Friends Forever (7 page)

The O’Haras were planning to entertain relatives and friends and had much to be thankful for this year. Kevin had done well in rehab, and returned as the boy they always hoped he would be. At twenty-two, he was going to City College, getting good grades, and hoping to graduate that year. It was an enormous relief to them, and the two boys were getting on well. Kevin had apologized to Sean in a family therapy session in Arizona for being such a bad brother to him until then. He had been a different person when he got home.

Andy and his parents were visiting relatives of his mother’s in South Carolina. Judy and Adam were going to the Fairmont Hotel with Michelle, and Gabby was spending Thanksgiving with the Nortons. Marilyn had planned a family dinner with Larry, her two boys, and Gabby. It was a meal Marilyn always prepared, and she did it well, and Gabby had promised to help her.

Gabby got to Billy’s house early enough to help Marilyn get things ready. She had taken out her best linen tablecloth, and Billy and Gabby set the table together. They set it with Marilyn’s best china and crystal, and the turkey smelled delicious as she basted it. They were planning to have six o’clock dinner, and Larry had gone to watch football at a friend’s, and said he’d be home in time for dinner. But at six o’clock he still wasn’t back and didn’t answer his cell phone when Marilyn called him. They waited for him until seven. The turkey was getting dry by then, and Marilyn was fiercely upset.

They sat down to dinner at seven-thirty, an hour and a half later than planned. The biscuits were slightly burned, and the turkey and stuffing were undeniably dry. No one mentioned Larry’s absence during dinner, and Marilyn served pumpkin and apple pies for dessert, with homemade vanilla ice cream. And after they got up from the table, the boys and Gabby helped her clean up. By ten-thirty, everything was put away, and Gabby pretended not to notice Marilyn crying as she walked upstairs, just as Larry walked in, trying to act as though nothing had happened. The kids disappeared like mice, and went down to the playroom in the basement to watch a movie.

Marilyn turned and looked at him from the stairs. Her voice was flat, but her eyes were blazing. He looked as though he’d been drinking all day.

“Where were you?” She had been worried about it all night.

“I had dinner with a friend,” he said, as though it were any other day and not Thanksgiving. But he wasn’t fooling anyone but himself.

“You missed Thanksgiving dinner,” Marilyn said, as their eyes met.

“Sorry, I had something else to do,” he said brusquely, pushing past her on the stairs, and as he did, she could smell liquor on his breath and see lipstick on his collar, a great smear of it that felt like a slap in her face.

“You’re disgusting,” she said under her breath, and as soon as she did, he grabbed her arm and yanked her toward him.

“I don’t give a damn what you think,” he said, and then pushed her away. She nearly lost her balance and fell down the stairs, but caught herself with the banister before she did.

“Did you have to do that tonight?” she said, as she followed him to their bedroom. He looked disoriented for a minute, and she realized just how drunk he was. He walked across the room unsteadily and sat down on the bed. He had been with another woman all day.

“I’ll do it whenever I damn well want to. I don’t give a damn about Thanksgiving anyway. Or about you,” he added for good measure, and she was grateful that the boys couldn’t hear him. As she looked at him, she wondered why she had stayed for so long, why she had put up with the insults and the degradation, the drinking and the disappointment, and the pain of knowing or suspecting he was cheating on her all the time. She had told herself she did it for the boys, but now she wasn’t sure. Maybe she was just afraid to be alone, or to lose a husband she hadn’t loved in years. There was nothing in Larry to love, and she knew he didn’t love her.

“Go back to wherever you were today. I don’t want you here with the kids, in the condition you’re in,” she said calmly.

“What are you talking about?” He looked unconcerned and lay down on the bed. She could tell as she looked at him that the room was spinning for him, and she didn’t care.

“I’m telling you to leave,” she said, standing over him and looking down. He took a swing at her and she moved out of range. “If you don’t get up right now, I’m calling the police.”

“My ass, you will. Just shut up. I’m going to sleep.” She picked up the phone and started to dial 911. She wouldn’t have done it, but she wanted him to think she would. He was off the bed in seconds, and ripped the phone from her hands and threw it at the wall, and then he backhanded her across the face before she could get away from him. He hit her hard, and she looked at him with a hatred she never knew she had in her. There was a thin trickle of blood running down her cheek.

