My father found us behind the barn making out a couple hours later. Vincent was my first kiss. I felt things I never had before. He made me laugh, made me feel like an actual woman in only a couple of hours. I kicked my heels off and climbed a tree that day, caught my first frog by hand at the pond behind the barn. He also managed to get to second base. I felt free from accusing eyes, not worried if it was lady like or well mannered.
I remember my father’s trusty sidekicks dragging Vincent under his arms into a shed on the property that was always locked after they had found us. I never saw Vincent again. I yelled that I was running away and that I hated my father; that I was a prisoner in his household. My father told me Vincent was the kind of scum who would use me. That Vincent left without hesitation when my father asked him to stay away. That if Vincent truly wanted to be with me, he would show back up. I waited at our security gate for three days, but he never showed up again.
“Jessica!” My head jolts upward from looking at the white tablecloth, lost in my memories of early childhood lust.
“Yeah?” I question, my voice cracking my suddenly dry mouth.
“I don’t know a lot of what happened between you and Travis,” she mutters. She holds her hands up and pins me with her eyes, “and I don’t want to know, but I would think you are lucky getting the second chance at life after escaping such a dreadful marriage. Don’t waste it.”
I give a tightlipped smile and look back at my menu while thoughts of Vincent still swim in my head.
“What ever happened to Vincent?” I blurt out.
My mother’s cheeks turn red as she licks her lips slowly.
I stare at her intently, waiting.
“Your father told him to never come near you again,” she responded quickly, looking at her menu.
“Did he? Did Vincent ever come back?” I ask. My mother sighs and sets her menu back down.
“Yes, but he was no good for you, just like your father said. You were so young, capable of so much. Vincent was a wild child. He would have taken everything you worked so hard for and ran with it before you even had the chance to discover what you truly wanted in life. I don’t know what his kind was doing at our party,” she continues, shaking her head. I slam my menu down angry. This is not my mother talking; this is the woman my father has sculpted.
“Stop the act,” I snap harshly. She jumps and looks at me with wide eyes.
My mother nods, taking a deep breath.
“Why didn’t you stand up for Vincent, for me?” I interrogate further. Maybe if she had, I would have never ended up with Travis.
“Your father had his eyes sat on Travis at that point, Jessica. There was no interfering with that,” she answers softly, pursing her lips. “If I thought it would have helped, I would have stepped in,” she continues. “After your father met Travis, all he could see was making it on the board of the hospital and you working in that hospital; it was his dream.” I try not to roll my eyes. My mother loves my father. She will never speak ill of him. To her, my father ignoring my bruises and black eyes was him reaching his dream.
“How is that working out for him, being on the board?” I interrupt, done talking about me. She shakes her head and looks out over the tables.
“Ever since Travis went missing years back, things went downhill quickly with Travis’s family. Your father has pretty much taken over everything at the hospital. Travis’s father became a drunk, and was taken off the board soon after Travis’s disappearance. Last I heard, they were bankrupt and living in the worst part of town,” she continues. I close my eyes, hating to hear Travis’s family is suffering. I assumed they would move on from the loss of their son, and continue ruling the medicine industry. But why would I know that? I don’t talk to them and my mother usually knows not to talk about them around me.
I nod, and raise my hand ready to order. Ready to eat and leave.
Over the rest of our meal, we talk about my mother wanting to repaint a room in her house, and celebrity gossip. I give her a big hug and kiss, and nearly sprint to my Jeep, ready to get away from memories that always seem to swim forward when I’m around my mom.
I lean over and turn the stereo on, Usher’s “His Mistakes” is playing. Travis, Vincent, and Bobby all come to my mind at once. Making my body tense. I’m more than aware that Vincent and Bobby have more than a few similarities. Why did I run to Vincent but run from Bobby? I take a deep breath and roll my window down. I run because of Travis, the middleman between it all.
6
Bobby
Parking my bike in front of Jessica’s apartment, I head to her gate. As I go to punch in the numbers, the gate swings open. It’s not locked.
“What the hell?” I push the gate the rest of the way open, and head toward Jessica’s apartment.
I notice stains on the carpet as I walk in, and the hallway has a musky smell to it. I haven’t been here in a few months, but the last time I was here, it was an upscale place, and if I remember right, Jessica said the rent wasn’t cheap.