Taylor Made Owens (12 page)

So, with Dominic’s allure and with Robert playing the fool, she permitted Dominic to do almost everything with her. The two were naked together in his bed, and he began to force the issue. She wanted to back down at that point, but he was overcome with lust. He aggressively tried to gain entry, but she repulsed him. His next attempt was just short of successful. He failed to breach nature’s barrier before she repelled him, and he expelled what he was proffering. It turned out to be a good compromise. He convinced himself he finally had her, but she knew otherwise.

The next afternoon, Labor Day, the two lovers were racing back and forth about five hundred feet from shore in his speedboat. Dominic anchored the boat three hundred feet off the buoys demarking the swimming area.

“I wonder what the poor people are doing today,” Dominic said with a chuckle as he lifted a whiskey sour to his mouth. That got her wondering about Robert, but her musing stopped when Dominic began getting rambunctious. She hadn’t enjoyed their romp last evening. He was too aggressive, and seemingly unconcerned about her feelings. He was again getting too excited for her comfort, so she jumped in the water to swim and he followed. “Let’s, uh, swim to shore,” Dominic challenged, still flushed with sexual energy.

“That’s too far to swim,” objected Kristen.

“Come on, you can do it. Let’s race. I’ll give you a twenty second head start.” Worried about what he might do if she got back on the boat with him just then, she began swimming toward the shore. Ten seconds later, Dominic took off in pursuit. He soon passed her and left her in his wake. Fatigue was setting in with the young woman, and she called for him to stop. He didn’t, even though he heard her. She had little choice but to carry on, but was soon in difficulty. Dominic made it to shore and waved her in. “Keep going. You can do it.”

She couldn’t. She was exhausted and at risk of drowning. Dominic did nothing, although he was exceptionally encouraging.

But nature provided fathers for reasons besides planting seeds. Bill, always wary of Dominic, had been keeping an eye on the two from the shore. He raced into the water to rescue his daughter. Bill, incensed at Dominic, escorted his distressed daughter home.
I guess my cross to bear is my daughter’s attraction to the criminal type
, he said to himself with a sigh.

“It wasn’t his fault,” she told her dad, but she couldn’t help thinking that Robert would never have let that happen.

Dominic later related to Sue, Melissa, and Cathy how he saved a girl from drowning at the beach, and was given a hero’s reception by each.

So, as her final year of high school commenced, Kristen was at a crossroads. She wasn’t impressed at all with Dominic’s behavior that day or the evening before, and Robert seemed a hopeless cause.

Kristen was angry not only at Robert—she was angry at herself, angry over her weakness for him. Her absolute emotional dependence on a boy who refused to love her was her sole noteworthy frailty, but it was one that was causing her exquisite pain. His earlier aloofness toward her had nicked her pride, but she ignored the cuts to win his affection. His continual infidelity to her left much deeper wounds, however. That he’d never pledged to be faithful in no way palliated the pain. There comes a point when even the deepest love cannot overcome a gravely injured pride. Kristen was prostrated by the hurt. Her damaged pride rendered her incapable of returning to him. If their relationship was to survive, he would need to come to her. He would need to demonstrate how much she meant to him to restore her pride—only then could her love for him revive.

After four weeks apart from Kristen, Robert concluded that she wasn’t coming back to him this time. Unable to be without her any longer, he came to her house (while her parents were at work) to beg her forgiveness. The tide was turning.

“Kristen, I miss you. I know I was mean to you when we last spoke and I feel terrible about that. I just want to say I’m really sorry.”

“If you feel so bad, why did it take you a month to come to me?” He looked down and said nothing. She went on, “Because you expected me to come crawling back to you, right? No more, Bobby. I’m tired of putting up with you; it hurts too much. I have so much to offer, but I give up trying to convince you of that.”

“Believe me, Kristen, I know how amazing you are. Why do you think I’m here? I can’t stand the thought of being without you. I just don’t understand why you’re so anxious. Do you actually want to get married at sixteen?”

“No. I want to start a meaningful relationship that might lead to marriage.”

