Blame it on the Stars (The Blame Game)

by Hill, Jamie

  Catlin moaned and yanked at his belt, then fumbled with the button on his slacks. She could see his desire was as great as her need. They finally freed each other of the last of the clothing and Catlin pushed everything off her kitchen table. Steve laid her back, and she moaned again as his tongue teased her nipples. She was in no mood for teasing, though, and reached for him. She guided him inside her, and threw her head back as he thrust again and again. She offered her breasts to him, and when his mouth found her again, she exploded. Her shuddering caused an explosion in him, and they landed sprawled out on the kitchen table.

  Steve slowly rose and looked at her. “Miss me?”

  Saturday was a crisp and sunny November day. They were all cheerful as they headed to Topeka in Catlin’s car. Steve was happy everyone seemed to be feeling better. Catlin was happy to have Steve home, and to have things feeling normal again. Dana and David were pleasant, and it promised to be a nice day.

  They stopped by the Topeka Capital Newspaper office, and Steve and David loaded the things they needed into the trunk. Then Steve took them for a nice lunch before they dropped the kids off.

  As they headed to the hotel to meet Barbara, Steve said, “I was thinking about Thanksgiving. How would you feel about going to Kansas City for the weekend, and getting a suite at Crown Center?”

  “Ooh!” Dana squealed “We could watch them turn on the Christmas lights at the Plaza! That’s so cool the first night.”

  “Yep,” Steve agreed. “We could see a show, go shopping, whatever you all wanted to do.”

  “Shopping! Sounds fun.” Catlin smiled.

  “Uh oh.” Steve grinned. “Better break out my credit card.”

  “Darn right!” Dana piped up.

  Steve and Catlin laughed.

  He glanced over at her. “You sure there’s no family you want to spend the holiday with? I know your folks are gone, but is there anybody else?”

  She thought about that. Her mother died when she was a girl, and her father had passed on a few years back. She no longer had ties to Kincaid, Kansas. As for her brother, she had no idea where he lived these days, and didn’t care to find out. “No family but this one.”

  He smiled.

  They pulled in the Hilton parking lot. “Grab your stuff, guys. We’re here.” Steve looked at Catlin “I’ll be right back.”

  “Sure.” She turned to the kids. “Have fun you two. See you tomorrow.”

  Dana reached up and gave her a hug. “See you.”

  “Bye,” David said, and they left.

  A few minutes later, Steve returned alone.

  “Safely delivered?” She reached over and squeezed his hand.

  “Yes.” He refastened his seat belt, and glanced over at her. “It’s just you and me now.”

  “Woo hoo!” She leaned back. “Let’s go home.”

  Sunday, Catlin packed her things and Steve put them in her car. It was still early, but she thought about leaving.

  “Stay,” he prodded her. “I’ll let you pick any movie you want. Any goofy chick flick I own. I’ll watch it with you, and I’ll be quiet.”

  “Why, will you be asleep?”

  He nodded. “Maybe, but we’ll be together.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want a scene when Barbara gets here.”

  “There won’t be a scene. I promise.”

  “It’s not you I’m worried about.”

  “Oh come on.” He pulled her over to the movie cabinet, and she gave in. She picked ‘Bridesmaids’, and he popped it in the player. Catlin sat on the couch, and Steve lay down with his head in her lap.

  “If you took these jeans off, I could lick your thighs,” he commented.

  She laughed out loud. “Wouldn’t David enjoy walking in on that? Go to sleep.”

  He dozed as she watched the movie. When she heard the front door open, she jostled him slightly. “Steve, they’re home.”

  He opened his eyes. “Hello.” He smiled at her.

  She ran a finger over his cheek. “The kids are home.”

  “Oh.” He rubbed his face, and sat up.

  Both kids hurried past them into the kitchen. Catlin looked at them, startled that they hadn’t stopped to say hello.

  Barbara stepped into the family room. “Steven, we need to talk.”

  He rubbed his face again, and yawned. “Give me a second.”

