The Art of Being Indifferent (The Twisted Family Tree Series)

by Brooke Moss

  I’d punched my dad in the face. My dad.

  He stood upright, wiping the blood from his skin, then scowling down at his dirty fingers. I could see his pulse jumping in his neck as he considered what to do next. I waited for him to talk. To say whatever he wanted to say after being clocked by his only kid, but instead he clenched his bloodied fingers and lunged at me.

  “Curtis, stop!”

  My mother’s shriek stopped my father in his tracks. He glared over his shoulder. “Go back to bed!”

  Don’t go back to bed, Mom. Don’t go back to bed.

  “I think you should both come inside now.” She pressed a hand to her chest and smiled weakly. “You’ll both calm down by morning.”

  I almost laughed. That was exactly what she always did. She ignored the fact that her husband was a bully, brushing it under the rug like some sort of playground scuffle. Instead of a grown ass man taking on his eighteen-year-old kid. If I followed her inside, she would have another bottle of wine uncorked before I even made it to the kitchen, and by morning, it would be yet another “non-issue” we weren’t allowed to bring up.

  “Not this time.” A lump grew in my throat, jagged and sharp as a ball of glass “Not anymore.”

  I didn’t wait for her to respond. I didn’t wait to see what my dad would do next. I charged for the door to the backyard and took off into the night. I didn’t know where I was going, and I didn’t know what to do, but I was done.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Her.

  I wrapped my arms around myself and stared out at the grey water. My stomach hurt. I’m sure it was a combination of stress and my having skipped lunch that day, but I couldn’t help it. I was literally worried sick.

  Drew hadn’t met me at the beach. At first I thought maybe something had come up, but when he didn’t meet me at school the next morning, I started to get paranoid. For about five seconds I thought he’d finally come to his senses, and didn’t want to date the weird girl anymore. Which was fine. Maybe I didn’t want to date the popular jock anymore

  Except that I did.

  The problem was, once I got over myself, I realized that Drew hadn’t come to school at all. And that’s when the stomachache started.

  He must have gotten into a fight with his dad. I knew it. If Drew were sick, he would’ve sent me a Facebook message that morning, or told Mac to let me know. But I’d only seen Mac once across the lunchroom, and he’d taken off early from school, so I couldn’t even ask him.

  Making things worse, Drew had not only skipped school but swim practice, too. Now that Drew was in the semifinals, no way in hell would he miss practice. Not without cause. Major cause. Scenario after scenario scrolled through my head as I walked home and logged onto Facebook to check for messages. Maybe his dad roughed him up so badly he went to the hospital in Oak Harbor?

  I scrolled through my inbox. Nothing. Unless you counted another message from my mother, complete with a naked belly shot accentuating her bong tattoo.

  Where the hell was he? What happened? Did I need to hike my way up the hill to the Baxters’ mansion and pound on the door, demanding to know where the hell my boyfriend was? That certainly wouldn’t help my popularity with the Mayor and his wife.

  A fat, grey seagull landed on a rock a few feet away from me, cawing for food and jerking me out of my thoughts. I’d been sitting on the boulders where Drew and I had our first kiss for two hours now, and the sun was almost down. I’d been hoping that somehow he would know to find me there, and walk up on the sand towards me before I totally fell apart.

  The seagull screeched again.

  “Go away,” I told it. “I don’t have any food. Speaking of which… I should get home for dinner.” Sliding down off the boulder, I brushed sand from my jeans. “Awesome. Now I’m talking to a bird.”

  “I always knew you were freaking nuts.”

  I jumped, and turned around. “What the…”

  Drew.

  “You’re here!” I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my body to his. He was here. “I don’t mean to get so needy girlfriend on you, but I’ve been so worried. Where were you last night? Where were you today?”

  He pulled back, lacing his hands at the small of my back. When he looked down at me, I could see the stress written all over his face. Drew’s mouth pulled into a thin line, and he had dark circles underneath his eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” I said quickly, my stomach sinking. “What happened? What did he do now?”

