Repercussions

“Mom what the hell is wrong? Pop?” John looked at both of them.

“Oh dear please tell me she’s ok?” Carol asked her son.

Looking at his Mom like she was nuts, “Who? Ellie? Yeah she’s fine a little car sick but fine. What’s going on your acting like I killed her or something?” he asked his parents concerned and a bit scared.

John tapped his wife and nodded to her so she knew he wanted to say something to him. As much as it was killing Carol because this whole situation was killing her and she knew it was Ellie’s fault she let her husband talk.

“John when you called last night to say that you two couldn’t make it home well the Levine’s didn’t take it very well. Let’s just say they were…well pissed. I tried calling you back but the phone lines must have been down. You were lucky that you were able to call out when you did. Anyway they came over again this morning and Michael is livid. I think you should let me take Ellie home instead of you.” He explained to John.

John just stared at his parents and couldn’t believe what he just heard. Now he had to put a spin on all of this or he would never see her again. Ellie could hear everything in the car as the windows were down and could see John’s face. All she could think was her cousin’s trying to keep them apart. Ok girl now it’s time for your acting chops so she slipped out of the car on John’s side and walked up to him to hold his hand. John looked at her and gave her a weak smile.

“Mr. and Mrs.  Bongiovi I’m sorry my cousin’s screamed at you about John and me for that matter. But as you know it couldn’t be helped. John was thinking of my safety and didn’t want to drive in that weather so we stayed the night. We were lucky that John even found shelter and his friend even let him stay there. But I want you to know that John was a perfect gentleman and even protected me thru that storm because he knew I was scared to death.” She told them as she held his hand tight. John held it right back as tight as he could too knowing exactly what she was doing. 

“Well thank you Ellie we weren’t worried at all about…” just as John Sr. was about to finish that sentence Michael came running out of the front door screaming with Marsha running after him. She was hoping to catch him before he had a chance to punch John.

“YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT!” Michael screamed at John as he ran over the driveway and John Sr. tried to block him away from his son as John jumped over his hood and stood next to his Mom. Ellie also threw herself in front with John Sr. and jumped up on Michael before he got pasted him and tried hard to get him to stop in his tracks which he did as he had this sixteen year old girl on his back. “Will you get off me! I can’t kill the little shit if you’re on me” Michael screamed at her.

“NO! Not til you calm the hell down!” Ellie yelled back.  Luckily Marsha finally reached them and helped Ellie down and grabbed her husband.

“Michael knock it off! Now can we please act like adults.” She asked them.

“Well tell your husband then. He’s the one that came over here to hurt my son!” Carol shot out.

“He only did that because your son had her out all night Carol.” Marsha shot back to her.

“Ok ok! Didn’t the Bongiovi’s tell you that we were stuck there?” Ellie asked them.

“Well yes but you’re telling us there was absolutely no way to get home.” Michael spit out.

“No Michael there was no way we could leave without something happening to us. Would you have rather John take the chance and tried coming home and have something happen to us? We were lucky that nothing happened as it was today as the roads were still so so. And he was a perfect gentleman I was scared to death in the storm and he helped me thru it. And all you’re doing is yelling at us! So just stop it all of you! Jesus do you all want me to go to the damn doctors and get checked out to see if my fucking hymen is broken! Well wait til my doctor’s appointment in two weeks and my Mom will tell all of you when I get back from my God Damn Gyno appointment then!” she screamed and ran to the house and up to her room. She left four adults and John standing there with their mouths wide open.

Finally John said, “Well I guess she told all of you. No we didn’t have sex and she’s right she can confirm that when she gets back. But I will tell you all this. We do love each other and I wouldn’t do anything to hurt her and one of those things is she isn’t ready. So there.” He said to all of them and walked into his house. His brothers were listening at the door so when he walked in they ran to the couch. “Hey goobers I saw you guys at the door so I know you were listening.” He told them.

Tony speaking up, “Yeah we were afraid that you were in trouble. Are you? Pop’s not going to take it out on you is he John?” he asked him as John could see the fear in his eyes.

Sitting next to them he explained, “No I don’t think I’m in that kind of trouble so don’t worry. I didn’t do anything wrong. Besides Mom and Pop are sticking up for me, if they were pissed I don’t think they would. You remember when me and my friends accidently broke Mrs. Weber’s window when we were hitting rocks with our baseball bats? I admitted it but I still got a beating for it because it was stupid to do it and I went with the group. Mom and Pop still stuck up for me because I had admitted it but I did something real stupid. I didn’t sit down for two days but.” John said reflecting on that time.

Tony was still nervous, “But John what if Mom and Pop they’re just making it look like well you know and then come back in here and tell you that well…” Tony started to stutter.

“Tone don’t worry about it because if he does I’m out of here. And as soon as I make it big you’ll and then Matty we’ll be with me ok? Pop’s a fair man you know that. He’s just really strict that’s all. Ellie was telling me her Dad stopped hitting them years ago. There’s five of them she joked that he got too tired so the two youngest got off easy. And her Dad has a really bad temper she said that’s where she gets hers from. But they all get along and I guess all her parents do is yell now.” He told his brothers.

