Chapter 15

11:10 p.m. Thursday

Andy unlocked the door as quietly as he could and stepped inside. He doubted it would make a difference. He was certain his mother would be sitting on the couch looking at her watch.

She wasn't.

He didn't see light in her bedroom so he figured that she was asleep.

She wasn't.

He found a note for him on the table.

"I went out to a late dinner with Evan. Don't wait up. Love, Mom," it read.

Andy put the note down with a frown. He couldn't recall the last time his mother went on a date. He also couldn't recall when she had arrived home after he had unless it had been from work. He wasn't certain he liked this turn of events.

"I'm jealous," he said to himself as he shook his head. "Jesus, that's stupid."

His ruminations were interrupted by his cell phone.

"Did you make it home on time?" Regan asked when he answered.

"It wouldn't have mattered, apparently," Andy answered. "Mom went out to a 'late dinner' with Evan. She isn't home."

"That's good," Regan said.

"I guess," Andy replied.

"You're going to be off to college in a couple of months," Regan pointed out. "You've told me that you want her to develop a life of her own."

"Yeah but I didn't think she actually would," Andy admitted with a laugh. "I was just telling myself that exact thing when you called. I still don't have an answer. Why are you still awake?"

"Truthfully?" Regan asked.

"I hope you'll be truthful," Andy replied.

"You left me a tad bit frustrated tonight," Regan said with a blush. "I, uh, I had to attend it when you left."

"Oh," Andy said, blushing himself at the news. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to. It's just ... well, the car thing."

"What car thing?" Regan asked.

"It just seems so tacky to fool around with you in a parked car, I guess," Andy answered.

"Oh ... my ... God!" Regan said. "Are you kidding me? I was hoping we would get in the backseat and do whatever. Andy, our options are limited. If I had known that was the problem I would have told you I didn't care if we played around in a parking lot. I just wanted your hands on me. God, when Dad told you that you were welcome here anytime, I thought about lifting my skirt and telling you that you were welcome there anytime, too."

"I just can't picture you getting naked in the backseat of a car," Andy replied.

He felt his phone vibrate in his hand. He wondered if he had lost the connection and Regan had called him back. When he looked, he saw he had a text with an attachment.

"Did you text me?" Andy wondered.

"Yep, look at it," Regan said. Andy pulled the picture up and his eyes about popped out of his head. Regan had taken a nude picture of herself and sent it to him.

"Like it?" she asked.

"Yeah," Andy said absently. She had taken the photo in a mirror and he could clearly see her pert breasts and her reddish-blonde pubic hair. But it was the look on her face that had him mesmerized.

"Good," Regan said. "I figure you were as frustrated as I was so I thought I'd give you something to help you along."

"That should work," Andy said. "You look incredibly sexy. The look on your face is amazing."

"I took it right after I got off," Regan admitted. She found it strange that she wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed to talk like this to Andy.

"I know," Andy said. "I saw the same look last weekend."

"You will see the same thing this weekend," Regan promised. "My doctor's appointment tomorrow is for the birth-control shot. I wanted you to understand that I hope our relationship moves in that direction very soon. We're being honest with each other and I wanted you to know."

"I don't want to rush things," Andy said. "I also don't want that to be the entirety of our relationship. I've been that route and it doesn't end well."

"It won't be," Regan promised. "I had fun just wandering around the mall with you. I had fun riding around in the car tonight. I look forward to every phone call and I about go crazy waiting just to see you again. But I want it to be a part of things. I'm ready for that – with you. I feel free when I'm with you. I feel like there is nothing in the world I can't do – and I want to do it all."

"I know you do," Andy said. "But I don't want you to regret something later."

"I know I sometimes seem like a stupid, little girl but I understand the situation," Regan told him. "I've thought about this since I met you. If I didn't think you were the right person, I would wait. But you are the right person. Every time I'm around you, it becomes clearer. The fact that you worry so much about me is just more proof. I don't need any more proof. OK?"

"It's not going to be easy," Andy said. "It's not like we're going to see each other every day. We don't exactly have a way to be alone."

"I know," Regan said, frustration clear in her voice. "In six weeks, we'll both be 18. We can go away for a weekend. If we want, we can go away for a month. If we can't find a way before then, at least I know what I'll give you for your birthday!"

7:45 a.m. Friday

Andy shook his head when he saw Elizabeth Pena walking toward his car for the fifth consecutive day.

This time, she took his elbow and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

"I figure we really need to give the gossips something juicy," she said when Andy looked down at her.

"I can't wait for next week!" he joked. Elizabeth continued to clutch his arm but used her free hand to tickle his ribs, causing Andy to dance and squirm away.

"I understand that you've been inquiring about the possibility of a pillow fight between Regan and me," she said with a shake of her head.

Andy blushed but figured it was OK to plow ahead.

"It was actually a pillow fight in lingerie," he said as they passed a group of sophomores. Elizabeth heard one of the girls gasp but only shook her head. "And it was less about the pillow fight and more about the lingerie."

Elizabeth laughed and made another attack on Andy's ribs.

"You are terrible!" she said. "My God, I had no idea. I mean, I knew you could be funny but Regan really brings out a side to your personality that no one knows about. You're carefree. You laugh and you joke. I like that, Andy."

