March 19, 2015

Elizabeth's Story

by Jessica Knoll

Don't you ever just know? Really know something to be true, with nothing more to go on than a clandestine glance, the intonation on a certain word, someone blinking just a little too fast when you ask, "Who were you with last night?" Call it instinct, a gut feeling, woman's intuition. But I knew, without a doubt in my mind, that it was no coincidence that the sister of the girl I had killed showed up at my apartment on the same day a pair of leopard print handcuffs, chillingly similar to the ones that had been used on me all those years ago, were gifted to Izzy, by Biz. Not to mention the way they were carrying on about them, like they were the funniest fucking thing they'd ever seen and there were way more ridiculous things in that gift basket. The next thing she pulled out was a glittery prostate plug and she hardly gave it a second glance. A motherfucking glittery prostate plug!

I had some choices. I could make a big messy scene right there, accuse Biz and Izzy of being involved, ruin Izzy's indulgent special day. I wouldn't need to demand to know why they had done what they did to me. Well, of Izzy maybe (though I suspect it was as simple as going with the crowd, which is what Izzy does best), but not of Biz. I knew why Biz had tried to take me down. I did something I'm not proud of back in college, but that's another story, for another day. The point is I now saw Biz, our friendship, even myself in an entirely new light. All these years this bitch had been putting on a front, acting so helpless, so needy, so dependent on me, and I'd played right into it. She had fooled me. Biz had fooled me.

Two could play at this game, I decided, right then and there, and it was as though my body landed on this conclusion before my mind chanted the embarrassingly earnest platitude, because suddenly I was standing, dinging my champagne glass with my fork. Everyone shifted in the direction of the sound, and the room quieted down. "I'd like to make a toast."

"When I got married, someone told me that marrying the one you love is easy. But the real challenge is loving the one you marry." There was polite, drunken laughter. "When the road gets tough"—here, I made my voice quiver—"I hope you know you can lean on me, and come to me for support and advice, because you and Biz have always"—I squeezed out a little tear and someone gasped appreciatively—"been there for me."

I raised my glass higher, and everyone else did too. "To friendship."

"To friendship," the crowd repeated back to me, and Izzy and Biz blew me kisses from across the room. I blew one back with one long cyanide laced breath.

- -

Everyone migrated to the bar after the party ended, prim heels in hand. This crowd had a way of turning bridal showers into all day debaucherous affairs. I begged off, telling Biz and Izzy I actually wasn't feeling well. I saw them exchange a glance and I knew what they were thinking: pregnant. I had never been so grateful for the unfriendly state of my womb as I had been in that moment. I needed to be focused, not distracted by a barfing bundle of joy.

I raced home and accosted my doorman. "Louis," I said, "that girl who was here earlier. Abby. The one you sent away. Did she say anything? Like why she was here?"

Louise stared at me, sternly. "I told her to go away or I would call the police. Like you told me to."

I blew a strand of hair out of my eyes, frustrated. "I know that. Thank you. But now I realize I need to talk to her and I'm trying to figure out a way to get in touch with her."

Louis nodded. "Yes, she left a phone number."

I practically swooned at this. "She did? That's amazing!"

"But I threw it out," Louis said, looking at me strangely. "I didn't think you would want it."

Which is why I spent the next half an hour, elbow deep in the trash can on the sidewalk, scrummaging around for Abby's number which Louis said was written on a pink—no, maybe yellow—piece of paper. It turned out to be written on a green piece of paper but I was just so elated to have found it I didn't care.

I eschewed the elevators for the stairs. The adrenaline was coming off me like steam, and if I had to stop at every single floor because some drooling toddler had gotten button happy in the elevator I might have blown a fuse.

I unlocked the door to my apartment, called out Peter's name, waited a beat to make sure he wasn't home, then made a dash for the phone. Abby picked up on the third ring.

"It's Elizabeth," I told her, between gasps. I felt one bead of sweat drain into the waistband of my skirt.

