Chapter 81

The movie was one of those action-thrillers that starred the latest Hollywood couple, and had lots of explosions and car chases. I was glad it did, because it took my mind off Sylvia for a while, but all I could see was her beautiful face whenever there was a love scene, and the ache in my stomach never really went away.

The final scene was typical. The hero rescued the girl from certain death in the midst of a lot of violence. Amy nudged me and nodded toward Jake and Cindy when he did. Cindy was on the edge of her seat clutching Jake’s arm. He was watching too, but he had a slight grin on his face. I noticed that her hand remained there when the scene was over and the couple on the screen rode off into the sunset together.

We walked outside after the movie, and Jake said, “Shall we go get a sandwich or something?”

I answered, “Sure, but Amy and I have a stop to make on the way.”

“Okay, I’ll follow you. Uhh, will you ride with me, Cindy?”

She glanced at Amy, and she looked a little uneasy when Amy nodded, but she went to his car with him.

I pulled up behind a ratty-looking van when we got to Kelly’s house. It had blacked-out windows, and Delano High School stickers all over it.

Amy and I went to Kelly’s front door and knocked several times, but no one answered so I said, “Let’s go to the back of the house. That’s where Kelly’s room is.”

We passed Marla’s room along the way, and I remembered the first time I saw her. She was lying naked on the bed, masturbating. I remembered how sexy it was and how beautiful she looked, and I guess that I gasped.

Amy said, “Are you okay?”

I was trying to think of an answer, when the pungent odor of marijuana hit us. We continued to the back of the house, and we both stopped when we rounded the corner. There’s a large tree with a bench under it over on the side of the yard. Its kind of dark back there, but there was enough light to see three people. Two were sitting on the bench and a guy with a shaved head was standing with his back to us, partially blocking the people on the bench, but I could see that one of the people on the bench was a girl when he raised his arm to take a drag off something that he was smoking. The skinhead then handed what was obviously a joint to the girl. She seemed tentative at first, then she reached up, took it from him, and took a drag. The skinhead moved back a little when she did, and I got a better look at the three of them. The guy on the bench next to the girl had one hand around her shoulders and the other hand on her breast. She had her hand on top of his, but she wasn’t pulling it away. She finally turned toward us.

Amy and I recognized the girl at the same time, but Amy reacted quicker than I did. She yelled “Erin!” And began running toward her. The guy next to Erin jumped up just as Amy got there. The guy tried to reach for Erin when she jerked Erin to her feet, but Amy slapped his hand away. He yelled “What the fuck is going on,” when I got there.

I pushed him backward onto the bench, and I was about to take a swing at him, when the skinhead jumped on me from behind. He was a big guy, and he had me around the neck, but I twisted around, punched him in the ribs, and he let go and stumbled back. I was after the guy who had his hand on Erin, and he was on his feet again by now. I reached for him, but he sidestepped, grabbed me around the waist with one arm and began pummeling me with the other. We wrestled around for a minute, then the skinhead was suddenly on me again. He grabbed me around the neck and bent me back, letting the other guy start hitting me in the ribs. These were big guys, and I was starting to get concerned although they hadn’t hurt me yet, when the punches suddenly stopped, and the skinhead said, “Oh, fuck,” and let me go. Surprised, I looked around. Jake had hold of the guy who’d been punching me. The guy must have weighed close to two hundred pounds, and Jake was holding him like a rag doll. He carried the guy to the back fence, lifted him up and dropped him on the other side. There was a crashing sound, like he landed on some trash cans, and the skinhead said “Oh, shit,” and ran out the back gate after his friend. I looked at Jake, and he wasn’t even breathing hard.

Amy came up and asked, “Would you take Erin out front, Jake?” When he nodded, she said to me, “C’mon, Erin says that Kelly’s inside with some guy.”

We ran into the house and I jerked the door to Kelly’s room open. She was on the bed with a guy, and he quickly jumped up. His pants were around his ankles, and his dick was sticking straight out. Kelly was naked from the waist up.

Amy said, “Keep your eye on the guy, Pete,” and she went to Kelly.

I glanced at Kelly when the guy bent to pick up his pants. Her eyes were big as saucers as she stared up at Amy. Her mouth kept opening and closing, but no sound came out. Her blouse and bra were on the bed next to her. Amy grabbed them, threw them at Kelly, and said, “Put them on, NOW!”

The guy finished putting his pants on, and Kelly was wriggling into her bra, when Amy said, “Okay, how far has this gone?”

Kelly started to cry and she said, “We didn’t do anything, Amy. We didn’t have sex.”

Amy sputtered, “What are you talking about. You’re in here giving this guy a blowjob, and you say that you didn’t have sex!”

