The Legend (16 page)

“Oh
right,” she let go of him and then looked at me. “Oh man, he has a heroin
addiction. I know it. This is horrible.”

I looked
over at Sway as she ranted. Removing herself from the counter, she grabbed onto
me as if she needed me to comfort her. “How did him smoking pot suddenly become
a heroin addiction?”

“It’s a
gateway drug, Jameson.” Sway wailed into my shoulder.

“For
heroin?” she nodded and I scratched my head squinting at her. “Am I missing
something? We smoked pot when we were kids a time or two and we never moved
onto heroin?”

 “What
are you doing?” Casten asked chipper, his rusty hair standing on end in disarray.
When he finally came downstairs I was now standing in the living room.

“I’m
wondering if your uncle is ever going to get off my lawn,” I told him glaring
out the window. Spencer was still flat on his back not appearing to have moved
at all.

“At least
his clothes are on.” Sway added standing next to me with a cup of coffee in
hand.

I shot her
a glare.

“I wonder
if Lane is still alive.” Casten mused peeking out the back French doors to the
pool where Lane was only is his underwear floating on a pink inflatable
dolphin.

All of us
looked out there to see not only Lane in the pool but Charlie and Noah were
curled up in a lawn chair together while Cole was sprawled out in the grass.

“What the
fuck happened last night?” I finally asked when I noticed a hole in the wall
right below the clock behind Sway.

Casten
shrugged shoving a leftover piece of pizza in his mouth. “What? We had a few
people over.”

“We?”

“Yeah, me
and
...
Arie,” as soon as he said Aries’ name his
expression changed to panic but he wasn’t letting on. “Willie and Tommy are
here too.”

“We, as in
your mother and I, specifically told you no parties.”

“I told
you I was going to have a party.”

“And I
told you no,” I said sternly. This “hardline” parent shit was hard for me, but
I was trying. “
...
and you agreed.”

“That’s
bullshit.” Casten laughed, “I never said anything like that.”

“Regardless.
I told you no parties.”

“Hmmm,” he
looked up at the ceiling. “I don’t recall hearing that part of the
conversation.”

Spencer, soaked,
stumbled inside after that and then fell on the floor in front of us. He curled
up on the carpet in the family room and went back to sleep mumbling something
about the sprinkler system.

“Let’s
talk about the drugs that went on here.” I said when Sway kept nudging me in
the ribs.

“What
drugs?” He tried to look innocent, I’ll give him that much.

“No way,
you’re not back-
dooring
me on this shit. I know you
did drugs last night.”

He
laughed, “You’re always so mature about things dad.”

“You’re
right,” I looked at Sway, “we should have beaten him.”

Casten’s
phone rang and he quickly turned it off as if it wasn’t the person he wanted to
talk to.

“Do you
think it’s his drug dealer?” Sway whispered in my ear.

“What? No.
I don’t.” I looked around the room. “Where’s Arie?”

“Don’t be
mad?” Casten’s eyes grew wider.

“Why?”

“I said
don’t be mad.” Casten’s eyes did that pleading look he was so good at.

I stepped
toward him, his hands rose and the confession spilled. “I accidently left her
at the gas station last night. I’m sure she’ll be home soon.”

“How did
you leave her at the gas station? You don’t have a license.”

“About
that
...
”

“Casten,”
I looked at Sway and then back to our son. By my hard expression and flushed appearance,
he knew damn well I meant business. “You better not have touched my Mustang!”

He backed
away. “Your Mustang is locked up and you have the only key. Now your GTO, it
seems to have been misplaced.”

“Misplaced?”

“Don’t
worry, dad. Van will find it.”

Sway
interrupted. “How did the street catch on fire?”

“That is a
long story and I assure you it wasn’t entirely
my
fault.”

Van walked
into the house and stopped when he saw us standing in the family room staring
at Casten.

Van gave a
nod in the direction of the backyard. “How often do you guys swim in that
pool?”

We looked
in the backyard at the same time to see that my now found GTO.

Casten
smiled and patted my back. “Ah yes, right where I left it last night. Phew.” He
swiped the back of his hand across his forehead. “I was worried I misplaced
it.”

Believe me
when I say that my rage was boiling by that point.

“How did
it get in the pool?”

“Ran out
of gas when I tried to jump it over the pool?” He asked this as if it was a
fucking question and then when my eyes widened, he tried to run away.

I caught
him by the hood of his sweatshirt before he could escape. “How did the street
catch on fire?”

“It was a
big
misunderstanding.” He gestured outside so we followed him to the back yard
where the motocross track was. “See,” he flicked his wrist to a smoking pile
under the double jump, “it didn’t go as planned.”

“I think
it was more than a misunderstanding, Casten.” With my hands on my hips, I hung
my head in shame that my kid had caused this much damage. Our entire backyard
was black and smoking along with the field behind the house and much of the
forest.

“It’s not
that bad.”

Sway had
to hold him back behind her when he said that. Spencer laughed and then ran off
in the other direction. My eyes focused on Van. “Where were you in all this?”

His eyes
widened in shock. “Me?”

“Yes, you
...
bodyguard,”

“I was out
of town. It was Clint’s turn to watch them but he
...
well
...
” Van’s eyes scanned the yard. “I’m not sure
where he is.”

“He’s
probably with Arie, I think. Listen dad,” Casten peeked around Sway’s shoulder,
“it wasn’t planned. We had some people over and it got a little out of
control.”

“I gather
that.” I snapped throwing my arms up. “You better tell me what the fuck
happened here!”

