“You don’t have to worry about me, alright? I can take care of myself. I’ve been taking care of myself since you left Los Angeles. And yes, you did ruin my life! You did all this horrible stuff, you got into all this trouble, and I got stuck with your reputation. And I had to prove to the neighbors, and the teachers, and all the kids at school that I wasn’t like you. People were scared of me. They wouldn’t talk to me. And then I finally made some friends, only to have Dad die. And I didn’t want to call you, I had to. But you know what? Don’t worry. I won’t be your problem anymore. I’ll find somewhere else to stay.”
I turned around and walked back toward the Peribat house. I wanted to cry, but Scoppios didn’t cry. It was the family rule. I still couldn’t help it, though. I felt like I was losing everyone I cared about. And I had no idea that it was about to get a lot worse.
Chapter 9
My brother’s friends all met back at the Peribat house half an hour before we left for the game. I had spent the day at the Peribat’s house. Joshua, who probably knew that I’d be there, stayed away. He didn’t get to the Peribat house until five minutes before we left. Joshua did a phenomenal job at pretending that I wasn’t there. Caleb, Cameron, and Kyle went in Caleb’s mom’s car, which he had borrowed for the night. Jordan’s car was in the shop, and since the Peribat brothers’ dad was also going to the game, he drove Jordan, Tyler, Joshua and me.
Jordan got in the front with his dad, and Tyler sat in the back, on the left. Joshua immediately opened the right-side door and sat in the middle. Then he locked the door behind him.
“Josh! Open the door!” I yelled.
“You’re grounded, Chrysanthemum, go home.”
“What? Since when am I grounded?”
“Since now.”
“Do you really want me home alone with Greg?”
Joshua sighed and unlocked the door.
I sat down next to him. “God, you’re a fucking asshole.”
Mr. Peribat turned around.
I blushed. “Sorry, Mr. Peribat.”
He grinned. “I don’t mind. And please, call me Oliver.”
“Alright,” Since this was the first time we were meeting, I said, “I’m Chrissy. I’m Tyler’s girlfriend.”
“I know. Tyler has told me all about you.”
I grinned.
“You’re dressed in a ‘90s outfit, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Not too many people recognize that. They think I’m just a hipster or whatever.” I said, making a face.
“My wife would have loved you. She was obsessed with Hole and Babes in Toyland, all those bands. We caught Hole on their tour in 1998 or 1999.”
“That’s awesome! I saw Courtney Love and Lana Del Rey when they toured together a few years ago. Did you guys see any other grunge bands live?”
“Oh yeah, tons. We lived in Seattle in the early ‘90s, so we saw a bunch of them pre-fame.”
“Oh my god! Tell me everything!” I said.
On the way to the hockey game, Oliver told me all about living in Seattle at the height of the grunge era.
When we got to the hockey area, I said, “You’re one cool dude. I wish my dad was as cool as you.” I had loved my dad, and we had gotten along well, but he was clueless about music and fashion, which were my two favorite things.
Oliver turned to Tyler. “Tyler, don’t let this one go. She’s a keeper.”
Tyler grinned. “I won’t.”
The four of us got out of the car.
“Thanks for the ride. It was nice meeting you,” I said.
“Bye, Dad. See you later,” Jordan and Tyler said.
Joshua didn’t say anything as he got out of the car.
Once we were out of earshot, I told Joshua, “You could have thanked him, you know.”
Joshua turned to Jordan. “Did you hear something?”
I rolled my eyes, and I’m pretty sure Jordan did too. Jordan may have only been nineteen, but he was years ahead of the rest of us when it came to maturity.
“Real fucking mature,” I said.
Joshua didn’t say anything. Neither did Tyler or Jordan. They were smart enough to know that the last thing you did was get into the middle of a fight between two Scoppios.
Once we had all sat down in our seats, Caleb, Cameron, and Kyle found us.
Cameron and Tyler started talking. For a group of siblings, the Peribat brothers got along really well. I have to admit, I was jealous.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Kyle asked me.
I shrugged. “Ask Josh.”
Kyle knew better than to ask Josh, so he just told me, “It will all blow over soon.”
I shrugged again. I wasn’t so sure.
Suddenly, two girls and two guys sat in front of us. The guys were obviously drunk.
I sighed in annoyance. There was nothing I hated more than sitting near a drunk person at an event. Drunk people had a hard time shutting up.
One of the guys whispered something in his girlfriend’s ear.
The girl laughed. “Adam, stop,” She pushed him away, and I noticed that she was wearing a bracelet with plastic hearts. And I knew that voice…
“Madison?” I asked.
The group turned around.
“Chrissy?” It was Madison and Briana, the two cheerleaders who kept buying the stuff that I made. The guy with his arm around Madison was Adam Lits, who I had seen around school. The other guy must have been Briana’s boyfriend, who I didn’t recognize. He probably went to a different school.
“Chrissy! Hi!” Madison said.
Briana smiled shyly. I had the feeling that she was still scared of me.
“How do you guys like your dresses?”
“Oh, the entire squad just loves them. You have some real talent. I saw that Courtney Miller had a necklace that said, ‘Hurricane’. Do you think you could make one like that for me?”
