All Rhodes Lead Here

by Zapata, Mariana

  Later on, I’d be disappointed in myself, but then again it was a goddamn bat, and I screamed.

  And after that, I’d be even more disappointed in myself for the fact I crawled down the stairs on my hands and knees, but I did it. Only after grabbing my keys and shoving them into my shirt. Fuck this!

  And in a way that pretty much summed up my life, I opened the door outside and ran out in my socks, tank top, and underwear—totally and completely unprepared—and saw another bat fly right in front of my face, aiming back up toward the endless, dark sky… where it belonged.

  I still ducked anyway.

  I might have screamed again, and I was pretty sure I yelled, “Fuck off!” but I wasn’t positive.

  What I was positive of was yelping my way over the gravel, holding my cell phone in one hand as a flashlight, clutching the blanket over my head but under my chin, and pretty much diving into my car the second I was close enough.

  I was sweating, big-time. The shower I’d taken had gone to fucking hell. But what else was I supposed to do? Not sweat? There was a goddamn bat in the garage apartment!

  It took way too long for me to stop panting, and I had to wipe my armpits with the corner of the blanket after locking the doors.

  I needed some water.

  More than that, I had to do something. I had more than a week left here. It wasn’t like the bat was going to open the door and let itself out.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  It was either do something or do nothing… and for now, the only thing I was going to do was sleep in my car because there was no way in hell I was going back in there. Not for water. Not for a bed. I’d pee in an old water bottle if I had to. Bats were nocturnal, weren’t they? God, I needed internet.

  I shivered and tucked the blanket under my chin tighter.

  Had Mom and I ever had bats at our house? Did she take care of them on her own? I wondered.

  What in the hell had I gotten myself into?

  Chapter 8

  That next morning, I rolled up to the store and found Clara standing beside her car—a new Ford Explorer—and talking to a man a lot taller than her while Jackie stood off to the other side, messing with her phone.

  It took me a moment to realize why his light brown skin and build seemed kind of familiar.

  It was Johnny. Amos’s uncle.

  Pulling in to park on the other side, I finally spotted the Subaru parked behind the store. I grabbed my purse from the passenger seat before getting out.

  “…it’s fine. Just bring me the money tomorrow,” Clara said in that soft, steady voice of hers.

  “Can’t tell you how much I appreciate it, Clara,” Amos’s uncle replied. I could see he was smiling at her, this sweet, easy one.

  Jackie glanced over her shoulder and smiled tightly. “Hi, Ora.”

  She was one of the only people to call me that here. Even Clara only called me Aurora. Probably because it was my aunt and uncle who had started calling me Ora.

  “Hi,” I greeted her. “Are you coming with us?”

  She blinked, and her smile dropped just a tiny bit. “Is that okay?”

  I smiled extra wide, hating that for some reason she’d think I wouldn’t want her around, especially since things were fine between us but just a little awkward for whatever reason, and nodded. “Yeah, it is.”

  Her smile back was timid but brighter.

  Johnny happened to glance over then and made eye contact with me.

  “Aurora,” Clara called out over her shoulder. “This is Johnny, Amos’s uncle.”

  I couldn’t help it, I said, “We met at the hospital.” I forgot I hadn’t told her about all… that.

  I walked around the Explorer and came to a stop beside Clara who smiled at me.

  “Nice to see you again, Aurora,” the man drawled.

  “Nice to see you too.”

  I wished I put more makeup on now. I hadn’t gotten around to it because I’d been so tired thanks to the chaos last night, I hadn’t exactly gotten a good night’s sleep. And it wasn’t like Clara—or Jackie—cared if I had bags under my eyes.

  “Did Rhodes give you a hard time the other night?”

  I grinned and shook my head. He had to be referring to the night I’d snuck over to see Amos. “No. He said thank you. I figured that was pretty good.”

  The way he tilted his head said he thought so too. “Have fun on your trip. Clara said you’re going to Ouray; it’s nice up there. See you around?”

