SIX DAYS (11 page)

“Don’t start, Hazel,” Asher warned.

Hazel’s smile widened, she put her hands on her hips. “Or what?”

They stared each other down with an intensity that almost scared me.

“C’mon, we’re ordering,” Tosh called from her seat.

“I’m all out of fight,” Kasey said, and went to join them. Hazel grabbed my wrist to keep me from going with him.

“You’re still wearing that thing?” Asher asked, almost laughing.

“Fuck you,” Hazel said, and then I saw her grab the necklace with the medallion I’d seen the day before and tuck it back inside her shirt.

“What was that about?” I asked as she marched us to the tables where the others were sitting.

“Nothing,” she growled. I’d sensed it before, but now I was
convinced that there was more to her and Asher’s story.

DAY
FOUR

I heard buzzing; short quick tones that repeated three times.
Over and over.

It was my phone; I felt it vibrating against my side.

“Make it stop,” Tosh moaned.

Mentally, I was trying to force it to, but my body would not move.
When the buzzing began again, I felt a hard push and was rolled onto my stomach.

“Your phone is archaic,” Hazel griped. “It’s your fucking mom,” she said, and tossed the phone, hitting me in the head.

“Ow,” I growled.

“Sorry,” she mumbled and lay back down.

I had nine missed calls—all from my mother. Remembering that I hadn’t asked her if I could stay out last night woke me right up, and made me nauseous. My phone vibrated again before I had time to faction a story.

As
if it would have mattered
.

“Hello?” I answered, eyes tight, awaiting her wrath.

“Have you spoken to your father today?” she barked.

“Dad?”
I murmured. “No—why?”

“He should have already told you himself. It’s not my responsibility to spread his disgusting news around.”

“What’s going on? Is he okay?” I asked, ducking into the bathroom across the hall.

“Just call him. I have to go,” she said, and hung up.

“What the hell?” I mumbled, and dialed my dad’s cell phone. I didn’t know what he’d done, but was glad it caused my mom not to care that I hadn’t come home last night—if she’d even noticed. 

My dad answered on the third ring.
“Hey pumpkin!”
Huh
? The world must have been spinning upside down or something. Pumpkin? Really? I was eighteen—not eight, and pet names hadn’t ever been my dad’s thing.

“Uh…Mom said you had something to tell me—some kind of news.”

“Um—I—uh…I’m about to walk into a meeting, I’ll call you later and we’ll talk then, okay?” Then he hung up on me, too.

“What the hell?” I griped, louder that time.

“What’s the problem?” Chase asked, from behind me.

“My parents have completely lost it,” I complained, whipping around to face him. He was wearing Captain America briefs and nothing else, scratching his head like a monkey. That should have been funny, but being in Kasey’s bathroom with an almost naked guy whose girlfriend was ten feet away was more than a little awkward. Knowing that he wore comic book character underwear wasn’t something I’d wanted to find out about Chase, but I guess it went with that whole no privacy thing they have.

“What the hell took them so long?” Chase groggily chuckled, sidestepping me. I turned my back when he lifted the commode lid. “My parents went fucking nuts, like, in the eighties—before I was even born. I think they did a lot of coke when they were younger,” he said, and then sighed as his pee trickled to an end. “Which is why I never touch that shit. I’d never want to be like those assholes.”

His confession made me realize that all six of us had problems at home.
That all of us had parents who were screwed up in one way or another. Some more than others.

“I’m
gonna find Kasey. I think I should probably go home and try to figure out what the hell is going on.”

Hazel swung into the room, slapped Chase’s ass and grinned mischievously. “Kasey’s not here,” she said, cutting her eyes to me.

“Where’d he go?”

“Running.”

“Running?” I repeated, making sure I’d heard her correctly.

“Yeah, he runs sometimes. Says it clears his head. I can take you home. I just need about…six minutes with Captain America before we go,” she growled.

“Try sixty,” Chase threatened, and snatched Hazel closer.

