PS01 - Tall, Dark & Lonely (7 page)

“Ouch!”

The bathroom door flew open, banging loudly against the wall. Madison was so surprised that she stumbled back and fell over

a box. She quickly scrambled to her feet just as the light was turned on.

There in the doorway of the bathroom stood a very pissed off Ephraim. His eyes narrowed on hers before moving down to take

in her outfit. He seemed pleased by something and then walked into her room, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs. No

hello or what is that? He walked in like he owned the place. The music stopped suddenly.

“Good,” she sighed with relief.

He shot her an irritated look.

“I’m sorry if that woke you. I have no idea what that was.” The words rushed out of her mouth. This man intimidated her. He

was big, very muscular from what she could see now and handsome, too handsome. She never dealt well with handsome men.

She preferred to deal with average looking men. It made her feel safe. This man made her feel anything but safe.

She didn’t care if he was a cop. He was dangerous. She felt it. Everything in her body screamed for her to be careful. Of

course her mother was going to set her sights on him. She loved dangerous men. Her sister was already making plans. She

walked in on her sister and mother talking about birth control. It seems her sister didn’t like the feel of condoms.

That was a nice way to twist her heart and shatter it. Her sister somehow in the last week managed to lose her virginity and her

mother knew about it. Candy smiled sweetly up at Madison and winked. This was just a game to her. Madison had been too

upset to talk to Jill at that moment. She walked out of the room and made her way back to hers where she cried for a good hour.

Then she forced herself to focus on the task at hand, she was starting a new job tomorrow.

Using the text book and notes the school sent over she spent the next five hours creating a lesson plan. Finally, she finished

plans for the next two months and had the following week’s lectures created. Then she took a shower, a long hot shower. She

heard Ephraim pace his room the entire time muttering something.

The rap music started again. Ephraim threw her another irritated look. She looked even more unattractive with that ridiculous

knit hat pulled all the way to her eyebrows and down around her ears, ending around her cheeks. Her skin was tan and clean,

but that’s all he saw. Her scent hit him hard. He needed to shut off that annoying music and get the hell out of her room.

Now.

He focused on the sound and ignored her overwhelming scent. The damn music was coming from a box buried in the back. He

moved quickly towards it, throwing boxes and bags roughly out of his way.

“Hey!”

He ignored her. He found a box with a large pink heart drawn on it. He ripped it open and found the offending object on top, a

cell phone. “A ‘Carl’ is calling for you,” he said evenly.

For the moment she forgot that she was mad at him for throwing her things around and took the phone. “This isn’t my phone.”

“Don’t care. Tell Carl to fuck off or I will,” he snapped.

She seemed not to hear him or care what he said. “He’s a friend of Candy's.” Friend was putting it mildly. He was one of the

guys her mother managed to screw in the short two weeks since she was home. He was in New Mexico and it was one in the

morning there. More importantly it was Jill’s phone and Carl was thirty-five years old.

When Madison opened the phone her finger accidentally hit the speaker button. “About time you answered, baby.”

“Carl?” Madison answered, confused. “Why are you calling this phone?”

“Stop fucking around, baby. I’m horny. Come on over, I could go for one of your special blowjobs.”

Every muscle in Ephraim’s body froze. This woman was a virgin, he was sure of it. Some other unknown emotion ripped

through him as well. It was weird. He wanted to reach through the phone and rip this guy’s head off. It unnerved him.

Madison’s jaw clenched. Was she embarrassed? “Carl, why are you calling
this
phone?”

“Jill baby, don’t fuck around. I’m coming to pick you up. Sneak out your window and meet me by the tree same as last week.”

She took a deep breath and spoke evenly. “Carl, listen to me very carefully and don’t hang up before I’m done or I will have

the police at your door in fifteen minutes.”

“Oh shit…..Madison?”

“Yes, my sister is fifteen years old.
Fifteen
, do you understand what that makes you?”

“I..I…”

“You are a child molester.”

“Hey, whoa! She came onto me. It wasn’t my idea anyway. Your mother asked me to do her a favor. Your mother and Jill told

me that she was eighteen. I swear to god I wouldn’t have touched her if I knew. I swear to god, Madison. I am so sorry…I…oh

my god, she’s a kid…” They heard gagging sounds. “I’m going to be sick.” Vomiting sounds followed.

Ephraim snatched the phone from her hands. “Carl, surely you knew she was a kid. One look and you can’t miss.”

“I…they said she just looked young. I asked. They showed me an id. I swear. Please! It was in a pink wallet. They showed

me!” he pleaded desperately.

Madison shoved Ephraim aside none too gently and made her way to the box. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes,

fighting for control. This woman, a tomboy from the looks of things, was going to be the end of him. If he didn’t leave this room

soon he was going to drain her. He hadn’t drained anyone in nearly fifty years. He took only what he needed. There was no

way he would be able to that with her. The smell of her blood was too powerful. His hands began to tremble.

“Got it!” Madison held up a pink woman’s wallet. She stumbled over a box while opening it. She found a school ID and a

driver’s license hidden behind it. “That bitch,” she muttered.

“Let me see that,” Ephraim said through tight lips. His fangs were dropping. He forced them back with his tongue, but he didn’t

want to take a chance that she would see them.

“Here.” She handed it to him without looking at him, completely oblivious that her life was on the line at the moment.

“Well?” Carl asked nervously.

“It’s fake, Carl.”

“Shit.” He started sobbing. “But see I didn’t know that. I really thought she was an adult. Madison, I’m so sorry!”

“Carl, don’t call again,” Madison said.

“I won’t I swear. Tell her to stay away from me.”

