A Fine Mess

by Hughes, Breanna

  “Mom, you keep letting the mail get piled up. It’ll attract burglars.”

  “Kiley! This is a nice surprise.”

  “I figured I owed you a visit.”

  “Well, sit down. Tim, Kiley’s here!”

  No answer from the living room. Kiley wasn’t too surprised.

  “So how is everything? How’s your exciting life in LA?”

  Kiley smirked at her mother’s wide-eyed interest. “Oh, it’s uber fun. Movie stars, personal trainers, streets paved with gold.”

  “Well aren’t you Little Miss Sassy?”

  “Sorry. Everything’s pretty much the same. You know, just trying to find my way and all that fun stuff.”

  “You’re still bartending?”

  Kiley nodded.

  “And how’s that friend of yours, Harper? Wasn’t she getting married?”

  Kiley didn’t realize exactly how long she had managed to avoid her parents, but apparently it was quite a long time.

  “Uh…no, actually. She called off the wedding. Like six months ago. I thought I told you that.”

  “No. That’s terrible. Poor girl.”

  Kiley shrugged. “She’s better off. Trust me.”

  “Well, as long as you’re there for her.”

  Kiley nodded and lowered her head.

  “Something wrong? You guys are still friends, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, it’s just…complicated.”

  “It always is. Nothing worth having in this world is ever easy.”

  Kiley looked at her mother wondering if she was actually tuning in to her confusion or if she was just offering up a polite platitude. She actually found herself considering telling her about everything that’s been going on and the uncertainty she’s been feeling.

  “I just wish things weren’t so— “

  Her mother’s eyes lit up at something she was reading in the paper. “Oh, they’re having a sale at Kohl’s! We need to go shopping sometime.”

  With those words, Kiley got her answer: platitude. She faked a smile at her mother’s half-hearted attempt to bond with her daughter. She could only recall one time they had gone shopping together and it was uncomfortably awkward to say the least. Kiley often wondered why her parents even had a kid or if they even wanted her in the first place. When she was younger, she constantly found herself speculating on whether or not she was a mistake. Kiley didn’t dare ask her parents because she didn’t want to know the truth. She sat at the kitchen table for a while, watching her mom and trying to think of something else to say to her.

  “Well, if you need me, I’ll be upstairs for a minute.”

  “Okay, sweetie.”

  Before going upstairs, she slowly walked past the living room to see if her dad would peel his attention away from the TV for just a moment to acknowledge his daughter. He didn’t.

  So she made her presence known by taking a seat next to him on the couch.

  “Hey, Dad.” Kiley hoped the commercial break would help in her quest for his attention.

  “Oh hey, Kiley. When did you get here?” It worked.

  “Just a few minutes ago.”

  “You staying for dinner?”

  Kiley found herself wondering if they even ate dinner together anymore. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  Her father nodded and looked back at the TV.

  “Starting to get cold again, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, a little,” replied Kiley.

  Once the game was back on, she knew she had lost him.

  “Who’s winning?”

  “The Patriots.”

  After watching a few plays in silence, Kiley excused herself. That was enough father/daughter bonding time for her.

  As she trudged up the stairs and made a right, her hand anxiously turned the doorknob to her old room. It was no different than when she had moved out eight years ago. Every time she would come home to visit, she expected to see some huge change to her room. She thought maybe her dad would finally get the pool table he always wanted and turn it into a game room, or that her mom would turn it into a fitness room of some sort. But it stayed exactly the same, untouched and unscathed. Kiley found it comforting, like maybe her parents actually cared about her enough to keep it that way. She closed the door behind her and examined the contents on her dresser. She used her hand to dust off some figurines different people had given to her over the years for her birthday or Christmas. She had no need for them, but never threw them out. She picked up a notebook of really bad, angst-ridden poetry she had written during her “dark teen years.” She tossed the notebook down and picked up the college rejection letters from the only two places she applied just to appease her parents. She had no clue why she kept them. Maybe as a reminder that college wasn’t meant for everybody.

  On the floor next to her desk was a stack of books she was assigned to read in her high school English classes. The bindings were barely even cracked. Next to that, was a stack of CDs of her favorite artists from back then. On top of her desk was her old address book filled with numbers she hadn’t dialed in years.

  On the bed lay her favorite childhood stuffed teddy bear that she named Tommy. She could never officially part with it, so left him lying comfortably on the bed. She joined Tommy on the bed as she kicked off her shoes and hopped on backwards. A bit of dust rose up from the maroon duvet cover as she plopped down. It didn’t take long before a sense of familiarity seeped in to her mind. She remembered lying in this very bed while listening to her parents argue every night. This is the bed where she cried herself to sleep some nights. It’s where she lost her virginity after sneaking Zack Marshall into her room sophomore year of high school. The fighting between her parents was so loud, they didn’t even notice Zack shimmying down the tree in their back yard at four in the morning. It’s also where she would anxiously lie awake every Christmas Eve as a kid waiting for 6 a.m. to roll around. It’s where she would say her nightly prayers until she realized it was a rather futile thing to do. It’s where she decided she wanted to move to LA and leave behind this house and all the memories it held. She stared up at the blank ceiling that once held her Titanic poster and her thoughts shifted to Harper.

