by Mary Martel
I couldn’t help but notice that his house looked almost identical to Mr. Cole’s house. The houses weren’t right on top of each other but it seemed weird because we were so far outside of town that it felt odd having neighbors at all. I thought that maybe there should have been some trees between the two houses or something. I also couldn’t help but wonder which bedroom was Tyson’s. A crazy thought I did not need to be thinking about. Especially since he and pretty much everybody else seemed to hate me so much.
Still, I couldn’t stop my thoughts from lingering on him. I was so curious about him. Did he live alone? Where had he been for the whole summer? Why didn’t he have any friends when people had tried to befriend him? Did he have a girlfriend that no one knew about? And, most importantly, why did I care so much about the answer to that last question?
I knew I was pretty, I didn’t flaunt it, but still, I knew it. I’d seen pictures of my mother at my age and I looked a whole lot like her. The only difference was her eyes were blue and mine were green. A trait I must have gotten from my nonexistent father.
I’d gone out on dates before. Boys had noticed my looks and were all too eager to ask me out in the hopes of getting in my pants. I’d never fallen for it, though. I was the girl from the wrong side of the tracks with a stripper for a mother, people had assumed I was easy because of it. I wasn’t. I’d gone out on a few dates with a few different boys, fooled around a bit, but I never let it get carried away. The last thing I ever wanted was to be like my mother. Somehow, I’d gotten lucky and the boys I’d fooled around with had never spread rumors about me. Or, maybe they had and the rumors just never made it back to me.
Eventually I might have allowed for things to progress further than making out if I had found the right person to do it with.
As if they were no longer under my control, my eyes drifted over to Tyson’s house.
I shouldn’t find him attractive, not with his A-hole personality shining bright and clear for all to see. And I certainly shouldn’t find myself so profoundly curious about him. I shouldn’t… but I did all the same.
***
I woke with a start and immediately felt a kink in my neck. My forehead was cold and pressed up to the glass window pane. I’d fallen asleep reading in the window seat, and not for the first time. I had an entire box full of books sitting on the floor in my giant closet. With nowhere to put them I left the box unpacked and in my closet. I knew all I had to do was tell Mr. Cole I needed a shelf for my books and he’d get me one. He was waiting on me to tell him what I wanted to do with my bedroom to make it my own but I couldn’t bring myself to ask him for anything.
Since coming here I’d had a whole lot of time on my hands with nothing to do. So I spent a lot of time in the window seat reading or curled up on the comfy swing in the back yard reading. My entire summer had been spent with my nose stuck in a book.
The darkened sky informed me I’d been asleep for a while and night had fallen. The house was silent. They were either out to eat or it was late enough for them to be home and in bed. Of course, no one had come to check on me, to see if I’d done my homework, to see if I’d like something to eat for dinner. Not that I expected such things, but it still hurt to be so thoroughly forgotten, nothing more than my mother’s pawn to be taken out and moved about how she saw fit, when she needed me for something.
I was tired of being a pawn in a game I wasn’t even playing. And very lonely. No one to care and no friends to my name. Just me, my hateful mother and her rich sugar daddy.
I laughed.
I’d find no friends here. Not now that the jocks had christened me freak show for no apparent reason other than the fact they were A-holes. Not that it mattered. I’d never really had any friends to name and I always did just fine on my own. The loneliness would always be a part of me, an ache I’d never not know. Could be worse. I could be legless and lonely. Although, I bet if I were legless I’d at least have one friend out of pity, no doubt.
I laughed again. Goodness, no wonder I didn’t have any damn friends.
Flashing light outside the window caught my attention. Headlights in the driveway next door. Two sets of them for two separate vehicles. No action all summer and an empty house. He’d been back all but a day and already he had visitors. My nose pressed damn near to the window.
Where were his parents? Did he live alone? He couldn’t be living by himself in that big house. I wracked my brain, flittering through all the gossip and whispered words I’d heard about Tyson throughout the day. His name had been whispered almost as much as my own. To my recollection no one had mentioned his parents, or lack thereof. Perhaps he’d like to borrow mine? He could just have my mother. Seriously, he’d be doing me a favor. No. Never mind. She’d try to sleep with him for sure. He drove an Audi and lived in a huge house, of course she’d try to sleep with him. The fact he was attractive and far too young for her wouldn’t have meant squat.
My mother disgusted me.
My A-hole neighbor fascinated me.
There had to be something seriously wrong with me. He’d been nothing but rude and mean to me and yet I found him fascinating. Was I really so lonely I’d be captivated by someone who snarled at me?
How sad.
And pathetic.
And completely absurd.
The vehicles came to a stop, parking in front of the house. Headlights turned off, casting the house and driveway into the dark. Car doors slammed, but it was far too dark and too far away for me to see just whom had stepped out of the vehicles. Unfortunately, there were no lights on on this side of the house to further my spying.
I left the window seat, disappointed and afraid if I stayed longer I might get caught. All it would take is one person glancing up to spot me. Then he’d have a real reason to dislike me. People would find out I spied on my neighbor and they’d call me things far worse than freak show.