"Elizabeth!" Abby exclaimed. "I'm surprised to hear from you."

"Likewise," I said. Then I asked if she could meet me in half an hour.

- -

I ordered Blanton's, neat, and Abby ordered water. "You're so good," I commented, and Abby gave me a look.

"I'm sober, Elizabeth."

I did a little double take, surprised. "Since when?"

"Since the night your brother died," Abby said. "I haven't had a drop of alcohol since. There wasn't much temptation in jail, and then I figured why not just stick with it once I got out."

I shifted in my seat, feeling uncomfortable. "You know, Abby, I never thought it was right the way my family came after you the way they did. You weren't even driving. Thayer was. I don't think it was your fault. I never did."

"But we wouldn't have even been in that situation to begin with if alcohol hadn't been involved," Abby pointed out. "I accused your brother of flirting with someone—which I don't even think he was doing, I was just drunk and jealous—and then I was the one who demanded we leave the party. If I hadn't done that"—she shook her head, angry at herself. "I don't even want to drink. I don't want to feel out of control. Ever again."

My drink landed in front of me then, and I took a self-conscious sip. "I think I've just accepted that nothing is within my control." I took a bigger sip. Thought about Campbell, the man I really loved, locked away, refusing to see me. My brother, dead. My mother, her sad semblance of a life east of Park Avenue. My sham of a marriage. My sham of a best friend. Rolling with the punches was a lot easier to do with a little liquid lubrication. I took a hot gulp of my drink, polishing it off, then asked the bartender for another.

"I've been wanting to get in touch with you for a while now," Abby said. "But I didn't know how. Part of the agreement I signed back then stipulated I was to have no contact with you, ever. And that was fine. I didn't have a reason to contact you. I mean, I did, but I just made peace with the fact that I'd never get a chance to tell you."

I frowned. "Tell me what."

Abby glanced at her lap. "Remember that time I showed up at your college house? That Turquoise house, or whatever?" she laughed a little. "I gave you a hug and you were so surprised, I know, because I knew you thought I had orchestrated the whole thing. Your kidnapping." She laughed again. "God, that sounds so dramatic. But that's what it was, wasn't it? A kidnapping." She looked at me, almost shyly.

"Anyway," she said. "I know you probably thought that I wanted my sister to exact my revenge on you. Make you pay for the fact that your family had sent me to jail."

"Yeah," I said, "that's exactly what I thought."

Abby nodded. "I'll admit this much. When I found out you were going to Smithson, I pushed Bridget to apply there too. But not because I wanted to hurt you."

I waited for her to say more, but she didn't. "Okay. Why then?"

Abby sighed. "I don't really know how to answer that. I wanted to keep tabs on you, I guess. I loved Thayer so much and it was like it was easier to keep him alive if I had some thread to connect me to him. And you were it. I got to live vicariously through my sister, who I didn't tell to go and befriend you exactly, but I hoped she would."

I snorted. "Well, she didn't."

Abby smiled a little too. "Yeah. She really didn't like you."

"She drugged me and chained me to a water pipe in the basement of some asbestos infested dump. No shit she didn't like me."

"Well, I underestimated exactly how much she didn't like you until she told me what she'd done and I told her to go get you out of there immediately."

That admission made my spine prickle. "You knew I was down there before I got out?"

"Elizabeth," Abby said, very lowly, as though no one else was to hear what she was going to say next, "she was coming to help you. Not to hurt you."

"No," I said, shaking my head. "That can't be right. She charged at me"—

"Didn't you say you were just coming out of some drug induced stupor?" Abby said. "Maybe that's your memory of it, but that may not be how it happened."

