SWAY (Part 1)

by Jennifer Davis

  “I’ll be fine, really, go play,” I insisted. Ryan looked sweetly at me. “You’re sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “I’ll be back soon.” He kissed my mouth and then the two of them trash talked each other all the way to the living room. I was shaking my head at the thought of an eleven-year-old boy throwing around the word uterus when I heard Valerie’s voice.

  “Hmmm, very nice,” she complimented, circling me, taking in my outfit, a possible smile forming on her mouth.

  “Thank you. You look nice, too.” That was an understatement. Valerie looked like a model that’d just had a team of professionals vomit flawless all over her.

  “So, Ryan left you to fend for yourself?”

  “He’s playing with Ben.”

  Her mouth pursed. I could tell she wanted to say something cross, but kept it to herself. I imagined she didn’t appreciate Ben’s tween speak or that he’d set up his Xbox in her fancy living room. Thinking about Valerie using words like yo and dude was just too funny to me.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.

  “Sure.” I expected her to be nice to me—at first. It was what she planned to do to me later that had me worried.

  “Wine?” she asked, her hand already snaked around the stem of a glass.

  “Sure.”

  “Beaujolais Nouveau?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  I imagined she didn’t think I knew what Beaujolais Nouveau was, but because Pam’s such a connoisseur, I know way more about wine than most people would probably care to.

  Beaujolais Nouveau is a French wine, released on the third Thursday in November every year, kicking off festivals and parties in France as the bottles are sent on their way to a liquor store near you. I was surprised that Valerie even had such an inexpensive wine in her house at all. But I thought she’d probably intentionally put it out for John’s family just to be snarky.

  “So, how’s that friend of yours? Justin, isn’t it?”

  And there it was.

  I smiled. “Justin’s fine.”

  “Did he come home for the holiday?” she asked, pouring herself a glass of wine as well.

  “Yes, he’s home.”

  “What ever happened to him and that little blond?” Why on earth was she asking me about Eve, or anything else about Justin’s personal life?

  “I didn’t realize you knew Justin so well.”

  “Oh, I don’t dear. I’m just making conversation.” There was no just making conversation with Valerie when it came to me, I was sure of that.

  “They didn’t work out,” I answered simply.

  “Interesting,” she cooed.

  “This is good, smooth.” I complimented the wine, an attempt to change the subject.

  “Thank you,” she mumbled. “I heard you visited Justin recently for a weekend.”

  “I did.”

  “And how did that go?”

  “Fine.”

  “You stayed with him alone that weekend, didn’t you?”

  “Yes,” I answered evenly, and without detail. I knew she was trying to bait me somehow, or get a rise out of me, but I wasn’t going to let her.

  “You know, I’ve seen him around,” she said, slightly arching her eyebrow. “He’s very attractive.”

  I smiled, closed mouthed. “I’ll tell him you think so.” I raised my glass and thanked her for the wine before walking away.

  Thankfully, John announced it was time to sit down for dinner before I had to figure out what to do while waiting for Ryan and avoiding further contact with Valerie. Ryan and Ben appeared, still trash talking about “next time.”

  “I skunked his ass,” Ben said casually as he breezed past me.

  “Football’s not my game,” Ryan admitted, shaking his head before taking my hand and leading me to a different dining room than the one I had been in before. This one seated thirty and each chair was taken.

  John stood at the head of the table while Valerie sat at the opposite end watching as he said a few words about being grateful to have everyone together. As he began to raise his glass for the toast, Valerie interrupted him. “One moment, John dear,” she said and then looked at me.

  “Annie, darling, I don’t know what you’re allowed to do at home, but we do not condone underage drinking in this house.” She turned to one of six women standing on either side of her, ready to serve our dinner. “Lydia, would you get something more appropriate for Annie to drink?”

  My face reddened. She’d just embarrassed me in a room full of Ryan’s relatives. They were all watching me, making me feel like a dirty, under aged lawbreaker.

