"You don't think rich people ever take a fall into the sordid world of addiction?" He raised an eyebrow as he pulled into the packed parking lot of the post office.
"We'll see what you have to say after you've met them."
"No use getting all worked up about it now. Whatever happens happens. I'm not going to stop wanting to be with you even if your mother does happen to be the world's biggest bitch. You're stuck with me Tor."
His eyes were full of honesty as he held open the door for the post office for her, but she still had her doubts. She wished it was all over with. That she could crawl back into bed with him at his house and not need to worry about seeing Lindsey again until graduation. She already had it worked out in her head how she was going to get around going home the summer after.
Even if she was no longer with Tony, there was no way in hell she was going to be stuck all summer with Lindsey and Langston. She'd get down on her hands and knees and shamelessly beg her father to let her live with him over the summer if she had to.
There was a long line in the post office. It seemed like they stood in line for hours in the crowded office which was overwhelming with so many different scents of perfume and aftershave that it was starting to make her head spin by the time they escaped into the fresh outside air.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she followed Tony back to the car. "I was beginning to think we'd never make it out of there alive."
"That's what you get for trying to mail a package a few days before Christmas.” He laughed as he cracked the window, lighting a cigarette as he pulled out of the parking lot. "So we're gonna go home, pack the car and then we're on our way."
"Joy to the world."
The rest of the ride was silent. When they were back at his house and she watched him pack a few days’ worth of clothes into a ragged tote bag, she wasn't sure of what to say to him then either. She was sick to her stomach with anxiety and kicking herself for eating the big breakfast she'd eaten at the diner.
When everything was loaded into the trunk of the car, the house was firmly locked and no more excuses could be made for them not being on the road, he handed her the car keys.
"You drive on the way out. I'll drive on the way back. But you let me know if you want me to take over okay?" She nodded. "I've got to call Aunt Lori and tell her we're leaving. You can get in the car, adjust the seat and stuff."
She took the keys with a shaky hand. She looked up at him and seeing what she thought could only be naked fear in her eyes, he leaned down and gave her a kiss.
"It'll be all right baby. I promise."
Then he gave her hand one last squeeze and turned around and dialed his aunt's number. She adjusted the seat, and got in the car. She started the engine, and rolled down the window, lighting a cigarette. She could hear Tony on the phone.
"Yes Aunt Lori. I promise we'll call when we get there. No, Tory's driving on the way out. Yes Aunt Lori, of course. Yes ma'am. Damn, you'd think I was sixteen and going on my first road trip. Yes of course. Yes ma'am. Merry Christmas to you too. Of course I'll tell her. I know Aunt Lori, me too. You'll never have any idea how glad I am to have her back in my life. I will behave, I promise. I'm a grown man for goodness’ sake. Yes I know you do. You and Uncle Keith have done things for me that I can never dream of repaying you for. Look, Aunt Lori, we got to get on the road or we'll never get there. Yes, I know. I love you too. Tell the old asshole that I love him too. Bye Aunt Lori."
He shook his head as he got into the car. "You'd think that I was going off to war and never coming back. What is that woman going to do when Carl grows up and moves away? She won't know what to do with herself without someone to mother."
Smiling weakly, Tory backed slowly out of the driveway, knowing that they couldn't put this off any longer. She'd already made the only failed attempt ever to get Tony into bed when they'd been in the house. Knowing that she was stalling, he'd given her a dirty look and went back to packing when she'd waved the lingerie in front of his face, asking him if he wanted to see what she looked like wearing both her Christmas presents.
"So we'll top the tank off on the way out of town, then? We don't really need the gas." He glanced at the gas gauge which still read 3/4 of a tank. "But it never hurts to be prepared."
She swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the lump that was rising in her throat. "Sure."
She handed him a twenty as they got out of the car at the gas station. "Will you get me something to drink please? One of those really big sodas with the ice? I think I may be getting a little bit of a cold. My throat's really dry."
"Sure.”
Of course she had an ulterior motive she thought. She wasn't really thirsty. She figured that if she drank a big cup of soda, they'd have to stop on the way because she'd have to pee. Anything to delay their arrival at Lindsey's for as long as possible.
She had finished filling up the tank when he came back out with a huge cup of soda and a much smaller cup of coffee for himself.
He got back into the car and put her cup in the cup holder. "Aren't you going to call your mom? Let her know we're on the way?"
The last thing she wanted to do was hear her mother's voice before she absolutely had to she thought. "I already told her when we were leaving when I talked to her the other day."
"But if something happens, then at least she'd know approximately where we were."
She bit back the tart reply that came to her mind about her mother not caring. "You already told your aunt. She'd know about where we were."
"Tor." He put his hand over hers as she pulled out of the parking lot. "Just call her.”
"Can't," she said breezily, not looking at him. "I'm driving."
"You want me to do it?" There was a note of warning in his voice.
"No damn it." She pulled over into the lot of a closed down video arcade on the edge of town. "I’ll do it."
