Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
LAZ
“MERCY IN YOU”
My phone rings, blasting its way through my dreams until I'm awake.
I reach over to the nightstand and fumble for it.
Marina.
It has to be her.
Please God, let it be her.
Even with my brain heavy from sleep, it's the first thing it latches onto.
Her.
Hope.
Hope that maybe, after everything, maybe she's willing to give me another chance. Maybe she can see what an idiot I've been, maybe she can search through my layers of bullshit, the armor and the masks, and find that part of me that's worth a second chance.
Maybe when she came home tonight after her night out, she saw what I did to her house.
But when I lift up the phone to my face, my eyes blinking rapidly at the garish light shining in my face, I don't see Marina's name come into view.
It's Noah's.
And it's past midnight.
The boy rarely calls me and never at this hour.
Without even knowing why, my heart is already in my throat.
Something is very wrong.
I answer it. "Noah?" I say, my voice craggy.
I hear sobbing in response.
Noah's crying.
Something inside my chest drops.
"Noah?" I say again. "Is that you? Are you okay? What happened?"
More sobbing, sniffling. Then someone yelling in the background.
"I'm going to kill you!” they yell, followed by a horrible slur.
Daryl's voice strikes through the air, the fear going straight to my heart.
"Noah!" I yell. "What's happening?"
"He knows," he manages to say through a pained sob. "Laz, I need help."
And then the yelling stops. His cries stop.
The line goes dead.
Holy shit.
I stare at the phone, wondering if I should call back. But if Daryl "knows"...no, there is no but. He does know. He knows and who knows what he's doing to him. If Noah needs help, he needs my help.
And if Daryl laid a finger on him, god help me.
I know I should maybe call my mother but there's no saying what side she would be on or what she knows.
I should probably call the police too, but I don't know the situation or what I'm up against. All I have to go on is Noah calling me, crying, asking for help and Daryl yelling, calling him a faggot.
I have a pretty good idea of what's going on but I don't want to get Noah in trouble either.
I get out of bed, slip on my track pants and a T-shirt and sneakers and I'm out the door, in my car and heading up to Santa Clarita at the speed of light,
I have no idea what to expect and I'm kneading the steering wheel as I drive, going over all the possibilities.
For the first time since I broke up with Marina, I'm having to deal with something that hasn't involved me and I'm not sure if I'm going to be as level-headed as I can be.
If Daryl hurt Noah in anyway, physically, there will be actual hell to pay.
There's far too much pent-up anger and aggression rolling through me that really needs an outlet. Getting a few punches in will feel a fuckload better than penning a few angsty poems, but even so, I need to be careful. I can’t let rage get the best of me.
When I pull up to the house though and go through the gates, I'm surprised to see all of the lights in the house are off.
Surprised and disturbed.
You'd think that with the amount of yelling I heard, that lights would be on somewhere. There's no way my mother could have slept through that, she would have to be up.
Unless she's out. Unless they're all out now.
Who knows where they could be. Maybe Daryl was arrested.
Maybe my mother packed herself and Noah up and they fled.
Maybe they're all asleep and Noah was overreacting over a basic argument.
Maybe I'm about to burst into their house and find out that there's absolutely nothing wrong—and then get Noah in trouble for real.
I'm starting to think that the latter might be correct. That is until I jog up to the front door, ready to knock, and see that it's already ajar.
Oh shit. Not a good sign.
I push it open and poke my head in. There's one light on in the kitchen, the one above the stove.
"Hello?" I call out because the last thing I want is for Daryl to bring out his handgun and think I'm an intruder.
But even though I hear the shuffle of someone in the kitchen, I don't hear them say anything. Someone is staying silent.
Cold dread coats my back. It's almost enough to make me turn around and head back out.
But I don't.
I keep walking, slowly, my sneakers creeping silently along the tile floors.
It's then that I notice things as I pass them.
A side table knocked over, picture frames face down, their glass shattered.
I tip-toe around the broken glass, keep going.
I pause in the archway into the kitchen.
My mother and Noah are sitting at the table across from each other.
Neither of them are talking.
My eyes go to Noah first and he's staring at me with dried tears on his ruddy face, wearing jeans and a silver long-sleeved shirt. His mouth is smudged red but it's unnatural, the red from lipstick, not from blood.
I feel a hit of relief, the fact that so far he looks completely unharmed. At least physically.
