by Jeff Hale
“Oh, believe me, he’s not the silent type. He’s just… shy,” Nina said, giving Aerick a pat on the shoulder.
“Yeah, he can talk, last I checked he wasn’t a mime or anything. If he was, I’d a killed him a long time ago,” the darker skinned boy near them piped up. I gave him a look, then smiled at his joke
“That’s Malcolm, and Jessie is the girl over there that is so skinny you want to shove a box of Ho-Ho’s up her ass, who happens to be Malcolm’s recently acquired girlfriend,” Nina told me, grinning the whole time so I’d know she was being silly.
“Hi, everyone. I’m Katelyn.” I did a general wave at everyone, feeling somewhat overwhelmed at all these new people. Nina had told me all about Aerick, her boyfriend Dave, a girl named Serena, and Malcolm and Jessie, but it looked like one of them was missing. Outside of Aerick, it was the person I had been looking forward the most to meeting because it sounded like I would really get along with her. But Nina had neglected to mention that Serena was dead and I wouldn’t find out until much later how much she had meant to Aerick.
There was an empty space on the other side of Aerick so I sat down next to him, only realizing once I was seated that I was too close and my leg was against his. I thought about wiggling away, but didn’t want him to think he made me nervous… which he did.
I wasn’t quite sure what to say to him, so I figured I would ask about the missing girl. “So, I was hoping to meet everyone, especially this Serena that Nina was telling me about. Looks like she’s not here today?”
“First off, personal bubble there, lady. Next off, that’s really none of your business. I don’t know who you are. I know you know Nina somehow, but that’s not enough for me to trust you.” His tone was somewhat annoyed and I got the idea that maybe this girl was a sore subject.
“Well, like I said, my name is Katelyn. I’m from Washington State, though I was born in Oregon and my family is originally from Ireland. We’re here for about a month or so while my stepfather,” I wasn’t quite able to keep the disgust out of my voice when I mentioned Gary, “makes a corporate deal for our farm. So I’m enrolled here until we go back. Mom doesn’t want me missing any of my schooling. Of course, she used to be a teacher, so I think that’s why she feels it’s so important that I don’t miss anything. I met Nina yesterday, which was my first day, but she was completely cool to me, and we became friends pretty quickly.”
Great. I had babbled. I tended to babble when I got really nervous. And this guy made me nervous, extremely so. There was something about him, something that felt almost… familiar, in a way, something that made it almost hard to breathe around him.
“Jesus fucking Christ, she talks more than Val does. I didn’t think that was possible. And she’s a farm girl to boot. Wonderful,” he muttered.
“Hey! What’s wrong with me being a farm girl?” I protested, not liking to be looked down on for something. “And it’s not really a farm per se. We grow grapes which are sold to wineries, so we make quite a bit more than the average farm.”
“Did I ask…? Nevermind. Look, I don’t deal well with new people and…”
“I couldn’t tell.” I tried not to roll my eyes.
“And I really would appreciate not being interrupted. Now, my advice to you is to just leave me alone.” He shot a small glare in my direction.
Why did all the good looking guys seem to be assholes?
“Aerick! What’s wrong with you? She hasn’t done anything to you, and you’re already treating her like just some other person. Doesn’t it mean anything that I consider her a friend? You know I’m picky about my friends.” Nina was pissed at him, I could tell, and it warmed me that she was coming to my defense.
“Yeah, but not picky about who you try to set me up with,” Aerick muttered as he stood up.
“Hey! You weren’t trying to set me up with him were you? I can find my own man, thank you very much!” I smacked Nina on the arm, once again trying not to go crimson. All I needed was this guy thinking that I was desperate for dates… which I was, but he didn’t need to know that.
“No. I wasn’t, and that was a shitty thing for you to say, Aerick. Really,” Nina told him quietly, looking a bit remorseful.