I tried to fashion this possibility to my memory of that moment, but it wasn't quit fitting. I tried again, harder. The bourbon had made my brain mushy, pliable. I could see it, maybe. Bridget not charging me, exactly, but running toward me, to see if I was okay. And I was so enraged that anyone had dared to cross me that I lashed out at her. Is this why I'd always felt so guilty? Because I knew, deep down, it hadn't really been self-defense? As soon as the thought entered my mind I expelled it. I couldn't live with myself if that had been the case.

"So why didn't you tell me any of this back then?" I demanded. I was starting to get angry. "Why are you telling me now?"

"I came to your house to tell you that," Abby said, "but Biz ushered me out of there before I could. Then you lawyered up, and I never got a chance to. Besides," she shrugged, "I was worried for myself. I was worried that I could get into even more trouble than I was already in for not reporting my sister right away. I read her the riot act for being so fucking stupid and told her to go make it right immediately. I thought she could help you before it went too far, because apparently they were planning on doing far worse to you."

The mention of "they," a group, chilled me to my marrow. "Who was?"

Abby shook her head. "I never knew! I couldn't get it out of her. She said you'd pissed off a lot of people. Some girls found out about her connection to you, and it didn't take much for them to convince her you needed to be taught a lesson. Put in your place. Because they—but she wouldn't say who—said you thought your shit didn't stink."

My second drink was gone. This time I asked the bartender for a double. "My shit doesn't stink," I informed Abby. "And it doesn't matter now. I'm pretty fucking sure I know exactly who 'they' is."

Abby glanced at my new drink, the much more robust pour, with concern. "Well, I think I do too. That's why I was trying to get in touch with you, even though I'm not supposed to contact you. It didn't seem like a strong enough reason to break the contract to simply tell you others were involved. But it did once I thought I knew who they were. "

I said nothing. I wasn't really curious anymore. I already knew it was Biz and Izzy.

Abby rummaged around in her purse, hooked on the side of her chair, and extracted one of those marbled notebooks. The edges of the page were crusty and yellow. "My parents moved a few weeks ago, and I had the unpleasant duty of packing up Bridget's room since neither my mother or father could stand to do it. I found this." She flipped open the notebook to reveal what appeared to be a floor plan. I leaned in closer to take a look, and saw crudely drawn stick figures at critical points. There was a stick figure in the basement, labeled B. There was one by the front door, labeled I.  There was one in the car, labeled BM, and most curious, one standing in the driveway, labeled C. "C" was the only stick figure given the courtesy of any real form, with squiggly figure eights drawn as arms, suggesting large biceps, which also suggested C was a guy. And in these large biceps was another stick figure, this one labeled E.

"I know 'BM' is my sister," Abby said. "Bridget Mason. I wondered if 'B' was for Biz, and 'I' for Izzy. I knew they were your friends. Bridget told me that much."

Abby put her finger on the E. "That's obviously you. I just can't think who the 'C' is. And it's clearly a guy. Any ideas?"

I'd always wondered how Bridget had gotten me from the car into the house. Even after this morning, realizing Biz and Izzy were involved, I had still wondered. Biz and Izzy were tiny. Not thin, mind you, but tiny. I'm the opposite. Thin, and anything but tiny. It would have to take one hell of a man to be able to carry my dead weight across a lawn, through the kitchen, and down a rickety flight of stairs.

And did I ever know one hell of a man whose name started with a 'C.'

49 comments:

  1. How are you SO good? I cannot wait until next Thursday!

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  2. Oh. My. God. Seriously, if you can keep me this enthralled week after week I can't WAIT for your book to come out!! Seriously...can it be Thursday every day?!

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  3. Not even funny how good this is..

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  4. OH MY GOD, this is just SO GOOD. I need this to be a book so i can just keep on going!! I imagine you sitting there typing this thinking "their shit will hit the fan when the read this" and then laughing in an almost evil way because you know it is so true!!!!! Thursdays don't come often enough.

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  5. OMG THIS WAS SOOOO GOOD lol answered a lot of questions!!!

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  6. OMG!! I bet C stands for Campbell!!!

