Ch 17: Christmas Break

Lawrence was feeling a definite sense of good will with the world as he packed his bag to go home for Christmas break. He could even be happy about spending four weeks with his family. He and America had taken things to the next level, and that was wonderful. She was wonderful. He wished everyone was as happy as he was. “C’mon, Torch,” he said as he packed. “You have to come home with me. Where are you going to stay with the dorms all locked up for break?”

“Black got me a key to the loading dock of Memorial Hall. I can crash there, or find another abandoned house. It’s not a big deal. Going home with you would be breaking the rules. I’d find out who you are.”

Lawrence sighed. This was ridiculous. He’d been wearing a mask in his own dorm room for weeks now, and it was getting old. He ripped it off and glared at Torch. “My name is Lawrence.”

Torch flinched and looked away. “Why did you do that? You know we can get kicked out of the league for this.”

“I don’t care. I’m not leaving you homeless and pitiful at Christmas. Now pack a bag.”

“If we get in trouble--”

“You can tell them I kicked your ass and forced you.”

Torch finally turned and looked at him without a mask for the first time. “You couldn’t kick my ass.” He slowly pulled off his mask. Underneath his skin was shiny and tight from scar tissue. He didn’t have any eyebrows. Lawrence’s eyes went wide at the extensive damage. “You see why I like to wear a mask?”

“It doesn’t matter, dude. What’s your name?”

“Oh no. You’re not getting that out of me.”

“Fine. Ralph.”

“Ralph? You can’t call me that. That’s a terrible name.”

Lawrence smiled a little. “You should have told me. Ralph.”

*****

Lola sat with Dark Lothario in the Red Door club. It was the middle of the day, but there was still a handful of people milling around. Instead of the thumping of club music from the speakers the bartender had Billy Joel playing on a boom box behind the bar, where a few older henchmen were drinking.

“I have a job for you, little girl,” Dark Lothario told her. He passed a manila envelope across the table in front of them. Lola took a long sip of her drink and picked it up. Opening it, she discovered pictures of Glory on the ground with the woman she had rescued two weeks before. Slightly grainy blown up, she could tell they were all taken with cell phone cameras from the crowd around them. In one picture Lola could see her own arm, in another the back of her head. “I want you to find out who this girl is.”

Lola played with the urge to simply tell him right away, and several thoughts passed through her head before she convinced herself not to give up Glory. Glory might have been sleeping with Lawrence, but they were still friends. Weren’t they? Lola found her loyalty wavering. The morning after her discovery, after Lola had spent the night on the sofa in her lair, Glory had given her a blushing blow by blow that made Lola queasy. She had spent most of her time away from their apartment ever since, explaining to Glory that she had to study for finals.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Lola said, putting the pictures back in the envelope. “What are you going to do with her?”

“Nothing she won’t enjoy.”

*****

“Where are you going this time?” Glory asked Lola, pretending everything was normal between them. She hung around inside the doorway, watching Lola zip up
her suitcase.

“Paris. My mom’s new boyfriend is there.”

“I thought her new boyfriend was in Venice.”

“That was weeks ago,” Lola told her. “This one is French. Jean-something.”

“Why don’t you stay here for Christmas, instead of hanging out with a bunch of foreign strangers?” Lola didn’t come home the night KP stayed over, and she had been distant ever since. Glory suspected that she might be jealous. “You could come home with me.” Maybe a month of sisterly bonding would help ease over any hurt feelings.

“I don’t think so,” Lola said. “I like going to Europe.”

“Lola, please. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong. Take good care of the car while I’m away.”

“I still think you’re nuts to let me have it for a full month!”

“Merry Christmas. Can you drive me to the airport?”

“Of course,” Glory said, a dull ache in the pit of her stomach. Whatever was wrong, Lola didn’t want to fix it. “Just wake me up tomorrow when its time to go.”

She left Lola’s room and went back to her own, falling onto her bed. Every time she came into her bedroom she ran through the night with KP. At the time it had felt so right, and the next morning. She was relaxed, really relaxed, for the first time in weeks the following day, but that had worn off.

She hadn’t had sex with him because she loved him--she didn’t know if she loved him or not. Maybe it had been a mistake.

*****

Paris had been one party after another, including a short field trip to the French alps for two days of skiing and hot tub debauchery. Christmas Day, and it was getting old.

Lola stood at the bar and speared the olive in her martini with a toothpick. There were a couple hundred people in the hotel ball room surrounding a Christmas tree that touched the ceiling. The buffet consisted of a traditional dinner with all the trimmings, a traditional Christmas for people who didn’t give a rats ass about tradition.

“Pere Noelle obviously got my list,” a slightly drunken voice said in French at her side. She gave the man a glance and was about to dismiss him when he continued. “Legs, tits, and lips.” He leaned forward to try to kiss her, but she ducked and sidestepped him easily, and he teetered and fell to the floor.

“The next time you try to hit on a girl, you’re going to tell her, very proudly, about your three inch penis.” Just to take and extra measure, she poured what was left of her drink on him.

