Triple Dare

I was distracted thinking about the end of year dance, and this year the theme was 'Grease,' which made it even more exciting, because I was such a fan of the movie. It was only summer, and the dance wasn’t until next year, but it was on the tip of all our tongues. Everyone was looking forward to their final year of high school, and knowing it would be the last dance we would attend there, it gave us something to look forward to. It was all everyone talked about.

Dad said we had to keep a tight hold on our purse strings this year, so there were no summer holidays planned. Instead, we were at our country club, the same one we had lunch every Sunday at the end of the month with my parents and Kurt’s.

I tried to forget about my surroundings, but I couldn’t until he smiled at me I knew who he was, Trent Edwards, the all-star quarterback and team captain. The one that all girls talked about, but not me. I was with Kurt, my boyfriend; he was on the same team too. He spent most of his time on the bench. He wasn’t a captain and didn’t have the girls swooning after him.

Not like Trent.

Trent had sexy green eyes and dark hair, oh, and let’s not forget that there were three of him.

Well, not exactly. He was one of a set of triplets at my high school.

I decided to change the mood of the table. Boredom was setting in, Dad was drinking excessively, Mom was quiet, and Kurt and his parents weren’t their usual cheerful selves.

“Well, I for one am looking forward to the end of year dance. Not only because it’s the final dance of our year, but because Lacey Jenkins, who is really creative, is in charge of it.”

Shit.

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I immediately regretted them. Lacey wasn’t to be mentioned in front of Kurt and vice-versa. They used to date or something, and I’d never known the details, but Kurt had told me more than once not to mention her name—especially in his presence, so I bit my lip as soon as he cut his eyes at me. It was as if he had daggers in his hands and was stabbing them at my eyes as I blinked repeatedly and then grabbed my water, just so I wouldn’t have to look at him again. And even better, so I wouldn’t speak again. It was my cue to keep my mouth shut. So much for changing the mood to something exciting.

“I ordered sparkling water, and it’s taken one hour to come!” Kurt said as Trent leaned toward our table, asking if we needed anything else.

“Can’t get good staff these days!” Kurt spat out before Trent had time to apologize. There was no denying Kurt was jealous of Trent, and his dad raised a glass as if he was agreeing with his son.

Trent moved away from our table, no doubt to get the sparkling water that Kurt had previously ordered. I didn’t remember him doing so, but whatever Kurt wanted, he got.

“Doesn’t that boy go to your school?” Walt quizzed as he moved his focus from his meal to his son.

“He does,” I agreed, thinking for once I wouldn’t let Kurt antagonize me and would say whatever I wanted. “He’s a straight-A student and captain of the football team, and he works here. I really don’t know how he does it all.”

“Genes!” Summer, Kurt’s mom, said as she wiped her oversized cheeks, which had tomato sauce on it. Then, she stuffed her face with the spaghetti bolognese as if she hadn’t eaten in a week.

I was just about to ask what she meant when she stopped eating and stared at me.

“You see, these poor people have to work hard. It’s built into their genes,” she explained, making me wonder if she was mocking me, or giving me a reason why Trent was so hard working.

I nodded, knowing this conversation had to end now. Kurt was turning a bright shade of red, and I could feel his eyes boring into me. This was the reason I hated Sunday lunches with them; they were arrogant and proud, just like their son, who seemed to be taking after his parents more and more every year. I said nothing, neither did my parents who knew full well that before Summer married her husband, she was one of them, one of the poor people, but it felt as if she had forgotten about it, and somehow wiped it out of her gene pool.

Dad did what he did best when they came out with something ignorant, which they did 99% of the time. He was a business associate of Walt’s, Kurt’s dad. He had no choice but to tolerate him, and I did the same to keep dad happy, but as much as I tried to please Kurt, I knew it was near enough impossible. Kurt whispered in my ear as Dad rattled on about his new business venture.

“Don’t you ever humiliate me like that again! I saw you smiling at him. In public. I told you to not even look at him, let alone acknowledge that piece of shit’s existence.”

He pulled away. I couldn’t take it anymore. This relationship was fine when we were twelve and our dads practically pushed us together, claiming it would be good for the family. Back then we didn’t care; we were young. Now, I was eighteen, fed up with Kurt saying we had money so we could treat the rest of the world like shit, and he was a man, so, even worse, he could treat me like crap.

