Chapter 33

Hailey’s loud voice from the living room brought Tiffany and Katelyn out of their alcohol-induced slumber. By the time they washed their faces and put on clothes, Hailey was sitting on the couch sobbing.

“What’s wrong?” Tiffany asked.

“Everything!” Hailey said. “Everything is wrong! Phil is pissed. I mean seriously pissed.”

“I’ll bet,” Tiffany said. “I figured he hired an army of private investigators to track down those guys from last night.”

“He’s pissed at us!” Hailey said. “I ... I don’t think he’s going to forgive us.”

“Why’s he pissed at us?” Tiffany said.

“Are you fucking serious?” Katelyn asked. Tiffany initially thought Katelyn was agreeing with her. Instead the tall young woman was addressing her question to her. “We were supposed to be going out to dance and let off some steam. Instead we wind up hanging out with three fucking losers in a shitty club and we have to race from a cab at four o’clock in the fucking morning because we shined them for free booze.

“We’re here because he invited us! What do we do? We fucking ditch him like some lame-ass guy we hate. We’re supposed to be looking for jobs for the summer today. Instead it’s almost one in the afternoon and we’re just now rolling our asses out of bed. Do you two remember half the shit we did last night? It’s a God damned miracle we got out of that club without getting raped. Then we lead the stupid bastards right back to Phil’s fucking building! Why is he pissed at us? Grow the fuck up, Tiffany.”

Tiffany’s eyes goggled at her friend’s words.

“It’s not like we fucked them,” Tiffany said dismissively. “They grabbed our asses a few times and squeezed a tit once or twice. It’s not that bad.”

“It’s a lot worse than that, Tiff,” Hailey said. “They destroyed the dress shop downstairs. Phil said they did like $50,000 worth of damage. The woman is going to go out of business because it’ll take a month or more to repair everything they destroyed. They also stole a bunch of her clothing and ripped some of it to shreds.”

“No way,” Tiffany said. “That’s not our fault, though.”

“The fuck it isn’t,” Katelyn raged. She was doing her best to keep from grabbing Tiffany and shaking the teeth from her head. “What did you think was going to happen after those guys spent $200 each on our drinks and we didn’t come across?”

“I didn’t hear you fighting the idea!” Tiffany shot back.

“You’re right,” Katelyn said. “I’m as much to blame as any of us. And we are to blame for this. Phil trusted us. Don’t you see that? He invited us here and he trusted us. Not only did his girlfriend let some other guy kiss her and play with her ass last night, we didn’t do anything to stop it. Then we cut and run. At the time, it seemed fun. In the harsh light of morning, I’m ashamed of how I acted and I’m ashamed of how I’ve treated my friend.”

“I don’t think he’s a friend any more,” Hailey said, starting to cry again. “He told me he’d either catch up with us this week or see us around on campus.”

“No!” Tiffany said firmly. “No, I refuse to accept that. We’ll go up there and apologize. Let’s pack our shit and go now!”

“We can apologize all we want,” Hailey said. “It doesn’t mean he’ll accept it.”

Phil saw Hailey’s car parked in the driveway when he returned to the house at 10 o’clock that night. He almost decided to turn around and head for a hotel – and he might have if he hadn’t seen her look out the window when he turned onto the street.

He was not running from Hailey Warren again. They would have this out and she could go the fuck to wherever she had to go.

Hailey stepped out onto the porch when Phil got out of his car.

“I’m sorry,” she said as he walked up the steps.

“I told you to save your apologies,” Phil returned.

“I know but I am still sorry,” she said again.

“Bullshit, Hailey,” Phil said. “You’re not sorry about what you did. You’re sorry for what you caused. If things had turned out ducky last night you three would have stayed down there all fucking week, concocting excuses about why you couldn’t come up. Don’t lie and tell me I’m wrong.”

Hailey looked away. They had talked about the reasons they could stay in the city and party for most of the week.

“Exactly,” Phil said. “So don’t tell me you’re sorry when you’re not. I’m not in the mood to play games with you. Say what you want to say and let me go into bed. I have a long day tomorrow.”

Hailey gulped but carried on. She had determined that she was going to be absolutely honest with Phil. It was probably the only way to salvage any sort of relationship with him.

