Make This Last Forever Pt. 04

28

Dani idled at one of the only stoplights in Cornwell and wondered whether anyone would notice or care if she just blew past this intersection illegally. Dani's paranoia stemming from not driving a car in years won out over her recklessness and she sat and observed the car next to her while she waited impatiently. She watched as a young mother with long, light blonde hair climbed awkwardly from the passenger seat into the backseat of a large black SUV. Dani whistled lightly when she caught a glimpse of pale white thigh and the barest peek of pantie-covered buttock as the woman's dress snagged on the armrest of her seat and rode up on her. The mom had her hands full with an infant and another young child crying and screaming at her from the back. Her husband sat in the driver's seat, puffing on a cigarette with his window rolled down and doing nothing to try and help his partner. The screaming from the neighboring vehicle pierced Dani's eardrums and she could only imagine how loud it sounded inside the car.

Reminder number one thousand for why I never had kids, thought Dani with a grimace.

When the light turned green, Dani revved her engine and sped past the parallel vehicle so she could pass them before the two-lane highway slicing through the heart of Cornwell devolved into a single-lane gravel road. Dani laughed as the guy driving the SUV made a feeble attempt to keep up with her but soon decided against challenging her roadway dominance.

"Well, at least you can take solace in having a smoking hot wife, fella," Dani said to herself with amusement. "Cuz I just made you mah bitch."

Dani parked her car next to the curb on the street outside her Mom's house before hurrying inside. She'd spent hours longer than anticipated visiting Karen's grave and then after eating lunch and getting her hair done she was running way behind. Dani had less than an hour before the reunion commenced and she didn't want to miss the start in case Ashley or Sam were there early. It had been nearly ten years since Dani last saw or spoke to her former best friends. Dani only recently understood how badly she missed her friends and needed them in her life. She wanted them back so badly. Dani could only hope they might forgive her.

Dani had the stylist at the hairdresser this afternoon trim and style her hair into a layered pixie cut that emphasized Dani's high neck and sharp cheekbones. Dani loved how the haircut turned out so much that she gave her stylist a 50% tip. Now she only needed to get dressed and put on a bit of makeup to be ready.

Dani found her Mom mopping the kitchen floor when she entered the house. Pamela listened and hummed along to music playing from a wireless speaker while she performed her weekend chores. "This Must Be the Place" by The Talking Heads, if Dani was not mistaken. Dani had inherited a love for '80s New Wave from her mother after being subjected to the genre constantly when Dani was a youngster.

"Hey, Mom!" Dani called out to Pamela loudly enough to overtake the volume of the music.

Pamela nodded in Dani's direction, a brief scowl showing on her face before her face returned to its natural frowny disposition. Pamela went back to her mopping without another word and Dani sighed with exasperation as she climbed upstairs to her room.

Now what have I done, Dani wondered.

Constantly having to guess how she'd upset her mother anew had become a wearying activity. Dani was beginning to remember why she hadn't spoken to Pamela in years.

Dani put her mother out of mind and instead focused on getting herself dressed. Not really sure how fancy this reunion was supposed to be, Dani decided to wear a simple white sundress with designs of blue and purple flowers blooming all over the fabric. The dress left her skinny arms and shoulders bare while emphasizing the bust of Dani's chest without revealing enough cleavage to be indecent. The dress came down to just above Dani's knees and she wore tan stiletto heels to match the color and show off her legs. Dani originally bought the dress to wear for her ex-girlfriend Sandy on their upcoming two year anniversary but the couple broke up well before then.

Dani genuinely considered not even wearing underwear but decided it would be foolish to assume she might impress anyone by going commando. Dani had already found the perfect panties to wear for tonight but didn't bother selecting a matching bra since such a wardrobe decision would be unnecessary considering the low cut of her dress.

Dani applied a fair amount of eye makeup and light red lipstick when she put her face on in the mirror. She tried to be careful not to overdo it and after inspecting herself in the mirror decided she struck a nice balance at highlighting her facial features and covering any unsightly blemishes without coming off looking like a cheap hooker.

