Authors: Ella Fox
“Come on, Mia! Brady’s hot, popular and he’s the king of St. Joe’s High! We might not go to school there but it doesn’t even matter. He’s so popular that he even rubs off on our plain-as-shit school. Plus, we’re already dressed and ready to go out anyway! It’s like a sign, don’t you see? Don’t you realize how cool it is that he’s inviting us to hang out with him and Chad tonight? We’re getting into Brady Howard’s house and his parents, I mean your, um, dad, won’t be home! It’s like a dream!”
It wasn’t anything like a dream, at least not to me. Of all the people on earth, Brady Howard is one of the last that I would willingly choose to spend time with. He’s short-tempered, obnoxious and has a sense of entitlement that is unbelievable. He hasn’t paid a lick of attention to me at any point in time during the eight years that his mother has been married to my father. I’ve seen him around town at tons of parties but he ignores me like the plague. Suddenly just because Macy and I ran into him at the mall a few days ago, NOW he wants to hang out? It seems off and very, very weird. When I got the text from him an hour ago, I had jokingly showed it to Macy
thinking that she would agree with me about what a weirdo he is. Now, I wish I hadn’t shown her the text at all because her reaction to it has been completely opposite to what I expected.
“I don’t like him and you know it. Something stinks about him asking us to come over. It’s been eight years
—
don’t you find it odd that he suddenly wants to ‘be a family’? I almost died when I read that. Like, who the hell is he kidding?”
“Brady’s like a God in this town, Mia! One night hanging out with him and Chad, and Steve will realize what a gigantic mistake he made when he broke up with me
last night.”
She
was right about Brady being incredibly popular, but she was completely glossing over the fact that there was serious gossip about him using drugs and having crazy sex with pretty much half of the girls that are our age in this town.
“Brady’s not a good guy, Mace, and you know that. We already
are
popular. Sure, we aren’t rule-the-school popular like Vanessa and Heather, but why would we want to be? Those girls are shallow and obnoxious. Plenty of guys pay attention to you but you’re stuck on a guy that was afraid of commitment. Just because you want Steve to regret what he did doesn’t mean you need to lower yourself to spending time with Brady and his idiot friend Chad. It’s been one day and quite frankly, after everything you’ve told me Steve said, he isn’t worth your time. You’re acting crazy.”
Stomping her foot in aggravation, she glared at me. “
I am not! This is just one night! We never take any chances or do anything unexpected. You’re going to be eighteen in two weeks
—
don’t you want to live a little? When Steve broke up with me, he said it was because I’m not as interesting as he thought I would be. He says that I never cut loose and do anything. Do you know how badly that hurt me? I gave him my virginity less than a week ago and suddenly I’m too boring for him? I feel like a complete loser! We’re in our senior year and we’ve never done anything really fun! Don’t you want to go out on top? I know I sure as hell do. Besides, Brady really did seem like he wants to try to get to know you. Maybe if you get closer to him, you can eventually have a relationship with your father.”
That was a really low blow, and I sputtered as I tried to formulate a response that didn’t involve f-bombs and yelling. “You know damn well I have no desire to have any kind of relationship with my father, nor does he want one with me. I can’t believe you would use that to manipulate me into going. What the hell is going on with you?”
Dropping down onto my bed she put her face in her hands as the silence stretched between us. Finally she said, “I’m scared. Steve said that I’m too intense and it seems like I’m already an adult. He waited to tell me that until after he’d had sex with me again, of course. What was I waiting for? I shouldn’t have wasted my virginity on him! I feel like I missed out on the most important years. I should’ve been crazy and cut loose! I don’t think I’m ready to grow up and leave for college. I can’t even figure out which college to choose! I feel like these last three years in high school went by in a flash and I’ve done nothing memorable, wild, or crazy. I don’t have a high school legacy!”
Sitting down next to her, I grabbed her hands in mine. “That’s not true! We’ve done so much in the last three years, how could you forget all the fun we’ve had? We’re cheerleaders, we’ve been to every dance, we go to parties every weekend, we’re on the yearbook committee and we were in the homecoming court! You got voted Best Dressed for God’s sake! Yo
u’re making it sound like you’re invisible, but you’re not. People look up to you Macy. You don’t need Brady’s bullshit to make you any more popular than you already are. It’s not worth the price of having to deal with him!”
Now she was really annoyed with me. “There’s not going to BE a price, Mia! It’s one goddamn night. Nothing is going to happen!”
“I’m not going, and that’s that. I love you Macy, but I’m not getting involved with Brady in any capacity.”
Looking me straight in the eye she said, “I’m asking you to bend your strict “my dad and his family are persona non grata in my life” stance for
one
night. If you won’t go, I’m going anyway…but if you’re really and truly my best friend, you’ll have my back.”
Dammit, she’d played the ‘best friend’ card
and now there was no way I couldn’t go. She had me and she knew it, and before I could really process what was happening I was in her car and she was driving us to Brady’s… and my father’s… house. I was nauseous and anxious, my stomach a nervous mess about spending any time with Brady, particularly alone with him in my father’s house.
As insane as it sounds, I’ve never been inside the house. Finding it wasn’t a problem though, because everyone in our area knows exactly where Brady Howard lives. It’s the biggest and best house around.
My father ‘married up’ when he married Brady’s mother, Teresa Howard-Reeves. Her first husband, Brady’s father, was a sixty-three-year-old rancher when he married Teresa, and he died five years later, leaving Teresa a widowed multimillionaire. Her next husband was a seventy-five-year-old retired golf pro who died two years after they got married. Once again, he left behind a pretty big chunk of change, and Teresa became an even richer widow.
