Mixed Signals

Chapter 11

Bay

"Ready?" Dylan asks, as we sit in the park parking lot on the day of the reunion. Tents set up and tables around for hundreds of people. Classes from the sixties, seventies, all the way to the most recent of us from the last four years. Three quarters of the town, alone, have got to be here. And all of them know who I am. Who my father is. I'm not ready for this. The stares. The whispers. Comments behind my back.

But, Dylan's here. And he's promised that he's not going to let anyone try and drag me down. Not when today's not about me. It's about all of us. And I'm going to be damned if everyone here thinks that they're going to be dumb enough to make this event just about me and my family's dysfunction.

Just breathe, Bay. Everything's going to be fine.

So, I take a breath, and that manages to ease my anxiety. At least, enough to where I know I don't have to be nervous or anxious about being in a place where I know at least eighty percent will have all eyes on me. And I still don't know if it's because of my father, or if I'm with Dylan. Who, before me, would have never been seen out and about with. As a couple. A fling, maybe. Someone he's satisfying himself with for a week before going off to flirt with another woman he's got his eye on, like any other manslut who can never seem to keep his dick inside one woman at a time.

Of course, the first of many former classmates, and one of Dylan's best friends, Toby, is the first to show up. A beer bottle glued to his hand as he and Dylan hug it out. Smiling faces and all. As if it hasn't been a few weeks since they've seen each other. Laughing the second they see each other. Happy. Leaving me on the sidelines to watch their friendly exchange.

"Man, how the hell are you? Where have you been? You been keeping this bastard occupied?" He asks, directing the question toward me.

I have no idea how to respond to that. So, I just laugh off his comment. And it comes out awkward, like I need the man to stop talking before embarrassing me further.

He really is an ass sometimes.

"Okay, that's enough, man." Dylan says, interrupting before Toby is tempted to say something stupid or oddly sexually explicit. Just as he used to do back in the day whenever he, himself, would try to get a woman.

And now I remember why I hated Dylan so much back then. He was the same as Toby. The complete asshole. Always making inappropriate remarks toward the girls. It's no wonder half of us hated him. Meanwhile, the other half used that as an excuse to jump the man and seduce him in the janitor's closet. Or in some of the storage rooms in the back of some of the classrooms. Anywhere private where they could ditch classes and screw whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Just as long as they didn't do it at the same time. Otherwise their quickies would have turned into a two hour orgy in the middle of the school day.

Even after all these years, I have to wonder how the hell they never got caught. Even if we'd walk down the same halls, hearing every moan, groan, slapping of skin against the shelves in the closets. Even through the solid brick walls that seemed to block out noise from the other surrounding rooms.

However, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm sure Dylan paid somebody off so he and his friends wouldn't get into trouble. Of which, any other student would have if they were caught doing exactly the same thing.

Well, as long as I never have to see any of the whores he's been with, I don't think I'm going to have anything to worry about.

"Dylan!" A voice, that could only belong to Lucy Bradshaw says, catching our attention. Turning our heads to the source of the voice. The tall, blonde, woman dressed like she just came from a show at New York Fashion Week in fucking heels walking toward us.