Chapter 2 #2
“No shit. We hung out with the same group when Dad died,” I replied, pulling on my sleep shirt. “I’m sure she remembers how it was. It was super fucking cool of her since she’d probably lose that internship if anyone ever found out she called.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Saoirse asked, biting the inside of her cheek.
“Mom said she’ll stay home and sober,” I assured her, dropping onto the mattress. “It’s not like we live in a pit. There’s nothing wrong with our house. So, if she talks to them, it should be fine.”
Saoirse was quiet for a moment before she spoke. “You should probably grocery shop tomorrow.” She looked at me apologetically. “I know you wanted to wait until the weekend—you get paid Friday, right? But if they look in the fridge—”
“Don’t worry,” I replied, cutting her off. I reached out and gave her ponytail a little tug. “I’ve got the money. I’ll shop in the morning.”
“Good,” she said with a nod. She got to her feet. “You should probably steal Mom’s keys, too. Just in case.”
“I’ve got it handled.”
“’Kay. Night.”
“Night.”
Once she was gone, I turned off my light and got into bed, staring at the ceiling.
Cian and Saoirse were too smart for their own good.
I hated it. The moment they’d walked in the house that afternoon, they’d known something was wrong.
I’m sure it had been written all over my face.
Saoirse had been patient enough to get the scoop after the younger two were in bed, but Cian had cornered me less than fifteen minutes after he got home.
If child services knew that my mom was leaving us for days at a time, would they try to take the kids?
I was home and a legal adult, so technically she wasn’t doing anything wrong.
But there were always horror stories of social workers taking kids for the smallest reasons.
I couldn’t ignore the ball of anxiety in my gut.
It wasn’t as if Mom was leaving us because she was working out of town.
Hundreds of people who frequented the local bars knew that my mom was spending every weekend hammered out of her mind somewhere—half the time they witnessed it firsthand. Could they take the kids away for that?
It was my worst nightmare realized. There were five of us. No one would take all four kids. They’d be split up, put into different random foster homes, maybe have to switch schools. They’d have to live with strangers, possibly scary ones. Possibly creeps.
Closing my eyes, I pressed a hand against my sternum and focused on breathing.
“Hey, baby,” Richie called as my door squeaked open. “You okay?”
“You’re here,” I breathed, smiling at him through the darkness.
I hadn’t been sure that he’d be able to get away.
His parents may not be able to tell him what to do, but while he was still living under their roof, he had to play by their rules, and sleeping over at his eighteen-year-old girlfriend’s house was not something they were okay with.
“Had John call and invite me over,” he said, sliding my desk over in front of the door. It was the closest thing we had to a lock.
“You’re lucky your brother’s so nice to you,” I replied.
“He said I owe him twenty bucks,” he said with a quiet laugh. “He doesn’t give a shit. He just wishes that Hank would’ve done the same for him when he was still living at home.”
“Hank’s too much of a rule follower,” I mused as he pulled off his T-shirt.
“Hank’s got a stick up his ass, poor guy,” Richie grumbled, shoving his jeans down his legs. “I see Mandy’s finally decided to make an appearance.”
“Oh yeah,” I murmured as he climbed in beside me. It was a tight fit in my twin bed, but we made it work. After some trial and error, we’d realized that spooning was the safest way to sleep if neither of us wanted to wake up halfway through the night as we fell off the side.
“Scootch,” he ordered, laying down on his back.
“How was work?” I asked, draping myself over him and propping my chin on my arms.
“Don’t change the subject.”
“What do you want me to say? She came home half drunk.”
“Of course she did,” he replied in disgust, smoothing my hair away from my face.
“She did agree to hang around and talk to the social worker, though.”
“You think she’ll follow through?”
“I might kill her if she doesn’t,” I replied darkly. “Make sure your parents adopt my siblings, okay? I know they’re getting old, but remind them that more kids means more money for their future nursing home.”
“Morbid.” He laughed.
“Saoirse told me to hide Mom’s keys.” I sighed. “I hate that they have to deal with this shit.”
“Not a bad idea, but she’d probably just walk or have someone pick her ass up.”
“I don’t want to think about it anymore,” I said with a groan, dropping my forehead to his chest. “I’ve been going over it in my head all day.”
“It’ll work out, baby,” he whispered. “Come up here and kiss me.”
“Why don’t you come down—” My words cut off with a breathless grunt as he put his hands under my pits and jerked me up his body.
“Kiss me,” he ordered again.
“Fine,” I grumbled jokingly, dropping my head to kiss him.
Just like every other time our lips met, I suddenly felt like I could breathe again.
Richie had shown up a year after we lost my dad, just when I’d gotten used to feeling like everything in my life was out of control and would stay that way.
Suddenly, I’d found my anchor—the single port in my shitstorm of a life.
The first time he’d kissed me, my mind had gone completely blank. It was a welcome reprieve.
Richie’s hands smoothed down my back and into the waistband of my shorts, gripping my ass.
“Her room’s right below mine,” I reminded him, arching my back and pressing my ass into his hands.
“Fuckin’ Mandy,” he growled.
“You’d like her even less if she came banging on my door because she heard us,” I mused, leaning up to look at him.
“Doubt I could like her less.”
I smiled and kissed his chin. “How was work?”
