Story: Dinner At Romano's

Part of the Terrence/Brianna series.  Bri goes out to dinner with Terrence and Tonya, and she's faced with a difficult choice:  be nice to Tonya, or try to ruin her evening so she never comes around again?  While she knows that the well-being of her backside will be in danger, she still opts to be a holy-terror at dinner.  By the end of the night, it's not Tonya that's fed up, it's Terrence.

Dinner At Romano's
by Breanna Carter

Promising Ashton that I'd talk to Terrence was a lot easier than actually talking to him. Isn't that always the way it is? So I guess you can imagine that I was going to procrastinate it as long as possible. I mean, Ana had understood me when I told her how I was feeling, so I was sure that Terrence would, too, but it was still hard. It sucks admitting that you're wrong.

"How was your weekend?" he asked in the car on our way home.

"Fine," I muttered.

"That's good." He paused, I guess waiting on me to ask him about his weekend. "Brianna, talk to me," he said in a pleading voice.

I glanced in his direction. "About what?"

"About what's bugging you. We used to talk about everything and now you're keeping everything stuffed up inside. Are you mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"I don't know, that's why I was asking. You're just acting different."

I shrugged. "I'm fine," I assured him.

He sighed. "Are you okay with me and Tonya?"

I couldn't look him in the eyes as I nodded. It was hard enough lying, even harder lying about something that I'd eventually have to tell the truth about.

"Please tell me if something's wrong, okay?"

"Okay."

When I got home, I didn't do much of anything, just worked on some homework and talked to Shellie on the phone. I was telling her about our crazy weekend and how I had the bright idea to spray paint and Ana had the bright idea to try and sneak out of the house. I guess I told the story in such a way that it was mildly entertaining, because my friend was laughing her ass off.

"You and Ana *are* crazy," she claimed. "So you're getting along better now?"

"Yeah. We sort of talked, and she's going to try and give me more attention and I'm going to try and demand less."

"That's cool that you two are close enough to talk about that."

I smiled.

"Hey, that boy, Cole, keeps asking Trish to ask me about you."

"Huh?" I said, because that was a random statement and I was also trying to figure out a calculus problem.

"You know my friend, Trish?"

"Yeah..."

"Well Cole is friends with her brother, so they hang out sometimes, and he knows that she hangs out with me and that I hang out with you and he really just wants to try and see if you're available and if there's a possibilty that you two could go out sometime... and he won't shut up, no matter how much I tell him that you're a cynic and don't believe in love at the moment."

I laughed slightly. "Cole is asking about me? That's too cute. He's only a junior, though.."

"I know, but he's hott. I wish he was asking about me."

"He's a little shit, too. Always gets himself into all sorts of trouble."

"And you don't?"

"Good point," I said. "Anyway, tell him if he wants to know stuff about me, to come talk to me himself."

"Do you still have a crush on Ashton?" she asked suddenly.

I blushed like crazy, even though she couldn't see me. "Erm, sorta," I admitted. "I mean, he's really cute, and we've got a great relationship, but I'm not sure if he'd ever be anything more than friends with me, ya know, since Ana and I are such good friends."

"Yeah, but he is gorgeous. Wish I could have gone on the Chicago trip with you guys just so I could've hung out with the guys."

I blushed more, remembering the Chicago trip and realizing that she would have probably gotten in the same amount of trouble that we did. "That was a fun trip... but man, did Ana and I get into some serious trouble."

She giggled. She loved hearing about mine and Ana's trouble-making stories.

"Anyway, Bri, I gotta go get finished with some homework and then Mom and I are going out to eat dinner."

"Okie dokie... see ya tomorrow."

"Later."

"Bye," I said, hanging up the phone. I finished my last two calculus problems, then lay on my bed, bored. The time would eventually come to tell Terrence, and each time I was bored, I remembered it. But it was too soon... they'd just gotten engaged...

