“No, sweetie. Don’t be scared. I’m Keith’s girlfriend. My name is Samantha.”
“Quinn!” A young female voice cut through our conversation. “What are you doing? What did I tell you about opening the front door?”
Keith’s sister Emma appeared in the doorway, grabbed Quinn’s hand, and protectively pulled him back and away from me. “Who are you?” she demanded. “What do you want with us?”
“It’s okay,” Quinn said, peering up at his sister through impossibly long lashes. “It’s Keith’s girlfriend. Maybe she knows where he is.”
Emma’s gaze narrowed in on me. “You’re Sam?”
“Well, yes. Samantha.”
She continued to evaluate me, and for a moment I was afraid she would send me away. What I hadn’t anticipated was her arms wrapping around my back and pulling me in for a hug. A few months ago, such a scenario would have seemed impossible; the moors of popularity would have kept us a good distance apart. But I no longer felt inferior to this girl. Yes, she was still physically perfect, but life had a way of evening the score. And Emma McKallister had been humbled.
I’d seen her around school recently and had been shocked by her transformation. Once the leader of the most popular sophomore posse in the school, Emma now wandered the halls alone, preferring to spend her lunches in seclusion in the school library.
“I’ve seen you around, and I thought maybe you were her, but because sophomores have a different lunch period than juniors and seniors, I never actually saw you and Keith together. He showed me a picture of you months ago. You’ve changed so much since then I wasn’t sure.”
“Yeah, I…” I was about to explain to her the reasons for my metamorphosis but figured she had too much on her mind to sit through a drawn-out explanation, so I just asked the most pressing question. “He told you about me?”
A smile highlighted her beautiful face, letting me know she and Keith had, in fact, discussed me at some point. “He did, and I just want to thank you for all you’ve done for my brother.”
Tears sprang to my eyes. “It wasn’t enough.”
“There’s nothing more you could have done. Keith… he likes to take the easy way out. That first night, he didn’t even wait for the sun to rise before he was flying high. I get he’s trying to numb the pain, but what he doesn’t understand is, it’s not going away. He’ll have to deal with it at some point, and by then, it will just be so much worse.”
As I’d done every day since this nightmare began, I wished there was more I could do, because I was confident that if I could just get my hands on Keith, I could help him. “Do you know where he is? I can’t find him anywhere, and he won’t answer my calls. I’m scared for him, Emma. Really scared.”
“I am too.” She sighed, and it was a heavy sound. “He does come by once in a while, usually at night, but he never stays long. I haven’t seen him in probably five days now. It’s not good, Sam. He’s in a bad way.”
“Do you know what he’s taking?”
“I don’t, but I’m guessing pot isn’t his only vice anymore.”
None of this came as a shock, but at the same time, it wasn’t what I wanted to hear, either. I dropped my head. “That’s what I was afraid of.”
“Everything’s just gone to shit.” Her voice crackled with emotion. “Keith’s figured out a way to deal with it by numbing his brain. Honestly, I’d envy him if I didn’t want to beat the living shit out of him for abandoning me. I mean, we all know where this is headed for him. I thought maybe…”
I reached out for her, offering what support I could. “You thought what?”
“I thought maybe he’d pull it together for you. I don’t know if he’s told you, but he loves you, Sam. Like head over heels in love. Before…this… he was all in. He even talked of moving away to wherever you went to college. That’s how committed he was to you. I know you’re disappointed in him – I am too – but if I can find him, will you help me? Maybe together we can do something.”
Relief buoyed my spirits. Of course I would help. I was the one standing on his doorstep pleading for information. “I’ll do anything, Emma. Take my number, and the next time he comes home, call me. It doesn’t matter how late. I’ll sneak out if I have too.”
And I would. I’d do anything for Keith. The question nagging at me, though, was would he? Because when it came right down to it, none of this was up to me. Stoned-out Keith was running this show now, and if he hadn’t leaned on me for support weeks ago, what were the chances he’d change his tune now? I loved him, but I wasn’t sure that would be enough to save him – or us.
“Okay, thank you,” she replied, her shaky voice growing stronger. “Whatever you do, Samantha, please don’t give up on him.”
I gripped her arm, and an understanding passed between us. “Never.”
* * *
Worn but hopeful after meeting with Emma, all I wanted to do when I got home was veg out in my room, but life with my mother never went according to plan. I hadn’t even stepped one foot through the door before an object whizzed by my head, smashing against the wall.
“What the…?”
The second time I wasn’t so lucky, taking a direct hit to the head. I stumbled back in shock, my hands clawing at the wound. Blood dripped from my hairline.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Did you think you could just hide your whoring ways from me? Is that why you lost the weight – so you could screw some boy behind my back?”
