Lion Alpha's Broken Mate

Chapter 4

      “Where have you been? I was getting ready to call you.” The relief was evident in Sara’s face and in her voice as Lindsey and Amy took a seat. They had finally made it to the Olive Garden restaurant where they were supposed to meet Camille and Sara but between Amy running late and traffic, they were almost twenty minutes late. A new record even for them.

           “Amy got lost in Macy’s again. You should see my trunk. It’s almost full.” Lindsey shot Amy an amused look. Amy was always getting caught up in her shopping. She shopped so much Lindsey sometimes wondered how her parents weren’t broke. “Plus traffic was awful. Is there something going on in town that I don’t know about? I mean traffic is usually hectic but not like this. Normally I’m the first to know what’s going on because the hotel keeps us updated.” She reached over and snagged a breadstick from the basket sitting on the table. Her stomach was growling she was so hungry.

           “Should have known,” Camille finished a text on her phone and then set it aside. “Last Friday she got lost in Old Navy.” Amy’s shopping excursions had become a joke a long time ago. Amy didn’t mind in the least. It was her favorite thing to do. Camille laughed as she spooned some salad into her bowl.

           “Well, I was getting worried. It’s not like you, Lindsey to be late and not call to let us know what’s going on.” Sara was the worrier of the four of them. She always thought of the worst-case scenario. “I thought something might have happened between you and your parents again.”

           Lindsey paused for a moment before continuing to fill her bowl with salad. Amy, Camille, and Sara were her best friends in the world and they were the only people who knew even an inkling of what went on at her house. They had all at one point or another tried to get her away from her parents but as soon as her parents had gotten wind of anything they tried, things at home had gotten that much worse.

           She had stopped inviting her friends over after school years ago. Now she always found a reason to be out of the house. After school programs, work. At the moment she was supposed to be tutoring Camille in math. She already knew that she was going to have to deal with a big argument when she got home because she knew that she wasn’t going to make the ridiculous curfew that her parents put on her. They actually expected her to be home by seven-thirty. Her parents were controlling, verbally abusive and lately had become more and more violent, her father anyway. It was hard to hide when she showed up with broken fingers, fractured ribs and once a broken arm. She wasn’t even going to mention the bruises.

           She knew that when she turned eighteen in three weeks the problem would take care of itself. Hopefully. Once she was out there wasn’t a thing they could do to her.

           They had even taken to calling her job to get her work schedule so they would know if she was really at work or not. Once her boss, Larry, had commented on it. She had quickly told him that if they called again to tell them that it was against policy to give out employee schedules to anyone but the employee. He had readily agreed. He hadn’t asked questions but he had known that something was up.

           She looked around the table and realized that they were all waiting for an update on what was going on. They were all worried but trying to respect her space and not push. “Look, guys. I know you are worried.” She started to pick at the bread that she had grabbed and dropped the little pieces onto the small saucer in front of her. “I’m not going to lie to you. Things at home are getting really bad but it’s all going to be over with soon. When my birthday hits in a couple of weeks I’ll be out of there and there’s nothing they can do about it. If push comes to shove, I can always get a restraining order once I’m out.” She popped what was left of her roll into her mouth.

           “Yeah, except make the rest of your life hell, restraining order or not. You know how they are. They will find a way around it.” Amy was very prejudice against her parents. She had overheard a fight months ago and since had doubled her efforts to get Lindsey out of the house.

           Sara looked confused. “What do you mean? What’s happening on your birthday?” Sara’s dad had gone to New York on business the past week and had decided as an early graduation present, she could go with him. She had just gotten back Wednesday and hadn’t been updated on the latest news.

           Knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to change the subject until Sara knew everything, she didn’t argue, just started explaining. “I bought a little house. No one knows about it except for you three, Jason and Larry, my boss from work. He helped me find the place. It’s not too expensive and it’s plenty of room since it’s just me. It’s just a little starter home but that’s all that I need. Everything was finalized this week but the owners had already been out of the house for a while so let me move some things in early. I’ve already got some furniture moved in. The last thing that gets moved are the things that I’m taking from my parents’ house but that isn’t going to be much. Mostly clothes. My parents don’t know about it and hopefully they will never know about it. I’m not hooking a land line phone in so all I will have is my cell phone. That will keep them from tracking me that way.”

           She didn’t know how long that was going to last because somehow they always managed to find her but one of the first things she had done was put in a security system at the house so that she would feel at least somewhat safe. The one thing that worried her about her parents was that she never knew what they were going to do next. The last few times she had tried to run, her dad had sent one of his friends, Theo, after her.

           Sara giggled excitedly. “Finally! You are getting out from under your parents. How have you kept it from us for so long? I want to see the house. Can we help you decorate it?” She was practically bouncing up and down in her seat.

