Don't Wait 4

"Hey, Mom." Stephanie leaned back and pulled her legs up under her in the wicker chair on the front porch of the big old white house on Green Street. She was freshly showered, her hair free of the greasy fried food smell and pulled back into a damp, curly ponytail.

"Stephanie Michelle Plum, I've been waiting all day for you to call. Did you start work?"

"Yup. Mary Lou, Tina and I worked the lunch shift. We finished at two."

"How did it go? Was Tommy Rosolli there?"

"It went fine. Uncle Tommy was there and showed us the ropes."

"I hope you ate a decent breakfast before going to work. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you know. It provides a foundation."

"I had a nice big breakfast." After she finished her shift at Crabster's. Hamburgers. The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast. Her mother wouldn't approve, Stephanie knew, but what happens in Point Pleasant stays in Point Pleasant.

"Are you all unpacked? I don't know how you girls are going to manage in such a small place."

Her parents had driven Stephanie and Tina to Point Pleasant the day before, the trunk of the car jam-packed with suitcases full of clothes and trash bags full of bedding and other necessities. Stephanie's mom wasn't at all happy with the tiny, one-bedroom apartment in the big old house, and it took some fast talking to prevent Mrs. Plum from dragging Stephanie right back to Trenton. As it was, Mrs. Plum spent over an hour with the two girls, cleaning, scrubbing floors, disinfecting the kitchen and scouring down the miniscule bathroom before she even let them bring their things upstairs. Mary Lou lucked out, Stephanie thought, by arriving with her parents after the slave labor was completed to her mother's satisfaction.

"We're all settled in, Mom. Mr. & Mrs. Molnar took us to WalMart last night in their van and we each bought one of those plastic storage thingies with drawers. They fit right next to the bathroom door, so that gives us each a place to keep our makeup and, uh, personal stuff so the bathroom's not all cluttered up."

"Who's going to have to sleep on the couch?"

"It opens up into a bed, so it's not really like sleeping on the couch. Mary Lou said she snores, so she volunteered to take it. Tina and I have the bedroom."

Stephanie wasn't about to tell her mother that the reason Mary Lou wanted the living room was because her fiancé, Lennie, would be coming down every weekend and staying over. They were getting married in the fall, and they spent every possible minute together. Her mother wouldn't approve. It gave Stephanie a small pang of guilt, but what her mom didn't know wouldn't hurt her. And it wasn't like Stephanie was sleeping with a guy herself.

"Now Stephanie, I want you to promise me you'll check the door and all the windows every night before you go to bed and make sure everything is locked up tight and the chain is on. It's a lot more dangerous being in a city like Point Pleasant than living in a dorm at college, so you need to make sure you're safe. There are a lot of bad people out there."

"Don't worry, Mom. We'll keep the door locked, and nobody's going to be able to get in the windows on the second floor."

"But the porch roof is right outside your bedroom. Somebody could climb up and get in."

"We're thinking of chipping in and buying a little window air conditioner, so that'll fit in the window and it won't be a problem."

"Your father and I thought we'd come down to see you on the weekend, just to make sure everything's okay."

"That would be great, but the weekends are the busiest time at the restaurant and I'm scheduled to work all day Saturday and all day Sunday. So I wouldn't really be able to spend any time with you. But if you want to come eat dinner, maybe I could wait on you."

"Well, we'll think about it. I just want to make sure you're safe there."

"I'll be fine, Mom. I have to work both lunch and dinner tomorrow, so I probably won't call you, but I'm off Wednesday so I'll call you then."

Stephanie hung up the phone and sighed as she trudged up the stairs to the apartment. She was nineteen-and-a-half years old, an adult in the eyes of the law. Why couldn't her mother trust her to take care of herself?

oOo

Carlos exhaled as he exited the bathroom wearing only a towel and walked down the hall to the room he'd rented for the summer. The instant they'd walked through the door after returning from the beach, Julio swung himself up to the top bunk and rolled to face the wall, and he hadn't moved since.

"Okay, Les, go ahead," Carlos said, watching as Lester grabbed a towel and took off out the door. With Julio just a few days off the ice, Carlos didn't dare leave him alone for even a minute. If he got away, he'd pick somebody's pocket or steal some little old lady's purse and be high before you could say Speedy Gonzales. It was lucky Carlos was such a light sleeper, awake and alert in an instant if anyone moved in the bedroom, because he had to stop Julio from sneaking out three times last night.

He'd even stood outside the bathroom door every time Julio was in there, keeping his ear primed for the scrape of the window being raised. He was going to have to stop at the hardware store and get a lock to keep the bathroom window from opening all the way. It wasn't a very big window, but Julio was snake-thin and just might be able to slither through.

The whole busboy job idea had him a bit edgy. It would be so easy to just slip out of the restaurant, and Les wouldn't be able to watch him every second. Carlos resigned himself to having to sit outside for at least the first week or two and watch the door. He wondered if he'd ever be able to trust Julio again. Just three-and-a-half months, he told himself. He'd devote the next three-and-a-half months to his brother and then he could get back to his own life.

"Julio, you need to get a shower so you can go over to the restaurant to see about the job," Carlos said as Lester walked back into the room in his towel.

No answer.

"Julio!" Carlos made his voice sharp.

"Don't need to shower. Need to sleep," Julio mumbled without moving.

"Don't make me get physical with you, bro." Carlos's voice was a growl. "I don't want to have to pull you off of there, but I will."

"And I'll help," Lester chimed in.

Julio groaned and rolled over, swinging his legs off the edge of the bed and sliding down to the floor.

As Carlos leaned against the wall outside the bathroom door with his arms crossed over his chest, he relaxed but kept his ears focused. Even with the shower running, he was sure he'd hear if Julio opened the window. It had been painted multiple times, and made a loud grating noise when you raised or lowered the sash.

His mind drifted to the Crabster's waitress with the curly hair, wondering if she'd be there with her friend later. It didn't matter. His lifestyle didn't lend itself to relationships, even before the problems with Julio, and he shrugged his shoulders to try to shake her out of his head.

But even the brief thought of her had him half hard. Damn, he was going to have to do something about that. But not Ashley, the blonde lifeguard, he decided. He'd had to literally pry her hands off his arm this afternoon, and even then she kept touching him with intimate little rubs and pats until he left the beach. He was going to have enough trouble keeping her off him without making the humongous mistake of fucking her. He'd again muttered, "Maybe," when she mentioned meeting up at Mac's tonight, but he had no intention of showing up there. He couldn't take Julio to a bar, even one where they also catered to the under-age crowd. Too many possible ways for him to get away or get high.

After fifteen minutes he pounded on the bathroom door, then opened it a crack. "Come on, Julio. Time to go get a job."

TBC