Twisted Proposal

by M. V. Miles

  I didn’t respond, there was no point it would have just led to him freaking out on me again.

  To my surprise, we drove back to my house, where Mr. Van Buren’s BMW was parked. We pulled in behind it and Jackson escorted me into the house and to Stuart’s office.

  My arm throbbed as Jackson told his dad what happened using very colorful language to dramatize the story. As he talked I imagined what my padded room was going to look like. How long would I have to stay there?

  “This obviously isn’t going to work.” Jackson said sitting down with his arms crossed like a child.

  No one said anything and I wasn’t going to look up to see people glaring down at me.

  “You interrupted a very important meeting to tell us what, that you girlfriend took a jab at you after she single handedly secured you a spot with the Vanguards?” Mr. Van Buren said with a strange look in his eyes.

  “But dad-“

  “But nothing, I’ll talk to you later, now if you don’t mind I would like to get back to my meeting.” He snapped and Jackson nodded and we left the room.

  Upstairs in my bedroom, Jackson seemed to be in a daze as barked out orders. “You need to get cleaned up and do your homework.”

  Ignoring him, I grabbed my nightclothes and ducked into the bathroom where I examined my new wounds: He’d literally bit me breaking the skin with a few jagged teeth marks. Peeling off my shirt, wincing, I took a quick shower. A bruise with the perfect imprint of Jackson's teeth marked my shoulder--an unpleasant reminder of what Jackson could and would do. A few band aids covered the two cuts his incisors made. If I had not stopped Kevin, Jackson would be dead now, and I would be free. But what would have happened to Zach…or even Lexus.

  When I finally emerged from the bathroom, Jackson had my notebooks and books spread out on the floor.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t going to start destroying my work.

  “Helping you study.” He glanced up, peering at me through his rimless glasses. It was as if the scene at the park hadn’t happened. “Sit.”

  Was he serious? I knelt in front of him, and he began to quiz me on Latin and Calculus. When we finished, it was three in the morning, and I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. I lay down on the bed. Jackson stretched out next to me.

  “Kevin stays out of the picture. Got it?” His fingers trailed down my neck to the throbbing shoulder.

  “Yeah, I got it"

  He closed his hands around my neck and kissed me. At first I thought he was going to kill me, but then he released me.

  He didn’t wind up leaving till after six a.m. and by then, it was pointless for me to try to sleep. Might as well get dressed for school.

  When I came downstairs, Stuart was in the kitchen drinking coffee and reading the paper. I poured a cup of coffee and sat at the island, my back to him.

  “Just so you know, Jackson’s not spending the night again,” he said.

  I swiveled around to face him. “Like you have a choice.”

  “I don’t need another mistake that needs correcting.”

  My harsh laughter sounded forced even to me. “I'm not that dumb. Unlike your daughter, I use protection, and I don’t leave it up to the guy.”

  “Enough, Addison. Do you think it was easy for me to do that to Lexus? I did what was best for my child.”

  “Gee, at least you care about one of your daughters!”

  I had gone too far. Stuart was so angry he kicked me out of the kitchen, and I spent the next forty-five minutes alone in the living room waiting to go to school

  Not that school was an improvement. Carli couldn't stop talking about how much fun we had in Tijuana. I made a token effort and pretended to join in the conversation. I mean, why not? Everyone wanted me to be someone I wasn’t. In PE, I claimed Jackson’s bite bruise was from a spider, and they all fell for it. As the week passed, it became easier to maintain the pretense, to be as shallow as Carli and her friends. By Saturday, Stuart even said he noticed the change in me when he dropped me off to take my SAT's.

  Once I finished my test, instead of calling Stuart to pick me up, I called Kevin. I knew I wasn’t supposed to see him, but Kevin was the only person who liked me for me. I could be myself. Plus, I wanted to make sure he was okay.

  My phone call ended before Kevin answered because Jackson drove up. "Hey, beautiful," he called.

  Startled, I fumbled to drop the phone into my purse. Jackson slammed his car into park and jumped out. He snatched the phone from my hand. “Still going behind my back?” he said as he checked the call log. He threw my cell phone on the ground.

