Impetuous (Victory Lap Book 1)

by Mercedes Jade

  "Okay, bye, Tess."

  "Bye, Ruby."

  The click and dial tone sounded. Tess thumbed Ashley's cell off and handed it back to her sister, straightening up now that she had absorbed the strength from War for a few moments. He stayed close, hand still on her shoulder.

  "A nurse is going to call me back and tell me what mom wrote on that list I left her. She said mom's just a bit dopey from the meds. Nothing to worry about," Tess told Ashley, trying to force some calm into her voice. Not cheer, that wasn't possible.

  "Okay," Ashley said, taking a breath. "She's okay?"

  Ashley didn't need to stay up all night worrying. "Yeah, it's pretty normal for her to be tired the first little while when they're balancing the meds. I saw her on the weekend and she was tired then too, remember?"

  "I know. You told me. She just seemed so upset when she called me," Ashley said.

  War's phone rang and he answered it.

  "Okay mom, wait a minute," War said.

  "I'll let you know if it's anything important. Mom can always call you back if it's anything she wants to tell you, too. She obviously has phone privileges," Tess said.

  "Alright," Ashley said with a sigh. "I'm going to head back upstairs. Jason was in the shower and he's going to wonder where I went off to when he gets out if he doesn’t see me."

  The twins had been keeping an eye out for each other. It was another sign of how they weren’t ready to trust Tess to take care of them. She suspected they had been making due on their own for a while. How much had their mother been at home, parenting? Or was their mother always out, like when Tess was younger and their father would take Maddy out for another 'night on the town' that involved mostly drinking and trouble?

  Independence was learning your parents would gamble away your future security unless you took care of it yourself.

  "I'll come upstairs and let you know what's going on when I'm done talking to the nurse. And the guys are done with the tutoring, so they'll be going home soon," Tess said, wondering again if her sister was uncomfortable with all four strange guys in the house. Maybe that was why Jason was keeping an eye on her.

  "Okay, thanks," Ashley said and finally headed back upstairs. She had made a tentative wave to the rest of Tess’s company before dashing away.

  Tess accepted the cell phone from War.

  "Hi, Ruby? Thanks for calling back," Tess said.

  "No problem. Your mom's sleeping comfortably. All of her vitals are normal," Ruby said. She sounded calm and assured. It was a steady anchor in the storm of emotion tossing Tess.

  "That's great. Thank you for taking care of her," Tess said.

  "Are you ready for the notes? She didn't really write much so I don't know how much help it's going to be to you, unfortunately. I'm sure the meds are still affecting her thinking. You're going to have to give it a few more days."

  "I'm ready. Wait. Should I get something to write stuff down?" Tess said, looking around for pen and paper.

  Bastion handed her his own notebook, opened to a fresh page. Kade gave her a pen.

  "Sit down," Keir said, directing her towards the futon with a hand on her shoulder.

  "You probably won't need it, but go ahead," Ruby said. "Tell me when you're ready."

  She sat down and forced herself to breathe big, deep and slow. Box. Box. Box. She wanted to hurry it up but her mother was safe and Tess's heart was racing in her chest with her hands actually shaking as she squeezed the notebook and pen. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes in an ugly sob that she sucked back.

  No, nope. Not going to bare that in front of the guys. Things were okay. Do not catastrophize.

  "I’m ready," Tess said once she had swallowed once more to clear her throat of the squeezing pressure.

  “She wrote some answers to your questions using point form. The first question was about where the bankbook was kept and she wrote beside it, shoebox, under the bed.”

  Of course, her mother would hide the bank book. It kind of was the paranoid type of behaviour Tess should’ve expected. Her mother had been admitted to the hospital because she had displayed extreme paranoia, showing up at the emergency room and ranting about somebody out to get her. That was a new delusion, although the emergency doctor hadn’t taken her seriously enough to even write down the details of her mother’s accusation. And then something had happened between the emergency room and the psychiatric hospital admission that left her mom in a catatonic state, according to what Ruby told her on Sunday. Tess was still trying to puzzle it all together with half of the pieces missing.

