Page 28

TWENTY-EIGHT

Liam

Twenty-two years ago—age sixteen

“You really don’t have to watch me do my homework,” I say as Lisa stares at me like I’m a death row inmate that might make a break for it.

“I’m just making sure that you are doing it so if the school contacts me, I can inform them that I watched you complete it.”

“But the more you stare, the longer it makes me want to take. Like in my head, I’m going… if I worked on this same sheet for two hours… would she ever look away?”

“Just complete the homework,” Lisa says.

“But would you?”

“I am here to make sure you succeed.”

“It’s like back when I was doing a shitty job everyone was like yep, that’s to be expected, but now that I’m actually trying, all of you are doubting me.”

“I don’t doubt you. I just want to be able to reassure the school that you were the only one who touched your homework.”

I glance down at her ring and notice that one of the gems is cracked. “What about you? Are you reassuring yourself that Dale isn’t cheating on you and you didn’t fling your ring across the room in a fit of rage?”

Lisa freezes before her eyes snap up to mine. “Work on your homework. If you say another word, you’re grounded.”

“My parents died and you’re making me feel unloved,” I say dryly.

She really doesn’t feed into the pity route at all. Such a difficult nut to crack. Even the principal started taking my side the moment I started crying about my parents. Suddenly, everything the teacher who hated me said became obsolete. I could have flipped him off and told him to burn in hell and the principal would have given me a hug.

Lisa is weirdly not impressed by my acting. She seems to see right through it.

The door opens and Dale walks in completely alone. Does this man retain nothing?

“Where’s Abby?” Lisa asks.

Dale seems uncertain. He still has his hand on the doorknob, like he’s wondering if maybe he should make a run for it. “I… I assumed she was here.”

“You were supposed to pick up Abby from the football game over an hour ago.”

He winces. “Ah shit. I forgot.”

“Then where were you?” Lisa asks.

“I had to work over.”

“Figure out where she is.”

I quickly finish the rest of the homework. Lisa doesn’t seem overly impressed I spent thirty minutes on the first half and finished the second half in the thirty seconds she was yelling at Dale, but I’m getting a bit bored of sitting here.

She just sets to work on dishing up dinner as Dale heads out the door to drive to the school. The two of us sit down to eat, and Lisa stares at her plate like her husband will magically grow a brain and a conscience if she stares long enough.

I eat as I realize that my mom wouldn’t be overly proud of the way I’ve been acting. It’s just hard to give a shit now that my parents are gone. They really were the only people I cared about and did things for. But I know I should be a good child, even if I have to fake it.

“This is really good,” I say.

She looks up and gives me a forced smile. “Thank you.”

Dale returns not long after. “She wasn’t at the school. I’m sorry. I messed up. I’m sure she’ll come back here.”

Lisa rubs her head. I can tell she wants to yell at him, but she’s doing everything in her power to keep from doing so. “Liam, would you know where she went?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure someplace with Christa.”

“I’ll go to Christa’s; Dale, you go to that pizza place near the school. They’ve gone there after the game more than once, and the two girls can walk there. If she’s not there, check Christa’s boyfriend’s place. I have the address somewhere. Liam, please just finish your homework.”

“Will do,” I say as I watch them leave, not having the heart to tell her that Christa’s boyfriend broke up with her after she caught me kissing him. The moment they’re gone, I head upstairs and into Abby’s room. It doesn’t take me two minutes to figure out her password and open up the chatroom she and Christa use. I scroll up a bit before I find where Christa asks Abby to go to a party. Abby tells her she’ll try to sneak out but Lisa is on her ass and prepared to throw her out the next time she fucks up.

I could wait until Lisa gets back and tell her… I could go get Abby and bring her home and make it seem like she took the bus home after getting tired of waiting for Dale. But that sounds like what a good person would do.

I guess I can pretend I’m a decent person here and there. It probably won’t kill me and might fool a few people into thinking I’m normal.

I figure out where the house is and then go out to the street where I get on the bus that will at least get me within ten minutes of the place. When I get there, I head off in the direction of the party. The moment I step inside, it sours my mood. There’s absolutely no part of this that seems up my alley.

Is Abby even worth this?

I don’t get far before one of Abby’s friends sees me. It’s the guy I think she called Carl.

