This was the day we had been waiting for. Tomorrow I'd never see Shelly or Debbie or any of their minions ever again. Four years seems like a blip on the screen when I am probably going to live until I'm at least eighty. If I don't get hit by a truck or die in a terrorist attack.
I laughed at my morbid thoughts.
Taking a deep breath, I headed back out into the hallway and just as I was about to go toward the exit where Sandy was having a smoke I heard something.
“Well, you don’t get to decide these things, Lucas.”
“Oh, and you do?”
I tip-toed uncomfortably further down the hallway to a vestibule where an old-fashioned payphone was fixed to the wall and the arguing duo had snuck to in order to have their spat. I leaned my back against the wall and held my breath.
“Damn right, I do. Your father is away working. I’m supposed to go out there and meet him tomorrow. You are to be packed and ready to go when we get back. We didn’t fork out an extra ten grand, Lucas, so you could hang around the house all summer and…”
"You didn't fork out anything, Jenna. You don't work. That's my dad's money. So, don't talk as if anything in that house belongs to you."
I carefully leaned forward just a hair and saw an older woman in a low-cut blouse and extremely tight skirt pointing at someone out of view with a long red manicured nail.
There was silence for a minute.
“You’re right about that, Lucas. But let me remind you that the only thing that does belong to me in that house is in your father’s pants. So, I have a lot more control over what goes on than you ever will. Don’t you forget it.”
I gasped and coughed. It echoed down the hallway and back to me.
Before I could bolt out of there the woman
came stomping around the corner and gave me a look like I was nothing more than gum on the sidewalk. I looked down at her since she was only about five feet tall and I was a whopping five seven. It was like Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians.
But what she lacked in size she made up for in attitude. Without a shred of embarrassment, she left the hallway with her heels and gold bangles around her wrists jingling all the way.
I was about to follow her when I heard a man clear his throat. I looked around the corner and saw Lucas Prine.
Normally, I wouldn’t spit on the best part of Lucas Prine. He was one of the many spoiled rotten brats that attended Riverbank High School. Actually, he was probably the most spoiled out of all of them. His father was some kind of government big-shot or maybe he was a Wall Street big-shot or a big-shot plastic surgeon. I didn’t know and frankly, I didn’t care.
We had a couple of the same classes over the years and I can remember him making fun of the fact I wore the same skirt twice in one week. He also commented on my car. It was a used Dodge Neon I had saved up for. To me, it was nicer than the Hummer he drove and took up two parking spaces with. But, like I mentioned before, since I didn’t look like everyone else or act like everyone else, well, it was open season all year long.
This little skit I observed couldn’t have come at a better time. Just when I was getting ready to flip the middle finger to just about everyone in my class here I stumbled across a goldmine of gossip. Sandy would love this story.
But in the few seconds I looked at Lucas I changed my mind. For once I saw him look defeated. I’m sure it wouldn’t last but I didn’t kick people when they were down. That was what cowards did. I was no coward.
“So what, are you into cougars?” I asked arching my right eyebrow.
“None of your business, Telula.”
Telula was my full name but all my friends called me Tilly. That was why Lucas Prine called me Telula.
“You’re right. But, if it’s any consolation what she just said to you was not only rude but totally disgusting and I’m going to put it in my novel. A woman that age should know better.”
For the first time ever Lucas Prine chuckled.
“Whoa!” I put both my hands up. “Is that a laugh? Yikes, Prine. Don’t freak me out. I didn’t know you could smile.”
“That was my dad’s girlfriend.” He admitted as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his graduation gown. “He couldn’t make it on account of work. So, she came alone. I think it was just so she could use the limousine.”
“That will be a fun ride home.” I frowned.
“I drove myself. Like I said, I think she just wanted to use the limousine.”
“That’s kind of bad.” I nodded, smiling.