“Gee I wish Mom and Pop would only do that with us.” Tony said to John.

“Yeah but her parents weren’t in the Marines now were they?” he told them. Just then Carol and John walked into the house not looking to happy. Looking at their boys John Sr. spoke up, “Hey guys, Tony could you take your little brother upstairs as we talk with John please?” Tony said yes and took Matty’s hand and went upstairs. At first John was a little nervous but he also knew he didn’t do anything wrong in his book so he figured he would stand his ground.

Carol asked him, “Honey are you sure there was no way you two couldn’t get home last night because I’m sure that jackass is going to check it out.”

Looking at both his parents, “Yeah I’m sure they said it over the radio so I wasn’t going to risk it not with Ellie with me and especially with her scared to death of the storm last night. I mean she was hiding her head under a damn pillow for crying out loud.” John told them angrily.

“John calm down we’re not angry with you. We believe you Son all we want is to know what happened that’s all. Michael is going to be throwing all these accusations at you and all we want is to be prepared for it that’s all.” John Sr. told him.

John was pacing the living room and then turned to his parents, “But that’s the thing once Ellie is done telling them what happened he won’t have a leg to stand on. Because she’ll tell them nothing happened!” he told them again loudly.

Carol couldn’t hold her tongue anymore, “Jonny how do you know that? How do you absolutely know that she won’t throw you under the bus and tell them something else and get you in trouble? Hmmm? No you don’t she could tell them anything and well you could be charged with…rape!” she blurted out.

John and John Sr. just stood there with their mouths open at what she just said. Then John screamed out, “Oh My God! MOTHER! She would never do that! How the hell could you even think that! What kind of sick mind…” but John Sr. thought he had better jump in before his son had said something he might regret.

“Ok let’s stop right here alright. Now I’m with John on this one Carol I really don’t think Ellie would do such a thing. When things calm down I and I mean I will go over and have a talk with the Levine’s and see where we stand ok? But in the meantime John you stay away from her until I do.”

“But Dad?” he blurted out.

“Look John it won’t be long I promise probably only a day and I know a day is like a year to you two but it will go really fast I promise. And You Carol you keep that mouth shut! Do you understand me?” he said to her giving her the Bongiovi stink eye. Carol wasn’t happy at that for one minute but she would or she knew he would squeal to her son about Dorothea. She would have to step up her plan while Ellie was home.

***************************************************************************

Back at the Levine’s Ellie had ran into the house crying. She saw the phone and quickly thought yes and picked it up and called her parents. Her mother picked up. Right off Cecilia couldn’t understand and was trying to calm her down.

“Sweetheart I can’t understand you, you need to calm down. What’s wrong? Ellie what’s wrong?” she kept asking her daughter over and over.

Right then her Dad walked in from outside and heard his wife on the phone. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?” he asked concerned.

Placing her hand over the receiver, “It’s Ellie something’s wrong she can’t stop crying to tell me.” Cecilia told him.

“Give me the phone. Ellie Honey it’s Daddy what’s that matter? Ellie take a breath and tell me what’s wrong.” He told her again.

Ellie heard her father’s voice and started to calm down some. Hic cupping she tried to explain to him what happened from last night to this morning when Mike and Marsha had walked in. They saw her on the phone and she started to get upset again and told her parents which who were now listings together over the phone. They were surprised that she was seeing this young man there and Paul was hoping that she would forget all about Herbie to be honest and now she found someone else much to his chagrin.

“Ok Sweetie put Mike on the phone for me ok I want to talk to him.” Paul told her.

“Ok Daddy.” She said sniffling. Looking at the two of them, “Daddy wants to talk to you Michael.” She told him holding out the phone.

Mike and Marsha just looked at each other as Mike took the phone from her. Paul wasn’t too happy with how he handled the whole thing, not waiting for them to get home and then waiting to hear what happened first before he chewed them out. Especially not trusting her in the first place. But what he was really pissed about was why weren’t they told that Ellie liked this boy in the first place. All they were told was she kind of liked or she had a crush on some kid she told them that didn’t even know she was alive. Now she’s having sleep overs with him? Did his parents worry over this? Does he come from a good family? Does he treat her good? And why worry about it when she’ll be coming home probably in six months. Paul also told Mike that they will be speaking to her when she comes home in two weeks. Also they will be having a conference call with her doctors on how she’s doing. Although they appreciate everything they’re doing for their daughter they want to be kept in the loop with everything that’s going on even if she doesn’t think that we don’t need to be. We’re her parents got that? Mike and Marsha understood that they had responsibility for her and Power of Attorney in case anything happened to her until her parents could get to her. But where parenting came they would do it and in order to do it they would have to call them and let them know what was going on so they could. If they thought for any reason that this situation was way out of hand then they should have been called immediately so they could have handled it. The phone call went on for about forty minutes until they gave Ellie the phone back. She talked to her folks for a little bit more and they basically told her that they wanted her to be careful and that they will talk to her more about this when she gets home. And not to hate Mike too much he was only trying to protect her from the hormones of a seventeen year old boy and that she should be glad maybe that it was there and not here that it happened. She told her Dad to stop at least I would have Joe and Chick to help defend me. They told each other that they loved each other and signed off.

