Laughing, they broke apart, both flushed and looking at one another with eyes shining with love.
“You can look now Star, we're not making kissy faces anymore, although I don't know why you're complaining when you tripped all over yourself because of the pizza guy. Literally.” Dad said as he helped Mom into her light jacket.
“Ugh! Seriously, can we just forget about that?”
“Um, no. We haven't seen that much grace from you in a while.”
I punched him in the arm as I stalked past them. “You're just jealous because you don't have my mad ninja skills. When a murderous talking pizza tries to kill you like in the movie House IV, you'll wish you had me around to destroy it. With my face!” I turned around and gestured to my face while walking backwards.
“Oh yes, I'll be sure to call the president about your cute weapon of mass destruction.” I swatted his hand away as he pinched my cheek.
I rolled my eyes as Mom waved us into the car. Climbing into the back seat, I gazed at the tree line. “You know, if the house wasn't so awesome there's no way in hell you could convince me to live near all these trees.”
“God Star, please tell me we're not back on the mutant mountain freaks thing again.” Mom said with a sigh.
“Just saying.” I cast a wide-eyed look her way. With a warning glare, Mom turned back around. Plugging my earphones in, I ignored my parents and twirled my hair around my fingers. Resigning myself to the long drive into town with thoughts of mutant mountain men and serial killers keeping me company.
“I still can't believe they have a McDonald’s here.” I said sipping my Mocha with a sigh of pleasure.
“Not an isolated wilderness as you first thought?” Mom said with a laugh.
I shrugged, returning to my thoughts and coffee. We quickly made our way to the only car dealership in Shiloh. I didn't know what to expect and doubted there would be anything I'd like. More than likely I'd be stuck with a supped up monster truck. Why couldn't we have gone to a larger city? Oh yeah, that's right. Because my parents were all about 'helping' me. Oh the joy.
Not wanting to see what the lot had to offer, I kept my eyes to the ground, lost in thoughts about serial killers chasing after me in giant trucks.
I freaked out when a hand grasped my shoulder. I quickly grabbed a hold of it and moved behind the offender, the momentum causing him to drop to his knees with his arm hooked behind his back at a painful angle. “What the hell!” he yelled. Seeing he was a car dealer and not a serial killer, I quickly dropped his hand and covered my mouth, moving away from him in total mortification.
“I'm so sorry!” I squeaked out from behind my hands as my parents rushed to his side to help him up. What a great day, I've already added assault onto my 'accomplished' list.
The man stood up and glared at me as he wiped the dirt from his knees. “What in the hell was that for?” His voice was thick with a southern twang.
“I'm so very sorry Mr.—” Mom quickly intercepted, trailing off as she looked at his name tag. “Mr. Billy Jo.” Her glare quickly cut off both my father's and my startled laughter. “My daughter was surprised that is all. We're from Los Angeles so she's had to learn how to protect herself.”
Billy Jo gave me a quick once over and nodded his assent of the apology. “All right. Well what can I do for y'all today?”
“We're looking for a dependable car for our daughter. Something that has good gas mileage but can handle itself in the Virginia weather.” She flashed a mega-watt smile his way.
By the way his eyes were slightly glaze as he looked at Mom I could tell he was stunned. I bet she could make a killing as a hypnotist. She could probably get him to bark like a dog. For the life of me I could never figure out how with just a smile and bat of her lashes, Mom got the complete attention of any male within the vicinity. I looked over at Dad to gauge his reaction, but he just gave me a small smirk and a wink.
“Dad, doesn't it bother you that mom's handling the whole car buying thing? Isn't that like against the male prerogative or something?” I asked him as we followed behind Mom and Billy Jo.
He watched as Mom worked Billy Jo over, a small smile on his face. “No, it really doesn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the 'he man, she woman' thing sometimes, but just watch and learn. You're Mom's the best at convincing people her thoughts were their ideas all along.”
Stopping a short distance behind them, I watched in fascination as Mom smiled, looked at Billy Jo through under her eyelashes, and gave off the perfect impression of a helpless female. I could almost feel the testosterone level in Billy Jo building up. She had him wrapped around her little finger.
She laid her hand gently on Billy Jo's forearm. “Is this safe?”
He scratched his head while looking at the SUV in question. “Well ma'am, that there is a Chevy Equinox. It's got four wheel drive, which is good for when it gets snowy and the like. Plus, there's plenty of airbags and the brakes on it are top of the line.”
“That sounds wonderful. You must know a lot about cars.” I swore if his chest puffed up anymore it would pop. Manly pride was a killer. “Star, darling, why don't you come over here and look at this nice vehicle.” I was so focused on watching mom work Billy Jo over that I failed to pay attention to the car they were talking about. I headed over, dreading what she had picked out. It was perfect. Smooth lines swept along the length of it, giving it a feeling of beauty as well as dependability. The deep metallic black practically gleamed in the sunlight.
“Wow.” I couldn't help but stare. I walked forward and placed my hands gently on the driver side window, looking into the interior.
“Now, if ya want a different color, I'm sure we can order one for ya. Maybe a nice blue or silver. Something light that y’all girly types like.”
I paused, mentally calculating how much he must know about fashion and figured he was a complete idiot. My ensemble was anything but girly. I didn't even own anything girly. Today I wore tight black acid washed jeans, a hot pink tank top with an off the shoulder black half tee on top and my knee high boots. It was not girly. I rolled my eyes and composed my face into a serious mask. “I like black. It's dark, just like my soul.”
Mom stared at me in disbelief. I smirked and turned back to the vehicle. It wasn't my fault that hillbilly had no sense of humor. I ignored Mom's airy laugh as she tried to make up for my sarcasm.
“Now, how much does this beauty cost?”
“Well.... The base price for it is eighteen thousand...” Billy Jo started to say.
I looked over my shoulder at the sound of Mom's gasp. She was standing with her hand over her heart. Her wide eyes looking like weeping pools of amethyst.
“That's just the asking price!” he sputtered out quickly. “Since this isn't the latest edition, and we've been needin' to get it off the lot since the best sellers are trucks and the like. And since y’all are so nice and just moved here and everything, I can offer it to ya at… Twelve thousand!”
I was shocked, even with the best arguments, I didn't think they'd be able to get the price down below sixteen, but Mom went and dropped it by six grand just by looking like a wounded deer. I definitely needed to learn that. I shook my head, hoping to snap my mind out of its stupor.
“That's perfect! Paul, you can take it over from here.” She smiled in triumph as she walked over to me. My eyes moved between her and Billy Jo, amused at his stunned reaction.
“Mom, you're my hero.”
“I'll teach you the tricks of the trade later. Oh, and Billy Jo?” She called over her shoulder, cranking up the volume of her smile again, “Would you be a dear and get the keys for Starlette? She'll be walking around this lovely town while my husband and I fill out all the necessary paperwork. I don't want her to have to wait around for us when there are plenty of other activities that she could be enjoying.”