Page 90 of No Judgements

“So rehab worked out well for you, I see,” I said sarcastically from the doorway.

He spun around, surprised, then gave me a big smile. He, too, was dressed in the height of Hamptons elegance, tightwhite jeans and a beige cashmere sweater thrown casually over his shoulders, only his shirt was yellow. He was maybe even a little blonder than Cal, and definitely tanner. Rehab had suited him.

“Sabrina!” he cried. “I like what you’ve done to your hair.”

“Do you? I’m glad.” I reached into my backpack and pulled out the gun Ed had loaned me. As Kyle watched, wide-eyed, I drew back the safety and pointed it at him.

“Get on the floor,” I said.

He burst out laughing. “You can’t be serious.”

I aimed the gun at a bottle of Cuervo sitting on the counter behind him and pulled the trigger. The bottle exploded into a thousand pieces of glass, none of which likely hit him, considering the trajectory of the bullet, which went sailing through the bottle, then past the French doors and into the black-tiled wall behind the waterfall.

Kyle yelled anyway and threw his arms over his head protectively.

“Get on the floor,” I said again, when he was done yelling. I could hardly hear my own voice, thanks to the deafening sound of the shot.

“Oh my God,” Kyle cried. “You’re crazy, you stupid bitch! You could have killed me!”

“No,” I said calmly, “but I will, if you aren’t more polite to me. Now get on the ground, or next time I’ll aim for you and not the tequila.”

Reluctantly, his hands in the air, he sank to his knees. This was clearly difficult for him, because his jeans were so form-fitting.

“I’m sorry.” He seemed to be taking me more seriously now. “I didn’t mean to call you a bitch.”

“I should hope not, especially since I understand you came here to make amends.”

“Yes!” He looked like he’d only just remembered. “Step nine! I’m here to make amends to those I have harmed through my drinking.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Except that’s sort of hard to believe considering the fact that you’re drinking right now.”

“Well.” He glanced at the shards of glass covering the black tile floor behind him. “I know. This looks bad. But no one is perfect.”

“That’s true,” I said. “And who am I to judge? Except that in your particular case, I’m going to. I don’t accept your apology, Kyle.”

“Sabrina. Honestly. This is all a huge misunderstanding. Please let me explain. You see, that morning at Caleb’s, I wasn’t myself. I was drunk, or got some bad weed, or was sleepwalking, or something.”

“Really? And my telling you to get off me didn’t wake you up?”

“Well, you didn’t tell me to get off. You told me that you wanted me to take you to dinner—”

“How interesting,” I said, “that you were so drunk, and yet you remember that.”

He looked confused. “So you never wanted me to take you to dinner? Because I actually sort of thought that you and I always had a thing—”

“No, Kyle, we did not, and we do not. I only said that toget you away from me. Women will say a lot of things they don’t mean, it turns out, to get a huge slime bag like you off them. But here’s something I do mean: if I ever, ever hear about you touching any girl—or any person, of any sex—against their will, I will find you, wherever you are, and I will kill you. And I won’t get caught, because I happen to know how to dispose of bodies in places where no one will find them. And even if they did, I’m pretty sure there isn’t a jury in this country that would convict me, because you’re such a jerk, everyone would be glad that you’re dead anyway. Do you understand me, Kyle?”

He was nodding his head vigorously. “Yes. Yes, I do. But can I still just say that I’m really, really sorry? That morning, that wasn’t me... it was the drugs talking. And the booze. I really, really think you’re blowing this whole thing out of proportion. Nothing actually happened—”

“Nothing?” I nearly shot him then and there. “Nothing?I think you mean to you. Nothing happened toyou. I haven’t been able to sleep because of what happened that morning. I dropped out of law school because of it.” I stepped closer and closer to him, each time bringing the mouth of the pistol nearer his head. “I moved to an entirely different state because of it. I’ve fought with my mother for months because of it. You may not have hurt me physically, Kyle, but you and Cal and everybody else who kept sayingnothinghappened completely twisted me up inside, making me think I was the one who was wrong to be so upset over what you kept callingnothing. But you know what? I wasn’t wrong. Because it wasn’tnothing. And youknow what the worst part of it all was? To get away from thatnothing, I had to agree to go out with you, just so you would get your stupid, stinking, disgusting body off of me, when the truth is, you’re the last person in the world I would ever go anywhere with. And all this time, in your stupid pea brain, you actually thought Ilikedyou? Are you insane?”

The mouth of the gun was directly parallel to his temple. Kyle knelt, frozen, too frightened to move a muscle.

“No,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I know now that you don’t like me, and that you and I are never going out. I’m sorry, Sabrina. I really am sorry.”

Because he finally sounded sincere, I turned the safety on the gun back on, then dropped it back into my bag.

“Good,” I said. “Never come near me again. Understood?”