Hotbox (32 page)

The weekends found him at the bottle, and that’s when I would make sure I stayed away from the house.
I didn’t always hang out with the best people
,
and I probably could have gone down
the wrong path pretty easily. B
ut I think I learned at an early age that I was kind of a sensitive kid. I wasn’t thin-skinned
—I had my father to thank for that—
I was just more vulnerable to having a conscience for some reason. Without positive parental influence I suppose I could have turned out really bad, but I never had a good feeling when I chose to do something I felt was wrong. I was a kid that had the freedom to do whatever I wanted because my dad didn’t care, and although I did take advantage of that on occasion, I found myself preferring to do better things instead. I actually spent a lot of time at the library. It was probably the safest place I felt I could be, and my strong desire to keep away from my father had, in the long run, taught me quite a lot.

But I decided to try my luck one weekend and see if
my dad
wanted to rebuild a ’63 Nova with me.
A
teammate’s dad
said that we could have it if we thought we could do something with it. My dad was thrilled
,
and I was so glad to have a project that the two of us could work on.
He didn’t seem to drink as much and I was actually a pretty happy kid for a few months. My dad was great when he was sober
, but it almost made my life
with him more difficult
because h
e
became a completely diffe
rent person when he was drunk. A
nd comparing him to who he really was and who he had allowed himself to become
…it
was painful
.

Then baseball season came again and I was gone more, leaving my dad to turn to his booze
more often
—and, I later found out, gambling
. He pushed me around now and
then
, but I was pretty much able to avoid any seri
ous altercations with him.
Until one day I told him he should stop drinking… He nearly hit the roof that night, screaming and cursing at me. It probably made the top
five of his worst drunken moments
and I have the scar to prove it
.

I had plans to move out the day I turned eighteen, so for two years I worked my butt off and saved my money, dreaming for that day to come. My dad still had his moments of being a decent person. We’d still spend time in the garage working on the Nova now and then
, so I found it hard to hate him entirely
. I wished there
had been
some way I could have kept him away from the alcohol, but I just didn’t know what to do. I tried as hard as I could to keep him occupied, but I wasn’t always there to head off some of his binges. 

“Honey? Are you asleep?”
Jayden turned her head to see me.

“No, I’m awake,” I replied, kissing the side of her face. “What did you ask?”

“Nothing. You’ve just been so quiet, I thought maybe you were asleep.”

“How could I sleep when I have your beautiful body in front of me?”

She laughed and replied, “You tell me. You’ve done it before.” She fully turned to face me
with a smile, pulling herself as close as she could. “Am I not interesting enough to keep your attention?” she asked, kissing me just enough to tease me.

“Oh, you don’t even have to be in the same room as me to keep my attention. I get a little distracted at work sometimes just thinking about you.”

“Yeah? What do you usually think about?” she wondered, kissing me a little more.

“Usually this…holding you and kissing you. It occupies my mind quite a bit.”

“M
mm,” she smiled, and we continued to kiss. She pulled back after a
while
and said, “I’m so excited for tomorrow.”

My min
d was scrambling to remember what
tomorrow was…

“I get to have you for an entire day,” she added.

That’s right, it was Independence Day. Lou was closing the garage and Jayden had the day off. We had lots planned to keep ourselves busy. Besides Christmas, the
4th
of July was Jayden’s favorite holiday because of the fireworks. She loved fireworks.

“Remind me what the schedule is,” I said to her.

“
There is no schedule.
We can do whatever we want. But the first thing
I’ll
do is make you breakfas
t, and then we’ll go from there.
”

“Oh, so you’ve got this all planned out,
do
you?”

She laughed. “Mmhmm. You
, you, and more you;
baseball, the barbecue,
maybe some festivities at the lake tomorrow,
and
some fireworks…”

“Hmm, how ‘bout we make some of our own fireworks
right now
?”

Chapter
Twenty

             
It was a holiday but I figured I should take a chance and make the call, hoping I could somehow get a hold of someone. I sat on the couch and dialed the number.

             
“Hey, is Marty around?”

             
“Sure, one moment please.”

             
I waited until Marty’s voice came on the line. “This is Marty.”
             
“Hey, this is Tyler Huntington. I wanted to talk to you about the job. I’d like to reconsider it.”

             
There was silence on the other end and I was about to ask if he was still there.

             
“Uh, I’m sorry Ty, but the job… The job isn’t available anymore.”

             
“It’s not? I thought you weren’t filling the position until next week. Isn’t that what you said?”

