A True Thrill Pt. 02

Lynn reached out her weak hand, but he dodged her with ease. "Give it back."

"I'll never give it back to you, Lynn, just look at what it's done to you. You look like a thirty-year-old with a hangover, and you're only nineteen." He put the bag in his pocket, slid his arm around her waist, and ignored her weak protests as he lifted her into his arms. "I'm going to put you in your bed, but I'll be back this afternoon when you're human again. You and I need to talk."

"We don't need to do anything."

"Shut up."

"You shut up."

Neil's eyes flashed, and he closed his hand over Lynn's mouth. "Shut your mouth, or I swear to God I'll do something to you that I'll regret, am I being clear?"

Lynn shrank in Neil's arms, she couldn't stand his glare. Tears sprang into her eyes. Why was he so mad? His whole body was tense against hers, trembling with anger, but still, when he put her in bed, he pulled the covers over her, and his voice was calm when he said "I'll leave your backdoor open so I can leave some casserole in your kitchen. Eat what you can, it'll be good for you." He stood up and took a deep breath. "I'm inches away from sending everything I have to your parents, but I won't, not yet. You get one more chance, and given how much effort you've already put into screwing yourself over, that's me being generous."

Neil left the room with those words, leaving Lynn behind in darkness. She stared towards the door, and she wanted to think about what he'd said, she really did, but the pain in her head pounded all her thoughts to mush. Tears rolled from her eyes as her chest tensed with pain until she couldn't take it anymore and exhaustion claimed her.

--

Lynn stiffened when the doorbell rang, Neil was back. She huddled in her hoodie and walked over to open the door. "Hi."

"Hi."

She turned around without another word, and Neil followed her to the kitchen. Lynn pushed the box of food he'd left her towards him, and he lifted a corner of the lid to see she'd barely eaten any of it. "I'll just leave this here, bring it to my house after you finish it."

"Can't you just take it now?"

"No, you can throw it out if you want, but I'd like it if you ate it."

"Why?"

Neil huffed a quick laugh and said, "You ask that a lot, don't you? Why? Why? Because you look skinny, that's why."

"Okay."

Quiet fell in the kitchen, broken only by the occasional drop that fell from the tap onto the dishes in the sink. Lynn looked down at the table, her shoulders drawn. "Are you—"

"Are you going to offer me something to drink?"

"What? Oh... I'm sorry, I don't really have anything in the fridge."

"Do you have juice?"

"I have milk... and water. I'm sorry, it's from the tap."

"Water's fine."

"Okay."

Lynn grabbed a clean glass, and her hand shook as she held it under the tap. She took a deep breath to steady her as she filled it and then put it in front of Neil. Her eyes stuck to his chest, but she forced them up and said, "Are you going to tell them?"

"No."

A sigh slipped between Lynn's lips, and she slumped in her chair. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet, I can still change my mind. I told you I wanted to talk to you."

"Okay."

"Okay? You've got nothing else to say? What happened to the girl from before, did she swallow her tongue?"

A spark flashed in Lynn's eyes, and she said "What can I say? I don't know what you want to hear."

"I just want to know the truth." Neil reached into his pocket and put two empty plastic baggies on the table, both had a pink smiley on them. "Why do you take these?"

"What did you do with them?"

"I flushed your pills."

"You what?"

"Answer the question."

Lynn breathed in hard through her nose as her eyes flicked between the baggies and Neil's calm face. "You really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Fine. They make me feel sexy and amazing." Her eyes blazed at Neil. "I fuck whoever I want, suck whoever I want, swallow whatever I want, and I love it."

"That's all?"

Lynn put her hands on the table and leaned forward. "And what about you? I bet you got all hard this morning after I flashed you my tits? Do you want to see them again, huh? Maybe seeing isn't enough and you want touch them now?"

"Not really."

"You're lying!"

"I'm not."

"You saw me this morning, and now you're telling me you don't want to stick your dick inside me?"

Neil folded his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. "What I want doesn't matter, Lynn. All that matters is that I know what's best for you."

"Who do you think you are? You think you know anything about me?"

"I know enough to see you've got no clue what you're doing. You're taking drugs, dressing up like a slut, and throwing yourself at any guy who wants to stick his dick inside you. Look at you." He gestured towards her. "Yeah, I saw your ribs poking through your skin this morning, I saw how pale your face is, and how deep the bags under your eyes are. Maybe you think you're some kind of irresistible slut when you're hopped up on drugs, but you're not, you're just an easy fuck to those assholes."