  “Sure,” I agreed, figuring I’d probably see him around the store since I wouldn’t be at the apartment too much longer.

  Clara gave him a quick hug, Jackie and I waved, and then we were loading into her Explorer and Johnny was getting back into his car.

  Her little sigh had me leaning between the two front seats—Jackie was in the front passenger—and peering at her.

  Was that a dreamy look on her face or what? I glanced at Jackie to find her smirking. I wasn’t imagining it.

  Clara looked at us and instantly frowned. “Yes?”

  Neither one of us said anything, and she sighed again and turned on the car.

  “He’s a sweetheart, okay?” She started to reverse. “And he’s cute.”

  I leaned back into the seat and put the seat belt on. “He is cute.”

  “He just split up with his girlfriend about a month ago….” She trailed off.

  “Aunt Clara’s been wanting to get in his pants,” Jackie said out of nowhere.

  “Jackie!”

  I laughed.

  “He is cute,” she confirmed, not exactly sounding happy about it though. “But I’m not saying I want to marry the guy or… or… get in his pants. I don’t even want to date him. I’m not ready yet to be with anyone else, but I can still look.”

  Something in my chest churned at her own step she was admitting to. We were all trying to take small steps in our lives, trying to get somewhere.

  I guess the good thing was, there might be a finish line with a specific time we needed to get there but none of us knew what it was.

  Clara kept talking. “And, Jackie, quit telling people about Johnny.”

  The teenager blew a raspberry. “You said sex wasn’t a big deal.”

  “It isn’t for a lot of people, but only when you’re ready. Some people believe that it’s a transfer of energy, and you don’t want to pick up on anyone’s bad energy. And I told you you can have sex with whoever you want once you’re eighteen.”

  “You’re so weird.”

  “Why am I weird?”

  “Because you’re supposed to tell me that I should wait until I get married!” Jackie argued back.

  “You don’t have to love every man you’re with. Right, Ora?” Clara said with a peek over her shoulder.

  I had loved every guy I’d ever been with. All whopping three of them. Two had been puppy love, but the last one… well, it had been real. Until it got burned alive and to a crisp. But that wasn’t the point Clara was trying to make. “Exactly. No one ever tells a guy to wait for someone special. My uncle used to just beg my guy cousins to wear a condom. A skinny sixteen-year-old with bad acne isn’t going to be a prince charming. At least just wait until you make sure the guy isn’t a total immature douchebag.”

  “Uh-huh. And boyfriends just bring problems,” Clara kept going, gesturing to me for my own input.

  Considering none of my past relationships had worked out… she wasn’t wrong. “I haven’t had that many boyfriends, but yeah, they’re a pain in the ass.”

  Jackie’s turned around in her seat to peek at me. “You haven’t had a lot of boyfriends?”

  I shook my head.

  “You look like you’d have a lot.”

  Clara tried to cover her snort at the same time I burst out laughing. “Thank you?”

  She blanched. “Not like that! Because you like…. You’re so pretty! You look like a princess! That was, like, the second thing Amos ever told me, and he never says stuff like that.”

&n
bsp; Amos thought I was pretty? What a sweet kid.

  “I was with my ex for a really long time. And my other two boyfriends were in high school.” One of them, I had kind of kept in touch with. He messaged me on Facebook every birthday and Christmas, and I did the same. He was still single and apparently some kind of workaholic engineer. The last I’d heard from the other one, the one between the guy I’d lost my virginity to and Kaden, was that he was married with four kids; at least that’s what I’d seen the last time I’d stalked him online out of boredom. “You’re so pretty too, Jackie, and you’re really smart. That’s a lot more important and useful than looks are.”

  Suddenly, I missed Yuki and Nori. We used to take turns pumping each other up when we were having bad days. When Yuki had broken up with her boyfriend about a month before Kaden had kicked me to the curb, we had sat around her living room—while he’d been on tour—and yelled at her. You’re beautiful! You treat people with respect! You haggled with your label for more money! You sold one hundred million records because YOU worked hard! You’ve got a great butt! You make the best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever had!

