Chapter 13

Later that week, Patty was making her way from the bus to her first class of the day. Almost without looking, she knew who stepped away from the side of the school entry way and fell into step with her.

"Hey, beautiful," said Van Daddock.

"Hi, Van," she said cheerfully.

Van was a senior at the high school. He was a handsome upper classman that had been vying for Patty's attention, almost from the moment the pretty young freshman had appeared on campus.

Unbeknownst to Patty, Van had befriended several freshman girls during the last three years of his high school tenure.

Three years ago during his first year at the school, Van had fallen head over heels in love with a girl named Dominica Dawson. Dominica had been the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, and they had been the royal couple of the freshman class. Van thought he'd found the girl he would marry some day.

Midway through that first school year, Dominica had left him for the junior class president and quarterback of the football team. Van found out by Dominica having one of her friends call him on the phone to let him know.

When he finally managed to talk to her days later, she laughed at his teary pleading for another chance. "Don't take things so seriously Van," had been her last words as she walked away. Van's humiliation was both painful and very public.

Dominica's parting shot was advice that Van took to heart. The young romantic became a cynical woman hater over night. He vowed he would never let a girl break his heart again, and in turn he did his best to use his good looks and smooth manner to exploit younger girls, as he felt he'd been exploited. He would shower them with attention and romance until he'd bedded them, and then coldly drop them to move on to the next challenge.

He found Patty to be a particularly exciting exercise. She was a gorgeous creature, with an instinctively sensual manner about her. He just knew the ripe young girl would be an absolutely fabulous fuck. Her devotion to her absent boyfriend only made her more desirable to him. If he could break her of that, and have her fixate that level of emotion on him (if only for as long as he needed to possess her delectable body), the creativity and passion she would give her bed partner would no doubt be incredible.

His first order of business had been to learn as much as he could about her. He looked her up in the middle school yearbook to learn what clubs and activities she liked to be involved in, after which he began taking on-line art appreciation classes. He discretely spoke to other members of the freshman class to learn about her outside interests and romantic history, after which he started practicing his rusty piano skills.

And he made a few calls to contacts at the middle school to check out her boyfriend. It was through those contacts that he joyously learned that Bobby was switching to another school across town. What a golden opportunity! He hoped it would give him the opening he needed to offer her emotional support, while playing on the inevitable teen insecurities that Bobby's move would bring.

He also called in favors with a few girls he knew at Bobby's new middle school, to see if they could distract Bobby away from Patty. Julie Sweener's excited call to "a friend" when she met Bobby had actually been to Van. After getting a look at Bobby, she called to tell Van (right in front of Bobby!) she'd met him, and by unspoken inference that she'd be happy to try to hook up with him to clear the way for Van with Patty.

Van had several points he wanted to casually wiggle into his morning hallway chat with Patty today. "And how's my favorite 'Ahhrteast' today," he began teasingly. He was portraying himself as a fellow fan of the arts, playing on her self deprecating pride in her own talents.

"I'm fine. Hey thanks for the link to that web site on French impressionists you sent me. I was checking it out last night, it's really cool."

Van smiled what he hoped was a modest smile. "You're welcome. I really love that stuff, though if I could paint like you I'd probably appreciate it more," he said modestly.

"Hey you're not so bad. Some of those sketches you've done are really good." She was referring to some pencil drawings that Van had bought from a street corner artist downtown. Then he'd shown them to Patty as "stuff he was playing around with."

"Thanks Patty. You always know how to make me feel good," he said, reaching out to brush her arm to emphasize his sincerity.

Patty smiled back at him. She was really getting to like this guy she had so much in common with. He was so easy to talk to!

"Hey, one of my friends ran into your boyfriend at their school yesterday. His name's Bobby Taylor, right?"

"Yeah! Wow that's cool. I talked to him last night, and he said he met a lot of nice people. He'd been pretty nervous about it, but he said he was already starting to make some new friends."