by Henry, Max
Mum smiles behind her hands, elbows on the table. She doesn’t look at Dad. She doesn’t look at me. No. She watches Colt as though proud. Something’s not right, there.
“Since we arrived, I’ve done my best to encourage you kids to settle into your new surroundings, but when I’m away at work more than home, it’s a hard task to uphold alone.” He pauses to swallow after his dig at Mum. “Admittedly, you two haven’t had a smooth transition, and to maximise your final years at school we think it’s best if you focused squarely on your studies and left the social economics out of it.”
“So, because Colt acts out, I don’t get to have friends either?” I glance to Mum before settling my panicked gaze on Dad. “How is this fair?”
“It’s not.” He finally lifts his chin to look at me. “It’s necessary until we figure this all out.”
The man looks as though he’s ready to give up. On what, though? Us?
“Do we get a say in this?” Colt asks.
“No.” Dad lifts his eyebrows, gaze on the table before him. “Additionally, I would like you to stay out of Riverbourne. No more weekend visits. After what you did yesterday, count yourself lucky that’s all I’ve decided to do.”
“This is bullshit!” Colt rises from the table and stalks out the door. His car starts shortly after, the remaining three of us watching each other to see who’ll react first.
“If he’s out, then so am I.” I push from the table and head after Colt. “Maggie’s on her way here. I’m going out with her for the day.”
“Lacey!” Mum swivels in her seat. “Come back here.”
“No.” I jam my feet into my school boots. “I can’t stand to be in the same room as you,” I growl before throwing the front door open.
Maggie retrieves a shopping bag from the back of her car where it sits on the roadside. Her head lifts as I come crashing out. “What’s up, bud? I was on my way in.”
“We’re not staying here.” I head for the passenger side.
“I’m wounded,” she teases with a smile. “I didn’t know you were that ashamed of me.” Her humour fades when she catches my tear-streaked face. “Lace?”
“I’ll tell you everything,” I manage to choke out as I drop into the seat. “But not here.”
She chucks the bag back on the seat and then takes her position behind the wheel. “Am I going to be on your parents’ most wanted list if I run off with you?”
“I don’t really care.”
She shrugs and then starts the car. “Where to?”
“Surprise me.”
***
“I can’t go in there,” I cry.
“You said to surprise you.” Maggie pulls her keys from the ignition.
“Have you looked at me?” I gesture to my weekend best.
“You look cute.” She shrugs and then gets out of the car.
I do the same, hissing at her over the roof. “I have no make-up on.”
“It’s Arcadia, Lace. Nobody gives a fuck if you have make-up on or not.”
She moves toward the café doors. I frantically search for an excuse to call her back and get the hell out of here, but one fleeting insight makes me settle down instantly: I’ve been so distracted with being seen in town half-dressed that I clean forgot the drama back home. Perhaps this could be good, after all?
“What are you having?” she asks when I sidle up beside her in the line at the counter.
“Double-shot macchiato.” I spy a gorgeous pink and purple cupcake in the display cabinet. “And one of those. I didn’t bring my purse.”
“Purse.” She snorts. “God, you sound like an old lady when you say that. I’ll shout you.”
“Thank you.” I don’t think I’ll ever get used to people’s charity.
The line shuffles along, and Maggie places the order for our Saturday indulgence. I stay tucked to her side, hoping she can partially shield my hideous state of undress from anyone who knows us.
“Here.” She hands me the table number. “Find us a spot.”
The café is stupidly busy. We have a choice of two stools at the small bench where people read the paper or a table outside. I head for the bench but get cut short by a woman who drops onto a stool with a huff as her shopping hits the floor. Damn. Outside it is, then.
“Tell me everything,” Maggie instructs, taking her seat opposite mine shortly after I sit. “Why were you upset?”
Finger tracing the marble swirls in the heavy table-top, I answer. “My parents want to keep Colt and I at home, locked away like some prisoners until his court date is over.”
