Chapter 1:
"What are you up to?" Elaine Finn called up the stairs.
"Nothing Mom" her daughter's yelled answer reached her, muffled by Karen's closed bedroom door.
"Well, that's unlikely" she replied, "You must be doing something."
"I'm on my laptop ok. Just on the Internet is all" Karen called back; her voice tinged with the exasperation common to all teenagers when faced with a parent's 'stupid' questions.
Her mother shook her head and headed to the kitchen to join her husband.
"I wish she was up to something" she muttered.
"What did you say love?" her husband John asked, raising his head from the golf magazine he was reading.
"Just wishing Karen would get a life for herself instead of living through others."
John looked at her with a furrowed brow marring his thin face.
Elaine opened the refrigerator door, pulling out a bottle of wine. Opening the bottle, she took a minute to half fill a glass before expanding further for John's sake.
"She's eighteen. I know she hasn't many friends, but she isn't going to make any sitting in her room all day every day. All she does is look at TikTok and Instagram, watching other people do things. It's not healthy."
John paused before answering. He loved Elaine dearly but in spite of her only being forty years old she sometimes sounded and acted twenty years older than that when discussing their daughter and apparently, she couldn't remember what it was like to be a teenager either. Then again at forty-four he wasn't entirely sure he could remember either, and it was so different now with social media. Karen was able to keep abreast with the comings and goings of the world outside without having to open her bedroom door.
"Elaine love, I agree with you. I wish she got out more too. I wish she was bugging me for money for clothes or to stay out late with friends. But that's not who she is. She's quiet, smart, artistic and God knows that doesn't make you popular at her age. Give her time, after the summer she'll be in college and maybe that will help her open up. Fresh faces, new experiences..."
Elaine nodded, they'd had this conversation before, time after time. Each time John had said the same thing and each time she'd agreed with him. It was just the frustration that got to her. The frustration of not being able to help her daughter. She had always been popular, through high school, college and into adulthood. Even John had been popular among a certain cliché, and as adults neither had ever experienced an issue making friends.
Karen was so different though and she couldn't fathom why. She was a good-looking girl with beautiful long red hair and a lightly freckled pale complexion that she'd inherited from herself, a slight petite frame that she'd inherited from John. She was generally sweet natured, as much as an eighteen-year-old is at least, and she had a quick wit as well that she often turned on her father to both their amusements. She should have friends, for God's sake even a boyfriend, calling to the door all the time. Instead, she hadn't seen one person from Karen's school in this house for at least a year. The last had been some skinny boy, a bit effeminate maybe but who cares as it was company for her. They had been thick as thieves the previous summer but then he seemed to disappear from her life.
Maybe it was her artistic side that kept her isolated so much. She was all about art and music. She was good too; her portfolio had gotten her a place in a university one state over where she would be moving to after this summer.
Elaine took another sip from her glass; John had returned to his magazine leaving her alone with her thoughts and concerns.
Karen padded to her bedroom door, twisting the handle to make sure it was locked. Now that her mom was home, she probably wouldn't see either of them for an hour or more as her parents caught up with each other after a day at work.
She sat back at the small desk in the corner of her room, her laptop open on some news site. Tabbing to the page she had been on when her mom called up the stairs, she kept scrolling through the search results, making a mental note to clear her browser history before leaving her room.
She knew everyone in her school thought she was awkward and a bit of a geek, God knows she hadn't done herself any favours being into art more than she was into guys.
College was coming up soon, out of state, away from home, away from overprotective parents and judgemental bitchy high school idiots. The thing that worried her, that actually kept her awake at night was that she had no idea about boys, well men, whatever. She had never had a boyfriend, ever.
So, she had this dread that she'd show up at college, a virgin. Make a fool of herself and then remain that way for another four years. It was probably a stupid thing to worry about she tried to tell herself, but at the end of the day it was bugging her. A lot.
And that's when she came up with a plan- internet chat sites. At least online she could try losing some of her self-consciousness and get more comfortable talking to members of the opposite sex. She might not get a date out of it but the experience could only help.
Only problem was, what site? There were so many. Karen leaned back in her chair, spinning around in it slowly as she tried to think. At 4'10" and 90 lbs she had never been an athlete in school. She'd had to use her brains instead, so why weren't they helping now? If only she hadn't taken after her dad physically. He was only 5'6 and slim. Why couldn't she take after her mom instead- 5'4 with big 32DD breasts unlike her own 32A then she wouldn't be having this problem. Her mom kept trying to 'bond' with her over things like this, but nature had given her a leg up that Karen never had. Karen saw how guys would look at her mom, nobody looked at her like that. What made it worse was that her mom was completely oblivious to them all.
