All for Maddie
Authors: Jettie Woodruff
All for Maddie
By Jettie Woodruff
This book is a work
of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations,
or locations are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used
fictitiously. All other characters, dead or alive are a figment of my
imagination and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s mind's
eye and are not to be interpreted as real.
Copyright © 2013
Jettie Woodruff
Cover Design by Kari
Ayasha of Cover to Cover Designs
Cover photo ©
depositphotos.com/© mtoome
Back Cover photo ©
Depositphotos.com/© yeophotostudio
All rights Reserved.
No part of this book
may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission
of the author.
All for Maddie is
dedicated to my husband, who after 24 years still drives me crazier than anyone
on the face of this earth. The one person who can push every button I have, get
on every nerve, and cause me to want to scream at the top of my lungs. He is
also the man who puts up with the hours and hours that I spend in front of a
laptop, listens when I babble about imaginary people that are real, and tries
hard not to roll his eyes when something devastating happens to one of them.
Through the years,
the many arguments, the tantrums we can both still throw, the heartaches,
raising our children, the holidays, the laughs, intimate parts of our lives
that only he and I share, through the good times and the bad, he is still my
rock, and the one and only person that someday when I am one hundred and three,
I will be laid to rest by his side.
I knew my dad would be
furious if he found out. He thought I was staying with Kylie, not going to some
party in the city. I was safe as long as he didn’t call Mrs. Docherty, or she
didn’t call him. Kylie was presumed to be staying with me, as well. They never
called to check on us, but I was still nervous. I had never been to a real
party before. Our dumb little sleepovers, painting our nails and listening to
music, didn’t really count as a party, not like this anyway. This was a real
party with real college boys, alcohol, loud music, and no parents. I would be
grounded for a month if my dad found out, for sure.
“Stop worrying, Whitley,” Kylie
scolded, jerking my freshly painted nails from between my teeth. I couldn’t
help it. My dad would kill me. I was sure of it. My dad was a well-built man
that could easily take me out of this world. I was sure of that fact. Kylie’s
dad was a dentist, not that that had anything to do with his size, but kind of,
I guess. I never saw a six-foot-three dentist before. Mr. Docherty was not much
taller than my own five-feet-five inches. I barely had to look up to him. It
hurt my neck to look up to my dad.
“Whitley, this is my last
weekend here. Who knows when we’ll get to see each other again. We’re doing
this,” Kylie demanded. Kylie’s dad had just purchased a new office in Lincoln.
I was jealous of the fact that Kylie would be living in a big city, going to a
big high school, and living in a beautiful new house with a pool. Not just any
pool: it had a diving board and a slide. I would be stuck at the campground,
swimming in the river. Ugh, how I hated my life.
Kylie wouldn’t be that far
away. Lincoln was only about an hour and a half drive, but to a seventeen year
old with a parent as strict as my father and no driver’s license, she may as
well have been ten hours away. I was never going to see her, not for another
year anyway. Then I could do what I wanted, maybe. My dad would probably still
tell me what to do.
Don’t get me wrong. Growing
up at a campground had its rewards. There was always food, new people coming
and going constantly, and if I was lucky, even some cute boys. I loved it
growing up, but as a seventeen year old, it had its drawbacks. Like the work.
There was always something to do around there. Summer at The River Resort
wasn’t summer vacation at all. I was happy that my dad finally trusted me to
ride around on the tractor and mow now. It was way better than being on
bathroom duty. People could be downright disgusting, and that’s putting it
mildly.
“I’m not sure about this
skirt, Kylie,” I whined. My dad would surely kill me had he seen me in this
thing. It wasn’t mine. It wasn’t even Kylie’s. She borrowed it. Well, maybe she
just snatched it from her older, nineteen year old sister’s room. It was a
short, well-fitted black mini skirt. My shirt was a tight, sweater type tank
top that showed more cleavage than I had ever shown in my life. I couldn’t quit
thinking about my dad. I was going to get into so much trouble. I could just
feel it.
“Will you stop worrying? Come
on, we have to meet Becky at the gas station,” Kylie demanded, pulling me from
the McDonald’s bathroom where we dressed in our sexy outfits to keep our
parents from knowing what we were up to.
I couldn’t stop worrying. I
worried even more when we finally pulled up to the massive house almost an hour
away from the resort. Ah, man. My dad was going to freak. The cops were going
to show up and raid the place, and I would be grounded for the rest of my life.
I just knew it. There were cars and people everywhere.
