Chapter 13 #2
A trip to the thrift store had purchased Jack and Lilly each a dresser and Jack a bed. Chief Cunningham had shown up with a mattress he said they were looking to get rid of anyway.
Then suddenly Jack had a bedroom. A real bedroom.
All to himself. A room that was larger than the frame of his bed and a dresser rather than a cardboard box.
Between the assault, Jenna leaving for Seattle, and the kindness of strangers, Jack had been unable to hold back his tears that first night.
And even though they now had separate bedrooms, Lilly had somehow known what Jack was feeling and had come in during the night to sleep in his bed with him.
For Christmas, the Zarins had gifted Jack his own telephone.
While it wasn’t his own phone line, it did offer him privacy to talk to Jenna from his bedroom instead of the living room.
Jack had thought about paying to get his own line, but the cost was too high and he had to think about the future.
Spending that sort of money now could mean not being able to afford rent later.
Some might consider it being frugal but he thought of it as being practical.
Mr. and Mrs. Zarin did have a rule that he could only talk to Jenna until ten on school nights and eleven on weekends. The house had thin walls so they could hear the timbre of his voice from their room too. That fact alone kept all of their conversations kid friendly.
As much as Jack hated the distance her going to school in Seattle put between them, in a way, it had made them stronger.
The phone conversations had given them a chance to talk about things they might not have felt comfortable saying in person.
Jack had confessed more to Jenna about his childhood than he’d ever told anyone else, including Lilly.
After stripping down to his boxer shorts, Jack climbed into bed and picked up his phone. “I got it, Lilly.”
“You’re a butt-munch, Jackie! Bye, Jenna!”
Jenna laughed. “Bye, Lilly. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“And you’ll bring me those hair barrettes?”
“I’ve already got them in my purse so I won’t forget.”
“Thanks, Jenna! Night!” Then she hung up without saying goodnight to him.
“Hi, Jack,” Jenna said, a sigh in her voice.
“Hey, baby. Hold on,” he instructed. Then counted down, “Three, two, one…”
His bedroom door burst open, and the wall was only saved by the rubber stopper.
Lilly came running into his room to jump on top of him.
Rather than just telling him goodnight before running out again, she smooshed her butt onto his face and let out a gnarly fart.
Jack coughed and spluttered, unable to breathe.
He dropped the phone in an effort to get his sister off of him.
His eyes watered so bad that tears ran down his cheeks.
Then she hopped off shouting, “Goodnight, Jackie!” on her way out of his bedroom.
“Oh God! I’ve been hit!” Jack complained, trying to blink through the tainted air. “Jenna, I’m dying!”
Her laugh was so loud over the receiver that it could be heard from where it fell below the covers in his struggle.
1 YEAR, 6 MONTHS, 17 DAYS
Jack and Jenna stayed on the phone until around ten-thirty.
Lilly had come into his bedroom to ask if he would read to her.
Despite the chili-induced fart Lilly had laid on him that was so loud Jenna had heard it over the phone, Jack did not turn away his little sister.
He read to her with Jenna still on the phone listening.
Lilly was in the middle of the Nancy Drew mystery series.
Jenna had dozed off until Jack’s voice coaxed her awake to tell her to hang up the phone and go to bed.
Jack told her he loved her, wished her sweet dreams, before leaving to carry a sleeping Lilly back to her room.
Jenna didn’t remember hanging up the phone but must have because it was in its cradle when she woke up that morning.
With the Zarins giving Jack Mr. Zarin’s truck, they now had no plans for today.
Jenna didn’t mind the lack of schedule. After the excitement at school that week, a lazy Saturday sounded perfect.
Glancing at the clock, she saw it was only quarter after seven.
Jack and Mr. Zarin would still be on their run.
On school days, they ran at six but gave themselves an extra hour of sleep on the weekends.
Jenna got up, showered, and dressed. She grabbed her purse and headed down for breakfast. Her mom was sitting at the large dining room table.
There was no reason for a family of four to sit regularly at a table for sixteen, but it was just one more way her parents showed off their wealth.
A buffet of bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, waffles, fruit, and oatmeal was set up on the sideboard.
It was such a waste of food, since only her mom and Jenna would be eating.
