Absolutely Unforgivable

chapter 11 - Out Like a Light

As I started to come to, I heard voices. I think it was Mindy, crying. “Is she going to be okay?” Then another female voice. I don’t know who it was, maybe it was Bree. “She will be okay, Mindy. It’s all going to be okay. She’s going to be fine. You’ll see.”

I could feel the weight of someone else’s hand on mine but I wasn’t sure who it was. I tried to open my eyes but they were so heavy. I moved a finger and then turned my head towards where I felt the person who was holding my hand.

I slowly opened my eyes, expecting to see Jeromy sitting next to me but he wasn’t. It was Billy. He had a concerned look on his face. He looked horrible. His eyes were bloodshot and he had dark circles under them. I noticed he had a small cut above his left eye with dried blood still on it. I reached up to try and touch it. I was weak and could barely speak but I managed to squeak out, “Billy.”

His eyes widened and he smiled. Mindy and Bree let out a squeal. “Oh my God! She’s awake.” Billy ordered them to go get the nurse and they shuffled out of the room and within a few minutes they were back standing at the end of my bed.

I looked around trying to take in my surroundings, still unsure of where I was. I turned my head back to Billy and quietly said, “Jeromy.” His eyes darted to the ground. I looked at Mindy and Bree and they too were looking away. “Where is Jeromy?” I asked, almost frantic.

Mindy said, “Tell her Billy. She’s my friend. I’m not going to lie to her anymore. Either you tell her or I will. She deserves to know.” Mindy sounded annoyed, very unlike her. She was normally so cheery. I don’t recall ever seeing her upset before or even the slightest bit agitated at anyone.

Billy squeezed my hand. “Not right now. She’s just waking up. Give her some time to come to first.”

What are they talking about? Where is Jeromy? What is going on? I tried to sit up and find my phone but the second I did my head screamed in pain and I felt like I was about to pass out again. Billy jumped up and tried to get me to lie back down. “Don’t sit up. It’s still too soon.” He turned back to Mindy and sniped, “Where is that nurse?”

Within seconds she appeared in the room. “Well, hello there. I’m so happy to see you are finally awake. You had us all scared there for a bit.”

I tried to open my eyes again and look up at her. “How long have I been out?”

She looked at her watch and said, “Going on about four hours now.”

Four hours? I have been passed out for four hours? Oh God, what happened? I tried to think back about the events of the night. It was all still a blur and the pounding in my head was killing me.

“Okay sweetie, I’m going to need you to sit up now. We are going to take it slow.” The nurse gently helped me sit up and then started checking my vitals. She looked at the bump on my head. “You are going to have one big bruise there.”

I reached up but immediately regretted that decision. It was still very sore to the touch. The nurse turned towards Mindy and Bree and told them that they should be heading out soon, because I needed my rest. “Okay, we promise, we’ll go soon.”

“I’ll let you visit for now but don’t overdo it and if you need anything just push the call button.” The nurse pointed to a red button on the side of my bed and then walked out of the room.

My mouth was dry so I asked if I could have a drink. Billy turned to a small table behind him and poured me a glass of water. After taking a few sips I looked around for my phone. I saw it on the same table with the water and tried reaching for it, but as I did a sharp pain shot through my head. It was like how brain freeze felt when you drank a smoothie way too fast. I groaned in pain, squinted my eyes, and reached up to grab my head.

Mindy came to my side, stroking my arm. “I’m so sorry this happened to you, Stacy. I know you must be in horrible pain. I wished there was something I could do to make you feel better.”

“Can I have my phone please?” I begged, my voice still weak and shaky.

Mindy looked to Billy and he shook his head no but as if to purposely defy him she walked over to the other side of the bed, jerked it off of the table and said, “Here Stacy,” as she put it on my lap. Mindy walked back to the other side of the bed, where she was standing before, and bent over. “What are you trying to find? Is there something I can help you with?”

I didn’t answer. I clicked the brown little Find Friends button on my phone. I selected Jeromy’s name and waited for the purple flashing dot to show me where he was. I truly expected it to light up over Pinehurst, Texas on the map. But it didn’t.

What I did see was something that would change everything in my life. Jeromy wasn’t in Texas at all. He was in Nevada, more specifically Las Vegas.

“I’m so sorry, Stacy. I wanted to tell you,” Mindy said. But I didn’t respond. Instead I just laid back down on my pillow and closed my eyes. I think it was just too much for my brain to process. I just suddenly felt so tired and all I wanted to do was close my eyes and go to sleep.

