Chapter 6 #2
Today I was vibing to AC/DC. They reminded me of cigarettes, Jack Daniel’s, and laughing my ass off with Danny back home.
Would the boys be mad at me forever? For so long they were the only people who accepted me. And now…nothing.
I didn’t care about anything or anyone, but I valued my friendship with the boys.
When I was eighteen, I would go back to California and I would reconnect with them. I had to.
Scott’s arrival pulled me from my thoughts. He was standing in the doorway with his lunch pail and a grocery bag.
Just like the times before when he’d walked in on me listening to his music, he looked pleased, proud even.
I didn’t want to please him, or for him to like me for that matter.
“AC/DC, nice,” Scott mused as he came into the room. He eyed my schoolwork. “What’s all that?”
“Right now, English. It’s a real pain, maybe I’ll hire someone to let me cheat.”
Scott chuckled. “Back in my day we bullied the smart kids to do it for us.”
“Really?” I sat cross-legged. “You were a jock?”
“Nah, I played bass in a band, smoked bud in the boys’ room, and barely made it by,” Scott confessed. “You must get your smarts from Maddie.”
He kept doing this, referring to my mother with these nicknames. Even Richard mainly stuck with Madeline.
Honking outside drew our attention toward the windows.
Scott went and set his groceries down and I stepped outside as he was on his way out to investigate.
Next door, at the curb, a man was leaning up against a brand-new black Ford Bronco, complete with a big red bow across the hood.
The man was wearing a dress shirt, slacks, and a tie, looking as though he’d just come home from the office. By the shiny watch on his wrist and the BMW in the driveway, I knew he was a man about his business.
I gathered that this was probably Dreux’s father by the sound of Scott’s “Oh,” beside me.
The car must’ve been a gift.
Dreux and his mother stepped out of the house and his father stood straight, gesturing toward the car.
“Surprise!” he exclaimed.
Dreux wasn’t the least bit excited about the gift.
He eyed his father impassively, while his mother looked caught in between them.
His father, even donned in sunglasses, was a rather handsome man.
I could tell that he knew this too. The aura of arrogance around him as he smirked at his son and wife was impossible to miss.
Mr. St. Julien held a lighter complexion than Dreux and his mother, and as he dipped his glasses down the bridge of his nose briefly, I spotted hazel eyes.
He was good-looking, and it left me peeking at Dreux, seeing how he was the perfect mix of his mother and father.
Mr. St. Julien remained at the curb in front of the car, while Dreux stood on the front walk with his mother, eyeing his father with disdain. Angela held onto Dreux’s forearm, as if to offer some sort of support or comfort.
Mr. St. Julien suddenly spotted where Scott and I were standing on our porch. That ego of his increased tenfold as he seemed to eye Scott specifically.
“Scott, come see what I bought my son.” The way he said this, and the tone of his voice, I gathered that he and Scott weren’t friends.
I touched Scott’s arm. Even if I barely knew the guy, I had his back. “This is a pissing contest.”
“Very aware,” he mumbled to me. With Mr. St. Julien, he put on a perky front. “Afternoon, René, what a nice gesture.”
“All the best for my boy,” René went on. He removed his sunglasses and tucked them into his shirt pocket. When he looked toward his son, I could tell the smile on his face was forced. “Well, aren’t you going to come down here and thank me, and see your car, Druski?”
Dreux didn’t budge.
Guess someone has daddy issues.
“It’s a nice car,” Scott spoke up loudly, eliciting Dreux’s attention.
With this encouragement, Dreux finally approached the car.
René blocked Dreux’s route to the Bronco, demanding attention.
I watched as Dreux seemed to bite back a scowl as he slid his palm against his father’s before going in for a brief hug and pat on the back, that odd combo all guys kinda did.
Dreux went and examined the car and René’s eyes found Scott, like he’d won some battle or something.
Fuck this guy.
“Come on, let’s go inside and give them privacy,” I suggested.
Scott placed his hand on the small of my back. “Good idea.”
“Did you finally meet someone there, Scott, buddy?” René’s mocking voice spoke from behind us.
“Dad.” Dreux’s pleading tone wasn’t enough to stop his father.
René was stepping onto Scott’s property, despite Dreux’s attempts at pulling him back. René studied the way Scott and I stood, a smirk crossing his face yet again.
This was Dreux’s father?
Up close he was stunning, but in all the ways that was bad. The same way Cameron warned me away from Bonham, I just knew at a time when René was a teenager, girls used to warn others about him too.
“Awful young, isn’t she?” René pocketed his hands and stood back once he stepped on the porch.
Did we invite him over?
Dreux came around his father, stepping between us. This only seemed to amuse René.
Scott let out a breath. “This is my daughter, Saylor.”
René’s brows shot upward in surprise. “Oh, you finally went out and got your own kid, huh? They let grown men adopt teenage girls?”
Dreux’s lips parted, but I could fight my own battles.
I planted myself in front of Scott, folding my arms across my chest. “I’m his flesh and blood, actually.”
Scott steered me under his arm. “She used to live with her mother, is all.”
“Funny, you never mentioned having a kid,” René remarked.
“Wasn’t any of your concern.”
“Much like my son—”
“Dad.” Dreux’s sharp tone cut through the tension. A vein bulged in his neck as he glared at his father. “Drop it.”
René shifted his attention to his son then back to my father. “Until next time. I’ll be seeing you, Scott.” He turned to leave, but not without looking back at me. “Pleasure meeting you, Saylor.”
I scowled at him.
Seriously, this was Dreux’s father?
Maybe with parents like his he felt guilty enough to be the boy scout that he was.
Scott ushered me inside before anything else could be said, and I was grateful, because I could feel a Fuck You bubbling up.
“So, that’s René,” Scott announced as he led the way into the kitchen.
“I almost feel bad for Dreux,” I said as I sat at the counter.
“Ever since their divorce, it’s been a little rough between René and Dreux,” Scott explained as he began unpacking his groceries. “As you can see, René’s a bit of a…”
“Dickhead?” I suggested.
Scott chuckled, but he did nod at this remark. “Dreux’s a good kid, got in a little trouble a while back. That’s why Angie’s a little hard on him. He won’t answer to anybody but her.”
“And you,” I pointed out.
Scott gave a helpless shrug. “We’re neighbors. I’ve known him since he was a little boy.”
Maybe I was looking at this the wrong way. Maybe I should’ve made an alliance with René. His son favored my father, and my father practically raised Dreux before me, his own offspring.
Where was the loyalty?
“René was never a nice guy, Saylor,” Scott went on. “When I moved here and picked up on it, I felt bad for Dreux. One day it was raining and he was sitting out on their porch, elbows on his knees, pouting, and I just figured I’d distract him.”
“How old was he?” I wanted to know.
“He had to be about six or seven.” Suddenly Scott was laughing at something I couldn’t register. “He used to be a scrawny little thing. I took him fishing once and I was damn near worried I’d step on him he was so small.”
I didn’t know why it did, but it annoyed the shit out of me hearing Dreux’s background with my father. Asshole Dad or not, he had his own father to bond with. Hell, the guy just got him a car.
I pushed away from the counter and stood from the stool. “I better go and get my things up off the floor. I told Cameron I would go and hang out with her later.”
“Oh, good, I’m happy you two are becoming close. I told you she was a great girl,” Scott said.
Ignoring him, I exited the room and crossed over to the living room to gather my school books.
I didn’t care.