I nodded. “Totally.”
“Chrissy,” Joshua interrupted. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?”
I glared at him.
Either Madison didn’t notice, or she didn’t care. She held out her hand. “I’m Madison, and this is Briana. These are our boyfriends, Adam and Sam. You must be Joshua.”
Joshua shook her hand. “I am. Did Chrissy ever tell you that I have a thing for blondes?”
I couldn’t believe he was doing this right now. And in front of their boyfriends!
“Ew. I’m a blonde,” I pointed out.
“Not really.”
It was true. I was born with black hair. I bleached it blonde and kept my roots black.
Joshua leaned over and grabbed Madison’s hair. “But this, this is naturally blonde, right?”
“Ignore him,” I told Madison. “He also has a thing for being an asshole.”
Adam swatted Joshua’s hand away. “Do you think it’s funny to hit on someone else’s girl?” He asked.
Joshua smirked. “Only when they’re dating douchebags,” He turned to Briana and winked.
Briana giggled. She actually giggled!
I turned to Tyler and pretended to stick my finger down my throat. He laughed.
Adam and Sam flipped Joshua off and turned back around.
Joshua kept quiet after that, so I thought that the whole thing was over. But I was wrong.
After the game had ended, we were walking to the cars in the parking lot. Suddenly, someone grabbed Joshua and pulled him back.
It was Sam and Adam. Sam was holding Joshua’s arms behind his back, and Adam was standing in front of Joshua, holding a crowbar.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” Madison yelled at the boys. Obviously, she and Briana hadn’t been a part of this plan. They both had a mix of terror and fury on their faces.
“He was hitting on you guys! We have to teach him a lesson!” Adam said.
“Guys, forget it! Let’s just go,” Briana begged.
“No! Stay out of this!” Sam snapped.
“Don’g talk to me that way!�
�� Briana yelled.
The four of them started arguing, and I saw my chance. I whipped my switchblade out of my purse and walked up behind Adam. Before anyone had time to react, I had the point of my blade pressed against Adam’s neck, right under his chin.
Everyone was quiet for a moment before Adam asked, “What are you gonna do, Chrissy? Kill me?”
“Maybe.”
He laughed.
“Chrissy,” Joshua said quietly.
I applied a little more pressure.
Adam drew in a sharp breath.
“Now you listen, and you listen good, because I’m only going to say this once. You are going to let my brother go. You are going to let my brother, my friends, and me leave. You are going to leave us alone. I don’t care where you see us, whether it’s school, another hockey game, around the neighborhood, I don’t give a shit. You are going to leave all of us alone. And if you don’t, I’ll hunt you down and finish what I started.”
“Is that a threat?” Adam asked.
“No. It’s a promise.”
I don’t know how long it was silent, but for a while, no one said or did anything.
I pressed the blade in a little more.
“Chrissy, don’t,” Joshua said.
Adam couldn’t move his head, so he looked at Sam out of the corner of his eye. “Let him go,” He said.
Sam sighed, but let Joshua go. He shoved him toward our friends.
I brought my arm down and backed up toward my group.
I turned toward the group of people who had gathered to watch. “Show’s over,” I muttered.
My friends all congratulated me on saving the day as we walked back toward the cars. Everyone thought that what I had done was cool. All I could think about was that I had almost done something horrible. I had almost killed someone. If people at school weren’t already scared of me, they’d all be terrified on Monday.
The car ride was silent. If Oliver sensed the tension, he didn’t say anything.
When we got to Tyler’s house, Kyle turned to me. “I feel like turning in kind of early tonight. You ready to go back to my place?”
I nodded. We had all decided that the best place for me to hide from Joshua was Kyle’s house.
“No, she’s coming home with me,” Joshua said. “We have some things to talk about.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m going to Kyle’s. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Chrissy, please,” Joshua said.
I had never heard him say please before. Not seriously, anyway. Something in his tone changed my mind.
I turned to Kyle. “I’m going home.”
Kyle nodded. “You know where to find me if you need anything.”
Something in that moment made me realize how people truly saw my brother. They all thought he was a monster. They actually thought that he was capable of hurting me. Aside from the incident the night of the party, I didn’t think he would. But it made me wonder just what Joshua had done to make everyone see him that way.
I kissed Tyler. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Chrissy, would you have killed him?” He asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’m not a violent person. You have to believe me. I wouldn’t have killed Adam.”
Tyler nodded. “I believe you,” He said sincerely.
I smiled. “Thank you. Goodnight.”
Joshua and I walked home in silence.
Once we were in the loft at home, Joshua asked, “Why did you do that?”
“What was I supposed to do? Let them kill you?”
“You could have gotten hurt, Chrysanthemum.”
I grinned. “You were worried?”
“Of course.”
“You’re easier to read than you think you are.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You call me Chrysanthemum a lot. At first, I thought it was when you were mad, but now I’m realizing that it’s also when you’re worried.”
“So?”
“So, it’s nice… Joshua Tree.”
Joshua rolled his eyes, but hugged me as he said, “I’ll kill you if you ever call me that in front of our friends.”
