Someone to Love (36 page)

“So, have you thought about a wedding?” Mom
asks, stoking the flames.

“I’m sure they’re not at that stage yet.”
Karen shoots a look to Kenny that suggests we’d better not be. She
moves her attention to me, cold and steely. “Cruise? How do you
plan on supporting my daughter?”

“Supporting?” Kenny scoffs. “I’m sorry this
isn’t nineteen fifty-five. Cruise doesn’t have to support me at
all.”

Kenny shoots me an apologetic look, most
likely because I have been supporting her, and I really don’t mind.
Soon I’ll make her my wife and the mind-blowing sex won’t feel like
such a tradeoff for room and board.

“I’m a graduate student,” I interject. “I’ll
be working on my doctorate in the fall. I’ve been granted a
fellowship and am currently in the middle of a teaching
internship.” Why does it feel like I’ve just spewed out an
interview for some tame boardroom position? More like bedroom, and
being with Kenny is anything but tame as evidenced by the shiny
metal choker cuffed around her neck.

Dad places his hand over my shoulder and
gives a slight jostle. “A fellowship? That’s fantastic. I’m so
proud of you, son.”

Son? He’s going for the gold tonight.

“So the wedding…” Karen drives us back to the
subject at hand, and surprisingly she turns to my father. “We’ll
finally be family.” She looks up at him with a startled smile as if
she had always wanted to be “family” with my father. I’m feeling
rather lucky this matrimonial mix-up didn’t happen years ago
because I would awkwardly, yet willingly, be fucking my
stepsister.

I give a sly grin at the idea.

“We’ve always been family.” He counters.
“Would you like to take a walk?”

“I would love to.” Karen rises hypnotically,
and they head toward the entry.

“What the hell was that about?” Molly snipes.
She’s not one to be dragged off into the arena of the awkward,
willingly. Her eyelashes are crusted over with mascara, and she’s
got on way too much war paint in general. I would like to know what
the hell
that
is about.

“They had this thing.” Mom swipes the air
like it’s no big deal.

“What thing?” Kenny’s eyes and breasts both
manage to provide a three-D spectacle. Not that I mind.

“They dated,” Mom whispers. “It was long
after he and I disconnected. They were hot and heavy for a good
long while, and then all of a sudden she took off to California,
and he was with Jackie.”

“Bet he cheated on her.” Molly huffs. “Guys
are assholes.”

“Mind your P’s and Q’s.” Mom swats her on the
arm. “And what’s this wine guzzling business?” She swipes the glass
out of her reach. Not that it matters. It’s long since been
drained.

“Cruise isn’t a cheat.” Kenny picks up my
hand and holds it to her chest as if I were a life raft.

“Cruise is an open cheat,” Molly corrects.
“He sleeps around because his dick suffers from the need to be
strangled nightly.”

“Molly,” I bark at her. All that talk about
her needing a father figure filters through my mind, and I’m moved
to bolt her in her bedroom for the next four solid years as a
tribute to good parenting.

“You think you’re so perfect,” she shouts
back. “You and that little hoe you’re shacking up with, when just a
year ago you were peddling the fine art of abstinence and taking me
shopping for purity rings. Boy, you sure stomped out that bag of
‘chastity’ shit like it was on fire.”

“You can go now,” I say it low because if I
raise my voice I might lose it and flip the damn table over to keep
her from babbling like an idiot.

“I will go.” She rises. “Just know I happen
to respect your new girlfriend more than you because at least she’s
honest and cool. Instead of trying to buy me a wedding ring for
Jesus, she took me to the free clinic and got me on the
pill
.” She tosses down her napkin and bolts from the
room.

“What!” Mom snatches at her crutches before
hobbling after my apparently sexually promiscuous sister.

“I’m so sorry.” Kenny reaches over and lays
her hand on my arm to soothe me.

“Don’t be. Molly has spun her last fucking
lie—”

“I can explain everything.” Kenny blurts it
out before I can finish.

I freeze a moment. Kenny wouldn’t take Molly
to any free clinic and put her on the pill.

Kenny’s eyes elongate. She sucks her cheeks
in as if alluding otherwise.

Oh shit.

“Does this have something to do with the fact
she thought she was going to be an aunt?” I ask, but she doesn’t
say anything. “Kenny?”

“Um…” She touches her hand to her chest just
the way her mother did when she was nervous. “It was sort of an
accident. She’s a lying little...” Her fingers fly to her lips. “I
mean, I’m sure she’s a nice person once you get to know her. It’s
just that I haven’t really seen that side of her yet.”

I start in on a slow, sober laugh.

My father has a very obvious hard-on for
Kenny’s mother, my sister is having sex with prepubescent boys, and
it was Kenny, of all people, she manipulated into helping her get
on the pill. Shit.

I stand and pull Kenny into my arms.

“My family is completely insane.” A smile
breaks loose on my lips as I take in the inordinate amount of
beauty God saw fit to gift her with both inside and out. I lean in
and crash my lips against hers until my body stirs to have her in
all four corners of this oversized house.

A soft bubble of laughter gets caught in her
throat. “Sounds like we might be related.”

“Maybe sooner than you think,” I say. “Last
fall, Jackie and my dad filed for divorce. They’re just buying time
under the same roof.”

She sucks in breath. “That’s terrible!”

I nod in agreement. “So there’s nothing else
you want to tell me? Any baby news? Any more rides to the free
clinic?”

Her mouth opens then quickly closes.

