Secrets of Suburbia: Skeletons, Addiction & Betrayal (CHAPTER 3)

Chapter 3: Puppet Master

Leah

I lay awake in my sleeping bag hours after my friends dropped like flies amidst a sugar rush. For once I felt like a regular kid, a kid who didn't have to worry about her father tagging along for a slumber party.

Throughout my short life he'd managed to embarrass me countless times whenever he thought that I was exposed or in danger. On several occasions, I would catch him threatening boys from my school for doing so much as looking at me. The venom behind his stony glare was effective enough to make even my heart skip a beat. He never looked so angry while warning them to stay away from me. 

It gave him the greatest satisfaction to know that no man besides him could get close to me.

But he was not me. He hadn't the slightest idea what I wanted out of life, much less what I wanted in middle school. Having a boyfriend was a large part of that. All of my friends either had boyfriends or had already lost their virginities to boys.

My best friend Jenny was a 15 year old sophomore in high school. Charismatic, bold and tenacious were just a few words to describe her personality. She set the standard for the most coveted yet notorious reputation in the merciless realm known as high school. Either way, she didn't care as long as she had the attention of the world.

I remembered blushing the day she revealed every detail of her first sexual encounter with a seventeen year old boy. She was thirteen at the time, and I was merely eleven years old when she told me. 

My teeth chattered relentlessly as she pulled me behind the school building on that cold January afternoon. She dipped her hands into her pocket and took them out to rub them together. I observed the coy grin on her lips, waiting patiently for her to start. Eventually, she managed to stop giggling and told me why she was so giddy.

He appeared from what seemed like out of nowhere. Jenny was taken by his charm and his good looks the very moment she laid eyes on him. His name was Eddie. She described him as being tall, cryptic and dangerous. The pair chatted for several minutes, until he grew bored and contemplated leaving the playground. But she didn't want him to leave, not while she had his attention. 

She had always wanted what the most popular girl in school had: a reputation. Forgoing her morals, Jenny allowed the boy to drive her home and invited him inside. Once I learned what happened that afternoon, it was the last time that I would know her to uphold that squeaky clean image.

Knowing nothing more about sex than the possibility of pregnancy and that everyone did it, I became more curious about what it did for my friend. At her school she was also a cheerleader, and one of the most popular girls there. We first met at a local cheerleading competition. 

She always told me that boys loved it when girls "put out" for them, whatever that meant. I wondered if it was the reason for her popularity.

Everything about her seemed cool, trendy; exciting. The problem was, that only meant that I'd have to lie to my parents. I knew that lying was bad, but Jenny's parents wouldn't allow her to leave the house if they knew what she did. 

Why did having fun have to be so wrong? What she did seemed fun. Knowing my parents, they would definitely not allow it as long as I was their daughter. 

Keeping secrets from my parents couldn't have been that bad, because they didn't have to know everything about me. What they didn't know surely wouldn't hurt them.

To her parents, my parents and every other adult around her, Jenny was considered the perfect and chaste role model for anyone my age or younger. They all thought that she believed in marriage before sex and never smoked or drank a day in her life. Dressing conservatively worked well in her favor, her long tunic shirts and mid-waist jeans expertly concealing her navel piercing and lower-body tattoos. She even had a online profile filled with things she knew would keep them at ease. My best friend was the master of deception.

"It builds their trust in you. That way, they don't suspect a thing," she once told me, a devious smile playing on her lips.

Her real online profile contained raunchy pictures of her partying, smoking or drinking with friends, and kissing several guys who looked to be about three or four years older than her. She also had over 3,000 followers. 

Having the attention of almost the entire student body from several high schools seemed like a dream, because she had hundreds of friends that she could rely on. Besides the few close friends I had from the cheerleading squad at school, I wasn't a total outcast. I only wanted to be noticed.

Jenny didn't know it, but I wanted to be just like her.

It was after 3:00 in the morning when the faint squeak of the door caught my attention. The shadowed figure stretching up the walls floated across the room and loomed above Jenny's bed. 

"Hey, Sweetheart," the man whispered, gently shaking her awake.

Unbeknownst to him, I was wide awake.

She soon stirred and shifted beneath the duvet with a sleepy grin. 

"Another emergency?" she guessed expertly.

"Yeah. Your brother and his friends are sleeping downstairs, okay? I'll probably be gone until 7:00 but you should be fine by yourself because the doors will be locked."

As an esteemed surgeon, Mr. Pérez always had to leave whenever he was called to take over a shift. He often had to leave at the most inconvenient of times, making it difficult for him to spend time with his family. As for her mother, she was always away on business trips. But Jenny didn't seem to mind.

The wheels turning in her head, she pushed out her bottom lip to form a pout and gripped her father's forearm for emphasis.

