“What are you talking about?” She sat upright and stared at him through the dark.
“It’s terrible for you here. You have no ties to anything except your psycho aunt. She sounds like bad news, and honestly, I’m surprised your dad would leave you with her.”
Libby sat silent and contemplated his words. He knew they struck close to home.
“I’m sorry, that was cruel. I’m sure your Dad did what he thought best.” Peter couldn’t imagine how a father could leave his own daughter. If he ever lost Libby, he’d go insane.
“It’s okay, I know what you mean. He wasn’t in his right mind.”
“Grief is a powerful thing and you’ve both lost a lot. Listen, I’m eighteen now and I want you to come be with me. You’d be safer.”
He’d said it. Finally. Peter could picture how much fun they’d have together and how happy Libby would be away from Rockville. He hoped she agreed.
She sat wide-eyed. She opened her mouth to speak and then stopped. He could almost see the wheels turning in her mind.
“I would love to escape this town and be together 24/7, but how would we do that? Where would I live? Would I go on tour with you?” Libby asked the same questions that rolled around his mind.
“I haven’t got it figured out, but I’m working on it.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to run away with you, but somehow I don’t think your family would be too keen about some strange girl showing up. What about school? And what about my dad? He’s coming back.”
Peter wanted to say that if he hadn’t come back in the past year, it wasn’t likely he’d return any time soon, but he kept it to himself.
“I know, it’s a lot to think about, you’re in a bad situation surrounded by people who don’t care about you, but I care, and I want you with me.” He reached for her hand and held it firmly. “I’ve got all kinds of money, it should be good for something. Maybe it can help get you outta here.”
“That’s the nicest thing any one has ever said to me.” She sounded hopeful. “You say the word and I’m outta here. I’m so happy I could cry, but I’ve already done enough of that for one day.”
“Good, I don’t think I could take any more tears. When you live in a house with four guys, crying doesn’t exist. Garrett beat that out of me when I was three.”
“So what was the other thing you wanted to tell me about?”
Peter couldn’t wait to lay this one on her. “I think we should go to your Homecoming dance.” He watched for her reaction.
Libby stared at him, her mouth agape. “You’re nuts. You just agreed I have nothing here and now you want to go to the Rockville Homecoming?”
“Why not go? I never got the chance to go to a school dance and it’s something everyone should do once. It would be normal. I never get to be normal, and think how surprised everyone will be to see you with me.”
“Aren’t we a little full of ourselves?” she said. “Actually they would be shocked to see me with a date at all. Heck they’d be shocked to see me out after five o’clock.”
“Then it’s a date.” He wanted Libby by his side. He wanted to show the world his beautiful girlfriend.
“I think you’re crazy. How do you know you can even make it? What if you have a concert or something?”
“If I have a concert, then obviously it won’t work. I guess we’ll have to crash some other school’s dance. Get the date and we’ll figure it out from there.”
“I’ll have to deal with the crazy aunt issue. I’m not sure how tonight is going to go over. I might be locked in the castle tower for the next month.”
“Then I’ll come rescue you.” And he would. Anywhere. Anytime.
“Sweet.”
Peter drove past the entry to the preserve.
“Where are you going? You need to drop me off.”
“I’m not dropping you off in the woods late at night. I assume your aunt’s place is up ahead.”
“Yeah, but don’t go there. Drop me off at the corner, I don’t want her to see you.”
“No.” He turned on to the side road that led to the old farm house and slowly pulled into the gravel driveway, then faced Libby.
“This was the best night of my life you know,” she said.
“Me too.” He grinned. Their date far outshined any concert he ever played. They leaned together, he put his hand behind her neck, held her gently and kissed her goodnight.
Libby’s door whipped open, light flooded the Jeep. A crazed woman, who must be her aunt, glared at them. The whites of her eyes stood out next to her yellowing teeth. Libby cringed and leaned away.
“Where’ve you been?” She shrieked.
Chapter 11
Libby looked from her aunt to Peter and back, her eyes as big as CDs. “Out with a friend.”
“You thought I wouldn’t know you snuck out, did you? You lied to me, just like I knew you would. First time I let down my guard and you’re off fornicating with some boy.”
Shock didn’t begin to describe how Peter felt. This woman was an unbalanced lunatic.
Libby looked to Peter, horror on her face. “I gotta go.”
“Are you sure?” He grabbed her hand and held on tight.
She nodded. Her eyes filled with conflict, she pulled away.
“I’ll call you,” he whispered, as Libby hurried out of the Jeep.
“What did he say?” her aunt badgered.
Libby closed the door, and looked back at him. “I’m sorry,” she mouthed.
Her aunt stalked behind her yelling colorful phrases as Peter watched. He could tell Libby wanted the scene over with.
Aunt Marge paused her screaming long enough to glance back and see he hadn’t left the driveway. She spun toward him.
“What the hell are you waiting for? Get the fuck off my property!”
Peter threw the Jeep in reverse, pulled out and returned the way he came. It took all the strength he had not to turn around and go get her. Dammit. How could he leave Libby here? He needed to find a way to get her out and soon.