Dani stood herself up in front of the full-length mirror mounted to the back of her bedroom door and couldn't help herself from twirling around and swishing the skirt of her dress back and forth as she laughed delightedly. Dani turned around and pushed her bottom out to check herself out from behind. The dress did a magnificent job of displaying the curves of Dani's prominent buttocks when she posed herself in just the right position.

"Looking hot, you sexy bitch!" Dani told herself as she smacked her own butt. Hopefully there would be two very special ladies at the reunion tonight who would agree with that assessment.

Those were the only two women who would be allowed to see beneath Dani's dress tonight. Dani knew she was an attractive woman but she wanted to be looking extra good for Ashley and Sam in case they happened to be there tonight. Dani wanted them drooling over her just like they had back in high school.

God, I was so in love with the two of them, thought Dani. I still am, really. Or at the very least in love with my memories of them.

Dani wondered if Ashley or Sam ever thought of her with the same fond remembrance despite how poorly the relationship between the three had ended. Over the last decade, Dani found herself reminiscing often on the good times Ashley and Sam shared together. She wondered of course where their lives had taken them and whether they found happiness with someone else. Whenever Dani felt her feelings for Ashley and Sam returning she tried locating them on social media but they were strangely absent from all of the websites she checked. After a couple years, Dani finally gave up on ever seeing either of them again.

Then everything changed the day Dani received an invitation to her ten-year high school reunion in the mail. Her first inclination was to throw the invite away. She despised most of her classmates and had no desire to see them again. But she couldn't help wondering if Sam and Ashley would be there at the reunion. Dani found she couldn't get the thought out of her mind. The idea grew into an obsession. Dani knew she was probably setting herself up for disappointment, but she needed to find closure somehow. She couldn't let the relationship with her friends end the way it had.

Dani felt a nervous energy growing within her as she descended the stairwell. She hoped she was ready for whatever may come tonight. When she reached the ground level, Dani found Pamela vacuuming the cushions of the living room couch with headphones covering her ears. Dani tapped her Mother on the shoulder to get her attention. Pamela gave a little jump in surprise and turned around as she shut off the vacuum cleaner and pulled the headphones down off her ears.

"I'm leaving for my reunion now," Dani informed her mother.

"Hmm, well alright then," Pamela replied sourly. "Have fun tonight I guess."

Dani felt dismayed at her mother acting so dismissively toward her after they had at least been cordial to each other when they reunited yesterday. Dani thought they might have finally turned a corner. What had happened between them that rewound their relationship back to its former estranged state so immediately?

"So how do I look?" Dani asked with the brightest smile she could muster while under her mother's intense scrutiny.

"Beautiful as always, Danica," sighed Pamela. "That was always your problem, wasn't it?"

A frown formed on Pamela's lips and she added, "I washed your sheets, by the way."

"Okay..." Dani replied as her eyes narrowed in confusion.

Pamela looked at Dani expectantly as if Dani should already know what Pamela was implying. Yet another thing that Dani couldn't stand about her mother was her passive-aggressive nature. She could never come out and just tell you what the problem was. Pamela always had to lead you to it like you were too dumb to figure it out on your own.

"Is this about Tharisse?" Dani asked.

Last night Dani brought home a girl she picked up at a lesbian bar. She was the first woman Dani had made love to in months and the sex had been spectacular. So spectacular that Dani worried they hadn't controlled their volume well enough while her mother slept just a floor below them.

Pamela nodded and said wearily, "I've long since stopped caring about what you do in your personal life. It's your own body and your own business. But how dare you bring that into my house? This is my home, Dani. Not yours. Not any more."

"I'm sorry, Mom," Dani answered quietly. "I was just with a friend."

"You were more than just 'with' her," Pamela accused. "Don't think I'm so naïve that I don't know the disgusting things you do with other girls. I at least thought you had high enough standards than to be with a girl like that, though."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Dani asked incredulously. "Tharisse is a wonderful person."

Pamela stood silently with her arms crossed over her chest, refusing to elaborate any further.

"Oh my God, is this because she's black?" Dani groaned as she laid her forehead in her palm. "Jesus, Pamela! Are you trying to punch every tab on your bigot scorecard?"