  They had done the same for me in the month I’d stayed with Yuki after. Try being sad when people you love yell compliments at you. You can’t be.

  The teenage girl who only spoke to me about work most of the time, though, grunted. “Boys don’t like smart girls though.”

  From the side, I could see Clara shaking her head. “That’s why we’re telling you that they’re a headache.”

  “More like a migraine, but sure, a headache works,” I chirped up, and then the three of us were cracking up.

  And that’s when my phone started ringing.

  Not actually with a call, I realized after a moment, but with a call through Facebook messenger.

  I recognized the face on the screen before I even got a look at the name below it.

  I knew that hair. The face with about ten layers of makeup that she never left the house without. Hell, I doubted she left the bathroom without a face full of foundation anymore. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but it was an idea of how important appearances were to her.

  HENRIETTA JONES flashed across the screen.

  The woman who had been my not-mother-in-law.

  Glancing up, I noticed Clara and Jackie were talking about something, and my finger hesitated over the screen. The last thing in the world I wanted to do was ever talk to this woman again. It was half her fault that Kaden and I had split up. The rest of it was all on him. He didn’t have to break things off or want more fame or money. I had never cared about that. I would’ve been happy—

  No. I wouldn’t have been happy. And none of that mattered anymore and never would again.

  And as much as I would have loved to ignore The Mark of the Beast, if I didn’t answer, it would just make her think that I was hiding. That I was weak. Worse, she would just keep on calling.

  She had run me out, and here she was now. Calling me. A year later.

  I snickered and tapped the screen before putting the cell to my face and saying, “Hello?”

  She wasn’t trying to video-call at least.

  “Aurora,” the woman whose voice I could have recognized in a packed concert said, sounding just about as stuffy as she had for the last ten years. “It’s Henrietta.”

  Was it petty of me to say “Who?”

  It was, but I did it anyway. Because fuck this lady who had canceled my cell phone the day after her son quit on our relationship. Who had told her employees—people who I’d assumed were my friends—she would fire them if she found out they were communicating with me.

  “Henrietta, Aurora. Jones.” She paused. “Kaden’s mother—oh you’re just being a pain, aren’t you?” she snapped about halfway through, realizing I was fucking with her. “Where are you?”

  Where was I?

  I snorted again and kept watching Jackie and Clara talk. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but whatever it was, it had to be good from the way their hands were moving. They were cracking up over something.

  “In the United States, ma’am. I’m pretty busy and can’t stay on the phone long, is this an emergency?”

  I knew what she needed. Of course I did. Aunt Carolina had sent me a screenshot this morning of another bad review that Kaden’s latest album had gotten. Rolling Stone had used the word “atrocious.”

  “This isn’t an emergency, but Kaden needs to speak with you. Or I can speak with you as well. He’s tried emailing you and hasn’t gotten a response.” There was a pause, and she cleared her throat. “We’ve been worried.”

  I couldn’t hold back my snort then either. It had been a year since the last time I’d communicated with either one of them. One whole year since I’d been cut cold turkey out of their lives. Out of their family.

  And now they were worried? Ha. Ha. Ha.

  Jackie burst out laughing from the front seat, and Clara gasped, “You’re nasty!”

  “Aurora? Are you listening?” Mrs. Jones griped.

  I rolled my eyes at the same time I caught a whiff of fart and started laughing too. “Damn, Jackie, what did you eat? Demons for breakfast?”

  “I’m sorry!” she cried, turning around in the seat with an embarrassed expression.

  “She’s not sorry,” Clara shot back with a shake of her head before rolling the window down.

  “Aurora?” Mrs. Jones’s voice came over the line again, sharper that time, irritated, I was sure, at not putting my life on hold to speak with her. She was just that kind of person.

