A new chap folks...
Thanks for still reading.
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~ 13 ~
What the hell is going on?
The squad was away for nationals and Julian made his homework. Rex and Travis both needed his support and so he had to work until late in the evening on Friday. He crawled into an empty bed at six in the morning and closed his eyes, still thinking of Marti. She brightened up his days and filled his lonely nights. Whenever he had compared her to his long time marriage, she had won. Even Ally told him to take care of her. He dreamt of his little girl giving him her blessing for the new relationship. So, he was willing to do everything to protect his wonderful caring girl friend.
The next day Marti called him just before he had to leave for the fucking party at his ex-wife´s house. She told him they maybe wouldn´t be able to cheer because of having some weird streps around. The whole squad had to get tested before leaving. She also wanted to know how he felt right now before the horrible party at Heather´s new home. Julian tried to calm her down and spoke good-humored. When they hung up, he felt his knees trembling like some flowers in the wind. But he knew for sure Marti didn´t believe him not to be nervous at all and to feel okay instead. It was all said when she kissed him through the phone and wished him good luck for his investigation. They´d be with each other in their minds.
He was late for the party, consciously. When he arrived almost everyone seemed to be there already...
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"Where´s Lewis?" Vanessa yelled through the whole hall. "We can´t cheer without him, since Savannah´s not coming back to help us!"
They had some of them tested positive before and so only seventeen students were waiting to perform for nationals but they had to be eighteen participants to perform.
Savannah had to leave because of her sister being in labor four weeks before the actual date. Marti was thinking about Julian´s ex-wife, the party and Deidra, who simply tried to push her away once more. Alice had to think of some revenge because of the volleyball girls who fingered her to the dean which had caused more than one punishment to her. She felt terribly misunderstood. Her throat wasn´t feeling that well, too. Vanessa still hoped to get the girls together, but actually she had to struggle with her pregnancy and the fact of feeling ill most of the time. Red fortunately had talked to her again and she was glad her students had tried to fix her problem. The whole squad was falling apart for their own personal concerns and now even Lewis, their all time rock, had disappeared for hours.
When he finally came back just in time they were about to leave for the stage. Suddenly they were told to get disqualified because of still trying to perform with members being infected with streps. Someone must have denounced them to the jury. New tests had to be made and Alice knew exactly she would test positive this time. It was definitely over. No nationals to win. In the end they performed just for themselves, for feeling like winners without having been part of the competition. Real euphoria took possession of everyone and they got back from Atlanta with some wide grin on their faces. It deserved a party to celebrate their unofficial victory and so they did their best to make it a memorable evening.
The party did go well. Marti and Deidra cleared their problems of being sisters forever, Savannah and Dan were talking about her sister Charlotte´s newborn son Joseph all the time, Vanessa got a call to see the athletic director immediately and therefore refused to pay Red a visit. Alice could hardly believe Savannah was going to make her the new captain of the Hellcats because of personal family stress with the disappearance of her dad and the new baby nephew to care for. Everything seemed to put in order by itself...
o
"Thank you for coming, Julian. May I introduce you to some of my friends?" Heather smiled all over and took him away to her closest friends he didn´t ever get to know in the past.
For about half an hour she really knew how to behave. The barbecue went fine. Julian walked around the guests, talking to some of the professors he´s already known. Then his ex-wife came back to him, took him inside her house to show him her new home. He wasn´t comfortable with this but he had promised to make her his friend again, so he tried to do his best.
"Kind of a big house for only one person?" he remarked ironically, looking upstairs to the big open balcony on the first floor.
"Well, I´m glad you said that. Since you´ve come alone I thought of you being as lonely as I am, right?"
"I´m not feeling lonely."
"Well, I am. Would you mind spending some of your free time with your remorseful ex-wife? First we should talk about Ally´s grave, you know? How about meeting there on the cemetery for some brainstorming?"
Julian got goosebumps all over when thinking of meeting her alone at the graveyard. "What is it you don´t like about the present decorations? Ally loves them."
"I don´t think so. Too much and too mature. She´s a little kid, remember?"
