Falling Down(142)

"Do I?" I ask.
She swipes a finger across the screen then her lip curls. "Yes."
Well that can't be good. She thrusts the phone in my face and I take it.
Heather. Oh f*ck. I keep my expression blank as I swipe the screen and open the message. Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuck.
"Well, this isn't going to go well so I might as well just get it out there."
Her lips are pressed together in a straight line and she nods once. Jace and Sera have expressions of panic and Xander raises his brow at me.
"Uh, well, the message is from Heather."
"Dude," Xander says shaking his head.
"Who's Heather?" Sera asks while Lucy just looks out the window.
I'm not sure how to do this. God. I don't want to hurt her any more than she already is.
"One of the 'regulars'," Xander tells them.
Lucy stiffens and slides ever so slightly toward the edge of the sofa.
"What the f*ck does she want?" Jace asks, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees, hands balled into fists, expression one that isn't friendly at all.
"What does who want?" Ben asks as he hands me a beer. He hands Lucy one of the Pinnacle vodka drinks.
"Thanks Ben. I'll need another one of these."
"But that one is--" he breaks off as she downs the entire bottle. "--full. Yo, Kennedy grab a couple more of those vodka drinks, would ya?"
"On it!"
Jace swears under his breath, clenching and unclenching his fists, Sera and Meggie send me death glares, and Frank sits back with his arms crossed over his chest.
"What the f*ck is going on?" Ben asks.
"Oh nothing much," Meggie tells him. "Just some skank-ass hoe named Heather sent Jesse here a text and he seems awfully uncomfortable about it."
"Dude," Xander says again and shakes his head.
"Again, I'll ask. What the f*ck does she want?" Jace bites out.
"We were supposed to meet up and I guess I forgot to cancel."
"You guess you forgot," Lucy whispers. "I bet you forgot to 'cancel'," she says making air quotes, "with the rest of them like you said you would too, huh?"
"I did. Fuck."
She nods, not looking at me.
"I see how this works," Sera says. "Lucy can't even so much as look at another guy without you getting all worked up and trying to piss on her leg, but you can't bother to text your whores and tell them you're no longer available? And delete their numbers like Lucy asked?"
"It's not like that. I forgot."
"Convenient, isn't it?" Lucy asks and takes one of the drinks from Kennedy and chugs this one as well.
"What the f*ck?" he asks. I just hang my head. What can I say? I f*cked up. Maybe I'll say just that.
"I f*cked up."
Lucy laughs humorlessly. "I can't even talk to Damian about our tour and you still have your whores on speed dial." Silence for a few seconds. "You know what, Jesse? I don't think this is going to work for me."
"What do you mean?"
"Just what I said."
"You don't mean that."
"Oh yeah, I do. Let me explain something to you. You promised to send a mass text and get rid of those… women."
"And she's using the term loosely," Sera scathes.
"And you also promised to delete their numbers. Every last one. But did you do any of that? Nope. So I can only sit here and wonder why that is. I trusted you to do that."
"Fuck," Trace mutters under his breath.
"Let me tell you why I think that is. I think it's because while you say you want this," she says pointing between me and her, "and while you claim to 'love' me," again with the f*cking air quotes, "and while you made promises to me just this morning--" her breath hitches and my heart nosedives into my gut. I'm a f*cking *.