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  7. So I went back and didn't see anything right after it all went down in the beginning, but was anything ever said about Biz sending her there that night? I can't remember anything, except that that note was found in the car...

    Anyway, if not, maybe Elizabeth didn't think Biz had it in her to be involved in something like that so she never brought it up.

    But I will say this...if Biz and Izzy have been playing her THIS WHOLE TIME, maybe Elizabeth isn't as good as she thinks she is.

    GAH! Always more questions than answers. Can't freaking wait for next Thursday!

    PS, I read the excerpt from your book. Will it be coming out as an audiobook around that same time? PLEASE SAY YES, because I can't wait to read more! I love to read, but I never seem to have the time anymore so I always do audiobooks at work.

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    1. Elizabeth went to see Bridget bec of the guy Biz wanted so much- the Pat Denson guy, whom Biz thought (or just for her plot's sake) is seeing Bridget. And they are going to some party and she has to have Pat for her date, etc. That's what made Elizabeth meet with Bridget, bec she loved Biz so much, she was gonna tell Bridget to lay off on the guy so Biz can be happy.

      On the other hand... Effing Campbell!! He was paid to be in on it!! Fuuuuuu. Paid by those bitches and being the popular girl, Elizabeth, C thought why not?! Afterall, her kind was whom he loathes so much after his sister died. :'( he just didn't see that he would fall for her. Dammmmmit!

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    2. I remember why she went, I just couldn't remember if it was ever brought up again after the fact. :)

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    3. Yep, they did later on. Biz admitted that she had befriended Elizabeth because Bridget hated her and wanted revenge. The girls' original plan was to drug her at a party so she'd get raped but Biz claimed that she started to like Elizabeth and backed out of the plan, bringing her home safely. That's when their friendship got closer- Elizabeth didn't know at the time that she was drugged. Biz said backing out of the scheme was why Bridget hated her now and was dating Pat. Elizabeth was angry that she lied and betrayed her but by then Biz had helped her cover up Bridget's death so Elizabeth felt she was loyal to her.

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    4. Yeah I remember that part too lol. I'm talking about how Biz sent Elizabeth to see Bridget that day. Did they ever talk about that?

      I'm really thinking I might just go back and reread the whole thing this weekend.

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  8. NOT CAMPBELL!!!!!

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  9. OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  10. Ok this is a little ridiculous, how could she not suspect any of them, I mean if they have been in on it for YEARS they must have dropped hints now and again in her presence, and she only now has picked up on them. For someone who is suppose to be so 'smart' and who's game is on point how could she be duped so badly, how could she not pick up on the fact that her 'friends' after all these years actually hate her. I do not feel sorry for Elizabeth, at some point she has to have realized how much they hated her.

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    1. I think because she is a narcissist, she is less likely to register the hints for what they are!

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  11. LMFAOOO comment of the day

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  12. I agree it should have occurred to someone (whether it be Elizabeth or one of us lol) that he was in on it, considering he told her he was there that night.

    But as far as pretending...I don't believe that. We've heard his side of it, and he's in love with her.

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  13. Confusion levels are high.

    I get why campbell did it - money and she was the type he hated.
    But for Bizz and Izzy to pretend they like her meanwhile plot her demise and then still stay friends with her afterwards is a bit hard to get my head around.
    Like if u hated someone that much that you would enjoy seeing those horrible things happen to them, (and the kidnapping failed so the rest didnt even eventuate!) Then you would want nothing to do with them before OR after. Im struggling to get my head around it.
    As for Campell - I didnt even think about "C is for Cambell" (clearly I should have watched more Sesame Street when i was younger - big bird...you failed me). Hey he likes it rough so I'm sure he'll enjoy his time in prison now :) !