I looked up. “’Our’ friends?”
“Yeah. We’re in this together.”
Finally, it felt like I had a family. Even if it was just Joshua and me, it was still a family.
The next morning, I woke up at eight. I groaned when I saw the clock. I hated to wake up any earlier than ten on the weekends.
As I wandered around the house, I realized that Joshua wasn’t there. There wasn’t even a note from Joshua, which was strange. He always left me a note when he left before I woke up.
I shook my head as I got dressed. “Stupid god damn brothers,” I muttered to myself, lacing up my Dr. Martens.
The most obvious place to look was the Peribat house, so that’s where I was heading.
On the way there, I ran into a group of guys walking down the sidewalk.
“Hey, you’re Scoppio’s sister, aren’t you?”
“Josh’s sister? Yeah,” My switchblade was in my left boot. Would I be able to reach it if I needed it?
The guys grinned. One of them said, “If you see him, tell him good going. Alright?”
I nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
As we went in different directions, I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell that was all about.
I walked into the Peribat house. Everyone was gathered in the living room. Everyone except Joshua.
Tyler came over and kissed me.
“Hey, Josh isn’t here?” I asked.
Everyone exchanged glances.
“You don’t know what happened, do you?” Tyler asked.
I shook my head.
“Chrissy,” Jordan began. “Adam Lits is dead. Josh killed him.”
Chapter 10
It felt like the world had stopped.
“What?” I cried. I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.
“Josh killed Adam. It’s over the news.”
Kyle tossed me his phone. “Just look up Adam’s name on Twitter. Everyone’s talking about it.”
I didn’t even need to look up Adam’s name. All anyone on Kyle’s timeline was talking about was Adam and Joshua.
Adam Lits was dead? But we had just seen him last night. How could someone I had just seen last night be dead? It didn’t seem real.
“Wait, where’s Joshua?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” Jordan said. “If he had a phone, we’d be able to call him.”
I shook my head. “He wouldn’t have taken it with him. He’s too smart for that.”
Joshua didn’t have a phone. He said it was too expensive. The only reason I had a phone was because I paid for it on my own with money from my business. Maybe I’d buy Joshua a phone when he came back.
Jordan asked, “You didn’t have anything to do with Adam’s death, did you?”
“What? Why would you think that?” I asked.
“Remember what you did last night?” Tyler asked. “You know, to Adam?”
“Yeah, when he was threatening my brother,” I pointed out.
No one said anything. Not even Tyler.
I stood up. “You guys think that I had something to do with Adam’s death?”
“We won’t tell anyone if you did,” Jordan said. “We’ll help you out, find you a place to hide until we can figure out what to do.”
I turned to Tyler. “Do you think I did it?”
“No! But you have to admit, with everything that happened last night, and…” He trailed off.
He didn’t have to finish that thought. I seemed guilty just because I was Joshua Scoppio’s sister. Because Joshua Scoppio got into trouble all the time. And people were waiting for me to show that Chrissy Scoppio was as big of a fuck up as he was.
“I didn’t kill Adam. I may have had a moment last night, but I didn’t kill him. The last time I saw hi
m was with you guys. I didn’t even know Joshua left last night. When I woke up this morning, he was gone. I thought he would be here with you guys.”
“We believe you,” Caleb said. He looked at Cameron and Kyle, who both nodded.
Jordan didn’t say anything. I had the suspicion that he didn’t like Joshua too much, and I was sure he felt the same way about me.
“You believe me, don’t you, Jordan?”
He nodded. “Sure.”
I turned to Tyler. “Please tell me you believe me.”
Tyler nodded. “Of course I do.”
I didn’t say anything for a moment. No one seemed too sure. Tyler not believing me was what hurt me the most. He was supposed to back me up.
I was still in a daze as I walked home an hour later. Joshua had killed someone. What was going to happen to me?
It was mostly a quiet day. At first, I had scrolled through Twitter on my school-issued iPad. I was hoping to find information about Joshua. Any Tweets that mentioned Joshua weren’t helpful, and were just calling him a murderer, or talking about how it was bound to happen eventually. Some Tweets mentioned me, and how I had probably helped Joshua kill Adam. Some mentioned killing my brother and me as revenge. Once I got to those Tweets, I felt sick. So, I tried to make some clothes and jewelry. It helped me take my mind off Joshua.
But of course, things just can’t stay calm in my life.
Around three in the afternoon, there was a knock on the door.
“What?” I yelled.
Greg opened the door. “Hey, Chrissy, the cops are here. They’re looking for you.”
I sighed as I got up. “What now?”
I hurried down the stairs. I had the feeling I knew why the cops were here and wanted to get this over with.
“Yes?” I asked the policemen standing on the porch.
I wished Joshua was here. He wasn’t afraid of cops at all. I don’t know why that surprised me, but it shouldn’t have. He didn’t care about anything. He had never cared or even worried about getting arrested. I, on the other hand, got nervous every time I saw a cop. Even though I had never done anything wrong.
“I think you know why we’re here.”
“Yeah, my brother killed someone, and now you want to question me, right? Well, I don’t know anything.”
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