Chapter 16: Disaster

Mom was still sleeping when I snuck out of the house.

There were no rabbits on the lawn, only the cat. I failed to find a rock to throw at it.

I skipped down the road, excited to spend time with Nathan. Our Sunday afternoon adventures made me feel so mature and wanted. It’s great having an older boyfriend. And today was the day. He was going to take my virginity.

I arrived at Starbucks before him and found a seat at the back. Only a family, parents with two young children, sat in the middle, sharing a couple of cakes. That will be us someday, although I want more kids.

Nathan arrived in his usual flurry of compliments, smiles, and kisses. My heart soared with his presence.

He ordered our usual. He was so dreamy ordering that I didn’t care about his laughing with the cashier. Thankfully, it wasn’t the homophobe girl.

I barely contained my excitement and attacked him as he arrived at the table. I kissed him long and hard. His lips were perfect. Today is the day.

We sat discussing the afternoon. I was ready and wanted to go all the way.

“We could go to your place?” I suggested.

I didn’t want to do it in his car, the bathroom, or up on the mountain like he might suggest. None were proper for losing my virginity. The first time has to be outstanding and magical.

“My roommate is home, and they do not like me having people over.” Nathan commented, “What about a walk by that soccer field.”

No, that was a sacred place just for my team.

I sipped and mulled possible suggestions.

A strange woman carrying a baby entered the coffee shop and immediately called out to Nathan.

Nathan’s eyes grew large and defocused, which allowed me to place where I knew her. She was the angry woman arguing with Nathan in his store a few weeks ago.

She came over to us, again angry and annoyed. She must hate her phone plan, or maybe anger is her natural state.

“Hey, hold Danielle. I am going to get coffee and join you.” The woman stated while handing the child to Nathan.

I was confused but also awed by how good Nathan was with this stranger’s child.

“That’s my roommate Kim, and this is Danielle,” Nathan explained while bouncing little Danielle on his knee.

Ah, that explains why he was always evasive about his roommate. He was worried about my reaction to him having a female roommate.

Like New York, rent here is expensive. You took whatever roommates were available. Besides, Nathan likely helped care for Danielle. He’s perfect husband material. My mind flew to ideas about our future again. I wanted it to officially start with Nathan being my first more than ever now.

She was a cute toddler with rosy cheeks, smiles, drool, and thin, wispy hair. She loved Nathan bouncing her on his knee. My love for him grew with each tiny coo from the bundle of joy.

“That’s so cool,” I commented while reaching to touch his hand.

“Yeah,” Nathan grunted and pulled back.

Oh, they were fighting. Having a female roommate with a child must be difficult. He is likely annoyed that she is intruding on our time. He probably wants time away from her and the child.

Nathan’s caring for the child shows real character. He’s so perfect.

“So, who is this?” Kim asked as she sat down with her white cup.

“I’m Margot,” I answered.

I almost added, ‘I’m Nathan’s girlfriend.’

Something stopped me. I offered my hand to shake, but Kim sneered at it and me like I was infected.

Wow, she’s such a bitch. Shared rent or not, how does he put up with her?

I turned to Nathan for his reaction. He was ignoring us and playing with Danielle. Wow, perfect future father. I wanted him even more. To be so kind to this bitch’s child.

“How do you know Nathan?” The bitch asked.

Nathan never mentioning me to his roommate almost broke my heart.

“He sold me my phone plan,” I told her.

“Yeah, we were just talking about that,” Nathan interjected.

Something made me want to grab his hand, but his hands were busy holding Danielle. I stared at his hand longingly.

He had a ring on his finger. The shiny gold band contrasted his tanned, smooth skin. When did he put that on? It wasn’t there earlier when we were holding hands.

Suddenly sick, the world dimmed except for that ring. It shone like a ghost lighting up a dark room. He was married, and this was his wife.

I stood up in a flash, bumping the table and spilling my coffee. The brown liquid raced across the table and onto the floor. I didn’t care.

I had to leave. Bile filled the back of my throat.

