It was half past midnight, and a black Chevy Suburban pulled to the side of the Rosecrans Avenue bridge over the Los Angeles River Canal between the Compton and Paramount city lines. Don Boselli came out from the back seat and opened the tailgate. He dragged out a guy tied to an office chair from the back, put him on the concrete guard rails and tilted him over. Boselli removed the black sheet from the guy's face and revealed his identity: Josh. Josh became startled and almost fell into the river. Boselli began to speak to him in a loud, angry voice.
"Where's my f!@kin' money, you f!@kin' son-of-a-b!@ch?!?", Boselli demanded.
Josh hesitated in fear, then he peed in his pants.
"Tell me!", Boselli yelled.
"I don't have it yet", Josh wimpered and started to cry. "I wanna go home", the 25-year-old said like a little kid.
"You go around f!@kin' with young girls and you haven't brought me my money yet, you piece of s!@t", Boselli said as he became angrier. "If I ever hear that you've f!@ked around again, you're gonna be sleepin' down there with...whatever sleeps...down there", Boselli told Josh as he forced Josh to look down at the river.
"You hear me, boy?", Boselli yelled at Josh's ear.
Josh nodded his head and peed in his pants again. Boselli dragged him down off the concrete railing down onto the sidewalk. Boselli then got back in the Suburban and sped off, leaving Josh tied down to an office chair choking on exhaust fumes. When the exhaust fumes settled out, Josh looked at the blue grafitti on a wall, then he looked down at his red pajamas, and cursed himself. He looked behind him, and saw a car blasting gangster rap music leave the Long Beach Freeway offramp onto Rosecrans Avenue in quite a hurry. Josh panicked and frantically began to propel himself forward on the office chair. He was going as fast as a guy tied down to an office chair can go, which was not really that fast. Josh finally reached the Long Beach Freeway onramp, rolled sideways on the chair, and gained speed as he rolled down the onramp. Unfortuneately for Josh, the carload of gang members followed him down the onramp. Soon, the silhouette of Josh on the office chair became engulfed in the car's headlights.
9 hours later, in the Rosencrans-Montrose household back at Sunset Springs...
Vanessa Rosencrans woke up in her bed, stretched, and yawned. Her cat jumped up on her bed and greeted her. She got up out of bed and stretched some more. Her long dark hair covered her face and was a little messed up, but she still looked pretty. She left her room and walked down the hall toward the kitchen. As she passed by her step-brother Kevin's room, she looked in only to find out he was gone. In place of Kevin was a hand-written note from him that said:
I've gone to see Taylor in Canada. I should be back before the week's vacation is over
Kevin Deshaun Montrose
Vanessa grunted in frustration, then cussed Kevin out while he was a thousand miles away in the skies over Missouri eating airline peanuts. Vanessa calmed down and picked up the phone to call her friend Sarah McKever.
A split second later, at the McKever household...
In Sarah's bedroom, the phone began to ring, and Sarah woke up. She picked up the phone hesitantly and spoke to Vanessa.
"Hello", Sarah said in a tired voice.
"Sarah, are you awake?", Vanessa asked nervously.
Sarah rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I am now."
"Sarah, Kevin went to Canada", Vanessa said nervously.
"Oh, my God", Sarah replied as her eyes opened wider. "Hold on, just chill, girl. I'll be there at your house soon. Just lemme get ready."
"Alright. Thanks", Vanessa told her friend, then hung up.
Vanessa put down the phone, sighed, then covered her face in her hands. As she sat down on Kevin's bed, she spotted his photo album. She picked it up and looked at it.
3 and a half years earlier - June 17, 1994; Long Beach, California...
Kevin lay down on his bed, listening to a Snoop Doggy Dogg CD. His father, Michael Montrose came into the room and told Kevin that he was leaving. Kevin looked at his dad and nodded his head. Soon after, Kevin could see through the window his father pull out of the driveway in his new Ford Explorer. Michael went out to spend the entire day in Santa Barbara with his fiance, Lauren Rosencrans, Vanessa's divorced mother.
Kevin got up from his bed and sat down in fron of his computer. He had just recently received a new account for an internet service. He had also just broken up with his girlfriend, so he needed another girl to flirt with. With this in mind, he logged onto the internet, and went into a chat room. Within minutes, Kevin found a 14-year old girl from Santa Monica named TJewel to talk to.
Kevin - hey, TJewel, what's up?
TJewel - nothin' much, Kevin. what's your age/sex?
Kevin - 14/male
TJewel - oh, really. ya sure you're not really 41/male?
Kevin - I'm sure, TJewel
TJewel - alright then, Kevin :-) I'm 14/female. where ya from?
Kevin - Long Beach CA
TJewel - cool, I'm from West L.A.
Kevin - where in West L.A.? I have a soon-to-be step-sister who lives in Westwood
TJewel - I live in Santa Monica
Kevin - cool. what's your real name?
TJewel - I'm not telling you
30 minutes later, still in the chat room...
