“I’m not trying to cause trouble.” I couldn’t keep looking at the disdain on his face. My stomach was clenched and my knees were starting to quiver and I could barely make my voice work. I focused on a little tuft in the carpet. “And I’m not trying to get attention.”
“Did you hear that, Ken? Did you hear your voice crack? Do you hear yourself lying to me? This is insane! Just admit it, you want mommy and daddy all to yourself because you’re finally starting to understand that the real world doesn’t revolve around Kennedy and it’s scary.” The sneer in his voice made me shake harder.
“I don’t want the world to revolve around me and I don’t want you and mom all to myself, I just want this to be over!” I pressed the heels of my hands into my burning eyes, fighting tears and exhaustion.
The room seemed to spin for a second as bursts of color exploded behind my eyelids. I sat down hard on the ottoman, cradling my head in my hands.
“You want what to be over? Not high school, obviously. The way you’re going you’ll need to go to summer school to make up all the credit you lost ditching for your so-called abduction. You missed almost a week, did you know that?”
“I know.”
“Do you understand the consequences of that? Do you understand how much summer school costs? Do you understand how much anything costs? I usually leave your bank statements to your mother to monitor, but after all this acting out lately I went over them myself. You have dropped thousands of dollars in the last couple of months alone. And for what? A nonexistent garden? Cash? What was the cash for, Kennedy? Are you funding your new boyfriend’s drug habit?”
Something snapped in my brain and I sprang to my feet, glaring. “He doesn’t have a drug habit! The money was for me!”
His eyes flashed and he took a step toward me. My feet trembled, but I stood my ground.
“And just what do you need fourteen hundred dollars cash for, Kennedy? Are you on drugs?”
“Ugh! No! Nobody’s on drugs!”
“Oh, nobody’s on drugs, huh? You want to explain why there are so many methadone clinics then, Kennedy? So many homeless people? I drive through Austin every few months, can you explain—Austin?”
I growled in wordless frustration and shoved my hands in my hair, grabbing fists of it to anchor myself to reality before I flew off the handle entirely.
“Enough!” I shouted. “Enough, enough, enough!”
“Don’t you shout at me like that, young lady!”
“Then don’t twist what I say! You don’t believe me, you don’t want to believe me, you just want to laugh at me so you can feel better about yourself because you would look bad if I actually did get kidnapped and you didn’t have a fucking clue. Except it happened, dad. Not believing me, or not wanting to believe me, won’t make it any less true. So yes, enough!” After the words came out I slammed my mouth shut, horrified at myself.
The sound of him slapping mom echoed in my head, a soundtrack for a slideshow of every disappointed and furious look he’d ever given me.
I met his eyes. His mouth and eyes were wide open in shock. As I watched, his face darkened and twisted, eyes and mouth narrowing to thin, dangerous slits.
Panic screamed inside me to apologize, quickly and earnestly, and maybe he wouldn’t destroy me; but I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t even a little bit sorry for anything I’d said. Any apology would come out sounding sarcastic and that would just put him over the edge…if he wasn’t there already.
His eyelid twitched and he dropped his hands to his sides. His shoulders twitched, straightening slightly.
Internally, I cringed. On the outside, though, I was frozen.
“Does nobody sleep in this house?” Mom’s irritated and sleep-thickened voice interrupted our tense standoff. “What is it now? First that Jason and now—Kennedy?”
She stepped into the front room, wrapped in her fuzzy purple robe that she’d had for as long as I could remember. Even with her scowl, she looked like home. She looked eternal.
For an instant, normalcy snapped back into place, making everything that had happened for the last few months feel strangely alien. Mom was home, and everything would be okay.
The feeling didn’t last long. “Kennedy, what are you arguing with your father about now?”
All the craziness filled me up again, all the splintered remains of my life as I knew it. I shook my head. “I don’t even know.”