I ran out of the building, bumping chairs, tables, and people along the way.

“Yeah, you run bitch,” the wife yelled at me.

As the fresh air hit me, I threw up in my mouth.

What had I done? Of course, he was married. I was horrible, a home wrecker, the other woman.

I ran as tears streamed down my face.

Visions of the sweet little girl bouncing on Nathan’s lap kept exploding in my mind.

Did I almost cause that little girl to lose her daddy?

The world was shallow and pastel while my head spun, and I re-lived past moments in this new light. Those beautiful moments tarnished, blackened, and now so horrible.

I found myself sitting where I first stretched with Lisa.

I wanted to throw up again, but holding my head between my knees, I managed to keep it down.

I texted the team -[boyfriend is married]

I had no idea what else to do.

Tess -[where are you]

Me - [Practice field]

Tess - [be right there]

Abigail -[be there 5 minutes]

Bella -[fucker, do you want me to beat his ass]

Lise -[I have a bat]

I smiled at my team. They are so supportive.

Tess’s truck screeched into the parking lot, jumping the parking curb. On an angle, the old truck threw up three blonde girls. Rachel in the lead, Tess and Anna close behind.

Abigail and her mom arrived in their SUV while the three girls ran towards me.

Abigail was quickly out of the much better-parked car. Why does the mind notice stuff like that at times like this?

I had just stood when Rachel tackled me back to the ground.

“Rachel, don’t hurt her, stupid,” Anna yelled at Rachel.

Rachel just held me.

Tess, then Anna, joined the hug. Abigail piled on when she arrived.

The four girls were crushing me. I had trouble breathing. It was the best feeling in the world. The four argued about hurting me, which started the comments about me liking it and how I had better not orgasm while they supported my breakup with “fuckface”, Rachel’s description of him.

I was now crying and laughing.

Everything was going to be ok.

Erin sat nearby, smoking, not saying anything.

I wanted to tell them everything, but not with Erin in earshot. Instead, we just sat together and enjoyed the hot sun beating down.

Hours but thirty minutes by my watch, Erin and Abigail drove me home.

Eva and Sofia were already at my place. They knew about Nathan, but Mom didn’t.

Eva wore a bright sunflower yellow dress. Sofia wore a similar but darker yellow dress. They sat drinking with Mom, who was out of place in a green with a yellow and white daisy sun dress.

I wiped my eyes, and while sitting with them was almost required, I only acknowledged them and went to my room. Mom called in anger,” Margot, come and visit.”

The two girls said something to Mom before following me into my room.

We three sat silently together, one on either side of me.

Mom yelled that the party had begun before leaving.

Sofia’s phone beeped with texts. I pushed the two love birds out. I just needed to be alone.

I changed into comfy sweatpants and a hoodie, then curled up on the bed to watch a movie about lost love.

I texted back and forth with various people. Charlotte was angry while Tasha was researching the cost of plane tickets. The team had a million questions. I answered some.

The stupidness of the movie was numbing my mind and emotions when Sofia knocked and entered without waiting for my reply.

“Oh, I love this movie,” she whispered but wasn’t happy.

In the movie, the father has just screamed and threatened the girl’s boyfriend, causing him to run away in fear. The girl screamed that she hated her father before running to her room. The movie grew quiet enough that Sofia’s crying echoed around the room.

“What’s wrong, what happened?” I asked while putting my arm around her.

“It’s my father.” She stammered out.

After witnessing the movie, my heart sank. Did Sofia’s father do or say something similar to Eva?

I held her and stroked her hair. She calmed down enough to talk.

“He likes her.”

She burst out into another fit of crying.

What the hell?

“Your dad likes Eva. What’s the...” I began to ask until everything made sense.

“Fathers are supposed to hate your soul mate. Just like grandpa did with Dad.” Sofia stammered out between sobs. The movie drove home the strange belief. You have to fight for true love. Otherwise, it’s not true love. Oh, this poor, mixed-up teenager.

“Fathers can like your partner.” I soothed her.

“Eventually...” She choked out.

