Crushed

by Amity Hope

  She grabbed the kitchen towel off the handle of the fridge. She waved it in front of the alarm, trying to clear the air. It stopped after a few seconds.

  “Eww, that stinks,” Luci said as she crinkled up her freckled nose. She wiggled the kitchen window open.

  “I know,” Cleo sighed.

  Paul was her step-dad, Luci’s real dad. She’d never met her father. She wasn’t even all that sure that her mom had known who her father was. And now she was gone and Cleo had lost any chance of ever finding out.

  Paul married her mom when she was seven. After her mom died the spring of her sophomore year, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen to her. Paul had never really been a father figure to her. He was barely a father figure to Luci. She hadn’t known if he was going to kick her out. Turn her over to Social Services or what he was going to do. She’d been too afraid to ask. So she’d spent weeks, then months just wondering and waiting and expecting the worst.

  So far, he still hadn’t done anything.

  Her assumption was that he needed to have her around. Cleo was sure he found her to be more of a convenience than a nuisance. She was his built in babysitter for Luci, his personal shopper and chef. Albeit “chef”, in her mind, was used loosely as her culinary abilities were far from exemplary. More like questionable, as the burned hamburger attested.

  “Now what?” Luci asked as she propped her scrawny elbows on the countertop. “Are we going to eat that?” Her eyes crept toward the sink and the charred chunks in the pan. Her nose scrunched in derision.

  “No. I’ll just start over,” Cleo stated with a sigh. “And you, Sweet Pea, can set the table. When you’re done, get started on your homework until dinner’s ready. I’ll help you afterwards if you get stuck. But I want you to at least try to do as much as you can on your own.”

  Luci sighed. Most likely over the injustice of being asked to work on her assignment alone. “Should I set two places or three?” she asked as she went to the cupboard.

  “It’s probably just going to be the two of us,” Cleo told her as she sidestepped some burger bits that had landed on the floor. She doubted Paul was coming back.

  Luci busied herself with her duties as Cleo went about her own. The water was already boiling, waiting for spaghetti noodles to be dropped in. She turned it down as she started the hamburger over again.

  While it was browning she cleaned up the hardening grease splatters and meat chunks. It was an unnecessary mess, but that was Paul for you.

  Her home life was far from ideal. But she constantly told herself it could be worse. Paul drank. A lot. There had been a few times over the years when he’d lost his temper. She’d ended up with a fist to the stomach or a blinding slap to the face. But not often. And he’d never touched Luci. She wouldn’t have tolerated that.

  Instead, he was an obnoxious, whiney, ‘poor-me’ drunk. The kind that felt like he was entitled to more than he had just…because. They didn’t get along and she tried to stay out of his way. For the most part, they managed to coexist.

  Although, the past summer had been rocky for them. Cleo had found herself antagonizing him, which wasn’t hard to do. While she had never liked Paul, she’d come to hate him in the past half year.

  Her mom had had her faults, lots of them. But she was still her mother. Luci was the only connection Cleo had to her. Luci was her only family. Losing their mom had been hard on both of them. Cleo counted on Luci as much Luci counted on her. She would do whatever she had to do to be sure that she and Luci could stay together. If that meant she had to deal with Paul—right or wrong—she would deal with Paul. And his temper.

  He kept a roof over their heads. It was a smallish house, just a rental. It was decent enough. But it was nothing fancy—or even inviting. It was simply livable with its stark white walls, gray carpeting and white and silver flecked linoleum. She would’ve liked to have been able to at least paint their bedrooms but the landlord wouldn’t allow it.

  Sometimes Paul grudgingly gave Luci a bit of spending money when she begged him for it. He paid for her school lunches. Usually. He gave Cleo fifty bucks a week to put toward groceries for the three of them. It didn’t go far. She had to buy the rest. She usually packed her lunch for school. Anything else she needed, she bought herself. She never asked Paul for a dime. He wouldn’t have given it to her even if she had. So she saved herself the humiliation of asking. Some weeks it was hard enough to get grocery money from him. She’d learned early to get it first thing Friday afternoon; payday. If she could catch him before he headed out to the bar.