“Second thought,” she said, without looking at me. “My keys are on the nightstand, drive yourself home.”

I found a note from my mother on the table in the foyer lying next to a medium size package wrapped in Tiffany blue paper with a white iridescent bow perched neatly on top.

This is probably your father’s weak attempt to apologize for being such an irresponsible asshole
, I read aloud. I was surprised she’d used such restraint, although I still had no idea what my father had done. I figured it must have been bad if my mother thought he needed to start making it up to me with expensive gifts.

Honestly, part of me didn’t care to know what my father had done, while all of me felt both of my parents should leave me out of whatever was going on between them.  I mean, I had my own crap to deal with.

I lifted the lid on the box and found another handwritten note—not from my father.

You stole away too soon—taking part of me with you as you went.

—Devan Montgomery

The guy seriously spoke as if he’d been born in more
proper times than these—not to mention having super girlish handwriting. If I hadn’t been so concerned about what had Kasey’s mind cloudy, or more specifically, if it had to do with me, I would have laughed.

Also inside the box were
an Hermes scarf and a bottle of Thierry Mugler perfume. Neither of which I had any use for. I carried the box upstairs to my room and put it in a dresser drawer figuring I’d give those things to my mother for her birthday or something.

Rude of me?
Probably.

Did I care? No.

I looked around my room for something to do to take my mind off of Kasey until it was time to go over to Hazel’s for game night, but I knew deep down that that wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t really want to stop thinking about Kasey, so I snatched my laptop off my desk and curled onto my side in the middle of my bed, went to Netflix, and rented
The Awful Truth
.

I heard loud music, which I slowly realized was coming from my phone. I wasn’t sure what to be more upset over; the fact that I’d fallen asleep and still hadn’t seen the whole movie, or that Luke had changed my ringtone to “Mary Jane,” or that it was my mother calling.

“Have you spoken to your father yet?” she asked when I answered.

“I called him after I talked to you. He said he’d call me back. He was in a meeting or something.”

“It’s eight o’clock. His
meeting
should be over.”

“It’s
eight!” I panicked. I was supposed to have been at Hazel’s already. “I’ve got plans with Hazel tonight. I fell asleep watching a movie. I’m late. Can we talk about this later?”

“Your father will be calling you within the hour,” my mother said sternly, and hung up.

“Yay,” I groaned.

I put on a little makeup, swept my hair up into a ponytail, slid on a pair of jeans, a blue and white tunic, and walked next door making sure the heels of my shoes didn’t sink into the grass and get dirty.

I thought it was only going to be the six of us, but Hazel’s driveway, and the street in front of her house was covered with cars.

Someone I didn’t know let me in the house. I saw plenty of faces, none of which I recognized. I thought everyone looked a little old to be friends with Hazel. I asked a couple people if they’d seen her and neither of them knew
who I was talking about, which made me uneasy. I tried calling Hazel. She didn’t answer, so I went back to my house.

I pulled my shoes off and trudged upstairs, yanking my ponytail down as I pushed my bedroom door open, and then I screamed a true horror film scream.

“What the hell?” I growled, clutching at my chest. I wasn’t expecting to come home to a room full of people; especially a room full of people who thought it was super funny that they’d just scared the shit out of me, or had no qualms about making themselves completely at home.

Luke was sitting at my desk, my laptop open in front of him. Tosh and Hazel were lying on my bed watching TV, and Chase was looking through and touching
everything I owned as if he was a dog that had picked up another dog’s scent and wanted to mark on top of it.

I was a little more than disappointed when I realized Kasey was missing. It made me fear that I really was the reason he’d gone running this morning.

“Tell Carolyn she needs to find a better hiding place for her spare key,” Luke said, without looking up at me. I thought I’d pass on taking his advice. I figured the less I shared with my mother about my life right now, the better off I would be.

“Did you go next door?” Hazel asked with a huge smile on her face.

“Yes, I went. Nobody warned me not to. What the hell is going on over there anyway?”

“My mom’s electricity got cut off so she and The Frenchman decided to crash at my place tonight and brought a few of their sleazy friends along.”

