The Sins Of The Father

Chapter 7. Game On

After the audition, Zach walked Ericka outside. He noticed that she didn't have a ride back to campus. 

"How are you getting back?" He asked.

"Cab."

"I will take you," he offered.

"Don't you have to get back to practice?"

"Your campus is two minutes away. They can wait." 

She looked around, then back at him.

"Ericka, I am not going to take off with you. It's just a ride."

"Ok."

He picked up her guitar and led her over to a blue thunderbird. 

"This your car?" Ericka asked.

"Yes...she is my baby."

"Why do men always refer to their car as a female?"

Zach laughed. "Come on, look at those curves,, would you honestly think that was a male?"

Ericka laughed.  "You have a point."

As they drove along, Zach looked over at her. "So tell me, are you always cautious about everyone, or just me?"

"I am cautious  in general. I am in a new place  with not the best reputation."

"Yet you choose to come to school here."

She looked at him. "Ok, the schools here are great."

"And not all the people here are bad Ericka. We have good and bad just like anywhere else."

She smiled at him. "You are right." She would not say what her parents had drilled into her head since she was a young child and the fact that she was kidnapped as a newborn baby.  'Tell him how you were only minutes old, when a woman walked out of the hospital with you  in her handbag.'  The voice said.   

Zach kept looking at her.  He could not help himself.  "Keep your eyes on the road," Ericka said.

Zach thought that  he  could see how a guy might feel reluctant to approach her, but not him. He admired her and wanted to get to know her. He parked the car and walked her back to her dorm. 

"hug?" He asked as they got to her door.

Ericka hesitated, then she nodded yes.  He pulled her in and gave her a tight hug.

She looked up at him...his strong jaw line, the features of his face...the shape of  his nose, his mouth.  She thought how hansome  he was. Zach gazed down into those  large green eyes and was lost.  His mouth slowly moved towards hers.  'You idiot, he is about to kiss you.'  Ericka quickly pulled away.  That voice always seems to keep her in check around Zach.  

"Thanks for the ride...and the audition." She said.

Zach bit under his bottom lip and smiled. "For the ride , no problem and as for the audition, you nailed it. Those guys will be talking about you for days to come, if not years."

'There is something about her that is pulling me in.  I don't  know what it is.'

                                                                                                   ***********

On the way home later that night, Zach stopped by Brenda's house. She lived with three other girls. Andy one of her roommates greeted him. "How is Bones?" She asked. She had it bad for Bones, but Bones was not feeling her. He didn't like Brenda or any of the girls she hung with. "No idea, he took off after band practice." Zach said. He ran up the stairs to Brenda's room. She was so happy to see him. She was ready for sex as she tried to undress him. That was all she was ever interested in, he thought.