Untamed Passion

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I gazed out of the window at the countryside as it whizzed past. We’d only been in the car for an hour, but to me it felt like an eternity. I sighed and had to stifle a yawn it was so boring being in the car with no music on. I don’t know why my stepdad had such a problem with the radio, but evidently he felt so strongly about it that he’d rather drive for an hour in awkward

silence than get over his stubbornness and just put on the radio. He would just blindly refuse, saying that he couldn’t stand today’s music, or that the radio hosts annoyed him. That was just typical of him and his judgemental and controlling nature.

He wouldn’t even let me put on a CD! Talk about controlling. I knew that he was just being this way to spite me, but I also knew that if I raised the issue he would tell me that I was behaving like a spoilt child. We’d had enough arguments in the five years that he had been married to my mom for me to know the sorts of things he would do and say. It was almost like

arguments between us arose out of habit rather than anything else. But there was no way of changing that, I was sure. As far as I was concerned, there was too much water under the bridge. I deeply resented him for the way that he always tried to belittle me and control me. I truly felt like he treated me like a child, and no matter how many times I tried to explain my anguish to my mom, she just never listened. She always sided with him.

I suppose I was difficult at times and yes, sometimes our arguments did stem from me being immature and petulant. But I always justified my own behaviour by comparing it to the way that he treated me. Perhaps I wouldn’t behave like a child if he didn’t treat me like one! I had just turned eighteen that week, but still he treated me like an infant. Me and my stepdad just didn’t get along, simple as that.

As a matter of fact, our strained relationship was the reason for this awkward road trip. In the weeks leading up to my eighteenth birthday, me and my stepdad had been at each other’s throats. More so than usual.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something had changed between us.

He was much more controlling than usual, making sly remarks about the way I looked and how I should ‘dress more appropriately’ for my age. I couldn’t believe the cheek of it!

But my mom never stuck up for me. She’d had so many bad experiences in the past with getting stuck in the middle of arguments between us that I guess she’d just learned her lesson and decided it best to keep well out of it. But that didn’t help me! I felt like I was constantly subjected to his belittling and antagonising me.

I couldn’t even pick up the telephone without him suddenly appearing by my side demanding to know who I was calling and why. I swear that I could hear him on the other line one time, listening in to me having quite a personal conversation with one of my girl friends. It was like he was obsessed or something!

I have to say that his strange behaviour as of late had left me feeling a little bit nervous and kind of confused. It was so obvious that even my mom had noticed, but rather than giving him a stern talking to, she decided to ship us off together in the car for a spa-weekend together. The moment she announced the news to us both, our faces dropped simultaneously. But she’d obviously spent a lot of money on arranging it last minute, so neither of us dared to object. We just stared at each other, and managed fake smiles. My mom must have known how we really felt, but I don’t think she cared.

As far as she was concerned this was the perfect way to force us to at least attempt to get along.

I sighed a deep, almost exasperated sigh as I looked out of the window in silence. My stepdad moved his hand to change gear, brushing me slightly on the thigh as he did so. It was a complete accident, but for some reason it made me jump out of my skin and snap my head around to look at him. It

also caused my heart to race and my stomach to tighten in a not altogether unpleasant way.

“Jeez, Bernice relax!” he said, looking puzzled by my reaction “why are you so jumpy?”

I looked at him for a moment and then shook my head, shrugging my shoulders as I did so. I couldn’t answer him because I didn’t know. He was right, though. I was jumpy. And nervous. And unsettled for some reason that I just couldn’t explain. But I could tell that he felt it too from the way his face was set into a frown of concentration, and his hand’s gripped the steering wheel a little too tightly. There was a distinct nervousness between us, and neither of us could deny it.

I breathed an audible gasp of relief when we finally pulled into the car park of the Ocean Bay Hotel & Spa and quickly got out of the car. It felt good to be out of the car and away from the stifling yet somehow electric atmosphere that had been practically suffocating us. My stepdad popped the trunk and I picked up my bright pink suitcase, then made my way up the

steps to the entrance of the hotel.

“Nice of you to offer some help!” my stepdad called after me, wrestling with his own case and trying to lock up the car at the same time. I huffed and made my way into the reception area. Why should I help him? He hadn’t even offered to help me, so why should I be the one to remember my manners? This was just typical of him. Always self-centred, and too ignorant to even realise it.

“Hi, we have a reservation under the name of Browning” I said to the lady behind the desk. She smiled and got up out of her seat, beckoning my stepdad over as he stumbled through the doors and into the hotel.

“Right this way please” she said, walking out from behind her desk and around a corner “the porters will see to your luggage. For now I suspect you’d like to relax and unwind from your journey.”

We followed her down a short corridor, exchanging looks of bewilderment but neither of us offering up any word of protest. We turned another corner and found that the corridor came to an end. There were a set of large double doors immediately in front of us, and two doors either side.

“The changing rooms are on the left and right, and you’ll find your robes, towels and slippers hanging up ready for you” the woman said with a smile, gesturing to the doors as she spoke “once you’ve changed, make your way through these double doors into the massage room.”

“What, right now?” I said, a look of puzzlement on my face.

“Yes” the woman said promptly “you’ve paid for the full package, which includes a complimentary massage upon arrival. The masseuses are waiting ”

She gestured to the female changing room once more and I obediently opened the door and slipped inside, without so much as a word to my stepdad. I wanted to get this all over and done with so that I could just retreat up to my room and hide away. Sure, my mom had paid for us to be here and ‘bond’ but she couldn’t force us to spend time together. I knew my stepdad would secretly be thinking the same thing.