“Kylie, I don’t know about
this,” I moaned again. I had a bad feeling. You know, like that feeling of
dread when something bad is about to happen? I was dragged from the car by
Kylie. I knew she was getting upset with the bottled up nerves spewing from my
mouth. The clouds agreed with me, they were a dark gray and swirled around
right above us. “A storm’s coming,” I spat out as if that was going to get me
out of there.
“Hey, there’s Tessa,” Kylie
excitedly called, pulling me along and ignoring my storm comment. It was going
to rain. I could tell as I looked toward the clouds and followed Kylie and
Tessa to the back yard.
Tessa and Kylie giggled like
idiots as they met each other half way. Tessa didn’t like me. I’m not sure why.
I never did anything to her. She hadn’t liked me since I took the lead role
from her in the Christmas play in the third grade. I gazed around at all the
people that I didn’t know. There were at least fifty people there. I wondered
if they were all college kids or if some went to Cage West High. We didn’t have
that many kids if you added the juniors with the seniors.
“Here, drink this and lighten
up for God’s sake,” Kylie scolded, handing me a cup of something in a red plastic
cup. It was good. I could taste the alcohol but mostly the red punch.
We ended up in a circle of
Tessa’s friends. I didn’t know any of them. She introduced Kylie to the group
as I stood back, ignored.
“Who’s this?” one of the boys
asked.
“Oh, she’s Kylie’s alibi for
the night.”
That’s how I was introduced,
as
the alibi
“How ya doing, Alibi?” the
boy asked, walking towards me. He was cute. I’ll give him that, but I wasn’t
sure why he was talking to me. I mean, Tessa was way prettier than me with her
flowing, long blonde hair and too big for her body boobs. Why would he care
about me? My hair was too long, I had these annoying little freckles on my
nose, and my boobs were not even close to the size of Tessa’s. She looked
annoyed that I was getting attention from this boy. Did she like him?
“I’m Alex Wesson, and you
are?” he asked, holding out his hand for me to shake.
Alex Wesson. I would never
forget that name or that face. He was dreamy. “Um,” What was my name?
“You forget your name?” he
teased, sensing my nervousness.
“Whitley Bradshaw,” I was
finally able to reply. He laughed and I pulled my hand from his.
“Come on, Kylie. I want to
introduce you to Peyton. She is the coolest chick at Cage West,” Tess assured,
dragging her away. I stayed, awkwardly standing by the table of drinks with
Alex.
“She’s not really the coolest
chick at Cage West,” Alex smiled. I smiled back, sort of. Why didn’t he go with
them? I didn’t know how to talk to boys. I was never around boys, except for
the thirteen in my class. I had been around those boys since kindergarten. They
didn’t count. I could scrap with any of them, and I did too. Not now that I was
older, but I sure did when I was a little girl.
“You didn’t go to Cage West,
I never saw you around there. I would have remembered a pretty girl like you,”
Alex teased. I blushed, hoping he couldn’t see it.
“No, I went to Spirit River,”
I explained, lying my ass off, and letting him think that I was no longer in
high school. I had to; it’s what Kylie had rehearsed with me to say. We were
both freshman’s at community college in Hinckley.
“Ah, I played basketball
there once outside on the court. That school is so tiny. I can’t imagine going
to a school that small.”
“Yeah, well, it wouldn’t have
been my first choice either.”
“Why didn’t you go to West?”
“There is no way the county would
bus us to West, thirty-seven miles from the school. Did you go to West?”
“Yes, I’m surprised you never
heard of me,” he teased, shooting an imaginary hoop. I go to Dixie State now.”
“Really?” Why couldn’t I talk
to this guy? Everything I said sounded like it was coming from some ridiculous
teenager. “You play basketball there?”
“Nope,” he replied, with
nothing more. I didn’t know what he was going to school for or what year he was
in. I was afraid to ask.
“You could have done open
enrollment. Didn’t you drive?” he asked, getting back to why I never went to
his school.
“No, my dad made me wait
until I graduated to get my license. He said I didn’t need a license to live
where I do.”
“Which is?” Alex asked, with
raised eyebrows.
“The River Resort.”
“You live in a cabin?”
I snickered a little. “Sort
of, but not in one of the rental cabins. I live in the main house with my dad
and step mom.” Dumb. He didn’t ask who I lived with.
“Where’s your real mom?”
“Um, she lives in South Sioux
City.”
“How come you don’t live with
her? That’s a huge city.”
I shrugged my shoulders, not
about to go there with a boy that I just met. “It was nice meeting you. I’m
going to catch up with my friends.”