“Hey, dude, I wouldn’t be showing my face around here if I was you. I heard Christa claim she’d kick your ass if she saw you again.”

“She is more than welcome to try,” I say.

The girl hanging off his arm laughs. “This party is a bit boring, so I could use a brawl. Just saying. I’ll even give you my beer if you do.”

She seems pretty unsteady, telling me someone really should take her beer from her, but it’s not going to be me.

“Abby here?”

“Abby… you gonna go suck face with her boyfriend now? Ha ha ha.” She just giggles, which makes me decide that I am done with this person.

Carl merely shrugs. “I don’t know, dude. I think she’s around here.”

“She has a boyfriend?”

“I guess. Fuck if I know. I think you think I know her more than I do.”

My eyes latch on to the guy who spiked Abby’s drink. He’s over there holding a plastic disposable cup of something, so as I walk by, I simply smack the bottom of his cup. It smashes into his face, drowning him in beer as I smile, pleased with myself. His buddies holler and laugh as he jumps up.

“What the fuck? What the fuck?”

I turn to grin at him, really hoping he wants a fight. The last thing I need is to explain to Lisa how I got a black eye while dutifully doing homework, but nothing sounds more fun at this moment than punching this man in the face. Honestly, punching anyone would be delightful. It’s really not limited to only him.

And I would have continued with this train of thought if I hadn’t just heard Abby. Thinking that I’m distracted by Abby’s voice, the guy comes at me, and I grab him by the back of the neck and simply throw him to the ground.

I try to pretend I don’t enjoy the yelp he makes as he sails across the room. Then I hurry farther into the house until Christa grabs my wrist.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Looking for Abby,” I say.

“You here to steal my new boyfriend?”

“Didn’t steal your last one. I merely kissed him,” I say before glancing at her new boyfriend. It’s one of the guys I’d seen at the club, but he definitely isn’t kiss worthy. Though I would do it just to annoy her. “Where’s Abby?”

“I don’t fucking know where Abby is. Is it my job to keep track of her?” she asks, obviously still peeved.

“Okay…”

I start off, but Christa grabs my wrist again. I glance down at it before looking back at her. “What?”

“Did Abby go to her father’s funeral?”

“I don’t think so. The social worker tried talking her into it and she told her the only reason she’d go would be to spit on his corpse.”

“My dad works with the police,” Christa’s boyfriend says. “I heard her dad was a pretty good guy, but she sure didn’t like him. I wonder why. I met him a couple of times and never noticed anything off with him.”

It’s because you didn’t watch him like I did. You didn’t see the way he manipulated those young women. All I say is, “People hide their true selves when they think others are watching.”

“Yeah, like you were hiding the fact that you’re a… a… wrecker of relationships. Ryan, you should beat him up.”

I shake my head. “It was a kiss. And don’t act like he wasn’t staring at me from the moment I entered his car.” I decide to fix this by grabbing Ryan’s face and kissing him as Christa lets out an inhuman noise.

“You’re not as funny as you think you are!” she yells at me.

“I’m a fucking delight, Christa,” I say. “You want a kiss too?”

“Fuck no,” she protests as she tries to smack me away from her.

“Just offering,” I say. “I’ve been told I’m very handsome… it was from my mom, though, so it’s questionable if it’s true or not.”

“Who invited you?” she asks.

“You sure you don’t want that kiss?”

“No! Now off with you! You think you’re so funny. You’re not.”

“Look at it this way, Anthony clearly wasn’t devoted to you—his eyes were on me the second I got into that car. This guy seems ten times better and all I’ve seen him do is grimace when I kissed him.”

She scrutinizes him. “That’s true.”

“See? I was simply helping you out.”

I push through the crowd, but I don’t see Abby. With no one to kiss or punch, I really have nothing else to do, so I start yanking door after door open to see if Abby’s hiding somewhere within. It takes me far too long to find what I’m looking for. I’m close to giving up when I finally find her upstairs sucking face with Anthony’s brother.

I wrap an arm around his neck and haul him back. “Mind if I join in?”

“What the fuck, Liam?” Abby cries.

“Your tits are out.”

“Yeah, I wanted them out.”

“Cool, cool. Lisa is in a fuss looking for you. Are you high? You’re really high, aren’t you? Anyway, let’s go.”

