by Cassie Mae
“Well if you’re here for money, we don’t have any. Look around, not exactly the Taj Mahal.”
“Alexis, mind your manners.”
“Why?”
“He is your father.”
“Really? Then where the hell has he been my whole life? The only father I know is Pop-pop, and he would never run out on his family.”
Mom glares at me with the same look she used to give me when I was five and acting out. “Alexis, that’s enough.”
He rests his hand on Mom’s and I want to swat it away. “No, it’s all right. I deserve it.”
I tip my head up in victory. He’s damn right he deserves it. Though I don’t need him agreeing with me.
“So why’d you leave? Where have you been? Why haven’t you picked up a damn phone and made a single phone call? Picked up a pen and mailed a letter? Heck, sent an email.” Anger tries to control me, but I get the upper hand and push it back down.
“You don’t remember much of me, do you?”
“I remember enough.”
“Then you know everything I did was with good intention, but I didn’t always make the best decisions. The reason I left was because of the worst decision I ever made. One I regret every single day of my life.”
I raise an eyebrow and wait for him to spit it out already.
“We were struggling. The bills kept piling up and no matter how much overtime I took on, it still wasn’t enough. I made an arrangement that guaranteed me money and fast. But I botched it. The guy threatened to kill me and my family if I didn’t join his team and work off my debt.” He runs a hand over his face and regret flashes in his eyes. “His so-called team were a bunch of gang members and thugs. I knew the minute I joined them I’d be putting your lives in danger anyway. So to keep you both safe, I joined them and left. I didn’t see any other option. If anything happened to either of you, I…” Tears build in his eyes and it seems genuine, but for all I know he’d taken acting classes in the past ten years.
“You could’ve said something. You could’ve called.”
“It was better you had no idea where I was. If I had to do it all over again, and couldn’t change the deal, then I wouldn’t do anything differently. You two are alive and well and never had to deal with that screwed up world. It doesn’t mean I don’t regret it because I do.”
He reaches his hand out to Mom and after only a second of hesitation she slips hers in his. “I loved you so much. Leaving you was the hardest thing I ever did. I know sorry is only a word and can’t convey how truly heartbroken I am for what I did, but it’s all I have. I just hope one day you can forgive me.”
Mom stares into his eyes, tears spilling down her cheeks. He swipes his finger under her lids and she smiles.
How in the hell is she buying this? It sounds like every CW drama out there.
“You should’ve told me,” she says. “We could’ve figured it out together.”
“I wouldn’t put your life in danger. Not then, not now, not ever. I finally paid my debt off and was set free. I was an idiot. A fool who thought he could support his family, but I lost them instead. When the doctor told me I had six months tops, I knew I had to make things right.”
“What about the experimental treatment? Maybe we can help you.”
My body stiffens against the wall. I want to believe him, I do. It would finally give me the answers I’ve been searching for most of my life, but it just all seems too convenient. And I do remember more than he thinks I do. He was great with me and I know he loved me, but he was also a liar. So many broken promises. More than any child should have to endure. Once a liar, always a liar.
Still a part of me holds out hope that he is telling the truth. I think of Miss Piggles and my life savings. I’m sure that would be plenty to get him started. If only I trusted him.
I may not trust him now, but I have time. I’ll give him a month to prove himself.
Chapter 6
Ryan
“Looks like it’s the year of long lost relatives,” Brett says, checking his face out in the bathroom mirror. He’s pushing at a pimple that’s been on his face for days. It’d go away if he stopped messing with it.
“Yeah, but you didn’t come waltzing in with a bullshit sickness.”
“Uh-huh.” Brett leans back, dropping his hands and examining his barely-there abs. He keeps flexing and sticking his tongue out to the side of his mouth like he’s concentrating real hard. He was asked by a few seniors to go to prom with them, and I think it’s going to his head. He hasn’t heard a word I’ve been saying.
I grab the hand towel and whip his scrawny ass.
