Chapter 38

"Thanks for the ride."

I got out of the backseat of the car. "You were a real lifesaver."

Mrs. Stiller got out of the driver's seat. "I still don't understand why you were walking down the highway in a storm." Kevin got out the other side.

"It wasn't that bad. I would have made it. Of course I would have been just in time for the curtain call. But I would have made it. Thanks again," I said with a wave. "Bye, Kevin."

I walked quickly to the front doors of the school. I was still a little cold from my fifteen minute walk before Kevin and his mom spotted me. Inside, I paid my last five dollars for admission and a program. You'd think a fellow thespian would get in free, but I guess that's the business part of show business.

In the auditorium, almost everybody was standing around. Only a few people were in their seats. I saw Robbie and Tami talking with Mike Rose over on one side. Mom, Dad, and Traci were standing with some other adults near the back wall. I went over.

"Hi, runt. How you doing?" I said, coming up behind her and putting my hands on her shoulders.

"Okay, I guess," she said without enthusiasm.

"What's wrong?"

"I wanted to spend the night at Lizzie's house, but Mom said no."

"That's too bad. Why?" Mom gave me a warning look. I winked.

"She just said because."

I leaned down. "Sometimes moms just get cranky," I whispered.

"You got that right," she said and wandered off to find one of her friends.

"What was that all about," Mom asked.

"Traci's a little annoyed cause you're getting all dictatorial and won't let her go to Lizzie's. Poor girl."

"Poor girl? You're the one who asked me not to let her sleep out."

"You didn't have to be so mean about it," I said with a grin.

I don't think my mom ever came closer to hitting me than that moment.

"Dad, I need a favor."

"I'm not sure doing you a favor right now would be beneficial to my marriage." Dad glanced at Mom who was glaring at me.

Then Mom smiled. "Oh, find out what he wants. You know he'll get it eventually."

Dad sighed. "What?"

"I was wondering if you had two twenties I could borrow until I get home?"

"Forty dollars? What do you need forty dollars for? Here?"

I shrugged. Dad and Mom exchanged looks, then Dad reached for his wallet.

It might be my imagination, but there seemed to be a lot more of those looks since we moved from California.

"Ladies," I said as I walked up to Robbie and Tami. Mike Rose was just leaving to join his parents, and we nodded to each other.

"Here," I said, handing each of them a twenty.

"What's this for?" Tami asked, looking down at the bill in her hand.

"You won. I lost." I told them about my dinner.

Tami smiled. "You did what you had to. I can't take your money," she said, handing back the bill.

"I would have done the same thing," Robbie agreed. "But I'm keeping the money." She tucked the twenty into the front pocket of her jeans.

"I vote Robbie buys the snacks at intermission," I suggested.

"I second that motion," Tami agreed

"That okay," Robbie said with a smile. "I'll still make a profit on the deal."

There are times when I don't like Monster Girl very much.

The play was awesome. Even better than the first time.

Last year I'd watched the Tony awards on TV. Not by choice. It was an assignment for English class. But during the show, they showed clips of the nominated plays and actors. Leslie had them all beat.

The scenes between Leslie as Clarice Darrow and Louis Frey as William Jennings Bryan were riveting.

For added drama there was one more scene after the curtain fell.

"You have raised an extremely rude disrespectful brat," Mr. Reed yelled

Mom's eyes bugged a little as Mr. Reed charged at her after the play.

"Excuse me?"

"You haven't bothered to teach him any manners. Or respect for his betters," Reed said wagging his finger in mom's face. Mom hates that.

"He's right you know," I said walking up with Tami. "No respect at all."

Reed glared at me. Mom looked confused while Dad looked amused. I noticed Mrs. Carter standing back looking embarrassed. I didn't see Darlene.

"What'd he do?" Mom asked. She knew I had dinner out tonight, but I don't think she'd ever met the Reeds.

"He sat at my table and tried to tell me how to raise my family."

"He's almost right, but I was standing when I told what he was doing wrong. Mom, this is Mr. Reed, Darlene's step-dad."

"You see!" Mr. Reed was wagging his finger again. "He's not even sorry. He's not even apologizing."

"Blame him," I said, pointing at my dad. "He said you never have to apologize for the truth."

Reed glared at me, then dad, who was watching silently, then Mom, then back at me.

"What are you going to do about him?" Reed demanded.

"I'm not even sure what he did," Mom said with a shrug.

"I might have known. At least we can see where he gets it. I demand..." his finger was practically in my Mom's nose.

I knocked his arm away and stepped between them. "Feel free to say anything you want about me. But get in my mom's face again, and we'll find out if a tenth-grade football player can knock the shit out of a big asshole like you."

He had a few pounds on me, but it was flab, not muscle. I was pretty sure I could beat the hell out of him if I tried.

"TONY! I won't stand for that kind of language. Apologize!"

