Chapter 537) Partners In Crime

“Stand up for what is right,
regardless of who is committing the wrong.”

Brindleton Bay
The Elysium
Several hours later

Briar Rose tore the letter open, squealing excitedly.

“Dear Miss Cameron, We thank you for your interest in attending our esteemed Psychology Programme but unfortunately we … blah …. what? I didn’t get in?” she read out loud, then stopped, her excitement was gone, just like her smile as she lowered the letter, as there was no point reading more.

“Oh no, baby I am so sorry. Their loss. Too far away anyway. Screw them.” Hailey said, gently stroking her daughter’s hand across the table.

“There’s always Britchester. I heard they have some cool hunk signed up for pre-med …” Brad tried to make light of the disappointment.

“Yeah, sure, there is U-Brite. But I really wanted to do a few semesters abroad. I finally had it all figured out. First few semesters abroad, then when it gets harder, transfer back home. Bam, instant resume booster with experience abroad. Or not. Not for me. How opposed is everyone to bribing the university or calling AG and Max to make them accept me? Asking for a friend. We could call it ‘investing in my future’.” Bri attempted to joke about this, even though she clearly didn’t feel in a joking mood, so her dad shrugged.

“Your mom’s right. Local is better. And don’t even joke about bribing universities or abusing social connections like that in public. I am still relevant to the press, and we’d never get rid of that stigma. If the wrong person overhears you say that, suddenly the only thing on TV and in the news outlets will be how we all just bought our degrees and I worked too hard for mine while trying to start a band at the same time. That was no picnic.” Chase said.

“U-Brite isn’t exactly local either, dad. You make it sound as if I could live at home and walk to my classes. Not quite. It’s almost a 3 hour drive one way.” Bri sighed.

“No, but you’d have a good place to live, your grandpa still owns the uni housing at U-Brite even your mom and I lived at when we were attending and it’s free and save for his grandkids. UBrite is a lot more local than Henfordshire Royal University would have been, Bri. And while not cheap, it is significantly cheaper. Just because we have the money doesn’t mean we need to be throwing it out with both hands. Not like money goes bad.” Chase said, then Iris chimed in.

“Yeah, and you’re weird enough as is, we don’t need you speaking funny now too. I can barely understand that Henfordian accent as is when we visit AG or Uncle Gav. Not like you ever really make much sense anyway already, but if you start with that Henfordian accent now too, I quit!” Iris said.

“Agh, go screw someone under the bleachers, Iris!” Briar Rose retorted.

“You are really not one to point fingers at me here, Bri, I did one naughty thing, while everyone lost count of your million dramas of late. But for real now, Bri. Why do you make everything so difficult, always gotta be extra? Just do U-Brite, good enough for me, for Sterling, for Brad, almost all our friends are going there, it’ll do for you, princess. For someone who shouldn’t even exist, you sure make a lot of noise all the time.” Iris said, receiving a kick under the table by her mother.

“Another comment like that and you will seize to exist, Iris Marie!” Hailey put on her mom-voice.

“What? I didn’t say anything untrue. You two were pregnant with ONE baby, me. Every ultrasound only showed ME. All the pregnancy announcement had you two and Connor ready to welcome ONE baby named Iris Marie. We still have those damn things hanging around somewhere in this house! Bri came out of nowhere, shocking everyone. You had two cribs in the nursery, but you needed THREE. I had to bunk with Jasper most of the time, until you could get more furniture, cos Bri kept hogging the crib and wouldn’t share and kept kicking me or trying to lay on top of me, almost suffocating me. I remember the stories. One of us shouldn’t exist, Bri.” Iris countered.

“I should have absorbed you in womb. Ouch mom!” Bri retorted, then complained when Hailey kicked her under the table, giving her the mom glare.

“Imma gonna spank me some teen girls here in a minute! THIS part of the conversation has run its course. You are both here, both loved and that’s that!” Hailey stated firmly.