“I don’t want to go,” she says. “Lisa’s going to bitch about me no matter what I do.”

“Yeah? Well, she’ll bitch less if you’re home and pretending you took the bus home.”

“You know… I wouldn’t mind if you joined in,” Abby suggests.

“It was a joke,” I say as I grab her leg and start dragging her off the bed. “Let’s go.”

“Fuck!” she yells as her skirt flips up during the process. Probably should have figured that out before I took off.

“I can drive you home,” Anthony’s brother says. “So you don’t get in trouble.”

“Aw, you found a knight in shining armor. How lovely.”

“You going to suck face with him too?” Christa barks as she stuffs her head through the open door, boyfriend right behind her.

“I might. Want to watch?” I ask.

She flips me off with both hands and then elbows her new boyfriend so he flips me off too. I feel quite special as I leave the house dragging Abby after me.

“ Jaaaaack , tell him to fuck off,” Abby whines.

“Didn’t you say that if your bitch foster mom catches you doing one more thing she’s like returning you or whatever the fuck it is?” he asks.

“Yeah, but who cares?”

“What if you end up in a different city or state?” Jack asks.

“Fuuuuuck,” she says.

I nod to all of this. “I hope you do. I hope you end up in like Wyoming on some cattle ranch,” I tell her. “Of course, there will be a wild mustang that no one can tame but you. And the horse will break your crystal heart and turn you human, but the ranch owner will sell it out from under you and you will have to go free it and return it to the wild.”

Abby swats me for that one, but Jack appreciates my joke. I don’t even fully get in the back seat before Christa climbs in with her boyfriend and the guy who I smacked in the face with his cup. Like why the fuck would he willingly get in a vehicle with me?

“Oh joy, this looks fun,” I say as I’m squished between them. “Who the fuck is friends with the guy who drugs people?”

“I didn’t fucking drug her,” the guy snarls, but Ryan is between us and kind of body blocks the man’s arms as the four of us sit crammed in the back seat.

“Jack, will you take me home too?” Christa asks. “I feel nauseous.”

“If you vomit in my car, I’m going to toss you out on the side of the road,” Jack says.

“Abby, why don’t you fucking stand up for me?” Mr. Assailant complains.

“You know what would be fun?” Abby asks as I reach past Ryan to shove the asshole’s head against the window for some good fun. I don’t do it with much force, but I like the way he’s pinned there until he smacks my hand off.

“What?”

“If Lisa would just fuck off. She’s not my mom. She’s over there telling you what to do, and you listen because you’re a fucking stick in the mud, Liam.”

“Thanks,” I say.

“Have you ever even tasted alcohol? You ever even done drugs? You just sit over there and fixate on bullshit.”

“Careful, Abby,” I growl.

“You ever even gotten laid before? Only thing you’ve done is kiss Anthony and break him and Christa up for fun. Urgh. I hate Lisa. Bitch trying to tell me what to do. And you ruining my fun.”

“I can ruin a whole lot more if you want me to,” I say, voice cold. “You imagine what Lisa would do if she heard you were hooking up with a guy Jack’s age?”

Jack’s hands tighten on the steering wheel. “Hey, we didn’t do shit. I didn’t do shit, you hear me?”

Abby whips around and starts smacking at me. I just watch her have her little tantrum before the car comes to a stop and I get out. At this point I don’t give a flying fuck whether Abby gets out or not.

Sadly, she does and follows me up to the house. Lisa and Dale aren’t back yet, so the instant we’re through the front door, I grab Abby’s collar and slam her against the wall.

“You’re pissing me off.”

“What are you gonna do? Kill me too?”

“Don’t try me,” I say before leaning in. “If you breathe a fucking word of what I did, I will destroy you.”

She stares at me for a long moment before dropping her hand. “Fine.”

“Fine. Go get a shower, you fucking stink. And burn those clothes. You took the bus home, got it?”

“Yep. Sure do.”

Lisa pulls in minutes later as I hear the shower running.

“Abby’s back. Just walked through the door like thirty seconds ago,” I say.

Lisa lets out a sigh of relief. “Fucking hell. Where was she?”

“Hell if I know. She didn’t say much.”

She leans in and sniffs me. “Why do you smell?”

“I smell magical,” I say before heading upstairs as Lisa stares after me.