  “Okay, shoebox, bankbook, under bed,” Tess repeated as she wrote it down. She felt better doing something. “Got it.”

  “That’s really the only question she answered. The rest is random words. Do you want me to read them to you?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry, it’s just those scratches. I don’t know how or who, and she said something about Daniels-”

  “Daniels? Isn’t that a bar in town? Does your mother drink?” Ruby asked.

  No, not anymore. “She could have fallen off the wagon,” Tess admitted, wishing she didn’t have company for this conversation. At least the guys didn’t seem the judgemental type. Although, anyone might think twice if they knew they were going out with the daughter of a recovering alcoholic. Her dad still was an abusive drinker, in fact.

  But he didn’t live with them, not since Tess moved out. It had been part of the conditions for the twins being able to stay with her mother and child services had no flexibility when it came to her father’s record.

  “Well, that’s the only Daniels I know of around here and she does have it written on the page a couple of times, although it’s also crossed out. She has thirty written a few times and circled. She has July 13th written and a star beside it. Does any of that make sense to you?” Ruby asked.

  “July 13th is my birthday. I also saw thirty dollars taken from the bank about every second Friday. I wasn’t sure what bill it was for so I wrote it in my questions. Did she write anything near that question?” Tess asked, quickly jotting down a few notes.

  “Daniels, crossed out,” Ruby said.

  Tess wrote down ‘Daniels Bar’ and circled it a few times. She tapped the pencil on the page, thinking. It figured the trail would lead to one of the few places Tess couldn’t go. At least, not without a fake ID. She wrote down ID beside ‘Daniels Bar’ and wondered how one even went about getting a fake ID? Her experience with it was watching teenagers in movies whip out fake driver’s licenses so they could drink, but in real life, it didn't seem that easy to obtain falsified credentials, or was it?

  “Okay, thanks for reading it out. You’re right, I can’t make head or tails of it. Could you see if she feels up to writing anything else down when she wakes up? And call me, call me if there is anything, if she needs me to come?” Tess said.

  “Of course we will call you. I’ll talk to the night nurse about your mom before I leave. Her name is Pam.”

  She was being that demanding family member. The one that hounded the nurses and then didn’t show up to check on her admitted family in person. It was a funny way of showing caring, but hopefully Ruby understood that Tess wasn’t another entitled family member too busy or embarrassed to show up for her mentally ill mother. Tess had responsibilities at home and couldn't drop everything if there was nothing she could do right now. Her mother was resting and being watched over carefully.

  “Thanks so much. I really, really appreciate it. I’ll come by after school tomorrow to see how my mom is doing,” Tess said.

  “I’ll be working the shift then so I’ll see you and we can go over the note together with your mom, okay?”

  That sounded like a good plan. “Alright. Uh, and I’m tutoring Warrick in Biology. I hope that’s okay?”

  Ruby laughed. “That boy is grown up enough to make his own decisions about school. I won’t interfere. Put him back on the line though. I have to ask him to pick up some milk on the way home.”

&nb
sp; “Okay,” Tess said, feeling a faint blush heat her cheeks. It was awkward now and she had caused it. Ruby hadn’t said a word about War being over at her house so late but Tess had to go and point it out. She felt like one of those people that continued to stick her foot in her mouth no matter what. She better end this conversation before she said anything really stupid like admitting that War had given her a hickey and she had liked it. “Bye, Ruby. And thanks again.”

  She went to hand War back his phone when she heard Ruby say her name again. Bringing the phone back to her ear she heard Ruby add, “I’m glad you gave all those boys a chance to be friends. I told you they needed someone with a backbone like you.”

  Oh, if only Ruby knew the benefits part of their new friendship. “Uh, yeah, you were right. I like them,” Tess softly answered, figuring the guys wouldn’t realize she was talking about them. “Thanks, I’ll give the phone back to Warrick now.”

