by S Doyle
“I will.” I bent to kiss her on the cheek. Then added, “I am sorry about this, Mom. I can’t regret doing what I did, but I know you’re going to pay a price for it and I’m sorry for that.”
“Don’t you worry about that. It will take more than this bogus charge to bring down my political career. We’re going to beat this and that’s all that counts.”
I left the house and got in my car. My first pick-up was Chas. Then Beth and Star at their house.
A double date. I couldn’t wait.
“We’ve got a problem,” Beth whispered to me.
We’d all decided on the movie first then dinner after. Chas and I let the ladies pick what they wanted to watch, and we had all just settled down with snacks before the previews started.
The theater had been crowded enough we weren’t able to find four seats together, so Beth and I took two seats and three rows in front of us Star and Chas found two more seats on the end of the aisle.
“I don’t want to deal with anymore problems,” I told her. “I want to behave like a normal fucking couple on a normal fucking date.”
“Sure, sure,” she said, patting me on the hand. “Except you’re about to be arrested for vehicular assault and someone is setting you up to go to jail. So not exactly normal times.”
“When you put it that way,” I muttered.
“This date was actually my idea. We need to get Chas alone.”
I could feel my face scrunch up. “Why?”
“Did you know he recently sold his car?”
I thought about it. “No, that’s not right. I think he said it was in the shop. Some engine problem.”
“No, he sold it. Star confirmed it. He hasn’t bought anything new to replace it.”
“Where is this going?”
There was a delicate shoosh behind me and I sank a little lower in my seat.
Beth did, too, but she still kept whispering.
“We’re looking for someone who needs money. Someone who nobody would rat on. Someone who Wick would be afraid of. Why did Chas lie to you about the car being in the shop and why did he need to sell it?”
I didn’t respond, because I couldn’t. She was suggesting one of my friends, my teammate, was, in fact, setting me up to be arrested.
“Chas?” I whispered back. “Are you serious?”
She winced. “I know. I don’t like it, either. I’m just trying to be logical. Was he at The Woods on Friday?”
He was. I’d given him a lift. I nodded.
“Did he ask to borrow your car?”
No. But he wouldn’t have had to ask. I’d given the keys to Heath who had left them in my car. Heath needing to get condoms out of my car, a totally random event that happened on the one night my car was stolen to run Wick off the road. What were the odds?
“Chas wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t go after Wick. He wouldn’t be part of some gross list. Fuck, Beth he dates your sister!”
Another shoosh from above.
“We don’t know what kind of trouble he might be in. We have to ask him. Go get him and tell him you need his help with something. I’ll wait for you both in the lobby.”
Annoyed, but knowing I had no choice, I got out of my seat and went up the few aisles to tap Chas on the shoulder. I didn’t have to say anything to him just nodded my chin the universal sign for follow me.
“We’ll be right back,” I whispered to Star.
Chas followed me out to the lobby, where I’d spotted Beth who found a quiet space far enough away from the concessions. All the movies in the multiplex were in progress, so the lobby itself was pretty quiet.
“What’s up?” he asked.
I hated to even ask, but Beth was right. In the short amount of time I’d had to consider her theory, Chas was someone in the school who had enough clout people would lie for him. Someone Wick wouldn’t rat out.
“Did you sell your car?” I asked.
He blinked a few times because he knew the question came out of left field.
“Yes. It was giving me too much grief. Why?”
“You said it was in the shop,” I pointed out.
Again, Chas looked at me and Beth like he had no clue what we were doing talking about this in the lobby. Or at least that’s how he wanted to look. But I knew Chas and he was a shit liar. Had been since we were kids.
“It was in the shop…and then I sold it.”
“Your parents let you do that?” Beth asked.
“The car was a gift. The title was in my name. I can do whatever I want with it, and so I sold it.”
“But you haven’t bothered to buy a new one,” I pointed out. “With the, what? Forty to fifty thousand dollars you would have made from selling it.”
“Not quite that much, but no, I haven’t bought anything. I’m not sure what I want next. What is this all about?”
“You tell me, Chas,” I said, looking at the person who’d been my friend since elementary school. My teammate. The guy who was cheering me on from the sidelines even though I was taking his spot on the team.
“Chas, the person running the Freshman Bait List is making money off all the bets,” Beth explained calmly. “We’re considering the idea it’s someone who needs the money. Someone who might be in trouble financially.”
“You think because I sold my car, that’s me,” he said grimly. “Are you also accusing me of taking Fitz’s car and running Wick off the road?”
His question was harsh, but neither Beth nor I said anything.
“Wick knows it wasn’t Fitz. He is covering for the person behind the list,” Beth said. “We think, whoever it was, was trying to send him a message. A threat to keep his mouth shut.”
Chas ran his hands through his hair. “This is unbelievable! You know me. You know I would never be part of a list like that.”
“I do,” I said. “Not unless you were in extreme trouble. That’s all I want to know, Chas. Are you in trouble?”
