Free The House of Wood by Anthony Price Page B

penetrating her. They were intoxicating. “Tell
me why you left town?”
    Rachel was taken by surprise at
the suddenness of the question. Why start there? She wondered.
“I-I-I’d rather not start with me,” she stammered. “Why don't you
tell me more about you?”
    “Okay.” He adjusted himself in
the chair. “I had a relatively normal upbringing. Only one other
sibling. A younger brother. He died when I was away at
college.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Without thinking, she put out her hand and placed it on top of his.
She was so drawn in by him, hanging on every word.
    “Thank you,” he said, not
moving his hand away. He cleared his throat. “I graduated from
college and decided I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. This is
my first job. That's about it really. Over to you.”
    “There must be more than that?”
She wanted to know it all.
    David shook his head. “Besides,
we're here to talk about you.” The smile was back. “Why don't you
start at the beginning of the story, as to why you wanted to have
this chat?”
    Rachel knew she couldn't
postpone the inevitable any longer. Her hands shook. The moment to
exorcise her Demons had come.
    “It’s a long story.”
    “We’ve got plenty of time.”
    Outside the rain had started to
fall heavily again.
    “It was coming towards the end
of summer. Everything was beginning to wind down. All the senior
class of Willows Peak High School had graduated; bar the odd few
drop outs, but nobody really cares about them…”

Chapter
Nine
     
    I’d just turned eighteen. It
was an amazing feeling to be finally considered an adult. Not that
my parents were strict, or anything. Far from it. But being seen as
an adult in the eyes of the law gave me a strong sense of freedom;
I felt like I could do anything I wanted without consequence. We
all did.
    I remember it was a boiling hot
day. The sun beat down on my bare shoulders, as Chelsea and I
weaved in and out of the shops just off of Main Street. Chelsea was
doing her usual ‘shop ‘till you drop’ thing. I just followed.
    “Where’d you wanna go now,
Rach?” Chelsea asked, not stopping. The multitude of plastic bags
swung like a pendulum on her arm.
    “I don’t know,” I replied. My
feet were killing me. “How about we go get a drink?”
    “Don’t be a drag. Daddy upped
my credit limit.” There was a twinkle in her eye. “Victoria’s
Secret has just opened up around the corner.”
    “Chelsea, we’ve been walking
for ages. I need a rest.”
    “But I’m seeing Tim tonight and
I want to get something nice.” She winked. “To take off.”
    “You’re such a slut.” I said,
with a smile. I wasn’t getting on her case; she was my best friend.
We did everything together. “This is the last shop though.”
    “Deal.”
    Chelsea sped off in the
direction of the lingerie store, me limping behind her like a lost
puppy. We had a strange relationship. At times I was both jealous
and in awe of her. Who wouldn’t be? She had everything a girl could
want. Money; her parents were filthy rich. Still are now. And
nothing was too much for their little princess. The looks; her
hazel eyes matched her mahogany red hair perfectly. It gave her a
starlet kind of quality. Of course that meant she was used to guys
fawning all over her. She just drifted through life like dust on
the breeze, taking everything it threw at her in one simple stride.
What did I have? Parents that didn’t seem to care less what I got
up to, and average looks. I loved her all the same though.
    The shop wasn’t very big, but
it was crammed with eager shoppers. The two of us darted around the
place as if our butts were on fire, gathering up skimpy bits of
material to try on in the changing rooms. Bargain hunting, Chelsea
called it.
    “What do you think of this?”
she shouted over the rack of bras. “Do you think Tim’ll like
it?”
    “It looks like a piece of
wardrobe from a porno shoot. Tim’ll love it.”
    Chelsea let out a