Chapter 2
“Adelaide Elizabeth McGregor, what time did you get home last night? I thought we had come to the understanding that you are to be home every night before midnight,” I heard my mother’s high pitched voice call out through my locked door. Well maybe if she was ever here she would make sure I followed that little rule.
I groaned, unable to peel my eyes open after the late night I had out with a group of friends I had met at Marshal County Community College or MCCC as we tended to call it, since it was such a mouthful. They tended to party almost every night and got even crazier during the summer break. I guess you could probably call them hardcore stoners, and they let me join in whenever I wanted.
“Don’t even think about ignoring me, young lady. We need to have a talk, and this cannot wait until later.” I sighed loudly and pushed my comforter down to crawl out of bed. Might as well get this over with.
“Yes, Mother?” I stood inside the arched entryway to my room and leaned a hip against the doorframe.
“Oh, don’t you look wonderful, I can only guess what you were doing last night. Well, I’m waiting,” she stated while pursing her puffy collagen enhanced lips at me. I think they made her look like a fish, but apparently it was the in thing to do for women her age.
Everyone said how much we looked alike and how we could easily pass for sisters. We both had the same dirty blonde hair, pale-blue eyes, and perfectly curved nose. The only difference was the wrinkles on her that were starting to pop through and a few gray hairs that could be seen if she didn’t make it to her stylist in time. I loved to point each one out when that happened.
“I went to get my nails done with Marley and Madison. Yesterday was the follow up for filming, remember?” Really? How could she forget? She was, in fact, the reason why I had done the show in the first place. I had been totally against it. The opportunity came at probably the worst time of my life, but she had insisted I needed to do it. My dad wasn’t around much, so he just went along with whatever my mom said.
Growing up in a small town in North Carolina, I had been in heaven. I had two parents that loved, and life seemed golden. We lived in a tiny two-bedroom ranch-style house and often ended up shopping at the thrift stores, but I didn’t care. We didn’t have anything we wanted, but we had everything we needed.
Then my mother had to go and ruin it all.
She always had an air about her, like she was better than everyone else, but she didn’t let that façade slip too often. Well, I guess she finally decided that my father wasn’t good enough for her fancy ass. One day, when he came home from work, she informed him that we were leaving, and handed him divorce papers. I think she only took me away from him to rub it in his face.
My father and I had always been close, and it was like she was putting the final nail in the coffin that contained their marriage. I was upset, to say the least. My dad didn’t even put up a fight for me though, so after awhile, I just figured he didn’t want me either.
Little did I know, my mother had another marriage all lined up. This one was more her style. My step-father, Gerald R. Conklin the third, was the CEO of a marketing company that had been in his family for generations in Connecticut. That was definitely a bit of a culture shock when my mother whisked me away from our humble surroundings and moved me into an extravagant mansion. It was a whole new world.
My mother on the other hand, had always been a frigidly cold and uncaring, acting as if I was more of a nuisance than anything. She fit in perfectly.
I started to act out once I hit high school; I think mainly to try to get her attention. I had been threatened at least three times to be thrown out of the fancy private school that Gerald shelled out a ton of money for. When bad behavior at school just seemed to make things worse in our relationship, I turned to boys and drinking.
When Chris came along, she seemed to warm up to me just a little. One, because I had stopped acting out and two, because he was from an even richer family than ours. It was all about the social ladder with my mother. But any warm feelings from her soon cooled off again once my life was completely flipped upside down, something that I had never expected would happen to me.
“Oh, thank god. I’m glad that is finally over,” she replied with a wave of her hand. “I don’t think you completely understand how difficult it was to cover up your little…indiscretion. I guess you have your mother to thank for that one. Just think how your reputation would have been ruined the minute anyone got air of that. So I could only assume you were sniffing the nail polish while you were there,” she added sarcastically and pointed at my eyes, which I could only guess were bloodshot.
I pushed down the urge to roll my eyes. If she had tried to cover up my little indiscretion, as she put it, it was solely for her benefit. Whatever would her friends at the country club think if they knew what her daughter had done? People would be gossiping about it for years.
“Anyway, what exactly did you need to talk to me about? I have some applications to fill out and then I need to get ready for the day.”
