With Open Arms Pt. 01

She turned back and smiled at her Uncle John, who had settled in across from her. It was then that she saw the waitress approaching with a tray carrying two plates. An older woman followed behind her with two glasses with lemon wedges sticking out of them. The waitress had set the plates down in front of them and smiled at Jennifer, saying, "You're every bit as beautiful as your Dad always described you." Jennifer had blushed and thanked her for the compliment. Uncle Dan then pointed to the plates and informed her that this was the precise meal her Dad had every time he ate here.

"Meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, and fried okra with a glass of sweet tea. Every day at noon and even the evenings, he had to work late. I think he got tired of all that fancy stuff your Mom always had the cook prepare. He wasn't a connoisseur of sushi or fine French cuisine. He knew who he was; despite all the extravagant trappings and wealth they'd acquired, he was a meatloaf and potatoes kind of guy. What you have to do Jennifer is to figure out who you are and who you want to become. Once you do that, it's all just a matter of staying true to yourself and going after your goals."

Later that night, as she lay in her bed, her sound system playing in the background, she thought about what her Uncle had been telling her. She grabbed a notepad and pen from her nightstand and made two columns on it. One she labeled goals, and on the other, she wrote a question mark. After fifteen minutes of contemplation, she had put together what she felt was a pretty good list of goals. She, of course, wanted to go to college and ultimately earn her MBA. She'd always known that she wanted to own her own business. The idea of working for someone else had never appealed to her. What that business was she wasn't quite sure, but she had a few ideas in mind. She knew that one day, she wanted to be a mother, not the mother that had raised her but the nurturing type her kid could rely on to be there for her. There were also lesser goals like restoring a muscle car or being able to travel. She'd never left the States, but her father had been all over the world during his business travels going as far as New Zealand. The tales he'd weaved to her about the sights he'd seen had left her with a hunger to see it all herself one day.

Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith played in the background, and it struck Jennifer that the last line of the opening stanza was particularly relevant to how she was feeling.

You talk about things that nobody cares

You're wearing out things that nobody wears

You're calling my name, but I gotta make clear

I can't tell baby where I'll be in a year

How could Jennifer know for sure the direction she needed to go when she wasn't sure who she was? Outside of being Sam Waters's only daughter, she had no sense of her identity. Jennifer kept to herself at school and maintained only a small circle of what could most accurately be called acquaintances rather than close friends. She'd always been quick to abandon them anytime her father was home, preferring to spend her time with him in his garage.

She added one more item to her goal list, circling it several times when she'd finished. It only read, "Figure out who I am."

Over the next couple of months, she worked to do just that. Once school started, for the first time in her life, she worked hard to strengthen her relationships and even opened herself up to new ones. She attended her first high school party, something she'd never considered doing in the past. It was a loud and crowded affair with a lot of drinking and drugs. Not marijuana mind you although there was a good bit of that too, no these were real hardcore, mess up your life type drugs. She'd climbed the stairs to the second floor of the house the party was taking place while looking for her friend Marianne. Jennifer had found her doing lines of coke off a mirror they had removed from behind the couch. She was flanked by two guys who, from the way they were caressing her as she leaned over the mirror, had clear sexual intentions for her. As Marianne sat up wiping at her nose, the boy on her left, a guy Jennifer recognized from her Lit class whose name she vaguely recalled as Zach, handed her a shot of some brown liquid in a glass. Marianne didn't hesitate before turning up the glass and downing its contents. It was only then that she noticed Jennifer standing there though she missed the apparent look of concern on her face altogether.

"Jenn," she squealed while holding out a rolled-up dollar bill, "come do a line with us!"

It occurred to Jennifer right then that although she might not know who she was as a person, it wasn't the type person that left a friend to be taken advantage of by a couple of lecherous cads.

"No thanks M," she had said as she reached across the table and grabbed the girl's hand, "but I really could use your help downstairs." She didn't give Marianne a chance to even formulate a response through the chemical haze of her drug-addled brain. She pulled her around the coffee table, noting the look of disgust cast at her by the two wannabe rapists still seated on the couch.