  War’s conversation with his mother was short and sweet. He even told Ruby he loved her before he hung up.

  “Sorry I kept you guys so late with my-” She cut herself off and waved the hand that was holding her own clunky cell around awkwardly. “Uh, the family stuff. I appreciate your help, War,” she said, giving him a quick smile. It was a bit tight but her mind was racing with what she had to do next, possibly getting an ID and going to a strange bar. How would she know who her mom was meeting?

  “No,” Bastion succinctly told her.

  He had his arms crossed over his chest. She looked over at him and all those racing thoughts had a new one pull into the lead. Bastion looked firm in his denial, although she didn’t have a clue what he was refusing.

  “Excuse me?” She said, letting the puzzlement enter her voice.

  “I can almost hear her thinking,” Keir said. “It’s like the noise a train would make except for the toot toot. I expect steam to start coming out of her ears.”

  Keir had a weird sense of humour. “I do have a lot on my mind,” Tess said, still sounding puzzled. She was a smart girl but it was really unclear what problem Bastion had all of a sudden and why Keir was making fun of her after what had been a pretty serious conversation with her mother and Ruby.

  “You better sit down for this,” Kade suggested.

  She didn't want to sit. This wasn't school. When her mind was racing, she preferred to pace. It was if her body tried to keep up with her thoughts and that was best done while standing and moving.

  “Seriously, guys? it's late. I'm sure your parents are worried. Well, except for War’s mom because she knows that he is here, obviously. But it's a school night and I'm not going to make a good impression on your parents for tutoring if I keep you here at all hours of the night.”

  “My mum trusts you,” War said. “And what happened to Luce?”

  “Fine, Lucifer it is but if your mom catches me saying it, I’m pretty sure she’ll lose her cool about you coming over here,” Tess said to War. “And the rest of you guys, I'm more worried about getting into trouble for keeping you out late.”

  “My stepmom won't even notice if I don't come home tonight. As long as I'm there in the morning to sit down with the family and have breakfast together, she doesn't care what I do at night,” Bastion said.

  That was kind of weird. Didn’t families try to have supper together, talk about what they did during the day and make plans for the next?

  Tess wasn't really one to talk about it. Even when both her parents were together, there were a lot of days where they were hung over and sleeping off the last night, so that breakfast together would have been impossible. And suppers? Those mostly consisted of her parents drinking as soon as her father got home from work and right through until they went to bed. Often her dad had fallen asleep in his lazy boy, passed out drunk more like it, but he recovered in time to go to work the next day.

  “Tess? Are you paying attention?” Keir asked, coming closer.

  She blinked herself away from her memories. “What? Did you say something? Sorry, I was a bit lost in my thoughts,” she said to Keir. Looking over at Bastion she added once more, “I’m sorry.”

  Bastion had just revealed to her that his home life wasn't a fairy tale as he projected with his princely reputation. She should have responded to that with more attention and care.

  “What did you write down on the notebook?” Bastion said, accepting her apology without another word. Maybe he didn't want to talk about it more, either. She knew all about avoiding talking about family.

  “Just some notes for questions I asked my mother. I left a list with the nurses and they said they would ask her when she was feeling more herself and she was less sedated by the medications. Things like where the bank book is and what bills have to be paid, and where she kept the car keys because I can't find them anywhere.”

  “I thought you didn’t drive?” Bastion said.

  “I have a beginner's license but I haven't done any time in a car to prepare to take the driving test. It's really more of a formality because I can't afford a car and buses are cheap and plentiful. The landlord was bugging me to move mom's car because they're going to be doing some renovations and they need that parking spot cleared.”

  Suddenly she felt tired. It pulled at her, a weight settling on her shoulders. It had been a very long day on top of a rough and unsettled weekend. Her mind needed to rest as much as her body to recover if she wanted to keep up her crazy pace.

