It's only just begun.

Dinner was quiet, Mrs. Carter was under strict orders from her husband to not talk about Doug or Marissa at the dinner table, and neither Suzie nor Scott had anything to say.

“It’s really raining hard out there, isn’t it.” Mr. Carter said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah.” Scott responded. “I hope Marissa and Doug are somewhere dry.

Mrs. Carter pulled out her phone. “Doug texted me, they ended up not going out, he’s going to stay at her apartment, said not to expect him home tonight.”

“Can I have Sandra over then?” Suzie asked.

“You think your friend should be driving in this?”

“Her truck will be fine in the rain mom.”

“Well, if she’s okay driving here in this weather, sure.”

“It’s not that bad, and it’s supposed to lighten up.”

“Just be careful, you don’t want your friend getting hurt coming over.”

“You worry too much mom, she’ll be fine, it’s not like the roads are flooding.”

Suzie ran off to call her friend.

Scott watched her go, hopefully having a friend over would help her get over her disappointment from earlier. He was going to start working at the bike shop in a few days, and wouldn’t get a check for a while after that, he really didn’t want to move out of the Carter’s basement before he got his first paycheck, but that depended on him and Suzie being able to live in the same house without it causing trouble.

“Scott?”

“Yes, Mrs. Carter?”

“Do you think Doug and Marissa are getting too serious, too quickly?”

“Oh for God’s sake Anne, leave Scott out of it, you worry way too much about Doug.” Mr. Carter interrupted.

“Well, I like the girl, but staying over at her place the day after she stayed over here? That’s getting serious awfully fast.”

“You know, Mary said Marissa had this knack for knowing she and a guy would be a serious item very quickly.”

“Yeah, and if her success rate wasn’t zero she’d be married already.”

“Anne, that’s enough, Doug clearly likes this Marissa a lot, she was respectful and very nice to you and your worrying has you talking poorly about her.”

Anne scowled. “Well, I just hope I get to meet her again before they get married.”

“Wait, who’s getting married?” Suzie asked, returning to the dining room.

“Apparently Marissa has **** your brother and your mother is worried she’ll **** him to marry her before the morning.”

“I said no such thing!”

“Well, if she doesn’t return him, I call dibs on the basement, Scott can have my room.”

Mrs. Carter looked exasperated. “I can’t believe the two of you.”

There was silence for a minute.

“Did you reach your friend, Suzie?” Mr. Carter asked his daughter.

“Yeah, she’ll be over shortly, I told her we had roast beef, so it shouldn’t take her long.”

“Oh, I’ll get her a plate then.” Mrs. Carter said and ran off back to the kitchen.

Scott sat and chuckled to himself. The Carter household was just as chaotic as ever, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. They felt like a sitcom family, but more real. The kind of family a kid like him dreamt about having when he was little.

Mr. Carter was making up bowls of strawberry shortcake when Suzie’s friend arrived.

Sandra was a petite and bubbly girl, not as pretty as Suzie, but she put more effort into looking good, and she did. She was wearing a short poofy skirt and a button up blouse. Not fully leaning into a ‘school girl’ look, but close enough.

She greeted Suzie’s parents, commented on how lovely dinner smelled, then turned purposefully towards Scott and asked, “Oh, and who is this?” Her eyes betrayed she knew exactly who he was.

Scott offered his hand. “Hi, I’m Scott Williams, friend of the family.” Sandra shook his hand, smiling at him curiously.

Scott looked over at Suzie, her face conflicted. Something was up, and Scott didn’t like it.

Fortunately, Mr. Carter came in with the strawberry shortcake.

They sat back down and ate, Mrs. Carter drilling Sandra about what she had been doing since graduation. Scott watched Suzie in his peripheral vision. She kept looking over at him with a worried look on her face. Meanwhile Sandra frequently made sure to make eye contact with Scott, smiling each time their eyes met.

It was still raining outside or Scott would have taken Audrey out for a ride just to get out of there, but as it was, he was stuck.

He finished his dessert, and started clearing the dishes. Mrs. Carter joined him, and it bought some time for Suzie and her friend to find something else to occupy them than whatever was going on at the dinner table.

After doing the dishes with Mrs. Carter, Scott talked for a bit with Mr. Carter. They talked about Scott’s time in Korea, Army life, engines, and Mr. Carter’s work.

It was 9 o’clock when Scott finally said goodnight to Suzie and Doug’s parents and headed downstairs. He heard the girls as soon as he opened the door to the stairwell. They were at the pool table.

“Hey Scott.” Suzie said.

“Hey sailor.” Her friend said, giggling.

“He’s not a sailor stupid, he was in the Army.”

“The Army can have boats if they want.” Sandra was acting tipsy, and she had a beer in her hand.

Scott went over to the beer fridge, quickly checked the recycling can, there was only his bottle from earlier. He grabbed a bottle for himself.

“You girls been drinking much?”

“Why, you want to get us drunk?” Sandra asked, pretending to be much more intoxicated than the roughly 3 ounces of light beer her bottle was missing warranted.

He looked at Suzie.

“No, we just started.” She was at least being honest.

“Yep, and you’re already finished.”

“Scott, you know Mom and Dad let me drink in the house.”

“But you have a friend over and your parents aren’t chaperoning you.”

“I don’t need a chaperone, Scott.” Suzie was getting upset.

“Yeah, I’m 19 and Suzie’s 18, we can take care of ourselves.” Sandra added.

“We’ll see.” Scott didn’t trust Suzie’s friend at all, and he didn’t trust Suzie to keep control of her friend. With her parents gone to bed and Doug out, that left Scott to keep an eye on them. Unfortunately, that meant staying in the room with them.

“You ladies ever play cut-throat?” Scott asked as he picked up a cue.