Page 32 of Last First Time
“It’s only for a moment, Reed. Let’s get out of here without any more problems.” His voice is low, so that I’m the only one who hears him. Then he’s handcuffing me, and this is about as ashamed as I’ve ever felt in my entire life.
Of course, when he hauls me out of the building, an entire army of press is waiting there to take video footage of me getting taken away in handcuffs. I know von Esrington did this too—another part of this whole elaborate set up.
Kar is going to kill me for getting her into this mess. It was my stupid idea for us to have a relationship in the first place, and when I talked her into dating me, it put a giant target on her back. I know how important her privacy is to her, and because of my own political aspirations, I’m now officially ruining her life too.
“Come on man, let’s focus on getting you in the car.” Aaron is trying his best to navigate the throng of reporters, all of whom are screaming questions at and about me, whether I’m dangerous and what I’m going to be charged with.
“Is it true you punched the senator?”
“Were you actually trying to kill him, Reed?”
“Was this about all your harem of women?”
I duck into the backseat of the squad car, having mostly ignored the heckling of the press. I’m ruined, and my family will chide me about my downfall. And all of this over the one particular person whose life I’m about to ruin, right along with my own.
“Aaron, I know this is a big ask, but I need you to call and warn Kar.”
“Reed, shut up. Everything in this car gets recorded, so keep your mouth shut back there.”
“He has pictures of her. He’s going to put them all over the news, and she deserves to know before it happens.”
Aaron swears, a rough set of words I didn’t even know that he knew. “I knew it had to be something big to set you off, but come on man. You can’t go all vigilante and you know it.”
I sigh and lean back against the ugly, sticky seat of the squad car. “It’s too late for me, Aaron. But I’ve got to get word to her. Can you at least let me call her?”
“I’ll see what I can do, Reed. But honestly? You’re in a deep pile of shit here. You need to keep your mouth shut and call your lawyer. And what do you want to bet that the senator’s already made a few phone calls to try to get your jail stay to last as long as possible?”
Aaron is right, of course. I can feel it. This whole damn night is going to drag on forever, in the most public and awful way possible.
K.T.
It’s late, and the Palace is still dark and seemingly unoccupied, and I am about to scream because where is Reed when I want to tell him about my horrible day and that asshole Jeffrey?
I look at my phone for the eight millionth time, but still nothing. No calls, no texts, no nothing. Usually, Reed would be teasing me at the corner of the bar at Riddles hours ago, but I don’t have the heart to open the bar tonight. There’s nothing that’s going to save my business unless I empty out my secret stash of money, and I’ve already decided there’s no way I’m going to do that.
It isn’t worth it to give up on my safety. There’s nothing worth that to me. That bank account is almost an entire year’s worth of living expenses for me, and it could very well be the difference between my safety and sleeping on the streets. I still haven’t forgotten the shame of sleeping in my family’s car and going to school unwashed and dirty. I may be grown up now, but it didn’t happen all that long ago to me.
My phone buzzes in the console and I pick it up. The name says Collect Call. Was this going to be some scammer pretending to be the IRS? I go ahead and answer because I love messing with those scammers almost as much as I love giving people the impression that I might have murdered someone once. It’s hysterical to me.
“Hello?” I answer in a quavery, old lady voice. All the better to mess with the scammers.
A recorded voice advises that I am receiving a collect call from the LaGrange County Jail. Well, that’s a new one. To accept charges, I press one. Can’t wait to hear what this one’s about.
“Kar.”
Wait, what? Why is my best friend calling me collect from jail?
“Reed? Is that you? What’s going on?” My voice goes high and breathy because I am abruptly flooded with panic. There is definitely something very, very wrong.
“Look, I need you to call Abernathy and ask him to come to the jail and meet up with me. But there’s something else that you need to know.”
“Reed, why are you in jail? What the fuck?”
The phone call goes heavy with static for a minute, and I am briefly concerned that the call got dropped.
“—pictures. I’m sorry, but I can’t think of anything to do about it from here. I really let you down, Kar.”
“Wait, what? Reed, the phone cut out and I didn’t hear you.”
