45. Mandy
45
MANDY
“ Y ou stink!” Lauren wrinkles her nose.
“You don’t smell that bad,” Jess assures me as I follow the warden out to where my family is waiting for me.
I spent all weekend in jail, crying. Worrying about Pepper. Running over in my head what had happened and where it had gone wrong and what I should do about it.
“You look so puffy.” Lauren pokes me under the eye.
“Oh, Mandy.” My mother bursts into tears as she and my dad hug me.
“I’m sorry,” I wail at my parents. “I don’t know what happened.”
“It’s Lauren.” Amy is shrill. “She has terrible taste in men.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but in Lauren’s defense, I think Jaxon probably targeted her,” Jess tells Amy.
“Yes. I’m the victim here, too, you know.” Lauren tosses her hair.
“Thanks for bailing me out,” I tell them.
“Your grandmother camped out here all weekend. She was waving cash around like it was a strip club.” Jess smirks. “They almost threw her in jail, too, for harassing the cops.”
“I even offered to exchange sexual favors for an early release,” Gran pipes up. “I don’t know what the world is coming to if you can’t even bribe a cop anymore.”
“They kept saying we needed to wait until Monday.” My mother is indignant. “They wanted my daughter to be in jail all weekend! You’re not a threat to anyone. You didn’t break any laws. I don’t understand why they couldn’t just take the money. Your father pays taxes,” my mother insists as she leads me out to the car. “You shouldn’t have even been there in the first place. I’m getting a refund on that bail money, believe it.”
“I think they give it back to you when you show up for court.” I climb into the car.
“Court,” my mother scoffs. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You’re not going to court.”
My dad sits silently in the back seat with me, patting my hand.
I feel horrible. I just want to sink in the seat and disappear.
“Did you get a prison girlfriend?” Gran asks.
“Gran, Mandy’s not pretty enough to have a prison girlfriend.” Lauren scrolls through her phone.
“Be nice to Mandy,” my mom calls from the driver's seat. “She’s had a hard weekend.”
Gran rummages around in her shirt. “Thought you might need this.” She shoves a mini bottle of tequila at me.
“Ma, it’s eight in the morning. ”
“Your daughter is a criminal, Gale. Is morning drinking really the hill you want to die on right now?”
“What the hell.” I unscrew the little metal cap and down the tequila.
Jess rolls down a window. “Okay, so you do smell a little weird.”
I check my phone. There aren’t any messages from him—Salinger, not Jaxon. I want to ask if my family heard anything from Jaxon, but that would start a conversation I’m not ready to have.
“I’ve been looking into which dog pound they took Pepper to,” Jess tells me.
“Yes, we have to recue my Pepperoni!” Lauren snaps a pic of her and me.
Speaking of rescue…
“Oh my gosh, Salinger!” I feel horribly guilty. Even if he is the reason I was in jail, I don’t want to leave him there. “We should go back for him.”
Jess scowls. “Salinger pulled some strings and got released on Friday a few hours after you two were booked.”
“Friday?” I gasp. “He got out Friday, and he left me there all weekend?”
“This is why I’m not going to work today. I’d just punch him in the face.” Jess seethes.
“He’s just going on with his life like nothing happened, isn’t he?” I’m crying now. “He’s such a liar. He said he loved me.”
Jess crawls in the back seat and wraps her arms around me.
“Give her another of these.” Gran shoves more mini tequila bottles into my lap.
“Mandy, don’t cry.” My dad’s voice catches on the words .
That just makes me feel even worse, and I start full-on sobbing.
“My baby girl.” My dad cries into my hair as my mom navigates the minivan in front of the house. “How could this happen?”
“I’m so sorry, Daddy!”
“Come inside before the neighbors see.” My mom motions us in. “They’ll think someone died.”
“At least then someone might bring some food over,” Gran complains as we troop into the house.
“I’ll heat up some casserole. Go sit on the couch, Mandy.” My mom bustles to the kitchen.
“She doesn’t need casserole. She needs alcohol.” Gran heads to the wet bar.
I drop onto the couch next to my still-weeping father, who cradles me to his chest.
“I feel awful, like absolute dirt.” I sniffle.
“You’re not dirt. You’re my little girl.” There are tears in his mustache. “Why didn’t you tell me, Mandy? I could have helped you.”
I grimace. “I just thought I could handle it, or it would go away… until it didn’t.”
“What did I do wrong? Why were you afraid to tell me?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Daddy.”
“Did you think we wouldn’t believe you about Jaxon?” The heartbreak on his face is ruining me.
“You didn’t think we’d believe you?” My mom hurries back into the living room with a steaming plate of fish casserole. “My own daughter? You think I wouldn’t believe my own daughter? ”
“I was… I don’t know, embarrassed, and I was worried you’d do something crazy.”
“Damn right, I’d do something crazy,” my dad insists, scowling. “Get my Weedwacker.”
“But you saw what happened.” I’m crying again. “Jaxon does this—he twists every situation in his favor. You can’t win against him.”
Jess is concerned. “He’s still out there. Jaxon was clearly hamming it up for the ambulance. I bet the hospital released him already. Is he going to come after you?”
“We need to fortify the house like World War Z ,” Lauren insists.
“Maybe you need to go get Salinger back,” Amy suggests. “He’s the only person who’s done anything to stop Jaxon.”
“No need.” Gran puffs up. “I’m buying a gun.”
“Gran, please, no.”
“Take me to Walmart, Patrick. I’m going gun shopping. Where’s my purse?”
Jess sets her laptop on my lap. “On a brighter note, I think I found Pepper.” She shows me a picture of my corgi on the animal control website.
“Oh, poor Pepperoni.” Lauren and Amy coo over the picture of the dog.
“You need to go right now! But please take a shower first,” Lauren says. “They don’t give homeless people their animals back.”
My dad hovers around me as I haul myself off the couch. The tequila is really starting to kick in.
My phone dings with an incoming email. My heart leaps.
“Is it Salinger?” Amy asks.
“I bet he has a gun,” Gran complains .
“It’s Linda.” I frown.
“Jaxon’s godmother?” Jess’s tone is sharp. “Tell her to go to hell.”
From: Linda
To: Mandy
If you have time, please stop by my office today. I’d like to talk.
Jess reads over my shoulder. “She doesn’t get to make demands. This is her fault. She needs to apologize.”
“I’m sure Jaxon lied to her too.” I begin composing a reply.
“Stop making excuses for people’s bad behavior,” Jess warns.
“Yes, Mandy.” My mom starts scrubbing at my face with a wet washcloth. “You need to stand up for yourself. Go down there and tell her you demand a refund and an apology.”
“I can’t. I need to bail out Pepper. I just want to forget this all happened.”
“But you need Linda to give you a settlement!” Lauren wails. “I don’t want to have to move back to Mom and Dad’s, and you’ll lose your apartment if you don’t have a job.”
“You girls are all moving back here,” my mother informs us. “It’s too dangerous in the city.”
Now we all start protesting.
“But I stay in Mandy’s room,” Gran complains. “Where will I sleep?”
“There’s a shed out back,” my dad mumbles.
“Mandy!”
“Fine, I’ll stop by Linda’s before picking up Pepper.”