"Is that what you think?"

"Yes."

"Get out!"

"I'm not leaving."

"Get! Out!"

"I'm not leaving."

Lynn jumped up from her chair, and her arms trembled as she balled her fists and walked over to Neil. "Get out." She punched his chest, and it hurt her hand. "Get out!" She punched him again with the same hand, it hurt even worse. "Get out! Get out! Out!"

She kept punching him, and he never stopped her. He let her beat her little hands raw until all of her fingers hurt and they glowed a deep red. Lynn swayed on her feet as a wave of black flashed before her eyes, and she grabbed Neil's arm to steady her. He pulled her closer to him and ignored Lynn's weak struggles to break free. His strong arms closed around her tense body, and he said "I'm sorry, Lynn, I said too much. It's just that I've heard this story too many times, and it never ends well."

"Let me go."

"No, Lynn, if I let go of you now, you'll fall and hurt yourself. You can't even stand on your own legs after throwing a few punches."

"Why didn't you stop me?"

"You weren't hurting me."

Lynn winced as she flexed her hands. "I don't believe you."

"All you did was hurt yourself."

"Stop saying things like that, you don't know shit."

Neil let out a long breath and then let go of Lynn, he kept his hands close to her arms as she straightened up, but she stayed steady. "You're right, I don't know shit, but I will if you tell me." He got up from his chair and looked down as he towered over her. "How about you explain things to me over something to eat? What's your favorite food?"

"What? I... barbecue."

"Really?" A small smile curled the corner of Neil's mouth. "I know a place not too far from here, I'll take you there." He gestured towards her. "You want to put on something different?"

"You want to go now?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know."

"Come on, Lynn, you say I don't know shit, and I want to change that, but you'll have to work with me first."

"I don't have to do anything."

"You kind of do, we either have a nice meal together, or I contact your parents."

"You're blackmailing me."

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm offering you dinner, nothing more."

"Barbecue?"

"Mhm."

"Good barbecue?"

"The best around."

Lynn glanced down at her baggy clothes and shrugged. "Might as well have some ribs."

"Perfect."

--

The drive over to the barbecue joint was short and quiet, with nothing but the whispers of tires to disturb the silence. Neil pulled up at a shack that had a couple of trucks parked by it even in the middle of the afternoon. "BB Qing" was seared into the heavy wooden sign that hung over the shack's entrance.

"I'm not sure if blues will be your style of music, but I'm sure the food will make up for it if it's not."

"What do you mean?"

"You've never heard of BB King?"

"About this place?"

"No, the artist?" He waved his hand at her and said, "Never mind, come on."

Lynn followed Neil into the shack and her eyes widened when she saw the huge firepit smack in the middle of the shack. A toasty heat washed over her as smoke crinkled into her nose along with the smell of charred meat and enough spice to make her mouth water.

Lynn looked over at Neil. "Do they do takeout here?"

"You haven't even eaten anything yet."

"It can't be anything but good."

Neil laughed and said, "Maybe there's hope for you yet. Grab us a table, I'll order. You want anything besides ribs?"

"A coke."

"Coming up."

Lynn traipsed deeper into the shack, and she felt small and frumpy compared to the burly guys tearing at their meat and drinking beer. They all nodded at her as she walked past, and she gave them a little wave before she found a table in the shack's darkest corner and huddled up on a chair.

Neil joined her not much later and put a glass of coke in front of her, big drops of condensation rolled down the sides. He'd gotten a beer himself. "Food will be here any minute, I hope you're hungry."

"A little."

"We'll get a doggie bag if it's too much."

"Okay."

Lynn shifted in her seat as Neil took a sip from his beer and then put his hands on the table, relaxed. She kept glancing from one guy in the joint to the next. These were men, nothing like the trendy guys she was used to seeing in clubs. Any one of them could pick her up and throw her around, and they didn't need to go to the gym to do it. Now and then her eyes fell on Neil, and he wasn't that different, maybe a little older, but not worn out at all. He had big hands, broad shoulders, and a strong chest. Her hands still tingled from when she'd punched him, but he'd never even budged.

