Consumed: A MMA Sports Romance (10 page)

“I’ll keep that in mind,”
I tell her.

I take a quick glance
around, finding Jana standing over the sink, pouring herself a glass of water.
Ash isn’t in the room.

“Where’s Ash?” I ask.

“Such a silly name for a
beautiful young goddess, don’t you think?” the woman who can only be Starbright
asks.

From Ash’s descriptions
of Jana’s mother, I was expecting paisley and peace signs, but the only outward
indication of Starbright’s eccentricity is the vivid purple and pink hair.

“She had to run to the
store,” Starbright says. “We were out of hummus.”

“I love hummus,” I say,
not knowing how else to respond.

“Great,” she says. “You
should stick around. Have you ever had your palms read?”

I rub my eyes.

“No,” I answer.

“Well, I charge twenty
for a full reading, ten for an overview, but since you’re practically family, I
think I could cut you a discount if you’d like.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do
that,” I tell her, making my way to my feet, hoping it’s not too obvious how
uncomfortable I am right now.

“All right,” Starbright
says, “full price, then. I do appreciate those who appreciate things,” she says
and she’s staring at me as if she’s looking for some sort of approval.

“Me too,” I say, slowly
making my way toward my bag and then, or so the plan goes, the door.

Jana’s mom seems nice
enough, but she’s a little intense for my tastes. She’s just glaring at me.

“When was the last time
you had your aura cleansed?” she asks.

“Mom,” Jana calls, “Ash
made you promise not to do that in the apartment anymore after you spilled your
frankincense all over the couch and burned holes in the cushions.”

“Oh, I’m not going to use
the frankincense,” Starbright says. “I’m going to use sandalwood.”

“It’s not going to
matter,” Jana warns, but seems resigned that her mom’s not going to listen to
her.

“Really,” I tell
Starbright, “I’m fine.”

“Have you ever studied
demonology?” she asks, and I can’t begin to describe my relief when I hear the
key entering the front door lock.

The door opens and Ash
walks in, carrying five large grocery bags in her hands, saying, “Would you
guys mind helping me bring the rest of this stuff in? There are like ten more
bags out there.”

“I thought you were just
going to the store to get hummus,” I say as I almost rush to Ash and throw my
arms around her, causing her to drop a couple of the bags.

“Everything all right?”
she asks quietly.

“Yeah,” I tell her.
“You’re back, just don’t leave me alone with that woman again. She’s asking me
if I’m into demons.”

“Demonology, actually,”
Starbright corrects.

The woman has spectacular
hearing.

“What’s the difference?”
Jana asks.

“What time is it?” I
mouth to Ash.

“Three,” she mouths back.

“Well,” Starbright says
behind me, “demonology is the study of demons, rituals associated with them,
how to banish and exorcise them—it’s a complete field of study.”

“Bed?” I mouth.

Ash smiles.

“Sure,” she says at her
normal volume. “Help me get these bags in the house and everything put away and
we can do whatever you want.”

I give Ash another
squeeze, but start for the car when Starbright starts chanting in some ancient
or made-up language. If I understand the context right, I think she’s calling
upon the forces of the underworld to step in and take in her share of the
groceries.

Then again, I could be
wrong. I know exactly nothing about that sort of thing.

Chapter
Ten

Pendulum

Ash

After waking up to the
smell of burning cabbage, Mason and I made the immediate decision to spend the
morning at his house. Now, alone again, things are finally back to the way they
have been since he and I talked.

I sit, facing Ash at the
breakfast table. Everything’s going so smoothly, everything’s so peaceful and
then there’s a pounding on the front door.

“I’ll be right back,” he
tells me quietly as he gets up from his seat.

He goes around the
corner, through the living room and to the front door. I hear it unlock.

“Why’re you locking me
outta my own house?” Chris yells as the door opens. “Hey, um, I decided to
invest that money you gave me instead of just blowing it on liquor, only I
think things aren’t going so well.”

“I gave you a hundred
bucks, Chris,” Mason says. “How did you turn that into someone wanting to track
you down?”

“People have this weird
thing with me,” Chris says. “You going to get outta my way so I can come in or
what?”

“I trusted you, Chris,” Mason
tells him. “I knew it was stupid. I knew it was a mistake, but I trusted you. I
gave you one last chance to prove that you’re not just everyone’s leech and you
blew it.”

I’m out of my seat and as
close to the wall as I can get without betraying my presence.

“It’s gonna be all
right,” Chris says. “I know you’re stressin’ about money and all that, and I
just wanted to tell you that if you could spot me like another Benny, I can get
that first hundred back, plus interest. Come on, man,” he says. “One door closes,
another one—”

The door slams, and I
hear it lock.

