Little Baby Pines

After the small argument with Jonathan in the bar Sully became consumed with hate. There was one thing on his mind and it was to destroy Kimberly. He wanted her to be broken. She wasn’t allowed to date hockey players. She shouldn’t be able to have that life. Sully was expecting her new boyfriend to be some lame poet or something else stupid, not someone that was successful. Sully wanted to hurt Kim the only way he could.

“Can I see your phone, Mindy?”

The couple was still in the bar they met Jon in. Sully bought the rest of a vodka bottle behind the bar and sucked it down until it was empty. The only reason the bartender allowed Sully to buy the bottle was because the bartender loves Sully’s music. Mindy and Sully were sitting side by side at a booth towards the back of the bar where it was quieter.

Mindy handed it to him and walked off. “Hey, you don’t need to leave. Whatever.” He squinted at the phone until he found ‘Heather’. The first time it rang until it went to the voicemail. He called her again and again until she picked up.

“Mindy. Why the fuck are you calling me at this ridiculous hour? Did one of the pledges die or something? Talk before I drive back to the house and rip out your pretty hair from your scalp.”

“This is actually Mindy’s boyfriend. I need to talk to you about something.”

“What? Who the fuck? Okay, whatever, just talk now before I drift back to sleep.” Heather was spending the night at her boyfriend’s place. “No, Peter,” she whispered, “the girls aren’t dead. Go back to sleep, sweetie.” Heather rubbed her forehead with her free hand. “Okay, Mindy’s boyfriend, you have five minutes. After that I am hanging up and going to sleep.”

Sully asked Heather to hold on a second and he went through the back exit to enter an eerily quiet alley. “Heather, I know you hate Kimberly Parker.”

“Who doesn’t?”

Sully smirked. That was the attitude he wanted to hear. “Touché. I have information to get her out of your life and your sorority. Kimberly Frances Parker was a drug dealer and did drugs. She sold ecstasy and some other shit. I got pictures on my iPhone. Now, I’m going to send them to you. But if you don’t do something about her I will go higher and show them to someone who matters.”

“And I don’t matter? Listen, what is your name?”

“Scott.”

“Scott,” her voice was icy. “I like this cute little black mail thing you are trying to do, but don’t think you can try to involve me in it and then try to black mail me, too. Because if you took that to higher authorities I will look fucking dumb. I will deal with this, Scott. Send me the pictures. That bitch will be out of here in no more than 2 days. If the pictures look shopped, you are fucking dead. Do not fuck with me, Scott.”

Sullivan let his heavy shoulders shrink. Kim was getting what he felt she deserved. “I am not fucking wit you, girl. I’m going to send the pictures now. I trust you, Heather.”

“That is a dangerous thing to do, Scott.” Heather hung up on him and walked from her boyfriend’s bedroom to the kitchen. While she prepared herself a glass milk her phone lit up. There were pictures after pictures. Pictures of Kim showing off her bag of colorful pill, of Kim holding Sully’s lion head bong, of her packing the bowl of the bong with weed, of Kim sitting at a table with various drugs laid out in front of her, of Kim’s breasts with a wad of money and a small bag of pills tucked in her bra while she was smiling at the camera and throwing up a peace sign.

Heather sat down at the breakfast counter carefully examining each picture. “That girl is so fucked.” With the evidence Heather was given she didn’t have to hold a meeting to get the other heads of the sorority to sign off on Kim’s involuntary discharge. Heather sighed and pulled up her email on her Blackberry. It was 2:15 in the morning and she was writing a diplomatic letter of discharge. It enabled her to kick Kim out of the sorority without raising eyebrows. She then had to write a letter to Kim’s scholarship saying that Kim was no longer an active member of their sorority. It was going to upset Kim since she relied on her scholarship for school. Then she had to write an email to Pan-Hellenic explaining the de-function of their secretary for un-academically constructed behavior that Heather dealt with in a diplomatic manner. A glass of milk and two cups of tea later, Heather felt accomplished. When she finished her letters it was close to 6 AM. Pan-Hellenic had already responded to her congratulating her on her presidential skills in handling the situation and allowing her to officially defect Kim from the sorority. Heather called up Caroline, the pledge educator. Caroline was a meek and fragile girl. Heather had frightened Caroline into therapy and elective shock therapy.