When she'd gotten her friend downstairs, she'd led her outside where she could talk to her in quiet. She'd hoped the early November chill would also serve to sober her friend up to some degree. Goosebumps shivered up her arms as the night air enveloped her. She pulled Marianne over to the bench that ran the length of the structure and sat down, pulling her inebriated friend next to her. On the other side of the deck, she could see their other two friends, Tabitha and Charlie, with a small group. Both girls had cigarettes in one hand and the obligatory red cup in the other. Tonight's events further proved to Jennifer how little she knew about her circle of friends. She'd frequently skipped out on planned get-togethers with them over the last several years, alienating herself from their lives, so she'd missed a lot.

Finally, getting Charlie's attention, she waved her over. She watched as the lean, redheaded beauty dropped her cigarette and ground it out underneath the heel of her expensive knee-high leather boot. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest as she noted Marianne's condition.

"Where did you find her?" Charlie asked, sounding almost exasperated.

Jennifer had sighed, feeling frustrated with her friends, seeming indifference at Marianne's plight. "She was up in the loft in a side room with that Zach guy, and one of his friends doing lines of coke and drinking what I think was tequila. The look on the guy's faces and the way they were touching her made me nervous. She seemed oblivious to the whole thing, so I got her out of there. Do you think you could sit here with her for a minute while I go find her a bottle of water?"

Sitting down next to Marianne and placing her arm around her, Charlie said, "Of course I will."

When Jennifer returned with the water, Tabitha had made her way over to see what was going on. She, too, had an arm around Marianne and her other hand resting on her thigh. The redhead seemed to be talking to her as Jennifer approached, but she only caught the tail end of whatever it was.

"...are you going to quit fighting this and accept yourself for who you are. You're only making things worse..." Charlie stopped as Tabitha tapped at her arm upon noticing my approach.

"Well, that's odd," Jennifer thought to herself, kneeling in front of Marianne and unscrewing the lid from one of the bottles of water. She'd handed it to her, saying, "Here M, you need to drink this. It will help to start flushing some of the alcohol out of your system and keep you from being so dehydrated and hungover in the morning."

It was then that Jennifer noticed her tears. Feeling instantly empathetic towards her, she reached out and took her soft hand, seeing how she liked the way it felt grasped in hers. "Are you okay, M?" she'd asked with genuine concern in her voice.

The pretty blonde hadn't responded though, she'd buried her head in Charlie's neck and continued to cry. Standing and taking Marianne's hand, the redhead looked down at Jennifer and said, "She'll be okay, Jenn, she's just a bit embarrassed at the condition she's in right now. I'm going to take her for a walk and see if I can't calm her down.

Jennifer had watched them as they headed down the steps to the deck and out the rear gate towards the front of the house. She had felt Tabitha's eyes on her and had turned to find her staring. She could remember noticing for maybe the first time how blue the eyes of the pretty blonde were. They were a deep, dark blue with a hint of gray surrounding the blue. Tabitha took her hand and assured her that Marianne would be okay before adding that she'd been dealing with some issues lately. When she seemed unwilling to elaborate, Jennifer let it go.

Chapter 4: Runnin With The Devil

Over the next three years and right up until they all left to head for the respective colleges, the four friends remained close. Over time Jennifer had learned to loosen up and have a good time, partying perhaps a bit too hard at times. The four always kept a close eye on each other under such circumstances making sure that in the event one member of their quartet got carried away, the others would be there to keep her from doing anything stupid.

And though Jennifer had found it to be a highly unfulfilling endeavor, she'd finally given in to the pressure put on her by her friends and agreed to let them set her up on a few blind dates.

The first hadn't been an altogether unpleasant experience. A handsome guy from a neighboring school with dark hair and an athletic build, he'd been friendly and engaging and had shown a great sense of humor. Jennifer had felt nothing for him though and not wanting to lead him on, had turned down his offer of a second date.