  I stared at the shattered screen, wondering if the phone still worked. “It’s not like we do anything other than talk.” I scooped it up and placed it gently in my purse. Maybe I could get it fixed.

  Jackson squeezed my arm. “You’re lying, I know what you do. The whole world knows what you do.”

  “We’re not hooking up.”

  He quit squeezing but still held on to me. “Don’t lie to me, Addison.”

  “What is wrong with you?" I shouted as I wrenched loose. "Don’t you have a life? God, I need space.”

  “Space so you can sleep with more people. You know, you’re getting a bit of a reputation.”

  “I am not.”

  “That’s what you think.” He opened the passenger door. "Get in."

  We drove home in silence, but when we pulled into the driveway, Jackson reached across me and held the handle of the passenger door. He gave me hard look that sent a cold chill down my back. “You see him again, there will be trouble.” He let go of the door handle. "Got it?"

  I pulled a Carli move on him. “Whatever,” I said as I went inside. I would do what I damned well pleased. He couldn’t control me.

  I went inside feeling like doing something destructive. So I went to the liquor cabinet and grabbed three different bottles at random. Safe and alone in my bedroom, I dumped out my purse on my bed. The phone was too damaged to repair, but Jackson would probably get me another one. I scooped up the bottles and sat in my closet sifting through the photos and trying to piece together what I knew about my mom. It was obvious she wasn’t a very nice person and slept around. Downing the first bottle of gin, I decided that Mr. Van Buren had slept with either my mom or aunt.

  An hour later I couldn’t feel anything as I lay on the floor flicking the charms on my aunt’s bracelet. It was really vintage, I bed Carli would love it, Or Kristen.

  At some point, I finally fell asleep. I woke to someone shaking me.

  “What?” I said, struggling to come to consciousness. My brain felt fuzzy.

  Petra yelled and slapped me in the face and I was sober. “”I can’t believe this! Three bottles, what’s wrong with you?”

  I only remembered drinking two…but it hurt to think. “What are you talking about?” I tried to push her away.

  “You’ve been asleep since Jackson dropped you off. Are you okay?” Zach said from the door of the closet where he was standing. He seemed to so tall.

  I blinked, peering at him. “What day is it?”

  “Sunday,” Petra said. She sounded angry, but her face was pale. Was she worried?

  “I’m fine,”” I sat up.

  “I don’t know what we are going to do with you.” Petra said picking up my bottles and leaving the closet.

  “You have a serious problem.” Zach said and left me alone. He was right I did have a problem and it was the Van Burens.”

  “You need to get up and take a shower. Stuart’s parents are coming over for dinner. I can’t believe this.” Petra returned shaking her head. “What’s next?” She flounced out.

  I showered and put on the dark blue dress and heels Petra had placed on my bed, Stuart was wearing a suit, when I met him in the foyer. He greeted me with a hug.

  “We’ll talk about Kevin later,” he said softly. ”Just do me a favor and try not to embarrass me.”

  An older woman with platinum blonde h
air strolled over. Right away, I noticed the family resemblance. Her eyes were the same as mine and Stuart’s “So you’re his love child.” She peered down her nose, studying me carefully. “What do they call you?”

  “Addison Jade Solomon.”

  Her laughter was brittle and sharp. “Oh dear, Stuart, honey, we need to change that as soon as possible. It’s a hideous combination. She’s a McDaniel now.” With that comment, she turned away and greeted Lexus with a hug and kiss on the cheek. She made it clear I was not her favorite granddaughter.

  Stuart’s father treated me no better. He barely said two words to me and pretended like I wasn’t even there most of the time, a difficult maneuver, since I was sitting next to him. Each time I asked him to pass me something—the salt or the butter—he turned to Lexus. “She wants the butter, dear.”

  I managed to make it through most of dinner before escaping to my room. They acted like I was an intruder and trashed my mother every chance they got. Apparently they didn’t see anything wrong with the way Stuart had behaved.

