Her Father, My Master: Mentor (8 page)

But I couldn’t stay with Mr. Hendricks.  I contemplated begging him to let me stay, but I knew it wouldn’t happen.  Not with Maddie around.

I sighed heavily as I sat down in my sedan and pulled out of his driveway.  With every mile that passed between myself and his house, I felt my heartstrings being tugged a little tighter, like I’d left some important part of myself back at his house.  I supposed I had.

As I pulled into the driveway of my own house, I couldn’t help but notice the sporty little yellow coupe in the driveway.  That had been Kandace’s graduation present, for getting valedictorian.  I knew I didn’t have any such gift in my future.  I’d be lucky to graduate cum laude, much less at any of the higher tiers.  I had gotten her old sedan as a hand-me-down, and I supposed I should be lucky to have it.

When I entered the house, I expected a pleasant, happy atmosphere, but it was far from that.  Everything and everyone seemed strangely tense.  My parents and sister were sitting around the kitchen table, speaking in hushed tones.  They didn’t even notice when I walked in the door.  Fine by me.  I was ready
to be ignored the entire week
.

I stalked through the kitchen without a word, and made for the stairs to my room.  I desperately needed s
ome de-
stress time already with Flicker.  But my
d
ad unfortunately finally noticed me, and waved me over.

“Hello Krystal, where’ve you been?” he asked, looking upset.  Hopefully he wasn’t upset with me.

“At Maddie’s practice,” I said, and
grudgingly approached the three, my sullen teenage mask pulled up tight now.
  I sa
t
down in the empty chair, across from Kandace.

She was beautiful.  While I’d inherited nearly every feature from my father, including his slightly moon-shaped face with a high forehead, she had gotten the best possible mix of traits from both parents.  So while she and I shared the same wide blue eyes, she’d also gotten the beautiful heart-shaped face with high cheekbones of my mom.  It just wasn’t fair.  Why did she have to be everything I was, but more?
  I just didn’t understand it.

“Kandace is getting married,” my mom suddenly said in a strained voice.

“What?  To who?”

Kandace smiled a supermodel smile and flashed a huge diamond ring in my face.  “His name is Duke.  I met him at university.”

“Uhhh… okay.”  This was sudden.

And this must be what my parents were upset about.  Though outwardly I remained reticent, inside I was squealing with joy.  Kandace, perfect supermodel genius Kandace, had gone and done something monumentally stupid!  She made a mistake!

“We’re getting married in June,” she added matter-of-factly.

“Shouldn’t you wait until you’re graduated?” I asked.

“That’s what we’re trying to convince her to do,” my mom growled, staring at the ring.  It was a rather large stone.

“Is that a real diamond?”  I couldn’t help but ask.  How could a college student afford such a big rock?

“Of course it is!  Duke is a tenured professor, I think he could afford
the real thing
,” Kandac
e sniffed, withdrawing the hand
now.

“Whoa, he’s a professor?”

“Yes, of course he is,
”
Kandace replied
, as if I should know better
.
  Dating fellow students was beneath her.
  Mom and dad
both stared meaningfully at me, waiting for me to have my own brand of blow-up, I suppose.

My mind was roiling with thoughts and emotions.  Of course mom and dad hated this, they knew she was making a mistake.  Kandace needed to consort with people her age, not creepy older men.

But that’s exactly what I was doing.

I wanted to scream.  She was ruining my life without even realizing
it
.  There was no way I could even be open about my own strange relationship because of this ridiculous debacle she was creating with her idiocy.
  She was going to
marry
the guy?

I sat in stunned silence as my parents
turned their attention back to Kandace,
and as they
continued to try and convince her that she was making a huge mistake.

Maybe it was better this way.  I leaned back in my chair and observed with a small smile.  Maybe I could learn from her mistakes.
  For once, it would be Kandace getting the b
r
unt of mom and dad’s anger.  For once, it was her doing the
unintelligent
thing.  I took no small pleasure in that knowledge.

But after 15 minutes of berating and yelling, I found myself just wanting to get away from the situation.  Kandace was crying now, and I felt like an intruder on what should have been a private conversation.  But I was trapped.

So I did a very juvenile thing, and while my mom and dad were both turned to Kandace, I slid down in my seat,
and then
slunk out of it, and out of the kitchen.  It was a tactic I’d learned from when I was young, mostly to get out of boring situations, but it worked well here, too.

I snuck up to my room and found Flicker on my bed, nestled in a pile of dirty clothes.  I plucked him up and swept the clothing aside, and then bounced down on the bed.  I petted Flicker’s long black fur idly as I pondered the strange situation.

It was a weird way to learn it, but apparently my parents didn’t approve of relationships with older men.  I was so glad it was Kandace who made this particular fumble.  Not only did I have valuable information, but I was certain she was looking a lot less perfect in my parents’ eyes now.

I heard raised voices as I glanced at the clock.  It was 10 at night and they were still going at it with her.  I very nearly felt sorry for her.  Not quite, just nearly. 

I must have drifted off at some point, because when I next blinked my eyes opened and checked the time, it was now 2 in the morning.  The house was silent, and I was feeling exhausted.  Long naps always did that to me.  I rolled over and went to sleep again.

The week passed by much as the last did, only this time there was the added tension of having to entertain Kandace.  Rather, she and my parents entertained me with their constant bickering.  It was like she’d changed completely, after she went to college.  Before, she was the golden child, the obedient one, and I was the contrary brat.  But now she was being as argumentative and sullen as me.  I just tried to stay quiet and savor the temporary peace that being out of the spotlight brought me.