Kevin - what's your real name?
TJewel - Taylor Jewel Morrison
Kevin - cool. I thought you said you wouldn't tell me before ;-)
TJewel - I know, but I love you now. Did you like what we just did?
Kevin - yeah, it was cool. I've never had cybersex before
TJewel - oh, that's cute
Kevin - :-)
TJewel - well, Kevin, I have to leave now, sweetie
Kevin - bye, baby. I'll see ya later
*log off*
Later that day...
Kevin sat in front of the TV watching the O.J. Bronco chase when he received a phone call from Vanessa.
"Hello?", Kevin answered the phone.
"Kevin, I need to tell you something", Vanessa said in her now familiar nervous tone.
"What is it, girl?", Kevin casually asked as he sipped some cola.
"Kevin, our parents have eloped", Vanessa told Kevin.
Kevin spat out the cola onto the TV screen and began coughing. Vanessa removed the phone from her ear, looked at the receiver, and could still hear him coughing. A few minutes later, after he was done, she put the receiver back to her ear and continued to speak.
"I have 3-way calling. You want me to call 911?", Vanessa said more calmly.
"When did this happen??", Kevin asked hysterically.
"Umm...they called my house about 30 minutes ago from a hotel room in Santa Barbara", Vanessa told her new step-brother. "They're having their honeymoon", she smiled as she continued to speak.
"30 minutes ago? Why didn't hey call me?", Kevin asked.
"Your dad told me that if you found out, you would just hysterically freak out the whole time...", Vanessa said as she completely regained her calm. She sighed and continued to speak, "...which is exactly what you did."
"I'm not freakin' out", Kevin said as he tried to regain his calm, but he still had a nervous tone in his voice.
Vanessa sighed and rolled her eyes, then spoke to Kevin.
"Anyway...they said they should be back the day after tomorrow", she said.
"Alright", Kevin answered. "Call me again next time you hear from them, okay?"
"'k", Vanessa said.
"Hey, Vanessa, are you watching the O.J. chase?", Kevin changed the subject.
"Yeah", Vanessa answered.
"He's going north on the 405. He's coming your way, Vanessa. He's out to kill you", Kevin tried to scare his sister.
"Oh, what-ever", Vanessa rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Well, I'll talk to you later", she said.
"Alright", Kevin said, then hung up the phone.
The next day, Kevin was at the computer again, talking to TJewel in the chat room:
Kevin - hey, TJewel, we should meet up somewhere
TJewel - oh really...
Kevin - yeah. I'm serious about it
TJewel - hmm...I dunno. It seems a little risky
Kevin - what's there to risk?!?
TJewel - the possibility that you're just some perverted old dude
Kevin - I'm NOT a perverted old dude
TJewel - I'm just taking it for granted that you're not
Kevin - you should take it for FACT that I'm not
TJewel - oh, fine, then
Kevin - so, are we gonna meet somewhere or what?
TJewel - there's a restaurant diner on the Ocean Front Walk near Venice Blvd. meet me at the front in an hour. I'll be waering a white silk shirt
- TJewel has quit the server -
Taylor quit the server before Kevin could give a reply message. It would take about 45 minutes for the public bus to get to Venice in the morning traffic, so Kevin did not have much time. He had to leave pretty soon.
One hour later, Venice Boulevard...
The public bus came to a stop, and Kevin got out. He started to walk towards the Ocean Front Walk with no clue where he was going, or what he was looking for. When he reached the Ocean Fron Walk, he saw the side of the diner. When he approached the corner, somebody grabbed his arm and pulled him to the front of the building. Kevin gave a short, quick scream in shock as he was dragged to the front of the building, then he got a look at the person who grabbed him. There she was, Taylor Jewel Morrison. She was everything Kevin was hoping for. She had a nice, slim body, fair, smooth skin, long, straight burgundy-red hair, and beautiful blue eyes. All his anxieties caused by the possibility of TJewel being a dirty old man suddenly vanished. Kevin and Taylor looked into each other's eyes for a moment, then Taylor began to speak.
"Kevin?", she said softly.
"Taylor?", Kevin replied as he looked admirably at her.
Then, they began to move closer to each other and they kissed a long, wet, passionate kiss. It was exactly like a love scene by the ocean with romantic music in the background (provided by a homeless guy with a harmonica). They had built up feelings for each other over the internet, and now they were going to show each other what they were made of. After they had finished kissing, Taylor looked at Kevin with a malicious expression in her face and smiled at him.
10:00 pm that night, in a club at Sunset Boulevard...
Kevin and Taylor had to sneak into the club through the back since they were four years under age. Nevertheless, they did get in and now they were having the time of their lives. They were in the middle of the dance circle dancing really close while the DJ played the song "Booty Call".
2 hours later, at Taylor's empty apartment...
Kevin and Taylor came out of the taxi, quickly walked into the apartment, into the elevator with some old senior citizen dude already in it, and began kissing. The elevator stopped at the 4th floor, and the old dude rushed excitedly out of the elevator straight to his wife at his apartment. Taylor led Kevin into her empty apartment room and they went straight to the bed.
