by Blair Burden
Chapter 9
August 17
After hours of crying in my car until midnight, I finally drove to Karen’s home. She lived in the richer part of town, where the cheapest house to buy was half a million. She had a big two-story home, a dog, and two loving parents—her life was perfect.
I parked my car behind the double gates that led to her house. I cleaned my face, but my red eyes could not hide the fact that I was crying all night.
“Hi, Cassidy!” Betsy, Karen’s best friend waved from the gate. “Let me tell Karen to open the gate.”
“Uh hi?” I said as I gathered my things from my trunk. I thought about just going back to my side of town and sleeping in my car to not deal with Betsy, however I was tired.
As I walked to her front door, Karen tackled me into a hug. “Ooh, I’m so happy you’re okay. Your phone call scared me so much!”
“You didn’t tell me you had company?” I whispered to Karen as we walked up the front steps.
“You didn’t ask,” she laughed as she opened the door, “besides, it’s just Betsy!”
I followed the two into the house and Karen’s parents stared at me in disappointment. They were both on the couch, cuddled with large eyes—as if I were contagious.
“Do you need food?” Marla asked. “I know you’re hungry.”
“Of course she does!” her dad said, who I once thought was her brother. “Grab a hot plate on the stove and you girls go to bed in thirty minutes.”
“It’s okay, I’m not hun—”
“EAT!” he snapped and I ran off to the kitchen without another word.
Karen and Betsy followed me and sat at the island in the kitchen. I could feel them watching my every move as I prepared a warm plate.
“Tonight is gonna be so fun!” Karen clapped. “It’ll be like a sleepover I’m never invited to.”
Betsy clapped and cheered too. “Yeah we can gossip, talk about boys, gossip, eat, dance, gossip—”
“Is that all you do?” I asked while stuffing my mouth with rolls.
“I thought you weren’t hungry?” Betsy rolled her eyes.
“It’s been a long day!” I snapped.
“Where did you go?” Karen said. “It’s already midnight.”
“I just went to get things off my back.”
“Like what?”
“Well, everyone thinks I’m crazy. So, I made myself look even crazier.”
“Why would people think you’re crazy?” Betsy said as she bit into an apple.
“If you heard voices in your head, people would think you’re crazy too. It’s not normal, that’s what I heard,” I said as I ate some chicken.
“What kind of voices do you hear?” Karen said, as she got more interested.
“Does it matter, they’re gone now. Well, at least one is...or I hope so.”
Karen began to belly dance around the kitchen. “I think that would be so cool if I heard voices in my head. I would love to be a voice that people hear in their head—”
“How annoying would that be,” Betsy joked.
“I wouldn’t be annoying. I would just know all the gossip.”
Karen’s dad came into the kitchen, “You guys need to go to bed now.”
Without a fight, we all obeyed and ran up to her bedroom. I couldn’t understand how someone like Karen’s family could afford such a fancy home. If I were her I would be the happiest person alive, knowing that everything was perfect.
Karen jumped on her bed and collapsed next to Betsy who was sitting by the window. “So about those voices. Do you think it’s like a mental disorder?”
“Okay, Mandy’s mom, no I don’t think so. I heard it happens to lot of people,” I said sarcastically.
“Not to sane people,” Betsy mumbled under her breath.
“Why does it interest you so much?” I said as I pulled out my sleeping bag.
“Um, I just know someone with a mental disorder and they hear voices like that,” she said.
“Who?” Betsy said as her gossiping ears perked up.
“I’m not telling you,” Karen said as she threw me a pillow.
“We are best friends. You have to tell me who this person is…”
“Why? So you can gossip about it to everyone in the restroom,” I said.
“Plus, it’s no one from school,” Karen said. “It’s not even worth talking about.”
“Then why did you bring it up?” Betsy said.
Karen stayed silent as she pulled a pillow over her head, obviously not wanting to talk about it anymore.
I stretched across the floor, yawning. “I’m like super tired,” I interrupted.
“Uh?” Betsy paused and stared at me.
“Go to sleep…” Karen said as she began braid Betsy’s hair.
“You guys aren’t going to talk the whole time are you?” I said.
“And?” they both said.
“Whatever, I'll sleep downstairs!” I grabbed my pillow and went downstairs to the den. I didn’t want to sleep on the couch, but it would be better than a sleeping bag. And to think a rich family like them wouldn’t let me use a guess room.
In the dark, I threw my pillow on the couch and jumped on top of it. “Yah, sleep!”
“Ouch!”
I jumped off the couch and turn the lamp on to see who was there. I gasped as I witnessed Karen’s dad sleeping on the couch.
He jumped up in fright and acted as if he were reading. “Cassidy, what are you doing?”
“You startled me!” I said as I sat on the couch next to him. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No, I’m apparently still asleep now,” he joked. “Wait, why aren’t you asleep?”
“The girls are talking,” I said.
“At this time of night?” he said, as he was ready to get up.
“No, don’t,” I pulled him back. “Don’t be such a…dad.”
“Uh,” he sighed and put his hands in his palms. “Marla kicked me out again.”
“Um,” I said, as I was confused on why he was telling me this.
“My wife,” he paused as he pointed upstairs. “I know what she is doing up there.”
“Um, what is she doing?”
“Nothing a fifteen year old should know.”
“I’m seventeen—”
“Aren’t you in Karen’s class?”
“Art…I’m a senior.”
He laughed. “Really, I didn’t know that. I knew you looked a lot older than Karen and Betsy, but I had no idea.”
“Is your wife having an affair?” I said.
I had remembered the memory clearly from the first time I was at the hospital for a drug overdose. Marla, whose name I did not know at the time, was behind the desk with Dr. Summings. And she wasn’t asking for her results; she wanted a check out. I remembered her tight pencil skirt and ripped tights, with her open blazer with her tight white shirt.
“Yeah, she is having one,” he said as he broke the memory.
“I know,” I said.
“How?”
“I know stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Just don’t let her play with your heart. Women like her are mean who deserve every bad thing that comes to them. She knows Dr. Summings is married but she just couldn’t help herself.”
“Dr. Summings?” he whispered. “She’s with Dr. Summings?”
“Was?” I said. “Or is? I don’t want to get involved, Karen’s dad.”
“It’s Raymond…and I won’t involve you,” he said. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, let’s not discuss this ever again.” I pursed my lips in disappointment. I felt like a hypocrite, gossiping about Marla. I was going against everything I dreaded.
Raymond stood up and turned the television on but put it on mute. “So, why are you here?”
“Um, I had a fight with my mom,” I whispered.
“You came over kind of late, Karen was worried about you.”
“Well, I was talking to Rosa,
you know Rosa Perez—”
“Miranda’s mom.”
“Yeah…well it didn’t go too good.”
“Why,” he laughed. “Was it your speech?”
“She thinks I’m a nutcase. I kind of believe her now.”
“Why would she think that? You don’t seem crazy.”
“I told her I hear voices and she flipped out. It’s creepy, I guess.”
“That’s not creepy. I hear them too,” he murmured. “Sometimes.”
“Huh?” I said, not knowing exactly what he said.
“No, I just said I hear them too.”
“You hear Mandy?”
“No, not her…but just other people I have no idea who they are. And they tell me things—bad things—evil things.”
“Ha, same with me and Mandy…but no one seems to care.”
“You don’t want them to care, trust me. They’ll lock you up as soon as they can when they realize you’re not normal—whatever normal is. And then, they just post a stupid name on you to cover up the reason why you hear them.”
I stiffened up as his tone began to get angrier. “Um, well it was nice talking to you, but I should get to sleep.”
“Oh, okay…”