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    1. Biz and Izzy need someone to follow. After Bridget was gone they needed a new alpha. Also, the safest place to be after a lightning strike is the spot it struck, so maybe they figured staying close to her would be the safest place. Especially Biz, she was supposed to be Elizabeth's closest friend. Just dropping her like a stone after what happened would be suspicious to Elizabeth. And even if it wasn't suspicious, Elizabeth wouldn't have let her get away with that kind of betrayal.
      So if nothing else, I'd say Biz felt stuck. And Izzy is a follower to the 33rd degree.

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    2. Ooh I like this interpretation :) it does make sense now. Im going to put one out there, do you think or does anyone else think that Izzy told Peter about Elizabeth and Campbell - hence him saying elizabeth cheated on him with his best mate (when he was going out with blondie J after elizabeth)? ... i mean if they hate her clearly they'd still be doing shifties now still? Just thinking out loud. Maybe that's why Peter started playing up and flirting with the wedding planner (remember she had already cheated back then with cambell in the toilets)

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    3. I wouldn't say it was Izzy, only because she seemed to completely forget who he was before he met Peter.
      Biz I would buy, if she's been playing Elizabeth this whole time.

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    4. I wouldn't say it was Izzy, only because she seemed to completely forget who he was before he met Peter.
      Biz I would buy, if she's been playing Elizabeth this whole time.

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    5. but I don't think Izzy knows that Elizabeth cheated on Peter with Campbell

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    6. Of course...it could be that Izzy isn't the follower we've seen her as. Maybe she's the mastermind behind it all.

      The Moriarty, if you will... ;)

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  14. Ha! I knew it. I rarely post comments but I posted one in the beginning saying I think this was all a set up by Biz. And if anyone remembers, Campbell admitted to Elizabeth that he was in the house that night. But he said he was there selling drugs and he saw all this go down but couldn't intervene. I never believed that story- too fishy.

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  15. But when Cambell came back into Elizabeth's life Izzy was all over him!

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    1. Yes, and izzy possibly hooked up with Peter right before the wedding...I'm seeing a pattern here...maybe her way of continuing to mock Elizabeth?

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  16. God No!!!! Please don't let Campbell be in on it.I love him too much to think he would have fucked up Elizabeth like that.

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  17. who cares if campbell did it? if he did, it was before he knew elizabeth, maybe for some money, maybe they blackmailed him, threatened to turn in him in for selling drugs if he didn't help them.. I just don't think this detail matters so much. I also don't find it believable that Biz stayed friends with Elizabeth (really close friends) if she hated her so much. It doesn't make sense with any explanation. Are we supposed to assume by reading about her and Abby talking that Abby knows she pushed Bridget but she's still here being sweet to her. I don't care who you are or what happened, you're not going to be so sweet with someone who killed your sister…very confused.

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    1. I think the sweetness thing is definitely an act.

      But being the one to tell Elizabeth "Oh by the way, your friends? The ones that were in your wedding, and "stuck by you" all this time? Yeah they were totally in on it with Bridget. Oh and PS, so is that delicious whack job you were banging." would give Abby that sick, twisted pleasure you get when you throw out a comment that you know will hurt when you're fighting with a boyfriend/girlfriend. So she's still getting something out of it, even if she's just pretending to be Elizabeth's friend.

      As for "who cares if Campbell did it"? "It" was a HUGE event in her life. It changed everything. It shaped her entire outlook and way she lived her life afterwards. Sure, maybe it was before, and maybe she won't hold it against him. But facts are facts. He was there. He helped. He knew what he was doing, and as someone else pointed out, he then took her back there to have sex with her afterwards. So...yeah. I don't think I could be with someone who did that. Even if I didn't necessarily hold it against him or hate him for it.

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  18. Ok so Elizabeth is one step ahead of the game in paying back Cambell by shagging and marrying Peter. Im sure he enjoyed getting sloppy seconds from a bloke he wanted / wants to be like, all image and sheit... and now a poke every now and again from his cell-mate *crowd cheers*.

