County Line Road (5 page)

Jimmy was relieved that there were no cars in the driveway as he and Allison pulled up to his house.

In the bathroom, he turned on the water and held his hand under it as it warmed up. He was nervous. He’d never been in the shower with a girl before. He’d seen it in movies and it always looked hot. He was getting excited, so he pulled a towel off the rack in front of himself, pretending to rearrange it. He was also afraid someone might come home any second.

He kicked off his sneakers and pulled his t-shirt over his head, hoping she was admiring his physique.

“Want to get in?”

“You get clean,” she said. “I’ll watch.”

“I’m shy,” he said and stepped inside and pulled the shower curtain in front of him. He tossed his shorts out. They landed on top of her purse.

“Shy?” she said. “Not the other night.”

He washed as fast as he could. When Allison pulled the shower curtain back to peek at him, he splashed her with water. Soon he was drying himself with the towel.

He leaned out of the shower and kissed her.

Just then the bathroom door flew open.

Linda stood in the doorway.

“Well,” Linda said. “This is what you do when I’m not here? When your father is away? Invite girls over? In the shower?”

“We weren’t in the shower,” Jimmy said.

Linda folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot.

“We were just leaving,” Jimmy said. He tried to push past her.

Linda didn’t budge. “Not until you tell me what you were doing, unclothed.”

Neither Jimmy nor Allison opened their mouths.

“Nothing?” Linda said. “I’ll have to call your father.”

“Wait,” Jimmy said. “We didn’t do anything. She waited while I took a shower. That’s all.”

Linda looked from Jimmy to Allison and back, scanning their faces.

“It’s true,” Allison said.

“And why should I believe you?” Linda said. “Are you using birth control?”

“Linda!” Jimmy said.

“Men never take responsibility for the messes they create,” Linda said to Allison. “Remember that – what is your name?”

“Allison,” Jimmy said.

“Don’t think you can count on him, Allison.” Linda looked over Jimmy from head to toe, as if suddenly disliking him. “He moves from one girl to the next every month. Or is it every week, Jimmy?”

Jimmy grabbed Allison’s hand and pushed past Linda. He took her to his room.

Linda started to laugh, catching Jimmy off guard.

“I’m just trying to teach you kids something,” she said. “Stop. Stop. Wait a minute, okay? Come on.”

Jimmy said over his shoulder, “We have to go.”

“Please,” Linda said to Jimmy. Then she sidled up to Allison who was pinned in the bedroom doorway. “Is that your car out front?”

“Yes,” Allison said.

“It’s very nice,” Linda said. “You parents must be well off. Not everyone can afford a new Mustang or this purse.”

Linda lifted Allison’s mini bag.

“And I love your nail polish.” Linda held Allison’s hand in hers.

Jimmy tried to step in between them to protect Allison from Linda.

“We have to go,” he said.

“Where are you going?” Linda asked. She dropped Allison’s hand and walked over to her own tote bag that she’d dropped on the couch on her way in the house. She rummaged around in the bag with her back to them. She pulled out something, but Jimmy couldn’t tell what it was.

“We’re going to see the new James Bond movie,” Allison said.

“Oh, I’d love to see that,” Linda said, acting sweet. “Jimmy and I used to go to the movies all the time when he was little. Remember, Jimmy?”

“I wasn’t that little,” Jimmy said with embarrassment. Anger and that caged feeling began to rise inside him again. “I was thirteen.”

“Anyway, do you need any money, Jimmy?” She picked up her purse.

“I have a job,” he said.

“Yes,” Linda said, waving him off. “Allison, I meant to show you this perfume.”

Linda took Allison’s hand, turned her palm up, and sprayed the inside of her wrist.

“Stop that!” Jimmy yelled. Horrified, Jimmy forced himself in between Linda and Allison. He had to touch Linda’s hand to get her to release Allison’s wrist. Jimmy moved Allison away from Linda and rubbed his hand on his shorts as if to wipe off the feel of her skin. “Come on. We’re outta’ here.”

He raced for the door, ushering Allison in front of him.

In the Mustang, Allison turned the key, and the engine roared.

“I felt like a pawn in there. A rag doll,” Allison said. “She was tugging me. You were tugging me.” She backed up and drove off. She turned up the air conditioning. “What the hell was going on with your mother?”

“She’s not my mother. I was trying to get her away from you.”

The cool air blowing from the vents at full blast spread the smell of Linda’s perfume throughout the car.

He suddenly felt claustrophobic as if the car were getting smaller. The scent seemed overpowering to him. Jimmy grabbed the towel from the seat. He held his breath and fumbled for the window button. Then he turned to Allison.

“Give me your arm.”

He rubbed the towel on her wrist.

“Ouch!” Allison said and pulled back.