"Well, you´re allowed to suggest anything, I´m going to think it over."
"Let´s meet tomorrow evening in front of the cemetery. I´m going to show you some ideas of mine."
"Can´t we discuss that via phone? I´m willing to allow you to manage a new decoration after the current one has been withered."
"Shouldn´t we ask Ally before changing anything? I know she´ll talk to us from above."
"Well, go and ask her. I know what she´d say."
"Really?" Heather went upstairs and wanted him to follow with a special gesture. "So, tell me!"
Julian didn´t move at all and rested downstairs. "She´d be happy with anything. Just don´t bring her balloons, okay?"
"Come on! I´m not stupid!" she smiled. "I wanna show you the bedrooms! There are a few of them! Maybe I´m having kids again? Do you want to have children again?" Her smile made him shivering once more. "Give it a try, please!"
He shook his head. "Sorry, Heather, I can´t. It´s late and we shouldn´t leave your guests for such a long time, don´t you think so?"
"Someone´s waiting for you at home?"
"No, but that´s none of your business."
"You´re invited to a sleepover in case you´re too drunk or whatever else may cross your way..."
Again she tried.
"Got some work at home. Cases without payment, so I have to do it quick."
She came back downstairs, hugging him immediately. "Always the romantic..."
Julian pushed her away, looking not amused. "Don´t try this again, okay? I´m going to be your friend or colleague, nothing else. And I have to leave now," he said dryly, turning around to head off for somewhere else. Just away from her.
"You ´re in a relationship, right?" she asked with icy voice behind his back.
Julian turned around once more. "None of your business, I said."
"So you are. I bet it´s someone who´s totally boring like you, maybe a lawyer, too?"
"Not at all. I´m picking up some younger cheerleaders lately!" he tried to make a joke without laughing himself. "Good night. See you at the campus."
"Whoever she may be, she won´t satisfy you at all. Good night, Jules!"
He just winced and went on through the door outside in the garden. Her sharp voice had frightened him like usual. This wasn´t the result Marti would like to hear but he had tried hard. With a simple nod he said goodbye to some of his colleagues of the teaching staff and left the party with trembling knees. What a wasted evening.
Back back home again, he sat down behind his desk and thought about his running cases. Work had always been the best method to get him back to what´s important in his life. Only this time he couldn´t focus on the paragraphs, he just had to think about Heather´s answers. She must know something, he thought by himself. There was that typical glance of her making him think of already been trapped by her. If there hadn´t been Ally he wouldn´t have talked to her at all.
Suddenly he heard the key turning around the door and Julian lifted his head. Marti came in, tears all over her cheeks, flying into his arms immediately. He held her tight, felt her shivering all over and thought of some bad jokes of his ex-wife on her.
"Marti... What happened to you? Is this about... the Hellcats?"
"Forget the squad! We had been disqualified. It´s Deidra. She lied to me. Again!" Marti pressed her body on Julian´s, sobbing.
Standing in the middle of the room he wanted to get her on the couch to relax. "Okay... Wanna tell me in detail?"
"She knew he was alive! I answered her phone call a few minutes ago. I thought we´re sisters. And she didn´t tell me about it!" Her voice sounded as broken as one can be.
"Have you already told her that you found him in jail?"
"No, I haven´t, yet." Her eyes looking kind of surprised.
"Maybe she doesn´t know about that fact or would have told you soon?"
"Maybe Rex didn´t phone her that often? And now he tried again because of you taking over his case?" The young girl tried to excuse her sister´s lie, wiping away the tears.
Julian smiled. "Maybe... You should go and talk to her."
"You´re right. I´m going to give her one more chance. I will see her, tomorrow. So... How was the party?" Marti kissed him softly on the cheek. "Tell me everything!"
Julian hesitated for a single moment. "Think it was okay. She didn´t try to rape me, that´s all," he answered with a sigh.
Although Marti was still wiping tears off her cheeks, she had to laugh because of his dry comment. "You´re so funny, Parish! What did she do to you?"