“Careful Mrs. C. Hitting a teen didn’t work out so well for my dad at your last party. Isn’t that right, Mr. C.” Brad chuckled.

“I endorse all my wife’s decisions.” Chase said dryly.

“You do? Since when? Which wife? Cos it isn’t THIS one.” Hailey countered, giggling.

“I endorse all your decisions in kid rearing. If you think a good butt-spanking will reset our two brats, I can look the other way. Maybe even lend a hand. Nah, definitely gonna lend a hand. Not missing out on that fun.” Chase grinned.

“Oh, thanks dad. Love you too.” Iris stuck her tongue out at her father, while Bri remained more serious, as she said

“Look guys, I know what you are doing, trying to lessen the blow, but I was supposed to choose something that felt right. Studying abroad did, it was different, special, something real, something ‘just me’. Yet, like all my plans, just goes up in a blaze of disappointment. So now I am gonna go to the same uni as everyone else, because that’s what everyone else does, and I will study something I may or may not like because you all think I’d be good at it, and then I will have a career with that, hoping I made the right choice … it just feels so … I don’t know. Pointless really.” Bri looked and sounded sad, so Brad chimed in.

“Bri, it’s not a big deal. You don’t even need to study. I do, so I can be a doctor, take over my father’s empire and support us, but you could just do things for fun. Stuff you like. You will never have to work as long as you are with me. I’ll take care of you.”

“Umm … excuse me, young man!? If you are talking to the Bri who is MY daughter, lemme establish right now, college isn’t optional. I don’t care what they study, but it’s happening. I didn’t raise me some pretty brainless trophy wives! They may never HAVE to work to survive, but they will have a degree and career options, so if anything ever happens in future, they wouldn’t be destitute without choices!” Hailey interfered.

“Yeah, second my wife here too. Dafuq kid? Start sounding too much like your father for my taste! You are one misogynistic comment away from me telling you to go suck a duck, as my father would say.” Chase grumbled.

“I didn’t say she isn’t allowed to, or that I didn’t want her to, just that she doesn’t have to. I am not the bad guy here, just said she doesn’t depend on a career to get by. And in case you forgot, Mr. and Mrs. C, my mom has a degree and a career too.” Brad defended himself.

“Sorry, but that flagged for me too. That really didn’t sound right, Brad. ‘I’ll take care of you, Bri’ sounds like I am a houseplant, pretty, but kinda useless and dependent.” Bri said.

“Uh, yeah, same here. My sister will never have to work as long as she’s with you? So, what would happen to her if one of you wants out of the relationship one day? Seriously Brad, THAT sounded right in your head?” Iris didn’t sound thrilled.

“Yeah, sure. I meant well, now I am part of the problem. I said a million times I want her to study at UBrite so we can be together. Of course I want you to go to college, but I wanted to take the pressure off for you. You looked so sad, I was trying to make you feel better.”

“Because I can’t handle pressure?” Bri grimaced.

“Babe, chill. Big misunderstanding. You are all taking something I intended to sound nice and are trying to hang me by it. I’ll support her in whatever she wants to do.”

“Yeah, okay, maybe we’re all a bit touchy here. And please guys, do not let this turn into a fight. Looking at you both, Bri and Brad. I can’t with your constant back and forth! If you break up again, I will move to Timbuktu!” Iris exclaimed unnerved.

“As long as they have a good college there and you didn’t miss the deadline to enroll!” Chase said dryly.

Later that same day

“Oh, for heaven’s sake – WHAT?! Which crazy ass person even dreams all this up?! I don’t even understand what this question is asking me! Nobody needs to know this crap past high school! Literally never ever will I sit at any future career wondering what number some random unknowns could be, so I put random letters in as placeholders to calculate something nobody gives a rat’s tail about! Why are they torturing us with such crap!? I swear, high school teachers REALLY hate teens!” Bri was talking to herself, brooding over schoolbooks and her notes from class, trying to study for a test the next day.

Suddenly her phone buzzed.

