Drop Dead Bitches

Chapter 6: The Issues
Derek walked down the stairs, still debating whether or not he should visit Alexis at her gym when she got out. The both of them never really spoken in a while without the rest of the group there. He hoped no one noticed the tension between the two but he realized that everyone already knew that Alexis and Derek were never really that close to begin with.
He just didn’t understand what gotten into her and why she was acting the way she was. Was it something he did? Something he said? He couldn’t recall doing anything to upset her. All he wanted was what he done wrong and if there was any way to fix it.
“Mom, I’m heading out,” Derek called right before he opened the door. He waited for approval but there was no answer. All he heard was sniffles coming from the kitchen. “Mom?” he called, walking to the kitchen.
He found his mom sitting at the counter in the kitchen, her head in her hands and a piece of paper on the table. “Mom, what’s wrong?” he asked, rushing over to her.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she sobbed, wiping away the tears.
“What’s this?” he asked, picking up the paper that was soaked with her tears. He read over it and he stiffened.
“He’s still my dad,” she sobbed. “I know that I we didn’t have the best relationship but he’s still my father.”
Derek was stricken with confusion. Was that why she was crying? Because this piece of paper reminded her that her father was dead or because of the guilt that lingered?
“I’m so sorry, mom,” he murmured, not sure what to say to comfort her.
“I can still see it all in my head,” she whispered. “And I can’t believe what I said to him…. What I did to him. He was my father and I was all he had. I was the only person that loved him through all his bitterness.”
“You know he loves you,” he said. “He always has even though he didn’t have a good way of showing it.”
“Not after what I did to him,” she whispered, horrified at herself.
“We all did it together,” dad said, walking into the kitchen.
“Oh, Don!” mom said, hoping off the chair and resuming her work, cleaning the kitchen. “You’re home already?” She looked at the clock and realized how much time has passed by since she opened the letter. She sprayed the table and began scrubbing it, holding back her tears.
“Honey, honey, honey, it’s fine,” dad said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“What do you mean? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, scrubbing the table harder.
“Mom….”
“Amaria, it’s okay,” dad said, trying to get a hold of her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, shaking her head and scrubbing even harder than before. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she repeated. “I don’t know,” she said, still shaking her head.
“Please, Amaria, stop,” dad said, pulling the towel away from her.
“Don,” she cried, leaning into his chest. “I just want it to end. I want it all to go away.”
“It’s okay, honey,” dad said, wrapping his arms around her. “It’ll be okay.”

Alexis walked out of the gym, towel around her neck and her bag on her arm. As she walked toward her car, she noticed Derek leaning against it. She had to admit, he looked absolutely gorgeous. His warm green eyes, bronze hair, perfect jaw line. He was like a God.
Shut up, Alexis! She thought to herself. Alexis couldn’t think of the last time she felt like this about someone. It made her remember what it felt like to be with Colin…. Which was why she couldn’t let this go on.
“Got off my car,” Alexis ordered.
“Alexis, can you please talk to me?” Derek begged.
“I am talking now move! You’re blocking my door.”
“I won’t move until you tell me what I did wrong!”
Alexis pressed a button on her key and the alarm went off, causing Derek to jump. Alexis pushed him out of the way and got into her car.
“Alexis, please!” Derek called, knocking on her window. “You can’t just leave me in the air. At least tell me what’s going on between us.”
Alexis took a deep breath and opened her window. “Nothing,” she said firmly. Then she stepped on the gas and left Derek standing there without a second glance back.

Alexis parked her car in her driveway and sat there for a while, trying to sort her thoughts. Why was she still thinking about Derek? How could he possibly mean that much to her after hanging out for just a couple of days? Their conversations never even got in depth to call him a close friend! But there was just something about him… something so charming. Was it his smile that made every girl in Newport Harbor fall for him at first glace? She knew how many girls were and are all over him and she also knew how many girls have seen Derek in a whole different light. Or no light at all. But that was in the past, Derek seemed different this year. He seemed genuine and nice as if something suddenly changed him over the summer.
Alexis shook her head. She had to focus on bigger and better things like school, family, her future. She had no more time to waste her life worrying about boys.
She reached into her back seat and grabbed her bag, getting out of the car and heading up to her room to shower. She tossed her gym bag on her bed and right when it landed, something floated out and landed face down on the floor.
Alexis walked over to it and picked it up, flipping it over. With just one seconds worth of looking at the picture, she felt her heart break into pieces, her face turning red with fury, her mind spinning with confusion. She had no idea what to feel about this or what to think. And suddenly she broke down crying, crumpling the picture and throwing it across the room with rage.