“Jesus! What the hell?”
“Language!” Grams yells from down the hall.
“Dude, stop ogling yourself and help me out.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Listen.”
“When’d you turn into such a girl?”
“Around the same time you did.” I toss the hand towel back on the counter and Brett pulls the hair gel out. I’ve been in my tux, ready to go for twenty minutes already.
“Okay… so you think Daddy Boggs is full of it, huh?” he says, squirting the blue gel into his palm.
“The whole thing stinks. Like Pop-pop’s broccoli farts.”
“Hey!” We hear from down the hall, then Grams’ voice follows.
“Well, he’s not wrong.”
Brett chuckles, pushing his hands through his brown hair. He keeps shaking his head to try to get that tousled looks chicks are going for.
Luckily for me, that comes naturally.
“Was he looking for money or something?”
“Lex said she asked him that… he said he wasn’t.” I kick at the doorframe, my tongue now sticking out slightly as I think about the conversation I had with Lex. After she heard him out, she snuck into my room and talked so much for a second I thought she was Kaylee. She paced the floor, going back and forth on how she felt, what she believed. She said her dad just wants to be part of their lives again before it’s too late. Sounds like every cliché in the book. Something about it just rubs against my gut, making my mouth taste like sour pickles. I want to tell her that, but she’s already so confused, so I keep my thoughts to myself.
“Well, let her deal with it then,” Brett says, giving his hair the nod of approval before sliding his arms into a white undershirt. He pushes his head through the neck hole, effectively ruining the hair he just meticulously styled.
“But something’s funny about it.”
“Then tell her it’s bugging you.”
“I can’t.” I shift out of the doorway so he can slip past to his room. “Man, all she’s wanted since we were seven was for her dad to come back. I can’t ruin it for her over my damn gut. What if he’s telling the truth and I’m just being paranoid?”
Brett shakes his head, digging under his bed for some black socks. He finds one, gives it a sniff, and then tosses it to the laundry basket. “I’m not giving you advice anymore. You just piss all over it.”
“But it’s been so enlightening.” I joke.
My phone buzzes in my pocket just as Brett finds a black sock that passes the smell test.
“I know, we’re late,” I say into the cell before Kaylee can lecture me. “You can blame Brett for that.”
“You are. So we’re coming to you.”
“Huh?”
“We’re on our… seriously, Lexie, stop pulling at it. Your boobs look sha-mazing… We’ll meet you at your place. Grams wanted pictures anyway, right?”
“What’s this about Lex’s boobs?”
“Bye! And be ready.”
The line clicks off and I look over my shoulder to make sure Brett’s at least got his pants on. He does, so I do my own check in the bathroom mirror to make sure there’s not a twin zit on my face.
The doorbell rings about three minutes later. I adjust my jacket, make sure my tie is straight, and make my way to the living room. Grams is already at the door, whipping
it open to see the girls in their dresses.
Nate’s with them… but really no one’s looking at him.
“Oh, my girls!” Grams says, pulling Lex, Kaylee, and Brett’s date, whom we all just met, into a giant grandma hug. I can only see the side of my girlfriend as she suffocates in my grandma’s arms, but it’s enough to make me lose the ability to use my tongue.
Lex hasn’t dressed up too often. She lives in that hoodie she stole from my closet. I’ve seen her stuff her mouth with a burger, step in dog shit, laugh so hard she peed herself and she had me falling for her through all of that.
So to see the effort put into her appearance when she doesn’t need it at all… I really think she’s trying to kill me.
When Grams lets her go, my jaw falls open, and I clutch at my heart so it doesn’t beat right out of my chest. Lex wrinkles her nose at me, as if the deep green dress is something she wears all the time and I’m making a much bigger deal of it than I should.
“I got your flower thing,” Brett says, tapping my shoulder with Lex’s corsage. I fumble to get it open, and Lex laughs and helps me out.
