Breath of Scandal (13 page)

"Shut up!" Neal hissed. "Both of you, just shut up." His straight, white teeth were clenched and bared. "Listen, you dumb fucks, girls pull this bullshit all the time. She put up token resistance, sure. Do you think she wants us telliRg everybody that she was willingly gang-banged? Before we could advertise to all the other guys how easy she was, she had to pull this crap to make us look bad first. Don't you see that?"

Hutch looked desperate enough to grasp at any straw, no matter how flimsy. Lamar too wanted to believe Neal, but every time Neal began to sound logical, Lamar remembered the strength with which Jade had fought and how terrified she had looked when he and Hutch held her down for Neal.

Hutch wiped his perspiring forehead with the back of his hand. His skin was the color of putty speckled with rusty paint. "We probably shouldn't have left her there."

"She made it back to town okay, didn't she?" "How'd she get back?" Lamar asked.

Neal filled him in on what he knew and all that had transpired at the courthouse that morning. "I got the impression that Donna Dee knew," Lamar remarked when Neal was finished.

"Donna Dee vouched for us," Neal said. "She knew damn well that Jade knew what she was in for when she got into the car with three half-drunk randy bucks. Maybe we should have invited Donna Dee to our little party, too. " He grinned and smacked his lips. "Although I can't see her being as good as her friend Jade. I've never had pussy that swext before. "

Lamar lowered his eyes to his hands, which lay limply in his lap. He had a compelling urge to wash them. "Donna Dee was pissed at Jade for screwing you," Neal

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said to Hutch. "You could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. She's really got the hots for you. Why don't you be kind, Hutch? Give her a sampling of what you gave Jade. "

Hutch's large hands balled into fists. His face regained its color. In fact, it turned beet red. Hutch's temper was reputably short around everybody except Neal, but there was a first time for everything. Lamar held his breath with fearful expectation.

Evidently Hutch thought better of antagonizing Neal any further. His hot color subsided and he relaxed his fists - "I'm going home now." He stomped across the room. Before he reached the door, Neal blocked his path.

"I'd be real disappointed if my two best friends turned out to be squeamish chickenshits." He included Lamar in the warning look he gave Hutch. "Jade stirred up a hornets' nest this morning, but it's all over now. My old man called a while ago and said she had notified Fritz that she's decided against pressing charges. That's as good as an admission that she was asking for it." When neither responded, he said, "Well, isn't it?"

The two boys glanced at each other indecisively. Finally, Lamar mumbled, "Whatever you say, Neal."

"Okay then, relax, will you?"

Hutch said, "Daddy's put me on a curfew for the next couple of weeks. See y'all later."

After he left, Neal raised his hands high above his head and stretched, yawning expansively. "My old man yanked me out of bed before sunrise this morning. I've been lazy all day." He picked up his beer and drank the rest of it in one swallow. "You want to go shoot some baskets or something?"

"No, I've, uh, got to get home, too." Lamar rose to his feet. Awkwardly, he fidgeted with the zipper of his jacket, slid his hands into his pockets, took them out again. "Is my mother going to find out about this, Neal?"

"Why?" Neal smiled like an alligator. "Scared?" "Damn right," Lamar admitted with a weak laugh

Neal slapped him between the shoulder blades. "She won't find out. And even if she does, so what? You got laid. Big fucking deal. No pun intended."

Suddenly he grabbed a handful of Lamar's buttock and whispered softly, "You shot quite a load into her, my man. I was damned proud of you." He squeezed the flesh before releasing it, laughing in his characteristically careless way.

Lamar said goodbye and made his way to the staircase. The high ceilings of the house made him feel small and caged. He paused momentarily to draw a steadying breath. As he leaned against the balustrade, he realized that he was sweating piofusely again. Perspiration had beaded on his upper lip. His palms were slick and cold with it.

He experienced another startling realization: his cock was hard. Very hard. Talking about his sexual prowess the night before had done it. He didn't know whether to gloat or to be sick again.

