Selling the Drama

by Theresa Smith

  Toby lifted his head to look down at her. "I have to get up so I can get back to school." He leaned in, kissing her softly on the corner of her mouth.

  "I am so tired. I don't think I could move even if I wanted to." Charlotte laughed quietly at his somewhat devious smile. "You've completely fucked me over."

  Toby flinched. He never liked to hear her swear like that. She reached up and grabbed at his face, smiling at him. "You're offended by my swearing yet you'll do all manner of naughty things with me whenever my parents aren't looking?"

  "Your vagina doesn't offend me but your mouth could do with a bit of cleaning up. Anyway, it's not necessarily the word that bothers me, it's the context you just used it in. But yeah, point taken, I'm being a pansy arse. Yes, I fucked you over and the fact you can't even walk now makes me feel completely assured of my manhood. Imagine what you would feel like if I'd gone for another four and a half minutes?"

  Charlotte laughed out loud at him. "It wasn't that short!"

  He shook his head, his own face creased with laughter. "Yes. It was."

  "Well, I didn't notice."

  He rested his forehead onto hers. "That does not make me feel better."

  Charlotte looked into his eyes, so close to hers right now. "I wonder if that's what it feels like for you. If so, I understand now why you like it so much."

  "My work here is done," he teased back. Charlotte punched him on the shoulder playfully. Toby kissed her again. "Seriously, I need to get going. That was epic."

  "Have you been sneaking my naughty books again?"

  "No. I don't need to read them to know what to do. I was born this gifted." He rolled off her and stood up, heading across to the bathroom. At the doorway he stopped, looking over his shoulder back at her. "I love you."

  Charlotte smiled at him. "I know you do." It was a nice thought to fall asleep on.

  Toby waited in the car for Jake who was taking his sweet time getting from his last class out to the car park. As he turned to reach into the back seat to pull out his math book, thinking he might as well get a bit done while he waited, his eye caught sight of an approaching figure. He rapidly stuck his hand into his bag and rummaged around, relief flooding through him as his fingers closed around the small tape recorder he kept there for some of his lessons. He had always found it useful to listen back over some subjects, it was a part of how he did so well with his assignments, particularly essays. It was all too easy to miss things while taking notes and you never remembered everything after the fact, when you really needed to.

  Pressing record, he slid it under the car seat and sat back casually, keeping his gaze set on the front windscreen. He affected a false sense of surprise when Porter leaned into his car, one of his arms resting on the roof.

  "Hey there, Toby. What's doing?"

  Toby looked up at him, deliberately keeping his face devoid of expression. "Not much." Porter was not supposed to still be here. He should have been gone since this morning, after his meeting with the Principal, which had been scheduled to take place directly after their own had ended. Toby was not overly surprised though, that he might have tried to approach Charlotte. He was a scumbag after all, why change at the eleventh hour?

  Porter stared down at him, silent, his manner suggesting an attempt at intimidation, but Toby was not buying it. Porter could try whatever he wanted on him, it was unlikely to get him very far. Bullies did not intimidate him and while he still avoided physical conflict wherever possible, he would not hesitate to defend himself if it was initiated against him. Besides, he highly doubted it would come to that, they were on school property and Porter was a pussy. Anyone who went after young girls in the slimy way that he did had to be. Porter was just another version of his father, a man who took delight in the suffering of women but who would crumble in a second against a person who could actually fight back. As Toby let the silence lengthen, he noticed Porter's unease set in. Exactly.

  Looking around, Porter leaned his face in closer. "Your girlfriend needs to watch her mouth. I might be leaving this school, but I'm not leaving this town." He straightened up and took a step away from the car, but he need not have feared Toby at this point. Toby had what he wanted from him and it would serve no purpose to have his voice on the recording retaliating in any manner, even if he was having a hard time suppressing the urge to launch out of the car and slam the fucker's head through the windscreen.

  Jake chose that moment to show up, opening the car door to throw his bag into the back alongside Toby's. "Coach. What's up? Practice cancelled?"