  “Steven!” Her voice was sharp “This is important.” She turned and went back into the foyer.

  Catlin looked at Steve as he stood up.

  He shrugged. “Stay here. I promise to tell you all about it later.”

  She nodded nervously, and as he went to the foyer, she went to the kitchen. “What’s going on?” she asked the kids.

  Dana turned around. It was obvious she had been crying. “Oh Catlin!” The girl fell into her arms.

  “What?” Catlin searched David’s face as she held Dana.

  “Mom knows,” he said. “Dingbat forgot there was a holy day happening while she was home sleeping it off. When mom caught her in a slip, she spilled her guts.”

  Dana shook her head. “I couldn’t help it! I didn’t mean to!”

  “It’s okay.” Catlin hugged her. I’m dead.

  Steve stuck his head in the kitchen. “You all want to come out here? We need to talk.”

  “Shit!” Catlin muttered. She grabbed a tissue and wiped Dana’s face. Dana clung to her as they slowly walked back into the family room.

  Steve and Barbara were standing together, unsmiling. “I assume you know what this is about?” Steve looked at each of them. “Sit down.”

  Catlin said, “Steve, can we talk alone for a minute?”

  He looked down, then up at her. “I don’t think so. This is a family matter, so we might as well get it all out in the open.”

  “If it’s a family matter, then you don’t need me here,” she challenged him.

  Barbara said, “You’re staying. How in the world did you think you could keep something like this from us?”

  Catlin faced Barbara. “If you think you and Steve are an ‘us’, then you’re sadly mistaken.”

  The woman smirked. “Steve and I were an ‘us’ when you were still toddling around in diapers.”

  “Oh?” Catlin couldn’t contain herself, and she got in Barbara’s face “Funny, it wasn’t your name Steve was calling out over and over last night. Oh, and a couple times this morning.”

  “Catlin!” Steve grabbed her by the shoulders, and backed her up. “That was embarrassingly inappropriate. Please, just sit down. I want everyone to remain calm. Obviously Dana is okay now, but we really need to talk about what happened.” He looked in her eyes “Okay? Calm?”

  She was not happy, but plopped down on the couch between Dana and David.

  David grinned at her. “Good one,” he whispered.

  “David,” Steve spoke up “enough. Now Dana, I think we need to hear from you exactly what happened on Halloween. And Dana, I want the truth.”

  The girl looked at her hands. “Clint invited me to a party. I knew Teresa wouldn’t let me go. So, I lied to her, and said I was going to a girlfriend’s house.”

  Steve shook his head. “Have you ever lied to us about going out before?”

  “No.” Her eyes were wide. She was obviously frightened.

  He studied her face for a moment. “Continue.”

  “We went to a party. There were lots of kids from school there, plus some who used to go to St. Joseph’s.”

  “Where was the party?” Steve asked.

  Dana shook her head. “I don’t remember.”

  Steve looked at David.

  “Don’t ask me,” the boy said. “I was home all night.”

  Steve turned his stare to Catlin.

  She stared back at him.

  “O-kay,” he went on. “So what happened when you got there?”

  Dana said, “Clint started playing video games with some guys. They were drinking beer, but I didn’t have any. Most of the girl
s were upstairs in the living room, watching videos and drinking punch. I had a glass, maybe two.”

  “And?” Steve asked.

  “I don’t remember much after that.”

  He turned to Catlin and David. “Can one of you fill me in on the rest of the story?”

  David held up his hands. “Hey, I told you, I was home. I didn’t feel good, remember? Teresa and I watched TV until I went to bed.”

  “Which doesn’t make me believe you’re innocent in all of this.” He looked at Catlin, his eyes imploring her.

  She couldn’t resist those eyes. Never had been able to. “Well, I was also home in bed when Clint called me at about eleven. He was very scared and upset. It seems someone had spiked the punch, and Dana was drunk and sick.”

  “So what did you do?” Barbara interjected angrily.

  Catlin gave her the evil eye. “What was I supposed to do? Leave them there? Clint told me he’d had a couple beers, and I knew he shouldn’t drive. So I went and picked them up.”

