Page 21 of Believing Bailey (Granton University 2)

I shrugged. “Sure.” It seemed embarrassing to admit now that I’d wanted to find out where she’d gotten hers so I could get my own. So I added, “I was really drunk.”

Stempy nodded. “Ah.”

“But she seemed distracted, was looking for someone. And she took off before I could somehow make things right between us for getting her all wet. So when she went into the bedroom, I don’t know, I just followed her. It was dark in there, but the bathroom light was on further inside the room, so I thought she’d gone into the bathroom. But when I got there, nothing.”

Stempy looked up from his notetaking, his eyebrows raised. “Was there another exit from that bathroom?”

“No.” I said. “It was the strangest thing. When I turned to leave though, Melody was there, entering the room and turning the light on.”

“So Melody turned the bedroom light on, not you?”

I thought that was a weird question, but I nodded. “Yeah.”

“You’re sure?”

Blinking about how much of a big deal he was making over a light switch, I took a second to think it through, and I was still sure. “Yes.”

“And what did you say to her when she did that?”

“I didn’t say anything. She’s the one who talked to me, saying she thought it was me she’d seen enter the room.”

Nodding, Stempy scribbled more notes. “And how did you answer?”

“I told her I was looking for the rainbow-haired girl. And she asked what kind of drugs I was taking, like I’d hallucinated her. But I told Melody I wasn’t on anything, I don’t do drugs, I was just really drunk. And she said she was sober enough for the both of us. Or wait.” I frowned, trying to recall the sequence of events correctly. “Maybe she said that later.”

Stempy looked up. “But she definitely said it. She told you she was sober.”

“Yeah.” I bobbed my head. “She wanted me to sit down because I was so drunk I was weaving on my feet. She came over and nudged me to sit on the edge of the bed.”

“She’s the one who nudged you down?”

I watched him write all this, wondering why it mattered, but I murmured, “Right. And then…” I squinted, trying to remember. When Stempy lifted his face, I started talking again. “Then she ran her hands through my hair, telling me she knew why I was so drunk, because she’d heard my girlfriend and I had broken up, like I was drowning my miseries in alcohol or something.”

“And were you?”

I shrugged and looked up at the gray ceiling. “I don’t know. Maybe.” Among other reasons.

“Okay. And then what happened?”

“I’m not—” This was where things got a little foggier for me, but I didn’t want Stempy to think I had blocks in my memory so I hurried to say, “She said something really off, like she confessed she didn’t like Jana. That’s my ex I just broke up with. But her and Jana were supposed to be friends. It was just…” I shook my head. “It seemed skeevy to me. When I asked her what she meant, she said she was on Team Beckett. And then she reached for my fly and unzipped my jeans.”

Stempy gaped at me as if engrossed in some raunchy locker room talk. “What? Just like that?”

I shrugged. “Just like that. It shocked the shit out of me too.”

“How did you respond?” he asked, as if he were a fellow fraternity brother eager to hear what happened next, not so much like a lawyer mapping out my defense.

“I…” I snapped my fingers and pointed. “That’s when I told her I was too drunk to, you know, engage in such activities. But she assured me she was sober enough to take care of everything. I still kind of resisted, though. I didn’t want…”

When my voice trailed off, Stempy pressed, “You didn’t want what?”

I gulped, feeling bad about confessing this. “I’ve never really been that into her. So I didn’t want to do anything with her to give her the impression I wanted to start, you know, a relationship. But she distracted me by telling me Jana was somewhere at the party with this guy named Davon, and while I was digesting that, she went down on me.”

Stempy’s mouth fell open. “And when you say she went down on you, you mean…?”

I lifted an eyebrow. “She gave me a fucking blow job.”

He gaped at me a moment before shaking his head. “You didn’t stop her?”

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