I gave Liam a smile. “I need to get home. Quick.”
CHAPTER 7
He drove fast and mercifully didn’t ask any questions. As he pulled into the driveway, I saw my dad running up the porch stairs with a flashlight. He stopped when he saw the car.
“Thanks, Liam. I had a really good time, but I’d better go,” I said.
“Can I do anything to help?”
“No. No. Everything’s fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I jumped out of the car and hurried over to Dad. He pressed his hand to his mouth, his eyes wide.
Mom pushed open the front door. “Thank God… wait. Darby’s not with you?”
I shook my head.
Mom grabbed the flashlight from my dad’s hands. “Where the hell have you been?” She took off down the front steps and started up the sidewalk.
I looked at Dad. “I’m sorry…. I didn’t mean to be this late.”
“I just got here myself. We’ve searched the house, and her car’s still here. Any ideas?”
I couldn’t handle the fear in my dad’s eyes, so I looked at the ground and really thought. It was dark, so she wouldn’t walk in the woods. But why would she walk anywhere at this hour? Maybe she wasn’t getting better like I thought. But this time I was the fool. Mom had been trying to warn me, and I didn’t listen.
I bit back the tears. Dad rubbed my shoulder. “It’s okay. I’m sure she’s fine. I’m going to go find your mom.” Dad went down the stairs.
“What can I do?” I asked.
“Find her.” He disappeared into the darkness, and I went inside. I threw my bag near the stairs and turned my cell phone back on. Maybe Darby had called or texted.
But all I found, other than texts from Tess, were seven texts and two very upset voice mails from my mom. I deleted them. All of them.
I went to the back porch and looked toward the woods. Is she out there? But then I remembered something. When Darby first got home from the hospital, she’d go to the elementary school a lot. To the left of the building was a creek and an outcropping of rocks that she’d sit on for hours. I couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone there, but it was worth a shot. I grabbed a flashlight and ran outside, where my mom and dad were having a quiet but fierce conversation.
Mom was crying. I tried to tell myself that she was just worried, but it didn’t help.
“I have an idea where to look,” I said, running past them.
I heard my dad protesting behind me, but I kept going. My cell phone buzzed, and I answered it, thinking it could be Darby.
But it was Tess.
“What happened?! I’ve been dying!” she said.
Liam seemed a million miles away at that moment. “Great.”
“Great? That’s it?”
“More than great.”
“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. Are you running on a treadmill or something?”
I slowed my pace as I turned the corner and approached the school. Under the glow of the parking lot lights, I could see Darby walking toward me. I swallowed a relieved sob that came out of nowhere.
“Lexi was there,” I choked out, trying to pull my emotions back in before Darby got to me.
“We have to put a monitoring device on Lexi. She could be a significant problem. And speaking of significant problems, can I come over again tonight?”
Darby came up to me, looking confused but perfectly normal. Perfectly safe. I smiled at Darby and turned my attention back to Tess. “Can you give me twenty minutes?” I asked.
“See you then!” Tess said.
I hung up the call and texted my dad:
Found her!
“You saw my note?” Darby asked.
“Yeah,” I lied. “It was just getting so late.”
We started back home. “I didn’t realize that much time had passed, and I forgot my cell. Sorry about that.”
“No big deal,” I said. Another lie.
“How was the game? I need to come watch you cheer sometime.”
“It was good. I know you’re so busy with school.”
Darby laughed lightly. “Just two classes.”
“But it’s something.”
We got home and found Dad at the counter with his laptop and my mom sitting at the table grading papers. As if they didn’t have a care in the world.
“Hey, Darby!” Mom said.
I walked into the kitchen and casually scanned the countertops while my mom asked Darby about school. I didn’t find it until I got to the fridge—a note stuck next to the ice dispenser: Hey guys, Taking a walk to the school. Be back soon. Love, Darby
I pulled the note from the fridge, and when Darby turned away for a moment, I tossed it in front of my mom and left the room.
I found Tess sitting on the front porch, waiting. “Sorry,” she said. “Had to get out of there.” She turned, revealing a red, swollen cheek.
“Tess, what happened?”
I dragged her inside and sent her up to my room. Swinging by the kitchen, where Darby was still talking to Mom, I dug around in the freezer for a bag of frozen peas. Dad raised his eyebrow at me, but I just smiled at him and ran up to my room.
Tess was sitting at my computer desk looking at a project I’d been working on. “What’s this?” she asked.
“A new logo for the wrestling team. Do you like it?”
“Yeah, it’s great. How do you come up with this stuff?”
“I don’t know.” I handed her the peas, and she gave me a funny look. “Just put it on your cheek. My mom always used these as ice packs.” I sat down on my bed. “What happened?”
Tess shook her head. “It was my own fault.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute, Tess.”
“It was. Darren was over again, and he was being drunk and stupid, and he kind of hit on me.”
“Kind of hit on you?” Darren was her mother’s on-again, off-again, sleazy boyfriend.
“I shoved him when he got too close, and my mom backhanded me. I should have just left.”
I looked at her closely, trying to measure how much of the story I was getting. “Tess, this has got to stop. What about Ashley?”
