Tom walked nervously down the Maple Street lane past Ryan’s house and over to Ellie’s place next door. The thought of having to tell Ryan he wanted to talk to Goth-Chic alone made beads of sweat form on his forehead. He still wasn’t sure what had gone on between Ryan and Ellie the night before. Had Ryan tried to make a move on Ellie? The idea was making Tom’s ego take a bruising. He had never lost a girl to Ryan, and the mere thought that maybe this time he might, was preying on his self-confidence.
What Tom did know, was that somehow, in the past twenty-four hours, he had managed to get two totally hot girls mad at him. This was not good. He tried running the scenarios over in his head, searching for an answer that might get him out of at least one doghouse.
Jacey, he knew, would get over it. She’d give him the silent treatment for a few days, maybe even a week, but eventually she would crack and they would be friends again. He would try to score with her once more, and he would be turned down again, and the pattern would continue until it drove him to a wet dream.
Goth-Chic, on the other hand, was a wild card. He had no history with her to rely on. She might be one of those girls who remained pissed-off at him and never looked his way again. “That would suck,” he admitted, taking a deep breath as he reached for the doorbell. There was just no way to read girls, to know in advance if they were the forgiving kind. “Come to think of it, none of them are the forgiving kind,” he said to himself. He braved the spiky rosebush pathway at the far side of the LaRose house to get to the front door without being seen.
Helena opened the door a few moments later. She couldn’t help noticing that Tom looked disappointed. “I know the feeling, Tom Williams. I was expecting someone else myself. But for the record, it isn’t good for a woman’s ego to have that smile of yours fade so fast. I take it you want to see Ellie?”
Tom nodded. He noticed that Helena had changed from the blue jeans she was wearing earlier in the day into something slightly dressier. A little too dressy for lounging around the house, he thought. More like something he imagined she’d wear out for dinner at Chez Delphine if his own mother were any sort of guideline. This could be good. This could mean the two moms were going out somewhere and he’d have Ellie all alone tonight.
“She’s upstairs. Come on through to the kitchen, and I’ll get her,” Helena said. She motioned for Tom to follow her. “Where's your partner in crime?”
“I don't know where he is,” Tom answered. His guilt eased up somewhat. That much was true. Ryan’s car hadn’t been in the Lachey driveway.
Unlike Ryan, he had never been inside the big white LaRose home before. It smelled of fresh-baked pie. Not “company-is-coming-over-and-let’s-spray-some-air-freshener” scent, but real homemade pie. He hadn’t smelled it in his own home since his mother went back to work at the hardware store.
As he walked through the hallway, he noticed pictures of Ellie and Helen, taken years ago, hanging on the wall. He wanted to stop and look at them, but Helena was moving too fast. He took a quick glance at a larger portrait. Ellie hadn’t changed much. Her eyes were big as saucers when she was a kid, just like they were now. He smiled, knowing the size of the human eye never changes from birth to death.
“Ryan was a bit of a jerk to Ellie this afternoon. I’m leaving him alone to think about it,” he finally answered Helena.
Sure you are, Helena thought, but she gave no indication that she was any the wiser.
“So that’s why Ellie has been in a foul mood since she got home,” she offered, holding the kitchen door open for him. “I wondered what was up. Go on, do tell. Do I have to box his ears?” She propped herself up against the island in the kitchen and waited for his answer.
“Huh?”
“It’s an expression my own mother used to say. Let me translate. Do I have to smack Ryan up the side of his head?”
Tom looked uncomfortably at Helena. He didn’t really want to talk about it, but she had him cornered. “He just said some stuff. He didn’t mean it. You know how he is. He thinks he’s being funny. He is kind of funny...to me, but to girls...”
“Girls not so much, hmm?” She pulled a chair out for Tom. “Sit.” She waited for him to do so before continuing. “Would he have said it to me? I appreciate a good stand-up routine. Was it that kind of funny?”
Tom squirmed uncomfortably in the chair.
“I take it that’s a no.” She moved and took a seat across from him at the table. “Relax, Tom. I know Ryan's harmless. His libido and his mouth just work faster than his brain. There's nothing so strange about that in a sixteen-year-old. Male or female. I’m sure Ellie’s heard it all before. A simple apology can go a long way. Tell him to try it.”
“Well,” Tom confessed. “We were both kind of jerks.”
“I kind of figured that,” Helena said. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
“No,” he laughed nervously.
Helena leaned forward, her green eyes gazing intently into Tom’s. “Once upon a time I was a teenager myself. There’s not much that you can get up to that I haven’t seen or done.” She sat back and smiled knowingly at him.