“Caroline? I need you to do something for me. Is Kim at the house right now?”

“Um,” Caroline’s voice was small and groggy. “She actually spent the night at her boyfriend’s. I think she left around 1 or so in the night. Why?”

Heather smiled to herself, a malicious smile. “Great. Round up the pledges to pack up her things. Kimberly, as of five minutes ago, is officially defected from Theta Phi Pi. She broke the rules and I am keeping a confidential mouth on the details so that our sorority isn’t harmed by her actions. We will have a meeting about it later this week, but for now have the pledges gather all her things and put them on the porch. I want that bitch to not have a reason to step inside our house again. Thank you, Caroline.”

That was the first time Caroline ever heard Heather say ‘thank you’.

------
Jon woke up with someone’s legs over his. He looked to his left to find Patrick fast asleep. Jon shoved Patrick’s legs off of him and looked around the room. Kim was the person he went to sleep with. Patrick was on the couch. If Kaner was now in his bed, then where was his girlfriend? Murmuring from Kaner spooked Jon out of the room. He grabbed a black shirt off the ground and pulled it over his head. He came home the previous night to find Kim in his bed watching reruns of Supernatural and fell asleep beside her.

But now he couldn’t find her.

He searched the bathroom and then the rest of the apartment. There was a note by the coffee maker. There was an almost full pot of coffee. The note read: Had to go to the library early to Bobby with the morning reading group since Janie is out. Then I’m going to the TPP house to get clean clothes. I’ll be back around 2 ish. Love, Kim.

On the bottom of the coffee maker were digital numbers. It was 1:26 PM. He hadn’t slept in that late in a very long time. He typically woke up before she did. Her nights were always spent hitting the books. Since the two started dating he changed her. She partied less, went to her classes, turned her things in on time, stopped selling drugs, and stopped smoking (for the most part). Kim didn’t mind the change. It made her less stressed out. Partying less freed up more of her time, which meant she could sleep more and eat a decent meal. Sleeping more is what made her sleep in while Jon was wide awake at 9 AM, a time she considered early in the morning.

A very sleepy Patrick stumbled out of the bedroom. His body leaned against the sofa until his elbow slipped and he fell onto it. Jon just raised an eyebrow and poured himself a cup of coffee. “You want some coffee, dude?” Some unintelligent garble was muffled by Patrick’s arm. He fell awkwardly onto the couch. “I am pouring you some.” Jon pulled out another mug and poured Pat a cup. Some of the coffee splashed back onto Jon’s hand. It stung him.

“Where is your girlfriend? Why am I not waking up to the sight of her in skimpy clothes?”

“She had to go to the library. I guess they are short handed or something. I still haven’t been able to tell her about last night and Sully.”

Patrick fluffed a pillow that was on the ground and shoved it under his head. “That is probably a good thing, dude. I am telling you, don’t tell her. She doesn’t need to know.”

Jon just shook his head. He promised her that he wouldn’t do anything about the Sully situation. He hadn’t. But Sully still met him and went ape shit. Did that involve consequences for Kim? Jon just had to believe that it was going to be okay. Technically, he didn’t do anything. He tried to leave before the confrontation blew up in his face. But he should have walked faster. Mindy tried to help him. Why didn’t he listen to Mindy?

Jon blew a gust of breath on his steaming cup of coffee to cool it down a bit. “When she comes back from the Theta house I am telling her because I should. I don’t care what you say, Kaner. You have been telling me to not tell her, but I have to.”

