“You’re more messed up than I am.”
Standing below the indoor constellation of stars, she ran her hand over the gnarled flesh wounds scattershot across his chest. She traced a letter J, which she assumed was for Jules. “Well, at least I’m not into self-mutilation.”
“Maybe you’re too vain for that.”
“I’ve had more years to perfect the fine art of being messed up.
“Your scars are on the inside.”
“Maybe. Why don’t you count to fifty and try to find me,” she said, suggesting another round of hide-n-seek.
“You probably say that at the end of all your dates,” he deducted.
She laughed genuinely. “You’re funny. And you’re right, not many of my dates get a second opportunity,” she laughed. Filled with lusty excitement, he agreed it was her turn to be It.
“No cheating, punk, or I’ll pluck your pecker off,” she warned before leaving the room. In the deserted hallway, Tristana searched for the perfect hiding spot, but she was startled when she rounded a corner and bumped into Alexa. They stood face to face, and Alexa unsuccessfully attempted not to gawk at Tristana’s abnormally perfect breasts.
“I’ve been looking for you guys forever,” Alexa said. Frozen and flustered, she nervously twirled her damp brown hair.
“Looks like you took a shower,” Tristana observed. She remained uncomfortably close to the taller, younger girl. “And you didn’t think to invite us, I’m disappointed.”
Alexa explained, “I was cold, so I used the old locker room to take a hot shower.”
“You smell nice,” Tristana complimented. She moved closer to inhale a faint mixture of sweat and Lake Huron and cheap soap. “You’re beautiful, you know that, right?”
“I always thought my nose was too big.”
“It’s not out of proportion. Have you ever considered doing any modeling?”
“I’m no waif.”
“Well, neither is Cindy Crawford or Linda Evangelista. Your boobs are too big for the runway. You’re better suited for magazine spreads, and you’d still have to lose a few pounds. You’re not scrawny like your brother.”
“We’re adopted.”
“Some of the most exotic and attractive people are adopted.”
“Really?”
“Of course. What could be more unique than a random, discarded genetic accident? Before I leave town, I’ll give you one of my cards. I know people who can get you started,” Tristana informed. “They’ll set you up with head shots and an agent. But you need to lose at least fifteen pounds.”
“Okay.”
Tristana reassuringly took Alexa’s fidgeting hand into her own, and she placed it over her breasts. Looking away, Alexa blushed but did not resist. Alexa felt her palm skittishly cup the silicon-filled flesh, and she rolled Tristana’s nipple between her thumb and ring finger. Alexa’s darting eyes finally met Tristana’s steady gaze, and she gasped with timorous excitement.
When Tristana thought her admirer had grown comfortable with her predicament, she leaned close and planted a lingering kiss on Alexa’s quivering mouth. Alexa felt the older woman’s tongue slide slowly between her lips, and her knees became as unsteady as gelatin yanked too soon from a mold.
Alexa backed away abruptly, “My shoes. I forgot them on the roof.”
“So?” Tristana asked, placing a hand on her cheek.
Immediately outside the planetarium, Jack emerged in flannel boxers and a T-shirt. Looking surprised he asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be hiding?”
“Look who I found,” Tristana said as she presented Alexa with a flourish of her hands. “Let’s start over, now we can all play. Three is always more fun.”
“Okay,” Jack said, and he retreated backed into the planetarium as he curiously watched them.
Tristana turned around in time to see Alexa’s strong athletic legs carry her away. As quickly as she appeared, Alexa climbed through the open window and vanished onto the rooftop. Tristana followed Jack into the circular room under the domed ceiling of simulated stars. When footsteps sounded in the hallway, she spun around half expecting the heartbreakingly beautiful girl she had kissed only a few moments before.
