Chapter 11

The Winter Formal

Part 4

December 23, 1978

Saturday (The midnight hour)

Teen café

Mark Thorn felt he was too conscious for his own good. Richard and Ann were pretty liberal with curfews when it came to after dances or other social functions. The Thorn's may have been fine, but Vanessa was supposed to be home exactly AT midnight. He should have been thrilled that she wanted to let her legs travel up his when they were at the table. It was like her inhibitions were gone and she was almost like Christine. He just didn't want the Greenhill's to blow their stack.

They finished their meal of a shared plate of French fries a while ago. He didn't want to end their time together, but it was almost Christmas and he knew her parents were controlling and he knew they probably would have grounded her for her holiday making sure they couldn't see each other.

Mark decided he would take a page from Damien's book. If that happened then he thought he would find a way to see her at least once. Sometimes rules were meant to be broken when dealing with the unreasonable.

"M—mark T-horn….I love you." Vanessa said dreamily as she kissed his hands.

"Are you okay, Vanessa?" Her eyes seemed rather glassy.

"Of course, I am…I guess we better get going, huh?"

"I think that's a good idea. You realized you broke curfew?"

She giggled and covered her mouth. It was a side of Vanessa that he never saw before.

"Ahhh….too bad, too sad. I have to use the rest—room before we leave."

Mark watched as girlfriend almost bumped into the booth behind her to get to the bathroom. What was in her glass? There was still a drop of soda left. He put it up to his nose and took a sip.

Christine? Damien? What the fuck?

One of them spiked her drink. He pushed his anger to the side. He took out his wallet and paid for their food. His number one goal was to get Vanessa home safely. He would deal with other people later.


Bathroom

Vanessa had barely made it to the bathroom on time before throwing up.

She knew her drink was spirited from the first sip. It had to have been either Damien or Christine. She wasn't as mad over the situation as she should have been and that scared her. She thought she knew her own soul. While her and Mark made real progress in the making out area earlier she still wanted to go even further and if the alcohol could help her achieve that goal so be it.

She flushed the toilet and went to the sink to wash her hands. She already broke curfew, she may as well spend as much time with Mark as she could before her parents grounded her into oblivion. They should be enjoying their adolescence; that right was not just reserved for rule breakers like Christine and Damien.


Thorn Manor

Guestroom

What luck.

The head maid Trina informed Damien and Christine in their rumpled clothes before she turned in for the evening that Richard and Ann were out at an impromptu holiday gathering and they wouldn't be home until very late.

Damien and Christine were in the guestroom that she and Vanessa were in when they were getting ready for the Winter Formal hours ago.

The vinyl record changer clicked and dropped down another 33 and a half RPM record from the selections that Damien let Christine pick. He wasn't surprised that she picked out the pop records where Mark had drawn a juvenile heart with his and Vanessa's initials in blue ink on one of the covers.

"Damien," Christine nibbled on his neck, she didn't mind, that he was rough, because that's how she liked it, "Please unwrap me…"

Damien Thorn was probably not going to be forever, but for now, he was hers and she couldn't wait to brag to her girlfriends, especially Charlotte, when they returned to school after the Christmas holidays.

He pushed her on the bed hard.


Teen Café

Mark looked at his watch and then the clock in the diner. There were no other patrons in here for the whole time he was there. He waited for Vanessa to come out of the restroom, he quickly pondered if he should knock on the door to make sure she was all right.

He was taken out of his thoughts when he saw another car parked in front of the Thorn limousine that wasn't there before. The headlights were still on and the engine was still running when the door swung open and the car door slammed shut. Oh no. It wasn't….fuck. Damien and Christine were probably screwing each others brains out by now and he had to deal with the harsh realities of living the adage that nice guys DO finish last.

"Hello, Mrs. Greenhill…."

"Where is my daughter?" She never should have let Vanessa go the winter formal. She would have let the evening pass, but between Damien's visit earlier in the evening and Vanessa breaking curfew. She had no choice but to come and "collect her." She was too young to be in a serious relationship.

"Mother!" Vanessa was ready to have it out with someone at least her words weren't slurred anymore. "Leave Mark alone." She was ready to defend their love. She was expecting to hear she was grounded until doomsday, but what her parents had planned was much worse.


Thorn Guestroom

Damien hated foreplay. He supposed that was a masculine trait, but Mark was not home yet, so he had to tease Christine for a while longer.

"D-amien," She groaned into his shoulder as he kissed her neck, "I t—think I m-ight love you…."

Good, because I don't love you.


