Pink Magnolias

The girl he was talking to giggled. "Thank you."

"You ever been shopping in Autore?"

"It's way too expensive for me."

"Nonsense. You're gorgeous. Let me buy you something."

"Like what?"

"You'll have to come with me and pick something out."

"Ahem." I sounded.

Dale looked over his shoulder. "Oh, Hey, man. Be with you in a minute."

The girl went up to the concessions counter and started to order and I pulled my brother to the side and whispered to him. "That girl is only 17."

"And?"

"She's only 17."

"I don't see your point."

"What are you doing?"

"What did it look like I was doing?"

Just then the girl had gotten her order and was leaving. Dale didn't order anything. He went to follower her and chat her up some more. I felt a chill go down my spine and my mouth was even drier than it was before.

I got my drink and then I was heading back to my seat when this friend of Amanda named Cathy came and pulled me into conversation.

"Hey, Jimmy. I'm so sorry to hear about Elena."

"Oh, don't be sorry. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. She couldn't pass it up."

"I know. I'm happy for her but I still feel sorry about you."

"I'm ok. Still going to have a good time."

"But now you don't have a date."

"Who says I need one? This is the 21st century." Appealing to progress I found was a quick way to get people to accept some abnormal situation. Of course I was supposed to have a date to the dance. That was the hole point of the dance in the first place. I guess to either have a date or to hook up with a girl there. I had read once that a really long time ago everyone went stag to a social dance and then took turns dancing with every possible partner to see which one they liked, but that was to facilitate hooking up and getting two young people married and let's face it, marriage was on the way out. Perhaps in a hundred years we wouldn't even have it anymore.

"Well, I'll be there with Jane. We're going together as just friends. If I see you there maybe ..." she said as she smiled sweetly.

"I think maybe that sounds nice." I thought about Brook. I'd have other opportunities to have fun with her later. I think I had six more long weekends at their house before I graduated. She'd understand and this did mean less hassle for her. "Do you have time to have a nice meal at a restaurant before the dance."

"I think we do."

She said 'we'. Thinking. Yeah, I had budget for that. Taking two girls out at the same time. That could be a nice look for me, even if part of my brain was telling me that this could be a trap. But even if it was a trap, I already had the car and there was room in the car. "Great. That sounds excellent. Where should ..."

Suddenly, while all my focus was on Cathy to lock down an ffm for homecoming, some other person came from my blind spot. She yanked my arm and my body went with it because I was not prepared to defend myself. Then this other person pulled me to a kiss and I was dazed for just a moment while some girl was kissing me. I got myself free and there next to me I saw Kate with a wicked smile on her face. She put her body up next to mine and then looked at Cathy.

"Jimmy, whimmy, you're not trying to replace me with Yet Another girl from your school are you?"

Cathy was looking at me just taking this in. I was about to try to explain who Kate really was but then I realized, I couldn't say she was my niece or cousin or anything like that because she had just kissed me in public.

"Jimmy whimmy! Stop standing there silly. Introduce us."

"This is my friend Cathy." Cathy wasn't really exactly a friend of mine, at least nowhere near on the same level as Teth. "Cathy, this is my old neighbor. Her name is Kate."

"Old neighbor?" Kate said while doing a flimsy girl hit to my chest. She was acting so odd. I'd never seen her like this before. "Stop teasing me." she said and then she address Cathy directly. "I'm his girlfriend. He thinks just because I go to college out of town that he can pretend I don't exist half the time. He's so bad."

"Now hold on there." I protested but before I could get an actual explanation out Cathy went wide eyed and interrupted.

"I'm so sorry to disturb you guys. I have to go."

"Bye." Kate said.

I was going to try to tell her to wait but I realized it was no use. "What do you think you're doing?" I said instead addressing Kate.

"What were you doing? My daddy spent his money to get me a dress to go to your stupid dance. So until the dance is over you're mine."

For some reason high school students, with me as the lone exception, must all be connected to some secret hive mind (socials maybe). The handful of moments it took me to get away from Kate and get back to my seat next to Teth was apparently all the time it took for Teth to hear SECOND HAND a distorted version of what happened.

