Twisted Proposal (20 page)

When I put my pencil down thirty minutes later, Dr. Morrison was napping. I didn’t want to wake him, so I tiptoed out of the room and over to Dr. Thornton’s office. She was staring at something.

              “Excuse me,” I stated.

              She looked up, startled.

              “I’m finished,” I reported, handing her my papers.

              “Where did you attend school before you moved to California?”

              “Roosevelt High School in Sterling, Illinois. It should be in my file. What time is it?” I asked.

“About 5:00 p.m. or so.” She seemed engrossed in her paperwork.

“Okay, well I’m going to call my father now that I’m finished.” I headed to the front. She didn’t even respond.
I wonder if she even noticed.

I called Stuart, but he didn’t pick up the first few times. I waited five minutes, staring out at the thinning rows of cars in the parking lot. I could only imagine going to school at my family's alma mater. My phone began to vibrate. I didn’t recognize the number and pushed the glowing green button.

“Hello?” I answered.

              “Where are you?” Stuart snapped.

              “I’m at the school. You know. Where you left me this morning.”

              “I stopped by there, and the place was locked.”

              “Maybe you went to the wrong building or something. I was here, haven’t left all day. I’ve taken six tests and written an essay. Not to mention a bunch of psychological tests.”

              “I’ll be by to pick you up in an hour, so don’t leave.” He hung up.             

“Addison? Good, you're still here,” Dr. Thornton said, coming back in the room with a cardboard box just as I hung up.

              “I’m waiting for my father.”

              “I don’t know if you want this stuff or not, but your mom and sister forgot to clean out their lockers all those years ago and…well, we don’t ever throw anything away at Briarwood.” She presented the box to me.

              “Uh…thanks.” I said and took it; it was a little larger than a shoebox.

              “Okay, well, good luck,” she said and retreated to her office.

              “Thanks.” I removed the lid and inside, I could see a few ancient mirrors, a bag of makeup, notebooks, a hair brush, a few barrettes and green book. I pulled the journal out and opened it. Right away I recognized Eve’s handwriting. The book was empty, except for a few pages about some guy she liked in her class. I didn’t know what I was going to do with the stuff, but I felt like I was closer to them in some way.

Chapter Twenty

I must have fallen asleep on the bench in the hall, because the next thing I knew, Stuart was shaking me awake. I sat up, my head foggy.

              “Ready to go?” he asked.             

“Yeah,”

              “Okay, I’m going to let someone know that you’re leaving.” He disappeared down the hall. I blinked a few times and looked at my phone. It was 8:00 p.m. He was over three hours late.
Where had he been?

             
There had to be a reason he was so late. “You get stuck at a meeting or something?”

“Yeah,” he replied.

It was then I noticed a pink lipstick smudge on his collar and stopped.

              “What’s wrong?”

              I crossed my arms. “How do you plan on explaining that?” I pointed to his collar.

              He seemed surprised that I would notice something so insignificance. “Uh, it’s nothing.”

              “Right,” I said walking past him to the car. He was lying. “Still up to your old tricks Stuart? Are there any
other
brothers or sisters I should know about?”

              He chose not to respond, but before we left, he changed his shirt throwing the dirty one in the trunk of the car. So this was obviously something he did on the regular.

Once we arrived home, I went straight to my room and to my dismay, Jackson was sitting on my bed with a laptop and the television blaring. He glanced up at me smiling.
Three days in a row, really?

              “Your test results were very interesting,” he started.

              “Can’t you leave? I’m tired,” I whined and headed to my closet, where I grabbed some night clothes and deposited the box of locker stuff next to the keepsake boxes.
Wait did he say test results? No, I had to be hearing things.

Pushing the thought away, I went into the bathroom to take a long hot shower. I hoped Jackson would be gone when I finished, but he was in the same spot minus the computer.

I walked over to my bed.
I wasn’t going to stop my nightly routine because he decided to grace me with his presence again.
“How do you know what my scores are? You hack into the school system or something?” I pulled the covers down.

              “No, that would be illegal. I have other ways.” He rolled on to his side to stare at me.

              “Whatever.” I lay down and he gently lifted my sleeve and softly touched the bruise on my shoulder.              

              “Leave it alone, it’s tender.” I growled turning my back towards him.

He sighed loudly, “Don’t forget about the party on Friday. I’m picking Lexus and you up at 8:00.”

