A Promised Fate

by Cat Mann

Chapter 15

  H Word

  Bright sunlight blinded my already blurred vision. I rolled my face into a pillow and searched the bed for Ava with my fingers then moaned when I found that I was alone.

  A peal of Max’s laughter echoed down the hall, followed by the smacking of his bare feet against the floors and then my sister calling after him, begging him to slow down and be quiet.

  “Max, no!” she pleaded but the bedroom door flew open anyway and he came barreling into the room and leaped onto me in the bed.

  “Ow!” I groaned when his knee flew into my stomach.

  “Sorry! I tried to stop him but he’s a spoiled little monster and doesn’t know how to listen to me when I tell him not to do something!”

  “He’s fine,” I groaned again. Max’s happy smile was worth the discomfort and I let him torture me with his tickling, fast moving and sticky fingers.

  Lauren leaned in the doorway on her shoulder and crossed her hands over her chest.

  “Everything alright?” My eyesight was still blurred and my glasses were next door at home and probably shattered along with everything else in the house. I could only focus my vision by forcing one eye completely shut and relying solely on the other for sight.

  “No,” she said with attitude. “Everything is not alright. When are you going to wake up?”

  “What time is it?” I felt around the covers for my phone, but with all the tossing and turning that had gone on between the three of us the night before, my phone was likely lost somewhere deep and dark in the king-sized bed, sheets and blankets.

  “Ten o’clock!” She huffed.

  “What the heck!” I shot up and Max went flying from my chest and landed on a stack of piled up pillows. “Why did you guys let me sleep in this late? You cannot be serious! I had to be at work at eight! Holy hell. Where’s Ava?”

  “She’s working on something with Dad for the foundation fundraiser. They had a meeting this morning. Ava didn’t want anyone waking you. She said you needed to stay home and rest. She called your work first thing this morning and told them you would not be in and not to call you all day. Meanwhile, I have been watching him all morning again today when I should be over at my friend Mandy’s house with all of my other friends, lying out by her pool while her mom makes us virgin daiquiris. But no! Here I am with cuts all over my hands from picking broken glass out of your rug and a queasy stomach from cleaning a toilet with puke stains in it! I totally hate you right now, Ari.”

  “I’m gonna tell Mom you said the H word.” I teased. “Hate” is a word that has always been forbidden from our parent’s home and the use of it could land us in up to a week of horrible chores like cleaning toilets or vacuuming sand out of the crevices on the sun porch.

  “Go ahead and tell her whatever you want – she cannot possibly punish me any more today. Thanks to me, your house is clean now. You two,” She pointed to Max and me, “are free to head home whenever … the sooner the better.”

  “Why did you clean it?” I had grown beyond annoyed with my sister.

  She shuffled from foot to foot and flopped down on the bed beside Max. “I got caught sneaking out last night,” she admitted. “Helping you and watching him are only a few of my punishments.” Her eyes looked anywhere but at me.

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “Shut up.” She threw a pillow at me and Max laughed, hopped off the bed and flew down the hall in search of something or someone else to entertain him.

  “I’m serious,” I pushed myself into a sitting position and found my cell phone switched to silent mode, resting on the bedside table with the charger attached, all thanks to Ava. “Don’t sneak out anymore, Lo, it’s dangerous. I never -- not one time -- ever snuck out of the house.”

  “Yeah, why would you sneak out? You were too busy sneaking around at home with Julia when Mom and Dad were asleep.” She gave me a snotty eye roll and if we were younger, I would have punched her in the arm and kicked her out of my room.

  “Touché … you got me. You know what? Oh, whatever. I don’t have time to parent you. Don’t sneak out, don’t say the H word and I’m sorry you had to clean my puke -- I’m sure that was brutal. What time is Ava coming back?”

  “Not for another hour.”

  “Watch Max until she gets home. Please.”

  “What? But why? You're awake now!”

  “I have to work. It’s Fashion Week and I have already missed a full day of work. I am supposed to be at the show site this morning to get things in order.”

  “Ava said you need to rest.”

  “Ava is sweet. But I need to get my ass to work.”

  “OMG she is literally going to kill me for not keeping you at home.”

  “Tell her I will be home early. I’ll make reservations at The Yacht Club for dinner for the three of us. But I really need to be at work today.”

  “Uhh,” she whined. “Ari, I’ve been picking up glass since five a.m! Babysitting was the last thing I want to do. I am so exhausted and Max is so full of crazy energy. I don’t know how you two do it all the time.”

  “What time did you come home?”

  “I dunno -- late, like three-ish and I haven’t been to bed yet.” She yawned.

  “Huh.” I talked while I strummed through my list of missed calls. All of them were from work despite Ava’s attempt to keep the callers at bay. “Who caught you sneaking back in?”

  “Dad.” Lauren toyed with the elastic hair tie around her wrist. “I don’t think I have ever seen him so angry. He said I’m grounded for the rest of the summer.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “No, Ari you don’t get it. He was so mad with me for sneaking out, that I didn’t know if he was going to hug me or shake me. I sneak out all the time and he has never been like that before. Ari, he cried.”

  The only time I had ever seen my father cry was the day his parents died. We all cried that day.

  “He worries about you, Lo. You’re his baby.”

  “He said it was too dangerous right now for me to leave the house! What is that even supposed to mean? I was only three houses down the beach. The only thing scary about last night was stepping barefoot on a stupid sand crab!”

  “Well, our house did get broken into…”

  “Oh please, that was just some Ava-obsessed groupie. No one is focused on getting me.”

  “The last time someone was obsessed with Ava, you got kidnapped. Remember? You were tied to a tree, you got Ava shot … twice.”

  “Duh.” Her face flushed and she picked at some chipping nail polish.

  “Dad went easy on you last night. You wouldn't have gotten off so lightly if I were your father.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Did you see Julia?”

  “Julia? No. Why would I have seen Julia?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  When I stood, my joints popped and cracked with the movement and my head gave a dizzying spin. Ava left the overnight bag on a chair with my clean clothes folded up neatly inside it. She must have gone through everything because when I packed, the clothes were wadded up and shoved in messily.

  “Watch Max for another hour and tell Ava to be ready for dinner at six thirty.”

  “Fine,” she grumbled, but I had already started to call my assistant and brushed past her to head to work.

  “Thank you for calling baio! Ari Alexander’s office, Lirik speaking, how may I…”

  “Lirik, it’s Ari.”

  “Oh. Hi. Are you feeling ok?”

  “I’m fine. I am heading to the Fashion District right now. Transfer all calls to my cell for the afternoon. I’ll be back in the office around four, I need to speak with you on an issue, so set up a meeting between the two of us. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes. I need you to call the Dana Point Yacht Club and make reservations for three for this evening at 6:30. Get Detective Jason Scott with the Los Angeles Police Department on the line. Tell him so
mething new is happening and I need to speak with him. If he's available, put him straight through to me. I’ll take his call in the car.”