"Nothing special, it was just her voice and her glances and the fact that she wanted to meet me at Ally´s to talk about the deco. Oh yeah, and she thought of me having some relationship with some boring lawyer like me."
"So, what did you answer?" Marti was really curious about his excuse.
"I said I had been going for young cheerleaders lately."
Marti gasped for breath. "Oh my fucking god! Are you trying to kill us?"
"You have no idea how she´s able to make you that angry! Thankfully she thought I was joking."
"Are you sure about that?"
"To be honest? No. If I were her I would already know about you." Julian sighed heavily. "Think she really does..."
"What are we doing now?"
"Nothing. We can´t do anything. Let´s just go on working – or, in your case, studying – and pretending that she´s not there. I´m tired of thinking about her, we should live our life instead. Don´t you think so?"
"Okay. It´s your decision."
"There´s just one thing..."
"Huh?"
"Would you mind sleeping at your dorm tonight?"
"You´re kicking me out?" she complained smiling.
"Right. We better be careful. She might spy on me..."
"So, that is what you´re calling living our lives?"
Julian sighed again. She had won. "Well, I guess so..."
Marti put her forefinger on his lips. "Not before you did what you were expected to do," she whispered.
The next thing he felt was her warm kiss on his mouth. How to resist that passionate argument? Julian leaned over her, pressing her down on the couch with the weight of his whole body. To feel her quite near to him was like having been released from torture. When finally their tongues met he knew again he was alive. They undressed themselves without stopping to kiss several times until Marti suddenly paused for a moment, looking in his eyes full of passion and longing.
"Did she try to kiss you?" she whispered with a certain insecurity.
Julian ran his fingers through her hair. "No, I wouldn´t have let her at all." he said caring.
"Anything else I should know about?"
"Just a hug, nothing else. I pushed her away. You don´t have to worry, darling. And it´s been you who sent me to that party, remember?"
"I didn´t realize that I could get that jealous..." Marti smiled, blushing. "She´s quite good-looking and intelligent, too. So, what makes me that special to you?"
"Same question again?" he smiled, whispering in her ear. "Your heart, Marti. Your gigantic heart. She´s never had one, I found out recently."
Her hand stroking gently down his cheek, resting at his chin to fondle his lips with her thumb, she was just drowning in his eyes. Feeling his warm breath upon her face, she couldn´t resist kissing him in a real romantic way again. This was not a moment for passion but for romantic tenderness and faith. Everything happened so slowly and with so much fondness that they even didn´t recognize the phone ringing again several times.
"Do I really have to leave now?" Marti asked quietly when he slipped out of her to bin the condom.
Julian came back to her, holding her tight in his arms again. "I can´t stand watching you leave. Forgive me, I´m weak..."
"I´m going for the weak, didn´t you know?"
"Let´s go upstairs, I wanna keep you here forever in opposition to all arguments..." Julian answered smiling. " You're a drug, Marti – a sweet, irresistible drug to flee reality whenever I want to. And you won´t let me get clean, will you?"
"I love you, too."
o
Marti returned to the dorm early in the morning to change her clothes before heading off for class. She got off her bike and ran towards the door of the Hellcat´s home, when suddenly she stopped and yelled out loud. Resting in total agony and disgust. Her heart beating like a drum, her body shaking all over, she couldn´t hardly move herself. Her yell even had been heard inside and so Lewis came to the door and opened it, looking curiously at his friend standing outside. Then he realized why she screamed that loud and did the same himself.
"Oh my fucking god!" he stammered, looking on the floor in front of them. "Who the fuck did this?"
Alice and Savannah stumbled to the door, too, taking a look at what there was actually happening. Savannah just ran away to the bathroom, puking her whole breakfast into the toilet. Alice cried like a baby, clinging to Lewis arm. Marti herself still had to gasp for breath, being at a loss for words.
"Don´t touch anything!" Lewis said cleverly. "I´m going to search for Red. This has to be taken serious. Someone wants to tell us something. I´m back in a few minutes!"