She met my father just over eight years ago (at her second husband
’s funeral luncheon, no less) and they were married ninety days later. He’s the first man she married that was her age, not to mention the fact that although he’s well off, he’s not a multimillionaire. She is though, and my dad just
loves
her and her son. I’ve never been allowed to call my father Dad, but Brady does. When I see them the few times a year that I have to, the two of them are always thick as thieves. It’s ‘dad’ this and ‘son’ that, and it’s just one more reason that I don’t like my father.
For Brady’s sixteenth birthday he got a weekend-long party that culminated in the arrival of a sparkly new Mercedes G. The gossip around town says that the party cost
thirty thousand dollars…and that doesn’t include the one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollar car. When I turned sixteen nine weeks later, my father forgot. Literally, he forgot all about it.
When my Uncle
Jesse reminded him a week later, my father had the nerve to email me and tell me that I was pathetic for ‘wallowing like a moron’. He blamed me for not having reminded him that my birthday was coming, and he said that I did it on purpose so that other people could judge him for forgetting. Two days later he leased a brand new red Cadillac and had it delivered to me at school, and I died a little inside because I knew that he’d chosen red so that people would see the car and know that it came from him. Never mind the fact that I didn’t have a flipping license yet and I had to call my Mom and Neil to come get the car. Trivial details like that never bothered my father. All he’s ever cared about is the flash, and that’s been his lifelong M.O. He gave flashy gifts that were all about making people think he wasn’t a horrible father. He had an absolute shit fit when my mother took a stand and hadn’t allowed him to force me into private school, and to this day he holds it against me by telling me that I’m an embarrassment to him for going to a ‘common’ school.
I startled when Macy put the car in park, and looking around I realized that we had arrived at Brady’s. Taking a deep breath, I tried to talk sense into her one last time.
“Mace…I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s just leave and go to the party that we were going to go to tonight before we ran into Brady and he derailed our plans.”
“Stop it,” she hissed. “He’s a high school senior for Christ
’s sake, not an axe murderer. It’s one night. Please don’t be a dud. You’re completely overreacting to the situation. Relax and enjoy yourself and before you know it, we’ll be home. Oh, and by the way, since you’re on high alert anyway, you can be the designated driver tonight.”
I rolled my eyes and didn’t put up any argument. Drinking in my father
’s house with Brady Howard is something that I had no desire to do.
He had the door open before we could knock, and his smile of welcome chilled my blood. There’s something not right about him, and I just want
ed the night to be over already. Taking a deep breath, I entered my father’s house for the first time.
While Macy chatted happily to Brady and Chad, I took the time to furtively check out the house. Taking us through the grand entry and down a long hallway, Brady
guided us into what he called ‘the family room’. Although that might be what it’s called, it was more like an enormous rec room. Taking it all in I spotted two pool tables, a ping-pong table, five arcade games, three pinball machines, several giant televisions, a baby grand piano, a bar with seating for at least a dozen people and several mammoth sofas placed throughout the room. Fifty percent of my house would fit into this room, but what I’m feeling isn’t jealousy
—
it’s disgust. This isn’t a family room at all
—
it’s an excuse for excess.
I noted that there were tons of family photos strategically placed around the room
(none of me, naturally), but it was the enormous photo from my father’s wedding day that caught my eye. Of course I hadn’t been invited, so this is the first time I’d ever seen a photo of the event. In the photo Teresa is in the center of a hug from my father and Brady, and the three of them looked overjoyed. I have not one photo of my father with me like that, and even though I should have been over this by now, it stung. Things that have to do with him always hurt. Always.
Guiding us across the room, Brady and Chad sat us at the bar before asking what we wanted to drink. I asked for soda, and I figured that Macy would ask for a beer, but instead she giggled and said, “
Bartender’s choice.”
Brady and Chad exchanged a look that didn’t sit well with me, but when I looked to Macy to see if she had caught it, she smiled at me like we were at a bar with the Prince of England. Why was she suddenly unable to see reality? When we le
ft tonight, I would have a very serious talk with her about the way she’s been acting lately.
Brady and Chad conferred as they plucked bottles off the shelves and made drinks. Chad set a glass in front of Macy and said, “We’re giving you a screaming orgasm, and you’re going to love it.”
Every part of me wanted to get up and leave, but Macy was giggling as if Chad just said the funniest thing ever. Setting a drink down in front of me Brady said, “I made you a light rum and Coke.”
Stiffening
my back I said, “I already told you I can’t drink tonight since I’m the designated driver.”
“Aww,” he said with a smile that I could tell was just part of his act. “I’m here to take care of you, little sister. I would never let you drive drunk. Like I said, it’s a light drink, just a splash of rum. If you only have the one drink, you’ll be fine to drive in a few hours. You can relax here, Mia. It’s not like we’re trying to get into your pants.”
I flushed from head to toe, but I wasn’t going to back down about this. “I’m not drinking anything with alcohol in it. You go ahead and drink it, I’m not thirsty.”
His dropped the happy-go-lucky veneer and
his eyes narrowed for just a second, but he quickly got it back and smiled at me before turning around and taking care of making drinks for himself and Chad.
The giggling alien-esque imposter that had taken over my best friend
’s body was telling them how good her drink was, and I took deep breaths as I assured myself that in just a few hours this night would be over and I’d never have to think about it again.
Setting another glass down in front of me, Brady smiled. “Here ya go, a virgin
Coca-Cola with tons of ice.”
I took the soda with clammy hands and downed more than half of it in less than a minute as I took deep breaths and forced myself to calm down.
As the minutes ticked by I noticed that Brady and Chad were being charming and friendly, and for the first time, I started to relax. Whatever Brady’s deal was, at least tonight he seemed to be on good behavior.