All the Wrong Reasons

All the Wrong Reasons

Jenna Leigh Paul

Copyright © 2010 .Jenna Leigh Paul

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Chapter 1

Bob Seger belted out loudly – urging me to take those old records off the shelf - and made me wince. I pulled my pillow over my head to block out the noise but my mother was relentless. And I really, honestly detested that song.

I knew it was time for a new pillow when I was able to hear the timid rap at my door. So much for all that fluffy filling blocking out the world. I groaned and sat up, kicking my blankets to the foot of my bed. “Come in,” I shouted.

The door creaked open a smidgen and a tuft of red hair was visible through the crack. I giggled. “Tommy, just come in already. I’m decent.”

Forcing the door open, my little cousin peeked shyly at me. He did this every time my mother played music – the loud noise frightened him and he’d come to me for comfort.

His airplane pajamas were faded and rumpled and showed quite a bit of his ankles but he didn’t seem to notice. He smiled when he realized I was telling the truth that I was indeed wearing pajamas and not running around my room scantily clad or nude – not like I did that on a regular basis.

“We have school,” he said simply, standing in the doorway. “Aunt Mina is playing loud music and we have school.” His freckled nose crunched up in distaste and confusion. Tommy hated to have his morning routine broken by the slightest thing.

“I’ll ask her to turn it off, okay Tommy?” I asked gently as I tousled his hair.

Nodding, he slipped his hand into mine. “Breakfast?”

“Sure,” I said. “Waffles today? It is Monday after all.”

His smile was answer enough so I led him down the stairs, wincing again as Mick Jaggar slyly requested some woman to start him up.

My mother loved music – especially the classics. She’d spent her youth bouncing from garage band to garage band, singing and shaking her ass for all it was worth. She’d always dreamed of being on stage in some skimpy outfit with electric guitars screaming behind her and fans cheering in front of her. When that didn’t work out, she’d settled for following her favorite band around the country. That was where she met my father. Unfortunately for her –and me, too, I suppose – she just couldn’t remember which one helped in my conception. Oh, she had it narrowed down to three or four and for that I suppose I was grateful.

Tugging Tommy through the cramped living room, I dropped his hand as I marched over to the CD player and pressed the stop button. Blessed silence greeted my ears. I glanced at Tommy and smiled. “Better?”

He nodded.

“Hey! What happened to the music?” my mother asked, frowning as she entered the room. She was still as beautiful as I imagined she’d been in high school with dark blonde hair, thin waist and long legs. She had a pert nose and pretty blue eyes. I was fortunate to have inherited all of her features except the long legs and the large bust – but I wasn’t complaining. I didn’t need beauty – I needed the brains that I must have inherited from my grandparents. Intelligence and an excellent college degree were what I’d use to get through life. I loved my mother fiercely but I refused to turn into her.

“Tommy didn’t like it so loud,” I said as I took Tommy’s hand again. “It’s a school morning, remember? He likes waffles and cartoons.”

“Oh, Tommy baby,” my mother crooned as she hugged him. “I forgot, darling. Go turn on your cartoons and I’ll fix your waffles.”

I flashed my mother a grateful smile as we both headed to the kitchen. Thomas was a responsibility my mother definitely didn’t need but she would never give him up. Aunt Gloria – my mother’s older sister – was even flightier than my mother. She showed up at our door one day about three years ago with an adorable, red-headed little boy and handed him over to my mother. Aunt Gloria just couldn’t handle raising a child - especially one with special needs. After Tommy had been with us a few months, I urged my mother to take him to the doctor where he was later diagnosed with a mild case of OCD. That, combined with his red hair and freckles, made him a perfect target on the playground. Luckily for us, Tommy had some strange friendship going on with Gabriel Madison who was rumored to be the elementary school bully. He kept a close eye on Tommy and never let anyone touch him.

“Are you excited about starting college today?” my mother asked as she hunted in the freezer for frozen waffles.

Shrugging, I grabbed a granola bar. I peeled away the wrapper and nibbled on the end as I contemplated my day. New classes, new friends, new professors – I wasn’t sure excited was the word. And the weird thing was that I would be living on campus.

My mother’s house was exactly nineteen minutes from the driveway to the Administration Building of Dunne-Browling University and I would have been perfectly happy to commute every day. Unfortunately, I was not footing the bill for this expensive and elaborate school – my grandparents were. They insisted I live in the dorms so I could experience college life like a coed should. I suspected it was their way of getting me out of my mother’s clutches.

“I guess,” I mumbled as I finished my granola bar and raced upstairs to shower.

All my things were already in my dorm and mostly unpacked. I had intended on sleeping in my new college bed Sunday night but my mother had insisted that I stay one more evening at home. Like I wouldn’t be home on the weekends or something.

