“Are you freaking kidding me right now?” I can’t believe these girls. “You know what? Forget it, I’m heading home.”
“Home? Shouldn’t we be shopping for Homecoming? That is the other reason we’re here.”
“Well, maybe I don’t feel like going this year,” I say to Ashleigh.
“Don’t be silly. We never miss an event and definitely not our last ever.”
“Does this have anything to do with your “Broken card,” Nicole uses air-quotes to emphasize her point.
“Fuck you, Nicole.”
When I make it home, I run straight to my mother’s room because I know that’s precisely where’d she be. She’s been there since dad left. She doesn’t come out of there, she doesn’t cook, and she barely speaks to Ben and me.
“Mom! Mom! Wake up!” I shake her like crazy.
“What is it, kid?” She’s groggy, and she can barely focus on my face.
“Did you know that daddy practically cut me off?”
“Of course, now you wake up because he didn’t do it to just you.” She turns back over and starts snoring.
I glance at her table, and there’s a wine glass with barely anything in it and a pill bottle. I read the bottle and shake my mother again. “You’re not supposed to mix alcohol with these.”
“It’s not alcohol, there’s barely any in that wine, now leave me be.”
“You know what? I don’t even give a shit!” I place the bottle back on the table and throw my hands in the air as I leave her room and head to mine.
3/Artist
Against my better judgment, I’m sitting at McDonald’s per the request of a smaller Bailey. I’m just so freaking pissed at his sister right now, and I know I shouldn’t take it out on the kid, so that’s why I’m here to touch base with him about Operation Trick Lunch.
He also wanted to return the favor of buying me a bite to eat and wouldn’t take no for an answer. To savor his ego, I get a shake and a cheeseburger. “Alright, Bud… let’s hear how it went.” I’m trying my damned best not to seem so damn agitated.
“Operation Trick Lunch was a success!” He holds his drink up to mine for a toast. “I gotta know what you did. He snatched my lunch away like always and started eating it. After a while, I saw him holding his stomach as he ran out of the cafeteria. Rumor has it, he pooped his pants. All the kids were laughing at him so hard!” Ben cracks up, reliving what had taken place. “It was so funny! I wish you could have been there. He didn’t show up the next day at school, but since then, he’s been bypassing me at lunch like he doesn’t see me at all.”
“That’s great, Bud.”
“What’s wrong? You should be celebrating with me!”
“No, Bud.” I sit back and look at him intently. “I spiked that lunch with laxative because I knew the effect it would have on him, he’d leave your lunch alone for a while. But it’s nothing to laugh about.”
“He makes fun of me all the time!”
“I know, and how does that make you feel?”
“Not good, but that’s the reason why he deserves to be laughed at now.”
“No one deserves to feel bad, Bud. Sometimes you have to fight back to get the person to leave you the hell alone, but we’re not supposed to find joy in them feeling bad.”
“What are you some kind of inspirational meme?”
“I’m just saying, you’re a good kid, Bud, you don’t want to turn into your sister.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” He pounds the table with his small fist. “My sister is a good person. If you don’t know that, you don’t know my sister.”
“I know she’s mean as hell, and she’s a bully at school just like the dork who’s bullying you.” Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. People tend to be sentimental about their family members. I keep forgetting I’m talking to an actual kid.
We sit in silence for a moment as he gazes out of the window. “You and my sister hate each other?”
“Hate is a strong word, Bud… but I’d still need to think of a stronger word than that to describe how I feel about your sister.”
“You just need to try and get to know her, that’s all.”
“Mhm… what’s the kid’s name that bullies you at school?”
“Keifer.”
“Keifer? Okay, I’ll make you a deal.” I lean in closer. “I’ll try to get to know your sister better if you try to get to know Keifer better.”
“No way in hell!”
“My sentiment exactly.”
“That’s not the same thing,” Ben says. “You’re unfair.”