           Lindsey smiled. Her friends always supported her no matter what decisions she made. That support had gotten her through a lot in the past few years. “I kept it from you so that if they asked you could honestly say that you knew nothing about it. But since everything was signed and sealed I thought it would be safe to tell you now. And yes, I thought you would want to see it so we are going over there after we leave here.” From the looks on their faces she knew that they didn’t know whether to yell at her for keeping them in the dark or scream in excited relief that everything they had been trying to do was finally going to be accomplished.

           The server came over and Lindsey ordered without looking at the menu. She was here enough that she knew what they had and what she liked. Everyone else ordered and as the waiter took their menus and went to place their order, Camille leaned forward slightly and lifted an eyebrow. “Larry?”

           Lindsey should have known that Camille would home in on that little bit of information. Camille and Larry didn’t get along, at all. “I know that you don’t like Larry, Camille, but he’s been really good about helping me find the house. As well as doing it without expecting anything in return. And I know that he won’t spill it to my parents if they corner him for information.” She really didn’t know why Camille didn’t like Larry. It had always puzzled her. Trying to find a way to placate her, Lindsey reminder her. “He helped me find the car and it’s been running fine for a couple of years now. What is it about him that you don’t like?”

           After taking a sip of her soda, Camille picked up her fork and started poking her salad with it. “He’s creepy, Lindsey. Something about him just makes my internal alarm bells go off. Okay, they don’t go off, they shriek at me. I don’t like the way he looks at you sometimes and I don’t think you should be letting him help you as much as he has been. I honestly think he wants more from you than you are willing to give. He’s just biding his time until he thinks there is no way that you will refuse him.” She took a bite of her salad.

           “What do you mean?” When Camille sent her a look that said that it should have been obvious, Lindsey shook her head. “He’s like a brother to me. I don’t see him that way and he knows it.”

           Camille held her hands up in surrender. “Okay but don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”

           Lindsey glanced at Amy and Sara. She couldn’t believe that Camille thought Larry had ulterior motives for helping her. Looking at it from Camille’s point of view though she supposed maybe she had wanted the help so much that she hadn’t cared where the help had come from and so had been blinded to things she hadn’t wanted to see. But Larry hadn’t once made a move on her or even said anything inappropriate.

           Sensing that the tension was going up at the table, Amy tried to change the subject. “Lindsey, why don’t you tell them about your date?”

           Lindsey almost spit her tea out all over Sara. Choking, she coughed trying to clear her throat to get some air.

           Camille and Sara’s mouths dropped open. “Date? What date? I swear, you guys. I leave for a week and that’s when everything decides to happen.” Sara pouted a little but they could tell that she was kidding.

           “Oh, Lindsey made a new friend at the mall today.” The amused gleam in Amy’s eye should have warned her that Amy wasn’t going to keep something like that to herself. “He is hot!” She brought her hand up and started fanning her face dramatically.

           They all had leaned in, forgetting their salads, and were waiting expectantly to be filled in. Lindsey shrugged self-consciously. “It’s nothing,” she said as she elbowed Amy in the ribs for good measure. “Once he finds out how boring I am it isn’t going to make a difference anyway.”

           “Now, come on. You really need to give us details.” The waiter showed up with their meals. After asking if there was anything else they needed, he walked off to help another table. “You met a guy today and you already have a date with him?” Now it was Camille who was practically bouncing in her seat. She was so boy crazy. “You are so giving details. Who is he? Where did he come from? How did you meet him? How old is he?”

           “She wouldn’t give me anything when I asked her but I knew that she would spill if we ganged up on her,” Amy piped in with a knowing grin. They all started digging into their meals but continued to eye her excitedly.

           “Come on,” Sara said. “You’ve got to tell us something. You’ve never gone on a date with a guy before. We tell you all about all of our dates. He must be special if you are seeing him again.”

           Lindsey could tell that they weren’t going to let up until she told them something. She sent a glare to Amy. “His name is Tony Clark. Other than that I don’t know that much about him except that his dad owns Clark Construction. I didn’t think to ask him how old he is but I would guess around mid-twenties.” She shrugged again, not really knowing what else to tell them.

           “That’s it?” Amy looked incredulous.

           “I only talked to him for five minutes.” Lindsey was trying to placate them but she really didn’t have any other information. “I can’t get someone’s life story in the space of a few minutes. Besides, it was probably just him attempting to get closer to one of you guys. You know me. Guys just aren’t attracted to me.” That last comment had them all looking at her like she was crazy.

           Sara held her hand up for them all to see and lifted her pointer finger up. “One, no one was with you when you talked to this guy so that isn’t even an option. Two,” she lifted her middle finger to go with the other one. “Why would you agree to go on a date with someone you’ve only known for five minutes? Three, plenty of guys have wanted to go out with you. You were the one who was never interested in them.” Amy and Camille nodded their heads in agreement.

