Broken and Screwed

“Okay.” She grinned. “But he asked Justin about you at baseball practice. He wanted to know if you were still with Jesse.”

“Really?”

She nodded and then pushed through the door. The sun was blinding, but the air immediately rushed at us. The air conditioning inside was cool, but I warmed up as soon as we took another step outside. “So I think you should go to his party with us tonight. Talk to him there.”

“Talk to Eric?”

“Yeah. He and Brianna broke up. Can you believe he dated that cheerleader?” She snorted. “Although, I think he did it to piss off Marissa since they’re on the same squad together.”

“Good,” I murmured. I meant it.

“Yeah…” Angie’s eyes had taken on a thoughtful look to them. She was biting her lip.

I readied myself. She had something on her mind and she was going to say it. I knew the signs like the back of my hand by now.

“So.”

Here we go.

“What happened to your parents, Alex?”

Dread filled me, but I forced my tone to be casual. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” She looked around and inched closer. Her voice dropped low. “The counselor called me into her office today. She said she’d been trying to reach your parents, but she can never get a hold of them.”

“What’d you say?”

“Nothing. I mean, I don’t know anything. I know they went on that trip, but to be honest, I haven’t seen them since. That’s weird, Alex. Really, really weird. Are your parents around? Please tell me they’re around.”

“My dad travels for his job. You know that.”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t gone all the time. He was gone some of the time and your mom was always around. How is your mom? No one knows about what happened to her. I only knew because my cousin told me and it was her friend who mentioned it to her. She knew I was close with you, but please tell me that I’m exaggerating. I come over twice a week and you’re always alone.”

I jerked a stiff shoulder up. What lie would sound normal here? And then I was disgusted at myself. “Just leave it alone, Ang. Okay? I don’t want to talk about my parents right now.”

“But—”

“I mean it,” I interrupted her. I shouldn’t have to cover for my parents or lie that they hadn’t ditched me. That wasn’t my lie to tell, that was theirs and I had some pride not to cover for them. So what if they abandoned me? It was for the best. It had to be for the best.

“Okay.” She held her hands up in surrender. “I won’t bring ‘em up again. Promise.”

“Good.” That’s what I wanted, but why didn’t I feel good about it?

“You work tonight, right?”

I nodded.

“When do you get done?”

“I close with Ben at 9:00 tonight.”

She chewed at her lip. She was thinking again.

I sighed, “What is it?”

“I’ll come over at 9:30? Will you be ready by then?”

“What about Justin?”

“He’s got the baseball game. Some of the guys want to start as soon as they’re done, so I figure I’ll be driving tonight anyway. I’d rather take my car.”

“Or I could pick you up and you can drive his car home? You don’t have to worry about both of your cars.”

“Yeah.” She bobbed her head in an easy agreement. “That sounds like a plan. See you at 9:30. Maybe bring Ben?”

Both of us laughed at that idea. If I knew my co-worker he’d be bouncing up and down at the idea of going with us. He proved me right when I asked him at the end of our shift. He was clapping, giggling, and planning his outfit at the same time.

We got to Angie’s late because Ben made me pick him up from his house first. He wanted to ‘bond’ with the girls and he wanted a ride home that night. When Angie got in the car, his clapping and giggling happened again. He wiggled his eyebrows in the air and announced how excited he was to get drunk that night. He was hoping for a little titty twister from his ‘lush babies’. Angie and I never asked who he meant, but I had a good suspicion that I’d find out by the end of the night.

When we got to Eric’s house, I was surprised at how long it had been since my last time there. His home was a white, two-story, ranch-style home. The front patio wrapped around the house and I saw that the rooms were as big as I remembered.

Someone ran into Angie, who glared. “Excuse you.”

The person flipped her black hair over her shoulder and revealed her face. I didn’t need to see who it was. I already knew it was Marissa. Only she could wear a brown tank top with black cropped pants and look hot in it.

She’d been laughing, but that vanished immediately. Her eyes went dead and she straightened. “Excuse you.”

“No.” Angie blocked her as she started to go around. “Excuse you, bitch.”

Marissa drew back. Her jaw stiffened, her mouth flattened, and she tightened her grip on her cup. When she started to move her arm back, I hurried and got between them. I knew Marissa’s signs too; she’d been about to throw her beer on Angie. That would not have been good.

“Hi, Marissa,” I rushed out with a fake smile. “How are you?”

She paused, confused, but her arm went back to normal.

“Oh. Hey, Alex.” She was wary now, but she sipped from her cup.