Private Affair (The Private Series) (8 page)

His eyes scrunch together and he looks lost and confused. “Ben? Who is it?” I ask, starting to feel a bit worried.

“Why are you calling my sister’s phone?” His voice deepens and sounds stern.

I put my hand on his knee and wait for any sign to who he could be talking to. “I thought we talked about this?”

“Ben?” I whisper. I know how his temper starts and I can tell he’s about to get really pissed off. And I don’t want to see that happen, not tonight.

“Yeah, well, surprise, I have her phone … no she is not in New York … Your already back in the city? Fine come over.” Then he hangs up.

I wait patiently as he looks at the phone in his hand, his gears turning for sure. “Ben?”

He looks over to me and he has a blank expression. “It was Dan.”

When I answer the phone I expected to hear a teen girl’s voice asking where her friend has been for the past few days. Why she hasn’t been online or to class. I never expected to hear my best friend’s voice on the other end.

Why was Dan calling my little sister? How did he even have her number? Well I guess I am going to find out. Good thing he has moved back to Seattle for Tone, at least I’ll have my best mate with me during this time, along with Tess.

Even after what nearly happened with him and Caroline, I feel a little betrayed, but I knew he wouldn’t hurt her. He seemed to be like another brother to her, when we were in school. His mind wasn’t in the right place, not after what Mark and Jackie told him, which was a total fucking lie. I would never sleep with Jackie or anyone else he had seen.

“Why is Dan calling Caroline?” Tess asks, pulling me out of my thought.

I set the yellow cased phone down on the coffee table, “I have no idea, but I am going to find out. I hope you’re okay that I just invited him over. I am sorry I didn’t think about asking, I just want to know his reason for ringing Caroline.”

“That’s fine,” She assures me with a smile. She takes a long sip from her glass and now I am regretting that invite.

We hear a knock on the door about twenty minutes after the call, I open the door and see Dan looking a bit … well, not himself. He looks worried.

“So what’s going on with Caroline?” He starts right out asking,

I go to the fridge and I hand him a beer, he’s right on my heels, waiting for me to answer.

“You didn’t tell him yet Ben?” Tess asks coming into the kitchen.

“Tell me what?”

Tess and I sit at the counter, “Have a seat.” I tell him.

I have never seen him look so worried in his life, pissed all the fuck off sure, but distraught? No way. “Caroline had an accident in New York.”

He sets his untouched beer down, another thing he doesn’t ever do. “What kind of accident? Is she alright?”

I look to Tess who is looking down at her hands in her lap and she looks up at me, waiting for me to tell him. “She was rushed to the emergency room. She cut herself and passed out from blood loss.”

He jumps from the counter, tipping over his stool and he grabs his head. “What the fuck? Fuck! What the fuck? What happened? Is she okay? Where is she now? Ben!” He looks frantically from me to Tess and back to the floor and he starts to pace the kitchen.

“She is okay, Dan” Tess assures him, but he isn’t calming down. Why is he so upset?

“Where is she?” He asks again.

This time I answer, “She is in a treatment facility here in Seattle, we brought her home to get help.”

“Help for what?” He looks the way I feel about it.

Tess goes over and hugs him, she is trying to calm him down and I see his face start to visually relax. Tess walks him over to the sofa and signals him to sit. I follow them over and I allow her to explain, because I don’t know if I can handle saying the words.

“She has been harming herself for some time now, Dan. She has been cutting herself and there are scars on her arms and other parts of her body. She said she didn’t mean to cut so deep, but it happened and her roommate in New York called 911.”

He looks to me and asks, “But, she’s okay right?” I nod.

I see him pull out a pack of cigarettes and put one in his mouth and lights it. Normally I would make him go outside, but I think he’s a little stressed out and would just tell me to fuck off anyways.

“I have a question for you Dan.” I start, calmly.

He takes a long drag and looks at me. “Why were you calling her?”

“What do you mean?” He asks caught off guard.

“I mean, why are you calling my baby sister? And late at night.”

He shakes his head and I see Tess giving me a warning glance. “It’s Christmas, I was calling to tell her Merry Christmas.”

“At ten o’clock at night?”

“What are you getting at Ben?” he asks.

“After what had already happened between you and her, why are you calling? I asked you to back off.” I feel my tone start to get harsh.