"Why didn't you tell me you had some kind of crazy girlfriend?"

Sigh. Face palm.

Anyway, we won the game. No surprise there. Our team sucked but one thing that always happened was they won the homecoming game because we always played the same school which had a worse football program than we did.

Saturday morning I woke up to a knock on my door. That was very odd since the staff of the center didn't knock on my door ever. They actually just completely ignored me 99% of the time. They were way to busy with the actual rehab patients to bother with me since I just followed all the rules anyway.

I opened the door and outside I didn't find staff knocking on my door but instead it was Dale. "What are you doing here? What time is it?"

"I found a shortcut and decided to come by early."

Shortcut? The shortest distance between two points was a straight line and the interstate between this town and the city where Dale lived was exactly that. "How?"

"Best shortcut. Don't leave."

"You got a hotel."

"Yeah, right on the strip overlooking that river."

"It's just a lake. The water doesn't go anywhere."

"I have to admit, the view was really nice. Why is the town lit up like Christmas at night, though?"

"It's a local thing. You should see this place when Christmas actually comes."

"Maybe that'll give me a reason to come by."

"So you heading out now?"

"Yeah, man. We have to get heading back but my little Kattie is staying here with you."

"Oh. Ok."

"Now look, because she wasn't able to go home to get ready for the dance with her own things she's a bit upset so I told her that you'd take care of it."

"Me. How?"

"You have hair places here. She can get like a makeover."

"I suppose."

"You have budget for that, right?"

"Uh ... (counting) maybe."

"Shit, you better. You know how much that dress was? Tap me out, man."

I had felt almost sure when Kate first said she was going to go to the dance with me that she'd stand me up. Now I wasn't so sure. The salon appointment was for 2 PM so I had plenty of time to burn before I had to go over there and pay for that. I was still suspicious that Kate would find a way to burn me. I knew something like that had to be in the works.

Over at the gas station I was looking at the new magazines that had come to the rack and a guy from school named Jerry saw me there.

"Jim. I heard you had a girlfriend."

"Uh, it's complicated."

"How so?"

"Um, I don't know. She's a girl and I'm a guy and we're going to the dance together because her dad of all people introduced us. That's weird and complicated and I'm not sure what to do about her."

"Is she crazy?"

"No. I mean, I don't think so."

"Oh, cause I heard she might be like from special school or something."

"Uh, hey, retarded and crazy are not the same thing."

"Ok, I get that but we're not supposed to say retarded anymore because of the PC police so crazy is all I got."

"Well, for your information I don't think she's crazy or retarded. She has an agenda. I don't know what it is but ..."

"Yo, you better be careful then."

"I will. I mean, it's not that bad and she might actually turn out nice but I know what you mean."

"Yeah, don't let her screw you over like what happened to Karen."

"Karen?"

"You haven't heard yet?"

"No."

"Dude, you have got to get a phone."

"Gee, yeah; let me get my social workers right on that." I said with sarcasm. "What happened to Karen?"

"Some old guy was talking to her at the game last night."

"Oh no."

"Yeah. Steve caught them."

"Where."

"In the dude's car."

"What did he look like?"

"I don't know. Nobody knows who he was."

Well, nobody else knew who it was but I thought I did. That motherfucker Dale. So it wasn't enough that he had a great life with all that money. It wasn't enough that he had a fucking sexy as hell wife half his age who loved him so much that she was willing to fuck other men to make him happy and take it in the ass. It wasn't enough that he had a daughter in college. It wasn't enough that he stole everything my parents had and then left me in an orphanage to rot, probably thinking that he'd never see me again. No, all of that wasn't enough for him.

I was pensive and pissed off as I was walking to my spot where I liked to get Saturday lunch. My fucking guitar got busted by Dale's daughter and he had to go and make fucking jokes about it. I mean, I try not to be pissed off and instead remember about my future but come on. How much was I supposed to take. Back when I was a freshman I used to like Karen. And sure, she wasn't interested in me but ... Ok, maybe this was a case of 'none of your business' but it just fucking infuriated me. But look, it wasn't like Dale was physically forcing her, right. At least I hope not. He better not have or I'll cut his throat. No, probably Karen wanted whatever happened to happen. It was her choice. But what if Dale said some kind of lie to her. He was talking about buying her stuff, and with what money I might ask. Yeah, my money. My dad's money that he left to me before he died. Dale was using it to seduce underage girls who didn't know any better and so couldn't call him on his bullshit.

