Her brother suddenly looked pissed.
“Slow your roll, Don. This is a two-way-street type of situation. When it comes to men, your sister can find the only broken chair in a roomful,” I reminded him.
“I’ll have to remember that one; my dad will love it. He’s all but decided that he’ll have to lock her in the basement until she’s thirty,” Don shared.
I hated to confess it, but my little Carol might end up in the same boat if she did half the stuff Destiny had been up to.
All that aside, I didn’t want this situation to ruin Prom for anyone.
“I’ll go lure Destiny away from Damion if you take responsibility for her once I do,” I said to make a deal with Don.
“I could run her home,” he offered and then smiled as he envisioned what would happen to her when he dropped her off.
She shouldn’t have been mean to him in the past. For that matter, she shouldn’t have been mean to my girlfriend, either. Paybacks were hell.
I had Don bring his parents’ car around to the entrance and then grabbed Cassidy to help me.
A slow song had started, and the twosome was in full make-out mode. I looked over to where the chaperones stood and saw them begin to come over to break it up. I caught their attention to let them know I would deal with this.
“May we cut in?” I politely asked.
“Get lost, Dawson. Can’t you see I’m busy?” Damion asked.
“Hey, Damion, I brought a new girl for you!” I said like I did when I showed Duke his tennis ball to distract him.
Damion’s unfocused gaze landed on Cassidy, and he leered at her. He was a total dog. New and shiny distracted him from his sure thing.
“Well, hello, Short Stuff,” he said as he let go of Destiny.
“Where are you going?” Destiny mumbled, and suddenly I had her in my arms.
Damion must have been holding her up because she was a little unsteady.
“Ow, ow, ow!” Damion complained.
He probably shouldn’t have grabbed Cassidy’s backside like that. I had faith Cassidy could handle him, so I focused on my part of the duo. I wasn’t nearly as sure of my ability to control Destiny, especially when she was drunk and horny. If I took her to her knees like Cassidy had just done to Damion, it probably wouldn’t be viewed as favorably. I was sure it was a sexist thing. Funny how that only seemed to go one way.
“Come with me,” I told Destiny.
“Do you have a room?” she asked.
That question gave me the willies, like a parade of ants moving down my spine would have.
“I have something better,” I assured her as I steered her out of the ballroom.
“I’m glad you finally came to your senses,” she said as she tried to kiss me.
“Let’s save that for later,” I said as she got my cheek.
Then I saw my brother with his phone out. Maybe I should have been a little nicer earlier. What was it I’d said about paybacks? Then again, if that was the worst video of me from tonight, I would call it a win.
I half-expected a fight once we made it outside. I was glad to see that Destiny was a happy drunk when I opened the car door and helped her into the front seat.
“Don!” she greeted her brother. “I had the best time …”
While she prattled on, I shut the door so he could take her home.
I came back in to find Cassidy and Damion sitting at our table, glaring at each other.
“You tricked me,” Damion said when he saw me. “This one is mean.”
“Please let me hurt him,” Cassidy begged.
Damion was smart enough to flinch. Then it dawned on him who Cassidy was.
“You’re the chick who about broke my arm!”
He’d made the mistake of rushing me to give me a hug when Cassidy had been my security. She’d obviously stopped him.
“When you see the video tomorrow, you’ll thank me,” I assured him.
“Video?” he asked.
His face showed his confusion.
“Yeah, you all but made a sex tape on the dance floor,” I explained.
“Sex tape?”
He was clearly down with that. I looked at Cassidy, and she got a little excited, thinking I was going to let her take him down. She was deflated when I asked her to dance instead. I was done babysitting Damion and just a touch disappointed that my little ninja would rather make Damion cry for his mommy than dance with me.
“My little brother is being a pain,” I offered her.
That put a smile on her face. She would take him down next week after we were done with baseball.
◊◊◊
I ended up giving Damion my room because he fell asleep at the table. Cassidy and I changed clothes. I sent a text to tell everyone that we were headed to the diner by the hospital. I had a hankering for fried chicken and pie. That seemed to be the best outcome for the end of Prom if I wanted Coach Hope to be speaking to me come Monday.
◊◊◊
Chapter 30 – Can’t Touch This Saturday May 6
I stared at the chaos that I called my apartment. Who knew you could collect so much stuff in eighteen short years? Today’s goal was to pack up everything I wouldn’t need when I left to film my movies.
I also had to pack for my roommate. I thought my kids had a lot of toys, but I would put up Duke’s hoard against all of theirs. He supervised while I kept adding to the big pile of his treasures in the middle of the living room. He’d either lost or hidden his stuff all over my apartment. I won’t even begin to describe what I found under the couch.
“Do you really need all this?” I asked him.
Duke looked back at me like I made as much sense as a parent in a Charlie Brown show. ‘Wawawawawaa.’
I opened a box and began to chuck toys into it. I spotted another one next to his crate. When I turned back, he had a teddy bear in his mouth and looked guilty. I couldn’t be that heartless. It wasn’t his fault he had so many toys, after all. I might have bought them at some point in time.
“You can keep that one out, but no more,” I said.
He dragged his bear into his crate. Apparently, I sounded cross, and that was his go-to place when he was in trouble. I wrote on the side of the box that it was Duke’s toys and sealed it up before more were grabbed and hidden.
I heard the door open, and soon my mom’s head appeared.
“You about done in here?” she asked.
“What about my TV?” I asked. “Should I leave it for Melanie?”
“No, the girls claimed it for the pool house. I told them they can have your gaming console, too. You won’t need it if you plan to study and play sports at college.”
I bit my tongue on that one. I’d been looking for an excuse to get the newest model, anyway. As far as TVs were concerned, I would talk to the guys once we got to Oklahoma and figure out what worked best for the room.
We’d been promised we would all live together in the athletic dorm in one of their triples. They were basically set up like a small apartment with three single bedrooms that featured en suite bathrooms. The private bathroom would be a blessing because those two could make a mess, and I didn’t plan to pick up after them.
I stopped and thought about it for a moment. Maybe I should just get a TV for my bedroom. I wasn’t inclined to get a giant-screen TV and have our suite suddenly become hangout central. The dorm had a common room with a movie-screen-sized TV that already served that function. When I chose to go to my apartment, I wanted to escape from everyone so I could unwind and study. I figured I would want something similar at school.
“I’m almost done. Once baseball is over, I’ll pack all that gear up, and I should be good.”
“All right. Now go help your dad in the basement.”
God only knew what was down there.
“Can’t we hire movers to do that?” I asked.