  Porter looked over at Jake. "Yeah, mate. Looks like your team is going to have to find a new coach. I've been transferred out, very short notice but sometimes these things happen. Best of luck, I was just saying goodbye to Toby but I'm glad I caught up with you too."

  Jake's surprise was evident. "Oh, really? Geez, okay then. Well, see you later. Good luck with wherever you're going."

  "Sure thing. Thanks. Cheers, hey?" Porter turned on his heel and walked away at a brisk pace. Jake got into the car, slamming the door shut and turning to Toby with a bewildered expression.

  "What the hell? Who gets transferred out overnight? He never said a damned thing yesterday at training." Jake shook his head, visibly ticked off at this turn of events.

  Toby reached under the seat and slid the tape recorder back into his hand. He paused for a moment, considering. Casting Jake a sideways glance, he made his mind up in an instant. Jake was good for it. He had proven himself in countless ways to Toby. Pulling the tape recorder out into view, Toby rewound the tape back a bit and turned to Jake.

  "Wind up your window and shut up for a minute. If you say anything to anyone about what I'm about to play for you, that'll be it for you for the rest of the season."

  Jake's eyes widened. "What? You know I'm good for anything you tell me. When have I ever bailed on you?"

  "Never. Which is why I'm trusting you now." Toby pressed play, silence playing back for about thirty seconds and then Porter's voice, coming through loud and clear. At the conclusion of the recording, Jake looked at the tape recorder, then up at Toby, and once again back down, before uttering the expected string of swear words.

  "Has Charlotte been-"

  Toby cut him off. "Don't you ask that question! Don't you fucking dare!"

  Jake sat back and put his hands up in a defensive gesture. "Shit, man, relax. I wasn't going to ask that! Charlotte's a different person now to what she was a couple of years ago. No, I was going to ask if she'd been hurt by him."

  Toby exhaled. "No. He was all about the talk and yesterday he put his hands on her, basically laid it out there that he wanted to have sex with her. Had a scenario all worked out. Long story short, he's been sacked."

  Jake was quiet for a few moments, his gaze fixed down on the tape recorder. "What are you going to do with that?"

  Toby shrugged. "I don't know yet. It depends on what he does."

  "Mate, who the fuck has a tape recorder on hand to catch people out when they say shit they shouldn't?" Jake was shaking his head at Toby, his face creased with a combination of admiration and amusement.

  Toby grinned at him. "A person who is always well prepared."

  Jake laughed. "You're a fucking head case." His laughter died away then as he looked at Toby, tape recorder still in hand. "Seriously, what would you do if he came after Charlotte? Say, you were there and he came after her, what would you do to him?"

  "He wouldn't get anywhere near her if I was there."

  Jake nodded. "True enough. What if you weren't? And she was on her own. What then?"

  "I can't think about that. You've seen what I do to someone who just insults her. I can't even think that way, Jake. I don't want my first appearance in a court room to be as the defendant."

  Jake sat quietly for a few moments. "If it were Ellie, and he hurt her, beat her up or raped her, I'd kill him. I'd fucking kill him."

  Toby turned to Jake with a shake of his head. "You watch too many Scorse
se films. What would you do? How would you get rid of him? Hack him up into pieces in your kitchen? As if."

  "Yes! And then I'd chuck all the pieces into some of those heavy duty garbage bags, clean up and put all the rags in with him, tie them up, throw them into the boot and drive out to the gorge, toss him down into the depths where no one will ever think to look for him. The crocs would have him digested long before he was reported missing."

  Toby stared at Jake. He had no idea whether to feel disturbed or impressed at the ease with which he had just answered that question. "I'm going to be defending you in court one day, aren't I?"

  Jake laughed. "At least I'll get off that way."

  Toby turned serious again. "He'd have our address, from the school records. He knows she does gymnastics and where she does it. He knows my after school schedule." He exhaled, rubbing his hands over his face before hitting the steering wheel in anger. "Fucking hell! All I wanted was to protect her. He had no right to do that to her, abuse his position in such a way. But what if I've made it worse now, by making her come forward? What if I've put her in more danger than she was before?" He pounded the steering wheel again, furious at this development.