I acknowledge that I was mad but that was just an emotion. I should let it go. It was none of my business. What could I even do anyway? My life will turn out better if I don't get involved. After all I don't believe in revenge. I can understand cognitively why revenge is wrong and destructive. And besides, all of this wasn't that big a deal anyway. It wasn't like I had died in childhood because of what Dale had decided. I grew up and maybe the orphanage was better for me anyway cause it sure looks like Dale was a bad parent. That might just be speculation on my part but it was possible. Karen probably wasn't hurt by what happened. People don't go having sex to get hurt. She went with Dale to his car to have a good time and for all I knew he gave her a good time and she got exactly what she wanted.

Yet, even as my mind reasoned for me to just let this go my heart would not listen. I had to get him back. I could just feel it. I had to get him back. I had told him. I had fucking warned him. He wasn't at that football game to spend time with me. He went there with the sole purpose of cheating on Brook. Having a work wife wasn't good enough for him, he was greedy and wanted more.

But again I came back to the fact that there was nothing I could do about this. I had no control over him. I had no power to do anything or convince anyone of anything. And anyway I had sex with his wife. Me. I did that. Sure it was Dale's idea but I did it. And then I had sex with her again behind his back. I'm implicated. I'm guilty. I have to keep my mouth shut or bad things will happen to me. And anyway at least there is some small bit of pay back with the fact that I'm fucking Brook. Maybe that is really only with Dale's permission but it's still something.

It got to be time for me to get ready for the dance and I was still very upset about all of this. The thing was the law. Whether you agreed with it or not, whether you liked it or not, whether it was fair or not; the law was the the law. Dale broke the law. You don't get to just ignore the law. If the law is wrong then you fix it by changing the law but until you do you have to obey the law. And so he had to be punished for what he'd done. Something had to be done by someone. But who and how?

Side note, I have to say tux clothes really did feel nice to wear. They didn't just look nice. Everything was just so well put together and functional. Wow. I had full range of movement but at no point did I feel like I wasn't protected. That was a strange feeling. And to top it off I did look pretty good when I admired myself in the mirror. Nice clothes are nice.

I got in the backseat of the hired car and told the driver where to go to pick up Karen. What the fuck did I just say. I corrected myself and said the name of the girl was Kate.

"No problem, sir." the driver said.

Kate was radiant when we picked her up from the salon and yet I was not in the mood to appreciate it, especially when the first thing she told me was "I can't believe I have to be seen in public with the likes of you."

The restaurant welcomed us and Kate walked in like she owned the place. During dinner she made an active point to ignore me and laugh at whatever she was seeing on her phone. Well, that would work for me too. I had my own thoughts to work through.

We got to the dance and to my surprise Kate actually didn't pull any kind of stunt with the camera man taking pictures of couples as they entered. No, her stunts started as soon as we were on the dance floor. I was going to drop her and just let her do what she wanted while I went to hang out with my friends but she stayed right on me. I found Teth and her date Alex. Just as soon as I was starting to talk with Teth Kate pulled her kissing me bullshit again. And again I was unprepared for it cause I had been trying to just ignore her. All during the dance when we were in private she had not one good word for me but just as soon as I tried to actually enjoy myself by giving attention to someone else she'd pull some kind of act where she was putting her hands all over me and sometimes trying to put her tongue in my mouth. She knew it was pissing me off too.

"Hey, Jim you coming to the party?" Alex asked me with Teth not around.

"What party?"

"The after party. It's going to be over at ..."

"I'm so sorry." Kate cut in. "We have our own after party to go to. Just the two of us."

"Would you please stop that?" I whispered to her.

She acted like she was going to kiss me right in front of Alex again but then she brought her lips to my ear to say "Make me, wimp. I told you, you're mine."

So the after party was out. I tried to leave the dance a bit earlier than everyone else but Kate was making it so that I had to stay there with her. No matter what I tried she just forced us to the opposite.

