Chapter 29: Insecurity

It was long after dark when we left the school. Night had fallen while we'd hid ourselves in the gym, making teenage memories at one of the last couple dances of the school year. Mick and Janine went in his car, and Amy and I went in my truck. Amy was of course giddy to be alone with me once again, but I began to wonder how Charlotte was feeling about her little sister spending more time with me than with her. I get the idea that Amy must have been wondering that herself. She never mentioned it though.

"What's the hurry, Anthony? Can't we go get some food?"

"We'll order food at Charlotte's, 'kay?"

"I guess. But why the big rush? You're driving like a crazy man."

I was too, gunning the engine at every green light, racing through yellows, rolling through stop signs with barely a glance to the left and right, taking every turn with a squeal of my tires. Amy didn't seem worried though. She seemed more excited.

"I just gotta get back to Charlotte's before half the school shows up. We're gonna have to send a lot of kids home. She's not allowed to throw a big party. Mick and I have to help her kick out all the kids that weren't invited."

"Oh."

A few kids actually did beat us back there. When we pulled into Charlotte's drive there were already some kids milling around in the yard in front of the front steps. They must have left the dance early and gotten there before the host had even arrived to let them in. The house was locked up and most of the lights were off. But those who were there were standing around in awe trying to figure out if they even had the right place.

"I can't believe someone from our school lives in a place like this!"

I jumped out of the truck and approached the small group.

"What's up, guys?"

"Party, man! We're here to party!"

"Were you invited by Charlotte herself?"

"Nah, man. We just heard about it. Thought we'd show up."

"Well you heard wrong. Sorry. There's no party here. Just a bunch of kids spreading rumors."

"Bullshit!"

"Charlotte will tell you the same thing when she gets here."

"We'll wait then."

"It's friends only," I said to some new kids who came strolling up. "If you weren't invited by Charlotte herself, you're gonna have to go party somewhere else."

"Who put you in charge? You're not even her boyfriend anymore."

I wanted to punch the guy. I was having one of the worst days I'd had in a long time and I would have liked nothing more than to take it out on this snarky little punk's face. I didn't though. I stepped up into his space though, going eyeball-to-eyeball with him.

"Charlotte's mom put me in charge actually. If you've got a problem with it maybe we should settle it right now."

He backed down, muttering something about bullshit again to his buddies and they faded back into the gathering crowd.

They were getting ornery. I sent Amy to wait in the truck. There were about fifteen kids standing around in a group on the lawn, eight guys and two girls I knew from school, and a few others I'd never seen before, waiting for things to get started.

"Parents are out of town. It's Friday night. Time to party!" some kid yelled. The girl beside him took a swig of some concealed bottle and passed it to her friend. Other kids were smoking, spitting on the lawn, and generally acting like a bunch of junior assholes. No wonder older folks don't think much of teens.

"PARTY!" Another kid yelled. I heard his voice echo off the house across the street. Uh-oh. Bad news already. I shoved him and told him to shut the hell up and get the hell out of here. He faded into the crowd as well, but didn't leave.

Mick pulled up as more kids arrived.

"You go in and warn Sheila," he said. "I'll keep things under control out here."

"Hey, how come he gets to go in!?" someone yelled.

"How come you assume that's any of your goddamn business?" Mick said with comforting authority. He was a big guy and the grumbling hushed up.

"I can't go in," I muttered quietly. "It's all locked up."

"Well, that's good I guess. Isn't Sheila in there though?"

"She'd be down in the basement. She's not answering the doorbell."

We managed to keep the crowds relatively calm and under control for a while, waiting for Charlotte to get home. Finally Mick got the idea to hop the fence into the back yard and check if the back door was open. Apparently it was. A minute later he opened the front door and let us in.

Janine came in with me. Mick stayed outside on crowd control. Amy went straight to the fridge and began stuffing her face with some leftover sandwiches. I dashed downstairs to the studio.

There was Sheila, still hard at work. She looked up as I burst in, then looked at the clock with apparent surprise that it was already after midnight.

"How was the dance?" she said.

"We got a problem, girl."

"Oh? Again?"

"Yeah. Unfortunately Charlotte invited a few friends over and word's gotten around that the party's at Charlotte's tonight. Now we gotta fight to keep the entire school from showing up down here. Even if we do get most of them to take off, there's still gonna be quite a bit of traffic through the house. You might have to shut everything down until it blows over."

"To hell with that!" Sheila said. "Just lock the basement door."

"There's no lock on the basement door."

"Well then you're gonna have to stand guard at the top of the stairs all night."

"I guess I'll have to," I said, blowing out an anxious sigh. "Are you sure you can't just take a break for a few hours?"

"When am I ever gonna get a chance to finish this thing if I don't finish it by Sunday?"

"I don't know."

"And what happens if a bunch of drunken teenagers try to use this room as a make-out room with these hundred-thousand-dollar cameras standing around? You think for a moment they won't be all over the place, trying to shoot their own action movie down here?"

"Shit..."

"I don't suppose it's really your problem, but you're gonna have to make it your problem, if you want me to get this thing done."

"You're right."

"I'm always right."

She went back to editing.

"Charlotte and I broke up," I said.

Sheila just stopped and looked at me for a moment. Then she looked at the monitor as though trying to decide if there was no any point in continuing with the movie now.

"What happened?"

"That Vincenzo guy, from this afternoon, apparently Charlotte and her friend Jade spent the afternoon fucking like bunny rabbits while we were all out."

Sheila looked concerned. Then she looked kind of angry. Then she looked really, really sad.

"I thought you guys were supposed to have this super close relationship and everything?"

"I thought so too, but I can't deal with her fucking some other guy, especially a guy who wouldn't even condescend to give me the time of day. It just proves to me that she doesn't really understand what love is."

