Chapter 8
Melinda woke with a start. Glancing at the clock, she realized that she had drifted off to sleep for about an hour. As she came to her senses, she figured out what had woken her so suddenly. There was yelling coming in through her open door from the hallway.
'Oh, God!' she thought to herself. 'Tony!'
Rushing from her bedroom, wrapped in nothing but a sheet, Melinda came face to face with the ugly reality that was her life. Chris stood glowering at Tony in front of the bathroom door. Tony, clad in only his boxers, glowered back at him. Behind her, Melinda heard another person running up the stairs. She didn't have time to be embarrassed, because by the looks of it, her boyfriend and her brother were about to come to blows.
"What's going on?" she squealed, stepping between the two men.
"Go back to your room, Melinda." Chris said through clenched teeth. He never gook his eyes off of Tony.
"Excuse me?" Melinda breathed. "Number one, I am not a child. Number two, even if I were you aren't my father and you have no right to send me to my room. You need to check yourself, Chris."
"This is between me and him," Tony said gently as he put his hands on her bare shoulders. "You go on ahead and get some clothes on. You'll catch your death standing in this drafty house."
"No!" she exclaimed.
"What's going on up here? Oh…. Oh… wow." Wyatt said as he reached the scene of the commotion. "Yeah, this is bad."
"Don't start, Wyatt." Melinda warned.
Wyatt threw Chris a look, and put his hands up helplessly. "I'm not starting anything."
"Baby, go put some clothes on," Tony urged Melinda. "I can handle myself against this guy."
"These guys," Wyatt said. His tone was calm and even, but something about it was threatening and cruel.
"Wyatt," Melinda said.
"Go put some clothes on Melinda. It's bad enough me and Wyatt get to see you looking like a slut… what if Mom or Dad come home?"
"Don't you DARE call her that," Tony exploded at Chris.
"What are you to do about it?" Chris replied as Wyatt positioned himself next to his brother.
"Nothing in front of the lady," Tony replied.
"Yeah, if you thought she was a lady then she wouldn't be standing out here in the nude!" Wyatt said, beginning to lose his temper. Turning to Melinda he added, "Please, we promise we won't hurt your boyfriend, but go put some clothes on already!"
Despite that all the men were telling her to get dressed, Melinda finally realized that she was in fact standing there with nothing to cover her but a thin sheet. Too angry to be embarrassed, she turned on her heel and slammed her bedroom door. She could hear the argument persist in the hallway, but they were all using hushed voices so she couldn't completely understand what was being said. She pulled on a pair of jeans and slipped into Tony's sweatshirt just to spite her brothers.
"I won't go until Melinda asks me to go," Tony was saying as Melinda opened the door.
"Tell him to go," Chris said in Melinda's direction.
Melinda looked from her brothers to her boyfriend and weighed the consequences. Moving swiftly across the hall, she stood next to Tony and wrapped her arm around his waist. She looked up into his soft brown eyes and sighed.
"I really don't want to deal with this," she told him defeated. "I'll see you tomorrow night?"
"Of course," he smiled down at her. Kissing her on the forehead, and completely ignoring the boys, Tony walked into Melinda's room to retrieve the rest of his clothes.
"How could you do that to me?" she asked incredulously to her brothers. "Do you have any idea how humiliating that was?"
"I can't believe you would do that, in this house, in our parents house, with him!" Chris sputtered, beside himself with rage.
"What!" she exclaimed. "It wasn't very long ago that I walked in on you and Bianca! Before that it was Wyatt and Charmain… why is it okay for you two to do it and not me?"
"Because," Wyatt said calmly. "Tony is a dirtbag and the thought of him putting his hands on you….."
"Then don't think about it! I am 20 years old, I am well old enough to do what I want to, with who I want to and I don't care if you like it or not!" Melinda turned on her heel and stormed into her room. Looking around she didn't see Tony. He must have slipped out while she was arguing with her brothers. She didn't blame him for not saying goodbye, she wouldn't even blame him if he never wanted to see her again. She slammed her door and flopped down on her bed. The smell of Tony still lingered in her pillowcase and it reminded her of Pearl. The next entry should be about the date with the gorgeous man of her dreams!
"How do you know that this guy is safe to go out with?" Pippy was asking Pearl.