  “Can I see you in private, Mother?” Ryan asked. I felt like we were at a tennis match, everyone’s heads moving from Ryan to Valerie and back again.

  “This is hardly the time sweetheart—after dinner,” she instructed, strictly, but still managed to somehow sound sweet and proper. Her tone carried a certain something that made her requests seem reasonable even when they weren’t.

  “Thank you,” I mumbled to Lydia as sat a glass of tea in front of me, taking the wine glass away.

  “Continue, dearest,” Valerie smiled at John.

  “I’m not letting it go,” Ryan said to me, through clenched teeth.

  “Everyone raise a glass, dinner is getting cold,” Valerie instructed. Ryan’s chair scooted away from the table. I grabbed his arm. “Please, just wait until after dinner—for your dad,” I whispered. He sat back down, even though he didn’t want to.

  I took the heat because I wasn’t going to make a scene in front of his family and I didn’t want Ryan to either. I wasn’t going to allow Valerie’s antics to cause me to make an ass out of myself, which was all she really wanted in the first place.

  When dinner was finished, I went to the living room to wait for Ryan. I was dying to get out of there, but he refused to leave until telling Valerie to back off.

  “You know, I saw her pour that glass of wine and hand it to you,” I heard someone say from behind me. It was Ryan’s aunt Betty. I grimaced and slightly nodded my head.

  “She’s evil—that one. The type to smile at your face while waiting for you to turn your back so she can whip out her knife and stab you with it.” She shook her head. “Never could figure out what John saw in her—besides the obvious, that is.”

  “I don’t have to be around her much, but she has made it abundantly clear that she doesn’t want me involved with Ryan.”

  “Seems he disagrees with her.”

  “He does, but I still don’t like that she hates me for no good reason. I mean, I love Ryan, but it’s daunting to think that if we…she could be…” I got cold chills.

  Betty laughed. “That’s understandable, honey. You’re right to be concerned. In all the years that I’ve known that woman, she’s always been up to no good. Ryan’s a great kid. He’ll push back when she starts up—always has.” She winked at me.

  Ryan rounded the corner. Seeing him eased me, even though he was still angry. The look on his face told me that Valerie hadn’t been very receptive to his request.

  “Watch your back,” Betty mumbled to me before grabbing Ryan.“Bye, sweetie. It was so good to see you,” she said as they hugged. Then she whispered something to him. It made him smile. I was happy to see it again.

  “I know, and I will,” he said back to her.

  Ryan put his arm around my neck as we walked to the car. “She told me that I have a great girl on my hands and that I should take special care of you,” Ryan told me. I stopped, forcing him to as well, and looked at him.

  “I really love you,” I said. “Thank you for sticking up for me.”

  “I don’t know how much good it did, but I’ll always stick up for you. I really love you, too,” he whispered, and then kissed me.

  I was too busy staring at him in the car to pay attention to where we were going, until we stopped.

  “What are we doing here?”

  “I know you usually s
pend Thanksgiving here. Pam said I could come, too.”

  I started laughing. “She’s relentless.”

  “I called her,” he said. “Believe it or not, I do listen when you talk, and I know how important being here tonight is for you, and I kind of owe you for making you spend the afternoon with my mother.”

  “Thank you,” I breathed. I almost teared up because of how sweet he was being.

  “Stay put, I’ll get your door.”

  Ryan helped me out of the car and walked me to the porch. As I was reaching for the front door handle, he put his hand over mine, keeping me from opening the door. He kissed me when I turned to ask him what he was doing.

  “I’ll be back for you in the morning,” he said.

  “What—you’re not staying?”

  He shook his head no.

  “Why not?”

  “Because if I were Justin, I wouldn’t want me here.”

  “Uh,” I whined. “I wanted to stay with you tonight.”

  “No,” he said quietly.

  I frowned. He ignored my pouting and kissed me again.

  “Have fun. I’ll be here by noon tomorrow.”