Tess puts her hand in mine, I know this is her way of trying to keep me calm. I have been far too calm about everything lately. What happened with Jackie and Mark? Getting arrested for beating the mother fucking shit out of the guy. Finding out that my best friend since high school made a move on my sister. Then all of the Nicole bull shit and that nearly causing me to lose the love of my life. My sister nearly fucking killed herself and I still don’t know why. I feel my head start to spin and I am getting hotter.

“Answer me!” I yell, causing Tess to jump away from me and Dan to come out of his chair.

“Hey man, don’t get upset. I know you are upset about what is going on with her and everything else, but don’t get angry.”

“Don’t give me a reason to be angry!”

“Ben, calm down. Sit back down.” Tess pleads with me, but I can’t. I just can’t I am so fucking sick of being told to calm down. I am tired of not getting my answers!

I aggressively grab Caroline’s phone and I start to go through the call history.

“Ben, what are you doing man?” I hear the worry in his voice and that’s all the signal I need to keep looking. I find her call log and a long list of incoming calls from Dan’s number. I go into her messenger and I see long conversations between them. My vision is starting to get blurry and I can’t read what I am seeing.

“How long? How long Dan?” I growl through my teeth.

“Nothing is going on Ben, you have to believe me. You have known me for years and I would never fucking do anything to hurt you!”

“Yeah I heard that before, when I found out that you made out with my baby sister and accused her of trying to sleep with you! Was that your plan all along? To feed into her? Take advantage of a teen girl? She is fucking fifteen Dan! You’re twenty-five!” I throw my beer bottle across the room hitting the front door.

I see Tess start to back up into the hallway out of the corner of my eye. I am scaring her. I don’t ever want to scare her, calm down dude, calm down. I take in a deep breath, pinch the bridge of my nose and close my eyes.

When I open them I see Dan waiting. Waiting for me to hit him probably. “Explain. Now.” I say between my gritted teeth.

“Can we sit and I’ll start?” He asks with his hands up in surrender.

I look back for Tess and I see her in the hall entry way. I go to her, “I am so sorry baby. I didn’t want to lose my temper, I didn’t intend on it. I am so sorry.”

She puts her hands on my chest, “It’s understandable. You have been through a lot and this was the sour cherry on top. Let’s go sit and see what he has to say.”

I take her hand and lead her back out.

“Explain.” I tell him.

He takes in a deep breath, most likely relieved that I didn’t pound him into my floor. “A while back probably about six, seven months ago, I was on Facebook and I got a friend request from Caroline. As soon as I did she hit me up asking how I was doing and what I have been up to. I asked her about school and how things with her and you were. We got accustomed to sending a message a day on there and one day she offered up her phone number and told me to call any time and I of course returned the offer, for if she ever needed someone to talk to. I started to notice some hurtful things on her wall and I called her asking is she was alright. She was having a hard time with a few people from school, they had been calling her bad names and accusing her of sleeping with a teacher. One night I saw a post that pissed me off and I had been drinking so I lashed out back at the posts and then they attacked back saying that I was probably another older guy she was fucking.” He stops and looks at Tess who had tossed her hand over her mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Dan asks her.

“When I was in her room a while back I had seen some of the posts you’re talking about. I couldn’t believe how rude they were being to her.”

I drop my head and shake it, “You tried to tell me about that too and I just blew it off. All this time she was hurting and she goes to you,” I point to Dan. “But not me.”

“Ben, I think she has been trying to.” He tells me.

“What do you mean by that? That I wasn’t listening to her?” Then it finally hits me. I turn to Tess, “This is what you’ve been trying to tell me. I just had horse blinders on. I didn’t want to see it.”

She only nods.

Fuck. I am an asshole.

“Is there anything else I need to know? From either of you?” I look from him to her.

“I just want you to know that I was only there for her to listen to her. I didn’t do it to hurt you.” Dan explains himself.

“I know.”

The last couple of days went a little more smoothly. I don’t think I have seen such an intense Christmas in my life.

Ben and I are in the office, which I have my own little cubical at now! I know it might seem like a silly thing to be excited over, but hey I have a cubical at my dream job. We are called into Ms. Fuller’s office to go over the New Years Eve bash. It is a mash up of local rock bands and a few known indie bands. I look over the list and I have heard a few of them, but I am always eager to hear new music and use my new lens.

I am at my cubical editing some photos from the last show I did, when my cell buzzes. I look to find its Erin calling me. “Hey girlie!” I answer.

“Hey yourself, how have you been?” She asks, I was able to sneak away while in the New York hospital to call Erin to let her know what was going on. I needed to confide in my friend, even though she hasn’t admitted a pretty big secret that I know of hers.