Later that evening I was in my room lying on my bed, running through the unresolved conversation I had earlier with Austin. I was thinking about what I could say to him at school tomorrow to try to fix this, when my dad called for me.
I went into the kitchen, and the aroma of sautéing onions and garlic hit my senses right away, my empty stomach grumbled. I hoped that whatever he was making was something comforting.
Dad was at the stove with his back turned to me, stirring something in the oversized pan. It smelled great. Caleb was sitting at the counter with his math book open, working on his homework.
“Hey, Bre,” Caleb greeted as I walked into the room.
My father turned. “Hi honey, how’re you feeling?”
“Better,” I said. It bothered me that I lied to my father about being sick today.
“That’s good. You look better.” He smiled and went back to stirring. He dumped a pound of hamburger meat into the pan. “So do you think your stomach can handle my tacos or do you want me to make something else?”
I cringed at my father’s generosity. “Tacos are fine.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind making you something else, like soup or something.”
“No, I’ll be fine.”
“Alright,” he said as he laid down the spoon and grabbed a block of cheese from the fridge and the grater from the middle drawer to the left of the sink. “Do you think you could help me by shredding some cheese?”
“Sure.” I sat down in the stool next to Caleb and began shredding. I was half-way done when I realized that it was just the three of us in the house.
“Where’s Sus...” I started to say my mother’s name, then remembered who I was talking to. “Mom?” I corrected myself.
“She’s working late tonight, so it’s just us.”
I was glad he was turned around and didn’t see my all-too-pleased smile. Caleb glanced up at me with the same smile. It was nice to have dad to myself, without having her around. It was almost like old times, almost.
“I’m done,” I announced, pushing the bowl of cheese to the middle of the counter. “Do you want me to help with anything else?”
“Um, why don’t you cut up some lettuce and tomatoes.”
“Alright.” I went over to the refrigerator and got what I needed.
“Hey, did anyone call for me today?” my father asked, and I immediately felt a little panic clamp my throat. I wasn’t home for most of the day, so I had no idea if anyone had called.
I looked to Caleb who had an ‘I know something’ look to him. I squinted at him as he chuckled lightly to himself, but not loud enough for my father to hear.
Casually, I said, “No…no one called.”
Caleb shook his head and I was getting agitated by his sense of knowing something that I didn’t. Just then the phone rang and Dad left the room quickly to get it.
I sat next to Caleb, whispering sternly, “What?”
He smiled.
“What’s so funny, Caleb?”
He set his elbow on the counter, leaning his head on his hand. “So, where have you been all day?”
“What are you talking about? I’ve been here.” I sliced into the tomato.
“Right,” he chuckled. “And a few days ago?”
My stomach tightened. Somehow he knew about my missing school, but how? “Alright, what do you know?” I set the knife on the chopping board and looked at him.
“Oh, nothing much.” He shrugged and smiled bigger.
“Come on, tell me, what do you know? Dad will be back in a few minutes.” I glanced over my shoulder and thankfully he was still in the other room.
“I don’t know. Maybe I should let you sweat it out for a little while,” he said, letting that comment dangle in my head, then he smirked at me like a little rat.
“Caleb!” I yelled underneath my breath, grinding my teeth.
“Alright,” he laughed, “I just love seeing you squirm.” He sat up straight like he’d just proved his point, and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
I rolled my eyes. “Well.” I circled my hand, feeling impatient.
“I got a phone call today from the school.”
“What did you tell them?” I panicked.
“Don’t worry your pretty little head. I pretended that I was Dad.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Yeah, like they’d believe you were Dad.”
“No, they did! I put on my deep voice, covered the phone and told them you were sick,” he exclaimed, definitely showing how proud he was of his feat.
Feeling a bit suspicious, I asked, “So why didn’t you rat me out?” I loved my brother, but he never gave up an opportunity to corner me with something and then use it to his advantage.
“Well...” He placed the tips of his fingers together, knowing he had me. He could pretty much ask me to do anything right about now. “First, I wanna know where you’ve been lately?”
