Part XXXIV - Pressure So Powerful

Her slim five-foot-two frame splattered from head to toe with dry mud and grass stains, Tia Jalone shouldered open the front door to her house and staggered inside, huffing mightily. She felt like pounded crap and looked ready to collapse right there on the Moroccan carpets of the foyer, but she was still grinning like an idiot.

We won! I won! Victory, oh yeaaah!

Letting the heavy gym bag thump to the floor and hefting her gleaming MVP trophy, it’s glimmering faux gold a match for the Championship medal hanging around her neck, she skipped off down the hallway, eager to get to the study and place it on the center of the mantle piece with her other totems of victory, nestled between the one’s her beloved father had won back when he was a high school and college football superstar.

Oh, Daddy is gonna be so proud! I wish he could have been there to see me get it, but his work is important, I’m not angry, nope! Plus it’s all on video, and he and I can have a party and watch me score the winning goal over-and-over, yes!

Best ... day ... EVER!

But, as she passed the stairs leading up to the second level, the bruised and battered brunette paused, because she could suddenly hear ... voices?

No ... not voices, though the sounds echoing down from above were definitely coming from human beings. But while there were words mixed in with the grunting, squealing and moaning, the two people upstairs were definitely not having a conversation. At least, not one worthy of public consumption.

Tia’s shocked face tipped upwards, big brown eyes rolling wide and mouth hanging open.

No ... damn ... way...!

He wouldn’t ... he couldn’t ... he ... he said he was going to--to--he said he had to WORK, that they needed him at the construction site or-or-or ... or his big project ... would all fall...

... fall apart...

LIES! He LIED to me! Daddy--oh! Oh, you dirty, dirty...

“ ... bastard!” she spat the nasty word out loud, the acid in her mouth vanishing down her rasping throat as hit rage poured through her sixteen year old frame and with fists raised before her she charged up the stairs.

I’m gonna KILL him, I can’t believe he would blow off my final game just so he could--could--ooooo!

Teeth gnashing she reached the closed door to the master bedroom and gripping the knob made to throw it open and dash inside, mouth thrown wide as she screamed and screamed bloody murder at her tawdry father and his latest housewife conquest.

But ... Tia made herself pause for a moment, she forced herself to wait, just for a second.

L-Look what he’s done t-to me! I was having the greatest day, and in one fell swoop Daddy has ruined it--tried to ruin it, TRIED! Because I won’t let his bad behavior succeed. Nope! I won’t!

As of late she had been diving into the large collection of old self help books her mom had amassed, in search of ways to empower herself against the increasing enemy forces that seemed to strangely be rising up around her formerly sublime existence. And one of the prime rules she had digested was that you couldn’t take the mistakes of those close to you so personally, lest you come to shoulder the guilt that was rightly theirs and not yours.

Right! Daddy is the one destroying his social life by messing around with all these floozies, his sins are his and not mine, and I will not let him bring me down. I am a good person, and how I comport myself must stand as an example to him, so perhaps he will see the error of his ways and rise above his low behavior.

She needed to release her rage before she confronted him, yes! That was what she had to do, so turning around she marched back down the stairs and opening the back door she shut it carefully behind her so nobody inside would hear her scream “DADDY!!!”

Gasping and sweating, she slowly shut her mouth and unballed her fists one finger at at time.

Okay, yes, that feels a little better. Not a lot, but it’ll have to do, ‘kay...

She took a deep breath and counted backwards from ten and when she had reached zero she felt much calmer and even somewhat composed. Anger had faded away to be replaced with disapointment in what her father was doing, as well as a little fear at what she was about to confront, but the books had been firm on that point as well, she needed to look the problem in the eye, face it down, she couldn’t pretend whatever Steve Jalone had just finished doing in his bedroom hadn’t happened. That would be a big mistake.

No, I need to catch him in the act and display my dismay and sadness at what he’s been doing to our family. It’s the only hope for us getting past this.

So squaring her narrow shoulders she went back inside the house and as calmly as she could muster she climbed the steps again and stepping up to her father’s masterbedroom paused for a second, then called out loud enough that her voice would penetrate the thick oaken door separating them.

“Daddy...?”

And a moment later her father’s tired voice responded, “Yes?”

Huh, I bet I know why he sounds so wasted, the dirty old bastard. And that’s what he is, so I have every right to call him that. In my mind of course, heh...

She gripped the knob again and twisting it swung the door inwards and stepped into the room. Light poured in from the tall windows on the left, cutting through the mote-dotted haze to spotlight the twisted and lumpy comforter that covered the king-sized bed. Her father’s head was raised up from his pillow, eyes wide and gaping at her in shock.

“Daddy...” she frowned, “What are you doing home? You told me you had to work.”

“I ... I ... uhh...” Steve Jalone licked his dry lips and swallowed against the rising lump in his throat.

Tia cast her gaze to his right side where the unmistakably outline of a woman barely larger then Tia herself lay cuddled up beside him. She couldn’t see any evidence of who it was, but who cares, they were all the same. Yet another bored housewife cheating on her husband. She probably has children, young ones. Tia shook her head and clucked her tongue in dismay.

“Daddy, I am very disappointed in you. You have broken your promise to me again.”

“Um...”

Tears formed in her eyes, not at all feigned, “You missed my final soccer game for ... for her, so I hope she was ... was worth it.”

“Tia-”

“No!” she held up a hand, silencing him, “I don’t want to hear it, Daddy. This day was very important to me and if you don’t understand that then ... then I don’t think you ever will.”

She turned away and left the room, pulling the door shut behind her. She stood there for a moment, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand, then she exhaled to try and settle her rapidly beating heart. Okay, I said my peace and all I can do now is hope he finally takes it to heart...