"I can't. Not this time."

"You see what he's like. And what about his threat?"

"I'll take..." Mom started.

"We won't punish a boy for defending his mother," Dad said firmly.

"He..."

Dad stepped up, pushing me out of the way and standing between Reed and Mom. "And yell at my wife again, and Tony's not the only one who'll be taking you down."

Reed's finger came up and his mouth opened, but he changed his mind, turned and stomped off.

Dad looked at me. "The language was unnecessary. Tomorrow, you will clean the house, top to bottom, then again Wednesday. Understood?"

I nodded.

"Anything else?" Dad asked Mom.

She looked at me. "Tomorrow afternoon, I would like a complete, and hopefully objective report about what just happened, but I have no intention of letting this ruin my night."

I nodded again.

I decided that I needed to put some real thought into Christmas this year.

"What did your mom mean?" Tami asked after Traci had stomped off toward her bedroom.

"Traci doesn't know about tonight," I whispered.

"I don't get it," Robbie said.

"Well, she's feeling a little picked on. First Mom wouldn't let her spend the night at Lizzie's, then you heard her on the way home. She told Trace that she and Dad were spending the night out, and that since I was having friends over, she should stay out of the way in her room."

"You're mean."

I picked up Robbie's hand, bowed, and kissed it. "I learned from the best.

Robbie grinned. "You say the sweetest things."

I was wondering if I should try kissing my way up Robbie's arm, a la Gomez Addams, when there was a knock.

Tami opened the door. Mikee was there with Zoe, Kelly standing in the background.

Mikee looked in the door. I was still bent over Robbie's hand. "Are we interrupting something?" she asked.

"I can only hope," I said before Robbie pulled her hand back.

The girls came in and shucked coats.

Tami and I went to the kitchen. I started opening cans of pop while Tami poured Doritos into a bowl. Cokes for Tami, Mikee, Robbie and me, root beer for Kelly, and Sprite for Traci who was trying to decaffeinate for some reason. Dr. Pepper for Zoe, but she was from New York and probably didn't know any better.

I put all the drinks on a tray, and we went back to the living room.

The phone rang when we were halfway there.

"Robbie, would you get that?"

She did as I set the tray on the coffee table and started handing out cans.

"Tami, it's your mom."

Tami set down her bowl and took the phone.

She gave me a funny look as she talked, Robbie looked at me questioningly, and I shrugged.

"Darlene's at my house," Tami announced when she hung up.

"What's she doing there?" Robbie asked.

Tami shrugged.

"I invited her to the monopoly-a-thon when I was at her house, but I figured that was a no-go," I said.

"She probably figured asking to spend the night with Tami was safer than using your name," Robbie theorized. Tami and I nodded.

"I'll go get her," Tami said.

"I'll go with you," Robbie volunteered.

I sat down in Dad's chair.

"Alone at last," Mikee announced, plopped in my lap, and kissed me.

"What about us?" Zoe asked, her eyes getting big.

Mikee broke her lips from mine. "If you want a turn, you'll have to get in line." Zoe's eyes got bigger.

"Where's Traci?" Kelly asked.

I darted my tongue into Mikee's mouth and teased the roof of her mouth. She started giggling and pulled away.

"She doesn't know she's invited yet."

Zoe was still staring, so I decided to feel up Mikee and kiss her again. I reached up and squeezed her breast, my thumb easily finding her nipple since the darling wasn't wearing a bra. I heard the door open while our tongues wrestled in her mouth.

"Leave you alone for three minutes and there's another girl in your lap," Tami said as she took off her coat. I could see Darlene's eyes were as big as Zoe's.

I grinned but didn't break my kiss with Mikee. My left hand eased down her butt and started caressing her through her jeans.

"Aren't you going out with Brian Thomas?" Darlene asked.

Mikee pulled away from me. "Sure. Brian's a great guy, but Tony kisses better," she said with a big smile.

"Kissing isn't all he's doing," Zoe said.

Mikee looked down at her tits. "Tony, you're not supposed to touch me there," she said as if surprised.

"You want me to stop?" I asked as I moved my thumb in a circle around her stiff nipple.

"You probably should."

"When?"

"Sometime tonight."

I was afraid that Darlene and Zoe were going to throw their necks out as their heads ping-ponged back and forth between watching me and Mikee and looking at Tami.

Kelly giggled.

Tami sighed.

"Mikee get off Tami's boyfriend," Robbie ordered.

"Awww," but she did. Robbie came over and plopped down.

Tami shook her head. "What about Traci?" she asked.

"Are you a good actress?" I asked, then blew lightly into Robbie's ear. I still wasn't sure where we were.

"I was in your play," Tami pointed out.

"We lost."

"You were the one who was on stage the most."

"That's why we came close."

Tami stuck her tongue out at me. The Robbie stuck her tongue out too. I kissed it.

