by Jenna Byrnes
“I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve got one class this morning, then I’m going home for the weekend. You’re welcome to come along if you like.”
“Yeah, I’ll go with you,” Dee said meekly.
Mandy’s phone rang before she finished packing and she grabbed it. Looking quickly at the number on the front, she answered dejectedly, “Hi, Mom.”
“Wow, that’s quite a greeting. Good morning to you too.”
“Sorry. I had a crappy night. A crappy couple of days actually.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Why don’t you rearrange your schedule and come home for the weekend? We’ll get some rocky road ice cream and veg out together.”
“I’ll be there by three.”
Sarah chuckled. “Hmm. I expected more arm twisting. Things must be bad.”
Mandy didn’t want to get into it on the phone in front of Dee but she said, “Yeah, pretty bad.”
“I’m sorry, honey. I do have some good news. We got a new cell plan with lots of minutes. You have to get a new number, but I think it’ll be worth it. Sam got you a fancy new camera phone.”
“Great, Mom. Thanks,” Mandy said dully. Somehow it didn’t feel like such good news.
“I talked to Dee’s mom, and they’re going to take over your old plan. You can give your phone to Dee whenever you’re done with it.”
“She’ll be happy. She’s wanted one forever.”
“I know.” Sarah chuckled. “So far the good news hasn’t cheered you up.”
“Mom, please.” Mandy bit back tears. She wasn’t in the mood to joke.
“Well how about this for some good news? I’ve spoken with your grandfather a couple of times, and he’s going to be here this weekend too.”
“Really?” That piqued Mandy’s interest. “What about Uncle Doug?”
“Um, no, we haven’t gotten quite that far yet. Doug blew a gasket when he found out Jake contacted you. But Sam and I are willing to give him a chance, and Jake knows what he’s up against. I’m hoping it’ll be a nice weekend. We’d like you to be here.”
“I wouldn’t miss it!” Mandy replied truthfully. At least she had something to look forward to. Something to take her mind off the fact that her heart was breaking.
* * * *
She dropped Dee at her house when they got back to Perry. “Here, you might as well take this.” Mandy shoved her cell phone at Dee. “I’ll get my new one when I get home. I can call you with the number.”
“Great!” Dee clutched it but got a funny look on her face. “You sure there are no numbers you want off of here?”
“Nope.” Mandy shook her head. “Take it.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll see you Sunday.”
“Yeah, I’ll call you to arrange the time. Have fun.”
“You too.” Dee hesitated once more then got out and grabbed her suitcase. “See you.”
Mandy drove to her house, feeling a little excitement about her grandfather. Mainly she felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders, or more precisely, a bowling ball sitting in the pit of her stomach. I feel like crap. She wanted her mom.
She tried to keep herself together while she parked and dragged her suitcase up to the house. She really hoped Jake wasn’t here yet. She needed a little time with her mom before she could face him.
“There’s my girl!” Sarah opened the front door.
“Hi, Mom,” Mandy sputtered and fell into her mother’s arms.
“Oh, baby!” Sarah hugged her. “What is it? Shush now,” she tried to calm Mandy’s tears. “It’s all right. Whatever it is, it’s going to be fine.”
Mandy let her mother lead her into the house with an arm around her.
“Hey!” her Aunt Bailey greeted them in the foyer. “Uh oh, what’s up?”
“Can you grab her suitcase, please?” Sarah nodded to the porch.
“Sure.” Bailey brought the bag in the house and closed the door.
Mandy stood sobbing into her mother’s shoulder.
“Want me to leave you guys alone for a while?” Bailey asked.
“No.” Mandy shook her head, reaching out a hand to grab her aunt’s arm. “Will you stay?”
“Of course. Why don’t I put a movie on for the kids in the other room, and we can talk before anyone else gets home.”
Meaning the men, Mandy realised. She nodded and let her mother lead her to the sofa. Bailey returned with a box of tissues and placed it in front of Mandy. She took a seat on the coffee table and waited.
Mandy wiped her eyes and nose then looked up sheepishly. “I think I was dumped.”
