The Stern and Wild Ones (The Seeker Series) (16 page)

"Man, I don't know," he said, taking another hit. "She's probably off crying somewhere. All she does anymore."

Although I wanted to stay and give him a piece of mind and/or shove that stupid joint where the sun don't shine, I knew we didn't have the time. "Daniel, this is really important! Do you know where she might be?" He just continued smoking the joint.

Jack stepped forward, a disgusted look on his face. "Dude, your girlfriend is in trouble! What is wrong with you?"

Daniel's reaction surprised us both, I think. His face turned absolutely purple with rage and he was actually trembling as he stood up, threw the joint down, and started for Jack. "What the hell is your problem?" he yelled, his fists balled up and the veins in his biceps bulging.

I quickly stepped in front of Jack, thinking...well I really don't know what I was thinking. Danny was apparently not averse to hitting a girl, because he didn't even pause. If Jack hadn't pushed me out of the way and blocked Danny's fist with his forearm, I would have had a nice black eye, or worse. "Jack, no! Don't hit him! Danny, stop! We're not trying to start a fight! We're just trying to find Veronica!" Both of them just stood, tense and staring into each other's face, for a moment. Finally, Danny took a breath and visibly deflated.

"Sorry, man. I didn't mean it." He shook his head, as if he was confused by what he had just done.

I grabbed Jack's hand, saying, "Come on. She's not here. Let's check upstairs."

We ran up the stairs and began checking in each bedroom we came to. Most were empty; couples were in a few (gross--I saw way more of Todd Snelling and his girlfriend than I ever wanted to see). We finally tracked her down in the master bathroom. She was leaning against the jetted tub, knees to her chest, sobbing. A chill went through my entire body when I saw, lying on the floor at her feet, an empty prescription bottle. I turned back to Jack. "Call 911," I ordered. He backed out of the bathroom to call.

"Veronica?" I crawled next to her. "Hey, um, are you ok?" Of course she wasn't, but I didn't know what to say.

She looked up at me through bleary, red eyes. "Ally? Why are you here? Just leave me alone." She put her head back down on her knees, but the sobbing had slowed down some.

"I can't do that, Veronica. I want to help you. Did you take all those pills?"

She nodded.

"What were they?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Who cares? Probably some of my mom's sleeping pills. She takes them so she doesn't have to deal with my step dad. Makes me deal with him," her face crumpled as she said this. "Well, I wanna sleep, too. I'm so tired. Tired of it all.  I just wanna sleep." She slumped farther down, now lying fully on the floor. "Go away, Ally." Her speech was starting to sound slurred.

"Jack! We need that ambulance!"

He came back into the room, still talking on his cell. "Yeah, she's still conscious, but barely. You better hurry," he said.

I leaned over Veronica, her pretty face streaked with mascara. "How did you know?" she whispered. "I didn't tell anyone. How did you know?" I could barely hear her last whisper as she lost consciousness. I looked up at Jack, horrified.

"Look, she just passed out," he said into the phone, holding it with his chin against his shoulder as he wet a washcloth from a basket on the counter and handed it to me. "They're here," he said hanging up the phone. "I'm going to go down to meet them."

Within minutes, the paramedics were assessing her and loading her on a stretcher. Partygoers were crowding the hallway, making it difficult for the paramedics to get her out. Jack took command, clearing the way for them. I grabbed hold of Daniel's arm before he could follow her out and pulled him back into the master bedroom.

"What happened?" he asked, clearly freaked out.

"While you were down in the garage getting high, your girlfriend was up here trying to kill herself!"

"What?"

"She took a bunch
of pills. Now you better figure out how to get hold of her parents and tell them to meet you at the hospital." He just stared at me, obviously still feeling the effects of the weed. "Now!" I shouted. I watched while he fumbled with his cellphone, trying to find a phone number for one of Veronica's parents. I left him scrolling frantically through his call history and went to find my boyfriend.

"Let me guess," Jack said. "We will be foregoing maniacal turkeys for an ER waiting room?"

"I'm sorry, Jack. You can just drop me off. I'll get my mom to come get me. I just need to know that Veronica's going to be all right. I can meet you at Tara's."

He put his finger against my lips to shut me up. "That's not how this works. Let's go."

Two hours later, we were still in the waiting room with Veronica's parents, drinking bad vending machine coffee. I leaned against Jack, trying to keep my eyes open. He took my coffee, which was in danger of spilling out of my tired hands, set it on the table beside him, and pulled me against him. "Go ahead and sleep, Ally. I promise to wake you up when the doctor comes out."

I was just dozing off when the doctor finally came out and asked for Veronica's parents. They had pumped her stomach and she was going to recover. The doctor then pulled her parents off to the side, talking to them earnestly and quietly. I guessed that he was informing them of their daughter's pregnancy.

