by SM Olivier
“Ooo those were big words, little, older half-sissy,” I mocked her. “Oh, by the way.” I exaggeratedly turned back around to the guys. “We’re going to a party tonight. Zane, Crew, and Pax, you should help me pick out which swimsuit I should wear.”
I heard Leah make a noise of disgust and frustration. I had to hide my smile, knowing I’d hit the mark I was aiming for.
“Yes, ma’am,” the boys said simultaneously as Zane gave me a wink. Damn, that boy was too cute for his own good!
Before I turned away, I saw Crew, Zane, and Paxton look at each other. It was a look full of meaning, but before I could question it, Crew and Zane ran off. Paxton ducked his head and was off to take more pictures.
Leah stifled a scream. “You’re just like your mother. Spreading her legs to any boy that would take her.”
“Aww is someone mad?” I mock-pouted at her as I returned to the rest of the girls. “At least I’m not into incest. Isn’t Gary, like, our second or third cousin?” I saw her sneer freeze as her eyes widened. “Next time you give him a blow job in the boy's locker room, maybe you should make sure no one’s around.”
When I’d heard about her giving one of the football players a BJ in the locker room, I hadn’t been terribly shocked. Her reputation had preceded her. I knew about her engaging in carnal activities wherever she deemed it okay. Not that I was knocking it; to each their own.
However, incest was a hard no. It wasn’t until Freddy informed me that we were related to them on the Delaney side that I was disturbed. I knew there were a lot of Delaneys; they were continually coming out of the woodwork, but there were plenty of prospects she could have fooled around with without dipping into the gene pool.
I passed her as Heather gave me a wink. “Ready?” she asked me conspiratorially.
“I was born ready,” I told her with a smile.
●
If I thought Leah was pissed before, I was wrong. So very wrong. She was on a new level of pissed after she realized that Heather, Marie (Heather’s best friend), Freddy, three of Heather’s other girls, the other five guys, and I had decided to switch up the routine. While the rest of the squad was dancing like they were dancing for dollars at the local strip joint, we did the choreography and stunts that Heather created. We had been practicing during our free time since she had come up with the idea to change the routine.
The crowd went wild as we did our back-handsprings and full-twisting layouts. We had two guys and one of the girls as the base of our tricks, and Heather, Marie, and I were tossed up in baskets twenty feet in the air and repositioned for full stretch-ups. We held up our professionally made signs− made by Marie’s father− representing our school, as five of us stood on the guys’ shoulders trying to draw cheers from our fans.
Selena seemed just as excited by our “tricky tricks,” and it further infuriated Leah. We had stolen her thunder. At the beginning of the week, Heather had approached me and asked if I would like to change up our routine. She was beginning to despise the direction the squad was heading. Heather didn’t want to be salivated over while we “shook our titties and ass.” She wanted to be taken seriously again.
The previous coach had gone on to coach college cheerleaders. Apparently, she had been like a bulldog and treated cheerleading like a sport and not a spectacle. She choreographed great routines and dances, but she had been all about the stunts and showmanship. When Heather had expressed her concerns to Selena, she had quickly kowtowed to Catherine and Leah’s desires.
Heather decided to take matters into her own hands and asked me if I was on board with staging a coup. Of course, I was. Tick Leah off? Sign me up! It hadn’t been too challenging to talk Freddy into helping out, and soon we had all the guys on board, along with Heather’s little group of friends. Every day during lunch this past week, she patiently showed and taught us the more challenging parts of her revised routine.
We smiled and waved at the fans, and I spotted Mr. Isaacs and my grandpa on the sidelines. I was surprised to see them, and after Selena dismissed us for a drink of water, I ran over to them.
“Hey Grandpa, Mr. Isaacs!” I exclaimed as I quickly embraced my grandpa. “What are you doing here?”
