by Claire Adams
Mick, who’d been doing really well just lying there, has finally had enough.
“Ow, ow, damn it, ow!” Mick shouts, knocking Dr. Chavez’s hands away from his face. “Okay, first off, I don’t know why you’re taking out your anger on him on me. Second off, this guy you’re sitting there badmouthing is at least as protective of Kate as you are! Oh, and by the way, you’re a horrible doctor.”
“What are you talking about?” Kate’s dad asks.
“I tried to make a move on her,” Mick says. “Why do you think I’m in here?”
Kate’s dad looks up at me.
“You did this?” he asks. “Well, I’d assumed you did this, but you were trying to protect Kate?”
He doesn’t call her Kathryn like her mom does. Huh.
“Yeah,” Mick answers for me. “So before you start punishing the innocent, maybe you should climb off that high horse and realize Eli’s on your side.”
“So what?” Kate’s dad asks. “I’m supposed to think he’s suddenly a great guy because he beats up people who look at her funny?”
“I didn’t beat him up because he looked at her funny,” I tell him. “He tried to kiss her after she’d made it very clear that she didn’t want him to.”
Mick’s looking at me with wide eyes, shaking his head. I get the impression he’s worried that telling the full story might encourage the doctor to inflict some more justice on him.
“Is that what she told you?” Kate’s dad asks me.
“Yeah,” I answer.
He leans back against one wall of the room. He asks Mick, “Is that what happened?”
Mick’s hands are shaking and his face is a little paler than usual, but he says, “Yeah. I made a stupid mistake.” A beat or two passes before Mick adds, “I’ve paid for it.”
I smile with half my mouth.
“Well,” Dr. Chavez says, leaning forward again, approaching Mick’s nose again, this time with a lot more care and gentleness, “that certainly changes things, doesn’t it?”
Something about the way he’s asking gives me the impression he’s not entirely serious, though I can’t put my finger on why that is. I don’t answer.
“There you go,” Dr. Chavez says to Mick. “You’ll need to keep it clean and try not to mess with it, but that splint should help keep things in line until it has a chance to heal.” He looks back up at me. “So, someone tried to take something that my daughter wasn’t willing to give and that someone ended up in the hospital as a result, eh?”
Kate’s mom is intimidating, definitely, but I’m starting to get the feeling her dad is more weird than anything.
“I guess you could say that,” I tell him.
“Well,” he says, pulling his gloves off, the latex snapping loudly, “I suppose maybe we should try this again. Hi,” he says, holding out his now bare hand toward me, “I’m Hugo, Kate’s dad. It’s nice to meet you, Eli.”
“Seriously?” Mick asks, and I’m just praying my stupid friend doesn’t make a crack about the name. “Your name is seriously Hugo Chavez?” Mick repeats.
“It’s a common name where I come from,” Dr. Chavez says and then looks down at his hand before turning his attention back at me. “You’re not going to leave me hanging, are you?”
I reach out and shake the man’s hand. At first, I’m expecting him to use some of his doctor’s voodoo to hit a pressure point and make my heart stop or something, but it’s a normal, friendly shake.
“All right,” Dr. Hugo Chavez says. “I’m on your side, but it’s not going to be easy convincing Kate’s mother.”
I’m surprised and a bit confused, but I can’t help but smile. Glancing over at Mick, I say, “Well, it looks like I should probably start kicking your ass more often, wouldn’t you agree?”
Mick doesn’t seem very amused.
Chapter Fifteen
Kate’s Night
Kate
Eli’s coming by the house to pick me up, and I’m nervous. Mom’s not home, and I know Dad’s been saying for the last week that he’s changed his mind about the situation, but I have a hard time believing things are going to be smooth when Eli shows up.
Oddly enough, though, when the knock falls on the front door, my dad makes sure he’s the one to answer it.
I’m sitting in the dining room, just out of sight of the front room and the door, but I can hear the brief conversation very well.
“Hey there, Eli,” Dad says. “Here to pick Kate up for the evening, huh?”
“Sure am,” Eli answers, and I think I’ve landed in another dimension.
Dad may not agree with Mom all the time, but you’d never know it. He never goes against anything she says.
“Well come on in. She should be about ready.”
It’s not like there have ever been that many guys stopping by the house, but I’ve never heard any of my dates spoken to with any kind of respect by either one of my parents. This just got weird for me.
I get up from my seat and look around for something to do to make it look like I’m getting ready. While I’m at it, I look for an explanation for why I’m doing this.
Eli comes into the room a second or two after I drop the charade, and he glances over at my dad. Dad’s just standing there by Eli, his arms crossed and a big, goofy grin on his face.
“Dad, I’m going to go out with Eli for a little while, is that all right?” I ask.
It’s been a while since I asked because I always knew the answer to any question was almost certain to be no. Still, I’m a little off-balance at the moment.
“Of course,” Dad says. “You two kids have fun and be safe out there.”
That’s it.