"How dare you," Pamela scolded. "I've been as accepting as I can be comfortable with. I even took you in after swearing never to let you come back here again."

"Well believe me, I'm regretting coming back already," Dani countered. "I refuse to let you shame me and make me feel like a freak or like I don't belong here any more. I'm not the one who is broken. You are."

"Take that back right this minute!" Pamela snapped as she threw the hose of her vacuum to the floor and glared at her daughter.

"Fuck you, Pamela," Dani said with steely calm defiance.

Pamela seethed as she growled through her gritted teeth, "I never should have let you hang out with those horrid girls. You used to be the sweetest and best daughter a mother could ask for and then they corrupted you. Everything changed once you started running around with those classless sluts. You became a sexual deviant and your father got ideas of chasing the skirts of younger girls."

Dani put her hand over her mouth and couldn't help from laughing as she shouted, "Oh my fucking Gawd! You still blame me for Dad leaving! Are you serious right now? You two have been fighting ever since I can remember! Dad only left because you aren't willing to give love or accept it from anyone. It's your fault that he found someone who actually cares for him and his kid."

Pamela's whole body shook and with a nasty edge to her voice she replied, "I don't have to listen to this nonsense from a pervert like you. A filthy, cuntlicking dyke! That's all you are. Don't think I haven't heard the rumors about what you've been up to the last ten years. I know you were a drug addict and a whore. I've had to bite my tongue and take it with a smile this whole last decade while all the town mothers wondered aloud at parties where I had gone wrong as a mother. All due to your foolish decisions."

Fine, you want to hurt each other, Dani thought. Let's hurt each other.

Dani raised an eyebrow and mused aloud, "A perverted dyke, eh? So that's what you think of me? I have to say that's pretty rich coming from someone who experimented with their best friend back in college."

Pamela's eyes grew wide and her face turned pale. She trembled as she replied, "What are you talking about?"

"Karen told me everything," Dani explained. "About how you first met when Karen tutored you and how she fell in love the first day she met you. I learned about the night when you got too drunk and touchy-feely and started making out with her. She made it very plain that you initiated all of it. Karen took you to her room where she kissed and caressed you better than anyone ever had or ever would. Then she ate you out until you had your first lesbian orgasm. But you were too chickenshit to actually return the favor and freaked out on her instead. Very bad form by the way, Pamela."

"No one else living knows about that night," Pamela said hoarsely as she steadied herself with a hand resting on the arm of the couch. She looked faint like she was about to become ill.

"Why on earth would Karen ever tell you about that?" Pamela wondered. "We never spoke of that night again."

"Because she wanted to comfort me after I came out as a lesbian and was rejected by you and Dad," Dani explained to her mother. "Karen thought it might help me deal with everything I was going through. To let me know that what I felt was normal because despite how much you hated me you felt the exact same thing once in your life. Because deep down you are probably a lesbian too, or at the very least bisexual."

Pamela shook her head in denial at what she was hearing.

Dani took a deep breath and added, "Also because we were lovers."

"Excuse me?" Pamela asked with bewilderment.

"Karen. And. I. Fucked," Dani said with pointed emphasis on each word.

Pamela's knees grew as weak as jelly and she sat down on the couch without another word.

"You do realize Karen was totally in love with you, right?" Dani asked. "I think you were just as in love with her but too cowardly to admit it. You have no idea how badly you hurt her, Pamela. The best friend you would ever have. The woman who loved you for almost her entire life. Did you know she only moved her family here to be close to you? Thirty years after you broke her heart and yet she still pined for you. But hey, at least later in life she got the next best thing to you."

The way Dani gestured her hands toward herself left no doubt who she referred to.

"Or the better thing, more like," Dani added.

Pamela's hands clenched into fists which shook visibly.

"If Karen were still alive I'd fucking kill her!" Pamela snarled. "Taking advantage of a naïve, confused teenager. And her best friend's daughter on top of it!"

"No one took advantage of me," Dani assured her mother. "If anything, I was the one who seduced her. She was a lonely older woman who badly needed a companion and I was a scared, lost young girl who needed to be with someone who understood me. We comforted each other when we needed it most."