The next day at school was fairly uneventful. Anastasia was spending more time talking to me and Cole smiled in my direction every so often, so that was interesting, but otherwise, it was a fairly boring day. I apologized to my teachers for acting up during class, though they knew me so well that they knew it would probably happen again before the end of the year. By the time soccer class rolled around, I was ready for something interesting... and that's exactly what I got.

"Varsity ladies! Hurry it up! We're having a meeting before we practice!"

"A meeting?" I said, raising my eyebrows to Ana and Shellie to find out if they knew what was going on.

"You're the captain and you don't know anything about this?" Shellie asked.

I rolled my eyes at her and grinned. "Shut up!"

By now, the entire locker room was chattering about this mysterious meeting that no one knew about.

"Maybe a recruiter is coming to scout us to play professionally," someone said.

"Maybe we're going to have a co-ed team!" another suggested.

"Maybe team USA is going to come teach us some stuff!"

"Or better yet, team Italy," I said, grinning as I tied up my shoe.

"Maybe we're going to be in a movie!"

Everyone stopped talking and gave the person who said that a really weird look. "Yeah, okay... let's just go see and shut up about it. It's probably something stupid like someone donating water for our games."

We all laughed as we filed out of the locker room, towards the soccer field. The varsity girls plopped down while coach instructed the JV team to warm up for a scrimage. Then she turned to us excitedly.

"Girls, I have some fantastic news."

"So we noticed... go ahead and tell us already! The anticipation is eating us alive!" I said, the other girls nodding in agreement.

"Well, okay, Miss Brianna... if you insist..." She pulled out a stack of papers from her bag. "We have been offered the opportunity of a lifetime, but I want to make sure you guys want to do this before I sign a form saying that we're going to do it."

We were all craning our necks to see what the papers said.

"I received a call last night from a man in Mexico City. That's where the international high school championships are held." The group started stirring with excitement. "One of the American schools dropped out and we were next in line to go on the trip. He apologized for it being such a short notice, since the trip would be next month, and said he'd understand if we rejected it. What do you girls think?"

We all shrieked in excitement.

"I guess that's a yes," she said, trying to settle us down. "There are a few things you should know, though. First of all, they are giving us $5000 for just participating, which can either help get equipment or help everyone afford the trip, or whatever. Now, here's the deal. We can still go to Austin because the JV and the boys are all going. If you would rather transfer your funds from that trip to the Mexico trip, that's fine..." she paused, looking at the sheet of paper. "The cost for the Mexico trip, per person, is $1600, that's with most meals included, airfare, tourist attractions, etc, etc."

I nearly fell over with a heart attack. "I can't go," I explained.

"Why not?" everyone demanded to know. Sorry girls, I wasn't born into a super wealthy family! There's no way Terrence could afford for me to go on that trip, especially with the cost of that damn engagement ring, and wedding plans, and everything else he was thinking about doing.

Coach interrupted. "Settle down, girls. The thing is, we have this $5000 we're being given to go on... and we can spend it however we like. We can either divide it up between all of you or offer it to those of you who need it."

Ana was the first to speak up. "We should give it to the people who need it," she said.

Shellie agreed.

Before too much longer, the whole team was agreeing, then they were all telling me that I *had* to go, so I finally agreed. They were all telling me about how they couldn't make it without the captain and that I'd been playing so well lately, I'd be able to kick ass on the playing field against the world's best teams.

Coach simmered us down again. "Okay, I already printed up the iternary because I had the feelings that you'd all want to go."

She passed out the stapled sheets of paper to us that explained the cost, rules, and the scheduled events. She went over the different stuff carefully then explained: "You'll all be staying with host families, so I'll need you to write on a sheet of paper who you'll want to share with. Two girls per house, please."

I looked towards Shellie and Anastasia, but Shellie began talking to another friend who was a freshman as well. I was glad because I hated leaving people out since I'd been left out so much.

"So we'll be roommates?"

"Totally," I said, grinning from ear to ear. "And hopefully we'll have some hott Latino guys in the house with us!"

