“Seriously though, I had enough one day and just snapped on a bitch named Jacki. When my fist connected with her face I just realized I’d been living on auto pilot.” I pull at a random string on my shorts. Remembering how I would walk the streets of California feeling like a ghost. “I was miserable and refuse to do it a minute longer,” I sigh. Actually telling someone about everything that has been weighing on my mind the entire drive here feels like an elephant just raised its foot off my shoulders.
“Yeah, well if you ask me you should have never left here. It’s not what you wanted, I knew that, you knew, and so did your dad. He should have never pushed it on you.” She purses her lips, kicking rocks in the driveway in thought. My chest feels heavy remembering my father pressuring me into college. How it was ‘right for me, and what my mother wanted’.
I shrug. Peeking through my bangs I look at my father’s house. I feel like shit for not seeing him first… but I can’t, not yet. When he finds out I’m not going back, the first thing he’s going to do is get pissed, then try and pressure me back to school. I know it.
“How has Dad been?”
She folds her arms and looks down the street.
“Eh, he doesn’t come out much unless he’s checking his mail or pruning his bushes. Now your sister Journey, that’s a whole other story.” She shakes her head in disappointment. I furrow my brows confused.
“What do you mean, I just talked to her four days ago and everything seemed fine.”
“Well she lies. That girl’s name is always on someone’s tongue. She is a mess Tate, I tried to tell you that.” Roughly six months ago Chloe called me telling me my little sister was arrested for underage drinking. She was caught in the back seat of some guy’s car drunk out of her mind. She’s been sleeping around a lot it seems. I thought I did my sisterly duties in steering her clear of opening her legs to every man who whispers sweet nothings into her ear. I guess she played me.
“Well, I’m here now and plan to put a stop to that shit.” I’ll snatch every little prick trying to come near my sister and break it off if I have to. My eyes drift back to the blue and white bungalow sitting right next to my dad’s house. It’s like a magnet, I can’t help but look at it and see memories of everything that ever happened flash through my mind. I spent a lot of my childhood on the front stoop of that house.
My mind starts to drift back to memory lane, but I turn toward the back of my car to gather my things, refusing to let it.
“You sure it’s cool I stay with you for a couple nights?”
“Yeah, Mom won’t mind. You know she loves you like her own.” Chloe’s mom has always been cool with me. When Chloe and her mom moved here we clicked right away. It’s always been just Chloe and her mom though. Her mother refuses to date when she can go to the store and buy a vibrator. She said, “I’d rather put up with my vibrator than have to put up with a deadbeat man on a daily basis. You can’t replace a non-working man as easily as batteries, my dear.”
“It’s just until I can figure out what the hell I’m going to say to my dad. Maybe if I land a job before telling him he won’t get so freaked out.”
“It’s cool, I understand. But we both know that he’s still going to freak out, especially when he finds out you got into a fight.”
“Yeah,” I cringe. “I don’t plan on telling him that part.”
She giggles and grabs one of my gym bags and heads toward her front door. “Hey Ma! Tate is here!” she announces as she pulls the old screen door open with her foot. Her house looks like all the other bungalows on the block, the only difference is the awning over their front window, and the purple front door.
Grabbing the last bag out of the back of my car, my eyes sweep back to the two houses. Sounds of laughter and faint whispers of love echo in my head.
This is going to be harder than I thought.
Entering Chloe’s home Mrs. Avery throws a dishtowel over her shoulder and opens her arms wide. Her dark curls are pulled back into a blue bandana, her green eyes smiling as she embraces me into a big hug.
“Tate, it’s so good to see you, sugar.” She pats my back. She smells of spices and hairspray.
“Hi Mrs. Avery.”
Grabbing the dishtowel off her shoulder she snaps it at me. “Girl, hush. You’re practically family, you call me Fiona, or Momma.”
I smile, the warm welcome is just what I needed.
“Thank you for letting me crash here for a while.” Looking around the living room it looks just like I remember. A big floral couch with mismatched throw pillows. The corner of the room still has the desk and chair where Fiona stashes her nail polish collection. She works at a spa, and does the best nail art I’ve ever seen.
“Of course, I know how your daddy can be. One day, he’ll move on baby, until then you’re just gonna have to be strong for the both of you.” She brushes her hand on my cheek as her eyes size me up. “You hungry?”
“Starving.” The word fall from my mouth before I can even think about them. You can only eat so much fast food before it all starts to taste the same.
“Chloe, show her where to put her things, and help me set the table. I made lasagna, hope that’s okay?”
“Sounds delicious.” I smile.