  Jake put his hand onto Toby's shoulder. "I don't know mate, maybe you need to worry, and maybe you don't. Maybe he's all talk and that's it, just trying to rattle your chain. Most likely, that's probably all it is. And you've got your tape there, you could go to the cops if you're worried enough. But anyway, just to be on the safe side, I'm going to buy some of those garbage bags. Keep your fuel tank full." Jake sat back and gave Toby a nod with a wink.

  "You're fucking insane, you know that, right?"

  "Maybe, but when the shit gets real…" Jake gave Toby a knowing look. "Anyway, I'm starving. Swing by Wendy's on the way home, I could do with a hotdog. Actually, I'll get you to drop me at Ellie's after since we don't have training. I'll get her a honeycomb thick shake. That always puts me in her good books. You, I expect, don't need to do anything more than point to your dick, but some of us have to work at it mate."

  Toby laughed. "Yeah, hard life. I don't even need to point anymore."

  "Shut the fuck up. You make me sick."

  Dear Charlotte,

  Life is good! I am in love. It can get you in the most unexpected places and even when you aren't even looking for it. Who knew, when I took this job at the gift shop, that I would meet my soul mate in the form of Andy? He makes me coffee with hearts on top and writes me poems. I never knew I could be so happy again. Charlotte, he makes everything so wonderful! He's moving in with me over the weekend as he's been having some trouble with his roommates not paying their share of the rent and stealing some of his stuff! I know, people are creeps! Anyway, I told him that he needed to get out of there and leave those losers behind. He was so relieved, I don't think he felt as though he could ask me for help, but if you can't help the people you love, then who can you help?

  Although, if you don't mind, I might get you to hold off on telling Iris for a bit. You know what she's like, and she gets all high and mighty with me every time we speak lately, always reminding me about the fact that she and I are joint owners of Ma and Pa's place and that I shouldn't be getting any ideas about it being my own. You'd think it was the Taj Mahal, the way she goes on, not a cottage in Gympie. Seriously. But anyway, maybe, say, if you don't mention it for a week after getting this letter, then Andy will be all moved in and it will be a done deal that she can't do anything about. Ta! You're the best. I would be lost without you.

  Love and big sloppy kisses,

  Jenna xoxox.

  Charlotte dropped her head down onto her desk, groaning out loud. She had been on this merry go round too many times with Jenna already to be convinced that this was anything more than just another potential heartbreak in the making.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Their raised voices could be heard from outside. It gave Toby reason to pause in the hall. This was not a household of raised voices. This would be in fact, the very first time he had heard an argument within this house at all. Iris and Royce were so casual they bordered on disinterested. The most animated he had ever seen them was over the whole Porter situation, and even that had been kept pretty low key. This, coming from the kitchen, was something entirely different. Iris was yelling, actually shouting, with a depth of emotion to her voice that Toby had up until now, not really believed her capable of possessing.

  "That man has stolen my mother's jewellery! Art work from my parent's house!"

  "That's not my fault!" Charlotte's voice was marginally more controlled, but still quite heated nonetheless.

  "You enable her deceit! Every time she asks you not to tell me something stupid about what she's doing, you make it worse! I could have stepped in before this happened but now it's too late!" This was accompanied by the sound of something breaking. "Bloody hell! Now look what's happened!"

  "You treat her like a child! You're so mean to her all the time. It's no wonder she never wants you to know anything. Nobody could have seen this coming. It's just bad luck."

  Iris screamed then, a particularly undignified screech that echoed throughout the house and could no doubt be heard by the neighbours' in the surrounding block. "Nothing with Jenna is bad luck! It is all bad choices and I wouldn't have to treat her like a child if she didn't act so much like one! I can't get those things back! They're gone now. Heirlooms from my parents. It's just lucky she doesn't have access to the deeds for the bloody house. Thank goodness for small mercies."

