Absolutely Unforgivable(70)

His brow wrinkled as he stared at me, watching to see what I was going to do. Perhaps he was unsure that he was really seeing me standing there.

I turned to face Vin and Jeromy shouted out, “Stacy, please, it’s not what it looks like!” He ran up to me and grabbed my arm, trying to force me to face him.

“Get your hands off of me!” I shouted. Now everyone was looking but I didn’t care. “Don’t you dare touch me!” My stomach was churning, my head was pounding, and I felt like I might pass out. How could Jeromy do this to me? I can’t believe this. This just can’t be real, it just can’t be. No. This isn’t happening. I tried to push Jeromy back, I didn’t want him touching me.

Looking up at Vin standing next to me, Jeromy slowly dropped his grasp on my arm and quietly said, “Please, Baby, let me explain.”

I turned and pushed my body into Vin. He wrapped his arm around me and escorted me out of the airport. But before walking off he turned to Jeromy and said, “That’s f*cked up, man.”

Vin rushed me back to the house and I ran into Billy’s arms crying so hard that he couldn’t understand what I was trying to say. It was hard to form a whole sentence, I was just so upset. “Jeromy … He wasn’t alone.”

Billy hugged me tightly trying to reassure me everything was going to be okay. But it wasn’t going to be okay. I found Jeromy with another woman, a beautiful blonde woman and they had been out of town, together.

“How could he do this to me? Did you know he was out of town with her?”

“No. Of course not. I had no idea any of this was going. Stacy you have to believe if I had known I would have put a stop to it.”

Jeromy followed, only about fifteen minutes behind us. I had run into Billy’s room to get away from Jeromy as he came into the house. Vin followed Jeromy into Billy’s room and, as Jeromy got closer to me, I ran into the bathroom and into Billy’s waiting arms.

“For f*ck’s sake, Stacy, let me explain, please,” Jeromy pleaded.

Billy was holding me from behind; Jeromy was standing in front of me. Vin was standing behind him. Jeromy started looking around and saw my personal things all over the sink. He looked at Billy whose hands were around my waist; then Jeromy looked up at my face and then took a step back.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded to know.

I turned my head and looked at my nightgown hanging off of the counter. I started to explain but then stopped myself. I didn’t owe him any explanation. I stepped behind Billy to get as far away from Jeromy as I could.

“Don’t go there man, it’s not what you think,” Vin said in his deep husky voice.

“Fuck you, man. I’m not blind. I can see exactly what is going on here.”

Jeromy puffed his chest out and looked like he was going to hit Billy. I screamed and Vin tried to pull him away as Billy turned around to make sure I was okay. I tried to jump in the middle to stop Jeromy and it was just all a big twisted mess of bodies. Before I knew it, Jeromy’s fist met the corner of my eye and I fell to the floor, crying out in pain. My face stung as it started to swell.

Vin looked down at me, now on the floor in tears, and shouted out, “What the f*ck man?” And then he dragged Jeromy out of the room.

Billy dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around me. I could hear Vin and Jeromy talking in the other room. “What the f*ck is going on? Is he f*cking her?”

“Jeromy, man, calm down. It’s not what you think. Someone broke into the house while you were gone and attacked Stacy. The cops killed him just outside your bedroom door. We moved her downstairs while you were gone. She’s really freaked out man. She hasn’t been well.”

“Why didn’t someone tell me? I would have come home.”

“She didn’t want you to worry about her while you were away, man. She loves you. She was more worried about you than herself.”

“You gotta let me see her. I need to tell her I’m sorry.”

“I don’t think so, Jeromy. Not right now. You need to give her some space. You cheated on her, man. She’s not just going to get over that right away.”

At this point I began sobbing uncontrollably and couldn’t hear what else was being said. I was hysterical. Billy only wanted to comfort me but I didn’t want him touching me. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to block the entire world out.

Billy went into the living room, leaving me lying on the bathroom floor crying as I asked him to. He told Jeromy it would probably be a good idea if he went to stay with one of the other guys for now, or maybe his mother.