Then I look at my mother.
My heart stills in my chest.
Her eye is purple, crusted blood beneath her nose.
Holy fuck.
"What—" I start to say but my mother immediately raises a finger to her lips.
I practically sprint toward her, crouching down beside her at the table.
"What the fuck happened?" I whisper wildly, looking between the two of them. "Was this Daryl?"
My mother doesn't say anything, just looks down. Ashamed. The same look she used to have with my father.
I look to Noah. "Was this Daryl? Was it your father?"
He nods, his eyes nervously darting to the hall. I look over my shoulder but there's no one there.
"Yes," he whispers, his voice raw with shame.
"I...I broke the rules. I stayed out late.
Really late. Past curfew. My friend dropped me off and I thought I would sneak in.
He's got his driver's license, it's okay. We were just hanging out at his house, his parents were home and everything, they knew I was there, it was cool. They’re really accepting.
" He pauses, wiping his nose. "And then dad caught me sneaking in.
I was wearing this. I had on makeup. I thought I could get in my room and wash it off before he saw.
He lost his shit. He...he threatened to kill me.
He came after me. I ran, I escaped, went around him. I ran through the house."
He glances at my mother. "Sarah woke up. Started yelling at him to leave me alone. He came after me again, she went in front to protect me and he hit her. Then he threw her to the ground and said he was coming for me. I had to run outside and hide."
The anger rising through me, the flames licking, burning me, are like nothing else. "Where is he now?" I manage to say, choked.
"Upstairs," my mother says quietly. She looks up, her eyes meet mine and I see a tired vulnerability that was never there before. "You need to go Laz."
I shake my head, getting to my feet. "Go? Go? I just got here. I'm just getting started."
"We'll sort this out on our own," she says.
“Have you called the cops?”
She shakes her head. “No. What will they do?”
I almost laugh. “Are you serious? Mum, you have to call the cops. This is assault. He fucking hit you. He was going to do the same to Noah. This is abuse. This is something he needs to go to jail for, for a very long time.”
“You know he’s powerful,” she says meekly, pleading with her eyes. “You know that he has people eating out of the palm of his hand. The police aren’t on our side.”
“If you don’t call the police, I will.”
“Laz, please. Don’t. Do it for me. Don’t ruin Noah’s life.”
“Noah’s life?” I repeat. “You have got to be…I can’t believe you.”
“I’m scared,” she snaps at me, tears filling her eyes. “Okay? I’m bloody scared and I don’t know what to do. I just don’t. Okay? I don’t.” She starts to cry, breaking down in front of me like she never has before.
Despite everything that has gone wrong between us, I put my hand over hers. Then I look at Noah. “You know we have to call the cops.”
“I know,” he says. “But I’m afraid that…he won’t get put away. And then he’ll hurt me. You know what he said? That I wasn’t his son. That I was a disgrace. That I’ll never be a proper man and I might as well off myself if that was the case.”
Again, my blood boils over.
Rage seethes and seethes.
“He basically told me to kill myself,” he cries. “My own fucking father.”
“Noah,” my mother says softly but doesn’t add anything more.
“Fine,” I tell them, letting the anger fill me like tar, black, oozing, sticky. “I’ll fix it myself.”
“Laz,” my mother hisses.
But I’m already walking off through the kitchen.
Past the broken frames.
Up the stairs.
Down the hallway toward the master bedroom.
The lights are off.
I can hear Daryl breathing.
Raspy exhales in the darkness.
I’m sent back in time, to when I was a child, approaching my father. The sleeping bear you never wanted to wake sometimes. I learned to become extremely adept at walking quietly, not making a sound, not existing.
But this time, I’m not here to be quiet.
I stand at the foot of the bed, eyes focused with laser precision on the figure lying across it. How fucking dare he try to sleep right now after what he did. He should be begging my mother and Noah for mercy. He should be turning himself in. He should be shaking with fear.
He’s none of that.
“Get the fuck up,” I say, my voice breaking with anger.
He stirs and then flips over. I can’t see his eyes but I know he’s looking at me.
“What?” he asks.
Groggy. He’s actually fucking groggy from a deep fucking sleep.
“I said get the fuck up!” I yell at him. “Get the fuck up you bastard.”
“Laz? What the fuck are you doing here?”
I’m not myself right now.
The Laz I knew leaves my body behind.