I held her for a few more moments. Gently as possible, I helped her stand and guided her across the street.

Eva was laughing and having a great time with Sofia’s father. However, when she noticed Sofia’s face, she sprang up and leaped onto her, kissing and hugging.

“So, what do you think about Eva?” I asked Sofia’s dad, though I knew the answer already.

“I want to hate her for stealing my Sofia, but she’s too perfect to hate. I can understand why Sofia fell in love with her.” Her dad replied with a smile.

He knew his daughter.

“You tried to hate her? Oh, Dad, that’s wonderful.” Sofia gushed, then kissed Eva deep and long.

Mom and the other adults were confused, but I knew what was happening. Teenagers may appear strange, but we do make sense.

I wanted to turn around and head home, but I was now stuck at the party wearing the wrong clothes, all gray instead of shades of yellow like everyone else. Why am I always the ugly duckling?

Whoever thought of having a lemon festival must have been one twisted individual.

The twins brought me a yellow bandana that I tied around my wrist. I wasn’t very festive, but people were too drunk to care.

Chairs filled with strangers covered the front lawn. Except for Mom and Sofia’s family, I knew no one. And these were my neighbors.

So different from New York. Everyone here was super friendly, but they hadn’t come by the house to welcome us to the neighborhood. Back in my old place, people were quick to call you an asshole but also quick to invite new neighbors over for dinner.

Mom handed me a bottle of hard lemonade. Somehow, she sensed that I needed it, though I ordinarily do not drink.

The spiked lemonade tasted perfect, fresh with a hint of alcohol bite.

My phone had been beeping with texts. I scrolled through until arriving at Nathan’s texts.

Nathan - [Your psycho friend just smashed my car window]

The text hit like a sledgehammer. My eyes teared up.

Nathan - [You’d better give me their name for insurance, or I will make your life hell]

Like, fuck you. Nathan can’t make things worse.

Unthinking, I texted the team chat to ask who had done it.

[Lise], [likely Lise], and [I guess Lise] were the responses.

Lise - [Fuck you, I was busy, Fenna did it]

What? No way, not sweet Fenna.

[Fuck - yes - Fenna], [you go girl], and [right on] flooded the channel.

Fenna - [Sorry Margot]

The misting of my eyes turned from sadness to joy at my team. I didn’t know that Nathan was married. He was a “Fuckface”.

The channel blew up, asking what she did.

Fenna - [Nothing, a rock may have slipped and accidentally broke a window]

[Video?], [More details], and [Let’s all do that] came the reply.

Zoe - [wouldn’t a bat be better? You could get all the windows. Lise, don’t you have a bat?]

Holy, these girls were intense.

Me - [No, leave him, not worth the trouble]

Zoe - [But it’s fun smashing stuff]

Me - [Please?????]

[Fine], [Ok], [OKAY], [k]

I needed to put my phone away. I hope this doesn’t get out of hand.

“Do you want to dance?” Adam, the younger male twin, appeared out of nowhere to ask.

“Adam, stupid, older girls don’t want to dance with younger boys.” His sister teased from over his shoulder.

“This one does,” I responded, then stuck out my tongue at her.

Maybe it was the vodka, or it was just the emotional day, but having this younger boy wanting to dance with me helped with my shattered heart. To think, I was going to let Nathan have my virginity today. I dodged that bullet.

The music was not slow enough to dance slowly, but the other drunk old couples didn’t care, and I didn’t either. Adam pressed himself up tight, so tight that his hard dick pressed into my thigh.

I wiggled my leg around to let him know that it was ok. I wanted to be naughty and didn’t care who I teased.

Adam’s hands moved down my back and under my sweatpants. He squeezed my ass as we swayed to the strange hippy music. Thankfully, it was dark in this part of the backyard, and a few other dancers were grinding much worse than we were.

I moved with him, enjoying the sensation of his hands on my ass, his erect penis against my leg, knowing that I was this boy’s whole world. He wanted me more than anything else. I was special.

As we moved together through two more songs, with one couple humping near us, his sister, Alex, joined us. She wrapped her arms around me from behind and nibbled on my ear.

