by Rae Hachton
Alison looked up at me and said. “Mommy's moving us in with Needles.”
My mother spiraled out of control. “Rebekah!”
Rebekah slammed her bedroom door, nearly knocking it off the hinges. Mom scooped up her pocketbook from the table. “Alison doesn't need to see this.” Mom reached in and pulled out a few twenties, handing them to me. “You can use the car tonight, just please. Take Alison to Chuckie Cheese or something.” Her hands trembled.
“Mom, what are you gonna do?”
“I'm about to beat the hell out of your step-sister.”
Oh shit.
Needles trudged in, making himself at home. He stalked into the kitchen, jerked open the cabinet door and began dumping our groceries into a bag. Bisquick. Macaroni. Ravioli. An unopened bottle of ketchup. Damn, there went the chocolate cake icing.
“Get the hell out of my house!” Mom yelled at Needles. “You're a junkie. You have a daughter! She doesn't need to be subjected to your lifestyle.”
Alison turned around and buried her face in the leg of my jeans, wrapping her arms around my knee. She started crying.
“Kaleb, please. Alison doesn't need to see this.”
“I'm not leaving, mom. He may try to do something crazy to you.”
Rebekah was still in her room packing. Outside, an engine rumbled. Alison, familiar with the sound, peeked up. She ran to the door. “Grandpa's home!” she exclaimed.
“Good. He can deal with this,” mom said to me.
When Stephen walked through the door, he scooped Alison up into his arms. “Guess what?” he said. “I brought you a present. Your favorite.” He handed her a box of chocolate Animal Crackers. She beamed.
“Daddy and mommy are being bad again,” she said.
He sat her down and turned to Sheri. “What's going on?” he asked.
“Well,” she made a fake cheerful face, raising her voice to a sarcastic octave, “your daughter is in her room, packing all of her things, because she thinks I'm going to let her leave with Alison, and her junkie boyfriend is in our kitchen, blazed out of his mind, sacking up our groceries like this is a frickin' food shelter, or the salvation army.”
I reclined on the couch, uninvolved, watching the event unfold before my eyes. Stephen placed his hands on mom's shoulders, calming her down. “I'll take care of it. Let Needles have the food. We have plenty of money to buy more. We don't wanna provoke him into doing something outrageous over a few groceries. I'll send Kaleb to the store later.”
So now he was cool with me driving “his” car? That figures. When it's something he needs...
“Okay,” she said. Alison climbed up on the couch beside me and ate her cookies.
Rebekah emerged from her room carrying a duffel bag. She didn't even glance at Sheri or Stephen. “Let's go Needles. C'mon Ali.”
Alison shook her head and buried her face in my chest.
Stephen marched toward the door, yanked the duffel bag out of her hands and threw it to the floor. “You have two options,” he said in a calm demeanor, not raising his voice because he didn't want to upset Alison. “You can go back to your room, and let Needles leave on his own, which is the right choice, or you can pick up the duffel bag and get the hell out of here. If you choose number two, don't come back, because I won't let you in.”
“Whatever,” she said, reaching down and picking up the duffel. “C'mon Needles,” she said again.
“Okay, I see you've made your choice,” he said. “But Alison's not coming with you.”
“Whatever. You keep her then.”
“We plan on it,” Sheri spoke up.
Needles carried the bag of groceries out of the kitchen and followed behind Rebekah. They both disappeared out the door. As soon as they were gone, Stephen shut the door, locking it. He turned around. “I'm serious, Sheri. If she comes back here while I'm gone, don't any of you let her back in. We have Alison's welfare to think about now. I'm done with her. She's grown. I should've sent her to military school when she was sixteen.”
“She usually brings Needles and he likes to cause trouble. He'll kick in the door or break a window or something,” I said.
“Then pick up the phone and call the police.”
“If she moves completely out, we can turn that room into Alison's. It's not fair to her. She's a child, and she should have a room of her own where she can play with her toys,” mom told Stephen.
“I just moved her out,” he said. He reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. He opened the billfold and pulled out two one hundred dollar bills and dropped them down on the couch into my lap. “Go to the store,” he said.
I gathered the money and stood, walking to fetch the keys.
“And don't buy any cigarettes, alcohol or condoms with that money.”
“I'm not of legal buying age for cigarettes or alcohol,” I reminded him. “But don't worry, I'll just steal yours like I usually do.”
“Smart ass,” he said.
“Hey,” I directed my attention to mom. “Can I keep this?” I held up the twenty dollar bills from earlier.
“No,” she snatched them out of my hand. “You may not.”
We exchanged looks and I tried to pass her a knowing one, to let her know what I needed the money for. She wasn't getting my secret signal though, and I really didn't want to say it aloud. “Y'know, for what we talked about earlier? How I'm seventeen and you're thirty-five?” I raised my eyebrow.
Then it dawned on her. “Oh,” she said. “But you don't need all the money for that. I wasn't implying that you should get...creatively involved. Actually, I wasn't condoning your involvement at all. I was just stating my concerns.”
“Right,” I said. “Like I'd need encouragement.”
