Disclaimer: The characters in my stories are completely made up characters and have temporally been given borrowed names for the sole purpose of satisfying the qualifications for posting on this fanfiction site. These stories are fiction and should be perceived as such. They in no way reflect the lives, beliefs or views of any persons living or dead and any similarities are coincidental. I am not affiliated with any company or professional wrestler in any way. No disrespect or copyright infringement intended. And if any of my favs happen upon my stories, I hope your not offended because this is not about you, it is about feedback on my story ideas. :) I love and respect what you do and I thank you for all the joy and entertainment over the years.
This is my new story idea. I hope everyone enjoys it. Please Review. :)
Chapter 5
Matt turned sixteen the following month and it felt like sixty. He woke up with a sore, stiff back, his feet throbbed all the time and he felt like he never slept. He didn't even have time for a girlfriend. No girl peeked his interest and he'd only been intimate a hand full of times, yet he had five kids needing something from him every five minutes. Somedays it frustrated him. His only indulgence was seeing Randie at school and for a moment he would let himself daydream. He'd think about what it would be like to date her, to spend Friday nights talking to her instead of bagging groceries. He imagined walking hand in hand with her in the halls, driving to and from school together. It was a nice dream and having it would have brought something normal to his young life, but Randie didn't speak to him. Her gaze wouldn't even fall on him, but she was the only girl that he couldn't get off his mind. The only one that he gave more than glance to. Maybe childhood friendship had a lot to do with it. He knew she wasn't the same girl but still, those feeling were so embedded that he couldn't dismiss her, no matter how stuck up she had become. So, one day, he just walked up to her in the hall.
"Stay away from me, Matt." She'd said. She wouldn't even lift her eyes to look at him.
"Come on, Randie. You used to be really good friends."
"I can't be friends with you." She'd whispered. "I – I don't ever want to talk to you again. It's bad enough that I have to see you. Don't make it worse."
It cut him deep. The wound she inflicted had been so deep that he grew angry. He loathed her. Hated that she became so involved with her own kind that she forgot about him and how they used to be. She had even seemed embarrassed that they had once been friends. Even stood with Logan and his rich friends as they made fun of him and laughed. There was no doubt in his mind that she was one of them and the feelings he'd once felt faded away, replaced by contempt. He was glad when she stopped coming to school. He counted down the days to graduation, glad to be rid of all his classmates. It didn't matter that they were the same age. Mentally, he was years older. His life had caused that and his family was all that mattered. He went to school, he worked and he took care of his family. That was his life. All there would ever be. He didn't want or need anyone else in it.
Soon, he couldn't ignore the remarks people in town would mutter as he passed. His family was poor. No better than criminals. He was worthless. He knew it, accepted it and went on with his life. He got used to people watching him when he shopped in their stores. All of them thought he would steal if they didn't follow him. He got used to how they looked at him in his faded, old clothes and how they turned up their noses as if he smelled. He guessed it had always been that way, he just hadn't been as aware of it.
To make matters worse, the cough his father had kept for nearly a year got worse. So bad that he ended up in the hospital and ended up out of work for nearly a month. So, Matt took a part time job after school to help pay the bills and he never let it go, making Jeff have to sit home and take care of their younger siblings. Jeff complained about it but he did what had to be done, just as Matt had after their mother died.
Things didn't get better for them. Matt held onto that job hoping it would give them extra money, but his father's health condition made him miss more and more days of work. So much that he was forced to take part time hours at the plant.
When Matt turned eighteen he started working the evening shift at the plant. Then as if the respiratory illness wasn't enough, his father's back, that had ached him for years, started going out, leaving him unable to walk and in extreme pain. A few months after that, his father couldn't work at all. He could barely walk, depending on a wheelchair most of the time and that brought even more hospital and doctor bills.
XXX
Anna and Jaycee had gotten into a bad car wreck. When the cops gave them the news, her father seemed almost relieved as if he had expected something else. But Randie couldn't imagine news that would be worse than finding out that their family members had been plowed into by a drunk driver.