Chris is pounding on the
wood again, calling, “I get that. That’s funny! Now come on and let me in, man.
You don’t know what kind of night I’ve had.”

“Figure it out!” Mason
shouts and I walk back to the table and grab my purse. “We’re done!”

Mason and I promised to
be more open about stuff like this, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea for
me to be here while this goes down. I don’t think it would actually come to
blows, but whatever’s about to happen, it’s not going to be pretty.

“Hey,” Mason says in a
loud whisper as he comes around the corner to find me already out of my seat, my
purse slung over her shoulder. “I hope you understand, but I think it might be
best if you sneak out the back and try not to run into him. I don’t know if
he’s drunk, but he’s getting pretty pissed.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I kind of
got that vibe.”

“Okay,” he says. “Just
head out the back door and go around to the south side. From the direction I’m
facing now—”

“I know which direction
south is,” I interrupt.

“Okay,” he says. “From
there, just stay low along the hedges and when you get close to the sidewalk,
just slowly walk away like you just came out of the next house, all right?”

“I’ll do what I can,” I
tell him.

“All right,” he says,
kissing me on the lips and then on the forehead. “I’m sorry about this, but we
won’t have to deal with it after this, okay?”

“Okay,” I tell him. “Just
don’t… I mean, you two can talk—”

“I’m not planning to hand
him a beat down,” Mason interrupts. “I’m just going to get him and his stuff
off of my property. There’s no reason this has to go the other way.”

“Okay,” I answer. “Call
me when it’s over.”

It sounds cold the way I
say it, but Mason nods his assent.

I go out the back and
around the side as instructed, but I’d never realized just how short these
hedges are until I’m trying to use them as cover. Staying uncomfortably low,
though, I manage to get to the sidewalk and casually walk away.

This isn’t how I’d hoped
the morning would go. I just want the complicated part of our relationship to
be over already.

I don’t know how long
Mason’s going to need with his brother, so I guess I should just head home.

It seems like every time
we get a new start and things start going well, something comes up and we’re
back in damage control mode. Am I naïve just wanting things to be easy for
once?

I get to my apartment
building and with everything, I’m just glad to be home. That relief lasts until
I open the front door and get an eyeful of my naked roommate straddling some
naked guy on the couch.

Jana looks over, covering
herself with her hands and I slam the door shut again.

I really didn’t need this
right now. Usually, I couldn’t care less about Jana’s sex life, but when I
can’t even walk through my front door after being the fourth wall during a
tense situation between my boyfriend and his brother, I get pretty pissed.

I’m still standing here
in front of the doorway. I haven’t moved.

I really don’t have
anywhere else I want to go. Money’s too tight for me to go out and get
something to eat while my roommate and her sweaty paramour finish up, and I’m
not in the mood for going over to someone else’s place or to the library to
study.

I just want to be home.
Is that so much to ask?

You know what? This is my
home, too.

I throw the door open
again to find Jana and the balding brunette guy she’s with in different stages
of getting dressed.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Jana
says. “We didn’t think you’d be home for a while.”

I walk in and close the
door behind me.

“Kind of helps you get
that feeling that you’re in college, though, right?” she asks.

I set my purse on the
table.

“You know how they’re
always talking about the wild sex parties that go on in college,” Jana says,
though I’m not sure why she keeps talking.

I go to the cupboard and
pull down a glass, which I then fill with cold water.

“You seem pretty mad,”
Jana says. “Will you at least talk to me?”

I take a sip of my water
and look at her.

“Look, I don’t know what
the big deal is,” she says. “Is that what you wanted to come home to? Probably
not, but that doesn’t mean that it’s anyone’s fault. I mean, these things just
happen.”

The guy’s dressed except
for his shoes and socks, but no doubt as a reaction to the palpable tension in
the room, he just picks up the rest and heads for the door. I set my water on
the table.

“Well,” she says, “now
you’ve scared off my date. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve gone out
and brought a stranger home? A girl’s gotta be able to go out and make a
mistake every once in a while,” she says. “That’s what keeps you young.”

“It doesn’t bother me
that you’re having sex in the apartment,” I tell her.

“Oh, good,” she says, taking
a deep breath, relieved until she realizes she’s put her shirt on but not her
bra.

“It doesn’t bother me
that I don’t know the guy or that you don’t either,” I tell her.

“Okay,” she says, “are we
doing a thing here, because I don’t know what my next line is supposed to be.”

“It wouldn’t bother me if
you came home with nine guys, five women and a bowling ball,” I tell her.

“A bowling ball,” she
says, forcing laughter. “That’s funny.”

