16. Chapter 16 Sabrina
Chapter 16: Sabrina
H oly shit, she was about to have sex with Freddy… and he was huge! Sabrina didn’t have a ton of experience, but she couldn’t imagine anyone measuring up to what she felt beneath her fingers as she slid her hand inside his pants, wishing there was nothing between them. A teeny, tiny voice in the back of her mind tried to suggest they slow down, talk, act like adults instead of horny teens, but fuck that.
She wanted to rub her skin against his and watch his abs flex as he curled to drive into her, but she couldn’t stop kissing him long enough to figure out how to get his pants off.
“Bedroom,” he murmured against her lips as if he’d read her mind.
She nodded her agreement but refused to stop touching and kissing him long enough to move. How was this man hers? And he was. No way would she be letting him go now. The way he kissed, she couldn’t believe he hadn’t taken classes on it. It was unlike any kiss she’d experienced before, and she never wanted it to stop.
“‘Rina.” He stole his lips back from her.
“More,” she demanded.
“‘Rina, your phone.” He shifted to chaste kisses along her jaw, and she heard the song announcing her mother was calling.
Why was her mother calling at, she glanced at the clock, midnight? It was just alarming enough to pull her out of the moment.
“Ma?” she answered breathlessly while still straddling Freddy, her nipples brushing lightly against his smattering of chest hair.
Tracy’s voice crackled through the line, sounding strained and exhausted. “Hey, Buttercup.”
“Are you okay? How come you’re calling so late?” Sabrina asked.
Her mother’s tone turned on a dime. “You’re awake.”
Uh oh, she knew that tone. Her mother scented gossip. “I was just gaming with Freddy,” she tried.
“Right. You’re staying with him, aren’t you?”
Damn. Ma was not going to let it go. “Yep.” She tried to regulate her breathing while looking around for her shirt. Freddy must have noticed, because he grabbed it and helped her pull it back on without letting go of her phone. Then he mouthed, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she mouthed. “Gimme a second, Ma. I’m gonna take this in my room.” Then she grimaced at Freddy before retreating behind her closed bedroom door and leaned against it, hoping he couldn’t hear her conversation anymore.
“So you’re living with a boy now?” Ma started.
“No. I mean, yes, but not like that.”
“Uh huh. And the panting I heard as you answered the phone? Last I checked, video games don’t usually leave you breathless.”
“Ohmygosh, Ma!” Sabrina did not want to have this conversation right now. Talk about dumping ice water on her arousal. Damn.
“You’ve had a crush on him for a long time.”
She had never told her mother that, but then, Tracy had a sixth sense when it came to her daughter’s relationships. “We are not talking about this right now. Why are you calling me at midnight? What’s going on?”
“Fine,” her ma agreed, turning serious again. “I’m safe, but we just got hit by a tornado.”
Her legs turned wobbly, and she sank down to sit on the floor, still leaning against her bedroom door. “What? Ma, what happened?” Then she listened as her mom recounted Sabrina’s biggest fear.
Tracy’s voice trembled as she shared her harrowing evening. “The tornado sirens started wailing, and I could hear the wind howling something fierce outside. I was about to hunker down in the bathtub like I usually do, but then I saw Mrs. Johnson’s porch swing fly by my window.”
Sabrina gasped, imagining the chaos and destruction. Her mother had weathered many storms in her doublewide, but this one must have been truly terrifying for her to seek shelter elsewhere.
“I knew right then I had to get out,” Tracy continued. “So I grabbed my emergency bag and ran to the car. The church down the road always opens up their fellowship hall during bad storms, you know, for folks like us in the trailer park.”
Sabrina nodded, even though her mother couldn’t see her. She remembered the small, white church from her childhood, its basement a haven during the worst storms.
“On the way there, I had to swerve around branches and debris flying across the road. A big oak tree came crashing down right behind me and nearly gave me a heart attack.” Ma let out a shaky laugh. “But I made it to the church just in time. Spent about an hour down there with some other folks from the park.”
“Thank god you’re okay,” Sabrina breathed, relief washing over her. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, Ma. I should have been paying more attention to the weather reports.”
“Now don’t you go blaming yourself,” Tracy chided gently. “I’m just fine, a little shaken up is all. The important thing is, everyone’s safe.”
Sabrina closed her eyes, trying to calm her racing thoughts. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? Do you need anything?”
“I promise I’m alright, honey.” Tracy’s voice softened. “I just wanted to call to let you know that I’m okay, but uh. Well, I went back to the trailer once the worst of it passed, and it didn’t fare so well.”
“What do you mean, Ma?” Did she need a new roof? Sabrina didn’t have much savings, but her insurance company had promised a check would be in the mail soon for her own home. She could use that to help out her mom. She could take out a loan, but getting approval to use it to replace the roof of a trailer would be a tough sell. And if she didn’t have her job at Taylor Industries anymore, it would be impossible.
Her mom’s voice broke. “The trailer’s gone, Sabrina. Everything inside it’s gone, too.”
Sabrina’s heart plummeted. She pictured the familiar doublewide where she’d grown up, now reduced to nothing. “Oh, Ma,” she whispered, her throat tight.
“There’s nothing left,” Tracy continued, her voice hollow. “Just piles of rubble and debris. The tornado carried away or destroyed everything.”
Sabrina’s mind raced. “Where are you now? Do you have somewhere to stay?”
“I’ve got enough in the account for a motel room for a couple nights,” Tracy replied with her usual strength returning to her voice. “Piney’s was destroyed, but my car’s good, so I’ll drive over to the Super 8 in Lester.”
Sabrina’s chest constricted. She’d worked so hard to keep her mother afloat, to give her a semblance of stability. Now, in the blink of an eye, it had all been swept away. A few nights wasn’t much, either. They’d need to figure out something soon.
“We’ll work it out, Ma,” Sabrina said, trying to infuse her voice with a confidence she didn’t feel. “I’ll start looking at options right away.” Maybe this would be the push her mom needed to move into some place safer. She wasn’t ready to explain that she might be coming home.
“You’re such a good girl, Sabrina. I’m so proud of you, buttercup.”
“Is that your new way of telling me to suck it up?” she asked.
“No. It’s my way of telling you not to let me drag you down–”
“Tell me more about what you need, Ma.” Sabrina couldn’t stand to listen to her mom praise her when she knew how close to failure she really was.
As she listened to her mother’s tired voice detailing the destruction, Sabrina’s mind whirled with calculations. Her own finances were stretched thin already. If she could convince Patrick to give her some kind of severance, it would get her back to Nebraska and give them something more than her insurance check to start with. It might be enough to hold them over until she found work there. If Freddy did find a way to prove the leak didn’t come from Sabrina or convince Dynamic Solutions that no one needed to be fired to prove their security was solid, her financial situation might be even worse. Somehow, she needed to find a way to bankroll both of them finding a new home and replacing all of their belongings.
By the time she ended the call with her mother, Sabrina felt like she was being crushed by the weight of her life. And the one person she most wanted to talk to about it would never be able to understand. This wasn’t a weight Freddy ever had to carry.
The connection and arousal she’d felt earlier faded to a hazy fever dream. If not for her bare breasts rubbing against her shirt, she’d think it was all a hallucination. Suck it up, buttercup . It was time to pull her head out of the clouds and focus on cleaning up the mess that was her life.
There wasn’t much to be done at midnight, but sleep held no appeal. Grabbing her laptop from her dresser, Sabrina climbed up onto her bed. The bed that didn’t belong to her, because she didn’t live here, because this wasn’t her real life. Then she opened the computer and logged in to her favorite online forum to hang out with friends who had no idea who she really was.