Disclaimer: the author does not condone or promote the activities in this story. It is just a story.
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When my parents broke up my mom and I moved out to California and I started high school with a bunch of kids I didn't know. The first year was pretty awful and I longed to move back home to North Carolina with my dad. My mom had been awarded full custody of me since the judge didn't like my dad much. See, my dad is a lawyer and he and the judge were not exactly friends. Over the course of the year my father appealed the judges' decision and failed each time as my mom kept being ruled a fit mom who kept an eye on me.
It was one time when my mom was telling me how easy it was to win these appeals because, "You're a good girl, Julia!", that I began to consider a way to get back home.
There was a guy who lived in the apartment across from us who was a writer and he was always home all the time. He was kind of cute in a geeky Brad Pitt sort of way although he was pretty old (mom said he was thirty-eight) and he was always nice to me.
A day or so after my idea hatched he was walking in from the grocery store when I was coming in from school.
"Hi!" I said to him, hoping for a response that was more than just a courtesy.
"Hey." He looked up at me and kept going.
I took a chance. "So, uh, what do you write about all the time?"
He stopped and looked at me. "Umm, just stories, I guess. Human interest stuff for magazines and stuff. Nothing you'd be interested in."
"No, really, I'd love to read them sometime." I lied. I read 'People' and 'Us' and I always watch a movie instead of reading the book.
"Really?" He stopped and actually looked at me. "Ask your mom if it's okay and you can come up sometime and maybe check things out."
And that started a new friendship that spilled on into my senior year of high school. A lot of the days I'd get home from school I'd dump my bags and change out of my uniform and get into my grubbies and head over to David's and settle into reading whatever story he was currently working on. We'd chat and talk about things like his relationships and the boys back home I liked and the boys in California I hated and we'd talk about my mom and my dad.
I guess it was Thanksgiving when the judge denied my dad's request to let him see me for the holiday that I kind of broke down with David. I came home from school and heard the message on the answering machine from mom's lawyer and I just burst into tears. I just ran over to David's and fell into his arms crying.
"Julia, what's wrong, hon?"
My tears were soaking his t-shirt. "My mom is RUINING my life. The stupid judge won't let me go home to see my dad because I'm being so good with my mom and they think she's all so great and I just want to go home!" And then I soaked his shirt some more.
"There's nothing wrong with being so good, sweetie..." He was about to continue and compfort me, I'm sure and I just blurted out what had been on my mind for some time.
"I know what I'm going to do, I'll get pregnant by one of the jocks and then they'll let me go home when they see what a screw up my mom is!"
That led to a serious conversation about jerk boys and STD's and the really serious fact that a pregnancy would lead to a baby which would be a lifetime commitment. I argued back that my dad was a lawyer and could afford to take care of a grandchild and myself until I got through with college someday and that everything would be fine once I got back home.
Over the next few weeks I told David about the boys at school I was thinking of and which ones were good candidates to do what what I wanted and every time I'd talk about them he'd just shake his head in disapproval.
The week before Christmas my mom announced she'd have to go to New York City for a couple days for a corporate meeting and a Christmas party and that I'd have to stay at the apartment by myself while she was gone and that she trusted me to be good. I immediately whined that she'd be missing my eighteenth birthday the next day and she told me that I was a big girl and I'd just have to deal with it. She dropped me off at school the next morning and then headed off to the airport. In the excitement I'd forgotten the weather was going to turn and by the time school let out it was pouring and my coat was hanging in the closet at home. When I finally made it home my white blouse was soaked and my plaid skirt was dripping into my shoes. I looked awful. And I was also starting to shiver from the cold. That was when things got even worse. I remembered that mom had taken me to school and locked the door so I forgot my keys! I peered in through the kitchen window and there they were sitting on the counter where I'd left them.
I had no choice but to go over to David's. I hated the thought of him seeing me soaked and dressed in that stupid little schoolgirl outfit but I had no choice unless I wanted to freeze to death. I knocked on his door and figured it would be my luck if he were gone, too.
"Julia! What are doing? Get in out of the rain!" David ushered me into his warm, dry apartment and I soon related to him the events of the day. It was after four and the locksmiths were all gone for the holiday and none of them answered their phones when David called. The apartment manager was gone, too, so the master key was also out of the question to get me into my home.
"You have your mom's cell number?" He asked.
"For what?" I asked.
"Because you're under age and you can't be here by yourself without her permission." He sounded very parental as he said this.
I pulled out my driver's license and showed it to him.
"What, you can drive, I know that. I'll still need to talk to your mom." He insisted.
"David," I kind of pleaded, "please just look at my birthdate, would you?"
He did.
"Today's your birthday? You're eighteen?" He just looked sort of awed.
"Yes, silly, and I don't need my mother's permission anymore to be here or anywhere for that matter."
He smiled just the barest hint of a smile. "Well, now then everything is different. I have some things to do, wait a minute, don't go anywhere, okay?"
I nodded my assent. Where the hell was I going anyways? David all but ran off down the hallways and I just stood there in the foyer dripping water on the tiles.
David came back out from wherever he'd been. "Okay, the shower is all set. Go in the bathroom and give me your clothes so I can get them down to the laundry room and dry them up for you." I hesitated for a second. "Go on, you need to get warmed up."