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If I were being honest, I hadn’t really asked that many questions about my brother and Misty’s relationship. I’d met her a handful of times when he’d come out to visit me in New York. She seemed nice enough, if not a little quiet.
Guilt crept up in me. I’d spent the past eight years on a hamster wheel for fame. I hadn’t really been the sister I should have been, or the friend, for that matter.
Not that I had many friends. I’d thought I had, but over the past couple of months, they’d all stopped calling or wanting to hang out. I was a joke, and none of them wanted to be associated with me. Jessica had been my last friend standing, and she’d slept with my boyfriend, so yeah, not much of a friend after all.
The table went silent, and I noticed Cara’s head shake in a barely perceptible motion to Harmony not to say whatever she was planning on.
Harmony ignored her friend’s warning. “Okay, so I’m just going to address the elephant in the room and ask, what the hell happened in the video? Was it a publicity stunt?”
Harmony had always had a reputation for saying out loud what everyone else was thinking, and I appreciated that about her. She’d been one of the only people to call out my mom for her inappropriate behavior, while everyone else in town just looked at me with pity or ignored me altogether.
It was refreshing to have someone ask me if it bothered me that my mom washed her car in a bikini across the street from the football field when the players had practice.
Celeste Rhodes had always needed attention from men to validate her. I used to judge her for it, but this past week of reflection and fearless inventory has been eye-opening for me. Was I really any better? I sought validation from stranger’s praise and approval. That was my job.
I sighed. “I had an injury and thought I was taking a muscle relaxer for my back. It turns out it was ecstasy. Then, I was so nervous about my debut that I took a shot of vodka before curtain. Also, I was on anti-anxiety medication, and they did not play well together. I honestly don’t remember much of what happened. My last clear memory is of being dizzy right before I went on stage. Then it’s kind of a blur. I have flashes of being very hot, and feeling like my clothes were too tight, but I don’t remember taking them off. The next thing I remember is waking up in the E.R. being told I had MDMA in my bloodstream along with my anti-anxiety medication. The combination could have been lethal. They said that I was lucky nothing more serious had happened.”
“Holy shit!” Harmony enthused. “That’s crazy. We thought you just had a nervous breakdown.”
I heard commotion beneath the table, and Harmony bent down, her face wincing in pain. “Ow!” she said as she rubbed her leg, which I assumed had just been kicked, beneath the table. “What? We did!”
“We didn’t know what happened,” Destiny clarified.
“No one did. But that’s what it was. The nervous breakdown came after the clip went viral,” I joked. Sort of. I had been really depressed.
“I’m so sorry.” Cara, who had always been one of the sweetest humans on the planet, reached across the table and held my hand.
Cara had battled childhood leukemia, and, as much as I hated to admit it, whenever I was feeling particularly sorry for myself because of my mom’s embarrassing behavior or the fact that I lived in a trailer and my father was a married man who didn’t want anything to do with me, I’d think, at least I don’t have cancer.
Thankfully, Cara had beaten it and, from what I’d seen on social media, had been in remission for several years.
“Okay, so what’s the plan now?” Harmony asked as I took a sip of my drink. “Are you moving back home for a while?”
I choked as the liquid went down my throat. When I caught my breath, I explained, “No, I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m going to be working on a cruise ship over the summer, and then I’m thinking about heading to California. You know, a fresh start.”
Harmony lifted her glass. “To fresh starts.”
We all lifted our glasses, but before we could clink them together, Brady Calhoun approached the table. A toothpick hung precariously from his lip. He walked with the same swagger that he’d had in high school. Like Randall, Brady and I hadn’t run in the same circles. He was the captain of the football team and prom king. Not that I went to prom.
When I felt his eyes laser-focused on me, I automatically tensed. I didn’t mean to. Brady and I had never had any problems. It was just a knee-jerk reaction to everyone I came in contact with since the video had been out there. It made me uncomfortable to think that he had most likely seen me topless.
“Ruby Rhodes. I heard you were back in town.”
Before I could respond, Harmony waved her hand in a shooing motion. “Move along, Brady. It’s girl’s night.”
Brady, who apparently knew better than to go toe to toe with Harmony, gave me a wink before continuing on his way with a parting request: “Save me a dance, darlin’?”
“Okay,” I automatically responded.
Did I want to dance with him? No. I realized that was the people-pleaser in me. I had a lot of work to do on myself.
When he was out of earshot, Harmony leaned forward on the table cringing. “Oh shit! Sorry if I just cock-blocked you. I’m so used to everyone being married off that I didn’t even think that you might want to?—”
“No, no. I’m good, thanks,” I assured her.
“Are you seeing someone?” Cara asked.
“I was. For a couple years. But then I caught him in the shower with my best friend and roommate, so…”
