I was torn between beating the shit out of him and taking care of her, and since she was safe behind the door, I walked over and lifted him off the floor by his neck. "What the fuck are you doing here?" I barely got the words out through gritted teeth and the seething anger that was close to a boil.
He seemed dazed and confused as he looked at me, and it took him a minute to talk. "I wasn't going to hurt her, but she wouldn't let me in." Something was way off with his diction and the fact that he seemed to think that shit he just said was normal.
"How did you get into the building?"
"I don't know, I came…. she said she was waiting for me."
"Who said?"
"Susie, Lisa, I don't remember." I was a bit taken aback by the mention of Susie's name coming out of left field like that.
"Susie? What does she have to do with this?" He blinked at me like I was speaking a foreign language, then shook his head again. Oh yeah, there was no doubt now something is definitely off here. His eyes were glassy like he was on something, and the pulse in his neck did not look right; it was beating too fast.
Beneath that, I could feel the strength in his body as he strained against me. Had he been able to open that door, she wouldn't have been able to fight him off. The images that conjured left me both weak and raging mad. "How do you know Susie?"
"She's a bitch, always talking shit. No, wait, she's…."
He looked confused again as his head went limp, and I realized I'd been cutting off his oxygen for the last two minutes or so. I eased up my hold on his neck and tried again. "How did you get here?"
"She drove me, I think. I don't know; my head hurts. Lisa's going to be my girlfriend, she promised."
This guy was either high off his ass or crazy, maybe both. The way his eyes were twirling around in his head, I'm convinced he's a little bit of both, but I was more interested in his ramblings. The mention of Susie's name turned this whole ordeal into something else entirely, and I was beginning to get a nasty feeling in my gut at the picture his words were drawing.
"Where is Susie?"
"She went back to her place, I guess."
"And where is that?" He gave an address on the other side of campus. I guess that's where the snake was hiding out now that she'd been kicked out of the sorority house.
"Why did she bring you here?" Again, with the glassy-eyed look before it came to him.
"She said she wanted me."
"Who wants you?" He didn't answer, so I tightened my hold on his throat and choked the shit out of him again.
I was kind of amazed at myself because as much as I wanted to break his neck, I still found the patience to question him because I knew that it was more important to get as much as I could out of him than it was, to exact physical vengeance right now.
It was obvious that the guy wasn't right, that something was off, but it was the mention of Susie's name that held my interest more than anything and kept my hands still. No doubt she was up to her games again, but this time she'd gone too far. Now, if I could just get this idiot to piece two sentences together, I'd be able to get to the bottom of just what she was up to, and my hope is that it's not what I'm beginning to suspect. Even that dog can't be this fucking putrid.
"What are you doing here?"
"I came for Lisa." I'm trying to be patient, to get as much information out of him as I can, but if he mentions her name again, I'll pop his neck like a piece of fruit and be done with it. I understand why the justice system stipulates crimes of passion because right now, I'm feeling very passionate about ending this fool.
To be fair, though, the way he's acting and the words he's said so far leaves me to believe this is not all him, that he's had some help and some of it synthetic. I had to wait in between his unintelligible ramblings to ask my next question.
"What did Susie tell you?" He blinked his eyes a couple of times then I heard the others come bounding through the door downstairs. They came to a stop behind me, but I didn't turn to see who had followed me once I heard Jess's voice.
"She told me that Lisa was waiting for me. Where is she?" He tried focusing on me.
"My dude, stop asking about my woman. You're starting to piss me off."