I Need a Ride

"I'll suck your dick."

"What the fuck did you just say to me?" Bill couldn't believe the words that just came out of Anna's mouth. Anna Frehley, the bible thumping, holier than thou, saving herself for marriage, prude that had been up everyone's ass in high school about their "sinful lifestyles" had just offered him oral sex.

He hadn't seen her in 3 years since her valedictorian speech at graduation where she continued to chastise everyone for behavior she perceived to be a path to hell while somehow claiming they all a great time together in school. Everyone in her class hated her. Well, maybe hate was a bit too strong of a word for Bill Thomas. He didn't hate her; he didn't feel anything at all towards her by that time. But he did wonder why she wouldn't talk to him anymore. They used to be very close friends. From grade school through sophomore year, they were almost inseparable. Something had happened that summer when her family went away on vacation. At the start of the first semester of their junior year, no one knew why she had suddenly become the way she was. By the end of it, she had alienated everyone enough that no one cared anymore to try and found out what happened. They all just ignored her for the next 2 years, even Bill.

Bill didn't know she was at the party. He was back in town for a weekend from college for the first time in over a year and just wanted to relax and see some old friends. He had a great time reminiscing about the "old days" and seeing people he hadn't seen in what felt like forever. The party was far from winding down but he had a long drive tomorrow and wouldn't be staying much longer. He was making one last lap through the house to make sure he said goodbye to everyone when a girl knocked him flat on his ass as she came running around a corner.

"What the hell, lady?" he said as she continued to run past him and out the front door. She was followed a minute later by some guy trying button his pants as he chased after her. He actually didn't know it was her until someone extended a hand to help him up off the floor and said "Man, she might be more of a bitch now than she was in school."

"Which bitch? That doesn't exactly narrow it down."

"Anna Frehley, your old next door neighbor."

"Oh. Well, it appears she just upped her game. It used to just be mental cruelty towards all of us, now she's escalated to physical as well. Or maybe that new part is special just for me?"

It took Bill another half an hour making his way around the house, telling everyone he'd try to not stay away so long next time. From behind some nearby bushes, she saw him come out the front door and head towards his car.

He clicked his key fob and the lights flashed notifying him that his door had unlocked. Just as he was reaching for the handle, she spoke her first words to him in almost 5 years.

"Hello Bill."

Bill stiffened and coldly replied, "Anna."

"How have you been?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you leaving to back to school tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"That's a long drive. What is it, about 9 hours?"

"I've got satellite radio. Really makes the time just fly by."

"Is there any chance you could drop me off at Franklin Christian College? You go right past it on your way."

"No."

"Please? I can pay for the gas."

"No. Goodbye Anna."

He opened his car door and sat down in the driver's seat. He started the car and put the gearshift in "R". The car started rolling as he let off the brake. He stomped the brake pedal back down when he looked up into the rearview mirror and saw her standing directly behind his car. He rolled down the window and hollered, "Get out of the way, Anna!"

She continued to just stand there, head hanging down. After what felt like forever, Bill threw the car into park, opened his door, stood and turned to look at her.

"I'm leaving, get out from behind the car."

She still continued to stand frozen behind the car.

"Seriously, get out of the damn way."

Still, there was no movement from Anna.

Bill moved to the back of the car and stood face to face with her. "What in the hell is wrong with you? First you knock me on my ass and don't even stop to apologize. Then you ask for a huge favor like we were best friends even though you haven't spoken to me in over 4 years. Now you won't get out from behind my car. Don't make me run your ass over."

He started to grab her by the shoulders to move her off to the side when she looked up at him. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying. "Please Bill, I need your help."

"No, get out of the way so I can leave."

"I'm sorry, Bill. I don't have anywhere else to turn. I don't know what else to do. We used to be friends. Please, I need a ride home tonight and then back to school tomorrow."

"I said no."

"I'll suck your dick." She sobbed quietly.

"What the fuck did you just say to me?"

