CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Violet
Three Weeks Later
“That’s all I have for y’all today.” The teacher at the front of the class checks her watch. “I know it’s fifteen minutes early, but let’s go ahead and cut out. I’m sure we’ve all had a long day.”
When I started night classes, I wasn’t sure what to expect since before this I didn’t have more than a high school education. There was a fear I wouldn’t measure up to the other students, but I learned quickly we all had our own stories. Meeting Karina Holland changed my academic life. She’d tutored Leighton in one of the subjects she needed some help with, and when I told her off-handedly I wanted to go back to school, she’d made it happen. As I put my backpack on my shoulders and pick up my bottle of water, she stops in front of me, a welcoming smile on her face.
“You doin’ okay, Violet?”
“I am.” And I mean it. The last few months have been difficult, but I’m happy with this life I’ve carved out for myself. I’m doing better than I ever imagined I would be. Anthony is working tonight, but I don’t work tomorrow, so we’re getting together for a late dinner when he gets off shift.
“You’re tan, I take it your trip to the shore did you well?”
Even though the wedding was three weeks ago, I’m still sporting the color I got while I was there. She’s not pressing; she’s asking like a friend, and Lord knows I’ve needed those more times than I’ve cared to count in my life. “It did, thank you again for letting me miss the class to attend.”
“You’re one of my brightest students, Violet. If anyone deserves to have a good time, it’s you.”
The praise embarrasses me, I’m not used to it, and I don’t respond to it well typically. My cheeks are red, I can feel the heat in them, and I duck my head, but I manage a soft “Thank you.”
“Seriously, Violet, not many people can be out of school as long as you’ve been, come back, and make it your bitch the way you have. Take the praise, and revel in it. You earned it.”
When I learn how to take the praise, I will. Instead I nod at her, sure she knows I’m a fake. I don’t have all my shit together, I don’t even have a little of my shit together. I’m hanging on by the skin of my teeth and a prayer. Thank God for the man sleeping in the duplex next to me. Without him, I’m not sure where I’d be. Probably at some truck stop in Florida fulfilling my prophecy as a lot lizard. Luckily a hot cop by the name of Anthony Bailey stepped up and helped me out. Before she can embarrass me further, I gather my stuff up and make my way toward the student parking, where my car sits under a light. I’m nothing, if not safe.
I’m five feet away when I hear someone yell my name, or rather a nickname that drives me completely crazy.
“Vi Pie!!!”
Caleb is the only person on this earth who calls me that, and he’s lucky I haven’t cut his tongue out for giving me such a shitty nickname. The way he’s shouted it, makes me turn to him. There’s an urgency in his tone, one that makes me worry about him immediately. “Are you okay?”
He’s half-way staggering as he strolls up to me. “Am I?”
As he steps into the light, I gasp when I get a good look at him. There’s blood dripping from his nose, and his chin is scraped. I gasp, pulling my backpack around and taking a wet wipe out of it. “What happened to you?”
I reach over, grabbing him by the elbow, but he outweighs me by at least fifty pounds and he’s not steady on his feet.
“Took a tumble.” He laughs, and that’s when I smell the liquor on his breath.
“Are you drunk?” The question is unbelievable as I push it past my lips.
He gives me a look. One that’s way too adult for the teenager looking at me. “C’mon, Vi Pie, don’t act like you’re surprised.”
The fact is, I am. Very surprised, and I wonder why he’s saying these words like I should be able to notice when he’s three sheets to the wind. “Let’s get you over here.” I pull him to my car, leaning him against the hood.
Now that he’s fully in the light, I see a purple bruise popping up on his collar bone, some scratches on his neck. Using the wet wipe, I try to get rid of some of the blood caked on his chin. But I have to ask about the other marks on his body.
“Caleb, what else did you do tonight?”
Giving me that same grin he gave me earlier, he purses his lips. “A really fucking hot co-ed, who knew how to ride my dick in ways these high school girls can only dream of.”
Holy Jesus. What am I going to do with this kid? “Did she know you’re not eighteen?”
