Frenzy Read Online Free Page B

favorite standby, "Please let me show you the highest form of love," he'd say.
    His con would echo in her ears and she'd remember his bullshit later. Later when it was too late. Later, when the most romantic thing he'd ever say to her was "Let's do lines."
    But for now she was caught up in his carefully crafted romance. Greg had been put off over and over. There was a limit to how long he'd stand for it. He was the cutest boy in school and all the girls were doing it now. Lots of better-looking girls than Tiff would hop into bed with Greg in a second if he even blinked at them. And she was afraid if she said no much longer she would lose him.
    "Please, baby. Please." Those hot fingers were moving and she wanted him. Why lie to herself?
    "Don't." She pushed him back a little. "Just listen for a second, honey. Remember last time? How we got so hot and everything and you said it made you sick 'cause I wouldn't let you go ahead?"
    "It's not fair, baby. I mean I'm so hot I'm gonna ex- plode ." He breathed the flame out on her like a young dragon. "Please let me love you."
    "Don't you know I want you to?"
    "You don't act like it."
    "I love you and I want you bad, believe me."
    "Show me, then," he said, fingers moving again.
    "Honey, listen. I can't take a chance of something, you know, going wrong."
    "I won't let anything go wrong. I'll take care of it."
    "I've got to be careful. Not yet, PLEASE. Just be patient a little longer. Greg, sweet, I want you too." She kissed him tenderly and he didn't respond. "After what Mom did to us, to Dad, her going off like that . . . God. If something would happen. It would totally bum Dad out for good. I can't take any chances. Just be patient."
    "I don't know if I can," he said, darkly, with just the right degree of urgency. And the next morning they skipped classes and Tiff had him take her all the way downtown to the Free Clinic so she could get some birth control pills. It was the beginning of bad times.
    She would be a long time forgetting that day. She could feel her face burning every time she thought about it for weeks afterward. She'd gone out of the house like she always did, heading for school. And Greg picked her up in Roger's wheels and they took off for downtown.
    "Wow. It's truly gnarly." The Free Clinic was right out of Dickens and in a rough neighborhood. "You want me to go in with you?" She could tell by his tone he wasn't about to.
    "No. Just wait for me, okay?"
    "Yeah."
    They kissed and she plunged ahead. You had to answer all these questions and this woman was going on and on telling her about everything and she sat there with a slowly building feeling of dread and apprehension creeping up on her, hearing the lady talk to her with half an ear —
    "... and this is called an IUD, which means . . . " — and wishing it would all end. And wondering what it would be like between them. The dark cloud of her mother's guilt hovering over her all the while.
    "... and this is a diaphragm . . . " And be sure to chew each bite 32 times, and look both ways before crossing the street.
    And then it was over and she had The Pills and Tiff was excited and scared and very much fourteen years old as she hurried out of the Free Clinic and ohmigod, OH, NO, DAD!
    Greg was nowhere in sight. Her dad, looking about ten feet tall, about to boil over with anger, was waiting for her.
    "What are you doing here —"
    And he cut her off with a thumb jerked at the car, meaning get your butt in here now. "Get in," he snarled.
    "Where's Greg? What are YOU doin' here?" 
    "GET IN."
    "Dad." Nothing. The car starts and he whips away from the curb and into the downtown traffic. "Dad? What's this all about?"
    "That's really choice, Tiff. Shouldn't I be asking you?"
    "Did you follow me. Dad? I mean, man, that's about the lowest —"
    "No, dear. I didn't have to follow you. I knew exactly where you were going this morning."
    "Did Amber —"
    "Never mind how I found out. I could have picked up the phone and started