Seven Minutes

“Find a dog that pissed on the White House, I don’t care! We need a front page story and we need it pronto!” I snapped my cell shut without waiting for an answer. Truman would get me my story. He always did.
School was more horrifying than ever that day. Being the step sister of basically the most popular girl in school sucks. Everyone was so jazzed about the party that night and they kept coming up to me, trying to be invited. I liked it better when they just avoided me. They did shit like that every time Janice threw a party; acting like they were all such good friends with me.
The thing was, I mostly hated Janice. She liked to think she could treat me as her slave, though half the time she didn’t get away with it. Our, ahem, “sisterhood” was a very simple, very typical start.
Janice’s rich bitch father, Hamilton, divorced her mother when she was thirteen. Then single for years—never once even married—Carol, my mother, gets a job as Hamilton ’s secretary—I didn’t even know or care what Hamilton did. The affair was “hot and sticky”—my mother actually said such things to me while they were “not dating”—but soon their sex on occasion turned into a love affair and they married three years later.
They had been married since I was fifteen, two years now, and Janice was still the spoiled princess. Even my mom loved Janice more than a step mother ever should. And so I took to hiding in my new room, usually writing. Pretty soon only the maids realized I even existed. I say this sarcastically. My mom and Hamilton knew I existed; they just didn’t care one way or the other. Half of it was my fault, to be honest. From the very beginning, Daddy Warbucks sought to buy me out. But I refused him. I didn’t want or need to be a spoiled brat like my step sister. He never could, despite his futile efforts, buy me off. I was too stubborn. It got to the point that I really frustrated him and he didn’t acknowledge my existence. I figured he convinced my mother to join him in the quest they were excelling at.
It hurt—a lot—at first that she would join him. But later I just grew numb to it and didn’t care one way or the other. The only ones who didn’t dare ignore me were my paper crew and my father. Rick was possibly the only man I would ever love. Daddy never needed to buy me off; I had always loved him. He and my mom had been college roommates and were together a long time, even after I was in the picture. My dad had always wanted to marry my mom, but she refused every time. She always thought there something, someone, better for her out there.
So when my dad made an ultimatum—marry me or we’re over, basically—Mom chose the freedom of fooling around forever, dragging me right along with her. Daddy wasn’t remarried. I think he was still hung up on Mom to ever even try again. I was a lot like him. Stubborn, private, funny……
The sad thing is, because of how my parents ended up, I didn’t really believe love would find a way. Love was never enough. So I busied myself with work and school; it hurt less that way when I found myself realizing I could never let someone love me. I had no reason to have issues, not really. No one would think that anyway. No one really knew me, understood me. Sometimes not even my dad, though it didn’t stop him from trying. He never stopped trying…..
But, anyway, back to reality. Well, I mean, that’s reality for you, but unto the basis of this story. I was locked away in my cave, as per usual, trying to dig up a front page story, when Janice snuck in unannounced. She flopped noisily on my bed, her perfume nearly choking me.
“I need a favor,” she said in her shrill, I’ve-got-something-up-my-sleeve voice.
“No,” I said moodily, banging away at my computer keys.
“C’mon, Nicky,” she whined.
“Stop calling me Nicky.” I hated it when people tried calling me Nicky. As if Nicole wasn’t enough of a typical name.
“Colie,” she corrected boredly. “Listen, are you gonna help me or not?”
I sighed. I was never going to get this done with her annoying me. Glancing up through my thick rimmed reading glasses, I asked, “With what?”
Janice’s overly glossed, overly pink pulled back in a sultry smile. She really expected to get what she wanted. “Setting up for the party.”
I frowned. The maids had set everything up while we were away at school. “I thought everything was already set?”
“It is…..but I need someone, other than a maid, to be at the front door with the girls’ names for the game.”
Haha, easy. I said, “No.”
“Colie, please!”
“No.” I refuse to be your piss on girl.
“Please?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“PLEASE?!”
“N-O,” I spelled out in finality.
She huffed, getting up.
Ah, finally. Alone at last.
A minute later, Janice bounced back in the room, chipper as a freaking bird. “Mom says you have to socialize tonight and that you can help me.”
Like she cares if I socialize, I thought, going back to my work.
When Janice stayed in the doorframe, I asked, “What, now?”
“Yes!”
Sighing, I got up and walked towards the door, abandoning my poor laptop.
Janice blocked the exit. “Wait, wait, wait. Hold up.”
“Ugh! What?”
“What is that you’re wearing?”