No yelling, no chastising, no forbidding of anything. For a second, I have to stop and ask myself when my dad stopped caring, but that doesn’t look like what this is.
I don’t know what this is.
“You got it,” Eli says, very much coming off the well-mannered gentleman I never dated in high school.
I walk up to Eli and we turn to leave.
“You’re not going to give the guy a hug at least?”
I spin around to face my father. “What?”
“I’m not saying I want the two of you trading gum in my kitchen or anything, but you don’t have to be afraid to hug your boyfriend in front of me,” he answers.
I look at Eli and I look back at my dad.
Now on the spot, I give Eli a quick, awkward hug and we start heading toward the door.
“Don’t worry, bud,” Dad calls after us. “I’ll work on her mom.”
The door is hardly closed behind us before I’m asking, “Okay, what was that?”
“I’m not entirely sure,” Eli says. “Your dad and I kind of hit it off when I had to take Mick to the hospital last week, but I didn’t know he’d landed that far away from the fence.”
“He loves you,” I tell him.
Eli shrugs. “Hey, it could be worse,” he says. “He could always go back to hating me.”
I don’t know why that sounds like the better option.
We get into Eli’s Galaxie, fresh out of the shop with whatever broke most recently on it assumedly fixed, and we get in.
Tonight’s plans are simple: dinner and an illegal drag race or ten. It’s really going to depend on how long it takes the cops to break it up, I guess. By the time we’re pulling up to the restaurant, though, I’d kind of rather just go home.
Eli asks me if I’m all right as we get out of the car.
“Fine,” I tell him. “I guess I’m just a little weirded out by my dad and all that.”
“Got ya,” he says and then goes on like that’s the end of the story.
If I knew how to articulate what I’m feeling, I’d probably say something else on the topic, but I’m still working on that at the moment.
We’re seated and Eli’s looking over the menu while I sit here and look at my water. This shouldn’t feel so strange. Nothing’s changed between Eli and me. The only differen
ce at all from what I can tell is that my dad’s no longer spouting Mom’s propaganda.
Still, as I look at him on the other side of the table, looking over his stupid menu, I can’t help but feel this frustration growing inside of me. For now, though, I do what I can to not let it show.
The waitress comes back to take our orders. Eli orders something I’m not paying attention well enough to hear and then the waitress turns to me, only I don’t know what I want to get.
How can I decide? I haven’t even had a look at the menu.
“Would you mind giving me another minute?” I ask.
“Sure thing,” the waitress says, smiling.
She walks off, and I’m leaning over the table, saying, “You know, I’m really not feeling all that well. I think I might just need you to take me home. Is that all right?”
“Yeah,” Eli says, setting down his water glass. “I’ll find the waitress and let her know to cancel the order and we’ll get out of here. You gonna be okay?”
“I will be all right,” I answer. “I think I just need to lie down for a while.”
I do feel sick, but it’s more existential ennui than it is any physical ailment.
Eli gets up to find the waitress, and I gather my things. As I didn’t really bring anything into the restaurant, gathering my things adds up to moving my purse a little closer to my body and positioning my legs so I can get out of this booth with a single move.
When Eli returns, I’m already out of my seat, and we walk back out of the restaurant, eliciting confused looks from a few of the waitresses as they half-heartedly tell us to “come again.”
“Is there anything I can do for you?” Eli asks as we’re walking to the car.
He really is a caring guy, Eli.
“I’m sick,” I snap at him. “People get sick, it happens. Can you just take me home?”
Okay, that was a little more than I meant to say.
“I’m sorry,” he says as he opens my car door and holds it for me until I get in.
He closes the door, and while he’s walking around to his side, I’m muttering, “Oh, I’m sorry, Kate. I’m sorry things are going so well for you and you can’t be happy, Kate. I’m sorry you can’t realize that I’m just the nicest guy in the world, Kate.”
I manage to get through the last one before he opens his door.
He gets in and starts the car.
“What is with this stupid thing, anyway?” I ask.
“Why?” he returns. “Did you hear something? Did something come off of it?”
I sigh. I don’t know why I’m being so short with him. I’m just so angry right now.
“It’s a piece of crap,” I tell him. “How many times have you had to fix this thing since we met? What, like five? Ten? How many do I not even know about?”
“Whoa,” he says. “I get that you’re not feeling well, but you don’t have to take it out on me.”
“Maybe I want to take it out on you,” I snap back.
“Yeah,” he mutters, just loud enough that I can hear him over this stupid car’s stupid engine, “every time a door closes, a window opens somewhere nearby for me to jump out of to my horrible death.”
It’s close enough to how I’m feeling that I just let the comment slide.
We’re back at my house. It feels like we only left five minutes ago. I guess that’s not too far off the mark, though.
“Do you want me to help you inside?” he asks.
I look toward the driveway. Dad’s car is still here. Mom’s isn’t.
“No,” I tell him. “I just need to lie down. Thanks.”
I open my door and get out without anything further said or done between us. As I’m walking to the door, it’s unclear whether Eli’s waiting to see that I get in the house all right or if his car just broke down again. Personally, I don’t really care at the moment.