  “I’ll explain.” Drew looked at his watch. “It’s almost five-thirty. Do you have time? I know you have to be home for dinner.”

  “Screw dinner. What happened?”

  “Let’s sit down.” He led me over to the rock, shooing the seagull away, then settled down with me between his legs. I leaned against this chest, and felt his heart beating against my back. “I got into another fight with my dad last night. He caught me sneaking out to meet you.”

  I covered my face, guilt choking me. “I’m sorry. I pushed you to sneak out, even though I knew you could get into trouble. It’s my fault.”

  He put his hand underneath my chin and made me turn my head so I could see his face. “No. It’s not your fault. The fight we had was a long time coming. Honestly, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.” Drew took a deep breath, then released it slowly. “My dad has control issues,” he finally said.

  “No kidding.” I scoffed, pulling his arms tighter around my middle. “Tell me something not completely obvious.”

  Drew laughed into my hair. “He doesn’t like things he can’t control. The older I get, the more I want to do things that don’t interest him. That scares him. You see, my dad’s got this idea in his head of how his life is supposed to look. He’s got the wife and the big house and the kid. The only problem is… I don’t want to fit into that mold anymore. And it ticks him off.

  “My dad wants me to go to college, go into politics, and follow in his footsteps. And I don’t want that. I don’t ever want to go into politics or run cities. That’s not me. He wants me to find a rich girl after college, preferably a daughter of a senator, or some such crap, so I can marry up and boost his career. I don’t want that, either.”

  “Sounds like you did some serious soul searching last night,” I said. “Did you tell your dad all of this? Is this why you fought?”

  “No.” Drew shook his head, and looked out at the water. “I wasn’t home last night.”

  “What?” I turned so I could examine him more closely. “Where were you?”

  “He shoved me.” His green eyes dampened, but Drew’s gaze remained locked on the sound. “I landed on my car hood, and… and I just snapped. I jumped up and I…” He closed his eyes, and shook his head. “I punched him right in the mouth. I busted his lip open, and then my mom caught us.”

  “Drew,” I whispered, covering my mouth. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Mayor Baxter had it coming, but it was clear by the look on his face Drew didn’t feel proud of it. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t know.” He clenched his jaw. “I just… I just can’t take it anymore. I ran. I took off into the dark, and ran. I didn’t come to the beach because I was upset and embarrassed, and…”

  I turned all the way around and sat on my knees in front of him. Cupping his face in my hands, I whispered, “You don’t have to be embarrassed with me. Not ever. But I get it. I understand why you ran. I’ve run before, too. More times than I even want to admit.”

  Drew pulled me into a hug, burying his face in the side of my neck. “I stayed out for half the night and finally wound up at Mac’s house. My dad took away my keys and my phone. I even left my wallet home. Mac’s mom keeps telling me their door is always open, so I went up and knocked on it around three am. They let me sleep on their couch, and by the time I woke up, Mac had already left for school, and his mom was at work. Mac skipped out on his classes after lunch to help me go get my wallet and some clothes from my parents�
�� house while they were gone for the day.”

  “What are you going to do?” I searched his eyes for something. Hope, maybe? But I saw nothing but sadness in the pools of green. “When will you go home? Or will you stay with Mac?”

  “I don’t know. I… his mom said I could stay, and I’m eighteen, so I can do what I want. But…”

  When he looked down, my heart clenched. “But what? Your dad is abusive. You can’t just let it slide. Not anymore.”

  Drew raised his eyes to meet mine again. “What if he screws up my college plans? What if he messes with the scouts Coach has coming to the semifinals, and I don’t get into U-Dub on a scholarship? What if he’s pissed I left, and he starts messing with Mac’s mom or her job? He’s done it before. I’ve seen him do it.”

  I held his face, and pressed a kiss to his forehead. It was so weird that our lives were so colossally different—yet so completely the same. It didn’t matter that he came from money, and I came from nothing. We both had parents who’d screwed us up royally, and left us feeling like we weren’t worth a damn on our own.

