Vote for Rory
Charlie was right. Principal Fletcher was not happy to see good old John Merrill standing before him to re-enroll in high school. Tommy vouched for me as hard as he could, but I could tell Fletcher would be on my ass at every turn.
I had always taken a very in and out approach to high school. I'd show up late, take a long lunch, catch a class when it fit my schedule. After my first week of staying at school for a full day and then working down at the garage til 8 every night had me exhausted. Tommy wasn't charging me rent and insisted on paying me a decent wage for my work. I was grateful, but I had never had to budget time for a job, homework and a full day of classes before. Going straight was turning out to be a ton of fucking work.
I was working a shift covering the gas pumps one night the first week of October. A nice looking white Cadillac pulled up to the pump and I walked out to fill it up. I had seen the woman driving it around before, one of those country club mothers from up on the view. Good looking older broad dressed to the nines sporting dark sunglasses and bright red lipstick.
"Darling could you fill me up?" The woman leaned out the window, almost seductively. Her low cut top was impossible to avoid looking at.
I nodded and she smiled wide. "Doll, are you at Castle Rock High?"
I turned back and the woman had gotten out of the car and stood next to me as I clicked the lever on the pump. It was then I noticed the slur in her voice and her unsteadiness on her feet. She teetered on high heels and steadied herself on the side of the car. This lady was three sheets to the wind.
"Yes ma'am." I cautiously said, unsure of why this woman had popped out of her car. Women like that usually clutched their purse a little tighter when passing me.
"Do you know who you're voting for?" She bit her lip in anticipation, like I had any idea what she was talking about.
"I'm not 18 yet so I'll have to wait until the next election." I looked over to the shop window to see if I could get Tommy or Eyeball's attention...I didn't want to get stuck talking to this crazy old broad for longer than I needed to.
She laughed and stepped closer and put her hand on my arm. "Oh sweet boy, not for president, but for Homecoming Queen! Somewhere your vote will actually count, not that silly political nonsense." Jesus Christ. Is this what rich people really have to think about? She continued. "My daughter is nominated, we're all so proud of her. Her name is Lauren Scanlon. Do you know her? Of course you know her, everyone knows her." She beamed proudly as she rambled.
The resemblance became clearer when i heard the last name Scanlon. I'd never spoken to Rory Scanlon in my life, but she was one of those girls any hot blooded male in Castle Rock had noticed at one point or another. Easily the hottest girl in school, she ran with that popular dickhead crowd and dated one of the asshole football players who walked around this town like his shit didn't stink.
The pump clicked off and I closed her gas tank. "That'll be $2.75 ma'am."
"Oh dear, while I have you, could you top off my wiper fluid? And you didn't tell me who you're voting for! Oh, here comes your friend, is he at Castle Rock High as well?" This lady was all over the place and seemed to perk up when she saw Eyeball walking toward one of the pumps to change out the trash barrels. She seemed to lose interest in me and started waving a confused Eyeball over.
I shrugged and walked over to pop her hood to check her wiper fluid. I heard her yammer on to Eyeball about Homecoming Queens, pretty irrelevant as I was pretty sure they didn't give ballots to dropouts, but hopefully he realized it would be easier to play along. As I walked back toward the garage to grab the jug of fluid, the woman started cackling and from the looks of it, was having a hard time keeping her hands off Eyeball.
I caught his eye and he gave me a "What the Fuck?" glance and I shrugged. I popped my head into one of the bays to see if Tommy was around, but I didn't see him. I got a bad feeling about this, some lady from The View stumbling around a gas station at one of the busier intersections in town with a couple of hoods was probably not the best look.
I heard the shop door shut and the giggling continued. "Get me a Coke, darling, you boys are so sweet to help me out." Mrs. Scanlon had stumbled over to the counter top and dumped the entire contents of her purse out to dig for change for the vending machine. Lipstick, coins and a few bottles of pills rolled on the counter and she seemed unfazed. Eyeball and I exchanged looks again. "On the house, Mrs. Scanlon." I forced a smile and hit the side of the machine to pop out a coke. "Such a gentleman!" She smiled again as she started clumsily picking up the spilled contents of her handbag.
"That'll be $2.75 for the gas when you have a minute, ma'am." I gently reminded her to pay as she touched her wallet and smiled again. "OH, I'd love for you to check my tire pressure too...come back out to the car, there's been a terrible clicking noise on the back tire." She abruptly turned and marched out of the shop, leaving most of the spilled contents of her purse on the counter. As the door slammed and she walked toward her car, Eye and I finally had a minute to talk.
