Hometown Girls: Beginnings (Hometown Girls Series Book 1) Read online

  She didn’t mention to Katie that she took it upon herself to invite Randy to the dinner for moral support. She didn’t really think Katie would mind, but from the dagger throwing glares Daniel always seemed to throw his way whenever they were in proximity of each other, she knew he’d be less than thrilled to have to sit at the same table as him for an extended period of time.

  “He’ll just have to get over it,” Marissa Lou said to herself and plopped down on her bed and rested her elbows on her knees and put her face in her hands.

  By the time Randy got to Marissa Lou’s house at six-thirty, she felt like she was going to come out of her skin. She looked gorgeous, despite it, in a dark floral dress with quarter inch sleeves, a plunging neckline that showed off the top of her lacy bra and a hem line that required her to bend over very carefully. She polished it off with a pair of knee length boots. It may have been slightly too much, or too little as the case may be, for the semi chilly fall evening, but she didn’t care. She looked perfectly put together, mostly just for show; her sleek blonde hair hung long and straight down her back and her make-up was applied with expert care. But the restlessness of her body trumped it all.

  Randy knocked lightly on the front door and before he knew it Marissa Lou was throwing the door open, grabbing his hand and silently pulling him toward his truck without even a “hello”.

  “Well hello to you too,” he finally said when she dropped his hand to climb in the truck.

  She only rolled her eyes at him.

  “Hey,” he said reaching in and grabbing her arm a little harder then she would have expected. “What’s your problem?”

  “Nothing,” she said looking at him stunned, but obviously there was something wrong. “Just get in before we’re late.”

  He let her arm fall and walked around the truck to the driver side. The whole way to the restaurant they were both quiet, although Marissa Lou’s nerves were screaming louder than her voice ever could.

  Sitting in front of Gary’s Restaurant, only a couple miles from her house, neither of them budged to get out of the truck. They just sat there, staring out the front windshield. It didn’t appear that anyone was there yet and Marissa Lou was thankful for that.

  “You ready to tell me what your problem is?” Randy finally asked with annoyance in his voice.

  Marissa Lou took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s this dinner,” she whispered, still avoiding eye contact with him.

  He looked between her and the restaurant. “If you didn’t want to come, then why are we here? I’d rather walk down death row myself.”

  “I wanted to come,” she said quickly and turned to face him. “Katie is my best friend and obviously this is important to her. I just didn’t realize how hard it’d be,” she said with a weak smile, fighting back tears as the words came out.

  “Some friend. There’s no way I’d be here if I were you.”

  “I know, but we’re trying.”

  “Hey, whatever. It’s your problem if you want to be around people who don’t give a shit about you,” he said, then contemplated for a moment before he did something that shocked her. He started up the truck and pulled out of the parking spot.

  “What are you doing?” she asked looking around wildly.

  “Just trust me,” he said with a mischievous smile. “Unlike your so called friends, I know what will make you feel better.”

  “But—”

  “Dang, girl, I’ll have you back to the restaurant in time, but a little less crazy.”

  She sat back in her seat, her nerves idling down the further away from her nightmare they got, but when they pulled up to an old, beat up single wide trailer her anxiety began to come back.

  “Where are we?” she asked looking around.

  “My buddy Ian lives here. He’ll hook us up.”

  Marissa Lou wasn’t really sure she knew what he was talking about, but she got out the truck and followed him to the front steps anyway.

  When the door opened, a tall, heavy set guy stood in front of them. He gave Randy the once over with a scowl and his furry face seemed even more hard and menacing as he looked Marissa Lou up and down, but when he looked back at Randy his total demeanor seemed to change. He smiled wide, showing a row of crooked teeth, and clasped his massive hand in Randy’s.

  “Hey, Dogg, where ya been?” the guy asked him.

  “Ah, you know, doin’ my thang with my gurl.”

