Chapter Eleven | Don't Think Twice
"You asked Helga G. Pataki to be your girlfriend on your first official date? Bold move Arnold, really bold move." Gerald said, speaking to his best friend while attempting to pack his suitcase. Phoebe asked Gerald to accompany her to her favorite cousin's wedding. He had mixed feelings about meeting Phoebe's extended family for the first time but he was excited to get away from Hillwood for a few days.
"I mean, I like her—a lot, might I add. Why risk letting her get away?" Arnold questioned, sitting on the small gamer chair in the corner of Gerald's bedroom.
"Well—what did she say?" Gerald asked. Arnold thought back to a few nights ago.
Arnold could feel his heart beating so fast, it felt as though it could jump out and run across the table at any moment. He looked into Helga's eyes but he couldn't really read what her face was thinking. Time was moving slower than ever before, seconds seemed to take hours to get through and the silence was beginning to make him uncomfortable.
"Of course I want to be your girlfriend Arnold!" Helga responded, she could feel tears of happiness starting to form behind her eyes. "I mean, as long as you don't think it's too soon. I don't want to rush into anything."
"My man!" Gerald responded, holding out his fist and sharing his signature handshake with Arnold. "So, I have to be real with you though—don't you think you're moving a little too fast?"
"Like I said, I don't want to risk losing her again. You've seen Helga—she's intelligent, funny and when I'm around her there's just so much fire, I can't even describe it." Arnold reasoned.
"Alright, well as long as you're happy—when we get back, we can have a double date to celebrate." Gerald offered, "I know that Phoebe- "
Gerald's conversation was cut short when suddenly his door quickly swung open.
"Gerald—it's five o' clock in the afternoon in the middle of summer. Does this light really need to be on? They don't call it daylight savings time so we could waste electricity all willy nilly!" Martin Johannsen ranted, turning off the bedroom light before shutting the door.
"Did I mention—I really need a vacation?" Gerald groaned.
Phoebe and Gerald loaded their suitcases in her blue Toyota Prius and headed to the Seattle airport. Her favorite cousin, Megan Brown, was getting married to her childhood sweetheart Thomas Williams. Her mother, Reba, insisted on arriving in Kentucky several days before the wedding as Reba's sister Debbie was stressed out about her youngest daughter getting married—and of course Kyo followed behind her.
"Are you excited?" Phoebe asked once they were on the plane, her brown eyes were bright and wide with anticipation. Gerald thought pensively for a moment, choosing his words carefully.
"I'm excited." Gerald settled on the simple response. Phoebe placed her hand over Gerald's.
"You seem hesitant." Phoebe observed.
"I'm just worried about what your family is going to think of me—of us." Gerald admitted. Phoebe understood his worry. She'd told Gerald many stories about how long it took for her mother's side of the family to accept her father. Phoebe rested her head on Gerald's shoulder and gently his hand. She didn't say anything—but Gerald was immediately comforted.
Once they arrived in Louisville, Phoebe's father Kyo picked them up from the airport. Her Aunt Debbie insisted that Phoebe and Gerald stay at her house but Phoebe told them that she would feel more comfortable in a hotel room.
"I know that you two are probably exhausted from the flight—but the rehearsal dinner is at 8:00, I'll be back to pick you up at 7:30." Kyo commanded as he dropped the couple off at their hotel room.
Once they were checked in they went up to their hotel room, opening the door to reveal a beautiful view of the city and a plush king sized bed. Phoebe, the organized woman that she was, insisted on unpacking her suitcase. She claimed that it made the cold hotel room feel more like home. Gerald was more of the type to live out of his suitcase for the three days that he was in town. Gerald looked at the clock next to the nightstand, 3:30.
Phoebe was standing at her suitcase, carefully unpacking her clothes and toiletries. He walked up to her and wrapped his arms around his petite girlfriend and kissed her neck. Phoebe turned around to face him and Gerald placed an eager kiss upon her lips, their bodies fell onto the king sized bed, their clothing quickly disappearing with each passing minute.
Harold had been apartment hunting but nothing seemed right. The apartments he found were either affordable but in a horrible area or in a great area but terribly expensive. One of his employees told him about an apartment that had just opened up about a block from Green Meats, he was crossing his fingers hoping that this apartment could be the one to get him into his own place and out of Patty's hair.
"Well as you can see this apartment has a master bedroom and a smaller room that can be used as an office or a second bedroom." The realtor remarked, standing in the living room of the empty apartment. Harold looked around the apartment. He tried to picture how it would look after he moved in. He remembered when Harold and Patty moved into their townhouse—how carefully she selected the items that she placed in the house to make it a home. He couldn't help but to think of how different this move was going to be. He would miss the personal touches that Patty integrated into their home, most importantly he would miss coming home to Patty and Chase every night—but all he could do at this point was move forward.