"Let's go home, Jack. She's going to be ok. That's all I needed to know," I said.

We were sitting in his car in front of my house, heater blasting, just holding each other, trying to process the events of the evening. "God, Jack. What if we hadn't been there? What if I hadn't had that vision?" I shivered, thinking of the consequences.

He held me tighter. "Shh. Don't think like that. You can't think like that."

I sat up and looked into his eyes. "Jack, she said something weird, that I can't stop thinking about." I told him what Veronica had said about her stepfather. "She said her mom leaves her to deal with him. She sounded scared, I think. Jack, what if the man in my visions is her stepfather?"

He pulled me back against him. "I don't know, Ally. What kind of sick bastard would do something like that to his stepdaughter?"

"I have to find out, Jack. I don't know how, but I have to find out. I have to help her. If this gift is good for anything, I have to figure how to use it to help Veronica. She may be vapid and selfish, but she doesn't deserve this."

"Hey," he held my face. "
We
will find a way to help her. You don't have to do this alone." He kissed me briefly and then changed the subject. "Ally, when you stepped in front of me earlier, you know in the garage with Danny? What in the sweet hell were you thinking, querida?"

I shook my head and looked up into his face. "I have absolutely no idea! I was going on pure instinct. I just didn't want you to get into a fight with that idiot. It was pretty stupid, huh?"

"Beyond stupid." He softened his harsh words with a soft kiss. "Please don't ever do anything like that again. You scared the living shit out of me."

" I'm sorry I scared you. I didn't mean to. I just didn't want you hurt, Jack. Thanks for being there for me."

“That’s my job now.” He kissed me again and then sat back away from me. "I don't know that guy very well, but there was something really off about him tonight, even before he completely lost it. Did you notice?"

"Yeah. I was really shocked by that whole group. They're so...big," I ended lamely. "I mean, they never used to be that muscular. It's really over the top."

"I agree. You know, I've been thinking about a bunch of things that have happened recently, and I think...well, I think those guys might be dosing." He looked puzzled and concerned.

"Dosing? With what? What does that mean?" I was confused.

"Taking anabolic steroids. It would explain a lot: how big they are, the jokes from the cheerleaders, Danny's irrational anger."

"Don't steroids have, like, massively bad side effects?"

"Yeah, like heart attacks. But I guess athletes will sometimes do stupid things to get an edge."

I had a hard time getting to sleep that night, worry for Veronica at the top of my list of things going through my mind over and over. I also couldn't stop thinking about what Jack had said, about the guys using steroids. It made sense and somehow Veronica was involved, but I had no idea how. I was just glad that I'd had that vision tonight or it might have been too late for her.

"It takes strength and courage to admit the truth."

Rick Riordan,
The Red Pyramid
 

Veronica missed the next week of school. I visited her very briefly in the hospital, but barely got a chance to speak to her because her mother was there constantly. I finally got a few minutes alone with her when she sent her mom on an ice cream run to the cafeteria. The second she was out the door, Veronica was out of bed and in my face.

"What is everyone saying? What do they know?" she said frantically.

"I don'
t know how he did it, but Danny has managed to spread the rumor around school that you got food poisoning. Apparently you ate bad sushi right before the game and were barfing so much that you got severely dehydrated. Nobody knows about the pills."

She sank back onto the bed in relief. "Thank God. I could get kicked off the squad if the truth got out."

"Speaking of truth, Veronica, what about you being pregnant? I mean, are you still? Or did something go wrong? Sorry to be so blunt, but it's important."

She drew her knees up and put her head down on them. It reminded me of the night she had tried to kill herself. "Yeah, I'm still pregnant. Nobody knows about that either. Except my parents. God, they are freaking out. Mom won't leave me alone for more than a second. Bit late for that," she said bitterly.

"What about Danny? Does he know?" I asked gently. She just shook her head. I didn't know how to broach the subject that I really needed to ask about. I mean, I have no intention of telling her that I'd been having visions about her. This was a very delicate topic and I didn't want to screw it up. I also didn't have much time before her mother returned. "Veronica, I know it's really none of my business, You and I don't really know each other that well any more, but, well..." I just decided to jump in. "Danny's not the father, is he?"

She jerked her head up and just stared at me, wide-eyed. "How could you possibly know that?" she whispered. Then she started crying.

I went to the bed to sit next to her and put my arm around her. "I don't really know," I explained. "I just get the feeling from some of the things you've said. And trying to kill yourself is a really extreme solution to a fairly common teen problem."