Teen Café

"Say your goodbyes to Mark." Mrs. Greenhill huffed with her hands on her hips. "Because you won't be seeing him for a very long time."

He sighed on the inside, but he wanted to be strong for his girlfriend, unlike Damien who had no idea what the word love even meant.

"Just how long am I being grounded for Mom?" Her eyes were the dam and her tears were ready to break through. At least they didn't know she got drunk.

"Me and your father have decided your Christmas holidays and the spring term will be spent at the Preston Academy in New York City."

"No! You can't do this…..What is wrong with being with someone you love?" Vanessa held Mark's hand tight.

She noticed the dishwasher/cook was watching the antics of an uptight suburban mother humiliate her daughter and her boyfriend. It might just have well been the whole world.


Thorn Guestroom

30 Minutes Later

It was sweet soul music, when Damien finally heard the crash from outside the room. His lips formed a more satisfying smile then they did earlier when Christine tried in vain to give him a hand-job. She was hardly the expert that she thought she was. Her head rested on Damien's chest. He'd have gone out there naked if he could.

He carefully moved her off him, so he could find his clothes in the dark. The only light coming from the moon and the digital clock. He settled on putting on his underwear, t-shirt, and his wrinkled formal trousers, leaving the rest of his clothes on the floor with Christine's.

He turned off the record player before leaving the room.


Damien and Mark's Bedroom

Mark was not ashamed to admit that he cried in the car ride home and still had tears streaming down his face when he felt two solid hands on his shoulders.

"Mark, what's wrong?"

Damien looked around the room. His cousin had cleared the top of his dresser and everything was scattered on the floor.

Mark turned around.

"Damien," He wiped his eyes, "Leave me alone." He took off his blazer and threw it on his bed.

"Did you and Vanessa have a fight?"

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? "

"You don't have to be rude."

"I'm sorry Damien, I don't mean to take Vanessa's parents actions out on you, but you were never in love with another person before. Come on, we all know you love yourself most of all. They're sending her to school in New York, not after the holidays, but tonight, if you must know."

Damien was about to say something in return when the phone rang in their room.

"I'll get it," He knew exactly who this was, "Hello?"

"Damien, is Mark there?" Vanessa did her best to hold back her tears that she wound up having to cough.

"It's for you. I'll go."

Damien put the receiver on the table and went back to rejoin Christine.

"Mark, it's me…."

"Vanessa? Where are you?"

"I'm calling from a payphone. When my mother wasn't paying attention, I took one of her credit cards out of her purse. When the car was stopped at a red light, I got out and just kept on running. If I have to go to New York I will, but not before I get to see you and have a proper goodbye…."

"Vanessa, it's almost two in the morning!" She shouldn't be out on the Chicago streets by herself.

"I don't want to go back to the diner, because I know my mother will look there first. I'm not far from Thorn."

"Good. I'll meet you there. I'll call security and have them let you in the lobby. Please be safe, 'Nessa, I love you." He cupped the cross from his necklace in his hands.

"I love you, too, Mark." Unknowingly she did the same thing with her cross.


Guestroom

This did not unfold like it was supposed to. Damien was thoroughly disgusted with the events of the evening. The only thing positive that came out of it was Vanessa was being sent away. He knew from the vibrations of that phone call that he was going to go to her. Everything would be okay as long as that high-horse bitch stayed gone.

He took his t-shirt off and threw it on the floor. How Christine got home was her problem. Once Ann and Richard returned home they would be too busy dealing with Mark and his tru wuv for them to notice.

He put his hand over his mouth to stop from yawning, but it was no use, as soon as his head hit the pillow he was fast asleep with only one thought on his mind.

Father, I want Mark to love ME and ONLY ME.


Thorn Industries

It felt good to have his girlfriend in a loving embrace.

"How will I get to the airport?"

"I wish you didn't have to go, baby. I'll make sure you get on an airplane safely."

The security guard left his post to get something from the vending machine that gave Mark the opportunity to switch on the radio that was on the large round desk, both of them feeling a sense of optimism despite their pain, there was no such thing as a coincidence, when the song they danced to hours ago at the winter formal came on. It was like someone higher up was watching over them.

"Our song. My parents may not understand, but God certainly does."

"Shall we dance?"

"I would like that very much."

Mark kissed Vanessa on the lips as they had one last dance together.

The both of them realized that it would be their faith that would get them through any obstacles that would be put in their way. They would be eighteen soon enough and then nobody could stop them from ever being together again.

No one.

Romans 12:9* Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

*King James Version

Author's Note: I was trying to do a teen type of serial with these series of chapters. It took a long time to get here. Thanks to all for their patience.