CHAPTER six

Gary Parker ambushed Donna Dee Monroe at her car in the student parking lot just after the three-thirty bell. His suspicion that she had been avoiding him was confirmed. When she saw him, she almost dropped her books.

"Gary! Wh-why aren't you running track?" "I want to talk to you, Donna Dee."

"About what?" She tossed her books into the backseat and slid behind the wheel, eager to get away. Gary reached through the door and yanked out the ignition key.

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"Hey, what-"

"I want to know what's going on with Jade." "Jade?" she echoed.

"Jade. You know, Jade Sperry, your best friend." "Yeah," she said, her expression suddenly hostile. "What about her?"

"Why has she been absent from school for so long? What's wrong with her? Every time I call, her mother tells me she's sick. Jade won't talk to me at all. Is she that sick? Have you seen her?"

"Not since last week," she replied curtly. "If her mother says she's sick, I guess she's sick."

"You haven't talked to Jade either?"

I    I I

'No. "I can't believe that, Donna Dee.         You're her best friend. "

"Well, you're her boyfriend. If she won't talk to you, what makes you think she'd talk to me? Please, give me my keys. I've got to get home." She extended her open palm; he ignored it.

"Are you saying you've tried to talk to Jade and she reftised?"

Her small face was puckered with indecision and aggravation. "Listen, Gary, you'd just as well know that we had a falling out and are no longer speaking."

He regarded her with patent disbelief. "You've got to be kidding! "

"I'm not."

-What caused this falling out?"

"I'm not at liberty to say. Now please-" She reached for her keys, but he held them out of her reach. "Gary, give me my keys!"

"Not until you tell me what the hell is going on!" Usually Gary was even-tempered. His current anger was a by-product of frustration and fear. For several days he had sensed that something was amiss. Classmates looked at him askance. Several whispered conversations had stopped the moment he had approached. Jade had a mys-

terious illness. Nothing had been normal since the day he had heard about his scholarship. Although he had nothing concrete to base it on, he had a strong premonition that his life had been tampered with.

"What's the matter with Jade?" he demanded.

"If you want to know about Jade, ask her." Donna Dee grabbed her keys before he had a chance to stop her.

He did, however, reach through the open window and grab her arm. "Does it have anything to do with Neal?" Donna Dee's head came around so quickly, her neck made a cracking sound. "What makes you ask that?"

"Because he's being particularly obnoxious. All of a sudden he's ireating me like a pal, except that he's so phony, he's transparent - It's like he's in on a joke that I don't know about yet."

Anxiously, Donna Dee wet her lips. Her eyes darted furtively. She looked trapped, which gave Gary a sick feeling deep in his gut that his guess was right.

"Does Neal's sudden friendliness toward me have anything to do with Jade?"

"I've gotta go." "Donna Dee!"

"I've gotta go." She started her car and peeled out of the parking lot without looking back.

"Dammit!" to Gary ran to his car. He didn't make a conscious decision skip track practice that afternoon. He simply reacted to

the compulsion to see Jade immediately. If he had to beat down her door, he was going to see her.

Jade recognized the sound of his car. Moving to the living-room window, she watched him jog up the front walk and rap twice on the door. Involuntarily, she moaned with yearning before composing her features and pulling open the door.

"Jade! " "Hello, Gary."

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A wide grin broke across his face. it was obvious that he was overjoyed and relieved to see her. "Besides looking wan and thin, you look normal."

"What did you expect?"

"I don't know," he said with chagrin. "Open, oozing lesions, maybe. "

He grasped her by the upper arms and pulled her into a fierce hug. He seemed not to notice that she didn't melt against him as she usually did.

"You had me worried sick," he whispered against her neck. "I'm glad to see that you're all right."

She was the one to end the embrace. Backing up over the threshold, she invited him inside. He glanced guiltily over his shoulder. "Are you sure it's okay, since your mother's not here?"

"It's okay." In light of the situation, breaking one of Velta's ironclad rules was the least of Jade's worries. Once she had closed the door, Gary again drew her against

him and gazed at her hungrily. "What's was wrong with you, Jade? You must've been real sick. Your mother said you were too sick to come to the telephone."

