Chapter 13

Rory came down for breakfast and found the whole family there, plus Paige. While he wasn’t happy to see her, she was Sophie’s best friend, so he would make allowances.

Before he could sit down, Tyler started in on him.

“When were you going to tell us you’d been in a fight last night?”

“When I saw you.”

Tyler’s face went beet red, which was Rory’s first clue that being flip was probably not the best response.

“You put Chad in the hospital,” Tyler said, his voice getting louder.

“He attacked me!” Rory fired back. “I was simply defending myself!”

“Don’t raise your voice to me,” Tyler answered.

“What? No, are you okay, Rory? You don’t even want to know what happened? Just, you’ve done something wrong, so I’m going to yell at you?” Rory asked.

“Tyler,” Crystal said.

Tyler looked at her and then back at Rory.

“You will come with me and apologize to Chad,” he ordered, then added, “and mean it.”

Rory barked a disbelieving laugh. Paige decided to open her mouth.

“I was there. It wasn’t Rory’s fault. Chad was cheating on his girlfriend and decided to jump Rory so he wouldn’t tell anyone. Rory was actually walking away when Chad rushed up and hit him in the head from behind. Then Chad tried to kick him while he was down. Rory was defending himself.”

Rory noted that Paige left out the part where she was the one Chad was cheating with. Just last weekend, Rory’s stepsister had been kissing Chad. But that didn’t compare to Rory being attacked. Somehow, that was his fault.

Tyler closed his eyes for a moment.

“That’s not what I was told,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t mean you aren’t going to apologize.”

“I will not say that I was wrong,” Rory warned.

“Chad’s dad and I are in business together. We don’t need our kids fighting,” Tyler pressed.

“I never had a problem with him until he attacked me. You’re crazy if you believe the two of us will be friends after that,” Rory said.

“He’s not asking for that. This is all for appearances’ sake,” Crystal said.

Rory and Tyler locked eyes. Sophie and Crystal both laughed.

“If I had any doubt that you were Tyler’s son, that look just confirmed it.”

“All right, I’ll do it if you think it’ll help your business. But don’t believe for one minute I’ll mean a word of it,” Rory compromised.

“We’ll go after breakfast,” Tyler said.

Apparently, his apology had been choreographed in advance. This was another occasion where if Tyler had just told him what was really going on, he might have handled it better. Instead, he found himself yelling at his dad.

“I’m having people over tonight to use the theater room. I was wondering if you could take your wife out for a night on the town to give us some privacy.”

“He didn’t give you much wiggle room on that one, did he? Where are you taking me?” Crystal asked to let her husband know he should just cave on this one.

“That sounds fine,” Tyler said.

“I was also thinking about getting a tattoo that says ‘One Punch’ across my chest. It would be in a classy script,” Rory said, pushing to see how far he could milk this.

“No,” Tyler said.

Rory finally smiled.

“I want to take Sophie to Lake Mead for a long weekend the week after the fourth of July.”

“I’ll want details, but I think I’m okay with that,” Crystal waded in.

“Anything else?” Tyler asked.

“Can we ban Paige from the house?” Rory asked.

“I’ve been trying to do that for years, but she just keeps showing up,” Tyler said.

“Then I’m good.”

Paige didn’t even blink but simply went back to eating her pancakes. He suspected that Tyler had tried just that, and it hadn’t worked.

Rory sent Summer a message to tell her they were on for the evening. He and Sophie found two new movies on streaming video they could agree on. The first was a James Bond movie, Devil May Care. She picked a chick flick, Love Letters, that had done well at the box office.

She gave him a shopping list for snacks and the like for him to pick up while he was out with Tyler, making his apology.

Rory drove himself to Chad’s home since Tyler was filming that afternoon and wouldn’t return to the house.

Chad lived in the cheaper part of The Valley, which meant that the houses ran to only 3,500 square feet instead of 20,000.

When they reached the door, Tyler leaned over and said, “Be on your best behavior.”

“So, I shouldn’t tell Chad I banged his girlfriend last night?”

“Did you ... aw, fuck!” Tyler moaned.

And then he chuckled.

“You’re going to be the death of me. That would have been something I did at your age,” Tyler admitted.

The door opened.

“Tyler.”

“Bob.”

They walked in and found Chad and his mom sitting in the living room. Rory stopped himself from smirking when he saw Chad wince as he stood up.

“Tyler, so good to see you,” Chad’s mom said as she came up and gave his dad a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “And you must be Rory.”

It was like he was her long-lost friend.

“Mr. Luv,” Chad said as he shook Rory’s dad’s hand, and then he turned to Rory and held his out.

“Chad,” Rory said as he took it and shook.

“Rory, do you want to see my room?” Chad asked.

’What are we, twelve?’ Rory wondered.

Tyler gave him a hooded-eye look to snap him out of his thoughts.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Rory managed.

He started to feel a bit bad when Chad sucked in his breath on each step as he grabbed his side. Ribs were a bitch. When they got to his room, Rory saw it was a typical jock room with the requisite trophies and a picture of his water polo team in their Speedos.

’That’s a little gay.’

“Okay, you lured me to your bedroom. What do you want?” Rory asked.

“You don’t make this easy, do you?” Chad asked.

“Hey, I was minding my own business, dude.”

“No, I get it. But our dads think we have to at a minimum not take a swing at each other in public. Can we at least agree to that?” Chad asked.

His dad had evidently been on his ass, too.

“I guess we could go down and put on a show for our parents. Just know I’ll have my eye on you,” Rory said.

“Same here. Let’s go make nice so we can get on with our lives.”

They came downstairs and found Tyler and the Walkers looking awkward.

