Lucky's Girl (16 page)

Kenny laughed bitterly. “Big Tree? You mean that big ugly tree on Grove Island…”

Kenny was incredulous and wanted to laugh but stopped when his brain caught up to his mouth.

Grove Island
.

His uncle said Lucky would shoot animals with a pellet gun and take them alive to
Grove Island
. That was somehow at the center of all of this.

Lucky nodded. He was dead serious. “I know it sounds crazy, Kenny, but I know you’ll change your mind about all of this. I’m going to show you and I’m going to teach you.”

Kenny quietly mouthed, “Grove Island.”

Lucky laughed out loud. “Yes. My God! It feels so good to finally tell you all of this!
Kenny, we can be more than we are
. I’m going to show you and you can have this too. You can be lucky, but just remember that luck has nothing to do with it.”

Kenny nodded and spoke quietly. “I can be lucky too…”

Lucky grinned from ear to ear, holding up his hand for a high-five. “Just imagine what the two of us could do! We could rule the fucking world. We could fuck every bitch alive!”

Kenny’s mind closed down at the mention of Grove Island. His fury with Lucky had passed. He had started down this path thinking his best friend was really a charismatic asshole, but now he was beginning to suspect his fears were something far different than he’d imagined.

***

“Hey, baby… hi…
guys
.” Christie clearly hadn’t been expecting both of them.

Lucky looked over his shoulder, giving him a covert nod. Kenny looked down, trying not to look completely crazy, because that’s how he was feeling. His entire world had done a cartwheeling inversion moments before in the truck, on top of the one he had experienced all week. Now he didn’t know which end was up and was running on autopilot.

Lucky grabbed Christie by the hips, pulling her in for a lascivious kiss and she responded in kind, her nails going up and down his back and around to the front. It looked like she might unbutton his pants and get to work right there.

“Uh, hi Christie…” Kenny bit his lip as this bit of wildest-dream pornography was playing out just feet away from him.

Lucky ended their lip-lock and Christie looked unplugged, as if her oxygen had just been cut off. She glanced over at Kenny then back and forth between them, trying to compose herself. A host of looks crossed her face, most a complete mystery, but one spoke straight to Kenny. It said, “
I can’t explain what’s happening to me, this isn’t who I am
.”

Kenny forced a bit of awkward conversation. “It’s good to see you. I really liked your valedictorian speech. It was… inspirational.”

Lucky guffawed. “Are you two stuck in high school? Fuck all that, let’s go inside and see what chateau Tellefsen has in the liquor cabinet.”

The same array of expressions crossed Christie’s face again; confusion, anger, lust, despair, embarrassment and wild fear. Kenny had seen Christie over and over in high-school; she could have been standing two feet away from him but they were a million miles distant. She existed in a completely different stratum, one not for the likes of him. She was completely removed, like a statue of an Angel; stern and beautiful. She was never angry or exuberant or ecstatic – those were teenager displays. She didn’t do that. She always smiled but it was controlled and measured. What was happening on her face right now was impossible. It was beneath her.

Christie’s face twitched. “Uh, yeah! Let’s go get drunk. You wanna get drunk guys?”

Lucky looked over at Kenny and winked. “You ready for this, Tonto?”

***

The two boys were sitting on the most luxurious couch Kenny had ever sat on, in the most gorgeous room he’d ever been in, in front of the biggest television he’d ever seen. Christie was fluttering around serving them hand and foot. It seemed like she needed to do this to keep her mind in one piece. Kenny hadn’t thought it was possible for someone to look so unhinged yet so beautiful. They’d just watched a movie which Mary had mail-ordered for Lucky. It was called
From Beyond
. Kenny was used to this kind of fare, but Christie wasn’t. It was trashy, violent and bloody, with gratuitous nudity, but this one was different. It was disturbing in a way which the others hadn’t been. And that’s what Lucky loved about it.

Finally Christie sat down with them. Kenny noticed there was something different about her from that morning. She’d cut her hair. Her bangs covered her forehead, but after a moment he saw why. There was a big bruise that makeup wouldn’t be able to hide. However, it wasn’t noticeable unless you were wondering about her hair.

