Chapter Four --- All You Need is...
Murder...That's all that was going through my mind while Paul followed me around like a lost puppy. I'd thought he would show up close to the end of my shift...but no he showed up after I had only been at work for about thirty minutes. This was starting to be very annoying, though the other girls at work thought it was funny, I failed to see the humor in a love-sick idiot stalking me.
"Paul," I groaned. "Go home...You know I don't like when you come visit me at work...or visit me period for that matter."
"What exactly are you trying to say?" he asked, with a soft, but pitiful voice.
"Paul...I don't like you the way you want me to. And I'm almost convinced I will not able to like you as a friend if you keep following me around everywhere," I snapped. "It's embarassing to me and to you. So, why don't you just give up already?"
"Rita," Paul stated. "I've never felt like this about anyone...I love ya."
I rolled my eyes and walked up to the next parking meter. The meter was up...had been for my last two rounds which roughly took about thirty minutes each. I pulled out my little white book and startedwriting up at ticket for an hour over due. When the owner...my stepfather...ran up.
"What the hell are you doin' Rita? Y' know I get special parking privilages," he growled.
"I haven't been informed of any Mr. Mustard, so...you're getting a ticket. Weather you want one or not, and I highly recommend if you go back into that building...to put more money in the meter."
I was about to walk off when Paul grabbed my wrist. I turned to look at him as he got down on his knees. "Lovely Rita, meter maid, will you please take the time to have some tea with me?"
My stepfather got a grin on his face...which was scarier than his frown. "Who's this one? One of the one's you got so good he can't let ya go?"
"Shut-up Matthew," I snapped. "And for your information, this is one of Johnny's friends. He's right-out obessed with me. And won't leave me alone after I've told him I wouldn't date him if he was the last person left on the planet."
My stepfather looked at Paul and smirked. "Why bother with a date? She'll sleep with anybody as long as they don't want a serious rlationship."
I honestly do not know which of us was more angry at Matthew for that comment, but Paul was the first one to voice his opinion. "Look 'ere Mustard. Rita may have done some things in 'er past that give 'er a bad name...but don't ya go talkin' bad about 'er. She's a nice bird with a good 'eart. I'm not interested in her for her reputation...I'm interest in her because i want t' know 'er better. She's a smart girl, an' knows what she's doin' so..." Paul voice then dropped to a challenging growl. "...Back off."
I stood there completely dumbfounded. That had been a first. No one had ever stood up to my stepfather while he was raggin' me or my older sisters. And of all people, the one I would have least expected to do it...had done it.
I slowly pulled away from Paul, not taking my eyes off of him. I didn't know what to think. All I knew was that I had suddenly found respect for Paul. And that was a dangerous thing to me. Even my stepfather looked like he had met his match. I slowly turned and walked toward the building that held the offices for the meter maids. It was the end of my shift anyway, and I had some thinking to do.
I never made it to the doorway...I had to stop at the cement bench outside and sit down. I buried my face in my hands and sighed heavily. Newfound respect deserves a reward, my mind screamed. I don't know how long I had been sitting there when someone sat beside me and gently rubbed my back in an assuring manner.
"It's goin' to alright Rita," Paul's soft voice said close to me ear. "I don' believe a thing 'e said about you."
"How could you stand up for me?" I asked asked. "I've been so rude to you but you still..."
"Love rules say that it doesn't matter how mean y' are to me...I'll still love ya no matter what," Paul replied. He put his finger under my chin and made me look into his big brown eyes. "Y' may not feel the same, but that doesn' change the feelings I 'ave for ya." He then wiped away some tears I didn't noticed had streamed down my face.
I'm not sure why, but I made the choice to trust him. "Y' still wan' that tea?" I asked with a slight smile.
"You bet I do Lovely Rita," he whispered. "An' who know, maybe I'll write a song about it."
----
You all are probably familiar with the song Paulie wrote about our first date. But I'm going to tell you about it anyway, because it's a fond memory of mine in the life I had so long ago...
"Want to share some chips?" Paul asked, interrupting my search through the juke box for my favorite songs.
"I thought we came out for tea?" I teased. "An' now yer tryin' to buy me dinner an' all...but alright."
So, Paul got a large order of what the Americans call "french fries"...but we here in Liverpool call "chips." Paul then had fun flipping the song lists back while I tried to flip them forward.