“Pictures, pictures,” Grams says, and she shuffles us out the door so we can take them next to her front garden. Pop-pop leans against the porch laughing at us as we try to give Grams a good shot. Kaylee keeps adjusting her boobs and Nate hasn’t been able to move his eyes from her chest. Brett’s date is about three inches taller than him so she has to take off her heels. Lex’s heels sink into the grass, and she falls face-first into my lapel.
We finally get one Grams is satisfied with, and after another grandma hug and a whispered lecture about getting home before curfew, we head to our cars. We couldn’t afford a limo—well, Kaylee offered to pay for the whole thing, but Nate wouldn’t let her. Besides, I think the surprise party she has planned is going to take a chunk from her wallet. Brett helps his date into the back of the IROC while I hold the passenger door open for Lex.
“Hey,” she says, grabbing onto my jacket. “This… is a great look for you,” she says into my ear before bundling up her dress and sitting on the seat.
Damn it, I’m gonna have to adjust myself in front of my grandparents.
***
“They… are insane,” Lex says as Nate spins Kaylee across the dance floor. They’re swing dance lessons are paying off. Maybe I should’ve stayed in that class when she made me practice with her. That one time.
Thankfully Lex is fine with my side-to-side middle school dancing abilities.
Her arms tighten around my shoulders and she pushes up on her tiptoes. She took her heels off twenty-five minutes into the night.
“We’re totally doing it tonight, right?”
I snort, running my hand over the small of her back, trying hard not to dip it underneath the fabric because Ms. Kingleworth has been walking around forcing people to dance “two feet apart!”
“I didn’t get a hotel.”
“We’re in a hotel.” Her eyes glint with mischief. “Go get a room.”
“What about curf… wait, why am I arguing this?” I shake my head and slowly and regretfully let go of her warm body for a second. “Be right back.”
“Hurry!”
I laugh at her enthusiasm, running straight into a table. The cups of bright red punch shake, but thankfully none of them topple over. I maneuver through the rest of the white lace covered tables and out into the lobby.
And there’s a line of nothing but guys from my school, bouncing on the balls of their feet, smacking their credit cards on their palms.
There is no way in hell I’m getting a room.
My shoulders slump, and I turn back around to the dance hall. Lex is sitting at our table, playing with the sparkles on the top of her dress. Her brown hair is pulled into a straight and narrow ponytail that just barely skims her shoulders when she turns her head. She looks around quickly, eyes darting left and right before she dives her hand down into her dress and pulls out chocolate cake crumbs from dessert.
Damn, I love that girl.
Being careful not to run into any more tables, I weave my way back through, pluck up her hand, and pull her to her feet.
“Already, huh?” She laughs, following me into the lobby. I turn her away from the elevators and push on the exit door.
“I thought I’d help you clean out your dress,” I tease, taking her to one side of the building.
“Dang it,” she says, “I thought I was being totally inconspicuous about that.”
I whip her in front of me, use my body to press her back up to the building wall, and meet her lips in a kiss that would embarrass porn stars.
“Ew, Ryan…” she says, killing my ego. “You’re juicy tonight.”
“I’ll fix it.” I exaggerate a slurp, rumbling my lips, and she laughs and pushes on my chest. Once I’m sure I’m spit free—or at least not as wet—I dive back in for a small peck.
“Is that better?”
“Did you kiss me?” she teases. “I barely felt it.”
I tap another to her lips, pressing so hard and making an extra loud popping noise when I let go.
“Better?”
“You’re a buttface.”
“Ha, ha, you’re kissing a buttface.”
She rolls her eyes. “And you’re twelve years old.”
“Hey now, I’m at least fourteen.” I smirk at her, and she grabs at my jacket and pulls me in.
“Did you get a room?”
I shake my head, our noses rubbing together. “Sorry. Pretty sure they’re all taken.”
“Guess we’ll just have to improvise.”