Jaycee's injuries were slight. She'd come out of the collision with a broken arm and few cuts that she cried about because she feared they would leave scars behind, but they weren't sure if Anna would pull through. Jaycee had been driving so Anna took a direct hit by the truck that had run the red light. She was in intensive care for nearly two months, then in the hospital for a long time after.
When she came home, she was fine, but in a wheel chair and Randie was pulled out of school.
XXX
"Hey big brother. I got supper tonight. If you don't mind hot dogs." It was Matt's night off and it was unusual for Jeff to want to do anything, as if he thought Matt's night off was his night off from babysitting. "What's got you so happy?"
"Jeff's got a girlfriend." Marty, Jeff's little clone, said in a sing song manner from the kitchen table.
"Hush up you little troll." Jeff shot back at his shadow.
"A girlfriend?"
"Maggie from the bus." Marty snickered. "He sits with her and holds her hand and licks her ear. Gross."
"You lick her ear?"
"I do not." Jeff spat, his ears and cheeks turning three shades of red. Jeff had had girls following him around since grade school. Jeff was the cute one, the old gossips in town would say whenever they were in town together and Matt was the muscle. Well at least he was good for something. He still worked out every morning. It relieved stress and he had a body builder's frame by the age of twelve.
"Maybe he's blowing in it and she giggles a lot. It's still gross." Sloan added. He was the milder of the younger brothers. Acting more like Matt who was way too serious most of the time. Sloan bore the dark hair and eyes as well, but was almost too skinny for his age. He preferred books and science stuff to anything the other boys enjoyed. He didn't care for wrestling or playing in the mud. And he didn't like racing of any kind and he had no interest in the weight bench when Matt tried to show him how to use it. The kid's biggest want was a computer. Something Matt knew they could never afford to give him.
"You better go get your baths." Jeff scolded the younger boys who loved to tease him about girls, then the phone rang and Jeff ran to get to it before anyone else and he stayed on that phone talking nonsense, annoying Matt with the long phone cord that he about wrapped around him a dozen times while he tried to get his homework done at the kitchen table. He began to think that it might be easier for him to cook dinner himself, but at least Jeff was helping.
"Randie's at the door!" Cory came running into the kitchen. It was still odd for Matt to see one twin without the other, but they weren't three anymore and were starting to enjoy different things. At that moment, Cory was watching television in the living room and Cameron was in his room playing with his building blocks.
"Better go let your girlfriend in, Matt." Jeff snickered.
"She's not my girl." Matt snapped. "She's too young for me anyway."
"Then how come every time you see her your eyes are glued to her rear when she leaves."
"I think you're talking about your eyes, little brother."
Jeff just flipped him off, turned his back on him and went back to his phone call.
"Damn it, Jeff, you boiled all the water out of the pan!" And it pissed him off. The hot dogs laid on the bottom sizzling and split. "Everything else is frozen. What the hell are we going to do about dinner now!"
He stomped towards the door sure that Randie was just dropping off a bottle for another of their father's deals. Despite Jeff's teasing, he actually hadn't set eyes on Randie in some time. So long in fact that he couldn't' remember the last time he'd seen her, but he did remember how she had treated him and he wasn't interested in seeing her at that moment.
She stood outside the screen door patiently. "You could have let her in, Cory. Geeze." He kicked past the toys on the floor, irritated with all of his younger brothers. "And you better get this mess to your room before dad gets home. He slipped out the screen door. Randie stood there with a crock pot in her hands and two backpacks over her shoulder. Time had only made Randie prettier and he guessed every guy in town still wanted to be her boyfriend and he was sure most them already had been.
"What … what's going on?"
Randie shrugged and they both turned toward the van that pulled in the drive. Matt slipped past her and ran down the steps to help get his father off the wheel chair elevator. He wheeled him up the ramp he'd built over the steps. Randie put down the crock pot and opened the door.
"Randie is staying with us a few nights." His father said right before going into a coughing fit. "Her parents had to leave in a hurry."
