“Are you kidding me?” I asked.
“I’m dead serious. It needs to be someone who’ll take care of her. If you put Jan in the wrong hands, she could get messed up and hurt. It has to be someone with a strong personality who won’t back off. Jan needs someone to take her in hand and do what’s best for her, even when she fights it. And then they need to allow her to serve them in some significant way.”
“For a teenage boy, getting laid is pretty significant,” I suggested.
“For an old man like me, it is too, but getting sex is not a long-term solution. If you want, I can come over and talk to her. I could also talk to whomever you think might take her off your hands. She might need more than just someone to be her protector. She might have some deeper issues to work out,” Uncle John suggested.
“Of course I’d like you to fix this for me. I would have no idea what to do,” I admitted, and then thought of something. “Were you ever in a relationship like this?”
He became quiet for a moment. I waited him out.
“I was. Let’s just say I didn’t know what I was doing, and it almost ended in tragedy. Luckily, I had a professor who got involved and eventually took her off my hands,” he said, and then paused again to collect his thoughts. “I’m glad you came to me with this. I’ll make sure Jan gets the help she needs, but I’ll need you to assist me.”
“Okay. Let me see if she’ll allow me to help her, and I’ll let you know.”
I hoped my uncle was wrong, but he had more life experience than I did.
◊◊◊
I received a text from Cassidy that she was having a party. Of course, I said I would come. She sent me one back that I needed to show up early and help her set up. I sent one to Mona, because she was the queen of parties, and asked if she would help too.
When I arrived at Cassidy’s, she told me she wanted all the furniture moved. I rolled my eyes at her and then texted Yuri, Roc, and Phil, and told them to get their butts to Cassidy’s house. I picked those three for different reasons. Phil was obvious; Roc would need a ride from his big sister; and Yuri because I’d not hung out enough with my little Russian gangster. That’s wrong; he wasn’t little anymore. Between a growth spurt, Cassidy’s workouts, and football, he’d become a strapping young man.
Yuri still hadn’t found a girl who’d go out with him. His spectacular fail with Piper last year still haunted him. I’d tried to hook him up with a girl at lunch, but they had just become friends. Yuri had grown up in an old-school Russian household until he was twelve and his mom moved to the US. His mom had taken a job teaching at State last fall when I met Yuri. He grew up in a male-dominated home. A good example would be the U.S. in the ’50s, but this was more than that.
Something Russian families had going for them was a robust extended family structure. Yuri’s father had been in the military and died in a training accident when Yuri was very young. He and his mother had moved in with his grandparents until they moved to the States. Yuri’s grandfather had passed over the summer, and his grandmother then immigrated to the States and now lived with them.
I’d met his grandmother, and she scared me a little. Yuri mentioned that she’d been through a lot. She had been a child during World War II. Her family was in Leningrad, renamed St. Petersburg now, when the Germans tried to take it. The siege of Leningrad proved one of the longest, most destructive, and most lethal sieges of a major city in modern history. It isolated the city from most supplies except those provided through the ‘Road of Life’ across Lake Ladoga. More than one million civilians died, mainly from starvation. Many others were eventually evacuated or escaped, so the city became largely depopulated. This experience made Yuri’s grandmother a tough old bird, not to be trifled with. She didn’t stand on the usual social niceties, and she didn’t put up with anything.
Yuri, Phil, and Roc showed up. I was happy to see Zoe and left the three guys to be bossed around by Cassidy and Mona. I grinned when Yuri bristled at being ordered around by the girls. He was smart enough to know that Cassidy could and would kick his ass if he smarted off, so he kept quiet. Zoe and I were put in charge of ordering pizzas from Monical’s and having them delivered. I think Cassidy just wanted me to buy them.
While we waited, I flirted with Zoe. I had her cornered against the kitchen cabinets and ready to do something stupid when Mona walked in.
“You need to pay for the beer.”
“How come I’m paying for it?” I complained.
There are times my friends thought I was an ATM. If it hadn’t been Cassidy’s party, I might have fought it. Paying for pizza and beer was a small price to pay for all the training she’d given me.
“I hope they bought something nonalcoholic for the youngsters,” I said, nodding towards the three guys as they helped move furniture.
“Sure,” Mona said with a shrug.
That didn’t reassure me in the least.
“If not, someone needs to go get something. I personally don’t plan to drink tonight, and if I’m buying …” I said to let her know she needed to figure out an alternative.
She just held her hand out and looked expectant. I reached in my pocket and started to peel off some bills, but she just grabbed the whole wad.
“Hey!” I complained as she walked away with my money.
Zoe distracted me somehow, and I soon forgot Mona had cleaned me out of cash. We were interrupted again when Phil and Roc came staggering into the kitchen with a keg. I needed to get them into the weight room and fast. They placed the beer in the middle of the kitchen and then ran back to get everything else. Yuri carried in the tub, tap, and bags of ice. At least he wasn’t struggling.
“Let’s take this out on the back porch. I don’t expect Coach would be happy if we poured beer all over his kitchen,” I suggested as I picked up the keg.
Zoe held the door for us as we put the keg in the tub and filled it with ice. By then the other two had brought in more ice, beer cups, and bottles of Absolut Citron. They stuffed the bottles into the ice around the tub. I then stepped back, wrapped Zoe in my arms, and kissed the back of her neck as we watched the Keystone Cops try to tap the keg. They succeeded in causing it to spray beer all over themselves and Zoe. I wasn’t happy when she accused me of using her as a shield.
After Zoe stormed off, and I gave Roc an evil glare, I showed them how to tap the keg. It was one of the useful skills I’d learned when I was in middle school. I could also roll a killer joint, but I didn’t expect ever to need to do that again.
Cassidy came out as Yuri poured the first beer and took it from him.
“You three aren’t done,” she ordered.
I thought it was evil of her to drink it in front of them. Zoe came back in shorts and a t-shirt she had borrowed from Cassidy, with Kylie and Piper trailing along behind her. How Zoe squeezed into Cassidy’s clothes, I have no idea, but there was no way in hell she was wearing that with drunk teenage boys running around. Cassidy looked at my reaction and began to giggle.
“Told you,” Cassidy said.
“Is there something wrong?” Zoe asked.
“Zoe! What the hell are you wearing? If Mom saw you, we both would be dead,” Roc said as he stepped out the back door.
“Want to help me pick something out?” Zoe asked me as she ignored her brother.
“Not happening,” Roc said.
I was amused to see Roc boss his sister around. He didn’t even flinch from the death stare she gave him. I would have to talk to him about how to survive that particular look. They just stared each other down until Zoe nodded to her brother. Zoe really wasn’t the kind of girl to wear something like she had on. I appreciated she had put it on for me, but I was happy when she and Cassidy left to find something different for her.