I’d dropped three dress sizes in the last six months. I’d gone from being told what to wear when we go out, to what to wear to school. My only savior was thinking we’d go to different colleges, and I wouldn’t have to end it; Kurt would get bored and move on. That way, I wouldn’t hurt the dealings that our dads had together. I was just about to say something when we were all distracted.

“Mr. Roger Hampton!” A man tapped my dad on the shoulder. I turned my head to Mom, who put the flute of champagne that she had in her hand on the table.

The more I studied what was going on in front of me, the more I noticed that the man who tapped Dad on the shoulder wasn’t any ordinary man, but FBI.

Mom screamed out, “Here? Why here?” Her blonde strands which were previously perfectly placed on her head, looked as if they had turned into the result of an electric shock, as if they were up in flames.

“What in God’s green earth is going on?” Walter demanded, his face turning a deep shade of red, but then he wasn’t the only one. I noticed before this interruption, Dad was smiling, happily drinking at the table. His smile had turned to a frown as he’d gone the same shed of red as Walter as soon as the man touched his shoulder.

There was one officer by his side, two behind them, and as my head darted across the dining hall, I saw that we were surrounded by not only three FBI agents, but they’d come in numbers. I could have counted them, but it felt irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Mom screamed as she leapt up from the table. “Why here? Why in front of all our friends?” Then she grabbed her purse and left.

I sat like a goldfish trying to get air as I listened to the man read Dad his rights, before Dad stood up calmly as if he was just going for a stroll with a friend. This was a lot more than Walter was doing. He was demanding answers from one of the FBI agents.

“Do you know who I am?”

The famous one-liner that his son had adopted, but Walter said it as if he was the King of Boston and his son was just the prince.

As for Summer, she clicked her fingers for her next course. She continued to eat the bread which was on the table. She’d managed to finish a basket by herself, and now not only was she requesting more bread, but a repetition of her first and second course meal too. Did she even notice what was happening?

Kurt, on the other hand, was on his phone, recording the whole thing and following as Dad walked out of the door in cuffs. No doubt to publish on social media. He was obsessed with humiliating everyone any chance he got. Then again, it was the society we lived in. Everyone got a kick out of others’ downfall.

Wondering where Mom had gone in such a hurry, and everything happening with Dad, my heart was beating out of control. It was as if I couldn’t move or say a thing.

Walter snapped his fingers. “I’ve got to speak to a lawyer. Summer, just put that fork down and let’s get out of here. I need to make sure this doesn’t affect us in some way. Seems like Roger’s been doing some dodgy dealings.”

Summer sighed, and she looked as if she was about to carry out the whole plate. This was when it dawned on me…who was going to pay the bill and, more importantly, how was I going to get home?

“Walter,” I called from across the table. He ignored me.

I began to stand, but my knees felt weak as he walked away from the table, and Summer quickly grabbed as many rolls as she could and stuffed them in her purse. She felt no shame in what she was doing, but it was the least of my problems.

I began to sweat, whilst moving toward the door as Walter started moving at a rapid pace. Even Summer was chasing after him. She couldn’t keep up, but then I wouldn’t expect her to.

“Walter!” I screamed out for the last time after we reached the door.

He paused and faced me. “What?”

“It’s just that everyone’s left the table and the bill…”

“Sweet girl,” he said as he put his warm hands on my shoulders, rubbing at me as if I was a pet that he’d picked up from the shelter.

“The bill is the least of your worries. You have no house. Nowhere to stay and, well, no boyfriend.”

What?

Okay, so Dad had been cuffed up, but Mom? Seriously, where was she?

“Jenny, you need to find family. Someone to help you out. We can’t. We don’t get involved in Kurt’s personal relationships.” Walter sighed as Kurt came back after the drama had driven away. Kurt was ignoring me, and I had a feeling he came back to talk to his dad, not me.

Summer caught up, and she was standing so close to me. I didn’t understand what she was doing, because my mind was still trying to take in what Walter had just said.

Walter snapped at her, “Get going, Summer. You’ve really made a show of yourself today. Eating as if your life depends on it. Keep eating like that, woman, and you won’t even be able to fit through the door.”

