ASHLEY:

      As I pull into the driveway, I see Cyndee's parents exiting the house, headed toward Mr. McCracken's Mercedes. Her mom glances up and sees me, calling, "Good morning, Ashley! Go on in, Cyndee is just about finished with her shower, she should be down soon."

      "Okay, thanks!" I call back, locking my door and heading up the driveway, as Cyndee's dad sort of glowers at me. I've spoken to them a few times in the last month, since Cyndee and I started dating, and he doesn't seem to care for me much, even though her mom is reasonably pleasant. I actually mentioned that to the guys once, and Law said that he wasn't surprised, because most dads didn't like guys they thought might be banging their daughters. So I suppose it's a good thing that he's just suspicious, because if he knew some of the things we've actually been doing, he probably would've run me over as soon as I got out.

      "Hurry up and get in the car, Helen!" he grumbles. "We need to get to Wayne's office and get this paperwork started, if we want to get everything done before we leave for the cruise!"

      "Oh, keep your shirt on, Rodney. He said he wouldn't be in until nine anyway, so we'll just be sitting there waiting," she replies, but starts moving toward the car again anyway. 

      I go inside as they drive away, and walk through the living room toward the staircase, glancing around as I go. I've been here a few times, and for some reason it just seems to me like there's something off about the place, but I can't quite pin down what it is. I mean, it's a nice house and everything, but it just feels peculiar to me.

      I sprint up the stairs to her room, and open the door to find her standing in front of the vanity in just a pair of red panties, brushing her hair. She glances into the mirror, sees me come in, and says, "Hi there! I didn't figure you'd be up this early."

      "I'm covering the morning shift today, remember? My grandparents are flying in this afternoon for Christmas, so I swapped with Zeke."

      "Oh, yeah, that's today," she replies. "What time are you going to pick them up?"

      "Their plane is supposed to get in at five, assuming it's on time, so we should be back at my place before six. You are still gonna be there, right?" I inquire. I recently asked her to move in with me, since she's there quite a bit anyway, but she pointed out that my place is barely big enough for me, let alone for her and her stuff, and I have to admit that she has a point. But I definitely want my grandparents to meet her, so I've asked her to be there tonight.

      She picks a bra up from her chair and starts putting it on. "Sure thing, babe. I'm getting ready for work myself, but I should be done way before that," she confirms.

      I reach out and fasten the clasp for her, then pull her into my arms and kiss her. Then when I come up for air, I remind her, "And please remember that there are... certain things we don't want to talk about in front of them, okay?"

      She raises an eyebrow at me and giggles. "Ash, you're twenty-four years old! Don't tell me you've managed to convince them that you're still a virgin or something like that!"

      "No, I think they probably know that ship sailed back in high school. I still don't plan to engage in a discussion on the subject with them, though. But that wasn't exactly what I was referring to."

      She nods as she gets my point. "Of course not. That's not really something I want to share with my folks, either."

      I look over at the clock and realize that I have to leave if I don't want to be late for work, so I kiss her again and head out into the hall. As I do, I happen to glance at the door to Billy's room, which has been closed every time I've been here. Cyndee said that she went to visit some relatives just a few days after the last time I saw her, which seems a bit odd, since there should have been at least a couple of weeks left of school before the holiday break.

      "Hey, Cyndee?" I say, and she turns to look at me. "When is your sister supposed to be back?"

       "I thought I already told you that," she replies. "I guess it just slipped my mind. She's not coming back, she's staying with Mom's sister and her husband, apparently they already have her in school and everything. Why?"

      "Just curious, I guess. You mean your folks are okay with that?"

      I'm totally shocked when she dismissively remarks, "Of course they're okay with it, Dad's just pissed because they didn't think of it themselves! I guess when she was hanging around annoying you guys at the club she never got around to telling you that the only reason she's even here is because my grandfather found out that Mom was pregnant when he overheard her and Dad making an appointment to take care of the problem, and threatened to disinherit Dad if they did it. And the thing that really sucks is that he pretty much turned around and did it anyway. They got the house, but all of his money is in some sort of trust for Billy."