  “Cool, cool. Come on in. You’re just in time,” he said opening the door wider for them to enter and closing it as soon as they did. Without a word, Randy and Ian left Marissa Lou, chatting as they disappeared down a dark hallway.

  Marissa Lou stood where she came in, in the open doorway watching the guys go before looking around the compact space. It was pretty dark with only a table lamp and television on to light the room. It was clear no parent lived there, even though Ian looked to be close to her age, because everywhere she looked she saw things typical of a sloppy bachelor pad with dirty dishes and clothing scattered throughout the room. She knew for a fact that her mom wouldn’t stand for that mess.

  She jerked her head around when she heard voices just in time to see Randy and Ian walking through the hallway toward her.

  “Hey, doll, you’ll have to excuse this loser’s manners, I’m Ian, the Big Dogg around here.”

  She felt pretty uncomfortable when she first got there because Ian looked so mad, but now, it didn’t seem so bad. Sure Ian looked scary when she initially saw him, but now he just looked like a big, goofy teddy bear.

  “Hey, Ian, I’m Marissa Lou, but you can call me M-Dogg.”

  The three of them burst out in laughter.

  “Cool, cool,” he said in response.

  “Dogg. The big one,” Randy said with an amused smile at Marissa Lou.

  She rolled her eyes at him and he turned back to Ian.

  “We gonna do this or what? We don’t have a lot of time.”

  Ian gave him a knowing nod of the head while Marissa Lou stared at Randy curiously.

  Without a word, like Ian and Randy had a mental telepathic conversation or something that Marissa Lou wasn’t privy to, Ian left her side and walked into the living room. She watched him as he sat on the couch and with one swipe of his big hand pushed the clutter away, leaving the only clean spot on the coffee table.

  Yeah, my mom would be really pissed about that, Marissa Lou thought to herself.

  “Come on,” Randy said to her and sat on the couch beside Ian.

  They were acting strange and it had Marissa Lou feeling nervous again, but she followed Randy to the couch anyway.

  Ian took a little plastic bag, about the size of a quarter, from his shirt pocket and gently poured some of the content on the table’s surface. He used a Blockbuster video card laying on the coffee table to dice and separate a few lines into neat rows. He then rolled up a dollar bill that was lying on the table and proceeded to snort one of the lines. Marissa Lou watched him in horror and curiosity. She’d never seen anyone do cocaine before, other than on TV. She was naive enough to think that people around the county didn’t do stuff like that. Not people their age anyway. Hard drugs were something she never thought she’d ever do, but watching Ian made her feel curious. When he handed the rolled bill to Randy, Marissa Lou’s eyes got huge.

  “What are you doing?” she asked him and instinctively grabbed his arm.

  He laughed and shook off her hand. “It’s all right, girl.”

  He bent to snort a line and she quickly looked away, not wanting to witness this travesty. She felt him tapping on her arm so she turned to see what he wanted only to find him holding the rolled bill out to her.

  “Umm, no thanks.”

  “Come on, babe, for me?” he said looking at her offended.

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t do drugs.”

  “You said that about pot too and now look at you. You always seem to enjoy tha
t when you do it. There’s always a first time for everything. You can’t knock it until you try it.”

  “But I have to meet my friends,” she said as if it were obvious.

  He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to him, then whispered in her ear, “That is exactly why I brought you here. You were so stressed out about seeing your friends and it made me feel bad for you. This will make you feel better. Hey, and if you don’t like it that’ll be okay. I won’t ask you to do it again.”

  She silently considered it for a moment. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m positive,” he said smiling and holding the rolled bill out to her again.

  She took the bill and with shaky hands, closed one side of her nose like she saw Ian do and put the roll up to the other side and sucked in the entire line. She immediately dropped the bill to hold her burning nose.

  “Is it supposed to burn?”

  “Yeah, at first, but it doesn’t last long,” Randy said reassuring her. “Here, have another. It’ll feel better this time.”

