The alarm clock went off at 5:30 a.m. Monday morning. Rena considered shutting it off and going back to sleep, but she would only get this opportunity once. She climbed sleepily out of bed and dragged herself into the shower.
Twenty minutes later, she emerged clean, refreshed, and ready to face the day. She carefully picked out her wardrobe, dressing not to impress but to shock. Short skirt, too-small top, and no underwear. She carefully applied her makeup, using bold Wanton Temptress lipstick, Sweet Sweet Siren blush, and Black As Sin mascara. The result was somewhere between cheerleader and slut, as she'd intended.
Last of all, she fastened her new necklace so that the pendant rested in her cleavage. The necklace had been a present from her mother on her eighteenth birthday, just a month before, and today was both the first time she'd worn it and the first time in her life that she'd put her cleavage on such bold display. Today was the day she embraced her new adulthood.
Rena gave her backpack, still full of schoolbooks, a savage kick, then sashayed out her bedroom door and bounded down the stairs. She would never need those books again.
Rose Thayer watched her daughter come into the kitchen and gave a loud wolf whistle. "That is quite a statement you're making this morning. What do you charge for a blowjob these days?"
"MOM!" Rena yelled, her face red with shock and embarrassment.
"Babe, you're an adult now. I don't have to censor myself. And if you're going to dress like that, you'll have to expect some similar comments. Where are you going in that getup? I'm surprised to see you even vertical this early."
"Christmas vacation is over. First day back to school."
"Right. Your ridiculous Plan. Now I understand the outfit. I still don't understand the reason for it," Rose said, setting two plates on the table.
"Freedom," Rena said. "It's about freedom."
"Well, have some breakfast first. You'll want something in your stomach besides some guy's sperm."
"That's disgusting, Mom." But she was starving, so she started shoveling the food in as fast as she could.
"It's not that disgusting. Have you even tried the stuff? You're legal now. Free to cock-gobble with the rest of us. And cum doesn't taste so bad, really. Just not that filling," Rose explained. "Unless it goes in the other way. Then it could really swell the belly."
"Are you telling me... No. I don't want to know. There are some things a daughter should not know about her mother."
"I favor openness myself. Let me tell you, your father, God rest his soul, loved getting a good morning blowjob. I would wake him up in the nicest way I knew how, then fix myself some eggs, bacon, and coffee."
"I am so out of here," Rena said.
"It's January. You'll freeze in that skimpy thing."
But Rena had anticipated that. She knew it would be cold, but she wouldn't be outside for long. A few minutes in the frigid morning wouldn't hurt her.
Once outside, she hugged herself and massaged her arms and jumped up and down until she saw the familiar school bus turn onto her street. Then she forced herself to stand still and portray some dignity. She smiled as it pulled up in front of her house and the door opened.
Rena stepped inside the blessed warmth of the bus and looked around. She wanted to remember this moment for the rest of her life. The scratched paint, the ripped seats, the stains, the smells, the graffiti. And the driver. Mr. Kelson.
"Hey, girl, ain't you breaking dress code?"
"That's not really your concern, is it? It's up to the school principal to decide that," Rena told him.
"Maybe not, but I ain't driving you home when you get suspended. Consider this friendly advice. Go change."
"I don't think so."
"Then get in the damned bus so I can close the door and be on the way. You want to dress like a slut, that's no nevermind of mine."
"I'm not going with you today, Mr. Kelson. I graduated early. I was done with high school in December. I'm eighteen years old and you will never again have any authority over me, you horrible prick."
"Then what the fuck did you make me stop here for? You could have stayed warm in your own damn house, and I would have just gone on my way. Neither of us would have had to see the other ever again in our whole fucking lives."
Rena sneered at him. "I wanted to smell your breath one last time. I wanted to be able to tell people that yes, the bus driver has been drinking without you being able to kick me off the bus or tell your bus driver buddies to give me a hard time."
"You little shit. Get the hell off my bus."
"With pleasure." Rena jumped back out onto the sidewalk and strolled calmly toward her house. She was cold and wanted to run inside, but the bus was still sitting there. She could feel Mr. Kelson's eyes watching her walk away. He was probably staring at her ass. She didn't mind that. Guys stared at her ass all the time. But he would not see any sign that she was afraid of him. He'd terrorized her entire high school career. And now she was free.
Closing the front door behind her, Rena ran upstairs, stripped out of her slut clothes and put on a warm robe before coming back down to the kitchen, where her mother was putting away the just-washed breakfast dishes. She sat at the table, made a quick call to the police to report a drunk driving a school bus, then picked up a strip of bacon from the plate still sitting in the center of the table.
"Well," Rose said. "Was that phone call the point of all this? Was it worth it?"
Rena shook her head. "I needed closure. I needed to get on that bus and then get right back off. I needed to say goodbye to childhood and adolescence forever. I am an adult now and I can speak to other adults as an equal. The call was a fringe benefit."
"Okay. Well, Miss Adult, what are your plans now that you've put school behind you forever?"
"I'm thinking of getting a job," Rena said. "I'd be good at a job."
"Hmmm. I may have a suggestion or two towards that goal. I just put on some coffee. It's almost ready. Pour us both a cup and then join me in the living room so we can discuss your career path."
With that, Rose left the kitchen. Rena did as she was told, fixing two cups of coffee with honey, and a little cinnamon and milk in her mother's. But she was reluctant to really have the suggested discussion about employment.
Her mother was the night manager at a run-down motel outside of town. She had the authority to do the hiring for the place, but Rena didn't really want to work there. She wasn't exactly ashamed that her mother helped run a no-tell motel, renting rooms by the hour for sleazy trysts between people cheating on their spouses. But she didn't brag about it, either.
She couldn't put it off forever, though. She got out a tray, put the cups and the plate of bacon on it, and headed into the living room. "Mom, I don't want to work at the motel," she said, taking a firm stance.
"And why not?"
"Well, I don't really think cleaning rooms is for me."
"You could maybe work in the restaurant. The motel owns the place."
"A waitress?" Rena said, barely hiding the scorn. "No, thank you."
"So what job did you have in mind? Right now, you have no experience and just a high school education."
"I was thinking of being a cashier somewhere," Rena replied.
"The restaurant has cashiers. So does the motel, though we call them clerks. Money-handling isn't their only duty. At least it would give you some experience to put on a job application for something you liked better."
Rena had to admit there was some sense in that. She had already begun to worry about having no resume. It might be a little creepy, dealing with the cheaters and hookers, but she could handle that. "Well, maybe. As long as I don't have to clean dirty rooms or touch dirty dishes."
"I was even thinking," Rose said, "that I could start training you to be one of the managers."
"That would be okay."
"But you'd have to spend some time learning how to wait tables and clean rooms before I would give you any authority over the maids and food servers."
Rena wrinkled up her nose at that, but she liked the idea of being a manager at age eighteen, just out of school. "Would your boss approve of that?"
Rose laughed. "I haven't been completely honest with you. And you have displayed an astonishing lack of curiosity for a teenager, and for a girl. I expected you to start asking questions a long time ago. How do you think we afford this house on a night manager's salary?"
Rena thought about that. It suddenly did seem a little odd. She still thought of herself as poor. When she was little, they'd actually lived in the motel because they couldn't afford an apartment. And that was even when her dad was still alive. But this was a beautiful house in a good neighborhood. And Rena had her own car. They were doing pretty well for themselves. "I guess I don't know," she said.
"I own that motel," Rose told her. "I also own the Bradford Hotel and a couple of houses in Raintree. And, your name is on all of the deeds as co-owner."
"How?" Rena asked. "Since when?"