"Your father? Sent you here?" After he forbid her from hanging out with those boys? Those poor trash, trouble making boys? Matt didn't believe it. Randie seemed as confused as Matt did.
"And when was all of this arranged?" He asked as he wheeled his father in.
"He called the house this morning."
"What's this?" He turned to see Randie following him in with the crock pot in her hands again. "Um, barbeque? I cooked it for our supper tonight. I don't know if you guys like it or not, but no one will be back to eat it before it spoils at my house."
"Are you kidding? I haven't had barbeque in ages." His father smiled broader than he had in years. "If she makes it anything like her mama did, you boys are going to beg me to adopt her." He patted Matt on the back.
"I brought some buns too." She put down her bags and pulled out a couple bags of hamburger buns.
"Anything is better than Jeff's cooking," Matt spat just loud enough for his brother to hear.
"Get off that phone." His father only had to speak once for the boys to act. Jeff hung up real quick and began to sit plates on the table.
"Sloan get another chair," He ordered his ten year old. "This smells real good, Randie. You said you cooked this?"
"Yes sir. I put the roast in before school this morning."
"You do all the cooking at your house?" Matt wondered as he fixed a sandwich and cut it in half for the twins to share. The chip on his shoulder about Randie had only grown. That day at school had been the last time she'd spoke to him.
"Most days, during the week. But it's mostly crock pot meals. Anna cooks on the weekends, when she's off work. I don't' think I'll ever be able to cook like she does."
"I heard Anna went back to work. I guess she's doing well now?"
"She limps, but yes."
"This is just like your mother's." Matt's father closed his eyes and savored every single bite, but Matt could tell that it bothered Randie a little to hear about her mother. He didn't think she'd seen her since she'd left. And many years had gone by since. Matt's Dad often said that Randie would have been better off with her mother, but he never elaborated. His father never did speak much about the affairs of people outside their home. He wasn't into gossip.
"It's the only thing she made that I can remember." Randie gave a weak smile. Seemed it was all she could muster. Maybe she forced it to try not to be rude. Matt couldn't believe that she could think any more of them than her father did. It must have been torture for her to have to stay with them. Maybe her father sent her there as some kind of punishment.
"Matt after supper, I want you to dig out one of those big comforters from the hall closet and some sheets. I wish we had another room for you to use Randie, but our old couch is comfortable. Matt sure seems to pass out on it pretty quickly."
"It's fine." Randie said politely. "Thank you for letting me stay."
"Neighbors should help when they can." Then he exchanged a knowing look with Matt. Both knew that Randie's father would never return the favor if the tables were turned, but Matt's father was an old fashioned guy with simple old fashioned values. He'd help anyone he could even if the Randie's family wasn't exactly their neighbors anymore.
Randie helped Jeff clean up the kitchen then she sat at the table to do her homework while Matt went over the finances for the week. They exchanged uncomfortable glances here and there until the Sloan came running in with his school workbook.
"I don't get it." Sloan whined even twenty minutes after Matt tried to show him. "It's too hard."
"Sloan, maybe I can help so your big brother can finish his work?"
"He's no help anyway."
Matt pinched the bridge of his nose, but he was thankful that Randie took over. He felt like his brain was going to explode. His eyes hurt and the back of his head throbbed. He barely understood his own work, barely made it to graduation and he constantly had to help his little brothers with stuff he didn't remember doing in their grade.
"Oh! I see it." Sloan was jotting down answers easily after just five minutes then Randie opened a book and stuck her nose in it. It frustrated him how easy it was for the girl.
"What is that? Some romance book?" he said in a smart assed tone.
"Reading list." She shrugged. "It's boring, but I have to read it if I want to be a senior next year."
He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, I bet you have your own tutor too." He snapped. He knew that Randie was homeschooled, something only rich kids got to do. He ignored her the rest of the time as he balanced the money he had been paid and tried to figure out which bills he would spend it on.