“See, and that’s how I know you don’t listen! You want it all Kennedy, the money, the freedom, the attention, all of it at once and you just can’t have it because life doesn’t work that way. Three adults you’ve dragged into my sphere tonight alone. Three!” Dad was shouting again, but I was looking at Mom. She watched him with narrowed eyes.
“Three?” She asked.
A flash of guilt crossed his face and he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Uh—the vice principal wants to see us on Monday. I wasn’t going to go. She’s an adult now. Parent teacher conferences are for elementary school and bad behavior.”
“Mm,” Mom said disapprovingly. I couldn’t tell who she was disapproving of. “And the third?”
“A police officer! Your daughter brought a police officer to our door after convincing him she was drunk just so she didn’t have to walk home alone! Do you believe that, because I sure don’t.”
She raised an eyebrow and looked at me. “Kennedy, is that true?”
“Yes,” I said quietly. “Some people around here would love to find me walking alone after dark. I’d rather not give them what they want.”
“Some people—like that boy you’re seeing?” It wasn’t an accusation the way dad’s drug question had been, but it still set my teeth on edge.
“No,” I said as firmly as I could without sounding disrespectful. “Like Julianne and Thomas.”
“Mm,” she said again. “Well then I suppose that means you’re staying home tonight, now that you’re here.”
“The hell she is,” Dad said. “She’s running around causing trouble acting grown and spending money like water. She won’t listen, she won’t do what she’s told, and she’s been nothing but vindictive to the both of us for weeks. She’s an adult. Let her act like one.”
Mom frowned at him. “What are you saying?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying. If she needs somewhere to stay, let her stay with that boy she’s spreading her legs for. I won’t have her bringing any more of this nonsense to my door, or my phone for that matter. Kennedy, you better pass the message on. I’m done with this pity party of yours. I’m done with your drama. When you feel like telling the truth, we can talk about you coming back home. Until then, keep your chaos away from my house.”
Mom sighed heavily. “Forest, it’s one thirty in the morning. Everybody who isn’t asleep isn’t thinking clearly. Be reasonable.”
He froze, then slowly turned to face her.
“I’m not thinking clearly? Me? We left her in charge of the house and what happened? Over a thousand dollars’ worth of damages, not to mention the cleaning. Juvenile delinquents running roughshod through my house. Her ex-convict boyfriend staying the night and lounging around naked in my fucking backyard!”
A spark of electricity shot up my spine and my stomach dropped like a stone. How did he know that?
“She’s a teenager, Forest. All of that is completely devel—”
“Don’t you talk to me about developmentally appropriate! I wrote the book you’re quoting, or did you forget that? All this drama, all this destruction and vandalism and delinquency, this has nothing to do with her age and everything to do with the fact that she doesn’t have any goddamn respect!”
I pressed my hands hard against my belly to keep them from shaking. I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.
I ached for my mother to shout back at him, to tell him he was full of crap, to explain that everything that had happened was out of my control. I waited for my mother to defend me, to stand up for me, to protect me. But she didn’t. She ju
st gaped at him.
For a silent moment, there was hope; then her expression closed, and hope died. She turned away from the both of us.
“When it’s time to face the consequences, I want you to remember this moment,” she said quietly. Then she walked away, leaving me with no idea which one of us she was talking to.
My ears rang with the weight of the silence left in her absence. Dad wouldn’t look at me. He tucked his thumbs in his pockets and sighed, looking at the ground.
I watched, tense to the point of breathlessness, waiting for him to make up his mind.
“I’ll let you get your things,” he said after a while. He sounded flat and tired, like he’d used up all of his emotions in one explosion. “I’ll transfer some money over. But I meant what I said. I’ve worked too damn hard to get where I am to let you and your friends trash it.” He looked at me, his eyes burning intensely. “My home or my reputation.”
He gave me fifteen minutes. I was out the door in ten. I never have been attached to possessions. I only took the practical, the irreplaceable, and the easy to carry. I passed him downstairs on my way to the front door, and he stopped me.
“Keys.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“Keys. My name is on that car and you don’t need a key to the house until you prove that you can use it responsibly…until you prove that you deserve to live here.”