8 hours later...
Kevin woke up from his moment of enchantment with a stupid little smile on his face. He turned to look at Taylor, only to find out she was not there. Little did Kevin know that the exact same thing would happen to him three years later. Kevin looked around the room for Taylor, finding a used condom, clothes scattered on the floor, but no Taylor. Kevin then looked at the clock and relized that his dad would be back home in Long Beach any minute. Kevin hastily threw his clothes back on, and rushed out of the apartment into a taxi. Kevin directed the taxi to Long Beach, and the taxi burned rubber out of the driveway, rushed down Venice Blvd, and screeched its tires as it entered the 405 Freeway offramp.
25 minutes later, at Kevin's house in Long Beach...
The taxi cab broke the record for fastest average speed on the San Diego Freeway (92.3 MPH), and when it arrived at Kevin's house, Kevin found his dad packing up stuff into the Explorer. Kevin got out of the cab, and asked his dad,
"Hey, where do you think you're going?", Kevin asked his dad.
"Son, we're leaving these slums and moving to Sunset Springs", Michael excitedly told Kevin.
"What?? But I like these slums...where the hell is Sunset Springs anyway?", Kevin became upset.
Kevin then took a road map and tried to locate the town of Sunset Springs, but it was nowhere to be found, just like Taylor.
"It's somewhere on there, son", Michael said to Kevin as he packed up the last box into the car.
Mchael closed the tailgate, went inside the car, and started the engine. Kevin, acting very confused, hesitantly got into the front passenger seat, and the car came down the driveway and was off to some fictitious town in Orange County.
30 minutes later, in Sunset Springs...
As the Explorer entered the quaint little suburban neighborhood in a fictitious town, it pulled to the front of a house with a "sold" sign in front of it. Michael and Kevin already found Lauren and Vanessa unpacking their stuff from Lauren's Acura Legend into the house. The newlyweds, Michael and Lauren, hugged each other and went into the house. The kids, Kevin and Vanessa, however, stood by their cars and tried to figure out what was going on.
"Vanessa, what's going on?", Kevin asked his sister.
Vanessa observed the scene: a "sold" sign in front of the house and her mom inside the house unpacking stuff.
"Hmm...Kevin, I think we're moving here", Vanessa said with an almost sarcastic tone.
Kevin nodded his head as he, too, observed the scene.
"I see", Kevin said as he saw the events taking place at the house.
"You guys can take a break and go to the mall or something", Lauren told her daughter and her step-son from inside the house.
"Thanks, ma'am", Kevin told Lauren from outside.
"Hey, we might as well make the best out of it", Kevin told Vanessa as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Oh, please, call me 'mom'", Lauren said to Kevin in a friendly tone.
'Cool', Kevin thought to himself. For the first time in twelve years, he finally had a mother again. No more single-parent life for him and his dad.
20 minutes later, at the South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California...
Kevin and Vanessa walked through the mall and window-shopped at the stores. As they walked, they wondered how they would live in a place like Sunset Springs. Kevin already began to miss his hometown of Long Beach as he noted that there weren't that many black people. Vanessa noted that she grew up in New York City and that she spent "the best years of her life" in West L.A. As they continued to walk, they were confronted by two blond kids, a boy named Frank and a girl named Sarah. Kevin and Vanessa observed the two skater kids, Frank and Sarah. Kevin and Vanessa had never seen anything like them before. To them, Frank and Sarah were strange lost children who could use some help from a doctor or something. Kevin and Vanessa continued to walk past Frank and Sarah without any of them saying a word to each other. Little did they know that three years from now, Frank and Sarah would lose their identities as skateboarders and the four of them would all be good friends.
As Kevin and Vanessa exited the mall into the parking garage, Kevin spotted Taylor get into a black BMW 740. Kevin ran and tried to get to Taylor, but the BMW was too fast as it sped out of the parking garage onto MacArthur Blvd. Kevin stopped and watched the BMW disappear into the horizon.
"You obviously know that girl", Vanessa commented to Kevin. "Did you get the plate number?", she sarcastically asked him.
"Yeah", Kevin answered as he gasped for breath.
"Oh, my God...", Vanessa commented in a surprised tone.
At that time, Kevin thought that would be the last he would see of Taylor. Little did he know that he would see her again practically every day of his life once the school year started.
3 and a half years later - December 6, 1997...
Vanessa closed the photo album and thought for a while. A few moments later, Sarah came to the house and knocked on the bedroom door.
"Umm...the back door was open...", Sarah began to speak, but Vanessa interrpted her.
"Sarah, I'm going to find Kevin in Canada. If you wanna come with me, pack up your bags real quick, 'cause I'm leaving soon."
"Vanessa, the flight doesn't leave until 45 minutes from now", Sarah told her.
They then grabbed their coats, rushed out the back door, into the Explorer, and sped off to the airport.
to be continued...
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