"That's what I told her to tell you." He looked at her quizzically. "Sit down, Gary."

Turning her back on him, she moved to a chair and sat down. When she looked up at him, it was apparent that he was at a loss over her lack of response. Jade was having difficulty dealing with it herself. Gary's tender touch reminded her of others that hadn't been tender. Although her brain knew that there was a vast difference, her body seemed unable to make the distinction between his caresses and the mauling it had received from her attackers. She should be grateful, she supposed. Without physical desire to contend with, what she had to do would be easier.

He carne forward, knelt in front of her chair, and clasped her folded hands tightly between his. "Jade, I don't get it. What the hell is going on?"

"What don't you get?"

"Any of it. Why haven't you been at school? Why haven't you talked to me?"

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"I've been sick."

"Too sick to come to the telephone and say hello?" She made her voice cool. "There's something I've got to tell you, Gary."

"Oh, Jesus, no," he whispered huskily. He lunged forward and buried his face in her lap, clutching handfuls of her quilted robe and twisting it between his fingers. "Do you have a fatal disease? Are you going to die?"

Her heart broke. She couldn't resist sliding her fingers up through his wavy brown hair. As though it had a life of its own, it twined around her fingers. Tenderly she caressed his scalp., A sob issued from his throat; it was an echo of the one she held back.

Before she submitted to her heartache, she lifted his head. "It's nothing like that. I'm not going to die." He touched her face, skimming his fingertips over each feature. "It's just that. . - " She made several false starts, then said, "I've been emotionally sick. "

He repeated the words as though they belonged to another language. "Over what?"

"I've been under too much pressure."

"From school?" He touched her hair, smoothing a strand away from her face. She resisted the impulse to rest her cheek in his palm. "That will let up now that we've got our scholarships. Hey! We haven't even seen each other since we were notified. Congratulations."

"To you, too."

"How are we going to celebrate?" His eyes turned smoky as his hand moved down her chest to her breast. "I know how I'd like to."

"No!" she cried shrilly as she shrank from his touch. He was so startled that he was easily pushed aside as she left her chair. Her motions were jerky and disjointed, as though she had only recently learned to walk.

"Jade?" She spun around and confronted him. He was regarding her with perplexity. "Don't you understand what I'm trying to tell you? I've been under pressure about the scholarship, but other things, too. Primarily, us. "

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"What the hell are you talking about?"

Dragging it out was only making it worse, she realized. There wasn't a way to do this without inflicting wounds on him and herself. "You're a smart fellow," she said, deliberately giving her voice an impatient edge. "Can't you read between the lines? Do I have to spell it out? Can't you understand what I'm trying to tell you?"

Gary came to his feet. He settled his hands on his narrow hips and cocked his head to one side. "Are you trying to break up?"

"I . . . I think we need to take a break from each other, yes. Things were going too far, getting out of hand. We need to pull back."

Gary's arms fell to his sides. "I can't believe this. Jade?" He moved toward her and tried to take her into his arms. She staved him off.

"I can't take any more of this sexual pressure from you, Gary. "

"Like you haven't been putting sexual pressure on me?" he shouted.

"Of course! I know I have. That's my point. It's not healthy for either of us to keep building bonfires we can't Put out."

"Just a few weeks ago, you suggested that we start putting out the bonfires."

"I've changed my mind. We should wait, give ourselves plenty of time to make the correct decision." Hastily, she licked her lips. "But even that's not good enough. We need to date other people. We've gone steady ever since we were old enough to date. I want you to ... to start dating other girls. "

For several moments he stared at her speechlessly. Then his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "This has something to do with Neal Patchett, doesn't it?"

A trapdoor seemed to open up beneath her. She felt herself falling through a black void. "No," she denied hoarsely. Obviously he mistook her horror for guilt. "The hell it

doesn't," he sneered. "He's been sucking up to me for more than a week. Ever since you got 'sick.' He's been

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acting like a man with a delicious secret that he's just dying to tell. Now I know what it is. He wanted to rub my nose in it. You went out with him, didn't you?"