Still, I’d stayed and I was actually grateful that I did. Tommy would never have opened his mouth to tell my mother to shut off the music – instead he would have sat in his room, rocking back and forth on his bed, until she shut it off. And who knows how long it would have taken her to check on him.

I sighed as I dressed, thinking about the schedule I’d posted on the refrigerator.

“Mom, make sure you follow this,” I said, tapping the schedule with my finger as I waltzed back into the kitchen. “You know how upset Tommy gets.”

“I will, I will,” she said, removing Tommy’s waffles from the toaster. She dropped them on his favorite soccer plate, buttered, and cut them. She squeezed just the right amount of syrup on top then called gently to Tommy. He scuttled into the room and sat in his usual chair at the table.

I glanced at the clock, kissed the top of Tommy’s head, and snatched my keys off the holder near the back door. “I need to go,” I announced. “I want to at least meet my roommates before my first class.”

“Oh,” my mother said, pressing her hand to her heart. “My little girl is off to college.”

I refrained from rolling my eyes and settled for pecking her cheek. “I doubt if I will be home for dinner tonight. I need to get situated.”

“Well, call me,” she ordered as she clutched the back of Tommy’s chair. I promised I would, waved, and exited quickly.

I sprinted to my car and nearly squealed out of the driveway. I was on my way to freedom.

***

“You must be Irelyn Colby,” a very slim brunette grinned as I breezed through the dorm room door. I was determined to start this whole new experience off with confidence.

“I would hope,” another girl snorted as she lounged on a sofa, dark eyes on the television. “Otherwise, someone made copies of our keys.” She stood and smirked, offering me a hand. She had striking features and long, nearly jet black hair. She had exaggerated curves and a pronounced bust – just what I’d always wished I’d had. Her eyes appeared black, too, but as I drew closer I could tell they were just an unusually dark shade of brown. “I’m Bailey Foxworth.” She shook my hand and gestured toward the other girl. “That’s Morgan Taylor.”

“I’m Irelyn,” I said, though they already knew that. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“So, why didn’t you sleep here last night?” Morgan asked. She was cute – shoulder length hair, hazel eyes, slender figure, and a warm, sweet smile.

I grinned sheepishly as I dropped to a chair. “It’s actually sort of stupid,” I admitted. “I live less than twenty miles from here but my grandparents really wanted me to live in the dorms.”

Bailey snorted and shared my disdainful smile. “Ah, the adults – always know what’s best for us, don’t they?”

“So they think,” I mumbled.

***

I adjusted to my classes rather quickly – though I’d always been sort of a nerd. I made a few tentative friends and agreed to join a study group. Life was settling in comfortably.

Neither of my roommates was in my classes but we always managed to gather in the evening to watch reality shows or just talk about the new people we’d met. Neither of the girls had a steady boyfriend – although Bailey had plenty of experience with boys – and they loved to question me about my eighteen month relationship with Dustin Summerlin.

The other girls had adjusted to college life, too, and often had adventurous stories to tell me every Monday when I returned to the dorm. While I spent my weekends with Mom and Tommy, and having dinner at the country club with Dustin, they spent theirs meeting interesting people and attending fun parties.

One Thursday night about a month after the semester started, we huddled in our pajamas on the cozy sofa Bailey’s parents had paid for and ignored the TV as Morgan bounced up and down, exciting news ready to burst from her lips.

“This girl, Candace Harvey, she’s in my Lit class,” Morgan gushed, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright. “She said that everyone is going to Rusty’s tomorrow night. Apparently, Out Back is playing and she said we should go check it out.”

My brow furrowed as I tried to grasp her words. It was a difficult task due to all the bouncing that made her speech a little hard to follow. “Okay, call me stupid but what is Rusty’s and what is Out Back?”

Bailey clamped her hands on Morgan’s shoulders, forcing her to sit still. She turned her beautiful eyes on me as her luscious lips curled into a smirk. “Rusty’s is a bar and Out Back is a local band. I've heard them - they're pretty good- and word around campus is that they’ve made quite the name for themselves in the area.”

“Candace says local critics have compared them to Fall Out Boy and Linkin Park,” Morgan squealed.

I stifled a groan and nodded. I wasn’t much into modern music as my mother gave me daily doses of classics. Aerosmith I knew – Fall Out Boy, or whatever, not so much. I was a little leery to reveal my ignorance so I just nodded my head.

“Cool.”

“We should so go,” Morgan said. “It’ll be great.”

I definitely wasn’t excited about the prospect of spending a Friday night in a cramped bar with a bunch of drunken college kids puking and screaming while a band did their best to imitate their idols. If that was the case, I could go home and help Mom out in the pub she managed.