He couldn’t help but notice that all her behavior was strange. The word that came to mind was
fragmented
. And he could guess why. She was conflicted about Lucky. She was torn in a way that Mary never had been. Mary had wanted Lucky from the moment she’d laid eyes on him when they were very young. On the other hand, Christie had never paid any attention to people of their caste.

When Lucky had told him he’d even spoken with Christie Tellefsen it had been a surprise. When he’d then said he was fucking her, that she’d sucked his dick in her little white Acura and had swallowed every drop, Kenny had been rendered speechless. At the time he’d gotten a kick out of the stuck-up rich girl getting fucked by the son of a preacher man. It had seemed like poetic justice, but now he was wishing he could take it back.

Kenny’s mind had been a whirlwind before the movie, and at the halfway point he’d realized the film wasn’t helping. He began to slam his drinks. As soon as he’d finish one the next would appear. Beer, wine, scotch, gin. Except for the beer and wine he’d never had any of the others.

Lucky pulled out a joint, making Christie get even more panicky.

“Baby, why don’t you be a good little thing and pour us some tequila shots?”

Christie came back with a bottle and some shot glasses, pouring quickly and clandestinely glancing at the joint as if it were a live snake.

Kenny laughed. “You’ve never smoked, have you?”

She shrugged, trying to make light of it. “One time, in Chicago with some sorority sisters. It didn’t do anything.”

Lucky pulled her close and kissed her while running his hand through her hair, tousling its perfection, making her blush hard and look at Kenny in embarrassment.

“You’re gonna get off your high horse and smoke with us tonight, baby, and you’re gonna love it.”

She grinned. The new part of her, the wild part which hadn’t existed until she’d started seeing Lucky, was winning out. She breathed. “Yeah baby, I want it.”

Lucky sat back. “But first you need to drink.”

She dutifully slammed three tequila shots in a row, each time looking to Lucky for approval. He kissed her hard and deep between each shot. By the last one, all of her doubt and guilt was gone.

She was his.

Lucky handed Kenny the joint. “Spark that square, Tonto, we’re gonna get cashed!”

The rule was, you had to take a shot each time the joint went around, but Kenny only made it round twice before getting the spins. He had no idea how much he’d drunk and now his head was twirling from the weed.

But all of his fears had gone.

All of his doubts and confusion, vanished.

Lucky looked from the wasted Kenny to the steaming Christie.

“Kenny, would you mind if Christie joined the Tribe?”

Kenny held up the roach and blew out a stream of smoke. “Hell no, Christie’s all right! Ain’t you, Christie?”

Christie was flushed and blushing scarlet from the booze, the weed, and her out of control sexual excitement from being around Lucky.

“That’s right, Kenny! I’m all right! I’m not a bitch!”

Lucky laughed. “You were the most uptight,
lame
chick at high school.”

Christie’s smile dropped. Her voice went quiet. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. You’ve been talking about the Tribe all week. Talking about your Mission. I believe. I want to be in the Tribe. Please!
Please,
baby.”

By the end there were tears in her eyes. Lucky grabbed her, kissing her hard again. He held her close and spoke quietly. “You can’t ever be that way again, Christie. You’re no better than Kenny or Mary or
anybody
else! It’s a privilege to be a snobby rich girl and it’s a privilege to be in the Tribe. You can’t have both. You gotta give up all of that high and mighty materialistic bullshit.”

She was now crying softly. “Yes, Lucky, please
just let me in
.”

Lucky continued. “I mean it. If I let you in you can’t bring me down with any phony rich-girl crap.”

She sniffled and looked him in the eyes. “Never again. I don’t need any of it. All I need is you.”

Lucky shook his head. “That’s not what I said. I said
The Tribe
. Me, Kenny, Mary. Do you want to be in the Tribe? Will you love them like you love me? We give each other everything.
Everything,
Christie. Make up your mind or we’re out of here.”

Tears poured down Christie’s face. “I’ll give you everything, baby.”

Lucky held her face close to his, holding her gaze with his own. “What about Mary? Will you give her everything? And Kenny too?”

She sobbed. “Yes baby, yes.”

“Whadaya say, Tonto, does she get to be in the Tribe? Is she sincere?”