“I am not behind the List,” he said, clearly agitated. “I didn’t take your car Friday and run Wick off the road. You have to believe me. For the sake of our friendship, you have to believe me.”
I nodded. “I do believe you. Now tell me what kind of trouble you’re in.”
He dropped his face into his hands like he couldn’t bear for me to see him like this. “I…I…owed money. To some people. A lot of money.”
“For what?” I asked, then groaned. “Tell me it’s not drugs.”
He shook his head. “It’s not drugs. But it’s an addiction all the same. Gambling,” he admitted. “I couldn’t stop. I kept thinking I could turn it around. The next thing I knew I was deep in the hole trouble. I couldn’t go to my parents, so I sold the car. They think I’m just shopping around until I pick something else out.”
Beth let out a breath. “I’m sorry, Chas. You checked off a lot of the boxes. We just needed answers.”
“Now you have them. Are you happy?” he snapped.
“Chas, Beth, what are you guys doing out here?” Star was now in the lobby and heading for us. “The movie is about to start.”
“Yeah, we’re done,” Chas announced and forced a smile on his face. “No, we weren’t talking about your birthday present so don’t try to get any secrets out of me.”
He met Star halfway, took her hand and headed back into the theater. Leaving Beth and I standing together feeling miserable.
“He was in trouble and he didn’t tell me.”
“I don’t think even Star realizes it,” Beth said, taking my hand in hers and giving it a squeeze.
“We’re no closer to having the answers than we were. This is fucking with my head.”
“Yes, but there’s nothing we can do now. So let’s go back to the fucking normal date part of day.”
I rolled my eyes at her attempt at an impersonation, but when she pulled me along, I complied. There was nothing to do. I couldn’t help Chas. I didn’t have any answers. So why not watch a fucking movie with my fucking girlfriend.
Beth
We weren’t inside the house for a second before Star jumped on me. “What was that all about, Beth?”
I tried to look innocently over my shoulder. “What?”
Her answering glare indicated I hadn’t fooled her.
“Chas told you. He wants to know what to get you for your birthday.”
It sounded like a plausible lie. Except…
“My birthday is not for three months. You honestly think I’m going to buy that? I don’t have your brains, but I’m not stupid.”
I turned to face her. “What do you want me to say, Star? You want me to tell you we didn’t ask Chas about why he sold his car? Fitz is in trouble. Serious trouble, and I needed answers.”
“You needed! Who the fuck do you think you are?” she shouted.
“Star,” I gasped. Star never cursed. Ever. She always said it was crude and thoughtless. Then again, I don’t know that I’d ever heard her take this tone with me. She was never this angry. Not at me. We were a team.
Her face turned a blotchy red and, for a half second, she wasn’t very pretty.
“Do you have any idea what you could have ruined? What if Chas broke up with me? What if he wanted nothing more to do with me because of you? Where would that have left us? As a family? Did you think about that before you put your precious boyfriend ahead of everything? Five seconds of being popular and now he’s all you care about.”
My jaw dropped. We were fighting. Star and I were fighting?
“First, that is not true. Second, please tell me you haven’t bought into our mother’s fairytale that you are going to marry Chas and make all our problems go away. You said it yourself, you’re not stupid.”
“Chas is in love with me. Totally, fully, one hundred percent in love. We’re talking about going to the same college. I’m not saying we’re getting married tomorrow, but it’s not like it’s totally unheard of for high-school couples in this town to get married. Look at Kris and Benny, or Amy and Carl. All of them got together and stayed together.”
“Okay,” I said. “Well, then you might want to ask your future husband a few questions about what really happened to his car.”
“I don’t care,” Star said as stubborn as I’ve ever seen her. “If it’s important, he’ll tell me. Otherwise, I don’t need to know.”
“Oh, I see. Your plan is to bury your head in the sand so you don’t know what your partner is up to. Yes, I get it. Because that worked out so well for Mom!”
“What worked out for me?”
Our mother was coming through the front door followed by Lyd, Kit and Mary. All of them had shopping bags in their hands from various different clothing stores in town and, suddenly, I wanted to scream.
We didn’t have the money to go shopping. We were using what I made at The Club to buy food. We’d all been lying to ourselves for months, thinking somehow we were going to escape the inevitable, and now, I learned Star actually believed it, too.
“How much did all of that cost?” I screeched.
Immediately, my mother’s back got straighter. “We only bought what was on sale! But you can’t expect the girls not to have the proper clothes for school.”
Mary raised the bags in her hands. “These aren’t mine. They just made me carry their stuff.”
Of course they would make Mary do that. It only made me angrier.
“Yes, yes. I can expect that!” I shouted. “We don’t have any money! You need to be hiring a lawyer, who can track down Dad and divorce him! Then we need to sell this house and buy something we can afford until you can get a job and support yourself. Star and I need to be thinking about scholarships and charitable funds we can apply to so we can go to college. And Mary, Kit and Lyd should be thinking about ways to wear the clothes and shoes they currently have for as long as they possibly can!