  She had only brought Harper home once to meet her parents a few years ago and it was a fairly short visit. That was the only time Harper had seen where she grew up. Harper had a field day perusing through Kiley’s old room. She particularly took a liking to the old high school yearbooks on the book shelf, mainly because Harper finally got to see Kiley in her “awkward” phase. Kiley was the butt of many a joke that day. She reached over to her bedside table, opened the drawer and pulled out a gray hooded sweatshirt. She felt the soft material in her hands and sighed. Harper had left it behind after her visit and Kiley never gave it back. She didn’t know why. She just kept it in the drawer and took it out every time she came back to visit. There was something comforting about the simple article of clothing in a place where she felt nothing but indifference. She brought the sleeve up and caressed her face with it. She rolled over onto her side, clinging to the sweatshirt and inhaling the lingering scent it contained. And for the first time in years, Kiley cried. She allowed the sweatshirt to catch most of her tears while a few landed on the pillow case. After fifteen minutes of a good cry, she fell asleep holding onto the one reminder that everything would eventually be okay.

  CHAPTER 21

  At the bookstore, Harper was standing at the register with another coworker waiting for someone to come up and make a purchase. Since it was a rather slow day, the manager asked Harper to abandon her post at the register to scour the store for go-backs. She was grateful for the break from standing around and doing nothing. She grabbed a basket and started out on the first floor looking for any stray books that needed to be put back in their proper section.

  She had begun to wonder why she was still here at a thankless job, barely making enough money to get by. Thankfully, she was able to cover the mortgage ev
ery month with the money her parents left them, but her wages barely covered the other monthly bills. While she enjoyed the peace and quiet that came with working in an environment such as this, she knew it was a far stretch from what she should really be doing with her life. However, now was not the time to get into this. She had plenty of other things to worry about and at least it was a steady, albeit pitiful, paycheck.

  Kiley had called her three times since Saturday night when Harper failed to show for her gig. An interminable feeling of guilt plagued Harper for not calling her back, but what could she say? How was she supposed to act? It would take Katharine Hepburn’s acting ability to be able to pull off appearing normal in front of Kiley now that Harper was fully aware of her emotions.

  She picked up a copy of 1984 that for some reason was resting amongst the romance novels. The fourth Harry Potter book somehow found its way to the true crime section and Harper had no idea how If You Give A Mouse A Cookie ended up next to Nabokov.

  “Excuse me. I seem to have mangled my copy of Paris Hilton’s Confessions of an Heiress. I read it so much it fell apart. I’m simply lost without it.”

  Harper smiled upon hearing the familiar voice and turned around. “Actually, I think it’s probably out of print. She hasn’t really been relevant since 2007. But can I interest you in Miley Cyrus’ autobiography?”

  “Hmm…sounds riveting. But I’ll pass.”

  “What, no coffee or donuts for me today?”

  Kiley dug through her purse, pulled out a Payday candy bar and tossed it to Harper. “I never come empty handed.”

  “Is it your goal in life to fatten me up like a cow?”

  “Hey, if it weren’t for me, you would never eat junk food. Enjoy it. You’re too skinny as it is.”

  “Well, thank you. On both counts.”

  Kiley picked up a copy of the works of Pablo Neruda and tossed it into the basket. “This goes in the poetry section, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  Kiley continued to help her friend find and gather more abandoned books. “So, you know why I’m here, right?”

  “If this is about Saturday night, I really wasn’t feeling well. My voice just wasn’t up to par.”

  “Okay. That’s fine. I can accept that. But you didn’t call me to let me know. And I know you don’t have to, but you call me if you get a paper cut. Just to tell me and complain about it. And then you haven’t been returning my calls. So I’m left to believe that…I don’t know…are you mad at me or something?”

  It was a genuine question layered with real, raw honesty. Harper could see the concern on Kiley’s face.

  “Of course not. Why would I be mad at you?”

  “I don’t know. I do bad things. Maybe one slipped by that I didn’t catch.”

  “No. I’m not mad at you. I promise. It’s just…I kind of spent the rest of the weekend holed up with Emily. We had a really good talk. She told me a little about where she was all this time and what she had been doing. At the moment, tending to her seemed to be more important than performing. And after what she told me, I really didn’t feel well.”

  “Oh wow. Well, that makes perfect sense then. What did she tell you?”

  “It’s a long story, but basically she was in Chicago with her ex-boyfriend.”

  “What was she doing out there?”

  “Unsavory things. I don’t want to get into it. But the bottom line is: she stopped, he broke her heart, and she moved onto other places. That’s pretty much all I got out of her.” Harper decided to leave out the drug information. She didn’t know how Emily would feel about her story being completely disclosed to Kiley.

  “Well, it’s good that you guys are talking. You’re on the right track. It seems like she trusts you enough to tell you things.”

  “Yeah. Even things I don’t want to hear.”