           Looking at all three of her best friends, Lindsey smiled to soften the blow she was about to deliver. “You guys know that I love you but you are taking this protective thing a little too far. Although, you do have a point about not knowing him. Maybe I shouldn’t go.”

           Thinking about it, Lindsey looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know why I agreed to it,” she answered Sara’s question honestly. “It was just an instinctive feeling that I could trust him, a gut feeling, I guess.” She shrugged her shoulders as if to say it’s a moot point. “I doubt if he shows up anyway.”

           She ignored the third option; they all knew why she had never dated anyone before. She turned back to her food and twirled some pasta around her fork. “Look, it’s no big deal. You know that I’m not looking for a relationship right now, especially now. Nothing is going to come of it so there is no point in even talking about it anymore. We all know that my father is never going to leave me alone and that would include whoever I decided to date. No guy would ever settle for that. I just thought that it would be enjoyable to get out with somebody new and have a little fun. Having another friend that I can trust wouldn’t hurt either.” She could tell that they wanted to say more but they took the hint and dropped it.

           While they finished their meal, the discussed things going on at school. Filling Sara in on the gossip of what’s been happening the last week. They were having so much fun talking and enjoying the meal that they lost track of time. When they finished, Lindsey noted that it was almost seven o’clock. She knew she was going to be in trouble when she got home but also knew that she wasn’t going to go straight there. She wanted her friends to see her new house and see what they thought of it. Chancing fate wasn’t something she did often but she was too excited about her new house to care.

           They split the bill and the tip. Getting up they decided that instead of having to come back here for their cars, they would all follow Lindsey so they wouldn’t have to go out of their way later. There were only the two cars and her house was only a few miles down the road.

           Amy opted to ride with Camille and Sara over to the house because Sara supposedly had something to tell her. Lindsey just shrugged and said okay. She knew it was something else but didn’t want to intrude on her privacy, knowing that if it were something that Amy wanted her to know than she would tell her. If there was one thing that Lindsey knew from experience, it was that if someone wanted privacy, you gave it to them.

           As she drove, she couldn’t keep her thoughts from drifting to Tony. There was just something about him. She couldn’t put her finger on it. It was a feeling that she swore she could feel all the way to her soul. Lindsey couldn’t even put a name to the feeling. There was trust, which was outrageous. She didn’t trust anyone besides the three friends in the car behind her, Camille’s brother Jason, and Larry from work. She was definitely attracted to Tony. It was something that neither of them seemed to be able to deny which was completely crazy as far as she was concerned. There was also the feeling that she already knew him. She had known for sure when their hands had touched. He had felt the same bolt of electricity that she had and wondered what his thoughts were on it or if he just ignored it.

           She didn’t know anything about him, though. That is what puzzled her the most. Men that looked like Tony didn’t get interested in women that looked like her. And it wasn’t just the way he looked. To have the strength and confidence to walk up to someone that you had never met before and ask for a date was something that Lindsey had always admired and wanted but knew that she would never have. She was almost certain that it was a prank of some kind. She didn’t know anyone who would do that to her but that made more sense than what looked obvious. Lindsey had found out the hard way that the front some people showed to the world was often nothing like what happened behind closed doors.

           Besides all of that, the chances of her father’s wrath not straying to him when he found out that they had gone on a date was slim. She seriously doubted if Tony was sincere about getting to know her but if he were, her father would make sure that it didn’t last for long. Unlike most fathers who slowly loosened the reins on their children as they got older, her father was going the opposite direction. He was getting more possessive of her, to the point of violence. She didn’t understand it because he wasn’t doing it out of love for her.

           As she pulled into the drive of her new house, she pushed the thoughts of Tony and her dad from her mind. She didn’t want anything to distract from her joy of having her own place.

           Lindsey turned off the engine and got out of the car. Camille had pulled in right behind her and they were walking toward her. She pulled her new keys from her purse and led them up the walk. The front yard was small but neat. There were a few bushes scattered around. The front porch was small as well but just large enough to hold the porch swing. Her friends were looking around, clearly interested in seeing what she had purchased. She had been saving up for this since she was a freshman. Now all of her plans were paying off. She couldn’t help but feel a little proud of the fact that her long-term plans were finally blossoming.

           She put the key in the lock, turned it and swung the door open. Turning to the wall next to the door, she checked to make sure that nothing had been disturbed since she was last here and entered the code into the security system to turn it off.