"But what if someone breaks in and tries to hurt me?" she replied innocently.

"Don't be scared. I'll be back as soon as I can, but if you don't feel comfortable going back to sleep, you can stay up if you'd like. I wouldn't leave you home alone if you weren't so responsible. I love you, my little angel," he said before kissing her forehead.

"I love you, too, Papa. Don't worry. I'll watch the house for you."

"There's a good girl. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Daddy... I'll miss you," Jenny embellished while blowing a kiss.

The Jenny that I came to know emerged once the sound of her father's car faded into the night. 

Like a zombie awakened from the dead, she mechanically rose from the mattress and approached her nearby vanity. After applying a coat of makeup to her face and hastily tousling her curls, I watched my friend behind squinted eyes as she stepped into the carpeted hallway.

Curiosity soon got the better of me, and I soon found myself lingering behind my friend in the hallway. Her fingers brushed against the banister, trembling with adrenaline as she snuck down the stairwell. She was always excited to add another willing participant to her long list of encounters. 

No sooner than that did she return leading one of her brother's friends by the hand. He looked at least eighteen. She liked them older.

Remaining completely unseen, I strained my ears only to hear her murmur, "Let's go upstairs. I have a place that's perfect for us."

Jenny and the mysterious guy wasted no time in rushing into the den, which happened to be the same place where I was hiding. The door swung shut before I could make a move, diminishing any chance I had of escaping. 

Although I had so many unanswered questions about sex, I had not intended on receiving a visual example, especially by my best friend.

"You better be on birth control or something if we're going to do this without a condom. I don't want you coming back to me with some kid," he said, clearly arrogant in character.

"Don't worry. This'll be so good you won't even be thinking about that when I'm done with you."

Without hesitation, Jenny unfastened the buttons holding together her long-sleeved pajama top and stepped out of her loose fitting pants, revealing herself to the boy with skimpy lingerie. I felt my face grow hot and my heart begin to race once his clothes were quickly disposed of. Luckily, the couch that he sat on faced the opposite side of the room. I could only see him from the chest up.

Sauntering around the leather couch he sat on, Jenny let him remove the lingerie and place kisses along her exposed chest. Over the back of the couch where I couldn't fully see, I spotted her sit on the boy's lap in a way that she was facing him. Their bodies then seemed to move as if they were bouncing rhythmically on a trampoline, and she wrapped her arms around him while letting out repetitive sighs of pleasure. The way he kissed Jenny's neck and the way he caressed her showed that he must have really cared about her.

Feeling slightly dismayed, I wondered what it would be like to be cared for by a boy. They seemed to be comfortable with each other, and it certainly sounded like they were having fun.

After a few minutes, the boy let go of Jenny and told her to kneel on the floor. She disappeared below the back of the couch and remained there for some time. In the meantime the boy didn't move from his seat, but only shut his eyes and grunted towards the ceiling. That also repeated for several minutes.

Only once he stood up and rounded the couch did I see something that immediately left me scarred. 

Last year when my parents gave me "The Talk", my mother explained what happened to a boy when he was preparing have sex. I didn't believe them when they told me that a boy's private area became stiff when he became aroused. But now that I'd seen it with my own eyes, the sight was something that I wanted to forget.

"Let's finish this in my parent's bed. I want to show you what else I can do," Jenny declared confidently.

Who was this girl?

It was my chance to make a quick getaway before they spotted me, and as soon as they rushed into her father's bedroom, I began to make the short jaunt back to Jenny's room. 

But on my way, I found myself colliding with a tall, hardened figure.

My breaths became stifled and labored as the older man lifted my chin towards his gaze. His chest was exposed, and his pants hung dangerously low on his torso. He reeked of cigarette smoke. The lustful glimmer in his eyes was difficult to ignore. Red flags immediately began to go up.

"Lost, little girl?" his husky voice questioned, his disturbingly affectionate tone sending a chill up my spine.

An eternity seemed to pass before I could learn to speak again.

"N-no."

"You seem so young and innocent. And your lips are beautiful... nice and plump. Have you ever been in a threesome?"

"Mm-mm," I denied timidly.

"Do you even know what that is?"

Silently, I shook my head and took a step backwards once I felt his fingertips sting the underside of my arm. As the hallway began to close in on me, I became convinced that he was controlling the laws of physics.

"Why don't you join us and make it a foursome, huh, pretty girl? Don't be scared... I don't bite."

Before I thought that I would end up suffocating in front of him, my feet seemed to develop a mind of their own and carried me back to the room where I could hide in shame. 

It was then that I understood the reason my father wanted me to stay away from boys. Perhaps I should've paid more attention to his warnings before, and only then would I have realized that they were undeniably after my innocence.

After that frightening encounter, I vowed to never disobey my father from then on.