The door swung open wide, and a blinding spotlight shone in their faces. A deafening voice cried out, “Freeze – Police!” A drawn gun guaranteed their as cooperation. Before long, Deputy Czerwinski came into focus, and he escorted the nearly naked criminals through the vacant building to his patrol car outside. While being pushed into the backseat, Jack asked if this was the same car Czerwinski had been fooling around in earlier. Tristana tried to suppress her laughter, when Jack asked if the backseat had been disinfected. The irate officer yanked on Jack’s handcuffed arms and roughly hurled him against the patrol car before tossing him next to his partner in crime. Jack had spent the majority of the evening terrified that the Czerwinski twins would pummel him into oblivion, but now he was afraid their father would beat his spawn to the punch.
High above the scene on the street, Alexa huddled low on the rooftop. Her disbelieving eyes trailed after the police car as it carted Jack and Tristana off to jail. Flushed with grateful bewilderment, Alexa breathed a sigh of relief that she had been spared.
Having spent most of her time in the building in the stale, sweaty locker room, she was now thankful that she had decided to find her shoes and grab a breath of fresh air. Standing beside the edge of the roof, she absorbed the view of Lake Huron as the warm summer rain melted against her satisfied flesh. Although she felt guilty with complacency, she could not help but wonder about Jack and Tristana’s fate. Eventually, it became time to leave her three story perch and devise a plan to get them out of jail.
Her intentions to dance on the rooftop and bask in the moonlit rain were all but obliterated. She threw on her sandals and decided to go home to phone Thad or Ben, or anyone else who could assist her in freeing the bandits from jail. The adrenaline rush she experienced while watching them being carted away, caused her to all but forget the kiss she shared with Tristana.
Peering over the building’s edge one last time, she soaked up the view of her surrounding hometown. From high above, Portnorth was picturesque. She wanted to stare at the scene below until it claimed its own shelf in her memory.
Alexa climbed off the tar-smelling roof and entered the old school through an open window. Unlike her fellow conspirators, she exited the building through the front door without a police escort. As she made her way through the empty alleyways and side streets, she wandered homeward with the intention of springing Jack and Tristana from jail, but she could not help but question her own meager teenage resources. In all honestly, Alexa could not help but long for her senior year to be over since college was her ticket out of Portnorth. What was there to keep her here? Nothing, she had decided a long time ago, and it was the simple matter of fact. There was Jack and his abundance of problems, and she did wonder what effect if any her absence would have on him. But there was always Ben to look after Jack.
Alexa worried that she and Jack were becoming too close. She had gotten used to the taunting accusations of “kissing cousins” a long time ago. Being she was adopted, they were not actually related, and in such a small town as Portnorth one was bound to diddle a cousin or two anyway. Thad had often made reference to the fact that most of the locals were products of inbreeding, so at least their lust-filled experimentations were not violating any sort of blood ties. The irony was that they never kissed; of course, they messed around a little here and there but kissing was out of the question as was actual intercourse. That would be too intimate, whether they were related or not. More than cousins, they were friends.
She had conned Jack into performing oral sex on her by persuading him that she was doing him a favor, and one day his girlfriend would thank her for making sure he knew proper technique. Of course, she had been obliged to return the favor until he kept making the mistake of blowing his wad without forewarning. Jack was the quickest if not exactly
the brightest of pupils, and she made sure that his lack of self-control inevitably worked in her favor. He eagerly agreed to eat her out three times for every one time he came in her mouth.
Their late night oral sessions had actually grown tiresome because she longed to put all the practice she had accumulated with her cousin to good use. It was wasted on Jack, anyhow. He failed to make progress, and as the days wore on, Thad was starting to look more appealing. It was not as if he was her real brother, she told herself when she imagined him lapping away between her thighs instead of her cousin. She surmised Thad, who had only ever had one girlfriend, was probably no better than Jack in the sex department. After all, the only other time she knew him to be with a girl was with Evangelica, their cousin through marriage, this past Easter. Now, she may never be able to ask Vange if he were any good.
“Those disgusting Feldpausch kids,” she imagined Portnorth residents saying behind their backs, “a bunch of dirty cousin fuckers.”
