Page 64 of Keeping The Virgin

I get a response right away—just not the one I expect.

Undelivered.

I check my reception, and it’s fine. This is beyond weird, so I suck it up and call Liam. But his number isn’t working either.

Puzzled, I emerge from my room to find my roommates in the kitchen. It looks like this is the last stop on the walk of shame for Victoria and Corrine, because they’re wearing clothes that look rumpled and they have bedheads. And they confirm everything by telling me about the hot guys they met at the barbecue and stayed with last night. It was a boinkapalooza.

Victoria offers me a fresh glazed donut and, hungry as hell, I take it.

Both of my roomies watch me wolf it down: Victoria with her big brown eyes, Corrine with her green ones.

“When’s the last time you had a meal?” Corrine asks.

It sure wasn’t last night, but I’m famished now, and I merely shrug at the question before thanking them. I want to tell them about Liam and how he just seems to have disappeared, but they go to their rooms to crash and get some sleep before their noon classes. Besides, I still can’t tell anyone else about my problems.

Besides Cage. Not that he matters now.

I get ready to go to a beginning ballet class I’m taking for kicks and credits. On the way, I look out for Liam on campus, just in case he lost his phone in a drug-induced stupor and decided to show up here to demand more money. But there’s no sight of him.

Could it be that somehow, some way he’s gone?

I make it through the rest of the day without any Liam sightings, and the night is just as safe. I indulge myself with sweet dreams of Cage, thinking of the best of times with him, and for once, I sleep soundly.

The next morning, I get a call from a friend I haven’t seen since I started dating Liam.

Theresa went her own way while I ran around with him because he just rubbed her the wrong way. I should’ve listened to her.

She barely says hi to me before she rushes into the reason she called.

“See, Karini, I knew Liam sucked!”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Girl, haven’t you heard the news? Good god, go online and check your local feed to see what’s up with that fool!”

I’m on it, and when I find a story about Liam, I read through it quickly, then sit back in my chair, going through the comments below the article, too. Some of them are very blunt pieces of information from Liam’s neighbors, and it seems they’re just as sick of his crap as I am.

The scoop is that, yesterday evening, police responded to a noise complaint at Liam’s apartment. They found him inside with a broken arm and it was clear he’d been beaten badly. His place was in ruins. The cops even found drugs everywhere.

“Surprised?” Theresa asks.

She has no idea what he put me through. No one but Cage knows, but I can’t help shaking my head and saying, “No. No surprise.”

“After I found out about this, I asked around and heard you two had broken up, so I had to call about this. Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” I say, still bewildered. “I’m…great.”

I smile. God help me, but I am. I have no idea what’s happening, yet it’s poetic.

Theresa sighs with what seems like relief. “That’s good to hear, Karini. I knew he’d turn out to be bad news, and obviously someone thought as little of him as I did. He sure got his ass kicked.”

“The article says that he refused to give the name of the person who assaulted him.”

“Yeah, I’m sure the police couldn’t care less. They found all that heroin, so they arrested him for intent to distribute. Did you know—?”

“That he was a drug dealer? No.” A user? Yes. An absolute piece of shit? For sure. But not a dealer.

As Theresa and I catch up, my mind untangles so many things, and my mood improves. Liam will be going away for a very long time because it seems he has a long record and prior convictions.

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