Tom found himself in the peculiar position of thinking that Ryan was right about at least two of the LaRoses. Helena was having an effect on his emotions, and if he weren’t careful, those emotions would become visible in his tight jeans. He was pretty sure she knew that. And he wasn’t sure whether she was doing it on purpose or not.
Helena rose slowly from the table. “Keep that in mind, Tom Williams,” she said, in a breathy voice that reminded Tom of a late-night Playboy Channel vixen. “And remember, I will always be one step ahead of you. Watching. You hurt my Ellie, you answer to me.”
“Did you just give me ‘the lecture’ in four sentences?” he asked, not wanting to look her directly in the eye.
“I believe I did,” she agreed.
“Well thanks for that. It took Jacey’s foster parents an hour. Their English isn’t so good. Not that I’m two-timing Jacey or anything. Or Ellie. Jacey and I are just friends. Just like Ellie and me. No two-timing here,” he tried to assure Helena.
“That does make things less complicated,” Helena agreed. “Jacey lives with foster parents?”
“She lives with the Kim’s. They’re the Koreans who own the landscaping business above my dad’s store.”
“Oh, that’s right. The Kim’s. I heard something about that, come to think of it. Jacey’s father was in some kind of accident back in England wasn’t he?”
“Yeah. She doesn’t like to talk about it though.”
“There’s a lot of that going around. People talking about things that are superficial and not talking about things that matter. They say it’s a defense mechanism, but I’m not so sure it’s effective in the end. A lot of my patients wind up with ulcers. How did she wind up with the Kim’s?”
Tom, relieved the conversation topic had changed to something other than him, was more than willing to fill Helena in on as many of the details as he knew. “Mr. Kim and Jacey’s dad were in the war together. Mr. Kim saved her father’s life. He’s her godfather or something. So when her father died and there was no one to take care of her, Mr. Kim got Jacey a plane ticket over here. She’s been with them almost a year now.”
“Where’s her mother?”
“She doesn’t know. It was a messy divorce or something.”
“Ooh, I know how that can go. Still, it’s odd she’d totally abandon her own daughter.”
She thought about that. Helen hadn’t been much older than the teenagers when she left home and refused to keep in contact with her. People sometimes had their own reasons for non-communication.
“I guess they moved around a lot, what with her dad being in the service. She doesn’t have any other relatives that she knows of. The Kim’s have become her family.”
“Well then, I’ll be extra nice when I finally meet her. I’m sure she and Ellie will get along just fine. Speaking of Ellie, I guess I’d better get her for you. I’ve held you captiv
e here long enough.”
She opened the kitchen door and yelled upstairs. “Ellie. There’s a hot guy down in the kitchen for you and if you don’t come down right now, I’ll send him up to your mother’s room.” She looked at Tom and winked. “That ought to get her down here. She’ll come through that door and give me a look that could boil water, just you watch. Or Helen will. There are fifty/fifty odds on that one if you’d care to make a bet.”
Tom laughed.
As if on cue, Ellie’s face turned beet red when she walked into the kitchen and saw Tom sitting there.
“Looks like the lobster’s already in the water,” Helena quipped.
“Nan...” Ellie pleaded. “Please don’t embarrass me. That’s Mom’s job. It’s the only one she has. Taking that away from her might push her over the edge.”
“It got you down here, didn’t it?” Helena said. “And as I am an equal opportunity embarrasser, Tom has something he wants to say to you. Go ahead Tom. Spit it out. Don’t just sit there like a goof. It doesn’t become you.”
Tom’s eyebrows rose in surprise. This wasn’t how he had pictured giving Ellie an apology. “Um, okay...listen, Ellie, I’m sorry about this afternoon. Ryan and I making fun of you, I mean.”
“Ellie, accept his apology so I can leave you two alone. If you need me to kick him out, I can do that, but I should really change my shoes. The six-inch heels would poke him in the ass much better, if that’s the way you want to go on this.”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “No, Nan. It’s okay.”
“Good.” She turned to Tom. “The four sentences. Remember them. If I have to cut them down to one, you’re a dead man,” Helena said, heading into the hallway.
“Gotcha, Mrs. LaRose,” he said.
“What was that all about?” Ellie asked.
Tom shrugged. “Never mind. It’ll take me more than four sentences to explain.”
An awkward silence fell between the two as Ellie waited for Tom to say something. She hoped he’d make it quick. She could hear the toilet flush upstairs, followed by the sound of her mother’s feet thundering down the staircase.
In the hallway, Helena blocked Helen from entering the kitchen. “Uh-uh, leave them alone.”