  “From where?” Steve asked.

  “A frat house.” Catlin looked out the window, not wanting to witness the coming explosion.

  Steve did not disappoint. “A frat house! My God, Dana. You’re sixteen years old! What the hell were you thinking?”

  “Calm, remember?” Catlin looked at him. “I don’t think Dana was thinking. It was Halloween, she was out with her boyfriend, and things just got out of hand.”

  “Okay.” Steve shook his head to clear it. “So you picked them up. Then what?”

  Catlin answered. “I took them to my place. Dana was throwing up, and I just wanted to take care of her.”

  Steve said in a low voice, “In my car?”

  “I brought a bucket.” Catlin rolled her eyes.

  Barbara sneered, “How nice, to plan ahead.”

  “Oh shut up.” Catlin had heard enough from Barbara.

  “Go Catlin!” David chuckled, and both his parents gave him the look.

  Steve paced the floor, frustration evident. “Can we stay on topic here, please? What happened after that?”

  Catlin sighed, and crossed her arms. “Well, hell. I just plain did not know what to do. I knew Dana was late for curfew, so I called here and David answered. I told him what was going on, and we talked about what to do.”

  Barbara sneered again, “Do you always take advice from seventeen-year-old boys?”

  Catlin ignored her and looked at Steve. “I really didn’t know what to do. If I called you, I knew you’d be so upset, you would have rushed home.”

  He nodded. “I probably would have.”

  “If I called Teresa, she would have called you, etcetera, etcetera.”

  He nodded again.

  “I thought the most important thing was that Dana was safe, in my home. I cleaned her up and put her to bed. She was still sick the next day, so I let her stay in bed. And might I add, after school I had a talk with all three kids about the seriousness of their actions, and how nothing like that better happen again.”

  Steve thought for a moment before speaking. “There’s one little part we’re missing. What did you say to Teresa?”

  Catlin rubbed her hands over her face. “David made me do it.”

  David looked at his father. “It’s true, I did.”

  Steve continued to pace. “Christ, it’s like I have three teenagers to deal with.” He paused in front of Catlin. “What did you say to Teresa?”

  She stood up. “I lied to her, okay? I told her I was Dana’s friend’s mother, and that Dana fell asleep studying. I said we should let her spend the night, and I would take her to school the next day.”

  Steve closed his eyes.

  Catlin went on, “I had never met Teresa. I couldn’t tell her the truth. She didn’t know me, and it kept coming around to the fact that she would just call you. The kids didn’t want that.”

  “Oh, I’m sure they didn’t!” His laugh held no amusement. “So the three of you were feeling pretty comfortable that you’d pulled one over on the old man, eh?”

  “Steve.” She approached him, and he looked in her eyes. Catlin could almost see the flash when he realized why she’d needed to be with him so much Friday afternoon. The look of pain she saw in his eyes then would haunt her for a long time.

  “I need to think about this,” he said quietly to her.

  She walked over to the table and picked up her purse and jacket. “Just remember one thing. All I was thinking about was Dana, getting her home safely and taking care of her. I did that. And I would do it again.” She looked at Barbara. “Unless you’d have me leave her lying in the yard of the next frat house.”

  Barbara crossed her arms “There won’t be a next time. I’m going to see to it that the children have proper supervision from now on.”

  Catlin snorted. “Look around you, Barbara. They’re not children anymore.” She headed to the door.

  Dana ran after her. “Catlin!” She hugged Catlin tightly. “I’m so sorry!”

  “I know.” Catlin squeezed her. “We all are.” She let go of the girl.

  “See you, Catlin.” David called, and she waved at him. She looked at Steve’s emotionless face, and walked out.

  When Catlin got home, she put her small suitcase of things away, and looked around her home. She was at a loss of what to do. She lay down on her bed, and curled up with the pillow that still faintly smelled like Steve.

  Monday morning, Dana and David were in her classroom when she got there. “Hi.” She smiled at them.

