Chapter 12

A little less than a mile and a half away Molly Kelly walked down the stairs and into the dining room. Her cousin glared at her but her cousin’s husband looked at her with concern.

“What in the hell were you thinking?” Suzy O’Malley spat.

“Honey,” her husband Steve cut in gently, “she had sense enough to call us.”

“She shouldn’t have been there in the first place!” Suzy maintained.

“She’s made a mistake but she also showed good judgment,” Steve said.

Suzy was obviously not happy at her husband taking sides against her but she demurred. She was still steamed that her husband had to drive out in the middle of the night to pick up her wayward cousin but her anger at Molly started much earlier in the day.

It had begun just after Molly had arrived home from class. Suzy had been happy to see her get out of the same car that had picked her up that morning. The young woman had told her that she planned to attend a concert that night with a “friend.” Suzy had expected it would be a choral concert with the funny guy Suzy had met earlier. She had been surprised a bit later when Molly told her she was heading to catch the bus.

That had been the first clue to Suzy O’Malley that something was amiss but she set it aside and considered that it might be with a different friend. She immediately had offered to drive Molly wherever she needed to go. She had told Molly she had forgotten a few things at the market and needed to go out anyway.

Molly couldn’t have very well objected. She couldn’t have insisted that she would have preferred to spend 45 minutes on a bus rather than drive into the town with her cousin. Suzy’s second clue had come when she turned into the CACC (Civic and Convention Center) and hadn’t seen the upscale vehicles that usually attended a choral or orchestral concert that were her cousin’s general preference in entertainment. Instead there had been a row of motorcycles along one side of the building and a spattering of other older model cars and vans parked around them.

“Just let me off here,” Molly had said in a hurried voice when they turned in to the parking lot. Suzy had ignored her and had driven to the side entrance that seemed to be the center of activity. It hadn’t been the main entrance to the lobby.

Molly had leapt out before answering Suzy’s question about what was going on. Unfortunately for Molly, Trevor Boykin had seen her exit the vehicle, had strode up and had stuck his tongue halfway down her throat – all the while grabbing her by both ass cheeks. She could already taste the alcohol on his breath. He had hustled her into the building before Suzy could get out of the car and drag her cousin back home. Instead Suzy had called her husband, a man who would know what sort of concert was going on at the CACC.

“It’s some punk and slash metal concert from a group called ‘The Flaming Retreads, ‘“ Steve had told her with a laugh. “They were ‘The Flaming Retards’ until more people showed up to protest than to hear the shit they call music. Why?”

“Molly just got groped by some long-haired asshole and went inside with him!” Suzy had said.

“Really?” Steve had wondered. “What about ... oh, hell ... the other guy?”

“That is what I was wondering,” Suzy had said.

“I’ll ask one of the officers inside to make sure she’s OK,” Steve had offered. “You can’t very well wait there until the concert ends at midnight.”

“Fine,” Suzy had grumbled.

For Molly, the day had rapidly disintegrated. The first blow had come when she had been forced to admit to Phil Warner that she had a date with someone else. Then he had been unfazed by the news, which further had set her back. She had admitted that she would not be as unforgiving if the shoe were on the other foot.

Then her cousin had caught on that something was strange. There had been no way to get out of the ride to the concert and Suzy had ignored her request to drop her off at the edge of the parking lot. Then Trevor had accosted her on the sidewalk in full view of her cousin.

Trevor had insisted he wanted to be near the stage but Molly had soon figured out the real reason. By standing in front and dancing Trevor had the opportunity – and had taken every opportunity – to grab her ass or her breasts or between her legs. She had finally said that she was feeling claustrophobic and moved to the back. Of course Trevor had found her before she could slip away and call Suzy to come get her. The noise produced on the stage hadn’t been music; the people in the auditorium were uniformly drunken or stoned; and the guy she had agreed to come with was a jerk.