I don’t know how long I was out that time but when I woke up Jeromy was rushing into my room. Mindy and Bree were gone. This time it was only Billy there with me, and now Jeromy. “What the f*ck happened, man?” Jeromy demanded to know. “You said you would take care of her!”

Billy told Jeromy the story about the guy trying to take pictures of my panties and me jumping off of the stage and how we fell back and I hit my head. But before Jeromy could ask any more questions Mindy and Bree came in the room and two policemen were with them. One was an older gentleman who had a bit of a gut. The other was a young, handsome man. He looked far too young to be a cop and his good looks seemed to have sent Bree into a giggling fit.

The older officer asked, “Ma’am, you feel up to speaking with us?”

Both Jeromy and Billy twisted to see if I was even awake and I was. Billy helped me sit up so that I could speak to them.

“Have you ever seen the man in question before tonight?”

I thought about it for a moment and shook my head no. That was a mistake. It hurt to shake my head like that. I tried to think about the man they were talking about but nothing was coming to me. To be honest, I don’t think I could even tell them what he looked like if I had to. I really only seen him for a second before Billy was on top of him, beating the hell out of him.

“How often would you say you changed clothes last night?”

I tilted my head to the side trying to think about the question. “Huh? Never. I wore the same outfit the entire night.”

“That’s a problem then. Because I have a collection of photos of you from his camera in quite a few different outfits. That means he’s been following you around for some time now. Why don’t you take a look at some of these photos and see if you can recognize any of the dates.”

I flipped through the creep’s phone and found picture after picture of me. There were shots from the first night I was onstage with Billy, pictures of me from the bar downtown, even pictures of me from the night at the strip club. Nobody knew we were going there -- that meant he had to have followed us from the house. My body began to shake in fear and tears started to form in my eyes as I flipped to photo after photo of me. This guy had been following me around for a while now.

Bree, who was always trying to be the optimist, jumped up and down while saying “Oh ... My ... God! You have your first stalker. I told you that you looked too hot for words and were going to steal all of the men’s attention!”

“Ma’am, having a stalker is nothing to be joyous about. Often they go from voyeur to something far more serious like sexual assault, kidnapping and in some cases murder. Those are not situations to celebrate.”

Bree bowed her little blonde head to the ground and squeaked out, “I’m sorry. I was just ...”

The cop continued with his questions, ignoring her apologies. “You will notice that with the progression of the photos he has become more aggressive in his pursuit of you and that’s a problem. A big problem. His stalking behavior seems to have escalated from simple adoration to sexual predator.”

I looked to Jeromy and Billy, scared, not sure what to do or say or even think at that moment.

“We have him in custody now and he’ll be in jail for a bit thanks to some outstanding warrants from past trespassing offenses, but he won’t be behind bars forever. And there could be others out there like him. You ladies are going to need to learn to pay attention to your surroundings and take your safety far more seriously.”

Mindy and Bree were holding each other’s hands and now both looking at the ground. Then Bree looked back up at the officers and asked, “Wait ... did we do something wrong? Is that why ....”

“No, you didn’t. Not at all. It’s just, well look at yourselves. You are all very pretty ladies. And it’s not your fault that you are beautiful, but that combined with the fact that you are in the spotlight, tends to attract some crazies. We just want you to girls to stay safe and part of that means paying attention to what is going on around you.”

After, the officers talked to Billy and Jeromy across the room, where they tried to speak quietly so that Mindy, Bree, and I couldn’t hear what they were saying. “While we realize you were just defending Miss Keller and the other girls, it’s important to remember that there is a fine line between defense and assault. You need to be more careful in the future or next time you may find yourself sitting behind bars as well.”

After the police officers left, Billy and Jeromy came back to sit with me, Jeromy on one side, Billy on the other, with Mindy and Bree at the foot of the bed. Billy didn’t say much. Jeromy tried asking me some questions, but I wasn’t in the mood to talk. Bree and Mindy answered most of his inquiries.

Not much later the doctor came in to give me a final once-over. He said my ex-rays came back clean and I don’t seem to have done any permanent damage. He agreed to release me but with strict instructions to get plenty of rest at home and not to try and overdo it. He also wrote me a prescription for some sedatives that he said would help me get some sleep which would speed my recovery.