“Fine, dude. Your funeral. Kim is like me. Stubborn. She will be upset that something she asked you to do was ignored. Bitch will go nuts.” Kaner sat up to take one sip of his coffee and then lied back down. His thin legs kicked wildly in the air. After a few seconds he stopped. His body sank as low as it could into the couch.

From across the room Jon raised another eyebrow. “You okay there, Kaner?”

“Peachy keen, bitch.”

There was knocking at the door. Jon set down his coffee and padded to the door. He forgot that he was only in boxers and a shirt. It didn’t matter much to him since strangers usually didn’t knock at his door. The door made a pop noise when he opened it. Kim’s back was to the door. “Hey, Kim. Your note said you’d be back at 2. You are early. How was the library?”

When she turned around Jon’s heart leapt into his throat. Her face was blotchy and her eyes were puffy. She looked like she did the night he came home after she and Sully argued. He immediately began thinking of Sully confronting her about seeing him last night. “Baby, I am sorry. I should have—”

“What the fuck did you do?” Tears sprouted from her face again. She wiped at them aggressively. Jon put a hand on her shoulder and tried to pull her in. The girl moved wildly. She slipped past him and ran into the kitchen. “Kaner, sweetie, fuck, you are here. Okay. Fuck.” She then walked briskly into Jon’s room where she sat down on the middle of his bed and silently cried.

From the couch Kaner poked his head up and looked around cautiously. “Yeah, I am going to go.”

“I fucking hate you.” Patrick brushed past Jon. “This is your fault, man.” I should have told her last night. The door shut after Patrick and Jon went to his room for damage control. “Kim.”

“They fucking kicked me out of the sorority! IT WAS FUCKING OFFICIAL AND THERE WAS A LETTER STAMPED WITH THE GOLD SEAL AND EVERYTHING AND I AM FUCKED! Heather and Sullivan took huge dildos and rammed them in all my orifices because I am fucked. They fucked me, Jon.” Kim collapsed onto her side, hugging her knees.

“They kicked you out of the sorority?”

For crying, her speech was hardly impaired. He could understand everything she said. “Yes. And my scholarship is gone. And I am on academic probation so I probably can’t get another one that was as good as the one I had. It was going to transfer to my grad school. Fuck. I am fucked for school, Jon. The only reason I got accepted into my grad school is because of the achievements I have. They are going to deny me the opportunity to go there because I fucked this up.”

“That can’t be true.”

“It is! Heather wrote the grad school. She hasn’t heard from them yet, but they are going to give up my seat. I am so fucked. I want to go back to Cali.” She buried her face into the comforter of his bed, trying to dry her tears.

Jon sat down on the edge of the bed. “Kimmy, it will be okay.”

“It will not. Because Sullivan black mailed me. Because Heather has proof of my stupidness. Because I was complacent and reckless. I am a one man wrecking machine.” Kim screamed into the comforters. Jon tried to calm her down by rubbing her back. She went stiff. It took her a minute to contain herself from the bursts of cries. “It was you, wasn’t it? You spoke to Sullivan.”

Jon leaned closer to her. “That’s the thing. I saw him last night at the bar. I was going to tell you.” Even though Jon couldn’t see Kim he knew there was a strong look of pain on her face. She pulled away from him, crawling off the bed. “Kim. I was going to tell you about it, honestly.”

“I asked you to not do anything, Jonathan. You promised you wouldn’t do anything stupid, that you wouldn’t talk to him.” The girl stood up. For being 5’6” she stood tall and bravely. Her stance made Jon tremble. “You did something stupid.”

“I ran into him. It was an accident. I swear. It wasn’t like I sought him out to confront him.”

“YOU SPOKE TO HIM! I ASKED YOU TO NOT DO THAT!” She wiped at her eyes and shook out her hair wildly. “I can’t fucking believe you did that. Okay, okay, I didn’t tell you that Sully was going to use the information about my DJ days against me. He made me promise that you and I stayed away from him. He would have left me alone if you didn’t see him, Jonny. I asked you to not do anything. Why didn’t you listen to me, Jonathan?”