“Oh, thank God an interruption. Molly? What the hell does she want at this hour?!” Bri stared at the Caller ID and the time, almost 11 pm, then answered.

“Hey Molly – I am trying to study, is this something that can wait till tomorrow or be a text or something? I can’t process any gossip right now, Moll.”

“Hey, sorry to call so late, but you need to come over here right now. So, I was in bed and remembered the Math test tomorrow, now my tired ass is up here at my desk failing to be productive and I look up and what do I see outside my window? A truck with a horse trailer pulling up to the Cunningham stables, I mean, bit late for taking horses for a little drive, isn’t it? So, my interest is piqued, I keep watching and literally see that cowboy dude you have all those pictures up in your room of trying to steal your new horse. I mean, I am not even joking. Is this you trying to prank me or Brad or is it for real? Don’t you lie to me now, bish! I got an itchy trigger finger on that 911 …”

“Wait what?! Jackson is at your house?! Are you messing with me? Can’t be him! No way!”

“Bish, I am looking right at him! And he’s not at MY house, he’s across the street at Brad’s house, or at least outside of it. I couldn’t dream this up, I have serious Math brain. No, it’s def him, how many people do you know running through the Bay in a cowboy hat? Definitely him, over at the Cunninghams’! He just cut some lock off with what looks like gigantic nail clippers! Bri, you need to bring you ass over here – NOW! I smell huge drama! Am I calling the cops or no?”

“Oh my God. No, don’t call the police! Molly go out there right now and stop him, just keep him there till I can get there too. I am coming over right now!”

“How I am supposed to stop him? Chain myself to his truck PETA-style or what? What if he’s dangerous!? I don’t know that guy!”

“But I do, he’s not dangerous, just really stupid. GO! Get your ass out there and make sure he doesn’t leave before I get there!”

“Okay, but you gotta stay on the phone with me so you can call the police if he kills me or rapes me or something!”

“Yeah, you wish. I told you he’s harmless and I am on my way.”

Bri slipped on her shoes and snuck down the stairs while listening to Molly opening the door, outside noises, then voices. The moment she recognized Jackson’s her heart beat faster.

“Bri, you there? I am over at Brad’s, by the stables now. I tried to talk sense into that guy, but he just babbled some crap I couldn’t make sense of. HELP, Bri!”

“Yeah, I am in the car now, and that DOES sound like Jackson all the way, I gotta put you on speaker and I may drop the call, but I just left our driveway, I’ll be there in a sec.” Bri said, pushing down on the accelerator, going well over the speed limit.

“Hurry up! He’s leaving. He loaded that horse up and is closing the trailer! What do I do?!”

“Well, STOP HIM! I can only drive so fast. Just do something to distract him!”

“Like what? I can’t stop that guy, he’s huge!”

“I don’t know. Take off your shirt or something!”

“WHAT!? Excuse me?! You want me to flash some guy I don’t even know? What’s wrong with you, woman?! Did you have a stroke?!”

“I don’t care what you do, Moll, just do SOMETHING, anything! Let’s be honest, your bikini tops leave little to the imagination, your dad has a heart attack every time he sees you by a pool, I betcha you have your twins halfway hanging out right now, so why not flaunt your tiddies al fresca for a good cause to an appreciative audience!? Pretty sure Jackson likes tits, bigger the better, judging by the size of his crazy girlfriend’s!” Briar Rose ranted at her friend.

“You’re insane, Cameron! Can’t believe I am friends with a nutjob like you! I am hanging up now. If you find my dead, lifeless body with track marks on it, tell the police I did it to help you. This is not the way I wanted to die! Things we do for our friends …” Molly sounded distressed, generating eye rolls from Bri.

By the time Bri arrived, maybe 3 minutes later, she saw Molly plastered up against the driver side door of Jackson’s truck, talking at him, who said nothing, but was trying to carefully yet decidedly peel her away, until Bri parked at an angle right in front of Jackson’s truck’s front bumper, blocking him in, then jumped out of her dad’s car and ran over to him. He was staring at her and immediately laid into her.