           The door opened into the living room. There wasn’t a lot of furniture; just a couch and chair that she had gotten at a secondhand store for a cheap price. The couch was sitting along the inside wall, facing the picture window in the front of the house that had heavy blue curtains so no one could see in. It gave a clear view of the drive and street outside when she had the curtains open. She knew that she would rarely do that just in case her parents decided to show up one day. The longer she could keep this a secret the better. There was a small TV sitting on a tiny TV stand in the corner. She hadn’t wanted it to be the focus of the room since she didn’t use it much. Other than the ceiling fan there was nothing else in the room.

           She moved further into the room so that her friends could follow her in and look around. “It’s not a large place but it’s quaint. Just big enough for me and my needs, I think.” She felt the need to explain herself though she knew she didn’t have to.

           As expected, her friends were just as supportive as always. “It’s nice,” Sara said. “I really didn’t think you could find a house with the money you’d saved. I thought that it would be a townhouse or an apartment. This is great! Now you don’t have to worry about neighbors living right on top of you.” Sara lived with her dad in a townhouse, so she knew how that felt.

           “Yeah,” Camille exclaimed. “We can bring some pictures and things over and make it look more like a home should look. It’s awesome! And there’s plenty of room here for when you have company.” She paused, giving Lindsey a telling look. “You know we’ll be over here as much as possible.”

           “It’s small,” Amy said. She was used to her parents’ six thousand square foot house. She was never one to disappoint though. “I like it though. Given a little bit time and work it will be perfect. Like Camille said, we’ll all pull together and help you decorate it. It will be amazing.”

           Lindsey let her breath out. She hadn’t realized how much she had been counting on her friends’ approval. They were all beaming at her, excited that she was finally getting out of her parents’ house, even if she had to sneak around to do it.

           She laid her purse on the end of the couch and led them through the door to the kitchen that was beside the couch and directly across from the front door. There was a back door on the other side but she would show them that soon enough. She wanted that to be a surprise. The house had come with the refrigerator and stove included. All she’d had to get was a table and she had found a great looking small one at a yard sale she had driven past last Saturday. It had come with two chairs. She had also gotten utensils and a few other kitchen items. “This is the kitchen. It’s got plenty of counter space. No dishwasher but I don’t see that being a problem. It’s completely functional with plenty of cabinet space too.” She looked around. “I want to paint it eventually but that can come later.”

           She went back to the door they had come in and went down the short hall. She opened a door on the right halfway down and showed them the bathroom. It was small but had all of the necessities; a toilet, sink, medicine cabinet above the sink and a bath and shower combination. The bath and shower were larger than in a normal home this size but Lindsey wasn’t going to complain. She liked it. She was looking forward to being able to take relaxing soaks in the tub. “I haven’t gotten mats for the floor or towels and wash clothes yet it’s still a few weeks before I’m here permanently. There’s still time.”

           Sara opened the door just across the hall from the bathroom. It was a linen closet with a washer and dryer combination. “I’m sure I can store other things besides linens as I start to accumulate things.” Sara shut the door, nodding her head in approval. She had a thing about storage space.

           Lindsey moved to the end of the hall and opened the door on the left. It was the spare bedroom. “It’s really tiny,” Camille said. It was the smallest room in the house.

           “I’m going to put my desk and computer in here as soon as I can get it out of the house without my parents noticing. Probably the day I move because they’ve taken to going through my room lately.” She was bewildered about that. When she had asked why they were suddenly invading her space they had said that she didn’t need to know. It was their house and they could go through anything in it. That was the day she had actively started searching for somewhere else to live. Two days later, Larry had shown her this place. She had fallen in love with it as soon as she’d seen it. “I also want to get a day bed. That way if any of you decide you want to stay the night, I’ll have a bed you can sleep in.”

           She turned and opened the door on the right. It was the master bedroom. It was much larger than the spare bedroom. It had a walk-in closet which Lindsey loved. There were three windows in this room, each she had covered with heavy curtains so that if she slept in one day the light wouldn’t bother her. The dresser against the far wall she had gotten from a secondhand store the same day she had gotten the couch and chair in the living room. In the center of the room was a queen size bed. The head and footboards were a dark wooden color and very stable looking. Nothing cheap like what she was using at her parents’ house. She had gone to two different bed stores before finding the one she liked. It had put a small dent in her savings but it had been worth it. This bed would last her several years. In the right corner was another door that connected to the bathroom down the hall. For a single woman the house was pretty much perfect.

           Amy loved the walk-in closet. She said that it was the best feature in the whole house. Camille and Sara just looked at each other and rolled their eyes at her. “Actually, you haven’t seen the best part of the house yet.” Lindsey couldn’t help but get excited. What she was getting ready to show them was the whole reason she had decided on this house and not the six other houses she had viewed. She motioned for them to follow her as she led them back toward the kitchen. “What’s out this door is the whole reason I bought this place. This is my oasis.”