“Them?” Helen asked. She glanced nervously towards the door.
“Ellie and Tom.”
“Tom’s the ‘hot guy’? Then I’m definitely going in there.”
“No, you’re not. He's not the demon seed. You don’t have to go in there like some religious nutcase to save her from his evil spawn,” Helena said, her voice getting louder. “Give them some space.”
“You don't know what they'll get up to in there.”
“I know exactly what they’ll get up to,” she insisted. Her voice was now quite loud. “That's why we're staying out here. Hellsbelles, Helen. Must you be omnipresent?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Well, you don't really want to watch them try to control their raging hormones do you? I didn’t peg you as that kind of a voyeur.”
“Mother, really!”
Ellie poked her head momentarily into the hallways. “Control your own raging hormones. The demon seed and I can hear you in here!”
Helena pointed her finger angrily at Helen. “That’s your fault.”
“Trust me, she’s only beginning to find out what it’s like living under your roof,” Helen growled back.
“Tom, I’m so sorry you had to hear that,” Ellie said as she returned to the kitchen. If nothing else, the Helens outburst had cleared the air between the teenagers. “Separately they’re bearable, but you put them together in the same room and...”
Tom laughed. “It's okay. I like them. Your mom seems a little uptight, but your Nan’s actually... (don’t say hot)... pretty cool. She calls it as she sees it, that’s for sure.”
“I guess so.”
“Okay then,” he said, patting the seat next to him at the table, indicating Ellie should sit down. “Forget about them. Come over here.”
Ellie was apprehensive. “Why are you here, Tom? Have you come to see whether they keep Goth-Chic in a padded room?” She sat in the seat Helena had occupied earlier and studied him. The blue in his sweater perfectly matched the deep blue of his eyes. That wasn’t making it any easier to stay mad at him. She wondered whether he had agonized about what to wear before coming over. Probably not. Guys weren’t like that.
“You’re looking at my sweater. Do you like it?”
“Uh huh,” she sighed.
Tom inched his chair closer to her, “El,” he began, “I'm really sorry about this afternoon. “We shouldn’t have made fun of your dream. We were all a little spooked-out down at the gravel pit. It’s not every day we talk about finding a dead body when, you know, there actually might be one.” He moved his chair closer to her. “Ryan can be an insensitive jerk at times. It’s not his fault. He plays defense. He's not supposed to be nice. It goes against his nature. In fact, they spend hours out there on the field, training him to desensitize from humankind. Sometimes he just forgets that the field has boundaries. Somebody has to call foul on him. Which you did.”
“I guess so,” Ellie contemplated. She found herself wondering whether Tom’s hair was streaked naturally, or had a little help. Not that it mattered.
Tom noticed the dimmer switch on the wall behind him. With one arm, he reached up and lowered the light. Following through with a well-practiced move, he began to put his arm around Ellie with the other.
“Um...what are you doing?” Ellie asked, her voice quivering. She knew what he was doing. She just wasn’t sure why he was doing it. She raised her hand between them.
“Please don’t shock me this time, Ellie. I like you. Electricity between us is supposed to be figurative.”
Ellie blushed and looked deep into his baby blues. She had spent a lot of time earlier hoping and dreaming that this new guy she met would say something sweet and wonderful to her, but now that it was actually happening, she found herself full of reservation. Part of her wanted to say, in a husky, sexy voice, “you are the finest thing I have seen in my life, take me now,” but barely audibly out came “I um, I like you too.”
“Does your Nan have any bandages? I think I scraped my knee when I fell for you.”
That was enough to give Ellie her voice back. She couldn’t contain her laughter. “Oh puh-lease. That is the worst line I have ever heard.”
“I swear it worked for Ryan once.”
“Who’d he say it to? Another de-sensitized football player?”
They both laughed.
“How come you hang around with him?” Ellie asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if I had seen both your pictures in a yearbook. I wouldn’t have thought the two of you were friends. I would have thought you were a ‘Prom King’ and he was more of a ‘Burger King.’”
“Now who’s being insensitive?” Tom pointed out. His ego was starting to sigh in relief. ‘Burger’ was probably not the adjective you’d use to describe someone you were hot for. Whatever had happened between Ellie and Ryan last night was most likely innocent.
“It’s not like he’s my only friend, but he is my best friend. He’s a ‘go-to’ guy. I can’t really say any more about that. You’ll just have to come to your own conclusions about him. Just give him a chance. A lot of people write Ryan off way too quickly.”
He reached up and took some of Ellie’s hair into his hand. “Your hair is so soft,” he said, waiving the strand under his nose. “And it smells so good.”