"Did you have a point?" Tami asked.

"After the phone rings, go back and get Traci. Try to make her think I'm really mad."

"You ARE mean," Robbie said. I nibbled her earlobe.

I looked over at Kelly, pointed at Dad's cell phone sitting on the coffee table, and pantomimed dialing a phone. She nodded, picked up the cell, and dialed. A second later the phone rang. I let it ring twice, then signaled to Zoe to answer it, since she was the closest. She did, then tossed the handset to me.

Tami stood by the front of the hallway and held out one finger. Then two. Then three. Then four. Then her hand out with her thumb extended. She grinned, turned, and went down the hall.

We heard her knock.

"What?"

"Tony wants you."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but he seems mad."

We could hear her door open. I nodded for Robbie to get off my lap, then held the handset to my ear. Kelly held the cell down by her leg.

The two girls walked into the living room.

"Just a minute," I said into the phone and held my hand over the mouthpiece. "Mrs. Gordon is on the phone. She's been talking to David. Is it true?" David Gordon was Traci's current boyfriend. She actually thought going to a dance with him was more important than going to my game last week.

"What'd she say?"

"Just a minute," I said and put the phone back to my ear. "Could you tell me that again. Unh huh. Unh huh. She didn't?" Traci was getting very red and I wondered just how far she and David had gone. Maybe I should get Tami to have The Talk, part three, with her.

I lowered the phone, my hand on the mouthpiece again. "She says you're the reigning queen of Monopoly."

"What!"

"Ask her yourself." I tossed her the phone and she brought it up to her ear.

"Hi, Traci," Kelly said into the cell.

Traci glared at me and I wondered for a second if I'd gone to far. I slid off the chair and onto my knees. "Traci, my beautiful, intelligent, and forgiving sister. We're going to have a Monopoly marathon and need you to join us. I asked Mom to do everything she did as a joke, because I know your incredible sense of humor."

Traci glared.

"Did I mention your forgiving nature?"

"I don't know if I want to play with you."

"Did I mention that Zoe's pretty good and wants to be queen?" Traci switched her glare from me to Zoe for a few seconds, then grinned. "Bring it on," she told the other girl.

Traci and the others started clearing the dining room table and setting up the game, but Darlene signaled that she wanted to talk to me alone. We went to my room.

"I'm a little mad at you," she said as I closed the door.

I turned and faced her. "I don't blame you."

"You don't?"

"I shouldn't have blown up at dinner."

"No, you shouldn't," she said forcefully.

"If it means anything, I wasn't trying to interfere. I didn't even do it for you. Not really."

"You didn't?"

"I just... I got so mad listening to him talk. Knowing that he didn't have a clue how he was treating everyone. He doesn't even realize that everyone in the house is like a peasant and Mike is royalty. All hail Prince Mike the Magnificent."

Darlene smiled and sat down on the bed. "You said everything I've wanted to say since Mom got married. Almost everything."

"What'd I miss?" I asked, surprised. I thought I threw a pretty complete tantrum.

Darlene grinned.

"It won't help," I told her, sitting down next to her. "He didn't even hear what I said."

"No, but maybe Mom did. I haven't said anything because I didn't want to ruin anything for her."

"You know, it's not fair to her if you don't let her know every now and then what you're feeling."

"How'd you get so wise?"

I grinned. "I get asked that a lot." That, or why did I have such a bad attitude. Maybe the two go together. "You should talk to her."

"I will," Darlene promised. "Maybe things will get better. When I said I wanted to spend the night at Tami's, Steve said no, but Mom over-ruled him. I don't think he realized that you lived so close, but I know Mom did."

"I'll cross my fingers for you. And I meant what I said, if things get too bad, Mom lets me bring home strays."

"So I'm a stray?"

"An awfully cute one."

Darlene smiled and hugged me. Then she seemed to realize that she was sitting on my bed, hugging me, with the door closed and Tami outside.

She jerked away, blushing furiously. "I didn't mean... I mean... Tami..."

I smiled, reassuringly. "Darlene, If you ripped off your clothes and we had wild passionate sex right now, Tami wouldn't mind."

"She wouldn't?"

"She might be annoyed that we held up the game, but she wouldn't be mad."

I could tell the exact second that Darlene imagined the two of us naked on the bed.

The game was all set up when we came back, eight chairs around the table. I could see the questions on everyone's face. Everyone except Tami and Robbie, since they knew about the dinner scene.

I sat down between Tami and Kelly. Darlene took the other open chair between Tami and Robbie. As I sat, I reached down and squeezed Kelly and Tami's knees. Kelly jerked hers away. I was surprised.

"If you can't beat a ten, Traci and Zoe need to have a roll off," Mikee told me as she handed me the dice. I took them and rolled a two. Mikee rolled her eyes.