“Aw, sweetie.” Sarah rubbed her arm. “I’m so sorry. The coat hanger guy?”
“Yeah.” Mandy sniffled. He was so much more than that, but how could they know? “Nick.”
“What do you mean, you ‘think’ you were dumped?” Bailey frowned.
“He hasn’t called all week. We were supposed to go out Wednesday night and he never showed up.”
“Did you try to call him? Maybe something came up,” her mother suggested.
“Yeah.” Mandy nodded. “Something came up Monday night when we were supposed to go out, so he pushed it back to Wednesday. Then he didn’t show. I went to the frat house and his car was there, but his roommate said he was out. He also said Nick was not a particularly monogamous guy.”
“Well that sucks,” Bailey commented. “Do you believe the roommate?”
“I don’t know. He’s a jerk, but I have no reason not to believe him, I guess.”
Bailey continued, “Since you’ve been dating Nick, do you think he’s been seeing other people? You can usually tell by the frequency of your dates, phone calls and such.”
“No, I really don’t. I trusted him completely. I just wonder now if I made a mistake.”
Sarah looked at her and asked slowly, “A mistake trusting him?”
Mandy glanced from her mother to Bailey and back. “No, a bigger mistake than that.”
“Lord have mercy.” Sarah closed her eyes.
Mandy began crying again.
Bailey reached for her hand. “Okay, sweetie. Straight talk now. You had sex with him?”
Nodding, Mandy replied, “I got a birth control patch from the campus clinic, and he used condoms.”
“Condoms, plural?” Bailey winced.
“Bailey!” Sarah snapped. “I’m having a hard enough time with this. I don’t need to hear specifics.”
“Oh for God’s sake, Sarah,” Bailey replied. “The kids were responsible enough to go to the clinic. Mandy’s twenty-one years old. How old were you when you and Ron started doing it? High school, wasn’t it?”
Sarah’s eyes flashed. “Ron and I got married.”
“Because you had to!” Bailey hollered back. “Six months later along came little Amanda Jean!”
“Can I help it if I want my daughter to be smarter than I was?” Sarah looked to the ceiling.
Bailey put her other hand on Sarah’s shoulder and spoke calmly. “She was. She waited a lot longer than you—or me, for that matter. She was very responsible.”
“I was a fool!” Mandy cried. “The last night he took me home, he said he’d see me Monday. That’s when the excuses started. I haven’t seen him since.”
“That really sucks.” Bailey stood and paced the room.
“The thing is,” Mandy sniffed, “when we first met, I thought he was way out of my league. Expensive clothing, nice car, fraternity…the whole deal. He convinced me to go out with him. Before we had sex, I told him I needed to make sure it was not going to be a one time deal, and he assured me it wasn’t. Now I wonder if he was lying the whole time. I can’t shake the feeling this was some big prank he played on me—snatch the virginity from the stupid little college girl.”
“Oh surely not!” Sarah appeared horrified.
Bailey grimaced. “Frat boys have been known to play such pranks. This one is going to rue the day he made that decision. I won’t even sic Doug on him. I’ll cu
t his nuts off myself.”
Sarah raised her hands. “Now, we don’t know that’s what happened.”
“It sure smells fishy,” Bailey muttered, still pacing.
“Yeah,” Mandy moaned. “And it hurts so badly!” She broke down in tears again.
Sarah cradled her gently. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I wish this hadn’t happened to you. I’d give anything to fix it and make it better.”
The front door opened as Sam arrived home from work. “Whose car is parked in my spot?” he growled jovially, but stopped when he saw the scene in front of him. “What’s wrong?”
“Boy trouble,” Bailey whispered to him. “I’m going to go check on the kids.” She left the front room.
Sam slid in on the sofa behind Mandy, and she curled up in his arms. “Hey, sugar.” He ran a hand through her hair. “What did the big dummy do? Just say the word and I’ll go throttle him for you.”
“He dumped me!” Mandy sobbed.
“Aw, baby, I’m sorry. But there’ll be another guy along before you know it. You’re too pretty to be tied down to one fella…” he trailed off.