Beside her a young woman laughed. “I’d pay to see that,” she said to Lola. The woman was wearing a white dress that contrasted against her dark skin, her hair cropped close to her head and dyed blond. She spoke with a British accent. “There are far too many assholes at this party.”

“I agree,” Lola said.

“I see you’re sans beverage. Can I get you something?”

She smiled at Lola, who managed to smile back. She was so done with men.

*****

Glory put on the dark green dress her mother had gotten her for Christmas, getting ready to go to church. When she came home for Thanksgiving everything had felt normal, but in the few weeks that had passed between that trip, and Christmas, she had changed. She’d thwarted the biggest super villain in Acropolis, almost gotten kicked out of the League and she’d had sex. Glory hadn’t shared any of it with her family, and the secret of her experience with Dark Lothario felt heavy in her chest, but she didn’t want them to worry any more than she wanted to get into more trouble with Ms. X. (She had searched the house for cameras and bugs and had found nothing.)

She sat at the vanity she shared with her sister and stared at her reflection, wondering if she was the same person she had been before. The longer she stayed at home, the less she seemed to know herself. She wanted to be a hero, but nothing had gone right, from her secret identity to her costume to the probation fiasco. She just wanted to be herself and help people.

“I know you’re not that full of yourself,” Truth said, coming into the bedroom wrapped in a bath robe and damp from a shower. Her sister was sixteen, almost a carbon copy of her. Glory wondered if she looked very old to Truth. “What’re you staring at? Do you have a zit or something?”

“No.” She got up and dug through her dresser for a pair of white tights. She wondered what Truth would think about her losing her virginity. Their mother had always told them to wait until they were sure, but was she really sure? Had she had sex with KP because she wanted to, or because she had needed an outlet for all of the emotions that had been building up inside of her?

Truth put on the same dress as Glory, only in red. They didn’t particularly care for their mother’s idea of fashion, but humored her. Truth put on black tights, further contrasting herself from her sister. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to tell you. There’s going to be a party in Lee Thompson’s basement after church. His parents got him a root beer keg.”

“Oh. Cool.”

“It’ll be so great, going in our own car.”

“Borrowed car,” Glory amended. “It sounds like fun.”

*****

Lawrence’s house was crowded with family members (mostly) but also a handful of his brother’s friends. It was the first time Lawrence had ever had a friend at the Christmas celebration. At the moment everyone was crowded into the living room and dining room while Uncle Al sat next to the tree wearing a Santa hat and a beard made out of cotton balls. “Go long, Matty,” Uncle Al said, tossing a package across the room. Catching it, Matty dove into a group of people who laughed and pushed him away. The place was noisy and full of cigarette smoke and the smell of cheap beer. Lawrence hated it, but then he would glance at Torch, sitting beside him and staring at it all with wonder, and Lawrence would try to see it his way. It still sucked.

Lawrence’s mother was weaving through the crowd with a pitcher of homemade eggnog in one hand and a plate of cookies in the other. “Refills boys?” she asked the two of them.

“Thank you,” Torch said, holding out his cup while she poured and taking two gingerbread men.

“I’m good,” Lawrence assured.

“Mrs. Lawrence, you are a goddess,” Torch said as he bit into one of the cookies. Torch had been eating steadily for two weeks, and Lawrence’s mother was only encouraging it, exclaiming at every opportunity how skinny he was and that she was going to fill him out. She had been thrilled with the extra guest for Christmas. Her reaction to Torch’s scars was one of over-mothering, which Torch seemed to enjoy. The two had been charming each other ever since.

Lawrence’s mother beamed at him. “Thank you, Ralph. I’m glad someone appreciates my cooking,” she said before moving on.

“Dude, you’re making me look bad,” Lawrence said. He wasn’t jealous, exactly, but Torch’s near worship of his mother was definitely disconcerting.

“Yo! Lawrence!” He looked over just in time to duck before a gift hit him in the face. It skidded across the dining room table behind him, knocking over drinks. A few people rushed to clean it up while others booed him. Torch picked up the beer and nog sodden box and handed it over.

Lawrence always seemed to lose in the family gift exchange, and sure enough, the tag said ‘To Lawry-Boy, Love Aunt Susie.’ He unwrapped it with growing dread as a green and white snowflake sweater emerged from the tissue paper. He forced a smile and looked over at his aunt, watching him expectantly. “Thanks Aunt Susie.”

A few minutes later his mother reappeared, carrying several gifts the shape and size of shirt boxes. “Here Ralph,” she said, placing them on Torch’s surprised lap. He unwrapped two flannel shirts, a pair of jeans, socks and underwear. She had commented to Lawrence about Torch’s lack of wardrobe a few days before. Apparently she had decided to do something about it.

To Lawrence’s surprise Torch stood up, the clothes dropping to the floor. He wrapped his arms around Lawrence’s mother in a tight hug. She looked like she was going to cry.

