fast car | STEVE HARRINGTON [2]

19. what's your damage?

THERE WERE A NUMBER of times in Ringo Wheeler's life where the word 'embarrassing' didn't quite encapsulate the complete and utter shame she had felt at that moment in time.

The cause of humiliation in these instances varied greatly. From the time she spontaneously got the 'mega-period' on the one and only day she wore a pair of white trousers, to the time she borrowed one of Nancy's long skirts for a dinner party with her boyfriend's mother and a gust of wind came along to lift it high in the air Marilyn Monroe style. Except the elegance and grace the great Marilyn portrayed in that instant was lost on Ringo - who had been wearing Steve's underwear that day after losing her own somewhere on the floor of his bedroom (although she swore to this day he had hid them) and now the entire party knew too.

It was fair to say Ringo was an awkward, bumbling human being who was more or less tripping her way through life, going from one humiliation to the next. Especially taking into account the time she drunkenly vomited on her best friend Jessica, the time her mother had found a used condom in her trash can and of course the day she had unwittingly swallowed her mothers laxatives and not vitamins before a four hour road trip to visit Jessica at college.

One might think Ringo to barely flinch anymore at the scene of an embarrassing situation, practically being an ace at handling the aftermaths by now.

One might think.

"My eyes!" Julia Wheeler was dramatically screaming, leaning over the kitchen sink and cupping the water from the running faucet in her hands to rub her eyes with - for added effect.

"You said you'd be home at seven!" Ringo was screaming in return, her robe hastily tucked around her bare body. The blonde's face was bright red as she frantically looked around for Steve, who seemed to be now hiding from her mother and for good reason.

Moments before, Julia had walked into her daughter's bedroom to find them in a rather compromising position.

"Oh so this is my fault?" Julia fired back, her tongue out as she began to gag. "I come home to ask my daughter if she would like a pizza and instead I see-... god! I don't even know what I saw!"

"Well..." Ringo recoiled with shame, her expression contorted as she frantically tried to organise her thoughts to calm the situation down. "You could have knocked!"

"And you could have locked the door!"

"Nobody's perfect, Julia!" Ringo retorted, a sarcastic tone in her voice.

"Not so fast, Harrington!" Julia whipped around suddenly with a finger in the air, like a predator with heightened senses as she caught sight of a hunched over Steve trying to sneak out the front door.

Steve jumped on the spot as if he had been shot, whirling around to face his accuser with a flabbergasted expression.

"Ms... Ms...-" he stammered, mouth gaping like a fish and if she hadn't been so stressed Ringo would have been laughing her ass off. As much teasing as she would receive for it, she knew telling Jessica this story later on would be an early Christmas present for her.

"Jesus Christ Mom, you're going to give him a heart attack!" The blonde interjected, regretfully interrupting the stare down as she became the focal point once more.

"Oh you know Jesus Christ, do you?" Julia demanded. "Because God was not present in that bedroom!"

Steve and Ringo met eyes desperately. Mortification completely overcame the couple, but they had to admit it was only a matter of time. Despite having been together for over a year now, the intimacy between them hadn't shifted and if anything only amplified. They had gotten reckless, all it took was one suggestion from Steve on how they hadn't tried out her new mattress yet to see if it would squeak like it's predecessor and they were magically naked.