She never understood why, of all the families in all-the world, she was condemned to be adopted by hers. It was the luck of the draw, she guessed. But she had to get out town before their drunkenness and depravity rubbed off on her for good. Standing in the middle of the street, Alexa was not sure where she was headed, but she knew where she had been, and she had to get out of this place, her hometown by any means necessary.
chapter fifteen
The drizzling rain ceased falling as soon as Nick rang the Dooley’s doorbell. For a few impatient minutes, he stood on the back porch knocking frantically until discovering the sliding glass doors were unlocked. He entered the dimly lit house, and the dry warmth felt comforting, but his clammy clothes stuck to him like a second skin. Leaning against an old vinyl dining room chair, he felt achy and tired as if he were coming down with a cold.
Music played softly in the background, and Evangelica’s pure voice flooded the room with lush soothing tones. Nick went to the kitchen, searched the refrigerator, and grabbed a bottle of Miller Lite. Only then did he wander into the living room, where Ben sat on a gold velveteen ottoman. Wearing paisley boxers and a stained wife-beater, Ben’s long black hair streamed over his face with its usual unkempt lassitude. He ate melting ice cream straight from the carton, and a mess of glossy black and white photographs lay scattered at his feet.
Nick sat in a nearby recliner. He scooped up one of the photos and studied Thad, Chelsea, Ben and Evangelica straddling separate haystacks.
“What’s this?” Nick asked.
“A few summers ago, we went out and took a bunch of pictures of us trying to look like J.Crew models,” Ben explained. “It was Vange’s idea.”
“You guys look so young,” Nick said. He paced the room while Ben shoveled the medicinal tasting, mint-chocolate chip ice cream into his mouth.
“What’s wrong,” Ben finally asked, over the sound of Evangelica’s rousing vocals.
“You’ll never guess what just happened.” Nick shook his head distraughtly, and he slugged the beer back in four quick pulls. “I don’t think there’ll be a wedding tomorrow.”
“Huh?” Ben asked with his mouth numb from the frigid ice cream. Nick retreated to the kitchen to fetch two more beers, one of which he set next to Ben, and the other he drank in two less swallows than the prior bottle.
“C’mon, the suspense is killing me. What the hell happened?”
“Well, it all started last night,” Nick began, “remember at the bar? I don’t know, you were so intent on trying to score with Kate’s matron of honor, you probably didn’t even notice Vange hanging all over me.”
“Sure I did.”
“You know how it is, one thing led to another and we ended up getting it on in the bushes outside the bar.”
“Oh, really?”
“I swear to God, Benny, it was one of the best lays of my life, that’s what makes it so freaky that Vange should do what she did.”
“She’s a freaky chick.”
“Well, you’re closer to her than I am. Why’d she do it, Ben?” Nick asked genuinely perplexed. “Do you think she was deliberately trying to punish me?”
“Who knows,” Ben deducted, “she’s not exactly a sane and rational person.”
Nick rubbed his hands over his face and through his wet hair as he sighed with regret. “Everything was going okay, I guess until Kate found out about it at the hospital.”
“Jesus, how the did that happen?”
“I blamed Thad, but it was my fault, really. She overheard us talking,” Nick said, and he flopped back on the recliner. He was still unable to believe how stupid it was for him to confront Thad at the hospital next door to Kate’s room.
Ben kept eating the melting ice cream, and he apathetically watched Nick rock back and forth. When Ben felt full, he set down the carton, lit a half-finished joint and smoked it in silence.
Nick faced Ben and lamented, “I’ve no idea what to do.” Ben offered him the roach, which he declined. Evangelica’s wedding vocals came to a halt, and the music stopped.
Cracking his knuckles, Ben sympathized, “That’s a bummer, man.”
Nick threw up his hands despairingly. “Kate’s gone. She drove off, and I’m afraid I’ve lost her forever.”
“What’s she thinking, running off the night before her own wedding?”
“I don’t know what’s going through her head,” Nick answered Ben’s rhetorical question earnestly. “She was acting so peculiarly, she didn’t seem surprised or anything. Her eyes were so cold and hard, like glass.”
Ben nodded, slightly stoned.
