Unbroken Promises (8 page)

“It’s none of your dadblame business how I know; I just do.” Beth shot back, “Why were you there, Cody? Hmm? How did you get there and who were you with?” Cody bristled at that. Although he had always been Beth’s little snitch, he always felt he did it for her own good.

Jesse was watching them exchange barbs. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his chest and listened intently.

“Well, to answer your questions, I rode there with Jesse to watch my best friend race his car that I helped him work on. Whoever informed you was wrong. My friend Ronnie’s blue car won. They just need better judges out there.”

“No, they most certainly do not, and no one had to tell me. I was there with my friends and I saw for myself who won,” Beth shot back.

“Yeah, well that’s not surprising to hear you and your friends were there at the canal. I’ve been hearin’ a lot of rumors goin’ around school about you and your friends,” Cody said dryly.

Beth’s heart dropped to her toes. “Uh oh,” Beth thought. She had a sick feeling she just messed up big-time.

At that point, Jesse leaned forward. “What rumors, Cody?” Jesse asked quietly but deadly.

“It’s goin’ around that Beth’s been out drinkin’ and partyin’ just about every weekend since school started with the wildest group of girls in school. It’s been said that she and her friends got fake I.D.’s and snuck off to Louisiana and partied all night at a dance hall. She and her friends supposedly stayed at a hotel, got up the next mornin’ and went to the beach there. Then they got arrested for having glass on the beach,” Cody said.

From the expression on Cody’s face Beth had the inkling he was just warming up. She sat back in her chair and idly played with her napkin. She didn’t look at either Cody or Jesse. She was trying to act as if what Cody was saying didn’t matter to her. So, while Cody talked, she gave the impression she could care less while inside she wanted to wring Cody’s neck.

She knew she had pushed him into this by being mean to him. He wasn’t even the one she was mad at. She just used him to vent her anger at Jesse. Beth also had the impression Cody was about to tell everything he knew. She was surprised he knew so much and had not told on her until now. If she hadn’t made him mad, he might not have told on her at all. When he got to the part about her staying all night and partying in Louisiana, Beth could not help but dart her eyes toward Jesse. She didn’t believe he could look any harder or more furious; but, to her amazement, he managed to do just that. He looked as if he wanted to jump across that table and beat the daylights out of her.

She pulled her eyes away from his penetrating gaze and stared back into space again. “Good heavens,” she knew Cody wasn’t finished because he was already drawing breath. Beth was never so glad to know Susan and Jordon were in a deep conversation and weren’t paying attention to what was being said at their end of the table.

“It’s also goin’ around that Beth was at that big fight they had in the parking lot a few months ago when everyone was hauled off to jail. I was told the bruise Beth had on her cheek had been from a misplaced punch,” Cody said then looked at Beth with anger in his eyes and continued.

“There’s also a rumor that Beth was at a party at Becky’s house on New Year’s Eve. The girls’ parents were gone for the weekend and left the house to them. The guys at school were braggin’ bout how they had taken some of the girls inside to the bedrooms. It’s even been said that Beth let some guy named Randy feel all over her.” Beth knew Cody had to be running out of things to say because she couldn’t think of anything else significant she had done wrong. Nope, Cody pretty much covered everything. He covered everything from the beginning of school until almost the end, which was only about two and a half months away. And everything he said was true except the part about her letting Randy feel all over her. She could only guess Randy started that rumor.

Jesse’s stare was like steel. “I know one part of what Cody said is fact. Is everything else also true, Beth? Did you do all these things?” His eyes never wavered and his voice was as hard as metal.

Beth looked directly back at Jesse, “I don’t have to answer to you, Mr. Casanova,” Beth bit out still sounding sarcastic. “I may or I may not have. Or, maybe, Jesse…I have been doing what you were doing in the front of your truck,” Beth said in a cool crisp voice.

“JORDON!” Jesse bellowed out the instant those words left Beth’s mouth. Jordon immediately stopped talking, stood and walked over to where Jesse was and asked him what was wrong. Susan, seeing the look on Jesse’s face, went over to stand beside Jordon.

