Chapter 3: Peter

At my house, my parents take like a million photos of me and my sister Beth. Her First High School Dance. Some geek and his parents show up with a corsage the size of Beth's head and a camera and a million more photos are taken of Beth's First Date. I gotta admit, Beth looks great. She looks like my Mom in high school with long dark hair, pined up for tonight and more of a figure than I thought she had. Mom was a cheerleader and - Dad has implied - not the hardest pants to get into. I watch him pull the geek aside and I watch the geek's face pale a bit as Dad has a 'man to man' talk with him. Dad doesn't have the worst temper in the family - that goes to Uncle Edward - but I wouldn't touch his daughter, if I were geek boy.

It occurs to me that I might be having the same conversation with Trina's Dad in like an hour.

Finally, Beth, geek boy, and I get into the car and on our way to pick up Alex. At his house, another million photos are being taken of him, my cousin Gracie and her boyfriend. My Aunt Stacy has to take a couple of me and of Beth and Alex leans over and whispers, "Could be worse. We could be at Gran-gran's."

If you have family photos taken at our Great Grandmother's house, you will be there for days. We shake on that one - well, one of those fist-to-fist things but it means the same thing - and wait for Uncle George to run out of film. Finally, pleading that we have to get our dates we escape and get to Lisa's for the next round of photos.

She's wearing this pretty blue thing with a shawl around her shoulders that doesn't quite hide the bruise on her arm. It is hand sized. Alex's hand sized. I pull him out on to the front porch.

"Dude! What happened ta her arm?"

"What?" he's genuinely confused.

"When we go back in get a look at her left arm."

We go in, we take a few more pictures and I see his face when he sees her arm. He moves the shawl off her to get a good look at it, "What the hell?"

She looks guilty. Scared. Her eyes dart from her parents to Alex to me and down to the floor. "That. Stupid. I fell." Even I know she's lying. Hell, even Alex can figure this one out.

Her father comes over and takes a good look, "That's a bad bruise, baby. You should be more careful, ok?"

She swallows hard, "Yes, Daddy."

We all leave shortly thereafter. I tell Beth and geek boy to sit up front with me. In the rear view, I can see Alex is holding her but they're not talking. He catches my eye in the mirror. I've see that look before and it's never good.

We get to Trina's and I am blown away. She looks incredible wrapped in red silk. She's very dark skinned and the red just highlights how perfect her skin tone is. Her father doesn't speak to me but I have a feeling he doesn't like me. I offer my hand to him anyway.

"We'll be home no more-n one hour after the dance ends, sir." He glares at me like, well like an angry father, "I have plenty of gas and I checked the engine last week so there won't be any of those delays." He shakes my hand, trying to break my fingers. It hurts like hell but I try not to wince.

I'm still trying to flex my fingers when we finally get to the restaurant. We get two tables - one for Beth and geek boy and one where I can see Beth and geek boy. As soon as we're seated, however, Alex starts.

"How'd you get the bruise, Lisa?"

"I fell." She still can't look at anyone.

"Bull-fuckin'-shit. Who did that?"

The waiter comes over to get our drinks and tell us the specials. Alex orders a beer without thinking - like that's gonna happen - and I resign myself to the fact that the whole night's gonna go down like this. We order dinner, we eat, we even get dessert, but Alex won't let it rest. Finally, Trina takes Lisa to the bathroom and I hit Alex as hard as I can in a public place.

"Dude, let it go."

"She my girl. I'm 'posed to protect her."

"Shithead!" I hiss at him, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe you can't?"

He sneers.

I hold up two fingers "A. It's her father and she don't want anyone to know. What you gonna do?"

"What I gotta do, man." He says with a shrug. Sadly, he's stupid enough to follow up on that.

"B. It's you."

"ME!" people around us look up and I hiss at him to lower his voice, "Fuck off, asswipe."

"Dude, chill! I don't mean intentionally. Just like last night, well, you were pretty intent and admit it - you can be kinda rough when you don't watch it, right?"

"Lisa's a big girl. She can take it." He stabs his pie like it's still moving, "She'll tell me when I'm too rough."

"Sure you right." I see the girls coming back and kick him under the table just before I stand up. I pull Trina's chair out for her - managing to steal a kiss in the process - and am glad to see Alex has some manners as well.

Before he sits again, he takes Lisa's hand, "Listen, I'm sorry about tonight. I'm really worried about you and I don't like you fallin' down an' gettin' hurt or whatever. Anyway, you look great tonight. Shit, you look fuckin' awesome. I just wanted to say that."

She smiles at him - a real smile finally and blushes, "Thank you, Alex."

I catch geek boy's attention and give him the universal 'wrap it up' signal. We all pile into my car again and get to the dance by a respectable 8:45. At that point, as far as I'm concerned, Beth and Alex both are on their own. I spend the bulk of the evening dancing with Trina and finding dark places to neck with her.