Tempting BAD: VIP Spin Off (7 page)

“I knew it! Did you fuck him? God, please say yes. I’m tired of you being a virgin; you make me feel like a slut because I’ve been having sex for a year and you’re holding on to your v-card like it’s a fucking Academy Award or something.” She cocked her head to the side. “Why are you looking at me like that? Oh my God, was he bad? Did he suck? Did you not get off?”

“No…”

“You didn’t get off? What the fuck is wrong with him? Oh my God, I’m going—”

“Christine, shut up, it has nothing to do with that.”

“Then why do you look like your hamster just died? He died like three years ago, and I told you not to feed him that much. I swear he died of an eating overdose.”

I rolled my eyes, trying not to laugh.

“Whatever, as long as you got your cookies and I don’t have to bitch-slap my brother for being an inconsiderate prick.” She put her hands in the air. “But don’t tell me the details; I hear enough about it at school. I know he has a huge cock… yada… yada… yada…” She got off the bed and grabbed her shoes. “Yay! I didn’t throw up, cool points for me.” She kissed my cheek. “I love you, thank you for looking out for me. Derrick just pulled up.”

“Derrick?”

“Yeah… we made up. Peace in the Middle East, sista, and go sit in a warm bath so that your vagina doesn’t feel like it took a pounding from King Kong, talk later.”

My mom was home?

I walked over to my parents’ bedroom and knocked on the door. There was no answer. I looked around the house for them and it wasn’t until I heard voices coming from my dad’s office did I realize where they were. The door was ajar and I stood behind it.

“Robert, do you think she knows?”

“Honey, I don’t know.”

“Goddamn it, Robert. How could you be so careless? Why on earth would you let that woman in our home?”

“Baby, you know I would never do that. She showed up; what was I supposed to do?”

What the fuck?

“I don’t know, Robert, ask her to leave!”

“Please calm down.”

“Calm down? You want me to calm down? Jesus Christ, do you not realize that Brooke could know that you have another family, that you have another life? Does that not matter to you?”

Oh my God, I’m going to throw up.

“Yes, Abbie, I am fully aware of what is going on. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? That doesn’t help anything now! When I agreed to this, Robert, when I agreed to your lifestyle and your indiscretions, it was on three conditions. Do you remember those? Huh?”

“Of course I do...”

“Well then let me remind you again! You would ALWAYS put our marriage, children, and love first and foremost. ALWAYS!”

“I know...”

“You promised me that they would never find out and neither would our friends or family, that you would take your lifestyle away from here to where it wouldn’t hurt us or anyone we knew. Do you remember what you promised me?”

“I do…”

“And you swore to me that you would always come home to me! You would never be without me! What the fuck, Robert! I can’t believe you!”

“Jesus, Abbie, I know, baby, I know… I’m so fucking sorry, but we don’t know that she knows anything. You’re jumping to conclusions.”

“She’s not here! Her best friend is here, but she is not, Robert, and you said you heard something. You said you heard people! Christine could barely move to answer a question this morning and the help was given the weekend off, so there is no other explanation other than Brooke being home and seeing you or hearing you with that woman!”

“Can you just calm down, please?”

I couldn’t take it anymore, I had heard enough. I stepped away from the door and left. I got in my car and just drove around with nowhere in particular to go. My cell phone rang endlessly and text messages plagued me; I finally had to turn off my damn phone. I didn’t want to talk to anyone or listen to what anyone had to say.

I couldn’t believe what I had heard. My mom knew about it and she didn’t care.

“As long as you come home to me…”

“Always put our marriage first…”

“Always put our children and love first…”

“You promised me…”

It echoed and repeated itself in my ears, making them ring and bleed with deceit. My mind was racing with thoughts, one right after the other, attacking its way into my heart and making me feel a loss. I felt like someone had died. That’s the best way to describe it; I mourned something I didn’t understand.

I wept and brushed away all my tears, exactly the way my mom had done with my dad’s indiscretions.

I found myself by the pier on South Beach. I sat underneath it for hours, contemplating life. How ironic that at sixteen, I was rationalizing life and all its glory. I didn’t want my life to change, not with my parents nor my friends. I wanted it to go away. I wanted to feel like the normal sixteen-year-old girl that I was when I woke up the day before. Excited that it was my birthday and that I had received a car. I wanted to end the summer and go into my junior year being captain of my squad and starting to look at colleges. All of the normal stuff, I didn’t want it taken away from me just as everything else had.

I knew that if I told my parents that I was aware of it all then nothing of what I wanted would happen; everything would change, not just my outlook on love and marriage, but my life as well. My relationships with everyone would become corrupted and molded into something that I didn’t even want to think about. I wasn’t a coward. I would have been fully able to confront both of them, but a huge part of me didn’t want to.

I was exhausted. And I guess I was also selfish because as much as I knew the truth, as much as I knew that it was lies and deceit tainted with I love you’s and promises of tomorrow… and you’re the only one… it didn’t matter because it was mine. It was mine to do with as I saw fit. I had the problem in the palm of my hand and the only solution I could conjure up was to make it all go away.