"I'll take it." Harold said.
Rhonda rolled over to check the time on her phone. 12:30 pm. She noticed a figure in the bed next to her. She had vague memories of meeting someone the night before and inviting him back to her house. Her memories of the previous night were very limited, she did remember having more than her fair share of martinis, vodka shots and light beer.
She got out of her bed, throwing a monogrammed red silk robe over her body and quickly brushed the sickening mixture of alcohol and morning breath out of her mouth. She went back into her bedroom and gently nudged the stranger who was sleeping peacefully in her bed. He barely budged. She rolled her eyes in frustration and aggressively shook him before he finally arose from his slumber. His short brown hair was going in various directions on top of his head, he looked at Rhonda through squinted eyes, his golden brown eyes struggling to focus on what was going on.
Rhonda looked down at the young man, he was muscular and definitely had a cute face. I've woken up to worse, Rhonda thought to herself.
"What's going on babe?" The man asked, propping himself up on his elbows. Rhonda reached down on the floor and threw his clothes at his chest.
"I'm not your babe and it's time for you to leave Jack!" Rhonda exclaimed, pointing in the direction of the door.
"It's Ryan." The man responded, stuck in a state of confusion.
"Whatever—I'm going to go take a shower and when I get out, I want any and every trace of you gone." Rhonda demanded, heading into her master bathroom. She started to run a hot shower for herself but instead, decided to draw herself a nice bath. She could see from the security camera footage from her cell phone that Jack-Ryan-whoever, had finally left her townhouse and now she was all alone.
She placed her iPhone on the docking station in her bathroom and put on her favorite Pandora playlist. She tossed a bath bomb into the water and watched as the bath water turned a bright pink. Thoughts of loneliness began to creep into her mind and she could feel tears start to lightly stream down her face as she lowered herself into the bathtub. Lloyd's don't cry she tried to tell herself.
Rhonda's main concern was appearances and it had been that way for as long as she could remember. She recalled attending Urban Tots preschool, surrounded by her classmates that were always so free and liberated. Meanwhile, Rhonda, even at age four was concerned with how she would be perceived. So, while her classmates were finger-painting and jumping in mud puddles like children often did- she was more concerned with how her outfit was going to look because there was nothing like going home and seeing the disappointed look on her parents' faces.
"Rhonda, dear—look at you. This simply won't do." Brooke Lloyd said, looking down at her four year old child. The Nanny had brought the young girl home in a Burberry dress and leggings that had been splashed with yellow and blue paint.
"She's just a child!" Sara, the nanny responded with a thick Italian accent.
"And what will people think of this family if they see my daughter looking—looking like that!?" Brooke turned up her nose in disgust.
"Mommy, I had such a fun day today—we played-" A young Rhonda started to say excitedly before she was interrupted.
"Sara, I want her out of those clothes and into something presentable by the time I come back down. It's almost time for tea and my daughter looks like a charity case." Brooke demanded, ignoring her daughter's story and ascending up the stairs to change her own outfit.
It didn't take long for Rhonda to realize that her family was more concerned with appearances, wealth, and physical items than actually caring for each other. There were some advantages to this, her parents had a hard time saying no to her. Her mother and father never wanted to deny her of anything. However, she realized that it wasn't just her parents that had a hard time saying no to her. As she grew older and puberty hit, she was surprised to see just how far some boys would go to please her. This trait of hers began as an advantage but it was quickly turning into a liability.
"Wow, this place is pretty nice!" Patty remarked as she walked into Harold's new apartment. The place was bare but Patty was still able to see the potential of the apartment. She had mixed emotions about the place, even though she had no interest in being with Harold anymore—it was a bit sad to see him taking the steps to move away from her. They had been together for so long, it just felt strange to see him moving on. "Great location!"
"Yeah, that was something really important to me. I needed to find a place where you and Chase felt comfortable visiting." Harold responded nervously, they hadn't really discussed how frequently Patty was going to allow Harold to see Chase now that he was moving out. It was a conversation that they were both dreading, as they both had grown accustomed to spending every day with Chase—they were both certain that they could be amicable in dividing up time reasonably, but honestly neither one of them was looking forward to their time with Chase being cut down.
"It's going to take me a few days to furnish this place and get all of the utilities turned on. I hope you don't mind but that means I'll be at home—your place for a few more days." Harold thought he caught his slip of the tongue but Patty noticed.
"It's still your home Harold—take as much time as you need." Patty responded, bouncing Chase lightly in her arms.