“Oh-my-God, what have I done?” Beth thought as she looked up at Jordon. She knew she was in a tremendous amount of trouble now and wished she had kept her big mouth shut and temper in control. Tonight just might be her last night on this earth. Jordon was going to kill her if Jesse or Cody told him everything.

“Apparently Elizabeth has been doing a lot of drinkin’ and partyin’, and possibly some other things concerning young men,” Jesse said to Jordon.

Jordon snapped his head back around to her and Beth could have sworn she saw fire dance in his eyes.

“BETH, go to your room and wait for me,” Jordon sternly demanded.

Cody piped in, “I think she needs a whippin’.”

“You need to tear her ass up!” Jesse ground out to Jordon.

Jordon looked questioningly at Susan. Susan shrugged her shoulders helplessly.

As Beth stood up to go, some of her hair had fallen from the twist she had it in.

“Elizabeth, have you cut your hair? Take it down,” Susan said.

Beth’s back was to them when she took her hair down. When her hair fell, it barely went to her shoulders. Susan gasped and tears immediately pooled in her eyes. “I feel I have failed my mother completely.” Susan said with a weary voice barely above a whisper. Jesse stared, nothing moving but his eyes as they slid to where her beautiful long hair once brushed against her hips and back up to where it now barely touched her shoulders. Then he shook his head as if sickened and walked away.

As soon as Jordon walked into Beth’s room and shut her door behind him, she started babbling. She couldn’t tell if he had his hands on his belt or just on his hips. “Daddy, I-I was just kidding about the guy stuff. And although I did taste one beer, I promise, I’m never going to do it again!” Beth knew everything Cody said was bad, but the messing around with guys would be the worst.

Before Jordon left her room, he told her she was not to even think about going anywhere with those girls ever again. In fact, she was to have absolutely nothing to do with them, not even a phone conversation. On top of that, he grounded her for six weeks. She was not allowed to leave the house except to go to school or church.

Beth eased down on the bed and starred at the closed door, “Well, at least I didn’t have to go cut my own switch,” Beth murmured.

Beth had told Becky what happened. Becky acted shocked and upset that she had gotten in so much trouble, but it wasn’t even two months later that Becky was daring Beth again to do something she knew she shouldn’t do.

“Beth, tomorrow night, Julie and I are going to meet Allen and Travis at their hunting lease.

They aren’t planning to hunt; they are just going to camp out. They are staying a couple of days and want us to come out the first night. They said they would cook for us. Allen is going to bring their dirt bikes and thought we might like to ride around. We agreed to meet them for a few hours. Do you want to go?”

“I didn’t think y’all liked to be anywhere without electricity much less riding around on dirt bikes getting dirty. I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. I’ve never snuck out of the house before. It sounds kinda’ risky.”

“There’s nothing to it, Beth. The main thing is to make sure everyone is asleep. Then wait until the air conditioner kicks on to open the doors and just be very quiet. Don’t put your shoes on until you’re safely outside. Julie and I have been doing it since I was 13. And we have never gotten caught,” Becky reassured her.

“I don’t know yet if I will or not. I really don’t appreciate the way y’all have been treating me lately. You seem to purposely keep me in the dark about what all is going on when we get together. Like the last time I stayed over at your house, I had no idea the guys were coming over. If I had known there was going to be making out going on all around me, I would have stayed at the house. I don’t like being a spectator and I am certainly not going be a participator.

You only tell me the half of what is going to happen because eveytime there is always something extra that takes place. And I seem to be the only one who knows nothing about it,” Beth said aggravated. She didn’t care at this point. She was fed up with the way they have been treating her. If she made them mad and they didn’t want to have anything else to do with her, then so be it.

“I am so sorry. You are absolutely right; Beth, but sometimes I don’t even know what’s going to happen. Like the fight on Halloween, how was I supposed to know about that?

However, I promise if I know for sure what is going to happen, I will let you know everything from now on. Besides, school’s almost out and we have to have one more adventure to add to our sophomore year. All we plan on doing is riding the bikes and cooking out, that’s all.” Beth didn’t know if she accomplished anything by confronting Becky. She kinda’ felt as if Becky was just telling her what she wanted to hear. But, in the end, Beth said she would go with them for a few hours. She told Becky to tell Julie that she would meet them at the end of her driveway around midnight.

