so she could run faster. She turned down the hill and in short order
passed Dan’s parked car. She kept running. She would run all the way back to
Sandy’s, one hand holding her shoes and purse, the other holding her dress.

Minutes
later—or more, she couldn’t tell—she slowed to a walk. She pulled out her
phone. She should call Marlon now, she decided. He would come to her, of course
he would. And she needed his help. It was time to swallow her pride.

Just
as she was about to dial, headlights turned the corner behind her. She stepped
off the street and into the dirt for safety. The car slowed to a stop. It was
Dan.

“Carrie!
What are you doing out here?”

“Jamison
attacked me.” She realized she was shaking.

“I’m
sorry that happened, babe. Why don’t you get in the car?”

Carrie
stayed on the side of the road, unsure whether to trust him.

“Don’t
be silly, Carrie. Let me drive you back to Sandy’s house. You can’t walk all
the way there.” His voice was persuasive, sensible. “It isn’t safe.”

“That
party wasn’t safe!” she yelled. “Your friend tried to rape me in the bathroom!”
Her voice rose at the end as the panic she’d felt in the bathroom threatened to
overtake her again.

“Jamison
gets a little confused when he’s high,” Dan said, his voice soothing. “He’s
mostly harmless.”

“He’s
not harmless!” Carrie screamed at him again, her panic morphing into furious
anger. “He attacked me! He’s a monster!”

“OK,
OK.” Dan’s tone grew even more soothing. “I get it. Let me take you back to
Sandy’s where you’ll be safe.”

Carrie
ran through her options, still panicked. Dan could get her to Sandy’s house
quickly. She wouldn’t have to wait for Marlon to find her. She realized then
that she didn’t know where she was—she couldn’t even give Marlon directions. It
might take an hour for him to find her out here.

Once
she got to Sandy’s, she could find Daphne, and Daphne would help her. Daphne
would have safety pins stashed someplace and would repair her dress. Marlon
would never know about Carrie’s stupidity.

She
opened the door to Dan’s car.

“Atta
girl,” Dan said. “We’ll be there in ten minutes, tops.”

Carrie
buckled her seatbelt. She slid her hand into her purse and grasped her cell
phone. She pressed the buttons for 911. Then she rested her thumb on the button
to initiate the call.

Just
in case.

After
a few minutes of riding in the car with Dan, Carrie could tell that the ride
down the hill was different from the ride up the hill. Dan was driving much
more slowly. He was intoxicated, driving deliberately to make up for his lack
of reflexes. A couple of times, he drifted across the center line, but then realized
what he was doing and jerked the wheel to swerve back into the proper lane.

Suddenly,
to Carrie, Dan’s adorable convertible felt incredibly small and unsafe.

Up
ahead, the road curved sharply downhill and to the right, but Dan seemed not to
notice. He kept going straight. Carrie screamed at him to turn, and then
everything went black.

~~~~

Carrie
awoke in semidarkness. The setting sun through the trees provided some light to
see by. Next to her, still in the driver’s seat, Dan was unconscious, blood
covering his face. His side of the car was folded around a tree. Her side
seemed to be miraculously unscathed. She unbuckled her seatbelt, opened her
door and fell from the car. She was too woozy to stand. She crawled instead,
dragging her purse behind her. She lay down in the dirt on the side of the road
and hit the button to call the number already dialed on her phone.

The
911 operator answered.

“A
car wreck,” Carrie said. “Can you track my location? I don’t know where we are.
And my friend, he’s bloody and unconscious. He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.”