“I think he might leave the firm. He wasn’t happy when he found out what Roy and Don had done.”
“I really can’t say anything about that,” I said.
She gave me a sad look, and then her lips tightened.
“I hope this doesn’t hurt your friendship with Tracy. Both you and Pam are her best friends.”
“We’ll be fine,” I assured her.
I yawned. The clock had just passed midnight, and I needed my sleep. I found my dad, and he and Mom took me back to the hotel so I could go to bed.
◊◊◊
Chapter 4 – I Can Do This All Day Thursday November 5
There was a knock on my door, so I grabbed a robe and peered out the spy-hole. I frowned when I saw Jan Duke, my middle school girlfriend for all of two minutes. I wondered what she would want. To be honest, I almost didn’t answer the door.
I opened the door a crack, and she pushed in and looked around. As she passed me, I caught the scent of marijuana in her hair. If you’ve ever smoked it, you can recognize the smell easily. This was the last thing I needed tonight. I must have looked annoyed.
“No need to get your panties in a twist.”
“What do you want, Jan?” I asked.
“I thought you and I could have some fun,” she said as she came to me and tried to open my robe.
“Don’t,” I warned her.
“Come on, David. You know you want me. You’ve wanted me since we were in middle school,” she goaded, grabbing my robe and trying to open it.
“Jan,” I warned again.
“I’ll prove it. No guy can resist me,” she said as she began to undress.
When we were in middle school, Jan had been everything I thought I wanted in a girl. She was the prettiest girl in my class, the head cheerleader, and probably the most popular girl in school. When Jan had told me she was my girlfriend, I’d been dumb enough to believe her. I found out that she had just used me to make Justin jealous, and when he took her back, she wouldn’t even talk to me. I admit, a part of me still wanted her. He began to swell when Jan was down to her bra and panties. But then I came to my senses.
“Jan, please. Just stop. You and I are not happening,” I said.
“Why not?” she asked as she closed the gap between us.
I moved to grab her shoulders to hold her off, but she reached between us and grabbed my package. I closed my eyes and tried to push that middle-school crush out of my mind. Unfortunately, Jan turned out to be even better looking than I ever imagined. I debated whether to just do her and be done with it, or not. In a lot of ways, she reminded me of the infatuation I used to have with Lisa Felton. Once I’d had her, I found it was better than I’d imagined. I wondered if the same would be true with Jan.
Then I began to remember why I stayed away from her. Jan had become the class bike for the football team. No way would I be able to handle that. On top of that, there was the drug use. Like me, she’d been reasonably straitlaced until the eighth grade. None of us used before that, and she had been the one to introduce me to drugs and alcohol. What scared me was that Jan didn’t seem to have any limits to her behavior. She would be bad for me on so many levels.
I felt her begin to stroke my length, and then she dropped to her knees. I watched as she had a little smile on her face and looked me in the eyes. Jan began to move her face to my groin, and I reacted by bringing my hand up to her forehead to stop her. That was when I heard the electronic key activate, and the door swung open. Phil froze in the doorway as he took in the scene before him. To all the world, it looked like Jan had been blowing me.
Instead of leaving, Phil got a smile on his face, stepped into the room, and began to get undressed.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked.
“I’ve heard the stories. Your brother hooked you up with his girlfriend. I’d hoped it would have been one of your regulars, but she’ll do just fine,” Phil said.
It took every ounce of my willpower not to kill my half brother. I turned on him and looked him in the eyes, and he seemed to realize that he may have made a mistake. The expression on my face caused Jan to release Mr. Happy and run into the bathroom.
“Get dressed,” I ordered Phil.
I grabbed my cell phone and called my dad.
“I need you in my room right now,” I said, and hung up.
Phil looked worried as he put his clothes back on, and I gestured to have him sit on the edge of the bed. Jan poked her head out of the bathroom door, and I pointed at her. She scurried back into the bathroom, and I heard the door lock.
“David,” Phil tentatively began.
“I would shut the hell up if I were you.”
“But …”
“Shut it!”
I heard a knock at the door and opened it. Dad looked at me and cocked his head.
“You might want to close your robe,” Dad ventured.
I looked down and closed it.
“You need to have a talk with Phil. He interrupted me with a young woman and assumed he could simply join in. He mentioned that he wished it had been one of my ‘regular girls,’ but Jan would do just fine,” I said.
Phil about had a mini-stroke because he had no idea that my parents and I had such frank discussions with each other.
“Who’s Jan?” Dad asked.
“She’s one of the cheerleaders. I dated her for like two minutes in middle school.”
“And you and she …?” Dad asked.
He was aware of what had happened and how I was.
“No. I was in bed when Jan knocked. I was about to send her away when Phil walked in on us.”
“But she was giving you head,” Phil blurted out.
“No, I wasn’t,” Jan said through the bathroom door.
Obviously, she was listening.
“What do you want me to do with Phil?” Dad asked.
“I don’t know. He’s your son. If you leave him with me, say goodbye to him, because he’ll disappear.”
Dad must have been pretty sure I wouldn’t actually kill him, but not a hundred percent. I expect he wanted Phil to see I was seriously pissed-off.
“Pack your things. You’re coming with me,” Dad said to Phil.
“But you’re not my dad,” Phil complained.
He couldn’t possibly have chosen anything worse to say, after what my dad had been through with my mom over this very topic. While my mom’s temper ranged all over the map, my dad had always been the calming voice in our family. Dad was the one to rein in my mom and, I hate to admit, me. But if you pissed him off, all bets were off. Phil was lucky I was there. My dad’s body began to coil up like an overtightened metal spring, and I reached out and used one of Shiggy’s pressure points to break Dad’s concentration.
“Dad, no!” I said.
The combination of the sudden pain and my voice caused him to turn to me instead of Phil. Phil realized he’d screwed up. I worried I would have to deal with him because I wasn’t sure he and Dad should be left alone. Then Dad showed me why he was my dad. He called Vickie, Phil’s mom. I don’t recall ever seeing a teenage boy crumble so quickly. It was clear from his reaction that when his mom found out, he was done.
I figured I’d better put on some clothes, so I grabbed my sweats and a sweatshirt.
“Dad, can you take him somewhere else? I have my own issues to deal with,” I said, tilting my head towards the bathroom door.
He nodded his understanding. There came a knock on my door. Dad answered it, and Vickie and Carl, Phil’s stepdad, were at the door.
“Get your things and come on,” Dad ordered.
Phil wouldn’t even look at me as his parents led out of the room. I didn’t blame him. I would’ve felt the same way if Greg had ratted me out like that. My dad would explain to him that he didn’t want to be around me when I lost my temper. Dad would also tell Phil that after I calmed down, I would probably not kill him. That didn’t mean that he and I wouldn’t have some words about making assumptions. If Greg had pulled that same thing, I would have probably just punched him and been done with it. He knew better. My problem with Phil was I didn’t think he understood.