"Girls, listen up!" Coach yelled over us and we settled down. "We'll be missing a lot of school, so you'll need to be sure your teachers know about that. They're going to have to sign a form saying it's okay for you to go. And next week we'll have the trip organizer come over to explain the itenary further and answer any questions you might have... that day we won't be dressing out and you'll get to stay in during study hall for a Spanish lesson!"

"Yay! Spanish!" I said to Anastasia, getting giddy all over again.

We were so excited that our practice went terribly and she let us hit the showers earlier than normal. The talk of the locker room was the trip... mainly the hott guys wooing us with their Spanish and what sorts of things we'd be doing while we were there. I'd never been out of the country before, so I was ecstatic as hell, not to mention that the trip was paid for.

When I got home, I couldn't wait to tell Terrence. I called him right away, knowing I'd interrupt something, but since he had his own office and his own phone, it didn't really matter.

"Terrence!" I shrieked in excitement.

"Yes?" he said, and I could hear him smiling.

"Guess what, guess what?!?"

"What's that?"

"We're going to Mexico!"

"Mexico?" he asked.

"Yeah! For soccer!"

"Bri... I know Austin is a lot like Mexico but.."

"Stop playing," I teased. "We're going to Mexico City!" I then took it upon myself to explain everything to him, including the itenary and learning Spanish. He seemed really excited and couldn't wait til he got home to hear more about it and read the information.

"Oh, and Bri... do you wanna go out to eat tonight with me and Tonya?"

I fell into the chair, my enthusiam gone. Dammit... why'd he have to go and blow my excitement by talking about his fiancee again? "Uhm, I don't know, I have a lot of homework."

"Well at least think about it? I'd really like you to hang out with us sometime."

"I'll think about it... anyway, see you later," I said and hung up the phone.

I sat at the table for a few minutes, thinking. My mind was halfway on Mexico, halfway on my brother and his soon-to-be wife. I knew I shouldn't be jealous of her, because really, she wasn't a bad woman. She was always nice to me, everytime I saw her.. and she wasn't nice in the fake way. She really was the perfect match for my brother and I should be happy for him... so why was I feeling like this? Of course, that's the rational side of me talking... the irrational side was telling me that I could go to dinner and be a complete and total brat and maybe push her away. So guess which side of me I listened to? I'll give you a hint... probably not the side I should have listened to.

Terrence got home the same time as always and I was sitting in the living room, sort of doing my homework. I knew I'd have to suck up to the teachers so I could go on the soccer trip, so doing homework would be a great idea.

"Hey Bri," Terrence said, plopping down next to me. "Almost finished?"

I nodded. "Yeah, only a little bit left. Should be finished by the time you get all prettied up."

He rolled his eyes at me.

"We better be going to eat some place good..."

"Oh? And what do you have in mind?" he asked, glancing at the coffee table and seeing the itenary sitting there.

"Italian food."

"Italian?" he asked, picking up the papers and glancing through them. "Ohh, this is your stuff for the Mexico trip?"

"Yeah."

"Wow... that's a lot of money..."

"Don't worry, it's taken care of."

"What'd you do, rob a bank?"

"Yes," I answered, sticking my tongue out at him.

He chuckled and put the papers back down, heading towards the shower. "It'll be a fun trip," he told me, "and a great opportunity. They'll probably have loads of college scouts down there.."

"I hope so," I answered and he disappeared into the bathroom.

I finished scribbling down the answers to my homework just in time to see my brother dressed all sharp and stuff. He would have liked me to change into something a little nicer, but I was set to wear sweat pants and a T-shirt, my hair up in a ponytail.

"You look spiffy tonight," I told him.

"Yeah... I figured I should wear something decent to the nice restaurant you want to go to.."

"Ah, well I figured I should be comfy.." I answered.

He didn't say anything, just began driving.

"So when am I going to get my car back?" I asked.

"You think you deserve it back this soon?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Soon? It's been like... two months!"

"We'll see," he answered, which was better than the typical response of "no."

We didn't talk much else, just listened to one of my cds. I sort of jammed along, singing every so often, and sometimes just staring out the window. I was in a fairly good mood, though I'm not sure if it was because I was plotting against Tonya or was thinking about good-looking Latinos in Mexico. Either way, it was nice to be in a good mood for once.

