She shuts her eyes and I’m pretty sure she’s saying a prayer. “I was so mad at you about setting me up with Kobra…I left his place and went straight to the museum.”
As she’s talking, I cut back to my memory of the party.
I’m standing by the sushi table and I hear a woman yelling. “Mia, where are you, bitch?”
I set down my plate of sushi rolls and stare in the direction of the yelling. It’s Crystal, dressed for the club, coming around the corner.
“Crystal?” I don’t expect to see her. I don’t know why she’s here. I’m here to support my mom and that’s it.
“You just set me up with a drug dealer. Not even a low-level guy. A fucking kingpin!”
My hand flies to my mouth. “No, he’s in international ship—” As the words come out of my mouth I realize that he’s not even trying to hide it. He’s probably shipping teddy bears stuffed with meth to Australia and Thailand.
“Oh, you knew. How could you not?”
“I didn’t. I was stupid.”
“You know I’m trying to get away from that lifestyle,” she says. “I want someone who can be a good dad to Kai, not some fucking insane meth head tatted up with Bible verses and snakes.”
“I’m so sorry, Crystal. I can make this right.”
She glares angrily at me. “Don’t even try.”
“No, really, I screwed up, but we can find someone good.” I gesture to the crowd. “Maybe at this party.”
I click on the camera app of my phone and move over, closer to Crystal. “You look so cute tonight. Let’s just take a selfie for Insta. I’ll get you someone better.”
“Don’t, Mia.”
As I reach to put my arm around her shoulder and smile into the camera, she recoils hard and shoves me. “I said no! I’m pissed.”
Crystal pushed me?
“I’m sorry, Mia. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she says. “I mean, I pushed you, but…I don’t know what happened.You lost your balance and you fell right into that sculpture.”
I can’t even focus on her feelings. I just relived a near-death experience. Some smelling salts and a fainting couch might be nice right about now, but we’re on the bus. The driver hits the brakes and we slow to a stop, and someone gets on and sits next to me.
“God, I hate the bus at night. So many weirdos out,” he says.
I turn away from him but Crystal is on my other side, so I stand and hold onto a pole.
Crystal is still telling me she’s sorry. “It was an accident, I swear.”
I want everyone to shut up for a minute so I can figure out what to think.
Crystal pushed me. JP left the country to get away from me. My mom told me to back the fuck away and respect her boundaries. Not her words, but that’s what she meant. Everyone hated me.
I move to an open seat and shut my eyes for the rest of the bus ride. Should I find somewhere else to stay for the night? It’s probably weird to stay with Crystal after she just admitted that she shoved me into a sculpture of Cupid so hard that I lost my memory.
She’s sitting across from me now, crying. “I’m so sorry, Mia. It was an accident. I didn’t know how bad it was because I ran. I didn’t even know you went to the hospital.”
I should be furious with her, but somehow I’m not. From where I’m sitting now I can see that I sort of deserved it.I didn’t deserve to end up in the hospital, but she didn’t deserve to go on a date with a violent creep and watch a guy die.
“It’s okay, Crystal.” It’s probably weird to console someone who almost killed you and took all of your memories. Even I know this in the moment, but I can’t just watch her cry without saying anything. “I’m sorry, too. I lost sight of things before. I never should have sent you to Kobra’s house. I should have known better.” I shake my head just thinking of it. “The tattoos alone.”
When I think of it, Crystal saved my life. Sure, I’m broke and have no man and an uncertain future, but now I can finally live with myself.
I take her hand. “We all make mistakes.”