    As for Izzy and Biz, repay them the same favour, a visit to Izzy's Beau the night before the wedding ought to do the trick, and just break up Biz and her man (which shouldnt be that hard, just remind him even Biz's own mother thinks she is an unattractive hippo) then sit back and watch them cry their way to the ice-cream store while she marries Peter and kicks back, until someone who rocks her boat better turns up (Peter seems to have wandering eyes anyways so no biggie).

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  19. Chris - @nylonlover69 on IG/TwitterMarch 20, 2015 at 10:41 AM

    But it was his house, right? Abandoned and presumably with no trail back to him.

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  20. Damn it, Campbell. Why?! ��

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  21. It wasn't ever his house, but an abandoned house he and his sister used to come to and hang out in. So yes, only he and his sister, who is dead, knew that they went there. It would have been the perfect location to commit a crime and not tie him back to it. I'm sure he's the one that moved the body too. I can't wait for next week's post- I now have more questions than answers!

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  22. 1. Yep, I agree.

    2. As for Bridget, Elizabeth's family getting her sister thrown in jail, I believe Elizabeth said something about having dated a boyfriend of Bridget's maybe (?), and just her overall Elizabeth-ness. As for Biz and Izzy, looks like maybe this is why:
    "I wouldn't need to demand to know why they had done what they did to me. Well, of Izzy maybe (though I suspect it was as simple as going with the crowd, which is what Izzy does best), but not of Biz. I knew why Biz had tried to take me down."

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  23. ...didn't quite get all of it...
    "I did something I'm not proud of back in college, but that's another story, for another day."

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  24. But really I've hated people in my life and sure we all have secretly hoped those people would suffer, but to act on it? Whatever she did it must so unimaginably horribel that the only logival thing to do would be to kill her.

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  25. Maybe she figured "Hey, Bridget already started it...why not go finish it?"

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  26. If Cambell was in on it, why did he bring her to the house so long ago. Also, if Biz and Izzy were also in on it, why would they blatantly be waving around those handcuffs and laughing? I don't get that part.

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  27. "He was getting something else out of it too: revenge fucking the girl who represents the enemy. I suddenly understood—Campbell wasn't obsessed with me because he was in love with me. He was obsessed with me because he hated me." ... post from back in November

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  28. Just to good!!!!!

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  29. قصص سكس و صور نيك

    قصص سكس و نيك


    صور سكس و نيك

    نيك اختي .... و لا اروع


    قبول اختي سهام في الجامعة /محارم

    الولد الشقى واخته وهى نايمه (احلى سكس )

    عهد و اخيها انس قصة اخ واخته فى بلاد الغربة

    هيثم وريم اختة

    قصة الجناينى وست البيت

    قصة اللص الذي سرق البيت واغتصب المرأه المتزوجه


    ناك حبيبته المتزوجه فوق السطح


    قصص سكس و صور نيك

    قصص سكس و نيك


    صور سكس و نيك

    نيك اختي .... و لا اروع


    قبول اختي سهام في الجامعة /محارم

    الولد الشقى واخته وهى نايمه (احلى سكس )

    عهد و اخيها انس قصة اخ واخته فى بلاد الغربة

    هيثم وريم اختة

    قصة الجناينى وست البيت

    قصة اللص الذي سرق البيت واغتصب المرأه المتزوجه


    ناك حبيبته المتزوجه فوق السطح


    قصص سكس و صور نيك

    قصص سكس و نيك


    صور سكس و نيك

    نيك اختي .... و لا اروع


    قبول اختي سهام في الجامعة /محارم

    الولد الشقى واخته وهى نايمه (احلى سكس )

    عهد و اخيها انس قصة اخ واخته فى بلاد الغربة

    هيثم وريم اختة

    قصة الجناينى وست البيت

    قصة اللص الذي سرق البيت واغتصب المرأه المتزوجه


    ناك حبيبته المتزوجه فوق السطح

    ReplyDelete