Page 25 of Hot Mess

KAYLA

“Mom, I’m home,” I announced as I walked in the door. It really felt more like waddling. Between all the corn chips and the monstrous burrito, I was full. But everything tasted so good, I didn’t want to stop eating.

I felt better having verbally dumped everything wrong with my trip to Amber. She was right. I should go back and not visit my family. Just because these are my cousins, it doesn’t automatically make them my friends. I hadn’t confessed too much about what happened between Nick and I. I really just wanted to get all of that behind me.

Now that I was back, I told Mom once I was feeling better, I would start my new job. The opportunity to fly out to California had been fortuitously timed. I lost my job with Stole Brothers when they closed one hundred and thirty locations, including the one in our local mall. I had been out of a job and job searching when Uncle Dave convinced Mom to let me go to Los Angeles.

After my first week in Los Angeles, the local craft store called to hire me. I explained that I was out of town but could start as soon as I got back. Since they only wanted me for a seasonal position, they agreed. I was back early, I needed to check in with them and see if I could take care of my paperwork. But I was back, and it was time to stop feeling sorry for myself. It was time to step up and behave like the adult I was.

“How are you feeling?” Mom asked, coming out from the kitchen.

“Much, much better. I think the fresh air really helped. I’m going to go to my room and call that job I got, see if I can start early.”

I had gone up two steps when she held out the big envelope from earlier. “Don’t forget your mail.”

“Oh, right, thank you.” I peeled back the flap and ripped open the end of the envelope wondering what it could be.

I slid out the contents. It was a stack of large format photographs and a piece of folded notebook paper.

The top photo was in black and white and kind of blurry. It was from the Halloween party. I was standing with Gabe and talking to that creepy man he knew. I didn’t remember seeing a party photographer there. But pretty much everyone had a phone.

But… I didn’t understand. It wasn’t a particularly good image.

I opened my bedroom door and tossed the stack of photos onto my bed while I opened the note.

“I know why you did. If you don’t want me to tell, call.” And then listed a phone number.

It didn’t make any sense. I hadn’t done anything.

I picked up the photos and began looking through them.

Another photo of that creep opening a door. That was when I had to go to the bathroom and wanted to cry. I flipped to the next photo, and everything stopped. My world went dark around me. I couldn’t breathe.

I think I fell, more than sat on the edge of the bed. The photos were of Nick and me. Most of the time we just looked like a random couple. I wasn’t recognizable, and it was only Nick’s back. But then, the photos changed and, well, the memory I wanted nothing more than to completely erase from my mind glared up at me in vivid color. Nick had a fist full of my dress, and I was naked. The photographer had changed their position so that his face was visible in the picture.

There was no doubt about what was happening in the picture. Nick had clearly just ripped my dress off. The next picture was almost worse, his hands were on me.

There were no more images. No photos of him trying to protect me and cover me. No photos of me wearing his pants like some upside-down shirt. Just the damning images of him and me. I didn’t understand why they had sent pictures of me with that creep.

I thought I had cried all the tears in my body out earlier, but clearly, that was not the case. I gulped lung-fulls of air trying to breathe. I looked around my room, I had nothing that could provide answers.

I didn’t even know what I was looking for.

What was I supposed to do? If someone had these pictures, they could sell them. Out of context, it looked very bad for Nick. It was worse for me, I was the one exposed, but I also knew I was a nobody. He was a movie star.

I spread out the note that had gotten somewhat crumpled in my distraught state. I pulled my phone from my purse, and with shaky fingers I dialed the listed phone number.

It rang and then was picked up by voicemail. The voice was somehow masked, it sounded like an automated computer voice.

“This message is for Kayla. You have twenty minutes before we return your call. Tell no one. Be somewhere alone. We will know if you’re not.”

The message ended. Twenty minutes? Where was I going to go? Amber had already left, and I couldn’t drive. I sure as hell wasn’t about to tell Mom about this.

This felt like something out of a suspense novel. I wasn’t built for this. I read those books for enjoyment, not because I thought I was a spy. I wasn’t a spy, not even close.

I took the photos and slid them under my mattress. There was no way Mom could ever see those.

I took my phone and went down the stairs as quietly as possible. Mom was still in the kitchen. I never understood why she would rather sit and read in the kitchen when she had a living room, she could relax in. The living room was for guests.

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