Arabella Saves the Day #4
“He is Mad Rogan.”
I twisted the fence posts. Metal groaned.
“What is that noise?”
“Don’t worry about it. Tia said that when you’d just started dating, she’d had an accident and hid in the bathroom. She didn’t know anybody who would help, so she texted you, and you left campus, bought her tampons and a new pair of shorts, and snuck it to her in the girls’ bathroom.”
Silence.
“That Phillip had Tia. This new ‘peak’ Phillip lost Tia and is now stuck in a cistern, trying to figure out how to keep his family safe from the mess he made.”
“What do you want?” he asked. He sounded defeated.
“I want to go home and take a nap. Right now, though, I want to save you from yourself because of that tampon run.”
I pulled his phone out of my pocket, stood on my toes, and tossed it through the gap in the top of the cistern, which Tia had left so he wouldn’t suffocate.
Tia had taken his phone after their fight, and I had confiscated it from her.
I also explained to her the pitfalls of keeping evidence that can incriminate you for future reference.
“Look at your texts.” I’d charged it on the way to the barn.
There was a short pause. “What?!”
“That’s a picture of you with Mad Rogan.”
I had called my oldest cousin and sweetly asked him for a favor.
Bern’s photo manipulation skills were on another level.
We’d bargained and agreed that I would bring home his favorite French dip sandwich from Firehouse Subs.
He would’ve done it anyway because I’d asked, but there had to be some pretense of a bribe.
“I don’t understand.”
“Yesterday Tia broke up with you, so you got upset and talked to your friend, Ragnar Etterson.”
Ragnar was probably one of the most popular juniors in Heritage High.
He was all the things: handsome, smart, and, most importantly, confident.
At some point, Ragnar had cracked the high school popularity code.
He was that effortlessly cool kid who didn’t seem to need anyone, and people flocked to him.
It didn’t hurt that he was Prime Venenata.
The fact that he could poison the entire school to death in seconds just made him cooler.
“I know who he is…”
I bet you do. “Ragnar felt sorry for you and invited you to a barbeque for his sister Runa, which was being held at the house of Linus Duncan. He is the older man who is posing with you in the fourth picture. Linus told you that you are a bright young man who has potential. Then you and Ragnar snuck into Linus’ study, smoked cigars, and tried his whiskey, and then both of you decided that you shouldn’t go home like that, so you spent the night with the Ettersons, where I found you today.
If your family asks Ragnar about it, he will back you up. ”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because I asked him to.”
I hadn’t gone through all this trouble for Phillip’s sake.
I did it for Tia. Defending yourself was fine, but the moment she stuffed him into that cistern, she opened a whole can of potential criminal charges.
The best thing for everyone involved was to sweep this whole disaster under the rug and forget it ever happened.
“When you tell this story to your family, watch your father’s face when he hears Linus’ name.
You will not be in trouble. You will be told not to make your parents worry again, and everything will be fine.
If you stick around quietly, you will hear your father call his friends and casually drop that Linus Duncan thinks his son has potential.
Ragnar will also say hi to you in school in front of everyone. ”
“I…”
“This never happened. You never iced Tia. You were never in the cistern. Do you understand?”
“Yes. But if Mad Rogan…”
“Mad Rogan is my brother-in-law.”
There was a thud.
I waited. Hopefully he hadn’t fainted.
We sat side in silence, me on the bench, with a Gordian knot of fence posts, and he in the cistern.
“Is Tia very angry?” he asked finally.
“Yes.”
Silence.
“That relationship is over,” I told him. “You ruined it.”
“I know.”
“You have a choice now: peak Phillip, who is going to tell his family about the evil Maderos, or real Phillip, who will apologize to his ex-girlfriend and try to do better next time he decides to date. I’m tired of sitting here, so you need to decide. What will it be?”
Tia rubbed her hands. The T-bone steak in front of her was the size of her whole plate. My ribeye was almost as large. It smelled like smoke, and I was trying not to drool. I hadn’t had breakfast or lunch.
“May I bring you anything else?” the waiter asked.
“No,” Tia told him.
“We’re good,” I agreed.
The waiter nodded and went away.
We were sitting on the patio of Stag and Ale, one of the best steakhouses in Houston. After that spar, Tia had questions, so I invited her to dinner. Dropping off Phillip had taken a while. It was past seven now, and I was starving.
We cut into our steaks at the same time. Mmmm, meat.
“So why Donovan?” Tia asked, chewing. “Why not Heritage?”
“When I started high school, my family wasn’t a House. Heritage wouldn’t take me. Also we couldn’t afford the tuition. I made a whole tragedy out of it back then.”