I should have stayed with
Alex. Kylie and Tessa were doing shots of something. Kylie was going to get
sick, Becky’s mom would hear her throwing up, she would call my dad, and I was going
to be dead in the ground. Where was Becky? I hadn’t seen her since we got to
the party. Oh, there she is in the beautiful pool, kissing all over some boy.
I mesmerizingly gazed at the
pool as it put on a light show, changing from purple, green, red, blue, white,
purple, green, red – my thoughts were interrupted by Alex.
“Pretty cool, uh?”
“Yeah, it is,” I agreed,
pulling my eyes away from the hypnotic lights, dancing in the pool.
“My dad just put those in
this summer.”
“You live here?!” that
sounded way too excitedly stupid.
He laughed at my surprised
response. “Yeah, this is my house.”
“It’s nice,” It’s nice?
Really? It’s nice? The house was a freaking mansion and I say
it’s nice?
Grrrr.
“Maybe I will show you around
later,” he offered.
“Okay,” I replied, trying to
be nonchalant about it this time. I could be cool. Ha ha, I wanted to laugh all
of a sudden. Maybe it was the stuff in the red cup. I needed more.
I did have more, and more,
and more. By eleven o’clock I had the alcohol nerve going on. I was dancing
with people I didn’t know, grinding with Becky and Kylie, and singing at the
top of my lungs. I was drunk and I could no longer find my dad in my brain. He
wasn’t there anymore. I was having a blast.
Alex never left me the whole
night. I could tell that Tessa was furious. Becky had informed me that Alex’s
parents were the sole owners of Determination, the movie theater chain
plastered all over the state of Nebraska and Utah. No wonder he lived in a
house like that. She also informed me that he was a star quarterback, star
basketball player, star pitcher, straight A student, and played the drums in
high school. And he was interested in me?!?!
What
?
Why?
I felt my nerves returning
when he asked me to slow dance. Could I do that? I didn’t even dance at the
stupid little dances we had at my school. It was too much like dancing with my
brothers. All of them.
I was suddenly heated and
could feel the warmth radiating from my skin. I was sure that Alex could feel
it too. He held me tightly against his lean body, while his hands wandered
along my back and hips. It felt good, and I didn’t even care that I was dancing
with this popular guy from Dixie State, with all the envious eyes on us. I’m
sure it was the alcohol.
“Where are your parents?” I
asked, wondering if they knew their son was throwing a party.
“They’re at some convention
in Chicago,” he whispered hot words to my neck.
“They know you’re having a
party?”
He snickered. I felt that on
my neck too. “Not exactly. That’s what the porta-johns are for. It’s easier to
clean up out here.”
Porta-John? I needed that, I
suddenly realized. Why did he have to mention the porta-john? Now I just wanted
the song to be over so that I could go pee. My feet were swaying with his, but
not because I was dancing to the beat of the music. I had to pee. How many
drinks did I consume?
“Thanks,” I said, pulling
away from him as soon as the song stopped.
“Where you going?” he pulled
back not letting me go.
“Um, to the bathroom,” I
replied.
He laughed. “Come on. I’ll
let you use the house restroom. You don’t want to go in there. I just saw
Jordan get sick in there.
I shouldn’t have gone. I had
alarm bells ringing like crazy in my head, or was that just the alcohol? He
never let go of my hand while he fumbled with the keys to unlock the door. I
guessed he kept it locked to keep drunk teenagers out of his house. I followed
him up the massive set of stairs. Why did I follow him upstairs?
“Don’t you have a downstairs
bathroom?” I asked the ridiculous question. Of course he had a downstairs
bathroom. He probably had five of them.
“You can use mine,” he replied,
pulling me and my alarms up the steps.
Holy cow! I had never seen a
room so big in my life. It was plastered with sports paraphernalia, posters of
football, baseball, basketball, and trophies everywhere. He even had a king
size bed.
One thing my dad forgot to lecture
me on was never letting your drink out of your sight. Why would he? I was safe
at the resort. I wouldn’t be attending any parties like this. Not there.
“I’ll hold your drink,” Alex
nodded toward the bathroom.
I smiled, and entered the bathroom,
twice the size of my bedroom. For real? A Jacuzzi tub?
I opened the door to Alex
sitting on his bed. He tapped the bed beside him, beckoning me to sit. I did. Stupid
girl. He handed me my drink and I chugged it. I had to. It was the nerve thing
again. I looked over to him and he smiled. A smile that puzzled me, like he
just scored the winning touchdown or something.
Whoa, why was the room all of
a sudden blurry? I felt faint, like I could almost pass out. I couldn’t make
sense of time. What time was it? Why was I thinking about the time? Was I
naked? What was going on?