Jon started to get defensive. “Why wouldn’t you tell me about that? I should have been told that! And I told you,” he was becoming frustrated. “It was an accident. It wasn’t like I was like, ‘Oh, where the fuck is Sully? I need to talk to him and fuck shit up.’ It was a goddamn accident, Kimberly.”

“Don’t Kimberly me.”

“Don’t Jonathan me and don’t try and make me the fucking agitator of this situation. Okay, I fucked up and talked to him. I never said who I was to you to him. I never said that I was your boyfriend. I never gave him any reason to believe otherwise, okay? He just fucking knew and put two and two together. Fuck, that guy was so pissed that he probably would have thought any guy that Mindy was talking to that he didn’t know was your boyfriend.”

Kim shrank down at the sound of Mindy’s name. “You saw Mindy?”

“That is how Sully and I met. Mindy and I were talking. She tried to get me out of there but I didn’t know what was going on. Then Sullivan came in and nearly ripped my head off. Maybe you shouldn’t have crazy ex-boyfriends. Or lovers, I guess, since you didn’t date him.”

“I didn’t tell you he black mailed me because I know how you would have reacted. You would have gone over to his place and punched him in the face or something. And that is the last thing I needed to happen.”

Jon scoffed. “You obviously don’t know me because I have more dignity than that, Kim. I don’t just go around punching people in the face. I would have dealt with it in the manner it should have been dealt with. You should have told me.” He was lying about his dignity. He would have punched Sullivan in the face until he was spitting up teeth.

“You shouldn’t have done anything.”

“You should have told me about Sullivan. And I was going to tell you I ran into him, honestly. It was a fucking coincidence. I tried to leave, but he was stubborn. I had no idea that that would have had happened. Had you told me, I would have left as soon as I saw Mindy.”

“You know what? Fuck this. I can’t do the whole ‘it’s your fault for not doing this’ ‘it’s your fault for not listening to me when I asked you to do one small thing’ ‘you should have told me’ ‘you should have just shut the fuck up and fuck fuck fuck’. I cannot do this shit right now. Do you see the state I am in?!” Her voice cracked. “My head is swimming. I am going through a bunch of shit right now. My future is fucked. 4 years of college are washed down the drain. I don’t know what I am going to do with myself right now. So I definitely can’t deal with this right now.” Her flustered face became obscured by her hands.

“This? You mean us?” Jon stood up, but didn’t budge towards her. “You want to break up?”

“Maybe, fuck if I know,” she said softly.

Jon gritted his teeth. “Speak louder so I can hear you, Kim. If you are going to break up with me then fucking break up with me. I can’t believe you are pulling this shit. I did nothing wrong here. You are the one fucking this. You were the one that did something stupid like sell drugs. If you wanted your future intact, you should have thought twice about that. I fucking tried to be the best boyfriend to you. Fuck, I was the best boyfriend to you given your choice in men.”

Her tiny hands grabbed at the edge of her shirt, tugging on it. “FINE! Fuck. Shut up. Just stop fucking making words with your stupid mouth. I am breaking up with you,” she said the words in a mechanical voice. “This is fucking stupid. My heart is breaking, I--” The girl stomped on the ground twice. “Yeah, this is really fucking stupid,” she said it in a softer tone and walked out of the room with her head hung low.

Jon fell backwards onto the bed. His vision went blurry and liquid slid from his eyes down his face. He didn’t know why he was crying. “You know what? FUCK YOU, KIMBERLY.” He shouted loud enough for her to hear. He didn’t care if it made her cry more. That was a lie. He cared deeply if she was crying now because of him. He felt he tried to do the best he could in that situation. He didn’t know what to do anymore. “Good fucking riddance.” He grabbed a pillow and covered his face with it. All he wanted now was to fall asleep.