Chapter 23 #2
“You love the smell of chlorine?” I say with a laugh.
“I love the smell of the water, which includes the chlorine but it’s more than that.”
“You’re strange.” I lay back on the lounger, looking up at the sky.
“I just know what I like. That’s not strange.”
“But what you like is strange. Hardly anyone likes the smell of pool water.”
She turns her head and looks at me. “What do you like that people would think is strange?”
“Nothing. And if I did, I sure as hell wouldn’t tell people.”
She closes her eyes, inhaling the air and smiling. “If I had this pool, I’d be out here all the time.”
“You swim?”
“I love to swim, but I never get to because I don’t have a pool.”
“You can come use this one.”
Her eyes pop open. “Really?”
“You’d have to check with me first. We don’t let just anyone come over and use our pool. Or sniff it.”
She laughs. “I’ll be sure to call first.”
As we sit there staring up at the sky, I feel a calmness come over me. I take a deep breath, noticing my chest isn’t tight. It’s always tight. I notice my jaw isn’t clenched. It’s always clenched.
This is a rare moment when I actually feel relaxed. I inhale a deep breath, like Ella’s doing, trying to keep this going for as long as I can because I may never feel like this again.
“Briggs!” I hear my dad’s voice and sit up.
There goes my moment of peace. I can already feel my chest tightening.
“You need to go,” I say to Ella.
“Briggs, where are you?” my dad yells from inside the house.
“Is that your dad?” Ella asks.
“Yeah, and he sounds like he’s in a bad mood so you should probably leave.”
Actually, he always sounds like that, but Ella doesn’t need to know that. I’ve already told her more than I should have tonight. She doesn’t need to know any more.
“There you are,” my dad says, coming out to the patio. “What are you doing out here?”
“Talking about our assignment.” I motion to Ella, who’s standing beside me. “This is Ella. She’s my lab partner in AP Chem.”
My dad looks at Ella as he walks over to us. “You’re the Quinn girl?”
“Um, yeah,” she says, sounding confused. “Ella Quinn. Do you know my dad? Or how did you—”
“I’m familiar with your father,” he says. “He’s done lawn work for some of my clients. You live in the house down the street.”
“Yes.” Ella smiles but seems uncomfortable. Everyone’s uncomfortable around my father, including me. “Well, I should go.” She turns to me. “We can talk more tomorrow about the assignment if you want. I’ll be home after three.”
“Yeah, okay.”
She wasn’t referring to the assignment. She was letting me know we could talk more about my mom and all the other stuff we talked about tonight. If I trusted her, maybe I’d take her up on her offer. But I don’t trust her, and I don’t like talking about this stuff. I don’t know why I did.
“I’ll walk you out,” I tell her.
“Nice meeting you,” my father says to Ella, his thin lips forming a tight smile.
Ella and I go past my dad and back into the house. I walk her through the kitchen and down the long hallway to the foyer.
“I think I got it from here,” she says as I open the door.
“I’ll walk you out. I could use the fresh air.”
“You were just outside,” she says with a laugh.
“It wasn’t enough,” I say, thinking how suffocated I feel every time I’m in that house with my dad. Even when he’s not there, I feel like I’m suffocating.
We get to Ella’s truck, and she opens her door, ignoring the loud screech of the rusty metal.
“You gonna be okay?” she asks.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
She gives me a look like she knows I’m full of shit. I let her see too much of me tonight, a side of me I never wanted her to know even existed. I’m going to have to fix this, but not now. I’ll worry about that later.
“Call me if you want to talk,” she says, getting in her truck.
I close her door and step back as she starts the engine. It’s so loud I’m sure the whole neighborhood can hear, and the fumes coming off it are filling the air. The thing’s a piece of shit. I can’t believe it still runs.
She drives off, leaving behind more fumes.
“What was she doing here?” my dad says.
I turn and see him standing by the door, watching Ella’s truck as it waits for the gate to open.
“I told you,” I say, walking over to him. “We had to talk about our assignment.”
“On a Saturday night?” he huffs. “Since when do you do school work on a Saturday night?”
“I didn’t plan to, but it’s due on Monday and she has to work tomorrow.”
“And what did Aubrey think about this?”
“She doesn’t care. Why would she? It’s Ella Quinn,” I say as though just saying her name disgusts me. I don’t want my father to know that I like Ella. He wouldn’t approve, which is probably why I’m so attracted to her.
“You and Ella Quinn.” He chuckles. “I suppose it is rather preposterous. Didn’t you used to bully the poor girl?”
“Still do,” I say with a smirk. “I’m only being nice to her so I get a good grade.”
He pats my shoulder. “I’m glad you’re finally understanding what it takes to make it in this world. Use people for whatever they’re good for, then step on them on your way to the top.”
“Exactly.” I laugh a little. “See you tomorrow. I’m going to bed.”
He follows me inside, and as I’m heading to the stairs, my mind returns to that text from my mom.
“Got a text from Mom,” I say, turning back to my dad.
“And?” His head is down as he swipes through his phone. “What did she say?”
“She won’t be coming to graduation.”
He looks up. “Is that so?”
“You didn’t know?”
His eyes narrow, and he gets that crease in his forehead that shows up when he’s angry. “Did she say why?”
“No. She just said she wasn’t coming. Anyway, I just thought you should know.” I continue up the stairs, and when I get to the top, I hear my dad on the phone.
“Yes, Margo, it’s me, and I don’t give a fuck what time it is! Our son just informed me that you don’t plan to be here for his graduation. Is this some kind of joke?”
I’m surprised he’s getting so angry. I didn’t think he’d care if she didn’t show up.
But it’ll look bad if she doesn’t, which I’m sure is the reason why he’s screaming at her right now.
He hates being embarrassed, and having his wife not show up will definitely be an embarrassment and make our family look bad.
“You will be here if I have to go there myself and drag you back!” my dad yells. “You know how it’ll look to people if you’re not at your own son’s graduation?”
My dad’s stomping around the foyer, sounding like he’s about to explode. I go into my room and lock the door, just in case he decides to take his anger with my mom out on me.
My phone dings, and I see a text from Aubrey. Where are you? Why aren’t you answering my texts?
Below that are at least fifteen texts, all from Aubrey, all telling me she’s sick of me ignoring her and demanding I take her out. She shouldn’t be so fucking demanding. I’m the one in control of this relationship. I could drop her at any time, taking away her status as one of the popular elite.
Making demands will get her nowhere. She’s playing with fire. She should know better after I threatened to leave her. Maybe it’s time to stop making threats and just do it.