She had been grateful when the cacophony had ended. She had wished she could shake Trevor off but he had grasped her arm as they had exited. He had directed her to his vehicle – where he had pinned her against it and kissed her again.

“I’d like to go home,” she had told him.

“Oh, come on!” Trevor had replied. “You know you love it! We’ll go to dinner and then I’ll sneak you into a rave club. It will be kewl!”

Alcohol wasn’t permitted in the CACC but she had known that Trevor had been nipping from a flask in his pocket the whole night. By the time he had started to drive away, it had been obvious that he was way beyond intoxicated. She had watched him swerve and dodge other cars until the first stoplight.

“You’re drunk!” she had said angrily. “You’re stupid and you’re an asshole!”

Then she had jumped out and ran away. She had stood in the dark, in an area of town where unaccompanied females were not safe, and called her cousin.

It had taken only 10 minutes for Steve to arrive and retrieve her. She had told him that Trevor was drunk and that she had decided it was unsafe to ride with him. Steve had asked no more questions and Molly had raced upstairs before her cousin could interrogate her.

Now she found herself sitting in front of two people who both were unhappy with her – and she fully understood that they would require an explanation. They were sponsoring her visa, after all.

“Who was he?” Suzy asked.

“A guy I have class with,” Molly replied. “His name is Trevor.”

“And the other guy, Phil?” Suzy asked. “What about him? Is he still coming out for dinner tonight?”

“I think so,” Molly answered.

“And he knows about your activities last night?” Suzy inquired.

“I told him I had a date,” Molly said. “He told me that I should go if I wanted to.”

“Steve, give us a moment,” Suzy told her husband. He shot her a questioning look but went down to check on their son.

“I know you think I’m just a stupid old married woman,” Suzy said in a softer voice than she’d used before. “I’ve seen a lot of guys like Trevor. In fact, they’re everywhere. You can have a pick of them a dozen a pence. A girl like you can pick up a guy like that at any dance club or restaurant or even off the street anywhere in the world. I know because I went through a lot of those guys before I met Steve.”

Molly glanced down the hallway where her cousin’s husband had just departed.

“He knows all about the ones I knew,” Suzy confirmed. “He knows about most of the ones you’re going to run into, too. I’m going to tell you something I think you probably already know: Guys like Trevor are everywhere but you’re not going to find a man like Phil very often. If he gives you another chance, I hope you’ll remember that.”

“There isn’t going to be another chance,” Molly said with a frown. “I believe he told me to go out with Trevor because he was through with me as soon as I told him but was too kind to tell me. He didn’t want me to feel guilty about being a slag. So he’ll come out tonight and be sweet and kind. He’ll speak to me on campus and probably even invite me to lunch from time to time. We might play video games together or watch a movie. He might even stay tonight to watch a film with me. I don’t know. I do know that any chance I had at having him as my boyfriend disappeared as soon as I decided to go out with Trevor Boykin.”

“Well, it is a lesson,” Susan replied. “You’ll know what to look for next time. You’re going to attract a lot of guys like that Trevor. You look a bit naïve and that is a huge attraction for jerks. They think you’ll be an easy mark and that you’ll be malleable and let them do whatever they want. Now you know that you can attract a guy like Phil, too. I’m not saying you’re wrong to be attracted to a guy like Trevor. I’m sure he seemed to be, I don’t know, mysterious. A guy like Phil isn’t as easy to spot but they’re out there. You found one and you can find another.”

Molly scoffed.

“Did you know his family is one of the wealthiest in the United States?” she asked. “I mean perhaps one of the top 100 wealthiest families in America. You really think there are more guys like that out there?”

“He’s rich?” Susan asked. “Are you serious?”

“I’m serious,” Molly said. “You’d never know it by talking to him or even to look at him. He’s handsome, smart, polite and comes from a great family. Yep, I really made a muck-up of this one.”

Susan laughed at her cousin.

“Well, I can’t argue with you there,” she admitted. “But it looks like you might get a friend out of it. I hope that is going to be enough.”