“Fine,” I took a few seconds to figure out a safe response. “Austin came home today and I really needed to talk to him.”
“And,” he prodded me.
“And nothing! That’s where I was today.” I put my fist on my hips. Now I was getting a little perturbed.
I looked back over my shoulder, still no sign of Dad. I stood up and stirred the meat in the pan.
Caleb cleared his throat. “Why couldn’t you talk to him at school tomorrow?”
“Because, I needed to talk to him today,” I snapped. “If you’re trying to find out what I needed to talk him about, you can forget it.”
“Fine. Then what about a few days ago? Austin wasn’t home until today, so where were you then?”
I picked up the pepper and shook some onto the meat. “I just needed some time alone,” I said slowly so he’d think I really did.
“I don’t buy it,” he confronted, acting like some type of investigator. Who did he think he was anyway?
“What? It’s the truth. You know, I’ve been under a lot of stress since Susan’s been home, and with Austin gone, I just couldn’t handle everything. I really needed some time alone to just get my thoughts together,” I said, hoping he would cut his little detective act.
He paused, thinking about it. To me, I sounded believable.
“So, there’s a big party this weekend and Jessie and I wanna go, but we don’t have a ride.”
There it was. That’s why he was doing this. I turned around and glared at him. “So you want me to take you to a party, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“This party, where is it and why can’t you ask dad to take you?” I didn’t have a good feeling about this.
“Um, well, it’s in Grants Pass,” he hesitated, flipping the ends of the pages to his math book with his thumb. “It’s not really a party dad would want me to go to. You might know some of the people going.”
“Who?”
“Ummm…well I don’t know whose house it is, but I found out about it from…Josh.”
“Josh?” I gasped. I couldn’t believe that I just heard him right. Josh only shows up to a party for alcohol, and he invited my fourteen-year-old brother?
“Since when do you talk to Josh?” I laced my arms together.
“Since he’s been calling here, looking for you for the past few days.”
My eyes tightened. “And I’m just now hearing about this?”
“You’ve been gone a lot,” he said simply.
Right then my Dad walked into the kitchen.
“Hold on,” he said into the phone, dropping it from his ear and placing his hand over the speaker. “Sorry guys, I didn’t know this phone call was going to take this long. How’s dinner coming?”
“It’s fine, Dad. I’ve been watching it,” I said to him.
“Okay, thanks. It’ll only be a few more minutes.” He went back to his conversation and walked out again.
With one last stir, I grabbed the knife to chop up the lettuce.
“So, will you take me?” he asked again almost begging.
I exhaled hard. “I guess I have no choice, do I?” I glared at him. “But let me tell you something, if you do anything stupid at this party, I will tell Dad.”
“I won’t.”
“You’d better not,” I warned again, pointing the knife at him. I added, “And I’m staying with you the whole time.”
“What?” he gasped.
I kept my finger aimed at him. “That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”
“Fine,” he pouted like a little child.
“Fine,” I repeated.
We sat in silence for the next few minutes. I was boiling inside. Who did Josh think he was, inviting my brother to this party? I wanted to march over to his house and yell at him for being such an idiot. Caleb was only fourteen years old! No doubt there would be things going on at the party that Caleb shouldn’t be exposed to yet. Josh had done some pretty stupid things in his life, but this was probably the top of the charts, stupid.
My father walked into the room and placed the phone down on the counter before he started evaluating the status of the dinner. I just kept to the task in front of me, slicing the lettuce in methodical strips.
“Where are we at?” He rubbed his hands together rapidly, a huge smile on his face.
I answered. “The meat is done. We just need to fry up some tortillas.”
“Great! I’ll start on that right now,” he enthusiastically stated, grabbing a pan and pouring oil into it, then turning the burner on.
“What’s gotten into you?” I asked. The last time I saw him this excited was when he caught Charlie, a twenty-seven pound salmon, six years ago up at Crater Lake.
He turned and grinned at me. “Well, this Friday is your mother’s and my sixteenth wedding anniversary, and I want to make this year’s anniversary special. So, I planned a little surprise for her.”