“How? Your sister is the biggest brat I’d ever met in my entire life. She was crying today over not being—” I catch myself again and figure it wouldn’t be appropriate to share that with her baby brother. Although, I think it’s kinda too late because I already started the word vomit, and now it looks like he wants to cry.
“She… she was crying?”
“Yeah, but it was nothing serious. Your sister couldn’t tan because her credit card got declined—silly stuff.”
“What did you do when you saw my sister crying?”
“I tried to console her the best I could until she told me that’s what the hell was wrong with her, so I got pissed and got the hell away from her.”
“Wow, you’re a hypocrite.”
“How?” This kid was losing his mind. “Better yet, spell it?”
“H-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e. I’m not an idiot. You did to my sister what you just told me not to do to Keifer.”
“Nooo, you can’t compare that, Bud.”
“She was opening up to you. My sister rarely does that with anyone. Not even with those stupid girls she hangs around with.”
“No, she was wasting my time and playing with my emotions.”
“She’s going through something right now. We both are.”
“Wow, did daddy shut down the valve to the money faucet or something,” I chuckle. But I stop when I realized I’d hit a sore spot with the kid.
“Yeah, he did.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that. How will you guys survive?”
“Do be a dick, I don’t care about the money! I’m sure Echo doesn’t either. Our dad left, and he hasn’t come back yet. My mom doesn’t want to adult anymore, so she stays in bed and has pills and booze for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t even know the last time I’ve had a conversation with her. If it weren’t for Echo, I’d practically be on my own. She makes sure I’m fed and taken care of and loved. She does that for me! Even though I’m too old, she still comes and reads me bedtime stories to put me to sleep.”
“I really am sorry, kid. I didn’t know.” This time I’m not sarcastic. I’m sincere.
“Don’t apologize to me, say sorry to my sister. She needs it more than I do.”
“Your sister and I don’t do the apology thing.”
“Then you have to be the bigger person. I know she’s hurting about my parents splitting up, but she won’t admit it because she has to hold everything in and be strong for my mom and me.”
“If she really needs someone to talk to, why won't she talk to her jock boyfriend?”
“You and I both know he’s an ass.”
I don’t know how I let this kid talk me into coming back into this neighborhood, let alone his house. I lay my bike on its side and have a seat on their stoop. “Well, bring her out here so I can apologize. But I refuse to accept any of her verbal abuse. If she starts, I’m walking away.”
“She won’t come outside, you’re going to have to come in.”
“No, no, no… that wasn’t the deal.” I shake my finger at him. “If she doesn't come out, she’ll just have to wait until Monday, and I’ll apologize at school.”
“Please, just trust me on this.” Ben holds the door open, waiting for me to walk in. I don’t know how he does it, but he knows what to say to get me to do things I don’t want to do. Maybe because I feel sorry for the poor sap.
He gets me in the
house, and all the way up the spiral staircase, and the next thing I know, I’m standing in front of the bedroom door of the Evil Ice Queen herself. I tap on her door so light, I could barely hear it myself. “She’s probably sleeping, so I’ll catch her another day, maybe tomorrow?”
“No way!” He bangs on her door, opens it, and shoves me inside before I could get a grip on what the hell was happening as he closes the door.
“What the hell are you doing in my room?”
“Uh…” I stand there looking like a mute idiot scratching my head. “Your… uh… brother…” All I can do is point to the door.
“Get out and find some friends your own age!”
“Right.” I pull on the knob, and it’s stuck. “Something’s wrong with the door.”
“Twist and pull, dimwit!”
“I know how to open a freaking door, Queen! It’s not budging.” She sighs and snatches her bedspread away from her, knocking used tissues onto the floor. She twists and pulls on the knob just as I had.
“Ben!” She bangs on the door with her palm. “Ben, did you bungee cord my door closed again?”
“Yes, and I’m not opening it until you two apologize to each other.”
“For what?” Echo asks and then looks at me for an answer, and I shrug hesitantly.