He opened the window. “How do you open your window?” He started pressing buttons in the center console.

Allison’s seat moved back.

“Stop! I got it.” Allison lowered her window. “It’s hot as hell out. I don’t want the windows open.”

“I can’t take that smell,” Jimmy said.

Jimmy stuck his head out like a dog, gasping for air.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” She stopped the car. They sat, pulled over on a neighborhood street.

“That bitch,” Jimmy said, his mind still completely consumed by the emotions of what Linda had done. “I can’t believe she did that to you. Like I said, she’s not my mother; she’s my stepmother, and don’t ever let her get near you again.”

He paused.

“Look, I’m sorry about freaking out. She stole my father’s baseball and made it look like I did it. Now he might cancel my trip if I don’t find it or prove she did it. There, now you know the whole pathetic situation. Still want to go to the movies?”

He waited for Allison to call him a loser, but she didn’t.

“And here I thought you were perfect,” she said.

“Far from it,” he said. He put his hand on the door handle, ready to open it if she told him to get out.

“Now we have something in common,” she said. “Besides sex, that is.”

“What? Being trapped in a crazy family?”

“I don’t know if they’re crazy,” she said. “But we have our problems.”

“I thought you were perfect,” he said, taking his hand off the door.

“Far from it,” she repeated. “Forget about that. Kiss me and let’s start over.”

“Agreed.” He leaned over and kissed her. He touched his lips to hers softly, as if kissing for the first time. The song on the radio ended and another began, one about how love lasts forever. It was perfect, one of those moments for which radio was made.

“I haven’t seen you for three days. I thought you’d come by.”

“I decided to today,” she said. “Can we roll up the windows now before we burn up like a nuclear war just happened?”

He laughed.

“Besides,” she said. “You want to go to the movies, right? We can kiss in the dark like teenagers.”

“Uh, we are teenagers,” he said. “And I’ll kiss you anywhere.”

“We can get to that later,” she said. “Oh, I really shouldn’t say things like that, give so much away.”

“No, I like it,” he said. “It means you’re telling me the truth. I need that.”

“Okay,” she said and smiled.

It was at that moment that Jimmy felt himself fall in love, as solid as if he’d just jumped out of a plane and landed on firm ground after being thrown around by the wind forever.

In line at the movie theater, he stood close to her. He nudged her along in line as they shuffled with the crowd from the ticket window to the candy counter. He only paused to look in his wallet, feeling how little money he had, a sting that only lasted a moment until she took his hand and led him into the dark theater.

They selected seats near the back and kissed through most of the film. He was only torn away from her to watch in amazement as Bond chased the bad guy through tight alley ways of an old city out to a dock. They were running so fast, Jimmy couldn’t believe it.

After the movie, they drove without talking. Jimmy was perfectly comfortable, something he’d never felt around a girl before.

“Let’s go to my house,” Allison said. “Go swimming.”

“I don’t have a bathing suit with me,” he said.

“You won’t need it,” she said and kissed him.

They pulled up to Allison’s house, and she pressed the garage door opener.

Jimmy watched the two-car garage door rise and could hear the motor grind away.

“If they weren’t awake before, they are now,” he said.

Inside the garage sat a silver BMW and a Jaguar in a green color Jimmy had never seen before.

“No room for mine as usual,” Allison said.

She parked behind the BMW. “He’ll have to come get me to move mine in the morning. Serves him right.”

“Are you sure we should do this?” Jimmy said. “It’s kind of late for introductions.”

“They’re probably both working on their computers. We’ll say Hi-Bye, and head out back.”

He followed her inside. As the garage door closed behind them, Jimmy heard Allison’s mother.

“Allison? Is that you?”

“No, Mom, it’s a serial killer,” Allison said. She waved for Jimmy to follow her. He walked gingerly on the plush white carpet, feeling like he had to be careful and not disturb anything. It was quiet, clean and cold. The a/c blew on his skin, giving him a chill. A large silver bowl sat in the center of a glass coffee table with three red balls inside it, looking like they were made of barbed wire. He couldn’t figure what that was about.

They cut through the dark kitchen to the lit den in the back. The kitchen didn’t smell as if anyone had cooked any food recently, and the counters were bare except for two sets of car keys. They glinted in a pool of light from a teardrop lamp. His and Hers key rings with BMW and a Jaguar emblem cleared up any guess Jimmy had about who drove what car.

They kept walking through the kitchen to another room that turned out to be a den.

As soon as they stepped inside the den, Jimmy thought, This is a room I could live in. It had a wide flat panel television set on one wall with ESPN on, dark wood book shelves, a bar with glasses and mini fridge, leather couches and chairs and a large wood coffee table.