“Because that always goes so well for us,” I joke, remembering all our other spontaneous attempts at making this happen. I think one of the reasons her mom isn’t that fond of me is because she may have seen my half-naked ass running across her yard when she came home early from work.
Lex lets out a long sigh, the warmth of her breath blowing over my neck. She traces a gold sparkly nail up and over my boutonniere. “I miss you. It’s been a long week.”
My head falls, landing helplessly against her shoulder.
“Okay. But let it be on the record that I am not the horniest one in this relationship.”
“Um… sure you aren’t.” She laughs, ducks under my arm, and starts walking back to the front of the building.
And I swear she wiggles her ass with extra oomph on purpose.
Chapter 7
Lexie
I already told Mom I’d be staying at Kaylee’s so there’s no way I’m going home. A night with my boyfriend is what I had planned and a night with my boyfriend is what I’m going to get. I look down at my ‘I Reached My Gold’ nails and I smile because I know I got this. I’m totally going for the win.
I’m not even at the door before Ryan’s hand is on my butt. My little sway totally worked how I hoped it would. He leans down and presses a kiss to my neck as we make our way back to the dance floor. Before we do anything I want to have fun with my favorite people.
Kaylee and Nate are in the middle of a crowd busting so many awesome moves, my eyes can’t keep up. Brett tries to mimic them with his date, but drops the poor girl. Luckily she lands on her bottom where she has a little cushion. I take Ryan’s hand and drag him out to the center to join our friends. “Show me what you got.”
“Be ready to be wowed,” he says and snakes his hand around my waist, yanking me tight against him.
“Wow,” I mock.
He dips me and kisses the sarcasm right off my lips. Fingers wrap around my hand and pull me away from Ryan. Kaylee throws her arm around me and tosses the other one in the air. We sing our little hearts out and dance until our feet can’t bear another jump.
Before we leave, I need to get Brett to help me out. I find him sliding his date’s shoes back on her feet. “Hey, can I ask you a favor?”
Brett looks up with a raised eyebrow and I lean down to whisper my plan in his ear.
“Be annoying, I can do that,” he says wa
y too happily.
Ryan comes over to us, draping his arm across my shoulder. I lean into his chest and take in his delicious scent.
“We ready to head out?” Ryan asks.
Nate and Kaylee join us. I nod at Kaylee who already knows my plan and is in on it.
“I’m going to go with Kaylee and Nate,” I say to Ryan.
“Wait, what?”
“I’m just getting my stuff. I’ll come to you. Meet me behind the garage.”
“You have that conniving look in your eye. What are you up to?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” I say and give him a kiss before following Nate and Kaylee out to the car.
I should’ve known Nate and Kaylee would be all revved up after a night of dancing. She’s practically in the driver seat with him as I awkwardly stare out the back window.
Finally the engine turns on and I feel it’s safe to peel my eyes away from the lovely brick wall I’ve been gazing at.
“So here’s the plan,” Kaylee says. “Nate’s house then your place and then to Ryan’s.”
“Let’s do this,” Nate says and puts the car in drive.
“I didn’t even ask. What do you guys have planned for tonight?”
Kaylee holds up a set of keys. “We have the dance studio for the night. Just have to be out before the first class tomorrow at ten.”
“Only you would be able to convince someone to give you the keys to their business so you can sleep with your boyfriend.”
“Hey between Hannah and my step-mom always being home, and Nate’s brother home from college, we’ve had to get creative. Plus I’m getting sick of the backseat of the car, it’s small and uncomfortable and…”
“Ewww!” I screech and jump up smacking my head on the ceiling. “You could’ve thrown down a blanket back here for me. Or just not tell me.”
“We’re clean and careful. You have nothing to worry about.”
Except for the visual that I can’t get out of my head now. I might as well be sitting on top of them while they’re doing it since that’s pretty much how I feel right now.
When we pull up to Nate’s I can’t jump out of the car fast enough.