Boys and Girls, Part II: Prince Charming

A/N: Hey, thanks for the reviews, kids. Just a warning for mild N/C toward the end of the chapter (it extends to the next chapter). Also, some good news...I'm about half a chapter shy of finishing my fourth and final story of the series! Make me want to post them!

Chapter 10 – Hard Times

“Hello?”

“Hey Joey.” It was his sister, Maxine.

“S’up Max?”

Joe heard his sister sigh on the other end of the phone. “I need to vent.”

Joe sighed himself. He wasn’t very good around complaining females, but he would do anything for his little sister.

“What’s going on?”

“Mom told me I couldn’t get this really awesome dress.”

“What do you need a dress for?”

“A date,” Maxine admitted.

Joe rolled his eyes. “Well, how much is it?”

Maxine hesitated briefly. “A hundred and ten dollars – tax included.”

“Jesus, Max!” Joe retorted. “Of course Mom’s not going to okay a hundred dollar dress for one little date!”

“I knew you’d be like that,” Maxine grumbled into the phone.

Joe sighed. “Why can’t you wear a dress you already have?”

Maxine huffed. “As if! I got asked out by Will Garrison! I can’t wear something he might’ve seen me in before!”

Joe had no freakin’ clue who Will Garrison was, but he was sure that whoever the son-of-a-bitch was, he probably wasn’t worth purchasing a hundred dollar dress for.

“Max, you’re talented at making stuff,” he offered in a softer tone. “I’m sure that you can make –

“But I want that dress,” she gritted through her teeth.

“Well you can’t, sweetheart. Please don’t stress Mom out over this, Max. She’s depressed as it is.”

Maxine stayed silent on the other line. When she spoke again, she sounded defeated and broken-hearted. “I’m sorry, Joe. You’re right. I’ll figure something out, I guess. I love you, bro.”

Joe’s heart broke. His sister was such a sweet person. Her occasional petulance and impatience was only natural for someone who was only sixteen years of age. “Same here, Max.”

“Bye, Joey.”

“Bye.”

Somehow, the tame ending of Joe’s talk with his sister was not at all reassuring. He wanted to give her the things that she wanted. Maxine was a sweet girl who might have asked for a lot, but in the end, she almost never got any of those things. It was a circumstance that she was accustomed to, and it just broke Joe’s heart.

Joe tried to redirect his attention somewhere else, so he could forget about his family’s financial troubles for a second. Unfortunately, the other matter at hand also concerned money – or the lack thereof. Joe frowned as he looked at his latest bank statement. He was treading on thin ice, and it was because spending time with a girl as high-maintenance as Stephanie wasn’t cheap. They did a lot together, both in and out of the bedroom, but it was the out-of-bedroom activities that were creating the hole in Joe’s pockets.

It was two weeks until Stephanie’s birthday, so Joe had looked into his savings to see what he would be able to afford for Stephanie from that fucking list she had sent him more than a month ago. They were all material goods, and frankly, he wasn’t sure he would be able to afford a single damn thing on the list.

What did she want with more things anyway? The girl had everything one could possibly ask for. Wasn’t her father going to provide her with everything she needed anyway?

Joe hated thinking about money, because whenever he did, it was usually because he had to think about how little he had. The past six weeks with Stephanie had been great, but he had squandered a lot of what little money he had – money that could have gone to his mother and sister – in order to have a better time with the girl he had grown to like so damn much. It wasn’t such a bad thing; who didn’t want to spend money on someone they liked? But in hindsight, Joe was upset because he knew that his family could’ve used the money more than his rich little princess. His general happiness whenever he was around Stephanie had caused him to become reckless with his money, but he couldn’t allow that to happen anymore.

Joe checked his watch. It was Saturday afternoon, and he was completely exhausted. Now, that football camp had begun, he was practicing in the mornings and working weeknights over at the firm. Stephanie still visited him, but Joe was finding it harder and harder to devote the time and energy she so sought. He was rubbing his face in exhaustion when his cell rang.

“Hello?” he answered gruffly.

“Joe, get down here!” It was Stephanie.

Joe yawned. “Where?”

“Did I wake you up?”