Casten started
coming clean but surprisingly maintained his composed demeanor. “What’s the big
deal? Lane wanted to jump through fire. It was a cool idea. We tried to build a
fire jump. Which we succeeded in doing and it was
awesome
. It was a cool
idea but we didn’t take into account the fact that the bike could catch on fire
...
Around the fifth or sixth jump; Willie’s bike
caught a flame or something. I think his carb was leaking gas.” Casten pointed
to the field. “He went off into the field and it caught the field on fire. I
personally blame our hot summer. If we had some rain sometime we wouldn’t have
had this problem.”

“You’re
not really helping yourself.” Van patted his back. Even though Van was our
bodyguard, over the years he had developed a huge soft spot for our kids and
Lane. Cole, Noah and Charlie were assholes. No one had soft spots for them.

Sway and I
both looked at him and then noticed Lane and Noah standing beside Spencer. Both
of them resembled zombies.

“Jesus
Casten, look at this!” Sway raised her voice. Sway hardly ever lost it with the
kids. I can actually count the number or occasions that she has gotten angry
and yelled at them in a tone that I liked to refer to as the Mama Wizard Wrath.

Taking a deep
breath, Sway shot him a glare. “It wasn’t this bad on the news.”

“Shit,” he
looked surprised. “
...
it made the local
news?”

“How did
you think we found out?”

“I thought
you found out this morning when you got home. Now I know it was a planned
execution.” He looked at Spencer. “How’d it get on the news?”

“Noah.”
Lane mumbled leaning against Van’s burly shoulders as support. Van side-eyed
him and then laughed.

Casten
looked at Lane and then Noah.

“Goddamn
you Noah!” Casten shoved him. “I told you not to put that on YouTube.”

Noah
chuckled as he gained his footing, “My bad.”

“I still
don’t understand how all this caught on fire from that field.” I voiced to
them. It didn’t seem possible that two separate pieces of land could be on fire
at the same time.

“Let’s get
this clear,” Casten, said becoming serious all of a sudden, “I set this on
fire.” He motioned with his hands to the wood pile and jump. “That
...
” he gestured behind him to the field on the
other side of our house, “was not me. I don’t know…well, I know how that got on
fire but that wasn’t me.”

“Well who
did that then?” Sway asked.

“You need
to discuss that with the Gomez boys but you may want to find that trophy truck
of yours first.”

I was
ready to kill someone when I heard that. They set the street on fire. Drove my
GTO into the pool, trashed my house, broke the gate and stole my trophy truck.
I very nearly lost it right then. If it weren’t for Sway, I probably would
have.

“Where’s
my trophy truck?”

Casten
pointed to the field to the West of us. “It’s out there somewhere in the smoke.
Turns out open headers start fires too. Again,” Casten shook his head. “I have
to say that I blame the dry weather.”

My glare
found Sway. “Is it time to overreact yet?”

Sway
looked at the boys standing there staring at me. “Let’s give him some time to
think,” she said shooing everyone away.

“It was a
simple fire jump.” Casten shook his head dejected as he walked back to the
house. “That’s all.”

I think I
stared at that jump for close to an hour. Killing my kids wasn’t a good idea so
I stayed away for their safety. When I became less angry, I went back inside to
see that Sway had ordered pizza. Food seemed like a good idea so I ate and by
the time I was done, Casten had felt the need to explain more details.

I had heard
enough. “Where the fuck is your sister?”

“I’m sure
she’ll turn up. The car did.” He shoved more pizza in his mouth and then with
that pizza still in his mouth, took a drink of
Pepsi
. He must have
snorted or something because he ended up coughing out the last of his sentence.
“Not
...
” he waved his hands around trying to clear
his throat, “to worry.”

“Worry?”
Laughing, I shook my head. “Good luck when she gets home.”

“I think
I’ll stay with Cole tonight,” he said jetting out the door. I grabbed him by
the collar. “Nope, you’re grounded.”

I didn’t
have time to stay and punish him but once Arie got home after having to walk
five miles, I’m sure she would punish him. Sway seemed satisfied with this
option as well. It wasn’t the first time our kids threw a party and I had a
feeling it wouldn’t be the last they were teenagers. It was to be expected.
Setting our street on fire was a first.

I had a
meeting that morning with Melissa to discuss the Monster Million coming up and
the fan appreciation lunch that Simplex was having for me next week. It went
well and then I returned home to help with the mess.

“Remember
when Spencer drew that dick on the wall?” Sway asked scrubbing the counter with
her rubber gloves on. Her eyebrows scrunched as she dug at what looked to be
dried chocolate syrup.

My eyes
shot around the house and then back to hers. “Yeah, why, what else did those
shit heads do? Please tell me I don’t have a dick on the wall in here.”

“Apparently,”
she gestured to the only lawn that hadn’t been destroyed by the fire. “…Cole
has his drawing ability.”

“What a
fucking disaster.” I mumbled in shock staring at the patch of grass that had
been branded with a welder. There, scorched in my beautiful lawn was another
dick with harry balls.

Looking slightly
ashamed of
himself
, Casten appeared in the kitchen
holding a spray bottle of bleach and a bucket. “I’ve come to serve my
sentence.”

Casten and
I stared at each other blankly, each of us waiting for the other to say
something. I think he was waiting for me to blow up on him, which I considered
but tried the calm approach.

“Here’s
the deal,” I said breaking the silence between us, “you’re thirteen—”

“I’m
fourteen.” Casten reminded me with an eye roll and a heavy sigh.

“I know
that.” I took a deep breath and said what I needed to say. “Drugs are off
limits.”