Finally after she had ruined the entire experience for me we were back in the car being brought back to the center.

"Do you want to get dropped at your hotel first or ..."

"Hotel?"

"Yeah. Car's already paid for so once I get out he can drive you wherever you're staying."

"And have you go to that party without me?"

"Ok, let's go to the party."

"No."

Frustration. Sigh. "What do you want to do Kate?"

"I don't have a hotel room so I'm sleeping with you."

"Where's your dad?"

"They already went back."

Was she lying to me? Cause like she didn't have a bag or anything. Was I supposed to believe that she was here with only the clothes on her back and not even a charger for her phone? Well, no matter. I planned to let her do what she wanted to do and then deal with her later because my mind was still very distracted.

Inside the center I expected Kate to follow me to my room but instead she took a detour to the office window. I went up behind her to tell her not to do whatever she was going to do but she had already started talking by the time I got there.

"I'm his cousin. We're related. So then it is totally ok if I go and hang out in his room, right? You can check your records if you don't believe me."

"His room?" the staff on duty asked as he gestured towards me. "It's a rental. He's not in the program."

"Oh, ok. Well, we'll just be about our business then."

"Have fun. Don't make too much noise."

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Nothing. Which little shit hole is yours?"

We got to my room and I started to guess what I thought she might be aiming to do. I figured she wanted to get pictures of the place where I lived so she could ... well I wasn't sure what she would do with those pictures but that's what I figured she'd do. But see this place had a rule of no photography inside the building so I had every right to stop her as soon as her phone came out.

"What's weird." Kate said.

"What is?"

"You have a shower but no toilet?"

"I didn't build the place."

"Where do you use the restroom then?"

"Trust me, you don't want to use the one on the hall with the druggies. There's a mens and womens set of bathrooms in the office. Sorry, they don't have one for little girls so I guess you're going to have to hold it."

"I don't have to take that from a virgin like you."

I laughed as I thought of Brook.

"Ok. Unzip me." she said.

"What?"

"Unzip me. You deaf?"

"I'm not going to put up with you pulling some kind of stunt."

"What stunt? I have to pee."

"So go pee."

"I have got to get out of this dress. Do you know how uncomfortable this thing is?"

She had her back to me and as I helped her get the zipper going I realized that the tux was actually so comfortable for me that I had forgotten that I was wearing it. I could probably wear this forever and even do back flips in it.

"So you going to go to the office naked or are you planning to pee in my shower?"

"Get over yourself and give me something to wear." she said as she held the front part of the dress in place to prevent me from seeing any of her body.

"Like what?"

"A shirt and some shorts would be nice."

"Are you sure that you're dad's not waiting for you ..."

"No! He texted that he was abandoning me here. He said it was your idea."

"My idea. No."

"Whatever. Hurry up before I piss my panties."

"Why didn't you go at ..."

"I didn't think about it now HURRY UP!"

I went to my closet and quickly found a blue and white striped tshirt and then I fished out the old nylon gym shorts from PE class of years before.

"Here."

"Great. Now turn."

"Turn what?"

"Fucking turn around. You don't get to see me naked, pervert."

I turned my back to her and I didn't have even the first thought of trying to peek but interestingly she didn't call me out to warn me against peeking either. She was ready to go and instead of announcing that she was dressed she just went out the door while my back was turned. I looked around and then picked up the dress off the floor. I wondered why the thing was uncomfortable for her. Well, no matter. I hung it up and then took the opportunity while she was gone to start getting out of my tux and into some regular clothes. It was a shame. Now that I'd worn one I really liked wearing the thing.

I was in just the tux pants and the undershirt while I was neatly hanging the tux shirt and tux jacket. That was when Kate came back into the room.

"The fucking elastic on these shorts is busted."

"Oh, sorry."

"Yeah, I know your sorry. Stupid little sorry ass didn't even know how to give me some proper clothes to wear."

I ignored her and just got the hanger ready for the pants. Then I started to ...

"Oh no. I'm blind. Blind I tell you." she said when I started to get one leg out.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Warn me before you just get naked."

"I'm not naked. I'm wearing shorts under this."