  Someone knocked on the door, and I quickly wiped my eyes before answering. “Yeah?”

  Stuart let himself in. “I came to see if you were okay.”

  I shrugged and sat on my couch. “Why do you care? They made their feelings clear. It was never my choice to be here anyway.”

  “I know they were hard on you, but my mother said you’re nothing like she imagined.”

  “Is that supposed to be a good thing?” I wiped away a stray tear.

  He sat next to me and patted my hand awkwardly. “Yes, coming from my mother. I knew tonight was going to be hard on everyone. But especially you.”

  Well, that was a surprise. “Don’t worry about me, Dad. I’m fine.”

  Stuart gave me a quick hug before he left. That was an even bigger surprise. It was the first time he’d shown he’d actually cared about me. Before I could stop myself, I was dialing Carli’s number.

  “Yeah?” She sounded bored.

  "So what's new? I met my grandparents for the first time tonight." I lay back against my pillows. Carli could always be counted on if you were willing to listen to her complaints, but she was a great distraction from Kevin.

  “Really?" But before I could say more, she launched into a whine about her history assignment. Even though I didn't get a word in edgewise, it was nice. And for now, Kevin was safe.

  ***

  The last two weeks of school were harder than I anticipated, and by the time it ended, I never wanted to see the inside of Briarwood for a long time. I hadn’t talked to Jackson since the SAT’s, and Kevin had been MIA from the park. He also refused to return my calls. Not that I had any free time anyway. Those final weeks of school nearly killed me.

  The first weekend of summer, Carli was in party-planning mode. She dragged me out shopping and insisted I help with her end-of-the-year bash at her father’s beach house. I wasn’t in the mood for partying, but to appease her, I said I’d go. She picked out what she said was the perfect summer dress for poolside, a flowered print that hugged my body. "You'll wow them all in this," she said. "Now help me find something to wear, too."

  Three hours later, she dropped me off. No one was home but Rosie, who informed me that the family had left for the weekend to visit his parents. It figured that I wasn't invited, but Stuart had tucked a hundred dollars on my desk to use for food along with strict written instructions that I could have no visitors, especially male.

  After Frances left, the house was eerily quiet. Normally, I would call Kristin or Carli on a Friday night, but Kristin was visiting her sick grandmother, and I had just spent an entire day with Carli already. I turned on the TV to fill the silence and then turned it off when I couldn't find anything to watch. Who else was there to hang out with? Jackson, of course. But he hadn't checked up on me for days, and I wanted to leave it at that. I paced my room, thinking. Kevin. No, that was stupid. I had been warned. More than once. But everyone was gone. Who would know? I picked up the phone.

  Kevin showed up an hour later.

  After the grand tour, we ordered pizza and watched Fright Night 6.

  “This would be a great party house.” It was at least the third time he’d mentioned that. It was weird how he just accepted my apology for not calling him. He even defended Jackson a little. Kevin poked me. "So, what do you think?"

  Our eyes met. I couldn’t throw a party at Stuart’s, could I? Well it was Friday night.

  “I know a few people,” Kevin said. "They're cool."

  “Dude, Stuart would kill me.”

  “No, he wouldn’t. We’d make sure everything was picked up before he returned.” He grinned. "He'll never know."

  “You’re serious about this?” A bad feeling nagged at me. This could go so wrong. "Yeah, it would be awesome.”

  “Fine.” Within minutes Kevin was on his phone. Just to be safe, I locked the doors to all the bedrooms and to Stuart's office.

  Two hours later the house was packed with people I didn’t know. They were loud and obnoxious, but Kevin kept feeding me drinks. Somebody had broken into the private bar and was mixing bottles of booze together in a huge punch bowl. At one point, I thought I spotted Jackson, but when I tried to follow him, Kevin told me I was hallucinating and refilled my glass.

  “No I don’t want anymore,” I said and put the cup down. The loud music combined with so much alcohol made me feel sick. Ditching Kevin, I retreated to the atrium where I collapsed on a couch. A cool breeze washed over me from the ceiling fans and lulled me to sleep.