“Why?”
I scoff. “They said it’s best for our studies if we stay focused on school and not ‘social economics’.” I roll my eyes.
Mags reaches across and takes my hand in hers. “I’m sorry about yesterday. If I’d known…”
“It’s in the past. And I don’t think anything you did had any bearing on this. It’s all Colt and his stupid plan.”
“What plan?”
I glance around at the people seated beside us and then lean in to whisper, “Colt said Mum is having an affair. He thinks if our parents split, Mum will take us back to the city.”
She frowns. “He trashed Johnson’s truck to get your parents to fight?”
“I think so.” It sounds silly when I say it out loud. I guess it would be ridiculous if I didn’t think it was working.
She stays quiet a moment, seemingly thinking it over as her lips twist. “I suppose the stress of moving the family out here didn’t help, huh?”
“Mum never wanted to come.”
“Some people don’t,” she says, withdrawing her hand. “Not everyone is suited for life out here.”
“I thought the country was supposed to be peaceful and calm,” I tease.
“Sure,” she snorts. “If you’re in the back blocks without another person for miles. People will always be people; they take their troubles wherever they go. A change of scenery can help, but it won’t solve a problem if you choose to ignore it, which it sounds like your mum might have.”
“I guess.” I sigh, pressing my fingertips together. “Do you think he’s right? Do you think he could do it?”
“I hope not. I don’t want to lose my new friend.”
“Me either.” The waitress arrives with our drinks. “The way Dad spoke, I don’t think it was his idea.”
“Thank you.” Maggie glances to the girl.
“Was there anything else?” she checks.
“Two cupcakes.”
The waitress nods and then leaves.
“You think it’s your mum’s idea to keep you guys in?” Maggie asks.
I shrug. “Doesn’t make sense if it is. I mean when we lived in Riverbourne, all she wanted was for me to mix and mingle and find myself a future husband.”
Maggie snorts. “Jesus. Your household is straight out of some archaic shit like Pride and Prejudice.”
“Legit.”
“What’s so funny ladies?” I damn near leap off the chair, hand to my chest. “Damn it, Tuck. You scared the hell out of me.”
His hungry eyes drop down to my silky slip, shorts, and cowgirl-style boots. “I need to try harder. Would have enjoyed saving this damsel in distress.”
I give him a smack on the arm where he squats down beside our table.
“You want a chair?” Maggie sasses.
“I’m fine.” He jerks his chin at me. “Stand up.”
“What?”
“Do it.” I rise, and then promptly squeal when he lifts me off my feet, steals my chair, and settles me on his lap. “Why haven’t you called me back yet, baby?”
“Jesus, you two. Get a room.” Maggie rolls her eyes.
“Aww, Mags. Did I get the girl before you could?”
Arms across her chest, she leans back and scowls at Tuck. “Why do you jerks all think I’m a lesbian?”
“Perhaps because we’ve never seen you with a guy?”
“Sure. So because I’m not a ska
nk who gets around, I’m gay?”
I squirm a little on Tuck’s lap, my body acutely aware of every vibration through his as he laughs. “Are we right, though?”
“Tuck. Leave it.” I set my hand over his where it rests on my stomach.
“No.” Maggie lifts a hand. “Fuck it. I’m already the black sheep of the damn school, and now everyone hates my guts since formal is cancelled. How much worse could it get?” She lifts her chin high. “I’m bi. As in, I don’t discriminate.”
Tuck swallows, his body tense.
“Good for you,” I say casually, leaning forward to lift my coffee.
“So,” Tuck chokes out. “You’d do both a guy and a girl?”
Maggie sighs, reaching for her drink. “You’re thinking about whether or not you could get a threesome from us, aren’t you?”
I gag on my coffee. “Are you?”
He grins when I twist in his lap. “What? I’m a guy. What dude wouldn’t wonder that?”
“You’re a pig,” I tease.
The waitress returns with our cupcakes and sets the little plates on the table. “Is that everything?”