  Well, I wasn’t going to take it. Over the past few month or so, I’d actually started thinking I might be worth more than mediocrity. Maybe I was worth a family. Maybe I was worth making more of myself than becoming another face in the crowd on a bus in downtown Seattle. There was no way I was going to let Drew’s jerk of a father convince him that he couldn’t do amazing things with his life, just because he didn’t have his rich, powerful father standing behind him, calling all the shots.

  I took my face and made him look at me. “Then you’ll go to a different college. And you’ll try out for the swimming team there. Or not. That’s the cool thing about not having your dad’s thumb on you all the time, Drew, you can go and do whatever you want. You’re capable of incredible things, and your last name has nothing to do with it.”

  “Are you kidding?” His voice shook. “Po, I’ve been letting my dad tell me what to do for so long, I don’t even know what I want to do with myself.”

  “You can do anything.” Pressing a kiss to his mouth, I spoke against his lips. “Please say you’re not going back to your parents’ house.”

  “I don’t know.” He looked at his watch again. “Po, it’s five thirty. I know you have to get home for dinner.”

  “I don’t care. I want to stay with you.”

  He smoothed my hair back from my face, and smiled weakly. “I left a note at my house, asking my mom and dad to meet me at the diner downtown for dinner.”

  My eyes widened. “What? You’re going to dinner with him?”

  “I have to.” He pressed his lips together, and ran a hand through my hair. “I have to give them a chance to… I dunno. Do the right thing. I know you think it’s nuts, but… Posey, they’re my parents.”

  He was right. I did think it was nuts. But I also understood. That was the reason I still hadn’t responded to my mom’s messages yet. I could have easily told her to jump off a cliff, to never bother me again, and then block her. But I hadn’t. Not because I was too stupid to know that she’d damn near ruined my life, but because despite that, she was my mom. Every kid loved their parent, even when their parent screwed everything up.

  “I get it.” I kissed his lips, closing my eyes and willing his heart to stop hurting. “I completely understand.”

  He leaned into me, pulling me onto his lap and deepening the kiss. We stayed that way for another few minutes, the wind rushing off the water and crashing into us. I could’ve stayed that way for hours. Days, even. Nothing in the world compared to being close to Drew.

  Finally, he pulled away, running his thumb across my swollen lower lip before helping me to my feet and taking my hand. “I’ve got Mac’s truck. Let me run you home.”

  “Okay.” I followed him up to the road. Down the road was a parked, beat up, silver compact. “Who’s that?”

  Drew looked over his shoulder as the engine started, and they sped off in the opposite direction. “Beats me. I’ve never seen that car around town before.”

  “They’d better not take over our beach.” Drew opened the passenger side door, and I climbed in, stopping only to give him another long kiss. “Will you send me a message tonight, and tell me how dinner with your parents went?”

  “I will.” He smiled, but his expression remained tight. “I promise.”

  When he closed the truck door with a click, my heart lurched in my chest. I’d always assumed my pain was the worst pain I’d ever feel. But now I’d discovered that watching someone I loved hurting was ten thousand times worse.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Him.

  My skin prickled with sweat as I entered the diner and made my way over to my parents’ booth.

  They didn’t usually eat at The Diner. Though it was the only restaurant in town, and it was a far too “greasy spoon” for their tastes. They usually preferred to drive to Langley to eat in a nice restaurant on the water or some such pretentious crap like that. So when I saw them sitting next to each other in a booth, their backs stiff and expressions weary, I wasn’t sure whether to be grateful they’d actually done what I said… or worried that they’d be pissed I suggested this place.

  Glancing over my shoulder at Mac’s pickup outside, I nodded. He planned to wait for me while we talked and text Jessa at the same time. I wasn’t sure which made him more nervous. Probably Jessa.

  “Uh… hi, guys.” I said, approaching the table. At least my dad was obsessed with public appearances, so he’d been smart enough to sit down next to my mother, leaving the seat on the other side of the table open for me. I slid in and looked at my mom. “Thanks for meeting me.”