“I’m not keeping a single thing from you,”
she whispers as her face lights up like a Christmas tree.

And deep inside, I wonder if she is.

On Saturday night, Tri Delta is having a
party. Kenny asked me to join her, but I assured her I’d be okay at
home, working on my thesis. Besides, she mentioned Lauren asked her
to do her a favor, and I didn’t want to get in the way of a girls
night out. But as soon as she left, I felt the vacuum in the room.
Kenny takes the air, the life all with her. I can’t stop thinking
about all those amped up frat boys attacking her like a group of
hormone happy bears, so here I am, ready to cross the threshold
into debauchery.

Tri Delta brims with mostly female bodies.
Back in my scrotum-slinging days, this would have been an
estrogen-laced paradise. For sure this is a much bigger venue and
far more popular than the party Pen threw at Sigma Phi the night
Kenny arrived. This time, all of Garrison decided to show.
Although, in Pen’s defense, it was Christmas break, and most people
had flown home for the holiday. I’m glad things worked in reverse
for Kenny—those Christmas kisses were the best gift ever.

A bevy of scantily clad co-eds fills the
room, each displaying a unique level of undress. Bra straps seem to
be the order of the day, skinny jeans so tight they look like they
might need to be peeled off—complete with G-strings spiking out the
back, showing off whale tails of various shapes and sizes.

A bubbly coed dips her hand into the back of
my jeans, and I take a giant step forward, only to have a brunette
press her pillowy chest against mine. Her lips come into my face at
Mach five and I’m quick to step away.

“Whoa, ladies.” I hold up my hands and make a
break for the nearest wall, otherwise known as the observation
zone.

I pan the room for Kenny. As soon as I spot
her, I plan on making a beeline over. I have every intention of
hitting on the most beautiful girl in the room. And if I’m lucky,
maybe she’ll let me haul her upstairs and offer her another private
“lesson.”

I’m sure she’s been swallowed alive in a sea
of testosterone by now.

Off to my right, a group of guys play beer
pong. I hike a leg against the wall and watch as they toss a
plastic ball at a mass of red solos.

The object of coming to one of these events
is to get laid. If they have any inclination to unzip their pants,
for reasons other than urination, then isolating themselves is
going about it the wrong way. At least invite some girls to play.
Amateurs.

“Hey, handsome.” Blair springs up like an
apparition. Her hair is pulled back so tight she looks ghastly.
“Tall, dark, and lonely tonight?

“Just looking for Kenny.”

She makes a face. “Oh, I bet right about now
she’s hooking up with some poor, unfortunate soul—ready and willing
to bless ‘em with that body.”

“In your dreams.” I try to make my escape,
but she yanks me back by the shirt.

“So why the big mystery?” Her dark eyes slit
to nothing. “I would assume if you’re so close to
Kenny,
you’d at least mention the fact you had an ex-fiancée. Or maybe
it’s not me you’re hiding from her. Maybe you’re just embarrassed
by who you used to be.”

I look right at her, and it feels like I’m
seeing her for the very first time. The way her jowls protrude, her
red lips are drawn in like a slash as if someone lanced her
face.

“Embarrassed?” I balk. “About what? The fact
we met in youth group and decided to save ourselves for that
magical someday, until you decided to feed the masses with your
body? Guess what, Blair? I finally figured it out. You did me a
favor. Without your insatiable desire to cram as many dicks inside
you, I would’ve never met someone amazing who I actually fell in
love with and who treats me with a level of respect I never knew
possible.”

Blair’s features harden. Her eyes gloss over
with tears, red as Tabasco.

“She’s upstairs, probably screwing some
guy—or girl,” she hisses. “She doesn’t seem too picky. Hope you
have a fantastic unhappily ever after.” Blair hits the door and
disappears like a phantom.

Upstairs? Probably just some device to land
me near a mattress. I take the stairs two by two and open and shut
doors at random.

I make my way farther down the hall until the
noise from the party is quickly replaced with deafening silence.
Voices murmur from behind the walls of an adjacent room—a guy and a
girl. The door is cracked open, so I peer inside.

A familiar mane of dark hair stands before a
tall, very bald douchebag.

There they are, Kenny and Cal.

“It could just be this one time,” she purrs,
running her hand down his shirt. Her fingers work on unbuttoning
his jeans, and my chest constricts at the sight. Kenny just threw a
brick at my heart. “I won’t tell if you won’t,” she coos.

I lean up against the wall and try to catch
my breath. Kenny giggles from the other side, and her voice drills
through me.

The sound of her laughter chisels down a
toxic brand of misery right through to my bones, and I get the hell
out of Dodge.

Late the next morning, I make breakfast for
Kenny while she’s still sleeping—eggs and bacon, toast with
strawberry jam, her favorite, and I’m heavy with agony every step
of the way.

I glance out the kitchen window at the grey
corrosive sky—all rust and iron locked in hurt and disbelief much
like my heart.

Fresh air seems mandatory to clear my head
out of this gutter of despair I’ve landed in. I grab a pen, and my
hand trembles as I leave her a note.

Going for a walk, be right back.
I
scrawl it on a napkin quick as possible—afraid if I stall, my true
feelings might bleed out.

It’s almost afternoon, and she’s still
knocked out. She didn’t get in until three. I kept hoping she’d
come to my room and ask why I was in my own bed, but she didn’t.
Not sure what I would have said if she did. I just laid there all
night, wide awake, wondering how the hell my heart wound up crushed
under the sole of her pretty little foot.