She muttered something under her breath.
"Whatever. Don't hang out with Darcy."
"She's not what you think she is. She's fun and smart and…"
"I don't care. End it."
Her face hardened. "No."
That was the first time she has ever been that firm to me. It was hot. "You're being stubborn."
"I only have one friend in this awful society of yours and I am going to keep her."
"Fine. Suit yourself. Don't come to me when the inevitable happens."
We ate the rest of the breakfast in silence. She left earlier than I and I went to work grumpy. I spent the rest of the day feeling grumpy and a little angry at myself for not fully explaining to her why Darcy was a bad friend. She was a wild child when we were teenagers. Her antics caused her to be expelled twice in high school, after which her parents shipped her off to boarding school. Her college years were much the same. She gained enough notoriety to end up on gossip blogs and on the society section of newspapers. By the time she had finished college was she was one marriage and divorce down with three more to go. By the time she was twenty-eight, she had married and divorced three men. All highly publicized scandals. It's only when shemarried Hugh that she seemed to calm down, but I wouldn't bank on it. No one stopped a hurricane like Darcy.But what do I care? Let her hang out with Darcy, just as long as it doesn't come to bite her or me in the ass.
I tried to forget my wife for the rest of the workday. It was difficult to do, and when I came back, she wasn't home yet. I almost wanted to call her until I remembered our conversation. I wondered how she would be like at the concert. Was she having fun singing along to the songs? I knew Luna Vellum was one of her favorite artists. Thalia used to wear her t-shirts back when Luna Vellum was still an undiscovered underground icon. It must be interesting to see her enjoy herself after the tragedy of her mother's passing. Was she dancing alone with other people around her or had she found some guy there and was grinding against him? My heart clenched and my fists balled until I realized what was happening. Jealousy? Because of Thalia? As much as I tried to deny it, the feeling intensified as I imagined scenarios of Thalia and some faceless man dancing, kissing, fucking in the middle of a throng of fans while loud music played. Behind them, Darcy laughing maniacally.
I shook my head to banish the wild thoughts. I shouldn't care what she does with her life, as long as she's discreet. Instead of spiralling, I went to my home office and threw myself into the one thing I knew was guaranteed to take my mind off her. Work. A few hours, and two briefs later, I got a call.
"Darcy?"
"Hi!" she sounded unsure and overly excited. There were echoes of keys, ringing phones, and distant voices talking at the same time. It did not sound like the background of a concert, but something familiar. "Can you, um…we got into some trouble and we need your help. We've been arrested."
Chapter 17
Thalia
"THALIA HAWTHORNE!" THEofficer filling the door darted her gaze into the jail cell. I was standing in the corner behind three skimpily dressed women and I thrust myself forward before she closed the cell again. The officer looked me up and down. "Thalia Hawthorne?" I nodded. The cop jerked her head to the side. "Your lawyer is here. You're free to go." I raised my eyebrows. I didn't call a lawyer. In fact, I didn't make a call at all. I was too worried sick thinking about who I should call, Carey wasn't an option, to even place one at all. He wouldn't help and if he were to come, it would be to laugh in my face and probably to tell the police to throw away the key.
"I-I don't have a lawyer," I said, wondering if there was a mistake.
The woman shrugged and led me out of the cell. As I shuffled past the other cells, I looked for my friend. The police put Darcy and me into different cells, so maybe she called her lawyer and asked to represent me too?She wasn't in any of the cells I passed by. When I reached the front, I saw her. She was with Hugh… and Carey.
Hugh was hugging her and looking her over like she was a child he had lost and found. Carey was staring at me the entire time I made my way to him, his face blank. I approached him,trying to formulate an excuse, but when Darcy saw me, she rushed over to hug me. "I'm so sorry!" she said in my ear.
"You called him?"
Darcy nodded and shrugged. "He's the only lawyer I knew."
Somehow, I found that to be unlikely. I turned to Carey, and he immediately grabbed my hand, wresting me off of Darcy. "We need to get you home." He sounded like a disapproving father. I flashed a weary smile to Hugh, who waved at me as Carey practically dragged me out of the police station. His grip was what told me he was angry. It was hard and punishing. He dragged me to his waiting Mercedes and opened the passenger door.
"My things!"' I said to him as I got into his car. Carey went over to the driver's side, opened the door, and threw something to the back seat. "There." It was my purse. I didn't ask if I my phone was in there, afraid to anger him further. He started the engine and drove off at a speed higher than usual. We arrived at the apartment in silence. I didn't know what to say. I felt embarrassed. Like a teenager caught drinking by her father.
It was when we entered the apartment that I finally spoke. "I'm sorry." He had his back to me as he closed the door. I was fidgeting with my purse, looking anywhere else but at him.
"Shoplifting? Seriously!" He turned to face me and crossed his arms.
"She told me she paid! I would have paid if I knew. She handed it to me, thinking she had paid." Darcy and I had gone into a bodega looking for something to eat. We left Darcy's chauffeur after the concert and walked around the city having fun. Nothing insane. Just going into stores, trying out outfits and hanging around. We got hungry and went to a bodega. One she picked, in hindsight. I bought a bag of chips while she went to the back to look for a bottle of wine. I paid first and waited for her outside. She came out and handed me the wine to hold.That's when I heard someone calling us, and we ran. A cop just so happened to be in the bodega, and he chased us down. And that's how my dumbass got arrested for the first time.
"Yeah well, it's not as if I didn't tell you about Darcy."
That he did. Darcy was extremely apologetic in the cop car. It was a bad habit she was trying to break; she told me. It wasn't even the first time she had stolen in that store, apparently."She's trying to change."
He scoffed. "Is that what she said?"
I didn't know what else to say without sounding defensive. Truth be told, he knew Darcy longer than me, and probably felt he was right in disbelieving her, but I felt like had known her on a deeper level. Darcy and I spent so much time together in the past few days that I now felt like I had known her forever. "I believe her."