Kelly answered “No! I didn’t do that, I was only, umm, using my hand.”

The guy was rapidly nodding when Jake stuck his head in and said, “Erin’s with Cindy, is everything okay here?”

I went to Jake and quietly said, “I don’t want this to get spread around. Would you take this guy outside and convince him to keep quiet about tonight?” He nodded, and took the guy by the neck and led him away.

Dressed now, Kelly looked up at me and said, “I’m, uhh, sorry.”

I said, “I’m surprised at you, Kelly. How many guys have you been having sex with?”

She was almost pleading now, and she answered, “Nobody, Pete. Nobody since you.”

Amy interrupted with, “Never mind that, where did you meet these guys?”

“We met them at school a few weeks ago when they came there to pick up Cora from history class. They don’t go to our school.”

Amy scowled and said, “Cora? You mean Cora Bledsoe, the one they call ‘knee pads’? How long have you been friends with her?”

“We’re not really friends. I help her with her homework sometimes. Erin and I were standing around after school, talking to her about today’s lesson when the guys drove up. Cora called this morning to ask me a question about an upcoming test, and we got to talking. She said the guys thought we were cute when I mentioned that Erin was coming over tonight, and asked if it was okay if she and the guys dropped by after the game. I called Erin, and she said that it was okay with her.”

“So when did you decide to take drugs?”

“We didn’t take any drugs, there was only some pot, and, uhh, some pills, but we didn’t take the pills.”

“So, you don’t think that pot is a drug?”

“No, it’s only like, uhh, beer. A little bit won’t hurt you.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“That’s what all the kids say.”

Amy exploded, “That’s bullshit, Kelly! You know better than that. Is that what you told Erin?”

“No, it was, umm, Erin’s idea that we should try it.”

Amy stood up and turned away as though she was thinking. I had a minute to consider what had happened. I was shocked and a little embarrassed. Shocked because it was Erin’s idea to try pot, and embarrassed because Kelly told Amy about us being together.

Amy then turned back to Kelly and asked, “How far were you going to let this sex thing go? Weren’t you concerned that you were ruining your reputations?”

“We, umm, weren’t going to go all the way, besides, the guys aren’t from our school, so we didn’t think that anybody would find out.”

Amy was quiet for a minute, then she shook her head and asked, “Didn’t you say that Cora was coming over?”

“Uh huh, she’s out in the van with her boyfriend.”

“Let’s go out front. I want to talk to her.”

Cindy and Erin were standing by my car when we got out front. The guy who’d been with Kelly was sitting on the wet grass, and Jake was standing over him with his arms crossed. Amy went to the van and tried to look inside, but she couldn’t see through the blacked out windows, so she turned her head and listened for a second. She sniffed a couple of times, then went to Erin and grabbed her hand. She came over, did the same to Kelly, and took them to the van. She looked at me and said, open the door. The light came on and a cloud of marijuana smoke came rolling out when I slid the side door open. A naked guy was lying on a pile of filthy blankets and a nude girl was going down on him. He had his eyes closed and he never even looked up. Her eyes were open, but they were like two glass marbles. They were both so stoned that I don’t think they even knew we were there, and the girl continued sucking on him.

Amy jerked Erin and Kelly closer so that they could get a better look, and she said “CORA!” The noise caused the guy to jump, and Cora gagged and sat back when he did. Tendrils of phlegm made a bridge between his cock and her mouth. She clutched at her throat, retched once and threw up all over herself and the guy. She shook her head once, then wiped his vomit-covered cock off with her hand, and went back down on him before our horrified eyes.

The sight was so disgusting that we jumped back and Amy reached over and slammed the door shut. She turned to the girls and was about to say something, when she looked up and shouted, “Pete!”

I turned to see what she was looking at. The two guys from the back yard were coming toward us. They were about ten feet behind Jake. They were coming fast, and the one who’d been with Erin was carrying a long piece of wood. I yelled, “Jake!” and took off toward them. Jake didn’t even look around, he just grinned and said, I see their reflections in the van’s back window. “Which one do you want?”

I said, “Both,” as I flew past him.

The skinhead was a few steps ahead, and he threw a wild punch at me that missed by a foot. I hit him in the face on the way by, and he dropped like a rock. The other guy skidded to a stop and raised the piece of wood, but I got to him first and kicked him in the nuts so hard that it lifted him off the ground.”

I heard a booming laugh behind me, and Jake was cracking up when I turned, but I wasn’t done. A picture of the guy with his hand on Erin’s breast flashed before me, and I went over to him. He was thrashing around on the ground, moaning and holding his crotch. I dropped on top of him. I wanted to smash his face, and I raised my arm to do it, but it was suddenly being held in an iron grip.