Terrence pulled up to Tonya's house and she came outside, saying hi to us.

I muttered a shy hello back to her and pushed the front seat up, revealing the backseat and moving away so she could crawl inside. No way was I giving up my front seat! Er, except I could feel Terrence's aggravation rising...

"How have you been, Bri?" she asked, as if I hadn't just degraded her to the backseat.

"I've been okay, and you?"

"I'm doing good."

"Well," I corrected.

"Excuse me?"

"You're doing well... sorry, I'm a grammar nut."

"Oh," she said, finally getting it.

The car was quiet for a moment and I could imagine that Terrence was becoming annoyed with me. Oh well... his fault.

He finally pulled up to Romano's Macaroni Grill. I surprised myself when I got out of the car and completely shut the door on Tonya. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing, but instead of doing the proper thing and opening it back up for her and apologizing, I just walked off.

"I really like the pizza here," I claimed when Terrence and Tonya finally caught up to me.

"Yeah, it is really good," Tonya answered.

"But there's some much better and way more expensive stuff that I'd order if I were you," I half-whispered to her.

She giggled uneasily, glancing over at my older brother who gave me an admonishing look. I didn't take the hint, though. This girl would be out of the picture by the end of the night!

I moved ahead of them and reserved us a table for three in the smoking section, knowing that Tonya had allergies, especially with smoke. The hostess led us towards the bar, finding us a seat next to a window with a great view of the tv.

"They didn't have any tables in the non-smoking section?" Terrence asked.

"Oh, I didn't ask... I wanted to sit by the window," I said, pouting.

"Brianna, you know Tonya's allergic to cigarette smoke..."

"No, it's okay," Tonya said. "I'll be fine," she said, smiling at Terrence.

"Are you sure? We can move tables," Terrence told her.

"No, don't worry about it. I'm fine."

She opened the menu and scanned it over, as did I, noting that the most expensive thing on the menu was the "Boursin Filet Grilled center-cut Tenderloin"... whatever that was.

Terrence and Tonya talked for a minute, arguing about what she was going to get, until the server came over to get our drinks. I ordered a red creme soda, noting that Tonya was indeed wearing a white shirt and a pink skirt that would look oh so terrible after I "accidentally" spilt my drink on it. I'm so devious sometimes.

He brought our drinks back and by this time, Tonya's eyes were red and puffy from all of the cigarette smoke. She was still glancing at the menu, but I was ready so decided to go ahead and order my tenderloin and salad, without giving Tonya the chance to ask for more time to look over the menu. Terrence placed his order after me, and Tonya just gave up and ordered a salad and cheese pizza.

We all tried to carry on intelligent conversation for a little while, but it quickly got boring and I decided I needed to stir things up a bit. See, Tonya was a hardcore vegetarian, and while she didn't mind that Terrence and I were meet-eaters, she absolutely hated it when people talked about being cruel to animals.

"Ana said that she watched an awesome film in American History today. See, we had to read this book about the slaughter houses and they showed a video on it and wow... it was pretty gory. My teacher thought it was supposed to deter us from wanting to eat meat, but I think they're doing the right thing. The lousy animals deserve it.."

"Brianna... let's not talk about that," Terrence warned.

"Why not? It's a very educational topic. What do you think, Tonya?" I asked, turning towards her. She was a little pale and shocked that I'd be discussing such a topic. "I think if we want to wring a chicken's neck, it should be okay. After all, chicken's peck us."

"Brianna!" Terrence growled.

"Or hanging cows by their toes... that should be fine... who cares if they feel it when we skin them. I can just imagine it.." I said, waving my hands through the air in such a motion as if imitating the cow and the people skinning them, until my hands were near my glass and I just "accidentally" knocked it over, conveniently right on Tonya's lap.

She shrieked, standing up, covered in my red soda.

