Getting Revenge

Chapter 5: More to the Plan...

About ten minutes later, we pulled into my driveway right behind my mother. She appeared to have just arrived home from the grocery store, judging from the fact that she was trying to pile as many overstuffed paper bags into her hands as she could. Adrian did not even hesitate to turn off the car and jump out to offer his assistance.

"Adrian Anderson!" My mother exclaimed in a surprised voice as he approached her. She peeked over at him from above the bags in her arms. "My goodness, it's been a while! How have you been?"

"Hello, Mrs. McCarthy." Adrian said politely, reaching out and grabbing one of the bags from her. "Here, let me help you".

"Thank you!" Mom gushed. She glanced over at me with a questioning look, to which i responded with a shrug. "It's nice to see that chivalry isn't dead".

"Oh, this isn't chivalry, it's just common courtesy". Adrian reached into the trunk of the car and retrieved another bag.

"And apparently, modesty isn't dead either". My mother winked over at me and i sighed.

I knew what she was thinking: that Adrian was my new boyfriend. Well, she was half-right. He was a boy. I quickly walked over to where Adrian was standing.

"I'll take those". I said, reaching out and taking the bags from his hands. He moved to get them back, but i backed up and twisted away from him so he couldn't.

"It's okay, I can get them".

"No, it's fine, really. You're not here to do manual labor for my mom, you're here to....". My voice trailed off as i felt my mom's curious gaze flicker over me while she waited for me to finish my sentence.

She was probably hoping Adrian's visit was a social call. And a non-platonic one at that. My mother used to be in love with Adrian. Not in the illegal, creepy kind of way, but in the I-Must-Make-Him-My-Son-In-Law-Someday kind of way. It irked me then, and it irked me now. She never quite liked Terry. She tolerated him fine, but i always knew she disapproved of my choice in dating him. Adrian knew how my mother felt about Terry, and i think he felt a slight connection to her because of it.

I could totally picture the two of them sitting at the table in our kitchen, drinking tea and discussing how wrong i was for having ever dated Terry in the first place. I had to make sure that kind of scenario never took place.

The three of us headed inside the house to drop off the groceries.

"Adrian, would you like to stay for dinner?" My mom asked as we entered the kitchen.

"I would love to, Mrs. McCarthy". I glared at him, but he pretended not to notice. He should have at least gotten my opinion on the matter before accepting her invitation.

"Adrian is here to help me study for...something". I was a terrible liar, especially when put on the spot. But i figured she was probably curious as to why Adrian Anderson was suddenly in our house again after all these years. Luckily, though, she didn't seem to need any sort of explanation at all. She smiled over at me and said

"I'll let you know when dinner is ready".

"Right". Grabbing Adrian's arm, I led him out of the kitchen.

As soon as we were out of earshot of my mother, I turned to him and said "I didn't say you could stay for dinner".

"No but your mom did. That's all that matters. Besides, there's a lot of stuff you and I need to discuss. I might be here for a while". He was probably right. We had the perfect opportunity to devise our plan without the threat of anyone overhearing us.

"Okay, fine. Let's go upstairs".

Adrian hadn't been in my room for years. The last guy to ever enter my bedroom, besides Jason or my father, was Terry.  That had been where I'd planned on, you know, doing it with him not even two weeks ago. It was amazing how drastically things could change in such a short amount of time.