  If only Paul spent as much on groceries as he did on cigarettes and alcohol, Cleo knew they’d be all set.

  She finished making the spaghetti. Since Paul had left and wouldn’t be around to grumble, she only used half of the hamburger she’d browned. She put the rest in the fridge for another meal. Noodles were far cheaper so she and Luci filled up on them with sauce, light on the meat.

  “So tell me more about these girls,” Cleo said as they sat down to dinner. “Tell me again how you met them?”

  Luci reached for a second piece of garlic bread. Cleo swatted her hand away. “Not until you eat your green beans.”

  “I hate green beans,” Luci moaned.

  “Yeah, me too,” Cleo agreed with an encouraging smile. Emma’s mom, Patty Donovan, had given them to her, fresh out of the garden. She hadn’t wanted to be rude by not taking them, or letting them go to waste. She was pretty sure Mrs. Donavon knew this. It was just another one of the dozens of ways she tried to help watch over Luci and Cleo. “But since you hate all vegetables I thought, why not green beans for tonight?”

  Luci pouted as she took a tentative bite.

  “So, these girls?” Cleo pressed.

  “We met during lunch,” Luci said around a bite of noodles. She’d already abandoned the green beans.

  “Don’t talk with your mouth full, Sweet Pea, it’s rude. And pretty gross,” Cleo admonished.

  Luci rolled her eyes as she made a point of swallowing.

  “I don’t have lunch with Jill or Bridget,” she began in a voice that fully implied how unfair this was. Cleo immediately empathized because again, she understood the trauma lunchtime could bring. “And I didn’t know where I was going to sit. So I was just standing there feeling stupid and Micah Carter…he’s so cute…he was like whoah!” Luci opened her eyes wide to emulate him. “And I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he pointed behind me and Addison and Marissa were there. He was like…‘You guys all look alike! I must be seeing triple’! So that’s how it started. They laughed and we found a table. Then I had a class with Marissa after lunch.”

  “You really look that much alike?” Cleo wondered. She tried to keep the skepticism out of her tone.

  “Well, yes,” Luci decided. “I mean, we all have long blond hair and blue eyes. Well, we are different because of our bangs. And they don’t have freckles,” she admitted with a bit of disappointment. “But mostly we’re the same height. Okay, maybe I’m a little bit shorter. But when we were walking down the hallway at the end of the day, everyone stared,” she admitted with a giggle.

  Cleo had to wonder if it was the twins alone—not only twins but new girls in school—that were really the center of attention. But no way was she about to burst Luci’s little bubble of happiness by pointing that out to her.

  “Who do you have lunch with?” Luci wanted to know.

  “I got lucky. I’ve got lunch with Emma again this year. And Melanie,” she added as an afterthought.

  Luci looked pleased for her sister.

  “Do you have Jill and Bridget in any of your other classes?” Cleo asked. They were her two best friends from early on in elementary school.

  Jill’s mom, Teri Abernathy, had known their mom. She hadn’t known her well. Just in passing because of birthday parties and sleepovers both girls attended. The Abernathys were great about inviting Luci over now. Or if Cleo ever needed somewhere for her to go, Teri had told her
the offer to take Luci overnight was always open. She’d only taken her up on it a few times. She didn’t want to take advantage of the situation. And they invited Luci over frequently anyway. Jill’s family had kind of taken Luci in the same way Emma’s had done with Cleo.

  Luci nodded and made a point of swallowing again. “They have lunch together but I have Bridget in my gym class and I have Jill in art and math.”

  “That’s good,” Cleo said.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, “and I also have Addison in my language class. But I had that first hour and we didn’t get to be friends until later. But now I think first hour will be a lot more fun.”

  “So, other than making new friends, what was your favorite part of the day?” Cleo wondered as she hurriedly forced down a bite of green beans.