Yes, I still called Lochlann “Mr. Isaacs.” Mentally I think I found it hard to jump over that last hurdle. The words had been spoken, but I think both of us stood on the precipice of the unknown. Mr. Isaacs and I couldn’t act on our attraction while he was a counselor at the school, despite the fact I was finding it increasingly harder.
He was my GQ man. Most of the time, he looked like he belonged on the cover of a magazine. He would be the sexy…scholar. He worked out five days a week, and it showed in his physique. His sandy blond hair was cut short on the sides, but on top, it was long and perfectly gelled forward. His short, well-groomed beard was shades darker than his hair. He wore glasses that seemed to enhance his stunning, piercing blue eyes. My favorite feature was his smile, though. He had one of the brightest smiles I’d ever seen. So yeah, it was increasingly hard to keep my hands to myself.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” I stated as I pushed my ponytail off my shoulder.
“You didn’t call and tell me you were verbally attacked outside of school,” Grandpa gently reprimanded me.
I sighed before I tried to deflect. I was great at deflecting. “Nellie,” I teasingly reproached Mr. Isaacs. “Were you at your sewing circle tonight? Or was it the book club, or bingo?”
When I first met Mr. Isaacs, I had given him the nickname of Mr. Hottie Nellie Lochlann Isaacs. I had noticed his hotness first. Then he had made some comment about not hearing the gossip about my arrival into town. I had to think of an old woman’s name because, weren’t they notorious gossipers? So, I had dubbed him Nellie. Then I found out his real name. It had been embarrassing to come to the realization that I had been flirting, at a coffee shop, with a counselor at my high school, less than an hour prior to officially meeting him.
He gave me a smirk, but I could see his ever-piercing eyes dissecting me. I swore at times he had x-ray vision; not the kind that could look at your bones− that was just weird. No, his superpower of x-ray vision consisted of peering into someone’s soul. He could strip you bare and make you feel naked with one glance.
“I got a text from Zane stating that you had been verbally assaulted in front of the football players and cheerleaders before the game tonight,” Mr. Isaacs informed me.
I swore I was going to beat Zane. I should have known the Fixer of the group would have reached out immediately. He knew the likelihood of me letting it slide was high, so he ensured it was going to be resolved. He called in the reinforcements. Mr. Isaacs, Grandpa, and Kyler wouldn’t ever allow anything to slide when it came to me. They would be seeking retribution, even if I hadn’t asked for it.
“Show us the video,” Grandpa demanded gently.
“What video?” I hedged.
Before the game, after I had cooled off, I really had debated about letting the incident go. All my accusers had been proven wrong, and had walked away looking stupid. I thought that had been enough punishment. A small part of me even hoped that they would now leave me alone. A small portion. The realist in me knew I should brace for more.
“Lochlann, it was all one great misunderstanding.” Selena came up from behind me with a pleading look.
She was looking hungrily at Mr. Isaacs. She had shared details of her two hot dates this past weekend with the class. However, I knew she wasn’t over Mr. Isaacs yet. The rumor was she had been trying to date him since he came back into town, at the beginning of the summer. He had entertained her pursuit for less than a week until she had let her true colors show. The sad thing was, maybe if she would have shown a little interest in the kids, he may have been tempted to stay with her and forget about me. But she hadn’t, and now it was too late.
“Give me the video, and I will be the judge of that,” Grandpa said firmly.
The grandpa I had grown to know and, yes,
even care for, was a kind and generous man. At that moment, I could see how he had made his father’s business into the empire it was today. He had to have been ruthless and demanding to reach the success he had. His son, my father, was a decent businessman, but it hadn’t grown since Grandpa had stepped aside a few years ago.
He was currently in remission with his cancer, but he still made a point of showing up for work from time to time and having a hand in his business. He still had majority shares in his empire. After over fifty years of running his company, it wasn’t that simple for him to walk away from it. Not yet.
“Here you go, sir.” Freddy stepped up from behind me and Selena.
I shot him an annoyed look, while Selena sent him a death glare. I wanted more time to deliberate my next plan of action. It had been embarrassing and infuriating enough to have lived through it once… I really didn’t want to relive it again.