Thinking that it was the guy’s other friend, I whipped around. But it was Jake, and he loudly said, “No, don’t kill him. We’ll have to kill them all like we did last time if you do.” It took me a few seconds to figure out what he meant as he walked over to the skinhead and said, “Get your buddies and get out of here before he really gets pissed off. I don’t want to have to explain this to the cops.”

The skinhead got to his feet, came over to where I was, and stood there while I got up. He wouldn’t look at me. He was holding his nose and blood was streaming down his chin. I glared at him and said, “Get his ass out of here in a hurry.” He looked at the guy who was still sitting on the grass, and said, “C’mere, give me a hand.”

The guy on the grass looked at Jake first, and he scrambled up and ran to help when Jake nodded. They lifted and half-carried the guy on the ground toward the van. Jake was walking beside them, talking to them the whole way. The skinhead pulled the side door open when they got to the van, and all three cried out and stepped back.

Jake said, “Get in the fucking van, NOW, or I’ll rub your noses in it,” in a threatening voice. He came back, grinning from ear to ear, when they piled into the van and drove off.

I asked, “What were you talking about?”

“I said that they were lucky you didn’t kill them, and they had better not come anywhere around here, or try to see the girls again, because I might not be able to stop you next time.”

“Did they believe you?”

“Damn right they did.”

“I’m sorry that I got you involved in this.”

He slapped me on the arm with one his huge hands, and said, “Are you kidding? I haven’t had this much fun in a long time. Watching you kick those guys asses was...”

He stopped talking when Cindy tapped his arm and said, “Excuse me, but there’s been a little too much excitement tonight. Could you take me home?”

It was interesting watching his eyes soften when he looked at her and he said, “Sure, I’ll be happy to.”

Amy said, “Cindy, I...” but Cindy waved her hand to stop her and said, “It’s okay, I’ll call you tomorrow,” when they started toward his car.

Amy said to Erin, “Would you please wait in the car for a minute?” when they drove off

Amy turned to Kelly when Erin left, and asked, “Are you okay?”

Kelly answered, “Uh huh.”

“Did you learn something tonight?”

“I guess so. Uhh, that stuff that went on in the van was sick, wasn’t it, Amy?”

“Of course, it was. What you saw in the van wasn’t even about sex, it was about drugs. It was stupid people doing ugly things.”

“Yeah, it was really disgusting.”

“Well, what about the guy you were in bed with? How did that feel?”

“It was kind of scary. He would have torn my blouse off if I hadn’t taken it off, and he kept putting my hand on his thing.”

Amy touched Kelly on the cheek for a second, then she said, “Those were bad guys, Kelly. I’ll bet it wasn’t that way with Pete.”

“Well, I sort of tricked Pete, but it was great while we were together.”

“Sex is supposed to be that way. It’s supposed be a wonderful, loving thing. Remember that, and make sure that he understands that as well when you find the right person.”

Kelly said, “Okay,” and hugged Amy, then she turned to me and held her arms out, so I hugged her too. Amy turned to leave when we stepped back, and Kelly said, is, uhh, that all?”

Amy answered, “Yes, I’m not here to scold you. Count on me anytime if you need me or want to talk. The rest is up to you.”

Amy stopped as we started to leave, and said, “And marijuana IS a drug, Kelly. Please don’t ever forget that.”

Erin was quiet on the short ride home. Amy said, “Pete, Can we stop in your room for a few minutes?” when we got there.

Erin said, “Why? Are you gonna lecture me now?” before I had a chance to answer.

“No, we’re gonna talk. Don’t you think that we need to?”

She was quiet for a second, then she said, “Okay,” and we went inside.

We sat down and Amy said to her, “Well, how did it feel?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. How did it feel to smoke pot? How did it feel to have a guy put his hands on you?”

“I didn’t like the pot. It made me dizzy for a while, then I got a headache.”

“What about the guy?”

“He had bad breath, and he squeezed too hard.”

“What would you have done if we hadn’t come along?”

“I would have kicked him like Pete did if he tried something I didn’t like.”

“He’s twice as big as you are, and he had a friend there. Do you really think that you could have stopped him?”

“Oh, I don’t think that he would have tried anything.”

“You’re wrong, Erin. He definitely would have, and probably, so would his friend. Those guys came here with the express purpose of taking advantage of some young girls. You were both in way over your heads. Trust me when I say that we’d be having a different conversation now if we hadn’t come along. The part that I don’t understand is that you and I talk a lot, and I’ve warned you about things like this. You must have known that something was up?”

“I was kind of nervous at the beginning, but they talked nice, and I got sort of relaxed after we smoked a little.”

She suddenly darted her eyes at Amy and added, “Is that what, uhh, pot does?”