She really hated hurting Susan and Jordon the way she had been doing lately. It killed her to hear her sister crying because of her, but Beth rationalized the new situation by thinking she wouldn’t hurt them again because they wouldn’t find out. Beth told Becky she would meet them in front of the house at midnight and she would.

Friday night about 10 p.m. Beth told everyone goodnight. She said she was tired and she’d see them in the morning.

After Beth shut her door, she took a hot shower and climbed in bed. She lay there, not making a sound, while she anxiously waited for everyone else to go to sleep. When she didn’t hear anyone moving about in the house, she got up and began dressing. She slipped on a pair of jogging pants, button-up cotton shirt, and a pair of tennis shoes.

Her conscience was bothering her some about sneaking out. She hoped Susan and Jordon would never find out because she knew it would break their hearts. She also had an eerie feeling that something was going to go wrong—like a flat tire or something that would keep her from getting back home before someone noticed her missing.

“Oh well,” she thought. If she didn’t get those distressing images out of her mind, she might as well climb back in bed because she wasn’t going to have any fun anyway. About a quarter to midnight, Beth slipped out of her room carrying her shoes. She would wait to put them on in the car.

After the air conditioner kicked on, giving her the steady blowing noise she needed, she opened the front door and eased it shut. She tiptoed down the steps of the front porch. When she was free and clear she took off running across the damp lawn to where she had told Becky to tell Julie to park. The night air had a heavy musty smell to it. Beth barely saw the car because there was no moon out and it was dark as pitch. The crickets sounded so loud in her ears she thought their shrill chirping would wake up everyone in the house if they didn’t hush. Beth had told Becky to make sure no lights came on when she opened the door just in case Jordon decided to look out the window for something.

When she made it to the car, she opened the door, hopped in, and the car took off.

“Whew, that was scary!” Beth exclaimed.

“I bet it was,” Randy replied.

“Randy! What are you doing driving Julie’s car?” Then Beth immediately looked in the back seat and, to her horror, found no one.

“Randy, what is going on? Where is everyone else? I want you to take me back home. I do not appreciate this one bit. This is not how Becky told me I would be picked up.”

“Hold on a minute, Beth, don’t get all worked up over nothing. Allen, Travis, and I were in Allen’s truck pulling the dirt bikes when we met up with Julie and Becky. We had just come from taking the travel trailer out to the campsite so nothing was set up yet because we got such a late start. Julie and Becky offered to go ahead and go with them to start setting things up so I volunteered to come pick you up. We’re going straight there and it’s only about 10 miles away.

Just relax.”

Beth sat there a minute and thought about everything he just said. His logic made sense but she still had a feeling she was being controlled. It was the same way at the New Year’s Eve party when she was left in the dark about what was really going to happen. It seemed too coincidental to her. It looked as if they were all trying to push Randy on her. She didn’t know what their motives were, but she had about all she was going to take. She was not a complete idiot.

“Okay, Randy, I’ll go but I do not like being manipulated. If I had known it was only going to be the two of us in the car, I would have stayed home. This is not appropriate. I’ve only met you once; and, if you even remember, it wasn’t that great of a meeting. You were drunk and passed out. No, I do not like this one bit.”

“Come on, Beth, this wasn’t done intentionally. I just thought I would be helping everyone out by offering to come get you. You make it sound as if we all conspired to get you alone with me. Just chill out, we’ll be with everyone in a few minutes and then you’ll feel much better.”

“All right, Randy, maybe I am making too much of this. I’m a nervous wreck. I’ve never done anything quite this daring before.”

Nevertheless, Beth still had a nagging feeling that Becky, Julie, Allen and Randy did indeed set this up. If they wanted or thought she was going to be promiscuous, they had another thought coming. She was going to make love to one man and one man only. She had told Becky this before. It was as if they did not hear or believe a word she said when she told them how much she loved Jesse. They would say, “Well, he’s sleeping with other girls so you might as well find a lover, too.”