She lifted her head, fought back tears and her pride and uttered "I said that I'll suck your dick."

"Jesus, you're even crazier than I thought you were. What about all that shit you used to spew at every in school about fornicators going to hell? What in the fuck happened to you?" Bill's voice was getting louder with each word.

Anna began sobbing again and struggled to get the words out. "I know I changed. I know I turned my back on everyone back in school. I regret doing it to you most of all. You were my best friend. I'm hoping you can maybe remember the tiniest shred of the old me and help that person. You're the only chance I have left in this town.

I know it's asking a lot after how I treated you. If you can find it in you to help me, I'll explain everything on the drive. I'll tell you anything you want to know; no subject will be off limits. No preaching or judging from me, just honesty. Or we can do the whole trip in silence. I hope not, but if that's how you want it, okay. After that, you'll never have to see or speak to me again. Please?"

Bill still wanted to tell her no but when he opened his mouth, he surprised himself when he actually said, "Shut up and get in the fucking car."

The ride back to their neighboring childhood houses only took 15 minutes but it felt like a couple of hours. There was only dead silence from Bill as he looked at nothing but the road, not even a single glance in her direction. She could feel the animosity towards her coming off him. She tried to make herself as small as possible in the vehicle by pulling her knees up to her chest and leaning against the passenger door until he parked in his parent's driveway and shut off the car.

"Thank you for the ride home, Bill, but maybe the trip tomorrow is a bad idea. I don't know if I can take it if the ride back to school will be as tense as the last 15 minutes. I'm sorry to have bothered you." Anna started to turn and walk next door to her house.

"I don't care whether you're there or not. Car leaves the driveway at 7 am; I won't wait a second longer for you. If you show, I'll get you safely back to school. You're paying for all the gas, food, and the motel room." Bill said flatly.

"Motel room?" She asked nervously.

"You said you'd suck my dick so we'll stop for lunch somewhere and then get a room. It can be a bit uncomfortable in the car." With that, Bill walked up the steps and into his parent's house.

Sleep didn't come easy for either of them that night.

Bill began to think back to how Anna used to be growing up. He'd smile as he remembered her being funny and quite the tomboy. She was his first crush when he first started noticing girls as she began blossoming, at age 13, into the woman he saw earlier tonight. Blue eyes, 5' 3", 120 pounds with jet black hair hanging just past her shoulders. He couldn't be completely sure but she appeared to have smallish but yet still proportionate breasts behind a very conservative button down blouse with wide hips encased in slightly baggy khakis. Then he'd think about the last 5 years and his smile disappeared. He'd remember being ignored when he tried to talk to her after starting their junior year or being lectured on morality all through senior year. Then he'd wonder why he agreed to give her the ride and the circle started all over again.

Anna tossed and turned thinking about Bill. She felt bad about her actions while they had been in school together. Not for the message she was trying to relay, but for the delivery method that had cost her a valued childhood friendship. She'd matured and learned a lot in college but worried that it was too little, too late as far as Bill Thomas was concerned. She owed apologies to a number of people but he was the only one she felt was truly worthy of one. Then there was the promise of a certain form of payment for the ride. Would she go through with it? Could she go through with it?

At 6:50 am, Bill started the car to let it warm up. It was a chilly morning. He left the trunk open so she would be able to put her suitcase inside but he knew she wouldn't come. He lost the bet he had with himself when she slammed the trunk lid down. Anna climbed into the passenger seat dressed in comfy sweats and buckled her seatbelt at 6:58.

"Didn't think you'd actually come." Bill said as he shifted in drive and pulled away from the house.

"Can we swing by a drive thru and get something for breakfast? Mom and Dad didn't leave any food in the house." She asked.

Except for ordering a couple of sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits and two coffees, neither of them said a word for the first hour of the trip.

Anna finally broke the silence. "Thanks again for the ride, Bill. Just like when we were kids, I knew I could count on you."