Then he let go of my shoulders and headed to the parking lot, with Kurt swiftly by his side, not even looking in my direction. I glanced down, about to reach for my phone in my purse. It was then I saw why Summer was so close to me. A hundred-dollar bill was sticking out. She’d stuffed into my purse. I smiled at the kindness she’d shown toward me, which was a lot more than anyone had done so far, but I knew I needed a lot more than that.

Slumping on the stairs, not caring who saw me, I looked out at the parking lot. The spot Dad’s car had filled was now empty. I didn’t need to go and search for Mom then; she must have taken it, or the FBI did. She didn’t even bother to check on me, but I hated to admit to anyone that it wouldn’t be the first time. She would leave the house for days on end, then on her return, she would act as if she’d left home a few minutes ago and I shouldn’t be so dramatic about seeing her again.

Walter said I needed to find family. Dad was taken by the FBI, not Mom. But the rude awakening of what he said started to dawn on me. Panicking, I took out my phone to make a call. I had an uncle and aunt, I could try to see if they would help me. Then again, if my own mother had turned her back on me, why the hell should they want to help?

I had to try. They were my last hope.

“Stop staring at her,” Brent, my brother, said as we went to the entrance. Jenny was sitting in the middle of the exit, crying, and I knew any second now security would have her removed.

“I can’t believe you paid the bill.”

“Shit, she can’t do it. And look how they all left her, including her mom who jumped into her convertible and rode off as if she was bloody Thelma or Louise!”

“Who?”

Suddenly, I remembered that my brother didn’t watch old movies, not like I did, and that one was a classic.

“Anyway, we can’t ignore her. It’s not right. We’re not built like that. Not like her family.”

He agreed. “I know, but this is not our problem. She’s been going out with Kurt ‘stuck-up’ Johnson for how long? You know I can't stand the shit, and I really don’t want to think about going out and rescuing his girlfriend. She’s not better than him; she can’t be to be dating such a shit. She deserves what she gets.”

I shook my head, thinking he was right about Kurt but not about Jenny. “Bro, when did you become such a jerk?”

Sure, she dated him, but it seemed to be more of a curse. She never looked happy when he was around, not that I’d been stalking her or anything, but something was clearly wrong with their relationship. It was obvious, from where I was standing, that it had to do with her being with someone like him for all the wrong reasons.

“The last fight I had was with Kurt… seriously, guys like him shouldn’t even be out on the street, let alone dating anyone. I’m a jerk for not wanting to rescue his girlfriend, but what about him?”

I shrugged as I remembered what happened last month, when we finished our shifts and we caught poor Lacey, one of the girls in our school, crying in the corner of the kitchen. She’d been attacked by Kurt, how far he went, no one knows, only Lacey. She just said Kurt hurt her, but we don’t know if he roughed her up or did something far worse. Brent is the one of us three with a fiery temper, so when he found out why she was in a corner, he didn’t hesitate in showing Kurt the other side of his fist. Especially seeing as Kurt and his family are not our favorite people.

As for Lacey, she refused to go to the police and file any charges against Kurt. Unfortunately, she’s like us. Not one of the rich kids in school, she knew Walter would sue her family in a heartbeat, and her dad would lose his job. He just happened to work for Walter, and even if her dad left, the Johnson’s would make sure he couldn’t get another job. It was a shit world in Boston High School, and I couldn’t wait to get out of it.

I walked up to Jenny. She had to move before security threw her out. Brent was beside me. We had twenty-minute break, and so far most of it was spent paying her bill and not agreeing on if we were going to help her.

“Hey.” I smiled as I bent down to face her.

Her make-up was smudged, and her once white dress was now covered with her fading black make-up which she had moved from her face to her dress. I waited as she finished wiping the last of her tears on her dress.

Jen was the kind of girl that came into a room and turned heads. She didn’t think of herself as a stunning beauty, but I heard the girls talking about the pale green dress she wore on Friday, how they wished that they had a figure like her. It was one thing I noticed, not about many girls, but with Jen… she’d gone from having wide hips and perky breasts, to losing all of it. She was getting thin. Not the type of thin which meant she’d lost a few pounds, she’d lost a few more than that, and I wondered if, like Lacey, she too was afraid of Kurt.