I looked down at my outfit from school; black mini skirt, purple leggings, a Hey Monday T-shirt, and the black Converse I’d had forever. “What?”
“And that hair! Ah!”
“Look, you asked for my help. If you—“
Grabbing my arm, Janice half dragged me into her bedroom where she forced my naturally straight chocolate hair into a tangly, curly mess, darkened my blue-green eyes, applied way too much cotton candy lip gloss, and dressed me in a slutty, non-breathable outfit.
I stared at my reflection. “I look….”
“Fantastic!” At a noise from downstairs, Janice happily announced, “People! Let’s go!”
“I gotta go to the loo.”
“Colie, you’re never gonna come down.”
“I seriously hafta go.”
Giving me a reluctant frown, Janice finally skipped downstairs.
I fluffed my disgustingly curly hair into waves, wiped off all the lip gloss, trading it in for chaptstick, and threw a white cami on beneath the see through black button down shirt. I kicked of the killer heels I’d been forced into, slipping into my comfy Converse instead.
I would have changed the entire outfit, but Janice called up the stairs, “COLIE!”
“Ugh,” I muttered under my breath. I reluctantly stomped—and I mean stomped—downstairs.
It amazed me how many people were already here. Janice sighed irritably, thrusting a baseball cap already full of names in my hands and shoved me, wordlessly, by the front door. I stood there boredly, glad I managed to stash my IPod in my hoodie that….
With a sick, angry thought I realized I didn’t have my hoodie on. Not only did I not have the option of being here, but I had to just stand there dumbly while people plopped in their names.
Beside me, Lesner Crosswire, Janice’s college boyfriend—stood with a bowl for the guys’ names. I didn’t make the effort to start a conversation and instead stood there as more people pooled in.
One of Janice’s friends—whose name escaped me—actually started talking to me. “Wow, Colie, you look great!”
I was a bit caught off guard. None of Janice’s friends cared for me much. “I feel like a tramp,” I said honestly, at least forming somewhat of a smile.
She faltered, looking at me in puzzlement. She could have left just then—her name was already in the hat—but she tried again. “No, no! Really, you look fantastic.”
I quirked a brow.
Her overly happy, overly careful façade fell. “Okay, well maybe the jeans are a little tight….”
“I can’t even feel my legs anymore. It took an hour just to get them on.”
She laughed. Someone behind her was being an annoying bitch and I knew before she said it that she had to go. “Listen, Colie, I’ll catch up with you later.”
I nodded, not holding her to it.
The brunette behind her dropped her name in, shaking her head. “God, people…”
“No kidding,” I said, giving her a pointed look.
She stalked off.
Lesner laughed. “I remember Jess when she was just a freshman! Very promiscuous, that girl.”
It took me a minute to realize he was talking to me. I gave a half smile. Out of all Janice’s boyfriend’s, Lesner wasn’t really that hot. He was the wrestling type, short blonde hair, small brown eyes. You would never believe what a sweetheart he was just by looking at him.
“Forced into this, too?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Nah, volunteered.”
“Lucky.”
“Jan recruit you?”
I nodded.
“How nice of her.”
I got the idea that maybe things between Lesner and my step sister weren’t going too great. It was probably because he was so sweet. Janice only dated popular assholes. She had only dated Lesner because he was a college wrestler.
“No kidding.”
We fell back into silence, but only because more people were rushing in.
The house had been loud before. Now the bass to whatever preppy song Janice was playing thrummed loudly, mingling in with the excited shouts of the party goers.
An hour later, Janice announced the starting of the game. Rolling my eyes, I got up to stand beside Janice, who was standing ridiculously on a chair with a mic; not that she needed one. I was being shoved and jostled around by everyone as I held the hat up for Janice.
“For the guys we have Malcolm Doyle!”
A dramatic pause for Exhibit A going into the closet.
“And for the ladies we have Jaime Sullavin!”
The girl who had talked to me early was practically shoved into the closet.
Three hours later, the game was still going. My arms were tired from holding the cap all damn night and I was bruised and cranky from being shoved around.
“Janice,” I said as everything was quiet so everyone could hear the couple inside.
“What?” she snapped irritably.
“I’ve got better stuff to do. I helped you out, now I’m leaving.”
“Fine. But wait for me to announce the next couple, ‘k?”
“Ugh. Fine.” At least I was being let off the hook.
Three minutes later, the blushing couple came out voluntarily.
I held up the hat readily, excited to leave this dumb party and hide in my safe haven. You would think the party would have dwindled by now; only a little bit. No one called cops because Janice had full permission from everyone to do this party. Hamilton and my mom even went to a hotel to stay out of the way.