He shot me a look, telling me he knew exactly what I was doing. “It was fine. Made pizzas, saw that girl you like from school who always wears those platform boots.”
“That really narrows it down,” I joked.
“You know, the one with the pierced lip.”
“Right. Leia.”
“That’s her name!” He shook his head. “I knew she was named after a character, but I couldn’t remember which one. Anyway, she said to tell you hi.”
“She’s in my accounting class.”
“The college one?”
“Yup.”
“Nerds,” he replied.
I snorted, and then we were both laughing, shushing each other as the bed shook.
“I love how you try to pretend you aren’t just as smart as me.”
“Am not.”
“Whatever.”
“How many college classes have you taken, nerd boy?” I asked, poking him in the stomach.
“Zero,” he hissed, grappling for my hands.
“Liar!” I whisper-yelled back, tightening my knees as he tried to roll us over.
“I can’t remember!” he said in exasperation, still trying to wiggle away from my fingers.
“Yes, you do.”
“Five,” he said finally as he got a hold of both of my hands, wrapping his fists around them. “Good god, woman. How many hands do you have?”
I was out of breath as I settled back against him, both of us listening intently to make sure we hadn’t woken anyone up.
“I love you,” he breathed, kissing the top of my head.
“Love you, too,” I murmured, feeling better than I had all day.
There was something about Richie that made me feel like I was wholly myself when we were together.
Every day I woke up and put on ten different hats.
I was a big sister to Cian and Saoirse, mother to Ronan and Aisling, cashier at the store, perfect student no matter what was happening at home, cute carefree girlfriend in front of Richie’s family. It was exhausting.
With Richie, I could just be .
We lay there quietly for a while, neither of us sleeping. I knew why I was awake, but I was a little surprised when Richie’s breathing never slowed into the shuddery breaths that I knew meant he’d passed out.
“I got into the plumbing apprenticeship,” he said finally, tightening his arms when I moved to sit up. “Stay here.”
“You did?” I asked, twisting my head to look at him. “When did you find out? That’s awesome! Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You were already dealing with the social services shit,” he replied quietly.
“So?” I stared at him in the dark.
“Oh, hey E, I know you’re freaking the fuck out about this woman who showed up to your house, but I need to interrupt you for a minute because I got great news today,” he said sarcastically. “I’m not that much of a dick.”
“Don’t do that,” I said, shaking my head as my stomach sank. “Don’t. If we ignored your good news every time I was dealing with bullshit, we’d always be ignoring the good stuff that happens for you. I don’t want that. Are you crazy?”
“I’m telling you now,” he replied, giving me a squeeze.
“You did it,” I said with a grin.
“It’s not that big of a deal,” he said, his own lips twitching as he tried to hold back a smile.
“It’s a huge fucking deal,” I argued, making his smile appear. “You’re getting a big boy job.”
“I got into the apprenticeship,” he corrected. “I still need to find a company to work for.”
“Everyone’s going to want you.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“They’ll want the eye candy you bring to the company,” I assured him, laughing when his mouth dropped open in mock surprise.
“Is that all I am to you?” he joked. “A hot body for you to play with?”
“I mean, sure, you’re smart and funny and stuff,” I trailed off. “But have you seen that ass? Plumber’s ass is going to take on a whole new meaning.”
I watched him happily while the bed shook with his laughter.
Jesus, I was proud of him. When he’d graduated from high school, he’d gone round and round with his parents about going to college.
They thought he wasn’t going because he didn’t want to leave me.
I had to admit, I’d worried about that, too.
Richie had eventually convinced all of us that he wasn’t planning on college because he just didn’t want to go.
He didn’t want to spend the next four years stuck in classrooms, his life on hold until he finished.
He wanted to go into a trade, though he hadn’t been sure at the time which one.
Sitting at a desk every day sounded like torture, and he wanted to work with his hands.
It had taken longer than he’d hoped to figure out what he wanted to do, but after two years of searching around, he’d finally decided.
“I have to go in next week,” he said, finally letting me up.
I sat up and straddled him as he bunched my pillow behind his head.
“When does school start?” I asked excitedly.
“I think she said the next one starts in like two weeks.”
“And then you’ll be plunging people’s toilets!”
“I think it’s a little more involved than that,” he replied dryly. “I’m hoping eventually I’ll be able to install whole systems in new construction, like apartments buildings and shit, you know?”
“Making sure people’s shit flows downhill,” I mused jokingly, nodding my head. “Yep. I get you.”
“Don’t worry, baby,” he said, patting my thigh. “I’ll still plunge your toilet when I’m big and successful.”
“I plunge my own toilet, thank you very much,” I replied primly.
“That’s not what you said when I had you bent over the desk the other day,” he joked.
“Wait, are we talking in euphemism?” I asked, pausing. “If so, I think you were cleaning my pipes when I was bent over the desk.”
Richie chuckled.
“So, now you need to apply for jobs.”
“So, now I apply for jobs,” he confirmed. “But from what the lady at the school said, plumbers are in pretty high demand, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find one.”
I leaned forward and kissed him, enjoying the way his five o’clock shadow rasped at my cheeks. “I’m so excited for you.”
“For us,” he corrected, pulling away slightly. “We’re a team, right?”
“Right,” I agreed, ignoring the small twinge in my chest.