Mandy could see her mother shaking her head at Sam. She knew her mom would tell him anyway, so she decided to get it all out in the open.
“I slept with him, Sam. We dated a few times, we had sex, and he never called me again.”
“I’m going to kill the little bastard,” Sam stated simply.
Mandy chuckled into his chest. Her emotions were raw and spread out for all to see, so she told him, “Then you might as well kill me, too, because I wanted to do it. It’s not like he forced me.”
“Whoa, there,” Sarah added. “Pull back on the description meter, girl. Too much information.”
Sam chuckled and rubbed Mandy’s hair. “Of course you wanted to do it. You’re a healthy young woman and it’s perfectly natural. Your mother may not want to recognise it, but the fact is, you’re grown up.”
“You’re okay with this?” Sarah looked at him with disbelief.
He smiled at his wife. “Honey, if we could lock her in her room with her stuffed animal collection, then we might not have to face this. But I don’t think you really want that, and neither do I. I’m stoked seeing what kind of people our kids turn out to be. So far, Amanda has done just fine.”
“But what about this Nick Winchester boy?” Sarah asked angrily.
“Westchester,” Mandy corrected.
“Whatever!” she snapped and looked at Sam. “Mandy thinks he may have been doing some kind of fraternity prank—taking her to bed and then dumping her.”
Sam’s face hardened. “Then the little fucker must die. Doug and I will pay him a visit, and the boy will simply disappear.”
Mandy chuckled and pushed him away. “You’re so full of shit.”
Grinning, Sam ruffled her hair. “I may be, but heaven help the guy if Doug ever finds out. He’d be on the road to Urbana with a gun under the seat of his truck.”
Bailey leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms. “He just left for there.”
Mandy and her parents looked at Bailey with surprise.
She chuckled. “Just kidding. But you’re right, he doesn’t need to know this.” She shook a finger at Mandy. “He’ll be mad at you for breaking your promise not to have sex until age thirty-two.”
Mandy giggled and leaned back into the sofa. A little of the weight had lifted by sharing her burden with the people she loved, people she knew she could trust and count on. She still felt like there was a bowling ball in the pit of her stomach, but she figured that would be there for a long, long time.
Chapter Seven
It helped to be home. Mandy didn’t have as much time to wallow in self-pity when there were other people around, especially a lively three-year-old who demanded much of her attention.
Jake showed up for dinner Saturday evening. Sarah was cool but friendly to him. Sam made the man feel welcome, and Ty was in his lap by the end of the evening. Mandy felt good about the situation and hugged Jake as he prepared to leave.
“Thank you, Mandy, for helping me,” he told her.
“Of course. It was the right thing to do. I feel sure of that now.”
He smiled and squeezed her arm.
“So Jake.” Sarah leaned against Sam at the door. “You’re coming back for lunch tomorrow? I’ve invited Doug and his family. I can’t promise they’ll show up, but it’s the best I can do.”
“I’ll be here. Thank you, Sarah, for giving me a second chance.”
She nodded and didn’t say anything else.
“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Sam told him, and Jake smiled before he left. Sam closed the door and faced the two women. “That went well. He seems nice enough.”
“Yeah.” Sarah rubbed her hands over her folded arms. “I’m just worried what Doug might do. He’s still so angry.”
“You may be surprised,” Sam told her. “Seeing the man, talking with him…it could make a difference.”
The phone rang and Sam looked at the clock. “Ten p.m. Who the hell is that?”
Sarah and Mandy shrugged and watched him answer the phone. “Hello? Who? Winchester? Oh, Westchester. Okay.” He smiled and held the phone out, saying loudly, “Mandy, there’s another boy calling for you! I wish you’d give them your cell number. I’m tired of answering all these calls.”
Sarah chuckled, but Mandy shook her head, terrified. She didn’t want to talk to Nick.
Sam raised his eyebrows. “You sure?”
She nodded, and he spoke into the phone. “Sorry, Mr. Westchester. Mandy’s not taking calls this evening.” He listened for a moment and said, “Hey—don’t try to explain anything to me. I’m the girl’s father and probably the last person you want to piss off right now. Not that you haven’t already pissed me off.”
