Chapter Eleven

They didn’t make it.  Alison jumped off of the bed and pushed Justin up, too, so she could smooth out the mess they’d made of her comforter. Then they frantically rushed out of the bedroom door, which was being held open by Sam, only to see her father standing down at the end of the hallway.

He looked like he was going to kill someone.  Alison had never, ever seen him look anywhere close to how angry he was.  She tentatively began, “Daddy, it’s not—“

“I don’t want to hear a word from you until I speak to you, do you understand, Alison?” he dad practically yelled, making her and Sam wince. Justin, however, wasn’t scared at all.  He knew something like this would happen eventually; her parents would catch the together when they weren’t supposed to be and throw a fit.  He’d actually planned for it to happen, not on purpose but in a roundabout way.

He was tired of dealing with curfews and strict parents.  Alison was eighteen and should be able to go on a fucking date, he thought bitterly, without them freaking out her being late one night.  He’d been nothing but a perfect gentleman to her and her parents and sister so he didn’t understand what the big deal was.  She was eighteen; she was bound to become sexually active at some age!

“Mr. Welch—“ he began, only to be cut off by the still irate man.

“”The only thing I want to hear from you is good-bye,” he told Justin.  “I won’t have anyone disrespecting my house in such a manner; I don’t care who it is.  Alison’s always behaved beautifully until you came into the picture.  I don’t know what it is but there’s something about you that makes me want to grab her and hold her away from you.  Now get out of here and don’t come back,” he finished firmly.

Justin shrugged.  “We weren’t doing anything wrong, sir.  I came by to see Alison to just say hello for a few minutes.  And her behavior seems perfectly fine to me – now that she’s not cooped up inside of this house like a prisoner.”

“Justin, stop, please.  I can take care of this,” Alison pleaded but he ignored her.  He was going to have his say.

“I love Ali and she loves me and we’re together now.  Grounding her isn’t going to make me go away.  Whatever you try to do to block us, we’ll still be in love and see each other some kind of way.  So you might want to get used to me being around.”

Mr. Welch looked apoplectic.  “Boy, Get OUT of MY house before I call the damn police!”  Alison was worried he’d have a stroke in the condition he was in.

“Justin, please listen to him.  Just go.  We’ll talk later,” she whispered to him but Mr. Welch heard her.

“Oh no you won’t be ‘talking later’,” he said snidely.  “Alison, you are not to see this boy ever again, do you understand me?  A long as you‘re under my roof, you will do as I say!” he ordered a meek Alison.  She’d never gotten in trouble like this before, although Sam had.  But Sam didn’t care; she could take it or leave it -- her parent’s behavior – while Alison had always cried just because her sister was in trouble and her father was mad.

Alison hated when her mom or dad got angry with her.  A small part of her always wondered if they would one day be sick of her, since she wasn’t really their daughter, and throw her out or turn their back on her.  They hadn’t done a single thing to warrant this kind of fear, but Alison had it nonetheless.

“Daddy, okay, I understand,” she replied, pushing Justin past her dad to the front door.  “Shhh,” she said when he tried to say anything.  I’ll call you tonight.  Just go.  Please.”

Grudgingly, Justin left the house and got into his Navigator.  He didn’t want to leave; he wanted Alison to come with him.  She didn’t deserve to be yelled at in such a way as her father had.  He could easily take care of himself, he thought.  And judging from her reaction to her father’s words, she didn’t care what he thought about not seeing him.

He knew they’d be together again the next day.  And if things kept going this way, Mr. Welch might be doing just the opposite of what he really wanted to do – push Alison right into his waiting arms.  It was sort of sad, he thought, that he was unknowingly helping Justin out – because he was going to have her in his apartment, come hell or high water.

Finally satisfied that things would eventually turn his way, he turned on the ignition and drove off into the night.

*~*

Inside, Alison was shaking, she was so scared.  Her father had ordered her into the living room and was berating her for betraying their trust and not sticking to her punishment.  He went on and on about how she’d been behaving lately and said it was all because of Justin.  That’s when she’d heard enough.

“Look, Daddy, I know you’re mad but I didn’t do anything, okay?  I’m not having sex, I’m not skipping school or getting bad grades, I’m doing everything that I’m supposed to be doing!” she exclaimed loudly.  “I just finally got a boyfriend and you’re flipping out for no reason!  Justin is a good guy and I do love him, Dad.  And I’m not gonna stop seeing him.”