She rummaged in her purse for her cell phone. Sighing, she punched in the number to her mom's cell phone. Her heart beating fast, hoping against hope that Lindsey wouldn't answer, she counted the rings. She breathed a sigh of relief when it switched over to voice mail.
She waited for the beep, then said "Mom, it's Tory. We're on our way now, so we'll be there in a few hours. See you soon."
She shut the phone, and had leaned over and started to slip it back into her purse when Tony stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Is there another number you can reach her at?"
She shook her head. "They don't have a home phone anymore."
"What about your stepdad? Doesn't he have a phone?"
"I don't know the damn number Tony. And the message has the time on it so we're covered. If we get into an accident and are dying on the side of the road, she'll have the time on it so she'll know where to send the cavalry to look for us if we don't show up." Irritation crept into her voice as she put the phone away.
Tony's aunt was much more likely to send someone out to look for them than Lindsey was. She wanted to tell him that, but he'd already turned away and went back to staring out the window. Great, she thought as she pulled out onto the highway, now he was mad at her.
Two hours later, still an hour out from Lindsey's house, she had drank three quarters of the soda and her bladder felt like it was about to burst. They were in the middle of nowhere. She hadn't seen a sign for a rest stop or an exit for miles.
"Tony." She didn't know if he was awake. He hadn't said a word to her for over an hour.
"What?"
"I have to go to the bathroom. If we don't find one soon I'm going to piss my pants."
"I knew I shouldn't have bought you that huge soda." He scanned the road ahead for an exit sign.
"We're miles from the next town, Tony. This is the same route the bus takes."
"Pull over and take a piss by the side of the road." He sounded cross; making her wonder if he was tired or if he was still mad at her.
"What am I; a guy? It's not like I can stand up and whip it out."
"I'
ll stand in front of you in case someone comes by Tor.” There was a softer note in his voice.
"What if I get pee on my clothes?"
"Don't tell me your parents never had to pull over by the side of the road so you could go to the bathroom when you were a kid." He chuckled.
"Lindsey would have let me pee my pants in the car and then bought a new one before she'd let me do something so uncivilized."
She signaled and then pulled to the side of the road, grateful that there was a patch of trees that she could use for cover.
"Damn.”
He shook his head as he followed her out of the car, passing her a handful of napkins from the glove box.
He turned his back when she squatted behind a tree, though it still took her forever before she was able to pee knowing that he was standing there. Somehow, even knowing that he'd seen her naked many times, had seen her in more compromising positions than anyone else probably ever would, it still embarrassed her to know that he was standing on the other side of the tree while she was peeing.
It didn't seem to bother him a bit though. He walked around the tree when she had finished, relieving himself like it was nothing.
"Tor," he said when he came back around the tree.
"Hmm."
"We're pretty much in the middle of nowhere right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
“I was kinda thinking. What could it hurt if it took us another fifteen minutes or so to get to your parents' house?"
"Huh?" Then it dawned on her as he led her towards the back seat of the car. "Oh."
By the time they had finished and were dressed again and back in the front seat of the car, they were both in a better mood and more relaxed.
"Hey, Tony." She pulled back out onto the road, after sex cigarette in hand. "Why wouldn't you let me seduce you at your house if you'd screw me on the side of the road?"
"Because I knew you were stalling.” He grinned. "And the sex is always better when you're mad at me."
"Jerk." But it gave her a bit of a thrill to think of walking into Lindsey and Langston's smelling of sex and cigarettes.
He turned up the radio. All the songs they played for the next hour seemed to be about sex. She wondered again how she was going to keep her hands off of him when they were under Lindsey's roof. She pondered as she pulled onto their block of multi-million dollar homes set well back from the street what she'd heard about men being at their sexual peak at seventeen and women not hitting theirs until they were in their thirties. It had to be a myth or she really was the sex addict that Tony always accused her of being. She couldn't imagine wanting sex any more than she did now.
Even now, pulling into her mother's driveway, parking behind Lindsey's sparkling white jaguar and Langston's midnight blue Mercedes (the garage already held three other equally expensive cars), glancing at Tony in the passenger seat, unbuckling his seat belt, she couldn't help thinking about sex. She sat in the car, staring despondently at the house while he grabbed their bags and the scotch he'd bought from the trunk. She was still sitting there when he came back around and opened the door. He pulled her to her feet, pulled the keys out of the ignition, shut the door, and pushed the button on the key ring to lock the car. She stood there still, looking at the house.
"Tor, c'mon," he said a minute later. "This shit is getting heavy."
She reached out for her bag or at least her purse which was looped comically over his neck, but he shook his head.
"Just c'mon."
He had to ring the doorbell when they reached the front door because she couldn't bring herself to do it. She wanted to run back to the car and drive away, pretend that she didn't know the woman who lived in this house, let alone been carried in her womb for nine months. Lindsey must have been an even bigger bitch when she was pregnant she thought. How could Corey have stuck by her that long even if she was carrying his child?
Lindsey opened the door a few minutes later after Tony had started to reach for the doorbell again. Tory was stunned into silence. Her mother never answered the door. It was always some poor maid or whatever other member of the 'house staff' that happened to be unluckiest at the moment to be assigned the task.