  Luci’s smile was so huge it took over her face and made her crinkled up eyes sparkle. “Cleo…oh…my…gosh! You should see the library! It’s huge! And there are no baby books in there. At all. I mean, like, no picture books for the kindergartners like there was in the elementary school library. This one? It’s full of books that don’t have pictures. And we get to go twice a week. But we can only check out two books at a time. I’ve already started a list for this year but I’m not even half way done with writing them all down. I can’t wait! We get to go for the first time tomorrow! I saw it today, but only because I got to go in before the bell had rung. And I didn’t get to look around too long because the librarian told me I should probably find my first hour class. But tomorrow?! Is going to be so awesome!”

  “Did you go into the library without permission?” Cleo suspiciously wondered.

  “Well…maybe. But I’ve been waiting all summer to see it!”

  Luci’s smile was infectious and Cleo grinned back, happy to see Luci happy. And not surprised that the books made her sound even happier than her newfound friends did. Books, after all, were Luci’s passion.

  So,” Luci said after swallowing another bite of beans with a grimace, “how was your first day?”

  Chapter 4

  Reece more or less had the entire downstairs to himself. His parents’ bedroom and his sisters’ now empty bedrooms were up on the third level. His mom and dad spent most of their time on the main level in the living room. Or at least they did when his mom wasn’t in the kitchen and his dad wasn’t in his office, which were also on the main level.

  Their downstairs consisted of a family room that had somehow, over the years, been converted into more of a game room than anything else. He had a dartboard, foosball table and a huge flat screen connected to his X-Box.

  His bedroom, the only one down there, took up the whole backside of the house. A set of sliding glass doors led out of the family room and into the backyard, facing the lake. Those doors were ideal for sneaking in and out of at night. With his parents’ room so far from his, they never heard a thing. Not even his vehicle starting. Especially since his mom couldn’t sleep without her fancy little noise making machine that bopped out the sound of a babbling brook all night long.

  Not that he’d been sneaking out at all the last few months. In fact, he’d been home more lately than he had been in a long time. Since Adam was his only friend that wasn’t in football either, he’d been spending more time than usual with him. Practice had started a month ago for everyone else. Adam usually came to Reece’s house to hang out because they could always find something to do.

  They were in the middle of an NHL game on X-Box when they heard Mr. Hildenbrandt tromping down the stairs.

  “Adam” he said as he appeared in the archway, “don’t you think it’s about time you headed home?”

  “Can you give us five minutes?” Reece asked his dad. The score was four to three, late in the third period and Adam had just pulled his goalie. Reece was sure he could maintain the lead.

  They just needed a few more minutes.

  He didn’t bother to keep the aggravation out of his voice. They were almost done. Would giving them a few minutes kill him?

  Apparently so.

  “No,” Landon Hildenbrandt replied without even thinking it over. He flipped off the TV; effectively ending the game.

  “Okay,” Adam said. He shot Reece a look and threw his controller onto the couch. He was as used to Reece’s dad’s jackass behavior as Reece was. And while Adam had to have been as mad as Reece was about the abrupt ending of the game, he didn’t show it.

  Reece was tempted to follow Adam out the door. He knew that if his dad was asking Adam to leave, it was so he could get him alone. So they could have one of their chats. The chats never ended well. At least not for Reece.

  He hoisted himself to his feet. No way was he going to just sit there with his dad hovering over him while he had to crane his neck to look up at him. He flopped onto the couch instead. From where he sat, he could look through the glass doors. He focused his attention on the stormy gray waves that were rolling in.

  “I talked to coach Murphy tonight. He’d be happy to let you back on the team.” Landon got straight to it, as usual.

  So, we’re back to this? Again? Reece wondered.

  “I don’t want to be back on the team. And why would he let me back on? I missed all of junior year. There’s no way he wants me back. Practice for this year started last month. First game is this Friday.” He didn’t want to be having this conversation. Somehow, he thought since practice had already started, that Landon had let it go. He should’ve known he was wrong.