      I don't even know how to respond to this, so I tell her goodbye and leave to go to work. Then, as I'm walking back through the living room, something finally clicks in my brain, and I realize what's so weird about this place. I think about my grandparents house, and how it's full of pictures and mementos of all of their kids and grandkids, and compare it to this house. Everywhere I look, there are pictures of Cyndee, from birth up to now, plus her pageant trophies, magazines and catalogs she's been in, and anything else imaginable, but not one single picture of Billy. No awards, no drawings, nada, it's like she never even lived here. Fuck, no wonder she's so jealous of Cyndee, when their parents do crap like this! 

      I head in to work, and I'm actually glad that we're kind of busy, because it helps me keep my mind off of the fact that I haven't had anything since yesterday evening. I'm not stupid enough to come to work high, because there's too much risk of fucking up someone's ink.  And working for Sheena, the first time that happened would be the last, because she'd bounce me out on my ass so fast I'd probably get motion sickness, and probably do her damndest to make sure that nobody else would hire me. And there's no way in hell I'm gonna get wasted while Nan and Pop are here, so it looks like I'm just going to have to make do with beer and Jack.

      I finish my shift around one o'clock and text Cyndee to see if she wants to hang out, but she's still working, so I go grab some lunch. While I'm eating, I get a text from Rob asking me if I've talked to either Dori or Billy, which is kind of odd, so I call him. "Hey, dude, what's this all about?" I ask.

      "Well, you know that neither of them have come to the last few shows, and the only thing I've heard from Dori is that she got into some sort of trouble at school, so her folks took away her phone," he explains. "Johnny the bartender told me that Billy is Cyndee's sister, so I thought that since the two of you are gettin' it on, maybe Billy had said something to you."

      "Sorry, man, I have no clue about that. I can tell you why we haven't seen Billy around, though. She left to go stay with some relatives not long after Cyndee and I got together, and apparently she's staying wherever she is and finishing out school there."

      "Oh, okay then," he says. "That explains her part, but I'd still like to know what's up with Dori, if she's trying to avoid me or something."

      I happen to look up and see Johnny getting up from a table in the corner, and mention it to Rob. "Dude, catch him before he leaves! He's Dori's cousin, so maybe he knows what the deal is!" 

      I catch Johnny's attention, and he ambles over to my table. "Hey man, how's it goin'?" he asks.

      "A bit busy, but good. Listen, dude, I've got Rob on the phone, and he's freaking out because Dori's gone radio silent, he's kinda worried about whether she's trying to ditch him or something. Do you happen to know anything?'

      He snorts, and replies, "Very doubtful, man. From what I've heard of what Aunt Reiko has told my mom, my dingbat little cousin has just been on lockdown since she got suspended from school before Thanksgiving. Tell ya what, though, Mom asked me to go over there and pick up a few things for her, so if you guys wanna tag along, maybe they'll let her talk to him for a few."

      I pass this on to Rob, and he jumps on the idea, so Johnny follows me to Rob's place, and then we follow him to Dori's. I park by the curb, and the three of us walk up to the door, which Johnny simply swings open, with out even knocking. "Aunt Reiko, it's me!" he yells, and after a few seconds we hear footsteps coming down the hall.

      A woman's voice replies, "There's no need to shout, Johnny," and a rather short Japanese lady comes into the room, seeming a little surprised to see us. She says, "Hello, Robert. And good afternoon to you, too, young man."

      "Hello, Mrs. Anderson," I say, giving her a bit of a wave.

      "Aunt Reiko, this is our buddy Ashley, he's the singer for the band Rob works for," Johnny explains. "And I'm sorry for springing company on you unannounced, but Rob was a little worried, since Dori has been incommunicado, so I thought maybe you'd let him see her for a few."

      She frowns at him for a minute, but then nods, and turns back to Rob. "Yes, that will be acceptable. I suppose you deserve an explanation of why she hasn't contacted you, and I should have thought of this myself. It was very inconsiderate to make you worry, and I apologize."

      He says that everything is cool, and she offers us something to drink, saying that Dori will be home from school in about ten minutes or so. She tells Johnny where to find the things his mom wants , and Rob and I help him carry the stuff out to his car while she pours us some lemonade. Then we sit and make some rather awkward small talk until the door opens, and we hear, "Mom, I'm home!"

      "In the kitchen, Midori. We have guests, so come along now."