  I woke the next day to a horrendous mess and silence. Kevin was nowhere to be found. None of the maids had shown up for work. It was like everyone ran out at the last minute. And they had piled their trash in planters, the kitchen sink, behind the couch, everywhere there was a hidden nook to stuff the garbage. It took me the entire day to gather it all up and cart it out to the bins. I was exhausted by the time Jackson waltzed into the house at 5:00 p.m.

  “Have fun last night?” he asked as he stretched out on my bed. I was lying next to him, my eyes closed, but something in the tone of his voice put me on edge.

  I stared over at him. He seemed different, taller, thinner maybe, or had he been working out? “Like you care.”

  “I don’t, but Stuart will. Breaking rules seems to be all you're good at these days.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” My head throbbing, I sat up.

  “Just that.”

  Frowning, I asked, “What do you want, Jackson? My head hurts and I’m not in the mood to play guessing games.”

  “Get dressed,” he said and left my room.

  Instead of arguing, I took a quick shower and threw on a dress and met him downstairs in the foyer.

  “I changed my mind. I’m going out. Have a good night.” He left me standing there. Something didn’t seem right at all.

  Chapter Thirty Six

  Back in my room, I plowed through my closet until I found Elizabeth’s and Eve’s things. I knew from Elizabeth’s stories that they threw lavish parties as teenagers at their house and usually wound up ditching them and going out to clubs. Was I anything like my mother or my aunt? It was as if I had tucked them back into the corner of this closet and totally forgotten about them. I spread their stuff out on my bed. There had to be something I was missing. Something important, but after examining everything again and finding nothing, I gave up.

  Lexus barged into my room. “You’re in so much trouble.”

  “What now? Can't you see I’m busy?”

  “You had that skanky boy over here, and Dad knows you had a party, too.”

  I didn’t even bother looking up. “So, like I care.”

  “You should. He’s ticked.”

  Closing Eve’s journal, I turned toward Lexus. “Is there a reason you’re wasting my time?”

  She smirked at me and then strolled back into her room. Not that I blamed the maids for telling, but at least I cleaned my mess up, which is more than I can
say for Lexus or Zach.

  Stuart ignored me more than usual at dinner, and Petra kept asking me what I did over the weekend, but I kept it short. Afterward, I wandered into the kitchen where Stuart was drinking a glass of whiskey and glaring at the refrigerator like it had killed his best friend or something.

  “Can I go to a party at Carli’s?” I asked cautiously.

  “I don’t know, Addison, do you think you deserve to go to a party?”

  “I got my SAT scores back, so based on that, yeah.”

  “You disrespected my house, my family, and my rules. No, I don’t think you deserve to go to a party.”

  “Okay. Sheesh. Just asking.”

  He started yelling then, so I retreated downstairs. I couldn’t wait to go to college and get out of this house. I needed a break.

  However, instead of playing video games, I decided to hit the treadmill and work out my stress. When I returned to my room forty minutes later, I found Stuart snooping through my keepsakes. “What are you doing?”

  “Now I understand why you’re acting out. You blame me for what happened to your mom.”

  “Hardly,” I said as I reached for Eve's box. Talk about invasion of privacy. “These are my things. You can’t just go through them whenever you feel like it.”

  Stuart lurched across the bed, snatched Eve's keepsake box away from me and tossed it into a cardboard box. “This is my house," he said as he threw more of their stuff into the box, "and I have the right to say what I want in it and what I don’t.”

  I scrambled to stop him, but he pushed me away. “Fine. I’ll keep it in the garage. Just give it back.”

  When Stuart finished packing the cardboard box, he shoved past me toward the door. As a parting gesture, he even took the framed pictures I had placed on my desk. “Wait. Where are you going? Those are my mother’s things.” That tiny collection was all I had left of my mother. I ran after him.

  I attacked him in the hall, pulling so hard on his shirt that it ripped. The box flew out of his hands as he batted me away, and I rushed to pick everything up.

  Stuart kicked my hand. "Leave it alone." Then he refilled the box and hurried down the stairs.