Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (110 page)

"Tony it doesn't have to be like this.  I've never thought that I was too good for you.  You are one of the smartest people I know."

"Oh, so that's why you're still mooning over Jude?  Because I'm so damn smart.  Goodbye Tory.  It's been nice fucking you."

"Yeah
Tony, thanks a lot."

Wow what a day she thought as she slammed the bedroom door behind her.  Now she was going to have to walk all the way back to school.  Screw the movie, because she was going back now, no buts about it.  She was going to have to hope that the security guard who had replaced Ron didn't give a shit.  There was no way in hell she was going to ask Tony for a ride with the way he'd treated her just to look good to some security guard.

On her way towards the door, she noticed a pack of cigarettes on the coffee table with a few still left in it.  She picked it up and shoved it into her purse.  She figured he owed her at least that much, the asshole.

Suddenly feeling more disappointed in both Tony and herself than she would have thought possible, she paused for a moment, standing beside the front door.  Would he call to her, tell her he was sorry she wondered?

She stood beside the door, with her hand on the knob for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever.  There was nothing from the bedroom.  Holding back a sigh, she opened the door, and went outside, shutting it quietly behind her

As she walked out onto the road, she wondered if she should do something about Tony.  Should she call Carl?  She really hated to leave him alone.  She hated to leave things the way that they were.

She heard the sound of loud obnoxious music erupt from the living room, and moved further down the street, not letting herself look back.  When she had made it back to the dark road that would lead her to the school, she dug a cigarette out and lit it, not liking the way that her hand had a slight shake to it.

It's not like she was in love with Tony, she chastised herself.  He was just some guy she'd been having sex with.  She was still in love with Jude.  And she needed to concentrate on school right now; on figuring out what it was she wanted to do with her life.

She was nearing the school now and finished her cigarette, throwing it onto the side of the road.  She could see a guard standing in front of the school when she walked up.  He looked young, wearing headphones and smoking a cigarette.

He was pretty cute Tory let herself think for a moment.  He nodded at her before he moved over to hold the door open for her.  Good Tory thought, no questions asked.

She figured that she might as well stop by the snack machine on the way to her room, because her stomach was rumbling.  She was thankful that she had plenty of dollar bills and change, and bought herself two candy bars, two bags of chips, and two sodas.  She figured that that would hold her until the next morning when she would probably have to venture out to get something to eat at a restaurant.   She shoved the goodies into her bag and went to the stairs.

Once in her room, she switched on the overhead light, throwing her bag on the bed.  She was very tired all of a sudden.  It wasn't the walk, because she was in pretty good shape and the walk to Tony's had long since ceased to bother her.  It was all the bullshit that she'd had to put up with that day.

Briefly, she wished that she had a real family, maybe a brother or sister.  A sister might have been nice, someone to tell secrets with; giggle with at night when they were supposed to be in bed sleeping.  Or a brother.  Someone to protect her from all the assholes of the world like Jude and Tony.  If she had a brother, she felt sure that he would be willing to kick Tony's stupid ass for her.

Someone certainly needed to or the moron was going to end up killing himself overdosing on drugs she thought.  It had never bothered her much that he was doing coke.  Pot had always seemed to be his drug of choice and as long as he didn't try to get her to snort coke with him; she was cool with it.

But shooting up was something entirely different.  That shit could take over your life before you knew it and make you old if it didn't kill you she thought.  What the hell was he thinking?  Tony wasn't stupid.

Tony could have gone to school if he'd really put his mind to it.  He didn't have to be a drug dealer.  He liked the money and it had always been easy for him to get sex from stupid women.  But Tory wasn't stupid and no matter how good he was in bed she thought there was no way in hell she was going to sit by and watch Tony waste his life by pumping drugs into his veins.

Screw him, she thought, twisting the top off her soda bottle as she sat down at her desk.  Let him rot in this stupid town, and let Jude rot too.  How she hated them both at that moment.  The boy that she'd let herself fall in love with so stupidly, thinking that she could get him out of this town and into a better life; and the drug dealer that she'd fallen into bed with.

But she still loved Jude.  She couldn't believe that he'd been so stupid that he'd gotten that twit Molli pregnant.  Sighing, she pulled the candy bar out of the wrapper and took a big bite.  Fucking chocolate and chips on Thanksgiving she thought.  Thanks a lot Mom, she thought, tossing the wrapper into the trash, you dumb bitch.

She sighed as she pulled her night shirt over her head, wishing for a moment that it still smelled like her dad's earthy cologne.  She missed her dad in ways that she would never miss her mother, wished that he had been a stronger man.  She wished he had taken her from Lindsey who would have probably given her up willingly.

She didn't care that he didn't have the money that her mom did or rather that whatever man her mother happened to be married to at the moment did.  She would have been happy living with her dad in some crappy apartment.  She'd have slept on the floor if that's what it would have taken and worn hand me downs and thrift store clothes to be raised by someone who cared about her.

She had begged her grandparents to take her away from her mother's house when things were especially bad, when Lindsey's asshole of a husband at the time had smacked her bare butt with a belt when she'd gotten into the cookies in the kitchen when her mother had been drunk and forgotten to feed her dinner.

They had had a cook that had prepared all their meals but she'd been fired a few days before because she'd let Lindsey know what she thought of her mothering skills when she'd continually ignored Tory's pleas for help one evening when she needed help with a project that was due at school the next day.  The woman, an older Hispanic woman who spoke perfect English though born in Mexico, had threatened to call child protective services on Lindsey when she'd seen the way that Lindsey and Luther fought in front of Tory and how Luther threatened Tory with his belt when she tried to stick up for her mother.