“You both know.”
“Okay, fine,” Echo says. “Artist, I am sorry for whatever I have done.” She holds her hands out, motioning for me to do the same.
“And I too apologize, Echo… for… being insensitive to your feelings.”
“Great! Now let us out, Ben!”
“Neither of you worked anything out. You’re just saying it so I can let you out.”
“Duh!” Echo’s shoulders slump as she sighs again.
“Let’s just do this,” I tell her.
“I’m not doing anything with you!” She looks me up and down like I disgust her. She folds her arms as she sits on the edge of her bed, refusing to look or talk to me. She’s wearing a ponytail and no makeup. It’s weird because she sorta looks better without all the paint on her face. She has beautiful skin. I don’t know why she feels the need to hide it. Her PJ’s she’s wearing is a tank style that says Total Babe on the front in gems with matching shorts.
I look around her room. Just with my eyes, I don’t want to seem too interested or touch anything to invade her personal space any more than I already am. I expected her to have pink walls and zebra print everywhere, or some kind of animal print. Not that I sat there and imagined what her room looked like, I just assumed. Instead, her walls were painted in Teal, and her décor was all black, white, and silver. Her walls were also decorated with a lot of vinyl sticker sayings.
“Can you please stop eye-raping my room?” Echo scowls at me with her eyes tight like little slits.
“What else am I supposed to do? You won’t even allow me to sit anywhere.”
“Close your eyes and stand there!”
“No way in hell am I doing that! It’s bad enough I have to be stuck in here with you!”
“You should count yourself lucky!” She leaps from her bed and points her finger in my face. By reflex, I reach out and grab it the same way I did that day in 7th period.
“What did I tell you about pointing your finger in my face?”
“Let go of me!” She yells and tries to break free. But I could tell she wasn’t trying too hard, which makes me think she put her finger in my face on purpose to piss me off.
“I don’t want to be in here just as much as you don’t want me here,” I tell her, still holding onto her index finger. Then it hit me why I was here, to begin with when I look into her eyes for the first time. It wasn’t the color of them that caught me; it was the emotion behind them. Maybe that’s why they say the eyes are the window to the soul because I was able to look past her hatred for me at that moment and see something soft and broken. “I… I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“If that’s true, then let me go!”
She’s thinking I’m apologizing for holding onto her finger. “I’m sorry I didn’t take you seriously earlier at the mall.” For a moment, she stops struggling to get away from me. “I said I would be there to listen, and I wasn’t.”
“Yeah, whatever.” She shrugs and try and pull away from me again.
“Can you stop acting like a child for a moment and listen?” She scowls at me, reaches her free hand back, and tries to come in contact with my face. She’s unsuccessful because I cross my arm over the other and catch her by the wrist before she’s able to do any damage. Echo twists, and now her back is to me, and our arms are intertwined in front of her. “Why don’t you just give up?”
“I’m going to gouge your eyes out!” She struggles a bit more, and I just wait it out until she’s too tired to fight any more.
“Are you done?” She tries one last time and then gives up when I feel her body relax as she rests the back of her head on my chest.
“Fine,” she breathes out hard. “Say whatever it is you want to say so you can hurry up and get away from me.
“Okay, but I’m not letting you go until I’m done.”
“I don’t give a shit anymore.”
I suck in a deep breath and let it out before I continue. “I didn’t know, okay? That you were dealing with stuff. I thought you were a brat about not being able to tan. Had I known you were dealing with your parents splitting up and your mom—”
I was doubled over and gasping for breath. Echo elbowed the shit out of my midsection and knocked all the wind out of me.
“Why the hell are you so deep into my business?”
I hold up a finger as I starve from the lack of oxygen I so much needed. A few more deep breaths and I was good as new. “What the hell did you do that for?” I ask, totally ignoring her question on purpose.
“What gives you the right to grill my baby brother about my home life, which is cleary, one-hundred percent none of your damn business.”