Nick coughed and took a seat. He slugged Ben affectionately and said, “What a mess, huh?”
Ben tossed his hair to one side and again picked up the ice cream. Suffocating silence filled the room and made Nick ill at ease with the same unnerving feeling he had at the hospital. He began pacing around the room like an expectant father. The orange, sunburst clock above the fireplace had stopped at twelve-thirty, and it bothered Nick that Ben should be so unaffected by the passing of time, or rather the halting of it. It was as if the entire house had fizzled and faded, fixated blurred in a bygone era.
“You know something, Benny,” Nick began, “we haven’t hung out enough together lately. Remember all those crazy adventures we used to have? High school seems so long ago, but really not a lot of time has passed.”
“Not much time at all,” Ben mumbled.
“Hey, remember how we used to go camping, wake up at the crack of dawn and fish all day? And those fun times on the boat – just swimming, drinking beer, and roasting hot dogs?” Nick recalled fondly, for those summer days seemed endless, and there was always fun to be had back then.
Nick grabbed the beer he had set down earlier alongside Ben and cracked it open. “I’ll reimburse you, okay? I owe you a couple. Hey, do you remember those sinkholes we hiked through our senior year? You got me high out there for the first time, and Thad with his camera kept taking all those pictures. I wonder if he still has them. God, that weirdo is still photographing everyone and everything.”
Nick set down the empty beer bottle, and he continued rambling, “Who can ever forget all those snow days – how we’d down tequila shots and then do donuts driving Thad’s mom’s station wagon in the boat harbor parking lot?”
Ben managed a chuckle, remembering how Thad used to throw a fit whenever they wrestled him out from behind the wheel of his mother’s car, which was ordinarily only ever driven at senior citizen speeds. They would spin out in icy parking lots just to hear him scream.
“And we had some wild times at the cottage, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, we did,” Ben admitted fondly.
“We’d get wasted on Bacardi 151 and go skinny dipping. Those were crazy times. We’d get hammered and listen to music until we passed out from exhaustion. And that one time, we were all set to play strip poker, but Vange refused. Oh my god, even Chelsea agreed to it but no not Vange.”
“She always thought she was fat,” Ben sai
d. He sat unflinching and motionless through most of Nick’s rambling reminiscing of their past teenage exploits.
“Why? She has an awesome body.”
“Her mother always made fun of her because she was always skinnier than Vange,” Ben said. “Shayla used to make her get on a scale every night.”
“That’s crazy.” Nick sighed, and he thought Shayla’s perceptions must have been truly warped to think her daughter was fat. Nick grinned and recalled, “You found out what a great body she had after I dragged you both out to the cottage and we begged her to relieve you of the burden of your virginity. She must’ve taught you everything she knew that night.”
“By the time you finally broke down the door with pizza, it was cold,” Ben finished for Nick.
“Vange always gave the best head, don’t you think?” Nick asked, smiling fondly.
Mildly entertained, Ben could imagine the preacher concluding Evangelica’s eulogy with a wink and the words, “And she always sucked a mean cock, now didn’t she boys?”
“You became such a wild man afterward. Christ, you even fucked my sister in my bedroom at my graduation party with all my relatives upstairs!”
“Nanette wasn’t even Tristana back then,” Ben recalled. “To think she was ever normal.”
“Normal might be a bit of an overstatement. She’s always been too beautiful for her own good, and that might be the equivalency of a death sentence in this town.”
“It’s the same reason no one ever liked Vange,” Ben added.
“Too beautiful for Portnorth. What sort of ugly, perverted place persecutes beauty?”
Silently thankful for the remote control, Ben yawned and snapped on the television without any volume. He was growing tired of Nick’s pontificating and rehashing days gone by. He paused at the news, which advertised upcoming ceremonies in Washington to welcome home more than 8,000 Gulf War Veterans. Only then would the yellow ribbons be taken down from the trees lining Main Street. Ben had no patience for Nationalism of any kind. He was proud to be an American where at least he knew he was free to turn the channel.
Trying the Knot Page 23
