Pretty Hate (New Adult Novel) (31 page)

After I staggered off the plane in New York, covered in vomit and holding the bag, a woman told me that I was the reason for her worst flight in thirty years and I should be banned from flying for the rest of my life. I called Rebel Love and sobbed into the phone.

“Oh my God, what happened to you?” she said.

“He dumped me, Rebel,” I said and sat down on the floor in the middle of the gate area. “He fucking dumped me and put me on a plane.”

“Oh, Beth, I just don’t know what to say,” she said. “I just want to hug you, honey.”

“No, you don’t. I’m covered in puke! I took Ecstasy, I’m drunk and I tried to have a threesome with him and a Swedish chick!”

“Beth!”

“And that’s not even the worst part. You want to know what that is? The threesome was already underway!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Bethy. Calm down, please talk to me.”

“I am trying to tell you that I caught my boyfriend, well, ex-boyfriend, having sex with India!”

“India
?”

“Yes, Rebel Love, India! What the fuck is wrong with me?” I said and pounded the floor with my fist.

“Beth! You calm down right now! They will arrest you in that goddamn airport. Keep it together. It’s a short flight home.”

“I don’t want to go home. I want to get on some obscure Saudi flight and wander out to the desert and get bitten by scorpions until I fucking die!”

“Beth, we’ll figure it out, I promise. Just get on that plane and come home.”

“Why, Rebel Love?” I said as I sobbed.

“It’s just a tide, Beth. It will turn,” she said.

When I made it off the plane in Charleston, I threw up one last time on the baggage carousel as I waited for my luggage and then made my way out of the airport into the cold, gray day.

I looked for Rebel Love’s car as I cried outside and heard the music as I looked down the arrival lane. He pulled his Cadillac next to me and got out and looked over the roof of the car.

“Goddamn,” Ivory-Lou said as he shook his head, “ain’t you a fucking sight.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look as bad,” Ivory-Lou said and pulled out of the airport, “and I’ve seen some pretty fucked-up bitches.”

“Please, don’t. I just spent the past eight hours wedged between a breast feeding Albanian and a man who smelled like intestines while I threw up into a bag after taking two Ecstasy and half a bottle of vodka.”

“Your sister, she told me what happened. I figured that crazy bitch for a slut. Already had my say about the dude.”

“I didn’t figure this,” I said and stared at my phone and saw the fourteen missed calls and eight texts from India. “I don’t want to go home.”

“Where do you want to go?” Ivory-Lou said as he turned his music off and sighed.

I threw my phone in my purse and pulled my wallet out. I looked out the window at the highway and started to cry.

“I want to go to Nitro,” I said and handed him the paper.

Ivory-Lou held the paper over the steering wheel as he drove onto the highway.

“Aw, Beth, I don’t know. Maybe Rebel Love should take you. I don’t think I’m the one.”

“I want to go,” I said. “I need to.”

“But, I’m not good with this stuff.”

“Take me to Nitro, now! I need to see him with my own eyes,” I said and sobbed.

Ivory-Lou took a deep breath and looked at me.

“Fine. You need to change your shirt. There’s some in a box in the back.”

“I’m going in there like this.”

“I will not be seen with you in public, covered in puke. Have a little class,” he said.

I crawled over the front seat and landed on top of a box of shirts on the floor of the back seat of his car.

“I’m not wearing this,” I said as I held up the shirt. “I’d rather be covered in puke.”

He stared at me in the rearview mirror.

“Put the fucking shirt on. I will turn this car around and dump your vomit-stinking ass back at the airport. Now, I know you been through some shit so I’ll give you a little more latitude than I usually do, however, put that goddamn shirt on right now and I don’t want to hear no more sass!”

“Fine!” I said and pulled my shirt off. “And give me a cigarette.”

“You don’t smoke.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t usually wear pink shirts with a picture of a black Santa Claus without his pants on holding up a sign that says
Ho’s Gotta Eat
, either. Just give me a fucking cigarette!”

Thirty minutes later we sat in the car in front of Red’s Place and looked out the window.

“What if he’s not here?” Ivory-Lou said. “It don’t look like anyone’s here.”

“If he’s not here, we leave,” I said and opened the car door. “After I get a drink.”

We walked across the street and stood in front of the door to Red’s Place. I put my hand on the door handle and Ivory-Lou put his hand over mine.

“Wait,” he said and stared at me.

“What?”

“I just want to say, that whatever happens in there, no matter what, you’re probably gonna remember it for the rest of your life. And if you don’t, I will because before right now, I have never seen the definition of hot mess in the flesh in my motherfucking life,” he said and laughed.

“Thanks a lot,” I said as I walked into the bar. “Jesus.”

The bar was empty and looked like it had been for a long time. There were old tables set up with peeling vinyl-cushioned chairs near a jukebox and you could see a layer of dust on the long wooden bar.

We sat on the swivel stools at the bar and waited. The liquor bottles looked like they’d never been wiped down and I could see drips of scum coming out of the spouts of the beer taps.

“They don’t even have brandy,” Ivory-Lou said as he looked behind the bar as he chewed on a toothpick. “Real nice place. Here comes someone.”

Ivory-Lou pointed his toothpick at the doorway of a back room. The man held a case of beer balanced on his gut as he walked toward the bar. He wore jeans and a t-shirt and his hair was long and thin.

“Oh, boy,” Ivory-Lou said as we stared at him.

The man looked at me and smiled.

“Hey there,” he said as he set the case of beer on the cooler behind the bar. “Didn’t hear no one come in.”

He stared at me and winked then looked at Ivory-Lou and frowned.

“You the repo man?” he said to Ivory-Lou.

“Nah, just here for a beer,” Ivory-Lou said.