Harold pulled the door to the apartment and locked it behind him.
"Damnit—I forgot to get milk!" Patty thought aloud as Chase wriggled around in her arms. Harold reached over and grabbed the baby, Chase still wriggled but he began to calm down a little as his dad laid a gentle kiss on his forehead.
"You go ahead to the store, I'll handle Chase and start on dinner." Harold volunteered and stuck his arm out to hail a cab before Patty could argue with him. She smiled back at him before taking off towards the Corner Market.
Patty was in a rush, eager to get back to the townhouse. In so much of a rush, that as she turned the corner into the dairy aisle she bumped right into someone. The collision sent Patty flying backwards onto the ground, a hand reached out to help her up.
"I'm so sorry." A voice remarked, "I was in such a rush—I don't know what got into me."
Patty accepted the hand helping her up and once on her feet brushed herself off.
"Don't worry about it. I should have been watching where I was going." Patty responded with a small chuckle. She looked up and into the dark brown eyes of the man standing in front of her.
"I'm Jason—Jason Miller." He reached out, palm open awaiting a handshake.
"Patty Berman—uh—Smith." Patty responded, before rolling her eyes at her own slip of the tongue.
"Well which one is it?" Jason chuckled, noticing that he had a dimple in his left cheek when he smiled.
"Berman—for now—it's a long story." Patty explained. Jason looked at her thoughtfully before responding.
"Well, maybe I'll get to hear about it sometime." Jason flashed her a smile, "It was nice meeting you."
"Nice to meet you too." She said, barely audible to the man now walking away from her. Her heart was racing and she nearly forgot why she entered the grocery store in the first place but she was very happy that she did.
Phoebe and Gerald showered together, under the guise of saving time—but of course that made them even later. It was 7:20 and Phoebe was rushing to apply makeup for the Rehearsal dinner that Gerald was certain they would be late to. What a way to make a first impression. Gerald thought to himself.
Somehow, with a little hustle and a lot of luck, they were in the lobby of the hotel waiting for Kyo to pick them up—who arrived at 7:30 on the dot.
"I was as little worried- I didn't expect two eighteen year olds to be ready on time, but you two really did surprise me." Kyo remarked with a surprised tone of voice and Gerald shot Phoebe a knowing glance.
Gerald hadn't been to a lot of weddings so he didn't have a lot of experience with Rehearsal dinners, but when they pulled up he quickly realized he was a bit overdressed. They pulled up to a beautiful, large home which was sitting on a tremendous amount of land. The back lawn was lit with simple paper lanterns that swung beautifully with the light evening breeze. He could smell barbecue wafting in the air.
The dinner guests were mingling and a lot of the family members were excited to see Phoebe—she hadn't been to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky since freshman year of high school. Gerald met a lot of new family members, some that he had heard about—some that he was just hearing of for the first time today. He always thought that the rehearsal dinner was reserved for close family members and members of the wedding party, but looking at the amounts of people joined together mingling on the lawn—he could see that that wasn't the case here.
"So Phoebe, how excited are you for college?" A tall, slender, older redhead asked Phoebe.
"It's going to be a lovely change of scenery! I'm really excited to see what next year brings. I'll be honest, I'm a little nervous though." Phoebe responded honestly.
"What about you?" The woman asked in Gerald's direction. "What college are you attending next year?"
"Oh." Gerald cleared his throat, "I accepted a scholarship at University of Washington—far enough to say that I live away from home, but close enough that my mom might consider allowing me to do laundry at her house."
The group laughed in unison.
"So—you and Phoebe are going to do the long distance thing?" the woman questioned. Phoebe shuffled her feet nervously.
"I think I hear my dad calling." Phoebe remarked, eager to remove herself from the awkward conversation. A wave of confusion rushed across Gerald's face.
"What do you mean?" Gerald questioned, looking at the woman and then over to Phoebe.
"I mean, Stanford to University of Washington—that's got to be quite the drive! Not everyone can pull off long distance—but if anyone can it's you two." The woman responded, Gerald took a sip of his drink and walked away, removing himself from the conversation. He could hear Phoebe's feet shuffling behind him, her voice whispering for him to wait. He didn't know where he was going, just that he needed to get the hell out of there.
AN: I hope this slight look into Rhonda's past will help explain her character a little more. I know a few people have been asking about why Rhonda is the way that she is. I don't dislike Rhonda and I don't think that she means to act the way that she does. She's just used to feeling the like the world revolves around her and she's just now beginning to realize that actions have consequences. This story is also beginning to wind down a little, only a few more chapters left. I hope you're still enjoying it, don't worry- I still have a few things up my sleeve! :) Happy reading. - BuzzLightyearr