The fourth chapter is brought to you Winterscorpion. The summer is here and things are heating up for both Rick and Michonne in more ways than one. Winterscorpion brings the drama for this chapter that will leave you on the edge of your seat and yearning for more.
Be sure to check out her other story on her FF page.
-We're The Ones Who Write
CHAPTER 4: HOW WAY LEADS ON TO WAY
THE DEAD HEAT OF AUGUST
SPLASH!
"Hey you kids! No jumping off the shallow end," Michonne yelled at the rambunctious bunch of tweens from her lifeguard's perch, "I don't want to have to ban your behinds… again."
"Oh come on Miss Chonne," Lenny, the ginger headed ringleader whined, "You can't ban us from the pool…in the dead of summer! I'd melt away!" His not quite maturing voice cracked under the whine.
"Melt? Boy I'm surprised your little red tail hasn't spontaneously burst into flames already," Sasha retorted before throwing a beach ball back into the water.
"You know that ain't right Sasha," the freckle faced boy returned, not in the least bit perturbed by the ginger hate he was receiving, "You know my future nieces and nephews gon' be just as red as me so maybe you should worry 'bout them sp… spon… sporatiously burnin' up."
"Boy, if you don't go find a seat somewhere," Sasha rolled her eyes making a point of ignoring the youngin's quip about whatever future familial ties she'd have because of her erratic relationship with his big brother. She walked over to him with her best menacing look slowly stalking him like a tiger with her hands reached out in tickle formation. The boy took off like a shot bringing his small crew of young friends laughing behind him over to the deep end of the pool.
"Lenny! No running so close to the pool," she yelled after his retreating sunburnt back. Sasha shook her head and turned to climb the ladder to join Michonne, "I don't even know what I'm worried about," she said as she took her seat on the platform, "His big red head is so hard if he fell the only thing that would be cracked would be the pavement."
Michonne snickered at her friend while keeping an eagle eye on the pools in her jurisdiction. She and Sasha had proven themselves earlier in the summer to the Lifeguard Captain, Jesus, when they both handled a group of rowdy out of towners that thought the small town country pools were easy pickings. Jesus let off some well-timed roundhouse kicks, Sasha some brute force punches and Michonne thought fast, calling the cops right before joining the fray with a few well-placed groin kicks of her own. The whole event ended with Michonne and Sasha having their pick of shifts for the rest of the summer and the full respect of every bystander at the pools that day. They mostly chose the main pool with one of the 3 wading pools to avoid having to deal with the screaming cacophony hell that were the site's kiddie pools on the other side of the facility.
"What are you over there giggling about," Sasha said, "Don't think I'm finished with you. Just because you get to be Miss Chonne and I'm just Sasha round here don't mean that you're not going to finish telling me how you're going to tell him."
"And when were you going to tell me you and Abe got back together," Michonne replied expertly dodging her friend's inquisitive questioning, "From the sounds of it y'all have skipped to the altar and already at the family planning stage."
"Pssshhh, if I were you Chonne, I'd do the same as I do Lenny's big brother… ignore the bullshit coming out of that child's mouth," Sasha came back, "Evasion is not gonna work for you today. How. Are. You. Going. To. Tell. Rick."
Michonne sighed at the mention of her boyfriend's name. "He hasn't even been accepted yet Sasha. Maybe I won't need to tell him anything."
"Yeah, maybe, but you're going to wait until he gets some random college acceptance letter… From a college that he won't remember applying to because … wait for it," Sasha paused for her usual dramatic effect, "He NEVER applied to them in the first place."
Michonne gazed out to watch the ripples in the sparkling clear waters of the pool, noting the iridescent sheen covering the top in various spots. She'd have to tell the pool maintenance guys to adjust the chlorine on the overnight to take care of mixture of sunblock and god knows whatever was causing the slick pockets of oily residue on the pools. She scoffed at herself, even her own mind was trying to evade Sasha's questioning.
She knew that she didn't have a plan in mind yet. She was just going on a hope and a prayer at this point that her stubborn boyfriend would see that she was trying to do what was best for him. It had been hard enough getting him to even take the SAT's back in their junior year. She just couldn't see how he didn't see his own potential. The potential that both she and Miss Peletier saw bursting at the seams from his thought provoking essays to him actually beating her own very high SAT score. His self-deprecation was so instilled in him for so long by not only his community but his domestic life that the only future he saw was one where Michonne left him to go on to do great things. Meanwhile, he had resigned himself to being the bad boy townie mechanic that would live and die on the wrong side of the tracks.