“Ashley’s at a friend’s house. She’s fine.” Tess adjusted the peas and leaned back on the chair. “Sorry to ruin your first-date high.”
“Tess. Nothing’s more important than you.”
“They’ll sleep it off. She probably won’t even remember it in the morning.”
“You will.” I sat down on the bed and turned to face her. “We’ve got to do something. What if he tries something on Ashley? She’s not as strong as you are.”
“He wouldn’t dare. I’d kill him.” Tess’s eyes were hard. I knew it wasn’t just a figure of speech.
“There’s got to be somewhere you can go for help.”
“I told you. There’s nothing I can do. If I report it they’ll put us both in foster care, probably apart. Do you have any idea what the foster care system is like?” Tess’s words were quick and angry.
“We have to do something,” I said, more to myself but still out loud.
“I’ve looked at every alternative. I just have to get through eighteen months. That’s it. That’s the plan. That, and staying out of Darren’s way.” Tess moved the peas from her face. “How bad does it look?”
I cringed. “It’s gonna bruise. What will you say?”
“That I tripped and fell. Easy breezy.”
On Saturday Tess refused to talk anymore about getting help, so to take her mind off everything, I suggested shopping. When we came downstairs, Darby was chopping up fruit for a smoothie. “Wow. What happened? Get kicked by one of those cheerleaders?” she asked.
“If only.” Tess climbed onto a stool. “Any word on a spot?”
Darby blended the drink, then poured the pink mixture into a glass. “Actually, yes. I got a callback from one leasing agency, and it looks promising. But they need to get an okay from corporate to officially let us use it. Of course, if they manage to
rent it before, then they’ll cancel on us, but it’s sat empty for nearly a year.”
“What’s the address? I’d like to swing by and take a look.”
Darby handed Tess a piece of paper. “I’m still talking to two others, just in case. I figured we’d better have a backup plan.”
“You’re awesome, Darby!” Tess turned to me. “Do you mind if we do a drive-by before we hit the mall?”
“Sure.” I glanced at Darby, trying to gauge whether we should invite her. I kind of wanted to be alone with Tess, knowing she’d never talk in front of Darby. But at the same time, I could hear my mom’s instructions echoing in my head. “What are you doing today?” I asked her.
Darby shrugged. “I’ll probably finish working on my essay. I’m good,” she said.
“Is Mom home?” I asked.
“She’s on the elliptical downstairs. Why?”
“Oh, no reason,” I said. Just need to escape before she comes up, that’s all.
“Well, go and have fun then,” Darby urged. She smiled at me, and I caught a faint glimpse of the old Darby. It was happening more often, I was sure, but I couldn’t just forget the danger either. Especially after last night.
No one outside the family was supposed to know about Darby. Some people knew a few things: that she was sick, that my parents were worried, that she had dropped out of school. All of it true, but it was only part of the story.
Darby had gone away to the University of Virginia to study art history. She had always wanted to become a curator or professor. I was busy with high school, so for a while I hadn’t even realized there were problems, but both Mom and Dad grew more and more anxious when Darby would call home. Then during Christmas break last year everything went haywire.
Darby had come home sick. Not just with a cold or even the flu, but really, really sick. She had failed her first semester, and it turned out that she had been sick off and on the whole time, missing classes but refusing to see a doctor. My parents had thought it was appendicitis because she was doubled over in pain. They had to force her into the car to get her to the emergency room. It turned out to be a pelvic infection. She had gotten an STD, and since she had never been treated, the infection spread into her pelvis. She ended up in emergency surgery and was told soon after that she may never be able to have children.
The news devastated her. And my parents. Even as she had been healing from the surgery, she was distraught, crying all the time.
In February she’d overdosed on her pain pills.
I was the one who had found her after school that day, limp and unresponsive, her long brown hair spilling in every direction on the linoleum floor of the bathroom. I could still picture the scene in my head, like I saw it in a movie instead of in real life. I had never been more scared. Screaming her name, shaking her, calling the paramedics. It was all a blur. I’d ridden in the ambulance with her since Mom and Dad weren’t home, and I’d watched the paramedics fight to get her stabilized, yelling things I didn’t understand. I sat there numb, trying to imagine what would happen if she didn’t wake up. Realizing that she might die.
But she didn’t die, and after a seven-day stay in a psych hospital, she came home on antidepressants and with strict instructions for us to keep an eye on her. It was the spring and summer of no light. I’d basically been assigned to be Darby’s babysitter, even though, being three years older, she had always been the one looking after me.
Sometimes I was so angry about it I could hardly think, especially when Darby would lie in front of the TV for days on end. But other times, like when I’d find her curled up in a closet sobbing, I’d desperately wanted to help her, fix her, anything.
Fake Todd had come along during the worst part of it all. Todd was my escape route to say no to parties when I had to stay home with Darby. I’d say I was visiting Todd when we had to go away for Darby’s therapy weekends. It was a fantasy world that I desperately needed at a time when I thought things would never get any better. I’d kept everyone at arm’s length, except for Tess. Tess was like hot glue. There was no getting rid of Tess even if I had wanted to. She could see that Darby was depressed, but she’d never pried or bugged me for details. And I’d never told her about the suicide attempt. I wasn’t trying to keep it from her per se, but the right time to mention it never came.