“I didn’t. Ben volunteered because maybe he needed someone to talk to.”
“Ben has me!” She crashes the palm of her hand against her chest to emphasize her point. “He talks to me about everything!”
“Evidently, not everything because you didn’t know shit about him being bullied at school every day!” Shit. There I go again with the fucking word vomit. It just spews out like a volcano erupting.
“You are such a fucking liar,” she says, shaking her head and hunching her shoulders. “Benny would have shared something like that with me.”
“You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I don’t know what I was thinking. Forget I said anything.” I walk across the room and sit on the edge of her bed without asking. If I had asked, she would have definitely told me no. And if she tells me to get off, I’m not listening to her. I’m tired of standing.
“No,” she says hesitantly as she walks towards me. “No, now you’re lying,” she says like she can read me. She makes a b-line and runs towards the door and bangs on it. “Ben!”
I run over to the door to stop her. “Don’t tell Ben! He’d know I told you, and he won’t trust me.”
“No way! This is serious. If someone is bothering my brother, I want to know about it.”
“I know you do, but you’re going to have to wait for him to come to you.” I can’t help but think of how much of a hypocrite she is right now. “Wait—do you hear that?” I get down low and press my ear against the door.
“Hear what?” I grab her hand and pull her onto the floor with me. She puts an ear to the door too. “Is he… is he snoring?” She bangs on the door again. “Benjamin!”
This was getting so annoying. “What about your mom?”
“What about her?” she snarls.
“Can’t you call her phone and tell her to come let me out?”
“She won't hear it, she’s knocked out cold.”
Right, the booze and pills cocktails.
“Hey, can I used your bathroom?” I stand to my feet and ask out of cou
rtesy as I make my way there.
“After you wash your hands, used the paper towels to dry them… not my décor towels.”
“Who says I was washing my hands?” Of course, I’ll wash my hands after. I couldn’t resist the look of horror on her face after I said it. I hear her phone ring as I close the bathroom door.
4/Echo
“Hey babe,” I pace my room nervously as I greet Jesse over the phone. I might even be biting my nails right now if they weren’t covered in acrylic. “What are you up to?” This was the first time I’m hearing from him since I’ve tried to get in touch with him earlier.
“Luke’s parent’s left for the weekend, so he has the house to himself. I know you know what that means.” He chuckles. “Major rager, going on right now as we speak.”
“Oh,” I say, already knowing what he would say next.
“I’m on my way to pick you up right now. How fast can you be ready?”
“Oh, uh… I can’t. I’m going to sit this one out.”
“No way, babe. I need you. Like really, really need you.”
I knew exactly what those words meant. Jesse didn’t need me, Echo Bailey… the mind, heart, or soul. He just needed the body part. God forbid he needed to talk about something that bothered him because nothing ever bothers Jesse. I guess that’s why he’s never really there for me when I need to talk about something. Nobody seems to be except for Ben. I know he’d listen to all my problems and fears, but I don’t and won’t burden him with those things. He’s way too young and needs to enjoy his kid life while he has it. It’ll be gone soon enough.
“I can’t, Jesse.”
“Can’t or won’t?” His voice now takes on a different tone. “Care to give an explanation with that rejection?” Almost cynical.
“I…” Artist comes from my bathroom and stands frozen when he sees me on the phone. I place my index finger to my lips, and he gives me an eye roll. I almost forgot he was even here. “I’m not feeling the greatest right now, Jesse.”
“It’s fine,” Jesse says. “How about I come up instead?”
Horny much! That’s what I felt like saying but didn’t. I couldn’t understand why all of a sudden, he was pushing so hard like some sex-starved maniac. Sure, I could toss him down my house key for him to come in and unbungee cord my door, but how would I explain the strange new guy in my room? How would that even look? “Can you leave it, Jesse? I’m not feeling up to it!”
The Mean Girl and the Bad Boy #2: Echo and Artist Page 2