Lindsey stood there looking at them for a moment, tumbler of alcohol in one hand, slim cigarette dotted on the end with lipstick in the other, looking like every bit of the rich privileged housewife that she was. Finally, she looked Tony up and down, a smirk on her face, and then turned to her daughter.
"You might as well come in. The neighbors will probably call the police if you stand out there on the porch too much longer."
Tony gave her a look as they followed Lindsey into the house. "I told you so," she mouthed.
No welcome home, no merry Christmas, no glad you made it here safe.
"Langston," Lindsey called into the other room. "The children are here." There was a condescending tone to her voice.
Langston came into the room a minute later, dressed in his usual suit, always looking like he was just home from the office. Tory didn't think he'd be caught dead in a pair of jeans. The closest he ever got to casual clothing was slacks, always perfectly pressed and polo shirts with whatever expensive brand that was popular at the moment embroidered on them.
He looked older than she remembered, and there was more white showing in his hair. He was tall and had the athletic build of a basketball player, though Tory doubted he'd ever play such a game. His hair was blonde and perfectly trimmed. You'd never see a speck of facial hair on his face.
He appraised her now with a pair of cool blue eyes set behind a pair of dark wire rimmed glasses. Tory stared back at him defiantly daring him to say something. Lindsey was leaning against the spotless white leather couch, smoking another cigarette and sipping slowly from her drink, a faint smirk on her face. Tory wanted to smack her.
Langston said "Tory," and gave her a quick nod, turning to Tony, looking him up and down in his jeans and t-shirt and his beat up leather jacket.
Tory frowned. Let him say something snide she thought. She wouldn't mind punching that self-righteous ass in his perfect nose. But he surprised her by sitting his cup on a coaster on the table next to the couch and reaching out to Tony with an out stretched hand.
"I'm Langston, Tory's stepfather. And you must be, damn Lindsey.” Tory could tell that he was a little drunk as he turned to glare at her mother. "I don't think you bothered to tell me the boy's name."
"It’s Tony sir," Tony said, reaching out his hand to shake Langston's. "Nice to meet you."
"You as well son. Always good to see you Tory. You look well dear. Let me help you with those bags. It looks like they're getting heavy."
Ah, so they were going to play at being civilized then huh, Tory thought as she watched Tony follow Langston up the stairs. She figured they were going to stick Tony in the guest room that was as far away as possible from her bedroom. And of course she was right as she watched Tony follow Langston to the far end of the hall and then back to the other side where her bedroom was, next to Lindsey and Langston's.
Lindsey was silent, twirling a pearl necklace on her finger as she chain smoked on the couch, not bothering to look at her daughter as she sipped her drink. Ah home sweet home she thought.
"So why'd you answer the door Mother? Thought you had servants to do that."
Langston walked back into the room then, followed by an uncomfortable looking Tony. She wasn't sure what it was that Langston had said to him while they were upstairs but it had clearly bothered him.
She gave Langston a dirty look which he ignored. "We gave them time off for the holidays. Lindsey, would you mind popping that casserole that Miranda made into the oven? The instructions are on top, the little sticky note. It might be nice to eat dinner before midnight."
Lindsey heaved a dramatic sigh as if she were a teenage drama queen and walked into their state of the art kitchen, high heels clicking on the polished floors.
"Have a seat you two." Langston gestured to the matching love sea
t that sat at an angle next to the sofa. "You must be tired out after all the driving." He looked at Tony.
"Tory drove sir. I've never been to the area before. I figured it would be easier for her to drive on the way up."
"I see," Langston said, looking as if he did not see at all.
Though Lindsey had a car, he seemed to think that it was unbecoming of a woman to do anything other than shopping and getting manicures. Of course that only pertained to women of a certain caliber. Lowlier women were for things like cooking and cleaning. All of the staff in the house was female. Tory wondered what Langston's mother had been like. He certainly had a strange view of women she thought.
"Where do you go to school Tony?" Langston took a sip of his drink.
"I'm not in school. I had some family issues at the end of high school and haven't really gotten a chance to take more than a course or two here and there."
"I see," Langston said.
And again by the look on his face Tory could see again that he did not see at all.
He looked at his empty glass then as if it would fill itself and then called to Lindsey, "Honey would you bring me a drink back please?" Then as an afterthought he turned to them sitting uncomfortably on opposite ends of the loveseat, as if they were afraid to touch. "Do you want something kids?"
Tory shook her head. Langston scowled at her and called back to Lindsey "Bring your daughter a bottle of that sparkling water. Do you want a drink Tony? Is it Anthony? Anthony has always sounded so much better to me than Tony."
"Uh, yes it is."
"May I call you Anthony? If you don't mind that is."
"Of course not sir."
"Enough with the sir. You can call me Langston. You make feel old calling me sir. And you may call my stunning wife Lindsey. She's bound to take your head off if you call her ma'am, right Tory?" He winked.
He made her want to throw up she thought. Calling Tony Anthony when she knew it drove him crazy. She was surprised that he hadn't made her mother change her name to Victoria since it probably sounded more civilized.
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