“Go back to wherever you were today. I don’t want you here with the kids, in the condition you’re in,” she said calmly.
“What are you talking about?” He looked unconcerned and lay down on the bed. She could tell as she looked at him that the room was spinning for him, and she didn’t care.
“I’m telling you to leave,” she said, standing over him and looking down. He took a swing at her and she moved out of range. “If you don’t get up right now, I’m calling the police.”
“My ass, you will. Just shut up. I’m going to sleep.” She picked up the phone and started to dial 911. She wouldn’t have done it, but she wanted him to think she would. He was off the bed in seconds, and ripped the phone from her hands and threw it at the wall, and then he backhanded her across the face before she could get away from him. He hit her hard, and she looked at him with a hatred she never knew she had in her. There was a thin trickle of blood running down her cheek.
“Get out, Larry. Now!” Something in her eyes told him she meant it. He grabbed his jacket off the bed, walked out of the bedroom, hurried down the stairs, and slammed the front door a moment later. She was shaking from head to foot, and she quietly closed her bedroom door so the kids wouldn’t see her when they came upstairs. And she burst into tears as she sat on the bed. It was over, and should have been years before.
She called Larry the next morning, before he could come home again, and told him not to come back.
“You can pick up your things next week. I’m changing the locks today. I want a divorce.” Her voice was unemotional and cold.
“You pissed me off last night. You shouldn’t have done that.” He had blamed her dozens of times before, when he slapped her, humiliated her, flirted with other women, or came home too drunk to stand up. And she had put up with it. The boys had seen her treated in ways she never should have allowed, and she suspected that he had been cheating on her for years.
“I’m done, Larry. I’m filing for divorce.”
“Don’t be insane.” He tried to brush it off. “I’ll be home in a couple of hours.”
“I’ll call the police if you come near this house. And I mean it.” He could hear that she did, and with that she hung up.
When she heard the boys stirring, she went downstairs to make breakfast for them. She had called the locksmith by then, and he changed the locks in less than half an hour. She asked for extra keys for the boys. She handed them their new keys after she had served them breakfast, and then she sat down at the kitchen table with them.
“Don’t give that key to your father when you see him. We’re getting a divorce.” Neither of them looked shocked when she said it. Billy looked sad, and Brian seemed relieved. His father had belittled him for years because he didn’t want to play sports.
“Because he didn’t come home last night?” Billy asked her quietly. “Maybe he was with an important client.” Billy always made excuses for his father, he was incredibly loyal.
“For all the reasons that all three of us know. His drinking, the other women, the way he treats me and Brian, and even you sometimes,” she said, looking at Billy. “I hope he deals with his drinking now, but whether he does or not, I’m done.” It had been too many years of being disrespected and abused. She had let him do it, but she just couldn’t anymore. Hitting her the night before had been the last straw. “I don’t want him back in this house. You can visit him when he gets his own place.”
“Do I have to go?” Brian asked her quietly, and she shook her head.
“You can’t just throw him out like that, Mom,” Billy said, near tears. “This is his home too. He has nowhere else to go.”
“He can afford a hotel.” And then as she turned toward him, Billy saw the thin mark on her cheek and the bruise around it, and he knew that his father had gone too far. He got up from the table and went to his room. He didn’t call Gabby, he called Izzie, and she could tell something was wrong the minute she heard his voice.
“Are you okay?” she was quick to ask him, and he started to cry as soon as she did.
“I think my dad hit my mom last night. He’s done it before. He didn’t come home for Thanksgiving dinner. They’re getting a divorce. I’m just like you now,” he said, sounding like an anguished child. But no one had struck anyone at Izzie’s house. Her parents just didn’t like each other anymore, and it had been simple and clean. But Izzie knew that no one liked Billy’s dad, he was a jerk and a drunk, he was even mean to Billy, who was crying for him. “What’s it going to be like now?” He was scared, and he felt as though all the responsibility was on him. He was the only ally his father had left.
“It’ll be better,” Izzie reassured him. “Your mom will be happier, and she won’t be so upset. And it’ll be good for Brian too.” She had seen how cruel Mr. Norton could be to his younger son. “You’ll be okay. I promise. It’s actually better now for me too. It took me a while to get used to not having my mom here, but she was never really here anyway. And your dad isn’t either. He’s always out with clients or friends, drinking. You said so yourself.” She could hear Billy calm down as they talked.
“It’s going to be really strange to not have him here,” Billy said sadly. He didn’t like the idea of his parents getting divorced, but he didn’t like how his dad treated his mom either, and she was unhappy all the time, and had been for years. There was no pretending anymore.
“Yeah, it’ll be weird for a while,” Izzie agreed with him, there was no point lying, and she never did, “but then it will be good.” He didn’t answer for a long time, and then they talked some more for a few minutes. Izzie was supportive and comforting as she always was. They all considered her the wise woman in their midst and the person they could count on for reassurance and emotional support. It was just like when she’d made them all lunch on the first day of kindergarten, to make them feel comfortable and at home. Izzie was there for each of them when things got tough for them. Billy looked and felt better by the time they hung up. There was so much to say, and to worry about. All Billy knew for sure now was how grateful he was to have his friends. He couldn’t have gotten through any of it without them. They were the greatest gift he had.