Carolyn was still asleep and rarely came down for breakfast. Her dad was on an overseas trip with his secretary.
Jenna didn’t need Carolyn to tell her what that meant.
Her eyes had been opened wide about the things she’d been blind to in her own family.
“You will accompany me to the Reynolds’ estate tonight. We’ve been invited for dinner. I’ll have Estelle put out a dress for you.” Her mother didn’t even bother to look up from her dainty little coffee cup to speak to Jenna.
Jenna ignored her mom. She avoided communicating with the woman as much as she could and would never forgive her for what she’d done to Jack. After a year, she would think her mom would get the message but her mom still tried.
This wasn’t the first party her mom had told her she was attending and she doubted it would be the last. Jenna had yet to go to one.
It did not escape her notice that all the parties, dinners, and company events revolved around a family with a son Jenna’s age.
The Reynolds lived in Seattle, which meant her mom was traveling back to the city for this dinner.
They had a son, Cornwall, that went to Jenna’s school.
She had no intention of spending the evening with him or his snooty ways.
Cornwall always made a point to pick on the kids who attended their academy on scholarship, as if that made them less qualified, not more, to be in attendance.
In Jenna’s opinion, they had more of a right to the prestigious academy than the students who were there simply because Mommy and Daddy could afford it.
Jenna spooned out a bowl of oatmeal, added some fruit and a drizzle of honey, before heading over to the table. She sat at the opposite end of the table from her mom.
She’d just put the spoon in her mouth when her mom spoke again. “Jenna! Enough of this childish behavior! I am so sick of being ignored in my own household! You will be attending this dinner tonight or, so help me, I will refuse to allow you to come back here.”
Jenna stiffened but remained silent. Jack had a truck now. It would be hard, but they’d make it work. She could catch the train or a bus up each weekend. They’d figure it out.
The only reason her parents were even still in Port Townsend was for Carolyn. Her sister might have joined the company but that didn’t stop her old ways entirely. Her parents tried to limit how much Carolyn was in the city where all her temptations were.
Deciding to take her breakfast to her room, Jenna stood.
“Sit down!” her mother shouted. The sheer volume of her voice caused Jenna to freeze but she didn’t sit.
“What is it going to take for you to start behaving like yourself again? This rebellious behavior is getting old, Jenna. I expect it from your sister, but now I have to deal with your attitude too.”
Jenna turned towards her mom, eyebrows drawn down.
“My attitude? My rebellious behavior? Are you serious right now, Mom? You had my boyfriend beaten to the point he was hospitalized and tried to have him arrested with false claims that he kidnapped and assaulted me. And you have the nerve to ask what my problem is?”
Her mom waved a hand in the air as if Jenna’s accusations couldn’t possibly be the reason her daughter was no longer speaking with her. “You used to love coming to these parties with me—”
“I hated going to parties with you!” Jenna shouted. She put her bowl of oatmeal back on the table so she didn’t drop it or break it in her anger. “The only reason I went was to spend time with you, Mom!”
“Then spend time with me now,” her mom encouraged.
Jenna shook her head. “That’s just it, Mom. I no longer want to spend time with you. I don’t want anything to do with you. The second I turn eighteen, I’m out those doors and there’s not a damn thing you can do to stop me.”
“Language!” her mother snapped. She stood, her designer dress perfectly fitted for her body shape. “How dare you say such things to me! I am your mother!”
“No!” Jenna shouted. “You stopped being my mother the moment you had your thugs hurt Jack.”
“That boy is nothing!” Her mom’s voice was shrill.
“He will only bring you down in life, Jenna! I was doing you a favor. I would put money on the fact that you don’t even like him and are only still with him to spite me.
You are so stubborn to get back at me that you’ll spread your legs for some lowlife trash—”
“Mom!” The word was shouted twofold. From Jenna and from Carolyn.
Jenna let out a sigh of relief when she saw her pajama-clad sister standing in the large doorway. She hated having to battle with her parents alone. She didn’t have Carolyn’s backbone or grit. As much as Carolyn hated to admit it, she came by her cutthroat attitude honestly.
“You have no say in this!” their mom pointed an accusing finger at Carolyn. “You’re the reason we’re even in this mess. If you’d let your father ship her off to Massachusetts, we wouldn’t be dealing with this a year later!”