"Ohhhh, I'm so sorry!" I wailed, wiping the table off with my napkin instead of helping her out. The server came rushing over with tons of napkins, cleaning up the mess while she assured him that it was okay. Terrence was all over her, trying his damndest to get the stains out of her clothing.

"Terrence, don't worry about it, babe."

"I'm so so sorry," he kept repeating, as if he wasn't apologizing enough. "I'll buy you a new one."

"Calm down, it's no big deal."

He took off his jacket and gave it to her, since her white shirt was now pink, and the jacket was so big on her that it covered up the stain on her skirt.

"Brianna.. come with me, I think we need to have a talk," Terrence said.

"No, it's okay, I'm fine, thank you."

He glared at me. "Now," he said, almost to the point of shouting. "We'll be right back," he told Tonya.

Not wanting to make a scene, I followed Terrence in the direction of the bathrooms. We stood there in the little hallway, out of sight from most of the crowd.

"I don't know what the hell is wrong with you, Brianna Nicole Carter, but this attitude is going to stop right this instant, Young Lady, do you hear me?"

"What attitude?" I said, trying to play innocent.

"Don't even pull that with me. I am NOT happy with you right now. And don't think that I'll hesitate to spank you right here in this restuarant. I'm doing you a favor by waiting until we get home."

I actually gulped when he said that. He was really infuriated.

"Keep it up and you won't be sitting for a week and you really won't see your car anytime soon."

"Yes, sir," I muttered.

"If you're not going to sit at the table and act civilized, you may have a seat in the car until we are finished. But you are not ruining this night anymore than you already have."

"Okay," I said, looking at the floor.

He stood there for a moment, still looking at me and then said, "come on," and walked off.

I followed him back to the table and sat down where they'd changed the paper on the table and brought me a new drink. I hadn't been sitting there for two minutes before they brought our food out and I just ate, didn't talk anymore. When I didn't want anymore of my expensive stuff, I ate bread. No way was I talking anymore... Terrence's threat of not being able to sit for a week was hanging over me like a raincloud -- seemingly faroff and nebulous, but likely to burst at any moment. And I definitely was not going to take the chance of it bursting.

After thirty minutes of sitting through their lubby dubby crazy conversations about the wedding and stuff, I was convinced that they'd both forgiven me and forgotten about the incident. We meandered through the maze of chairs to the doors and finally outside to the car. I actually did consider letting Tonya have the front seat, but then I did the brattiest thing and opened the door, lifting the seat again and moving out of the way to let her in.

"Brianna, get in the back," Terrence said softly.

"Terrence, don't worry about it!" Tonya said in a non-annoyed voice.

I shrugged and let her get on back there, ignoring Terrence's eyes that were glaring at me. As if I wanted to sit next to him anyway. I knew there'd be hell to pay when I got home, but that wasn't on my mind. I'd annoyed her enough for one night. She wouldn't want to be around me much anymore, and maybe Terrence would realize what a big mistake he was making, and then they wouldn't get married. Yeah, right.

He dropped her off at her house and walked her to the door, doing all that lubby dubby stuff while I sent a text message to Ana letting her know that I was in for it because I was really shitty towards Tonya. Her reply was "what did she ever do to u?" but I didn't answer. I knew that my actions were totally inappropriate, and I'd known that before I did them. But sometimes you need your friends on your side... even if it was stupid.

Terrence got back into the car and didn't say a word to me. He didn't speak to me the whole ride home, and pretty much ignored me during the walk from the car to the house. When we got inside, I tried to go to my room, but he stopped me.

"Stay in here, I need to talk to you."

I groaned, but stayed anyway. You'd think with just having gotten spanked two nights ago, I would have done less to be annoying.

"What is your deal?" he asked, pointing to the couch for me to sit down. "You know, I'm trying to include you in this. I asked what you thought about my proposal, I invited you to spend time with Tonya and me, and I just don't get you sometimes. Why are you acting like an eight year old?"

I shrugged.

"I am sick of your immaturity. You are almost eighteen years old for God's sake, and if I didn't know that, you could *never* convince me of it."

I bit my lower lip.