I watched as Grandpa and Mr. Isaacs watched the video. I saw the anger as it rolled in like dark clouds before the storm. People were going to be drenched after the storm passed, if Grandpa’s face was any indication of the weather to come.
“Did you really share my granddaughter's presumed sex life in front of all those adults and teens?” Grandpa nearly growled. I really didn’t recognize the angry man standing before me.
“I…I−” Selena stuttered. “I wasn’t thinking. I just knew she had spent the night with Golden a while back and then Diane said she…lost Crew’s baby. I didn’t know. She’s my girl. All my girls are my girls. We’re tight. I didn’t mean to call her out. It was a mistake. It wasn’t my intention, and it was all a colossal misunderstanding. I know how young girls like her make rash decisions and don’t think of the consequences. Or they think they’re more invincible than they are. If she lost Crew’s baby, I thought she needed a longer recovery. I didn’t want her harming herself further.”
I resisted the urge to snort. That was the problem with her. She assumed we were all her friends. She treated us like we were part of a sorority with her, one where she shared information with us that was more than inappropriate for a woman in her position. She didn’t know where to draw the line.
She was so afraid of being disliked or unpopular that she stooped to levels she shouldn’t. For instance, Casey—or should I say, Nan—had asked her if she had ever shared a bed with two guys at once, and Selena had answered her. In a room full of people. Mind you, Nan was intentionally mocking her, but Selena hadn’t seen that.
Selena wanted to be the Best Friend, and she went into great detail about a crazy night she shared with some men she had picked up in a bar in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.
Whatever floated your boat, right? I mean, who was I to judge? But we really didn’t need to know all that. There was a time and a place for everything. In the middle of class, during school hours, wasn’t one of them.
“Oh, it was a mistake, all right,” Grandpa scorned. “Young man, can you forward that to my lawyer?”
“Yes, sir.” Freddy became a yes man all of a sudden. “What’s his email address?”
I gaped at Freddy. Who was he and what had he done with my good friend? The Freddy I knew wouldn’t be so serious, respectful, and… rigid. He still laughed when someone passed gas and was addicted to reality shows, and not the good ones.
Grandpa pulled out his wallet and produced a business card. “His email is right there.” He pointed to a line on the card. “Make sure you tell him ‘Per David Delaney Sr.’ This is to be handled immediately.”
Grandpa had a team of lawyers at his disposal. He had already pulled through for us when Mr. Isaacs, Paxton, and Golden nearly lost Maisie and Clay. I had no doubt he would pull through once more. Failure wasn’t in my grandpa’s vocabulary. Weeks ago, I would have resented a Delaney using their connections to play the system, but my opinion had changed when I realized it could be used for good and not just getting Sean, the abuser, off the hook.
“Mr. Delaney, is it really necessary?” Selena whimpered. I saw the fear in her eyes. I had a fleeting feeling of sympathy for her. She was still young and immature. In her dimwitted logic, she believed that Non-Step Mommy, Unwanted Cousin, Botox Bianca, and Boob-Job Betty wouldn’t mislead her, that they had a legitimate case for me not to participate tonight.
“Grandfather,” Leah pouted as she inserted herself into the conversation. It was clear she was eavesdropping and thought she could change Grandpa’s mind on the matter. “They were only trying to protect Peyton. We thought she had been knocked up and lost the baby. After the way she’s been behaving with some of the guys at school, it wasn’t too far-fetched. I think being raised by her mother and Uncle Sean in the slums made her have questionable morals. No one wanted to hurt her, they were just trying to help her.”
She had the audacity to bat her false eyelashes. Her hands were clasped in front of her, and she was swaying slightly. If I didn’t know her any better, she was a picture of innocence and sweetness.
Grandpa pulled himself up to his full height and glared at Leah. He might have just battled cancer, but he was still a tall and imposing man. “My dear granddaughter, you forget I have watched you grow up. You don’t think I hear or know what goes on under my own roof? You don’t believe I know exactly what type of child my son and his wife have been raising?