“Okay, you know what?” she held her hands up, surrendering. “Here, just take this,” she passed me a twenty. “But I don't wanna know about it. Ever.”
I laughed. “You sure? Remember? You live vicariously, through me.”
“Ha!” she exclaimed. “I think I'm living pretty well on my own in that department.”
I chuckled. “I really didn't want to know that. Oh, the horror.”
She scoffed, and made an appalled face.
Stephen was eying us like we were two weirdos. “What's this all about, this secret talk between you two?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said, scooping up the keys from the table and heading to the door.
“No junk food!” Stephen called behind me.
My mom said to him, “Then you should probably go the store yourself. That's all Kaleb eats is junk food.”
“I'll see both of you guys later,” I said, opening the door to leave, but mom yelled one more thing to me on my way out.
“Hey! Does this mean you're going to patch up things with Kayleigh?”
“Maybe!” I called back. “But I thought you didn't want to know!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I should've never fallen in love
*
I knew I should've never fallen in love with him. I couldn't breathe. I thought my lungs would collapse before I made it home. And as soon as I did, I crashed my bike on the front lawn, stumbled up the steps, and fought the door lock getting back inside the house. All I wanted to do was run upstairs and bury myself under the covers, sob myself to sleep.
I didn't notice that he was sitting on my couch watching me. I'd ran straight for the stairs before he called out to me.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he repeated, trying to stop me before I got upstairs. “Why are you crying?”
I jumped ten feet back, crashing into the wall and knocking over a vase. “Why are you in my house?!”
He held up the silver key. “It was under the plant on the doorstep.”
I couldn't believe my mom had been so stupid as to leave that there.
“Your mom told me I could come on in and talk to you.” But he'd locked the door. I had to unlock it just to get back in. He hadn't wanted me to know he was here.
�
��No, she wouldn't do that. She wouldn't approve of a boy being alone with me, especially not at night while she's at work. She doesn't even want me seeing Kaleb during daylight hours.”
“She doesn't like Kaleb. But your mom does like me.”
“Well, I don't like you, so you need to leave.”
Seth closed the space between us. “Yeah you do, Kayleigh. I know you want me.” I quivered, in a bad way. A very bad way. My immediate reaction was to shove him violently away.
“Leave,” I said.
Suddenly, I knew the difference between what had happened with Kaleb in the junkyard and what was happening now with Seth. My body was responding differently to Seth than it had with Kaleb. Everything Seth did was unwelcome. He pressed his lips roughly against mine, but there was no mistaking that for passion. He was forcing me. I didn't want this. I fought against it. His kiss was gross. There was no spark between us. I twisted my head away from him.
“Get away from me!” I yelled.
He gripped me, shoving me back into the wall. “No.”
I wanted to blink and find myself back at the junkyard with Kaleb, and not here in my house with Seth who was trying to hurt me. Trying to force me to do something with him that I didn't want. When he ran his finger down my face, I opened my mouth and clamped down on his finger, biting him as hard as I could. He cried out in pain.
A few seconds later, my front door burst open and I heard Gunner call out my name. “Kayleigh?” he said, as though he was frantically searching for me. He found me backed into the corner, with Seth.
“Asshole!” he flew across the room and jerked him away from me, spun him around and busted him in the mouth. Before Seth could respond, he drop kicked him. He landed on the floor, and Gunner used his foot to pound him in the groin. “You're pathetic!”
I didn't know Gunner had it in him to do something like that. There was no way Seth would be standing up anytime soon.
“I'm calling the cops,” Gunner said, picking up the phone.
“No,” I told him. “I don't want the embarrassment.”
“Shut up, Kayleigh. Let me handle it.”
After Gunner got off the phone with the police, I asked him, “How did you know to come over?”
“I saw the stupid bastard snooping around while you weren't home. I didn't know why he was here. I started to call the cops then, when I saw him enter your house. But when you came home upset, I decided to drop by to see if you were okay, and this is what I found going on.”
Maybe it was a good thing that Gunner was the neighborhood watch after all. I hugged him. Wow, Mom was going to be shocked when she found out that Seth had assaulted me and tried to force himself on me. Thank God Gunner was my witness. She'd never believe it if hearing it from me.
My head throbbed. Ouch.
When the police got there, I explained to them what happened. Their first suggestion was to remove the key from beneath the pot plant outside so we wouldn't freely give access of our house to criminals. We could be robbed, hurt, anything, and if there wasn't any forced entry, it'd be harder to prove a crime.
“The boy says he and the girl are good friends and the mother gave him permission to stop by. He comes over a lot?” The question was directed at me.
“Sometimes.” The cop scribbled something down.
“He didn't hit you, did he?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Didn't tear your clothes?”
Once again, “No.”
“Okay, well, we're going to escort him out of here, but we can't arrest him. All we have here is some unwanted kissing, and we know how that goes.”
The cop was a jerk! He was implying I'd encouraged all of this myself, then pushed Seth away like a tease.
“He tried to rape her,” Gunner said. “He's a predator. Lock him up.” When I heard it out loud, I realized it was a bold statement. He hadn't slapped me or ripped my clothes. Maybe I overreacted.
The cop asked me if I wanted to press charges.