Nope, not today Satan, was Michonne's response to his bleak outlook. She knew he thought she was too good for him. It went unsaid that the pedestal he had her up on was so high as to cause a nosebleed. It didn't help that her mother's dismissive attitude towards him and their relationship in general showed its ugly face every time he came by to their home to pick Michonne up for a date or to hang out quietly in their den. Snide remarks were part and parcel for her mother's treatment of Rick. Referring to Rick's truck as the "Hillbillymobile" and then following up with a supposedly happenstance remark about Terry's smooth and silent Audi parked a few houses away. "Won't hear that car coming from eight miles away," was the last straw that made Michonne clap back with "Yeah but you can hear Terry bragging about it from ten. So there's that."
Rick took Michonne's mother's derisiveness in stride as he'd done with everyone else he encountered in his short life. He was just happy to be able to bask in Michonne's shine while he had her. He'd have put up with anything short of her mother barring him from their premises to be able to see his girl for any amount of time. The pride he felt being able to say he had her on and by his side was worth it. He even thought she felt a little bit of pride of her own when he'd look down at her during one of their increasingly heavy make out sessions and saw not only desire in her eyes but the same adoration he knew his eyes reflected back at her.
That same adoration that made her, unbeknownst to him, hatch a plan with her teacher, Rick's only other cheerleader, to fill out all the college applications she had in duplicate. Miss Peletier went so far as to not only write her own glowing recommendation but wrangled several from her fellow staff members and even a begrudging one from Principal Horvath. The teacher even had the stroke of genius to supply one of Rick's short stories in lieu of the personal essay that each application required knowing the semi-autobiographical prose showcased not only the young man's talent but also showed his spirit. A spirit and mind that any university "would count themselves lucky to have amongst their student body".
Michonne knew she would have to tell him eventually but she also didn't want to risk what she had dubbed in her mind as "the perfect summer" with him either. Even after the debacle of getting her mother to agree to let her work at the pools instead of with her at the college for the summer, she knew that her summer days spent watching the waters and summer nights spent with Rick would go down as one of those "best days of your life" times she heard about constantly. Their daily routine started from her first day at the pools where he'd meet her when her shift ended and go to the local pizzeria to hang out with their friends or take a short drive to the train tracks that divided their town to be alone. They saw each other every day and instead of the pall of boredom falling on them, like Michonne's mother hoped, every day spent together brought them closer.
Those secluded drives were also bringing them closer to another inevitable turning point in their relationship. They both knew that with each little moan that they brought out of each other from the backseat of Rick's truck… with every tentative caress as they slowly rounded the bases on Michonne's den couch… with every cold shower they each had to take after another day of putting off the inevitable they were approaching a pinnacle that they both fantasized and consciously awaited. Like Christmas morning to an anxious toddler, they both knew Santa was coming but they had to stay off the naughty list. For Rick that meant not rushing what he saw as the ultimate prize that he had to earn. For Michonne that meant putting up with Rick's steadfast southern gentleman mentality and his "one day" to finally come. A day that would most likely be postponed to the unforeseeable future once she finally admitted to him what she had done. She grimaced at this "first world teenage angst" problem of having her awesome boyfriend's chivalry become a roadblock to her desires. Suddenly, a cackle cut through her revelries and generic poolside noise.
"Ooohh sweet Black baby Jesus," Sasha breathed out, "Is that…"
"Damn," Michonne turned to the source of the piercing distraction, "It sure is."
Michonne had only the briefest encounters with her, but she definitely recognized Rick's mother clad in a bikini meant for a younger, more nubile body hanging on the arm of the town's other notorious drunk, Merle Dixon. From the sound of her laughter and the few stumbling footsteps she took Michonne could tell that his mother was on one of her benders. Being with Merle, she could only surmise that it probably wasn't only cheap whisky that had her trying to shimmy to the music that played over the pool's sound system.
"Shit," Michonne uttered as she made her way down the ladder to get over to the couple that had begun to gyrate obscenely to the Santana guitar riff of "Wild Thoughts". She tried to make her way over to them quickly, noting that cell phone cameras were already out. She hoped upon every hope that she could make it on time before anything more embarrassing to Rick could be recorded and sent out into the ether of the internet or worse, directly to Rick himself.
She almost halted in her mission when she saw Lori and her clique already on high bitch alert giggling and recording from their cabana. Michonne subconsciously shook her head at the unfortunate reality that even the town's pool had a dividing line between social classes. The rich got prime status with several cabanas on one side while the general public had to make do with towels on the grass or the lounge chairs that went like hot cakes on Sunday mornings during the after church breakfast rush at the local diner. Her read on Lori 's entire ass had to wait though because Merle had just begun to bump and grind on Rick's mother's behind and that spectacle had to be stopped at all costs.