  “Catlin, we are so sorry!” Dana began. “What a horrible mess.”

  “I knew it would be. Deep down, I knew this would happen.”

  David spoke up, “We told dad that we made you do it. You didn’t want to—”

  She cut him off. “I knew what I was doing. Despite what everyone keeps telling me, I am an adult. We all share a certain measure of the blame.”

  “We heard that over and over.” Dana rolled her eyes. “Last night and this morning, both mom and dad.”

  Catlin looked at her. “Your mom stayed over?”

  “Yeah,” Dana replied, then added quickly, “Not in the same room, I mean, mom stayed in the guest room.”

  “I assumed so.”

  David smirked. “Probably because dad didn’t have any energy left from the night before.”

  Catlin shoved his arm lightly. “David, with everything in such a mess, it’s good to see that some things never change. You little twerp.” The first bell rang. “Go to class.”

  He grinned, an expression that made him look so much like his father. “See you later!”

  “Not if I see you first,” Catlin replied, and waggled her brows as he walked out.

  She went about her day in a normal manner, trying not to be depressed. Jetta noticed something was wrong, but Catlin wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. Steve didn’t call that night, and Catlin went to bed in a rotten mood.

  The next morning, Dana asked her quietly, “Did you talk to my dad?”

  Catlin just shook her head.

  “I didn’t think so. He’s in a foul mood.”

  “Is your mother still there? That would put me in a foul mood.” Catlin shook her head. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “No, she left.”

  “Well, there’s that,” Catlin muttered, as she tried to see any good in the situation.

  After school, she was heading into the lounge when she heard, “Catlin, phone call on line two.” The school secretary raised her eyebrows. “It’s him.”

  “Thanks.” Catlin gave her a small smile, and went to the phone in the lounge. “Hello.”

  “Are you busy?” Steve asked.

  “Just sharpening my guillotine,” she replied.

  “Now that scares me.” He sounded amused, which was better than the anger the last time she saw him.

  “Did you want something?”

  “Yeah, to talk. Can I come over tonight?”

  “I don’t know,”
she hesitated.

  “Catlin, we have to talk.”

  “I suppose.”

  “About seven?”

  “Whenever. I’ll be there.”

  “See you later then.” He hung up.

  She clutched the phone in her hands. For some reason, she just couldn’t let it go.

  Catlin’s stomach was a mass of knots, and she was fighting the urge to be sick. It was seven-fifteen when her doorbell finally rang. She answered the door and said simply, “You’re late.”

  Steve stepped in. “You said whenever.” He took off his jacket and tossed it on the back of the couch.

  “Want something to drink?” She stood in front of the refrigerator, getting herself a can of soda. She held one up to him.

  “Have anything stronger to mix with that?”

  “Sure.” She set it on the table and motioned to the cabinet. “Help yourself.”

  While she sat on the couch, he mixed some bourbon with his coke. He came out sipping the drink.

  Catlin inhaled. “I’d like to begin by saying I’m sorry. I never meant to go behind your back. I certainly never felt good about hiding anything from you.”

  He sat down across from her, and nodded. “That part slipped out in anger, I’m afraid. I never thought you did.”

  “It was such a horrible night, Steve. My first concern was taking care of Dana. Everything else seemed secondary after that.”

  “And I thank you for that. I’m glad you were here for her. That part has never been in dispute.”

  “Just my methods, eh?”

  He set his drink down, so he could talk and gesture with his hands. “Do you remember that Star Trek movie, the third or fourth one I think, where Kirk and his crew blew up the Enterprise and caused a whole bunch of trouble, but ended up saving the universe?”

  She smiled. “I think so.”

  “At the end of it, they had this long list of charges against Kirk. They told him that all the charges were dismissed, except one. Disobeying the orders of a superior officer.”

  She looked at the ceiling while she gathered her words, then gazed back at him. “You know, I get the gist of what you’re trying to tell me. And I don’t think you realize what a poor analogy you’ve chosen, so I’m going to put this to you real gently. You are not my superior officer.”