I didn't want to go through the whole scenario of doing that. I wanted the night to end.
“No,” I said. Gunner had punched him in the mouth and kicked him in his groin. “I just don't want him coming back around me.”
“Don't let him away with this, Kayleigh. Press charges. That's why there are so many rapists out there already.” The cop looked at me and Gunner blankly. “He violently gripped her and shoved her into the wall,” Gunner told the cop.
“And who are you again?” The policeman asked. Seth glared at me.
“Her neighbor. I live across the street.”
“You saw this take place?”
Gunner knew he hadn't. He arrived after it'd happened.
“He's lying,” Seth said.
“No he's not,” I found my voice. “You did grip me and shove me into the wall.”
“Look,” the officer closed his notepad. “I have all of this down on paper. It's called a report. If you want to press charges young lady, you can have your mom bring you down to the station in three days to pick it up. Have a great night.” He turned away and told Seth. “Let's go, boy.”
After the cop left, Gunner said, “What an asshole. I should've punched him in the face.”
I sighed, trying to pull myself together. Before I could stop it, the tears flowed from my eyes. “Hey, what's wrong?” Gunner asked. “Besides the obvious?”
I sobbed. “Kaleb and I broke up.”
“Oh my God, why? What happened? Do I need to punch him, too?”
I explained to him what went wrong, what I'd said and he assured me that Kaleb was just temporarily hurt, that it'd all blow over in the next few days.
“But—” he said opening the freezer and perking up. “Since we've both had one helluva afternoon, it gives us a great excuse to devour this Neapolitan ice cream straight from the cartoon with a spoon.” He grabbed both pints of ice cream and sat them down on the counter. I jerked open the drawer and got two spoons.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
He took the Neapolitan ice cream flavors to a totally different level. “Vanilla sex,” he said, scooping the same flavor from the carton.
“What's that?”
“It's horrifying. You don't want to know.”
I scrunched my face, not understanding. “I have no clue what you're talking about. You know that right?”
“Consider yourself lucky. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.”
“Are you talking about Mr. Macon?”
“His name's Ben, and no.” He licked the spoon. “His sex is definitely like the flavor of chocolate.” Had he devoted a flavor to everything?
“So what's strawberry?”
He smirked. “I've been trying to find out. I hear it's great.”
“So are you telling me that you had horrifying sex with someone that wasn't Ben?” It was weird calling Mr. Macon Ben. Even weirder that Gunner claimed he was having sexual relations with our teacher.
“You cheated on Mr. Macon?”
“Hey, at least it's a cheat that I can't get an F on, unless of course, F stands for f—”
I cut him off. “Okay, I get it!” We giggled.
“I'd totally ace that class with F plus pluses.” Gunner had no filter in his brain. He was uncensored. He said whatever he thought.
“Hey,” he said, realizing. “Who bought this ice cream?”
“I did,” I told him.
“Girl, you better get to eating some damn ice cream before your mom finds it in the freezer. Go,” he motioned. “—spoon.”
I hadn't even opened it yet.
“On second thought,” I picked it up and took it back to the freezer, replacing it with a different flavor. “I think I'm in the mood for mint chocolate chip. It's my fave.”
“Ooh,” Gunner said. “Good one.”
Wow, I never knew he was so strange.
***
It was days later before I saw Kaleb again. He stopped by the daycare center to pick up Alison.
“Nothing,” I said. Where Seth had forcefully gripped me, he'd left marks. They were only barely visible though. But Kaleb noticed. I didn't tell him what had happened. I knew he'd go crazy and Gunner had already given Seth what he deserved.
“Did someone hurt you?”
“It's no longer any of your concern, remember? We're not together, and we're not friends, so there's no need for you to worry about me.”
He overlooked my snark.
“Kayleigh, something happened to you and I wasn't there to prevent it.”
“I'm okay, really.” I told him.
“Will we ever be okay again? Will we ever get back to being Kaleb and Kayleigh again?”
“I don't know,” I told him. “I asked you that several days ago. You said it was over.”
“Kayleigh, I was mad.” His eyes bore into mine. “Now I'm over it. But, I'm not gonna try to convince you to be with me. I shouldn't have to. If you do wanna try to work on this, then meet me at the mid-summer dance tomorrow afternoon.” Before he left, he glanced back, his eyes full of love and passion—for me.
I was going to that mid-summer dance tomorrow.
Whether the stubborn side of me wanted to or not.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
I wanna be your boyfriend
*
The mid-summer dance signified that summer was halfway over. Ten years ago, the teenagers in our town had established the dance and it'd caught on. It was something that occurred in our town every summer. Basically, it was a gathering of teens at the park. Garage rock bands came down and played music and we lit up the sky like the fourth of July.
This was our night.
An hour after the event began, Kayleigh arrived.
“You showed,” I said. She just nudged my hip with hers and we watched the band rock out on their make-shift stage. It was a silent understanding, one where I knew she'd forgiven me. I still wanted to keep her on her toes though, never knowing what to expect. I fished into my pocket when she wasn't looking and when she least expected it, I threw down a handful of snap pops. Kayleigh squealed, running away. I laughed at her, hysterically.
