Full House - part 6

The next day, I parked in front of Emma’s school and waited for her to finish classes.
I finally saw her come out of the school gates, together with two other girls, both brunettes, both firing up cigarettes as soon as they were out of the school grounds.
They stopped a few hundred yards from the gates, and chatted. Emma bummed a toke once in a while. She was wearing her usual jeans and a flower-pattern shirt, and sneakers.
I tapped my horn, twice.
The girls turned my way, and Emma’s eyes widened. She handed back the cigarette, exchanged a few words with her friends, and then walked over to me.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I’m giving you a lift home.”
She turned to glance at her friends. Both girls were staring at us.
“My mother will not be pleased,” she said.
“Then we won’t tell her.”
I opened the door for her. “C’mon, we can have a smoke while we go.”
She hesitated. She looked at her friends again, waved them goodbye, and climbed aboard.
“Good girl!” I said, and started the engine.
We stopped at the red light on the corner. I motioned to the cigarettes.
“Light up one for me, too,” I said, keeping my hands on the wheel.
 Emma took the packet from the dashboard and put two cigarettes between her lips. She got them going, and placed one in my mouth.
“Thanks, honey!”


It took Emma a while to realize we were not going back home.
“There’s a few stops I need to make,” I told her.
“My mother will kill me if I’m home late!”
I shrugged. “Give her a ring. Tell her you’re staying at school for some extra study with your friends…”
She glared at me. “I don’t lie to my mother!”
“Except when you smoke and then blame me because your clothes smell like a smokestack.”
She was silent for a moment, then she pulled her cell phone from her bag.
“She’ll realize I’m lying,” she said. “I’m a bad liar.”
I patted her thigh. “You’ll get better with practice. Here, have another cigarette, for courage…”
She took a long pull, and then she dialed home.
“Hi mom,” she said tentatively. She blew smoke out, and cleared her voice. “I’m just calling because… ehm, we have a surprise test tomorrow morning, and I’m staying here to do some cramming with Liz and Nina. We don’t want to fail the test.”
She looked at me while her tight-assed mother talked. She sucked on her cigarette.
“No, really, that’s not a problem. I’ll catch a lift with either Liz or Nina’s mom.”
More silence, another drag.
“It’s math, mom. You know I suck at math…”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, sorry. I am bad at maths.”
She listened for a while longer, then greeted her mother goodbye.
“Done,” she said with a sigh, throwing the butt out of the window. “I got fined five bucks.”
“What?”
“My mother fines us when we use bad words.”
“Bad words?!”
“Yeah, like I suck at maths, you know? It’s not proper.”
I started laughing. “Fuck, girl. What a tight-assed bitch do you have for a mother!”
She glanced at me, and then started laughing.
“I think you have a point,” she said.
She pulled out another cigarette. “I better call Liz and Nina and tell them to cover for me,” she said.

#

“C’mon,” I said, “Once more, with feeling.”
She took a deep breath. “I don’t give a fuck!” she blurted, and laughed.
I lit her cigarette. Her cheek hollowed as she filled her lungs. Then she took the cigarette between her fingers and studied the glowing tip, exhaling slowly.
“Shit!” she said. “I think I’m beginning to fucking like it!”
I clapped my hands. “How does it feel?”
“What, the smoke? I think I’m getting fucking addicted.”
And she took another long drag.
“One friend once told me there’s a lot of things we can get addicted to.”
Emma eyed me.
“She was right,” I smiled. “But actually no, I did not mean the cigarettes. I can see by myself how much you enjoy them. I meant the swearing. Is it so bad?”
“Oooh,” she grinned. “It’s so fucking sweet! I feel like I’m talking through my pussy!”
“Your tight-assed bitch of a mother would get her knickers in a twist, were she to hear you.”
She made a face. “Screw her, I don’t give a flying fuck,” she said.
We were parked in an out of the way lane. It had taken little convincing to get Emma try and use all the words her mother forbade.
“By my reckoning, miss,” I said, “You owe me about five hundred bucks, for your potty mouth.”
She chuckled. “Jesus fucking Christ, bitch, I’m screwed! I’ll never be able to pay you back.”
We laughed together.
Then Emma cast a glance at her watch.
“Fuck! It’s half past six!”
I started the engine. “Time to go home,” I said.
“Weren’t you supposed to go somewhere and see someone?” she said. She looked at the cigarette box. “Shit, that was the last one.”
“Don’t worry, honey. We can go and see them tomorrow morning.”
“We?” she said.
I shrugged. “Why not skip school and have a vacation? I enjoy your company.”
Emma did not look convinced.
“There’s another packet in the dash,” I winked.
She happily unwrapped the cigarettes and lit two, handing me one.
“Fuck it,” she said, in a cloud of smoke. “Why not?”
She relaxed against the back of her seat. “I’ll have to ask the girls to cover for me again, and then dream up some bullshit story for my mother.”

#

I stopped one block from our home and Emma got out of the car. She took a final pull on her cigarette and ground it under her shoe.
“Thanks for the lift,” she said. “And for all the rest.”
I shook my head. “I don’t hear you,” I said in a sing-song.
She sighed. “Thanks for the fucking lift, Charlotte,” she grinned. “And for the rest of the shit. It was damn fun.”
“That’s a lot better.” I handed her a pack of mints. “For the breath. See you here tomorrow morning.”
I blew her a smoky kiss and then I drove away, arriving home and running up the stairs. I waited by the window to see Emma walk in ten minutes later.
Plenty came over and kissed me on the neck.
“How was your day, honey?” she asked.
“Oh, babe, it was absolutely fine. You will absolutely love how this will turn out, believe me.”