Chapter 17

The rest of the evening had gone without incident; Heath had been at his school dance, of course, while Audrey had taken the car and gone out with some friends

Around eight thirty, though, Brian's phone rang.

"So help me, if that is your daughter getting pulled over again, I will freaking kill," he said, picking it up off the end table.

"My daughter?" Steffi raised an eyebrow. "Last I checked, you also made a contribution to her existence."

"Right." He flipped the phone open. "BK here, spend your fifty cents wisely."

Brian then paused a few moments. "Jesus, Heath, what the hell happened?"

Steffi looked worried. "Heath? What…"

Brian cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Yeah, yeah, just wait for me out front, but you better have a good explanation for this, boy."

He sighed and slapped the phone shut. "Fucking hell. I guess I better call Bryan too."

"Being Heath is also my son, mind cluing me in on what is happening?" Steffi asked.

"Evidently, according to him, a 'little fight' broke out and quite a few kids got evicted, including our darling son," Brian answered. "Oh well, at least the thing would be over in an hour anyway, so I shouldn't complain. Nevertheless, I better give Bryan and his folks a heads up that Kellie will be back a little early. Jesus."

He opened the phone again, dialing a number, speaking to Bryan for a few minutes before hanging up. "I should be back in about twenty minutes on the off chance Audrey should check in before then," he said. "Bryan's going to ride me up to get the kids."

"Better him than Paul," Steffi replied.

"Hell yes; with Paul, we may have reached our destination by sunrise if we were lucky. At least with Bryan, we can be up there in less than ten minutes."

"Good luck with that," Steffi said. "Just bring your son back in one piece."

Meanwhile:

"I think my butt is going to be majorly grounded," Heath said. "Dad sounded really mad."

"Well those dumb boys should have kept their comments to themselves," Kellie sniffed. "But no, people have to be in other people's business. God forbid should anyone have fun."

"Sorry for getting you into this, Kel."

"Hey, no big deal. I kind of enjoyed punching that Colin kid out. He was obnoxious. I mean, staring at my chest like he never saw boobs before! Ew!"

"Yeah, I guess Bryan forgot to tell me you had a good right swing," Heath laughed. "You know, you have to be like the coolest girl I've ever met. Too bad you're from out of town."

"Don't let the dress fool you," she giggled.

"Pretty and you can fight," Heath nodded eagerly. "You don't see many girls like that anymore. Well, except maybe in Dad's business, but most of them are kind of fake looking. But you….."

Kellie cut him off with a kiss before pulling back a few moments later, smiling.

"Just as I thought," she nodded. "Cute, a gentleman, and a good kisser!"

"Um….I am?"

"Yeah," she nodded again, pulling him in for another one.

He pulled back quickly, breaking it, after seeing something out of the corner of his eye. "Kel, I think that's Bryan's car, and he's probably got Dad with him. Time to cool it."

Later:

The ride home had been awkward, with Brian lecturing Heath again about fighting. As predicted, he had been grounded for a week when they had gotten home and Bryan dropped them off, but not before Steffi had seen Heath in such disarray and given him a sermon of her own about his appearance.

Now in his room, Heath had been reading in bed when Audrey came in.

"What do you want?" he asked. "Coming in to rub my nose in being yelled at and grounded?"

"Can dress you up but not let you go out," she teased. "But really, Heath, what happened?"

"Stupid jocks," he snorted. "This one kid kept trying to hit on Kellie, asking why she came with a dork like me. A couple of guys we were hanging with told them to buzz off, but they kept at it. Anyway, Mark took a swing at one of them and it went from there. I got one of them in a headlock and did Dad's move on them and then Kellie punched Colin out. Man, had she got an awesome right hook! The rest of the girls just stood around looking stupid but Kellie helped us! What a girl!"

"Wait, are you telling me that sweet looking, little….."

"Can fight!" Heath nodded eagerly. "And kiss good too. My kind of woman."

"Hold it!" Audrey cried. "Exactly who kissed whom?"

Heath gave her a smug look. "SHE kissed ME. May I add twice, the second time with tongue."

"Eww, too much information!"

"What, doesn't Bryan slip you tongue when you kiss?"

Audrey blushed a little. "Not that it's any of your business, but yeah."

"Thought so," Heath grinned, letting out a secret. "It looked that way when you two were making out in the basement the other day and his hand was on one of your boobs."

"Heath, you pig! So help me, one word to Mom and Dad about that–"

"Did I say anything? Actually, I was wondering if you were going to go further than dry humping."

"No," Audrey snorted. "You know I'm not doing that until I get married. And how do you know about dry humping anyway?"

"Donovan at school caught his sister and her boyfriend doing it and told me about it."

"In any case, you better not say anything to Mom and Dad about it or I will surely kill you."

"Don't tell them Kellie kissed me with tongue and you got yourself a deal," Heath grinned.