“Do I look like I’m not eighteen?” His eyebrow raises as his cocky tone grates against my nerves. Lifting a bottle of Jack from somewhere, I’m not completely sure where it appeared from, he takes a drink. When I reach for it, he holds it over my head.
He looks like he’s in his early-twenties with the big body he has and the scruff on his jaw. “You look like shit. Now give me a few minutes, while I figure out what the hell to do with you.”
He crosses his arms over his wide chest, his long legs cross at the ankles and shoots me a defiant look, as he takes another drink. One that makes me glad I’ve never had children, because if this shithead were mine I’d knock the smirk off his face then tell him to cry it out, because it’s obvious he’s hurting more than any of us know how to deal with.
It makes me sad, and I vow right here and right now, I’m not letting Caleb down. Not the way I’ve been let down my entire life. Sighing, I grab my phone out of my purse and make a call. He’s used to cleaning up my messes, so it should be no surprise that I’m calling him to clean up other people’s, too.
Ace
“I didn’t know who else to call.” Violet’s voice is apologetic as she looks at me from where she leans against the car, her arm around Caleb.
“Told her to call my dad, don’t give a fuck,” Caleb slurs, kicking his long legs out in front of him, trying to stand up straight.
“You do give a fuck.” I relieve Violet, taking Caleb’s weight on me. “Dude, you’re solid,” I groan as I help him get situated. “Come over here and sit on the grill of my car.” He’s done a lot of growing up on us in the last year. Not all of it good. Since the barn party where a classmate died from drinking a bad batch of moonshine, a part of him has become withdrawn. He’s not quick to smile, not so quick to joke around. It seems to have affected him more than any of us realized. Maybe we’d all hoped and assumed too much with him getting the scholarship and being affectionate with Stella meant he was okay. Looks like we were very wrong.
“Working out is about the only thing that lets me sleep at night without seeing that body with the tarp over it. And when that doesn’t work” – he gives me a grin – “a little bit of Jack Daniels takes care of it.” He holds up a bottle I hadn’t noticed before.
“I tried to take that from him, but he’s taller than me,” Violet interjects from where she is.
Which is exactly what I can smell coming off his breath right now. “The problem, Caleb” – I shift him to my other side – “is that you’re not old enough to be drinking Jack Daniels.”
“Isn’t that somethin’?” He laughs hysterically. “The cop’s kid, doing something illegal. Guess I’m just a disappointment all the way around.” He takes another drink.
“Stop this shit now, Caleb.” My patience is thin and wearing thinner as I try to reason with him. There’s so many people who care about this kid, and he’s pretending like he’s stuck by himself with zero help.
“Nah.” He shakes his head. “Mom left when I was little, she hasn’t given a shit since. Dad can’t find a woman who wants to take on him and a kid. My buddy poisoned himself while I was getting a blow job not thirty feet away. Fucking girl won’t even call me back now. Like I don’t need somebody to talk to?” He points to his chest as he gets himself out of my arms and away from me. “Like I don’t need somebody to ask me if I’m okay? Like I don’t need a goddamn hug every once in a while.”
“Is that what you need?” Violet asks softly, speaking for the first time in long minutes. “Because I know what that feels like. And if you need a hug, you don’t even have to ask me, Caleb. Just open your arms up and let me give you one.”
I’m watching quietly, waiting to see how he’ll react, how she’ll react. The stubborn set of his jaw indicates he’s not going to take the bait, but right as I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a fucker, he puts the bottle down, sways, and opens his arms. Without any hesitation, Violet pushes herself toward him, circling her arms around his waist, because she’s so much smaller than he is. I watch these two, hugging it out in the parking lot of the community college, and I wonder…does Violet need this as much as he does?
“I don’t care if you don’t give a fuck.” I grab Caleb by the shoulder to steady him as he pulls away from the woman I’ve grown to care so much about. “I do. I don’t want to break your dad’s heart by taking you home like this.”