"Erm… Mrs. Grimes," Michonne said approaching the couple like a lion tamer approaching a particularly skittish feline, "Mrs. Grimes… MRS. GRIMES!" Michonne got louder with every intonation of the woman's name.
"Wha…who the hell is… oh hi there Mi—Michaela," the woman stared up glassy eyed, finally cognizant that someone was calling her out, "The name's Jessie. Mrs. Grimes is dead and laughing in hell right now." She guffawed at her own bad joke while Michonne closed her eyes and counted to ten.
"You know this gal," Merle's lascivious leer down Michonne's body in her red lifeguard swimsuit did not endear him any more than the sleeveless confederate flag adorned t-shirt he was sporting.
"Sorta baby… if my boy thought enougha me to actually introduce her the last time she was over," she sniffed, "He usually makes her stay outside in his truck if he thinks I'm home."
Michonne's eyes widened in surprise as that was precisely what Rick did whenever they ventured to his small house on the outskirts of town. "I'll be in and out baby. No reason for you to have to get out," was his usual response when she made to leave the vehicle. She always wanted to tell him she didn't care about the state of his house but the more she got to know him she realized it wasn't the house but the people in it that he was shielding her from. Exhibit A was in front of her, with speech slurred to be damned and looking just this side of road kill with a Confederate Possum sidepiece.
"It's Michonne actually Mrs. Grimes," Michonne summoned all her patience to deal with the woman, "And I was just wondering if you wanted to come with me inside for a bottle of water."
"Well, Michooonnnne," the older woman drew out her name in mock snobbery, "As you can see, we got us all we need to drank right here," she said pointing to the half empty six pack beer carton on the ground nearby.
"Well alcohol and glass bottles are prohibited here," Sasha had finally caught up to them, "So you're going to have enjoy your drinks elsewhere or come inside like my colleague said."
"Oh, well ain't they uppity," Merle sneered out, "And you mean to tell me that your Ricky boy got him a taste for Nubian princesses? Well I'll be damned."
Sasha and Michonne were already done at uppity, but Rick's name flying out of the man's mouth was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Sasha got on her walkie for backup security and positioned herself into fighting stance for Merle while Michonne put a firm hand around Rick's mother's forearm to lead her away.
"Get your hands offa me," Jessie yelled, "You think just cuz you have my boy wrapped around your little finger…! Got him thankin' he's someone special …you have the right to boss me around?"
"I'm sorry Mrs. Grimes, I'm just trying to help you out," Michonne pleaded quietly as she struggled to get the woman to calm down.
"Help me," Jessie scoffed, "Like you trying to help my boy leave me by myself? Think I don't know about you and his plans? I may not be all smart like you all but I can read!"
Michonne stood aghast at the woman's outburst, bewildered at each statement coming from his mother's mouth coupled with the stench of old liquor fumes.
"I seen it! I seen the big ol' thick envelope come in the mail just today," Rick's mother continued on her rant, "Some fancy college name all over it. Y'all think I don't know he's tryin' ta leave me like his no good daddy!"
Fuuuuckk was the collective thought that went through both Sasha and Michonne's minds. Time officially froze when they both heard the questioning words, "Mama? Mama what are you doin' here?"
Rick had a sheen of sweat from running the four blocks straight to the pools, having decided that driving from the mechanic shop would have taken too long. Normally he would have ignored a text from Lori but his screen had shown it was a video message and the preview picture showing his mother in the same vicinity as Michonne set a fire under his ass to get there as soon as possible.
Jessie turned at the sound of her son's voice and visibly crumbled at the sight of him, "Baby! Baby why you want to leave your mama baby? Huh baby? Why? You said I was the only one you'd stay for and help. What am I gonna do without you baby?"
"Mama," Rick pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to calm his mother down, "Ain't nobody tryna leave you. But Imma need to know what you're doin' here, with him." Rick couldn't hold the disgust out of his voice when he referred to Merle's presence. He knew that Merle's younger brother Daryl was probably on his way right behind Rick so he didn't think he had to worry about him.
"Well what it look like Ricky boy," Merle made the mistake of addressing Rick directly, "Jessie May here came by to holler at me, said she was celebratin' her boy getting into college! As you know, I got me a soft spot for ol' blondie here so I obliged her."
Rick ground his teeth and kept his ice cold blue stare on his mother, "Mama I'd like to take you outta here. Now please."
Jessie recognized the firm tone that Rick used when he was either holding her hair back while she got rid of whatever liquor she had stuffed her body with or when he had to come pick her up from the local watering hole where she had passed out on numerous occasions. She knew it would do her no good to fight him. She still looked at him pleadingly as she took a small step toward him but the imperceptible shake of his head told her not to get much closer. The look he gave her made her divert her way to her ratty beach bag to gather her things and await further instructions from her son.