*****

The tension that had been building up in Lola’s system for weeks seemed to vanish as she lay with her head resting on Deirdre’s bare shoulder. Her new lover tangled her fingers though Lola’s hair. “Was that your first time with a woman?” she asked.

Lola sat up. “Why? Was it bad?”

Deirdre laughed. “No. I could just tell you were kind of feeling things out. What do you think?”

“I think I could be convinced to go again,” she said, getting out of bed. “I’ll be right back.”

She walked naked across the room to the bathroom, doing her business and freshening up. It was amazing how a new experience could wash away all of her bad feelings towards Glory and Lawrence, her misgivings about Dark Lothario. Even if it was just for a night.

Lola was feeling downright giddy when she came back into the room and found
the bed empty.

She stared at it for a long time, at her black dress and shoes in a puddle on the floor and Deirdre’s clothes nowhere in sight. “Damn it all to hell,” she cursed. When she ruled the world, that woman would be the first to go.

******

After church most of Glory’s old youth group gathered in Lee Thompson’s basement. Glory stood against the wall with her plastic cup of root beer and watched the rest of the room. Half a dozen girls were bouncing enthusiastically to music in one corner, while the boys gathered around the fake keg and tried to look grown up. Most of the room was between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, with many of Glory’s old friends from before school wandering around and looking important as high school graduates.

“Glory!” A female voice squealed at the base of the stairs and Melissa Bennet rushed her, pulling her into a hug so hard she almost spilled her drink. She was Glory’s best friend after Lola--Glory had barely thought of her since leaving, and felt a little guilty. “I wasn’t going to come,” Melissa continued, “and then I heard you were here! How’s school going?”

“Um, good. Really good,” Glory lied. She had gotten her grades back, and her GPA was at a 1.8. Academic probation.

“Me too! I made the Dean’s List and everything.” Melissa seemed to be bursting with good news and told Glory about her perfect grades, her part-time job as a nanny, and the car she was saving up for. “And wait ‘till you hear the best part,” she said, her voice rising to a squeal. She held up her left hand. A small diamond on a gold band was resting on her ring finger where her chastity ring used to be.

“You and Josh?” They had been going together since the tenth grade. Glory was not surprised by the ring.

“He asked me a few weeks ago, on our anniversary. Mom and Dad thought we should have waited until after school, but we just couldn’t.” She gave Glory a sly, secretive smile and gestured for her to move closer. “We did it,” she whispered in Glory’s ear. She pulled away. “My mom would kill me if she knew. We want to move in together over the summer, but you know my mom…”

Glory did. She was one of the strictest moms she’d ever met. “You could always elope to Vegas,” she offered, and Melissa giggled. Did she want to elope to Vegas with KP? If she was having sex she should be wanting a ring and an elopement. That’s what she wanted at the beginning of the year. Was she becoming a bad person, or was she just growing up? She eyed Melissa with her tiny diamond and straight A’s. Melissa wasn’t grown up yet. She thought she was, but she wasn’t.

“I have a boyfriend,” Glory offered.

“Really? That’s great! When did you start dating?”

She tried to tell Melissa about KP, but found there was so much she had to leave out because of the league. “We’ve, you know, done it too,” she added finally in a whisper because there was nothing else to say, and she wanted Melissa to see that she was as worldly as Melissa thought herself to be.

“Really? After only a few months?”

“It felt right,” Glory insisted, even as she was beginning to feel downright miserable about it. “He’s really a great guy.”

“Well,” Melissa said, doing her best to get over Glory’s low morals. “I’m glad your happy. We are both doing so well, aren’t we? And I heard that Emily was working at the Taco King over by the mall….”

Glory pretended to be interested, but deep down she just wanted to go home. Or back to school. Home didn’t really feel like home any more.

*****

It was late in the evening before the family party dispersed. Those who were sober enough left for their homes, and those who were not were camped out in sleeping bags all over the house. Torch was on a camp cot in Lawrence’s room, and Lawrence was sharing his bed with Aiden, an eight year old cousin from out of town. Aiden was a heavy sleeper, thankfully.

“Your family is really great,” Torch said in the dark.

“Are they?”

“You don’t even know what you have,” he insisted. “They are happy and friendly and alive.”

“Yeah,” Lawrence said, his voice quiet. Torch’s dead parents where the only reason he was putting up with all the fuss his mother was making. Torch hadn’t had anything like this in so long, and Lawrence had no right to be annoyed. “I guess they are pretty okay.”

******

A/N: Years ago I went to a Christian party (and it was a college party) that had a root beer keg. And I finally got to use it in a story! I know I haven’t come out and declared Glory’s Christianity, but I realized almost right away that she was, but obviously not in a crazy way.

The best part is how I jump from Glory and the Christians to Lola’s lesbian experimentation.

Lawrence is kind of a jackass, in more ways than one I suppose. He cheats on his gf and is elitist scum around his family. :) I like him though.

Eldoran totally called it in the comments about Dark Lothario having Glory's picture. I was vastly amused when I read that.