He never hit Lindsey, and had only hit Tory the one time with his belt.  But there were many times when Tory was home alone, which probably wasn't the best situation for an eight year old girl, fancy alarm system or not.  They'd been without a nanny or babysitter at the time because Luther thought it was a waste of money when Lindsey had nothing to do besides take care of Tory.  She never cooked, never cleaned, sent laundry to the dry cleaners.

Lindsey had laughed at the women when she'd threatened to call CPS, said that they had better things to do than investigate people who made more money in a year than they probably would in a lifetime.  They had poor families to take children from.  Then Lindsey had stubbed out her cigarette, drained the glass of whatever alcoholic beverage she was drinking at the time and told the woman to get out, that her last check would be in the mail.

Mrs.  Ramirez had looked so sad that Tory had started crying.  The kind woman had hugged her before Lindsey had pulled her away and told her to go to her room.  The next weekend when she'd tearfully asked her grandma if she could live with her, her grandma had cried too, having seen the now fading welts on Tory's bottom that Luther had left when she'd been helping her into her nightgown at bedtime after her bath.  She’d told her that she would like nothing more than to raise Tory but that with her own failing health and Grandpa's near blindness from his diabetes, that there was no way they could take care of a little girl.  She'd promised Tory then that she would speak to her son, trying again to convince him that he needed to try to get custody of Tory, and that she would be talking to Lindsey to about what Luther had done.  Her dad had ended up saying the same things he always said when it was brought up that he should seek custody.  That in court, more money and a higher priced lawyer would always win, and that sadly, no matter how little interest Lindsey showed in being a mother, she was Tory's mother and between the money and the simple fact that she was the mother she was bound to win.

Tory had felt like it was all a cop out, as soon as she was old enough to understand the whole business of child custody and lawyers.  She certainly didn't feel like her mother would fight for her.  Had someone asked her who she wanted to live with, she would have told anyone who would listen that her dad was the one she wanted to be with.  She was disappointed that her father had given up the fight without trying.

Chapter 5

She awoke around ten the next morning, surprised that she'd slept so long.  Stretching, she sat up in bed, wondering what in the hell she was going to do all day.  She was starving and figured she'd head in to town.  Maybe spend some time blowing the money that her mom had given her on clothes that she didn't need.

She sighed, wishing that she could spend the day with Tony, in his bed, or even out.  But there was no way in hell she was going to go crawling back to Tony after the way he'd treated her she thought, no matter how much he turned her on.

Not wanting to think too much about anything, she grabbed her bag and headed out the door.  She stopped only briefly at the soda machine to grab a drink as she headed for the door.

No more junk food today she thought.  She was going to have a real meal.  And then she was going to spend the day doing the only thing that Lindsey had really ever taught her to do-shop.

She didn't see a guard when she left the school.

She ate an early lunch at a greasy diner that she hadn't been to either with Tony or Jude and then went to the mall buying a few clothes, books and CDs.  She saw a new CD from a band that she knew Tony liked and had to stop herself from buying it for him.

She was out of her meager supply of cigarettes by the time she made it back to the school and wondered if she could bum one off of the young guard.  She knew she'd have to quit soon without Tony to supply them for her, but figured that today was not the day.

She could hear her cell phone ringing when she reached her door, and she threw it open, thinking that it might be Tony.  She answered it breathlessly.  "Hello."

"Tory?"  The voice was questioning, male and familiar, but definitely not Tony she thought.

"Yeah.”

"It's Jude."

She dropped down onto her bed, stretching out her leg to kick the door closed.

"Hi."

"You okay Tor?"

She rummaged in her purse for a cigarette, dug it out and brought it to her lips, striking a match with a hand that was suddenly shaky.

"Tor."

"Yeah, I'm here.  Sorry."

"It's okay.  I was calling because I think that we need to talk.  I was wondering if you’d come over to my place tomorrow.  My parents are taking the kids and going out of town for the weekend, so there won't be anyone around to bother us."

She dropped her cigarette into an empty soda bottle.  "You never called me to tell me that you were sorry for any of that shit you said.  And now you call me out of the blue and tell me that you think we need to talk?  Am I supposed to drop everything for you Jude?"

“No, Tor.  I want to talk to you without a bunch of people around, without Molli around.  I want to explain to you how I felt.  And I want to do it in person."

She sighed.  "Fine."

"I'll pick you down the road from the school, right where that first sign is, about eleven tomorrow then."

“Okay." 

"I'll see you.  Goodnight Tory."

"Goodnight Jude."

She pushed the button to end the call and lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.  She was suddenly so weary that there was nothing more she wanted to do than curl up in her bed and pull the covers over her head and go to sleep.

Jude had called her she thought.  Jude wanted to talk to her, to explain.  If she had any sense in her head, she would have refused him.  It's not like he had said he had broken up with Molli or that he wanted her back, or even that he missed her.  And there was still a part of her, a part bigger than she liked to allow herself to think about, that wished that it had been Tony calling.

What was it with guys she wondered?  They wanted sex, that was a given, but when you gave them the sex that they wanted, they wanted more. 

Tony had never asked her to be his girlfriend, had never called her his girlfriend as far as she knew other than in a passing remark to Carl.  But he'd been so upset over her refusal to spend Thanksgiving with his family that he'd done something as stupid as shooting up.  She hated to think that she was the cause of his new habit.  But she had certainly never seen him do it before.  And he'd been less than charitable when discussing needle drug users.  He thought that the stuff was as stupid as she did, or so she'd thought. 

She was tired, suddenly so drained that she felt like she could sleep for days. 

She was definitely going to need her sleep if she was going to deal with Jude tomorrow.