“It won’t be too hard, Carl,” she said, ending the phone call.

He tossed the ID onto the bed. “Looks like you need to have a little talk about the birds and the bees with your little sister,” he

said a little harsher than he intended. He needed to get the hell out of here

Now
.

Cold glimmering brown eyes narrowed on him. She nodded firmly and spoke evenly. “I’m sorry this woke you up. It won’t

happen again. Now if you’ll excuse me I have something to do.”

As far as dismissals went this one was good. It had the opposite effect on him of course. He hated authority and hated being

told what to do even more. Unfortunately for him his teeth were throbbing in his mouth. If he didn’t leave soon he was going to

give himself away. So with a tight nod he turned and left, closing the door firmly behind him. Let the tomboy handle it. He

didn’t want the drama and most certainly didn’t want to deal with a fifteen year old who couldn’t keep her legs closed.

Madison traced the pink heart with her finger. This was Jill’s box. She must have grabbed it by accident. She took a steadying

breath before she dumped the contents of the box onto the bed.

Her hand shot to her mouth as she gasped. Who knew it only took two weeks to change a person this much? She froze on that

thought. Did she change or maybe Madison missed something. She pushed the condoms, cigarettes and nips of alcohol to the

side and sat down. She went over in her mind everything she could remember about Jill. There wasn’t that much since Madison

had been busy with her new job and looking for a new place for them.

There had to be something she missed. If Jill was really the responsible level headed kid she thought she was then two weeks

and Candy wouldn’t have been enough to change her. No, Madison failed. She missed something some time ago and Jill

slipped. It took Candy for Jill to feel comfortable with acting out in front of Madison. Until then the behavior was hidden.

“Shit,” she mumbled.

She picked up the packs of condoms and grimaced. Part of her wanted to throw them away, thinking if Jill didn’t have them she

wouldn’t have sex. That was stupid since she already knew Jill hated using them. Of course if she didn’t have them available

when she was able to sneak away she would go ahead and have sex without them. Then there would be more problems than

just a fifteen having sex. She could catch something or get pregnant. Jill was just like Candy now. She shouldn’t have a baby.

No, there was no choice, she threw the condoms, clothes and phone back in the box and closed it.

The alcohol and cigarettes were a different story. She gathered those up and went into the bathroom. She emptied the bottles

and cigarettes into the toilet and flushed. That took care of that supply. In a week she was going to search Jill’s room once she

was settled in. Until then she was going to have to keep a close eye on her. One thing was certain, Candy had to go.

********

greasy cloth.

“Oh no!” Madison pushed her long black hair that everyone said looked like silk back over her shoulder. Up until this point she

wasn’t sure if she was having a good day or a bad day. Ten minutes ago she would have said it was fifty-fifty. Now it was

easily seventy-five to twenty-five in odds of a bad day.

Her day started off good. She wore her most professional skirt that ended just above the knee and her favorite lavender blouse

that somehow survived the trip without wrinkles. There was even hot water after her neighbor finished his half hour shower.

She'd spent the entire half hour cursing him.

Jill dressed appropriately after Grandma handled her. Joshua was happy and she was able to eat breakfast despite her nerves.

Her car even started on the first try. Then things became a little iffy.

Her new job was in a very nice school. The building was new. She had an excellent parking spot. The head of her department

was an old woman who never stopped smiling and her classroom was well ventilated. Her desk was made of oak and

completely blocked the view beneath so that no one saw her fidgeting. Everything in her room was brand new. The students

were a different story all together.

The males kept staring at her all day. She could feel their eyes running down her backside and down her legs. Every time she

talked to one of her male students she had to work to keep their eyes on her face and not her breasts. She couldn’t understand it.

The skirt wasn’t too tight and her blouse didn’t show much cleavage.

Actually compared to the way many of the female students dressed, her clothes should have been considered conservative.

Some of the girls in her class reminded her of the half naked groupies in music videos. Their boobs practically hung out, many

of them including Jill to her horror, stuffed. They wore thongs and low cut jeans so that their thongs could be seen. It was a

scary sight indeed.

The girls in her class, the ones who dressed to impress the male population, hated her on sight. They snickered and whispered

when one of the more popular males made eyes at her. It was annoying to say the least. She ended up assigning a paper just to

get control of the room. Now she was feared, that was good.

To her horror the students were not the only males with wandering eyes. The teacher’s lounge ended up being worse. The men

spoke to her and asked questions, but their eyes remained fixed on her breasts. This was insane. Halfway through her break she

excused herself and returned to her room to eat in silence.

What was wrong with men? She didn’t have this problem in New Mexico. There all the men knew her. She spent most of her

free time on the Reservation with her friends. It was her safe haven since she was ten. They all knew her and treated her like

family. It’s not that she didn’t have the occasional admirer there. She did date several men from the tribe. It’s just they were

more respectful. They were her friends as well as her family. They taught her everything about life and her culture.

The men from school were a little bit more obvious about their attentions towards her. Back home if she caught a man staring

he usually had the good sense to look guilty and mutter an apology. Not here, oh no, here she seemed to be eye candy. The men

started with her face and she could see the appreciation in their eyes as they would run down her body hungrily.

Finally she resigned herself to this situation. After a few weeks this would end. They would be used to her and treat her with

more respect. She just had to hang in there. There was one man who didn’t look at her like that, Nick. He was in her department

and seemed nice. It didn't hurt that he was gay. At least she could count on one man behaving himself.

The rest of the day seemed to go downhill. Jill, her little sister, decided she was going to make a splash. She changed her

clothes sometime between breakfast and first bell. Her bra was overstuffed, her thong was high, her clothes too tight and she