Unbroken Promises (6 page)

“But you’re 16 years old!”

Beth laughed. “Yeah, I know. But Jordon is a man who should be living in the 1880’s instead of the 1980’s. I don’t think he knows about the alternative method of correction. His method was always, ‘Elizabeth, go cut me a switch!’ Beth said in her best imitation of Jordon, at which all the girls started laughing.

“Bu-but, that’s abuse!” Becky said with laughter still in her voice. “Did he ever leave a bruise on you?”

“Oh, lord, no. But those little limber switches sure stung my butt and the back on my legs.

Most times I had enough warning to pad up, so it didn’t hurt. I guess the worst part was having to go out in the yard and pick out my own switch.”

After the vivid scene Beth described to them, they all agreed to just look at Jesse from a distance, but Becky made Beth promise to introduce her to him sometime later. Beth said she would as long as they weren’t doing what they were doing now.

After leaving Jesse, they stopped at a local parking lot. Beth sat on the tailgate of a guy’s truck she went to school with. It was a perfect Halloween night. The moon was full and a light fog had settled in giving the night an eerie spooky look. Beth thought it was ideal for the little goblins out trick-or-treating.

Julie was right about everyone being out. Beth didn’t remember seeing so many students at one time before unless it was at a school function. Beth was learning how to flirt from the guys who were flirting with her. She had to admit she enjoyed the attention. One guy in particular, Billy, sat on the tailgate with her and talked to her while they drank a few beers. The cars and trucks that were around them had their radios on the same country station, making the whole parking lot boom with a surround effect. Beth heard squealing tires and she caught a whiff of burnt rubber. She looked to the back of the parking lot and saw a yellow Mustang doing doughnuts. The black smoke drifted up to where it mixed with the fog. Billy was very funny and Beth could not stop laughing at his antics and Beth found him to be harmless and a lot of fun. He acted a lot like her cousin, Cody.

When Beth thought of Cody, she missed him and the closeness they used to have. They had not spent much time together lately because she had been running with her new friends, and he was ‘into’ cars with his friends. She knew he didn’t approve of her new lifestyle so it was best that she avoid him.

Beth and her friends were getting ready to go home when a fight broke out. Julie said she wanted to stay and watch. Beth did not want to stay. She was afraid someone was going to get hurt and she didn’t want to see it, but she was stuck without a way to leave. A couple of boys from school were fighting over a girl. From what Beth understood, the girl left one boy to go to the other.

They were going toe to toe with fists flying. She could hear the crunch as fist met against flesh. The sound made her wince and cover her face with her hands. Beth could not help but watch. She had never seen anything like it. She had fought Cody many times but he never hit her back, only held her away. This was frightening and exciting at the same time. It wasn’t long before the guy who lost the girl had blood all over his face and blood running down his neck and onto his mustard-yellow shirt. The girl they were fighting over screamed for them to stop but to no avail. Beth didn’t even think the boys could hear the girl with all the hollering. Beth heard a guy close to her yell ‘gethim! gethim!, but Beth couldn’t figure out which “him” he was talking about. Finally, some other guys stepped in to pull them apart before one of them got seriously hurt.

For the life of her, Beth would never figure out what happened next. It was so outlandish and happened so fast. Instead of the fight stopping, more fights broke out. It was like something she had seen in an old western movie. There was fighting going on everywhere. Beth searched for the other girls and she found them as wide-eyed as she was.

“Julie, let’s go, this is crazy to stay here!” Annette screamed.

That shocked Julie into coming to her senses. She looked around for Becky, Tammy, Jana, and Beth, who were all huddled together. When she found them all, she pointed to the car,

“Come on; get in. Let’s get out of here before the cops show up!” Beth wasn’t even thinking on that circuit or she would have been running trying to find a place to hide.

It was almost impossible to get to Julie’s car because people were fighting all around it. As they were climbing into the car, someone hit Becky in the shoulder and another flying fist hit Beth in the jaw.