“Yeah, just happens to be true. I know you have my best interests at heart. And I’ll take you at your word that you weren’t trying to set me up with someone this time. Look I gotta go. I got work in an hour and the bus system around here is kind of shitty. See everyone later,” Aerick said to everyone, although I got the idea I wasn’t included in the ‘everyone’.
“Can I at least hope you can learn to get along with Kat?” Nina asked him as he started to walk away.
“Yeah, I promise nothing,” he shot back as he turned to go.
“I really am sorry he acted like that,” Nina apologized for Aerick. “He’s really not that bad. I think he liked you.”
I snorted. Liked me enough to bolt the first moment he got. “Yeah, sure he did. That’s okay, though, I’m used to guys treating me like crap most of the time. No biggie. So what did you want to do today?”
Even so, eventually Aerick and I went out on a few dates, but he was iffy on the idea of a long distance relationship. He kept in touch with me when I left Vegas; we were still close friends after all. But I was extremely surprised when he showed up out of the blue last minute to ask me to a Prom that was over a thousand miles from where I lived.
Of course I said yes; I had a major crush on him since I had laid eyes on him, thought I could maybe even fall in love with him. I even made mental plans to myself to do the traditional thing that many girls did on Prom night; lose my virginity.
But it hadn’t happened, and Prom was now just one more bitter memory.
Kris poking me broke me out of my reverie. I looked out the bus window to see we were at her stop.
“Kris? Why even bother? Just come home with me, not like your mom is gonna care and you can call her from my house. Besides, you’re coming with us tomorrow anyway and it will save a trip in the morning.”
Kris’s folks were the neglectful type and didn’t seem to care what Kris did or where she went, as long as it didn’t cause them any problems. Half the time they never even knew where she was.
She looked thoughtful, then nodded and settled back down into the seat. The bus driver waited a few more minutes then shut the door, staring back at us through the rearview mirror in exasperation. Fifteen minutes later, we were headed out the bus door at my stop with an admonition to please let the bus driver know ahead of time, yada yada yada.
Kris called her mom from inside. As we had figured, her mom didn’t really care, so it was all right; Kris had a habit of spending most weekends anyway. She had spent most of the previous summer here as well. There were already two drawers in my dresser and part of my closet space that was taken up by her clothing.
She helped me with the evening chores and we ate dinner quickly, my mom talking with Kris every once in a while, my step-dad ignoring us as usual. For once, my step-dad had kept his mouth shut, preferring the ignoring mode to the yelling mode. For some reason, despite all his other rules and asshole tendencies, having Kris stay over all the time didn’t seem to bother him.
I actually put on full makeup tonight. Kris had decided that my appearance should match my mood, so she had done my eyes up in dark shadow to match my usual heavy black eyeliner, and some dark burgundy lipstick.
I stared in the mirror, trying to see more than just the makeup and decided that I liked it. She did the same with her own makeup, although hers was more dramatic and noticeable, black paint on her nails and a low cut shirt to show off ample cleavage. I had the same ample cleavage that she had, but had been embarrassed over it for quite some time. One day it had finally occurred to me that boys liked breasts, and I had quit hiding them.
I went to the same extremes of dress that Kris did, just not anywhere that my step-dad could see, so at the moment I was dressed conservatively. I had other clothes in a duffel bag i
n the trunk of my car that I would change into once we left the house.
I tried to do as little as possible to incur my stepfather’s wrath and his opinions of my clothing were unpredictable at best. I didn’t usually do a whole lot with my dark-red hair except brush it out, leaving it long and loose, but tonight I decided to pull part of it back into a ponytail, a few crimson strands errant about my face.
“Bah, I wish my eyes were the same color as yours. Lucky.”
“Huh?” I stared at Kris, then back into the mirror. “But they are. I mean we both have blue eyes.”
“Well, yeah, but yours are, well, sea blue. Mine are like dull blue. And my hair is this ucky shade of blonde. I would kill to have your natural hair color.”