I loved being the center of their sandwich. Even better, when she moved her hands between us, one rubbed my slit while the other rubbed her brother’s penis.

It was getting good when Adam jerked and came in his shorts.

“You just creamed your pants, fucking loser.” His sister laughed and teased him.

“Fuck you, Alex,” Adam screamed and ran for the house.

His sister followed, teasing him about his wet spot.

Stranded in the middle of the dance floor, everyone stared at me like a leper or something.

My face burned, and I quickly slunk through the other couples.

“It’s not your fault, dear. My twins are a handful.” A drunk woman slurred as I tried to slip past to get back to the front yard.

She was the classic California Mom, white-blonde, with too much makeup. One of her dress straps had slipped down her arm, exposing one white bra-clad breast to the world. She was sipping from a martini glass, trying to appear sophisticated but failing due to intoxication.

“I’m Ross-Ann, and you are Margot, Deb’s sexy daughter.” She stood in front of me, blocking my progress.

Her slightly smeared lipstick gave me a challenging smile.

“My husband wants to fuck you.” Her eyes grew menacing and threatening.

“I’m ... sorry,” I stammered and faked a move right before moving left and around her like I learned in soccer.

Wow, soccer skills saved me from this jealous, crazy woman.

Thankfully, she didn’t pursue me. However, she did yell out, “Me first.”

Adults don’t make sense.

I joined Eva and Sofia on their chair. It was a tight fit, but I pushed Sofia over while Eva sat on our laps. The rest of the evening was with these two, mostly just listening and enjoying the comfort only people who care about you can provide.

As early as possible, I slipped away for a surprisingly restful sleep.

Monday morning, my stupid mom signed me up for the school orientation. Why do I have to spend a beautiful summer’s day in school—one of my last days of freedom? Worse, I was missing practice to go.

Thankfully, half the team texted that they went to this school.

As we arrived at the front of the school turnaround, a chubby, balding, slovenly man and a tiny, professional woman were waiting for us.

“Hi, I’m Chuck, one of the counselors here.” The garlic-smelling old guy introduced himself to Mom while staring at me.

“And I’m Gloria, the vice principal. Welcome.” The lady’s voice dripped with honey while staring at Mom.

“The other families are just through the doors. You can park in the lot.” The woman added while her eyes roamed Mom’s body.

Was this lady checking out Mom? Gross.

‘I’ll take you in,” the fat guy leered at me, offering his arm to go around my shoulders.

“I can’t stay, work emergency. I may be late picking up Margot,” Mom informed us.

What the hell, how can Mom do this to me? She was supposed to stay. She knows how shy I am.

“I’ll look after her,” the counselor commented while successfully putting his greasy arm across my shoulders.

I quickly escaped and ran to the front doors.

“Have fun, Margot,” Mom called before I entered the doors.

About twenty people were waiting just inside, an even mix of scowling kids and bored parents.

I moved off to the side, embarrassed to be the only one without a parent.

The school was a modern mixture of hard marble floors, bright red lockers, and stark white walls. All the lighting was indirect, giving off a soft vibe but with lots of shadows. The walls were covered in inspirational posters of people climbing mountains, standing in storms, and never giving up.

I pulled out my phone, scrolled the group chat, and commented on Charlotte’s latest text until the VP and counselor came inside.

A few more students and parents had arrived. We were a group of forty or so, a mix of ages. Everyone here was transferring into the school this fall.

I wish it had been a dull, stupid morning to justify more anger towards Mom, but it was pretty interesting. Knowing where everything was before the first day and a packed school is a good idea. Best of all, two seniors joined us, the head cheerleader wearing her cheerleading outfit and the star football player, sexy, strong, and yummy in his shorts and tight t-shirt.

They took the students while the VP took the parents. The counselor just disappeared.

Our first stop on the tour was the office. The pair explained that the school operates on a three-strike rule. If you hit three strikes, you have a meeting with the counselor. If you promise to behave, then you restart at zero strikes again.