“Shut up Eduardo. And don’t ever call me dumb again. I’m not dumb.”
Eduardo laughed. “So Ricky’s got you convinced that you’re going to get through life on your brains and not your sweet ass huh? Man, you are stupid.”
Molli closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She reached for her purse and took all of the cash out of her wallet and threw it at Eduardo. “Get the hell out of my house. Now.”
“Damn baby. Did anyone ever tell you how fine you look when you’re pissed off?”
Molli pointed towards the door. “Out. Now, before I call the cops and give them the plate number to Peggy’s car and tell them you’re driving drunk.”
“Fine. But this ain’t over until I say it’s over and you know that Molli.”
“Whatever.”
When he had left, she threw the dead bolt on the door, and checked every window in the house to make sure it was securely locked. She sighed as she took her phone and went upstairs to bed, wondering if what Eduardo had said about Ricky and Mellenda was true and why he hadn’t called her.
She awoke to the ringing of her phone at six a.m. She reached for it on her nightstand, still not awake enough to be able to identify the ringtone. Eyes still closed, she said “Hello?”
“Molli? Are you okay?”
She sat up in bed. “Yes Ricky. I’m fine. How are you?”
“I’m so sorry I didn’t make it to your house last night. I told my parents I needed to take a plate to a friend that was alone at Thanksgiving. It was all wrapped up and ready to go when Mellenda showed up.”
Molli yawned, still not sure whether to believe his version of the events or Eduardo’s. She wanted very badly to believe Ricky’s, but she still couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t lying to her. “It’s okay.”
“I’m thinking of going to get your Christmas gift today if I can get rid of Mellenda early enough.”
“She stayed at your house last night?”
“Yes, she’s stayed here once before and my folks don’t seem to mind. I didn’t invite her. She showed up on her own.”
“I see. You don’t need to look for my gift so early. I have no idea what I’m going to get you.”
“You don’t need to get me anything. Having you in my life is gift enough for me.”
“Thank you. I am kind of excited to see what you get me.”
Ricky laughed. “I can only hope that it will be a fraction of as beautiful as you are.”
“You’re so sweet.”
“Thank you. I have to go. Mellenda’s coming.”
Molli sighed. “Okay.”
“I’ll talk to you later and I’ll be thinking of nothing but you and our baby.”
Molli suddenly felt that familiar nauseous feeling. “I think that the baby doesn’t want me to forget about him or her either. I’m sorry Ricky. I think I need to go throw up.”
“Goodbye darling.”
“Bye Ricky.”
She pushed end on her phone and rushed down the hall to the bathroom. She spent the rest of the day at home, going through her clothes and trying to find anything that might be a bit looser that she could take back to school with her, but she didn’t have much luck. She was a little pissed off at herself for giving Eduardo all of her cash when she could have used it to buy new clothes, but figured she couldn’t have gotten rid of him any other way and she had been afraid she was going to hit him if he didn’t shut up.
Her parents didn’t call or arrive home. Ricky hadn’t called her again by the time the bus she was taking back to Brentwood was scheduled to leave, so she asked a neighbor to drive her to the bus station and texted Jude, asking him to come and pick her up when she got back to town.
She saw Jude as soon as she stepped off of the bus. When she looked at him, heart sank a little. He was smiling, but she wished with all her might that she could be with Ricky. She walked over to him, wearing a smile that she hoped didn’t appear as fake as it felt. He put her bag in the back of his truck and then gave her a hug and a kiss.
“I missed you. I have something for you, but I’ll wait to give it to you until we get to my house okay?”
Molli gave him another weak smile. She missed Ricky. Even his voice sounded more like a man’s than Jude’s she thought. “Okay.”
She opened the passenger door and got in the truck, wondering if Seneca was home. She didn’t really want to go to Jude’s house, but she figured that she owed him at least a short visit since he had picked her up and she was still technically his girlfriend.
“Are your parents’ home?”
“No, they haven’t gotten back yet.”
“Oh.”
“It’ll be nice to have the house to ourselves for a while won’t it?” Jude smiled at her as he pulled into his driveway.
“Yeah.”
Molli glanced across the street towards Seneca’s house but she didn’t see a car in the driveway. It didn’t look her parents were back and didn’t look like Grant was there, so maybe Seneca wasn’t home either. She hid a sigh.
Jude grabbed her bag out of the back of the truck. She followed him up the steps. He unlocked the door and then went inside. She followed him and shut the door behind them.
Jude sat her bag aside on the floor and immediately took her into his arms and kissed her. Molli thought that even his passion felt different than Ricky’s. Having Jude’s tongue in her mouth made her feel like she was being kissed by a horny teenager. Ricky was still a teenager technically, but everything he did seemed so much more mature she thought.
She pulled back. “I missed you too, but can we slow down a bit?”
“Come on Mol. It’s been so long since we’ve had sex. And we can actually do it in my bed for a change since there’s no one here.”
“What about my present?”
She didn’t care about the present really; she just wanted to distract him.
“I’ll give it to you after. I’m sure you’ll love it.”
He took her hand and pulled her with him to the bedroom that he shared with his thirteen year old brother Jacob.