Once out of sight, he turned the headlights off and turned the car around so he could watch the house from a distance. A few minutes later he saw an upstairs light go on. He continued to watch the house, including the front door, to make sure Libby’s aunt didn’t notice the Jeep and come back with a gun to shoot him.
He pressed Redial on his phone. A moment later, Libby’s sweet voice filled his ears. “Oh, God, Peter, I’m so sorry.”
“Are you okay?” Her safety was all he cared about.
“I’m okay, don’t worry,” Libby whispered.
But he did worry. “Are you sure it’s safe? Do you want me to come back and get you? I hate that you have to stay with her.”
“I don’t think that would be the best way to go. Let’s plan it out, otherwise we might have the police on our tail.”
“Libby, she’s scary.” He wanted to say she was a psycho freak who shouldn’t be allowed out in public, let alone near kids, but he didn’t want to upset Libby more. She wasn’t given a choice when her dad dumped her with the woman.
“I know. Usually she’s ultra mellow and semi-passed out. She must have been drinking all night. That’s when she gets mean.”
“God Libby, you can’t stay there. I don’t trust her.” He pushed a hand through his hair in frustration.
“It’ll be okay. Where are you?”
“I’m pulled over about 100 yards down the road. I can see the light of your bedroom window.”
“I’d ask you to flash your lights, but Lady Paranoia might blow a gasket.”
“Can you stay on the phone for a while?” It was the next best thing to being with her.
“All night if you want, but you better get started back. Birthday or not, you don’t need to get in trouble too.”
# # #
A couple days after discovering Libby out with a boy, the sound of tires crunching on gravel again alerted Marge.
Who the hell could that be?
There were no pick-ups scheduled until later. Dammed intruders. She wiped her dusty hands on her faded smock and peeked through a crack in the barn door. Libby’s school counselor stepped out of her car and walked to the front of the farm house.
“Dammit.” What did the nosy bitch want?
Marge opened the barn door and looked back at her unfinished work spread over several tables. The rest would have to wait until she got rid of the woman. She pulled the heavy door closed and secured it with a padlock.
She trudged through tall grass to the front of the house. Morning dew licked at her beat-up boots. As she appeared around the corner, the woman from school, a prissy look painted on her face, knocked on the front door.
“What do you want?” Marge barked.
The woman jumped, almost losing her purse in the process. “Oh, I didn’t see you there.” Collecting herself, she offered a slender hand. “Hi, I’m Julie Orman, we met last year when . . .”
“I know who you are. What do you want?” Marge glared at the woman in the fancy slacks and heels.
“I wanted to speak to you about Libby.”
“What’d she do now? I doubt she’d dare steal again.”
She looked horrified. “No, nothing like that. Actually it’s more of an opportunity.”
Marge immediately lost interest and turned to dismiss her. “I was working. Call me later.”
Julie followed on Marge’s heavy heels. “I’ve been calling for the past week and you never answer my calls or return my messages.”
“Like I said, I have a lot of work to do and don’t have time to chitty chat about the girl.”
“This won’t take more than a few minutes. It’s very important to Libby.” As they came around the edge of the house, Julie carefully stepped through the damp grass. Marge wanted to return to the barn, but couldn’t with this woman on her tail.
“Do you work in there?” Julie asked indicating the dilapidated barn. “What do you do?”
Marge didn’t care for the woman’s eager look. She clenched her teeth. This woman asked too many questions. She needed to get rid of her and fast, before dealers started showing up.
“I make soap.”
Marge glared at her.
Surprise etched Julie’s face. “How wonderful! Libby never mentioned your business. Where do you sell it? I’d love to buy some.”
Marge grunted in reply, then turned back toward the front of the house, the school woman pussy-footing behind her. She went to the front door, pulled keys from her saggy denim pocket and unlocked the door. One good shove and it opened. With the woman inside, she’d be too distracted to keep asking about the barn.
She entered, then turned abruptly. “Get on with it, what do want?”
“Oh,” the woman responded, gripping her purse. “Libby doesn’t get a lot of interaction with other students,”
Marge pierced her with an angry stare. “She’s at school all day, what do you call that?”
“Actually, Libby keeps to herself a lot and she is carrying a very heavy course load with all her honors and AP classes.”
Marge watched the woman peer around the entryway and into the cluttered living room and kitchen. Nosy twat.
Libby had recently cleaned up, but piles of trash, dirty dishes and junk already littered the tables and counters. The counselor’s gaze took in everything.
“Get to the point.” Marge pulled Julie’s attention back to her.
“Homecoming is next week and Libby needs to attend.” She stood taller and assumed an authoritative air.
“You came all the way out here and interrupted my work, so that kid can go to a dance?” This woman had guts. For the past year, Marge easily kept Libby under her thumb. The last thing she needed was Libby to start going out with friends. A boy bringing her home the other night was bad enough. Outsiders asked questions and the more Libby stayed isolated, the easier it was for Marge to keep her business going.
“Yes, it’s part of her high school experience. Every student should enjoy this rite of passage.”
“I never went to a school dance and it didn’t hurt me a bit.” No one ever invited her.