What? He was planning something special?
“I was just on the phone with a travel agent and managed to get the same exact room in South Lake Tahoe that we stayed in the night of our wedding. I’m going to recreate our honey-moon.”
“You’re leaving this weekend?”
“Yes, early Friday morning, so you’ll have to be here for your brother if he needs to go anywhere or do anything,” he explained.
I looked at Caleb. He was pleased with how things were turning out for him, I’m sure.
“What about Mom? Doesn’t she work on Fridays?”
“Yeah, but she was able to switch her schedule with someone. That’s why she’s working late tonight.”
I scrambled to think of a reason to keep him here. First and foremost, I still wanted Susan gone and out of my life. The last thing I needed was the rekindling of my parents’ marriage. I didn’t want them revisiting the long lost memories of their honeymoon. Secondly, I wanted to stop Caleb from going to the party this weekend. I remembered something Dad said a few days ago. “What about Steve? Didn’t he ask you to help him out this weekend with his car?”
“It’s already been taken care of. He came by earlier this week and I fixed it at the shop.”
Darn.
“Well it sounds like you’re going to have fun this weekend. You deserve it,” Caleb interjected, knowing what I was doing.
“Thanks, buddy. This is going to be really good for your mother and I. We need this. To just get away from everything and focus on us.” He pulled out another tortilla shell from the oil and placing it on a napkin to dry.
Caleb nodded at me in agreement with Dad. All Caleb was thinking about was himself. The idea of, “supporting our parents” was the last thing he wanted. We were in total agreement that our parents’ marriage was a farce. He was just being a selfish and immature teenager, forfeiting the big picture to go to a stupid party.
“Hey Dad, call me when dinner’s ready. I need to call someone,” Caleb winked at me. I wanted to throw a glob of sour cream at his head.
“Alright, but it’s almost ready, so make it quick.”
He grabbed the phone, but not before throwing me one last ‘I won’ look.
“Bre, can you grab the plates for me?”
I sighed, but he didn’t catch onto my sudden change of mood. He was too caught up in his own cloud of false reality to see anything else. “Dad?”
“Yeah, hun?”
“Can I ask you something important?” I said slowly.
“Sure. Ask me anything.” He took the plate of stacked taco shells and moved them to the counter where the rest of the food was. He leaned both hands on the edge of the counter, his full attention on me now.
“I’ve been under a lot of stress lately with Mom and school and having a new job…”
“Yeah? I noticed you haven’t quite been yourself recently,” he commented.
“Yeah well, I’m kind of in a situation right now with Austin.”
“Oh…” He stood up straight, folding his arms and furrowing his eyebrows. “Is he back already? I forgot to ask.”
“Yeah, he just got back today actually.” I bit my lip.
“Alright, what’s the situation?”
“I told him that I just wanted to be friends.”
His forehead crinkled. “And I’m guessing he didn’t take it very well?”
“No.” I ran my hand through my hair. “Dad, I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to lose his friendship.”
“I see.” He thought for a minute. “You know, he’s probably just hurting right now and it’s going to take some time, but he’ll come around.”
“Yeah, but there’s something else I haven’t told you that might change your mind.” I took a piece of lettuce and started tearing it into little pieces.
“Alright.” He waited.
“The thing is…I like someone else.” I looked at my Dad. “I like Collin, his brother.”
“Oh man, I see why he’s hurt,” he said, rubbing his jaw. He stood up a little taller, putting his hands in his pockets.
“He doesn’t know about my feelings for Collin yet,” I quietly confessed, looking at the floor. “I don’t know what to do.”
He came beside me and leaned forward, resting his arms on the counter. “All you can do is to be honest with him, even if it’s going to hurt him more.” My stomach tightened. He continued, “Someone once said to me a long time ago something that has stuck with me my entire life and that is, ‘it is better to find out by admission than discovery.’ If you don’t tell him and he finds out on his own, or from someone else, it’ll be that much more hurtful and possibly harder for him to forgive you. But if you’re honest and tell him up front, there’s hope for you both to work it out.” He was silent for a few moments, watching my reaction. “Understand?”