"Strike one," Jennifer teased the three of them the following Monday morning.

A month later, Charlie and Tabby had set her up with an older guy. His name had been Tye, and he was an extremely handsome black guy with a buff body. Again though, she'd felt no attraction towards him despite the visible physical attributes the guy had going for him. To make matters worse, he was cocky and arrogant, and it became clear early on in the date that his expectations of what was to occur later were utterly different than Jennifer's. When his handsy behavior and sexual innuendo got to be too much finally, Jennifer had excused herself to the restroom, called a cab, and gone home.

"A colossally bad swing and a miss for strike two," She'd told them the following Monday morning while rolling her eyes at their choice.

In her junior year, it was a guy named Stephen that was in some way related to Tabitha. Like her, he had blonde hair and blue eyes and seemed intelligent enough and was certainly capable of carrying on a quality conversation. That was until he'd had a few too many beers, at which point he became a belligerent, masochistic asshole. When Jenn had the unmitigated gall to stand up to him in front of a crowd in a dance club, his ego couldn't handle being belittled by a woman. He'd left her to her own devices, which was usually the way she preferred things anyway.

She'd placed her arm around Tabitha on Monday morning and hugged her before whispering in her ear, "Sorry, strike three."

And with that, the three friends had agreed to leave finding love to Jennifer unless she indicated otherwise. Charlie had joked that she'd most likely die alone and get eaten by her cats, but they otherwise left her dating life to her after that.

If only her mother had been willing to do the same thing. She was, of course, still living at home, and though she didn't have to deal with her daily, because, of course, Sharon Waters had more important things to do than worry about her daughter, Jennifer still encountered her more than she liked. Their relationship since her father's death was at worst tumultuous, though it typically could best be described as indifferent. Jennifer seriously doubted her mother was much more than peripherally aware of the goings-on in her life at any given time. So it was with great surprise to her when her mother brought up her lack of a dating life during a pretentious meal of cranberry stuffed quail with a kale salad. Jennifer had been busy trying not to laugh as she thought about how much it felt like she was performing some half-ass bird autopsy every time she sliced a bird open only to have the blood-red cranberries leak out onto the plate.

"Jennifer, you do ultimately have plans to start dating, don't you?" said her mother.

She looked up at her mother, who sat there holding a glass of wine with one eyebrow slightly raised as if in demand of an answer. Jennifer knew for a fact the older woman had become a frequent flyer when it came to botox injections, which likely accounted for the fact the woman's face was always so impassive. She looked back down at her plate, using her fork to move cranberries around. She was tempted to ignore the question, but that would only lead to more, which would eventually end in a big fight.

"What makes you think I don't date, Mother?"

Sharon laughed at her daughter's question, saying, "If some boy had ever shown up to pick you up, I can guarantee you that I would have known about it. Nothing happens in the house without me knowing about it."

Jennifer stood, wiping her mouth with a napkin before tossing it back on the table and walking down to stand next to her mother's seat at the table. "Not that it's any of your business, " Jennifer said, "but I have been on several dates. I don't bother to have them pick me up here."

Upon hearing that, her mother sat back in her chair and said, "Well, that won't do young lady. We can't be having you dating just anyone. I need to know ahead of time when someone asks you out so I can be sure they're...deserving of your time."

Jennifer laughed at her Mother and shook her head. Whenever Sharon Waters wanted to say something that could be considered offensive to those she believed her lessers, there was always that pause while she made her insult more palatable.

"I've been around you long enough to be able to read between the lines Mother. What you meant to say was so you could be sure their bank account and earning potential were good enough, not to mention their pedigree. I mean, we both know you're an elitist snob. I accepted that reality a long time ago, so there's no reason for you to try to hide it."

"There's no reason to be rude, Jennifer. Yes, I care about what type of man you date but only because I want you to be happy and taken care of your entire life. You can't be dating just anyone; it isn't proper."

When I didn't respond, she continued.

"All I'm suggesting is that you let me help you. I know that I could find you a proper young man with the prospects to provide for you for the remainder of your life."