"Don't do that. Don't bring that shit up like the last 5 years didn't happen. You can't just pretend that we're two long lost besties and forget what happened." Bill snapped at her.

A tear ran down her cheek and she said, "You're right. I'm sorry."

Bill sighed and handed her one the napkins from breakfast. "I apologize for my tone. Last night, you said you would be honest about everything so I made a bet with myself this morning that if you showed, I would be civil and let you explain. Why don't you start back at the beginning? Why the big change over that summer?"

Anna dried her eyes and began to speak slowly. "Well, I guess, in the simplest terms, I joined a cult."

"You did what?!" Bill looked at her; his eyes wide with shock.

Anna continued to explain. "You remember about halfway through sophomore year, Mom and Dad started planning to take me away to that summer camp? I didn't want to go. I didn't want to be away from my friends for that long. You were going to teach me how to work on cars with that old clunker your parents got from your grandpa. I thought I was going to get my first real boyfriend because Michelle told me that Tommy Stevens like me. It should have been the best summer of my life."

"We left the day after school got out. Turns out it wasn't really a summer camp like you or envision one. Mom and Dad had been vague on details but they started coming out on the trip down there. It was a bible camp, but not your average run of the mill one. Think something along the lines of those stories you hear about those places that do conversion therapy to supposedly cure kids of being gay."

"Apparently, once I had started puberty, Dad got really freaked out about boys. He was so worried I was going to wind up pregnant at 13 and ruin my life. He started carefully watching who my friends were; who I was hanging out it with. He was slowly putting up walls around me to keep me safe in his eyes. Looking back, I'm surprised he let you as close as he did."

"He had started talking to people in our church. Do you remember that we attended a fairly conservative church? Well, apparently there are some radical offshoots here and there in the denomination. One of our deacons had some ties to one of these branches and got Dad in touch with them. Dad ate up everything they told him; hook, line, and sinker. He dragged Mom into it shortly after. Mom was always meek and subservient to Dad, so she went along no problem."

"Once we got there, the full court press was on to convert me to their ideas. I was initially very hesitant but, surprisingly, it didn't take long to wear me down and get me to thinking along the same lines as them. Quite a few of the higher ups were quite charismatic."

Anna continued talking for over an hour describing the various methods used to destroy her resistance and basically brainwash her into compliance. By the end of the summer, she was nothing but a puppet and sent back to preach their version of the gospel to all. She and her parents went back the next summer for more. Her parents were so proud when she left to go to Franklin Christian College. It was there that the group's hold on her began to break.

"The first year at Franklin was basically the same as high school. We went back to camp again that summer but when I went back to school in the fall, something was different. I think one of the big things that helped opened my eyes was Mom and Dad weren't constantly around like in high school. I didn't have the constant reminders and prayer sessions after school each day and weekends. I was exposed to the outside world. I finally had some freedom and started to enjoy it."

"I tried to convert a young boy that I deemed as a lost soul. It turns out he was part of a campus group that specializes in deprogramming religious cult members. I thought I was getting somewhere with him as we talked every day but he was just digging for information; playing me better than I played him. The group technically kidnapped me one long holiday weekend and started breaking down walls. They showed me that I could still be a disciple of the Lord without the radicalism. The path I was on wasn't the only path there was to travel."

"I decided knowledge was power and started studying all of the religions and making my own choices on which was the right path. Needless to say, Mom and Dad weren't happy. We've been fighting the last year and a half. Dad has written me off as his daughter because I've rejected their views and started making my own decisions. That's the only reason I was home this weekend. They are out of town at a retreat. There were a couple small things I wanted to get from the house since I won't ever be going back there."

Anna had been talking nonstop for a couple hours and while it wasn't exactly lunchtime yet, Bill began looking for some place to grab some food. He was starting to feel a grumbling in his stomach.

They soon came across a nice little roadside diner and Bill pulled in. "You ready to get some food and stretch our legs?" he asked Anna.