  “Can we talk more tomorrow?” Tess asked, not really sure what was up with Bastion and Keir, but ready to let it go until school the next day.

  “Do you have a headache?” Bastion asked.

  She did. It had snuck back sometime between the call with her mom and the last few minutes.

  “Yeah,” she admitted, nodding her head.

  “I’ll talk to her about Daniels after I get her to lie down,” Bastion said, giving the other guys a look she couldn’t interpret. The light was starting to hurt her eyes.

  “Text,” War said.

  “We’ll pick her up for school tomorrow,” Keir said.

  “Do you think coffee will be okay despite the headache?” Kade asked.

  “She liked chai tea latte, too,” Bastion said.

  What the heck were they all deciding on their own without her? She felt her headache ratchet up, tension climbing up her neck every moment more she remained standing. It was hard to focus on all the different points from each guy as they spoke.

  “I need to lie down,” she mumbled and tried to walk a straight line to her bed. She sort of succeeded, but mostly because Kade caught her by the arm and guided her there.

  “I’m calling the doctor,” Bastion said.

  “No, I’m fine,” Tess protested.

  “Lie down,” Kade coaxed. He pulled the covers so she could get into bed properly, then tucked them around her. Next, he laid down beside her on the outside.

  “You can’t sleep here,” she mumbled, eyes closed. She was tired but mostly she had her eyes shut to keep out the light. “Can somebody dim the lights?”

  Bastion was talking on his phone quietly but she could hear and it sounded like the doctor was coming.

  She didn’t protest again. It was too late, and frankly, there was a little worry in her mind now that something was wrong. Her headache had come back so viciously and quickly. She wasn’t a person that suffered them normally.

  “I’m going to get fired on my first day, aren’t I?” she whispered to Kade. He was playing with her hair, just barely touching her but the warmth of his body and the weight of it beside her dipping her mattress was reassuring.

  “Stop worrying,” Kade said. “We’re not going anywhere.”

  “Yeah, you’re stuck with us,” Keir said and crawled into her bed to lie on the other side. There really wasn’t enough room for all three of them.

  Keir had barely got himself settled then someone’s cell phone rang.

  “Uh, sorry,” Kade said, fishing for his phone wherever he kept it. The bed shook a bit as
he tried to get to it quickly. The ring was like thunder in her ear.

  Rocking thunder.

  Explosive thunder.

  She whimpered and tucked her head under the blanket. A few moments later, Kade had found his phone and turned the ring off. He didn't answer it. Keir pulled her blanket down.

  “Are you okay, Pumpkin?” Keir asked.

  “The headache is a lot worse,” she admitted, whispered. It still seemed loud.

  “The doctor will be here in about thirty minutes. Can I stay with you while we wait? Or do you want to go to the emergency room?” Bastion said. He kept his voice down too, probably noting her own whispering.

  “I would rather stay, especially if you already have the doctor coming. It would be rude, otherwise.”

  “If you vomit or can’t stay awake, then I’m supposed to take you to the hospital,” Bastion said.

  “Okay, I don’t really have any nausea. I’m just tired because it’s been a long day,” Tess said. “I’ll stay awake if we all talk quietly.”

  Kade very softly cursed as his phone vibrated, on silent from earlier.

  “Bastard, we really should go if you have things handled. Dad’s getting on our case because he got called into the office for Kade today,” Keir said.

  Oh no, he was in trouble because of her and now this was compounding the offence, although Kade’s father may not realize he was out late because of her. It wasn’t brave but she hoped Kade had kept secret that he was at her house. She didn’t want to face his father in a temper or lose the tutoring position before it really got started.

  “You should go,” Tess whispered. “There’s a doctor coming. To my house,” she said, still feeling disbelief that Bastion had been able to arrange something like a private doctor.

  “We’re going to pick you up tomorrow,” Kade said.

  “With tea and something small to eat, in case you don’t feel up to much after this headache tomorrow,” Keir said. “If you’re hungrier, text us.”