Trust Kris to pick herself apart and find something wrong. Here she was wishing her hair was my color and here I was wishing I had bright blonde hair like she did. And while her eyes were indeed grey, they were not the dull orbs that she would have people believe. Her eyes always sparkled with mischief and an intelligence that she played down. There was no way her eyes were ‘dull’.
I smacked her with a hairbrush. “You’re beautiful, Kris. Don’t make me hurt you more until you believe it.”
“Ooo, hurt me please, you know I like it when you do that.” She batted her eyes at me and I whacked her with the hairbrush again, making us both giggle. We were still giggling as we made our way down the stairs and into the vaulted foyer to leave.
My step-dad glared angrily in my direction from where he was sitting in the dining room. He was dressed impeccably, as usual, with his short blonde hair in a tidy sweep, navy designer polo shirt and black khaki slacks. I couldn’t fault my mom on his looks, but his personality was lacking.
“Well, with that kind of makeup on, I guess you’ll be whoring around with some boy. If we don’t see you till morning, we’ll know why,” he remarked flatly.
I think I mentioned that my step-dad was a fucking asshole? Comments like this were normal for him, and I had never figured out what I had ever done to deserve it. The derision in his voice was something that used to stop me short, but I had gotten used to it over the years. Kris didn’t say anything. She knew this was how he usually was and she just tried to ignore it when it happened around her.
I glanced toward my mother where she sat at the table, her own bright blonde hair in waves down to her shoulders, but she seemed to pay no attention. She was the same height I was and, even past her mid-thirties, she was still slim and good looking. Her expression, though, was different tonight, preoccupied. As my hand turned the doorknob, she finally looked up. Even looking as tired as she did, she was still pretty.
“Remember, girls, we’re leaving early in the morning, so don’t be out too late.” Her voice seemed to lack tone and her Irish accent, which was part of my heritage as well, was thicker than usual. Even when she was drunk, there was always some sort of emotion to her voice, usually amusement.
I gave her a worried look which prompted a half smile out of her, then I shrugged and Kris and I headed out the door. I drive like a maniac, which Kris had gotten used to. Nate, however, still wasn’t used to my driving and he clung to the back of my seat with white gripped fingers as we made our way towards the Mall from his house, occasionally muttering things under his breath something along the lines of dying at an early age.
We had the music up loud, and the windows down, the heavy bass from Disturbed’s The Sickness album making the car vibrate. I was driving fast, letting the air wash over me and soothe the anger inside me. It seemed over the last year that I had begun to react more strongly in my emotions and I honestly shouldn’t have been this upset. I probably could have slowed down, or been more careful, but my mother’s apparent disregard of my step-dad’s comments still stung despite the fact that I really hadn’t expected anything different.
Once we got there, Nate decided to walk in between us, grabbing my right hand with his left and Kris’s left hand with his right, smiling smugly at any envious glances that were sent his way. I had changed my clothes at Nate’s earlier and traded in my jeans for a miniskirt and black and white striped tights.
After an hour of wandering, sharing an Orange Julius, and minor embarrassment as Nate followed us into Victoria’s Secret and started recommending underwear, we headed into the theater to catch the newest horror flick, a remake of The Amityville Horror.
Nate promptly dropped into the seat in the middle and Kris and I spent the next couple of hours covering our eyes and screeching in between munching popcorn and getting mildly groped by Nate.
Don’t get me wrong, neither Kris nor I minded the groping; we both thought he was cute, and if he had ever actually broken down and asked either of us out, we’d have probably said yes. We also both knew that if either of us ever told him to knock it off he would; he only got away with what we allowed him to. If he had behaved, I think I would have thought he was ill.
It was late when the movie got out, and although Nate tried to con us into going to the nearby under 21 club for our last night together, Mom had warned us that we were leaving early so we squashed his hopes and told him we had to get back.
