Free For Love or Money by Tara Brown

knives in my back. I lick my lips
and contemplate it all. “Nance has told everyone it was me?”
    He
nods.
    “And
even if it wasn’t and I had nothing to do with it, including the young man, my
record is bad enough that no one will believe that?”
    He
nods again, biting his lip.
    “Then
I guess I’m as guilty as they say I am.”
    Fuck!
    He
winces. “You didn’t have anything to do with it?”
    “I
mixed some shots before the guys got there. I never gave one to a single minor,
I never gave drugs, and I never even knew they were minors. I didn’t know them.
I didn’t stay at the party. I left around nine and have a perfect alibi.”
    He
reaches into his pocket. “This isn’t the card you invited them with?”
    My
stomach burns.
    “Did
you or did you not buy the apartments?”
    I
shake my head. “The card is mine, I invited them, but I never gave them
anything, and the apartments below are mine. The one with the party was in the
penthouse. Mr. Hensley owns that one.”
    He
chuckles bitterly. “Then they moved the kid to the apartments below for when
the ambulance and police came.”
    “Smart.”
    His
eyes are wild but he is still calm, staying that way for me. I know he can
sense the breaking point inside of me is being reached. Truth be told, I am far
passed it but my sleeping pills are lingering a little too hard.
    He
looks exhausted when he says, “Your dad has his back against the wall. Your
actions are making scandal after scandal. Harvard just wants you gone. They’ll
give you any grade you want just to end this.” Tears leak from my eyes but I
don’t say anything. He sighs. “You think you’re the victim, don’t you? You
think this is all someone else’s fault? You really don’t see the actions were
all yours. You aren’t a kid anymore. Inviting a minor to a party and getting
him so high he almost dies is a crime.”
    I
can’t see what he’s saying. I can’t hear it. “I am the victim, Geoff. I am the
one who is taking all the blame, when the party wasn’t my idea, wasn’t my plan,
wasn’t in my house. Yes, I wanted to party and I invited the kid but I didn’t
do it all alone either. Nance and Leo were there, both. They went and found
people, probably minors, to bring to the party too.”
    “YOU
INVITED THE BOY IN THE COMA, LANA! HE’S THE ONLY ONE PEOPLE CARE ABOUT!”
    I
flinch.
    He
groans and covers his face. “Win this fucking contest. Show the world you are
not the screwed-up little crackhead they all think you are. Win and make a
comeback before you end up selling your little black book about your sexual
conquests for money to get high.” He grabs my face and kisses me hard. “I love
you, Lana. All the way to the moon and back.” He climbs from the car, leaving
me crying and shaking.
    That
was from a book he read me when I was a kid.
    Henry
drives the moment the car door closes. He parks somewhere I don’t recognize and
comes to the back. He doesn’t open the door for me but instead climbs in. It’s
weird.
    He
looks stressed. “I never told anyone anything. I’ve kept your secrets for you
but Nance and Leo have betrayed you. They have done it to the press, your
father, and your friends back home. This is about to blow up, and I don’t want
you hurting yourself. The others don’t know you as well as I do.” He lifts his
face, and for the first time I see tears in his dark eyes. “I have always
thought of you as a family member. I always will. When you win this contest I
will be waiting to come back and work for you, and one day when you have kids I
will resist the urge to tell them just how naughty you were.”
    My
eyes flood with more tears than I knew I had. “What? What does that mean?” I
know what it means and my heart is breaking, actually breaking. Everyone is
shitting on me and abandoning me. Did they conspire to do this all at once? Am
I being punked or is this one of those mean intervention shows?
    Jesus!
    He
shakes his head slightly. “Your father is