“What bothers me,” I say,
“is that after yet another crappy day in my own life, I come home, just happy
to be back where I’m comfortable, where I can retreat from the world, to find I
can’t even enter my own apartment without having to walk through your inability
to say no to anyone about anything.”

“That’s not fair,” she
says. “I picked him up, and I don’t just go around letting people tell me what
to do all the time.”

“Then why is your mom
still here?” I ask. “She’s the one that does it. She’s the one that gets you
acting crazy whenever she’s around. I don’t even care that I walked in on you,
I care that there’s such a fundamental lack of respect for me and the fact that
this is my home, too. I just wanted to come home, unwind and try to forget that
there’s not a single complicated thing in my life, but I can’t even do that.”

“I get that you’ve got
this hate/despise relationship with my mom and everything, but you really need
to chill,” she says. “I didn’t know you were coming home. If I did, we would
have gone to the bedroom.”

“It’s my couch!” I blurt.
“Didn’t we have a rule: No sex on common area furniture without at least two
towels down? People have to sit on that thing, you know.”

“Oh, so now I’m just
disgusting,” she says, walking over to the couch, lifting two towels I hadn’t
seen before for the naked bodies that had been thrashing about atop them.
“Maybe I’m not the problem. Maybe the
real
problem is that you can’t figure out how to make things work with your own guy
and you’re just pissed when you see anyone else having a good time.”

“That’s the stupidest
thing I’ve ever heard,” I tell her.

“Yeah,” she says. “I bet
that’s it. Things aren’t going so well with you and Mason because you don’t
know how to keep a man around longer than fifteen minutes and now suddenly I’m
the bad girl.”

“I’m so not in the mood
to stand here and listen to your bullshit,” I tell her.

That startles us both.
Hearing other people curse has never really bothered me—I heard more than
enough of it growing up with dad and mom’s business partners—but I never, ever
talk like that. Jana is well aware of this.

“You’re losing it,” Jana
says. “I don’t know what you think gives you the right—”

“Oh, will you stop
playing the wounded animal?” I ask. “You’re really starting to piss me off.”

“You know what?” Jana
asks. “I’m getting out of here. I don’t have to listen to this. After you come
in here and scare my date off, I’m not going to stay here and take this.”

“You’re not going
anywhere,” I tell her. “We’ve got some things to work out and I’m sick of
brushing them under the rug, now we’ve got to figure out a way for both of us
to live together in peace or one of us has got to go.”

Jana cocks her head a
little. “What happened with Mason today?” she asks. “I know something happened,
but it must have been pretty bad for you to get so lost up your own ass about
it.”

“You need to watch your
mouth,” I tell her crossing the distance between us in a few quick strides. “I
know you get a little crazy when your mom’s around, but you need to back off.
You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Jana, never one to be
intimidated for long, gets right back in my face, saying, “And you need to stop
taking your crappy relationship out on me,” she says. “I get that you’re little
Miss Perfect or whatever, but you not being able to make it work with a guy
isn’t my fault!”

“That’s not what this is
about,” I spit.

“Of
course
that’s what this is about!” she cries. “That’s what it’s
always about. It’s about
you
! You
think you’re the only one in this apartment that matters, but we’re supposed to
be friends, Ash,” she says. “Lately, you’ve been a real bitch.”

It’s a choice, I know it
is, but as quick as it happens, it almost doesn’t seem like I had anything to
do with it. My fist just flies on its own, striking Jana hard just below her
eye and I freeze.

My hand is throbbing, but
I’m just standing here with my hands over my mouth while Jana stands there, her
head still off to one side from the force of the blow.

She slowly turns her head
to look at me, covering her left eye.

We look at each other a
minute, neither one of us having been the least bit prepared for what just
happened.

“You hit me,” she says.
“You actually hit me.”

“Jana…” I mutter through
my hands, “I am so sorry. I can’t believe that I—”

“I hope you and Mason are
very happy together,” she says and almost walks through me as she goes to grab
her keys on the way out the door.

The door slams loudly,
and I’m still standing here, rubbing my right hand. I don’t think I broke
anything, but it hurts like crazy.

I go into my room and
lock the door. Part of me thinks I should be crying right now, but I’m not. I’m
still in shock.

I’ve never hit anyone in
my life. Despite the aching hand, it actually felt pretty good.

She didn’t deserve to get
hit, though. Maybe she was right. Maybe I
am
just miserable.

We’ve been slowly
unravelling from each other for years, but as many times as Jana has made me
mad, as many times as she’s gone behind my back to do something stupid that
ends up getting me in trouble, I’ve never laid a harmful finger on her until
today.

I can hear my phone
ringing in the other room. At first I’m favoring a “let it ring” approach, but
it might be Jana. I don’t know what I’m going to say to her if it is, but I
have to try and make this right if I can.