"So you're broken up now?"

"Well yeah. I can't deal with her being treated like a cum rag by some self-absorbed asshole who probably won't even remember her name this time tomorrow."

Sheila was about to speak but Janine interrupted, crying out in fright from upstairs.

"Anthony!"

"Be right back!"

I turned and ran.

Mick was on the lawn, scuffling with a group of guys. Words had apparently been exchanged and now there was pushing and shoving.

"Do something!" Janine said, watching through the living room window. I ran outside, just as a second guy moved around behind Mick to support his buddy. He looked like he was waiting for the chance to pounce. I never gave him that chance. I grabbed him by the throat and yanked him back, slamming him into the grass with a heavy pounding thud. All the wind went out of him in a dry wheeze, and I stood over him ready for him to jump back up.

"Troubles, Mick?" I said.

"Yeah. Asshole here thinks he should be allowed to walk right in the place, just because I don't live here."

"I got your back, man."

"I repeat. There is no party here, so all of you just step the fuck off and go hang out at the 7/11 or something. You will not be entering this house."

The guy on the ground had gotten up and stumbled away, back into his group of friends. The guy who had squared off with Mick had backed up as well, seeing it would be no easy fight. More kids were arriving though, even as all this was going on, and things got even more intense. Where the hell was Charlotte?

"I guess we all gotta take off," the punk said to the newcomers. "The testosterone brothers here figure they own the fuckin' place and they've decided we're all not good enough to attend their party."

As soon as he'd finished speaking, he turned and tried to sucker punch Mick. Mick flinched sideways though and the fist simply grazed his cheek. It was a big mistake though. Having missed the punch, he spun a little off balance and Mick corrected him with a knee to the ribs that lifted him right off the ground. He landed about a foot back from where he'd been standing and doubled over in pain. Mick's foot shot up and he landed a kick right in the kid's face. This send him flipping right backward and he landed on the grass flat on his back with a loud thump. A girl screamed. Somebody took a swing at me while I was watching, connecting right in the temple. Everything flashed bright white for a moment and I stumbled sideways, knocked off balance for a moment, but before I'd even given my head a shake, Mick turned and collapsed the kid's nose with a cold hard crunching shot right in the face. The kid fell, unconscious before he hit the ground, and didn't get back up again. He apparently spent the night in the hospital too, I heard later, recovering from a concussion.

"Anyone else!?" Mick said, clenching his fists at the group.

The first kid got up again, with a very large shoe mark on the front of his face, and eyed Mick for another chance to strike. Mick was mad now though, and he stepped toward him in an aggressive stance, making the kid think better of taking a second shot. He backed up and backed down.

"Alright, alright!" he said. "Let's get the hell out of here. We came here to party, not to scrap."

My head hurt, but I was okay. The three idiots we'd fought got the worst of it. A couple of them picked up their fallen buddy and carried him off on shaky legs. But more kids were arriving, by the carload.

We kept shouting at the crowds that this party was invite only, and only people that we knew were actually Charlotte's friends would be allowed inside. Most of them left peacefully, with only minor grumbling, a few of them had words for us, but left peacefully enough. The ones we knew were okay, were allowed inside, but even these groups had brought friends along with them that we didn't know. We didn't know whether to turn them away or not so we decided to wait for Charlotte.

Where the hell was she?

I decided to head inside and check on Sheila again. See if maybe I couldn't talk her into taking a break after all. Kids were getting rowdy out there and that definitely took precedence over finishing the movie.

The basement lights were out though. I flicked the switch up and down a few times and no lights came on. So I felt my way down the stairs in the dark. The king-sized bedspread was hanging over the window of the control room and only a little bit of light came out from the monitor and a desk lamp she'd turned on inside there. I stumbled over some cables on the floor but found my way in to the control room.

"What happened to the lights?" I asked.

"I unscrewed all the bulbs. I figured if kids can't see anything down here they won't come snooping around. We'll keep the door shut up there, and the hall light out as well, and that should keep most of them away. Anyone else who wanders down here, we'll have to deal with one-on-one."

"I guess so," I said. "We almost got in a full-out scrap up there. Mick knocked a couple guys out already. I think they were from another school or something."

"Good thing he's here."

"Yeah."

"You better get back up there. Make sure only sensible people are allowed in."

I nodded and made my way back upstairs. There was Amy, talking on the cordless phone, looking nervous but happy.

"Yes, we just got back from a school dance. It was fun. Some boy was following me around all night, but Anthony scared him away ... Yeah, he's awesome. I like him ... Yeah, he's here. You wanna talk to him?"

She passed the phone to me.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey there, Studly Doright. How's it shakin'?"

Stephanie Lawsen. As soon as I heard her voice, I realized how badly I missed her. I looked up at the portrait of her on the wall and my heart yearned to see her again. Somehow just the idea that she existed seemed to make the universe a lot less chaotic and a lot more comfortable.

"Hey, Steph. How's the trip going?"

"We're doing a lot better than you guys over there, it turns out."

"Yeah. I've definitely been better."

"Charlotte called me from school Anthony. She told me what happened."

Suddenly I wanted to cry again. Just the tone of her voice — so understanding, so accepting of whatever the situation was — it lifted an enormous weight off me.

"You heard the bad news, huh?"

"You okay, sweetie?"

"I've had a pretty rough day, actually, but I'm over here now anyway."

"I'm glad you're there actually, kiddo. Char told me she invited some friends over. I want you to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, okay? You know what I mean?"

"I've already chased a few punks off the lawn, Steph. You don't even need to ask."

"That's my little champ. But you go ahead and call the cops if you need to. Don't go getting yourself into fights over it."