  She did what he said, trusting he knew what he was talking about, and snorted another line. She was slightly skeptical at first, but he was right. It didn’t burn as bad and quickly she was beginning to feel the effects. She felt exuberated and sexy, like she could take on the world.

  “So, like, love is crazy, right? Everyone wants to love, but no one knows how to. Oh, except for me. I definitely know how to,” Marissa Lou rambled on a few minutes later, in a serious tone. “Isn’t that right R-Dogg.”

  Randy and Ian looked at each other and laughed.

  “M-Dogg, you may be tore up, but you are right,” Ian said still laughing.

  Randy finished his beer and grabbed her hand. “All right, Professor Aphrodite, we gotta go if we’re going to make that dinner before it’s over.”

  “Oh shoot, Katie’s dinner.”

  Marissa Lou put down her bottle of beer and stood up quickly and before Randy could say anything else, she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the trailer and into his truck.

  Sliding to the passenger side she turned to him with a serious look on her face and said, “Do you think they’ll be mad?”

  “For what?”

  “For being late.”

  “Shh, don’t think about that, you’ll ruin your buzz. You’ll be fine. Just relax. I’ll make an excuse for us.”

  “‘Kay,” she said smiling then turned to him again with another serious look. “Do you think they’ll know what we were doing tonight?”

  “Nah, we’ll keep it as our little secret.”

  “‘Kay,” she said smiling again.

  The restaurant wasn’t very far away, but by the time they got there, the group already had their food.

  “Hey y’all, sorry we’re late,” Marissa Lou said when she reached the table. The group looked up at the sound of her voice and stared between her and Randy.

  “Oh, Maris, you made it,” Katie said standing and giving her a hug.

  “I know, umm,” Marissa Lou began before Randy cut her off.

  “It was my fault. I wanted her alone for a few minutes before coming here. I couldn’t help myself. You know how it is,” Randy continued for her then looked at Daniel with a victorious grin and a wink.

  “Unbelievable,” Daniel said with an annoyed chuckle and turned his back to the couple.

  “Here, have a seat,” Becca said to them patting the chair beside her, and thankfully at the opposite end of the table from Katie and Daniel.

  “Shoot, y’all are already eating,” Marissa Lou said with a pout.

  “Oh, we weren’t sure you were coming,” Katie said apologetically.

  “That’s okay, I’m not really that hungry. Are you?” Marissa Lou asked Randy.

  “Nope, I’m good,” Randy said picking up a hush puppy and taking a bite. “I could use a drink though.” He waved down the waitress and ordered them both a sweet tea before devouring another hush puppy.

  “I’m really glad you could all come,” Katie said with lingering glances at Daniel and Marissa Lou.

  “Here, here,” Becca said holding up her glass. “Let’s toast.”

  “What should we toast to?” Jess asked curiously. She was smiling so wide you’d think it were her birthday.

  “To friends,” Marissa Lou answered and held her glass high then looked at the others, waiting for more.

  “To good food,” Becca followed.

  “To Katie,” Jess said smiling affectionately at her friend.

  “To the future and whatever may come of it,” Daniel said looking up at Marissa Lou then quickly turned to look at Katie. It was a look Randy didn’t miss.

  “To great sex,” Randy retorted.

  “Man, what the hell is your problem?” Daniel said glaring at Randy.

  “What?” he asked innocently.

  “Have some respect, will ya?”

  “To us all,” Katie said feeling the need to stop the boy’s pissing contest. “I ahh, really wanted you all here to celebrate this day with me because I love you all so much,” she continued, pausing briefly to look each person in attendance in the eye, except for Randy. “We knew at the start of the school year that things were going to change. We are seniors and some of us will be going away to college or starting whatever job we intend to do. But I don’t think any of us could have foreseen all the other changes that have taken place so far. Things that have unintentionally taken us all in different directions. It really makes me sad when I allow myself to think about it because we were all so close for so long.” Katie paused to dry her eyes.