“I want to start a meaningful relationship with you, too. Let’s not set conditions on it. It leads where it leads.”

“No meaningful relationship is possible without exclusive commitment.”

“Dammit, Taylor, I’m not ready for that. Why can’t we be best friends?”

“I already told you why.”

“All right, then, I promise I won’t date other girls.”

“And when Jenny comes back to you?”

“I don’t think she will. Like you, she’s at the end of her rope with me.”

“She’ll be back, and two minutes later you’ll be in bed with her. What do you take me for?”

“It’s ironic, you know. You think sex means so much to me, but you’re the one who magnifies its importance beyond all reason. We’re just animals, Taylor. Sex between humans is no more blessed than sex between skunks.”

“If there’s no difference, perhaps you’d prefer a nice lady skunk over me,” she said irritably.

“No,” he rejoined, “you stink less.”

“I’m not in the mood for laughing. Are you willing to give up Jenny for me or not? Because if not, I don’t know why we’re even having this conversation.”

“You know, just before we had our big fight last month, I had this same argument with your cousin. She warned me she’d leave me for good if I didn’t stop seeing you. I wouldn’t agree to that. I
couldn’t
agree to that. So she left me. I haven’t gone back to her—but, as you see, I’ve come back to you. I need you, Kristen.”

She paused to ruminate, then said, “Okay. Why don’t we get together on Sunday, and we’ll see how it goes?”

He assented and left.

As she reflected on their discussion, she smiled. It seemed he was falling inexorably for her.
He can’t stand being without me
, she thought with great satisfaction.
He said he needed me. And we may be beginning a relationship that might lead to marriage!
she told herself hopefully—but perhaps naïvely. The healing process was well underway: her love was coming back strong.

Lying awake in bed that night, thinking about his discourse with Kristen, he was startled by a knock at his window. He looked to see the time—it was 11:47—and went to the window. He opened the blind. There was Kristen smiling. “Get dressed,” said she. “It’s lovely outside. It’s warm, there’s a light breeze, the air is fresh, the crickets are singing. The moon is full and it’s just rising; it looks enormous and has an orange tinge. Walk with me.”

He put on his clothes, climbed out the window and accompanied her down to the river. On the spur of the moment she stepped into the ankle-deep, limpid water, and pulled him off the riverbank and into the river, which was shallow after a dry summer. They gingerly stepped to the middle of the river.

The moon, which hung just above the horizon in the east, lit up the whole river. The orb itself reflected in the river about one hundred-fifty feet to the east. The ripples in the water seemed to break it apart, the eddies conveying the moonlight downstream until it coursed across their feet, only to disappear in their long shadows to the west—but reappear downstream, albeit more indistinct, and continue as far as the river went.

She turned to him, embraced him, looked into his eyes, and smiled. “Everything’s perfect,” she whispered as she moved her lips into place to kiss him. Lasting for almost four minutes, the kiss was the most passionate she would ever give. She felt the beat of his heart. She felt secure in his strong arms. She felt his excitement and relished her power to arouse him so. When the kiss was over, she took his hand and led him back to the trail, out of the woods, and back to her house. “Good night,” she cooed; she pecked his cheek and went inside. He stood there smiling for a moment then went back home.

Kristen’s parents greeted her upon her return home. “Where were you?” asked Lisa.

“Down by the river with Bobby,” she stated in a defiant tone.

“What were you doing down there with him?” said Bill.

“We talked, held hands, and kissed once … I’m not doing this because I enjoy deceiving or defying you. I’m in love with him! If I can’t see him, I’ll die. Please stop trying to keep us apart.”

“What about Dominic?” challenged Bill. “Just a while back you seemed enthralled with him, kissing on his fancy boat. I can’t imagine you love Bob so much if you’re that fickle.”

“Dominic is handsome and rich and so much fun, but he can’t make me laugh with his wit, he can’t enchant me with his words, he can’t give me goose bumps with a simple smile, he can’t make the rest of the universe disappear when he holds me in his arms, and he can’t make me sick to my stomach when he’s with another girl. I’m not fickle. I love Bobby and only Bobby. I will always love him.”