"I can't do this anymore. All these numbers are running together." He was just too tired to concentrate. "I feel like watching some television before bed. I mean unless you're ready to sleep." His father had already gone to bed and they only owned one television and it was in the living room where Randie would be sleeping on the couch.
"I'm fine." She had put her books away in her school bag and grabbed some clothes from the other.
"Bathrooms in there." He pointed toward the door, then headed to make sure the twins were in there beds and not up playing. He always had to tell Sloan when to turn out his light so he wouldn't wake up Marty who initially fell asleep easy, but would be up all night if he was woken up. The older the boys got, the harder it was for them to share that tiny room.
When he came out Randie was on the sofa, the sheets he'd laid out spread over it and the comforter still folded neatly at the end. He sat down on the floor because they didn't have any other furniture besides the sofa.
"You don't have sit on the floor."
"I don't want to keep you awake."
"I'm not ready to sleep yet."
Matt shrugged and sat on the end of the couch with her and she sat down right beside him. She wore an old fashioned night gown. It was a thin white material that reached all the way to her ankles, but the top was a tank top style with lace made of the same cotton material as the gown and it buttoned from the waist up. He couldn't help but notice the first two buttons as they slipped free of the worn out holes, giving him a peek at the bra she wore beneath. He guessed she only wore it because she was a guest in a home full of men. He didn't think any girl would wear a bra to bed normally.
That white lacey bra stayed on his mind through the entire show he tried to focus on. Not to mention the cleavage that poked out that made his manhood throb, reminding him that he was human and he began to wonder just how many of the rumors about Randie were true. It had been a while since he'd hooked up with a girl. He still didn't have time for a girlfriend but every now and then he found someone willing to give up a quick roll in the sheets.
Randie laughed at the comedy on the screen and she didn't notice that he'd placed his arm around her shoulders until he tilted her chin his way and pressed his lips against hers. When she didn't push away, he maneuvered her body so she was beneath him. She did nothing to deter him even when his hands touched her breasts. She didn't even mind that some of the buttons popped off her gown when he undid them so he could dip his hand beneath the bra she wore.
He fondled her breasts, wrapped his mouth around her nipples and pulled her legs around his waist, pressing his hardness against her. He was hungry. Starved to point that it wasn't safe for him to be alone with any girl. Even if the one beside him was still in high school. There wasn't that big a difference in their age. Damn sure wasn't enough of a gap to stop him from taking all she would let him have, which was everything.
He did little more than pull off his shirt, undo his pants and pull her panties to the side to get what he wanted. Yes, he was using her. Yes, it was nothing more than sex, but Randie was the type who obviously slept around, so he didn't feel guilty about it and he finally understood why the guys liked her so much. It wasn't because she was pretty. It was because she was so hot and so tight that it made him bite his own lip to keep from moaning too loud. He'd had a half dozen women, but he'd never experienced anything like it before.
"Why are you leaving so early?" Matt was already up and dressed by the time Jeff woke up.
"I work days now, remember?" Matt had managed to win a first shift maintenance position at the plant the week before and Jeff began to get up early to feed the animals before school.
"Your shift starts at eight. It's four a.m." Jeff pointed at the clock.
"Mind your business." Matt spat, grabbed his keys from the nightstand and walked out of the room they shared. He didn't want to be around when Randie woke up. He didn't want to face her or have the 'we're not a couple' conversation with her. He already knew that wasn't a possibility. Besides he couldn't afford to keep her happy even if she would agree to date him. Yet, there childhood past kept him from accepting reality.
She was gone by the time he got off work. Her Aunt, who had been visiting a sister out of town, came home early and showed up to collect her first thing according to his father. Logan Mitchell's car was in the neighbor's driveway when he passed by. He felt a little jealous, a little mad, but shrugged it off. He'd sat at the diner that morning sipping coffee and thinking. He thought about his past and the night before, but he knew the moment he saw that shiny red sports car that he'd only wanted that shit because sex with her had felt so good. No wonder Logan Mitchell stayed around. She'd probably end up marrying the jerk.
