I can’t think of a good reason for him to pretend he didn’t know about my injury. Was he hoping to come back from Switzerland and find me dead?
A chill runs up my spine. I do the first thing that comes to mind. I text Max.
Can you talk? You might have been right about JP.
He responds right away: RU OK?
Yes. In fact, I left JP’s this morning.
I see three dots appear and then disappear.
Going to stay with Crystal tonight. Idk.
I wait a beat, hoping he’ll offer to put me up now that I’m not with JP anymore. He doesn’t take the bait.
Glad ur safe. If you need me 4Realz let me know.
Wow, I really expected him to jump for joy that I wasn’t with JP anymore. Instead I get a glad ur safe like he’s my dad or something? He still hasn’t liked our Instagram couple pic and I’m pretty sure he’s seen it by now. For some reason I feel worse about that than about the very real possibility that JP tried to kill me. Crushed, in fact.
* * *
I’m lucky that Crystal doesn’t turn me down when I ask to stay with her—she’s still riding high from Kobra’s arrest. On the bus to her house,68 I explain that JP might’ve tried to kill me. “It must have been him. We had a fight in the car on the way to that art gala about GoldRush. Then, we were at the party eating appetizers probably moments before I was injured.” She nods to show she’s listening, and I hit her with the clincher. “Then, he left the party by himself, went to Switzerland for a few days, and has been acting like he didn’t know it happened. It must have been him.”
Crystal is quiet.
“He probably thought I was dead and ran. When he didn’t see my death recorded in the papers, he probably texted me to see if I was alive. When I answered, he had to act like everything was totally fine and that he missed me. Ugh, what a psychopath!”
Crystal murmurs something.
“I should probably call the police. Now that I’ve helped them catch Kobra, they owe me.” How conveniently I’ve forgotten the whole check fraud business.
Crystal is dead silent.
“I was really hoping that Kobra did it. That would have been so easy. I’m not in love with JP, but I don’t want to send him to jail. I don’t want to think I was in an abusive relationship. But it can happen to anyone, I guess.”
Crystal murmurs again. “It wasn’t JP.”
“What?” I turn the full force of my attention on her. “Did you see something?”
“JP wasn’t there when you fell. He’d already left.”
“How do you know that?” My jaw drops. “You were there? I had a memory of you storming in, but I wasn’t sure if it was real or if I was conflating it with something else. How come you didn’t say anything?”
She shuts her eyes and I’m pretty sure she’s saying a prayer. “I was so mad at you about setting me up with Kobra…I left his place and went straight to the museum.”
As she’s talking, I cut back to my memory of the party.
I’m standing by the sushi table and I hear a woman yelling. “Mia, where are you, bitch?”
I set down my plate of sushi rolls and stare in the direction of the yelling. It’s Crystal, dressed for the club, coming around the corner.
“Crystal?” I don’t expect to see her. I don’t know why she’s here. I’m here to support my mom and that’s it.
“You just set me up with a drug dealer. Not even a low-level guy. A fucking kingpin!”
My hand flies to my mouth. “No, he’s in international ship—” As the words come out of my mouth I realize that he’s not even trying to hide it. He’s probably shipping teddy bears stuffed with meth to Australia and Thailand.
“Oh, you knew. How could you not?”
“I didn’t. I was stupid.”
“You know I’m trying to get away from that lifestyle,” she says. “I want someone who can be a good dad to Kai, not some fucking insane meth head tatted up with Bible verses and snakes.”
“I’m so sorry, Crystal. I can make this right.”
She glares angrily at me. “Don’t even try.”
“No, really, I screwed up, but we can find someone good.” I gesture to the crowd. “Maybe at this party.”
I click on the camera app of my phone and move over, closer to Crystal. “You look so cute tonight. Let’s just take a selfie for Insta. I’ll get you someone better.”
“Don’t, Mia.”
As I reach to put my arm around her shoulder and smile into the camera, she recoils hard and shoves me. “I said no! I’m pissed.”
Crystal pushed me?
“I’m sorry, Mia. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she says. “I mean, I pushed you, but…I don’t know what happened. You lost your balance and you fell right into that sculpture.”
I can’t even focus on her feelings. I just relived a near-death experience. Some smelling salts and a fainting couch might be nice right about now, but we’re on the bus. The driver hits the brakes and we slow to a stop, and someone gets on and sits next to me.
“God, I hate the bus at night. So many weirdos out,” he says.
I turn away from him but Crystal is on my other side, so I stand and hold onto a pole.
Crystal is still telling me she’s sorry. “It was an accident, I swear.”
I want everyone to shut up for a minute so I can figure out what to think.
Crystal pushed me. JP left the country to get away from me. My mom told me to back the fuck away and respect her boundaries. Not her words, but that’s what she meant. Everyone hated me.
I move to an open seat and shut my eyes for the rest of the bus ride. Should I find somewhere else to stay for the night? It’s probably weird to stay with Crystal after she just admitted that she shoved me into a sculpture of Cupid so hard that I lost my memory.
She’s sitting across from me now, crying. “I’m so sorry, Mia. It was an accident. I didn’t know how bad it was because I ran. I didn’t even know you went to the hospital.”
I should be furious with her, but somehow I’m not. From where I’m sitting now I can see that I sort of deserved it. I didn’t deserve to end up in the hospital, but she didn’t deserve to go on a date with a violent creep and watch a guy die.
“It’s okay, Crystal.” It’s probably weird to console someone who almost killed you and took all of your memories. Even I know this in the moment, but I can’t just watch her cry without saying anything. “I’m sorry, too. I lost sight of things before. I never should have sent you to Kobra’s house. I should have known better.” I shake my head just thinking of it. “The tattoos alone.”