On a shelf were some family photos – he looked at one of Allison sticking her head out of a tent, smiling, and a younger girl just below Allison. Jimmy wondered who that was.

Allison was right – there they were, one parent at each end of the couch, feet touching, laptop on their laps, tapping away.

They both looked up at once.

“Mom, Dad, this is Jimmy,” Allison said. “We’re going out to the pool.”

Allison dashed through the den to the other side, dragging Jimmy by the hand.

“Hi, Jimmy,” Allison’s mother said. “Nice to meet you. Allison you could slow down a second.”

Allison paused at the door and looked back at her mother as if this delay was really unnecessary.

“Sorry to hold you up,” her mother said in a tone that implied, I know the look. “But I’d like to actually meet your friends.”

Allison looked at Jimmy to convey that this would be a good time to say something.

“Hello,” he said and put on a polite smile he reserved for parents and teachers.

“Do you attend the Western Ranches High School?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jimmy said.

“That’s where Allison will be going in August,” she said. “Do you play any sports?”

“I run track,” Jimmy said.

Her father looked up at Jimmy and studied him for the first time, analyzing him as if calculating his potential net worth.

“Track? Oh, that’s wonderful,” Allison’s mother said. “Did Allison tell you she went to state championships for track last year? She almost won first place, too.”

“Mom, please,” Allison said.

Jimmy turned to Allison, stunned.

“LeAnn, let the kids go swimming,” her father said. He turned his attention back to the computer screen.

“Thanks, Dad,” Allison said and disappeared through the door, whisking Jimmy away from the den.

They passed through another room to the pool. Allison unlocked the sliding glass door. It clicked and she pushed it open. It slid along the track, and warm, humid air came in.

“You run track?” Jimmy asked in a whisper. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I ‘ran’ not ‘run’. Here’s a towel,” she said and pulled some towels from a cabinet by the sliding glass door. “I’m going to get into my bathing suit. Be right back.”

Before Jimmy could ask her anything else, she was gone. He looked around.

The pool lights were on and cast a blue glow in the water. He stood under the covered part of the patio, but the patio extended out around both sides of the pool, trailing off into the yard. The pool curved around almost like a river to a hot tub built into it. Water splashed down a rock waterfall at the other end. A hut with a grill stood away from the house, surrounded by a bar and stools and just one of the many sets of patio furniture that were gathered in different corners of the deck. Accent lights lit up palm trees from below.

“Looks like some resort,” he said to himself.

When Allison came back, Jimmy said, “This is nice. What do your parents do for a living?”

“My mother is a Realtor, and my dad is a banker,” she said. “Why?”

She stood there in a bikini that made him forget why he asked. He just shook his head.

“Let’s go in over here,” she led him to the far side of the pool, away from the house.

She walked in the shallow end and turned to him. “Take off your sneakers, and your shirt. And your shorts.” She waved him in. “It’s warm.”

Nervous and excited, he undressed and watched Allison.

The water seemed to absorb her as she slowly descended into the blue. The pool transformed into a magical realm where the light was more intense.

She slipped underneath the surface and came up face first, slicking back her hair.

Mesmerized, Jimmy followed her slowly. As his underwear got wet, they sagged. He grabbed the elastic band and dropped himself further in, embarrassed.

Allison giggled and swam over to him, taking his hands, making his underwear droop more. “It won’t matter.” She kissed him on the neck.

“I never met anyone like you,” he whispered to her. He started to shiver, but not from cold.

“Tell me,” she said in between kisses.

“I don’t know how,” he said.

“Then show me,” she said in his ear.

He started to kiss her but stopped. “Why do you like me? I don’t have anything – no money, nothing like this.”

“This?” she said and swept her hand around the pool and patio. “It’s not a home; it’s a show place. Look. I didn’t tell you about running because, well, I just don’t want to talk about it now. I don’t run anymore. It makes me lonely when I do. I used to run with my – nevermind. Since I met you, I feel different. When I’m with you – and even when I’m not – I’m not alone. You make me feel like I’m part of you,” she said. “That’s never happened to me before. I wanted to come see you the next morning after the party, but I’m always rushing into things. I waited because I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision. And I am. I’ve seen you jogging. For the past few weeks.”

“You have?”

“When I saw you the first time, it was as if I recognized you, know what I mean?” Allison said. “Maybe that sounds odd.”

“No,” he said. “I know exactly what you mean.”

Jimmy wrapped his arms around her. The water became magical and he felt like it was seeping through his skin and into his being. He felt naked on the inside and pressed his stomach and chest against hers as if to cover up a hole where everything inside him lived but was starving, the core of who he was. The warmth of her skin spread into his. She was everything in the world to him now. Without really understanding it or questioning it, he felt a new sense of himself, something that could carry him through, no matter what happened in his life after this moment in the blue water.