Mandy and Sarah exchanged wide-eyed expressions, then smiles.
“Right, good bye.” Sam hung up and looked at Mandy. “Man, he was anxious to tell his side of the story. Are you sure you have all your facts?”
“What did he say?”
“Hell, I don’t know! I cut him off. But he seemed really upset that you wouldn’t talk to him.”
“Good.” Mandy nodded, satisfied. “Let him be upset for awhile. Serves him right.” She slipped her arms around Sam’s neck and hugged him. “Thanks, Dad. I love you.”
Sam coughed and accepted her hug, muttering in a shaky voice, “Love you too, kid.”
She hugged her mother tightly and said, “I love you too, Mom. Good night.”
“We love you so much, baby. Sleep well.”
Mandy smiled as her mother and step-father slid their arms around each other. She went to her room, thinking once again how very happy she was that they’d found each other.
Now that she’d had a small taste of grown-up love, she ached for it again. Maybe someday she’d find a special guy that looked at her the way Sam looked at her mom. She thought of Nick, and her tears bubbled forth as she dropped onto her bed. Who am I trying to fool? She had found him. But now he was gone.
* * * *
They went to church the next morning and by noon, the sun was shining and the weather was mild outside. Mandy and Ty helped Sam clean off the picnic table in the backyard, while Sarah prepared fried chicken and potato salad.
Jake arrived, but there was no sign of Doug and Bailey.
“Sorry,” Sarah told her father as she set their meal on the picnic table.
“It’s all right,” he said softly. “Being here with you is a good start.”
“Sit by me, Grandpa!” Ty tugged at Jake’s hand.
“I’d love to,” the older man replied. “As long as I can sit by your sister too. She and I have some catching up to do.”
“Sure, Jake.” Mandy smiled at him. “Grandpa.”
They had just settled on the bench when the back gate opened and Dee came through.
“Deandra!” Sam called to Mandy’s friend. “Welcome! You’re just in time for lunch. Are
you hungry?”
Dee smiled nervously at Sam and said, “Not really, but thanks, Sam. I need to talk to Mandy.” The girls looked at each other. “It’s pretty important.”
“Go ahead,” Mandy told her. Something was up, and she had an uneasy feeling.
“Can we go inside?”
“I’d rather not. You can talk in front of my family. This is my grandfather.” She motioned to Jake.
Dee nodded towards him and cleared her throat. “I did something I feel badly about and I need to explain. It’s about Nick.”
Mandy’s heart leaped into her throat at the mere mention of his name. “What about him?”
“He called the dorm last Wednesday. His father had a heart attack, and he was rushing to catch a flight to Chicago.”
Mandy flew to her feet. “What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Tears streamed down Dee’s cheeks. “I was worried about you. I found some…pamphlets in your stuff and I thought you were getting a little too serious about him.”
Mandy snapped, “You found my birth control pamphlets and you thought I was doing something stupid, like being prepared?”
Dee’s eyes widened, and she glanced at the others.
“Oh, they know,” Mandy muttered, waving her hand in the air. “I told them everything. Jesus, Dee, how could you do that to me?”
“Amanda, watch the language,” Sarah said softly.
“See, she’s cussing now!” Dee cried. “She’s changing right before my eyes!”
Sam offered, “It’s hard when one person grows away from the other one, but it happens to all best friends.”
“But Dee,” Sarah murmured. “That was a cruel thing you did. Mandy’s been very upset.”
“So have I,” a voice spoke up from over by the gate.
Mandy’s head flew up, and she couldn’t believe her eyes. Nick was standing in her backyard, wearing the same brown leather jacket and looking as wonderful as he did the first time they met. His eyes looked tired though, and his beard a bit scruffier than usual. “Nick!”
He spoke as he strolled slowly towards her. “It seems we’ve had a series of unfortunate events. Starting with the midterm that got bumped up to Wednesday. I really did have to study. I skipped all my classes Monday and Tuesday and did nothing but crack the book. I think I did pretty well.” He offered a small smile, but Mandy just stared.
