Page 64 of Dirty Roulette

Chapter forty-six

Payton

Convincing Naomi to seduce Brody has to be the most diabolical plan I’ve ever come up with on a whim.

Knowing Scottie P had a massive crush on her, we figured he would be able to stop them from actually hooking up.

He’ll blow through the house like a train derailment in thirty minutes.

All Naomi needs to do is act sexy, get in Brody’s room, and have him leave for at least five minutes so we can find the flash drive.

When she stumbles over to the fraternity drunk as hell, I’m yelling expletives in my head. We agreed to act drunk. Not come over with a bottle of gin swaying back and forth like a dumb blonde, slurring, “Heyyy! Oh, my god, I’m so horny!”

I facepalm, squatting in the bushes watching the shitshow pull back the curtains as Brody opens the door, and she stumbles into the house.

The window to Brody’s bedroom faces the backyard.

My brain couldn’t solve the puzzle of how to unlock the gate.

I try to find the lock to unlatch it, but splinters are a bitch.

Instead, I lift myself over the wall like an amateur burglar.

And I trip on my damn shoelaces. Of course, they came untied once I landed and entangled my feet.

I’m face-planting on empty cans of beer littering the yard before I can even blink.

Weeds are up to my knees, and everything back here is dead. I’m Indiana Jones with the Mission Impossible theme song playing, but without the revolver, as I barricade myself to the wall sneaking to his window. His blinds are open, and Naomi is swatting him playfully in the chest.

“It’s sooooo hot in here... I’m just gonna crack the window open.” She cooes as she comes over, unlocking it and cracking it by an inch as I requested.

“You gonna get fucking naked or what?”

“Oh my god, come on let’s have a drink. I’m a foreplay kinda girl.” She plops on the bed, leaning back with her arms, and crosses her legs.

“Fuck... I’m gonna need a drink with you.”

“That sounds perfect. Can you make me one of those blended daiquiris with every type of fruit you have in the freezer? Maybe bring some of that fruit back here, and I can eat it off your dick.”

What the hell, Naomi? I said seduce him. Do the kissing, grab his penis, and get him in the mood. Don’t make it shrivel up that he kicks you out of his room before I can break in.

“Okay... just be naked when I get back.” He leaves the room.

Naomi tip toes to the door to peek out and see if the coast is clear, and accidentally trips on a loose sock like it’s a banana peel.

She falls into the door frame, tumbling to the floor and making the door slam shut. The sound could be heard miles away.

“What was that?” Brody hollers from the kitchen.

“Nothing, I’m just getting undressed for your sexy ass!” She holds her nose as blood drips down her fingers.

“Seriously?” I whisper as I push the window open wider and slink in.

The room is messier than Ryder’s and has about a year’s worth of garbage piled up.

Wrappers and old food bags crumble under my feet as I uncover his computer desk.

I pull out all the drawers, yanking out a million chargers and old phones, but no flash drive.

“Help me look,” I whisper, and she grabs a shirt off the floor, holding it to her nose. “It’s a flash drive.” I scurry around, opening every drawer in his dresser, and patting it down for anything hard.

I uncover a cock ring, and some sort of contraption I think guys shove up their assholes. I’m about to vomit. “Eww!” I throw it back into the dresser and slam it shut.

The blender is revving down the hallway. I leap over to his nightstand, but it’s a drawer stuffed with condoms and a Ziploc baggie of white pills. “Not what I’m looking for.”

The blender stops and the whirring of whipped cream gives me a heart attack.

This place is such a mess it’s going to take me more than five minutes to locate it.

Footsteps come down the hallway, and I’m a deer in headlights.

“Fuck.” I race over to the closet and shut it as the door opens and Brody comes in with a pink drink.

His brows lifting in shock from Naomi’s bloody nose is priceless. He stands there for several seconds like he doesn’t have a clue what to say to her.

“Here...” She takes the drink from his hands and licks the whipped cream as if that’s how she is going to treat his dick later. But the dried blood still on her nose is not sexy in the slightest.

The dumb blonde turns to me hiding in the closet and through the slits, we make eye contact.