I really thought my heart stopped.
Dizzying nausea swirled through my gut as I handed the keys over in slow motion, waiting for him to tell me he was joking, that he wasn’t really kicking me out for good, that he wasn’t going to leave me without a car in the middle of freaking Texas. But he only took the keys and closed his hand around them.
Heartsick, I opened the door.
“I love you, Kennedy. Never forget that.”
I didn’t respond. How could I respond to that? Love you too, Dad? Thanks for kicking me out? This is not what love looks like, dad? You love mom, too, dad? Because the handprint on her face looks different.
I was so stunned and blindsided I couldn’t even cry.
I stood on the step for a minute or two after the door closed behind me—long enough to hear the deadbolt slide into place. He really took my keys. He really locked me out.
My brain was full of white noise as I tried to process the unfathomable reality. Numb, I started walking.
At some point, I realized that Rudy was walking beside me. He didn’t say anything and he didn’t touch me, but he was there.
After a couple blocks, he took one of my bags. I hadn’t even noticed its weight until that weight was gone. His brother picked us up a few blocks later and drove us back to Jason’s.
I lay in Rudy’s bed that night, but I didn’t sleep much. What scraps of sleep I did manage to find were full of tormenting dreams. In those dark, cold hours, I didn’t believe the sun would ever rise again.
Chapter Thirty-Five
RUDY
If there’s one thing my family is good at, it’s making displaced people feel safe. Kennedy was smiling again by noon, even if Gary’s attempts to make her laugh fell flat. It would take time. It always did.
At one point Bradley challenged her to a game of one-on-one basketball and she threw herself into it like she was trying out for the team.
Chris, Gary, and I sat on the half-wall by the barbecue and watched.
“You guys got everything last night, right?” I asked quietly.
“I think so,” Gary said. “That hedge is a maze.”
I gave him an annoyed look and he grinned at me.
“Shut up, Gary. Yeah, we got the stuff.” Chris glanced over his shoulder at the back door, making sure Jason was still inside. “All the spooky stuff.”
Gary followed Chris’ gaze. “You think he knows it was us?”
Chris shook his head, paused, then shrugged. “Maybe. But he’s not going to tell anybody. Besides, there’s no proof or anything and I’m pretty sure we didn’t do anything super illegal. Maybe a misdemeanor—or five.” He smirked.
“Assault,” Gary mumbled under his breath.
“That had nothing to do with you guys,” I said quickly. “You know nothing about it. Not a single thing.”
Gary shot a dubious look at my scuffed knuckles, then shrugged. “Whatever you say.”
“I did it!” Kennedy squealed. She jumped up and down, clapping her hands as the ball swished through the net. She turned to me, beaming. “Did you see that?”
“Sure did. Nice shot, babe.”
She ran to me and kissed me. Gary and Chris made a show of being loudly disgusted, which made her laugh against my mouth. There it was. I held her close and basked in her warmth. She was going to be okay. We’d make sure of it.
“Lunch!” Jason bellowed from inside.
We were only ten minutes into our lunch when Julio showed up and joined us. He pulled up a chair at the table, scowling.
“You’re here early,” Jason said. “Game night doesn’t start for a while.”
“I’m not here for game night,” Julio said. “I mean, I’ll stay for it of course. But first I need to have a talk with these two.” He gestured at me and Kennedy.
I pasted the most innocent look on my face that I could manage. Too innocent, maybe. Chris snorted and tried to cover it up with a cough. I spared him an irritated glance before asking, “What about?”
He gave me a look which clearly said, “you know what.” I feigned confusion. Kennedy was radiating guilt, which didn’t help me much.
I decided I’d need to invest some time into teaching her how to play the game.
“I’ll tell you in the truck,” Julio said finally. “We’re going for a drive.”
I could feel Kennedy’s anxiety shoot through the roof and I squeezed her thigh. I wanted to tell her that he was safe, that it would be fine, but I didn’t want to call out her feelings in front of everybody.