  I was sad that he wasn’t staying, until I was inside Justin’s house. Ryan was right, being here was important to me and his understanding of that only made me love him more.

  29

  Pam called to tell me that Justin would be home for winter break earlier than she’d thought and invited me over for dinner. He would be home for ten days before Christmas.

  I was excited about getting to spend time with him. I hadn’t talked to him since Thanksgiving.

  I’d barely made it to the front porch when Pam swung the door wide open. “Oh Annie, thank God you’re here,” she gasped, and then turned up a glass of red wine until it disappeared.

  “What’s wrong? Is Justin okay?” I asked. She looked so freaked out that it scared me. Pam clutched my arm. Her jaw was clenched so tightly it sounded like the words were being forced to bore through her teeth in order to escape.

  “He brought a girl home, Annie.”

  “What?” I heard her; I just didn’t want it to be so.

  “I don’t like her, this girl,” Pam said, shaking her head. “You have to help me talk some sense into him,” she said, her teeth clinching together again as she guided me toward the living room.

  I wasn’t happy he’d brought someone home, either. I’d wanted to have him all to myself for a while. I thought it was too soon to be serious enough about another girl to bring her home. He used to wait until he was ready to commit before introducing me to a girl. This one had to be just awful for Pam to be so upset.

  Speaking of Pam, she decided to deliver the evil directly to me. She was nearly shoving the girl in my direction. I was shocked at the sight of her and had to work hard to conceal it. She looked like a 1-900 ad straight off the back pages of a men’s magazine—the polar opposite of Eve. I knew exactly why Pam wasn’t thrilled.

  The girl was wearing a truckload of makeup and enormous hoop earrings that were poking through her stick straight bleach blond hair. Her top was tight and she was apparently unable to button it past her waist. The elastic in the cami she wore underneath was stretched to the absolute max, and poorly covered her enormous boobs. Her frame was too small for them to have been that big naturally. I wasn’t looking forward to having to stare at those things spilling over her top during dinner. Ew.

  Her lips were glossy, her eyelids frosted, her cheeks severely blushed, her skin baked from overdoing it in a tanning bed and to top it all off, she was actually wearing clear, plastic stilettos. The kind that legend had it only strippers wore.

  I scanned the room for something that I could vomit in, if necessary.

  “Denise,” Pam announced. “This is Annie, Justin’s closest friend.” She glanced back and forth between us. “On earth,” she added, winking at me. “I just don’t know what they would do without each other.”

  I gave Pam a look to knock it off. She was seriously overdoing it.

  “Hi Denise, it’s nice to meet you,” I lied.

  “You, too.” She lied worse.

  Denise wasn’t thrilled about me either, but I was sure she’d at least been given advance notice of my existence. It seemed Justin didn’t have a problem warning his girlfriends about me, while I didn’t receive so much as a hint when he was seeing someone.

  Justin came toward us with a big smile and I know I lit up when I saw him. Less time had passed since I’d seen him last and my memory of him hadn’t changed. He had shaved, but hadn’t cut his hair, which was good, I thought. I liked it longer. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of him.

  He hugged me and I thought he released me too quickly. I wanted to hang on to him, but didn’t, to keep from embarrassing myself in front of Denise, which should have been extremely difficult since it seemed she wasn’t mortified over arriving for dinner looking like a low rate call girl.

  Denise wrapped herself around Justin so tightly that the Jaws of Life wouldn’t have been able to remove her.

  “You met my girl?” he asked.

  His girl? Really. I felt lightheaded, nauseous, but my sickness was beginning to switch to disgust aimed toward him. What was he doing with her? Well, I guess I knew what he was doing with her, which made the thought of her turn my stomach even more. “Ew,” I mumbled, disgusted. I didn’t want Justin doing that with her.

  “What?” he asked. My eyes widened as I realized I’d said it out loud. I hoped they hadn’t made out the word. “Yes, I did.” I acknowledged the fact that we’d been introduced, and forced a smile for his benefit, because that was all I could manage to say.

