House of the Millers

As arranged with Tracy by phone, I picked her up from her place to go roller skating with her. I met her parents, who greeted me in a friendly manner and asked me inside their home. Apparently, the Millers were a wealthy family, because they lived in a mansion in a good residential area. Not that my parents earned badly, but I was pretty sure it wasn't that much. Tracy had noticed that I was impressed about her living situation and uttered a remark.

"This is all more illusion than reality," she said, reaching for her roller skates. "Are you ready to go?"

I nodded mechanically and followed her outside. What did she mean by that? But I didn't have much time to think about it when Tracy headed for her VW and opened the door.

"I know a good place where we are undisturbed," she said. "Jump in, then I'll show it to you."

In fact, we were driving for a while, until Tracy suddenly stopped in front of a large factory building. Confused, I looked around. "What is this?" I inquired curiously.

"An old factory site. The building has been empty for a while now. I came across it by chance a few weeks ago. Here we are undisturbed."

When she got out and made a sign to come along, I hesitantly followed her. I wasn't comfortable with it, especially since the factory site didn't look very trusting. "Are you sure that nobody is here? I mean, it's certainly not allowed to just enter foreign property."

"Are you worried about being caught?" She raised her eyebrows. "I told you that there is nobody here. Don't you trust me?"

"Of course," I hurried to say. "I just thought we're going somewhere where... it's not that deserted," I stuttered.

"Didn't you like my kiss?"

I felt my mouth go dry. Suddenly I understood why Tracy had driven with me to this place. She wanted to seduce me! It was the first time I wished that one of my brothers had been here, they would have known what to do. As she took a step towards me, I backed away. "Tracy, I..." I broke off helplessly. What should I tell her? Confessing to her that I was still a virgin would be too embarrassing. I would turn 18 in three months and I still didn't have any sexual experience. How mortifying was that?

"Are you afraid that the same thing could happen to you that happened to your brother?"

I stared at her in shock. "What... do you mean?" I knew exactly what she was referring to, but I couldn't believe she actually asked me that. "Can you bring me back?" I asked softly. "I think it wasn't a good idea to come here." For a moment I thought she would give in, but suddenly she went back to her car, opened the trunk and put out her roller skates.

"We came here to skate. So we should do that now," she said firmly and put on her roller skates.

"Fine," I reluctantly relented, even though I would have liked to end our date. Tracy's mood swings irritated me. I put on my roller skates too and stood in front of her, undecided. Where should we go to skate? But my question was answered when I saw Tracy heading for the factory building. She opened the heavy door, which had apparently been unlocked, and then wheeled into the hall. Hesitantly I followed her, knowing that we were going to do something forbidden. The hall was truly huge and completely empty. I wondered what had been in here before.

"Catch me, Jude!"

There was no time to ponder about it when Tracy wheeled past me. I followed her and realized how much fun it was to chase after her. And I had wanted to show her how to skate. She was a pro on roller skates, as if she hadn't done anything else in her entire life. She made pirouettes like an ice skater and I was fascinated by how gracefully she moved around. After a few more laps, we were both so exhausted that we just let us fall to the ground laughing while we still held hands. The rapid chase through the hall had put us both into an adrenaline rush that we didn't even notice how we slowly moved towards each other until we were so close that we could feel each other's breath. When Tracy wrapped her arms around my neck and then pressed her lips to mine, I gave up my resistance and returned the kiss. What started with a shy kiss at first, progressed until we both wanted more. Tracy was about to take off my shirt when we suddenly heard dog barking from outside. Terrified, we sat up and listened with bated breath. The door opened and two police officers entered, accompanied by a shepherd dog who barked at us angrily.

"Well, who have we got there?" The officer said and grinned cocky. "Looks like we interrupted a quick encounter."

I saw Tracy's cheeks turn pale. "C-Can you call the dog back?" She asked in a trembling voice. "I'm afraid of dogs."

"Stop it, Tyson, and sit!" He commanded whereupon the dog was immediately silent and visibly relaxed.

"We haven't done anything wrong," I defended our act. "We didn't know that it's forbidden to skate here."

"Ignorance doesn't protect against punishment." The officer said. "There's also a sign outside, 'no access for unauthorized people.'" He leaned forward. "You could read, couldn't you?"

"You forgot the addition, 'parents are responsible for their children'", the other policeman added. "What about it? You are underage, aren't you?"

I nodded in a sullen manner and cursed that I had been a premature baby. "Do our parents need to know?" I asked hesitantly.

"I'm afraid so." The officer scratched his head. "But I presume you won't go to jail for that. Maybe you have to do some social work."

I looked at the officers in horror. What that meant was clear to me. Our parents would find out about it and probably not just them, but all the other citizens of Tree Hill. Great!

"You're coming with us. We will notify your parents from the police station. Do you have your IDs with you?"

I handed my identity card to the police officer and saw that Tracy passed on hers as well. I quickly took off my roller skates and followed the officers outside.

"What about my car?" Tracy asked in a trembling voice.