Later that afternoon Marsha went to Ellie’s room to see how she was doing. She knocked on her door and Ellie told her to come in. “Hey I’m really sorry for everything that happened this morning Honey.” Marsha told her.

“Didn’t Mr. or Mrs. Bongiovi call over here to tell you that we were stuck and couldn’t come home.” She asked her annoyed.

“Yes John did call us and Michael just thought that John was lying to his parents about that. He thought he just wanted to get you alone well you know.” She said to her.

“Well yeah we did want to be alone we couldn’t at the party. Then we went to some beach party where we met up with some of his friends that he knew for the bars. Said he had to mingle with them for a little bit then we went for a walk to this house that he knows, well he can stay there whenever he wants so we went in for a little while and he played his guitar for me then all of a sudden it started to rain then the thunder started and I wasn’t going out in that. No freaking way. He even was teasing me about putting a pillow over my head.” She told Marsha.

“He did did he? So everything worked out ok then?” she asked her.  

“What do you mean by that? We got home safe and sound didn’t we?” Ellie asked her a little miffed.

“Ellie I didn’t mean that I mean about the storm. You got thru it ok right?” she asked her again.

“Well yeah John stayed with me he wanted to make that I was ok during the storm. He knew that it scared me what’s the big deal? Usually at night we all crawl in with Mom and Dad or just Mom if Daddy’s working.” She told her cousin.

“Oh really? That’s nice. Where did you and John sleep then?” she asked curious.

“What? In the living room. I wasn’t moving. Between the pillow and the afghan that was on the couch John got a kick out of me making a nest on the couch.” She said scrunching her face.

“No I know how you get I remember the first time how you were when the storm hit and you were trying real hard not to show that you were scared for the kids’ sake. But you failed miserably. So I told them to protect you and make you feel good.” Marsha told her giggling.

“That’s not funny.” She told her not smiling back.

“We got a call from John Sr. he wants to come over and talk to us. He’ll be over in a hour.” she told Ellie as her eyes grew wide.

“Why?” she asked.

“I just think he wants to go over everything and make sure that we’re ok with everything.” She told her.

“Are you? And are you going to let me see John because Daddy said it’s up to them and until I come home and talk to them we really won’t have a real answer you know.” She told her cousin.

“You think so? What about the Bongiovi’s? They may not let John see you anymore. What if that happens?”

“John won’t let it.” She told her out right. Marsha shooked her head and left the room.

An hour later John Sr. came over and the three of them went into Michael’s study. Ellie stayed in her bedroom as the kids were taking their nap. It was killing her to not know what was going on down there. But more so it was killing her not being with John.

It took about an hour and half but they finally came out and they were smiling. Ellie was in the living room watching t.v. when they came out so she a little relived to see them smiling to say the least. They walked over to her so they could tell her what they had decided.

Michael spoke first. “Ok Ellie we came to a decision we’re going to let the two of you see each other until you leave to go home but you have to tell Uncle Paul and Aunt Cecilia everything and I mean everything that’s going on ok? If they feel it’s ok for you two to see each other then we’ll let you two continue alright?” he told her.

Ellie was just so over joyed she didn’t know what to say. “Well I’m going to get going and let my son know before he busts plus I need to fill in Carol. Right now she’s not very happy with the whole situation so I to explain everything to her. Once I do that then the kids can get together. I’m glad we were able to take care of this. Ellie I’ll have John you later ok?” John Sr. told her.

***************************************************************************

When John walked in the house he was nearly knocked down by his son. “Well Dad how did it go?” John asked his Father.

John Sr. wanted to laugh but not Carol who was standing in the kitchen doorway wanting to know what was the verdict also. “Well they talked to her parents last night and they agreed to let the two of you see each other until she leaves for home. Then they’ll talk more when she’s home but what their afraid of is when she leaves for good and the emotional toil it will take on her. And to be honestly John so am I. You already said that the two of you are in love. Now I’m not a stupid man I know what comes next and I’m sure the two of you have talked about it because you said she wasn’t ready yet. But when she is that’s going to make it even more emotional for her. Are you ready for that?” he asked his son very seriously as Carol looked on.

John looked at both his parents and honestly answered him. “Yes I love her. And she loves me. I understand what you’re saying Pop I really do but a lot of people fall in love at our ages and then get married young.” He told them but that’s all it took to set Carol off.

“Oh My God John married! You just finished school! You said you wanted to start a life in music how the hell can you do that if you’re strapped down with a wife and possibly children just tell me how? Plus she’s ill how the hell are you going to take care of her if you’re living like vagabonds!” she yelled at him.

John thought hard before he answered, “We’ll make it; I swear we’ll make it. If it’s just out of spite we’ll do it.” He told them as he turned around and went to his room ticked off.

John Sr. walked up to his wife his and said to her bittersweet, “Ok Carol I didn’t want to do this but we have no choice now go ahead and put your plan into action.” He said as Carol stood there smiling smugly.