“Oh please, don’t try and lie to me. Do you think I’m stupid? I need to hear exactly what your plans are now that you’ve finished up with that silly little community college you insisted on attending. How do you think that made me look while everyone else’s children were going off to Yale or Harvard, actually putting their private school education to good use? Embarrassing.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I knew she was just trying to push my buttons and she knew exactly how to do it. Yes, I hadn’t gone to a four-year college right away like everyone else, but I really didn’t feel like I was ready. I had all ready gone through so much, I just felt like I needed a bit of a breather.
My mother snapped her fingers in front of my face, and I quickly looked up at that scowl focused at me. “Really, Adelaide, are you still high? Please pay attention. Don’t think I will allow you to sit around on your pampered ass and spend all of Gerald’s money. That is not going to happen. You need to figure out what you are doing, pronto.”
Wow. And what exactly did she do? At least I actually cleaned up after myself. Most of the time. Our maid, Belinda, basically had to trail behind my mother to answer to her every whim.
“You have got to be kidding me; you know I need a little bit of time to figure things out. I’ve been going to my therapy sessions like we agreed, and my grades weren’t that horrible, I’m sure I’ll be able to be get in somewhere eventually.”
“Oh, I’m far from kidding, Adelaide. Yes, you have been going to those little therapy sessions, but it doesn’t seem as if they are helping in the least bit. You are still out of control, and I just cannot handle you for much longer.” I rolled my eyes and slammed the door in her face, the sound echoing through my room. Couldn’t handle me for much longer? Really, when did she ever deal with me besides when I got in really deep shit? Other than that I was basically on my own.
I had no clue what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and although the rest of my friends were going off to their fancy schools, I just had no motivation to join them.
**********
“The ladies are here, the party can begin!” My lips curved into a smile the minute the three of us stepped through the door and just like always we were greeted as if we were royalty. It felt good having everyone back around for a little while. I hadn’t really made any real friends at MCCC, so these people were the closest to friends that I had.
My stomach fluttered just a little, knowing that after today this would all be gone again. Marley and Madison were leaving first thing tomorrow to set up the house they would be sharing near campus about four hours away. They had somehow braved out the dorms for two years, and as their reward, Madison’s father had bought them a house close to campus.
They had really started to get excited lately and were constantly talking about decorating details and all the hot parties they would be going to. It felt sort of weird to be excluded by them. I had always been on top; people flocked to be my friend and were let down if I rejected them. Now, I was the outsider.
The three of us found a seat and were instantly handed drinks by the party’s host, Ian Jennings. Ian’s parties were always epic, his parents were almost always gone and left him with no supervision. Even my mother had never been that stupid. There was always some maid or cook around to keep somewhat of a watchful eye on me, at home at least.
I downed the shot, letting the burning liquid wash down my throat, before handing the empty glass back to Ian. It was nice not having to worry about the cameras around anymore. Of course, the show hadn’t condoned underage drinking, they tended just to show the after effects and the drama that sometimes followed getting completely shit-faced. The producers of the show had followed different groups around at school, wanting to get a diversified feeling, but they seemed to find ours the most appealing and show worthy.
“Nice, Adelaide. Getting started early, huh? This should be a fun night, it’s time for a celebration.” Ian smirked at me before standing up and heading back towards the kitchen, presumably to get me another drink if he knew what was good for him.
“Uh-oh Adelaide, I think someone wants to hook up,” Marley sang out, her eyes following Ian until he disappeared through the crowd of people gathered around. I watched as her lower lip trembled and had to roll my eyes.
She had a total thing for Ian but had never done anything about it for whatever reason. Maybe because I hadn’t ever dated him. I should leave her with a nice parting gift and pull Ian into one of the extra bedrooms. Soon enough, she would be gone though and would probably forget about Ian and me.
As expected, Ian returned with another drink, and Marley and Madison both stood up to leave us alone. He sat down next to me, totally invading my personal space, and I quickly drained another shot, knowing I would need it for sure.
“You’re looking f*cking sexy tonight, Adelaide. That dress should be illegal.” Ian whispered into my ear, his warm breath blowing onto my face and I could only guess how much he had to drink before we got there.