“You boys work everything out?” Mr. Walker asked.

“We’re good,” Rory said.

“I was telling them how you’re planning a trip to Lake Mead. Maybe Chad could go with you,” Tyler said.

’He is so dead!’ Rory thought about ways he could end his father’s life. Then he had a brilliant idea for how to avoid spending any time with Chad.

“We’d have to rent another motorhome because mine’s full,” Rory said.

“We can arrange to get one for Chad,” Mr. Walker said.

“Then it’s all set. I’m glad you two are going to be friends,” Mrs. Walker beamed.

“You have no idea how excited I am,” Rory quipped with a straight face.

“Well, we better be going,” Tyler said before his son told them what he really thought.

When they got outside, Rory shook his head at his dad.

“You do realize one of us will go missing on that trip.”

“Or you two might work it out.”

His dad was dreaming.

Summer had called the crew together for lunch at the clubhouse.

“We have a problem.”

“I thought you worked it out so we would hang out with Rory tonight,” Julie said.

“I did, and we are,” Summer responded. “But he’s inviting other people, including Sophie.”

“Three, two, one,” Jace joked with Sean.

“What are you two knuckleheads talking about?” Alice asked.

“He was counting down the Rory meltdown. Jace is right; Rory’s just a guy. Once he spends some time with us, he’ll be on board,” Sean predicted.

“You forget how pissed Sophie is at us. I’m afraid she’ll poison his mind against us,” Summer said.

“I miss hanging out with her,” Julie admitted.

Summer secretly agreed, but after what her mom and her friends had said to Sophie about her and her mom, it couldn’t be fixed. The Luvs were prized for how much money they had, but that didn’t mean the elite of The Valley had to like how they made it.

“You’ve seen her. She’s turned into a total freak with her hair, tattoos, and piercings,” Alice reminded everyone.

She was firmly in the camp that they shouldn’t associate with Sophie. It had nothing to do with Sophie as a person. It was that when she went rebel, she no longer looked the part of a Valley socialite.

Rory was a different story. He hadn’t been raised by his dad, but he was still Tyler’s son. The dirty little secret was that porn money had found its way into many businesses that people in The Valley owned. Anyone who eventually snagged Rory would be set for life. Plus, Tyler Luv could make everyone in The Valley quake if he became displeased.

That meant that with Tyler’s son in the fold, Summer and her group would run Valley Prep when they were seniors. It also didn’t hurt that he was a nice guy—with the addition of a dangerous side after word got out about him beating the crap out of Chad.

“She’s still Sophie,” Julie said to push back.

“Tonight, when we break off into couples, make sure one of us is with Rory,” Summer said and looked at the other two girls. “And I don’t care who it is.”

“Just relax. If you put too much pressure on him, I wouldn’t blame Rory if he bailed on us. If you want him to be our friend, we have to really mean it,” Jace said.

“I just like hanging out with him. I wish he didn’t have that job so we could spend more time doing guy stuff,” Sean complained.

“I know, buddy. I like him, too,” Jace said.

“Okay. We’ll just see what happens,” Summer agreed.

Rory found himself in the local drug store, buying the ‘supplies’ on Sophie’s list. She must have thought the night had the potential for sex because he was tasked with buying condoms and lube. He sucked it up because he wanted a supply for himself and not to have to borrow the ones on the tower’s top floor. He assumed they were there for when his parents entertained or filmed up there.

He was looking at the different options when the lady pharmacist came over.

“Buying the right ones is sort of confusing,” she offered.

Rory blushed because she’d caught him off guard.

“Let me give you some advice: proper fit is important. You don’t want them to be loose for obvious reasons, and too tight can be uncomfortable.”

“I’m larger than average, so I was looking at the Trojan Magnums XL,” Rory said.

She gave him a tight smile, like she’d heard that before.

“They do advertise the Magnum and Magnum XL as being ‘larger than standard latex condoms for extra comfort.’ But according to verywellhealth.com’s condom size chart, they’re the same width and length as normal condoms,” the Pharmacist explained.

“But they are several dollars more expensive,” Rory pointed out.

“Yes. They earn an extra third over basically the same product as their regular condoms. People buy them to show off. If you truly are larger than average, you might want to consider this brand,” she said, pulling off a box and handing it to him.

The label read ‘TheyFit.’

“Their largest model is 28% larger in circumference than the Trojan Magnums and 17% longer. If it’s a vanity thing, get the Trojans. If you really do need something bigger, get these,” she suggested and left.

Rory bought a twelve-pack of the TheyFit and a thirty-six count of the Magnums. He’d put one on last night but hadn’t really been focused on the fit at the time. He also guessed that if the Magnums were really the same size as regular ones, then everyone at the party should be able to use them.

Rory had decided to invite Stacy from his porn class for a couple of reasons. The first was he felt guilty about how he’d reacted when he learned she’d done her first porno with his father. Rory also wasn’t sure if she liked him or not and wanted to find out. While he hadn’t said anything to her directly, he hadn’t seen her since she performed in her first film.

He sent her a message to ask if she wanted to come over and hang out. Rory got one back to call her. When they talked, she said that he had to come over and meet her father and brother before she could go. He remembered her mentioning that they were overprotective, so he hesitated at first. Then Rory figured that he would have to face them eventually if he and Stacy ended up dating, so he might as well do it now.

So, before going home, he swung by her house in the Cultural Corridor neighborhood of Vegas.

When he pulled up, Stacy was waiting for him before they went in.

“They don’t know what my summer job is. I told them that we met taking a class,” was all she got out before the door opened and there stood her dad, in uniform, waiting for them.