Meeting the Parents

The car ride into town was excruciatingly awkward. Neither Ashley nor Kurt knew exactly what to say to Victoria, who sat in the back seat, arms crossed over her chest, leg up across the entire cushion and looking out at the passing scenery as the lush green gave way to the red and grey of Azure Rocks. Ashley was eternally grateful for the radio. After two seconds of being in the car and the oppressive, suffocating silence of no-one talking, Ashley had tuned into something, anything, just to drown out the nothingness, for something to fill the void.

Ashley drove, while Kurt took up the passenger seat. This was doubly awkward for her; the last time she’d been in this car, it had been as Zack’s girlfriend and they’d been on their way back from the most fantastic night in a hotel room. Even though Brandon had punched him, repeatedly, upon their return, this car only brought back good memories, which was even more frustrating because it only served to remind her of a time when Zack wouldn’t have believed her capable of planting **** on Lisa Rivera.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kurt glancing again in the side mirror, trying to read Victoria’s reaction, as he had been doing periodically since they’d left the cabin. Ashley, herself, looked in the rear view mirror, but Victoria’s face was the same expressionless gaze. It was impossible for her to know how her best friend felt about her official break up with Gavin. On the one hand, Ashley thought Vicky had been harsh, given that she’d so readily forgiven both her and Kurt. But as her boyfriend, Gavin maybe should be held to a higher standard, just as Zack expected more from her than of anyone else. And Victoria was approaching this from her own personal circumstances, of always having a long line of guys who failed to be faithful to her, a trait she probably never expected of Gavin.

Pulling into the parking lot of the Walker newspaper headquarters, Ashley took in the sight of the faded brick, four story building. It looked quaint, like a remnant of some past era still clutching to life amongst the corporate coffee shops, hairdressers and breakfast bars that surrounded it. As old fashioned and traditional as the town was, money was money, and the need to bringing in enterprising, profitable businesses overwhelmed the desire to maintain the older, authentic, weathered aesthetic. But here was the Azure Rocks Nugget bang smack in the middle of it all, a firm indication that this town wasn’t changing that much.

Ashley smoothed out her deep pink dress as she stepped out of the car, looking over to see Kurt already helping Victoria out of the car. Even though he was holding her crutch, he instead walked with her to the building, supporting her the whole way as she hobbled across the parking lot to the front door. Inside, Victoria headed straight towards the elevator, but a middle aged brunette woman stopped them.

“Excuse me Miss,” she called. “You can’t just go up there. Do you have an appointment?”

“Sorry, no, but my father owns this newspaper,” she replied. “I’m Victoria, Richard Walker’s daughter.”

“Do you have any I.D.?” She stood with her hands on her hips, looking suspiciously at all three of the teens.

“No,” Victoria admitted with a sigh. There wasn’t much room in her yoga pants, and she hadn’t thought she’d need identification in the forest. This wouldn’t normally be an issue, but her father must have hired a new receptionist. “Just call him down, he’ll tell you himself.”

The woman chewed her lip, obviously wanting to simply throw the three out and be done with them, but weighing up the risk of her actually, really being her boss’ daughter. Clearly valuing her job above her dislike of these teens, she stepped over to the reception desk and reached over for the phone. She watched them with annoyance as she called up to Richard Walker.

“Hello, sir,” she greeted him. “I have a young woman here claiming to be your daughter. Were you expecting her today?”

She listened and replied, “There’s three of them. They’re all blonde.”

Another minute of a muffled voice on the other end, and then the woman said, “Yes, sir, of course, sir, right away.”

She replaced the receiver and frowned at the teens but relented, “You may go up.”

Victoria thanked her as they walked to the elevator, but Ashley shot the woman a smug smile, enjoying that they’d been able to undermine what little, superfluous power the woman had. They rode the elevator to the top, the doors opening on a tall blonde man with scruffy, medium stubble and glasses.

“Dad!” Victoria beamed upon seeing him.

“Ah, Victoria, so it really was you. I thought you were staying at Heather’s cabin, what brings you here?” And then seeing how she favoured her leg and leaned on Kurt for support, concern washed over his face and he asked, “Are you hurt?”

“Oh, this is nothing. Just an accident while I was hiking yesterday, but it’s only a bad sprain,” Victoria replied, shaking her head. “Actually, I came because…”

Victoria was interrupted by the entrance of a woman who was almost the spitting image of herself, aside from being twenty years her senior. She didn’t look it though. Kurt’s eyes almost bugged out of his head at the sight of Victoria’s mother, same long, wavy blonde hair, medium sized round breasts and bubble butt who still looked like she was in her mid-twenties. Damn, Kurt thought, if Victoria aged as well as her mother, she was going to look hot for a long time.

“Richard, for this piece I was thinking we should-” The older blonde woman stopped as her eyes fell upon her daughter and her friends. “Sweetheart! Your father mentioned a girl claiming to you was down in the reception. And Ashley, it’s so good to see you again. And… who is this? Another boyfriend you’ve brought home for our approval?”