Ian wasn’t a bad looking guy, he looked like the All-American with his closely cut blond hair, deep-brown eyes, and bleached-white teeth. But he wanted one thing, just like the rest of them, and that made me cringe. But it also offered me an escape, one that oddly seemed to fill the hole in my chest.
“Oh this? Just something I threw on, I’m glad you like it.” I fingered the clingy red material that was cut short and just covered all of the goods. With my lightly tanned skin, I knew it was the perfect color for me. I had a nice body, after years of working with a trainer at my mother’s insistence, and you could see every inch of that with this dress on.
His hand moved to my bare thigh and I instantly stiffened, but pasted a fake smile on my face. “You want to get out of here and go up to my room? I think we could make things a whole lot more interesting with a private party, don’t you think?”
“Mmm hmm,” I murmured as he tugged me up, and I followed behind him, waving at people as I went. I was abruptly stopped as soon as we entered the hallway, and twirled around, instantly meeting a set of familiar robin-egg blue eyes. I hadn’t seen him in almost a year but he still gave me that gut wrenching feeling every time.
Chris.
Great.
“Could I talk to you for a second, Addy? Please?” He ran a nervous hand through his perfectly gelled blond hair and watched me intently, as I wagered in my head what exactly to do.
Ian stood stiffly behind me, obviously pissed that we had gotten interrupted but backed up quickly when Chris turned and glared his way. Chris had a few good inches on Ian and could easily take him if it came to that.
What a winner you are, Ian.
Chris and I had started dating at the end of our sophomore year. Our relationship had been different, unlike any other one I had before, and I truthfully thought, like some stupid teenager, that we would be together forever.
He was a jock, not someone that I would normally date. Did I really want to be put on the back burner when it came to sports? Don’t think so. But Chris was always sweet, surprising me with odd dates that I would never expect and always being a perfect gentleman.
We had a lot in common, when it came to our parents, and they were all overjoyed that we were dating, often going out as families to the country clubs. Things started to change during the summer though.
While the whole school thought I was far from a virgin, they all guessed wrong. Chris, at first, was fine with things going slow, but after awhile started to pressure me. We had ended things, well more like me, right at the end of our senior year, and I had been avoiding him ever since as much as I could. It turned out to be pretty easy since he had gone away for school but he always came back every summer.
I figured I might as well get this over with. After tomorrow I wouldn’t have to see him or anyone else for a while. “Fine, Chris.” I huffed out. “Ian, I’ll meet you in a minute, ‘kay?” I gave him a sweet smile before turning an angry glare back to Chris. “Okay, you have like two minutes. I’m a little busy if you couldn’t tell, so get on with it.”
“Addy, why do you have to be like this? And why the hell do you have to do it with that a*shole of all people?” He was one of the few people that were allowed to get away with a nickname for me. My mother thought they weren’t proper and quickly corrected anyone who tried to give me one. Chris was one of the exceptions.
He reached up a hand to place on my cheek, but I quickly knocked it away and remained silent. “Fine.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets and looked down at the floor. “I just wanted to see how you were doing. I know things ended on kind of a bad note and I really don’t understand why they needed to. I’ve been really torn up about it.”
“Gee, I don’t know, Chris. It might have had something to do with that one night we were both shit-faced and you did whatever the f*ck you wanted to do with me. Do you really understand what I went through after that? So don’t go telling me about how torn up you’ve been, because we all know that’s one big lie. All of the skanky girls that you’ve been with since certainly proves it.” Did he not think I heard the gossip even if he had been away at school? I turned on my heel, but his hand gripped tightly onto my forearm, and I squirmed to get out of his hold.
“You and I both know how much you wanted it, Adelaide,” he hissed into my ear, before letting go of my arm. “You haven’t really been helping your case much by all of the guys you’ve been with. So don’t even try and pull that pathetic ass shit with me. As for what you had to deal with afterwards, well that was your own fault,” he smirked. “You could have come to me instead of turning to that bitch of a mother of yours. That was your entire fault.” My mouth gaped open at him, but no sound came out. My fault? My fault? How could I have ever thought that Chris was my soul mate or some stupid shit like that?
I was done. Completely done with men, well that is, besides to use them. My heart was being guarded by an iron cage from now on. But one thing was for sure. I would, at least, never have to see that a*shole again.