  Pam rescued me by asking for my help with something. She dragged me to the kitchen and hastily refilled her wine glass.

  “Are they staying here tonight?” I asked her.

  “Yes,” she moaned. I stuck my hand out and swiped her glass of wine, taking a long drink.

  “Where the hell did she come from?” I griped.

  “He met her on campus when he got back after Thanksgiving. She lives in Linden,” Pam whispered. Linden was only about an hour away from us. Way too close. My posture slumped, my stomach churned. “Ugh, I don’t like it.” He’d spent roughly three weeks with her and had already brought her home.

  “Huh,” she growled. “You don’t like it.” She pointed toward the living room. “That is the scariest thing about having a son. Sometimes they think without the use of their brains, and this is what happens. He’s brought home Ms. December from Penthouse.”

  “Yuck,” was all I could say.

  “He doesn’t know this yet, but they are not sleeping in the same bed in this house.” I high fived Pam. I just hoped they didn’t wait until she was asleep and meet up. The revolting thought caused my nausea to return.

  Pam and I drank obscene amounts of wine during dinner. Larry finally cleared the bottles from the table, giving us a not so subtle hint that it was time to slack off.

  It was painful watching Pam try to make conversation with Denise, and Justin seemed oblivious to our mutual hatred of her, which was frustrating. I didn’t like the way he was looking at her and I decided I had had enough.

  “You know, my dog recently passed away,” I announced. Justin whipped his head in my direction. He knew I hadn’t ever had a dog. I had a goldfish once for about two days and that was it. “He was my childhood pet. He was such a sweet dog.” I offered up my poutiest face ever. “His name was Barclay,” I sighed. And yes, I totally swiped that from Sesame Street. “Did you have a pet when you were a kid, Denise?”

  She looked around as if she was being punked before she answered. “I had an Iguana when I was thirteen.”

  My eyes widened, struggling to keep from laughing. “What was his name?” I asked.

  “Oodles,” she said reluctantly.

  I felt like I was going to lose it. “Oodles is a fantastic name for an Iguana,” I lied. Who names an Iguana Oodles?

  Justin
narrowed his eyes, watching me contemplate how I would ask her the name of the street she grew up on in order to find out her full stripper name, which she probably already had tattooed on her lower back alongside a rose or a cross.

  Larry had to excuse himself from the table, faking a cough. He’d obviously picked up on my intention, and let’s face it, Oodles with any street name would have been hilarious, but I decided to leave it alone. No matter how funny I thought it would be, it wouldn’t be worth making Justin mad, so I kept quiet.

  I stared at Justin a couple times hoping to advise him telepathically to get rid of Denise. It didn’t work. I was glad when dinner was over. I got up from the table and went out to the backyard. I needed to breathe clean air—air that Denise wasn’t drawing into her plastic body, contaminating, and then heaving back into the room.

  I stayed out longer than I should have I guess, because Justin came looking for me.

  “What are you doing out here by yourself?” he asked.

  I really didn’t know how to tell him the truth; that I was angry and disappointed that he’d chosen to be with a girl like that. So I lied—sort of.

  “I just needed some air.”

  “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m good.”

  I noticed Denise watching us from the living room window, so I dove into Justin’s chest and wrapped my arms around him, mainly because I wanted to, but also because I knew it would annoy her.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve just really missed you.” I started to cry. I think it was the result of my anger and frustration with him, mixed with actually missing him.

  “Hey, don’t do that. I hardly get to see you and I don’t want to watch you cry. I want you to be happy. ”

  “I am happy, right this minute.”

  Justin stroked my hair. “So stop bawling then.”

  His tone made me laugh.

  “That’s better.”

  I leaned back in his arms and looked at him. He wiped the tears from my face and I stared desperately at him for a moment. I did miss him. I hated that he was so far away and I hated this new girl. I wanted her to go away. I didn’t want him leaving me again for someone else—especially someone with a tanning bed addiction and a leopard print purse.