      She walks into the kitchen, and I'm honestly not sure who's more surprised: Her when she sees us there, or us when we see the stereotypical Catholic-schoolgirl uniform that she's wearing. Johnny and Rob are blinking like they've just lost a contact lens, and the only thing I can manage to say is, "Whoa!"

      "Yeah, I know, right?" she mutters. "But what are you guys doing here?"

      "Robert was concerned since he hasn't spoken to you in some time, which I admit was thoughtless of your father and I," her mom tells her. "So I've decided to allow you to speak with him, and explain exactly why you're on restriction."

      It doesn't escape any of us that she sort of flinches at that, and looks like she'd love to crawl through the floor or something, and he inquires, "For starters, how about telling us how you got suspended from school? Was it some sort of prank or something?"

      She shakes her head, but doesn't say anything right away. We wait, and her mother sort of clears her throat, which makes Dori sort of jump in her seat. She won't look at any of us, but finally sort of mumbles, "No, it wasn't a prank. I got suspended for bullying, along with a couple of other girls."

      "You can't be fucking serious!" Johnny exclaims, and then tucks his head down when Dori's mom swats him, knocking a bit of his Mohawk askew.

      "You know that language isn't allowed here, Johnathan!"

      "Sorry, Aunt Reiko, I was just surprised," he says. "But still..."

      "What you just said," I offer.

      "Unfortunately, that's not the worst of it, gentlemen," Mrs Anderson announces. "Now why don't you tell them the entire story, and let them see how much of a failure I am as a parent?"

      Ouch, this lady is obviously a master guilt-tripper!

      Apparently Dori agrees, because she sort of cringes for a second, but then says, "Mom, I explained why it happened! Okay, maybe I shouldn't have joined in on the name-calling stuff, or said what I did about you, but did you expect me to just stand around twiddling my thumbs while my so-called 'friend' tried to screw me over?"

      "Wait a sec, now I'm confused," Rob announces. "How does saying stuff about your own mom classify as bullying somebody?"

      "Yes, dear, why don't you explain this to the poor boy, and help him to understand?" her mom prods, and there's something in her tone that tells me that it's not  merely a suggestion.

      "Well, I might have kinda told Billy that I was only hanging out with her because Mom made me," she admits. "But she deserved it, because she was trying to break us up!"

      "Are you on drugs?" Johnny interjects. "Why the hell would she do that?"

      She pauses, looking over at her mom like she doesn't want her to hear her answer, but finally says, "Because she didn't just want to be my 'friend', she wanted me to be her girlfriend! But that's not my thing!"

      At this particular moment, Rob and Johnny are both looking at her like she's sprouted a second head or something, and I think I may be doing the same thing, because I can't see that as anything near accurate. Yeah, the kid is definitely envious of her sister, and apparently prone to exaggerating things, but I'm reasonably sure that she wasn't putting out any signals that she had the hots for Dori.

      Johnny rolls his eyes and announces, "Y'know what I'm wondering right about now, little cousin? I'm wondering who's the bigger idiot: You, or this one?" And as he says this, I notice that he's actually pointing at me.

       "Hey, what did I do to get dragged into this?" I demand, and he rolls his eyes again.

      "I'm pretty sure you don't actually want the answer to that question, dude," he responds. "But I'm gonna give it to you anyway. I went to high school with Cyndee McCracken, so I know what sort of person she is, and I can't even begin to understand what you see in her! The girl was a sociopath in training back then, so I wouldn't even want to imagine what she's like now!"

      "What she's like now, Johnny, is a sweet girl, who I happen to like a lot. You know as well as I do that people do a lot of dumb shit when they're teenagers that they grow out of later, so unless you've talked to her recently, you shouldn't judge her by things that happened years ago!"

      "If you say so, Ash. But all I can do right now is go off of what I know, and back then I would've had to ask for a second opinion if she had told me that water was wet!"

      Before I can say anything to that, a phone rings, so we all check, and then Mrs. Anderson says, "I have to take this call, so I'll leave you to talk amongst yourselves for a few minutes, if you'll excuse me."

      She leaves the room, and the second she's out of sight, Dori pops out of her chair like she's on springs and basically launches herself at Rob, flinging her arms around him, and saying, "I've missed you so much, babe! I haven't had my phone for a month, and I can't email you or anything from school, because they have blocks on the computers."