“For the guys, we have Rhett Woode!” Janice announced.
I felt bad for whatever girl was going in the closet with him. It wasn’t that Rhett was short on good looks. He had chestnut hair that he kept longish and the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen. He was Lesner’s best friend, although he wasn’t a wrestler. He was in college, though, which made girls just absolutely drop to go in the closet with him. He was an absolutely notorious ladies man, known for one night stands and parking lots.
I held up the cap while Janice took her fat sweet time sifting through the names. Whoever she had chosen to be with Rhett, in the girls cap there would be a tiny mark identical to the one on Rhett’s name; it was how she knew which ones to pick. No one could see it; they were marked by clear stamps. Janice was always the sly one.
The sly smirk on Janice’s demonic face tipped my off before she announced too loudly, “And for the ladies….Colie Pierce!”
I didn’t mammer in knowing the name Janice so obnoxiously announced belonged to me. I was confused, though, being as though I’d never put my name in the hat. I was even more confused as to why Janice would be cruel enough to set me up with Rhett Woode. It probably just annoyed her that her step sister—being me—still had her virginity and was going to push for her—being me—to give it up; willingly or not.
In any case, I shoved the sick feeling of cold betrayal down and simply shook my head. “I’m not playing this game, Janice.” And I didn’t just mean Seven Minutes in Heaven.
“Then why’d you put your name in the cap, silly!” Janice giggled, not missing a single beat. “Go on in!”
I glared up at her in stubborn refusal.
“Les, baby, a little help?” Janice giggled innocently.
My eyes widened in pure shock. Were they really just going to force me into that closet? I took a quick glance around the crowd of people. They made no move to protest. In fact, they seemed ready to shove me in themselves.
Lesner, to my sweet and utter relief, was quick to refuse. “If she doesn’t want to, she doesn’t have to.”
Bless you, Lesner, I thought gratefully.
Taking the mic away from her mouth, Janice bent to my level and whispered, “If don’t get your skinny little ass in that closet, I’ll tell Carol what you did.”
I stared at her. “What I did? Janice, you know damn well it wasn’t…..” I stopped at the look in her eyes. A minute of fear washed over me before I slammed the hat on the ground and marched for the closet. Whether I did it or not, my mom would never believe me over her precious husband. I had no choice.
My heart hammering wildly in my rib cage, I gently eased the door shut, keeping my back protectively against it. Dreading the worse, I dared not even breathe. A hand gentle slipped into mine, pulling me further into the enormous closet, away from the eager ears.
Trying not to panic, I quickly said, “Look, I don’t know what you think’s gonna happen, but I am—”
“Relax,” Rhett whispered in amusement. “Nothing’s gonna happen. Not really?”
What the hell did that mean, not really? “What?”
“I need your help.”
Oh shit. I was afraid to answer, “With….?”
“I’m only telling you this ‘cause I’m in a jam,” he continued to whisper. “I’m trusting you not to tell anyone.”
“That all depends on what I’m helping with,” I said, trying not to sound shaky.
“Creating a loud scene.”
It took me a minute to understand. “Are you saying want an Easy A scene?” I asked in disbelief and relief. “You mean to tell me you’re….you’re gay?”
“No!” he snapped a little too loudly. He lowered his voice. “No, I’m not gay. I’m not a womanizer, I’m just….”
Realization suddenly dawned on me and I felt dumb for not noticing it before. Trying not to laugh at the irony, I stated quietly, “You’re a virgin.”
There was the slightest hesitation to his answering, “Yeah….”
I smiled. Well, you learn something new every day. It was hard not to burst out laughing. He would never understand my relief. “Okay. So it’s a scene you want? You got it.” I started tugging my jeans off. “I just wish these weren’t so tight….”
Rhett laughed quietly and I heard the slap of his jeans flying against the door, which was answered by an obnoxious wolf whistle. Just as I thought; they were close enough to hear the clothes come off. Well, jeans was as far as I was going, I thought, as I chucked it at the door with a loud sigh.
“Oh, Rhett, no…..we….can’t!” I said helplessly.
He snorted a laugh, quickly covering it up with a loud, “Oh, you’re gonna get it an you’re gonna like it!”
All the guys outside cheered him on. I rolled my eyes, wanting to break all their noses.
“Oh, give it to me, baby,” I moaned.
I backed up loudly, letting my back slam against the wall. Glad the lights were out so Rhett couldn’t see me in my obnoxiously loud red underwear, I moaned loudly in “pleasure”.
“You’re a good actress,” Rhett murmured.