"Fine with me if you're ready." she replied as she got out of the car and went into a full body stretch. She'd been cooped up in the car longer than she thought. She stopped mid-stretch as her eyes spotted the motel across the road and she remembered his statement from last night. 'Oh no, is that why he chose to stop here?' she thought to herself as her anxiety level began to rise.

They sat down in opposite sides of a booth and ordered lunch. Each got up to use the restroom just before the food arrived. Anna continued to think about the motel and wondered if Bill would actually demand his payment. If he did, what would happen if she couldn't go through with it? For being so nervous, Anna was surprised she had such a big appetite.

Bill asked her about what happened last night. "So tell me about last night. If you're so desperate for this ride back to school, how did you get home in the first place? And why were you even at the party?"

"After my eyes were opened to things outside the cult, I began to live life more closely to what all the other 'normal' teenagers were doing at school. I wanted to experience all the things that they did. I still held firm to quite a few of my beliefs from before. I had just 'de-radicalized them" for lack of a better term. I socialized. I went to parties and tried alcohol. Not a big fan. I was introduced to and hung out with people I never would have met before. I met a guy named George. He was nice to me and my new group of friends convinced me that he was interested in dating me. Dating wasn't allowed before so I didn't know how to behave. My friends suggested we get together a few times, just to talk and get to know each other. For a 20 year old with no dating history, I was surprisingly comfortable being alone with him. We discovered that most of my new found beliefs were in line with his. We agreed on pretty much everything except one: no physical intimacy before marriage included everything except for kissing. George tried to convince me otherwise. I told him it was deal breaker so he agreed to my definition and we started officially dating. He knew of my history and ongoing feud with my parents. After the final blow up with them a few weeks ago, George agreed to bring me here to get my things."

"I overheard people talking about the party when we got gas after arriving in town. I thought maybe I could see some people and offer some apologies. We went and although most people ignored me, I actually got a few to talk to me. Those were some rough conversations."

"I lost track of George at one point while apologizing to someone so I went to find him. I found him alright. I opened a door and saw him having sex with some woman on a bed while a bunch of other guys stood around naked and cheering him on. One of them looked at me and said 'Alright, one more slut means less waiting for the rest of us. Come on and get naked, bitch!' I ran out of the room towards the door. That was when I ran into you. I'm sorry about knocking you down; I didn't even know you were in town and at the party."

"Anyway, George's apologies and pleas for forgiveness quickly turned angry and mean when I wouldn't give into him. He left me there. I hid in the bushes trying to figure out what I was going to do when I saw you come out of the house. You know the rest because you were there."

Bill downed the last of his drink and wiped his mouth with his napkin. He dropped it to the table and motioned to the waitress for the check.

The moment that Anna had been dreading for the last 12 hours arrived as Bill looked her in the eye and said, "Pay the woman, Anna, and then meet me in the car. The motel across the way work for you or do you want to head down the road a ways and see what we find?"

Anna paid for lunch and slowly made her way to the car. She closed the door and Bill could hear defeat in her voice as she said, "I guess we might as well get this over with. Across the road is fine."

Bill drove across the road and told Anna to go into the motel office and get them a room. She returned a few minutes later and told him the clerk said the room is at the far end of the complex. They drove down and parked in front of room 126.

Anna forced herself to not cry as slid the key card into the lock and opened the door. Bill followed her into the room. Thankfully, it was clean and didn't smell. There was queen sized bed covered with a dark bedspread against the wall to the right of the door with a small table and chairs between it and the window. The television was on the wall across from the foot of the bed. "The clerk said they have free movies if you want to watch something." she said because she couldn't think of anything else.

"We're not here to watch TV, Anna. Do you want me standing up, sitting in the chair, or lying on the bed?" Bill asked her.

Her heart was suddenly racing. She struggled to keep calm. "I don't know; I've never done this before." she managed to say.

"You'll probably be more comfortable on the bed; this carpet looks like it could be pretty rough on your knees. Do you need to use the bathroom before we get started?"

"No." she managed to weakly get out of her mouth.