Princess & the Player

three: disaster averted

Maggie's POV:

JJ practically shoved me down the hall to a different door. He hammered on it for a good minute before a girl in a bathrobe answered. 

"Scottie," she sighed. "I thought we agreed -"

"I need help," he pushed me into her place and I practically fell on her. 

"Scottie!" she yelled. "WHAT THE F*CK?"

"My sister, Maggie. Maggie, this is  Queenie."

Queenie had shiny skin and coily brown hair, up in braids. She was gorgeous. 

"Hi," Yeah, no clue what to say. 

"She's my sister."

"Step-sister."

"Shut. UP," he growled. "I just found her in Marco's place. She was at the Delta party last night," he shot me a sideways look. "Maggie, tell me - did you eat or drink anything?"

I nodded. "Several cups of that punch. It was spiked but they were small cups."

"Yeah, so they weren't just spiked with alcohol," JJ explained. "They were also spiked with Ambien."

I looked at JJ and back at Queenie. "So?"

"So, Ambien f*cks you up. Lowers your inhibitions. It's a date-rape drug."

"I thought it was a sleeping pill."

JJ rolled her eyes. "The campus cops are working with the townies. There've already been allegations."

Queenie jogged to her window. Sure enough, there were a bunch of cop cars with bubble lights going in front of another building.

She looked at JJ; "But Marco wasn't at that party. Your sister busted in on him after work."

"Sure," JJ snorted.

"Straight up, he was knocking on doors at 3AM trying to figure out who she was."

I couldn't remember much about the night before - just blurry pictures and sounds in my memory. But my body felt like my own. It hadn't occurred to me anything had happened and I trusted my gut. "I seriously do not think anything happened to me, JJ. I woke up feeling normal."

Queenie nodded like she already knew. "Marco is an asshole but he's not that kind of asshole."

"Then what the hell, Maggie? Why were you wandering campus alone and drugged in the middle of the night and how did you end up on my old floor?"

"Because it's familiar? I visited you here a few times last year."

JJ sighed and scratched the unshaved scruff on his face. He was finishing his first year of Medical School and had moved off campus with some other students last summer. "When Ma called me last night to say you were missing and then Shay called me this morning and said that he'd thought he'd seen you at the party last night...I lost it."

"Dorf's a softie," he'd been the one to invite me when I'd called looking for JJ.

"Dorfman's the one who got the Ambien for the party. How do you think he's paying for medical school?"

"But -" my mouth dropped in shock. "Dorf's been your friend since he was your roommate freshman year! He used to go to church with us on Sundays!!"

"Only to get Ma's cooking, after, and use the laundry. Guys aren't kittens, OK?"

"First of all, MY cooking. Excuse me? And I only came looking for you because even though your father is a pathetic asshole, he's the only thing keeping Laurie and Jeb outta foster care."

"You think I don't know that?!"

"Kids!" Queenie swiped the air like a conductor stopping a symphony. Two waffles popped up from her toaster. I looked, hungrily. "Have 'em. I'll get dressed and find you something to wear. Mind, you're a stick. But I'll look."

"Thanks, Queenie," JJ collapsed in a barstool and began texting. I could see Mom's number at the top of his screen. 

I wolfed down the waffles and then grabbed an apple off a pile and ate that, too. Queenie's dorm was like Marco's - a little studio. But where his was just a bed and a desk and black and white and gray - Queenie's was more homey, with a table and chairs and knick-knacks and jewel-toned colors. 

Done texting, JJ looked around, too. He smiled.

"Are you and Queenie, like, a thing?"

"Ha!" Queenie shouted from the bathroom. "He wishes!"

"Just friends," JJ agreed. "From when we were neighbors. Ma wants you home."

"My mother is full of shit, and you know it." 

She worked as a bookkeeper and made herself look like a million bucks on a shoestring. She pretended to be an upstanding Christian woman every Sunday but in reality she was a drunk. I wished every day she wasn't. 

My dad, who died before I was born, was her 1st husband. Jeb's dad had been her 2nd husband and an associate pastor. But the church had found out he was a multiple bigamist and he'd run. JJ's dad, Jacob, was her 3rd husband and the father of Laurie. 

Good ol' Mom. She picked 'em good.

I'd gotten used to Jacob, senior, in the last 10 years. He wasn't subtle about his cheating but until now, he'd never crossed the line and risked his IT job at the college. 

Then he'd run off two days before with an 18 year-old student. We thought he was fishing until last night, when her parents had gone on the local news to beg her to come home and there was Jacob's face on the screen. 

So I'd gone hunting for JJ. He always could find Jacob in a pinch.

"I don't know where he is," JJ protested.

 I snorted. "You are the only one he lets see him in the Find Friends app," I argued. 

JJ shook his head. "Not anymore."

"Shit. You know he's gonna get fired, right? A 45 year-old tech runs off with a freshman?"

"I know. And that will end my free tuition."

"Boo hoo! What about the kids? The social workers already sniff around us as it is. And you know your evil grandmother would steal Laurie in a heartbeat."

"You're be 18 in a couple of weeks, that will shut them up. You're the biological sister, you come first."

"How can you be sure?"

"We gotta try," JJ sighed. "God, we were so close. Just two more years and I graduate. A doctor with hardly any student loans - I could support us."

My heart melted a bit. Fine, so he actually did act like a brother. 

JJ's phone chirped and I saw it was Marco. 

He glanced at me and answered it. "Yeah, OK, we're at Queenie's so..."

There was a knock at the door. 

I bolted. 

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a/n:  I feel bad for Maggie in this part! I'm still writing this live so please please tag any mistakes so I can fix them up. I care about grammar and stuff. Word nerd. Yes, I am.