“Sorry, I’m a mess. I need to go and pay the bill.”

I shook my head. “All taken care of.”

She put her hand on her mouth. “Who? Mom? Did she come back?” Her dark eyes lit up, and I hated being the bearer of bad news, but it wasn’t good to give her false hope.

“No.”

“So, you did it? You took care of it because I can’t think who else would do it.”

“Here,” Brent said as he stuffed a Kleenex in her hand and then walked away. He was a hygiene freak and probably watching Jenny clean her face with her dress was a clear no-go for him. People were walking in and out, starting to point, and as usual, everyone liked a good gossip, especially this country club—they thrived on it.

“They all know,” she sniffled, and unlike before as I tried to drag her from the exit, she was walking with a limp. The stiletto heels that she walked in no longer made her glide across the room, but they were so high and strappy, which I didn’t notice before, that it looked as if they were hurting her ankles.

“Take them off.”

She shook her head. “I can’t. They’re nearly glued to my feet.”

She held onto my arm as I pulled her to the side and into the janitor’s closet. I knew it wasn’t the most romantic setting, but I had to take her somewhere.

“Is it all over social media?” she asked once I shut the door. We had never spoken before, but it was as if she felt relaxed around me anyway. I felt a little weird with us being in here, so I started to search for the light.

“Silly question. I saw some people filming it. That’s all people know how to do, film people’s misery, not help them.”

It was all over social media, but it was Kurt’s posts that were the worst. When I did figure out where the switch was, she was standing frozen, as if she was blind and the light didn’t faze her.

“Then again, I’ve been abandoned by my mom and dad.”

I nodded, wondering if she wanted me to say something or if she was just venting.

“I have an aunt and uncle. Aunt Janice lives in Boston and Uncle Mike in Seattle, but I could call them both and tell them what’s happened. Maybe they would help.”

Was it my cue to speak?

She moved toward me. “I just don’t have a phone. Okay, so I have a phone. An iPhone 12 which I’ll clearly have to sell.”

Okay, so she was prepared and knew what was happening, kind of.

“Let me see if my phone works…” I watched her take it out of her purse, hit a number on speed dial, then she waved her phone in her hand.

“Surprise, no surprise. It doesn’t work. Fuck! I want to throw it against the wall, but I’ll need the money. You’ve paid my bill, and you work here like crazy.”

How did she know my shifts?

Apart from the Sunday lunch which she comes with her parents, and Kurt’s too, we’d never seen much of each other. As for in high school, well… it was high school. Everyone had their own groups and hung around with only people in their circle, like hamsters in cages unable to leave the wheel unless they had a hand in doing so. Which no one dared do. The cool kids didn’t want to hang out with the nerds, let alone the socially awkward kids. Everyone had a role to play, and hers was hanging not only with the cool kids, but rich ones too.

She shifted her eyes, as if she’d said too much. “I’ll pay you back when this whole mess is sorted. I hate to ask something else. I shouldn’t really.”

I had to stop her from talking and reassure her in some way.

“I’m sure you will.” I knew it was a lie.

The FBI had arrested her dad and while they dragged him out, they recited so many charges. Brent told me, who witnessed it all. They were rich, they always found a way to get out of whatever hole they’d created.

I gave her my phone. “Call your aunt and uncle, see if they can help. Take your time. I need to get back to my shift.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but then the door swung open. It was time for us to leave. The cleaners were coming in, and we shouldn’t have been there in the first place. I apologized and we left.

“Sit out there in the garden and make your calls. Don’t feel under pressure to make any rash decisions because I don’t need my phone right now. Maybe you’ll think of others to call.”

She glowed as I handed her my phone.

“And when you’re done, come look for me.”

Shit, I was late, and as much as I hated this job, the pay was too good to throw it away. There was only one month left until the summer was over, and then there was the final year of high school. Then again I could give it up because I had a full scholarship at Yale. It should be enough to get me by, but I still had a job lined up on Saturdays until the club closed for Winter just so I didn’t have to bother Mom for money. I liked the idea of being independent now and even more so once I 'd be in college.

I left her and went back to the restaurant. Tables to wait. Rich clients to please and all that. Yep, I couldn’t fucking wait for summer to end so it would be all over, so I wouldn’t have to do it every fucking day.