I had changed clothes before leaving work, so I looked like a normal teenager...ahead of my times, but still a teenager in my dark jeans than flared out slightly at the knees and a stretchy shirt that seemed more like a second skin instead of a shirt. When I had walked out to meet him, I swear it took me ten minutes to pick his jaw up off the ground. But here we were, at the most popular teen hang-out in Liverpool besides the Cavern...drinking cola's, sharing an order of chips, and playing with the jukebox across from our table.
There was some depressing rock and roll song playing on the jukebox. I was trying to hunt down one of my favorite songs...Twenty-Flight Rock. Which I soon found out was one of Paul's favorites as well.
"There it 'tis," Paul said, putting in the number. "Now, we just wait."
"Cor," I groaned. "This song is so bleedin' depressin' though Paulie. Wah-wah-wah she's gone forever...wah-wah-wah..." Then I hit the jukebox firmly, making the song currently one go off. "That shoul' do it."
A few seconds later the loud rock started..."Some people like to rock, some people like to roll..."
So, Paul and I went back to our little table, laughing. We were getting a few strange stares from some of the other teens in there, so I said, "You might wanna take a photograph luvs...It'll last longer." They instantly went back to their own business.
"That was a good one Rita," Paul chuckled. He gently took my hand and kissed my fingertips. "I would really like to do this again sometime Rita...It's been a while since I've had this much fun on a date. We left your job at Three...and it's already Nine."
At that point, even I had to admit it had been fun. I couldn't believe we'd been out for six hours and the most he'd done was kiss my fingertips! He had the curteous of a knight. He wasn't just a normal "pretty boy" I had finally realized. He'd been raised as a gentleman. "Yer amazing Paulie...yer way too nice to be hangin' out with the likes of Johnny," I laughed.
Paul looked into my eyes. "Well, would ya like to go out with me again Rita?"
"Yes!" I exclaimed, drawing a few looks from the other patrons. "Oh mind yer own damn business why don' ya? The lot of ya are so numb t' emotions ya forgot what it looks like when people 'ave fun."
The waitress brought the ticket and I snatched it up before Paul could. "I got it Paulie," I said. He tried to convince me to let him pay it because he felt the "lady" shouldn't pay for anything on a date. Fancy that...'e called me a "lady," I'd never been called one of those before... Before he could get the bill from me, I skipped up to the register and paid it. "You can pay me back later," I said with a wink.
He apparently caught my meaning because he said, "No, no, no...It's only our first date luv." Something else I'd never heard a guy say before...
When we left, Paulie held the door open for me then raced to the car so he could open that door as well. He escorted me to my door. But I wasn't ready to call it a night yet. "You...want to come in?"
"Your parents in?"
"They left for London after Matthew got home...but my sisters should be here." Apparently he thought I was going to try and attack him...
He followed me inside. Pam and Loretta were sitting on the sofa watching a movie on the telly and crying. Pam just offered us a wave of greeting, whereas Loretta just looked Paul over with a slight smile on her face. At that moment I felt sorry for my kid half-sister...
Two years my junior...she had sever emotional problems. Low self-esteem. And tried too hard to be like me. Only thing was...I had self-confidence and didn't come out looking like a slut the way she did. I didn't do what I did for exceptance like Lori did, I did it because I wanted everyone to know the wonder that is Cynrita Trinidad O'Tell (I had a big ego in those days).
Paul and I joined my sisters on the sofa and watched...I think it was...Casablanca. Within minutes, Paul and I were bored and started making-out. After a few more minutes, I could hear my sisters taking bets on how long we would be at it.
"Hey hey hey!!!" Pam exclaimed, as Paul and I started getting a little more frisky. "There's people in here!!!"
So, sadly, Paul left after we made plans for dinner the next night.
"I hope you are happy with your-virgin-self," I growled. "Paul is the nicest guy I have ever been on a date with."
"Sounds like a personal problem Rita," Pam grinned. "And just because I'm a virgin is no reason to get in all of a tizzy because I saved your next victim."
Sometimes, Pam got on my nerves, but that's only because she was the conscious I seemed to have lost. She always made good points about things. "Well..." I corrected after a few seconds. "I hope you're happy with your-alcoholic-self."
That wasn't my wittiest comeback, but at least it was true. "I'm going to bed," I sighed. "Night Lori...Night Polythene Pam."
I could tell Pam started grinding her teeth and her face turned red. "Oh...piss off," she snapped as I reached the stairway.
Chapter Five
