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“Bug, quit dancing around it and just tell me. If Allie is concerned about something, I trust her gut.” When she hesitates, I think of all the things that could have happened. “Did you quit the soccer team? Did you quit school?” I rub my temples. “Did… something happen between you and Christian?”
Her head shakes, looking down at her lap. “None of that.”
“Then what?”
“Promise you won’t get mad?”
I push away from the table and stand up. She’s starting to piss me off, let alone scare the shit out of me.
“No, Bug, I can’t promise you that. I promise I’ll try to keep my cool. But if you tell me you’re pregnant, all bets are off and I will hunt down whoever did it and pulverize him into the ground before locking you away for the rest of your young life.” I scrub a hand across my jaw. “Jesus, you aren’t, are you?”
“I’m not pregnant.” She rolls her eyes as if it’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever said. Then she lowers her voice. “I just went to a party and had a few drinks is all. It’s not that big a deal.”
I step back, feeling like I’ve taken a punch to the gut. “You went to a party? And youdrank?”
“You promised you wouldn’t yell.”
I pace the kitchen, breathing in and out so I don’t take her by the shoulders and try and shake some sense into her.
“You’re thirteen fucking years old, Darla.”
Tears well in her eyes. She’s not used to me yelling at her like this. But all I can think about is my baby at a party with alcohol, maybe even drugs, and undoubtedly… boys.
She sniffs. “I’ll be fourteen soon.”
I laugh hysterically. “Andthatwould make you getting drunk okay?”
Calm the fuck down, Asher. You’re scaring her.I turn my chair around and sit in it as if somehow the back of the chair is a buffer between us that will soften this blow.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I ask in a somewhat controlled tone.
“I was thinking that you’ve been on me to make friends. It’s all you ever talk about. So I made some.”
“And who are these… friends?”
“Just some girls from the soccer team.”
I close my eyes. The one good thing I thought she had going. “Great.”
“Noelle invited me. She’s the captain. Thecaptain, Dad. She’s a senior. Ihadto go.”
“So the whole team was there? Where were Noelle’s parents?”
“Not the whole team. And it wasn’t exactly at her house. It was at her boyfriend’s.”
Both my heart and my brain want to explode. But I attempt to control my anger. “You went to a strange boy’s house. I suppose I don’t even have to ask ifhisparents were home.”
Her glance out the window tells me all I need to know.
“Did Allie know you were going to a party?”
She looks away, her head shaking.
“What did you tell her?”
“Dad, I had to go or I’d be an even bigger loser. I only had one drink, I swear.”
“Oh, you swear? A minute ago it was‘afew drinks.’Better get your story straight, because you do understand I’ll get to the bottom of this, don’t you? Allie obviously knows a lot more than she let on. Lying to me about the details will only get you in more trouble.”