Daryl came running in with two security staff to the awkward standoff and skidded to a halt next to Rick. He took note of his shit for brains older brother and Rick's mother and already knew the story without having to ask. Rick felt Daryl next to him and only held his hand out without a word. Daryl placed his car keys into it.
"Let's go Mama," Rick said as he took off the uniform shirt he wore and put it over her shoulders, "Let's get you home."
Michonne and Sasha stood in silence along with half of the town that was at the pool as Rick turned without so much as a glance at his girlfriend.
"Rick," Michonne whispered quietly.
He stopped instantly but didn't turn to look back. All she could see was the red rising from under his white t-shirt to his stiffened neck.
"Later," was all he said in response and walked his stumbling mother past the small crowd. Past the stares and whispered snickers with his back straight and head held high daring the world to utter something loud enough for him to hear.
"C'mon man," Daryl shoved his brother roughly in front of him, "Wait 'til Pa sees your sorry ass."
"Ah man, come on why we gotta go to the garage for," Merle whined sounding like a boy half his age.
"Because that's where my bike is and I don't trust ya to get home safe, high as you are right now," Daryl mumbled as they made their way out. He turned to give Michonne and Sasha an apologetic nod and shoved Merle again to make a hastier retreat.
"Alright, show's over," Sasha turned to the assorted crowd that had gathered, "And you, Low Budget Kim K, hand it over," she said as she marched over to Lori's cabana.
"Hand what over Sasha," Lori flipped her sunglasses down from their perch on top of her head, "I know you don't mean my phone."
"Ding, ding, ding! You do understand the words coming out of my mouth," Sasha stood her ground with her hand out, "You don't want me to have to take it from you. Please Lori, make me take it." Michonne didn't need to have x-ray vision to know a flash of fear was behind those big dark lenses of Lori's when she took all of three seconds to hand over her phone.
"You spiteful bitch, you already sent the video out to a whole WhatsApp group," Sasha exclaimed, "What is wrong with you?"
Michonne couldn't control the rage that had spiked through her when she stalked over to Lori, practically blinded by it. It took Sasha and the two security guys all they had in them to hold her back from ripping every single wavy curl out of Lori's head.
"You girls get out of here," Jesus had 1arrived and assessed the situation in the blink of an eye, "Like Sasha said show's over."
"You can't kick me out of here. My daddy will have all of your asses fired by morning," Lori screamed indignantly.
"Well we ain't fired today," Jesus retorted, "So go on and get. Oh and Lori, make sure you let your Daddy know that if he needs to talk to me that I've got some very interesting security cam video from a few nights ago. A couple of night trespassers. Some girls skinny dipping, smoking some funny looking cigarettes with a few very older looking dudes. You know anything about that? Think he'd be interested in that too? Since he'll be in the firin' mood?"
Lori froze mid-rant. She turned on her heel to her friends, started gathering up her stuff, and made a show of being righteously indignant as they hustled their way out.
"I knew splurgin' for night vision security cams would be money well spent," Jesus chuckled before he turned to his favorite team, "You guys ok?"
Sasha spoke for them both, "Nothing we couldn't handle Cap."
Michonne tried to control her rapid breathing, counting up to forty before she felt her pulse calm down and the rage subsided.
"Yeah I know. Nothing my dream team can't handle," Jesus replied, "Michonne, you … want to clock out a little early? To handle the rest of your business?"
After a beat Michonne answered, "No," she sighed, "I'm going to finish my shift Cap, if that's ok with you."
Sasha looked at her friend and again answered for them both, "We got this Jesus. You can head on back in and we'll see you at clock out time."
Jesus took one last look at Michonne and figured it was ok to leave her be. He knew that she was a normally even-tempered person so there was no way that she'd let this event rile her up enough not to get the job done. He was always impressed with the young woman who always had her shit together and had no doubt that the rest of the day would be fine now that the general riff raff had dispersed.
Michonne turned and walked silently back to the ladder that lead to her lifeguard post. Sasha followed just as quietly behind but not before glaring at anybody brave enough to make eye contact her, silently daring them to challenge her with one more bit of trouble. Not one person rose to the challenge, choosing instead to get back to the business of enjoying the rest of their sunny time at the pool.
"Man, I better tell Abe to come get Sasha later," Lenny observed quietly, "She's gonna be on a rampage and he loves that girl when she's riled up."
The music continued to play over the sound system and the happy splashing sound of summer fun continued around Michonne as she sat and wondered if the routine so long established would hold and her boyfriend would be waiting for her like he always did when her shift ended.