  And you know what? I had this one life left, and I wasn’t going to waste it on this lady. At least not more than I already had. “Mrs. Jones, I’m really busy. I’d tell you to tell Kaden I said hi, but I don’t really care—”

  She gasped. “You don’t mean that.”

  “I’m pretty sure I do. I don’t know what he wants to talk about, but I have no interest in having any more conversations with him. Much less with you.”

  “You haven’t even heard what he wants to talk to you about.”

  “Because I don’t care. Look, I really do have to go. I’m sure he can talk to Tammy Lynn.” I didn’t need to go there, but it was worth it.

  “Aurora! You don’t understand. I’m sure, I know, you’d like to hear what he has to say.”

  I rolled down my window too when the smell of Jackie’s fart didn’t go away fast enough. “No, I don’t. I’d say good luck, but you’re all going to keep making money off what I did anyway, so I don’t need to wish it on you. Please don’t bother calling me again.” I ended the call and sat there and stared down at the darkened screen, surprised and yet not surprised at all at the same time.

  I needed to call Aunt Carolina today and tell her. She’d get a kick out of this. I could picture her rubbing her hands together with glee.

  Of course Kaden would have his mom call to break the ice. Did they really think I was that dumb or that easy? That I could, or would, ever, in a million years, forget or forgive what they had done? How they’d hurt me?

  Covering my face with my hand, I scrubbed it up and down with a sigh and shake of my head. I folded up all of my thoughts and feelings of the Jones family and set them aside. I wasn’t exaggerating. I didn’t care that he wanted to talk or that she wanted him to talk to me or any of it.

  “You okay back there?” Clara asked.

  I peeked up to see her gaze on me through the rearview mirror. “Yeah. Just got a call from evil incarnate.”

  “Who?”

  “My ex-mother-in-law.”

  Through the rearview mirror, her eyebrows shot up. “She’s evil?”

  “Let’s just say, I’m pretty sure there’s a spell somewhere to bind her to another realm.”

  * * *

  “That was the best day I’ve had in a really long time,” I said, hours and hours later as we were on the way back into town. It wasn’t even full-out dark yet, but I was pretty sure I’d seen my life flash before my eyes at
least twenty times. The road from the small, picturesque mountain town was… sketchy was the word.

  I thought I’d driven some hair-raising places on the way to Pagosa Springs, but a special section of the road on our trip held no comparison. I hadn’t known until we were leaving the shop that Clara was a menace to society behind the wheel. I was beyond relieved to be in the back seat when we’d done the hairpin turns so I could clutch the door and the edge of the seat for dear life without making her nervous.

  But it had totally been worth it.

  Ouray had been unbelievably busy with tourists, but I’d fallen in love with the small town that reminded me of something straight out of a town in the Alps or a storybook. Not that I’d ever been to the Alps, but I’d seen pictures. I had gotten sick the one Christmas the Joneses had booked a vacation to go…

  They’d gone without me, claiming the tickets were nonrefundable, with Kaden insisting it would break his mom’s heart if he wasn’t there for the holidays. Needless to say, Yuki, being the friend that she was, had sent her bodyguard to pick me up five minutes after they left for the airport and had nursed me back to health over the week at her house.

  I should have known then I was never going to be important enough.

  They really did deserve that pie of shit.

  Anyway.

  As cool as the town had been, it had been the company that had made the trip so great.

  It had been a long time since I’d laughed so much. Probably since the month I’d spent with Yuki, and we’d been drunk a fourth of the time. A rare thing for both of us.

  “Me too,” Clara agreed. She’d filled the trip with stories about some of the regulars I was getting to know at the store. One of my favorites being a man named Walter who had apparently found a bag of what he thought were herbs but was really marijuana and had brewed it like tea for months before someone told him it wasn’t what he’d thought it was. When she wasn’t filling me with gossip, she and Jackie tried to give me all the reasons why I should stay in Pagosa instead of leaving, which had surprised me because I really hadn’t been sure the teenager liked me all that much in the first place. They’d made some interesting points, mostly: you’re home.