He was undressed in what seemed like seconds, while Molli took her time, wondering when she was going to find the courage to break up with Jude, and to tell Eduardo to stay the hell away from her for once and for all. She felt a little hypocritical wanting Ricky to break it off with Mellenda so badly when she was still dating Jude.
The sex was quick. Molli didn’t bother to ask him if she could take a shower afterwards. She was hoping to escape from him as soon as possible and she could take a shower when she got back to school. She also had a feeling that Jude had gotten what he wanted from her. He didn’t bother to tell her that he loved her anymore.
She dressed and followed him back out to the living room. He lit a cigarette from a pack on the coffee table. “You can have one if you want.”
“No thanks.”
She wondered if she should tell him she was pregnant, but didn’t want to get into an argument with him. She was afraid that if he said anything to her when she told him like what Eduardo had said, she would punch him in the face.
“Okay.” He laid his cigarette in the ashtray on the table and reached for his jacket. She thought at first that he was going to take her back to school right then, but he pulled out a small blue velvet covered box. He popped it open and pulled out a ring. “I got our initials carved inside. It’s like a promise ring ya know?”
She smiled, not feeling any real warmth. “Thank you.”
He handed it to her. “You’re welcome. Well, I guess I’d better get you back to school. I’ll bet that you still have a lot to do before school starts.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Okay. Let me grab your bag and then we’re outta here.”
Jude picked up her bag and she followed him out the door. She got in the truck while he locked the house. The ride back to the school was silent except for the sound of the radio which didn’t get the best reception and usually drove her crazy. Today she was grateful
to not have to make conversation with him.
He took the back way into the woods and stopped behind the old man’s shack. He leaned over and kissed her. “Have fun when you go back to school. Hopefully we can get together again soon. Are you gonna be around over Christmas vacation?”
“I don’t think so.”
“That sucks. Well, I’ll call you.”
“Thank you for the ride and the ring. If you see Seneca, tell her to call me okay?”
“Yeah, sure. Oh, Molli. Did you hear that Tory’s sleeping around on that drug dealer she’s going out with?”
“No. Why?”
“I don’t think he knows yet. It seems like someone should tell him or at least make sure that it gets around town so that he finds out.”
“Um yeah. Bye Jude.”
“Bye Molli.”
She got out of the truck and grabbed her bag out of the back. Jude didn’t bother to watch her walk away before he pulled back out onto the road. Jeremy was smoking a cigarette with another guard when she got to the school, but he barely glanced her way. She couldn’t believe she’d given him a blow job. She didn’t think he’d have told on her for sneaking in. She almost didn’t care if she got kicked out of Crestview anymore, though she thought her parents would probably kill her if she didn’t finish with all of the money that they had paid to send her there.
Molli opened the door to the room that she shared with Mellenda and flipped the light switch. She glanced at herself in the mirror and noticed that someone had written “whore” across it in Mellenda’s lipstick. She looked at the trashcan and noticed that the lingerie that Eduardo had bought her last year was in pieces on top of her positive pregnancy test. Shit she thought. Had Mellenda found out she was sleeping with Ricky? How could she have been so dumb as to leave the pregnancy test right out there in the open in the trash like that?
Then she noticed that the picture of her and Jude that usually sat on her side of the dresser was broken. So Mellenda wasn’t the one that had wreaked havoc in their room after all she thought, it had to have been Tory.
“Damn you Tory,” she said aloud. “Why can’t you get over Jude and let yourself be happy with Tony? Hell, I’m already over Jude.”
She sighed as she bent to clean up the mess. She made sure all of the broken glass was accounted for, and then she wrapped up the trash in another trash bag and set it aside to take out to the dumpster behind the school. She scrubbed the mirror clean and sat down on her bed with a sigh, suddenly feeling very tired. She looked at the ring that Jude had given her and knew she never should have accepted it. But that wasn’t going to stop her from shoving it in Tory’s face she thought. It didn’t mean that she was going to spread the rumor that Jude had told her about Tory sleeping around on Tony, but she was beginning to wonder if Tory wasn’t a little bit loopy.
She hoped that she didn’t hear rumors around school as soon as all the girls got back about her pregnancy. Then again she thought who would listen to Tory? She felt like a bitch for thinking such a thing, but when she thought about the mess she had come back to, she felt less guilty. What would have happened if Mellenda had returned before her? Then the shit really would have hit the fan.
There wouldn’t have been any way that Mellenda wouldn’t have reported it, even if nothing of hers had been touched besides her lipstick. Molli hoped that she didn’t notice the lipstick was gone. She certainly wasn’t going to replace it with how expensive it was, though she thought that the shade that Tory had used to write on the mirror with was really ugly.
She took the trash out to the dumpster and went back to her room, laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. She thought about calling Seneca, but decided against his. She thought about calling Ricky, but she didn’t want to seem desperate since he hadn’t called her again.
She was daydreaming that the present Ricky was excited about buying her was an engagement ring when she fell asleep. She spent the rest of the weekend studying and still didn’t hear anything from Ricky. Mellenda came back late Sunday evening. Molli thought that she could smell Ricky on her roommate when she stripped and got ready to go to the shower. She was sure that they’d had sex and felt very betrayed when Mellenda headed out to the shower, humming to herself.