Her parents looked at each other, impressed by her passion and eloquence. It convinced them her love for Robert was genuine. Maybe because of this, or maybe because this boy was preferable to Dominic in their eyes, or maybe because they were concerned their relationship with her would be irreparably damaged if they continued their prohibition against him, they decided to relent a little.

“Will you agree to our stipulations?” asked Lisa.

“What are they?”

“First and foremost, do not have sex with him,” commanded Bill.

“Your father’s right,” seconded Lisa. “Make him earn your love. Give nothing away until well after he’s pledged his love to you.”

Kristen nodded. This was her position anyway.

Lisa continued, “If we permit you to see him, you’ll do it under our supervision. That means you can bring him here when we’re here, but you can’t see him otherwise without our specific permission.”

“He knows you hate him. He might not come here.”

“He will if he loves you,” said Lisa. “Does he love you?” Kristen looked down. “I see,” said her astute mother. “That gives him all the power, which makes it all the more important you listen to us. When you earn our trust back, and he shows he can be trusted with you, we’ll give you more leeway.”

Kristen looked dismayed with the strict conditions, but she had little choice but to consent.

•

The following day at school, a new kid in school approached Robert, wondering about his willingness to use his talent with computers for personal gain. Robert was well-known as the expert with computers in the school. Anyone with a question came to him rather than the teachers. The schoolmate had told him of lax security measures used by a certain bank, and how easy it would be for a computer whiz to hack in and procure thousands of dollars.

Robert had a real talent for hacking, especially with the modern computers in the computer lab at school, though thus far he’d done no real harm with his skills. He’d hacked into the school’s system to raise the grades of a few students who had paid him for his service; he’d got into supposedly secure sections of large company Internet sites just for the challenge of doing it; his coup had been hacking into a U.S. Army site the previous June. He’d rummaged around until it became clear the intrusion had been detected. He quickly exited.

The next day, some police officers and army types had snooped around the school. Asked who might be capable of very high-level computer work, everyone pointed to him. He was taken to the principal’s office and questioned about his activities the day before. Robert admitted nothing, and they let him go, but this impressive—or was it dangerous?—boy was on their radar screen now, and they sought out more information on him.

“You’d be on easy street for the rest of your life for a few days of work,” the schoolmate suggested. He reasoned he had an excellent chance to be a major league pitcher and didn’t want to do anything to risk that, so he rejected the proposition.

It would come up again under less auspicious circumstances, however.

J
udy, who despised Robert, could tell he was falling for Kristen and thought it would be grand to ruin the relationship. She said to Kristen, “I’m sure if you compare Dominic and Owens side by side, the obvious choice will be Dominic. We have to get the two together. Just invite Dominic to Kilworth next weekend, and we’ll have a campfire by the river. Get Owens and Dominic to come.”

“No way, Judy,” said Kristen. “I’m not playing games on Bobby. I’ll just be myself and hope he starts to love me.”

Judy shook her head and walked away.

The next Friday evening Robert, Kristen, and Jeremy went down to the flood plain to light a campfire. Judy came late and had a surprise with her: Dominic. Kristen, fuming at Judy, nervously said, “Um, Bobby Owens, this is Dominic Solano.”

Robert looked askance at her and shook Dominic’s hand. Dominic sat on the ground beside Kristen and kissed her. Robert observed the handsome man, fearing that Kristen was getting serious about him, but what could he do? How was he to compete with this moneyed man? He divined right away that this meeting had been set up for a direct comparison and started looking for an excuse to leave.

“I’m the odd man out here, so I’ll go and leave you four alone,” he said, feeling sorry for himself.

“No, please stay,” Kristen said.

He elected to stay to size up his competition, a decision he’d soon regret. Dominic pulled out a joint, lit it, took a long drag, and passed it to Judy who did the same, who passed it to Jeremy, who followed their lead. Kristen was next, but refused. She offered it to Robert, but knew he wouldn’t take it. The young athlete would never touch any illicit drugs for fear of ruining his major league prospects, she knew. He did partake of wine coolers with Kristen, though.