“Is that supposed to stop me? First yer lil friend being all over my business and now you are here trying this stunt? My beat-up truck versus your daddy’s nice car? Which one do you think will win that fight, huh?” he ranted at her.

“What the hell you think you are doing here?!” Bri asked unimpressed.

“What does it look like I am doin’?! She’s mine. I am taking her home. You and your sugar daddy STOLE her!”

“No, we didn’t! It was a fair trade! The Duncans agreed, I heard it, I was there! Take it up with them!” Bri yelled back.

“She wasn’t theirs to trade! I didn’t gift her to them, just let them have her so their horse wasn’t lonely! And Prairie Rose most certainly ain’t the Cunninghams’ and never will be if I can help it! They don’t get to take everything they want from me! She’s still mine! MINE!” he yelled at her now, jamming his index finger into his chest repeatedly, then looking at the ground.

“Oh my God! Fine, I’ll pay you for her. Say any number. I’ll pay it! I’ll get the money out in cash from an ATM right now, cos knowing you, your banking is probably done by sticking whatever cash you have under your mattress or something!” Bri told him.

“How about five hundred thousand kiss my asses?! I said she ain’t for sale!” Jackson shouted at Bri.

“Idiot! Whatever! I am unloading her now! She is MINE, I am keeping her, and I already bought tack and accessories for her!” Bri walked to the trailer; Jackson followed her.

“She a fuckin’ horse, not a Barbie doll!” he pulled her hands off the pins securing the trailer door.

“Whatever!” Bri pulled away from him and tried again, till they ended up slapping each other’s hands off over and over, like toddlers on a playground, until she shoved Jackson backwards, he came back and shoved her. They did that a few times, until Bri abruptly turned and tried to undo the pins again.

“Dontcha dare!” he growled, sticking the pin she had managed to loosen back in firmly.

“Oh, I dare. I fucking dare. Watch me dare – right in your face!” she shoved him aside and pulled the pin out, so he came back pushing her against the trailer with his body, while sticking the pin back in, slamming his fist onto it to get it in as tight as possible.

“Should I call the police or something!?” Molly wondered from a safe distance.

“NO!” Bri and Jackson said simultaneously, while still fighting for the trailer door.

“You sure? Cos this is serious Tik Tok shit right here.” Molly sounded worried.

“Yes, I am sure. Just go back home or something. I got this. Thanks for letting me know this crazy idiot was here, Molly. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Bri called over.

“Gurl, it kinda already IS tomorrow. We are literally less than 9 hours away from the Math test of doom and I know NOTHING. But no way I am leaving you alone with that guy now.” Molly insisted, causing Bri to let out a frustrated sigh.

“Go home and study or whatever! I told you he’s stupid, not dangerous! I can handle Yee-Haw here on my own. Unless you changed your mind on flashing him, that should keep him busy until I saved my horse from his dumb ass!” Bri yelled out at Molly, but was staring right at Jackson.

“Crazy bitch, you want him to look at boobs, show him yours!”
Molly shrugged, shaking her head, then left.

“So, you are always this crazy? Telling your friend to flash me to distract me like I have never seen tits before, callin’ me stupid and a Yee-Haw now?! Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?! You wrote the book on bein’ stupid! All hail the queen of idiots!” Jackson ranted at Bri.

“Says the king of idiots, standing here on a property with security cameras all over, trying to steal a horse! Your dumb face, plus license plate has been recorded all the way! This isn’t your redneck heaven, this is the real world, Jackson! Where people know how to keep their crap save from ‘Jackie, the kid’!” Bri mocked.

Suddenly red and blue lights flared up, a siren sounded up briefly and a cop car pulled up next to them, blinding Jackson and Briar Rose in the darkness.

“Put your hands over your heads and walk slowly towards my car, no sudden movements … we received a report from the property owners about a burglary in progress.” they heard a voice, but couldn’t really make out the officer against the blinding lights, just followed his directions as he radioed the incident in.

TO BE CONTINUED ...