"Lynn?"

"What?"

"Can you move your coke? Food's here."

"Oh, sorry."

The waiter set a heavy wooden board with a big slab of ribs on top in front of her. He'd been holding the entire thing with one hand, and with the other he set a bowl of coleslaw next to it. "Have at it. I'll be back later to see if you need anything."

Lynn stared down at the slab of ribs and then back up at Neil. "I'm never going to eat this."

"Do all the damage you can."

"Aren't you going to eat anything?"

"I ate before I went over to your place."

"Oh." She tore a rib off the slab and said, "I guess I'll get started then."

"You do that."

Neil smiled when Lynn groaned as the spicy char filled her mouth. The rib she'd torn off was like a club in her little hand, and she gnawed at it like a tiny cave woman.

"What are you smiling at?"

"Nothing, but maybe wipe your mouth."

"Later."

"Your choice." He took another sip of beer and said, "While you eat, I'd like it if you could listen to what I have to say." Lynn stilled, midway into tearing another piece of meat off the bone, and nodded. Neil gestured for her to continue eating and said, "You're standing on a slippery slope, Lynn. It doesn't matter if you're from a good neighborhood or a bad one, once you start doing drugs, you're in danger. Everything kind of slips away from you, and before you know it, you're caught stealing, and some cop has to see the look in your eyes that says you don't understand how you got where you ended up at. You were supposed to have a great job and a family, but instead you've got no kids, a good-for-nothing boyfriend, you never see your parents, and you're seriously thinking about whoring yourself out, because it earns good money, and you can't keep a straight job anyway."

Lynn chewed in silence as Neil talked, but her eyes were focused on his. Neil swept his hand through the air and said, "The details might be different, but it doesn't matter, whatever's making you want drugs now will only get worse. I know you're going to college, and I bet your school work's suffering. You're way too skinny, and you probably haven't made a lot of friends in college." He nodded towards Lynn and said, "How am I doing so far? Three for three?"

For the first time since Neil had started talking, Lynn had to avert her eyes. She covered it up by scooping up some coleslaw, but her chest tightened under his calm eyes. How did he even know? Her voice cracked when she said, "Yeah, three for three."

"Want me to stop talking for a while?"

"No, I'm fine."

"I don't know how long you've been doing drugs, but I guess it can't have been that long, so there's still time. You haven't done too much damage yet, and I want to keep it that way. If I have to blackmail you to make that happen, then I will, understand?"

Lynn nodded and kept eating, she didn't trust her voice right now.

"Last time we talked... things didn't go so well, I hadn't slept much, so I was angrier than I should've been. That's why I'm taking the time to spell everything out. You can make a mistake once, but if you make the same mistake a second time, then it won't be my fault, and I'll have to contact your parents. Is that clear?"

"I get it."

"I guess we'll see." Neil grabbed his glass and downed half of his remaining beer. "Why did you do it, Lynn?"

"I..." Lynn's thoughts blanked, and she frowned. "It's just... every time I take one, I feel bad at first, but then it goes away, and we go to a party, and everything's so bright and alive, and I feel... sexy, and horny. I want to dance, and I want to fuck, and then dance again, and fuck some more. It feels wild and amazing."

"You think it's worth it?"

"How am I supposed to answer that? No, because of what you said? I can make my own decisions, you know, I don't need you for that."

Neil's eyebrow lifted and he said, "Lynn, you're what, nineteen? You don't know what you're doing. You think drugs make you feel something amazing, but it's shit, it just hijacks your brain and jams you into high gear. It's the same every time, and your brain gets used to it even as you're turning it to mush, and before you know it, one hit just doesn't do it anymore. That's when it's over." He tapped the table. "I don't want you to go there, just stay at my place every Friday and Saturday evening from now on, until you can convince me it's no longer needed."

"That's all you want? You just want to kill my social life?"

"Only for a few months."

"And what am I supposed to do at your place?"

"You can study, or watch TV, or you can sleep. It's up to you, I just want to know you're not doing anything stupid."

"It can't be any other way?"

"No, I'm sorry. The only way I can be sure of where you are is if you stay at my place."

Lynn put down the food in her hands. "I'm not hungry anymore."

"Are you upset?"

"Of course I'm upset!"

"Look, I'll try to stay in on Fridays and Saturdays when I can. That way you'll at least have some company."