“Get out, Larry. Now!” Something in her eyes told him she meant it. He grabbed his jacket off the bed, walked out of the bedroom, hurried down the stairs, and slammed the front door a moment later. She was shaking from head to foot, and she quietly closed her bedroom door so the kids wouldn’t see her when they came upstairs. And she burst into tears as she sat on the bed. It was over, and should have been years before.

She called Larry the next morning, before he could come home again, and told him not to come back.

“You can pick up your things next week. I’m changing the locks today. I want a divorce.” Her voice was unemotional and cold.

“You pissed me off last night. You shouldn’t have done that.” He had blamed her dozens of times before, when he slapped her, humiliated her, flirted with other women, or came home too drunk to stand up. And she had put up with it. The boys had seen her treated in ways she never should have allowed, and she suspected that he had been cheating on her for years.

“I’m done, Larry. I’m filing for divorce.”

“Don’t be insane.” He tried to brush it off. “I’ll be home in a couple of hours.”

“I’ll call the police if you come near this house. And I mean it.” He could hear that she did, and with that she hung up.

When she heard the boys stirring, she went downstairs to make breakfast for them. She had called the locksmith by then, and he changed the locks in less than half an hour. She asked for extra keys for the boys. She handed them their new keys after she had served them breakfast, and then she sat down at the kitchen table with them.

“Don’t give that key to your father when you see him. We’re getting a divorce.” Neither of them looked shocked when she said it. Billy looked sad, and Brian seemed relieved. His father had belittled him for years because he didn’t want to play sports.

“Because he didn’t come home last night?” Billy asked her quietly. “Maybe he was with an important client.” Billy always made excuses for his father, he was incredibly loyal.

“For all the reasons that all three of us know. His drinking, the other women, the way he treats me and Brian, and even you sometimes,” she said, looking at Billy. “I hope he deals with his drinking now, but whether he does or not, I’m done.” It had been too many years of being disrespected and abused. She had let him do it, but she just couldn’t anymore. Hitting her the night before had been the last straw. “I don’t want him back in this house. You can visit him when he gets his own place.”

“Do I have to go?” Brian asked her quietly, and she shook her head.

“You can’t just throw him out like that, Mom,” Billy said, near tears. “This is his home too. He has nowhere else to go.”

“He can afford a hotel.” And then as she turned toward him, Billy saw the thin mark on her cheek and the bruise around it, and he knew that his father had gone too far. He got up from the table and went to his room. He didn’t call Gabby, he called Izzie, and she could tell something was wrong the minute she heard his voice.

“Are you okay?” she was quick to ask him, and he started to cry as soon as she did.

“I think my dad hit my mom last night. He’s done it before. He didn’t come home for Thanksgiving dinner. They’re getting a divorce. I’m just like you now,” he said, sounding like an anguished child. But no one had struck anyone at Izzie’s house. Her parents just didn’t like each other anymore, and it had been simple and clean. But Izzie knew that no one liked Billy’s dad, he was a jerk and a drunk, he was even mean to Billy, who was crying for him. “What’s it going to be like now?” He was scared, and he felt as though all the responsibility was on him. He was the only ally his father had left.

“It’ll be better,” Izzie reassured him. “Your mom will be happier, and she won’t be so upset. And it’ll be good for Brian too.” She had seen how cruel Mr. Norton could be to his younger son. “You’ll be okay. I promise. It’s actually better now for me too. It took me a while to get used to not having my mom here, but she was never really here anyway. And your dad isn’t either. He’s always out with clients or friends, drinking. You said so yourself.” She could hear Billy calm down as they talked.

“It’s going to be really strange to not have him here,” Billy said sadly. He didn’t like the idea of his parents getting divorced, but he didn’t like how his dad treated his mom either, and she was unhappy all the time, and had been for years. There was no pretending anymore.

