The Mess I Made

"Please tell me that something good happened. It's been three years and it's still getting worse and worse."

"It gets worse."

I waited for him to continue but you could tell that he was trying to find the right words to say.

"I don't even know where to begin."

"Hm, I don't know. Maybe you should just start at the beginning."

Michael took a deep breath before continuing, "Everything was going good up until about ten minutes before we hit the stage. A random girl who I've never even seen before came up to me. I could barely make out any of the words that she was saying. She was so wasted that she kept pushing herself up against me and when I didn't respond she took off but that wasn't the last time I saw her. Not even two minutes later she was back with a cup full of beer insisting that I drank some. At this point I was already a little buzzed so I knew better than to have another cup so I rejected it. She took it as if I was rejecting her...well I kind of was but that's besides the point. She slapped me and that's when Nikki came over."

He looked up to see if I was still listening, "Go on."

"Nikki kept asking me over and over what was going on but the girl wouldn't let me speak for myself. She kept on saying that I came on to her when I didn't. I didn't even know the bitch. I would never cheat on Nikki. I love her and I probably always will."

Michael got a distant look in his eyes like he was remembering something else. I snapped my fingers in front of his face, "Wait...I overheard you talking to Nikki that night."

"I know."

"I wasn't being obvious! How would you know?!"

"I didn't, Nikki did. She saw you stading within earshot so we decided to put on a little show."

"Why the fuck would you do that? Why would you want me to believe that she thought you were cheating on her? That doesn't make any sense!"

"There's more to it then that."

I urged him to go on, "Spit it out."

"Nikki would hate me for telling you."

"You already told me half of the story! You can't leave me hanging."

"It's her secret to tell. It's not mine."

"You were just fine with it a minute ago."

Michael sighed, "I just...I don't know. I promised her I would never tell anybody what happened that night especially you since she knew how you would react. You'd want to rip the guys head off-"

"What guy?"

Michael shut his eyes, "Shit. I shouldn't have said that."

"Michael! Are you fucking kidding me? Nikki can't do anything about it now. You're not really doing her any favors by hiding whatever it is you're hiding."

"Fine, I'll tell you. Just don't do anything drastic." I stayed silent for a minute, "Promise?"

"No." I muttered under my breath, "Fine. I wont do anything."

"Pinky promise?"

"You're starting to sound like Cameron."

"Come on Skye."

I looped my pinky finger around his. I kept the fingers on my other hand crossed behind my back, "I promise."

"Before our little show we were talking about something that had happened maybe a half an hour after you guys got to the party."

"And?"

He shushed me and then continued, "We were talking about Steven Jackson."

"That dumb jock? What the hell for?"

"You would find out if you just let me finish."

"Sorry."

"As I was saying...we were talking about Steven Jackson. He was being a bit too friendly towards Nikki." I could hear the hatred pouring out of Michael's voice, "He kept wrapping his arms around her. He even asked her to dance a couple of times but she wouldn't have it. After a while we figured that he just gave up and moved on to another girl but we were wrong. He came back with two drinks in his hands. One for him and one for Nikki. Nikki took the drink and sipped it. He teased her about not drowing the glass like you would've. He pissed her off so much that she chugged the remaining alchohol. It only took one cup for Nikki to get messed up."

"She never got messed up after one little beer."

"I know. I've seen her drink two and she's was always fine,"said Michael, "but that night she wasn't. I walked away after that because Cameron pulled me aside to tell me something. I told her that I would be back in a second but when I got back she was gone."

"Where'd she go?"

Michael hesitated before continuing, "I found her upstairs in the bedroom with him."

"She was cheating on you? That doesn't even sound like Nikki!"

He shook his head, "It wasn't her fault. When I walked in Nikki was out stone cold and Steven was on top of her. He raped her."

I whispered, "Please tell me you're lying." Michael shook his head in response.

The car grew silent. Neither of us knew what to say next. It went on like that for several blocks.

"That bastard," I cursed, "When I get my hands on him-"

"You promised you wouldn't do anything."

"Why the fuck not?!" I asked hysterical, "He deserves it. He deserves to be rotting in jail for what he did."

Michael snapped, "Don't you think I know that? How do you think I feel when I see Katherine with Zach all of the fucking time? All I think about is her slimeball of a brother. Every time she brings him up I just want to shake her and tell her what he did."

"Why don't you?"

"How would you feel if someone just started making some kind of acusations about someone you cared about?"

"It's the truth though."

"She would never believe me. I have no evidence!"

"We can't just let it go like it never happened."

"I don't plan on it."

I raised my eyebrow, "What do we plan on doing?"

"We're going to expose him."