Love and Obsession
Chapter 2
Michelle sat on the couch reading Green Eggs and Ham to Sadie and Leah. Stephanie was at her job interview, but she would be back any time now and Danny and Aunt Becky were in the kitchen discussing things for Wake up, San Francisco. Joey was on a dinner date with a friend while Jesse was at Nicky and Alex's football game and D.J was working to pay for a dress for her and Steve's wedding the following Spring.
Leah suddenly snatched the book from Michelle's hands and tore out some of the pages.
"Oh no! Leah, what'd you do that for?" Michelle groaned and smacked a hand against her forehead.
"Book boring." The two year old answered.
"But you didn't have to rip it. You could have told me you wanted to do something else."
"Sorry. Me and Sadie watch Simsims?"
"Sure, kiddo." Michelle found one of the Simpson's video cassettes and put it in the VCR and the two toddlers giggled and clapped their hands in excitement.
Stephanie walked out to the restaurant parking lot towards her car. As she went to unlock the driver's side door, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps.
"Hello Stephanie!" She heard someone call out. The voice sounded eery to her, but she couldn't place who this person was. She turned around and came face to face with a teenage girl a bit shorter than herself with crimped bleach blond hair, brown eyes, and slightly tanned skin. Her clothing was revealing, a black miniskirt and hot pink tube top with black boots that went up to her knees.
"Wh-who are you? What do you want?" Stephanie's voice stuttered.
"I'm Karla Gray. I believe you have something that belongs to me." Karla accused.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Stephanie argued back.
"Oh, I think you do. Give Josh back!"
"He doesn't belong to you, Karla!"
"Oh yes, he does. Give him back or you'll be sorry." With that, Karla walked away with a sinister laugh. Stephanie grumbled softly and got in the car. She put the key in the ignition, then made a quick stop at the nearest gas station before driving home.
The ride took less than fifteen minutes and she walked into the house, an exhausted look in her eyes.
"Guys, I'm home!"
"In here, Steph!" Danny called from the kitchen. Stephanie entered the room where her father was cleaning Sadie and Leah's muddy hand prints off the refrigerator. "How did the interview go?" He inquired.
"It went great, Dad. The manager liked me and said she'd give me a call back within a couple days."
"That's wonderful, honey!" He gave her a hug and she returned the gesture, then went up to her room to check on Sadie and have a little playtime with her.
"Hi little one." She said sweetly, sitting down on the floor next to her daughter and pulling her onto her lap. Sadie squealed with delight as Stephanie kissed and tickled her. She squirmed out of her mother's arms and went back to the plastic blocks she was playing with and babbled as she banged two of them together, enjoying the noise they made as they collided. Stephanie reached over and picked up a few blocks and began building a small tower with them. Sadie clapped and tried to imitate, though she had more fun knocking the blocks down.
"Awww, you silly girl!" Stephanie laughed and Sadie smiled and laughed back at her. They played for a while until Jesse called them for dinner, then Stephanie played with Sadie some more, gave her a bath, read her a story, and put her to bed.
Saturday arrived and Stephanie was getting ready for her, Sadie, and Josh's picnic at the park. She packed a basket of sandwiches, fruit, salad, iced tea, and a few Jell-o pudding cups along with plenty of napkins and plastic silverware and went upstairs to grab Sadie's diaper bag. She put the diaper bag in the bottom compartment of the stroller and strapped Sadie into her seat. She was finishing up with the food basket when she heard a knock on the back door.
"Hey Josh!" She said with a bright, happy smile as she let her boyfriend in.
"Hey, you and Sadie ready to go?" He asked, handing her a bouquet of yellow roses.
"Yeah, I just gotta make sure we have everything and we're good to go." Josh pushed the stroller and Stephanie grabbed the basket and they walked to the park.
When they got there, they found a spot and put the brakes on the stroller, then laid out a large blanket and put the food basket on top of it. Stephanie lifted Sadie out of the stroller and the two adults sat down with their daughter between them.
"Mmm, this is delicious, Steph." Josh complemented as he took a bite of his roast beef, American cheese, and honey mustard sandwich, washing it down with a sip of tea.
"Really? Thanks." She replied with a smile and took a bite of her tuna salad sandwich. She blushed red as Josh leaned toward her and licked the mayonnaise that stuck to her lips and continued to kiss her. "As much as I enjoy this, we have a kid sitting here." Stephanie reminded him as she pulled away.
"You're right! Oops!" He gave her a quick kiss and they laughed it off before going back to their meals. Sadie smiled and reached her arms up at her father to be picked up. Josh happily picked her up and held her in his lap, sharing a bite of his sandwich and salad with her. She made a strange face at the taste of the mustard, causing both adults to chuckle.
"So anyway, have you heard back about the job?" He questioned.
"Yeah, I got it!" She replied excitedly.
"Congratulations! I knew you would get it. We should do something to celebrate."
"You don't have to do that for me, Josh."
"But I want to."
"Okay, what should we do then?"
"Shhh! It's a surprise." He teased.
"Oh, you're so bad!" She said, slapping him playfully on the back.
They finished the food and as they were getting ready to leave, they saw someone familiar walk up to them.
"Well, well, well! What do we have here?"
"Buzz off Karla! We don't have time to deal with you right now. We're busy."
"You know, I don't know what you see in her, Josh. She's nothing but a filthy whore. Why don't you come with me and we'll go do something fun." Stephanie wanted so badly to punch her in the face, but she just held a crying Sadie closer to her protectively.
"You and I are way over and secondly, don't you ever talk that way about Stephanie again!" Josh warned her.
"Ooh, feisty, are we?" She laughed evilly.
"Shut up, damn it! I told you before, I want nothing more to do with you, so get out of here!"
"Fine! I'm leaving." She sighed. Pointing a finger at Stephanie, Karla taunted, "I will get you for this, Tanner! You better watch your back."
"If you do anything to harm her or her family, I will kill you!" Josh threatened. Karla left and Stephanie and Josh stood there, trying to console a still crying Sadie.
"Shhh! It's okay, baby. We won't let that mean old girl do anything to you." The toddler's crying eventually calmed down and she drifted off to sleep. Stephanie put her in the stroller and Josh walked them home. Stephanie invited her boyfriend inside and he accepted and carried Sadie up to bed for her nap.
They checked on her one last time and went back downstairs. They reached the bottom step and saw the front door open and in walked Jesse, Rebecca, Nicky, Alex, and Leah with bags of groceries.
"Hey guys!" Stephanie greeted.
"Hey Steph. When did you get back?" Jesse asked.
"Just a few minutes ago. You need any help?"
"Thanks." Rebecca said gratefully. Stephanie and Josh brought in the rest of the bags and helped Stephanie's uncle and aunt put everything away. "We appreciate the help, you two."
"You're welcome." Stephanie said.
"It was no problem, Mrs. Katsopolis." Josh replied.
"Call me Rebecca, or Becky. No need to be so formal." Rebecca told the young man.
"Josh, Stephanie, do you wanna play Nintendo 64 with us?" Nicky asked as he and Alex came running in with a bunch of game cartridges in their hands.
"Sure, count me in." Josh answered. "What about you, Steph?"
"Yeah, I'm in. What should we play first?"
"Donkey Kong Racing!" Alex shouted.
"Yeah!" Nicky agreed. The four of them set up the game and chose their characters, then started to race.
Chapter 3 coming soon! It's almost finished, but the ending is giving me a bit of trouble so I'll get back to it later. The last scene in this chapter was left like that intentionally. The rest is up to your imagination. lol