Ellie bit her lip nervously. This wasn’t the first time a guy had come on to her, but it was safe to say it was the first time one of them looked as ‘oh-my-God-I-can’t-breathe’ to her as this one did.
“I’m also sorry about that fainting thing the other night,” Tom said, his voice dropping as he put his chin on her shoulder, and looked up at her.
“It's nothing to be embarrassed about. I hear it happens to perfectly healthy mal
es from time to time. If it gets to be a problem, you can take a pill for it,” Ellie saidbefore the ‘don’t say something stupid’ part of her brain could kick in. She could feel his breath on her neck, and it was sending her heartbeat straight to the heavens. It was hard to be witty when you were trying not to gasp in sheer passion.
“I think you're talking about something else, El.”
He began to pull her hand up his leg, but Ellie took his hand in hers, and laughed shyly.
Tom sensed that Ellie was slowing him down, but not rejecting him. He decided to try another approach. “You know, you have killer eyes,” he continued, “they sparkle when you laugh.”
“Tom...”
He had her, he sensed. This would be the time to move in for the kiss. “Maybe some time I could see them without all the make-up. Maybe some time I could...”
“What did you have to say that for?” Ellie freaked, throwing her hands up in the air.
“What?” Tom stammered, immediately pulling back from her.
Every bone in Ellie’s body tensed up. If she took off her make-up, he would see that she really looked years younger. Jailbait younger. More than anything else in the world, Ellie didn’t want him to see that.
“What did I say?” he asked again.
“Would you ask Jacey to take off her make-up?” Ellie asked defensively.
“That wouldn't be the first thing I'd ask her to take off...I mean NO, no I wouldn't. I would not ask Jacey to take off her make-up. That would be wrong.”
“YOU, Tom, are the insensitive jerk. Go away and leave me alone.”
“Wait a minute, Ellie...” Tom pleaded. “If I moved too fast, I’m sorry. I got the message. I’ll back off. Just don’t get so mad at me.”
Ellie didn’t want him to back off. But she didn’t know how to handle the situation either. She got up and opened the back door. “I think it’s time for you to go now.”
“El, listen...”
“I thought you wanted Jacey. What am I? The fallback girl?”
“No. But I don’t think you were all too concerned about Jacey a couple of minutes ago. If I read you wrong, I’m sorry.” He could see her aura begin to appear again. He took a moment to embrace it. Goth-Chic might be loony as hell, but he couldn’t keep his eyes of her. He didn’t want to leave, but he knew he wasn’t welcome. Not right now.
“I’ll call you tomorrow, Ellie,” he said, as he left her standing alone in the kitchen. “And that’s not just a line.” He meant that. He knew that even in the morning, when he had time to digest everything that had happened today, he would still want to call. He glanced nervously at the Lachey driveway as he headed out the back door, but Ryan’s Toyota thankfully had not yet come home.
Ellie burst into tears and ran upstairs, past her mother and Helena who were both watching television in the living room, in chairs moved as far apart as possible. Helena was slumped in the beanbag. Helen sat upright in the arm chair. The empty, comfortable couch between them was a sign of their ongoing standoff.
“I told you it was a bad idea to leave them alone,” Helen pointed out. “I guess we’re not going to be able to go and have a quiet dinner together.”
“They’ve had a fight, that’s all. It's a part of growing up. She’s not a child anymore. She’s going to have to learn to take it when love hits you with a tire iron.”
“She’s my baby.”
“Please. She's a pint-sized Lara Croft waiting to happen.”
“Ellie,” Helen called. “Ellie come down here. We want to talk to you.”
“I am never coming down there as long as I live,” Ellie screamed from the top of the stairs.
“Child,” Helen sighed.
“Raging hormonal teenager,” Helena countered. “Borderline woman. I wish I had tape recorded you when you were her age.”
“Will you stop that please, Mom?” Helen asked.
“Mom? You never call me Mom.”
“Mother,” Helen sighed. “Can we call a truce on this one? I really need your help. I’ve never had a teenaged daughter before. I’ve never had a teenaged anything before. I know I’m holding on to her too tight. But with all the other stuff coming into the picture, it’s making it even harder to let her loose on the world.”
Helena was moved. “Well, I have raised a teenager as you recall. And at the time she yelled and screamed at me daily. I gave her all the freedom she wanted. And she bolted the first chance she got.”
“I didn’t bolt because of you.”
“I know that. But it’s taken you sixteen years to admit it.”
“I was barely older than Ellie, pregnant and scared. I thought the early appearance of a grandchild for you would be more than you could handle.”