"Part of it is Regan, I suppose," Andy admitted. "Another part is that this portion of my life is almost over. My mother and I are going to break away and move on. I'm not going to have to worry about her falling asleep while she's driving or getting held up by a crack-head in the middle of the night. In six weeks, I'm through with Eisenhower and I'm through with our shitty little apartment in an area where decent folks don't go out at night. I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. That's as much a part as anything else."

Elizabeth nodded her understanding but Andy knew she had no real concept of what his life was like. She lived in a nice, middle-class neighborhood. She had never walked to bus stop around yellow police tape from where a neighbor had been murdered. She had never had to worry where the next meal was coming from – or if it was coming at all.

"So, did Regan give you the news?" he asked to change the subject.

"Of course!" Elizabeth replied. "That's what the kiss on the cheek was about. If I'd known you were a pervert I wouldn't have bothered."

"Please," Andy said as he rolled his eyes. "I'm a teenage guy. If you didn't know all teenage guys are perverts you haven't been paying attention. Every male we've passed – including a pair of teachers – is watching your butt right now."

Elizabeth spun around – and to her amazement saw that Andy was right. Several boys and at least two men were watching as she walked up the stairs to the school. They all averted their eyes quickly but that only confirmed her suspicion.

"Guys are pigs," she said when turned back around. She was gratified to see Andy looking at her face – but only because he spotted her movements and lifted his gaze upward just in time.

"I told Regan that same thing," he said with a shrug. Elizabeth once again took his elbow as they entered the building. "But face it, girls aren't much better. You might be more discreet but that's about all."

"Yeah, fine," Elizabeth said with a laugh. "But you will rarely see a girl drooling because a guy is wearing jeans."

"They would if the guy looked as good as you do in those jeans," Andy said with a wink. "Besides, admit it, you'd be disappointed if no one paid attention. You didn't spend 20 minutes painting those on for no one to notice."

"I did not paint these on!" Elizabeth protested.

"I am willing to bet that it took you three times as long to get into your pants this morning than it took me to get into mine," Andy retorted.

"You just wait until I tell Regan that you're talking about getting into my pants," Elizabeth shot back with a laugh. Andy's face turned scarlet.

"That's not what I meant," he quickly said.

"Oh, sure, backtrack now," Elizabeth continued to goad him.

"It wasn't!" Andy declared.

"I know," Elizabeth said, letting him off the hook. "I just like to watch you blush. I wanted to thank you. That was my whole purpose of coming out the parking lot to meet you – aside from giving all the guys a look at my butt, apparently."

"Thank me?" Andy wondered.

"For letting me do something nice for you," Elizabeth continued. "Andy, I've always known how hard it is for you to accept something from anybody – particularly from someone you're not especially close to. I'm sure you agonized over the scholarships and I'm sure you tried to give them back. I expressly told the groups that I wouldn't accept them and they were to make sure you knew that if you didn't take them, they would either go to someone we don't know or go unused completely."

Andy frowned.

"It wasn't a lie," Elizabeth hastened to add. "I wouldn't have accepted them if you turned them down. My parents thought a work study grant would do me some good. As you pointed out the other day, I don't have much real-life work experience."

"I'm sorry about that," Andy cut in.

"You were right," Elizabeth said with a shrug as they stopped at Andy's locker. "I focused on things that would look good on a transcript. Paul said that he was unprepared for the amount of work required at Stanford because he had never really worked a day in his life. He almost flunked out his first semester. Did you know that?"

Andy shook his head.

"Part of it was because he was coming home to visit too often," Elizabeth continued. "We had never been away from each other since we started to date and neither of us was secure enough in the relationship to go that long without seeing the other. I thought it was just my insecurities, you know, but he told me he felt the same way. We got that worked out over Christmas but he barely got to go back for his second semester. It took him all year to get used to the work involved.

"He's going to work as a roofer this summer. He said he hopes he learns two things: First, he doesn't want to live that sort of life forever so he needs to buckle down at college; Second, it will teach him a work ethic that football and basketball hadn't. He needs the real-world experience in order to translate it into his academic career. You have that! Regan and I don't."

"I was around your cheerleading practices during the winter," Andy pointed out. "I've seen how hard you work. I took a cheap shot at you and I'm sorry."

"It wasn't work," Elizabeth countered. "It was glorified play. What you do, that's work. If you make a mistake, you know it could cost you your job. If I make a mistake, I look silly in front of a crowd."

"Or you break your neck," Andy noted. "At least I don't have to worry about that."

"Like I'm sure the warehouse at AWG is the safest place on the planet," Elizabeth said. "It doesn't change my point. I need something like a work study to teach me what real life is like. Regan ... well, I'm not sure about that one. Her real life isn't going to resemble mine after college. I want you to understand something, Andy. You're the reason I'm going into college with my eyes open. I understand that I'm not going to get hired for a job paying $80,000 a year the moment they hand me a diploma. Until I got to know you again ... well, I fully expected that. I know Paul was disillusioned when the reality hit home for him this year. I've watched you over the past few months and I've learned a lot from you. I felt I owed you the chance to have everything you deserve if I could offer it. I could and I'm extremely happy that you're going to Stanford with us."