I don’t recall the ride home or anything after that; really, just random memories of waking up and looking over to see Billy sitting by my side or off in the corner, reading a book and writing in his lyric journal.

When I finally came to, I didn’t recognize where I was. The room was dark but off to the side I could see a faint light where Billy was sitting in a chair reading a book. Am I in Billy’s room? I must have made a noise because he looked over at me and saw I was waking up.

“Hey. I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to come to.” He walked over to the bed and placed his hand on the top of my hand and with his other, gently stroked the side of my head. Billy helped me sit up and I looked around the room, still trying to figure out where I was. “Where am I? Am I in your room? Where is Jeromy?”

“Jeromy and I have been taking turns taking care of you but we didn’t want to keep moving you back up and down the stairs so we decided to keep you downstairs where others can help look after you too. Mindy, Bree, Kita, and I watch after you during the day, and he takes care of you when he gets home from work.”

I looked around the room, not sure what I was trying to find, and then back to his clearly distressed face. “Where have you been sleeping, Billy?” He didn’t say anything. He just looked over to his chair in his reading room.

“No! Billy! Please ...”

“Sssh!” He said as he put a finger over my lips. “Don’t get too worked up. The doctor told you to take it easy, remember?”

I playfully bit at his finger and as he moved it away from my lips; for the first time in a while I seen the corner of his lip curl up as a smile formed on his face.

“You hungry?”

“Yeah. I kinda am.” I put my hand on my now growling stomach. “I would love something to eat.”

He bent over and picked me up, not even letting me walk to the kitchen on my own. He sat me down at the bar, and the made me the most delicious eggs. I devoured them; I was so hungry. But soon after I finished drinking my third glass of water, I looked up at him, and could feel my eyes start to glaze over.

“Billy. I’m not feeling so well. Do you think you could ....” Before I could finish he swept me up in his arms and took me back to bed. I don’t know how long I was out or even what time it was the last time I woke up. Everything was just a blur and the hours and days all ran together.

As I opened my eyes the next time I heard Mindy and Bree talking to each other. “Poor Billy. He’s so torn up about this.”

“I know, right? Bran said he’s never seen Billy this bad before. The guilt is killing him.”

I sat up, leaning against my fluffy stack of pillows. “Mindy, is that you?”

“Ya! She’s awake,” Bree cheered as she bounced over to me along with Mindy. Mindy flipped on the lamp that was next to the bed. “Let’s see how you look.”

“How bad is it?” I asked her, not really wanting to know. I’m sure I look horrible.

“You are only the hottest sick person ever!” Bree mused.

I gave her a what the hell are you talking about kind of look as she continued. “Silly, your body still has the shimmer paint all over it. Even with the bump on your head you are still mind bogglingly beautiful.”

I lifted my arm to take a look. She was right. I did still have the shimmer body paint on. “You guys think you can help me into the bathtub to get it off of me?”

“Yeah totally. But we can’t leave you, Stacy. The only way we could get Billy out of the house to go to his gig tonight was to totally swear we wouldn’t leave your side or take our eyes off of you, even for a second,” Mindy said with a worried look on her face.

“Even if you have to go to the potty,” Bree added while giggling.

I rolled my eyes and caved, letting them help me out of bed and into the bathroom to soak in the bottle of chemicals that helped to remove the shimmering paint from my body.

When we finished the girls helped me put on some clean clothes. I leaned against the counter as Bree helped me put my panties on and I stood there thinking how strange it was having a girl I really only barely knew dress me in such an intimate way. I turned away in embarrassment and noticed that as the water drained out of the bathtub some of the shimmer remained.

“Oh no,” I said as the girls turned to see what I was looking at. “I think I ruined Billy’s bathtub.”

Mindy laughed. “I don’t think he really minds.” Then they helped me back to bed and then sat with me.

“Where is Jeromy?” I asked.

“He’s in the living room watching TV,” Mindy said. That bothered me. Why wasn’t he in here taking care of me? Why are Mindy and Bree tasked with my care when Jeromy is just in the other room?

“When I went to get your clothes from upstairs he was fast asleep on the couch. I know he’s so worried about you too, Stacy,” Bree told me reassuringly.

“Hey I know, let’s go to the kitchen and find something to eat. I think Kita made some chocolate chip cookies,” Mindy said as she jumped up out of the bed to help me stand up. I put my arm around her and leaned in as Bree came around on my other side, letting me put some of my weight on her as they led me out of Billy’s bedroom.