“What? No,” Kurt stammered. “I mean, I’m not…”

Victoria laughed as Kurt’s face reddened, correcting her mother then, “No, this is Heather’s cousin, Kurt. Kurt, these are my parents, Richard and Olivia.” Her father extended a hand to shake with Kurt as Victoria continued talking. “I’m here because I need a favour.”

“A favour? What kind of favour?” Her mother asked, alarmed. Victoria wasn’t the type of girl to show up out of nowhere, asking for things. She knew it must be quite important.

“A friend of ours was taken down to the police station this morning because she was found with **** in her possession. None of us believe that she could have done it, so we think the **** may have been planted,” Victoria explained.

“This friend happens to be Lisa Rivera, daughter of Carlos Rivera,” Ashley continued. “Vicky suggested that they may have been targeting Lisa to get to Carlos.”

“That’s an interesting theory,” Richard Walker admitted. “But hard to prove without some sort of paper trail or a confession. Carlos Rivera is a good detective too and he’s made a lot of enemies on the streets. Although…”

Her father’s voice trailed off, but Victoria pressed him, asking, “Although what? Do you know something about this?”

“What? No. In fact, that we haven’t heard about this suggests that the police are keeping the fact that they brought Carlos Rivera’s daughter in for questioning hush hush,” Richard said, straightening his glasses. “I was just thinking that there will be a lot of boxes to sort through.”

“I thought about that too,” Ashley admitted. “But we only need to go back a year since it seems most likely that the suspect was released or evaded capture recently.”

“Good instincts. Perhaps you should consider a job in journalism,” Olivia suggested, and then to her husband. “Set the girls up in one of the conference rooms. I’ll take the boy to get the files from Archive.”

Kurt balked at being called ‘boy’, as he passed Victoria off to her father and turned to follow her mother down the hall. And as he walked behind her, his eyes set squarely on her big ass bouncing with every step, he found all his annoyance and irritation fading away.

Meanwhile, Victoria and Ashley took up residence in one of several conference rooms in the building. It was spacious, with a long table and many chairs. On one wall television was a mounted for showing presentations, and on another wall was a map of Azure Rocks, Silver Lake and the surrounding area. It was interesting, though meant as purely decoration.

Several minutes later, after Victoria had gotten settled in a chair and her father had left to deal with some other business, Kurt returned with Victoria’s mother, carrying three cardboard boxes, while her mother carried one.

“Wow, you’re pretty strong, Kurt,” Victoria complimented the older blonde teen as he set his boxes down on the table.

“Are these all of them? Ashley asked.

“These are the back issues for each quarter of the last year,” Olivia Walker said, placing her own box on the table beside the girls. “I’d like to help, but unfortunately, I need to get back. This paper doesn’t print itself.”

“Of course. Thank you so much for your help already,” Ashley replied, smiling.

As her mother exited, Victoria turned to Kurt, who had also set down his boxes, and said, “Actually, can I ask you a favour too?”

“Me? Uh, yeah, anything,” Kurt said, still feeling guilty for his part in getting her lost and her break up.

“I was thinking of getting Jennifer a present. To say thanks for finding and looking after me,” Victoria explained. “When I said I was sleeping at that abandoned shack, she said that she knew you.”

“She mentioned me?” Kurt was taken aback. He’d assumed that after his failed confession that Jennifer had completely forgotten about him. The fact that she remembered him made his heart leap, and his cock harden, although it was already stiff from prolonged exposure to Victoria’s mother’s large ass.

“Yes, and since you knew her and know her better than I do,” Victoria prefaced, building up to her request. “I was wondering if you might go look for a present for her?”

It sounded awkward and really Kurt had no idea what to get Jennifer. When he thought about her, all that came to mind was her rejection of his feelings in front of the caves a year ago. There was no gift that could adequately convey that, and it wouldn’t make for a very good gift from Victoria to say thank you. But Kurt’s responsibility for what had happened to Victoria that made her need Jennifer in the first place **** him to accept.

While the girls sank their teeth into the old copies of the Azure Rocks Nugget, Kurt retraced his steps out of the building. The brunette receptionist glared as he passed her. Outside, he walked down the street a little bit, glancing at storefronts and into shop windows, looking for a gift, the kind of gift Victoria would want to give to Jennifer.

On one side was a book shop. A book was always a good gift. There were so many different genres and topics that it should be simple to find something for everyone, and they were easy to wrap. But they could also seem rather impersonal and lazy, and Kurt didn't know much about books. On the other side of the street was a confectionery shop. But he could discount the idea of chocolates almost immediately. Jennifer liked to stay fit, and chocolates didn’t feature into that. Although…everyone had to have cheat days. The final option was a woman’s clothes store. He could see into the back where they had a selection of lingerie. Victoria would consider it completely inappropriate…but it couldn’t hurt to look, and maybe find something special, something to tempt the Ranger even more than chocolates…