Brody’s eyes then turn to the closet, and if the lighting is right, he’ll see me.

Lord help me. Shit, I think she gave away my position.

It will foil everything. I scoot into the darkness and the back of my heels hit something hard.

Looking down, there is a safe. Bending slowly, my knees pop louder than firecrackers. I mouth shit under my breath. The sudden pound at the front door is right on time.

“Hey! Where the hell is my baby white chocolate?” Scottie P’s voice is loud enough to hear through the house. He bangs and bangs on the door.

“Who the hell is at the door now?” Brody puts his drink down and walks out of the room again.

Trembling, I inspect the safe and the dumbass left it unlocked.

When the pot of gold opens, there are three flash drives.

The universe is on my side. I pocket all of them and slink out of the closet with Naomi’s eyes bulging out of her eye sockets, telling me to get the hell out of there.

I somersault out the window, dropping to the ground like a splattering scoop of melting ice cream. Nick is then bustling into the bedroom, and all hell breaks loose.

“White chocolate, what the hell! I know ya mad at me but come on boo!” I’m crawling through the grass like I’m in the middle of a battlefield until I’m cleared enough to make a break for it at the gate.

Ryder’s Jeep is at the corner of the street. He’s tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, and his entire face is white as a ghost as I’m sprinting down the sidewalk and leaping into the back seat like I’m dodging a bomb.

We watch Scottie P take Naomi out of the house and into his Cadillac. Ryder dips his head at me in the back seat. I pull out the flash drives from my pockets. “You found them?”

“Yeah! Checkmate!”

He visibly swallows, and lets out a long sigh, and his eyes are sad. “Okay...”

“Crab? Are you okay?”

“Yes cutie, I’m okay...” Ryder jimmies the keys of the Jeep and ignites the engine. “So we're going to give this to Mr. Clorox?” He narrows his brows at the name.

“Yeah, he’s at the gas station right now.”

“Then what?” Ryder peels out and we drive off turning the wheel as he swivels around the cul-de-sac.

“He’s gonna run me through how to hack this stadium.”

“This is really happening?” Ryder swallows hard, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel.

“Yeah...”

***

I step into the dorm with Naomi sitting on the edge of the bed in her cheer uniform. I did my best fixing up my hair and applying makeup. If only Charlie were here to help fix up all the frizz and blend my foundation to perfection.

“You ready for tonight?” Naomi asks with a wheezing nervous laugh and sinks her hands into her hair.

“What if you mess up and get caught? How are you gonna pretend you work up there?” She releases the grip on her hair and she is a spitting image of Ace Ventura in a pink tutu, having his episode at the psych ward.

I gather my duffle bag from the floor and throw it on the bed.

“Chill, I’m going to be fine.” I showcase a uniform sweater, and a worker card lanyard.

I managed to snatch them from some idiot leaving their stuff at the round table in the dining hall.

It was easy, I walked by and snagged the sweater hanging on the stool, and the lanyard was in the pocket out of mere luck.

No one bothered to have a second glance at me when I walked off.

“Okay, I’m just really paranoid. The girls were shit-talking in the gym after practice this morning...”

“About what?” I rub the crease of my neck.

“It’s...” She runs her tongue over her bright red lips. “It’s about your sex tape with Ryder.”

“They know about it?”

“Yeah… Brittni was so pissed off she punched a mirror and everything. She had the worst crying fit, and all these girls were comforting her with the ‘O.M.G I can’t believe he’s with the girl he cheated on you with’ drama.” Naomi flutters her cakey lashes. “She’s delusional!”

“What do you mean? Are you saying they saw it?”

“Brody posted everything back up, including your sex tape.”

“What!” I shout, my heart pattering, not from heartache but pure rage as this ongoing drama with this fucker is turning into a bloody war. “My sex tape was posted?”

Naomi gasps, covering up her mouth hanging open. “You didn’t know?!” she squeals. The dramatic squeakiness of her voice makes my ears ring.

“It wasn’t supposed to be posted, Brody removed all the content of me.