As we turned the corner and made our way through the living room, trying to be quiet as to not wake Jeromy, I noticed he was sitting up watching television. When he heard us he jumped off of the couch. “Stacy!” He rushed to my side and picked me up and then scolded Mindy and Bree for letting me try and walk.

“I’m fine, Jeromy. Really, baby. I promise. We were just going to the kitchen to try and find something to eat.”

Jeromy, not letting me out of his arms, carried me in the kitchen and sat me down at the table. He poured me a glass of milk as the girls grabbed some of Kita’s cookies to munch on. After drinking my milk I started to stand up to make myself a bagel. Jeromy jumped up and sat me back down. “Let me make it for you.”

As Jeromy toasted my bagel, Mindy and Bree made small talk. After eating my delicious bagel, Jeromy insisted I go back to bed and carried me just to make sure I complied with his wishes. He tucked me in and said he was going upstairs to bed himself. It was already late and he had to be up early for work tomorrow. He kissed my forehead and made me promise to stay in bed. I agreed, laid my head back on my super fluffy stack of pillows, and closed my eyes. I wanted him to stay with me. I needed him to stay with me. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask him. I guess I wanted him to want to stay and do it on his own accord without me having to ask him. I shouldn’t have to ask him. He should want to be with me on his own. But he didn’t.

When he walked out of the room I could hear him reading Mindy and Bree the riot act for letting me out of the room and told them not to do it again without him or Billy near. After, the girls jumped in bed with me and cuddled up next to me as I faded off. I was glad to have Bree and Mindy with me but at the same time sad that Jeromy wasn’t.

I woke up again as Billy returned home from Rowdy’s. “Hey,” he said as he looked me over. “I see you’ve been busy while I was away.”

I looked to my side and found Mindy and Bree were already gone. “I didn’t get to say goodbye,” I told him, with a frown on my face.

“That’s okay,” he said as he run his fingers through my hair. “They’ll be back another day. They don’t seem to know how to stay away.”

I smiled and then tugged his arm, pulling him into the bed with me. “What do you think you are doing?” he asked playfully, while trying to pull away.

“I want you to lay here with me. Please.”

He sighed and then wrapped his arms around me tightly, holding me as I started to fall asleep again. As my breath steadied, he started to get up. His movement woke me and I groaned and wrapped my arm around his tightly, not wanting to let him go. “Can’t believe you don’t have a TV in your room,” I said to him jokingly, with my eyes barely open.

He leaned over and pulled a remote out of the nightstand and pushed a button. “Who said I didn’t have a one?”

I turned my head and seen a big screen television slowly working its way down out of the ceiling. I grinned and sat up and he positioned himself next to me. I wrapped my arm in his and said, “Let’s watch a movie.”

“It’s late, Stacy. I don’t know if there are going to be many good movies on.” I laid my head in his lap and he flipped through the channels with one hand while running his fingers through my hair, careful not to go anywhere near the sore spot on the side of my head. We decided on a show about how the universe works on the science channel. The way he touched me was so soothing and relaxing. I was soon asleep yet again.

When I woke up the next morning I found Billy wasn’t there with me anymore. He was sitting in his chair reading a book. “Billy?” I said groggily, still not fully awake.

I sat up on the bed and he looked over at me. “Hey. How you feeling sleepy head?” He walked over to me, bent over the side of the bed, and kissed my forehead.

“Better. I think.” I reached up and touched the side of my head. I started to get out of bed; I wanted to go to the bathroom to check it out. But as I stood up I felt dizzy and had to sit back down.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“I’m sorry. I think I got up too fast.” This time I was much more careful as I made my way out of bed and to the bathroom. I bent over on the bathroom counter to get a better look at my face. The swelling had gone down and only a discolored bruise remained.

Billy stood in the door leaning against the frame and I turned around and shut the door pushing him out. “I need a girlie minute, please.”

I wanted to brush my teeth so bad but my toothbrush was upstairs so instead I just did the best I could with my finger and swished around mouthwash. I splashed some water on my face and then went back out to find Billy hadn’t moved. He stood there waiting for me patiently.

I couldn’t help but wonder at that moment how in the world this man could possibly still be single? His amazing good looks aside, he was so caring and attentive. How had some girl not already snatched him up? It just didn’t make sense.