I changed into pajama shorts and a tank top and crawled into bed. I shouldn’t have been tired after my nap against the window pane, but oddly enough, I was. I think it had something to do with how traumatic things had gone at school for me. Holding my head high and keeping the tears at bay had been exhausting to say the least.
Tomorrow would surely be no better. It might even be worse. I didn’t understand it – why they treated me in such a way. I didn’t understand it at all and I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to endure it before I broke down and thoroughly humiliated myself. Or maybe I’d snap and tell them all to go straight to hell.
It took longer than I had thought for the tears to come. Once it started it felt like a bottomless well that would never run dry leaked out of the corners of my eyes. As I laid in my bed silent and unmoving, I cried myself to sleep. I figured it would be a regular occurrence for me. Likely, a nightly ritual.
Chapter Four
This couldn’t be happening. It had worked just fine yesterday!
I turned the key over in the ignition. Again. And again. Just as I had been doing over and over for the past fifteen minutes or so. I had hoped if I simply kept trying, a miracle would take place and my most beloved possession would come to life for me. Without it I had no way of getting to school. My mother wouldn’t be able to take me. She wouldn’t be up for hours, needing to sleep off her hangover. She called it beauty rest. I called it sleeping the night before off.
I couldn’t ask Mr. Cole to take me. He would insist I call him by his first name, then go on to tell me how wonderful my mother was. I shuddered at the thought of the other students seeing me arrive with him. I’m sure it would have brought me even more negative attention and I couldn’t take much more. His kindness would be lost on me. Not to mention if he started to bring me to school my mother wouldn’t like it very much. The attention was to never be directed my way, but solely rest upon her. She could get mean and downright nasty when she didn’t get her way.
I shuddered involuntarily. My mother was not a very nice person.
Knuckles rapped softly against the front p
assenger window. Mr. Cole stared in at me. Unlike my mother, he didn’t need to sleep off the night before. He didn’t indulge in alcohol the way she did. He was an attractive man in his mid-to-late fifties. Light brown hair with a sprinkling of salt at his temples. Soft, brown eyes filled with a depth of kindness I was unused to. He had a fit body, despite his age, that was a testament to the fact he worked out religiously and ran several miles a day on the treadmill in the room that housed our gym. I’d never used the gym and hadn’t even seen it because I’d never been down in the basement. I only knew of its existence because I’d heard him talk about it.
He dressed nice, too. Like the wealthy business man that he was. Always in a suit and tie. This morning was no exception. I had no idea why he bothered. The man worked from his home office. I wasn’t sure if this was a new development due to my mother and I being in his home now, or if it was something he’d always done. Perhaps it had been part of their arrangement. After all, what would the point be in seeking out someone to fill the role of your companion if you were never around to enjoy her.
Sighing deeply, I leaned across the gear shift and the passenger seat to manually roll down the window. Not only would it be rude to ignore him, it wasn’t like I had a means of escaping him.
For the eight hundredth time this morning, I desperately wished for my Bug to start. It didn’t. It had never done this before.
“Problem?” He asked in his soft, kind voice.
Problem?
Did I have a problem?
Just one?
Was he crazy?
I had problems a plenty. Loads of them, in fact. Like his kindness, for one. Why did he have to be so nice to me? It would be much easier to move on from this place once he’d finished with my mother if I avoided forming attachments of any kind. Surely when he casts my mother out I would be right by her side when she lands on the curb.
“It won’t start,” I mumbled not looking at him. I couldn’t look at him. If he thought he made me uncomfortable the sooner he’d be on his way.
“I will drive you in to school this morning,” he offered like I knew he would. “I can pick you up this afternoon as well. Your mother…” he fumbled for words and I had to fight back the bitter laughter that wanted to escape my mouth. My mother indeed. He had no idea.
After clearing his throat, he finally found his words. Words I was not expecting. “While you are at school I will get you a new car. This one might be fixable, but I feel like even so, it is not reliable enough for me to feel comfortable enough with you driving it. I will be far more comfortable with you driving around something I’ve purchased for you.”
This was undeniably kind and outrageously generous of him. I imagined him having done similar things for his own children. But I was not his child and I could not accept such a thing from him. I could not accept gifts of any kind from him. If he gave me a gift, what was to stop him from taking it back when this thing he had with my mother ended? The Bug remained in my mother’s name as far as I knew. If he got rid of it and replaced it with a new vehicle, when he kicked us to the curb later on and took the new car back we’d find ourselves homeless and without a vehicle. It would make a bad situation that much worse.
I needed to get him to fix my Bug. Or not. I could get a job to pay for it. Then I’d simply have to figure out a way to convince him to keep it around. And until it got fixed I would have to suck it up and walk miles to school every day, then do the same thing on the way back.
This situation wasn’t looking too hot for me.
Now how did I explain all this to him? Mr. too kind and understanding for his own good yet felt the need to buy himself a companion would certainly argue with me if I were to reject a car, most certainly. How to explain my thoughts to him? He thought he knew just what kind of woman he’d crawled into bed with. He had no clue. If he brought me to school and she found out about it she’d grow jealous and act out, taking it out on me.
“No thanks.” I muttered, still not looking at him. I’d meant to say more, to give some form of explanation but I couldn’t get the words out.
