Moose and Goose

Chapter Fifty-six

"Get this bitch off me," David screams, a vein appearing on the side of his neck. The kitchen light beams down on them and illuminates the sweat trickling off his temples.

"Mary, you're in a dangerous mood right now, and this is enough to have you arrested," Judith reminds her. Kacey squeezes the chest of her burgundy satin minidress and flicks her eyes from one person to the other. "Just get off of him before you make matters worse."

"Why the fuck do you care, huh," she yells, and Judith recoils, then sits her hands over her chest. Her heart is pounding against her palms, but no amount of deep, steady breaths calms it. "You of all people should be glad I'm about to put an end to him. You used to cry about him abusing you, and yet here you are defending him!"

Is she drunk again, and why am I getting a dé·jà Vu feeling?

"Judith, let's bounce," Kacey insists, her voice wavering. Mary looks down at David. His eyes are closed, and he's talking under his breath.

"I can't just leave him like this." Kacey scoffs, then takes a step back, but before she turns to the door, she stops and stares past Judith.

Derek is standing over her, and when he sits his right hand on her shoulder, he leaves a heavy feeling on that side of her body. He shoves Judith to their right, and as he steps closer, she watches him with furrowed brows.

"Come any closer, and I'll slit his fucking throat," Mary shouts again, and a few onlookers take cautious steps away from the scene. When they reach the foyer, they sprint out of the frat house.

David looks up at Derek with an emptiness in his eyes that Judith recognizes.

He's not afraid.

"What the fuck is your problem," Derek asks, and with her lips in a straight line, Mary shrugs.

"I guess I've just reached my breaking point." He narrows his eyes at her statement. Judith and Kacey share a glance. "You men are all the same, and how ironic is it that I'm crazy when you're the reason I'm like this!"

"You were crazy before you met me, so don't pull that," Derek argues, and she scoffs incredulously, tears sitting on the brims of her eyes. "Fucking look at yourself! You're holding an innocent guy on the floor in the middle of a crashed party with a knife to his throat!"

With a deranged chuckle, she says, "Oh, he's far from innocent." Mary leans her face closer to David, and he curls his lips into a disgusted frown. "Tell them what you told me. Tell them why I'm so angry!"

"Get off me," he merely says, and she scoffs again. Her tears cascade off her cheeks, and she takes a deep breath as she sits up straight.

"Wanna know what he said," Mary asks Judith, but she doesn't answer. "I'll tell you. He said after he dropped me off last night, you two nearly had sex."

"Mary, enough," David sternly says, and a few more spectators make their way to the front exit. Judith's stomach practically drops with her jaw.

"I didn't believe it. The tattoo on your back, the way you scream. I mean, you two were a thing before me, so, of course, he knows how you are and how you look," she pauses and takes a shaky breath, her tears landing on her chapped lips. "But when he said that he only stopped because he saw you were on the rag, that's when I knew. I don't know how, but I did."

Justin, Jerome's twin, strolls down the stairs in jeans and a white shirt, and he stops beside Kacey. He and Derek lock eyes, and when Derek clears his throat, he approaches the arch.

He looks down at Mary in disarray. Her mascara is running, her curls dropped, and strands of her blonde hair stick to her clammy forehead.

He and Derek glance at each other again, then Justin quickly wraps his arms around her. She belts out an ear-splitting scream and flails against his chest. He tightens his grip on her like a snake with its prey before standing up with her.