  Daniel rubbed her back while the others just stared at her in silence because they all knew what she was talking about and she was right. It wasn’t just Katie and Daniel’s fault, nor was it Marissa Lou’s fault. Each one of them was responsible for the demise of a friendship they once thought was impenetrable.

  “It was bound to happen,” Marissa Lou whispered, her happy buzz fading to sadness.

  “But why?” Katie pleaded.

  “You know why,” she said staring between Katie and Daniel, shocked that she even had to say it.

  “Maris, it happened. Neither of us asked for it and neither of us wanted to hurt you. But you dumped me and refused to talk to me after telling us you wanted me and Katie to be together. What were we supposed to do?”

  Marissa Lou stared at him, her eyes filling with tears.

  “Stop it!” Becca jumped up from her chair and demanded before Marissa Lou could respond. “This is such bs! Jess and I have been sitting in the middle of all this, keeping our opinions to ourselves while y’all figured out your crap, but we’re tired of it. We’ve had enough, so get over your issues or leave the group. Whichever you decide to do, we will still love you,” Becca said pointing to Jess and herself. “But don’t get all pissy when one of us wants to hang out with one of you and not the other. And stop acting like all this new stuff in your lives isn’t happening. Katie and Daniel, y’all are together so act like it. Marissa Lou, girl I love you, but you have to let it go. She can’t keep hiding their relationship from you. Randy, keep your disgusting comments to yourself. And Daniel, get over her being with Randy.”

  “I don’t care who she’s with!” Daniel snapped.

  “Yes you do. We all see it, so get over it. You don’t like him, fine, but keep it to yourself.” With that Becca sat down, crossed her arms over her chest and dared anyone to say anything different.

  They all expected Marissa Lou’s head to explode, but instead she said, “She’s right. Right here, right now, it’s done. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” the other girls said in unison.

  It wasn’t missed on anyone that the guys in the group didn’t respond. The girls stared at them, watching them stare at each other defiantly.

  Neither of them wanted to be the first to give in, but after a while Daniel decided to be the bigger man, although it was always possible that Katie kicked him under the table. “Fine, agreed,” he said crossing his ar
ms over his chest and continuing to stare at Randy.

  “Oh, was I supposed to agree too?”

  “Yes, Randy. I know you are new to the group and don’t have much invested here, but if you are going to be with her,” Daniel said prying his lethal stare off Randy to look at Marissa Lou and continued without looking away, “you have to agree too.”

  “Fine, whatever. I guess I agree too then.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  After the birthday from hell, Katie slowly started to introduce Daniel’s name into conversations and she even stopped pulling away from him when Marissa Lou was around. Little by little he stopped being the weight over them that could break up the group. Marissa Lou even agreed to a double date when major events like when the county fair or concerts came to town. It was shocking for Marissa Lou to see them together at first, but it became just another thing after a while.

  Marissa Lou stayed wasted most of the time anyway, choosing being numb with the help of a variety of narcotics; alcohol, marijuana or pills, and something a little extra on really stressful times. Randy didn’t mind supplying her with whatever she wanted because a wasted Marissa Lou was a fun Marissa Lou, and a fun Marissa Lou let him do whatever he wanted to her. It was a win win for them both.

  It got worse during their Christmas break from school. Marissa Lou stayed glued to Randy’s side more often than before, instead of hanging out with her friends. When they got back to school a few weeks later, Marissa Lou was almost unrecognizable to those who knew her best. She looked like she had lost some weight and her skin was pale, almost hollow, with dark rings under her red eyes like she hadn’t slept during the whole break. Even her hair, that used to be one of envy, seemed to have lost its shiny luster.

  “My god,” Becca said to her when she met Marissa Lou in the hallway by her locker.

  Marissa Lou turned and seemed as if she was looking through Becca.

  “Maris, are you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m great,” Marissa Lou said quietly. “How was your break?”