“No,” he answered. “Where are you?”

“The whole gang’s here at the beach,” she answered. “Jason brought a volleyball, so we’re just…

Joe tuned Stephanie out briefly. He dreamed about taking a nap, ironically enough. He was so tired; he just didn’t have time for –

“Joe?” Stephanie cried out in an annoyed tone. “Are you listening to me?”

“Yeah,” he grumbled.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Positive?”

“Goddamn yes! I said yeah, didn’t I?” Okay, that came out a little more forcefully than he had intended.

There was silence on the other line. Joe was pretty sure that Stephanie had hung up.

But she hadn’t. “Okay,” a small voice answered apologetically. “I’m sorry, Joey. I’ll…I’ll call you later…I guess.”

This time, she did hang up. Joe was left to ruminate over his disgusting lack of tact just now. He flipped his phone shut and tossed it on his desk. He plopped himself miserably on his bed. He just wanted to sleep…and maybe even…forget.

****

“Man, I am so exhausted,” Stephanie announced, walking into Joe’s apartment with at least ten bags of items from upscale shops. “It was pretty sweet of my mom’s limo service to drop me off.” She put a finger to her lips and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I made them promise not to tell her where they dropped me off.” She gave Joe a quick kiss before leaving the bags near his front door.

“What’s all this?” Joe asked, pointing to the shopping bags.

“My clothes for the party,” she answered nonchalantly, grabbing the remote to his TV and taking a seat on the couch.

“Are you making several grand entrances or something?”

Stephanie smiled, not recognizing Joe’s slight hostility. “No, honey. I just liked everything I saw today, so I bought it all,” she answered cheerily. She flipped to E! to watch Anna Nicole Smith’s True Hollywood Story. “I would’ve just taken the bags straight home, but I wanted to show you how everything looked.”

“Are you going to pick one, then?”

Stephanie blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Are you going to return the ones that you don’t like?”

“I already told you,” Stephanie repeated. “I like them all.”

“Yeah, but what are you going to do with, like, twenty outfits that you don’t need?”

Stephanie was slowly coming to realize the presence of hostility in Joe’s tone. “How do you know I won’t need them? I may wear them eventually.”

“Yeah, or they’ll end up sitting in your closet, gathering dust,” he answered back, as took the remote from Stephanie. He switched channels to ESPN, but Stephanie could tell that he wasn’t really paying attention to the television. She snatched the remote back from Joe and turned the TV off.

“What the fuck?” he regarded her angrily.

“What is wrong with you?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he lied.

Stephanie’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you being so mean to me?”

“Sweetheart. This is not mean. You have been very lucky not to see me when I’m ‘mean.’”

Stephanie did not look pleased by Joe’s answer at all. “So if this isn’t you being mean, then it must be you being an asshole.”

“That’s very clever,” he responded sarcastically. “You should write for The New Yorker.”

Stephanie frowned. “What did I do to piss you off, Joe?”

Joe scowled but didn’t answer. He couldn’t even look her in the face. He knew that he was being a complete ‘asshole’ – as Stephanie put it – but he had too much pride to admit that he was pissed off at how she waved her money around all the time. Admitting something like that would make him seem the biggest pussy in the world. Instead, Joe stomped off angrily towards the kitchen and ignored Stephanie’s question. “Just forget it.”

****

Stephanie was on the verge of tears, but she didn’t want to give Joe the upper hand. He was being a complete jerk, and she only wanted to know why. Maybe there had been a misunderstanding. But she couldn’t fix things if he refused to communicate with her. Stephanie followed Joe into the kitchen.

“Tell me what’s up, Joe,” she demanded.

Joe spun on her. “I said to forget it,” he gritted out.

Stephanie suppressed the urge to cower. She wasn’t going to back down. “No! Tell me what the hell has got you so angry at me!”

“You’re a spoiled little bitch, that’s what!” his loud voice boomed out. His words seemed to echo in the small, barely furnished kitchen.

Joe was breathing hard, ragged breaths. Even as he seemed to hear his own words, he didn’t look one bit sorry. In fact, he continued. “How am I supposed to feel about you strutting in here with your bags of shit from all the upscale shops? Huh? – especially when I got a sister back home who can’t afford the clothes that she likes and a mother who’s struggling to put two kids through school?”