She looked up at me, tears streaming
down her face and said, "Danny and I have never even slept together. I know I have this really slutty reputation, but it's not true. I don't sleep around. How can I tell him about this? This has just gotten so out of control. I don't know what to do."

"Veronica, who is the father? How did this happen?" Of course, at this crucial moment, her mother returned with the ice cream. Veronica wiped her face quickly, tryin
g to hide her tears from her mom.

"Thanks for coming, Ally. I appreciate you bringing my homework. See you after Thanksgiving."

I left, frustrated. I had no clue how I was supposed to help her when I couldn't even get her to talk to me. Again I wondered what possible good this gift I have was. I see things that I have no control over and have no way of stopping. Why was I having these visions about her? What was I supposed to do?

****

I took the bus to Manny's shop to meet Jack as he was getting off of work. Tomorrow was our last school day before the Thanksgiving break and we planned to work on an English paper together that was due. We had finished
The Scarlet Letter
and were reading
Heart of Darkness
. I really didn't love the story, but Joseph Conrad is a great writer. I mean, the guy's first language wasn't even English! I find it very impressive that he chose to write an entire novel in what was like his third or fourth language. I can't even manage to learn Spanish and I've been taking it since middle school. I will say that it helps a bunch to have a boyfriend who speaks fluent Spanish. When I get stuck on something in my homework, I just give him a call.

He was actually speaking Spanish when I got to the shop, or rather
yelling
it. Jack seems to be a pretty even-tempered guy most of the time, but I sure got to see another side of him that afternoon. Shelley had sent me back to the garage area to find Jack. He was shouting at another employee, one I had never met, and gesturing to a grey, primered car they were apparently both working on. They were speaking so fast I didn't manage to catch much of what they were saying, but the gist of it was obvious.

"
¡Qué pendejo estás! ¿No ves que se va a despintar cuando lo pintes? ¡Mi tío te mataría si le dieras algo así al cliente!" Jack yelled.

" No
tienes idea de lo que estás diciendo," the young man replied. " Yo he estado haciendo esto mucho más tiempo que tú. ¡Mi papa nunca se ha quejado de mi trabajo! ¡Parece que voy a tener que arreglar tu desmadre, pinche culo peludo!"

Jack looked like he was going to launch himself at the other guy. "
Vete a la madre wuey..."

Well. Jack was angry about something the other young man had done to the car and ended his commentary by calling him a dumbass (I am fairly up on my Spanish curse words). The young man was not taking this lying down and returned fire, ending with a nice
culo peludo
(hairy asshole). Jack was in the process of telling him to go to hell, when the young man noticed me over Jack's shoulder. He stopped arguing and literally pushed Jack aside to come and greet me.

"Hi, how can I help you?" he approached me with a complete change in attitude from what I had seen when he was yelling at Jack. He was now all oozing charm and graciousness.

Jack turned and saw me. The smile that lit up his face was gratifying, immediately putting me in a better mood. "Ally," was all he said as he shouldered the other guy out of the way, took my hand, and pulled me into his arms for a brief kiss.

"Ahh, this must be the famous girlfriend I've heard so much about," the guy said. "I can't believe Jack finally managed to get one. Well, she hasn't met me yet. Jack, introduce us," he commanded.

Jack rolled his eyes at me. "Ally, this is my cousin, Mateo. Manny's youngest son." I could definitely see the family resemblance. He was shorter and stockier than Jack, but had a very similar look about him. They could probably pass as brothers.

"Mat," he corrected, taking the hand I had extended for a shake and raising it to his lips, kissing the back of it. I just raised my eyebrows at Jack.

"Knock it off, pendejo," Jack took my hand back from him. "Stop slobbering all over her."

"Nice to meet you, Mat," I laughed. It was obvious that he was not serious and that he and Jack were on good, brotherly even, terms. "I've heard about you. You've been visiting your
great grandmother in Mexico?"

"Yeah, I was taking a break from CNM and decided to go see her. We're trying to get her to move up here, but she's being stubborn. I've heard about you, too.
 Now that I'm back, you can stop wasting your time with Jack. You can go out with the handsome cousin."

I laughed. "Oh, I'm perfectly ok with this cousin, thanks. I think I'll just stick with him. Are you about done, Jack? I can get a bus home if you need to work."

"No, I'm done for the day," he picked up a rag and wiped his hands. "I just need to change. You can wait with Shelley if you want. I'll just be a couple minutes." We started to walk away.

"So, I'll just fix this mess you made, ok Jack?" Mat called after us, laughing.

Jack gave him the finger without turning around. Mat just laughed harder. "Nice to meet you, Ally!" He called out after our retreating figures.

I started to turn around to wave and say good-bye, but Jack stopped me. "Don't encourage him, querida."