Whatever’s bothering me isn’t his fault, but that knowledge only frustrates me more. Things get even worse when I walk into the house and Dad starts asking me why I’m home so early. I just turn and head up the stairs without a word.
This isn’t the kind of end to the evening I was hoping for before Eli came by to pick me up, but after Dad started swooning, I lost my appetite for everything but solitude.
It’s not Eli’s fault. I don’t know whose fault it is.
I feel bad about talking to him the way I did, and for my behavior as well, but my hand never goes for my phone to call and apologize. Right now, I think I’d just rather be alone.
What’s changed, though?
Eli hasn’t been doing anything differently as far as I can tell, and yet every time he would open his stupid mouth, those stupid words would come out, and finally, I just couldn’t take it anymore.
Maybe Mom’s been right all along. I haven’t mentioned this to her or Dad, and I think Eli just thinks I have an odd schedule, but I’ve been missing class and work. Everything Mom tried to convince me was going to happen is already happening.
It’s ironic that it took my dad changing his mind about Eli for me to realize it.
I can’t say Eli’s entirely to blame. I’m the one that’s been shirking my responsibilities, but he’s the one that’s always talking about how people should do what makes them happy instead of wasting all their time on something that’s never going to be worth it.
Okay, so he’s never said it quite like that, but that’s basically the idea, right?
That kind of thinking was all well and good when I was a teenager, but I’m an adult now. If I don’t get prepared for my life, how am I supposed to be ready when it comes time to start living it?
I can’t believe I let Eli set me back this far.
My mouth is getting a bit dry, so I leave my room and sneak downstairs for a soda, hoping to avoid my dad on my way. I’m not so lucky.
“Hey, you came back and headed up to your room so quick I didn’t know if you were all right. I was actually just about to come up and check on you. What happened?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I tell him. “I just came downstairs for a Pepsi.”
“Something’s obviously bothering you,” he says. “Are things not going so well with Eli?”
I scoff. “Why? What made you change your mind about him anyway? A week or two ago and you were right there letting the slander fly right along with Mom. Now, you’re like Mr. Rogers or something.”
“I do have a fantastic collection of sweaters,” he says. I’m not in the mood for joking. “Sweetheart, I just realized I’d been unfair to him. Once I got a chance to talk to him a little, we hit it off pretty well.”
“When did you have a chance to talk to him?”
Dad lifts his head like he’s getting ready to nod, saying, “He didn’t tell you we talked, did he?”
“He said you two talked when he was taking Mick to the hospital for a checkup or something, but you were nothing but vitriol about the whole idea of him and me. What changed?” I ask.
“I just realized that he’s eager to protect you much the same way I am,” Dad says. “When you’re a dad with a daughter, you want to make sure whoever she ends up with is going to look after her, take care of her-”
“Eager to protect me?”
Dad’s eyes flash wide for an instant, and he’s putting his hand on my shoulder now, saying, “I don’t generally condone violence, but you’ve got to admit that young man had it coming.”
“You’re talking about Mick?” I ask. “How did you…” I trail off as it all comes together.
I’d seen the bandage on Mick’s nose and there was the fact that he didn’t want to talk about that so much as he wanted to apologize to me profusely, all the while asking if it was all right for him to apologize.
I’m not stupid. Even though Mick wouldn’t say anything, I figured what happened to his nose had to have been Eli’s work.
Still, thinking that and knowing that are very different things.
“So Eli did break Mick’s nose?” I ask myself jus
t as much as I’m asking Dad.
He nods.
“If he’d just beat someone up, I’d be even more against him than I was,” he starts, “but the man was, if you’ll excuse the expression, defending your honor. How can I not be on board with that?”
I’m such an idiot.
I’ve been so short with Eli. Tonight, I probably would have been better off if I’d stapled my lips closed before he showed up to pick me up for our date.
I glance at the clock on the wall. Eli didn’t know where the drag was going to be earlier. He told me when we made the date that he doesn’t usually find out anything but the meet spot with any kind of advanced notice—he may have phrased it differently—but by now, he’s probably already there.
“I’m going to start looking for my own place to live,” I blurt.
It’s not what I’d planned to say.
I was going to say something about how I’m going to go and see if I can catch up with Eli, but I don’t know what to do with the words now that they’re spoken. The funny thing is I don’t take them back.
I may not know what to do with the words, but the idea is just as sweet as it’s always been. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking—after all, it’s not like I suddenly came into money—but it feels good to say the words.
“I’m going to start looking for my own place to live,” I repeat. “I know that’s not going to be easy on you, but I’m never going to get any clarity about myself or what I want to do with my life, much less with my boyfriend, if I’m always here.”
It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to happen overnight, but I don’t plan on unsaying anything. One way or another, I’m going to make this work.
Chapter Sixteen
Eli’s Night
Eli
I’m driving home from what was supposed to be a fun night out with Kate when I get a phone call.