served, they were just about half way through their third month. Marge’s boyfriends seldom lasted pass the first six weeks. None of them seemed too love struck after witnessing her mother fall down drunk after the first few dates, but that wasn’t the real kicker. Those who didn’t mind the drinking left as soon her mother dropped the “M” bomb. Nothing like marriage to make the boys panic and disappear.
Katie didn’t want that kind of life. If falling in love meant that you would dissolve once the relationship ended, it didn’t seem worth it. A man’s company was nice, but loving them was dangerous. Hopefully, her mother learned this by now.
That or Jones might actually love her back.
Heading into the bathroom, Katie grabbed a clean towel from the linen closet and turned on the shower. She was relieved her mother was happy, but the fact that the woman had fallen for a married man troubled her.
From what she knew of Brian Jones, he had a pretty cushy life on the other side of town; a life in a nice house with his wife and a teenage daughter – Rachel Jones.
Katie and Rachel used to be friends in elementary school, but that all changed when middle school segregated students by achievements. Rachel and her goodie-good church friends were placed in all honors classes while less impressive students, such as Katie, with bullshit going on at home, were lumped together in teacher supported classrooms. The cliques formed at that time carried on into high school and no one ever transcended into a different peer group.
Rachel wasn’t mean, but it bothered Katie that her old friend would not even look at her. Each time the teen entered a class, she smiled at the teacher or at Jason, but couldn’t bother to say hello or even acknowledging her existence. Even though her friend Darla insisted Jones’s daughter was a snob, Katie knew Rachel was just shy. Now that her father was fooling around with Marge, nothing changed.
It doesn’t make us friends.
What did trouble Katie was Rachel’s reaction about the hook up. Although she wanted to embarrass Rachel a little, she didn’t think she would ever forget the look of horror that spilled across the girl’s face, when she, with her friend Darla egging her on, happened to let it drop that her mom was Pastor Jones’s new flavor. For some reason, Katie assumed Rachel would suspect something like that from a douchebag like her dad. But once she commented on all of the ugly little details of the affair, she realized naïve little Rachel lived a sheltered life.
She didn’t have a clue.
Stepping under the spray of water, Katie knew it was just another regret she would learn to live with. It wasn’t the worst of them, but it still sucked like hell.
6
RACHEL
Thursday 5:30 PM
With a deep sigh, Rachel exhaled the breath she had been holding in since Jason rang the doorbell. Although she had sneaked him in before , it was the first time her parent’s requested he join them for dinner. With store bought lasagna fresh from the oven and a loaf of garlic bread ready to be served, the four of them took their seats in the formal dining room.
As the meal was served, her parents made polite conversation. They had never met her boyfriend, but he appeared relaxed. She hoped the night would unfold without incident, but Rachel knew her folks. With their polished clothes and false smiles, she awaited the stomach ache she had come to expect from them.
She studied Jason. With his dark hair and easy smile, he cleaned up well. She warned him that her parents were odd, that they may be a tad bit “preachy.” He laughed off her concerns with a claim that his folks were the same way. But, Rachel had met Shannon and Carl and th ey were nothing like the Jones’s .
In the hour before his arrival, she had fussed with her curly hair and changed her outfit three times, only to settle on the