Marti and Alice went in, closing the door with trembling hands. They looked at each other with eyes wide open. Savannah came back out of the bathroom, pale all over. They sat down in the kitchen to tell the rest of the squad what there was lying in front of their door.
"Those volleyball girls must be really crazy..." Alice remarked shivering. "I wanted to beat them up, now look what they´ve done to us! A real horror and threatening like hell!"
"How do you know that this had been done by the volleyball girls?" Marti asked doubting.
Alice bristled with anger. "I met them outside last night after our little party was over. They tried to frighten me again. We´ll win, wait and see what you get had been the last they shouted at me, while I was leaving. Who else would do such crappy thing to us? Can´t you see the signs? Hell to the cat is written on the paper sticking under the knife!"
There was no doubt, girl´s war had begun. When Red came over together with Vanessa, they were as disgusted as their students. "Someone has to call the caretaker to let it disappear!" Red ordered.
"Wait! We should call the police first. That´s a real threat and they probably could save some fingerprints on the knife or something like that?" Marti just thought of some evidence to prove the volleyball girls had been guilty.
Red seemed to be not that convinced about calling the police on a simple student prank, but he looked into Marti´s begging eyes and finally nodded. "Okay, let's call the cops!"
They dressed up for class while waiting for the officers. All of them in shock and not really amused about the disgusting present in front of their door. Never before someone had told them about such an awful try to get rid of the Hellcats as a squad. Marti just wanted Alice not to leave the house alone anymore but she didn´t want to follow her advice.
"Please, Alice, we´re not real good friends, but as a pre-law student I can tell you there are more crazy people around than you might imagine."
"Well, they won´t kill me in public on the campus, right?"
"Who knows? You could have an accident, whatever, there are more ways to skin a cat – remember the pictures you were naked on going round the campus?"
Alice was hesitating for a moment. "God, I hate your fucking intelligence! But I have to admit you might be right. There are definitely more ways to compromise a student..."
Since Red and Vanessa welcomed the cops at the same moment, their discussion ended immediately. The officers did their work carefully, they seemed to be much more worried about the dead cat at their door than the squad itself.
"Someone must have been the owner of that little kitten, any idea?" One of the cops wanted to know.
Vanessa looked questioningly at her girls but none of them had anything to say. "Well, officer – animals aren´t allowed on the campus. It must be from somewhere else then..."
"We got everything we need. The cat will be taken away by us, if you want us to?" One of the officers proposed, looking quite disgustedly.
Everyone was okay with them taking the dead bloody kitten away. It left some awful marks on the pavement behind. There was no time left to talk that much about it because all of them had to head off for class. Marti and Savannah went together, the blond one wheeling her bike, still thinking of the dead animal.
"The volleyball girls?" Savannah broke the silence. "I can hardly believe that..."
Marti lifted her head. "So cruel... They must have killed it themselves. Disgusting!"
"It wasn´t dead before the knife stuck into it, right."
"So, you´ve seen it, too? The blood was fresh and it smelled kind of warm... Bah..." she remarked, pursing her nose. "Awful... And a really ice-cold way to act."
"Poor kitten... Whoever´s the owner must have been totally in shock of missing it."
"Have you seen its eyes? Whoever had done that to that innocent animal must be cruelly punished. That was against all rules of humanity and animal protection."
"Alice must have been more evil than considered... I mean... What the heck didn´t she tell us?" Savannah sighed, thinking about some secret cruelly acting friend of hers.
"So to speak..."
They separated for leaving to their different classes, not having a clue how to go on in the future. Marti sat on her chair, not listening to any of the words the professor said. She still thought about that poor kitten and all the blood in front of their door. Would she be able to do her profession with that kind of disgust by seeing such crime in reality? When she met Morgan at the refectory later, she sat down across his table and started the conversation.
"Hi! Did you miss me?" she winked.
Morgan lifted his eyebrow. "Guess!"
"Listen! Are you listening?"
"I am listening. Go on!"
"We should finish our relationship in public, you´ve been way too involved lately, I think."