“Things happened just like you said,” she told him. “We went to the Juice Bar. That’s a dance club with no alcohol. It was pretty dead. There were only a few people there and most of them were in a group. We heard three guys talking about a club called Casino so we asked them to dance. They invited us to go with them – or we talked them into inviting us, one or the other. It doesn’t matter because we followed them over in a taxi. You were right about how we got into the club. They vouched for us. They gave us a yellow hand stamp and the bartender wouldn’t serve us unless one of the guys bought it.

“It wasn’t too hard to convince them. We were the best-looking girls in the club. We danced and we drank. We ended up drinking a lot more than we should have and we let things go farther than we wanted them to. The guy kissed me on the dance floor once and I had to kiss him to get him to buy me another drink. The next time we danced I let him put his hands on my butt. That’s when we decided we needed to get out of there. Tiffany and Katelyn were the same way. Nothing went farther than over-clothes touching. I would tell you if it had because I want to be truthful.”

“Fine, let’s be truthful,” Phil asked, fury barely hidden in his tone. “You gave the guy a kiss for a drink. How many times?”

“Once,” Hailey said. “Maybe twice. Things were a little hazy.”

“Uh-huh,” Phil said. “OK, did you ask him to score you some weed?”

“No,” Hailey said.

“How about coke or some X?” he asked.

“Maybe,” Hailey said. “I think we might have.”

“And he couldn’t,” Phil said. “What would you have done if he could?”

“I...” Hailey began.

“Would you have blown him for a hit of X?” he asked. “Would you have fucked him for an eight-ball? What if he had smack? Would have you gangbanged the whole bar for it?”

“No!” Hailey said. “No, I wouldn’t have done any of those things.”

“So you planned to pay him for the drugs,” Phil said. “With what?”

“With...” Hailey began but faltered. He knew full well that none of the girls had enough money on hand to purchase drugs.

“Yeah,” Phil spat. “Exactly. If he could have come up with it you’d have found a way to pay for it, I’m sure. I’m also sure he had a way in mind. Fine, let’s move off that. You’re still promising to be honest, right?”

Hailey nodded but couldn’t speak.

“Then why are you minimizing your role in this!?” Phil asked harshly. “It’s all ‘we’ this and ‘we’ that. Call it like it is, Hailey. It was you! You wanted to go to the dance club. You weren’t satisfied with just dancing and not drinking so you cuddled up to some no-neck loser and got the invite. At Casino you offered kisses for drinks and you didn’t stop him when he felt you up on the dance floor. You wanted something harder than watered-down booze and you asked your date to find you something. Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t. I don’t give a fuck any more because you made the decision about what was important in your life. You want to party and cut loose and have fun. That’s fine and I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong to feel that way.

“But it doesn’t fit with how I want to live my life, Hailey, and that is something you can’t change. Just like you apparently can’t change from what your mother raised you to be. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed. Can I assume Mom showed you where the spare bedding is for the couch? If not, I’ll set it out for you. Good night.”

Everyone was around the breakfast table when Phil wandered down the next morning. He was gratified that he didn’t appear to be the only one who hadn’t slept well the night before.

“Hungry?” his father asked.

Phil took in the table’s other occupants and shook his head.

“I’ll grab something on the way,” he said. “I’m late.”

Hailey turned to him before he departed.

“Do you want me to go back to campus?” she asked sorrowfully.

“I don’t care what you do, Hailey,” he said. “And I doubt it would matter if I did.”

He turned to walk out the door without another word.

David stayed in his seat after his wife departed for the office. She had come home early the day before when she learned of the damage to the apartment building and had work to catch up on.

“Sit!” he commanded when Tiffany started to rise. She gawked at him but complied.

“I wanted to tell you that I understand the urge to do something completely stupid,” he began. “I was young once myself and I did a lot of stupid things.”

A look of relief crossed three faces.

“But I never have done something as reckless and as selfish as what you three pulled Sunday night,” he declared in a stern voice. “Hailey, I’ll be honest. I was opposed to Phil developing a relationship with you. I’ve known people like you my entire life and you are exactly the sort of person I do not want around my son.

“Oh, sure, you say you want to change and I believe you. Hell, you might even be telling the truth for all I know. Sunday demonstrates that regardless of your intentions, you haven’t changed one iota.”

Hailey started to protest but shut her mouth after a glare from David Warner. He had been so quiet and friendly but that was gone now.