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Gil rolls his eyes and rubs his neck.
“So, I didn’t stick my dick in this particular crazy.” While he gives the guys a dark look he adds: “Given my history, that’s saying something about Celia.”
Jonah sits back with wide legs and combs his fingers through his hair before he looks me in the eye. “She went out with O first. But O doesn’t ever go out with the same girl twice and she knew that. Trust me, I’ve seen O pick up plenty of girls and he’s always upfront with them on what they should expect. But Celia kept coming back after going out with O. Eventually she got the message and stopped coming. She did start hanging out at Tempest at that time and I went out with her a few times. I broke it off not long after because I was done, it just wasn’t going to go anywhere. We both weren’t fully in it. She wasn’t happy about it, but she stayed away.”
So far I didn’t hear a reason as to why she would be in their house when they weren’t home, but I felt like that was all about to change. I keep my mouth shut to give them a chance to tell the story.
Dean takes over, fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt and looking down.
“I got cornered by this chick one day at Roots. We had just opened, and I knew no one in Charlington. First, she just came in for coffee and we talked some. Then she started coming over all the time. We went out all of two times before she convinced me to go to this BDSM establishment in Kinseltown. And let’s be honest, I was all for that. When we got to Dominium she lost all her focus on me and sort of paraded me in front of Jonah and O, obviously trying to make them jealous.”
I move in my seat as I start to feel uncomfortable.
O, who sits across from me, has his elbows on his knees, and is rubbing his cheeks, takes over.
“After the night we spent together and Jonah broke it off, she did all sorts of crazy shit. She kept texting me, sending pictures, acting like we were together. She’d call in the middle of the night. And when I blocked her, she kept harassing Jonah and begged him if he could make me talk to her again. We got notes and little packages all over the house. Rose petals, poems, teddy bears. Nothing harmful or anything, but shit was getting crazy. So when she showed up at Dominium while we were there and saw her with Dean, it was obvious she was there to get to us. It wasn’t a coincidence she was there at the same time all of us were there. We never hang out at Dominium at the same time, and we were going to go to Tempest after that, but Gil had a shipment coming in he had to oversee himself. So we agreed to meet at Dominium before going to Tempest. She had to have known that and I still can’t figure out how she found out.”
He stares out the window while he’s bouncing his knee nervously. Does he expect her to come back here after she ran away?
“So we told Dean,” Gil continues. “It was obvious she wasn’t interested in Dean anymore now that she was talking to O again.”
“I was done with that right away,” Dean says. “I’m up for all kinds of crazy, but I’m not just doing someone to make another guy jealous. The guys and I did hit it off after that, so I guess I should be thankful to her for that.”
“Good on you for having some standard,” Jonah says while punching his arm. It makes me laugh a little as I let the story sink in. They were surprised when they saw Celia in Tempest, as if they didn’t expect to see her there.
“But you haven’t seen her in a while?” I ask, trying to get some more insight as to what it is exactly that’s going on right now.
Jonah rubs his eyes before he looks at me.
“After Dean dumped her, she spiraled. She felt like she had no way to get back to O anymore. There was an incident where she ended up naked in front of O’s office and the police was called. She was eventually taken in for observation in the hospital and they admitted her to the mental ward. Nobody updated us about what was going on with her, but word on the street was she admitted herself to a facility after getting diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Last thing I heard she was getting settled on her meds.”
I let go of a breath I don't even know I was holding, as I sit back and pull my knees up under my blanket. Jonah stands up, picks me up with an arm beneath my knees and around my back and sets me down on his lap.
“So what are you thinking?”
I don’t really have an answer to that, so I decide to just take them along in my thought process.
“I guess I’m trying to process how I feel. I’m a little sad for Celia. But I’m scared at the same time. She was in your house. And I know fuck all about mental health but being a paranoid schizophrenic sounds like a lot. And I’m a little confused about this not being her fault, but the fault of her sickness, but I blame her as a person as well.”
“That’s a lot of feelings at the same time,” O says while giving me a gentle smile.
“Whew boy, you have no idea what’s going on in this noggin’ of mine. Let’s keep it that way,” I say as I knock on my head. I’m comfortable in my blanket on Jonah’s lap, and I wiggle myself in it some more. Everyone seems a little lost in their own thoughts.
“Do we really not go to the police with this?”
O shakes his head. “The police won’t do anything and if they would do anything, it wouldn’t be in Celia’s best interest.”
Somehow that moves me. This girl was stalking his ass and he still thought of her best interest. That is exactly who O is, always putting everyone else’s needs in front of his own. Taking care of everyone and everything. It warms me to see him in that light. But there’s also worry in my mind. This whole thing doesn’t sit easy with me.
“Where do we go from here?”
“I’ll see if I can contact her mom and find out what’s going on. She’s acting as if she’s no longer taking her meds. I just hope she’ll talk to me so Celia can get proper help.”
While I see what he means, that doesn’t really solve our issues. I bite my lip, not wanting to impose on this situation, but I did get kind of sucked into it, so I guess I have a right to say whatever’s on my mind.
“That sounds like the right approach for Celia. But what are we going to do for us? Are you going to find out how she got in? Are you doing anything to prevent her from getting in again?”
Suddenly all the locks on O’s doors make sense. Jonah plays with a strand of my hair that hangs on my back. “We’ll figure it out. Is there anything we can do for you?”
Yeah, good question. What does this mean for me? Does this change anything? I’m no longer sure I’m safe here at the moment, but it’s not so bad it’s causing problems.
“I’m good for now. Just don’t ask me how that’ll be once I get home and I’ll be alone again, because I couldn’t tell you. I’m trying really hard to remember where my parents keep all the keys to the house because it’s always freaking unlocked and tonight's a night I definitely want to lock up the house, even if it’s just to ease my mind.”
“I’ll sleep in your house tonight,” Gil says. “Whether you find your keys or not. Just so you know someone’s there.”
His brown eyes find me and the kindness I see in them eases me.
“That would be nice,” I say. I nuzzle into Jonah and I wonder how we ended up here. I moved back home, met up with my childhood friends, got sucked into their lives and got accepted as one of their own for no obvious reason. I kissed Jonah, I slept with Dean and still they embraced me in their little group of friends. I was unapologetically myself and still they stuck around. Somehow, I feel like I have gotten everything Celia wanted to have but couldn’t. And in the end, that just makes me really sad for her.