And when he saw his mother a little while later, she already looked better, and Brian was smiling when he came downstairs. And Billy wondered if Izzie was right. She usually was. Billy went to see Gabby then, to tell her the news. She wasn’t surprised. They talked for a long time that morning.
Chapter 5
A year later, during junior year of high school for the Big Five, Brian and Billy had become latchkey kids, but they were old enough to handle it. Billy was sixteen and kept an eye on Brian, who was eleven. Billy usually had football practice after school, but when he did Brian hung around to watch. He loved watching Billy play. His big brother was the star quarterback. Gabby came to watch him too. They were still the only real couple in school, but they handled it responsibly, and even the teachers were touched by how devoted they were to each other. Gabby had helped get Billy through the divorce, and so had his other friends. Izzie was his adviser in all matters relating to the divorce, since she’d been through it herself. And the only thing Izzie hadn’t prepared him for, because she hadn’t experienced it herself, was that his mother started dating right away, which upset him. And his father was going out with hordes of young girls, most of them only a few years older than Billy. Larry made no secret of the fact that he was sleeping with every hot young body he could lay his hands on. In fact, he bragged about it to anyone who would listen, even his son, and his drinking hadn’t improved. It had gotten worse. He was out of control, and Billy worried about him.
Marilyn had gotten a job almost immediately selling residential and commercial real estate. She had passed the exam and was doing well at a large firm, learning the ropes, and she seemed to have a knack for it, and enjoyed it. She had gotten their house in the divorce, and after seventeen years of marriage, Larry had to pay her spousal support, and although he complai
ned about it to Billy, he could afford it. Marilyn’s whole life had turned around. The divorce had been final for six months, and as soon as it was, she had met Jack Ellison, a good-looking man in his late forties, divorced, with two boys of his own in Chicago. He owned a successful restaurant downtown that was a popular meeting place for businesspeople for lunch or dinner. It wasn’t chic or trendy, but it was a solid business. He had opened a second equally popular restaurant in the Napa Valley the year before.
Jack was nice to her boys, and she was crazy about him. Brian was thriving on his attention and kindness to them, and although Billy grudgingly admitted that he was a nice guy, he felt an obligation to dislike him, in order to be loyal to his father. Billy spent as little time as possible with Jack and his mother, and spent most of his time with Gabby. Larry hardly ever made time to see him, he was always too busy, and he made no effort whatsoever to see Brian. He was having too much fun. And on weekends, when he wasn’t working at the restaurant in the city, Jack took Marilyn and Brian to his ranch in Napa, so he could check on things there. And sometimes he took them out on the bay on his boat, which Brian loved. He thought Jack was a hero. Marilyn was truly happy for the first time in years. She told Connie that she felt like a miracle had happened in her life. The only one resisting it was Billy, but she was sure he’d get used to Jack in time. Jack’s genuine niceness was impossible to resist.
The biggest problem Billy had during junior year, other than his mother’s boyfriend and his father’s disappearance from his life, was that his grades suffered from all the changes he’d been through, and his adviser warned him that he would never get a football scholarship with his grades, no matter how well he played. He had no idea what to do about it, and junior year was crucial for his acceptance to college and getting a scholarship, which was his goal. It was an exciting year for him, and recruiters had come to watch him play since the beginning of junior year. Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, USC, and Notre Dame were all contenders, and desperate to have Billy accept their offers. Larry had put video clips of Billy’s best games on the Internet, which they all saw. But his adviser said he had no chance of getting in with his GPA as low as it was. It was crucial for him to get his grades up, so he could get into one of the schools recruiting him.
Marilyn hired a tutor, who only made everything seem even more complicated to him. He complained about it to Izzie one day over lunch.
“My father will kill me if I don’t play football in college,” Billy said glumly. Gabby had tried to help him do some of his assignments, but her grades weren’t stellar either. Gabby had never been a great student, and she didn’t want to go to college. All she wanted to do was go to L.A. after graduation and become an actress. It had been her dream since first grade, and now it was only a year away. But she was no help to Billy with his schoolwork.
“Do you even want to play football in college?” Izzie asked him seriously, and he looked shocked at the question. “Or were you just going to do it for your father?” Izzie’s mother wanted her to go to law school, but it was the last thing she wanted. Although she admired what her father did at the ACLU, she knew it wasn’t for her. She had no idea what she wanted to do as a career. She had thought of teaching, or majoring in psychology, or maybe nursing, or the Peace Corps. She liked taking care of people, but she didn’t know what form she wanted it to take yet. She liked what Connie O’Hara did as a wife and mother. She was Izzie’s role model, and she had been a schoolteacher. But Izzie knew her mother would be upset if she didn’t choose a more glamorous career. Katherine wanted her to go to an Ivy League school, which Izzie didn’t want to do either, although her grades were good enough to get in. She wanted to stay in California, and her father told her to do what she wanted. He said she didn’t have to go to Harvard or Yale to get a good education, which was liberating for her, despite her mother’s pressure.
