Chapter 2- Trent
“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.