“I am so tired of the delusion that’s been happening in this family. And you, too, Star. I thought at least you understood. You honestly think Chas is the answer? I can tell you, he’s not. He’s got his own serious trouble that he has to work through before he could ever be some kind of hero to you. This charade ends now. Everyone has to find ways to contribute to this household besides me or I swear I’ll stop sharing the money I earn. Dad is not coming back. Accept it!”
I heard one of the girls, probably Kitty, because she was the most emotional of us, start sniffling and I bolted upstairs for my room. I slammed the door behind me and locked it. Then fell on the bed.
In a fit, I slammed both my fists and my toes into the bed and screamed again into my pillow.
We’d been living a lie for months and finally, finally I was done with it.
My father was gone. He’d left us, and he wasn’t coming back. And the way he’d left meant he never really cared at all. Grief poured over me and I realized that’s what needed to happen as well.
We need to cry together. We needed to allow ourselves to be sad he was gone. Sad or angry or both. Fitz was right. There was no way we were still fooling everyone into thinking this was some sort of temporary separation.
We weren’t kidding anyone, and I was tired of trying. I was especially tired of doing that within my own family.
Rolling over, I looked up at the ceiling of my bedroom. The space I’d called mine for years. It was big and comfortable and there were shelves of books. Probably every book anyone had ever bought me. My big fancy desk. My Macbook Air on top of it. A closet full of clothes and shoes and dresses I never really wore.
How much more did I need?
We would be fine without Dad. I knew it. I just needed all of them to see it, too.
I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket and took it out desperately hoping it was Fitz. Even though I’d just spent the day with him, I needed to feel like someone was on my side.
Only it wasn’t Fitz. I frowned at the message not certain what to do. The one thing I did know, I couldn’t ignore it.
23
Fitz
I walked inside my house feeling like crap. Given the tension between all of us, we’d opted to skip dinner. After we’d dropped the girls off, Chas hadn’t said a word. He had every right to be angry with me, but I felt like I had every right to be angry with him as well. He’d gotten himself into trouble and he hadn’t once thought to come to me for help. Or even tell me about his problem in the first place.
I thought we were closer than that, but I was coming to find out maybe my world was more insular than it appeared to be.
“Fitz! Is that you?”
My mom was probably happy to have me home where I could be arrested in the comfort of my own property.
“Yes. I’m home,” I shouted back and made my way through the house into the kitchen where my dad was clapping and smiling, and my mother just looked relieved.
She put down her phone. “That was the police. They called us to let us know you are no longer a person of interest.”
“What? How?”
“You were right about the video being altered,” she said. “Apparently they got an anonymous tip and checked it out. The time stamp was right, but someone had cut and pasted the video of you at that intersection over the original footage. Apparently, you can see that one of the cars parked in the background changes, then changes back to the original car a few minutes later. The officer told me it’s unlikely they would have looked for it without the tip.”
Locke, I thought. Whatever Beth had said to him had worked.
“So I’m off the hook?” I asked. “That’s great.”
“You’re not off anything,” Dad said with a humorless laugh. “Son, someone stole your car, put one of your classmates—who happens to be into your sister, by the way—in the hospital then found a way to alter digital footage from a street camera. You, my friend, are definitely on the hook.”
I hated that he was right. Hated even more that I didn’t know what to do next.
So I looked at both my parents. “What do you think I should do?”
“I’m goi
ng to call the lawyer,” Mom said. “He’s got an investigator on retainer. We’ll get his name and hire him.”
“A private investigator. Really? Does it have to go that far if I’m not going to be arrested?”
“Yes, it does,” she said. “In the meantime, you need to stay close to home.”
“Mom,” I groaned. “We talked about this.”
“I’m not trying to make you a prisoner, but what happens if you’re the next one to be run off the road? Whoever is doing this, Fitz, is not playing games.”
“I agree with your mother,” Dad said.
Both Mom and I blinked.
“You never agree with Mom.”
“You never agree with me,” she said at the same time.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t become the world’s greatest athlete, and marry the powerful senator and live in the fancy town with my fancy cars so my son could get popped by some asshole kid with a grudge. I could’ve stayed in Baltimore for that shit. Which means you stay home until this investigator figures this out.”
I felt my phone vibrate with a text.
“Fine. It’s not like my friends can’t come here, right?”
“Of course,” my mother said. “They’re always welcome. Even Heath.”
Of all my friends my mother always thought Heath was the worst influence. What she didn’t realize was my friends didn’t influence me to do anything. More it was the other way around.
Or maybe not with Heath. He still smoked those gross cigarillos, had indiscriminate sex whenever he felt like it and drank as much as he wanted.
I read the text.
Heath: We need to talk. I think I know who is behind the list but you’re not going to like it. It’s Reen.
What? That was crazy. A girl? Behind the Freshman Bait List?
Heath: Meet me at The Woods asap. I need to show you something.
That was going to be a challenge given my parents had basically grounded me. But they were reasonable. If Heath knew something, I wanted to know what that was now. Waiting on some private investigator to pull all the pieces together was going to take too long.