They all made it in and Julie cranked up the car. She kept blowing the horn as she inched her way away from the fighting. They heard bodies hit the car as they were slammed against it, but finally they made their way out. As they pulled on the highway, they saw the multiple strobe lights headed their way. When they were safely away, they all burst out laughing. That’s when Julie told them she was more worried about the cops than the fighting because they all would have been taken to jail again.

Beth instantly stopped laughing and absorbed that tidbit of information. “Oh, dear Gussy, that was just too close,” Beth thought fearfully. If the cops had caught them and taken her to jail, she would not have wanted to get out. She would rather stay in the little cell forever instead of having to face Jordon. She wouldn’t even have even been able to call Jesse this time because he said he wouldn’t cover for her again. And Beth knew him well enough to know he meant it.

Besides, he would most likely be as mad as Jordon. She had pushed him as far as he would go.

It wasn’t until later when her adrenaline slowed down that Beth became aware of her throbbing jaw. “Hey Becky, how’s your shoulder?”

“It’s sore, but I’m okay.”

“Did anyone else get hit?” Beth asked. They all said no, then actually looked down and assessed their bodies to make sure.

“My car got hit! There is no telling how many dents I’m going to have in it,” Julie said then looked at Tammy in bewilderment. “Hey, it was supposed to have been your turn to drive tonight.” That just made everyone except Beth start laughing again. At this time, she did not find anything funny.

When they dropped Beth off, she had taken down her long hair in hope that it would cover her bruised jaw just in case someone happened to still be up. If anyone asked her about it in the morning, she had already decided she was going to have to lie. There was no way in the world she was going to stand there and tell them what really happened. ‘Lying.’ She was just going to have to add another to her already mountain-high pile of sins. “Good grief, when a person had so many, what was one more?” she thought dimly.

Susan said she could stay out until 12 midnight; but, when Beth quietly slipped in at that time, she walked smack into her greatest fear. She believed she would have until tomorrow morning before having to face anyone; but, there staring up at her expectantly, were four pair of eyes. Beth thought the odds of this happening at midnight with Susan, Jordon, Cody, and Jesse still awake and together had to be in the millions. Susan, especially, always went to bed early, usually by 9:30 p.m. Nevertheless, there they were—all sitting in the living room. For a brief second her heart stopped with a thought. Surely, they hadn’t already found out what had happened and were waiting to confront her. Then Jordon relieved that fear.

“Come on in, honey, we’re trying to see where this dadblame hurricane is going to land.

Here it is the first of November and we have to worry if this storm is going to hit us,” Jordon said.

“It isn’t exactly a hurricane, honey, but it could get nasty. And Jordon needs to know if it requires relocating the livestock,” Susan said to Beth.

Beth let out the pent-up breath she had been holding. They were only watching the news about where a bad storm might land. Beth thought to herself, “If anyone knew what just happened to her, one would land right here, right now, in this house.” She tried to walk past everyone and casually into her room. “Good night everyone, see y’all in the morning.”

“Wait, Beth. Come in for a minute, sweetheart, and tell us how your night went,” Susan said in her motherly voice.

“Oh, not much happened. We just rode around a while, got something to eat, and talked to a few friends from school,” Beth said from the entrance of the living room.

“You missed a lot of cute little creatures. I think we had more this year than ever before. I’ll have to remember to buy a lot more candy next year, Susan said.”

“Really, it does seem to be more every year. Well, good night. Love y’all,” Beth said as she tried once again to get away.

“Aren’t you going to come and kiss me goodnight? Surely you aren’t too big to give your daddy a good night kiss,” Jordon said a little hurt.

Unless Jordon had gone somewhere, Beth never once missed kissing him good night. And it broke Beth’s heart for him to feel as if she didn’t want to kiss him. For, as stern as this man could be at times, she loved him with all her heart. It was just that she didn’t want them to notice her jaw, and she surely didn’t want them to smell the beer on her breath. She had been popping breath fresheners ever since she stopped drinking. She had one in her mouth now, but this was going to be a little too close for comfort.

“Yes, of course,” Beth said as she made her way into the living room. She held her breath as she bent over and kissed Jordon on the cheek. “Good night, daddy, I love you.” He reached up and hugged her, and kissed her forehead,

“Good night, baby, I love you, too,” Jordon, said softly.