The young man was in shock because of her demand. "What about the professor?" he whispered curiously, hoping for some possible breakup again.
"Fuck the crowd! I don´t want you to get hurt, that´s not fair."
"Me, too. You don´t have to worry about me, really. I know you´ll never be in love with me for real. Believe me, I got that."
"Sure?"
"Marti... Maybe I´m jealous as hell but I just want you to be happy and if it´s the professor you like to be with then I have to accept that. Just that simple."
"It´s not fair, anyway." Marti answered sadly. "You´re my friend, you know?"
"That´s more than I´ve ever expected. So... How is it going?" He smiled, touching her hand on the table for a moment.
Marti sighed heavily. "Guess what we found today morning in front of the Hellcats´ door?"
"Some naked football player on his knees, totally drunk and singing to one of you of endless love?"
She couldn´t help laughing out loud. "We would have appreciated that! At least Alice would have." she giggled once more. "Back to reality. Someone murdered a lovely kitten and stuck a paper under the knife in its breast. Hell to the cat written on it."
Morgan sat there mouth wide open. "You´re kidding?"
"Wish I would!"
"Holy! Who do you think did that to you?"
"Maybe the volleyball girls. Alice told us about some heavy argument last night after our victory party. But we don´t really know."
"Wow... That´s horrible..."
"It is. By the way, you don´t have to back me with girl-overs anymore. My mum is taking that job now. We found my dad, finally. He´s going to be defended by Julian, who wants to re-open his case."
Morgan was kind of speechless. "But we´re still together?"
"Well, okay, you´re allowed to back me, if you want to, but first we have to coordinate the sleepovers, right?"
Morgan smiled. "Absolutely. Wanda and I can talk about that, too."
"Good idea. Listen... May I ask you a question?"
Morgan nodded, smiling like always. "What´s the problem, honey?"
"Will you please keep an eye on Professor Rathbone?"
"Erm... The so-called ex-wife?"
Marti sighed again. "So to speak. Will you?"
"She´s causing you much more trouble than expected, right?" he smirked.
"Hell, yeah! She´s stalking Julian. Probably wants him back. We don´t know what she´s planning on doing next. Julian´s really afraid of her."
Morgan thought about what she´d been just telling him. He wanted to answer, but hold himself back once more, making some contemplative face. Then he tried a second start. "What if... she killed that lovely cat because of you being in her way?"
Now it was her turn to gasp for breath. "Come on, Morgan! That´s not funny!"
"Remember that old movie with Michael Douglas? It´s called Fatal Attraction. Ever heard of it?"
"Maybe I should listen to you since you were right with that Star Trek experiment once?"
"Good girl! You know that movie?"
"I´ve never seen it but I´ve heard of it, sure."
"Your killed kitten had been a boiled bunny rabbit in the cooking pot of the betrayed wife. Really shocking! But Glenn Close was awesome!"
"Oh my fucking god..." Marti whispered disgustedly. "Too much fantasy for me, dude!"
"Think it over. You said she´s stalking him. If she has already found out about you, it would be really easy to make you going crazy that way. Hell to the cat, remember?"
That was definitely a good point. Marti had to admit him being kind of smart. "Julian won´t believe me if I´m going to tell him, you know?"
"He´s old enough to know the movie. Try!" Morgan grinned amusedly.
"Buffoon! I´m going to tell him that!" Marti said with a smile on her face. "He´s not that old, capisce?"
"Oh, you´re going for the Italian language? Nice!"
"No, I´m going for the Mafia, got it?" she countered. "So be careful what you´re saying, capisce? Erm... I have to go now. Thank you for your ear. I´m hoping desperately you´re not right with Heather, you know?"
"I was recently. Just be careful, honey, okay?"
Marti showed him her teeth. "We are, Bunny Boy!" With a wide grin she left the table without looking back again.
Morgan sat there, being at a loss for words. But he still thought about that old movie and what happened in addition to that boiling bunny. That was really scary and he wished Marti would tell Julian his speculation. He maybe would take him seriously.
Tbc...
©Mrs. NiG, 21.06.2011
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