Brody and Ryder agreed to it.” I stroked a trembling hand through the frizz of my hair, rattled to the marrow of my bones, but not surprised Brody would just post it.

He’s had it out for me the second I told Charlie I didn’t like him.

“It was posted about two hours ago.”

I plop on my mattress and yank the charger off my phone, searching up the website.

I’m still off social media and thankful I have only five contacts in my phone.

I refuse to give out my number to anyone, but I’m sure that old phone number is getting blown up and I hope the random stranger who inherited it isn’t being tortured at this second.

The website takes forever to load, and the first page popping up has our video on the front page, and it plays without pressing the red arrow button. I jump with a shiver crawling up my spine as I hear my conversation with Ryder on full blast.

“I’m really sorry. I haven’t personally watched it, but from what I heard it wasn’t something super bad. Some of the girls argued that the video was definitely a personal moment between you two and shouldn’t have been shared.” Naomi shakes her head with a toothless smile.

“Ryder was super sweet the entire time...” I swallow hard, staring down at the dullness of the room, and seeing Ryder lighting up when he smiles at me. I scroll up closing the webpage the second the action starts on the video. I let out a deep breath, and stare up at the ceiling.

“Wanna hear my cherry-popping story? It’s pretty horrific. It might make you feel better.” She presses her shoulders to her cheeks and gives me a pitiful smile.

“Do I need to get my tea ready?” I ask.

Naomi leans her back against the wall, her arm resting over the knee she planted up. “Pinky promise you won’t laugh at me?” She wiggles her pinky with her fake acrylic nails.

“Oh my god, just tell me.” A chuckle slips from my lips.

“Okay,” she clears her throat with a cupped hand on her mouth.

“This guy and I were dating for about a month. His parents decided to go out for the night, so I snuck in. Mind you, we were completely nervous.” Her arms flail everywhere, telling the story.

Naomi is vibrant, her emotions written in the movements of her hands.

“We took shots of some whiskey to calm down. Well, I was not chill. The second he put it in, it hurt so bad I pushed him off, ran away and projectile vomited all over the bathroom floor. Yeah, we stopped dating a few days later.”

My mouth drops, and I laugh. “Noo!”

“Yes!”

“You threw up all over the place?”

“It was so bad.” Her eyes stare up at the ceiling, and she chuckles between her words. “I tried to help him clean it up, but it made him throw up too.”

“How old were you?”

She criss-crosses her legs, thumping them back and forth on the mattress. “Fourteen I think.”

“Really? You were that young?” If a guy looked in my direction at fourteen, the whites in their eyes turned black. I swear they were all demons, and I hissed at them like a feral cat.

“Well...” She sighs and her lashes flutter, looking sideways. “I was kinda exposed to it rather early. I didn’t try again until I was sixteen. Classic Prom date fun.”

“That’s a cliché.”

“The girls said something else...” She twiddles her thumbs. The back of my mind tells me my fate is headed to a bad collision.

“Okay, spill.”

“Can I ask you something first?” Naomi asks.

“Shoot.”

“Are we friends?” There was a softness in her voice, and I could see the genuineness in them.

“After what you did for me in getting those flash drives? Yeah.”

“Okay, please don’t be mad at me.” She curls her fingers up to her lips, and a pain lodges in her eyes as they shake. “The girls were saying Brody plans on forcing Ryder to break it off with you. It’s football or you. I don’t think Ryder even knows about this.”

A warhead impales me in the stomach. “He’s gonna force Ryder to dump me?” My heart plops out of my chest like a soggy pop tart. I’m thick tar inside, burning and melting. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t know, this is just what I was hearing in the locker room, and since Brody is about to start playing again, he wants Ryder gone.” I can feel the walls around me closing in, but I’m not about to sit here and sob. Brody ripped me from Charlie, and now he plans on taking Ryder too.

“Then I’m not holding back tonight. I’m gonna run him into the fucking ground. He wants me to act like trailer trash then fine let's play Roulette, because the next chamber of the barrel is going to be a bullet to his head!” I grab the duffle bag and throw it over my shoulder.