CHATROOM
LOVE
Chapter Twenty
"You kids are welcome to stay for dinner, if you
like."
"No, thanks." Dawn grabbed her coat and
dragged Tommy towards the door. "We have reservations at Earl’s. Thanks
for the offer, though."
Fabrizio got up and glanced at the blond girl next to
him. "Sì! Helga and I have curfew. It is set up by Exchange Canada, so our
host parents don't worry."
"Thank you for the offer, though." Helga
smiled.
Margaret looked at the people remaining in the living
room. Trudy had taken the babies upstairs for naps, then decided to lay down
herself for a while, exhausted by the emotions brought forth by telling her
story. John, Kenneth, and Jack still sat on the couch, while Sandy sat in
Rose’s lap and Johnny played by himself on the floor.
"Rose? Do you want to stay for dinner?"
Rose looked at Jack uncertainly. "I’m not sure.
Jack and I were thinking of going somewhere tonight, but if you want to have a
family dinner…"
"I think we’ll wait on that until tomorrow
night," John told her, getting up and taking Sandy from her. "It’s
already six o’clock, and everyone is tired. Since nobody seems to want to stay,
I think we’ll just heat up some leftovers." He looked to his wife for her
opinion.
Margaret nodded. "Yes. I think tomorrow will be
better for a big dinner. Jack, you can go, if you want."
Jack nodded, then glanced at Kenneth. It had been so
long since he had seen his sister, but he would be back later, and the Bolts
were planning on staying for at least three weeks.
Kenneth saw the glance and nodded. "Go ahead,
Jack. Trudy was pretty tired when she went upstairs. She’ll probably sleep
until morning, or at least until the twins start fussing. If I get to them
first, she can get a good night’s rest—the first she’s had since Tuesday. She
won’t mind if you go out with your girlfriend tonight."
"Okay." Jack got up, offering Rose a hand to
help her up off the floor. He looked back at his cousins. "I won’t be out
too late—probably not later than eleven."
John nodded. "That’s fine, Jack. Go on. Stay out
of trouble."
"Don’t I always?" Jack made a face at his
cousins as he and Rose walked out the door, hand-in-hand.
*****
"Where do you want to go?" Rose asked, as they
got into the car and pulled away from the townhouse.
Jack shrugged. "I don’t know. What about
you?"
Rose thought for a moment. "Why don’t we get a
pizza and go back to my house? I have some DVD’s we could watch."
He nodded. "Sounds good. I have to admit, I’m
kind of tired."
"Me, too. It’s been an eventful day. What your
sister said about the World Trade Centre…how awful. All those people died, and
for no good reason."
"I know. I read that there were some American
religious leaders who said that God caused the tragedy, because of all the sins
America has committed."
"What do you think?"
"I think that’s bullshit. America isn’t a
horrible, sinful place, or that it is rotting from within, like one of those
people said. God didn’t hijack those planes—people did. I don’t know, but I
think it was more likely that God was making people late for work and sending
them fleeing from the building." He grew quiet, thinking about just how
close he had come to losing his sister. "Or making normally rational people
panic, ultimately saving their lives. It could have been worse, but a lot of
people did survive, and a lot more got together to help. Those damned
terrorists didn’t destroy America like they’d hoped—what they succeeded in
doing was getting people to come together." He laughed dryly. "I’ll
bet that wasn’t what they had in mind."
Rose leaned forward as they pulled into the parking
lot of their favourite pizza place. "Probably not. But it’s sad that so many
people died—people that had friends and families, and hadn’t done anything
wrong. It’ll be a long time before people start to forget, I’m sure."
"I don’t think Americans will ever forget."
Rose raised an eyebrow. "You’ve taken history,
Jack, just like I have. Even if the people who lived through it don’t forget,
the ones who come after will, and it’ll just be one more thing in the history
books. You know, ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’,
like my history teacher, Ms. Brown, says."
Jack shuddered at the idea. "I hope not." He
shook his head, trying to put the thought out of his mind. "Let’s go get
something to eat."
*****
Jack and Rose sat on the end of Rose’s bed, their
plates heaped with pizza, while Rose grumbled at the remote control for her DVD
player.
"I hate new technology," she grumbled.
"I always have to learn how to use it. How do I get this thing to play the
movie?"
Jack didn’t know much about DVD players, but he leaned
over to look at the remote anyway. "Maybe it would help if you pushed
play," he suggested.
Rose gave him a baleful look. "Duh. I already
tried that." Sighing, she pushed the play button again, to be rewarded
with the start of the movie. "Well, I’ll be damned. It worked this time.
Maybe I didn’t push it hard enough last time."
They sat back against a stack of pillows, eating pizza
and watching The Quick and the Dead. Halfway through the movie, they
leaned back drowsily, stuffed with food and tired from the long day.
Rose looked up as Jack leaned against her, then smiled
when she saw that he was sleeping peacefully. Turning off the television, she
set the remote aside, leaning against him and reflecting that he was cute when
he was asleep.
*****
The sound of a car door slamming jolted Rose awake.
Sitting up so quickly that she felt dizzy, she shook Jack, who was only
starting to wake up.
"Jack, wake up! Somebody’s here!"
He sat up, rubbing his eyes, not sure where he was for
a moment. "What?"
