DITW 14-18: Odyssey 13

A naked woman lay on Devlin’s bed. Long lengths of cotton fabric circled the woman’s wrists and held her arms above her head, the lengths of fabric tied to the bed frame in clumsy, looping knots. A sleeping mask covered the woman’s eyes. The woman was alert, aware that someone had entered the room, and she began writhing against the restraints, angling her body to face the doorway. From the short, cropped bob of blonde hair the sunlight now reflected from, Kimmy realized the woman’s identity. It was Amy. And up Amy’s stomach and between her bare breasts, shone a frosted spatter. Someone had ejaculated on Amy while she lay tied to the bed.

There was a sudden revulsion at seeing her friend’s naked body. Especially when it had come so unexpectedly. She’d known Amy a long time, but had never seen her so bare.

This is what was so important. This was the secret she just had to witness with her own eyes.

Amy had lain here tied to the bed the whole time she’d been I the apartment. The whole time Glenn had toured her through the complications of Devlin’s shady yet legal business venture, Devlin knew Amy lay tied to his bed. Had delighted in it.

Oh, fuck. And Glenn. Glenn had known as well, hadn’t he?

Devlin crossed his arms, smiling like he was proud of his work. He said, “What do you think?”

“Is this supposed to be funny? What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Amy gasped and writhed more. She whispered, “Is that Kimmy? Is Kimmy here?”

Devlin ran a finger down Kimmy’s back and she pulled away from him.  She said, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

The sound of Amy’s light, taunting chuckle flittered from the bed. A shiny lipstick smile spread below the edges of the mask. “I told you she’d run away again.”

Kimmy’s hands went cold and her stomach turned over. This was a trap. The meeting a lure. Amy tied to the bed was the whole point. It might even have been Amy’s idea. 

She ran her tongue over her teeth and pushed away the tight, zinging wire of fear and repulsion that hummed up her spine. She stood tall. “You brought me here for games? For some dumb games?”

“Games, Kimmy? Come on,” Devlin said as he strolled deeper into the room where she and he had spent a lot of time over the summer, and had done terrible and wonderful things to each other’s body. Devlin stood at the foot of the bed. “I brought Amy here for you. Not for games, but for revenge. Don’t listen to Amy’s taunts.”

Amy said, “He’s lying, Kimmy. Don’t believe him.” But Amy’s smile hadn’t faded. Amy was enjoying this. Devlin was enjoying it, too. Both of them taunted her. They worked together.

Devlin said to Amy, “She’s not going to run.”

“I’m not going to run,” Kimmy said. “But tell me why I would stay.”

“You see?” Devlin said, to no one in particular. “That’s my Kimmy.” He smiled, impressed, eyeing her over.

Kimmy smiled. “None of what happened this summer was real, was it?”

Devlin frowned. “What do you mean not real?”

“It was contrived. Fashioned at your hands and done for sick enjoyment. Taunting me, taunting Josh. Treating us like we mean so little.”

Amy closed her legs tight, like she felt vulnerable hearing those words. The smile stayed.

“That’s not true,” Devlin said. “It was real. Very real.”

“And you brought me here today, made me sit through that sales pitch for your business plan, and the only reason I’m here is for some sadistic game. You’re wasting my time.” The right thing to do was to leave, but she stayed where she stood, tall and secure. All because she’d fled the first time Devlin and Amy had done this to her, and for some inexplicable reason had carried the regret like a heavy burden ever since. It was the shame, the humiliation, the regret, the fear of missing out . . . And so much more. Her friend Amy had betrayed her, hadn’t she? The worst time in Kimmy’s life, a time when everything was going wrong around her and the family she knew crumbled to dust, and her friend, her one cool friend, used her. For what purpose? It never made sense. And because it had never made sense, she’d found it easy to push away betrayal’s sting, bury it like it hadn’t happened. So much easier than facing the truth. For all of Josh’s faults, and her condemnation of him as his own worst enemy, here she was facing the real truth; something she should have done so long ago, but had wanted Amy to be her friend so bad—because of the things being friends with a girl like Amy could do for a bookish nerd—that she’d explained away the unkindness, ameliorated Amy’s abuse and bullying. Amy had taken advantage of her in her weakest time back in high school, and now here Amy was a decade later doing it all over again, ruining her life for kicks.

Amy laughed again and Devlin said, “A waste of time?” 

Their malevolence astounded her. After all these years, to still be the same primitive people they were in high school. Too rich, too spoiled, privileged children from wealthy families, and this was how they chose to spend their time.

She was only a toy in their wicked game of decadence. She walked closer to the edge of the bed, heading toward the top side so she could see Devlin clearly.

“This is a waste of my time,” she said.

Devlin smiled and showed his hands, saying, “It’s only wasted if you don’t take advantage of it.”

She clucked her tongue and shook her head admonishingly. “You two went to all this trouble just to mess with me, just to ruin my life?”