      "I've missed you, too. And speaking of school, what's the deal with the "Oops, I Did It Again" castoffs you're wearing, anyway?"

      "Mom and Dad pulled me out of public school and decided to send me to St. Vincent de Paul, so I can 'be around more positive influences'. Plus, I'm gonna have to go to summer school to graduate on time anyway, since my English grade went belly up and made my GPA even worse than it was."

      "Too much time at the club, and not enough time on your schoolwork, huh, cuz?" Johnny teases. "Sorry, but that's your own fault."

      "No it isn't, it's Billy's!" she huffs, letting go of Rob and leaving the room. She comes back with a big manila envelope and waves it around. "I got this in the mail while I was suspended from my old school, just take a look and you'll see what I mean."

      Johnny takes the envelope from her and opens it, then reaches inside, coming out with a handful of shredded paper. Dropping it onto the counter, he empties the rest of the contents along with it, and a sheet of paper slides off and lands in my lap. I pick it up, and see that it's a note, which reads: 

      "Dori, Here's the Lit presentation. Since I've done everything up until now, I decided to let you some actual work. If you can put this back together, then you deserve the 'A'. If not... well, that's not my problem anymore, is it? Billy."

      I pass it around to Johnny, who scans it, frowns, and passes it to Rob. He reads it, then looks at her and inquires, "So am I interpreting this correctly if I'm thinking that she's saying that she was doing all of the work on a team project, by herself, and you were planning to accept a grade that you'd done nothing to earn?"

      "Well, she's better at that stuff than I am," she defends herself. "If I'd started messing with it, we probably wouldn't have gotten such good grades. And I wouldn't have had as much time to spend with you."

      "And did you think that maybe she might have had other things that she'd rather be doing?" Johnny chimes in.

      "Like what? It's not like she had any other friends to hang out with," she blurts, and almost immediately claps her hand over her mouth when she sees the look that Rob is giving her.

      "So what you're saying is that since she had no real friends, she should be happy to do your work, on top of her own, and holding down a job, is that right?" he grumbles. "You know, Dori, if I'd known you were this selfish and inconsiderate, I would have thought a bit more before I asked you out. Maybe I should do that now."

      Mrs. Anderson comes back in, and the three of us just sort of stand here and gape as they both basically have a meltdown. In the middle of the scream-fest, Johnny's phone rings, and he moves to the other side of the room to answer the call. I'm standing by the table, basically trying to avoid the fallout, and Mrs. Anderson is trying to get Rob and Dori to calm down, when Johnny stalks over, grabs a ladle off of the counter, and starts banging on the pans hanging over the kitchen island. "Everybody shut the hell up!" he bellows, and they just stop, like someone clicked a mute button.

       "Sorry to interrupt your angsty teenage soap opera, but we have other matters to worry about now," he announces. "That was Marcia on the phone just now. I hate to tell you this, guys, but we're all fired."

      "What are you talking about, man?" I ask. Marcia is one of the co-owners of the club where Johnny tends bar, and where we play at least two weekends a month, and we've always been cool, so I can't quite grasp what he just said. "She just told us last week that she'd like to book us more often, so what happened?"

      "What happened is that someone decided to rat us out for violating certain club rules," he responds. "And since there's only one of those that they could rope me in on, I'm pretty sure you know what I mean."

      Shit! Somebody told Marcia and Darren that the girls were underage, and that we knew it. Terrific, the rest of the band is gonna love this!

      Dori immediately grasps the situation and says, "See, I told you! I bet Billy called them and told on you guys to get back at me! I bet it was an 'anonymous tip', wasn't it?"

      "No, as a matter of fact, it wasn't," Johnny states, with a rather odd expression on his face. "It wasn't even a phone call, from what she said. Someone walked right into Darren's office a couple of hours ago and basically outlined the whole situation for him."

      "Did she say who it was?" Rob asks, and Johnny raises an eyebrow at him and snorts.

      "She didn't know the person's name, but knows that they're a regular, and the description she gave is just as good as a name."

      "Well, what did she say, dude?"

      He turns his head, stares directly at me, and says, "Her exact words were, and I quote, 'It was that obnoxious little red-haired skank who can't figure out how to keep her ta-tas in her top. You know, the one who's been hanging backstage lately.' Does that ring a bell for anyone?"