"Disgusting," Pamela remarked with disdain in her voice. "I wish you'd never said a word about this. Now I'll spend the rest of life remembering my best friend as a traitorous, deceiving, slut."

"Don't you dare talk about Karen that way!" Dani yelled back with tears in her eyes. "What we shared together was beautiful. Karen took care of me. She's still taking care of me. She's certainly been a better mother to me than you ever were."

That last comment sprung Karen to her feet in a storm of rage.

"You ungrateful little bitch," Karen spat venomously as she pointed a finger at Dani. "I almost died giving birth to you."

Dani shrugged and said, "Maybe we should have both just died then. What's the point in giving birth to a child who you wouldn't accept and love unconditionally?"

"I can't believe I'm hearing this," Pamela said with a shake of her head. "I want you out of this house. You're no longer welcome here."

"Fine!" Dani said defiantly. "I'm going to my reunion and I won't be back tonight. Tomorrow morning I'll grab my things and then you won't have to worry about seeing me ever again!"

"Sounds perfect to me!" Pamela snarled.

Dani sneered at her mother impudently and turned her heels to walk out the door without another word. She carried nothing about her person except a small handbag containing her driver's license, the keyfob to her rental car, some cash, a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and a small canister of mace (can never be too careful). When Dani sat down in the driver's seat of her car she gripped the steering wheel so tightly she thought her hands might burn from the friction. Dani emitted an exasperated growl that transformed into a primal scream of fury.

For what was surely the third or fourth time in her life, Dani decided she was done with Pamela. She kept waiting for her mother to overcome her bigoted convictions and fully accept her but every time Dani gave Pamela another chance she always ended up disappointing her daughter. Dani took deep breaths and thought about the people who actually loved her like Karen, Tom, and Betsy as she willed herself to calm down. Dani felt so angry but at least screaming about it seemed to alleviate her infuriation. After she finally collected herself, Dani pulled the transmission lever back from 'P' to 'D' and left her childhood home in her rearview mirror.

The reunion wasn't being held at the old high school but was instead located at a reception hall near downtown. Downtown being a four block strip with some bars, restaurants, the movie theater, and a few other businesses. Not exactly a bustling nightlife here in Cornwell. Apparently there had been a guided tour of the school this morning that Dani considered attending until she hooked up with Tharisse and woke up in the girl's arms. Cuddling naked with Tharisse turned out to be a much better use of Dani's time than wandering the halls of a place she would hardly recognize with people she despised.

Dani found an open parking stall a block away from her destination and by the time she walked over Dani saw that the reunion had already started. People she recognized from high school hung around the outside of the reception hall smoking cigarettes and drinking from bottles of Budweiser. Dani sighed and gave a silent prayer that she wasn't about to make another in a long line of terrible mistakes. Dani sparked one of her cigarettes and smoked for a while to help calm her nerves. No one she knew well stood near the front entrance, just a few acquaintances and faces she recognized from walking down the hallways ten years ago. Dani said 'hi' and 'how are you' to the people outside before showing her invitation and paying for a ticket to enter the reception hall.

Dani recognized pop hits from a decade ago playing on the loudspeakers as she walked inside. A dance floor had been set up near a stage where the hired DJ controlled the playlist. Streamers of maroon and navy-blue school colors decorated the walls and adorned the ceilings while circular tables with plastic covers of the same shade filled the rest of the interior. A table with finger-food and other snacks had been erected on the other side of the room near a bar that served beer, wine, and mixed drinks. A slideshow of photos from the class' high school days was projected onto a large screen in view of everyone sitting at the tables. Dani chuckled when she noticed that her profile had been cropped out of one of the pictures of her circle of friends posing together after a football game.

Dani mingled awkwardly with a few people she recognized but their conversations consisted of nothing more than typical pleasantries like 'how are you', 'so what have you been up to these last few years', and 'can you believe it's been ten freaking years already'. Some of the people Dani caught up with looked at her strangely and the cause of their strange disposition was soon revealed when she spoke with a guy Dani remembered having a huge crush on her during freshman year. His eyes kept drifting toward a poster hanging from a bulletin board across the way.