“You kinda suck,” I teased. “I’m doing all the work.”
“Say my name, baby. Say my name!”
I screamed loudly to avoid laughing. “Rhett….”
“Louder!”
“RHETT! Don’t stop! Ah, oh, OOOOHHHH! You really are a god!”
Rhett buried his face his my shoulder to smother his laughter.
I nudged him. “Stop.”
“Stop?” he questioned loudly for the sake of the audience.
“No, I mean es….I mean……OOHHHHH! BABY!”
“How many minutes left?” I whispered while he made obscene noises and grunts.
I started coming in with my mock yowls of pleasure pain, something about him not using a condom, to cover up his quiet answer. “Not sure….Four? Maybe.”
“Rhett,” I panted, purposefully keeping my voice low to drive the crowd crazy. “I gotta get my clothes on….”
“I’m not done with you yet,” he said forcefully.
“Yeah! Give her what’s coming to her!” someone yelled encouragingly.
It bothered me, and made me a bit frightful, that people out there not only didn’t care but wanted Rhett to hurt me.
“Don’t worry about it,” Rhett whispered.
“No, Rhett…..don’t….” I sighed helplessly, fanning fatigue.
“Suck it, bitch!”
I raised a brow. “Bitch?”
He shrugged.
I rolled my eyes, not at all offended. He was only kidding. “You’re nasty!” I muttered with a tiny laugh, followed by a loud, “Mmmmmmmm…..”
“And you’re not?” Rhett snickered.
“Rhett!” I squealed. “Don’t lick it! Don’t…..OHHHH!” Lowering my voice, I said, “I don’t think I can keep this up without laughing….”
“I know!”
“One minute! Get dressed before we open that door!” Janice laughed hysterically through the mic.
Oh, thank God, I thought.
“We’ll finish this later!” Rhett growled seductively, earning more jeers for our audience.
I quickly slipped my pants back on—though quickly was an overstatement—and Rhett followed suit. I leaned against the wall, trying desperately not to laugh at the absurdity of it all. “I’m Colie,” I whispered to Rhett, who was leaned on the wall beside me, holding out my hand.
He managed to find it in the darkness. “Nice to meet you. Thanks for helping a guy out.”
“No problem. It was fun. And your secret’s safe with me.”
The door suddenly swung open and I slumped to the floor in mock exhaustion. Rhett stepped out, waving his arms triumphantly. It was weird, now, seeing him be all arrogant like he won some kind of trophy. I knew things those people out there didn’t; after only seven minutes with him, I knew more about Rhett Woode than that crowd of strangers.
I got up shakily, wobbling around my legs pointedly apart. I really got them, though, with my fake tears. I’d learned that first in the fifth grade when I didn’t do my homework and my teacher bought every lie I had to say.
The evil, victorious look on Janice’s ugly face was almost enough to make me scream in frustration and run upstairs. Almost. I was surprised to see a couple of sympathetic looks thrown my way—where were they when I was practically forced in the closet?—as I snuck away towards the stairs. At least I’d be left alone, now that it was one o’clock in the morning.
“Hey,” a voice said behind me.
I turned around right at the beginning of the stairs. Rhett smiled at me as he walked my way.
“I said I wasn’t finished with you yet.”
I noticed he said it for real, without his crowd-pleasing-actor-voice. In the closet was a new couple, taking the crowd’s eager attention.
I couldn’t help but smile. “You said we’d finish it later.”
He raised a shoulder, leaning against the staircase. “Same thing. So…walk with an get some cool night air?”
I bit my lip, torn between fleeing to the comfort of my room or doing something new for a change. What could it hurt? I always had the paper. I wouldn’t always have Rhett. “Why not?”
I followed him out back, ignoring some guy puking in the bushes. Although you could still hear the pounding of the bass and the excited laughter from inside, it was much more quiet outside. Our backyard was huge. We had few neighbors and no need for fences. There was a wide, open field with a single large tree with a rope swing hanging off it’s branch, and an exotic garden my mom pretended to grow.
“I don’t know how you can’t just stay out here all the time,” Rhett said in amazement.
I shrugged. “The weather’s not as pretty as the view.”
“Nah, that don’t matter.”
I looked up at him—he was so tall, the back of my head was almost touching my back. “Everyone else goes out here.”
“So?”
I don’t like everyone else, I thought silently. I let him catch on.
And he did. Nodding in understanding, he said, “I used to be like you.”
I quirked a brow. I always got defensive when people said stuff like that—they didn’t know me. “Like what part of me?”