We all felt a little sad when we dropped him off, knowing he would be gone Monday. He kissed us both goodnight, first Kris, then me, and his lips moved on mine in an almost desperate and sad way, as though he figured he would never see me again. It left me in a somber mood as the door closed behind him and Kris and I headed back to my house. The somberness turned almost to depression as we pulled into the driveway and I sighed as I turned the ignition off.
“Your step-dad?” Kris asked, gesturing at the house.
“Yeah. I hate him.”
She patted me on the shoulder. “Just think. Graduation is soon, you got great scores on your SATs, and you can go to a college that is far, far away from him.”
I nodded. She was right, and I had already applied at several colleges, including UNLV, which was my top choice so I could go back to Las Vegas. But even if I left, he would still be married to my mother, and I would be leaving her behind with him.
The shadow of him seemed to loom over me, taking the joy out of everything, and I just hoped that one day I would be able to escape it.
TWO
Katelyn
We had already spent Spring Break last month at the coast at my grandparents. Now we were driving down again for a couple of days while my step-dad went out of town, again, on business for a week.
It seemed a bit unusual, but I hadn’t questioned my mother and I wasn’t going to argue about extra days down at the coast and possibly off from school. About a half hour after we pulled out of the driveway, Mom turned the music on the radio way down and sighed heavily.
“Kat, honey, I am really, really sorry.”
“What? Mom, for what?” I was confused. Kris just looked at me and shrugged.
There was a brief silence, followed by another heavy sigh. “For being such a shitty mom.”
“Huh?” I looked in the rearview mirror and I could see tears sliding down her cheeks. Her blue eyes met mine in the mirror and she half-smiled. Kris gave me an ‘I dunno’ look and shook her head. “What’s going on, Mom?”
Another silence, I think she was gathering her composure, before she answered, “Well, this trip to Gran and Granddad’s is going to be a little bit different, kiddo. I’m borrowing some money from them.”
“Why?” I was intrigued now. What could Mom want extra money for? Gary has beyond plenty.
“I have a house lined up not too far from the High School. It’s not a big one, but it’s nice, and if things go the way I think they may, we can move in as soon as we get back, once I pay deposit and rent.”
“Gary’s selling the house?” I usually didn’t refer to my step-dad by anything other than his first name.
“No, honey, he’s not. When I said ‘we’, I meant me and you, kiddo.”
I heard Kris’s gasp, and I sat there a bit stunned. I was plen
ty old enough to know what I thought, and hoped, her comment implied, but she took my silence as being confused I guess.
“I’m thinking about divorcing Gary, kiddo. I’ve got the house lined up for us, a job offer… and the alcohol counseling. I just want to have a good long talk with your Gran and Granddad before I make my mind up one hundred percent.”
Despite the surge of elation that went through me, I knew this was a rather sudden move on my mom’s part and I wondered what had triggered it. She seemed to have been fine for years with Gary, well as fine as you could be and drink yourself silly every day, but I had never gotten the impression that she would ever actually leave him.
“Well, Mom, Gary is an abusive ass, so I think you’re doing the right thing, but I gotta ask… why now? Why not a long time ago when he first started getting mean?” I tried to keep the accusation out of my voice as best as possible but I knew I didn’t succeed fully and I could see her wince in the rearview mirror.
“I was raised that you don’t get divorced, sweetie, and when he changed, well, I figured I had made my own bed so now I had to lie in it. You were always strong willed, you take after your father that way, and I knew you’d be okay, despite the horrid things he would say. I died inside every time he threw something ugly at you, but all I could think was that you would be free of it soon, off to college. Then I realized you couldn’t wait any longer.” She chewed at her bottom lip. It was starting to swell, and more tears came. “A couple weeks ago I caught him outside your bedroom door.”
“Outside my door?” I wasn’t sure what she was getting at, although I heard Kris’s little intake of air next to me.
Mom raised her eyes and looked into mine through the reflection of the mirror. “You would tell me, Kat, wouldn’t you, if he had… done anything?”