"What the fuck is up with her? She seems blasted!" Eye whispered. He walked over to the counter and examined the pill bottles and his eyes went wide. "Jesus man, if she's on some combination of this stuff she's totally gone." He held up a bottle of benzos and another of amphetamines.
"Put that shit in a bag and we'll bring it out to her. We gotta get her out of here before someone comes in here and thinks we're trying to rob her or something. I'll go check the tires, you pick this shit up and go find Tommy, I want someone else with eyes on us as long as this bitch is running around."
I swung open the door and started after Mrs. Scanlon. The sound of the door must have startled her so she swung around quickly and lost her balance. She fell to the ground and yelped as she made impact with the pavement. I cringed and walked over to her, knowing that she would probably need help getting up.
"Oh dear, I'm so clumsy, be a doll and help me up? I'm fine, dear, just a little tumble." She tried to smile as she clawed at my arm. I grabbed her hand and pulled her up and she seemed to spin a moment as she caught her balance. Her sunglasses had fallen off and getting a good look at her eyes revealed that she was way more out of that I had thought.
"Are you ok?" I steadied her and immediately started looking around, hoping no one in the busy intersection was staring at us, assuming I was robbing or assaulting some poor defenseless rich lady.
"Fine dear, now come to the car, I want to give you boys something!" She started back toward her car and I followed. She bent into the back seat and emerged with a box full of "Vote for Rory'' buttons and pennants. "Now, I hope you both will consider voting for my Lauren for homecoming queen! I despise that nickname, Rory, but that's how she's known. Could we maybe get a poster for the station? I think that would be so terrific!" She rambled on and excitedly tried pinning a button to my shirt. She was completely manic, breathing heavy and frantically chattering about Rory and her boyfriend and how she herself was homecoming queen and prom queen when she was in high school...I was getting a headache.
"MOM?!" A voice from a nearby car that had just pulled into the station pierced the sky. A mortified Rory Scanlon yelled from the passenger seat of a Black Mustang.
"OH! Here she is now! Lauren dear, come on in!" Mrs. Scanlon started waving her arms around. Rory turned to the driver, and they pulled into the station and parked crookedly at a nearby pump. Rory bounced out of the car and lept over to us, a look of abject horror on her face.
"Nick and I were driving to his house and we saw you fall in the parking lot...are you alright? What the hell is all this stuff?" She reached down into the box and pulled out a button.
Mrs. Scanlon grinned. "Isn't it a lovely surprise? I've spent the afternoon getting them made in support of your nomination for homecoming queen! Is that Nicky in the car? Nicholas! Come out, come say hello!" She excitedly teetered over to the car where Nick Wilson sat in the driver's seat.
Rory grew pale and her eyes went to the "Vote for Rory" button on my chest and then rose to meet mine. "Is there any chance this gas station could turn into a sinkhole and swallow me whole so this moment ends?" She muttered as she turned back to the car, Nick had lowered the window but had not exited the car to talk to Mrs. Scanlon. He looked just as shocked as we were.
Eyeball had emerged with a plastic bag full of the stuff that had spilled in the shop. "Oh hey, umm your mom dropped some of her stuff in the shop." He walked over and handed the bag to Rory. She peeked inside and turned beet red when she recognized the pill bottles. Her eyes met mine. Brown eyes, that at this particular moment read full of shame and slight panic.
"Listen, you're probably going to want to get her home...none of my business but she probably shouldn't be driving like that...seems like she's not feeling well." Our eye contact held a second until Rory rubbed her eyes and turned back to her mother. She was leaning into the car with her low cut top mere inches from Nick's face. I could see Rory tense up and I tried not to notice her chest rise and fall in suppressed anger. "Yeah, umm she's been sick, headaches, she's on new medication and she's had some side effects." The lie came out easily but I don't think Rory expected us to believe it or really even care if we did. She looked back to the Cadillac at the pump. "Did you give her gas? Did she pay you?"
She patted her own hips and reached her fingers into her pockets in a search for cash. I couldn't help but follow her fingers as they slid down her hips. I had always known the girl was a dime, but seeing her up close gave me a new appreciation for how good she actually looked.
"$2.75." My eyes snapped up to hers as she noticed my eyes resting on her hips. She pulled out a $5 and handed it to me. "Don't be weird and get change, just keep it. But for the love of god, can you take that fucking button off? And burn it?" She cringed looking down at her name on my chest.