  “Trust me, we talked. He’ll let you back on. You start tomorrow.” He turned to leave. As if that was all there would be to this conversation. As if Reece had no say in the matter.

  Reece ripped his eyes away from the lake and stared at his dad in disbelief. “What did you do? Did you offer to pay him?”

  “No.” He stopped and turned back around. He gave Reece the look that he knew was meant to intimidate.

  Reece clenched his jaw in silence. He gave him his own furious look back. He wanted his dad to know that this tactic wasn’t going to work on him.

  Landon huffed. “I did offer to make a nice contribution to the athletics department.”

  “So you’re basically buying my way back onto the team.” It wasn’t even a question. It was a statement. Unbelievable, Reece thought. Or maybe not. Maybe ‘typical’ is more like it.

  “You never should’ve quit.” Landon’s tone was shifting into lecture mode.

  “No, you never should’ve talked to Coach on my behalf. Then again, offer him whatever you want. I’m not joining the team. I quit for a reason.” He said the next words slowly. As if that might actually help them to finally sink in. “I don’t want to play.”

  “Reece,” Landon said. His voice had gone all hard as it morphed into his I-mean-business tone. “We’re going to talk about this. I humored you last year but this is senior year. It’s a big year for you.”

  “No,” Reece said. “You’re not going to bully me into this. I’m not playing.”

  “Do you have any idea how much your mother and I do for you? Do you appreciate any of it?” he began. “All I’m asking is that you play a little football.”

  Reece said nothing. His dad was the reason he didn’t want to play. Landon was one of those parents who sat in the stands, demeaning the other team, shouting inappropriate things. But more often than not, he got away with it because of the yearly donations he made.

  It was embarrassing and Reece felt like he’d put up with it long enough.

  No matter how good he played, Landon always had some reason for tearing it apart. He’d spend days hearing about what he should’ve done differently. How he should’ve played better. He’d gotten sick of it. It took the fun right out of it and beat it to death. Down to nothing. But even that, he could have lived with. A few of his teammates had dads like that, too. What he couldn’t stand was being associated with him while he was out there.

  He’d ruined it for Reece.

  He’d tried to explain that more than once. But Landon had refu
sed to listen. Not willing to admit that he’d done anything wrong. The way he saw it, he was just supporting the team. He’d berated Reece for having a problem with it. Reece had warned Landon that if he couldn’t keep his mouth under control, he’d be done.

  Landon hadn’t listened.

  Reece had turned in his uniform the next day and had never regretted it.

  Landon, however, had yet to recover.

  Like it’s a kick in the balls to his masculinity that he has a son that doesn’t play or something, Reece thought.

  Landon had refused to come to Reece’s baseball games last summer. Reece knew damn well it was because he thought of it as a punishment or something. Like, if Reece didn’t play football, he wouldn’t support him in baseball. The truth? It was a relief. He didn’t want him there. He played a lot better when he wasn’t around. Because Landon brought nothing but stress with him.

  And his mom never missed a game.

  “You either play, or you can hand over your keys.”

  Reece shrugged. This wasn’t the first or probably even the last time he would threaten him with his vehicle. His parents had gotten it for his sixteenth birthday. But they had made it clear that since they had purchased it, they weren’t opposed to taking it away if Reece ever gave them a reason to do so. However, Beth Hildenbrandt had an entirely different idea about what qualified as ‘a reason’. But most of the time Reece felt like the only reason his dad had gotten him the vehicle was so that he could threaten him with it.

  “Fine,” Reece said. “The keys are upstairs in my jacket.”

  Looked like he’d be texting Adam, begging for a ride in the morning. Again.

  Landon huffed at him once more. As if this answer surprised him? It wasn’t the first time Reece had given up the rights to his Navigator without a fight.

  Besides, he had a hunch his mom wasn’t clued into this conversation yet.

  She actually got why he didn’t want to play.

  He bounced off the couch, heading to his room.

  “Reece,” his dad said in a warning tone.