“They should have spanked you when you threw an entire cake on the floor, on your birthday, because you wanted pink hearts and not purple. They ought to have grounded you when they found that naked boy in your room when you were twelve. They should have taken away your license when you wrecked your first and second car while texting and driving. They have overindulged you and disregarded your pettiness far too long, but I will tell you what, it stops today. I have an appointment with my lawyer on Monday. My will is being revised, and right now, as it stands, you will not see a dime of the money I earned!”
She began to open her mouth, an angry scowl on her face. Grandpa held up his hand, stopping her from speaking.
“Let me tell you how it is, just in case you don’t understand, Leah. This is my granddaughter. She is your half-sister.” At her sneer, he continued in a thunderous tone, “You can sputter at me all you want, but it is your reality, and let me tell you something. Right now, my son, your father, has thirty-five percent of the shares in my company. I have sixty-five percent. In the event anything was to happen to me, I assure you, you will not be living the lifestyle you’re accustomed to. The trust I had for you and Dylan have been revised; and unless you start acting like you have any sense of decency and compassion towards your sister, towards others, it will not be returned to you.
“I’ve tried to talk to you. Talking doesn’t seem to work, but maybe if you realize the trips to Paris, Italy, Greece, the Caribbean will no longer be a possibility from this moment forward, you will start to take my words to heart. In addition, that little black credit card you have at your disposal is now canceled. I hope you will take me seriously, because I’m done condoning this nonsense with my silence. I’ve had enough, and I won’t allow this to continue happening.”
I realized several spectators in the stands were no longer paying attention to the game that had begun about a minute ago. They were more interested in seeing one of the Delaney Divas finally getting her comeuppance.
Yeah, the Delaney girls had a nickname. I was so proud and honored by it. Insert sarcasm here.
3
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Ghost of the Past
“Do we have to go to Heather Monroe’s party tonight?” Paxton pouted as he sat down at the edge of my bed.
I looked up from where I was rifling through one of my drawers. “This is the third time she has invited me to one of her parties, and I really don’t want to be rude. I…kind of like her,” I admitted as I pulled out two of the four swimsuits I owned.
His reaction to the party really surprised me. I expected him to be the most excited about the prospect of going. He was probably the most outgoing of all my guys. Most people gr
avitated to certain social groups, especially in high school, but not him. He just flowed into all of them rather fluidly and naturally. I had seen him help the drama club with props one period, and the next class he would be talking to the baseball players about professional stats and last season’s highlights. He was just that gregarious and likable.
“Can I not go?” he asked me as he leaned back onto the bed.
“Um sure,” I said. I really wanted him to go, but I wasn’t going to force him. Zane, Golden, and Crew had already said they were going.
“You might as well go,” Golden stated as he came into the room.
I walked into the bathroom and laid out my swimsuits. I was torn between two. There was my teal one-piece that had the fabric cut out on both sides and showed an ample amount of my non-cleavage. After all, I was a dancer, and I barely fit into B cups. The runner-up was a black and white criss-cross bikini that had molded cups and a push-up bra. The black fabric stretched on the underside of the bra cups and came up like a halter top, and white fabric was stitched into a semblance of a bra, so it looked like it was double strapped. The bottoms were mainly black, but white and black straps criss-crossed each other up and above my hip bones.
I finally decided on the two-piece and slipped it on. “Do you think this is okay?” I asked as I came out of the bedroom. The boys seemed to be in a heated, quiet discussion as I walked in.
“What’s going on?” I stopped short.
Both stopped and looked at me. I almost squirmed under their gazes. After years of dancing, I was comfortable with my body. Since meeting the guys, I had to admit I now had a new hyper-awareness of my body. Doubts that didn’t exist before began to surface. I found myself questioning my breast size or my ugly feet, where I never cared about any of those things before.