He plopped down next to me, moving my chin so I'd look him in the eyes. "What is going on?"

"I don't know," I lied.

"You're lying, I can see it. This is not the Bri I know. You're acting selfish and immature. Not to mention that you haven't spoken to me yet about your adventures from this weekend."

"My adventures?"

"Oh yeah, you better believe that Ashton told me about that, and then told me that you needed to talk to me. But you haven't talked to me, and I don't know what the deal is, but I'm ready for an explanation, and it won't bother me the least bit if I have to spank it out of you."

I shrugged again. "I don't want to talk about it."

"You know, I'm to the point to where I don't care, Brianna. You're not going to just go off pulling this unacceptable behavior everytime you get angry or jealous. Didn't Ashton already have this talk with you? You're acting out for attention in the wrong way."

"Last time I checked you weren't a psychologist," I hissed.

"Fine, if you don't feel like talking, I'll do all the talking," he said, pulling me over his lap.

"Nooo, wait!!" I howled. "Stop!"

"Too late," he answered, tugging at my sweat pants and panties to they were at my knees.

"Terrence!! I'm sorry!!"

He ignored me and began spanking my upturned rump. Ahhh, only two days and I managed to get myself into it again!

"Pleasee!" I begged, kicking and squirming while he spanked me, landing one sharp smack after another and hitting my sit spots harder than hell. "Stopppp!!"

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm sorry!" I gasped. "Oooowwwww that hurtsss!"

"I am not going to tolerate you acting out like this, or smart mouthing me, or any of the behavior that you've been pulling lately, do you hear me Young Lady?"

"Ooohhh yessssss, sirrr!"

"Good," he answered, landing two smacks on my sit spots and stopping. "Are you ready to talk to me?"

"Yes," I pouted, my bottom now very sore.

He pulled my panties and pantes back up and sat me back on the couch. "Spill it."

I took a deep breath in then said everything on my mind. All about the jealousy, not only with him but with Ana, too, and then told him about my crazy outburst and how I missed them and wished that things were back to the way they used to be. "And I'm just scared that... once you get married... you'll just completely drop me... like all together."

He put his arm around me, letting me rest my head on his chest. "Bri, I will NEVER completely drop you, okay? You're my little sister and I love you and nothing's going to change that. There's no reason to go acting like you did tonight. Why didn't you just talk to me?"

"Because I didn't want you to be mad."

"I'm not going to be mad because of the way you feel... only mad when you handle your feelings in the wrong way."

"You and Ashton must have taken the same brothering classes."

Terrence smiled. "Remember what I told you at the restaurant?"

"About how if I did anything else I wouldn't be able to sit for a week?"

"That, too. You know you've still got to be spanked for being such a tyrant tonight."

I pouted. "Do I hafta?"

"Yeah, you do. I'm very disappointed in your behavior, Brianna. You're very lucky that I didn't spank you right there in Romano's."

I nodded.

"Go get the hairbrush."

I winced, but got it anyway, not brave enough to argue. I put the wooden hairbrush in his hands and he patted his lap, helping me over. He then pulled my pants and panties back down. I clenched my eyes shut, biting my lower lip. My backside ached enough from his handspanking, I so totally didn't want to get spanked again.

"I'm sorry," I said so softly that it was almost a whisper.

"I know. And if you ever do anything like that again, you will see more than just this hairbrush, do you understand?" he said, slapping me across the backside hard.

"Ooow, yes, sir," I said.

He slapped it down again in the very same spot, causing me to jump and whine, and then swatted me more and more until I was kicking and squirming and bawling to no end.

"I'm sorrryyyyy!" I howled.

"Are you finished throwing tantrums like an eight year old?"

"Yessss, I promiseeee!"

He slapped my sit spots really hard about six times, then stopped, letting me sob into the couch cushion. Within seconds, my brother scooped me into his arms and held onto me tightly. "I love you, little sis... no one could ever be more important to me."

"I know," I wailed... and I did know... and I was finally sort of at ease with the whole situation. Sure, it'd take some getting used to... but doesn't everything?