Sighing heavily, he opened the door and stuck his head inside. I tensed, having not expected this.
“The car would be entirely yours,” he rushed to assure me. “No strings attached. If things were to… not work out with your mother, you would keep the car just as she would keep the one I bought for her.”
I blinked in shock.
It’s like he read my mind.
Still, I didn’t like him talking about me like that, lumping me with her like she and I were cut from the same cloth. Is that how he saw me? I didn’t like that much at all.
“It’s not just that. I mean, that’s part of it, but…” Yeah, no way was I explaining the rest of it to him, about why I couldn’t be seen with him dropping me off. “Can’t we just fix the Bug? I’ll get a job even, pay you back every cent.”
Please, please, just give me this one thing. I stared him in the eyes, knowing mine were big and full of pleading. I never asked anyone for anything.
Pursing his lips, he looked away from me. I didn’t take this to be a good sign, and I was right not to.
“What kind of seventeen-year-old girl turns down a brand new free car?” he asked quietly, almost as if speaking to himself. He looked angry.
The screwed-up kind with a gold digging whore for a mother, that’s the kind of seventeen-year-old girl, that’s who. “One who’s going to be late for the second day of school,” I told him. Maybe if I took him up on the ride he’d shut up about buying me a car.
I’d been wrong earlier in thinking I couldn’t deal with having him drop me off at school. Just the thought of walking into a classroom late and interrupting had a small tremor running through my body. I had to pick the lessor of evils in this situation.
With a heavy sigh, he reached across the car and gently squeezed my shoulder. I flinched away from the contact knowing full well my mother would be jealous if she were to ever witness such a thing.
“Let’s get you to school.” His mouth had tightened angrily, but I could tell I wasn’t the source of his anger.
Yes, let’s get me to school where I can be tormented and treated like the devil’s spawn that I kind of sort of am, and could we do it now before someone spots you touching me and tells my mother.
Mumbling to myself I opened my door, not bothering to take my key out of the ignition because it would have to start for someone to steal it. Besides, our only neighbor was Tyson, and what would a guy with an expensive Audi want with my crappy (but beloved!) Bug.
Slipping out of the vehicle, I closed the door quietly behind me. I flinched at the sound of the passenger door slamming shut. In my head, I knew the sound of a car door slamming shut outside of the house would not wake up my mother, especially since their bedroom was at the very back of the house and she slept like the dead. However, knowing it didn’t stop me from flinching.
I followed Mr. Cole up the driveway and through the side door to the garage. This house was so over the top and freaking big when it came to everything. The garage was no exception. Four stalls housed my mother’s car, a shiny white SUV and a sleek black four door Mercedes CLS63.
I never once parked my Bug in here with these cars. My mother had prohibited me from doing so. I bet Mr. Cole wouldn’t have minded. I couldn’t believe my mother wanted the thing in the driveway, rust spots and all, for guests and passersby to see.
Mr. Cole headed towards the sleek, black car. The windows were tinted so dark I couldn’t see inside the thing. I thought that was illegal? He bleeped the locks as I made it to the front passenger door. I wanted to roll my eyes. Like he needed to lock his doors when he parked inside the garage. Getting in the car proved to be a bit of a challenge seeing as it sat so low to the ground and I couldn’t remember the last time I climbed into a vehicle that was lower than the Bug. Thankfully, I made it in the seat without too much incident and he didn’t seem to notice my struggle. As soon as my feet touched down i
n the car he shut the door quietly and rounded the hood.
This was a terrible idea. My heart felt like it wanted to beat right out of my chest just to escape this situation I’d gotten myself into.
If it weren’t for the small-town factor making it so everyone would recognize his car I wouldn’t have to worry about people seeing who dropped me off at school because the windows were tinted so dark no one would be able to see inside. But they’d know. I imagined that even though we lived on the very outskirts of town and Mr. Cole worked from home, everyone would be able to identify his vehicle. Small towns were notorious for everyone knowing everybody else’s business. I was totally screwed.
I wondered why he hadn’t offered me the SUV and saved himself the hassle of having to deal with me and having to make the trip himself.
A quiet humming kicked in and one of the garage doors slid up behind us. Mr. Cole put his key in the ignition and the car purred to life. My Bug was so loud my entire body practically rattled every time I fired her up. Not this car, though. This car had a quiet frickin’ purr. Nothing dared rattle.
As Mr. Cole smoothly reversed out of the garage and backed down the long driveway I had the insane urge to tell him if he was so hell bent on buying me a brand-new car maybe he could get me one of these sweet rides. I kept my mouth shut. I would never ask him for anything, I wasn’t my mother. And besides, my mother would lose her ever lovin’ mind if Mr. Cole bought me something so expensive and pretty as his car.
“So,” he spoke quietly, cutting into the heavy silence, “how was your first day of school? I would have asked you about it yesterday but you never came out of your room and your mother… Well, she insisted we go out to dinner and she assured me you wouldn’t be interested in joining us.”
Good God. That dreaded question. How was your first day of school? I didn’t have an answer for him, at least not one he’d enjoy hearing.
And my damn mother, everything always came back to her with pretty much everything.