Like Libby, Marge always had her head in a book and earned top grades. Her younger sister, Susan, Libby’s mother, went everywhere. Susan always moved with a huge passel of friends and had more than a couple of guys sniffing after her. Only one year older, she should have had the fun, but Miss Popularity stole the spotlight. Where Susan was a natural beauty Marge felt awkward and like an odd duck. She never measured up to her younger sister. Even when she went off to Berkley on a full scholarship, Susan stole her thunder by getting the lead in the school musical. Their parents paid Susan’s way through college, while Marge earned hers through hard work and dedication.
How she hated her sister for everything great that fell into her lap! That is until Susan died in the car crash. She should have felt sad. Instead she was happy not to have to hear how perfect her sister’s world was. But now Marge was stuck raising Libby, another slap in the face.
“But Libby has been through a traumatic time. She’s literally lost her family. She needs as many normal teenage experiences as possible. She doesn’t have a job, she doesn’t have a driver’s license. All these things are important to a young person’s development.”
“Driving costs money and she’s already a financial drain. Now you want me to give her money to buy a fancy dress?” Marge crossed her arms, time to shut this woman down.
Julie Orman stepped away and into the kitchen, taking in the flies flitting around old fast food containers. She opened the bare refrigerator, revealing dried up food on plates along side a few bottles of forgotten condiments.
“Don’t worry about a dress, I’ll take care of it.” She shut the fridge door.
“You can’t come in here and tell me what to do. I’m her legal guardian. I know how kids her age act. Once you let them loose, there’s no stopping them. She’ll end up knocked-up, just like her mother.” Her sister wasn’t actually pregnant until she was twenty-two and engaged, but the hoity-toity school woman didn’t need to know.
“I’ll be chaperoning the dance, so she’ll be with me the entire time. I’ll pick her up that afternoon and return her home after the dance. You don’t need to do a thing.”
Stubborn bitch, wouldn’t back off.
The two women stood their ground, Marge in her dirty work clothes and Miss Orman in her pressed blouse and slacks. Both refused to look away.
“Has the social worker done a home visit recently?” Julie’s eyes lit in challenge.
Marge’s blood boiled. These school people thought they could intrude wherever they wanted, all in the name of a child’s welfare. She buckled. “Fine, take her, but I’m not giving her a dime.”
A smirk on her perfect face, Julie stepped to open the front door. “Thank you. Libby will be in good hands.”
Marge followed. “One more thing. Don’t ever step on my property again.” She slammed the aging door.
Chapter 12
“Hair up or down?”
Libby perched on a kitchen stool in the small bathroom of Miss Orman’s apartment. Hair and makeup paraphernalia cluttered the tiny counter.
“Both,” she answered. “I want the front and sides up and then the back to fall in a bunch of curls. Can we do that?”
“We can do anything.” Miss Orman studied Libby’s long hair, determining how best to begin.
Sitting together, in front of the giant mirror, reminded Libby of the times she watched her mother get ready for special parties with her dad. She and Sarah would sit on the counter and laundry hamper playing with her mom’s cosmetics. They laughed and teased each other as Mom artfully applied makeup, occasionally brushing blush on their faces or spritzing them with perfume.
Miss Orman brushed through Libby’s hair; her summer highlights still shimmered. Libby closed her eyes and imagined it was Mom who held the brush and hummed as she worked. Perhaps she peered down from the heav
ens to guide Libby through this memorable day.
“Have you decided which dress?”
Miss Orman had borrowed two dresses from a friend’s daughter. Libby didn’t care if she wore a used dress; she was ecstatic to be going. Plus the dresses were beautiful.
“I like the pink and brown one.” It fit close to her body and then flowed loosely over her hips and legs. She transformed into a beautiful girl when she tried it on. The top tied behind her neck like a halter top and revealed her back. The front showed just the right amount of cleavage.
“That’s my favorite too. I like how the patterns swirl together. Plus, you look amazing in it. Any boy would be crazy not to fall at your feet.” Miss Orman used the curling iron on Libby’s long locks.
“You think so?” Libby blushed, but for once it was out of excitement instead of humiliation.
She wondered what it would be like to spend an entire evening with Peter, dancing in his arms and letting the world see they belonged together. After losing her family she gave up on her dreams, but now, with Peter in her life, everything changed. He made dreaming possible again. She glowed down to the tips of her toes.
“The boys at school won’t know who you are. Everyone is so used to seeing you quiet and keeping to yourself, I can just imagine how surprised they will be to see you. You are going to have a great time.” Miss Orman tugged on a lock of Libby’s hair and smiled.
They continued their preparations and chatted away the time. Libby and Peter wouldn’t be going out to dinner. He couldn’t get there until shortly after the dance started, but she didn’t care. It was a miracle he could attend at all. Miss Orman offered to drive, since she was a chaperone for the night. Even Aunt Marge cooperated in allowing the night to happen. Everything fell perfectly into place.
After splitting a pizza and putting the final touches on Libby’s make up. Miss Orman zipped her into the beautiful dress. Libby barely recognized herself in the full length mirror. The vision of a gorgeous young woman stood poised and confident before her. Libby turned to Misss. Orman in disbelief.
Rock and a Hard Place Page 9