He’s hugged it out with Violet, and now he’s back to being belligerent, much like a drunk. “Maybe my dad should have thought about breaking my heart, ya know, by not having a mother in my life who cared about me. Or maybe he’d like to talk to me, really tell me what happened between them, instead of me speculating.”
I know nothing about what happened with Caleb’s parents. As far as I know, none of us do. Menace, for the most part, is a very private guy. “I’m not going to pretend like I know how you feel, Caleb, because I don’t, but what I can tell you is you’re on a path you don’t want to be on. None of us want to see you here. The danger of you doing something you can’t apologize for is high. You do remember the name Brooks Strather, right?”
He swivels his head to face me. “Now you all want to pretend like you care? Nobody has seen how destroyed I look? I don’t sleep, I don’t enjoy school anymore, half the time I show up for work drunk, and nobody even notices. The only thing I love is football because it hurts. When a big motherfucker hits me, I feel it. When I make a touchdown, it’s pure joy, but it leaves as soon as it comes. There’s nothing in my life I can find happiness in anymore.”
I put my palm against my neck and let out a deep sigh. I’m not equipped to handle this kid in the shape he’s in. He’s basically admitting to me he’s a depressed, functioning alcoholic at seventeen years old. The horrible truth? None of us noticed it. He’s gotten so good at hiding it, we literally didn’t notice it.
“Look, I’m not going to pretend like I understand exactly what you’re going through. I didn’t lose any friends when I was your age, but I lost a lot the year after my nineteenth birthday. Then even more after I turned twenty-one. Did I bury my guilt and sorrow in alcohol and pussy? Yes. No one is faulting you for that Caleb, but it’s going to destroy you from the inside out, my man. It will make you a shell of the person you were before and you’ll become a bitter guy who takes no pleasure in anything. That alcohol you enjoy now? It’ll take a whole lot more to get you drunk. That pussy you like burying yourself in? You won’t realize what’s truly love and not just ass. Don’t ruin the chance you have.”
“Fuck a chance.” He turns his dark eyes to me. They’re fierce with anger, and what looks to be frustration. “Nobody else got a chance. He should be the one making the trip to Tuscaloosa, not me. He was a better player than me, a better everything.”
Survivor’s guilt is a real thing with Caleb. Irritation grates at my nerves. And his attitude hits a sore spot with me. “You wanna fuck up your life? Go ahead, but I won’t be hiding it from your dad anymore after tonight. I’ll take you home this one time, but I see you drinking again, I’ll arrest you and we’ll call Mason to come get you.”
His eyes narrow, his face becomes hard, and Violet watches us quietly. The words, when he speaks them, are laced with the same attitude he’s had the entire time. “Yes sir.”
“Get your ass in the car.”
He throws the bottle of alcohol into a nearby trash can defiantly before climbing into the squad car. I sigh when he slams the door shut. I’m used to adults being assholes, but a kid who’s hurting emotionally? I’m not sure how to deal with that, and there’s a part of me that worries I didn’t handle it at all.
“Sorry you had to deal with that.” I hitch my thumb to him as I speak to Violet.
“Sorry I dragged you into it. For some reason I thought he might respond better to you than me. Seems like he’s an equal opportunity spoiled brat.” She offers me a grin.
“He’s hurting, and he’s surviving the only way he knows how.” I make excuses for him now that he can’t hear. He’s got to learn that leaning on others isn’t a weakness and nothing to be ashamed of.
“I’m gonna take him home – maybe we should take a raincheck on dinner. I have a feeling it’s going to take me a while to get him situated.”
There’s disappointment in her gaze, but right now Caleb needs someone to take care of him, and I’m stepping up to be that person – whether he wants me to or not.
I walk her over to her car, open the door, and lean in, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “See you tomorrow.” I watch as she gets in, buckles up, and starts the vehicle.
“See ya. Be careful with him, okay? He’s not as badass as he wants everyone to think he is.”
“I know.” My answer is accompanied by a nod. “He’s walking a tightrope right now that he may very well fall off of, if we don’t give him a net to catch himself.”
“I don’t want him to fall, abs of steel.”
“I don’t either, Vi, I don’t either.”