****

Jack
ate dinner with Grams, mom and me. I loved how easy-going he was with them, able to take Grams' teasing and inappropriate comments without batting an eye.  After dinner we settled in the living room to work on our papers. Grams had left for bingo at the senior citizen's center and mom had an odd school night date with Brian, a guy she had been seeing for a few weeks. Hmm. That might need some looking into.

We had to write a minimum of
three pages on the role of obsession and ambition in
Heart of Darkness
. I finished before Jack and then just quietly watched him while he worked, tapping away at his laptop. I was curled up in a corner of the couch with Wicky purring in my lap while he sat on the floor, leaning against the couch with his long denim-clad legs outstretched. He looked so adorable as he concentrated, black hair falling over his brow, eyes pulled together in a scowl. He highlighted a passage, read it back over, muttered, "shit" under his breath and deleted the entire paragraph. I set Wicky aside and crawled up behind him, leaned over his shoulder, and said, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just hate writing conclusions. They always suck. I don't know how to end this effing essay."

"Undelete it. Let me read it," I commanded. As he did as I asked, I began to knead his shoulders with my hands. "God, Jack, you are so tight! You need to relax."

"You touching me is not exactly relaxing, Ally. Kind of has the exact opposite effect, in fact." He groaned in appreciation and laid his head back.

I gave him a quick kiss and said, "None of that right now. Work now, play later."

He kissed me back quickly and complained, "Such a task master!
Here" He handed me the laptop with the restored paragraph to read. "It just seems too repetitive."

I read it, typed in a phrase after the restatement of the thesis, and handed it back to him. "See what you think of that."

He took the laptop and without even looking at the addition to the paragraph, pressed ‘save’, snapped it closed, set it aside, and pulled me down onto his lap. "It's later," he said and began kissing me.

We had not had much time to be alone since we started dating, so we were both reveling in the luxury of being able to kiss each other at length. I loved the taste of him, the feel of him, the smell... I just couldn't get close enough. If I could crawl inside his skin I would. I rearranged myself so that I was straddling his lap, facing him. He
moved his warm hands all over my back, soothing and massaging. Then I felt him slip his hands under the edge of my shirt, just caressing the flesh of my back. It felt so incredible. "Oh, God, Jack," I moaned into his mouth. I began kissing his neck, working my way down to his chest, and began unbuttoning his shirt. I slipped my hands inside and began to smooth them over the hot skin of his chest. I was just discovering the crisp feel of his chest hair when he stopped me.

"Ally, sweetheart," his hands came up and covered mine, stilling them. "Ally, we have to stop."

I didn't even hear him. I was so intent on discovering...him...this...everything.

"Ally, stop!" he said more forcefully and pushed me gently away from him.

I blinked and looked at him in horror. "Oh my God! I'm sorry! I didn't...I don't..." I suddenly couldn't get off his lap fast enough. I was so embarrassed, I'm sure my face was bright cherry red. I stood up, preparing to run and lock myself in the bathroom out of shame.

He must have sensed that I was about to run, because he caught me, and brought me back to the couch, setting me in one corner while he sat in the other
and re-buttoned his shirt. "Oh, no you don't. You are not running away from this. If you can just about seduce me, then you can stay and talk about it," he said sternly. "We need to be able to talk about anything, sweetheart," he said more gently.

I drew my knees up, put my head down on them, and cried, "I'm so embarrassed! You must think I'm some kind of sex-starved maniac! I've never done anything like that before. I don't know what got into me."

"Jesus, Ally," he said, reaching out and pulling my bare feet onto his lap. He began to rub them soothingly. "I don't think you're a sex-starved maniac. I know you've never done anything like that before. That's why we needed to stop. You were quickly pushing me to the point of no return."

Tears started rolling down my face. "I'm so sorry," I whispered.

He pulled me to him, putting his arm around me, wiping my tears away. "No, I'm the one who's sorry. I let that get way out of hand." He laughed mirthlessly. "I didn't realize you'd be so...responsive."

"I just liked it so much," I said in a small voice.

He laid his head back on the top of the couch. "Yeah, me too." He sat up and turned to face me, seriousness gleaming from his eyes. "Look, Ally. We need to take this slow. You are a seriously sexy girl, and I would love nothing more than to make love to you right now, believe me, but it's not right. That should be a decision we make together, not in the heat of the moment. I have no intention of taking your virginity on the floor of your grandmother's living room when she or your mother could walk in at any moment. Ok?"

I nodded. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you or make you feel awkward."

He laughed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Believe me, what I'm feeling right now is not embarrassment."

"Jack," I continued, whispering, "You've done this before, haven't you? You're not a virgin, are you?" Some sick and twisted part of me needed to know.