She decided to text Seneca then, but didn’t tell her about the pregnancy or her feelings about Ricky. She did mention the promise ring Jude had given her though.
Chapter 9
She didn’t sleep well that night and almost wasn’t in the mood to show her ring off the next morning, but she saw Tory before her first period class and figured it was as good time as any to show off the ring that Jude had bought her. She was walking with Iris and a group of her friends who didn’t normally pay much attention to her. She pointed at Tory and whispered to Iris “There’s Tory. She looks a little pale today. Do you think she spent the whole vacation getting drunk and stoned with her drug dealer boyfriend?”
Iris laughed. “Probably.” The group moved down to Iris’s locker, which was a few down from Tory’s. “So how’s your man Molli?”
“He is so in love with me. He was so excited when he gave me the ring. It’s like a pre engagement ring. He even paid extra to have our initials carved inside. Isn’t it so pretty?” She let the other girls admire the ring on her finger, then pulled it off and showed them the initials inside.
A short skinny brunette who was on the very outskirts of Iris’s usual crowd named Amanda said “You’ve really got that boy whipped Molli. Are you really going to marry him?”
Molli laughed. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t hurt to pretend right?”
Iris giggled. “I love it when you have them wrapped around your finger and they’ll do anything for you.”
“It’s not that hard to keep a guy happy if you know what I mean.” Molli giggled, feeling like an idiot for hanging around Iris and her friends. No wonder Tory didn’t care if she was friends with any of these girls she thought. As she passed Tory’s locker, she said “But then I guess some people wouldn’t know anything about that, right Tory?”
The other girls laughed. Molli found herself missing Seneca even more than she did on most school days. She saw Tory roll her eyes as she shoved her books into her backpack and couldn’t blame the other girl. Even if she was a little crazy and pretty dumb to still be hung up on Jude, Molli had thought the whole conversation was pretty stupid herself. She parted with Iris and her group and was glad when they went back to ignoring her.
Molli was sitting in English class when her phone vibrated in her lap. She looked up to make sure that her teacher wasn’t paying attention and looked at the screen. She had a text message from Seneca and she clicked over to it.
‘Hey girl. Didn’t you tell me that Jude gave you a promise ring?’
‘Yeah. Why?’
‘I have a feeling he screwed Tory the other night.’
‘WTF Sen?’
‘Well, my parents were gone the other night and Grant was over here. We were outside before noon and Jude pulled up in his truck with Tory. We were outside all night, screwing and getting stoned. His truck never left until the next morning and neither did she.’
‘Damn. I thought she was with Tony.’
‘I think they broke up. He is so hot. Wish I could get myself a piece of his fine ass.’
‘You’re only sixteen Sen. He’s like 21. And I thought you were so in love with Grant. He turned you from a virgin to a nymphomaniac overnight.’
‘I am not a nympho.’
‘You’re crazy to do it outside in your front yard when it’s practically winter.’
‘We weren’t in the front yard. We were in the backyard in my little brother’s tent. The back of my trailer faces the front of Jude’s remember?’
‘Oh yeah. I guess I am going to spread that rumor about Tory then.’
‘What rumor? Who’d you hear it from?’
‘Jude. He told me that Tory was screwing around on Tony but Tony didn’t know so it should be spread all
over town. He failed to tell me that it was him she was screwing.’
‘Men. You can’t live with ‘em and you just can’t shoot ‘em. It’s not like he wanted it spread around town when he was screwing you while he was still going out with Tory.’
‘Yeah.’
‘So are you gonna break up with him?’
‘I don’t know Sen. Ricky still won’t break up with Mellenda and I can’t get Eduardo off of my back either.’
‘Eduardo is so nasty. Drop those tapes off to the cops that you’ve got of you two boning before you were sixteen. He can’t bug you when he’s sitting in jail. Tell Ricky that you won’t have sex with him again until he breaks up with Mellenda. That’ll get him to break up with her no doubt.’
‘I can’t believe I told you about those videos. They’re at my parents’ house. No way could I keep shit like that around here. I don’t think that Ricky would care if I quit having sex with him. He says he likes being around me.’
‘So tell him you won’t hang out with him until he breaks it off with her.’
‘I can’t Sen. I like being around him. He makes me feel good about myself. Like no one else ever really has before.’
‘Hey girl, that’s not nice. You know I love you Molli.’
‘I know Sen. I love you too. I can’t give Ricky up. It would hurt way too much. He’s going to break up with Mellenda soon. I know it.’
‘Sure. That’s what they all say. Hey, did you take that test?’
‘Yeah.’
Molli had almost forgotten about the pregnancy test and the mess she’d come back to in her room. Though she knew that Tory had to have been the one that did it, she hadn’t really wanted to spread the rumors that Tory was sleeping around until now. Now she was going to spread them. And she was going to make sure that every time she saw Tory she was going to be flashing the generic ring that Jude had bought her too.
‘So? Spill it girl. Are you prego?’
‘Yes.’
‘Damn. So did you tell any of the maybe baby daddies yet?’
Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set Page 159