I nod, and she takes the table number with a smile before heading back indoors.
“How did you know I was hungry?” Tuck leans us forward, reaching around me for the food.
I swat his hand away. “Nope. Not today. I need all the sugar I can get.”
“Huh?”
“Trouble in paradise,” Maggie states with a bop of her eyebrows.
“Colt?” Tuck asks, leaning back again.
I settle against his chest, coffee cradled to mine. “All of them.”
“It’ll blow over.” He’s lost all traces of humour as he stares down at the sidewalk beneath our feet.
“What about you?” I ask. “How’s suspension going? Bored yet?”
“What do you think?” he says with a chuckle. “Won’t stop me from being at Cate’s this weekend, though. You coming?” He tips his head back to look up at me.
I shrug. “I don’t know. I’m not sure it would be a good idea.” No way am I fuelling Colt’s fire for him.
Tuck’s large hand runs a smooth path up and down my bare thigh. My skin pebbles beneath his touch.
Maggie coughs and looks away, feigning interest at something across the street.
“I’m sorry for being a jerk yesterday.” His tone is low and husky; his words shared between us only. “I had a bit on my mind.”
“It did confuse me,” I admit. “You seemed mad at me for everything that’s happened.”
Tuck sighs. “Nah, baby. It’s my dad. Once he heard whose truck it was up on the stables, he went nuclear.”
“What do you mean?” I frown, jerking my head back. “How would your dad know anything about Colt? What difference does it make to him?”
Tuck’s eyes flit briefly toward Maggie, who still stares at anything but us. “You do know that your brother isn’t a stranger around here, right?”
“Of course not. We’ve been here for two months now.”
“No.” Tuck shakes his head, fingers caressing my shoulder. “Before that.”
“We’d never visited Arcadia until Dad got his job out here.”
“Are you sure about that?”
I set my coffee down and lock gazes with Maggie. “You know about this too, don’t you?”
She offers a weak smile. “A little.”
I edge forward on Tuck’s knee, pulling from his embrace. “People keep dropping hints that all this hate is because of him, but nobody says any more than that.” I twist to face Tuck better. “What was the argument that day about? Why did you stick up for Johnson?”
“It’s complicated.” He reaches for me, but I pull away and stand.
A chair sits unused at an adjacent table. “Excuse me,” I ask the guy sitting alone. “May I use this?”
He nods, allowing me to drag the chair over to the shared table with Maggie and Tuck.
“I’ve got coffee and a cupcake. I’m here for a while, so lay it on me, you two.”
Tuck glances to Maggie, who sighs.
“You’re not going to like this.”
I arrive home a little after lunch with a belly full of cupcake and another two coffees under the belt. Every fibre of my being vibrates as though enraged, yet I know it’s not anger that has me humming. It’s frustration.
The amount of deception and lies unearthed today has me at a loss for words. How could I have been so ignorant to what went on right under my nose?
“Do you want me to come in?” Maggie rests back in the driver’s seat of her car. “Moral support.”
“No.” I sigh and then open the door. “I’ve got this. I’ll be back shortly.”
Tuck left us at the café, heading back to his place to get ready for the bonfire. He didn’t want to go, but I urged him to, knowing it takes a while to get both himself and Major prepared for the night’s events. Plus, if he wanted to get away easy before his father had time to intervene, he needed to do it before Mr Brallant returned from afternoon feed rounds.
“Good luck.”
“I’ve got this far,” I remind Maggie, climbing out of the car.
Colt’s Explorer sits in the driveway, the back door open. I frown at the stack of belongings on the parcel tray and make my way towards the open front door. The chime of my phone draws my attention away from the house as I crest the front step.
T: Keep those boots on tonight, baby. It makes me all kinds of weak seeing you in them.
I only manage half a smile, the weight of this moment tainting the buzz I get from Tuck’s words.
L: Be gentle with me tonight, K?