Mr. Welch looked shocked.  “Are you saying you’ re going against my decision?  You’re telling me what you’re going to do?”  He shook his head in disgust.  “What has this man done to you, Ali?  This isn’t the daughter I know and love.  You would never sneak around or lie to us but ever since Justin came into the picture, you’ve done nothing but lie.  Don’t think we didn’t notice that expensive necklace you’ve been wearing lately,” he informed her, much to her surprise.

He paced back and forth in front of where Alison sat in her chair, while Sam stood in the doorway taking it all in.  “We figured we’d give you some time to get to know this fellow, maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy.  He seemed nice enough.  But first you come home after two in the morning, then you lie to us about where you’ve been, and catching him in your bedroom?  Well, that’s the final straw.  I cannot and will not condone such activity in my house from my daughters.”

Alison listened to him lecture her and for some reason she stopped feeling guilty.  She just got angrier and angrier.  For years she’d done nothing but kowtow to her parents’ wishes, never doing anything slightly rebellious.  She sat around the house with them constantly while Sam dated and did almost whatever she wanted.  And now that she had found someone, someone that she loved and that loved her back, they were trying to take it away for her.

Alison never asked for anything.  Sam would beg for money for clothes and the like, and Alison would always be given the same amount of money as Sam.  Or if their parents bought one of them something, they usually got something for the other as well, even on birthdays and Christmas.  But Alison never made up wish lists or wrote letters to Santa, which drove her mom crazy.  It was just that she was grateful that she had somewhere to stay where she was accepted and wanted.  That had been more than enough for her.  But now, the one thing she wanted more than anything was being threatened and it made her feel rage like she’d never experienced before.

“Well did you ever think about the fact that I’m not your daughter?” she angrily, bringing the subject up for first time in years, almost shocking herself by her harsh words. “Maybe I’m just some dumb slut, Dad, that doesn’t know what she’s doing.  Maybe that’s why I’ve been hanging out with Justin, sleeping around and drinking and doing crazy other stuff.  But somehow I managed to keep my A average anyway,” she said in an uncharacteristically sarcastic tone.  “But yeah, throw out everything I’ve done for the past seven years – which was anything and everything you guys wanted me to do – and ‘let’s take away the first guy Alison really loves?  She won’t care, we’ll just tell her to make some cookies or whatever.  She’ll be fine.’”

She stood up even though her dad was towering over her.  At any given second she was bound to burst into hysterical tears but she refused to do it in front of him.  “I can’t believe you’re treating me like this, Dad.  All because I was hanging out with a guy in my bedroom  with my sister,” she fibbed a little.  “I know you said I shouldn’t see him anymore but I told you that I would.  And I’m going to again, I promise you that.  So if this is going to be a big problem for you, let me know right now and I’ll make other arrangements.”

“Other arrangements?”  Mr. Welch hollered to Alison’s back, because she had turned and walked away after her tirade, brushing past Sam as if she wasn’t there.  “You mean living with that boy?  You’re not going anywhere—“

“I didn’t say I was going  -- not yet, anyway,” Alison stopped and turned to look at her father.  “But like I said, if there’s a problem, you need to let me know.  Because I’m not giving him up!”  And with that, she entered the bedroom and slammed the door as hard as she could.

Then she flopped down on the bed where she could still smell Justin’s cologne and cried her eyes out.

They were not going to ruin this for her, she thought, hot tears running down her face.  The more she thought about it the more she realized that Justin was right; she was an adult, a mature and responsible one who could make her own decisions.  And right now she was making a doozy of one.

Sitting up, she slid Justin’s cell phone out from between her mattresses and dialed his number.  Her head lowered, she spoke quietly whe n he answered.

“Ali?  You okay?”

She took a deep breath.  If she did this, there was no turning back.  “I think you were right,” she answered.

Justin knew what she was talking about but decided to play dumb so he could hear it all straight from the horse’s mouth.  “Right about what?” C’mon, Alison, he thought.  Say what I wanna hear.

She sighed, sniffling a little.  “About moving in with you.  I think, if it’s okay with you about going to school and everything else, maybe I should move in.  What do you think?”  She was still unsure that she was doing the right thing because not seeing him was like cutting off her air supply. It simply wasn’t an option.

Justin smiled in his car and heaved a sigh of relief.  “Of course it’s okay with me, baby.  It was my idea, remember?”

She nodded even though he couldn’t see her.  “Yes, it was,” she recalled.

“Stop crying sweetie,” he said, trying to get her to calm down.  She was hiccupping and sniffling and sobbing between every word. 

“When do you want me to come get you?” he asked, ready to make a u-turn to get her right then.

And that was the million dollar question.