Scorching Heat Down South

Chapter 1

EDIT STILL IN PROCESS

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"Well, well, well, lookie here! If it ain't little Claire Johnson. What say you Claire Bear, you want a second round with ol' Phil?" Philip asked her as she passed him and his gang on the corner of main street. He winked at her then turned and exchanged lewd remarks with his buddies, who responded with loud hooting laughs. They were parked outside old Stern's diner, sitting on the hood of his car being idiotic bums as usual. They all laughed at his taunt.

Well, not all of them. That one, Levi or something said nothing. He just stared at her like he usually did whenever they happened to come across each other, which thank God wasn't often at all. He was the only one in the group who didn't seem like an idiotic bum but she didn't know him well enough to be sure. He attended college in another state, while the rest were studying at the local community college. He'd always seriously creeped her out and she always made sure to stay clear of him.

But she absolutely hated this, Philip always took digs at her only because she'd turned down his sexual advances towards her. And after she'd rebuffed him he had spread nasty rumours about her all over town. Everyone had readily believed him because she was after all, the daughter of the town whore.

A couple of months ago he'd seen her at Old Stern's, where she worked part time as a waitress after school. He'd asked her out and she'd accepted. He was twenty three, popular and handsome. She'd been flattered, out of all the girls he could have chosen he'd picked her. What had made it even more special and exciting was the fact that no one else had ever asked her out. She was seventeen and had never been on a date before. It was pitiful!

She wasn't drop dead gorgeous, not even close. Well, at least not according to her mother who'd told her that plenty of times but no matter what mama said she knew she wasn't ugly either. On many occasions Claire had seen the way her mother's boyfriends leered at her, often with that funny sleepy look in their eyes. One had even told her, she was a walking temptation, with eyes so deep and blue that a man could easily drown in and completely lose his self.

Claire didn't know about all that. The man had been drunk anyway. But what she did know was that she was pretty, if only a little. She liked her dark brown hair and light blue eyes. In her opinion hers were ordinary but nice features. Still, no one had ever asked her out and she knew why. It certainly wasn't because she was uglier than sin, like mama said. The truth was that her mother had a horrible reputation and Fairview was such a small town that everyone knew everyone else's business.

Her mother was a prostitute, plain and simple. A pill popping hooker, addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine. Claire was fairly certain her mama didn't even know who her daddy was. How could she, considering her 'occupation'! Years ago when she'd been littler she'd often asked her about him. It had hurt seeing other children at school with their daddies and realising she didn't have one. The dads had all looked so big and strong, like they'd always love and protect you. She had however, received a severe beating from her mother each time she asked that at some point she'd finally given up.

From as far down her memory as she could remember her mother had always brought home a different man every night, sometimes two, sometimes three. Heck, when she'd been in a really good partying mood the number easily surpassed a measly three. Claire would hear them from her bedroom making all kinds of disgusting, grunting noises. It made her shudder in revulsion just thinking about it. She had cried herself to sleep for so many years until she'd gotten so numb that these days she could hardly hear anything anymore.

That's why no one asked her out and she couldn't blame them. Who wanted to hang out with the daughter of a whore, certainly no one respectable. But still, Philip had and she'd gone with him. She had been too embarrassed to let him pick her up from her shabby little house so they'd met in town.

He'd arrived at their rendezvous point in his red sports car. She had been giddy with excitement, having never been in such a fancy car, well any car at all for that matter. He'd taken her downtown, she'd known why and understood, maybe even sympathized. He had probably been too humiliated to be seen with her. They'd gone to an ordinary fast food drive through and ordered burgers and fries. The food had been tasteless, the conversation between them even more so, but she hadn't minded because he'd seemed cool and apparently interested in her.

Afterwards he had driven them to the park where he had grabbed her and started kissing her. She'd freaked out. She hadn't signed up for that. She had proceeded to tell him 'no' a couple of times but he'd refused to listen and kept on trying to force himself on her. When he tried to put his hand underneath her skirt she'd shoved him back hard enough that he'd hit his head on the window of his car. He'd gotten so mad that he'd called her a nasty name and thrown her out of the car before driving off, leaving her behind. Even though she'd had to walk all the way home, alone at night, she'd been at least thankful he hadn't raped her.

She had refused him because she hadn't liked him enough to allow him to do those things to her. His big ego hadn't been able to accept her rejection. Then a week later everybody in town had started treating her worse than they usually did which was mainly ignore her like she didn't exist. They'd started sneering whenever she walked past them, calling her a whore just like her mama. She had found out that Philip had told everyone he'd paid her for sex and that they'd done it in his car. Everyone had believed him. Lately every time she came across him he taunted her just as he was doing now.

Well, she was sick of it. She stopped directly in front of him and smiled sweetly, "Oh why would I want a second round when the first one was so ..." She looked him up and down then shrugged, "unsatisfying. I mean, I could hardly feel anything." She saw a look of pure rage enter his eyes and some of his buddies laughed at him. Served him right, how dare he tell those horrible lies about her. She knew she'd perpetuated the lie further but what the heck, no one believed she hadn't done it anyway so to hell with them all.

She cast a swift glance at Levi and felt her stomach instantly twist in knots. Gosh, he gave her the creeps! It wasn't that he was ugly, quite the opposite in fact. He had dark brown hair like hers and equally dark, dark almost black eyes. He was strikingly good looking, in a rough, wildly untamed sort of way. What really alarmed and bothered her was how he looked at her. She couldn't describe it! It was so intense, it made her feel weird and hot all over. Unable to hold his piercing gaze, she quickly looked away from him and focused on Philip again.

He stepped closer to her and whispered in her ear, "Tread very lightly. We wouldn't want anything bad to happen to your pretty little head now would we?" Claire only shoved him out of her way, his threat falling off her like dust. She crossed the road and kept on walking down the other street. Philip didn't scare her. She knew what a real meanness looked like, she'd seen it plenty of times in her mother's men. It was an emptiness in their eyes, as if they had no soul inside only darkness. Philip didn't have that, he was all bark and no bite.

She couldn't wait until she finally finished high school and left this god awful town with its small minded people. She hated it here, she wanted to leave and never come back. Her mama always told her that she was good for nothing and that she was a fool to think she was better than her, that she could achieve anything worthwhile. Lately she'd even began telling Claire that she should leave school and start working with her to pay her share of the bills. But Claire knew that she'd rather die a slow and torturous death than do what mama did.

Her mother had even threatened to chase her out of the house if she didn't start paying at least half of the rent. That's why she was working at Old Stern's diner. All the money she made she gave it to her, that at least had stopped the threats. She was glad senior year was about to start. One more year and she'd be outta here for good.

God, if only she could make time go faster.

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