We ordered two bottles of beer and he stood in front of us with his foot on the sink. I studied his handsome face as I tried to figure out where it all went wrong.

“Um, I’m Beth,” I said and held my hand out. “This is my...this is...”

“Jim,” Ivory-Lou said.

“Please to meet ya,” he said and turned and stocked the bar.

“He didn’t tell us his name,” I said into Ivory-Lou’s ear. “Maybe it’s not him.”

“That’s him, Beth. Look at his eyes.”

“I don’t want it to be him,” I said and grabbed my beer. “Give me another cigarette.”

“Can we smoke in here?” I said.

He turned and looked at me as he ran his fingers through his stringy hair and smiled.

“Darling, you can do whatever you want. Matter of fact, I think I’ll join you in that beer,” he said and he grabbed a bottle of beer out of the cooler.

“Uh, like I said, my name is Jim and this here’s Beth,” Ivory-Lou said. “And you are?”

“Oh, name’s Mickey,” he said and wiped his hand on his jeans and held it out.

“Shit,” I said under my breath.

Ivory-Lou shook his hand and Mickey looked at me.

“Beth, I’m pleased to make your acquaintance. You are a looker, girl,” he said and extended his hand.

I put my hand into his and my eyes watered as I stared into his blue eyes. Ivory-Lou looked at me and shook his head.

“So, have you worked here long, Mickey?” Ivory-Lou said.

“Just ten or so years too long,” Mickey said and took a sip of beer and looked at me. “What brings you here? Because I’m looking at the two of you and I know I ain’t never seen you before.”

“We’re just passing through town,” I said and lit one of Ivory-Lou’s cigarettes.

“I see,” he said as he stared at me. “I gotta tell you, girl, you are one sweet piece.”

“Hold on there,” Ivory-Lou said as he sat up in the chair. “Don’t talk to the lady like that, understand?”

Mickey put his beer down on the bar and stared at me and then at Ivory-Lou.

“Ah, is that what’s going on?” he said and pulled up his jeans and stared at Ivory-Lou. “This here’s your woman? You driving Miss Daisy, son?”

“What?” I said and choked on my beer. “Driving Miss Daisy? No, he most certainly is not!”

“Okay, don’t get them panties in a knot. We just usually don’t get strangers around here. Been seeing the same people every day for ten years. Did not mean to offend.”

“None taken,” Ivory-Lou said and chewed on his toothpick.

Mickey turned again and stocked the bar.

“Ask him about the band,” Ivory-Lou said into my ear.

“Um, Mickey?” I said.

“Yes, darling?” he said.

“Uh, were you by chance in a band called Chili Cheese Dog some years ago?”

He looked at me and rubbed his face as he smiled.

“Well, yes, darling, I sure was. You got me!” he said.

He picked up a pad of guest checks and tore a piece of paper off the pad.

“I knew it,” I said and frowned.

“So is this for you or...” he said as he put the paper on the bar.

“Is what for me?” I said and looked at him.

“I think Mickey is asking who you want the autograph made out to,” Ivory-Lou said and shook his head. “Isn’t that right, Mickey?”

“Well, yeah. Unless...” he said as he looked at me and licked his lips.

“Unless what?” I said.

“Wait a minute, I know who you are!” he said.

Ivory-Lou touched my leg under the bar.

“Who am I?” I said as my heart pounded.

“You’re that chick who keeps sending me the pussy pics, ain’t you? I knew it,” he said and slammed his hands on the bar and laughed. “Well, baby, our time has come. Get your ass in that back office so I can finally show you the famous dick of fury!”

“The dick of...no!” I said.

“Now, hold the fuck on!” Ivory-Lou said and stood up. “I told you once, don’t be talking to the lady like that! I ain’t gonna tell you again. Tell him what you’re here for, Beth so we can leave. This place smells worse than you do.”

“Yeah, I don’t like the vibe in this room all of a sudden,” Mickey said as he put a pair of readers on.

“Do you remember a Tandy Munroe, um, Tandy Gershon?” I said.

Mickey looked at the ceiling and smiled.

“Old gal from Abilene, right?” he said.

“Uh, no. She’s from here, West Virginia. She used to watch your band all the time. She...knew you.”

“Nah,” he said and shook his head, “can’t say that I do. Though, I did get me a lot of ass back in the Chili Cheese Dogs days.”

“Well, Tandy is my mother. So, that kind of makes you my...”

“Your what?” he said and stared at me.

“Father,” I said and looked down and took a deep breath. “You’re my father. I’m Beth...named after the song you loved.”

We were silent for a while as he stared at me. I looked into his eyes, same eyes as mine, and they were completely blank.

“How the hell does that make me your father?” he said and pulled his jeans up. “I just told you I don’t know no Mandy.”

“Tandy,” I said. “Her name is Tandy.”

“Tandy...Mandy...what-the-fuck-ever. Don’t know no one by that name. So how’s it make me your father?”

“Jesus Christ!” Ivory-Lou said and slammed his hands on the bar. “You fucked her mother, she got pregnant, you are the father! Don’t you white people watch Maury? That’s how the shit is done!”

Mickey took three steps back from the bar and leaned against the cooler.

“Get the fuck out of this bar,” he said as he narrowed his eyes at me. “I am sick and fucking tired of you people coming ‘round here thinking I got all kinds of money to pay out to your asses. Just get the fuck out!”

“What?” I said and shook my head. “I don’t want money from you.”

“Beth...” Ivory-Lou said as he started to breath heavy.

“Then what the fuck do you want? You think you can bring some coon in here and rough me up, bitch?”

“Whoa,” I said.

Ivory-Lou picked up his bar stool and hurled it across the room. It hit a mirror hanging on the wall and glass flew everywhere. He took four steps around the bar, pulled his gun out of the back of his waistband and held it to Mickey’s head.