The party was the furthest thing from my mind. I nodded my head and blinked. I kept seeing faded gray boxes to fill in with a #2 pencil. Something warm and soft covered my shoulder and I opened my eyes. Jackson was staring down at me. He leaned over and kissed me softly. I closed my eyes.

“I want to watch a movie,” he said, reaching across me for the remote.

“Fine.” I sat up, still under the covers.  It was obvious he wasn’t going to go away until he watched his damn movie.

He picked a movie and killed the lights. Then he crawled into bed with me and wrapped his arm around me. Instead of fighting him, I rested my head against his chest and fell asleep. I woke up to him kissing me. I pushed him away.             

“See you then, beautiful,” he whispered into my ear.

              “Fuck off, frat boy,” I muttered and passed out.

***

The following morning at breakfast Stuart advised me that I would be going to the dentist and then to the dermatologist. Petra was to accompany me, but she bailed and gave me forty bucks not to tell Stuart and handed me a very strict itinerary. I kept quiet. Besides I could use the money.

I just went wherever the driver took me and checked in to the doctor on the list. My teeth were cleaned and whitened and I was given a bottle of moisturizer to use on my face. I couldn’t believe by the time I returned home, Zach was waiting for me. Two appointments took all fricken day!

We played games till dinner, and I helped him with his homework. Lexus had brought over a few of her friends, and they monopolized the pool, so I went downstairs and stayed there reading
Welcome to the Monkey House
.

That night in bed, I wondered about Henry. Part of me didn’t want to deal with it, but I was also resigned to let things happen the way they were going to happen. I turned out my light.

              By Thursday I was sick of staying in the house. I’d read everything I could possibly read about Briarwood and even tried to find information about Jackson, but only found some article about a lady named Natalie Van Buren who had died in a crash. I made a mental note to ask Stuart who she was at some point.

I’d also had planned and practiced a very diplomatic speech for Stuart explaining the various reasons as to why I should be allowed out to go out with Lexus and Jackson. As I walked down the stairs for breakfast, Stuart was stretching near the door.

“Wanna go for a jog?” he asked, and I forgot about everything and ran upstairs and changed in seconds. It seemed like I hadn’t run in forever, but since I was grounded I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere without Stuart of Petra. Even though we didn’t go as far as I’d like, I didn’t complain.

Mr. Van Buren’s dark grey Lexus was parked in the driveway when we came home.  I slowed to a stop and glanced at Stuart.

              “I wonder what the special occasion is,” he said.

              I didn’t offer any explanation.

Mr. Van Buren was sitting at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee, dressed in his usual designer suit.

              “Good morning, Stuart, Addison,” he greeted, smiling at me.

              “Good morning,” I replied and fixed a cup of coffee before shying away to my room. I sat on the couch and flipped on the television. I sifted through a few channels and stopped on a The Learning Channel. They were showing medical stories from patients in the ER.

Stuart walked in a few minutes later and blocked the television. He didn’t look happy about something. “What? I haven’t done anything. I swear it.”

“Mr. Van Buren wanted to let you know personally that you were accepted to Briarwood. You start on Monday.”

              “Are you serious? How does he know?” I screeched. I tried to remain nonchalant, but I couldn't hide my excitement.             

              “He’s on the board of Trustees.”

Impulsively, I threw my arms around Stuart’s neck.
I did it!
I got into Briarwood. Then, realizing who I was hugging, I backed away, embarrassed and scared at the same time.
What was wrong with me?
“Sorry.”

              “I’m glad you’re happy. Now I have to go to work. You’ll hang out with Petra and keep her company?” It sounded more like an order than a question.             

I nodded and as soon as he was out the door, I jumped up and down with joy. I’d made it. 

Unfortunately for me, Petra took me out shopping to celebrate and to lunch to meet her fake friends. All of them blondes. Their entire conversation was about where they were going to throw the next big party. I excused myself from the table when the main course was over. I had to get away from these women. They were chattering like a gaggle of geese. I went outside on the patio to get some air.

People here were so different than in Illinois. I mean, sure, we had our stuck-up snobs, but they weren’t like Petra and her friends. It was like everything was handed to them. I returned inside. Then as if things couldn’t get worse, while I was waiting for Petra to return from the bathroom, Morgan appeared out of nowhere.