“Like, now? Or can we finish eating first?” I asked.
Julio rolled his eyes. “What kind of fascist dictator do you think I am? Eat.”
So we ate. Well, I ate. Kennedy just sort of picked at her food and pushed it around a little bit.
Julio’s truck wasn’t big; it was one of those little compact trucks with a single bench seat in the cab. Kennedy sat in the middle because she was smallest, which clearly made her uncomfortable.
“How long is this drive going to be?” I asked.
“As long as it takes for you dipshits to tell me why Mr. Bird was about ready to check his wife into the mental hospital last night. What exactly did you do with the information I gave you? Do you two realize that you could ruin my career with these stupid fucking pranks?”
Kennedy shrank between us, making herself as small as possible.
I frowned, puzzled. “Okay, first of all, that is a massive overreaction on Natalie’s part. Second, we didn’t use any of what you told us. I mean, not directly. We already knew they were sensitive about appearances, that’s not exactly news. Third, Julianne directly threatened Kennedy’s parents’ careers. Blatantly. Fourth, and I cannot stress this enough, what the fuck?”
“What the fuck is exactly what I want to know,” Julio said through his teeth. “What the fuck did you two do?”
“Dude, we just set up a haunted house in the hedge maze and put bubbles in the pool. That’s it. Nothing was permanently damaged, nobody got hurt—well, nobody got unintentionally hurt by the haunted house—we didn’t even cost them money! It was a damage-free epic prank.” I was getting annoyed. “I literally sat there and planned it out so that it wouldn’t do any damage. The entire goal of this prank was to get the biggest reaction for the least amount of damage.”
“You sure didn’t meet that goal,” Julio snapped. “You should have seen Mrs. Bird when she walked into the clinic this morning. Pale, shaking—she was terrified. Completely terrified. From what I heard, she snapped so hard last night she wouldn’t even let the cops into her yard and by the time her husban
d got her to the clinic this morning the evidence had already been suspiciously removed.” He narrowed his eyes and a muscle jumped in his jaw. “Which, and I truly hate to say this, was a smart move on your part—but now she’s certain that she imagined the whole thing. You gaslighted the fuck out of that poor woman.”
I laughed. Maybe that made me a terrible person, but I couldn’t help it. “Poor woman? Poor woman. The same ‘poor woman’ who got Eric arrested? The same ‘poor woman’ who sent her husband to our house last night to demand that Jason hand us all over to be unofficially interrogated? That woman. Fucking really?”
Julio slapped his steering wheel. “What she’s done is not the point!” His shout made Kennedy gasp and freeze up. He took a few deep breaths, wrestling his temper under control. “The point is that you tormented a woman within an inch of her sanity, and that’s only after beating a man within an inch of his life. Oh, you’re surprised? Didn’t think I knew about that, did you? Guess what, dipshit, I know everything. I know that you are dragging your girlfriend down a dark and dangerous path.”
Kennedy trembled. I put my arm around her shoulders and held her close. “You can keep Kennedy out of this,” I said quietly.
“No,” Julio said. “I can’t. Because you didn’t. Because everything you’ve done lately has revolved around her. Every. Fucking. Thing.”
As he said that, he pulled the truck over and I realized where we were. He’d taken the back way so I hadn’t seen it before—but we were parked outside of Kennedy’s parents’ house. She looked up from her lap and stiffened.
The tour bus was out front and people I didn’t recognize were going back and forth between it and the house, loading it up.
“Why are we here?” Kennedy asked.
Julio was quiet for a long moment, then sighed. “Because you have a choice to make, girly, and I want you to see it clearly. I know your life has been shit lately. You’ve been getting hits from all sides and you don’t know which way is up. I get it. I understand it. But I also understand that the world is bigger than your current experience. Decisions you make now are going to last a long, long time. Rudy’s got a good heart.”
Something Wicked: An Enemies to Lovers Bully Romance (The Seymore Brothers Book 2) Page 22