Shaking her head to clear the negative thoughts she got back to work.
OK first, no mainstream popular sites, not something someone from her school might be on. Check.
Next, nothing just aimed at teens, for the same reason. Check.
Not a site just aimed at her state, she wanted to meet people from different places. Check.
After narrowing down the list that way she started scrolling again.
'Chocolate For Vanilla'
Weird name for a chat site. She clicked into it. It was an interracial site, men seeking women, women seeking men. Well sure as hell nobody from her school would be online here. Plus, she wasn't hung up on color the way some were, her mom included. In fact, this would be perfect, doing something that teenaged Elaine would never do.
Karen clicked on the join button. There was the usual blurb about copyrights and so on. She skimmed down to the next section, a site description.
Apparently, there were four levels of membership, all free. The first, one star, was a guest member, no username, info or picture needed, just a randomly selected number identifier and you could use chat rooms and forums but not message other users directly. The second level, two star, was a username and bio but no picture. The third level, three star, was username, bio and a picture but with no face. The last level, four star, was all of the above but using a profile picture of your face that was corroborated by the site.
She drummed her fingers on the keyboard, what should she choose?
Chapter 2:
Karen still thought there was a chance, a small one at least that somebody from school might stumble onto this site or even someone she might be with in college after the summer. Anyway, she didn't need to go to the four-star rating just to talk to people. That said, she didn't imagine that one- and two-star people got much interest on the site. They'd be the people hanging at the fringes and she was tired of being one of them.
She started filling in the membership form, she took BigRed as a username as she had an inkling of an idea. By the time she got to the section about posting a profile picture the idea was fully formed. Her Mom was always telling her to 'take chances' and 'put yourself out there', well then she couldn't be mad if Karen expected her to practice what she preached? Karen started searching through a file marked as Family Holidays on her computer, looking for an ideal picture.
Three Months later:
Elaine Finn was tired and irritable. She'd had five showings that day and not one offer put in. Sometimes she thought that people who window shopped homes for sale just didn't appreciate the time and work realtors like herself had to put in.
To add to it all, she knew that even though she'd be arriving home nearly an hour after her husband, he wouldn't have made any effort to get dinner started. Karen was worse than useless as well. She only had less than one week before heading to college but a little effort around the house while she was still there would be nice.
Elaine pulled into the gas station to fill up before heading home. Tomorrow was Saturday and she wanted to get all the niggly bits of work like grocery shopping and filling up the car done so that she could relax.
She pulled up at the pump closest to the building. Swinging out of the car in her skirt was always a challenge, she liked to dress up when she was showing homes. It paid off to look good in front of clients, so she was wearing a fairly tight knee length skirt that drew the eye to her well-formed rear and still narrow waistline. She worked hard to keep in shape, but the need to be fashionable while still professional looking meant it could be awkward getting in and out of her Porsche.
As she filled up the tank, she saw a young black man at the next pump staring over. Well young to her, maybe mid-twenties? She found men did tend to stare, a fire red Porsche 911 naturally tended to draw the eye. Only he didn't seem to be looking at the car. Was he staring at her?
He noticed that she was now looking over at him, so he flashed her a smile.
"Hey Big Red" he called out.
"Excuse me?" she replied indignantly, "What did you just call me?"
His smile disappeared quickly, he peered at her again as if trying to place her features.
"Umm sorry, C.4.V? You know? I'm D-Rock" he ventured, sounding less sure of himself than he had a moment before.
"C for V?" she asked, "What the hell is that? I think you have me confused with someone else. Now if you don't mind..."
With that she turned her back on him, going inside to pay up.
The black man, D-Rock, rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, "Could have sworn it was her" he muttered to himself.
From inside the gas station, Elaine watched him get into his car and drive off. 'The nerve of him' she thought to herself. It wasn't what he called her so much as the fact that he had yelled it out for all to hear. It was the curse of youth she decided, just because someone was young and handsome, despite being black, they thought they could do and say whatever they liked. 'Big Red indeed' she snorted at the name.
By the time she had gotten home she was still annoyed. As expected, nobody had lifted a finger to help prepare anything to eat. She was half tempted just to order out but decided that they could wait for their food if they weren't going to try themselves.
Elaine whipped up a light pasta dish and called out for the others to join her at the table when it was ready. John, as usual, just sat down and began shovelling the food inside his mouth like an automaton, not taking any real pleasure from it that she could see. Karen was just picking at hers idly. Elaine knew that if her daughter even suggested ordering a pizza instead that she'd kick her ass!
To distract herself from her family's lack of support around the house she decided to vent to them about the incident earlier. John barely registered the story, but Karen began choking on her food when Elaine began mentioning D-Rock.