The steak was delicious.
“How is Donovan?” Tia asked.
“Chill. I liked it.”
“Do you think I could transfer?” she asked.
“I don’t see why not.”
She skewed up her face. “Anything would be better than Heritage at this point.”
I texted her Julieta Cabrera’s email. “This is their guidance counselor. She is also their registrar. She is super nice. Like, she is the only reason I didn’t drop out in my freshman year.”
“What happened?”
“I didn’t know how to people. I was also angry and got upset over stupid, small shit and then let it spiral me out. Sometimes I would go and just sit in her office. It’s so nice. She has scented candles, and it’s quiet. It helped me with my temper.”
Tia sighed. “Not punching people is hard.”
“Yes. I had a real struggle while talking to Phillip. I had to leave him in the cistern for most of the conversation, because I didn’t trust myself. How did you put up with him for so long?”
“Like I said, he wasn’t like that at first. I was awkward. Those assholes look down on me because of my family and because I’m… I’m me. He was the only one who would talk to me. And then the tampon thing happened.”
“What changed, do you think?”
She snorted. “I know exactly what changed. I was there. We were in the lounge waiting for the assembly, and people were talking about House warfare. Seth Floris made a joke. He said that if shit hit the fan, Phillip would be the only one to survive, because he would hide behind me.”
“True.”
“I know! And Seth didn’t mean it in a bad way. We spar sometimes. He was just giving me a compliment. People laughed. Phillip got this weird look, and now four months later he is AlphaBullshitProtocol or whatever that was.”
One joke. That’s all it took. Wow.
She leaned back and sighed. “I do not want to go back to that school. I just… I can’t. And my dad made a big deal out of me going to Heritage.”
“Talk to Ms. Cabrera. She will help. If anybody can talk your dad into it, she will do it.”
“Thanks,” Tia said.
“Any time. Do you mind if I ask you something?”
“Ask.”
“What is it with Ray and money questions?”
Tia rolled her eyes. “The Veiled Atelier.”
“The gacha game? The one where you buy the outfits?”
She nodded. “They had a special event and I got carried away.”
“How carried away?”
“Four thousand dollars.”
I almost choked on my steak.
“I was depressed.”
“4K worth of depressed?!”
She shrugged. “They’ve cut my allowance by half until I pay it off. Ray got the worst of it. His job title says bodyguard, but he’s more like my nanny. He was supposed to supervise me.”
“Did you family expect him to stand over your shoulder and keep you from buying pixels?”
“That’s what he said. He got chewed out anyway, so now he is paranoid.” Tia raised her head. “What smells so good?”
Something did smell good. Fried and delicious. Where was it coming from… I tugged on my magic, grabbing a silver-blue strand. The world opened like a flower, and the scents flooded in.
“I’m pretty sure it’s those fried mushrooms over there.”
“We should order some!”
“We should!”
Then a familiar scent floated past me. Oh no, you don’t.
I put my fork down and pointed at the chair next to me. “In the chair. Right now.”
Tia raised her eyebrows.
A small shape slipped out from behind an ornamental shrub. Behind her, a raccoon, a cat, and a Doberman popped into view.
I thought so.
Matilda scurried over and sat in the chair, her animals still poised by the bushes.
“Who is this?” Tia asked.
“My little sister,” I told her.
“We are not sisters,” Matilda corrected, a serious expression on her face.
Checked by a little kid. “Thanks, Matilda. That hurts my feelings.”
“Why? It’s true.”
Ouch. “Yes, we are not technically sisters, but I love you and think of you as my sister.”
“I’m sorry,” Matilda said. “I did not mean to hurt your feelings. Would you like to hold Go Min Nam to feel better?”
I glanced at Go Min Nam, who was still sitting by the shrub, looking beyond beautiful with his cream fur and blue eyes. That cat was a prince among all Himalayan felines.
“I would, but I don’t think the restaurant would be okay with it.”
“Do you forgive me?” Matilda asked.
“Yes.”
Matilda turned to Tia. “We do not share biological parents.”
“Aha,” Tia said.
“But our parents are colleagues and friends, and we care about each other. Father says it is called found family.” Matilda reached out and patted my hand. “I also think of you as my sister.”
“Thank you.”
Tia clearly wanted to ask questions. For a second I thought she would, but she stuffed steak into her mouth instead.
“Matilda, how did you get here?”
“I told Calvin I was meeting you for dinner,” she said.
Translation: she’d gotten one of our security guys to drive her.
“So you lied?”
Matilda nodded, her dark hair shifting. “Yes.”
“Why did you lie?”