“Oh Helen,” Helena sighed, “I was still young enough then to have called her my own.” She waited for Helen’s pained reaction. “Darling, I am just kidding. I would have opened my arms to you both, just like I’m doing now. I tried to tell you that. But you, Helen, are not a listener.”
Helen though about what her mother was telling her. Helena wasn’t the only person in her life who had told her that. They were all wrong.
“You did manage to take care of Ellie and get a university education. That shows if nothing else, you have tenacity,” Helena offered.
“If I haven’t already thanked you for your help with that, thank-you. That nanny you sent along was a godsend. What was her name again? It was something peculiar...”
“Marita.”
“That’s right. Marita. Only she pronounced it with a pause between syllables. Mah-Rita. I wonder what ever happened to her. For two years she was there and then without a word she was gone. I had to get a husband to replace her,” she laughed.
“I’m sure I don’t know, dear,” Helena said uncomfortably. “Life goes on.”
“Hmm. I wonder if Ellie remembers her,” Helen paused. “I’ll have to ask her sometime. She was only about six years old then.”
“Ellie,” Helena shouted. “Come on downstairs. We’re not done embarrassing you tonight. We’re going out for dinner and then we’ll take in a movie at the Roxy.”
“She’ll never come with us,” Helen said. “She’s supposed to show up with a boy, not her female guardians. I remember that much from my teenage years.”
“I don’t want to go see some stupid love story,” Ellie cried down the hall.
“See,” Helen said, “what did I tell you?”
“Well then, you’re in luck. It’s a horror festival. This is the last night it’s playing. I’d really like to see it. It’ll give me some ideas for next Halloween,” Helena shouted back. “You can watch a bunch of guys getting ripped to shreds. It’ll make you feel better. We’ll just stay for the first show.”
“That’s not going to work. But if you want to waste your breath, go right ahead,” Helen insisted.
“Ellie, darling,” Helena said, with a note of anger in her voice. “If you think for one second that any granddaughter of mine is going to wallow away in her room because some wanna-be poster-boy made her cry, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Helen’s jaw dropped as Helena continued.
“We LaRose women pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and go strut our stuff. That’s the way it has always been and that’s the way it will always be as long as I’m alive. So unless you’re thinking of snuffing me out in the next ten minutes, get your ass down here.”
Ellie came slowly down the stairs. “You called me your granddaughter,” she whispered.
“It’s time to stop all this denial,” Helena said, looking at Helen. “At least within these four walls.” She pointed at Helen. “You are my daughter.” She looked at Ellie. “You are my granddaughter. And we are united in ways others can only dream of. Someday we’ll figure it all out. But right now, I’m hungry and I want to see a movie. Come on, or we’ll wind up with a table by the restrooms.”
Helena walked to the front closet and handed the girls their coats. “Even sup
erheroes need some down time.”
“Are we taking the van?” Ellie sighed.
“Not in this life,” Helena replied. “We’ll take my car. I parked it in the back lane.” She watched as Helen ensured the front door was locked. “Expecting a problem?”
“Just being cautious,” Helen replied.
As they headed down the driveway, they were met by a very upset Betty Lachey, coming out the side door of her house. Her over-sized body wobbled with nerves as she made her way towards the LaRose women.
“You!” she screeched at Helena. “I don’t know how you did it, or why you did it, but I know this is all because of you.” She fumbled with the zipper on her bright orange vest. The concentration needed to pull a bit of fabric from its teeth was more than she could handle at the moment, so she left it undone.
“Well, at least this time it’s your fault,” Helen noted.
“Why is the pumpkin yelling at us?” Ellie asked.
“I haven’t the foggiest,” Helena answered. “Just ignore her and get in the car.”
“You are evil, Helena LaRose,” Betty shrieked. “EVIL. I’m going to tell everyone what you did, and you’re going to be run out of town.”
“Nan?” Ellie questioned.
“We all have to make choices in life, Ellie.” Helena sighed. “Sometimes they’re not easy, but they need to be made. This one however, is a no-brainer. Wave goodbye to the lady who forgot to take her meds.” She opened the rear door of her black Ford Mustang and motioned for Ellie to get in the car.
“I am so glad you live on the corner,” Helen said, getting into the passenger seat beside her mother. “One nutty neighbor is enough.”
Helena nodded.
“They’ve got him,” Betty screamed down the driveway.
“Mother?”
“I swear Helen, I don’t know what she’s talking about.” As Helena reached to adjust the rearview mirror, she glanced at Betty Lachey’s figure in the background, and she instinctively new that their lives were about to be changed forever.
“Here we go girls,” she said, as she pulled out into the back lane. “Here. We. Go.”