Chapter 18

Her heart's consistent pounding echoed in her ears, and the butterflies recklessly poked around in her stomach. Why had this become such a big deal? The question Stacy yearned to satisfy was bound to haunt her, despite any of her best efforts. She fidgeted with her fingers and avoided looking up as she sat impatiently in the passenger seat.

Randy glanced over momentarily at his girlfriend's expressionless face, and then returned his eyes quickly to the road ahead. Something had been bothering Stacy, but, unfortunately, he couldn't quite seem to figure it out. She obviously wasn't ready to tell him; he knew better than to push it. Yet, regardless of this knowledge, he still asked her if everything was all right.

"Yeah, it's just a long drive, and I don't feel too good. Kind of nauseous, I think," was her reply.

"I'll keep a look out for a rest stop," Randy suggested.

"No, you don't have to do that. I'll be okay, sweetie."

"I know I don't have to, but I'm going to anyway."

Randy pulled the car into a rest stop, stepped out of the car and leaned against the hood while he looked over the route one more time – a six hour drive wasn't exactly simple to memorize.

"I'm gonna go to the ladies' room," Stacy informed her boyfriend as she bent down to grab her purse from the car.

Once inside, the blonde leaned on a sink and pulled her cell phone from her bag. Flipping it open, she dialed a number and pressed the phone to her ear.

It rang twice before a female voice answered, "Hello, Keibler residence."

"Jamie! Hey, it's Stacy. How are you?"

"Stacy, darling! I'm doing well, and yourself?"

"I'm great, thanks. Could I talk to my mom? I wanted to tell her something."

"Of course, hold on one second."

Following a brief pause on the other end, another female voice responded, one of a more mature woman, "Hello, Stacy."

"Hey, how are you?"

"Great. Is everything okay with you? I mean, because it's not exactly every day I hear from my only daughter."

"It's fine. I wanted to tell you that I'm in town – or rather, on my way there. And I'm bringing home a friend, so make sure dad doesn't decide to polish the guns again like he did that one time, please."

Stacy's mother chuckled, looking back on the memory. "New boyfriend, huh?"

"Yeah, he's a real sweetheart, and I'm hoping you guys won't embarrass me too much," Stacy replied jokingly, with a smile brightening her face. "I know it's probably a little inappropriate with it being your anniversary today and all – happy anniversary, by the way – but we've got work and we're on a short vacation so I figured you guys should, you know, meet."

"That's great, baby, but don't worry, we'll all just have dinner here. Jaime is preparing a feast fit for royalty, and I'm not exaggerating," Stacy's mother declared.

"Okay, mom, we'll probably be there in about three hours. I've got to go, love you!"

The women said their good-byes and Stacy finally headed back out to the car. Randy was waiting inside for her with the car started and ready to go. The blonde sat in her seat and reclined it, allowing herself to drift off into a peaceful sleep.

The guilt was slowly building up, making a simple task like sleeping seem nearly impossible. The alternating movements of her eyes created black and white images, which seemed like blurs at first and nothing more. Slowly, the muddy spots morphed into people, the faces of which she recognized almost immediately. There were three individuals – two of them seemed to be fighting, maybe yelling. The third observed closely solely with their eyes and avoided drawing near.

Stacy briskly opened her eyes as a slight jolt rushed through her body. The images she'd witnessed only seconds ago alarmed the blonde; chills traveled vigorously down her spine at the mere thought of them coming to reality.

Though here eyes were open, Stacy hadn't really taken the time to see what was in front of her. The scene began to sink in as soon as the fountain came into view. Flowing gracefully, the waters were unique in the neighborhood, surprisingly enough. The picturesque stone structure fit perfectly in the luscious lawn, behind which lay a great, white, two-story mansion that was absolutely breathtaking. Blossoming flowers and flawlessly trimmed bushes decorated the house's façade, creating an indescribable effect.

As Randy pulled up in the circle driveway, all he could seem to muster was, "Whoa." After letting it all register, he inquired, "You grew up here?"

Stacy glanced at him, then the house once again. Attempting to place herself in his shoes for the moment, she understood how it seemed a little too good to be true.

"Yeah, I somehow managed to survive," she affirmed. "Moved out the second I could, though; I have my own apartment about five, ten minutes from here," Stacy added as she got out of the car, still holding her gaze on the one place that held more childhood memories, both good and bad, than she could count.

"You mean to tell me that your life wasn't, like, just short of perfect?" the young man remarked. Randy was having difficulties believing what stood right in front of him.

Stacy turned and stared at her boyfriend, replying sarcastically, "You need your eyes checked. Does this look like perfect to you?" Leaning on the car, she spun around one last time and examined her home. "Uh, nevermind."

"That's what I thought." Randy muttered.

"Well, it might look perfect, but believe me, growing up with my parents under their rules was like hell sometimes. They look to money to solve all problems, and life doesn't work that way. They tried to push me into medical school and law school, and, God, I don't know what other schools. But, I didn't want any of that…"

"So, that explains why you only visit once a year, if that. That must have been really tough on you, baby," he took one glimpse at her, a look of empathetic appreciation.

"It's all good, no problem," she paused. "All right, let's go!"

Randy strolled around the car, stopping briefly beside Stacy to take her small, gentle hand in his.

A/N: Whoo! It's up! It's finally up! My apologies to all of you who've waited for this, and I'm not trying to make excuses, I swear, but school's taken up most of my time, and we started school about three weeks ago, so that would explain the late, late, late update. Once again, I'm really sorry about it, and of course, thank you to all of those who reviewed. Keep 'em comin'!