  The girls were heading upstairs to the nonfiction level of the bookstore. Harper found it surprisingly easy to pretend that nothing was wrong. Kiley always had a way of making her feel perfectly at ease.

  “So, apparently Seth is having a party.”

  “He is?”

  “Yeah. I guess he moved into a bigger place and wants to show it off,” informed Kiley.

  “Oh. How do you know?”

  “He sent out a mass text message. I’m surprised he still had my number. I hadn’t seen him since that night he came to the bar with Finn to celebrate his raise.”

  “You probably made an impression on him.” She grabbed a gardening book from one of the benches. “Are you gonna go?”

  “I was thinking about it. It’s not for another two weeks, so maybe something else will come up. But I think you should go, too.”

  Harper laughed. “Right. THAT’LL happen.”

  “You really should. You need to get out and have some fun. When was the last time you went to a party?”

  “I have a dance party in my room every night whenever Michael Jackson comes on my iPod.”

  “Harper—”

  “I just don’t think it’s a good idea. First of all, I’m not invited.”

  “The text said the more the merrier. You can be my ‘plus one.’”

  “I broke his best friend’s heart. I don’t think I’m welcomed there.”

  “He’ll be so drunk he either won’t notice or won’t care.”

  “And what about Finn?”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s probably gonna be there. Won’t that be kind of awkward?”

  “Nonsense! It’s time for you two to grow up and accept your past mistakes and be in the same room together without him pining for you and without you feeling bad for ending your relationship. It’s time to evolve. You’re going and that’s that.” Kiley tossed another book into the basket and put her hands together as though washing her hands of the task. “Well, my work here is finished. Now if you’ll excuse me, now that I know you’re not mad at me, I must attend to much more important things. Taco Bell is calling my name. So, Seth’s party. Two weeks. We’ll go shopping for something cute to wear.”

  “But what about Fi—”

  “Don’t worry about Finn! Silly girl. Just come to the party with me. Have some drinks, mingle a bit, and if you want to leave early, we’ll leave early. Finn’s a big boy. He can take care of himself.”

  ***

  Later that week, Finn found himself panting heavily as sweat was pouring down his brow. He peeked his head out from behind the wooden barrel he was stationed at and his anxiety led to full-on trepidation when he spotted his nefarious aggressor thirty yards away from him. He wanted to remove his mask and wipe away the burgeoning sweat, but he was told under no circumstances was he to remove his mask or helmet. He remained perfectly still and began to wonder why he agreed to this. He felt like calling it a day, truncating this overly stressful experience until he heard an ally whisper to him from behind a haystack.

  “Psst. Hey, Finn.”

  Finn looked over to see Dr. Harris motion to him. He crawled his way over to her, holding his gun close to his side.

  “These guys aren’t giving up. The rest of my team is out, so we either have to surrender, or die trying.”

  “Can I vote for option A?”

  “Of course you can, but as captain, I’m overruling you, so we’re going with option B. On my count, jump out, start running, and shoot every one of them you can find. There are four of them left.”

  “Okay, but do you have any water left? I’m dying here.”

  “Water is for wimps. Let’s do this. One...”

  Finn was not ready for this. “Wait.”

  “Two…”

  “Just give me a minute.”

  “Three!!!”

  Without thinking, Finn jumped up and started running and shooting his paintball gun at any moving target on the course. He managed to take down one of the opposite team members right away. He spun around and saw Dr. Harris running in the other direction, taking aim
at someone else. He only hesitated for one moment while watching her, but it was a moment too long. The second he turned back around he was greeted by two members of the other team who immediately fired at him. He was covered in yellow and red paint as he hit the ground. One of the guys bent over and reached out his hand.

  “Nice job, man. Not bad for a first-timer, but you’re out.”

  Finn walked off to the sidelines and tried to catch his breath. The rest of Dr. Harris’ team greeted him with pats on the back.

  “Way to stick it out, Finn.”

  “Looks like we’re pretty much done. They have her cornered.”

  Finn turned to see the remaining three team members gang up on Dr. Harris, and before he could even take another breath, she fell to the ground, covered in paint.

  “Aw man. That sucks,” muttered one team member.

  “Hey, it’s only our third loss this season. We’ll get ‘em next week.”

  Once the applause died down, Finn removed his mask and headed over toward Dr. Harris.

  She took off her mask and helmet and ran her fingers through her matted hair. She shrugged as Finn finally reached her. “We tried.”

  “Yes we did. I can’t believe I lasted that long.”

  “I hope you don’t say that to all the women.”

  “No, only the ones I’m not afraid to be honest with.”

  “So what did you think?”

  “It was a lot of fun. I can’t believe you do this every week.”

  “Yeah, it takes a lot out of you. You’ll probably sleep pretty well tonight.”

  They walked back to the sidelines and changed out of their coveralls. Finn downed a bottle of water in about ten seconds flat. As everyone started clearing out, he and Dr. Harris started walking back to their cars.

  “So Dr. Harris…”

  “Susan.”

  “Sorry. Susan, what are you doing later today? Did you want to go get some dinner, or something?”