“Forget him and his sleazy conquest.” the little brunette whispered to herself firmly, “I’m a winner and they’re losers, and winners deserve a victory ice cream float with root beer, yep!”

So with a satisfied smile upon her face she headed back downstairs, eager to get to the fridge, she needed that cool desert NOW!

Back in the bedroom...

“Holy shit!”

Steve Jalone sat up fully and threw back the covers, sending the blue-white comforter flying across the carpeted floor away from the bed like an angry ocean wave. He looked down aghast at the seventeen year old pixie stick of a girl he’d just deflowered and a shudder ran through his bullish frame.

Aww crap, what the fuck have I done!

Vee was of a different mood though, entirely so.

“Heh-heh! That was a close one, hah!” she sat up cackling, oblivious to her complete nakedness, “Daughter dearest nearly caught you in the act of popping my cherry, now didn’t she? Yeah, the little bitch nearly did.”

Steve gaped at her, suddenly very aware that he knew absolutely nothing whatsoever about this girl he had just entrusted his reputation to. Who exactly was this Veronica Nortelli anyway? Come to think of it he was now wondering if she was even an actual friend of his daughter’s. With all his pressuring for Tia to walk the straight and narrow path aside, this bleached and dyed punker seemed to be the last kind of person Tia would hang out with. No, come to think of it, Tia was very particular about her friends and had always demonstrated a dislike for any sort of Grunge culture. Steve knew his young daughter quite well, it was impossible not to considering their two-person family arrangement, and he would feel safe in stating that Tia was a bubblegum preppy type, deeply into sports and academic achievement, and while she wasn’t a snob there were definitely some kinds of people she wouldn’t want to associate with.

And I should held myself to her standards, her father scowled as he climbed out of the bed and hurriedly dressed. Then I wouldn’t be in this mess, and it’s really is a mess, because who knows what this kid is capable of? She’s not like the other women I’ve screwed around with since my wife passed, they were all far more desperate then I was to hide what we did, they had husbands and children and cushy lives to protect. But this ... this girl. She’s white trash if I ever saw it, with nothing whatsoever to keep her mouth shut.

So I had better give her something to seal those lips, yep...

Veronica had left the bed and had bent over to scoop up the discarded panties she’d borrowed from Tia’s underthings drawer, and rising up she twirled them like a juggler around her index finger, “I’m not surprised little miss tight thighs completely failed to realize what was really going on in here.”

“Oh yeah...?” muttered Steve as he stepped into his loafers and began prowling up behind her.

“Yeah!” laughed Vee as she turned slowly around, a naughty smile upon her triangular face, “Tia may be sorta book smart, which mostly amounts to being good at sucking up to the teachers at school in order to get the top grades, but when it comes to the real world her instincts are duller then-”

“-duller then what?” snorted Steve as he suddenly loomed over her much smaller form.

Veronica’s eyes went wide and she shrank back, “Uh ... I-”

“You sure talk a lot, you little bitch.” he growled down at her.

The blonde teen backed up fast and he stalked after her keeping pace until she banged up against the wall.

“Um, I better go-” Veronica tried to go to the right but he threw up a hand and slapped a palm to the burgundy wallpaper, barring her passage.

“What, so soon?” he asked with a dark smile.

She turned and tried to dash out the other way but his other arm was faster and now she was pinned between his massive biceps. Her stomach was twisting into knots and a cold chill had gripped her spine.

Steve leaned in and sniffed at her throat like a curious animal sampling it’s prey’s scent, “ ... You know what, kid?”

“Wha--What?”

“I think you’ve been lying to me.”

“Huh? N-No! I haven’t. About ... about what?”

“You aren’t Tia’s friend, now are you?”

“Uh-”

“Don’t waste my time with lies, girl.”

She licked her lips and fought the rising panic, “Um ... no. Not really...”

Steve smiled, but it wasn’t a happy grin, more like the lecherous expression of a great white shark.

“I knew it. You came here to fuck with her. To mess with her life. Admit it.”

“I-”

“Yeah, that’s exactly it. Tia, she pissed you off somehow, probably beat you scholastically because she’s so smart and you, well, just aren’t, and it dug into your little white trash craw so you found out where she lived and came here for some payback. Admit it.”

“I-I-” her teeth were chattering.

“Yeah, I can see it written all over your whore face. And when you found I was here you decided the best way to get back at my daughter was to have sex with her father and then rub her face in it.”

“I--I-”

His hand blurred across and caught her by the throat, “But that’s not how it’s going to play out, now is it, girl?”

Vee’s eyes bulged and she tried to swallow again, found she couldn’t. Couldn’t speak either. Not that Steve needed her to, as he read what he needed in her terrified expression.

Time to compound the fear...

He let go of her neck and gripped her shoulder instead, “I may have let you fuck me, girl, but you won’t be fucking with my daughter.”

“I--I wouldn’t--not ever-”

“Oh, you definitely would, I know your kind well.” he dug in with his fingers, making Veronica hiss in pain. She raised a hand to try and push him away but his other hand blocked it then slapped her firmly across the face.

“Uhhhh...!” Vee’s head twisted away from the blow.

“You’re kind is always fucking with your betters. You’re a disease.” and he slapped her again, harder, though he pulled the blow just enough so that it wouldn’t leave a mark. Steve was an expert on doing that, it was one of his many lesser known skills.

Vee was doing her best to shrink back into the wall and vanish but nothing doing, she wasn’t going anywhere, not until Steve had made sure she got the message.

Need to express my feelings in just the right way...