Kenny took a swig of his beer, trying to pretend he wasn’t seeing what he was seeing. “Yeah, man. She’s cool. It’s cool.”

Lucky leaned back and held her slightly away. “Well now you’re going to need to convince Mary, Christie. Can you do that?”

***

Mary arrived a half hour later. She was home alone in the dark waiting for the phone to ring, just like she always did. Waiting for Lucky to call, waiting to hear his voice. Most of her life she’d lived this lonely ritual, waiting for him to call, then wearing the clothes and makeup he wanted her to wear. Today she was wearing the mini skirt he liked.

But this time was different. For the first time in her life, it
was
different. The Big Tree had told her. She was going to be Lucky’s woman because she was carrying his child. She would be his
alpha
. She didn’t know what that word meant but it sounded reassuring.

But then he’d called. He was drunk, he was stoned. He was with Kenny and Christie. But this wasn’t the first time he’d called like this. He did it often. When it happened she would maintain her composure, only crying after the call had finished. But tonight he wanted something different. She’d wanted to say no, but she was his and that was the price she paid.

She was Lucky’s girl.

She was knocking on the door of an enormous house, the kind where governors and movies stars lived. She didn’t belong here. Her breathing came in hard short bursts. She felt tiny in front of this castle of glass and oak, brass and brick. She could smell the place from outside. It smelled clean like no other building she’d ever been in. She heard Lucky sauntering to the front door, his footsteps echoing on the marble floors. This was a mansion. She didn’t belong here. She felt naked and cheap in the mini skirt and heavy metal T-shirt Lucky had made her wear. It said “Metallica,” and had a skull on it with two spiky sticks shoved through it. She’d die if the Rev and Abby ever saw her in it, and the skirt, too. Her hair was up in a big hairstyle, and she wore thick black eyeliner and lipstick just like the girls he’d seen in heavy metal magazines.

He answered the door, fixing her with a big drunk smile. “Well, look who just decided to drop by!”

She took a step backwards when the gold light from inside illuminated her. She nearly fell over because of the silly high heels.

Another thing Lucky liked.

She looked to him with pleading eyes. “Baby, please.”

He took a step forward, his shadow engulfing her. He grabbed her by the hair on the back of her neck and pulled her to him. He let his hands slide to the sides of her head, brought her face close to his and held her gaze.

He kissed her so her lipstick would smudge across his face. “You’re mine.”

She whispered, “Yes.”

He kissed her again. “Forever.”

She pulled him close and tight, squeezing with everything she had. Her body shuddered and she fought to keep the tears at bay. The words echoed in her mind;
Forever
.

He pulled her in. “We’re family. You and me and Kenny. We’ve been together since we’ve been kids.”

She continued pulling him to her, breathing in his scent. “Yes.”

His hands went to her ass and up her sides to her small breasts. “And you love him like you love me. We share everything.”

She grabbed his hands in her own and squeezed her tits with them. “Yes, baby. We’re the Tribe.”

His hands slid down her sides and under her skirt to feel the wetness there.

“You’re my number one lady, Mary. Kenny’s my number one guy. Christie’s my number two. She’s joining the Tribe.”

He felt her body tensing around his fingers. He kissed again, hard. Then he pulled away. “You can’t be selfish. And neither can she. She’s already agreed.”

***

Lucky had his arm around Mary, practically dragging her into the ornate viewing room. He walked her around the big table now littered with bottles until she was standing in front of Christie and Kenny.

“What’s wrong guys? Aren’t you gonna say hi to Mary? She’s been in the Tribe a long time.”

Kenny croaked, “Hi, Mary”

Lucky prompted, “Christie?”

Christie stiffly stood and proffered a hand for Mary to shake. She was tall and elegant in expensive clothes. Mary was tiny in trashy teenage wet-dream clothes. Mary backed up a half step when Christie stood, as if the sheer height of this goddess could hurt her.

Lucky sighed. “Okay, everyone,
sit.
”

They all sat again in the same stiff discomfort.

Lucky ordered Mary to start taking shots. And just like Christie, she dutifully slammed three in a row. As she gasped after the third one, Lucky grabbed and kissed her. She melted in his arms, and when he let her go she melted back into the couch. Then he leaned over and kissed Christie in the same way.