The next day at school was definitely awkward for almost everyone. Ryan and Colin hardly spoken since Colin ditched him at his party, leaving Ryan looking like a fool up on stage. Colin and Theresa were haven’t even looked at each other since the night of the party when Theresa made her move on him. There was definite tension between Alexis and Derek but they tried to keep it appropriate around their friends since no one really knew about what had happened between the two. Suddenly, Caitlyn seemed almost uninterested in her friends especially Derek who left her on the dance floor and never came back but she had found someone else to dance with and ever since then Nick and Caitlyn have been seeing a lot more of each other. Alexis constantly looked over at Theresa, giving her dirty looks, wanting so badly to annihilate her for what she did to Colin. There has always been tension between Alexis and Caitlyn and with Ryan and Derek so it seemed as if no one was talking in their table. The silence was so different that people would look over at them to see if they were still there.
When the bell finally rang for their next class, everyone jumped out of their chairs. It was almost as if they were happy to finally go their separate ways.
“Theresa, can I talk to you for a minute?” Alexis asked, catching up with her.
“Oh, sure. What’s up?”
“What happened on the night of Ryan’s party?” she whispered.
Theresa froze. “I’m sorry…. What?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know!” she hissed, digging in her purse and pulling out the picture of Theresa and Colin naked in his car.
“Oh my God…,” Theresa whispered as she looked at the picture.
“What the hell happened?” Alexis hissed.
“I’m sorry, I have to go,” Theresa said turning around.
“No!” she said, pulling her back and taking the picture from her hand and shoving back into her purse. “If anything happened that night, I swear I will destroy you, Theresa Santos.” She spun around and headed to her next class, leaving Theresa standing there helplessly.

“How’s Barbara doing?” Caitlyn asked.
Theresa sat there staring into space.
“Theresa?”
Still no response.
“Theresa!”
“Oh, what?”
“What’s wrong with you? You’re so unresponsive today.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just kind of tired.”
“Well, I asked how Barbara is doing,” she said, leaning over to touch her toes before they started practice.
“Uh… why?”
“Is she pregnant or not?”
“Oh! Uh, no. It was a false alarm,” Theresa said and grinned. “So how’s you and Derek?” she asked, quickly changing the subject.
Caitlyn shrugged her shoulders.
“Are you even into him anymore?”
“Of course I am but now that I think about it, he doesn’t even seem into me. There’s no point in trying to get something you’ll never have.”
“What’s gotten into you?” Theresa asked in disgust.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve been acting weird ever since that car accident.”
“Weird?”
“I don’t know, I just feel like you’re loosing it.”
“Okay, I’m not following what you’re trying to say.”
“You’re just being too nice and I feel like you’re going all loser on all of us! I heard you were seen dancing with the guy that crashed into you? What’s that about? The guy’s a loser.”
“Don’t talk about him like that. He’s actually pretty nice once you get to know him.”
“And how did you get to know him? Over dinner or something?” she laughed.
“Over dinner or something?” Caitlyn mocked. “…it was lunch.”
“What is wrong with you?! You can’t hang out with him, Caitlyn. If you do then we’ll have no other choice than to turn our backs on you. You need to get your priorities straight. It’s either us or him and you can’t have both.” Theresa stood up and walked over to the track, three other girls following behind her as she began jogging around the field.
Caitlyn was in complete shock. Did Theresa just say what she think she said? Caitlyn groaned, falling back on her back.

“How was practice?” Colin asked as Caitlyn got into the car. Ever since the accident Caitlyn has been a bit paranoid about driving and tried getting a driver in any chance she could get.
“Horrible,” Caitlyn sighed.
“Why?”
“Theresa completely blew up on me.”
Colin stiffened by her name. “What happened?” he asked, trying to sound interested.
“I don’t know. She just got pissed off that I’ve been hanging out with Nick and she said that if I hang out with him any longer that everyone is going to turn their backs on me. Like, seriously? Who does she think she is? Would you stop talking to me if I continued to hang out with Nick?”
“You’re my sister. I see you everyday so it’ll be impossible to even try to ignore you. But I don’t like that guy, Cait. There’s just something about him that kind of makes me want to busticate his face.”
“Busticate?” Caitlyn laughed.
“It’s my word of the day,” Colin said with a smile.
“Since when did you have a word of the day?”
“Since I thought that word was cool,” he laughed. “Enough about my vocabulary! My point is that you need to be careful hanging around people you don’t trust, that’s all.”
“I’m not saying that I trust him, Colin. I’m just saying that I like hanging around him. He isn’t stuck up and shallow. He knows how to let loose and be carefree.”
“What’re you trying to say? That our friends don’t know how to let loose and be carefree?”
“No, that’s not it. I’m just saying that he knows how to do it with or without a crowd of intoxicated people.”
Colin gave her a look of disapproval and looked back at the road.
“If you took the time to get to know him then you wouldn’t be looking at me like that.”
“The guy crashed my car!”
“Our car,” I corrected.
“Our car!”
“Can you please just talk to Theresa? I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”
Colin stiffened once again. “Sure,” he mumbled.