"Oh come now Lauren, be polite. This young man is a vote for you!" Mrs. Scanlon's attention turned back to us and she stumbled over to where we stood. "Now doll, what's your name?" She placed her hand on my arm and smiled.
"His name is Ace Merrill and he doesn't give two shits about homecoming." I was kind of surprised the girl knew my name, but figured my year away made me somewhat of a celebrity.
"Lauren your language! Forgive her, she's under a lot of stress...I don't know what came over her." She smiled at me while shooting her daughter a glare.
"Now, Ace was it? Well my ungrateful daughter is nominated for homecoming queen and we would love it if you took the time to send a vote her way. Isn't she beautiful? Wouldn't she make the perfect queen? I was homecoming queen and prom queen at my high school, I'm dying for Lauren to be the same! Oh and you of course know Nicholas over in the car, he's going to be King, can't you just tell!"
"Mom, the guys need to get back to work and I think you need to get home." I could hear Rory's voice tremble a little, but gave her credit for trying to remain calm. It had become pretty obvious that it wasn't the first time she had dealt with her mother like this. She reached her hand out to grab her mother's wrist.
"Lauren dear I'm doing this for you, why must you insist upon making a scene!" She shook Rory's hand away from her own and placed it on the button that was still pinned to my chest. Rory's eyes grew wide as her mother proceeded to run her fingertip gently up and down my chest. "Now doll, it would mean a whole lot to me to get my princess the title, would you please cast a vote for her?" I looked back at Rory, whose face had turned red.
"It would be a pleasure Mrs Scanlon. But your daughter is right, I do need to get back to work. Consider me a vote for Rory." I glanced at Rory who mouthed "thank you" to me. She wasn't thanking me for the vote. It was clear she wanted to wrap this up and get her mother home before she embarrassed herself even further.
Her mother seemed to soften at my response. "You are such a sweet boy, and so hardworking! And please, call me Ashley." I saw Rory step toward her again. She did too. "Alright Lauren, I'll get in the car, I just needed to show you how to campaign a little stronger, you only have one shot at homecoming queen." She winked at me. I tried to politely smile as Rory walked her back around to the passenger door.
I watched Rory run back to the black Mustang, where Nick had sat with a horrified expression on his face. She pointed down the road and seemed to plead with him that she'd meet up with him later. He seemed annoyed, but softened when Rory leaned in and smiled. She kissed him quickly and then turned back to the White Cadillac. As she climbed in the driver's seat, our eyes met again. Her eyes went back to my chest and she pointed at the badge then slid her finger across her neck in a throat slitting motion, as if reminding me to lose the badge.
Tommy appeared behind me as Rory completed her threatening gesture. He started laughing. "What did you do to piss her off?" Tommy watched the Cadillac turn and drive back up toward Castle View.
"Jesus could have used you out here...that was a shitshow." I shook my head.
"Sorry, I've had the rumble guts all day, been in the bathroom. What's up?" Tommy rubbed his stomach.
Eyeball came out to join us. "You should have seen it man, that lady was fucked up on all sorts of pills or something. Came in here touching on me and Ace, dropping shit everywhere, trying to get us to vote for her daughter for homecoming? Fucking crazy shit." Eyeball filled Tommy in on what he had missed.
Tommy's eyes dropped to the button on my chest and I finally reached down to take it off. "Fuck, was that Luke Scanlon's wife?"
"I guess. You know him?"
"Yeah, Luke comes by a fair amount. Cars and other things." I knew what that meant. Tommy might have straightened up since his younger years, but he had always been and will always be the guy you call when you need some grass. His cousin grew the stuff wild on a farm in Vermont and he made a good little side hustle discreetly taking care of a few loyal patrons. Usually Tommy and I watched tv together at night, but sometimes a knock at the door would prompt him to give me the eye to make myself scarce. I wondered how many times Rory's dad had been the knock on the door that banished me to my room. If I were married to that mess I'd be doing worse than grass, so I didn't blame him for it one bit.
Tommy continued. "He's not a bad guy for that country club crowd. I feel bad for him because the wife's so messed up. Her boozing is the worst kept secret up on the View. You know the daughter, right"
"Everyone knows who Rory Scanlon is. Wouldn't exactly say I know her."
"Yeah, I got the impression she's a princess type, can't imagine she runs in your circles." Tommy laughed.
I shook my head and looked up Castle View Road where the Cadillac had sped off. Castle View was a winding uphill road with several ritzy streets and a country club nestled near the top. "I guess I never expected Camelot to have the same problems as here." I said under my breath, thinking about how money did not keep you immune from all the problems of the world.