"Yay."

"Don't be like that, it won't be too bad. I don't believe your night will be that different from what you'd do at home. It's just going to be a different couch, there's still internet, and if you want, you can even invite friends over. Treat it like you're being grounded at home."

Lynn frowned and poked at her ribs. "It's not like I have a choice, do I?"

"It's not forever, Lynn. You're in college so you're a smart girl. I'm sure it won't take too long before you realize you're better off without that crap."

"Can you take me home?"

"Sure." Neil raised his hand to call over the waiter. "I'll get them to wrap everything up."

Lynn kept quiet while they left the shack and on the way home. Neil didn't say anything either, and as much as it annoyed Lynn to admit it, she appreciated his silence. Everything that could be said had already been said. He wouldn't change his mind so she was screwed. Might as well accept it and see if she could make the best of it.

--

Lynn's phone rang. She ignored it.

It rang again. Ignored.

Again. Again. Fine!

"What?"

'I've been calling you all day, baby, why aren't you picking up?'

"Why? You're seriously asking me why? You think I don't remember what happened?"

'Of course you remember, you loved it.'

He didn't get it, he actually didn't get it. Flabbergasted, Lynn switched off her phone and dropped it on her bed. Seconds later, it rang again, she let it ring. This time, no matter how many times Jareth called, she refused to pick up.

She'd told him, many times, that she didn't want him to fuck her ass. Then why did her ass hurt? Why did she remember sitting on her knees, taking it where she said she didn't want it? And why - her body trembled even thinking about it - did she have a memory of him doing it more than once?

Lynn grabbed her pillow and catapulted it across the room. All kinds of crap scattered when the pillow barreled through, but she didn't care. It felt good to break something.

Later in the day, her phone rang again. She picked up, but didn't say a word.

'Lynn? Baby? Hello?'

"Do you even remember why you wanted to take me to that party in the first place?"

'Lynn! Fuck me, why don't you pick up your phone?'

"I asked you a question."

'What? Look, Lynn, can I come over so we can talk face to face, this isn't working.'

"No, I don't want to see you right now."

'Don't be like that, how am I supposed to make things right if you don't let me?'

"Maybe start by answering my question."

Jareth sighed and said, 'We had a fight about me and Cindy.'

"And what did I tell you then that I've told you tons of times before?"

'I don't know, am I supposed to remember everything you say?'

"Nothing's ringing any bells in your stupid head?"

'Don't be like that.'

"You fucked my ass, Jareth! You think I don't remember that because I was high?"

'But you were moaning so much, you loved it! I thought you were fine with.'

"I'm not fine."

'Look, I'm sorry I did what I did, but you didn't stop me, so I thought you were finally up for giving it a try. I won't do it again.'

"You know what, Jareth? I don't believe you. You don't care about anything besides your dick!"

Lynn slammed her phone down on her bed and stormed out of her room. She didn't bother hanging up, let him use his stupid head to figure out she wasn't there anymore. Her ass stung as she walked, but it only made her increase her pace. Screw him, she was done.

--

Lynn sat balled up in the corner of Neil's couch, her slender figure buried in a hoodie while she texted Cindy and tried to keep herself busy. Now and then, she'd look up and see Neil, and then her fingers would tap her phone's screen harder. Did she really have to wait until he dragged his old ass to bed before she could go home? This was so boring, and this would be every Friday and Saturday night for the foreseeable future. She glanced at Neil again, and the volume of her taps shot right back up.

"Do you have to give me that look?"

"What look? You can't even see my face."

"I'm just assuming you're giving me a look. Is there something on my face?"

"You know there's nothing on your face."

Neil chuckled. "At least that's a relief."

Silence returned to the room, and Lynn balled up even more, focused on ignoring Neil, until the doorbell rang. Lynn's head popped up, and she looked at Neil. "There's someone at the door!"

"Yes, that's what the bell's for."

He got up, but before he could reach the door leading to the hallway, Lynn had jumped up and rushed in front of him. "You can't let anyone in."

"And why is that?"

"What if it's someone I know?"

"You don't know her."

"How can you be sure she won't recognize me? What if she starts asking questions and finds out why I'm here?"

"She already knows."

Lynn froze with her little mouth open before she closed it again. She tilted her head and said, "What?"