Stephanie looked somewhat defeated, like a child who had been scolded for playing in the street.

Joe should have stopped, but he just couldn’t. “And I’m looking at my bank statement, and I’m sorry, babe, but your lifestyle’s totally eating me alive. I can’t afford to make you happy all the time, Steph, I just…can’t.”

He looked at her with brooding dark eyes, but she wasn’t looking at him. She was staring at the ground – completely silent. He couldn’t guess what she was thinking because he couldn’t see her eyes.

Stephanie abruptly turned around. Her head swung around with her body, and if it weren’t for the loud sniffle he heard from her, he wouldn’t have known that Stephanie was crying. She walked out of the kitchen and over to her items lying on the ground. She crouched down next to her purse and opened the bag. He couldn’t see what she was doing.

She returned within a few minutes clutching a piece of paper. It was a check.

“Here,” she offered, wiping her tears on her shirtsleeve.

A surge of anger rose in the pit of Joe’s stomach. “Keep your money.”

Stephanie persisted. “This should cover the dinners and drinks and –

Joe grabbed the check, and she flinched. He ripped it up before her eyes and let the pieces fall to the ground. “I said to keep your fucking money!”

“I’m trying to help you out!” Stephanie retorted.

“You’re making me feel like a complete pussy, Steph!”

“Maybe that’s just the way you feel!” she shot back.

Joe looked like he was ready to explode. He clenched his fists and sent one slamming down on his kitchen counter. Stephanie jumped. Shaking her head, she quickly retreated back to her things and began collecting her bags.

“Where are you going?” Joe demanded, following her.

“I’m leaving,” Stephanie answered, holding back a second set of tears.

“You can’t leave,” Joe asserted. “How will you get back to your apartment?”

“I’ll walk until I can catch a bus.”

Joe shook his head. “You’re gonna get mugged with everything you got there if you walk through this neighborhood right now.”

“Well, according to you,” Stephanie began, as she grabbed the last of the bags, “that’ll be a good thing because these clothes will go to someone who needs them more than me.”

“Steph –

She opened the door, but Joe was there in two of his long strides. He pushed the door closed, preventing Stephanie from leaving.

“Let go,” she demanded.

“Put down the bags, Steph.”

“Fuck you.”

Joe lost his cool then. He ripped the bags out of Stephanie’s arms and tried to force her back into the apartment. She fought with him, but she was a 5’ weakling compared to his 6’4” linebacker. He grabbed her wrist and hauled her further into his apartment.

“Let me go,” she gritted through her teeth.

He ignored her and pushed her into his bedroom. She flew inside and stopped only when she hit his bed. Her green eyes glowed with anger and hatred at that very moment.

Joe was beginning to pull his shirt off over his head. Stephanie couldn’t believe it. He wanted to have sex? Now? Joe was effectively blocking the door with his hulking form, so Stephanie wasn’t stupid enough to think she was actually going to get out of this. She crossed her arms protectively over her chest as Joe began undoing his pants.

“Take off your clothes,” he ordered.

Stephanie didn’t budge, and instead, proceeded to stare daggers at him. “I thought you hated me.”

“I don’t hate you, Stephanie. Now, take off your clothes, babe, or I’m going to do it for you.”

Stephanie averted her eyes. “You said that you couldn’t make me happy.”

“All the time,” he finished for Stephanie as he slowly stalked toward her. “I said that I couldn’t make you happy all the time. I think I’m going to be making you real happy in a little bit.”

“You called me a spoiled bitch,” Stephanie choked out. “Obviously you don’t like me very much…you don’t respect me either, do you?”

Joe didn’t answer, and that hurt Stephanie even more. He continued to pursue her, and Stephanie instinctively moved backward. Soon, Stephanie was backed up against the wall and Joe strategically placed his hands on either side of her face and leaned in to whisper something in her ear.

“Make me regret what I said, Princess.”

****

A/N: I’m sooo sorry. I hate to end the chapter right there, but life is sometimes sooo unfair. Anyhoo, keep those reviews coming, and…maybe I’ll reward you.