“Seriously?”

“I know, it’s a shame.
That bitch can’t survive on fifty grand a month.”

“That’s how much you give her,” I gasped.

“And look what I get in return,” she deadpanned.

“Why don’t you make them leave?”

“Because she’s my mother—I know it’s screwed up that she only comes around when she needs something, but at least she comes,” she mumbled. “Anyway, I’m not in the mood for a fight tonight. Their electricity will be back on in the morning. I’ll write her a check and she’ll go willingly.” She started to smile. “Throwing Frenchie out on his ass would be fun though.” 

“
Oui, oui,” Tosh giggled, making everyone laugh.

“So, what are we doing tonight?” Chase asked.

“It’s still early,” Hazel said. “We could pretty much do whatever we want.”

My heart had resumed its normal rhythm so I climbed onto my bed with the girls to hatch a new plan.

“All I know is that I can’t stay out all night tonight. My mom’s on some purity kick. I have to go to church with her in the morning,” Tosh complained.

“Church,” Hazel laughed.

“Don’t laugh,” Tosh whined.

“Sorry, but you know Vita. She’ll be over it in a couple weeks.”

“I know, but until then she’s going to drag me to church, make me drink seaweed slushies, and wash my feet in salt water to remove impurities before I can come inside the house. I almost wish my dad would come home and give her some so she’d chill the hell out.”

“No,” Luke cried. “I don’t want him to come home; I’ll
never get to see you—just give her a vibrator or something.” Tosh, Hazel, and I laughed. He’d said it so matter-of-fact.

“That’s not exactly the kind of thing a girl gives her mother. Besides, she thinks eating pork is a sin; she’d never have sex with a plastic penis, and giving her one would only result in more church for me.
And possibly an exorcist.” I laughed at that.

“I hereby exorcise from you, Natasha
Aasan, the demon responsible for implanting in you the disgusting urge to gift to your mother a plastic penis to hump,” Hazel laughed. “Out Demon! Out!”

“Mary Jane” blared from my pocket, making everyone laugh harder.

“Hey, thanks for the awesome new ringtone, Luke.” He flashed a pearly smile and winked at me. Maybe that was his twisted way of letting me know he didn’t hate me. I expected it was my dad calling so I answered without checking.

“So, I was thinking,”
Kasey said. I smiled; just hearing his voice lit me up inside, “that it would be really great if you ditched everybody tonight so that I could take you on a date, just the two of us.”

I don’t know why, but I put my hand over the phone and looked at the girls. “Kasey just asked me out.”

“Bout time,” Hazel hollered. “You’ve been getting the milk for free long enough, buddy.”

“Yeah,” Tosh laughed, “Time to buy the cow!”

“You’re ruining my moment,” I griped, but doubted they’d heard me over their cackling. I stepped into the hallway and closed my bedroom door behind me.

“I would love to,” I breathed, happy that he wanted to see me.

“Good, tell the goons I said to go home. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

I had seen Kasey plenty of times before, but I was still stunned when I caught sight of him standing there on my front porch, waiting for me. He looked like the dreamiest ad for khaki pants I’d ever seen.

“Hey,” I said, feeling like that was the only word I could muster.

“Hey,” he said back, and then we smiled at each other. He took my hand and walked me to his car. I had no idea what kind it was, but it looked fast.

“Nice car,” I chirped.

“Thanks, graduation gift,” he said as he helped me inside, where I discovered I was sitting in a Lotus
Exige.
Some gift
, I thought. The friends I graduated with were taken to dinner and allowed to stay out past curfew for their gift.

My mother gave me an obnoxiously large pair of diamond earrings that I will never wear and because she’d just found out about my father’s secret life, he didn’t attend my graduation. Probably because he knew she would have tried her hardest to strangle him to death, witnesses
be damned. He’d told me he had to be away for business, but I knew that was bullshit. He’d already used that line on my mother. He just didn’t want to deal with her, or face me after what he’d done.