Jennifer crossed her arms despite knowing it made her look defensive and said, "Not going to happen, Mother. I'm more than capable of taking care of my own social life. Besides, I'm only eighteen years old and not remotely interested in looking to find someone for life, just someone I feel a connection with for now. For the record that has yet to happen. Of the dates I've been on, I've never accepted a return engagement because I never felt a spark with any of them."

Her mother slid her chair out and stood to place her arms on Jennifer's shoulders. She flinched at her Mother's effort; it had been so long since she made a gesture of affection towards her. Her mother, of course, didn't seem to notice.

"You'll be turning nineteen next month, why don't you allow me to throw you a party? You can invite that little cadre of girls you're always with, and I will see to it that a selection of quality young men of suitable age is present. Perhaps then you will find someone with which you have a spark."

Jennifer shook her head and said emphatically, "I don't need you to set me up. I'm more than capable of finding dates myself."

Removing her hands and placing them on her hips, her mother cocked her head to the side and said, "Young lady, I am no pimp. This party would be an opportunity for you to get a chance to meet a profusion of eligible young men who are also looking to meet a young woman...of quality upbringing."

Jennifer stood and stared at her knowing full well she shouldn't trust her. There was always an angle present with her mother that was there to suit her needs. Still, she knew it would be the only way to get her off her back, and it was just one night. Besides, until she turned twenty-five and could access the sizeable trust fund her father had left her, she was dependant on her mother to support her and pay for her schooling.

"Okay, but only if you agree not to pressure me once I've had a chance to meet your choices, and there will be absolutely no setups, understand?"

Her mother sat back down in her seat; she turned back towards her dinner. Now that she had what she wanted, she resumed her dismissive attitude towards her daughter. With a wave of her hand, she said, "Of course, darling, now be a dear and let them know in the kitchen that I'm almost ready for dessert."

"God, help me." Jennifer thought as she walked away.

When the day of the party arrived, Jennifer had refused to get ready for it from home, insisting that she would prepare for it with her girlfriends, and they would all arrive promptly at eight and not a moment before. She knew her mother had scheduled the party to begin at seven but wouldn't be forced to stand there and greet each guest as they arrived. When you got right down to it, Jennifer felt this was her mother's party, or at least it was being thrown to serve her purposes, so let her do it.

After getting good and high on some primo stuff that Tabitha brought with her, the four young women proceeded to get ready for the party. Charlie seemed to be looking forward to meeting some eligible guy, especially since most of them likely had trust funds she'd joked, while Tabitha appeared to have a cavalier attitude about the whole thing. Marianne, however, seemed to be looking forward to it with even more trepidation than Jennifer herself.

While the other two were in the bathroom doing their makeup, she stepped up behind her friend to zip up her dress. When she'd done, so she placed her hands on the girl's shoulders, resting her chin there as well.

"What's wrong, M?" she asked, "You seem quiet."

Jennifer detected a shiver that seemed to run through the girl. Their eyes met in the mirror, and for the first time, she noticed how gorgeous the blonde-haired beauties were. They were bluer than any sky she'd ever seen with faint flecks of silver lacing their outer bands. For the first time, it struck her just how genuinely intoxicating a beauty Marianne was. Jennifer would have given anything to have had any of her friend's natural beauty or body. Allowing her eyes to follow the lines of Marianne's dress down the curves of her frame, she felt feelings of envy. Her hips had just the right amount of flair while her ass had that plump quality to it that the male species seemed so enamored with these days. Having just seen her in a thong before she'd put on the dress, she could attest to the fact that not only was it plump, it still looked firm. Her waist was narrow and her stomach flat as it traveled up to the swell of her ample bosom. The dress she was wearing was low cut in the front and highlighted what appeared to be round and supple C cup breasts.

Jennifer felt her nipples harden, and that realization made her realize that she'd been staring. Looking up to find Marianne still watching her with a curious look on her face, she realized she'd been caught ogling her friend and blushed.