“Yes…it’s just so hard to tell him. I already hurt him once, and now I’m going to do it again.” I looked down at the floor and started moving my foot anxiously.
“It’ll be alright, I promise,” he said assuredly.
“Thanks, Dad.”
“You’re welcome.” He bent forward and kissed me on the top of my head. “Now let’s eat.” He smiled.
“Okay.” I smiled back. I felt a little better. I was amazed at how much my dad was changing, how much more supportive he was toward Caleb and I. He wasn’t as shut down as he once was. He actually talked to us, gave us advice and showed us that he cared. His advice was sound and his words were comforting. He gave me hope that all would work out as he had said it would. It was nice to finally have one parent I could depend on.
“Caleb. Time to eat,” he yelled.
“Coming!” Caleb yelled back.
“Here.” Dad handed a plate to me. “Let’s start. He’ll be out in a second.”
I took one taco shell and filled it with meat, beans, lettuce and cheese and sat down at the table. My father joined me. I only had one bite before Caleb sat down with a plate full of tacos, five to be exact.
“What are you so happy about?” I was still irritated because I knew he had just been gloating to Jessie about this weekend.
Caleb dug into the first taco. “Nothing, just hungry.” He mashed them into his mouth as quickly as he could. Disgusting.
I took another bite of mine and began to not feel so good. “Is it warm in here?” I asked, pushing my sleeves back, feeling my brow start to sweat.
“Nope, I’m fine,” Caleb responded with a mouth full of food, only to take another enormous bite before the last one was even down.
“I’m okay,” Dad said.
“Really?” I placed my hand on my forehead, trying to see if I felt warm but it didn’t seem like I did. I looked over at my Dad. There was a fuzzy glow around him, making him seem larger than he was. I blinked, trying to readjust my sight, but it didn’t work. If anything, it made things worse. Now I couldn’t see anything in detail. His face was a silhouette.
“Honey, what’s wrong? Are you alright?” he asked concerned.
“Yeah.” I blinked again, and then again. “Well…maybe not.” I tried one last time to bring my vision back, but it didn’t work. “I think I need to lie down.”
Shutting my door, I lay down on my bed, and it came to me instantly. This was how I felt right before I got a vision. I should’ve known the signs by now. I sat up and waited for it. The symptoms faded a little as everything around me muted. It appeared slowly, brighter and brighter until it was as clear as seeing a tiny pebble at the bottom of a calm pond, shimmering beneath the stillness of the water.
I was focusing on the screen, ready to take in what was to come. I didn’t want to miss any details this time. The last time those tiny details almost cost me lives. I sat still and waited.
It began to play. At first, all I saw were two colors, green and yellow. It was flashing back and forth, green…yellow…green…yellow. That could mean anything. I kept watching. It changed and began flashing three letters and a number…U…O…D…12. It ran through them again and again. I made a mental picture of it, thinking it over and over again in my head, every time it passed in front of me…U O D 12…U O D 12. Then it stopped. The screen went blank. That can’t be it. The screen didn’t disappear, but it sat idle for a minute. Just as I thought I reached the end of this short, obscure vision, the very bottom of the screen appeared to be filling up with water. It climbed higher and higher until the screen was completely filled. It was hard to make out anything. The water wasn’t clear at all. It looked like a murky lake or maybe a river. It was almost as if someone kicked up a lot of the dirt from the bottom, forming a thick cloud of brown haze, making it impossible to see. Straining, I could see there was definitely something in the water. I leaned forward, squinting to make out the objects. Some were sinking fast and others a little slower, but still going in the same direction ― down. One object almost looked like a person, but there were a few larger images floating. I couldn’t see well enough to form a definite opinion as to what they were. It would only be a guess. I looked harder, really studying it, and then it disappeared and everything was back to normal. No more hot flashes, no more dizziness. In fact, I got a chill sitting there in my cold room.
Awaken (Awaken Series Book 1) Page 34