  "Well, yelling at me isn't going to get those things back for you either! This is not my fault!" Charlotte sounded particularly upset now, close to tears.

  Toby waited in the hall, not wanting to enter the kitchen unless he absolutely felt it necessary. If she cried, he would go in. He was unsure though, about what he would actually do once he was in there. Come to think of it, the shit would hit the fan big time if Charlotte discovered him out here while she had been in there bearing the full brunt of this Iris storm. He should really just duck back out and come back in fifteen minutes or so.

  "I never said it was your fault!" Iris snapped. "But your constant keeping of her counsel is proving troublesome. Jenna has never been wise in the ways of the world and she insists on rejecting the advice of people who know far more than her. I would think she might have learned something from the entire debacle with the Irish man, but it would seem that she is as usual, living in a bubble where everyone in the world is her friend and I am just a stupid person she is forced to endure. Anybody else, working in a hippy cafe in Gympie, would have seen the writing on the wall with that bloke, but not her. No, he's her true love. Because everyone has multiple true loves and they pop up in bars and hippy cafes all the time!"

  "I really wish that the both of you would just leave me the hell out it!"

  "Then stop enabling her!!" Iris was screaming once again, her voice giving a banshee a run for its money it was so high pitched.

  Toby stepped back as Charlotte flounced out of the kitchen, red faced and flustered, coming to a stop as she noticed him standing in the hall. "What are you doing lurking out here like a creeper?" She stomped past him on her way into her room, shooting him a very dark glare.

  "Ducking for cover." Toby followed closely after her, closing the door as he entered. "What happened?"

  Charlotte shook her head as she threw herself down onto her bed in a rage. "It turns out Jenna's new boyfriend is a thief and a liar and apparently that's all my fault."

  Toby exhaled and crossed the room to flop down onto the bed beside her. "So she found herself another jerk to replace the last one she was with? Didn't see that coming." Sarcasm didn't add any value, but it was difficult to suppress.

  Charlotte delivered a punch to his arm at close range.

  He flinched, rubbing it lightly. She was surprisingly strong. "You know, I've said to you a few times now that I don't think you should keep all of what Jenna asks you to keep secret an actual secret. She doesn't strike me a
s the brightest spark around when it comes to judging people and making wise choices." Toby glanced at Charlotte and rolled away as he saw her fist coming for him again. "Alright!" He put his hands up in front of his body to ward her off. "I'll shut up about it. It's none of my business. I actually don't want it to be any of my business."

  "I thought you liked Jenna!" Charlotte flopped back against her pillows, fuming at him.

  "I do!" Toby sat up and faced Charlotte. "I just don't think she's very smart."

  Charlotte stared at him for a few moments. "That's very rude."

  Toby shrugged. "I mean that she's naive." He didn't apologise though. Jenna was a flake and Toby was of the opinion that it was a damned shame she was actually related to Charlotte because that made it all the more harder to drop her.

  "So, you agree with Mum?"

  Toby winced at that, seeing the trap just seconds too late. "No. I agree with you. All the time, about everything. I have no opinion at all other than the one that mirrors yours." He watched as she struggled not to smile at him. "I bow down to your opinion on all matters. I have nothing in my head except for your thoughts."

  "Shut up."

  He grinned and launched himself at her. "I'm sensing that you have an opinion that you would like me to make you feel better. And seeing as I share your opinions on everything, you better lock your door and shut your curtains."

  Charlotte pulled his face down to hers and kissed him, a smile now fixed to her face. "Leave it all open. It would serve her right if she walked in on us. She wouldn't care anyway. She only cares about Jenna."

  Toby pulled back and looked at Charlotte, surprised at the pouty tone she was using. "You're not seriously going to have a tantrum because you think your mummy loves her sister more than you?"

  Charlotte shrugged. "Well, you would think it, with the amount of energy she puts into policing Jenna."

  Toby laughed at that. "I, for one, consider it lucky she doesn't put that effort into you. It would be fucking annoying. Anyway, you don't need policing."