  “Yes.” She smiled as she looked around the diner. “Couldn’t we have met somewhere more private?”

  “No.” I swallowed back the panic rising in the back of my throat when I looked at my dad. His bottom lip was scabbed over in the center, and the skin on the side of his mouth was still red. “Dad,” was all I said, nodding.

  “Andrew.” The tension rolled off my dad like a fog, and I wondered if anybody else in the diner sensed it, instead of thinking the perfect Baxters were having a perfect dinner together.

  Not really knowing what to do with my hands, I tapped on the tabletop a few times before plucking up a menu. “Are you guys hungry?”

  “Are you buying?” my dad asked in a quiet voice, smiling as a waitress passed. “Because I’m not after the stunt you pulled last night.”

  “Can we please have a peaceful discussion?” Mom said tersely. “I’d like to hear our son out, so we can all go home and put this nonsense behind it.”

  “Fine.” Dad folded his hands on the table, and glared at me. An icy shiver slid down my back. “Spit it out. What do you want?”

  I turned my focus to my mom, whose nostrils flared as she eyeballed the menu in my hands. “Is that what you think it was? Nonsense?”

  She glanced at me, but immediately turned her focus elsewhere. “I just think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill.”

  “Am I?” I started to tremble and hid my hands under the table.

  My father watched me and smirked. “Not so tough now, are you?”

  I bristled. For years I’d cowered when he spoke, jumping to complete my chores or win a freaking race just so he wouldn’t get pissed off. I didn’t want to live like that anymore. I couldn’t.

  Lifting my eyes, I looked my dad square in the face. “Tough enough, sir.”

  He leaned across the table, close to me. “Okay. What is this? What are you trying to prove?”

  My heart jumped, but I clasped my hands under the table to keep from reacting. “That I don’t have to be your punching bag anymore.”

  Dad’s eyes darted around the diner. “Listen here, you little—”

  “Curtis.” Mom put her hand on his arm. “Not here. We’re here to talk.”

  I turned my focus to her. “Do you honestly think this is all right? Is it really cool that your husband knocks
around your kid? Are you really okay with this?”

  She pressed a finger to her lips when someone at a neighboring table looked at us. “Of course not. But this is how your father was raised. This is the way he knows—”

  “There’s nothing wrong with a father disciplining his out of control son,” Dad hissed, thumping his finger on the table. “This is how my father disciplined me, and I turned out fine. Look at me, I run this whole God-damned town.”

  “I disagree.” Shaking my head, I glanced to make sure Mac was still parked outside. He was. Thank God. “You didn’t turn out fine. You’re a pretentious ass who punches his kid and cheats on his wife.”

  Mom covered her mouth to hide her gasp. “Andrew.”

  “We’re done here.” My dad started to stand up, but I grabbed his arm.

  When he glared down at me, I whispered. “Unless you want everyone in here to know what you’re really like, you need to hear me out.”

  I could feel the anger streaming from his pores as he settled back into his seat. “You’re done. No car. No phone. No money. That’s it. You’re finished.”

  I sat back on the vinyl seat and took a shuddering breath. “I don’t want any of it.”

  “Then what in the world could you possibly have to gain by doing this?” Mom asked, shrilly.

  “Blair, keep it down,” Dad snapped.

  “I just want out.” I put up my hands. “I have somewhere to stay until graduation. I’ll get a job and pay for my own car and phone and anything else that comes up. I don’t need or want your money anymore.” Turning my focus to my mother, my voice softened. “I’m not coming back unless you tell him to leave.”

  Her eyes met mine, wide and panicked, at the same time Dad clenched his fists on the tabletop and growled, “Excuse me?”

  I didn’t look at him. I couldn’t. I was on the verge of crapping my pants right there in the middle of the diner, and couldn’t lose my nerve now. “Mom, that house and everything in it is half yours. You don’t have to be afraid. You can be without him. Don’t you get that? If he leaves, I’ll come home.”