"Somebody’s here!" Rose jumped up and
hurried to her window, pulling back the curtains and looking out. "It’s
Mom. She was taking tennis lessons at the club, and then having dinner. I
didn’t expect her home so early…oh, no."
"Now what?"
Rose pointed to the clock. "Jack, it’s 11:30! You
were supposed to be home half an hour ago, and I wasn’t supposed to have you
over here at all." She looked out the window again, her eyes widening at
the sight of the man who had accompanied her mother home. "Oh, my God.
Dawn was right."
"About what?"
"About Mom and Spicer Lovejoy. Look."
Jack looked out the window, his eyes widening at the
sight of Rose’s mother kissing a man dressed for playing tennis. "Who is
he?"
"He’s the tennis instructor at the club. No
wonder Mom stayed out so late."
"I think I remember you and Dawn talking about him."
"Yeah. We thought he might be in a relationship
with Mom, but we weren’t sure. It would be something they would have to hide,
of course. Our crowd would be scandalized."
"Why?"
"Because he works for us, that’s why. I mean, you
saw how shocked some people were when you visited the club with me. Well, it’s
even more shocking to get involved with someone who works there, unless they’re
the owner or something."
"What do you think of him?"
Rose shrugged. "I’m not real fond of him. He’s
kind of mean sometimes, and acts stuck-up when people don’t learn tennis as
fast as he’d like. But if he makes Mom happy…I guess I can tolerate him. She’s
been so sad since Dad died…but she seems a lot happier now." She looked
out the window again, then stepped back as Ruth looked up.
The front door opened a moment later, and they could
hear Ruth saying good night to Lovejoy. Rose looked around the room
frantically.
"If Mom finds you’re here, we’re both in
trouble," she whispered to Jack. "You need to hide…" She pushed him
towards her walk-in closet. "In here. Don’t come out until I open the
door."
"Rose…" Jack protested, but she had already
shoved him inside and closed the door.
Trying to look innocent, Rose left her room and
greeted her mother as she came up the stairs. "Hi, Mom. How was your
evening?"
"It was fine, Rose. I’m guessing that you know
about Spicer and me now."
Rose nodded her head. "Um…yeah. I saw you from my
window."
"I know you don’t get along with him very well,
Rose, but—"
"It’s fine, Mom. If he makes you happy, then…I’m
happy for you. I’ll try to get along with him."
"Thank you, Rose." Ruth stopped, looking
into Rose’s room. "All right, Rose. Where is he?"
Rose knew immediately who her mother was referring to,
but tried to hide it. "Where is who?"
"Jack. I know he’s here, Rose. I saw the two of
you in the window."
"Well…uh…"
"Rose, you know that I don’t like you to have
boys over when I’m not here. Remember what happened the last time?"
Rose turned red, remembering her mother walking in on
Cal’s attempt to rape her. "That was different, Mom. Jack is nothing like
Cal."
"The rule still stands, Rose. You’re only
seventeen, and I don’t want you getting into trouble."
"We didn’t do anything wrong, Mom. We just ate
pizza and watched a movie."
"On your bed, when no one else was here. Believe
it or not, Rose, one thing can lead to another, even if you don’t intend
it."
"Mom…"
"I’m serious, Rose. I don’t want you inviting
boys over here when I’m not home. I’ll let you off the hook this time, but if
it happens again, you’re grounded."
Rose sighed, knowing that her mother was right, even
if she didn’t want to admit it. "Okay, Mom. I won’t invite him over if you
aren’t here, and if he comes over and you’re not around, we’ll go somewhere
else."
"Good. Now, where is he?"
Rose turned and walked to the closet, opening the
door. "You can come out now."
Jack stepped out of the closet, almost tripping over
Rose’s shoe rack. Rose looked at him, then turned red, gesturing to him to look
at his foot. He did, turning red as well as he unwrapped one of her bras from
around his shoe.
Ruth looked at them, unable to hide her amusement.
Jack looked at her, a little sheepishly.
"Sorry, Mrs. DeWitt-Bukater. I didn’t mean to get
Rose in trouble." He turned even redder, realizing what that sounded like.
"I mean…uh…nothing happened. It was like Rose said…we just ate pizza and
watched a movie. It wasn’t even a romantic movie. It was a western."
"All right, Jack. I believe you. But I want both
of you to remember that rule. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, Mom."
"Yes, Mrs. DeWitt-Bukater."
Ruth nodded. "Good. Now, I believe it’s time for
Jack to go home, since it’s almost midnight. Wasn’t your sister coming in from
New York today?"
"Uh…yeah…she’s at my cousins’ house, with her husband
and twin daughters. We picked her up at the airport earlier, and talked for a
while. She was getting some rest, so we went out for a while." He looked
at Rose. "I guess I’d better get going, before Uncle John and Aunt
Margaret get upset—if they’re not already."
"Yeah." Rose thought about kissing him, then
thought better of it with her mother watching. "Good night, Jack. Drive
safely."
"Yeah. I’ll see you Monday. If you’re on-line
tomorrow, maybe we can chat."
"Yeah. Good night."
Rose watched as Jack hurried down the stairs, eager to
be gone before he annoyed her mother more. Ruth looked at her seriously.
"Remember what I said, Rose."
She sighed. "I will, Mom."