It All Started With A Payback

Five: First Impressions Last

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"Do you know a Victoria Mercado? She's a junior in your school." His father asked in his usual brusque manner.

Louie wondered why he bothered talking to him in the first place if it was against his will? His old man always used that tone on him, as though he had done something wrong again by simply breathing the very same air that he did.

Dr. Del Valle, a renowned cardiac surgeon, just came back from New York where he attended a reunion organized by his batchmates from med school in the Philippines.

Does he know her.....if he was talking about Tori, the girl who looked like a goth who had an identity crisis, then yes.

"Maybe." He answered with a shrug as he rummaged inside the fridge for something to eat.

"What do you mean maybe? It's a simple yes or no question?" Dr. Del Valle snapped.

"Dad, there are hundreds of kids who go to my school and I can't possibly remember all their names," he answered in a controlled voice. It was impossible to have a conversation with a man who always found something irritating in what you said and did.

"Well, get to know that girl and make use of that popularity you seem to have. I' m certain that girl is just as dumb as the rest of those kids who worship the ground you walked on."

He clenched his jaw tightly. What was his problem? What did that girl have to do with him anyway?

His dad eventually told him that she was the daughter of an old friend who attended the reunion. His father's friend thought it would be the end of the world if his daughter crossed to the 'other side' and something had to be done immediately.

He personally thought his father's friend was a reprehensible prick. What right did he have to meddle with what his daughter wanted?

When he found out what the controlling, high-handed asses agreed on, he was filled with indignation.

He maybe a jerk sometimes but he would never do what they were asking him to do.

They wanted him to make her fall for him, by any means possible. When he asked his father what exactly 'any means possible' meant, he wished he hadn't.

He told him bluntly that he could take her to bed if necessary and he was supposed to make her enjoy it so much that she wouldn't dream of becoming a lesbian again.

Are these people for real? He thought angrily and strongly voiced his objection. What kind of father would do that to his own kid? And for what? His f*cking image? Even the worst fathers in movies pimped their daughters for a reason: greed.

And his father's friend was doing it because he thought being a lesbian made his daughter less of a person.

His father was no better. What the hell did he think of him? Some stallion he could loan to someone for breeding? He had never detested his father more than he did now.

How f*cking ironic. A cardiac surgeon who didn't have a heart.

No matter how repugnant their scheme was to him, he eventually relented.

His football career was at stake.

He had already been offered several athletic scholarships by top universities. Soon, he would have to commit and no school would take him without his father's signature.

Sure his mom could do it but his verbally abusive father would make his mom suffer.

Money was not an issue, with the money his father made he could go to any university without a scholarship. But he didn't dream of working behind a desk, hotshot executive or not.