             
“Uh, yeah… It’s not exactly
filled
… Uh, it’s just not available to
you
. I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s going on, but I can’t afford an
y trouble. I’ve got a family
. I’ve
-
I’ve been
threatened
not to hire you. I’m really sorry. Like I said, I don’t know what you’re mixed up in, but I wish you the best of luck. I have to pretend this didn’t happen, okay? I’m sorry, but don’t call again.”

             
He hung up.

             
I was numb. Yes,
his
influence could reach anywhere. My option of leaving town for another job had been taken away from m
e, and now I was stuck. Kristof
Olevsky
knew what he had to do to keep me here, and he did it.

As angry as I was, i
t was probably just as well. Taking away a job oppor
tunity was nothing compared to the things I had heard him do to others. He kept my body parts in tact so I could still work and c
arry out my new “assignment.” Bobby could still hardly move his arm after it had been so severely dislocated two months ago because he had missed a
major
deal.

My relationship with
Olevsky
was a little different than most of the guys that worked for him. He had an absurd fantasy that I was like a son to him. It’s a very sad and disappointing story of how he worked his way into my life, but he did, and I was naïve to believe he really was a good friend of my father’s. He had always been really nice to me, treated me with respect, and even helped me apply for my first job.

I turned eighteen the September of my senior year and I moved ou
t on my own the very next day.
Kristof
found a great apartment that happened to be pretty inexpensive and I lived there for almost three years until I
complete
d
my
final
year
of high school
and
two years of college.
My own father hadn’t helped me with anything, so it was
a
nice change to have someone care about me.
But I had no idea he was basic
ally grooming me for the future,
planting
himself in my life so he could be in my
good graces for later.
Had I known then what I knew now, I would have avoided him like the plague. O
nce he got his hooks into you, there was no way to break free.
But on the other sad side of it, if he really wanted you, you literally had no choice.

When the day came—the
first time I ever had to bail my father out—
it didn’t take long for me to
understand
what I had gotten myself into. I realized
Olevsky
had influence over almost everything I did throughout the
previous
few years—where I lived, where I worked, the
pay
I’d received.
He’s a masterful liar
and has a w
ay to make you believe anything, but t
here are some
things he is very honest about
,
just to keep things “real.” Sometimes he tells me things I really don’t want to hear…

“What do you feel like having for breakfast?” Jayden
asked, coming through the front door
. She had on shorts and a
t-shirt
and
looked pretty sporty with her hair in a
long
ponytail
.

“I don’t know. You look so cute I’m not even thinking about food right now. I don’t think you should take those legs in public.”

She looked down at them and frowned.
“I shouldn’t wear shorts?”

I laughed and said, “I think I’ll have a problem with all the guys that are gonna stare at you.”

She
scowled at me
.
“
You’re
wearing shorts. Maybe I don’t want girls to stare at
your
legs.”

“Ah, I’m used to it,” I replied with a smile.

She laughed as she
came to the couch
and
sat on my lap. “Well, aren’t you full of yourself,” she told me.

“I think the proper term is ‘confident,
’
”
I corrected.

“Well, whatever it is you want to convince yourself of…”

“It’s your fault.
You’re the one that always tells me how good I look, how hot I am, what an amazing smile I have—”

“Oh, poor baby
!
M
aybe I should stop. Sounds like you’re ‘confident’ enough and don’t need to hear it anymore.”

“No, I need it,
I really do,” I
pleaded
. “I need to hear you tell me all kinds of wonderful things, even if
they’re
not true.
I’m just an insecure fool that needs his ego babied…”

She was laughing by then and we had fun joking back
and forth for another minute
. We ended up lying on the couch with each other when she said, “I could get used to this.”

“What’s that?” I asked, kissing her neck. “Making out on the couch?”
             
“No,” she laughed,
playfully
pushing me aw
ay. “Being able to see
you every morning
.
It feels very…natural.”

I paused for a moment as I looked at her closely. “Are you talking about moving in with me?”

“Well, tha
t depends.
If you think it’s a
good
idea, then yeah, that’s what
I mean.
If you think it’s a
terrible
idea, then no, I don’t know what
you’re talking about
.”

I had to laugh. “Anything that involves spending more time with you is a fantastic idea,” I assured her. “But I don’t know if moving in with me is something you’d want to do just yet.”
Her father would probably kill me.

“Do you like having me here? I mean…”

“Of course I do.
I love being with you more than anything.
I
’d
love it
if
you
didn’t
leave
every night
.”

“Okay. I’m just throwing it out there…just in case you’d consider it.” She removed herself from the couch and said, “I’m going to
make
breakfast.”

I watched her leave the room, still slightly surprised by her suggestion.
Jayden was so conservative; it
wasn’t something I expected
her
to
propose
.
I wondered if she was worried I would never marry her, and moving in with me was the next best thing. It made me feel awful.