Then Beth leaned down, kissed, and hugged Susan. Beth felt as if she made it when she stood up to walk away.

“Good grief! Beth, what happened to your jaw?” Cody declared.

Beth rolled her eyes heavenward and inhaled a deep breath before she spoke. “I was leaning down to pick up some stuff up off of the ground that I had dropped out of my purse. And Becky, not knowing my head was down, hit me with the door when she opened it. It’s okay. It hurt at first, but it doesn’t now.”

“Oh, baby, let me see,” Susan said. “My goodness, Beth, it is swollen and bruised. Let me get some ice for you to put on it.”

“No, don’t get up, finish watching the news. I’ll go get some, put it in a plastic bag with a rag over it, and take it with me when I lay down in bed. It’s okay, really.” Beth again was under the false hope of thinking she made it through this.

“Aren’t you going to kiss me and Cody good night?” Jesse asked with suspicion in his voice.

He was looking her up and down in a scrutinizing way. His eyes were a little squinted and his fingers were steepled lying on his chin.

“Oh, foot, there is no way I can make it past that one,” Beth thought desperately. She walked over and kissed Cody on the cheek, but she stood up and looked at Jesse. In any other circumstance kissing Jesse would have been what she wanted to do more than anything.

“Oh, Jesse, I am too big to kiss you.” Beth said in a joking voice as she waved a hand at him playfully.

“I see…” was all Jesse said as he dipped his head slightly, but he had that same suspicious look about him. Beth made a fast exit before anyone else stopped her again.

Beth groaned and rolled over as sunbeams radiated her room the next morning. She pulled the pillow over her head when she heard the steady humming buzz of the vacuum cleaner coming from upstairs. She had a slight hangover but it was not nearly as bad as the first time she drank. Beth gently wiggled her jaw. It was sore but she would live. Once again, she told herself she wasn’t going to drink any more.

At school the next week the fight was all everyone talked about. Everybody was talking about what all had happened after the cops came. Those fighting were all loaded up and taken down to the police station. They had to wait there until their parents or someone came to post bail to be able to leave.

With Cody being in the same high school, Beth was afraid he would hear what people were saying. She hoped everyone would just shut up about it, especially when they talked about her getting hit in the jaw. And then they would go on and on about how she and her friends were so lucky to get out just in time.

A lot of the boys and even a few girls were flashing their cuts and bruises like honor badges.

Beth had been worried about Billy, so she was glad to see him. He had a few bruises on his face.

Beth surmised he didn’t get out unscathed from the free-for-all brawl.

By the end of the first day, everyone knew who went to jail, who got beat up, and who got away without being caught. Beth thought she had it made when they escaped before the cops came; but, with so many people knowing, she wasn’t so sure now.

One of Jesse’s old Tshirts had a saying on it that read, “If you can’t play with the big dogs, stay on the porch.” Beth didn’t know if she was tough enough to handle playing with the big dogs or not. Even though she found the incident exciting, it really did terrify her. It wasn’t only the part about going to jail and facing Jordon but the reality that one of her friends or even she could have been killed in the fighting.

Every day for the next month, she lived in fear someone would tell Susan or Jordon. She knew if it came out now it would put a damper on Thanksgiving. She stayed close to the house.

She thought she would miss her friends but she really didn’t. Everyone was busy anyway with Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping and family gatherings. Becky and Julie had gone to their grandparents for the holiday vacation. Beth hadn’t seen Tammy, Annette, or Jana since school let out.

Beth enjoyed her time with Susan. They went Christmas shopping every day. The men decorated the house, but Susan still had to stay on them constantly to get them to do it as she wanted it done. Jordon and Jesse’s parents were visiting for a few weeks. Jesse was often home; he even sat with Beth a few nights and watched old Christmas movies and ate popcorn with her.

In time, the fear wore off and, after no one told on her, Beth was eager to go out again. It was last day of the year and Becky invited the gang over to her house for a New Year’s Eve party. They had a nice-sized game room with a pool table, ping-pong table, and foosball. And, if it wasn’t raining, anyone who wanted could lounge in the huge hot tub.