"That remains here for now. You can pick it up later after we have informed your parents," the officer replied.

There would be no point in contradicting. I got into the police car and took Tracy's hand in mine. "It's going to be okay," I murmured, not sure if I wanted to comfort her or me.

"It's all my fault!" She suddenly sobbed. "I'm so sorry, Jude!"

I put my arm around her and she leaned her head against my shoulder as we headed back to Tree Hill.

Police Station Tree Hill

It was the second time that I had to pick up one of my sons from the police station after they had done something illegal. But it was Jude this time, not Davis. I wondered what was behind it when I entered the police station. The first thing that attracted my intention when I followed an officer into the interrogation room, was that Jude wasn't alone. He was there with a young girl I hadn't seen before. I looked questioningly at the police officer. "Could you tell me what happened? Your colleague only told me on the phone that I should come to pick up my son at the police station."

He cleared his throat before answering. "Well, we caught them on a deserted, but watched, factory site. The owner renounced his right to make a criminal complaint because the two are still underage. So they have blessing in disguise."

"What did they do on an abandoned factory site?" I asked.

"What all teenagers do when they want to make out with each other," the officer replied and grinned.

"What?" I thought I had heard wrong, but when I turned my gaze to Jude, I saw that his cheeks had gone pale. For a moment it was on my tongue to tell him that one illegitimate, unplanned child in the family would be enough, but instead I swallowed the remark. It wasn't fair to compare Jude's situation with Davis's. And yet it wasn't entirely wrong.

"We found them in time in the factory building before anything could happen," the officer said. "But if we hadn't shown up, who knows what would have happened then." He raised his eyebrows meaningfully.

"It's my fault, Mr. Baker," Tracy said. "It was my idea to go there."

"And I agreed," Jude put in. "You didn't force me."

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. The trouble just didn't seem to stop. Somehow I felt that everything was sliding through my fingers. "If the owner hasn't made complaint, then they are free to go, right?"

The officer nodded. "They are free. But you two..." He looked at the teenagers, "... stay away from the factory site in the future. Another time you won't get away without consequences."

Jude and Tracy nodded. "We promise," they said at the same time.

I waited until they got their IDs back and then I left the police station with them. "I'll take you home now," I said to the young girl when we got to the car.

"Could you take me to the factory site?" She asked softly. "My car is still there."

"On the condition that you promise me to head home right away," I agreed. "Didn't you want to inform your parents?"

"The police tried," she admitted. "But my mom wasn't there and my dad didn't have time to pick me up," she explained.

I frowned at her. They had called me at work too, but my family had always been my first priority. Apparently there were families where the priorities were different. "I'll take you to your car," I said, waiting for them both to get in. It took almost half an hour to drive to the factory site.

"Thanks, Mr. Baker!" Tracy jumped out of the car and ran over to hers.

"Tracy wait!" Davis exclaimed.

I watched them as the two of them said goodbye and then exchanged a kiss before Jude came back to me.

"Don't say anything, Dad, okay?" He asked. "I know that what we did was stupid. We should never have entered the factory site. I knew it was forbidden."

What should I say to that? "Why did you do it anyway?"

He simply shrugged. "I've always done good things in my life. For once, I also wanted to do something reckless."

"Having sex in a factory building isn't reckless," I corrected him. "That's just stupid."

"We haven't..." He stopped abruptly and lowered his head in embarrassment. "Well, you know what I mean."

I nodded. "But only because the police caught you before it could happen." I looked at him. "How do you know that girl?"

"She was visiting her brother at the hospital when Davis was there too. We met by chance. And after the summer holidays she will go to Tree Hill High," he added.

"Does your mother know you have a new girlfriend?"

"I don't think so." He shook his head. "But Davis and Lydia know about it."

"Speaking of Davis and Lydia," I began, but was immediately interrupted by him.

"I know what you want to say," he interrupted. "I don't intend to become a father so young. Besides, we only were kissing each other. Like I said, nothing happened."

I gave him a skeptical look, but remained silent, even though I knew how fast one could get from just kissing to sex. "Just be careful, okay?" I asked him.

"Sure." He nodded eagerly. "But please, don't tell Mom!"

There were so many secrets in this family that it probably didn't matter anymore. I nodded hesitantly. "For all I care."

"I hope the Millers aren't too mad."

"A strange family," I said, shaking my head. "Don't even have time to pick up their daughter from the police station."

"They were nice when I picked up Tracy," Jude said, shrugging. "But not everyone can have a cool dad like me."

I had to smile involuntarily. "That's what your brother had said after we learned that Lydia was pregnant."

"It's true. And you even allowed them to move in together. Not many parents would allow that."

"If you say so." I drove into our driveway and parked the car. "All right, what happened today remains our secret. But in return, you promise me that you won't do anything illegal again."

"I promise. Thanks, Dad!"

Smiling, I watched him as he jumped out of the car and ran to the front door. It would never become boring with teenagers in the house. I also got out and followed him slowly afterwards.