“Pregnant girls have to use the bathroom all the time,” Tracy said as she rolled her eyes.
“I thought you all did that together,” I teased.
“Aly went with her,” Flo volunteered.
“How is Mr. Popular?” Tracy asked.
“Being this popular kind of sucks.”
“Oh, please, David. What did you expect?” Tracy asked and saw my confusion. “What would it be like if Logan Lerman showed up at one of Mona’s parties?”
Logan played the title role in the fantasy-adventure
Then my smartwatch vibrated, as did Tracy’s. Flo’s phone also chirped. I looked down and saw that Pam had hit her panic button. When I hit the ‘Find Me’ button, it showed me she was in the back of the house.
I bolted toward where she was, with Flo and Tracy following me. We found the hall where there were two bedrooms. I tried one door, and no one was in there. The second was locked, so I stepped back and kicked it, causing the cheap hollow-core door almost to explode. Everyone inside froze when they saw me looming in the doorway.
Dan was with a friend, and they had Pam sitting on the bed. I was caught off guard when I saw Aly in the corner, looking on. I recognized Pam’s expression. It was the same look I’d seen at the bar at State when the frat boy had hit on her. She’d frozen. I’d worried that someday she could get into real trouble. At least she had hit the panic button.
I blocked Flo and Tracy from entering the room.
“Pam!” I boomed. “Come here!”
Her head snapped up, and she quickly came to me.
“You’re mine. Is that clear?” I asked in a much softer voice.
Her whole body relaxed as she looked up at me and nodded. I put my hand on her waist and pushed her into Flo’s care.
As soon as she was behind me, I entered the room, strode over to Dan, and grabbed him. He seemed to think he was tough. Cassidy wasn’t going to be happy with me, but I needed him to learn a lesson. I picked him up by his neck and pinned him to the wall. His friend chose that moment to try to save him. I dropped Dan and punched his little douchebag friend in the nuts. As the friend started to curl up, I planted an elbow in his ear.
I heard a girl cry out in pain. I looked over to where Tracy had hold of Aly by the hair. Tracy threw a huge right hook into the cow’s gut. At that point, Dan decided to make a run for it. I swung around and clotheslined him.
I would have jumped on him and finished him off, but just at that moment, Tracy sprayed Aly with pepper spray. When was that girl going to learn that pepper spray was not meant for the indoors, especially small, enclosed spaces like this bedroom? All I knew was my desire to kick Dan’s butt was cut short as my eyes teared up, and it became hard to breathe.
Tracy and I exited the room as quickly as we could. The commotion had drawn people’s interest, but when Tracy used her pepper spray, everyone started exiting the house. I would have to remember that the next time I needed to clear a party.
We found Pam and Flo on the phone. Pam’s mom had gotten the alert when Pam had gotten into trouble. Flo was talking to Fritz. Tracy was shaking and breathing hard, and I wrapped her up into a ‘crawl inside me and be safe’ hug.
“That was a pretty good punch. Remind me not to piss you off,” I gently teased.
“I knew you wouldn’t do it, and the smug bitch was trying to hurt my friend.”
“I know.”
She was on an adrenaline rush and needed to calm down.
Pam hung up her phone, looking both relieved and perplexed.
“I’m hungry.”
Tracy and I thought that was the funniest thing we’d ever heard. We convinced Flo to take us somewhere where we could get our pregnant girl pancakes. I admit it, I was hungry, too.
While we were eating, Tracy told me it was Fritz who’d given her the pepper spray. I would have to thank him later because I was about to make a mistake with Dan. If he’d done anything to actually hurt Pam, it would have been a different story. Then I would gladly have made a colossal mistake.
Tracy found her way to my room at bedtime. She and I did what we did well together.
◊◊◊ Sunday December 27
I woke up to find that Tracy had left me during the night, and now Pam was in bed with me. I loved how she helped me get my day started. Then I took my morning run. When I came back, Bandit and his mom were in my bed. After she had her way with me, I was worried I might not survive the week to come.
Mom and Dad arrived late afternoon. They were staying at the beach house, so I packed up some of my clothes and moved to be with them. We spent the afternoon catching up. Before dinner, everyone showed up to go surfing. To my surprise, Dad decided to go with us, and Fritz taught him how to get up. He had a nice run.