Pearl rolled her eyes and applied some color to her lids. Her cousin was so overprotective.
"How did you know Gordan was safe to go out with?" she asked her cousin.
"For one thing, I knew his name!" Pippy exclaimed.
"Cousin, calm down! I'll be fine. I may not be as powerful as you and Prudence, but I still have powers. If he tries anything with me, I'll simply light him on fire."
Pippy and Pearl locked gazes, and they both started to giggle like schoolgirls. Between her two cousins, Pippy was the one that Pearl connected with the best. She was happy for this moment, because since Pippy and Gordan got married Pearl felt like a third wheel. As hateful as it may have seemed, Pearl was overjoyed when Pippy had the affair with Lucas and secretly hoped that Gordan would find out and leave them forever.
"I can't wait for you to have that baby," Pearl sighed. "Then you'll have someone other than me to mother!"
Pippy sighed and looked away, the mood suddenly gone. Pearl glanced up at the reflection in the mirror of her cousin and caught tears flooding her eyes.
"What?" Pearl asked jumping to her feet. "What happened?"
"Nothing," Pippy answered trying to hold back her tears. "Nothing happened. That's the problem. The baby, it was a false alarm. I guess I just wanted a baby so bad… I was just… I'm not pregnant. I never was."
Pearl rushed to her cousin's side and wrapped her arms around her. She knew how bad Pippy wanted this baby. Pearl herself had foreseen the child, but perhaps the timing was off. Pippy buried her head in Pearls shoulder and let out half of a sob. Then, straightening up and regaining her composure she looked Pearl over.
"Well, he who remains unnamed will be here in 10 minutes. I hope you're not planning to wear that!"
Pearl looked down at her clothes. She was still in a pair of button down pajamas that she slipped into after her bath.
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Get out! Get out now so that I can get dressed!"
Melinda was suddenly relocated from Melinda's bedroom to the foyer.
A knock came at the door, and the outline of a man holding a bouquet of flowers appeared behind the stained glass. Pearls heart skipped a beat as she stood on the staircase. She held onto the banister for dear life, for surely she felt she must faint. Prudence came rushing from the other room and looked up at Pearl. She gave her a look of amused distaste and swung the door open.
"Hello," Prudence said. "I'm Pearls cousin, Pru-"
"Prudence Bowens," the man finished the sentence for her. "It is an honor to meet you. May I say, you are every bit as lovely as the photographs that have made you famous about this town, I am a huge fan of yours. I am known as Anton Dumeans and it is a pleasure."
Pearl felt a shiver of jealousy as Anton took Prudence's hand and brought it to his lips. He looked up the stairs and caught her gaze. He straightened his back upon laying his eyes on her and smiled a smile only for her. She gracefully walked down the steps to meet him and took his hand.
The evening was lovely. He took her to the Golden Gate Theatre to see a local rendition of the Broadway show No, No Nanette. Later, he made due with his promise of dinner and a walk on the beach. The walked for about half of a mile, just chatting and laughing together when they came upon a little picnic laid out complete with wine and candles stuck into the sand. She shot a sideways glance at him.
"Is that ours?" she asked.
"Well, it doesn't look like anyone else is using it." He replied vaguely.
"How did you do this?" she asked.
"I had a friend come out ahead of us," he answered as he ushered her to sit on the blanket that was laid out before them. "I wanted this evening to be perfect."
They sat for awhile longer and nibbled on cheese and crackers, telling on another of each others lives. Anton seemed resistant to talk about his family, so Pearl let it go. From what she could gather, he was from an abusive family and it looked as though it pained him to talk about his father.
After that first date, Melinda went through a series of Pearls memories. Nothing in as in depth, but she could tell that Pearl and Anton were falling deeper and deeper in love. The cousins seemed to warm up to him quickly, and they were together all of the time. Melinda caught a glimpse of them sharing candlelit dinners and late morning breakfasts. He was always at the manor watching her as she told the future of different people. He held her waist tightly on even strolls downtown, held doors open for her, and kissed her gently every night on the doorstep.
Melinda couldn't help but to smile stupidly to herself. It was almost as if she were reading a trashy romance novel, but it was so much better because it was a true romance. Melinda came across a longer journal entry and sat herself more comfortably on the bed. She felt a sense of longing and heartbreak as the story began to unfold itself.