He replies with a GIF of a guy flopping dramatically to the ground. Quickly succeeded by one declaring “You make me horny”.
I snort a laugh as I step into the open plan living room and pocket my phone.
“Good to see you’ve been off having fun,” Mum snaps. “Hope it was worth it.”
I look around but fail to see a sign of either Dad or Colt. “Where is everyone?”
“Lacey.” Dad emerges from down the hall. “I thought I heard your voice.”
“Why is Colt’s Explorer half packed?”
Mum folds her arms, leg bouncing atop the other where she sits. “Do you want to tell her?”
Dad’s jaw drops, his chest rising with a deep breath as he runs his tongue across his top teeth. “This was your choice, Alicia, so perhaps you could explain.”
“I don’t care who answers,” I snap. “Just tell me what the hell is going on.”
“I’m leaving your father,” Mum declares as bluntly as the decision to adopt a pet. “We’re separating.”
“You have to be kidding!” I dash down the hallway. “Colt. Colt!”
“What?” he hollers from his room.
I swing around the doorframe. “Are you happy?”
He stares stoically in my direction. “What do you mean?”
I sense Dad behind me before he speaks. “Lacey. It’ll be okay.”
Seriously! “No. It won’t,” I shout. “I’m done with people telling me everything will be fine. It wasn’t fine when you were arrested, Dad. It wasn’t fine when we moved out here. It wasn’t fine when I started at Arcadia High, and it sure as hell isn’t fine now.”
“I know,” he appeases with his hands raised.
Colt ignores both of us, hastily stuffing belongings into a box.
“That’s why I think this might be best.”
“My parents are divorcing,” I sass. “Yeah. That’s just swell.”
“Lacey,” Mum calls from the lounge. “Listen to your father.”
I back away from him, and then rapidly change my mind. He welcomes me with open arms when I rush into his embrace, relishing the warm and comforting smell of my father; my hero throughout all of this.
“Ssh.” He strokes my flowing hair, holding me tight. “You can come see me whenever you like.”
“What do you mean?”
I’m not so sure about that. “I’m not going anywhere. I want to stay with you.”
“It doesn’t work that way, sweetie,” Dad states. “You need to go with your mother. She can provide more than I can.”
“How?” I scoff. “She doesn’t work.”
“She has…” He grimaces. “Other avenues.”
“Like her damn lover?”
Colt stops moving.
Dad’s eyes go wide. “You know about that?”
“I’m not a child anymore, Dad. Let me stay here. I can get an after school job to help. I want to be with you.”
“You aren’t making this any easier for either of us.” He lets me go, holding me at arm’s length. “You’ll be better off back at Riverbourne.”
“I won’t!”
I’m not going. They can’t make me.
“It’s already done,” Colt says calmly. “You’re re-enrolled as of Monday.”
“No.” I sidestep Dad and head for the front door.
Maggie can loan me clothes. I’m not coming back until I know I can stay with Dad.
“You hold it right there,” Mum growls, lunging for me.
I spin and manage to slip out of reach. My feet hit the driveway and then stall.
Maggie’s not there.
“I told her to leave.” The glee in Mum’s tone ticks all the wrong boxes.
I whirl on her and scream. Open-mouthed, fists at my side, I let out all the regressed frustration from years of manipulation and mistreatment.
I’m done with people dictating my life, yet it seems no matter how hard I fight, I can’t make a damn lick of difference.
My voice breaks, and yet I still yell at the woman who’s to blame for all of this. Colt’s arms band around me; my father leans down to my level to try and snap me out of it. And yet, I yell. I curse and I cry, legs flailing when my brother hoists me off the ground and carries me indoors.
The Mavericks think that Colt is the one who brought trouble to their sleepy little town, but they don’t know the half of it.
Nope. I see it now. Colt was nothing more than a puppet. And the master pulling those taut strings?
Alicia Williams.
The woman who will never, ever, as long as I live hear the name mother again.