In the end, it just took time. Darby had decided this fall, on her own, to pick up a few classes at the community college. For the first time, I was starting to see small doses of improvement.
And now she was shooing me out the door. Baby steps, but it was great. I gave her a hug and followed Tess out to her Jeep.
We found the building easily. It looked kind of shabby; but it had plenty of parking and, from what we could see, was big enough inside for what we needed to do.
Tess pointed to the roofline. “Some garland, some lights—we could make this look all festive, couldn’t we?”
“Yeah, and that stuff’s not too expensive either.”
“I hope we can get this one. I like that it’s not too far away.” Tess wrote down something in the small spiral notebook she’d been carrying around lately. “Is Darby okay with doing all this?”
“I think so.” I watched Tess look around with a critical eye. Even with extra makeup I could still see the bruising on her cheek. “I know you’re sick of hearing this, Tess, but seriously, I think we need to do something about your mom.”
Tess’s phone rang, and she lifted an eyebrow at me. “Just had to bring her up, didn’t you?”
Tess answered, and I could hear indistinct yelling through the phone. Tess shook her head at me. “I know, Mom. I’m taking care of it. Yes. Yes!” Tess jammed her finger at the phone to hang it up. “We need to make another detour.”
We drove toward Tess’s house in silence, knowing the shopping trip, no matter how much Tess needed it, probably wouldn’t happen. Tess pulled into her driveway and parked the car.
She spoke without looking at me. “You may want to wait in the car. It looks like Darren is still here.”
“I want to come with you, but… it’s up to you.” I didn’t want to make things any harder on her, but I also didn’t want to let her go inside alone.
Tess gave a heavy shrug of her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter.”
That was enough for me. I followed her up to the door, where she paused before pushing it open.
Darren was sitting in the small living room, a glass beer bottle in his hand, watching TV. He was scrawny and stubbly and dressed in dirty jeans. The shades were all drawn, making the room feel stuffy and dingy.
“Hey, baby.” Darren laughed, and wiped his hand across his dirty tank top.
“I’m not your baby,” Tess snarled. “Where’s Mom?”
“Tessie, is that you?” Her mom’s voice carried in from another room.
Tess gave Darren a wide berth and went into the kitchen. I followed the same path and ignored Darren’s obvious leering.
Tess’s mom was standing in the kitchen, wearing ratty sweatpants and a too-big T-shirt with a fraying robe on top. Her blond hair was hanging in greasy strings, and she had a bruise on her jawline.
“There’s no more chips! Darren really wanted to have chips. Why didn’t you go to the grocery store?” She was pleading as if she were the kid.
Tess wasn’t having any of it. “There’s plenty of food, Mom.”
“But not the chips Darren likes.”
“That’s because you need to get Darren out of here, Mom. We talked about this. He can’t stay here.”
Tess’s mom burst into tears. “Why are you doing this to me? Why can’t you just be happy for me?” She flung herself from the room, and Tess looked at me. “I’ve got to take some clothes to Ashley.”
I followed Tess to Ashley’s bedroom and watched her throw some clothes into a polka-dot bag on the bed.
“Tess.”
“Don’t, Mallory. I need to do this.”
I leaned against the wall. “You are so stubborn.�
��
“I have to be. Once I get Darren out of here again, it’ll all calm down. He makes everything ten times worse.”
“What will you do?”
Tess lifted her head and smirked. “Call his parole officer. Anonymously, of course. It’ll only get rid of him for six months, but I’ll take what I can get.”
“You’re the bravest person I know.”
“I don’t know about that.” Tess zipped up the bag. “That should do it.”
Tess drove to Ashley’s friend’s house and dropped off the bag, then drove toward the mall. On the way, she made the call to the parole officer.
“Will they pick him up?” I asked when she hung up.
“Hopefully.”
“You still want to go shopping?” I asked.
“Absolutely. Don’t you?”
I shrugged.
“Forget about it, Mallory. You’ve just got to push it aside and live your life. It’s all you can do. Distraction can be a girl’s best friend.” Tess nudged my shoulder playfully.
My phone rang, and I looked at the display.
“Oh, no. It’s Liam,” I whispered.
“Answer it.”
I stared at the phone until Tess snatched it from my hand and put it to her ear.
“Mallory’s phone. Why, yes, she is. No, we’re at the mall. Sure, meet us at the food court at one. Okay, bye.”
Tess closed the phone.
“What did you do?”
“What? He wanted to get out of the house.”
“Tess!”
“What? You said last night was great, that you got along.”
“I don’t want to make him sick of me.” What I didn’t say was that I was afraid. Afraid of getting in over my head. Afraid that I couldn’t handle a real relationship.
“He called you, you dope. He wants to see you. Embrace it.”
I followed Tess into the mall but was slowly working myself into a panic. Last night was as close to perfect as I could imagine. Seeing him again was likely to screw up everything.
The mall was filled with kids from our high school, and the food court was packed. Tess managed to snag a table. She held it while I went to buy our food.
Me & My Invisible Guy Page 6