Rhett shrugged, walking over to the tree. “Kept to myself.”
“What happened?”
“College, mostly. New people, new game.” He paused, more quietly adding, “New identity.”
“Why did you have to wait for college to change?”
Rhett gave me a heart wrenching grin. “You know, I love that you just said that. You don’t really seem like you care one way or the other what people think about you—and I mean that in a good way.”
I’m not gonna lie—my heart did a funny, unfamiliar flip flop when he said that and by the way he was grinning at me like I was awe inspiring. I shrugged. “I don’t.”
“I did,” he said, a little sadly. “Sometimes I still do.”
“Like faking obscene closet time,” I couldn’t help but point out.
He laughed at that. He had a nice, booming, musical laugh girl could drown in. “Yeah…listen, about that….I really can’t thank you enough. Not many girls would help out in something like that.”
I shrugged again, blushing ever so slightly. “It was no biggy. Sides, it was kinda fun.” Getting a chance to be loud and get the scream out—albeit, not the words or sounds I had intended to leave my mouth—had been refreshing. “Why do you do it?”
He didn’t pretend to not know to what I was referring. “Too chicken to not give in, too chicken to actually give in. I’m not a saint or anything, but I just….”
“I understand,” I said so he wouldn’t have to spell it out for me.
He smiled appreciatelively.
The moon was shining on his face as we continued to walk. He was one of those few people that looked even better in the moonlight…. “I’m still confused as to why she would set me up, though….” I said quietly, quickly looking away from him.
“Who?”
“Janice. I never put my name in.”
“Hmmm.”
I shrugged it off. “Oh, well. It doesn’t even matter. She didn’t get her way. Whatever it was…..”
There was a short pause.
“So, Colie, huh?” Rhett said quickly.
“Yeah…” Rolling my eyes, I added, “It’s short for Nicole.”
Rhett nodded. “Very nice. I like the twist. You come up with it?”
I nodded. Yeah, if my mom had it her way, I thought, I’d still be Nicky. I had developed Colie when I was eight.
We came to the tree and I sat in the tire swing, idly swinging back and forth while Rhett leaned against the tree, watching me.
I started laughing, the night catching up with me.
“What?”
“I just can’t believe we did that!”
Rhett let out his bottled up laughter. “I know, right? It was crazy! You were crazy!”
“I was way better than you! I mean, haven’t you had experience with that?”
“No!” he laughed.
I stopped laughing, caught off guard. “Are you kidding me right now?”
“No,” he chuckled. “I’m serious. And what about you? You’ve got too much talent to be ill experienced.”
I snorted. “Please. I haven’t even had a boyfriend, let alone fake a closet scene.”
Rhett’s beautiful blue eyes grew wide. “What?! You’ve never had a boyfriend? Are you kidding me right now?”
I shook my head, not all embarrassed by the admission.
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“Wait….you’re only seventeen?”
“Yeah….how old did you think I was?”
Rhett rubbed the back of his neck, looking embarrassed. “Like….eighteen, nineteen.”
I laughed; I couldn’t help it. It was just too funny! Usually people thought I was younger. “Nope, just seventeen. Eighteen in the New Year.” And out of this hellhole.
“Wow, I feel like a jerk now….”
I tilted my head to the side. “Why?”
“Um, cause here I am, flirting with you—” Had he been flirting with me? “and you’re only seventeen.”
I frowned. “Only seventeen? How old are you?”
“Um……twenty….”
And that was a big deal because…..? “Um, okay….” To break the ice that had suddenly formed between us, I teased, “Then stop flirting with me, you creepy pedophile.”
“No kidding…” He truly looked embarrassed.
I didn’t understand the big deal. So he was three and a half years older than me. I had liked it when he flirted with me. It made me feel important for a little while. Existent. “Dude, it’s fine, really. Don’t hemorrhage or anything.”
He rolled his eyes, checking his watch. Whistling, he said, “Wow, I gotta go. Got an early class tomorrow. Er, well, I guess today.”
“You have classes on Saturday?”
He grinned sheepishly. “When you’re failing a class you do.”
Tutoring; noted. “Alright, well. See ya.” I hated saying things like “It was nice meeting you” because that meant you’d never meet again. I honestly hoped that by saying “see ya later” I really would see him later.
“Adios, my knight in shining armor,” he said to me, winking.
I watched as he walked back around the house, skipping the door. It was funny, and weird, the tightness in my chest at watching him walk away. I had gone into that closet scared to death of Rhett Woode…and I came out having a first real crush; on a guy who thought he was too old for me.
Great. Just my luck.