And by that, I mean to keep my goddamn mouth shut.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…

And so is the truth.

“Mommy, will you play with me?”

“No, honey, not right now. I need to get dinner ready for your dad. You play by yourself, okay? Like a good boy.”

Lauren was taking a nap or she would play with me, and Mommy still had Alexis baking in her tummy or maybe she would play with me, but I didn’t think so because when Lauren was a baby, she didn’t do anything beside sleep, cry, and poop.

Maybe my daddy would play with me?

Nah… he never played with me. He was always busy or mad. I didn’t understand why he was always mad; we never did anything, especially mommy, she was the best ever.

“Sweetie, I’m home,” Dad said from the front door.

He was in a good mood; maybe he would play.

“Hey, little man,” Dad’s partner Mark said, kneeling down to pat my head and look at my cars. I liked Mark; he was nice and he always played with me.

“Hi, Mr. Mark, do you want to play?”

“I sure do, let me just wash my hands and I’ll be right back, okay?”

I happily nodded.

“Hello, honey,” Mom greeted. She was wearing one of her new white dresses that we bought last week. She said it was for daddy.

He smiled and kissed her on the mouth but then his eyes did some weird twitching thing.

“What are you wearing?” he whispered loud enough for me to hear while holding onto the back of mommy’s neck. She didn’t look too comfortable with how he was holding her; her body was stiff and her face wasn’t normal.

She looked at me and smiled, and it made me feel better. “Oh, I bought it for you,” she replied.

“Well, you look like a—”

“All right, little man; all washed up. You ready to play?” Mark announced, coming into the room and Daddy immediately let go of Mommy, smiling over at us.

“Dinner is almost ready,” she added.

“It’s not ready yet?” Dad replied.

“Oh, come on, Rick; she has two kids to look after and one on the way. Cut her some slack; your house looks beautiful. I bet she spent all day cleaning for you and she still looks like a million bucks. I need to find me one of you, Jasmine,” he stated, winking.

“She does … doesn’t she,” Dad said in a tone that I didn’t like, but Mark didn’t say anything, so maybe it was just me.

We played for a while and then we ate dinner at the table. Dad said I had to eat all of my broccoli before I was allowed to leave the table. I hated broccoli, but I ate it anyway. I helped mom clean up and dad walked Mark out to his police car. He thanked my mom for dinner and patted me on the head again before he left.

I was being really careful with the dishes, but one got away from me and hit the floor with a crash.

“Oh no…” Mom remarked.

“It’s okay, Mommy, I fix it.”

“You little shit!”

I looked up at my dad, who looked angry, and my mom stepped out in front of me.

“It was an accident, honey. Don’t worry, I’ll clean it up.”

“You bet your ass you will, and while you’re at it, why don’t you go fix yourself up. Is that what my money is paying for? Huh? For you to dress like a goddamn whore and turn on my partner?”

“What? No… never… I swear—”

“Shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch. The house looks like shit, you’re dressed like you should be on the fucking street corner, and dinner wasn’t even ready when I got home. Do you know how embarrassing that is for me? I swear, Jasmine, you do it to provoke me.”

She shook her head and I hid behind her. I didn’t like hearing him say all those mean words. My mommy looked beautiful; she always looked beautiful and the house was clean. I helped her all day.

“Devon,” he roared and I wanted to cover my ears because I didn’t like his voice.

It scared me like in the bad parts of my Disney movies.

“Devon, I’m not going to ask you again. Come here.”

My mom looked down at me with a face I didn’t recognize and it scared me more.

“It’s okay, honey; I can clean it. Devon needs to get ready for his bath. Let me—”

“Shut the fuck up; I’m talking to my son, and if he knows what’s good for him, he will come to me, NOW!”

I would not cry… I would not cry… I am a big boy… I repeated to myself as I walked over to him. He grabbed my shoulder and brought me down to my knees. He wasn’t hurting me, but I didn’t like him grasping me like that, either.

“You will clean this mess up. Your mother has other responsibilities to take care of. Do you understand me?”

I nodded. “Yes, Daddy, I can do it.”

“Rick, he’s too small, he’s—”

“Did I ask for your fucking opinion? He can do it. You’re turning him into a goddamn pussy; that’s what you’re doing, Jasmine. He’s a man, let him act like one.”

“I can do it, Mommy, I’m a man,” I repeated.

I started picking up the glass pieces and throwing them away in the garbage. I wanted to make my dad proud, and while I was rushing to finish, I slipped on one of the pieces and fell to the floor, face first into a pile of glass. I didn’t want to cry, but my belly hurt.

“Devon!” Mom shouted, coming over to me, but my dad was over to her in a flash. I swear, I blinked and his hand was around her neck, pushing her up against the wall.

My eyes widened, I had never seen him do that before.

“You stupid fucking cunt. Look at him; he can’t even pick up a mess he makes. Is this what you’re doing to my children, huh? Turning them into pussies, who can’t fend for themselves? Answer ME!” he yelled, shoving into her throat harder.

“He’s just a small boy, honey. He’s bleeding, please—”