“Of course I want to play football,” Billy said with a look of determination. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. What else would I do? They’re offering me a terrific deal at all those schools.” And Billy knew it was what his father expected of him, and he didn’t want to let him down.
“Well, then I guess we’ll have to help you,” Izzie said matter-of-factly. She had well-organized study habits, and good grades. She was stronger in English and history, and Andy was the top science student in school, and between the two of them, Izzie figured they could get Billy’s grades up, if he was willing to work hard, and he said he was. Billy was determined to do anything to get into a top school to play football.
They organized a study program for him. Andy tutored him during his free periods at lunchtime—they met in the library every day. And Izzie worked with him after school. Billy’s two friends stuck with him with unwavering dedication for the rest of the year, helping him with papers, preparing him for quizzes and tests, and breaking down the material into digestible chunks he could understand and manage, and by the end of second semester, Billy was in the top third of his class with a strong B average in almost every subject, and the occasional A on a science quiz, thanks to Andy. They had done a heroic job tutoring him, and Billy was where he needed to be to qualify for the scholarship he wanted. It was a major victory for all three of them, and Sean had joined in to help him in Spanish, since Sean had become fluent. And by the end of junior year, Billy’s adviser couldn’t believe what he’d done and the improvement he’d made. He had no idea how Billy had gotten there. And Marilyn was ecstatic too. Billy was on his way to having his dream come true. And so was she. Jack Ellison asked her to marry him in June, and she accepted.
They didn’t want to wait, and they agreed to get married at his ranch in Napa in August. She told the boys the morning after he’d asked her. She wanted them to be the first to know. Brian was thrilled, he loved Jack more than his own father. And Billy stayed drunk for two days. He told his mother he had stomach flu, but Izzie, Gabby, and the others knew the truth of how upset he was, and how he had reacted to the news. He was devastated. It was the first time he truly understood that his parents would never get back together, his father would never sober up, and even if he did, Marilyn didn’t want him. She was going to marry Jack.
Billy’s childhood ended that summer. He was so distraught about his mother’s marriage that he began drinking in secret and smoking marijuana when he was alone. No one knew what he was doing or even suspected. He hid it well. And he got so drunk at his mother’s wedding that he passed out, and Sean and Andy had to carry him to his room, with Izzie and Gabby helping. They thought it was just a one-time excess. Marilyn was so happy and excited that she didn’t even notice he was missing as they cut the cake. The party went on until four in the morning, and she told Connie she had never been as happy in her life.
“Where’s Billy?” Connie asked Sean later that night, when she saw him talking with Izzie at a quiet table far from the dance floor that had been set up for the occasion. Jack’s Napa restaurant had catered the event and the food was great.
“I don’t know, Mom,” Sean said vaguely, glancing at Izzie, his partner in crime. “Maybe he got tired and went to bed.” He didn’t tell her that Billy had passed out hours before, and was unconscious in his room.
Connie and Mike danced a lot that night. It was a beautiful wedding, and made everyone feel romantic to see how happy the bride and groom were. Marilyn had confided to Connie that they wanted to have a baby. She was forty-two years old, and thought she still could. They were going to start trying right away. Connie had a strong feeling Billy wouldn’t like it, but by the time the baby came, he’d be leaving for college, and Marilyn had a right to lead her life, she’d been unhappy with Larry for a long time. And Jack was good to her. He was down-to-earth and easygoing, and crazy about Marilyn and her boys. His sons were at the wedding too, and seemed like nice kids.
The O’Haras genuinely liked Jack and enjoyed spending time with him and Marilyn. Gabby’s parents, Judy and Adam, were at the wedding too, and had brought Michelle, wh
o seemed astonishingly thin, but looked very pretty. She looked a lot like her older sister, Gabby, only paler, smaller, and less vivacious.
Andy’s parents had declined, because they were both working. His mother was on call, and his father was in L.A. doing a TV show to publicize his new book. Andy had come with the O’Haras. And Jeff Wallace, Izzie’s father, had come with a new woman he was dating, whom Connie knew Izzie didn’t like. None of the kids wanted change in their lives, they wanted everything to stay the same, but it couldn’t. Two sets of parents had already gotten divorced, and who knew what other changes life had in store for them. And the kids were changing too. In another year, they’d all be leaving for college.
The only things everyone agreed on were that they had never liked Larry, and how much they liked Jack. And unlike Larry, Jack treated Marilyn like a queen.
There was a brunch at Jack’s restaurant in Yountville in the Napa Valley, the day after the wedding, and all their good friends came to see them off on their honeymoon. Jack was taking Marilyn to Europe. They were starting in Paris, and he had chartered a sailboat in Italy. He had invited the boys to come, but Brian got seasick and Billy didn’t want to go, so both boys were going to stay with the O’Haras, and his own sons were going back to Chicago to their mother.
After brunch, the bride and groom left, and everyone drove back to town. Brian chatted animatedly with Sean on the way home—he was blossoming with his stepfather’s kindness and attention. And Billy barely spoke. He was too hung over from the night before to say anything. Connie just thought he was tired, and he went right to bed in Sean’s room as soon as they got home.
Friends Forever Page 6