“Yeah, it’ll be weird for a while,” Izzie agreed with him, there was no point lying, and she never did, “but then it will be good.” He didn’t answer for a long time, and then they talked some more for a few minutes. Izzie was supportive and comforting as she always was. They all considered her the wise woman in their midst and the person they could count on for reassurance and emotional support. It was just like when she’d made them all lunch on the first day of kindergarten, to make them feel comfortable and at home. Izzie was there for each of them when things got tough for them. Billy looked and felt better by the time they hung up. There was so much to say, and to worry about. All Billy knew for sure now was how grateful he was to have his friends. He couldn’t have gotten through any of it without them. They were the greatest gift he had.

And when he saw his mother a little while later, she already looked better, and Brian was smiling when he came downstairs. And Billy wondered if Izzie was right. She usually was. Billy went to see Gabby then, to tell her the news. She wasn’t surprised. They talked for a long time that morning.

Chapter 5

A
year later, during junior year of high school for the Big Five, Brian and Billy had become latchkey kids, but they were old enough to handle it. Billy was sixteen and kept an eye on Brian, who was eleven. Billy usually had football practice after school, but when he did Brian hung around to watch. He loved watching Billy play. His big brother was the star quarterback. Gabby came to watch him too. They were still the only real couple in school, but they handled it responsibly, and even the teachers were touched by how devoted they were to each other. Gabby had helped get Billy through the divorce, and so had his other friends. Izzie was his adviser in all matters relating to the divorce, since she’d been through it herself. And the only thing Izzie hadn’t prepared him for, because she hadn’t experienced it herself, was that his mother started dating right away, which upset him. And his father was going out with hordes of young girls, most of them only a few years older than Billy. Larry made no secret of the fact that he was sleeping with every hot young body he could lay his hands on. In fact, he bragged about it to anyone who would listen, even his son, and his drinking hadn’t improved. It had gotten worse. He was out of control, and Billy worried about him.

Marilyn had gotten a job almost immediately selling residential and commercial real estate. She had passed the exam and was doing well at a large firm, learning the ropes, and she seemed to have a knack for it, and enjoyed it. She had gotten their house in the divorce, and after seventeen years of marriage, Larry had to pay her spousal support, and although he complained about it to Billy, he could afford it. Marilyn’s whole life had turned around. The divorce had been final for six months, and as soon as it was, she had met Jack Ellison, a good-looking man in his late forties, divorced, with two boys of his own in Chicago. He owned a successful restaurant downtown that was a popular meeting place for businesspeople for lunch or dinner. It wasn’t chic or trendy, but it was a solid business. He had opened a second equally popular restaurant in the Napa Valley the year before.

Jack was nice to her boys, and she was crazy about him. Brian was thriving on his attention and kindness to them, and although Billy grudgingly admitted that he was a nice guy, he felt an obligation to dislike him, in order to be loyal to his father. Billy spent as little time as possible with Jack and his mother, and spent most of his time with Gabby. Larry hardly ever made time to see him, he was always too busy, and he made no effort whatsoever to see Brian. He was having too much fun. And on weekends, when he wasn’t working at the restaurant in the city, Jack took Marilyn and Brian to his ranch in Napa, so he could check on things there. And sometimes he took them out on the bay on his boat, which Brian loved. He thought Jack was a hero. Marilyn was truly happy for the first time in years. She told Connie that she felt like a miracle had happened in her life. The only one resisting it was Billy, but she was sure he’d get used to Jack in time. Jack’s genuine niceness was impossible to resist.

The biggest problem Billy had during junior year, other than his mother’s boyfriend and his father’s disappearance from his life, was that his grades suffered from all the changes he’d been through, and his adviser warned him that he would never get a football scholarship with his grades, no matter how well he played. He had no idea what to do about it, and junior year was crucial for his acceptance to college and getting a scholarship, which was his goal. It was an exciting year for him, and recruiters had come to watch him play since the beginning of junior year. Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, LSU, USC, and Notre Dame were all contenders, and desperate to have Billy accept their offers. Larry had put video clips of Billy’s best games on the Internet, which they all saw. But his adviser said he had no chance of getting in with his GPA as low as it was. It was crucial for him to get his grades up, so he could get into one of the schools recruiting him.