Chapter 16

                Olive stared at the mixologist opposite her.  Surely he knew how young she was.  Whatever.  He was still serving her drinks, and he was actually starting to look cute snakeskin jacket and all.  Laughing at her own cleverness, she swigged the last of her drink, and nodded in the mixologist’s direction.

                “One more.” He said sternly, “and then you’re done.”

                “But!”

                “You’ve had enough.”

                Olive sighed and leaned on the bar admiring his physique.  Leaning in she whispered, “my parents are out of town.”

                This made the mixologist super uncomfortable, and he dropped the container he had been holding.  “Is that so?”

                Olive nodded suggestively… or at least she thought she was being suggestive.

                The mixologist finished her drink, by lighting it on fire.  There was something incredibly sexy about him.  She stood up to go around the bar, and he shook his head.

                “Go.” He only had to say the one word.

                “Alright, alright.  Clearly you have a girlfriend.”

                “Clearly, you’re jailbait.” And with that he shoved the drink across the bar at her, and turned away.

                Turner was finally on the right path.  He would be home in no time.  When he got there, there was no Olive, and Suri refused to come out of her toy form.

                “Good grief.” Turner was exhausted but he had to make sure Olive was alright.  The only place she could possibly go in town if she was looking for trouble was the Watering Hole.  So that’s where he started.  This time, he had the good sense to call a taxi.

                Instead of leaving like she had been told, Olive headed upstairs.  She had heard there was another bar up here, and the Watering Hole usually kept it staffed with another mixologist.  Maybe this one would be alright with flirting with her.  Was something wrong with her?

                Well, one thing was for sure.  She was not down to hit on an old woman.  Nope.  Not tonight.

                Eventually, Turner arrived, and found her outside talking to the bouncer.

                “Come on, Olive.” Turner grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the taxi.  At this point, Olive was tired of the Watering Hole.

                “Finally!” she crowed, “this place sucks, Turner.”

                Olive fell asleep in the taxi, and Turner ended up carrying her in.  Once Suri saw them enter the front door she poofed out of toy form.

               

                “Is everything all right?” she asked tentatively.  Technically she was supposed to keep an eye on Olive, but she had been so busy pouting that she hadn’t even paid attention.

                “Yeah.  Little sis just got a little crazy is all.” Turner smirked, “we must get it from somewhere.

                Suri smiled. “Well, your mother alwa—“

                “I’m too tired.  Goodnight Suri.” And he dismissed her with a wave of his hand.

                Suri’s lower lip quivered, but she said nothing.

                Olive was not well the next morning.  She wasn’t sure if she had had too many drinks, or if it was all the guilt and shame of acting like a complete lunatic.  Regardless, she clogged the toilet.  Olive had never ever successfully unclogged the toilet before, and their parents had just called.  They’d be back any minute.  So, Olive got out the plunger, and got to work.

                Turner had been woken up by his parents’ phone call.  Two hours was not enough time to get the house back in order.  After last night’s adventures, he had woken up late and he was still exhausted.  Suri helped him in the garden, but they knew they wouldn’t finish in time.

                Miraculously, Olive had fixed the toilet seconds before she heard the taxi cab pull up.  She ran out to meet her parents forgetting that she was still in her pajamas.

                “Mom!” Olive squeeled, “I have missed you so much! I have so much to fill you in on!  How was your trip! Where di—“ But Olive stopped.

                Her mother was not happy.

                “I heard about your antics last night, Olive.” Olive opened her mouth to speak, but Elynne was not having it.  “You could have been hurt or killed.  You can’t just go and do what you please.  There is a lot more to life than you know of yet, and you had just better keep your nose to the grindstone, or I’m sending you to boarding school.”

                Olive ran to her room to change her clothes.  She didn’t feel sassy enough in just her pajamas.

                She stormed back into the room and screamed, “with what money, Elynne.”

                The two woman stared at each other fuming while inside Elynne’s rage was building.

                “What money?” Elynne questioned with her jaw tight.

                Olive pursed her lips and cocked her hip defiantly.

                “I will sell this house and this plot of land, and we will go live with your father’s parents before I let you have free reign of this town.  You cannot pretend you are older than you are.  There are men and women who will take advantage of that if you let them, and I swear on my life that if you ever go out again without me knowing when and where, boarding school will be your reality.”

                Olive screamed and ran to her room sobbing.  Pato was so afraid that he poofed into toy form and stayed there.

                Gussie had known that the two women were going to raise their voices.  He had been with Elynne when she received the phone call from the mixologist at the Watering Hole.  Instead of sticking around for the fight, he decided to go talk to Turner.

                “Sorry, dad, I’m almost done here.  I would have had this finished, but—“ Turner breathlessly tried to explain.

                “Turner, I know what Olive was up to last night.  It’s alright.  Thank you for looking out for your sister.” Gussie smiled.

                Turner let out a huge sigh of relief.

                Gussie looked around nervously.  He didn’t know how to talk to his son ever since he found out that Hailey had approached him.

                He had to fix this.