“Ruin your life?” Devlin said. “I offered you opportunities, and you took them. You snatched them and then showed them to me in ways I hadn’t seen before.”

“Then why this?” she said, gesturing to Amy’s writhing naked body. “Why this, then? A ridiculous spectacle. Why would you bring me here? Why would you pretend you had this business idea, this plan for the future?”

“I do have a business,” Devlin insisted.

“Bring me here to involve me in your stupid theater? Taunt me, make fun of me, just like you did last time,” she said. “Put me through this humiliation ritual.”

“No one’s taunting you,” Devlin said with mock concern on his face, almost convincing her.

She addressed Amy, who wasn’t smiling anymore under the face mask. “You, Amy. Taunting Josh, sending him texts, putting terrible ideas in his head.”

Amy said, “I was only joking around.”

Kimmy said to Devlin, “I’m not your pawn. I’m not some cheap chess piece you throw around the board.”

“No one said you were,” Devlin said, coming around the foot of the bed toward her, his look of concern becoming even more convincing.

“I’m not as naive as I used to be,” Kimmy continued. “I’m not the same person you used to be able to push around.”

“No one’s pushing you around,” Amy interjected, pulling against her cloth bindings. “Someone untie me,” she muttered.

Devlin said, “It’s not a fake business, Kimmy. That’s what you think? I know you’re not naive; I know you’re savvy. That’s why I’m doing this. That’s why I’ve done everything this summer. The idea to do my own thing has always been something I’ve had, but I wasn’t going to do it so soon. It’s not fake. I don’t know why you think that.”

Kimmy gestured at Amy again. “You bring her here, tie her to the bed, and then make me listen to that dumb sales pitch with Glenn, and Amy’s tied to your bed,” she said, jabbing a finger at him.

Devlin held up his hands again, the concern still present but now with a more assuaging look in his eyes. “This was supposed to be fun. I brought her here for you.”

“That’s why you fucked her?” Kimmy said, prompting Amy to laugh.

Kimmy turned on her heel and headed to the bedroom door. “You two are still children. A couple of spoiled teenagers. I don’t have time for your bullshit.”

Amy hollered out behind her. “Devlin didn’t fuck me.”

Devlin caught up with her at the door. “I brought her here so you could punish her. Yes, I know she’s naked, but I didn’t have sex with her.”

Kimmy held her hand on the door handle, knowing again the smartest thing to do would be to leave. There was nothing holding her to Devlin Stone anymore. Devlin Stone had nothing she wanted. Devlin stone was everything she hated.

“Hey,” Devlin said, a little softer now and putting his hand on her wrist. Not pulling her hand away from the doorknob or seeking to stop her, but just holding her. “I didn’t have sex with her.”

“Someone did,” she said, staring at the door.

Devlin said, “Glenn did.”

“You tied Amy up and let your friend fuck her?”

From behind her Amy laughed again and said, “Glenn is my ex, Kimmy.” 

Devlin said, “They’ve been on again and off again since U of T. They’re fuck buddies.”

“Amy knows about the business. Glenn knows about the business. No one ever tells me anything.”

“But I’m telling you now. I don’t know why you’re acting this way. You’re usually five steps ahead of me.”

She let go of the door handle and faced him. “Are you starting your own business?”

“Are you crazy? You think I made all that up? All those spreadsheets, all that paperwork, I did that for a joke? You think I did that because it would be funny to trick you? You’re not even making sense anymore.”

“You have Amy tied naked to your bed, and you want me to act sane? When it comes to the brokerage, I might be a few steps ahead, but I don’t lay around anticipating what’s possible for Devlin to surprise me with in bed. Who would anticipate what I walked into here?”

“I thought you’d handle this differently,” Devlin said. “You’re usually so calm, so ready.”

“I am calm. I’m calm right now. I’m calmly saying that what’s going on in your bedroom right now is juvenile. And I’m offended you’d think I wanted to be part of it.”

Behind them, Amy said, “I told you she would leave.”

Kimmy turned, saw Amy smiling again, pulling her wrists against the restraints, her breasts jostling on her chest, the nipples aroused into dimpled bulbs.

 “Are you trying to be funny?”

“Don’t you think I am?”

“You’re taunting me.”

Devlin said, “She’s being a bitch. She bet me you would leave, so she’s trying to make you leave—don’t listen to her.” He turned his face toward the bed and said, “Knock it off, Amy.”

Amy chuckled, then pouted.

“Stay,” Devlin said, still looking Kimmy in the eye.

She said, “I don’t trust you.”

“You trusted me before.”

“And look where it got me.”

“Where did it get you, Kimmy? Think of what we talked about just a few days ago, all those promises . . . I don’t know what’s changed since then but you had a different mindset—”

“That was before you tied Amy naked to the bed.”

Devlin said, “Glenn did that. I didn’t do that.”

Amy sang, “You told him to do it.”

Devlin sighed, looked down. He admitted to her, “I asked him to. But for you, Kimmy. Not for me. For you. Can’t you believe that?”