Colin walked straight up to his room when they got home, locking his door, and laid on his bed, his arms folded over his chest.
The events of the initiation party played through his head. He still couldn’t understand why Theresa would do this to him. He thought he made it very clear that he was saving himself for marriage.
His sister was right, he thought, what had gotten into her? Why was she acting so strangely? He hadn’t noticed it before but he recalled all this starting at the beginning of this year. The sudden change in her attitude, fashion, and likings. This wasn’t the girl he once knew.
Colin couldn’t stand thinking about her for another second. He got out of bed, left the house, and drove to Ryan’s condo.
“Hey, man,” Ryan said, letting Colin in. “What’re you doing here?”
“I just need to get my mind off of some things,” Colin said, walking into Ryan’s place, his hand to his forehead.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know but do you have anything to drink?”
“Nothing hardcore,” Ryan said, confused. “It’s a school night.”
“I don’t care,” Colin said, looking through Ryan’s cabinet full of liquor.
“What’s up with you?” Ryan asked, walking over to Colin.
Colin ignored him and tilted the bottle of Crown Royal into his mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut at the strong taste.
“Okay, grandpa. That’s enough,” Ryan said, taking the bottle away from him and setting it down on the counter. “Why don’t you tell me what’s up.”
Colin sighed. “It’s Theresa.”
“Ohh,” Ryan said. The tone of his voice had realization all over it.
“What do you mean ‘ohh’?” Colin asked.
“Is she acting weird?”
“Yeah! How do you know? Was she like this with you?”
“I don’t even know what went down between you two so I couldn’t say.”
“Let’s just say that Theresa wanted…”
“More?”
“Yeah….”
“She was like that with me,” Ryan said. “She’s never satisfied. She always wants more but sometimes more isn’t enough and when she wants something, she won’t stop at anything until she gets it.”
“Tell me about it! She’s too persistent.”
“Okay, so when Theresa and I were dating a few years back, she’d always want to do certain things with me,” Ryan confessed.
“What do you mean? You two met face-to-face just this year.”
“Yeah, but our distance didn’t stop her from getting a little… needy.”
“Okay, I don’t like there this is going,” Colin said, reaching for the Crown.
Ryan pushed his hand away. “But I eventually broke up with her because I had my morals.”
Colin laughed. “Yeah, Ryan Washington has morals,” he said sarcastically.
“No, I’m not kidding around. I’m being serious. I used to be like you until I had a taste of this life and it was all down hill from there. Why do you think I’m an eighteen year old Junior in high school? Because I flunked two grades! Dude, I don’t want to see that happen to you. You’re better than that.”
“I think I know what I’m doing,” Colin said, reaching out again.
Then Ryan snatched his hand. “Where’s your purity ring?” he asked, staring at his hand.
Colin pulled his hand away. “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he mumbled, stumbling past Ryan and toward the door.
“You can’t drive home like that!” Ryan called after him. “Colin, get back here!” Ryan rushed after him, standing in front of the door so that Colin had no way out.
“Whatever,” Colin said, giving up.

Ryan laid in bed, trying to fall asleep but he couldn’t. He was too busy trying to understand what was going on with him and why. He never felt this way before but he wanted to know out of all people and out of all times, it had to be him and now. He couldn’t let himself over-think this because that would only make him go in depth with his problem, only making it worse. The medicine was clear. He was going to skip school tomorrow and invite a couple girls over. Yes, that was all he needed.

I laughed. I couldn’t control the overwhelming sensation that their lives swirled around problems and secrets. Problems and secrets that I would use to destroy them. What am I going to do with these secrets, you may ask? Well, I’m going to use them to kill these bitches slowly but surely. One by one, they will all fall down until I’m the last bitch standing.