“Why, hello, Addison. I didn’t expect to see you here.” She joined me.

              “I bet.”
Come on, Petra, it doesn’t take that long to pee and wash your hands.

              “I have a favor to ask of you, dear.”

              “If it involves Jackson, you can forget about it.”

“No, it’s for me. He doesn’t know about this.”

I glanced at her sideways, unsure if she was trustworthy. Before I had a chance to respond, Petra arrived and began introducing her friends.

“Nice to meet all of you, but I really must be going,” Morgan said. “Oh I almost forgot.” She interrupted Petra on purpose. “I’m getting ready to launch my own line of clothing, and I was wondering if Addison would be so kind to wear one of my dresses tomorrow night at Jackson’s party."             

              “That would be lovely, wouldn’t it?” Petra faced me with an eager smile.

              I wasn’t excited at all. This had disaster written all over it. “How kind of you,” I forced out. “Excuse me.” I escaped outside and waited for Petra out there.
Like hell I would wear one of her dresses. The back would probably fall out or something.

“Care to explain why you insist on embarrassing me in front of her?” Petra asked when she caught up to me. Her face was bright pink.

“No.” I stood. She shook her head and started to lecture me again, but I was only half-listening as we made it to the car in record speed.

When I arrived home, I trudged upstairs with the clothes Petra insisted I buy; I opened my bedroom door to see Lexus going through my closet.

              “Excuse me?” I walked in and dropped my bags on the floor.

              “I was just looking for a shirt to borrow,” she said, pretending to be innocent.

              “Why don’t you look in your own closet? Besides we’re not the same size.” I took my shirt out of her hands and put it back where it belonged.

“Fine. The truth is, I need to talk to someone and I figured…” She waited for me to say something.

              “Okay. Do you want to go for a walk or something?” I didn’t know why we couldn’t just talk in my room, but I got the impression that wasn’t an option.

              “Why don’t we go get lattes?”

              “Uh…okay.”
Whatever that was?
She let the way out to her pink Mercedes convertible.             

She haphazardly drove to a place called Coffee Cabana and ordered a drink for me. I was surprised we made it there alive. She blew through three stop signs.

“Are you old enough to drive?” I questioned.

“Yes, stupid. Well, at least inside the gated area. Daddy won’t let me out in the real world yet.”

I could see why.

She didn’t give me any hints about what she wanted to talk about at all. I gingerly sipped the hot
l
iquid she handed to me and to my surprise, I liked it.
I liked it a lot.
It was like coffee and cocoa mixed together and topped with whipped cream.

              “Let's go to the park.” Without waiting for me to respond, she pulled out of the parking lot and we wound up at the park where I had met Kevin. 

“What are we doing here?”

“I figured we could talk and stuff.” She went on to complain about school as we strolled through the playground.
We passed the swings and ended in a secluded area, hidden by trees. There were a few picnic tables and even a fire pit. This was a prime location for a hideout.  It was kind of neat. She sat down on one of the table tops. I waited. “Sit,” she ordered and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

              “I’d rather stand.”

“Want one?” She held out the pack to me. I took one, and she lit it for me. They were menthols, not what I expected her to smoke.

“Thanks.” I relaxed enough to sit next to her.

              “Tell me what you know about sex,” she blurted out.

              “What makes you think I know anything?” I was surprised she would ask me a question like that.

              “I overheard Mom and Dad talking.”

              “I imagine.” I wasn’t expecting my "sex life" to be the topic of conversation. “What do you want to know?” I wanted to get this over and done with.

              “Well, I’ve never had full-on sex…I’ve given hand jobs and head mostly--”

              “Wait!” I said, holding up my hands. I couldn’t do this.

              “What?” she asked.

“Shouldn’t you be talking to Petra about this?” I didn’t want to give any advice to her
. I couldn’t believe we were talking about this!
Talk about awkward. I’ve never shared my experiences with anyone, not even Elizabeth. I prayed this nightmare would end.

              “No, she would flip out. Besides I just wanted to know what the first time was like,” she said, pulling her hair back in a bright pink elastic band. 

It was then I realized how immature she really was. Her tank top had a picture of a white cat with a pink bow on one of his ears. Bright pink letters spelled out,
Hello Kitty,
across her stomach. She matched this with a pair of hot pink shorts and fuzzy flip-flops with flowers on them. A girl like her shouldn’t even be thinking about sex.