I avoided talking to Kandace, too.  I didn’t want to accidentally spill the beans about Mr. Hendricks, and considering how similar our situations were, I thought I might be tempted to.  Still, s
he managed to catch me on Wednesday after class
.

“Hey Krys,” she leapt up from the kitchen table one afternoon, as soon as I walked in the door.  I suppressed a groan.
  I’d just spent the entire day fantasizing about Mr. Hendricks, what he had done to me and what he could do to me in the future.  I didn’t need this.

“Hey
Kandy
, what’s up?”  Ever since she got back from college, she insisted everyone call her Kandace, but I still used her childhood nickname
, much to her chagrin
.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, what do you think about all this?”  She twirled her finger in her
blonde
hair nervously as she spoke.  “I mean, with me and Duke.”

I shrugged and made my way out to the den, and she followed me like a puppy.  “I think you’re crazy, but I have no idea why you care what I think,” I commented as I plopped down in the old, comfy brown couch facing the plasma TV.

“Because, Mom and Dad are so against me, I just want to know someone’s on my side.”  She smiled at me.  “I want you to be a bridesmaid, after all, too.”

I blinked, and my teenage sullenness melted away for just a few moments.  “Really?”

“Of course!”

I blinked again, feeling a little confused.  “But you have so many friends, why don’t you pick
some
of them?”

Kandace waved a hand.  “It’s been a little weird for me at college, and I’ve kind of drifted away from most of those people.  And not a lot of my friends went to the same college as me, of course,” she added matter-of-factly, and I rolled my eyes.  Special Kandace had to go to a super special college, naturally.  “And you’re my sister.  I want you to be in the ceremony.”

“So, when is it?” I asked, eyebrow raised.

“In June, we’re thinking.  We haven’t booked the venue yet, so it might get pushed back.”

“Don’t you think this is a little sudden?”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?”  Kandace tossed her hair in an aggravated manner.  “So what if we just met?”

“Look, I don’t want to be like our parents and try to tell you how to live, but I’m just saying, I’m only a year younger than you and I
know
I’m not ready for marriage yet.”

She smirked.  “I guess I’m more mature than you.”

“Right.”  I stood and made to leave.

“Wait, I’m sorry Krys.  I didn’t mean to be snippy, I’ve just been under a lot of pressure.”

I sighed, and feel back onto the sofa.  “You think you’re the only one?  I’ve got finals to worry about, and college coming up too, you know.”

“I know, I know, I was there last year.  It’s a difficult time for everyone.”

“So, why do you care what I think about you and this guy?”

“Because, I just want to know someone’s on my side.”

I flipped my legs over the edge of the couch now, laying down on it.  “Look.  This isn’t normal, you can’t possibly think that it is.  How old is this guy?”

“40… or 50.  Somewhere in there.”

“You don’t even know how old he is?” I snorted.  “How can you know him so well that you want to marry him?”

“Because we’re in love!”

I rolled my eyes.  “So what?  I was ‘in love’ with Brandon, and Joey, and they both turned out to be assholes.”

“Oh yeah.  I heard about that.  I’m sorry, Krys.”

I turned my head to face the back of the couch now, my face pressed against the cushion.  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, my voice muffled.  I looked at Kandace again.  “I’m just saying, if it’s really love, you should be able to wait before you get married.  Getting married isn’t going to change whether you love each other or not.”

“But, we want a family.”  Ohhhhh boy.

“Well, I don’t even begin to know what to tell you about that, so don’t ask.” 
And I didn't. 
I didn’t even know if
I
wanted kids yet.
  I couldn't even begin to speculate about my sister.

“I know.  I just want to know if you’ll be in the wedding.  Whether you’ll support me with this or not.”

“Of course I’ll be in your wedding.  I think it’s weird as hell, but I’ll do it.”

“Oh, you’re the best!”  Kandace grinned and jumped up, hugging my prone form.  I
turned and
awkwardly attempted to hug her back.

I didn’t really care what she did with her life.  It was hers to fuck up.  But I could tell she needed support, so I decided then and there to try to not be so bitchy at her.  She really was helping
to
take some of the pressure off me, by turning out to not be completely perfect, after all.

The rest of the week passed mostly without incident for me.  My parents were so busy hounding Kandace that they hardly even noticed when the first of the college acceptance and rejection letters began to roll in for me.  I was naturally rejected from the Ivy League schools that I’d halfheartedly applied to.  No surprise there.  But the important colleges, the local and state universities had all accepted me.  I breathed a sigh of relief, but that relief was tinged with its own brand of anxiety.

What was I going to do about Mr. Hendricks, when I left for college?

I already knew I wanted to continue my exploration with him.  I knew he had so much to show me, so much to teach me, and I didn’t want to miss out on that, not if I could possibly help it at all.

I sorted through the letters in my room, immediately tossing the rejections.  I didn’t want to look at those.  In all, I had 4 acceptances.  2 state universities, a local community college, and some private out of state school that I applied to on a whim and knew I didn’t have a chance in hell of affording.

Sighing, I looked up the community college online.  I knew if I wanted to be serious about my education, I should choose one of the state schools.  They both had a better reputation than a community college.  But I wouldn’t have to move out if I went to the community.  I could stay with Mr. Hendricks close by.  And Maddie would be gone.  I could go over more often.

Perhaps I could ask Mr. Hendricks about this.  I had another question bubbling and simmering at the edges of my mind that I wanted to asked as well.